WordPress (WP) is currently on version 3.2. My website is using version 2.8.6. It’s time for an upgrade. I figure, now is a good time to do some spring cleaning to the website while I’m at it.

I have a plan, and I think it’s a legit plan because I’m using Darren Rowse’s book as a reference. Not because I want to increase my blog’s traffic or become a famous blogger, but because I don’t want my blog to suck. So I enlisted some help from a Pro Blogger – indirectly, of course. I don’t actually know Darren Rowse.

I’ll share my website redesign plan here and work toward that goal. I’ll share things that I learn along the way, because sharing is what I like to do.

The Goal

Currently my blog is a mixture of blog posts about being an administrative assistant, pictures from my Facebook profile, and a calendar with my family’s birthdays on it. I want to move this website to a more public version of “Me, blogging.” If you search my name this website comes up first, so it should be an appropriate public introduction to who I am.

The Plan

1. Upgrade to WP 3.2 – I’ll need to back up my posts from this site prior to the upgrade. WordPress makes this simple for me with their Export tool.
2. Update Theme – There are literally thousands of WP themes to choose from. I am in love with my current theme, Notepad Chaos by Evan Eckard. I stumbled upon it a few years ago and I have yet to find a theme that I like better than this one. Fortunately, Evan offers this theme (and others) for free and also includes the layered Photoshop files. Evan rocks! Once I upgrade to WP 3.2, I’ll upgrade my theme to version 2.
3. New Pages – New pages will be: About page, Portfolio of my design projects, Bio page including my professional experience, and of course the Home page will be my blog posts.

Let’s Go!

Until this year, I was not a reader – at all, not even a little bit. Then my husband brought home a book about Feng Shui from his mother’s bookshelf and I read it cover to cover. Then I read another book about Feng Shui. I guess I just needed to find a topic that interested me. Now I keep finding more books that I want to read, about all kinds of different subjects, and now I understand why avid readers always have a stack of books by their beds and a list of books they want to pick up. It’s kind of addicting!

As an Administrative Professional, I need to have stellar written and verbal communication skills. While blogging is more of a personal form of writing than professional or business correspondence, it is good practice for organizing my ideas into complete thoughts. Thus, the reason I joined the 2011 WordCount Blogathon. I figure, if I write something every day for 31 days, that will definitely give me some practice.

The Blogathon is offering a few prompts this year and today’s topic is “My Top 5 Favorite Books on Writing.” The following are my top five.

1. The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging by the Editors of the Huffington Post
2. ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse
3. 31 Days to Build a Better Blog also by Darren Rowse
4. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing by Rise B. Axelrod
5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey*

* This book isn’t specifically about writing, but it is great for learning how to set goals, prioritize your time and gain balance between your personal and professional life. I recommend it to everyone because you can apply these principles to every aspect of your life.

RSS is an acronym that stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” By definition, to syndicate means “to publish simultaneously, or supply for simultaneous publication, in a number of newspapers or other periodicals in different places.”

In the media world you’ll hear of a syndicated TV or radio show, meaning that it is broadcast across multiple stations around the country. In the Web world, syndication is usually mentioned in conjunction with “feeds,” as in RSS feeds.

What is an RSS feed?

An RSS feed is basically a stream of new headlines or postings from a website which has been organized so that your computer can fetch the latest info and bring it to you.

Do you have “breaking news” alerts that come to your inbox from your local newspaper or news station? Well, that’s pretty much an RSS feed.

People have been adding new info to their websites all along, but with RSS feeds you no longer have to login to the New York Times website every day to check the headlines – they will come directly (and automatically) to you. Plus, you can choose the type of news you want to receive (sports, world news, classifieds, etc.).

How do I use an RSS feed?

You’ll need to choose a “feed reader” which will be the place where the new headlines are collected from the websites of your choice. There are web-based (online) feed readers and software-based feed readers. With a web-based feed reader you can get your news from any computer, anywhere. Software-based readers, like Outlook, require software to be installed on each computer.

Netvibes, Google Reader, and Internet Explorer (which has a feed reader built in) are web-based readers. Microsoft Outlook 2007 has RSS reading capabilities, which makes it a software-based feed reader. If you have a smart phone or a laptop Outlook could work fine for you. My personal favorite is Google Reader, because I love everything Google.

Then, go to a website and look for a link to their RSS feed or the universal RSS symbol (left). Sometimes it’s listed prominently at the top of the page and sometimes it’s at the bottom in the footer, like on the New York Times’ page. Click on the link to subscribe to their RSS feed, choose which categories if applicable, and then choose your method of delivery (web-based feed reader, software-based feed reader or email subscription).

Check out this video for a quick lesson on RSS and then Subscribe to GeorgiaFogle.com to test what you’ve learned about RSS feeds!