Just Mike

WordCamp Portland

// September 27th, 2008 // Uncategorized

I just got out of a day long adventure.  Wordcamp was hosted at CubeSpace.  

Not that I wanted another blog but I can’t talk about Wordpress on my Real Estate site, it just doesn’t seem to fit.  I also realize there are other things I would like to talk about that I let go because I know it doesn’t belong on the site. So this will be my catch all.  Hopefully I don’t say anything too stupid here and I won’t be optimizing the SEO or doing any other tricks.  This is just a place to play.

#wordcampdx (does the hash thing work here or just in Twitter?) was simulataneously simple at times (stats and themes) and then over my head (developing plugins?).  The only part that seemed to be right in my experience level were the best plug ins.  I somehow missed some of these obvious ones that most knew about.  

The best part was that I started loading them in while Chris talked about them. I love my laptop.  The wifi was slow because too many of us were jamming it.  I did learn a lot and saw where the potential for me and Wordpress could lead.  

Just less than a year ago I dropped my static real estate website and moved my little blog from blogspot to a self hosted Wordpress theme.  I instantly jumped in rank and have finally gotten some attention for it.  That didn’t happen in the previous 3 years I had the static site.  

Sometime last Spring I realized that I didn’t have my permalinks organized for SEO.  But looking at the differentreports of switching over scared me.  I didn’t want to lose my inbound links by mistake.  Bloodhound Blog had some links.  I had some from Yahoo Answers and others.  So I let it go.  Today I found out, apparently, that switching my permalinks also took care of a redirect I guess.  It is beyond me but it was a simple fix.  

We had a preview of Wordpress 2.7 (I should have taken pictures) and boy does it rock. Ajax be praised!  When I am not in the office I use Cricket for my broadband and it isn’t that fast.  With the new style and quick navigation it should save me 20% of the time that I go between pages and posts.  They also have quick press where you can make an entry from the main page without going anywhere.

You can also edit comments and so much more from that one page.  I forget what they are called but they aren’t really drop down menus but have a similar effect.  Love it. love it.  I also found out about the fluency admin theme which just seems so much smoother.  I will drop it when 2.7 comes out but until then it rocks.  

There is plenty more but I be tired and such. 

One last thought.  If I lived near McCormick’s on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy instead of just working near it, I would be pissed.  That music is way too loud and I ain’t old.