Author: Martin

Your Apache htaccess ‘Order Deny, Allow’ Not Working?

It’s very easy to make mistakes with the htaccess Order directive, so if it’s not working here’s some tips to fix it (for Apache web servers).

If we get the ‘Deny, Allow’ bit the wrong way round it won’t do what we expect – at best it will do nothing, at worst it denies everybody access to our site. So tread carefully, keep a backup and test after making changes 🙂

IMPORTANT: Also see below as the order directive has been deprecated and there is a newer way to do this.

‘Order’ in htaccess does not work like other kinds of regular expressions (regex).

Key Point 1: Apache always makes THREE passes of the access statements. Continue reading “Your Apache htaccess ‘Order Deny, Allow’ Not Working?”

Convert Your Blog RSS Feed to an Email Newsletter

Let’s face it, RSS feeds are not read by ‘normal’ people.

Real, non-techie people haven’t a clue what RSS is, or how to use Google Reader.

That’s OK if your blog is about geek or tech subjects. But if you’re trying to get regular readers for a site about cross stitch, don’t expect RSS readers to hit even the double figures if all you have is a feed button on your blog.

Normal people read emails.

So here’s two easy ways to get your blog RSS feed automatically converted into an email newsletter format. Continue reading “Convert Your Blog RSS Feed to an Email Newsletter”

How to Add a Photo to a WordPress Profile

Adding a profile picture to WordPress is much easier than you might think.

But it also doesn’t work in anything like the way WordPress normally handles graphics, so confusion is OK.

So Why Add a Profile Picture to WordPress?

Three very good reasons.

Firstly, in many WordPress themes the profile pic will automatically appear on your author page. I’m talking self-hosted WordPress here, but if you’re using WordPress.org this will also apply if you’re using the author widget.

Secondly, that same photo will appear next to all comments you make on your blog (you know, when you reply to other people who add a comment). Again, depending on theme, but most themes do this.

Thirdly, your WordPress profile photo will also show whenever you comment on other blogs too! Continue reading “How to Add a Photo to a WordPress Profile”

How To Get A ClickBank Refund

You automatically get a 60 day money-back guarantee with Clickbank – so here’s how to get that refund.

cbrefunds OK, first things first. Clickbank is a reputable, ethical provider of digital products – that’s software and ebooks to you and me. They don’t produce any products, they just act as the payment gateway and product delivery system for people who want to sell those products.

Now people can’t just sell any old rubbish through Clickbank, products do have to be approved.

But sometimes there are products that don’t live up to the marketing hype for example. Or maybe the vendor isn’t being quite so forthcoming about that ‘no questions asked money-back guarantee’. Or maybe you just accidentally ordered twice thinking it hadn’t worked first time.

So because they are an ethical company, it is standard Clickbank terms and conditions that all products come with a 60 day money back guarantee. No matter what the vendor may say. Continue reading “How To Get A ClickBank Refund”

4 Worst Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

People have different opinions about the worst email marketing mistakes. But these four are at or near the top of nearly everyones list.

Sending Spam

Everyone should know by know that sending unsolicited emails is just plain dumb.

email marketing mistakes

But judging just by the number of messages in my spam box, I can see that thousands of spammers are still out there.

You accomplish nothing when you send spam. You annoy your potential customers and that’s the exact opposite of what you want to do. Continue reading “4 Worst Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid”

What IS The Hello Dolly WordPress Plugin About?

hello dolly plugin If you’ve ever installed a WordPress plugin, you’ve seen ‘Hello Dolly’!

What the heck is it doing there? Just what does it do?

And more to the point, why does it sometimes insist on installing itself again every time you upgrade WordPress.

The Hello Dolly plugin has been included with WordPress since the very early days. And it’s still included even now in the latest version.

But why? Continue reading “What IS The Hello Dolly WordPress Plugin About?”

How To Redirect Affiliate Links

redirect affiliate links In a nutshell, it’s really easy.

You don’t really need software for this.

Whether it’s php, asp or just plain old HTML, just a few lines of code is all you need to do nice clean looking redirects for your affiliate links.

I won’t repeat everything here as I already wrote this nice and easy ‘copy and paste’ guide to redirect affiliate links.

(There you go you see – I told you it was really easy 🙂 )

Creating a Link In Yahoo Mail

Yahoo Link Tutorial Here’s a quick basic tutorial on how to create a link in Yahoo mail.

What we’re talking about here is a ‘clickable’ link (or ‘hyperlink’) – that is, a link the recipient of the email can just click on to open the web page. They won’t have to try and copy and paste a long complicated looking link.

It’s really easy to do but until someone shows you how the first time, it’s definitely not obvious. And Yahoo don’t seem to provide much help on actually using their email system. So here’s how, step-by-step. Continue reading “Creating a Link In Yahoo Mail”

Webdings And Wingdings Chart?

If you’ve been struggling to choose Webdings and Wingdings symbols, or been hunting for a Wingdings list, character map or symbols chart that works in Firefox – here’s an easier way!

This is going to be one of those posts where most people say “d’uh, everyone knows that” – and the rest of us slap our forehead and exclaim “so that’s how you do it”!

How To Use Wingdings and Webdings

If you’re running Windows look no further than the Character Map application. Don’t go off Googling it to download though, it’s already part of Windows (yep, it’s still in Windows 10 too). Continue reading “Webdings And Wingdings Chart?”

WP-Cache Error & WordPress Login Error?

Are you seeing this error message at the top of every page of your WordPress blog? (The fix is below…)

Warning: sem_get() [function.sem-get]: failed for key 0x152b: Permission denied in /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php on line 98

You might also be getting something like this at the foot of every page too:-

Warning: sem_acquire(): supplied argument is not a valid SysV semaphore resource in /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php on line 107

You’re not the only one. Google is full of sites showing this error (about 50,000 pages on this quick search):-

If you’re seeing this error, you probably can’t log in to the admin area of your blog either! Here’s how to fix it. Continue reading “WP-Cache Error & WordPress Login Error?”