How To Really Screw Up Your WordPress Blog
I get a lot of requests for help with WordPress blogs that are not working properly, look terrible or worse don’t show up at all. I have seen and have had to backward engineer some really interesting things for some people. So in my typical sarcastic style here is what to do if you really want to screw up your WordPress blog.
Load up as many plugins as possible.
Yeah this is always a good thing to do, I mean grab every conceivable plugin you think is cool. Don’t know what a plugin does? No problem, just activate it, oh and don’t bother reading the instructions to see if any special code needs embedded into your theme, or if it is incompatible with other plugins or your version of WordPress. Don’t bother to see if there is menu in the dashboard to configure or use the plugin either. Just load up the plugins, active them and scratch your head when the blog doesn’t load.
Use a plugin required theme without using the required plugins.
This one is always fun, you have seen the themes with the tabs on the top sidebar or special sections on the navigation bar for Recent Post, Popular Post or Popular Comments. Well they probably require specific plugins to work because there is usually code embedded into the theme. Using a theme like this without the plugins can really screw up your blog and may cause it not to display correctly or at all. Don’t bother reading the instructions with the theme, just load er’ up and let er’ rip!
Add or paste as much crap as possible into the themes files.
Another all time favorite is seeing pop-ups, scripts, and banner ads placed all over the theme so much so that the content is blocked or worse. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that you should monetize your blog but you need to be careful loading it up with crap. I see many pop-ups that are floating off borders, or ads that are too big for the area they are in. The more scripts and HTML code you paste into the actual theme, the more chances of a tag left open and screwing up your blog. The more crap that needs to load takes more time and, sorry I don’t have time to wait for all that to load on your blog, I’ll find the information elsewhere. Then there is the fun involved troubleshooting issues when you have a full static HTML page complete with newsletter opt-in scripts, feeds from other blogs, banner ads, AdSense ads and any other piece of code you can possibly paste into your index.php file. My point here is to keep the theme files as clean as possible.
Use images, graphics and scripts that pull content from another site.
Like an image or banner ad? Don’t bother hosting it on your site, just point to it on your theme or blog and when the other site is down, hey you will just see a big open spot or worse on yours! Too lazy to post any new content on your blog? No problem, just paste a script on the index.php file that pulls feeds from other blogs or sites. When the other sites go down or your hosting account blocks the scripts, no problem you will just have a big empty space on your blog now. I know there are instances like AdSense that you can’t get around this but try to keep your blog as self-sufficient as possible.
Make sure you write your posts in MS Word or copy them from another site.
Yep just use MS Word and paste your posts directly into the visual editor. Or copy from another website and paste them directly into the visual editor. Then scratch your head when the formatting from Word or the other site completely destroys your WordPress blog. Don’t bother using the small W icon on the visual toolbar editor to paste it into. Don’t bother to paste the text into the HTML editor, and whatever you do don’t bother to see if any HTML tags are left open. No just leave that <b> HTML tag open and look at amazement while all the text under it and on the sidebar is now bold.
Make sure you change the Blog or WordPress address.
You see that setting in the general settings menu that tells you you can change the home address of the blog? Oh yeah just do that and contact me to fix it when you can’t login anymore. Same with the WordPress address, go ahead change it without reading what needs done before or after. You will be in a panic when your WordPress blog disappears. Fixing one of these is always a fun way to spend an evening!
So there you have just a few simple ways to really screw up your WordPress blog. There are many more and I am sure if you use your imagination and lack of knowledge you can find them!
Similar Posts:
- Adding The Sidebar To The WordPress Page Or Single Post Template
- Upgrade WordPress Guide How To Upgrade WordPress
- WordPress To Run Your Website
- Change Or Add A WordPress Header Image
- WordPress 2.5 Dashboard Changes
If you liked this post, feel free to leave a comment that is relevant to the post or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Sorry but due to the spamming of a few all comments are moderated and will appear when approved and all drive-by comments will be deleted!
Comments
I hate blogs with too many plugins. It always just looks messy.
Reply
Very nice advice. Lots of people seem to follow it
Reply
I did that “change all your links”…
in the end, it meant all my links went to the same place, and that page never existed…
I had to reinstall wordpress
http://www.free-xbox-360.co.uk
Reply
wow..
great tips !!
Reply
Great post! I can not help but to laugh becuase I know MANY bloggers who format posts in MW then copy them over and sit and wonder what the issue is. Not to mention all of the crap code that is copied over!
Reply
Really enjoy the “typical sarcastic style”!
I get the feeling you like reverse engineering. What would you do with all your spare time if people didn’t screw up their blogs, then come to you for help?
Merry Christmas…..
Alex
Reply
I remember when i created all my pages in MS word before i uploaded onto wordpress.
What a mess that was
Reply
I dont like blogs with too many plugins. It always just looks messy.
Reply
mediator Replied:
April 29th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
I think this is a wonderful explanation of what not to do with WordPress. I really
Reply
Hi Jeff,
I remember after wordpress installed then I tried to click everything on wordpress to check and don’t know which one that caused the mess. Now I know I have to read instruction before doing it. By the way I have a question that how to install Digg on blog?
Thanks
Kha
http://www.khaony.com/blog
Reply
I love wordpress, lots of nice plugins, but don’t turn them all on!
WebMasters, this is your business
Reply
I think the tonnes of mails must have screwed your brains that’s the reason you came up with such sarcastic post but anyways it was a real light hearted post and on reading it I couldn’t stop smiling!!
Reply
I’m pretty sure I’ve done all those hehe
Reply
Another way to screw up your blog is to answer questions asked in the comment section that has absolutely, positively nothing to do with the subject of the post…
Kha, adding Digg can be done many different ways, with social bookmarking plugins like Share This, or actually going to Digg.com getting an account and finding the Digg tools and start reading.
Reply
Yeah this may have come in handy about 3 months ago…. Oh well XD
Reply
Excellent tips, and I have already seen a lot of people follow them.
I think if you took a look at http://www.knrdesigns.com then they could really help you out in the long run.
Good luck!
Reply
I love wordpress, lots of nice plugins
Reply
I totally agree… Core message – keep your blog simple and user friendly and posts interesting and good original content
Reply
“Add or paste as much crap as possible into the themes files.”
I have actually seen a site that had 1 “sidebar” of content followed by 4 bars of ads. It was crazy, yet they are still making almost $8000/week and their alexa is 2.2k!
Reply
And yet, it is amazing how often I run across blogs that manage to do every single one of these. You have to be impressed with that consistency.
Reply
How do you know this? DId they tell you that? How are “they” doing it please enlighten us.
Reply
I agree I dont like my blogs looking all messy either… is there anyway we can avoid this?
Reply
I think this is a wonderful explanation of what not to do with WordPress. I really enjoyed it
Reply
Great article, thanks for the information. It’s definitely easy to overload WordPress and grind it to a halt.
Reply
i for one is guilty off adding too much plugin. Now my site looks congested. Time for a totally new blog for a new year I guess =D
Reply
You could try changing the permalink structure every now and then as well. That’ll help.
Reply
Oh yeah change the permalinks so all your posts URL’s will be different and all your backlinks will be gone. Good one.
Reply
Love the one about loading up too many wordpress plugins. Having more than 15+ plugins can really bring your site to a screeching halt.
Reply
Great tips thanks. I’m sure that at 1 time or another i have done all of those things.
I suppose you don’t know until your told eh!?
Thanks again.
Reply
Welldone with this tips mate… thank you
Reply
Thanks mate,
All that is extremely helpful. I have done most “in fact all” of the above at one time or another.
Now to get to work putting it right
Reply
I thing that even with lots of plugins there can be a balance if you know how to use them.
Reply
yes loading many plugins does make the website slower.The plugins should be activated only when it is supposed to be used.
Reply
Funny I always wondered why there are so many “I need help” posts with wordpress installations. It always seemed simple to me. Install a blog, find a theme, install the theme and required plugins for it,. check blog. Add a plugin or two, check blog again etc…
Reply
Copy and pasting into my theme has really messed mine up. Fortunetly I saved a copy and was able to revert but one has to still be carefull about what they do.
Reply
I like this…Im sure i have done some of this.Im still new to wordpress.So this help me out…lol Thanks!
Reply
Lol. I’m glad I read this before I started! Thanks for the tips, and I love the sarcasm!
Reply
I think a big part of the problem is that wordpress is constantly updating and its just so versatile. I still feel like an amateur to wordpress
Reply
Great insights, I had no Idea how damaging MS Word formatting could be! to my posts.That’s one less mistake I’ll make in this lifetime!
Reply
Good article. When I first started my blog, I had too many banners and addons. I decided to keep it simple, took most of the banners off.
Reply
You’re totally right, I’ve experienced what a blog full of plugins is or learned it’s better hosting the images yourself than pointing them to other sites.
Reply
Great points and quite humourous. Here is one more: Change your blog layout (number, position and width of columns)and the number and functioning of your plugins frequently so that visitors can never get used to knowing where things are located on your blog or how they work.
Reply
Ok, I’m jumping on this bandwagon. Here’s another tip. Leave everything in the ‘uncategorized’ category, migrate it from one host to another, and have as many entries showing as possible so it overloads the SQL database.
Reply
surely the most screw up thing is activate hello dolly plugin.. (ups sorry)
Reply
Jeff Replied:
December 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Yeah really. Has anyone ever figured out why that plugin actually exists?
Reply
To sum it up, flexibility and presentation are the two important features of any blog and wordpress is the only blogging solution that proides these features easily and quickly.
Reply
Nice post. When I first started writing blogs I had encountered a similar problem. After all they were plug ins. I loved reading your post. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Reply
great post, specially for the newbie blogger like me. Nice. Thanks.
Reply
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by wprocker: How To Really Screw Up Your #WordPress Blog : WordPress Max http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.wordpressmax.com/wordpress/screw-up-wordpress
Thank You! I can’t tell you how happy I am with wordpress. I’d be lost without wordpress.
Reply
This is so much fun! It is really a great way to tell people what not to do. It is important to remember to read instructions and to follow instructions
Reply
Nice, I always hate it when people try to overstuff their blogs with plugins, ads and sidebars. I’ve even seen blogs that have sidebars on all 4 sides! lol and if you don’t know what you’re doing that’s a great way to mess up your blog. Even if you do know what you’re doing, all those scripts are going to decrease the load time of every page, not to mention they just make your site look busy and unattractive. And very true about pasting from Word, most people don’t realize the issues that causes.
Reply
I love it when I come across a blog that says “Activate So and So plugin to…”. These are usually the same ones that still have a lot of “Lorem Ipsum” text on it.
Reply
You mentioned that write the content in MS Word or copy it from some other site. Where should we write the content directly in the WordPress?
Reply
Jeff Replied:
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Yes write in the WP editors. But if you MUST use another method make sure to paste the text into the HTML editor as plain text.
Reply
Lots of advice here. In my opinion, using plugin is nice but don’t too much. And also, use an attractive theme.
Reply
Title of this post made me laugh.Nice way to put your idea across other people.I bet that if the title would be a traditional one like ‘How to speed up your WordPress blog’ then it would have gathered less attention.
Reply
How about using a PHP hack on my permalinks on IIS instead of hosting with Apache? That’s a good way to screw up your WP too. Hahaha.
Reply
Hey, I have done everything you have outlined in the above article and my WordPress blog STILL doesn’t work properly.
Reply
I have totally messed up many a wordpress blog and did s lot of the things you mention. Been trying to control my plugin addiction.
Reply
Oh my goodness that is so true! I have messed up my share of wordpress blogs!
Reply
I must confess that I was guilty of more than one points that you have pointed out. Especially the MS Word one. I really lost many hours pondering why the article written in Word was not working here. Ditto for the use of excessive plug in.
Thanks for the article
Reply
I love reading this post. Lots of tips and guidelines. Thanks for sharing this. Thanks also for the resources.
Reply
The first thing I thought when I read this blog post was “Wow, somebody is in a crappy mood”. But I like the irony and sarcasm in it.
As for the point of “Not using the required Plugins for a theme”, well this often not so easy. I have seen a lot of themes that have caught my interest and decided not to use them, because they do not offer the required plugins in their downloads files or even mention what plugins are required in the readme files.
Reply
Guilty for using excessive plugins
Reply
I love it. This had me in stitches. It sounds like the old paper user manuals that people just toss. “Oh, I can figure it out no problem, I mean if it’s available it must be a good thing, right?”
Great post. So much so I just had to link to it from my current post.
Can’t wait to read some more of your blog.
Reply
Stumbled across this post a few days ago. This is priceless.
Since I am a technical writer, I sooooo understand where you are coming from. I can’t be sarcastic in my writing, but I can get close to it in my blog.
Love your tone and the way you impart the information. Got me hooked, can’t wait to see what you write in the future. You’re on my watch list. If nothing else, when I’m frustrated I know where to come for a good laugh.
Thanks much.
Reply
Very nice advice. Lots of people seem to follow it How about using a PHP hack on my permalinks on IIS instead of hosting with Apache? That’s a good way to screw up your WP too.
Reply
I think wordpress needs a little more extra internet knowledge than most. It still has some extra features that make up for it though. Good post on how to make our lives easier.
Reply
If you don’t know what you’re doing that’s a great way to mess up your blog. Even if you do know what you’re doing, all those scripts are going to decrease the load time of every page, not to mention they just make your site look busy and unattractive. Thanks for the nice post.
Reply
yeaah … I do these things perfectly, and to my blog right now – a real mess.
still learning
Ace dstarlight
Reply
I hate lots of plugins, it makes my site annoying but I love wordpress. I love this post, the tips and ideas posted here is very hlepful for wordpress users like me.
Reply
Even if you do know what you’re doing, all those scripts are going to decrease the load time of every page, not to mention they just make your site look busy and unattractive.
Reply
I am a newbie on wordpress and really struggling to get started, thanks for your useful tips, really helped me a lot, thanks.
Reply
Very nice advice. I must confess that I was guilty of more than one points that you have pointed out. Especially the MS Word one. I still feel like an amateur to word pres
Reply
Jeff
Thanks for the advice about hosting images. I am afraid I am guilty of doing this, plus overloading with the plugins
Kind regards
Sera
Reply
WordPress says that any code that isn’t permitted will not be shown via the text widget but how am I supposed to put ads or widgets on my blog if I can’t put the code for the ads/widget on my blog. Do you know a special code that I can out in the text box with my widget/ad code to make it show up on my blog? Please help!
Reply
Jeff Replied:
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Those rules are for the free blogs hosted on WordPress.com. You can do and add anything you want on your self-hosted WordPress blog.
Reply
Good to know about copying stuff into wordpress, I’ve never done it before but now I know not to, thanks.
Reply
I know MANY bloggers who format posts in MW then copy them over and sit and wonder what the issue. all those scripts are going to decrease the load time of every page, not to mention they just make your site look busy and unattractive. Thanks for the nice post.
Reply
haha,, i love your post, pretty tempting. anyway how did you come p with these experimental ideas??
Reply
Jeff Replied:
February 4th, 2010 at 9:57 am
From people wanting me to fix them.
Reply
Really enjoy the “typical sarcastic style”! I get the feeling you like reverse engineering. What would you do with all your spare time if people didn’t screw up their blogs, then come to you for help?
Reply
Really enjoy the “typical sarcastic style”!all those scripts are going to decrease the load time of every page, not to mention they just make your site look busy and unattractive. Thanks for the nice post.
Reply
You make a good point, at first I was wondering what this post was about…but I guess simplicity has its benefits.
BUT…Hello dolly! That song is just so adorable, how can you not use that plugin!
Reply
I find simple WordPress templates like the INove template work best and convert into sales and ad revenue more than any other blog I own. You don’t really need a gazillion plugin gadgets; some are useful but to much will just add clutter to your website. This will prevent your page from loading up fast, something Google likes.
Of course you want to make it appealing, but man, make it easy on the eyes too, and you will prosper!
Reply
I can not help but to laugh becuase I know MANY bloggers who format posts in MW then copy them over and sit and wonder what the issue is. Not to mention all of the crap code that is copied over!
Reply
I get the feeling you like reverse engineering. What would you do with all your spare time if people didn’t screw up their blogs, then come to you for help?
Reply
only 9 plugins for me at the moment, better get some more.
Reply
my friend use 30 plugin and the result
to much plugin = kill our visitor
Reply
I have seen a lot of themes that have caught my interest and decided not to use them, because they do not offer the required plugins in their downloads files or even mention what plugins are required in the readme files.
Reply
Too many plugins will make your blog load slower. I only got 6 plugins at the moment.
Reply
Great post Jeff. I love the title, however. Plugins are cool but if you overload your site with them, you are heading downhill for sure. Thanks for this helpful suggestions.
Reply
I got a question regarding the text. I encoded my content in MS Word. But when I post it, there are special characters appearing everywhere. What might be the problem?
Reply
Jeff Replied:
February 11th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Oh it supposed to look like that, don’t worry about it.
Reply
Nice post, I enjoyed the sarcasm. Great tips not to follow!
Thanks.
Reply
i just read an similar article a few minutes ago,they where saying something about : inactivity and duplicate content
Reply
Now I know I have to read instruction before doing it, I tried to click everything on wordpress to check and don’t know which one that caused the mess, thanks for the post.
Reply
Lol, funny post to read because it is exaclty what I used to do! Well we all have to learn , so each day is a proccess!
Reply
Hey Jeff
Great article, Guess what I did two of them…
1. Installed lot of pluggins, messed my featured content gallery plugin (Studiopress, church theme)
2. MS article editing and windows live writer (created table) and it was a mess in the blog article.
Thanks for the advise.
Reply
Hi Jeff, its an honor for me to read high quality content related to wordpress handling. I am working on a blog using wordpress platform, your suggestions are very helpful for me. Thanks
Reply
Hi Jeff, thanks for taking this up.Many people have misunderstood the point of blogging (Your point #3.)They blog only for money and have no interest in the readers.Blogs that look like “super markets” look cheap.The less ads you have, the more professional the blog looks and you will often make more money as well.
You mentioned scripts that pull content from another site.
There is one blog in particular who steals my content and leaves a “trackback” to my blog. (cash-bandit.com) Is there any way to stop this behaviour?
Reply
Jeff Replied:
February 17th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Its hard to stop content theft, I did this: http://www.wordpressmax.com/blogging/stop-blog-content-theft
Reply
Now I know what I’ve been doing wrong for so long
I had included waaay too many plugins and fancy bits in the hope of it impressing folks… but now I see KISS: Keep it simple, stupid – is the way to go!
Reply
The “load up as many plugins” comment made me laugh. I haven’t been guilty of that in as bad a way described in the article, but I certainly did install a lot more plugins than I needed. Now, I’m afraid to remove some because everything is working. Some may add some amount of functionality that I’m overlooking. I’m afraid if I bulk-remove a bunch of plugins without careful thought, it all might come crashing down. Oh, if I had just known then what I know now…
Reply
I know MANY bloggers who format posts in MW then copy them over and sit and wonder what the issue. all those scripts are going to decrease the load time of every page, not to mention they just make your site look busy and unattractive. Thanks for the nice post.
Reply
LOL! Great post, especially for those like me just starting out! Love the writing style by the way!
Reply
I’m afraid to remove some because everything is working. Some may add some amount of functionality that I’m overlooking. I’m afraid if I bulk-remove a bunch of plugins without careful thought, it all might come crashing down. Oh, if I had just known then what I know now…
Reply
Good stuff! When I first started I made the mistake of not only using MSWord but using the edit tracking feature. OMG… At least I had the sense to take a look at the HTML tab after I posted.
I won’t be making that mistake again!
Reply
I’m afraid if I bulk-remove a bunch of plugins without careful thought, it all might come crashing down. Oh, if I had just known then what I know now…
Reply
The “load up as many plugins” comment made me laugh. I haven’t been guilty of that in as bad a way described in the article, but I certainly did install a lot more plugins than I needed. Now, I’m afraid to remove some because everything is working. Some may add some amount of functionality that I’m overlooking. I’m afraid if I bulk-remove a bunch of plugins without careful thought, it all might come crashing down. Oh, if I had just known then what I know now…
Reply
Very nice advice. I must confess that I was guilty of more than one points that you have pointed out. Especially the MS Word one. I still feel like an amateur to word pres
Reply
I had to learn the plugin part the hard way. I still love looking and adding new plugins to my blog but I have to remember that people (including myself) HATE slow load times.
Another dumb thing I can relate to is copying everything from Word and then trying to figure out for 3 hours what I had done wrong.
Well you live and you learn. Great post, wish I would have read it before I started my blog.
Reply
I’m guilty of using too many plugins. They just seem to add a little more functionality that you think you need to use. I’ve had my share of conflicts and other problems. The worst problem to fix is when your wordpress goes completely white screened and you don’t know what happened or how to fix it (btw you have to go into the database to fix the issue in case anyone runs into this problem).
Reply
Very helpful tips. I will try to remove the unnecessary plugins.
Reply
I have the same problem with plugins, I have a few but seem to fall by the way side. The real question I have is there a plugin, well I know there is a plugin, but a good plugin for displaying design concepts like portfolios and projects?
If anyone has a good Idea please let me know, Thanks!
Reply
Hi Jeff, I almost took your comments as good advices have I not read your introductory paragraph with the phrase that you are writing in your “typical sarcastic style”. I see plug-ins to be helpful in coming up with a dynamic blog page. So how many is too many?
Thanks a lot for the tips. Reading through your sarcasms really drive the message home. I’m glad that I compose my posts directly on the message box and click the HTML view before clicking the “post” button. However, I go crazy trying to fix a scattered display of my posts because I missed placing the appropriate codes or the usual mistake of not closing the code.
Reply
Jeff Replied:
March 1st, 2010 at 7:10 pm
“How many plugins are too many”?
One more than you really need!
Reply
I wisth I read this weeks ago
thanks
Reply
Hey I am having the same problem…but after following the steps suggested by you I resolved my problem…thanks a lot for your help.
Reply
Thanks for that hilarious rant!
When I first started using WordPress, I was guilty of
doing many of these things…especially loading up on
plugins and pasting copy directly from Word.
Ah, but I’m a better person after learning from those
stupid mistakes.
Reply
Great tips for WordPress users here. I especially agree with the “keeping the plugins minimal”. Nice and clean interface usually works wonders as well.:D
Reply
I couldn’t stop laughing after reading your post. I had a client that saw your post the other day and thought you were serious about loading every possible plugin. I had to fix this for her, and she was kinda embarrased. I thought it was good though, because I made some money from it. thanks
Reply
Portable Universe Reviews Replied:
March 15th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Oh yes, Adam! And I must say, such people lacking sense of humour are not rare! I am surfing the net a lot and not once I bumped into blogs sooo much overloaded with plugins, features and other stuff, that even though it there might be something interesting to read, you give that all mess up for a more agreeable looking one.
Reply
Very interesting article Jeff, thanks for it!!! good job man:)
Reply
Common sense prevails, but it easy to make a critical blog mistake. Thanks for the tips.
Reply
Too much clutter with different plugins looks horrible on any web site. It’s an easy way to drive faithful visitors away for good. Many blogs also use themes where different areas don’t even work and the links are dead. Think simple and you can’t go wrong.
Reply
Great post. I believe we should delete plugins those are in deactivated mode. Because deactivated plugins can prevent blog from loading faster.
Have a great time
Regards,
Jasson
Reply
I totally agree… Core message – keep your blog simple and user friendly and posts interesting and good original content
Reply
the worst thing i did was to have too many plugins, i was getting so many conflicting server errors i did a clean sweep and now its fine, ideally you should have no more than 20 plugins running at any 1 time, a good rule of thumb is if you add a new plugin take an old one away, that way you can also track if any conflict with eacth other
Reply
One of the best (sarcastic) posts I’ve come across in recent times. I too, once used to use plethora of plugins until the CPU went too high and my host disabled my account
Reply
LOL I just had to laugh when I read this post. I was considering switching from squarespace to wordpress. I’m probably one of those people that would install too many plugins hehe.
Reply
20 plugins is too many!! There is about 10 plugins that are a must and you do not need any more, believe me!!!
Reply
Al Patoni Replied:
March 21st, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Too many plugins don’t matter. It’s how stupid you are and actually bother wasting time on plugins that have no use.
Reply
I don’t like to use too many plugins on my blog.We should always try to focus on good content for making blog attractive rather than using too many plugins.Write informative,useful and interesting article for getting success.Thanks for sharing and i have bookmarked it.
Reply
ha ha ha very funny tips. I think the best option is dont follow these tips
Reply
Very informative post. I had no idea that copying text off a Word document could create such issues. Well, now I know
Reply
Too much clutter with different plugins looks horrible on any web site. It’s an easy way to drive faithful visitors away for good. Many blogs also use themes where different areas don’t even work and the links are dead. Think simple and you can’t go wrong.
Reply
Very informative post. I had no idea that copying text off a Word document could create such issues. Well, now I know
Reply
I screwed up one of my blogs a few years ago – I loaded too many plugins, thought I was intelligent enough to edit them in realtime and BOOOM. Well, I declared that to be none of my mistakes. I sweared (silently) at the WordPress team and these obviously stupid plugin creators…
After that happened and after I lost more than 50 blog posts due to my screw-up, I considered backing up my WP files for the first time.
Today I’m smart enough to load as few plugins as possible – as the thing with plugins is always: you don’t need them. None. But with some life seems to be easier
Reply
Great tips for WordPress users here. I especially agree with the “keeping the plugins minimal”. Nice and clean interface usually works wonders as well.:D
Reply
i’ll add a few:
- add as many ping services as you can find
- same for widgets
- and, of course, NEVER BACKUP YOUR BLOG!
Reply
I’d go with WordPress hands down. The ease of publishing articles, at least for me, is amazing. However, I do recall reading somewhere that you blog from your phone. I am not exactly sure if WordPress has a feature for that,
Reply
Love your post.
I’ve also screw up many blog in the past…LOL
By chance one of my friend who is a wordpress expert help me out.
I was also guilty of having way too many plugins and most of them where not even activate.
Now when I am building new blog I just use 4-5 plugin.
You should post more often to your blog, your post are great and funny to read at the same time
BTW, Love your theme, Look awesome.
Reply
This post should be required reading for all new WP bloggers. Too often they get carried away and add way too much stuff and ruin their blog.
Reply
Thanks for posting the key points to WordPress. I wasn’t aware that so many things can really mess up a blog. Good to be aware of when setting up new blogs.
Reply
Thanks for the list. I’m new to WordPress and hope to avoid any huge mistakes.
Reply
Thanks for the suggestions for WP. These will be helpful once I get going setting up some new sites.
Reply
Yes I agree all non required plugins should be removed from your wordpress blog. This swill speed your blog and would also be more secure.
Reply
I’m the expert at WP mistakes. Fortunately, I have a tech person that fixes my errors. And there are a lot of them.
The WP upgrades are something he handles. Just another thing I’ll probably mess up!
Ed
Reply
is this tips still working in wordpress new version?
Reply
Jeff Replied:
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 am
“is this tips still working in wordpress new version?” Based on your grammar… Well go ahead and try to ignore “this tips” and see what happens.
This is a timeless post , true today as when it was posted.
Reply
I was also guilty of having way too many plugins and most of them where not even activate.
Now when I am building new blog I just use 4-5 plugin.
You should post more often to your blog
Reply
Thank you for the informative post,
this will really screw up my wordpress blog.
Reply
Really useful information, and being new to WordPress it should help me to avoid some of the potential trouble I might have caused myself. Thanks Jeff.
Reply
Useful info – I have to update a clients site weekly and they always send over to me in ms word format. I use a mac and always copy and paste the info into text edit and reformat to plain text before copying and pasting into the wp blog.
Reply
Yes I agree all non required plugins should be removed from your wordpress blog. This swill speed your blog and would also be more secure.
Reply
I agree all non required plugins should be removed from your wordpress blog. Just keep it simple and don’t over do it.
Reply
I think the biggest mistake that people make when screwing up their blog is messing with their .htacess, and not backing up their db and wp-content files.
These two things can save a lot of trouble and headache, as well as provide a “screw it, we can start over again” option if they have messed up their themes/scripts too far.
Reply
I think in this post you have reflected all the main points. Working with WordPress not easy.
Reply
OK. I must admit, I am guilty of many of the points above. However, it’s really useful to have it laid out like this — decreases the chances of me making those mistakes in the future. Thanks for this
Reply
I discovered that it isn’t necessary to install so many wordpress plugins. When I was still a noob I did that and it resulted to my website loading very slow.
Reply
I screwed mine once. I still don’t know what i did, just upgraded the version of my wordpress blog and whoosh – it disappeared! And like u said, i spend an entire evening sorting it out!
Reply
I love WordPress! However, when you’re new on using this platform, you need to make some of these mistakes to learn. I’m guilty on some of those.
Reply
I remember when i created all my pages in MS word before i uploaded onto wordpress.
What a mess that was
Reply
I love WordPress! However, when you’re new on using this platform, you need to make some of these mistakes to learn. I’m guilty on some of those.
Reply
Hey, this a quite a hilarious post but true as well. Guys please don’t any of above thing if you want to have a good and fast wordpress blog or website
Reply
Most of these tips should be pretty obvious, but still a very handy guide!
One other way I’ve screwed up blogs in the past is by adding far too many plugins. I’ve gone through wordpress.org, just downloading loads of them because they looked good.
Ah well, we live, we learn.
Reply
Copying and pasting from Word seems to be one of the most common mistakes, not just with WordPress but other CMS’s too. The worst thing is when people end up with several different fonts throughout their site because they’ve copied and pasted from Word and just leave them! Ugh.
Reply
Screwed up a few of my wordpress blogs many times, one by loading up to many pluggins!
Reply
I can’t say a bad thing about wordpress – best free software out there
Reply
Hoo boy. I’ve got some some changes to make. Thanks for this post!
Reply
You’re right about a lot of things in your post!! This post is clear and should be sent to bloggers that don’t respect these simple advices!
Good job!
Reply
I remember when i created all my pages in MS word before i uploaded onto wordpress.
What a mess that was
Reply
This post is so hilarious. I think I was guilty of almost all of these until I finally learned a bit more about programming, SEO and wordpress in general.
Reply
I think I was guilty of almost all of these until I finally learned a bit more about programming, SEO and wordpress in general. Thanks for this information….
Reply
Definitely appreciating these tips they’re a GREAT help! Gona apply them to my blog now thanks a lot!
Reply
We run wordpress on our reviews site, to make it really pretty you do have to make changes to the code which can result in problems you mention above. Currently trying to work out how to set the time to Melbourne Australia time…any ideas?
Reply
How many plug-ins is recommended to keep from overburdening my site? Some of them are truly needed, but the question is: which ones are really vital, and which ones can be tossed?
Reply
Jeff Replied:
November 19th, 2010 at 9:39 am
One more than you really really need is too much.
Reply
Yes Jeff, one more than what is needed is always one too many, but the 3rd party developers always seem to come up with another “must-have” plug-in just when I think I already have everything I need.
Reply
forgetting that there is a subtitle/site description available as well as the title of the site… I have had to point that out to a few clients after they had installed the theme we supplied them. It is the little things that can make such a huge difference to site visitors.
Reply
I do believe that I have made every mistake you listed and a whole bunch more. I stick with basic pre built templates now and never get too fancy.
Reply
One of my biggest mistakes is i forget to optimize the slug for my posts which cases many problems.
Reply
wow they all sound scary.i am pretty much a newbie to wordpress.Thanks for the heads up.
great stuff.
Reply
LOL I’m guilty of rule number one LOL. I had every plugin in the world. One plugin totally crashed my blog and if it wasn’t for super cache I would have been screwed. bad new I no longer have word press I have to manually edit my html files super cache generated, but honestly I’m loving it. page load is faster and per page changes are easier “global changes are a pain” but I’m living with it.
Now i know, keep the plugins to a minimal “also a lot of plugin create tons of useless html code, something linking back to the author or sponsor site”
Great post, I’m going to share this.
Reply
Love the one about loading up too many wordpress plugins. The plugins should be activated only when it is supposed to be used.
Reply
I loved your post, LOL.
I’m pretty sure all of us commenters here are guilty of having messed up our blogs in some of the ways you talked about.
I strongly believe that “less is more” in every sense, don’t install every cool plugin you find, don’t use too fancy themes, don’t mess too much with the theme code etc etc ….
Reply
hi jeff
the steps that your suggesting are really works in a live way i tried and getting real true results.
Thanks
Reply
I have had this very issue in the past. Too many links in the upper link bar made my blog look horrible. Your article gives me clear understanding how to control what pages are shown in the navigation bar. Thanks!
Reply
Hi,
This is a cool post. I laughed…
Anyone serious about doing business on the Internet needs to be honest with themselves about budget. There should be enough budget to hire a professional to help with WordPress. The business owner needs to focus on their business and strategy rather than getting bogged down on how to do WordPress.
Think about it…are you on the net to run a business or be a WordPress wonk. Being a wordpress expert is not a business, unless you are in the business of being a WordPress expert!
Thanks Jeff! Happy New Year!
Reply
For the first time I am reading a perfect sarcastic guideline. Even i had problems with word press because of the plug-ins i used! And it was fun to read your post which revealed a lot of blunders we usually do out of trying all the new things available. Do keep posting stuff like these, its self-reflective.
Reply
I am new to WordPress and have designed a professional blog. I learned early that by loading a plugin that doesn’t work, I can mess it up so well that I have to reinstall wordpress. So, just to keep the frustration factor at bay, I created a dummy blog with the same theme that I use to experiment on. It is a completely separate hosting account from my real blog. This isn’t foolproof, but at least I can test and compare plugins before I install them. I can’t afford to have to restore the real blog. The added expense of $60 a year will be worth it.
Reply
LOL I have screwed up my fair share of WordPress installs before, as well as spent time fixing other people’s. These tips are true and will definitely help you blog from becoming a jumbled mess.
Reply
forgetting that there is a subtitle/site description available as well as the title of the site… I have had to point that out to a few clients after they had installed the theme we supplied them. It is the little things that can make such a huge difference to site visitors.
Reply
Hi great post! I can not help but to laugh becuase I know MANY bloggers who format posts in MW then copy them over and sit and wonder what the issue is. Not to mention all of the crap code that is copied over!
Reply
I think in order to get the most out of your blog, you need to write unique content and do not use other articles or words from other people. If you can’t write a unique blog without using other peoples work….then you shouldn’t have a blog site or call yourself a blogger…
Reply
I think you have did a great job by explaining the pros and cons of blogs which many people dont know about it.It was really nice to share this type of information to al
Reply
you compiled all the necessary info for improving a wordpress blog at one place. It is really helpful for new bloggers like me. Now I am planning to move to wordpress platform and your blog has plenty of information that will help me a lot.
Thanks for sharing brother.
Reply
i agree with richard
“Anyone serious about doing business on the Internet needs to be honest with themselves about budget. There should be enough budget to hire a professional to help with WordPress. The business owner needs to focus on their business and strategy rather than getting bogged down on how to do WordPress.
Think about it…are you on the net to run a business or be a WordPress wonk. Being a wordpress expert is not a business, unless you are in the business of being a WordPress expert!
by camera system
Reply
Too many plugins make your website load really slow
Reply
This post made me smile, Always some fools out there who can break the unbreakable. One of the best I heard of is a client who said ” You cant find images on Google ” seriously “can you see the images link at the top of screen?” “no just letters that say Google and a search box and two buttons”
Keep earning the $$ off the dumb and mentally impaired.
Reply
I have a question that I hope will have a simple answer. I have a wordpress blog and right now my side navigation menu is on the right side. I would like for the menu to be on the left side. Can someone please tell me how I would go about doing this, in simple terms, please?
Reply
Jeff Replied:
March 26th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Sorry but there are no simple terms for moving it without looking at the specific theme you are using.
Reply
Should I thank you for the useful tips or be worried?
Reply
This is really funny. I don’t know the reason why someone would really screw up their blog. But then this is reverse psych. Nice approach!
Reply
Elmer M. Replied:
April 10th, 2011 at 8:22 am
Well, the sarcasm seems to work. To be fair, though, not all new webmasters know how to abuse plugins. This post actually tells them the easy ways to abuse plugins, and, consequently, to mess up their blogs. Or worse, to open up security holes in their WP installations.
Reply
I’ve been guilty of the too many plugins crime. I’ve got it whittled down to just a few, but now i’m stuck with wp 2.9.2 as one very important plugin, custom taxonomies, is not being updated…
Reply
BTW to the poster a few above me, moving menus in themes is always theme specific. But the simple sidebar navigation plugin might help you out. Just google it.
Reply
we have done all of those things.
I supposed you don’t know until your told
Reply
Love the one about loading up too many wordpress plugins. The plugins should be activated only when it is supposed to be used.
Reply
I think you have did a great job by explaining the pros and cons of blogs which many people dont know about it.It was really nice to share this type of information
Reply
I had know idea I could screw up my wordpress like that. I have done all these things and nothing…
Reply
Thanks for the “counter list” on what to do. Being a non-techie, it’s seems that I am always encountering problems with my blog. And I feel that most of the problems came from this list. Thanks a lot!
Reply
I have messed up my WordPress blog so many different ways, I can’t even begin to recall them.
Thanks for sharing the most popular ways to screw things up. I’ll try to avoid, if I can remember them.
Reply
I’ve don’t all of those when learning WordPress. I even changed the default theme forgetting to change the name, when I updated, everything was reset!
Reply
Leave a comment
Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.