I know I’ve listed both my favorite and essential WordPress plugins before, but that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you about an incredible new(ish) WordPress plugin that everyone absolutely must have! Want to save time and frustration? Download the OneClick Installer Plugin. Never ever download, unzip, open your ftp program, and upload a plugin - ever again!

I don’t know about you, but that seems to take forever. OneClick is an installer that does all of that for you, and it even comes with a Firefox extension to make things even easier. Right click on a link that points to a plugin, tell it to upload, and bam! Uploaded and ready to go in about 2 seconds flat. It’s just about… Continue reading

Posted on August 14th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: WordPress | 3 Comments »

I had hoped that I could become less hard drive dependent by running off of Portable Apps, but my hopes were dashed today. This might be useful for some people, but the fact that the apps load and run EXTREMELY slowly makes it a deal-killer for me. If you do decide to try it out, make sure you have several hours free to install the apps. Some are quick, but some take a really long time to install.

Oh well, I’ll just use my brand new Lexar USB Flash Drive as a backup drive. For now, I’ll just copy my Documents folder over to the flash drive once in a while, and I’m also backing everything up nightly to Mozy Online Backup, so… Continue reading

Posted on August 13th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Tech Advice | 5 Comments »

Does your site look like it was created in the 90’s by your nephew? Wait, it was? Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to be insulting, but if you’d like to give your site a seriously more modern look, you might want to start by looking at the various Crystal Clear icon packs that are available. If nothing else, these should inspire you by giving you an idea of what modern even looks like. Or, if you are clamoring for some bright, colorful graphics to jazz up your blog posts now and then, these work well too. (See the graphic at the beginning of this post for an example). Below are four places to download free crystal clear icon… Continue reading

Posted on August 12th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Site Ideas | 4 Comments »

Having a successful home based business doesn’t rely only upon how much income you bring in. Some of the success lies in how well you cut expenses. Here are a few tips to keep those expenses down to a minimum.

1. Use Free or Open Source Software as often as possible. I’m moving more and more towards eliminating any software that I have to pay for, and the open source movement is making that easier to do now.
2. Freecycle. Freecycling is a grass-roots movement of people giving (and getting) stuff for free in their local communities. This is a great way to get used office equipment, desks, and many other home-office related items without having to pay for them. (It’s also a great way to get

Posted on August 11th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Business Development | 1 Comment »

Gather round and listen. I’m starting to podcast, and keep in mind, as you listen to this very first episode, that I’m embarrassed as all heck about it. Have you ever listened to a recording of your voice? It never sounds like what you hear in your own head, of course. Well, listening to myself on this first podcast is extremely embarrassing for me. Do I really have that high-pitched voice with that insane accent? Well, I guess I do, although in my own head, my voice is deeper and has no trace of a southern accent. Sigh…

Ok, so keeping in mind that I understand if you decide to laugh at my silly voice, I present to… Continue reading

Posted on August 10th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: DazzlinDonna Speaks | 4 Comments »

I just thought I’d document a problem I ran across 3 times today when I upgraded three of my WordPress blogs to the newest version (2.2.2). Suddenly, my themes looked all out of whack, with the sidebars having issues. Sections weren’t in the correct spots, and things I hadn’t had in my sidebar for a long time were there again. Turns out, it was an issue with old widgets suddenly reappearing and causing havoc with the sidebars which no longer use widgets. The solution was to install and activate the Disable WordPress Widgets plugin. Problem was solved immediately. Now, I’m not sure what any future consequences this may have, but for the moment, I’m happy. Thought some of you might need the… Continue reading

Posted on August 7th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: WordPress | No Comments »

Today’s Dazzlin Badge of Excellence is awarded to Jen / domestika of Domestik Goddess. I’m not quite sure how to describe how this site makes me feel, but it definitely “ain’t no stinkin’ Martha Stewart”. Somehow, I feel like I could actually be a domestik goddess while being mostly goddess, and not so much “domestik”. Does that make any sense? No? Oh well, who cares. It’s a neat site. I like it. It wins an award. ‘Nuff said.

If you’ve won a Dazzlin Badge of Excellence Award, you can display the awards badge on your site by pasting the following code into your page. Just highlight it, copy it, and paste it… Continue reading

Posted on August 6th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Excellence Awards | 3 Comments »

As I’ve mentioned, I plan to be very prepared for any future hard drive crashes. Between offline data backup and portable apps, I should be well on my way to having a hard drive free existence. I haven’t yet received my USB flash drives that I ordered, so I don’t yet know for sure if the portable apps idea will really hold water or not, but for the moment, I’m assuming it will be a good idea. While I’m waiting to find out, I’ve been thinking about a calendaring app. Every time my hard drive dies, I lose all my calendar information…reminders, etc. And because my memory is really lousy, I depend heavily upon reminders. A calendar also helps keep me productive… Continue reading

Posted on August 5th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Business Development | 2 Comments »

Confessions of a Housewife has started a new meme that is fun and a little bit different. Ms. Confessions describes this meme in this way:

Your assignment is to find a picture that abstractly expresses how you feel. What I mean by abstractly is a picture of something, a drawing, a image, that does not have you or another person in it. I don’t want to see pictures of a smiling face to show happy (nor a illustration of a smiley face! :-)) Do a google image search, take a picture, draw a picture. Then upload the image you choose to your blog and tell us the emotion you think it expresses.

So since I’m feeling contented… Continue reading

Posted on August 4th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Nice Photos | 2 Comments »

If you haven’t subscribed to the feed here in the past because you hate partial feeds, you’ll be happy to know that those days are over. Starting today, you’ll be able to subscribe to full feeds. I generally adhere to my rule of giving out only partial feeds when a blog is new so that scrapers don’t outrank the blog in the search engines. Now, however, i think this blog has gained enough traction to be able to withstand any duplicate content problems that scrapers might try to cause. Hope everyone enjoys the new full feeds. If you haven’t subscribed yet, now would be a great time to do so!… Continue reading

Posted on August 3rd, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: General | No Comments »