include wpdb outside wordpress

If you need to load the WordPress database outside of WordPress (for cron jobs, specialty pages, etc) simply put this at the beginning of your script:

define( 'SHORTINIT', true );
require_once( $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/wp-load.php' );

This will tell WordPress to load up with as little as necessary. If you don’t have the SHORTINIT call then it will load all of WordPress as normal (which you probably don’t want).

How To Make Numbered Lists Look Amazing in WordPress

After writing my blog post on 5 reasons to use lists in blogs, I had people email me asking how I made my lists look so good. I’ll admit, before that post my lists looked ugly. But I spent quite a bit of time playing around to get it to look that way.

What I ended up coming across was some css tricks that let you do numbering in different styles. I had to modify it to work with the lists I was making. First, I’ll give you the code to put into your theme’s custom.css file:

.fancy {
    counter-reset: fancy-counter;
    list-style: none;
}

.fancy li:before {
    content: counter(fancy-counter);
    counter-increment: fancy-counter;
    left: -40px;
    position: relative;
    top: 25px;
    font: bold 50px/1 Sans-Serif;
}

.fancy strong {
    margin-left: -30px;
}

Once this is in your theme’s custom.css file, you can create a new numbered list with WordPress just like you always have, with two exceptions:

  1. You must use the bold tag at the begging of each section. As you can see in the css above, strong (which is what WordPress uses for bolding), has a margin that is being offset by 30 pixels. This is to counter the space the numbers take up.
  2. You must add the fancy class to the <ol> tag. This can be done by changing your WordPress Visual Editor from Visual to Text mode. Change the <ol> to <ol class=”fancy”>. This prevents lists outside of your content from getting changed, ensuring your blog doesn’t break.

That’s all there is to it. Seems complicated at first but once you get it figured out it really doesn’t add much to your flow when creating new posts. But it has an amazingly beautiful effect that’ll help your blog look that much better.

5 Reasons to Use Lists in Blog Posts

When it comes time to write blog posts it can be really difficult getting your thoughts organized into one post. Today I’m going to tell you 5 reasons why you should use lists in blog posts!

  1. They are easier to write. When you come up with a topic, it’s easy to keep it focused when it’s broken down into simple chunks. It really can help when you’ve got writers block to use a list to get your groove on.
  2. They are easier to read. I’ll admit it, I skim over blog posts. I love blog posts that use lists because I can skim and skip what I know and read what I don’t. Then end result? I end up at your blog more often than ones that don’t.
  3. Lists go viral. Now I’m guessing this is because they are easier to read so when you come across a post that isn’t in list format it just won’t go viral. But it’s true, my facebook feed is filled with these kinds of posts, and google serves me these pages all the time in my results too.
  4. Lists make you look authoritative. It’s kinda funny but when someone has a blog post with 5 reasons of this or 5 reasons of that, they look like they thought it out more than someone who wrote the same content but didn’t put it in list form. There could be 5 more reasons, but the fact that they are numbered and presented that way makes it appear much more thought out.
  5. They keep you on track. This has helped me before. I tend to go on tangents and move off topic. But when you say these are 5 reasons to use lists, I quickly stop myself when I realize I’m writing about another topic. In the end a much better blog post comes out because it’s kept on topic.

So there you have it, from the master blogger himself, 5 reasons to use lists when blogging!

How To Make a Blog The Easy Way

When I talk to people about blogging, they always say they don’t know how to do it. To me setting it up is a piece of cake, but in case that’s not you, I’m going to show you how to make a blog in only a few minutes!

First, this applies to anyone with a hosting account with cPanel. While there are some ways you can get a free blog, I would recommend having your own hosting account for many reasons. You get complete control over which themes and plugins you use, and more importantly you can’t be told the content you are writing about isn’t allowed.

Back to How To Make a Blog!

This is how to make a blog, the easy way!

Once you are inside your cPanel control panel, it’s actually really easy. Simply goto Site Software, then click on WordPress. The next page has a bunch of options but the only one you have to change is the admin username, password, and email. The rest will automatically be filled for you.

Click install, and cPanel will actually make a blog for you. It will download all the necessary files, copy them appropriately, and install the database. The hard part is left up to you: writing blog posts! If you are still confused, I can make a blog for you ;-)

How To Make a Blog Look Good

I could have stopped there but then you’d have the same boring looking blog as everyone else. No worries, making a blog look good is just as easy, if not easier. Themes are located in the admin menu under Appearance. On the Themes page click Add New

How to make a blog look good

WordPress will then show you a wide variety of themes you can install just by clicking Install. You’ll even get to preview them first. Find a theme that matches your style and you’ll enjoy writing all the more!

That’s all there is to it. If I helped you make a blog please let me know below!

How To Delete Thousands of Crons in WordPress

I previously posted how to fix missed scheduled posts, this time on a related but different note I’m going to show you how to delete thousands of cron jobs all at once.

Now you must be asking, how did I get thousands of cron jobs? Well, I had a defunct plugin that was adding in new cron jobs over and over. I used Improved Cron to check out why my cron jobs weren’t firing, and found that it was flooded with cron jobs.

What’s interesting to note is a lot of plugins will add a cron job, but when you remove the plugin it doesn’t remove the cron job. So over years you can start to have a ton of junky cron jobs in there slowing everything down.

Delete WordPress cron jobs with phpMyAdmin: if you are familiar with phpMyAdmin, simply goto your WordPress database and open up the wp_options table. Do a search for crons.

1-26-2016 1-23-29 PM

Once you find the cron, simply delete it. Scary, but actually WordPress will automatically re-generate the field when necessary.

1-26-2016 1-23-46 PM

If you don’t know how to use phpMyAdmin, or are simply too scared, a neat trick you can do is to add this one line of code to your WordPress Theme functions.php file. If it doesn’t have it, then you can add it to any of the plugins:

delete_option( 'cron' );

Once you or anyone accesses your blog, this will delete that field. Then remove the code and you’re good to go! Now after doing this my cron jobs run much smoother.

The 3 Types of PEOPLE Who Should Be Blogging

Most people I talk to are scared to blog, and they don’t think they really should be blogging. But before you decide not to, check if you fit into one of these three types of people.

People Who Like To Write

These are the people who just like to write. If you like to write, you should be blogging. It doesn’t matter what, you’re doing a disservice to the millions of people struggling to write by hiding your talents.

I am not a reader, so I don’t follow many bloggers who love to write for the simple reason, I don’t love to read. But there is a large number of readers and writers out there, so don’t hold back!

People Who Have Specific Knowledge

These are the people I honestly LOVE. These people generally aren’t “anyone special”, but they know something. They are the people that you’ll be searching the internet for a solution and bammo, their blog comes up! I love it when this happens.

Seriously, I don’t care if you post once a month. If you know how to fix things, do DIY projects, etc, these types of blogs can be life savers. There are certain posts I’ve written that have helped tons of people solve a simple problem. They might not be back ever again, but I enjoy seeing the traffic/comments knowing I’ve helped them.

People Who Want to Be a Leader

The most obvious blogger is the “authoritative” blogger. These are the people, like myself, that blog to “be a leader”. You can use a blog to make it look like you are a leader, even if you aren’t. Which is great if you’re trying to have a good online presence for a job resume or potential clients.

Most people think you have to be in that category to start a blog. But in all actuality the second group is the largest group of bloggers. And it’s the least stressful. When you are a leader in an industry there is more pressure to constantly put out new amazing content. When you do it for fun and when you have something to share, it feels more rewarding!