Chris Brogan: If You Haven't Moved to WordPress 2.7 Yet
ATLANTA WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
· 11 months ago
the Thesis has been growing on me. It seems a lot of people are pushing it. The theme is really clean and professional. Just add some good content and this is going to be a winning theme for anyone.
Susan Martin
· 11 months ago
Gotta love the publish later feature! If I could just get organized enough to use it to stack up a week's worth of posts, I could take a vacation! Thanks, Chris.
Greg B
· 11 months ago
Chris, I am a recent convert to Wordpress 2.7 from Blogger, and I was and am still completely stunned by 2.7. Everything just seems to seamlessly work together in a simple fashion, like you said, with a complexity beneath it. Not a hard to understand and operate kind of complex, rather a complex system working it's butt off for you and your blog.
Bill
· 11 months ago
WP 2.7 rocks IMHO! I have used the plugin upgrade several times now, and it is much faster and easier than downloading, unzipping, deactivating, uploading, reactivating and such. The unfortunate thing is, the scheduled posting doesn't work on my installation - I know why and there is not much I can do due to my unique hosting situation, but oh well.
I also like the interface for the media manager better as I never used it much, but have been testing with doing video tutorials on a private site, and it is working quite well with being able to load video files directly and then use a simple plugin to load them into the post.
chrisbrogan
· 11 months ago
@Atlanta Wedding Photographer - yep. I have loved Pearson's designs all along, but with this theme, it's more than that. It's a lot of function and custom heavy lifting that go far beyond pretty. I became an affiliate for Thesis because I can't recommend the theme enough. I've talked to Pearson about what's coming next, and when that rolls out, I'll be CRAZY about it. But that'll have to wait.
@Susan - I quite agree. Saves my butt often.
@davideckoff
· 11 months ago
I recently migrated my blog from MovableType to Wordpress. My assessment: I really LOVE Wordpress! And the improvements in 2.7 are sweet. And don't even get me started about Thesis. THE BEST!
Over the past several months, I've found myself blogging less and Twittering more. But now that I've set up my new WP blog (finally!), I've got about 20 article ideas in the pipeline and on deck to publish.
Chris, you give a great example of how to write on a regular basis, with, smart, witty, helpful posts. You sir, are the gold standard!
I've got a request: if you're a Rockstar (and who here isn't?!) I'd welcome your feedback about my new WP blog. Positive comments and suggestions welcome! If you're inclined, please stop by and comment at http://www.davideckoff.com, I'd really value your suggestions.
Ryan Lou
· 11 months ago
I must admit.. I took on wordpress 2.7 thinking it was just another security upgrade. I hadn't researched the changes they actually made to the UI and I was quite pleasantly surprised.
Now I can give a login to anyone in my company and immediately they will have no problems using it.
Too many things I liked about it. But what I liked most is that I'll never need to manually upgrade wordpress again!
David
· 11 months ago
I've been running WP 2.7 for several months now on my site and some sites I maintain for others. I couldn't be more pleased with the interface and more importantly, the easy of upgrade. Plug-ins automatically notify you of updates and updating to the next WP version will be as simple as clicking a button. (Had to do that to upgrade from the 2.7 Beta version.) I'm super pleased with what WordPress has been doing lately.
Danny Brown
· 11 months ago
I've been an advocate of both Wordpress and Premium Themes for a long time. I've danced with the Thesis theme like a lost schoolboy at the pre-school dance practice - Thesis as the pretty girl at one side of the gym hall, me at the other. I haven't dabbled yet (and I have to admit, my current theme is one that I'm really happy with the way it's turned out) but who knows? I'm sure the next time I look at a makeover, Thesis will be the girl for me.
Wordpress 2.7 is simply awesome. It's like the way that blogging is meant to be. It's in-depth yet it's simple; it's beautifully arranged and yet it's practical; it's also the kingmaker as far as blogging and SEO goes.
And when you start playing around with plug-ins like Auto-Upgrade, Zemanta, All-in-One-SEO and more... well, it makes me wonder which platform is in second place, since Wordpress 2.7 has the market sewn up.
Corvida
· 11 months ago
So far I'm loving WP 2.7's dashboard. It's much better than the previous version. It takes a little getting used to but after a week of playing with everything I love it.
Steve Garfield
· 11 months ago
Wow. I've been a loyal blogger user since day one. Although I could do all the technical work, I like how blogger is a hosted platform. I also use Typepad and like that it's hosted too. This post though is making me think about moving one of my blogs over. Maybe I'll try Wordpress 2.7 on a new blog and see how it goes, then decide if I want to migrate my blogger blog over... Thanks for the screen shot.
PS. My blog, http://offonatangent.blogspot.com has a problem with permalinked titles. If anyone can help with a hint as to what template code to insert to get post name to show up in the permalink of a post, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
Marko
· 11 months ago
I have recently upgraded to WP 2.7 too, and i love it. New dashboard is great, the upgrade was easy and without any complications. The best thing about WP 2.7 are definitely auto updates. If anyone haven't updated yet, you should do so as soon as possible. I have written a short guide for upgrading on my blog. About the premium theme... I am thinking to buy Thesis, but so far i am really satisfied with my free theme, so i think i'll wait a bit more.
Jim Connolly
· 11 months ago
Chris,
Great post - I agree 100%!
I use Thesis and WP 2.7 on my newly-relaunched tech news blog and it's a great combination.
Tribute Bands
· 11 months ago
Hi Chris
I use the 'thesis' theme on my blog purely because you recommended it in one of your previous posts. I upgraded to wordpress 2.7 several weeks ago, I like a lot of things about it but there's one thing that really annoyed me...the left hand sidebar menu. I couldn't understand why they moved the menu from the top to the left, it was perfect the way it was before. And then...along came a post by Jack Humphrey (Friday Traffic Report Blog) about how to move the left menu back to the top. Jack and his team found a plugin that will do this and it works brilliantly, you can even change the default wordpress 2.7 colour scheme.
well i agree with you chris.... Wordpress 2.7 has a wonderfull dashboard, friendly user for new users, for old users they can customize the main page to fit their needs.
I upgraded to v.27 20 days ago and am happy using it with all the new features, preparing my own theme which will be applied soon to the blog as well.
going to try Thesis as well!
Cheers! Jean
Karl Craig-West
· 11 months ago
For the last couple of years I've been a big Drupal fan and am working on my 6th Drupal site. However, the more time I spend playing with Wordpress the more impressed I am with it.
My only challenge is how to make it a website with a blog rather than a blog in front of a website (which is what Wordpress tends to lean towards in my opinion). So that's the next stage in my learning plan - build business websites using Wordpress.
So, if anyone can suggest some online resources for learning to build Wordpress sites, I'd be very grateful.
i found thesis on a pirate website. i am just wondering, what stops people from actually downloading paid themes and using them. apart from not getting support, what's the worst that could happen?
and how do paid themes end up on pirate sites anyway?
can't the blogosphere do something about this? or is that the same as media leaks of "hot" information?
John
· 11 months ago
It takes me longer to write blog posts with WordPress 2.7 than it did with 2.6. The new dashboard is very pretty, but it runs much slower. Some things I do now require more mouse clicks, and each mouse click takes longer to respond.
John Eckman
· 11 months ago
WordPress rocks, including (but not exclusively) in version 2.7.
Two quick notes:
First, the Thesis theme doesn't seem to yet be updated for threaded comments, or maybe you've not enabled it? More on what that means and how to do it can be found in the WordPress codex.
@arthurficial - in my case, I support the creator. Technically, you can probably find every premium theme out there on a pirate site. But with everything being mostly free, and with the cost not being *very* high, why bother? Why not support the creator? Sure, a big faceless company is easier to consider that with, but not when it's one guy.
John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marke
· 11 months ago
Hey Chris - WP is just such a great tool that pretty much every upgrade is an improvement - it's the plug-in dance that always makes me hesitate. Looks like most of the more popular plug-ins are ready to go with 2.7 now
Mike
· 11 months ago
We use Thesis on almost every site we have and love it.
The forum, the support, the upgrades, etc. make Thesis a no-brainer for someone like me with ...er, no brain ;-)
deeharvey
· 11 months ago
I've been going back and forth on whether to keep using WordPress or just switch to something simple like Tumblr. I've upgraded to 2. this week but haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet. I think you've convinced me to stick with it.
rebeca trautner
· 11 months ago
hey chris - i looked into Thesis after speaking with you at BlogWorld about it. You had such enthusiasm for Chris and his product, I couldn't help but dig in. I was impressed by how clean yet customizable it was - and more impressed by Thesis' loyal following. A huge reason I decided to go with WordPress as a platform (and subsequently, Thesis, as a theme) was the support factor. The community of Thesis users is so helpful and made the purchase that much more worthwhile. I couldn't be happier with my choice, and I thank you for your recommendation!
virtualimpax
· 11 months ago
Wordpress rocks and 2.7 is literally a masterpiece!!! When you add Thesis to the mix - well, I'm hearing Beethoven's 9th right now.
The best part about Thesis is how SEO friendly the theme is. I mean - you don't need an SEO plug in because the SEO is built in.
Congrats on the upgrade. If you loved Wordpress - you'll love 2.7!!!
Adam Singer
· 11 months ago
Always upgrade to the latest version ASAP. I've had previous installs of WP (early 2.x versions) hacked due to failing to upgrade quickly.
You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your friends. Upgrade early, upgrade often - with all software.
Stephanie Valentine
· 11 months ago
Hey Chris,
I upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and did it myself. It was really really easy and I am impressed with the features. Based on your 27 blogging secrets post I also installed the Thesis theme and LOVE IT. I got carried away playing with the css but boy was it fun. I wrote a review on it on my blog, too, kind of a where the rubber meets the road on your blogging secrets. Thanks for the great tips!
Stephanie
Richard Reeve
· 11 months ago
I'd like to add that Thesis is not only a wonderful template, but that Chris P. is a hoot to watch and listen to as he jumps up on stage and rocks out. He's provides a very entertaining presense as well as a Thesis community through his website, forum and newsletter (oh, and more important he's very accessible).
At first it took me getting used to the new WP, mainly because the I wasn't seeing, and therefor forgetting to check the category box. Then I realized I could rearrange everything...how cool is that.
LoneWolf
· 11 months ago
I love 2.7. I've got all 3 of my blogs on it now and I like the new dashboard. The AJAX features rock when you've got pathetically slow connection to the internet like I do.
Shalom LoneWolf
Josh Cole
· 11 months ago
I just upgraded about 4 days ago to 2.7 and I couldn't agree with you more. The new dash and expandable menu make it much more efficient in my opinion. Quite a large change and happy they made it.
Cheers, Josh
Dave Atkins
· 11 months ago
I've upgraded some other sites to WP 2.7 and I'm jealous. I have my DaveWrites blog on b2evolution and there does not seem to be an easy migration script from the version I have, 2.4.0. My other blog, WestwoodBlog, is on Drupal 5. Has anyone out there done these migrations? I'd buy Thesis in a minute and run with it, but I don't want to end up spending a week messing around with my blog when I should be finding new, paid consulting projects and networking to find a job. :)
Demian Farnworth
· 11 months ago
I especially like the "Quick post" feature. Great for drafting ideas.
Craig
· 11 months ago
Can you set up multiple posts on a timer, so that way if you write say 5 posts, you can time them so each one will post each day? Then you don't have to worry about the actual posting. Or can you only set one up?
Clara Mathews
· 11 months ago
I love Wordpress 2.7. It is much more user friendly than the previous version. I also love using the Thesis theme on one of my sites (www.corporateconciergeinc.org) . It is easy to customize your site in a variety of ways without knowing anything about coding. That is a big plus for me and the reason I chose to use Thesis in the first place.
I am also using 2 of Chris Pearson's free themes on my other sites. Cutline and Neoclassical. His themes are very clean and have a professional look that sets them apart for all the other Wordpress themes that are available--either free or premium.
@DerecShuler
· 11 months ago
I'm making the move from TypePad to Wordpress since I really like to open architecture.
I've bought and am looking at the Thesis theme and would really appreciate feedback on other themes that are easy to use with good SEO. Cheers!
Firstdayblack
· 11 months ago
If you are interested in Thesis blogs, you can visit my screenshot collection here, here and here. The website is in German language, but that doesn't matter. Just look at the screenshots and let them inspire you.
Gert Mellak
· 11 months ago
I decided to go with Thesis because it's a great basis for any further customizations that I might want to do on my blog. Given all the features it comes with, the price is more than ok I'd say.Also the development version is a considerable option for bloggers running more than one blog!
Tami Vroma
· 11 months ago
Hey Chris! I enjoy your blogs very much!! Think I am following you on Twitter also! I am new to Wordpress. In fact I am pretty new to blogging but am doing fairly well at Active Rain. I am using Wordpress to start a community blog but have so much to learn. Can you recommend a good tutorial site for WP? Tami Vroma
Tre
· 11 months ago
great post, great comments, i missed the opp to nab thesis over his thanksgiving black friday sale. shame on me...planning to get it pronto. grateful too for 2.7..it's like blogging w/ mac software. visually pleasing, comprehensible, practical. I'm curious about this plugin John Eckman mentions...and to other commenters, give links to the stuff you mention. I can vouge for @pearsonified's accessibility. he's answered lots of basic-asic questions from this newbie/wannabe, provided links to sites using thesis to show the diversity. also @sugarrae rocks the cazbah. hugely informative tutorials and I don't even own thesis yet. she's just convincing me. :) thanks for the post, the comments...aww...we got ourselves a sweet wil 2.7 famiweee who uses thesis now don't we? hey ya'll..happy inauguration day. a friend of mine just got hitched. and i'm probably gonna say 'i do' to thesis. happy bloggin.
Craig McGill
· 11 months ago
I'd love to upgrade but the last time I tried an upgrade I lost my whole site, so I'm playing it safe! Call me wimp!
Deborah Carney (aka Loxly)
· 11 months ago
I absolutely LOVE Thesis and have been telling everyone to switch. With the hooks plugin I found, it is a breeze to customize and knowing I won't lose my changes with upgrades makes me very happy. I have more than a few websites and purchased the developer license so I could dress them all up. They all have a unique look and feel even though they are the same theme, and updates now that 2.7 is installed are going to be a piece of cake. Whether you have one blog or many, using 2.7 + Thesis is the way to go to manage them efficiently and make them look great.
David Henderson
· 11 months ago
Nice post, Chris,
I've upgraded to Wordpress 2.7 on about 14 blogs, for myself and friends. Not a minute of trouble. Dashboard is very intuitive and nice. Thesis works perfectly with it. The creative potential of Thesis is astonishing.
David
Clinton Skakun
· 11 months ago
Didn't read your full post but I do like the new Wordpress release. I love the new layout, the new set of controls. It's pretty cool. Everything's much more compact and much more "web2.0ish". I use 2.7 on all my blogs, besides one.
Wordpress has gone a long way in developing some sweet blogging software. I remember when it was basically a bunch of crap. Got back into it and now I'm hooked.
Everyone needs to switch, until you do you'll always have that nagging feeling :D
Have a great day! Clinton Skakun
Karen Wylie
· 11 months ago
I bought Thesis to put on Wordpress 2.7 and I am so glad I did! I now have a blog that looks like I wanted it to look because Thesis allows you to customize so easily. But the truth is I had very little to do because Thesis looks good 'out of the box' and WP 2.7 is so streamlined to use.
blued888
· 11 months ago
I've just started blogging and used WP 2.7 right away, I don't exactly know what I missed with the other versions but this latest one is definitely easy to use.
I often use that "Publish Later" button when I have lots of thoughts going around in my little head. :)
Lynne
· 11 months ago
I tested WP 2.7 though all the beta releases and built a new site on the stable release. Then promptly rolled back to 2.6.5. The reasons for this include slower loading times, requiring more clicks to get things done, hating the new UI (well, I don't like the old one either, but just dislike the new more!) and generally finding it less usable overall. I don't like the way updates are pushed onto users. In a hosted situation automatic upgrades are expected. In a self-hosted situation I prefer to have complete control over my sites and what happens to them. If 2.7 was faster, better performing, and had some killer features there would be a temptation to stick with it but, as it is, I am pleased I rolled back.
John
· 11 months ago
Lynne: I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only person who thought 2.7 has its drawbacks. I concur that it is slower in general and some common tasks now require more clicks.
UK thesis
· 4 months ago
This is extremely helpful info!!! Especially since you guys are offering it for free!! Very good listing. Everything is true. Thanx.
All Comments
I also like the interface for the media manager better as I never used it much, but have been testing with doing video tutorials on a private site, and it is working quite well with being able to load video files directly and then use a simple plugin to load them into the post.
@Susan - I quite agree. Saves my butt often.
Over the past several months, I've found myself blogging less and Twittering more. But now that I've set up my new WP blog (finally!), I've got about 20 article ideas in the pipeline and on deck to publish.
Chris, you give a great example of how to write on a regular basis, with, smart, witty, helpful posts. You sir, are the gold standard!
I've got a request: if you're a Rockstar (and who here isn't?!) I'd welcome your feedback about my new WP blog. Positive comments and suggestions welcome! If you're inclined, please stop by and comment at http://www.davideckoff.com, I'd really value your suggestions.
Now I can give a login to anyone in my company and immediately they will have no problems using it.
Too many things I liked about it. But what I liked most is that I'll never need to manually upgrade wordpress again!
Wordpress 2.7 is simply awesome. It's like the way that blogging is meant to be. It's in-depth yet it's simple; it's beautifully arranged and yet it's practical; it's also the kingmaker as far as blogging and SEO goes.
And when you start playing around with plug-ins like Auto-Upgrade, Zemanta, All-in-One-SEO and more... well, it makes me wonder which platform is in second place, since Wordpress 2.7 has the market sewn up.
PS. My blog, http://offonatangent.blogspot.com has a problem with permalinked titles. If anyone can help with a hint as to what template code to insert to get post name to show up in the permalink of a post, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
If anyone haven't updated yet, you should do so as soon as possible. I have written a short guide for upgrading on my blog.
About the premium theme... I am thinking to buy Thesis, but so far i am really satisfied with my free theme, so i think i'll wait a bit more.
Great post - I agree 100%!
I use Thesis and WP 2.7 on my newly-relaunched tech news blog and it's a great combination.
I use the 'thesis' theme on my blog purely because you recommended it in one of your previous posts. I upgraded to wordpress 2.7 several weeks ago, I like a lot of things about it but there's one thing that really annoyed me...the left hand sidebar menu. I couldn't understand why they moved the menu from the top to the left, it was perfect the way it was before. And then...along came a post by Jack Humphrey (Friday Traffic Report Blog) about how to move the left menu back to the top. Jack and his team found a plugin that will do this and it works brilliantly, you can even change the default wordpress 2.7 colour scheme.
Here's a link to Jack's post:
http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport...
Here's a link to the plugin:
http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress...
John O'Hara
United Kingdom
I upgraded to v.27 20 days ago and am happy using it with all the new features, preparing my own theme which will be applied soon to the blog as well.
going to try Thesis as well!
Cheers!
Jean
My only challenge is how to make it a website with a blog rather than a blog in front of a website (which is what Wordpress tends to lean towards in my opinion).
So that's the next stage in my learning plan - build business websites using Wordpress.
So, if anyone can suggest some online resources for learning to build Wordpress sites, I'd be very grateful.
Cheers,
Karl
Training in the UK Midlands
i am just wondering, what stops people from actually downloading paid themes and using them. apart from not getting support, what's the worst that could happen?
and how do paid themes end up on pirate sites anyway?
can't the blogosphere do something about this?
or is that the same as media leaks of "hot" information?
Two quick notes:
First, the Thesis theme doesn't seem to yet be updated for threaded comments, or maybe you've not enabled it? More on what that means and how to do it can be found in the WordPress codex.
Second, I've written a plugin compatible with 2.5 to 2.7 for making your WordPress blog into a Facebook app - check out release 1.0 here or inside Facebook.
The forum, the support, the upgrades, etc. make Thesis a no-brainer for someone like me with ...er, no brain ;-)
The best part about Thesis is how SEO friendly the theme is. I mean - you don't need an SEO plug in because the SEO is built in.
Congrats on the upgrade. If you loved Wordpress - you'll love 2.7!!!
You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your friends. Upgrade early, upgrade often - with all software.
I upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and did it myself. It was really really easy and I am impressed with the features. Based on your 27 blogging secrets post I also installed the Thesis theme and LOVE IT. I got carried away playing with the css but boy was it fun. I wrote a review on it on my blog, too, kind of a where the rubber meets the road on your blogging secrets. Thanks for the great tips!
Stephanie
At first it took me getting used to the new WP, mainly because the I wasn't seeing, and therefor forgetting to check the category box. Then I realized I could rearrange everything...how cool is that.
Shalom
LoneWolf
Cheers,
Josh
I am also using 2 of Chris Pearson's free themes on my other sites. Cutline and Neoclassical. His themes are very clean and have a professional look that sets them apart for all the other Wordpress themes that are available--either free or premium.
I've bought and am looking at the Thesis theme and would really appreciate feedback on other themes that are easy to use with good SEO. Cheers!
I enjoy your blogs very much!! Think I am following you on Twitter also!
I am new to Wordpress. In fact I am pretty new to blogging but am doing fairly well at Active Rain.
I am using Wordpress to start a community blog but have so much to learn. Can you recommend a good tutorial site for WP?
Tami Vroma
grateful too for 2.7..it's like blogging w/ mac software. visually pleasing, comprehensible, practical.
I'm curious about this plugin John Eckman mentions...and to other commenters, give links to the stuff you mention.
I can vouge for @pearsonified's accessibility. he's answered lots of basic-asic questions from this newbie/wannabe, provided links to sites using thesis to show the diversity. also @sugarrae rocks the cazbah. hugely informative tutorials and I don't even own thesis yet. she's just convincing me. :)
thanks for the post, the comments...aww...we got ourselves a sweet wil 2.7 famiweee who uses thesis now don't we?
hey ya'll..happy inauguration day.
a friend of mine just got hitched.
and i'm probably gonna say 'i do' to thesis.
happy bloggin.
I've upgraded to Wordpress 2.7 on about 14 blogs, for myself and friends. Not a minute of trouble. Dashboard is very intuitive and nice. Thesis works perfectly with it. The creative potential of Thesis is astonishing.
David
Wordpress has gone a long way in developing some sweet blogging software. I remember when it was basically a bunch of crap. Got back into it and now I'm hooked.
Everyone needs to switch, until you do you'll always have that nagging feeling :D
Have a great day!
Clinton Skakun
I often use that "Publish Later" button when I have lots of thoughts going around in my little head. :)
I don't like the way updates are pushed onto users. In a hosted situation automatic upgrades are expected. In a self-hosted situation I prefer to have complete control over my sites and what happens to them.
If 2.7 was faster, better performing, and had some killer features there would be a temptation to stick with it but, as it is, I am pleased I rolled back.