On the Web with Kim Vallee

BLOGGING, Blog DESIGN | August 17, 2009

Adding BackType Connect to Your WordPress Blogs

We installed BackType Connect to integrate related Twitter conversations into the post comments. It is not hard to do by yourself. Adding a plugin in WordPress usually works like a charm. Since we are perfectionists, I asked my tech guy to fine-tune a few things that required his programming skills. One thing, Jerome did what to [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | July 13, 2009

5 Comments

Matt Mullenweg Talked about His Open Source Story to Christian Aubry

This is the follow-up interview realized by my friend Christian Aubry with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. In this second segment – a third is coming – Matt Mullenweg talked about how he started WordPress and how the open source community swelled the popularity of WordPress. It is a case where the whole is bigger than [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | July 12, 2009

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A Quick Recap of My Experience at WordCamp Montreal 2009

I had a great time this weekend at WordCamp Montreal. The conversation with the founder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg was inspiring and calming. Matt was really zen while he answered questions from the crowd. In the after-talk, many people pointed out to me his soothing voice. Amongst other things, Matt shares the core value of [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | June 8, 2009

1 Comment

How to Add a Related Posts Section for each Post

Well-designed blogs encourage readers to explore the blog longer. One way is to achieve that is to add a Related Posts section at the bottom of every post. You could select the posts manually but this is too time consuming. If you assign Wordpress tags to every post, you get a way to intelligently automate [...]

APPLICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY | June 1, 2009

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Need for More User Control with Mashups

One of the main reasons why I migrated my blogs to Wordpress is to be more independent technically. I wish to be able to add features using plugins without needing the help of a programmer. For the most part, it works fine. But as many other bloggers, I often wish to mix and match plugins in [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | May 16, 2009

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Microblogging with the P2 Theme for Wordpress

I was one of the 5 official bloggers at 6th WebCom edition, an International Web 2.0 conference which happened May 13, 2009 in Montreal. Liveblogging is not an easy task. I was wondering how I could manage it. I thought microblogging will simplify the reporting of the sessions. This is how the P2 theme for [...]

BLOGGING, Blog DESIGN | April 10, 2009

3 Comments

Why Did I Migrate My Main Blog to Wordpress?

If you follow me on At Home with Kim Vallee, you know that I undergone a major redesign as I migrated my blog from subText, an obscure but effective Open Source blogging platform to widely popular Wordpress. This was a team effort: Jean-Marc worked as the graphic designer, Jerome as the database developer/Wordpress specialist and myself [...]

BLOGGING, Blog DESIGN | April 5, 2009

1 Comment

Top 3 Tips for a Blog Design Makeover

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or read At Home with Kim Vallee, you are aware that I migrated my main blog to Wordpress last Friday. Any blog migration comes with a blog redesign. Let’s examine my top 3 tips if you are planning a blog makeover. What are Your Goals? Whether you do it yourself [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | March 29, 2009

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My Top Tips To New Bloggers

I meet many people who are asking me advices on the art of blogging. To start answering that question I compiled a to-do-list to ease up the launching of a new blog. Set up a self-hosted Wordpress The blogging platform of choice these days are a self-hosted Wordpress infrastructure. It unites flexibility and a vast array of [...]

BLOGGING, Blogging TIPS | January 7, 2009

6 Comments

How to add Site Meter and Google Analytics to a Wordpress Blog

My educational background is statistics, so you will be surprised if I tell you that I use several Web services to track the statistics of my blogs. Each service has its strength and purpose. First, I use Site Meter as the statistics I open to the world. You do not need more than the free PRO [...]

BLOGGING, Blog DESIGN | January 4, 2009

3 Comments

Simple Way to Add a Background Image to a Wordpress Blog

I purposely selected a simple Wordpress theme for this blog. I wanted to see what is or is not necessary when you start a blog. The Zindi theme that I used was programmed with a boring solid beige background. It did not feel like me. I decided to add personality with an image. I first found [...]

BLOGGING, Blog DESIGN | January 2, 2009

4 Comments

Supporting Facebook Connect for Commenting

Part of the mission of On the Web with Kim Vallee is experiencing with plugins and widgets that I think add value to a blog. My geek husband suggested Facebook Connect as a practical feature for my comments. If you are on Facebook, Facebook Connect will reduce the amount of info you will need to type [...]