I leave Fridays free to respond to things that come up during the week. Sometimes I write about how I’m developing my website. The aim is to develop the site into a hub for people interested in community development online and I shall write about some of the changes as I make them and the issues I encounter.
Today I shall describe how something went wrong to illustrate the need to pay attention to your site.
Back in December I had a problem on my blog pages. Material from the main left hand blog column was duplicated in the right hand sidebar. Stumped, I asked WordPress for help. It turned out to be a rogue bit of code in one of my posts. I set it right by rebuilding the post and everything was fine – or so I thought! One lesson here is check your blog every time you post. If a post causes a problem, you can identify it by taking it down to see whether the problem disappears. If the post is the problem, creating a new post and copying the content should do the trick!
A Second Problem!
One thing that has puzzled me was the small number of people signing up for my blog. A large number of people had said they would and absolutely no-one was following through. Whilst I can be a bit paranoid from time to time, I was sure my blog wasn’t so awful that absolutely no-one was signing up for it.
Earlier this week, I spotted the problem. It was one of those things that is so obvious, I couldn’t see it. When I set the previous problem right, I had not noticed the sign-up form had disappeared from the sidebar. The form still existed and appeared on a page buried deep in the site but had somehow become uncoupled from the sidebar. I have no idea how this happened or, more to the point, that it could happen. So, WordPress can move stuff about without telling you. Presumably it was another effect of the problem with the post I rebuilt.
So, I hadn’t been offering the option to sign up to the blog for over a month! Arrrgh!!
How to Avoid Website Catastrophes?
First, by paying attention to your site! It is not static. Things change, sometimes at random! Keep an eye on things and if you’re puzzled about anything, look for the reason on your site. If people are not signing up, check over your system for getting them to sign up and check everything’s working!
Second, sign up for my blog! The form is at the top of the right hand sidebar. The blog will offer lots of guidance specially designed for small groups and businesses looking after their own websites. Read it to learn how to avoid catastrophes and get your site working for you.
If there is something you’d like me to write about, leave a comment on any post. (I provide general info on the blog and charge for helping you with your site.) Everything should be working now, so please sign up if you have wanted to and couldn’t work out how to do it. (And sign up even if you haven’t!) And please let me know if there are any problems when you sign up!
