So you figured out or heard you can play with WordPress

on your computer eh? Well here are some instructions on

how to install MAMP on your Mac (Mac OSX).

1) First, download MAMP from the Mamp website. The free

version will work just fine. You do not need the MAMP

pro version.

2) Second, download the latest WordPress version from

WordPress.org

3) Go the Applications/MAMP/htdocs folder. From here you can

create a directory for your WordPress installation.

Unzip WordPress if it isn't already and move it in its

entirety to the htdocs folder. If you want, you can also rename

the WordPress folder to whatever you want to call this test blog.

I'm going to rename mine "test" for this example.

3) Now launch the MAMP program by clicking the MAMP application

within the Applications/MAMP folder. You should see a screen

like below:

If the lamps next to Apache Server and MySQL server are red then

the servers are not running (pictured above).

You can easily start and stop the servers by pressing the

appropriate button. The lamps will turn green once the servers

are up and running.

I learned a while ago that one of my domains was already registered with a Google Apps account by a previous domain owner. So I wrote to Dreamhost (my webhost at the time) requesting that they set me up with an email alternative. They responded right away saying that I needed to take care of the issue right away with Google. When I thought about it for a moment longer I realized this situation was not acceptable. If someone was using my domain for email purposes they could possibly send spam, and I would be held responsible.

So I went back to the the Google Apps website and asked for a password reset. Luckily Google provided ample options to prove I was the rightful domain owner.

Once I logged into the Google Apps control panel I could see the email accounts that previous owner prior owner used. A quick glance showed that they weren’t very active and that he was using it to forward mail to one of his other domains. In any case, I deleted these accounts right away. I also changed all account settings so he could not reset the password and take over the account.  This didn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy inside but nor did finding out accidentally that someone was using my domain to send and receive emails.

I never mentioned to this anyone, but after reading a Dotsauce.com article referencing expired domains and identity theft risks in connection with Google Apps, I decided to mention it here.

So let this be a lesson to you, if you are planning to let your domain expire make sure to cancel any Google Apps domain account you have associated with it first. Secondly if you registered a domain that was previously owned or if you aren’t sure, make sure to check if its registered with Google Apps even if you have no plans on using it.

1) You can learn CSS and do it from scratch.  CSS and PHP are the basic building blocks of WordPress. There are other technical languages you might want to pick up as well. A good place to start learning CSS and PHP is at ThinkVitamin.com

2) You can design a mock-up of your website in Photoshop or other creative type software or even draw/paint and then scan your work. Once you’ve created a picture of what you want your template to look like you can send it to a designer who can cut it up into pieces which can then be used to compose a wordpress template you can easily use.

3) You can simply pay a designer to design the wordpress design for you, although this could prove to be costly depending on whom you hire and how much work needs to be done.

4) You can design your own wordpress template using Artisteer without touching a bit of code. Artisteer has a nice what-you-see-is-what-you-get  interface that makes designing your on wordpress template easy and fun.

5) If you are a windows user you can use an Adobe Photoshop plug-in called Divine that will cut your design into a wordpress template for you. Right now there is only a windows version of the plug-in. I am eagerly anticipating their mac version of the plugin..

Shared hosting is a wonderful thing but it still has its caveats. That is, some people will encounter wordpress memory limit problems when they administer their websites. I came across this problem recently when I started getting 404 errors after making posts and trying to re-configure one of my websites using the theme settings. I inquired with my web host provider Dreamhost and was told that my websites were approaching the memory limit.

They gave me advice on how to track and reduce my memory usage and also mentioned that I could simply upgrade to a private server account in order to increase my memory threshold. This disappointed me a bit because I wasn’t quite prepared to extend the budget for web hosting just yet.

That said, I tried to figure out a few more ways to reduce my memory limit with a little research and tinkering on my own. I’ll list my findings below:

1) Examine Your Scripts

In my case I had a bad script which was putting visible gobblety gook on the header of my web page. It was a problem I noticed but didn’t realize was related to my memory/page speed problems. Bad scripts can slow down a page significantly. You most likely wont have any added scripts if you are just starting out but as you implement other features into your website you may be required to paste a script or two into your header and this is where the problems can start.

2) Use Firebug

You can test for all web page loading elements by using the Firefox browser and the FireBug add in. Speed page is another tool you can use and it

Setting up a contact form for your wordpress blog is easy. You will want to have one your webpage especially if you are running a business website because it would be a good business practice. Its just good etiquette no matter what kind of website you have to make it possible for people to contact you. A Contact form on your website doesn’t mean having to list your name, address or even your email address. In fact this is one of the worst ways to make yourself accessible to the public. It’s just too easy for crazy people to contact you, not to mention you will be spammed to high heaven. The contact form I’m about to describe will make it easy for people to contact you without