I hope your upgrade goes well

As far as your opt in form is concerned, let me know if you need some help. There’s a video over in the Video Library on how to change your homepage (if that’s what you’re trying to do) to a static page.

If you are going that route to create a dedicated landing/capture page, you may want to consider creating a special page template, maybe something without sidebars or other distractions. I don’t know what your goal is, so that may/may not work with your plan.

If you need help with designing a form/creating a page template, let me know. You can always get in touch with me via the “Contact” page, or with the “schedule a consultation” link in the Video Library sidebar

Thanks for the reply. Very useful info that I will follow. I will be in touch – I need an Aweber optin form installed on the home page and I don’t know how. I have a separate page for it (created by me, pasting Aweber’s script), but I really need an attractive form – like yours – smack on the home page so that viewers see it first thing and don’t have to look for it. Thanks. Best regards, Richard

First off, thanks for the great feedback. I couldn’t have put the goal of this site into better words myself!

Secondly, the new short links don’t create shorter links within your site, rather create links that you (and others) can use to link to your pages. Blog URL’s can become a bit cumbersome (this one is a perfect example ), so a link shortener can come in handy. It’s also useful on something like Twitter, where you are limited to 140 characters. Long links eat up a lot of space, so shorteners are a big help there.

While your upgrade issues aren’t something I’ve personally experienced, I have heard of others sometimes running into trouble. If you have a backup file, and you feel comfortable, I’d try running the update again. If that doesn’t work, or you’d rather not risk it you can always upgrade the old fashioned way. Here’s a link to instructions on manually upgrading WordPress (this is the codex article on the subject… I haven’t written that one – yet )

P.S. Sorry the the delay in getting back to you… we just moved (actually moved not just the domain name!) so things have been a bit hectic!

Thanks for the update. It all sounds great, but when I attempted to upgrade, I experienced a “total crash.” I didn’t lose anything, but the upgrade simply would not complete itself and everything ground to a halt. I have been very hesitant to try it again. Have you heard of other similar experiences?

Also, I am confused regarding the short link/twitter feature in the upgrade. Perhaps it is because I don’t use Twitter (yet). Are you saying that this feature will generate shorter links to be used within my blog/site? Or, will this allow others to link to my site with shorter links? And how would I use it?

I am new to WP and have found your site to be the perfect resource for those who know enough WP to get going, but don’t have the expertise (or necessarily want it) to be able to follow Codex site material (whatever Codex is). Thanks for your help.