Purple Hazard

PurpleHazard will be undergoing some changes. Most notably I will be moving many of the posts to new blogs setup at http://livingwordpress.com.

I will also be changing the theme and the focus of this blog, which I’m not sure on yet. If you experience any problems, I’m very sorry, but so much is changing with WordPress, I need to keep up and I finally have a holiday.

If you would like to open your own free blog at LivingWordPress feel free to post a comment here or use the contact form, as the site is invite only.

Cheers

Hi there all bloggers, writers and tech-wizz’s. I’ve recently setup a new blogging community and I’m looking to expand with three new sections each with their own blog, but still under the same domain.

 I’m looking for people who will be willing to contribute to a specific section.

Benefits:

1. Get free blog hosting.

2. Free exposure for you and any blog you prefer.

3. 50/50 Revenue Share.

4. Become part of our blogging community.

Sections:

1. Blogging SEO

Contribute 2 posts per week about blogging SEO, with a minimum of 100 words.

2. Themes and Plugins

Contribute a minimum of 5 plugins/themes per week, with a decent description.

3. BuddyPress

Contribute 2 posts per week about BuddyPress, with a minimum of 100 words.

If you’re interested or would just like to know more, please leave a comment and I will e-mail you.

I’ve recently been working with BuddyPress and used it to setup my first rugby community. I’ve been enjoying it so much I got myself a new domain, awesome hosting package, some friends and setup a new blogging social network. I’m using the BuddyPress Default theme with the Widgetized Frontpage “page template”.

As an extra I decided to use WP 3 RC1 and offer free blog hosting.

Please take a look at LivingWordPress.com and tell me what you think. It’s fully functioning and will hopefully be running for many years, so feel free to register and contribute.

The first Release Candidate is now available for WordPress 3.0 .  It appears that most of the bugs and other issues have been fixed, according to Jane Wells :

It means we think we’ve got everything done: all features finished, all bugs squashed, and all potential issues addressed.

I would recommend downloading the RC1 , and testing it on a non-live site.  The new features are listed below.

• Custom menus are finished!
• Multi-site is all set.
• The look of the WordPress admin has been lightened up a little bit, so you can focus more on your content.
• There are a ton of changes, so plugin authors, please test your plugins now, so that if there is a compatibility issue, we can figure it out before the final release.
• Plugin and theme *users* are also encouraged to test things out. If you find problems, let your plugin/theme authors know so they can figure out the cause.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

See original post and download link : http://wordpress.org/development/2010/05/wordpress-3-0-release-candidate/

If you’re running a Buddypress install you will most likely experience a massive amount of spam registrations. With massive I mean between 10 and 20 per day, which is what I used to get. There’s a big discussion regarding the best way to control spam on your BuddyPress network.

So far I’ve found SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam , which has been updated to work on the latest BuddyPress install. It basically adds a Captcha form to your registration page, comment form or login form, you decide.

You can find the download link here : http://buddypress.org/community/groups/third-party-components-plugins/forum/topic/si-captcha-anti-spam-updated-for-latest-buddypress/

Or you can install it from your WordPress Dashboard.

If it worked for you let me know.

I’ve always been interested in ways to monetize your blog, but I don’t always spend the time on implementing or fully testing them. Hits have been increasing on all my blogs recently, specifically my new BuddyPress install at www.rugbyshout.com and this increased my “awareness” of monetizing my blogs.

Anyway, enough with the musings. I’ve heard some good and bad things about CMF, but the system is pretty easy to understand and the rates and payment work for the average blogger’s blogs. Most of the publishers seem to have someone advertising on their blog, and that’s a step in the right direction, even if you’re not earning that much, you’re still earning.

I’ve put the ads in my sidebar, so you can see how they look. It’s the standard “widget ads” in the 125×125 format. Payout start at a very low 1$, and you can also use the same account and credits to advertise on other blogs. Pretty simple.

You can visit CMF site HERE. (Yes, it’s a referral link. We’re not out of the recession yet.)

Bugger, here’s the normal link:  http://cmfads.com . (Referral links make me feel quilty.)

The last couple of days I’ve been toying with the idea of uploading my favorite WordPress and BuddyPress themes and putting them up for download. That’s why I have unlimited space and bandwidth right?

It will basically be like all the WordPress Theme repositories you can find on Google, but with a focus on free premium themes, with easy navigation and pretty presentation being the most important. Keep it simple yet stylish…

So the problem is finding a plugin which will do that for me, a simple “plug and play” option, but to no avail.

So far I’ve found WordPress Theme Showcase.  I would have to edit that to include a download link and use a different folder. The other option is using the ecommerce plugin and just setting up the files as products and add the thumbnail, but such a big plugin seems a bit overkill.

If you have any suggestions for me, please let me know. I’m also thinking about allowing developers to upload themes, where I’ll probably accept one out of five.

Note : I’m also planning on changing my theme this week. Any suggestions in that regard would also be great.

It’s a bit late from my side, but for those of not aware of this, WordPress 3.0 Beta was released on the 6th of May. If you have any test environments running with WP 3.0 beta 1 , or any environment which is not a production site,  available, you should try out the new Beta.

For Download and Things to Test : http://wordpress.org/development/2010/05/wordpress-3-0-beta-2/

I recently setup a BuddyPress install for a Rugby Social Network. Now a question I’ve received from a member and one I’m really interested in myself is which SEO plugin to use. SEO for BuddyPress is specifically designed for BuddyPress, but, being used to All in One SEO and all the options it provide, which one should be used?

Or should I be using a combination? Eg. All in one SEO for post, title and description tags and BP-SEO for group, member, profile etc tags? I still have to test it out and have no idea how much they will interfere with each other.

Any thoughts on this would be great.

Our readership has greatly increased over the last few months, even though I’ve been unable to make posts on a regular basis. What I’ve noticed is that most of the visitors are looking for BuddyPress and WordPress custom designs, not specifically free themes.

What I’m planning is to increase our focus on providing custom BuddyPress and WordPress themes from experienced designers, while still reporting on the latest themes and developments in both area’s.

If you’re and experienced WordPress or BuddyPress designer, please use our contact form or comment box,  if you’re interested in joining the team which will offer custom BuddyPress and WordPress themes at a very affordable rate.

Please supply your working/design experience and supply links to any examples.