Instigator Blog

RSS subscribers are the golden ticket for bloggers.

People who subscribe via RSS are making a commitment. It doesn’t mean they’ll read your blog everyday, buy lots of things from you, and make you rich and famous, but they’re still engaging and giving you a piece of their precious attention. And, they are customers. You should think of them like that (and treat them accordingly.) They’re also your true community of peers.

I was recently introduced to a new WordPress plugin which is called What Would Seth Godin Do. It’s a great name. Linkbait city. I love it.

The plugin allows you to add a message on your blog for new visitors - asking them to sign-up to your RSS feed. Here’s the description:

By default, new visitors to your blog will see a small box above each post containing the words “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!” After 3 visits the message disappears. You can customize this message, its lifespan, and its location.

I haven’t tried it. I already have a fairly prominent request for people to subscribe that appears at the top of the main index page and at the top of each post. But I think the idea is great.

Looks like PodPress 7.3 (and 7.2) has buggered my feed formatting so that all HTML/links/images are stripped out. This is very disappointing because I know a lot of you read Instigator Blog via feeds, and it’s hard to when you can’t even see a simple paragraph break.

I’m working to fix the issue. If there’s no quick fix I’ll disable PodPress and temporarily shelve Your Passion Podcast until I find a solution that works.

Sorry again - please stay subscribed via RSS and we’ll get through the bumpiness. Thank you.

Today is Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air. We’re falling head over heels to buy chocolates, flowers and other assorted goodies. No problems there…

But what are you really passionate about?

Seems to me like a good time to launch my little podcasting project called Your Passion Podcast.

A confluence of events leads me to do this. One is that little image in my sidebar that mentions an upcoming announcement on February 18th. And I’ve already done some podcasting which I enjoyed.

Plus, we can all use a little bit of passion once in awhile, and I’m eager to hear what others are passionate about.

The plan is simple — short, 1-minute podcasts that answer two questions, “What are you passionate about and why?”

I’ll try and do them weekly, but my goal is to get others to participate. I’ll be looking to activate voice messages on the blog very soon, and in the meantime people can submit their own podcasts to me in MP3 format via email. I’ll put your thoughts up in a podcast and help you get your message out.

Of course, we’re keeping this clean (or relatively clean) and we’re not talking about what you’ve got hidden in your closet. We’re talking about your passions in life, business, entrepreneurship…How are you going to change the world?

I hope you’ll tell me, and then I can share your passions with others. In 1 minute tell me what you’re passionate about. I think people will find it inspiring, entertaining and worthwhile to listen to.

Music from Aux and Big Mike at Podsafe Music Network.

Picking the best WordPress theme for your blog or website is hard. There are hundreds of themes available and more popping up every single day.

Not all WordPress themes are created equal. And while most are decent and manageable, there are some things you should watch out for and be wary of before selecting a theme.

1. Messy Code. Messy code doesn’t mean the theme is broken or won’t work, but it makes it harder to change things. Even small tweaks could have disastrous effects. Messy code also makes it harder to find things and understand how the code is affecting the design. So you’ll run into situations where it’s simply not obvious how to change something. Clean code is usually nicely aligned and documented. Here’s an example:
   

   /* Begin Content Classes */
   .featuredpost {
   margin: 0 0 30px 0;
   padding: 10px 20px 20px;
   background: #f5f5f5;
   border: 1px solid #ddd;
   }

2. Too Restrictive. Some themes were just not meant to play with. A theme that’s too restrictive won’t let you easily make changes. This is most likely a result of poor coding, which will be very difficult to overcome, and not worth the effort of fixing up (just find another theme.) If you’re planning to make significant changes to a theme, test those changes out quickly, on-the-fly, to see if the theme is too restrictive or not.
3. Too Many or Too Few Files. When you go to edit your WordPress theme it lists the editable files on the right-hand side. Some themes will have an overwhelming number of files, which means it’s harder to change your theme and make sure the changes follow through across the blog. It’s also downright confusing. I’ve seen this a few times with K2 Themes; the list of editable files is so long you’re not sure where to start!

   Too few files means that you might not be able to get the right diversity of design, style and layout that you want. For example, the Painted Desert theme only has a few editable files. It’s quite a nice looking theme and fairly unique amongst others that you’ll see, but if you want to make significant changes it gets complicated.

   A good “group” of files to have (in order to maintain flexibility but not go over the top) include Stylesheet, Main Index Template, Single Post, Page Template, Archives, Sidebar, Search Results. There are others too (like Footer) which are handy but not necessary to do most of what you’ll need to.

4. No Further Updates. There are many themes out there in various stages of release that will never get any further love from the original designers/developers. That’s OK, they’re giving the stuff away for free, and everyone’s busy, but if it looks like a theme hasn’t been updated in a very long time, or the owner has openly said s/he won’t be updating it anymore, consider your use of that theme carefully.
5. No Support. You might find the most perfect theme out there for your blog, but if there’s no support provided (in the form of forums, active comments on blog threads, an email address of the original designer, etc.) you may want to think twice. If you’re a sophisticated WordPress user or you don’t expect to make a lot of changes, go for it, but lots of themes have small, little bugs you might encounter, or you might need help making advanced changes. Even a small support network or active user group of the theme can be extremely helpful.

The great thing about WordPress is that you can always change themes, but it’s always best to start off on the right foot. And once you’ve picked a theme and invested some time in it, you won’t want to start all over again with something new.

A couple weeks ago I announced the first ever Montreal Technology Entrepreneur Breakfast Meetup, spurred on by Julien Smith, Hugh McGuire and others. It was easy to do and I had no real expectations on turn out.

Well, people came. 30 or so people showed up and it was amazing. We took over half the restaurant and everyone was surprised to see so many other people.

And there are more people in Montreal doing cool, secret startups than you know.

I wish I had pictures, but I’m possibly the worst photographer ever. We’ll make a better effort next time.

Round II of the Meetup is scheduled for March 13, 2007 - 8:00am - 10:00am. Please sign-up.

I hope more people will come, spurred by the success of the first gathering. I’d also like everyone who was there to contact me via email - I got most of your cards but not everyone had one, and I don’t have everyone’s contact information. I’d like to list everyone and stay in touch. And if you blog about it, let me know. Carl Mercier might be the first…

And thank you for showing up early in the morning, talking tech, entrepreneurship, business and more.