While the Blogosopher seminar showcases WordPress and how to use it, the course is really about understanding how to build your business and search rank- along with a real comprehension of how the Internet and search work. We mix in a lot of marketing- understanding the building of relationships with your audience- and what you need to put on your site to make it work for you and your reader.
So- as everything now changes in Internet time (faster than a speeding bullet) there are a few new developments with WordPress.
On December 26, 2005 version 2.0 is supposed to be released. It offers a lot of new features and bells and whistles- the best description of them are here on Owen Winkler’s site
While many people always want to install the latest software right away- my advice is always to wait a week, to see what bugs surface. The features that interest me the most are the integrated image browser, which will eliminate the name for a plug-in hack to do this, and a revision to the users feature, where instead of a 1-10 level type hierarchy, you can now assign roles and permissions to each user.
Some changes to how pictures are handled could be good or bad- but it should eliminate the need for gallery type software to display a picture with a description easily (something that should have been really easy). A WYSIWYG text editor is now included making things like bullet lists and tabs and indents much easier.
The interface is different- which will take some getting used to- but this is always the case. A built in Spam catching system may eliminate the need for plugs ins to do the job.
There is one feature still in Beta that really interests me- a Stats panel right in the interface- no having to go to the server to see what’s what- but this may only be a feature in the hosted solution- see below.
The other big news is that you can have a free WordPress blog at WordPress.com – some would say that will be the end of our hosting business– but I think it just proves that you get what you pay for. The free Blogs don’t come with your own URL- that makes for a sloppy url ie. something like blogosopher.wordpress.com, and of course, I’ve reserved it- and put a little bit up. You are also limited to 12 themes with no ability to edit them.
There also will be the question of ownership- and integrity of the authors. A local newspaper reporter has asked me several times about how to figure out the owner of a site on blogspot– www.mydayton.blogspot.com to which I am unable to determine- since the url isn’t a primary. There have been some stories in the blogosphere (not blogosopher) about some sites disappearing– or being deleted. This is always the possibility on a “Free” site.
These are big changes for WordPress- and we’ll try to keep you informed of how they change things as we learn more about the changes ourselves.

We keep telling people- it’s only a blog if you think of it as such- WordPress is really just a Content Management System- that is very easy to use. With the number of options and modifications that can be made- it can be made to do anything a static site can- plus some- with no need for the person maintaining the site to know code.
We’re in the process of adding a small shopping cart to the site, using PayPal to allow people to register and pay online.
It should be fully functioning tomorrow.
Now- we just have to determine our next seminar dates!
If you have suggestions for date or time- please let us know [email protected]

Blogs make better websites than any code jockey can build. Doesn’t matter how slick your site is, without the connectivity and notifications built into the blog backend technology, a site won’t spread the word as fast or effectively as a blog.
We try to explain that a blog is a site- it’s just one on steroids.
If I post an item to a conventionally coded site and then even take the added step of using a search engine submission tool, unless I’m already a site that’s known for breaking important information all the time, I could wait hours, days, weeks before my item starts showing up in search.
Not so with a blog- and the search engines that crawl them. Although I don’t expect it to stay that way for long- google doesn’t care when you posted- information is information. Blog search engines like Technorati look at posts over time and look to see how fast your message spreads through links. trackbacks and “Tags” to rank the importance of your post.
A recent example was when the Dayton Daily News wine critic noticed two bottles of wine with the same label at Trader Joes- that were of a distinctively different color. Within a day, the entire wine world was aware- and Trader Joes was pulling the bottles off the shelf. This wouldn’t have happened in the static site world- it may have taken days to propagate and end up at the top of search.
Read more here : uncorked blog.
And here:
Google on Trader Joe’s wine