When You’re Running WPMU, WPMU Dev is a Powerful Plugin Resource

There are at least three WPMU plugins worth the price of a WPMU Dev membership:

• Sitemaps and SEO
• Supporter
• Google Analytics

They’ve also got an upcoming plugin to allow automatic default blog content that I’m looking forward to. If I’m lucky, this post will get me a year-long WPMU Dev subscription—fingers crossed!

WordPress vs. Expression Engine

A friend of mine recently asked me, “Have you ever used Expression Engine? Do you have an opinion on it in comparison to WordPress? Is it just personal preference, or is one superior?”. I did a quick search to compare the two, and although I did find a very good article from Web Designer Depot on the matter, I thought that the post missed a few major arguments, which I’ll provide here for you.

BackupBuddy: A Great New WordPress Server Migration Plugin

BackupBuddy aims to be “the all-in-one solution for backups, restoration, and migration”, but does it deliver on that lofty promise?

As the newest product from the iThemes-spinoff, PluginBuddy, this plugin is a unique and surprisingly simple solution for both WordPress developers and end users to prevent data loss (through complete, rather than just database backup) and to migrate their WordPress sites to new servers. The second feature was the most interesting to us—several database backup options already exist (and backing up wp-content files isn’t difficult to do manually) but until now, there has been no true WordPress migration tool. And as developers, we can attest to the amount of site migrations that go on in the site-building world.

After reading several positive reviews, we decided to put the plugin through its paces, so we bucked up and dropped $75 on a Business License (which supports up to 10 sites) to fully test BackupBuddy’s backup and migration capabilites. And here’s what we found (hint: it’s awesome). (more…)

Thank Someone Today

Last week, I read an article that urged readers to thank someone who does his job well. Even though the article referred to thanking someone in the online community (bloggers, designers, etc.) I thought I would reach out to my college science professor, Reggie Hudson (who also happens to work for NASA), and let him know I appreciate the teachings and the lessons I obtained from his astrobiology class:

Mr. Hudson:

I read an article last week about passing along gratitude to those who deserve it. If the article was correct, most people do not get thanked much, so when this morning, I again thought about your astrobiology class I attended while at Eckerd College in Fall, 2001 (I actually think about the class quite a bit), I decided I would take a few minutes and give appreciation for a very interesting, very educational and very enjoyable semester with you.

I still think (and talk) about the lessons–both book and otherwise–I learned in astrobiology. In a post-Wikipedia world, that class stands out as the last big information digestion I’ve had in my life. I learned a lot from you and I actually had fun doing so. The class was obviously challenging (this was the last semester before the class went Honors) and thus, incredibly rewarding to receive an A at the end.

I also thoroughly remember completely failing the constellation identification test on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week and having to stay at school an extra day to study and pass the exam the next evening (I appreciate the second chance you gave me, as well). I worked hard in Astrobiology and I’d like to imagine this one class having positively affected my work habits henceforth.

Mr. Hudson, I thank you for your dedication to science, students and learning. Never imagine that your efforts are in vain.

Appreciation is a very rare currency, so it never hurts to say thank you to someone who deserves it. I hope that you’ll take 10 minutes and try it out yourself today!

Who Are My Marketing Heroes?

Today, I want to drop some love for my marketing heroes—guys like Tim Ferris, Jason Fried and Seth Godin—all of whom I can honestly say make me a smarter and more effective business guy than I would be without them.