Jeff Reifman Publishing with WordPress

Jeff Reifman

Jeff is a technology consultant based in the Pacific Northwest. Try scheduling a meeting with his new startup Meeting Planner, simpler, faster scheduling for work or play and read his series about building it).

Installing Varnish Cache

Read our guide to optimizing WordPress with Varnish Cache.

Installing at Amazon

We have a complete guide to installing WordPress in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.

E-Commerce & Payments

E-Commerce & Payments Selling Things on Your Site (E-Commerce) If you want to run a store on your website, there are a wide variety of e-commerce solutions to look for. There are a number of WordPress e-commerce plugins such as free WP E-Commerce, WooCommerce and many more at CodeCanyon. These let you run an entire shopping site within WordPress. […]

Verify Your Blog for Google Webmaster Tools

Verify Your Blog for Google Webmaster Tools To fully manage your site inside Google Webmaster Tools, you’ll need to verify that you own the site. Google offers several ways to do this. The easiest with WordPress may be to add your Google Analytics code to your site either within your theme (if supported) or with […]

Securing Your WordPress Site

Securing Your WordPress Site WordPress Dashboard Protection There are regular login attacks on WordPress installations. It’s good practice to use a custom username and complex password for your WordPress administrator account. It’s also helpful to use a login protection plugin such as WordFence or BruteProtect to reduce login vulnerabilities. If you use WordFence with W3TC, disable […]

Checking for Broken Links and Unused Images

Checking for Broken Links and Unused Images As your site ages, links around the web will break, some will disappear – leaving your readers in the lurch and possible lowering your search engine rankings. The Broken Link Checker plugin can help you identify and resolve these issues. Also, as you edit posts, you’ll leave media files […]

Cleaning Your Database

Cleaning Your Database The longer you publish, the more database content you’ll accumulate. It can be useful to cleanup your database from time to time to improve site performance. You can use the WP Optimize plugin to accomplish this.

Managing Backups

Managing Backups The WordPress codex describes the backup process at a high level. If you’re using a managed host, you should check whether or not they provide backup services for you. They should. However, it’s still best practice to have an alternative site backup. If you want fully managed backup services for WordPress, try VaultPress or BackupBuddy. You […]

How to Migrate Your WordPress Site

How to Migrate Your WordPress Site Migrating WordPress remains one of the more frustrating and difficult tasks of a publisher. There are a number of ways to accomplish site migration, but I’ll describe a few here. Also, the more content and media you have on your site, the longer the process will likely take. We […]

Monitoring Your WordPress Site

Monitoring Your WordPress Site How do you know if your blog is running? There are a few approaches. WordPress’ own Jetpack plugin offers a regular ping service with email notifications. If you’d like to add smartphone notifications and additional controls, try my Simple Monitor App. A slightly more expensive service is Scout. For performance monitoring, […]