As I said before, I am undergoing a semi-relaunch by putting together an action plan and I also promised to let all of you know what I am doing.

The first step is to discover and define what my mission is in running this blog. Suffice to say I needed to ask myself, “Why am I doing this? What do I want to get out of it?.” There are a million things I could say, such as I want to make enough to pay off my bills each month, I want to make enough money to at least have my blog pay for itself, I want to become known in the blogohsphere but that all seems to be too trivial to have as an overall mission. The stuff that I listed above seems to be more goals to work toward then the mission of this blog.

So after careful deliberation, I discovered that this blogs mission is to help people. to have done meaningful in my life, and to share what I know and learn.

So what’s your blogs mission? Please feel free to tell me using the comments section!

Popularity: 38% [?]

I have been trying to find a great new Word Press theme for this blog but it hasn’t been easy. Everything just blends into one, and there are so many people using them. My budget doesn’t allow for a premium theme, let alone a Word Press theme!

I haven’t been successful in getting themes done in the past, but I went over what I had done wrong and realized that it was due to lack of planning. I tend to be impulsive when I do things but in actuality, I work better when I have deadlines and actions mapped out.

I have gone over several design and blogging websites and have made up a guideline for myself, by following the outline that Matt Brett talks about on the ProBlogger blog. I have also integrated my own little steps so that I can create a good custom theme, in a good amount of time. I am toying with the idea of creating posts for each individual step.

1. Write down some of the features that I want in my theme.  This one should only take a day or less.
2. Sketch outlines of what I want the design to look like. This should only take a day or two.
3. Decide on a color scheme. This one should only take a day or less.
4. Use PhotoShop to begin the design process by creating a rough outline of where the header, sidebar, content, etc. will be. This should take a day or two.
5. Use PhotoShop to begin graphical work. This will be done bit by bit. This should take me about 5-7 days.
6. Finish up the design by neatly slicing everything for self-organization. This should only take about a day or two depending on the complexity of the design.
7. Download the xhtml/css starter kit from WPCandy.com and code my design into xhtml/css. This should take me about 4-7 days.
8. After having completed the xhtml/css, I will locally install Word Press either on a demo site or in a local Word Press installation and import the sample data that is provided at WPCandy.com. This will take less then a day.
9. Start converting the xhtml/css template into a Word Press theme, using the demo or local installation. This should take me about 5 days.
10. After the conversion is complete, I will make sure that each page validates. This will only take less then one day.
11. After that, I will install the theme onto my blog, and then I am done!

Now, this is just off the top of my head so I am open to suggestions on changing the process so that I can make it work better, and faster.

What design process do you follow, and what should I change in my process? Let me know and I may  share your comments in another post with a link back to your blog.

Popularity: 59% [?]

Through some rough bad luck, I haven’t been able to update since December. But that luck has turned around and I will now be able to post again!

The main reason why I was out for so long was because of personal family problems. Another reason is that I recently moved into a new apartment and haven’t had my Internet Access hooked up yet. Luckily, I am getting Internet Access set up on Tuesday, February 3. Until then, i will still not be able to post but I will not be slacking any more!

During the wait, I will be setting up an action plan for the year 2009, and also for this month. I never kept goals for this blog before and I think that this action plan will help keep me focused!

Of course, I will be sharing this action plan with all of you as soon as the installation tech says “Done!”

Popularity: 39% [?]

My You Tube channel is void of videos, as I used to just watch other people shows.

Now I want to add my own videos of various things, one of which are things that would interest UTOW readers. I am already planning to create videos based on tutorials I have done in the past.

But what else would you all like to see?

I am willing to do a lot of things, but be aware that my equipment is limited to a gamer’s Logitech microphone, CamStudio and a digital camcorder.

If you would like to see something more personal you can request that as well to a degree. But they wouldn’t be posted here but on my two personal sites.

So comment here and request away!

Popularity: 68% [?]

I have been an Entrecard member for quite a while now, and I love them even more now that they have added a Twitter feed widget to their blog.

Whenever a tweet is made about Entrecard, it will show up in the sidebar! You can read about it in more detail on their blog post. I am on twitter as well, although I have merged all my Twitter accounts into one account. So be prepared for odd mismatched ramblings. To do this simply go to @EmmaBShireen.

On another note, the votes are in on the poll and it looks like most of you would love to see my blog wearing the Revolution Lifestyle theme. Thank you for helping me make up my mind. I will be tweaking the themes images offline and will test it out on a demo blog of mine before installing the design here.

Popularity: 74% [?]

Brian Gardner of Revolution Themes and Jason of WPElements.com have unleashed their new open sourse themes website, Revolution Two!

Every category has at least one or two themes ready for download. The themes are free but support has to be paid for. At the bottom of the package options look for “With the purchase of…Download the unsupported version.” to get the theme for free.

Unlock The Online World will soon be sporting one of the Revolution Two themes but I want my readers opinion on which one I should use.

The themes currently available are (these are demo links):

• Revolution Code Blue
• Revolution Code Red
• Revolution Code Gray
• Revolution Church
• Revolution Lifestyle
• Revolution Charred
• Revolution Chrome
• Revolution Black Canvas
• Revolution Office
• Revolution TV

In the following poll, I have put all the themes that I like and would love to get your opinion on which one I should use for Unlock The Online World.
[poll id="2"]
Another thing that should be noted is that WpElements Featured Content Gallery plugin is now part of the Revolution Two website.

Do you think the themes look good? Will you be using one?

Popularity: 100% [?]

Today, I checked my Entrecard account messages and found one from ThatGrrl who complained about not being able to leave a comment on my personal blog because a weird popup came up. Needless to say, between classes I went to the Internet Cafe and clicked around my website.

An odd popup that looked like a PDF file came up and after checking my source code, I noticed an Javascript code inserted at the bottom of the page. It had a lot of odd characters which tipped me off. I checked my other websites which are hosted on the same account and saw the same code with just different characters in the same locations in the source codes.

How did I fix it?

Well, first I cried. Then I proceeded to upgrade my Wordpress to the latest version using the Automatic Upgrade plugin. I checked all the source codes after upgrading and they are gone. Yay!

Please let me know if you have ever had any experiences with being hacked and how you dealt with it .  Also please let me know if you notice anything strange going on with the website.

AND REMEMBER, BACKUPS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND!!!

Popularity: 90% [?]

Installing Wordpress with FTP can be quite difficult, especially for new bloggers. Read on for a step by step guide on installing Wordpress via FTP. Make sure you have a FTP software ready, for this guide, I will be using FireFTP. For information on how to configure an account using FireFTP, please refer to “Priscas FireFTP Beginners Guide.”

1. Download the Wordpress files from the Wordpress.org website. Extract the filed to a readily accessible folder on your computer.
2. Open FireFTP, “Tools>FireFTP,” and connect to the account that you configured for the website you want to install Wordpress on. Go to the location/drectory you want your blog to be on.
3. Find your Wordpress files on your computer and open it up. Make sure your not uploading the whole Wordpress folder. You only need to upload the contents. This will take a while so chill out, listen to music, look for theme you plan to use.
4. After all the files are uploaded, go to the blogs directory in your web browser. For exmaple, if you installed it on the main domain, then it would be yourdomain.com, I installed mine in a directory which was unlocktheonlineworld.com/installtut.
5. Make sure your database is ready. For easy database creation, use the Dtabase Wizard made available in your domains cPanel.
6. Go to “yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php”, and enter your database details.
7. Choose your blog title, and enter your email address.
8. The installer will send login details to your email account.
9. Thats It!

For more information visit the Wordpress Docs.

Popularity: 86% [?]

There are many ways to install Wordpress but one of the easiest ways to install Wordpress is by using Fantastico. Read on for a step by step guide on installing Wordpress via Fantastico

1. Find the Fantastico icon in your hosting control panel, for most people this is probably your cpanel. Depending on which cPanel skin you used the icon will look different. For some, it may look like a wizards hat. For others, it will look like a blue smiley face. It should be located underneath “Software/Services.”
2. Click on the Icon and you will be taken to your Fantastico dashboard.
3. In the sidebar you will see a list of items that you can install, click on “Wordpress.” This will bring you to your Wordpress installations overview.
4. Click on the link that says “New Installation”, this will bring you to the installation screen.
5. Under the heading “Installation Location”, choose the domain you want to install Wordpress on or type in which directory you want it on. Please note that the directory cant pre-exist.
6. After step 5, fill in your desired login information under the heading “Admin Access Data.” This is where you will select your admin username and password. Make sure the password is secure, yet something you will remember.
7. Under the heading “Base Configuration,” type in your desired nickname, and your email address. You can change these later if you want, it isn’t like you will be stuck with them. Enter your site name and description. The description is actually your tagline, and you can change anything under base configuration later.
8. Click the button that says “Install Wordpress,” this will bring you to a screen that has the heading of “Install Wordpress (2/3).” It will tell you what your database was named and will show you the location you chose to install Wordpress on, as well as the blogs URl.
9. Click the button that says “Finish Installation.” This will bring you to a screen that has the heading of “Install Wordpress (3/3)“. Under it, there will be two items that say somethime along the lines of “/home/hostusername/public_html/blogdirectory/wp-config.php configured
   /home/hostusername/public_html/blogdirectory/data.sql configured.” It will also give you your login details.
10. Enjoy your Wordpress blog!

For information on how to upgrade your installation using Fantastico, read “Upgrade Using Fantastico“

Popularity: 71% [?]

Pretty soon UTOW will be sporting a new theme. This theme is called Lightbreaker and it is free. You can find it on Eblog Templates or at WPThemesPlugin. I will be customizing it bit by bit so that it will reflect my own style. So look forward to that and I hope you like the new look that I will be sporting!

There is a lot more coming out on Unlock The Online World, now that I have straightened out my college routine. So be sure to subscribe!

Popularity: 70% [?]