I recently wrote an article about a paragraph in the Microsoft Services Agreement which, as it seems to me, implies your copyrights are transferred to those receiving your messages or calls, which would not only concern Hotmail / Outlook and Windows online, but also Skype, as it seems to me. You can find the article in German here.
As you may know, I like beautiful names and domain names. This may also be one reason for having more than one blog. Yet, for my readers, it might be inconvenient having to follow all of them – so I wondered whether to either create a new one and post in various language there (I thought of http://travels.jewel-of-light.org), an idea that came to me while walking through Perth (speaking of names – one beautiful aspect of Waldorf schools, at least in Australia, is that many children have got very beautiful names). However, for now, it seemed I should keep my separate blogs for English (this one) and German (over here).
To yet make it easier for the reader, I will connect both blogs by posting a link to each article I have posted in the other language, that is here a link to my German articles, and over there to my English articles published here.
I will keep my third blog and my special interest blog’s separate as well, but might also include links to these on my German and English main blogs.
This will not be the case vice versa, however, so best you follow either this blog or my German blog, then you should find all or most of my articles.
For older articles, i. e. articles before today, nevertheless, you will still have to browse through the other blogs.
This means:
Enjoy reading!
A. M.
While I have noticed that one really needs to be careful not to dive too deeply into the net for too long a time and longer periods of internet absence this year due to moving twice allowed me to read more (one really has to be careful to notice whether the information one really needs are better or more efficiently gathered from books or the net, unless it is a mixture, of course; ultimately, though, one ought to not forget that there may also be guidance “within” or from higher realms, and there is also the HEART, which should know… ) I found an interesting view expressed by Pippa Merivale (Metatronic Life) in her newsletter from September 19th: the internet depicted as a “material expression of the much deeper matrix of compassion: the universal synthesiser”.
In my eyes, at least many an endeavour and every longing of man to be together can be seen as a reflection or manifestation of the longing for the ONENESS.
Recently I have been looking into autoresponder- and newsletter tools. There is a plethora of possibilities to experience and compare. I will try and give a short overview. My own research lasted for a week or so, and at some point I just more or less stopped and signed up with a service I liked. So my article is not exhausting.
Yet, maybe a brief introduction may be of service, both to me, if anyone ever asks me about it, and to my potential readers. Even if offers may change, I believe some principal considerations will still be of value even later in the future.
If I should happen to find further information, I may (or may not…) include them, so come back whenever you wish, and have a look.
There are a few lead questions you will want to ask yourself and then check the offers you can find on whether they provide what you need:
1. Which language should be the backend in? And in which language(s) do you wish to post your newsletters? And in which countries?
2. Are you ready to self-host, setting up things for yourself, or would you prefer and external service?
3. Would you accept the logo of the service in your newsletter or advertisements by others or as a part of the sign-up process for your customers?
4. Do you intend to do affiliate-marketing or can you definitely exclude that you for the future?
5. The price, of course.
6. Are you thinking about becoming a reseller or how important is customization of the interface for you?
7. Do you need an autoresponder?
The following overview only selects a few services. This does by no means imply that there are not equal worthy or maybe even worthier ones out there… It is jus those I encountered and decided I wanted to name here. Do look further if you feel called to do that.
Quite a few of them are fee.
While you can try using general mailinglist scripts or programmes (e.g. Mailman), if you adapt the settings, there are also special newsletter and autoresponder tools available.
Many people use phpList . It may be quite functional. There is even a hosted version , which may address deliverability (see III.) concerns.
I have installed poMMo in this version and like the interface. Unfortunately it does not seem to have integrated an autoresponder.
I have also installed Infinite Responder (hint to myself: here, lest I forget). The look appears to be a bit… retro… , but offers a variety of autoresponder options.
I have only read about Dada Mail .
There are a lot of others, if you shop around. I found some of them via WarriorForum or maybe by just googling. Some actually quite expensive (and probably quite good), as e.g. http://www.interspire.com. I also noticed http://www.openemm.org.
If you are looking for solutions from Germany, to these belong e.g. IMT PHP Autoresponder Pro, Mailresponder or the Superwebmailer.
A general overview can be found e.g. here.
You may also find interesting plugin solutions for WordPress blogs, if you look for the terms “newsletter” and “autoresponder” here.
As additional tools, programmes like Mega List Cleaner may be helpful.
If you think you might ever change to not self-hosted services, enable only double-opt-in sign up forms. Even in that case, though, make sure you see a realistic road to import your list with a commercial provider without having to make your users resubscribe, which could mean a considerable loss of subscribers.
For more hints, please see III.
The order in which I name some solutions constitutes no ranking. That I will be using affiliate links in this section will have no influence on my selection or description. Only after deciding which ones to select, I was looking for an affiliate programme.
Of course, there are many more services not named here which may be right for you.
Also, by the time you read this, features may have been added or changed, and points I may have criticized may have been improved. Always check for yourself.
• AWeber
Maybe one of the most well known a lot of professional marketers and people offering online shows use. Offers a lot of options, a lot of templates.
Yet, a few remarks:
I read about one incident where I am not sure whether they refused a German to continue to use their service (cf. http://www.internetmarketingportal.de/internet-marketing/spielt-aweber-jetzt-schon-gott.htm) for reasons that may or may not be acceptable.
There exists the possibility that they cannot deal with German (or other?) Umlaute, it seems, and, as far as I know, have not shown any interest to change it. But I may be wrong there, just check.
If it was not for their starting price, I might have considered choosing them for my English language newsletters, although the Umlaute-issue might have made me think again.
Also, when choosing them, make sure to delete the entries of former, now unsubscribed, recipients. Otherwise you might have to pay for them.
You can receive further information from themselves (please note: “free” does still mean they would like to have 1$ at least temporarily, the reasons for which they explain on their site, I believe):
Advertisement: Currently none for privacy reasons
I might have liked the service, it looked attractive, but I severeley dislike the TOS (read it and see below III. 4.). If you do not mind, they may be a great choice with a good free deal for beginners. I do not like to be told what I can advertise in my newsletter, though, and so I did not even try them.
• Listwire
Quite an intriguing free offer, although you will have to check whether you like their way of advertising on pages shown in the subscription process (on which your newsletter may also be advertised, though, under certain conditions).
I did not like that they will, from time to time, prune the list without asking you, deleting customers they consider inactive for the sake of deliverability (they may allow to export these prospects in the future). The problem has been discussed in their forum, and they are quite decisive in that matter. Their reasons, a connection between “engagement” and deliverability may be sound, but I have no interest in sending mails “because I have to” instead of when I feel it appropriate, and I believe my audience will value that.
Thus, if you do not like this or know you will only send occasional newsletters, you may wish to look elsewhere. It may be a pity, for, as such, the service seems to be a great offer.
Great. One of my definite favourites and my current choice. For details see V.
Nice, well designed.
Really, really beautiful interface with the possibility to choose a couple of languages. Beautiful archive. Beautiful sign-up form and newsletter templates. Even includes the possibility of creating web-surveys.
As it is the case with many other services, though, the TOS does not make me happy – it puts certain restrictions to content, in certain cases they charge for deactivating one’s account, albeit only after giving a warning.
But do indeed have a look.
Advertisement: Currently none for privacy reasons
Could be worth having a look at. (Their autoresponder function is called “TriggerMail”, if you are looking for it, by the way.)
They also offer services in German and other languages.
Advertisement: Currently none for privacy reasons
ExpressPIgeon looks quite beautiful, nice and interesting. Although currently I am using Campaign Monitor, I could well imagine having a deeper look at ExpressPigeon.
Follow your intuition.
As someone esoterically inclined, I felt attracted by it, but I did not check it – make sure how quick there customer service is before deciding.
This is a German service I would have liked to use it, but I disliked that one had to give one’s real name, which would be reflected in a certain URL and the forum profile, both of which would have been publically accessible, as far as I understand. As I try to keep a certain control about in which context my name appears, I cancelled my account for that reason. But if you do not mind, do have a look, if it speaks to you.
CleverReach offers services in German and English. It appears to be quite a good service, but do compare prices if you expect to have a lot of subscribers.
And read the TOS, especially the Affiliate-TOS, if you intend to put out affiliate links for them. I do not, because I sincerely dislike contractual penalties and contracts incorporating them.
CE is offering services both in German and English. They offer a Whiltelabel solution and do seem promissing. As far as I know, an autoresponder function is being planned.
Interesting, but not cheap (at least not for people with only a few subscribers) appears to be the German Klick-Tipp service. It is totally in German (check whether you can use it for other languages, if you would like to).
There has been some criticism in the initial phase. Do check. And do read the TOS and be aware what it means. I also find their Anti-Spam-Policy too strict, e.g. it does not allow to send out mailings which do not have a connection with your website. If you do, they may even sue you!
• Others
Among others, I also came accross iContact, Contactology, Constant Contact, VerticalResponse, MyEmma, DirectIQ (multi language according to their FAQ), 12SecondCommute and 123Response, Interspire and SimplyCast (in the letter case, for example, check here and here – you should always check all the services online before deciding, google for experiences etc.).
There are some resellers around, be it of Aweber, be it of CampaignMonitor, or of others. They may offer you a better (or a worse) price, or just good (or not so good) service. Have a look, and, if you want to know, check for the name plus “White Label” or “Reseller” etc. That may be interesting.
There are also email programmes for your computer available which do allow mass emailing, as far as I know. I have not further researched them, though (But see III.2., which you may have to consider, then, too.).
Whether, by the way, to creatively use Google Groups in a newsletter function, an idea I read about, is a good or feasable idea, I have not further researched.
If you wish to address an audience in another language than English, you will have to find out whether there are certain functions in the newsletters you will send which are named in English, will display in the recipients emailbox and the names of which cannot be altered.
And you will want to make especially sure the encoding allows to have all letters of your alphabet readable, especially in the newsletters you send . This may be a problem with, for example, AWeber and quite a few languages other than English.
Do enquire, do try it out with various standard email services.
In some cases, the only problem may be when someone with a name containing a foreign character signs up for your newsletter. His name might not be displayed correctly. You might be able to change that by setting the page with the webform to UTF-8.
The country question is relevant in so far as internet and privacy law is concerned (which customer data will be collected via the service and in how far you can control that, can you include social media buttons without including special privacy information etc.; the reader’s data crossing certain legal borders) and whether the service allows to comply with other legal norms (U.S. providers, for example, may have constructed their service or policies in such a way that it conforms or needs to conform with the CAN-SPAM-law).
Also, some may require double opt in, but I do not know. Just consider, though.
In these cases, choosing a provider from the region you aim at can be helpful. If your reasons are legal ones, do not rely solely on trusting that your provider will get it right. Look into the local rules yourself.
Of course, you can use different services for different purposes or countries.
Are you ready to self-host, or would you prefer and external service?
If you are ready to self host (or choose a programme running on your computer), you may get away for free, or get quite an impressive piece of software for a one-time price.
Yet, you will have to set it up and then, you will have to look deeper into questions of deliverability. You will have to make very sure that your server (which may be more difficult if hosting on a shared server, although, on the other hand, you may profit from the “credibility” of your “neighbours” on the server – provided they are good ones) will not be blacklisted for SPAM and also check how the services used by email providers to filter out spam work.
To do this, it may be helpful to browse through the blogs of the various newsletter providers, but to make sure you do not get any biassed opinion.
You can also try and combine these self-hosted programmes or scripts with services like http://www.smtp.com or http://dyn.com/keepsending/ to ensure deliverability. Some of these may not accept being used in such a way, though. Check their TOS, before even considering it.
Even when signing up for an external service: DO ALWAYS EXPERIMENT with different email providers and see where mailings sent out through these services end: In SPAM-Folders or your inbox? And google for the experiences of others (name of the service and keyword “deliverability”, “deliver” etc.).
Only then decide.
(Of course, results may change again and again, depending on e.g. the other people on the server your account is on and other factors. Maybe do check from time to time.)
Tools and sites which may be helpful in the context of deliverability are, for example:
http://senderscore.org, and http://deliverywatch.com
By the way: do change the standard response email texts in the sign up process, it may help; I made it appear like a normal email, including a postal address and afterwards got it in my inbox instead of in my SPAM-folder.
Recently, by the way, a change in DMARC-policy lead to some problems.
Would you accept advertisements by the newsletter company or other companies in your newsletter or as a part of the sign-up process (as does Listwire) for your customers?
If not, free services or free offers of otherwise paid services may not always be your choice.
Quite a few services exclude a wide range of content from being used with their service, reaching from MLM, drugs and pharmacy over lotteries to affiliate marketing in general and [edited 2022] advertising of ICOs or even the topic of crypto currencies altogether.
Do read the TOS and the other policies in advance. And do not just believe and hope it will be fine. Analyse it and understand which risks you will take.
If you cannot exclude that you will want to do affiliate marketing in the future, you may not want to use e. g. MailChimp. Read the TOS, it is far too limiting, according to my opinion, and leaves a lot of potential points where you could find yourself suddenly locked out of your list.
But to move a list is no fun (see IV. 2.)
Some services (e.g. Klick-Tipp) even threaten to sue the user if he breaches certain aspects of the TOS.
Some services (e.g. CleverReach, but others will do that equally, I believe I have seen it, so I do not wish to single them out) will not allow mailings to be sent to certain addresses. To these may belong addresses beginning with “sales@”, “webmaster@”, “abuse@” etc.
As a reason you may hear that behind those addresses are normally no persons using them for subscribing to such newsletters, but that they are used by enterprises, and the owner may change.
My comments:
(1) So what? Maybe even people acting for enterprises wish to subscribe to a newsletter with such an address.
(2) It is not even true in my eyes. I would use an “info” address (which is also one sometimes named in this context) to subscribe without the blink of an eye, unless I knew this practice.
CleverReach at least openly talks about it (kudos for that). I suspect there may be other services which do not allow them and do not so openly talk about it. And then you may wonder why people signing up with these never seem to respond… Do check the TOS, do check the policies, and do ask whether any addresses like these will be automatically excluded. It may not be such an issue – you would have to look how many of your subscribers use these addresses, and what happens if someone signs up using such an address. But I would want to have a definite list of excluded addresses at the very least.
Well… quite obviously something to consider. But do put the other needs you may have in relation to it. And you may wish to support a good service, after all.
Take into account that some offers are cheap for people with a low number of subscribers, but may get more expensive than others once a certain threshold is reached. That also sheds a better light on the pricing of e.g. AWeber. Yet, there may be discounts available, if you ask.
If you find a service attractive, why not talk to them?
Some of the services listed in II. offer free basic accounts enabling sending out mailings to e.g. 100, 500 or maybe even more recipients. Quite enticing.
If you would like to avoid changing to another provider later, though (for reasons I have already mentioned), take into consideration how many subscribers you expect to have and how many you ultimately aim at – in the long run, another service may be cheaper.
If yes, do have a look at CampaignMonitor.
AWeber, GraphicMail, GetResponse and others may also offer Whitelabel-Solutions. But then make sure that it is really totally cutomisable, if you want to make sure you cannot be exposted as a reseller (unless you choose do disclose it, that is).
7. Research the Autoresponder Features
The autoresponder may not be included in some free trial versions, but do get informed about which functions they offer and which you may need. There are simpler ones and ones where you can determine when to send an email much more precisely (e.g. “not on Mondays” etc.), which might be helpful considering research concerning when people will open their email most likely.
• Check for integrations with social networks and commercial services, if you would like to have them.
• Some services allow for easily choosing a singup checkmark box for other newsletters one offers for the sign up form (e.g. CampaignMonitor).
• Be careful with a certain kind of sign-up form, lest they be blocked by web browser plugins; possibly provide alternatives.
• You can always have a self-hosted solution installed as something to fall back onto if something does not work with your newsletter service provider as wished. Just remember to export your lists once in a while so they cannot be held captive or deleted. Into your own tools, you can always import…
• If you are considering using a service which offers its services for free first (or a self-hosted service), and potentially to change later, think twice:
Some providers will not accept lists from others without making your customers sign up again (you might lose some – or more… – of them then), if at all (some will, though). At least make sure to have set a double-opt-in process from the beginning, that might make it easier later.
But, if you can, maybe just avoid changing and make the “right” choice from the beginning.
I decided for CampaignMonitor. I love how I can integrate it into my website, branding it and customizing it in a lot of ways, also concerning the URLs where you sign up for my newsletter – I prefer keeping people on my own domains, which they know and can trust (I hope they do…).
It has beautiful statistics.
I also liked their TOS. Honest, and without a lot of the – in my eyes – inadequate limitations some other providers have in order to protect themselves, but severely limiting the usefulness of the service for those who actually wish to abide with the terms of a service they use and have the (relative, of course) security not to be “kicked” just because of a breach of some strange and unexpected clause in the TOS or policies (cf. above, III. 4.).
Also, it appears I can, de facto, collect addresses for free, until I decide to really use the service to send. Then, I will have to pay. As long as there are only a very few members, I can still use my webmail to reach them, and yet have got their addresses in a double-opt-in process.
But I can still decide whether to opt for a monthly plan or a plan based on the number of campaigns and emails to be sent.
(When writing this, I had not seen this yet, but for the moment, I am using Campaign Monitor.)
[Edit (August 2020 and March 2022):] Due to the GDPR, I am currently not using Campaign Monitor, I would have to make sure first that it is or that I would act according to the GDPR. The main problem I see would be the tools provided by Google in Campaign Monitor’s backend, but maybe they have taken measures to make them compatible. One would also need to have a processing agreement, and, furthermore, consider the most recent rulings of the ECJ. Perhaps it would still work, if standard clauses are used, and they would be in compliance. I would have to look into it. In any case, one would need to get consent for transmission of IP addresses to third countries, unless EU servers would be used. Whether this would be enough, with the owner still being a US company under US law, is still the question. However, this is equally valid for all other solutions discussed and not discussed here: One would need to check for conformity with the GDPR and the most recent court rulings.2. To Learn
Many newsletter service providers have blogs. Some of them, e.g. those of GetResponse, AWeber, CampaignMonitor, can be quite instructive to read even if you have opted for another service.
Version Information
I may update this article, if I find additional information I would like to include. The current version is version 1.5, mainly of April13th, 2014 with additions from 2020 and 2022, although not generally updated, so information may be out of date and companies named not exist any longer. Furthermore, the selection from when the article was posted does not reflect or consider the GDPR, which means you need to be very careful in regards to any recommendation I gave in this article as far as the compliance with EU and German law is concerned. Please do check the current situation for yourself, or, if you are friends with me, ask me for my perspective, if you like.
There are a couple of problems one can encounter when installing, reinstalling or moving a WordPress blog. I have documented some I have met here and in a follow-up article here in German.
But as I had drafted some aspects of the second article in English, too, I will publish them here also in English. The German articles are much more extensive, though, and I suggest rather reading them.
The solution lies in disabling the track address bar shares-function of AddThis, cf. here.
The reason is described here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/doing_wp_cron or here: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/12777/what-is-this-doing-wp-cron. Also see http://wordpress.org/support/topic/scheduled-posts-still-not-working-in-282?replies=13.
I thought it had vanished (in my case) after disabling Wassup, which was obviously running a lot of cronjobs.
But the phenomenon occurred again when I used Ajax Edit Comments, persisting while someone had posted a comment during the period in which it could be edited. That would mean if you have a lot of commentators, that might show a lot on that post. It may have been a coincidence, though as It may also occur with other plugins, see e.g. here.
So I had to speak to my web host, but loopbacks is enabled.
Finally, I found out here, that, although I could not find a trace of ALTERNATE_WP_CRON n the wp-config.php, it was set in the code-pages of the plugin. Apparently, the All in One Event Calendar plugin defines ALTERNATE_WP_CRON in a place I did not expect it to be. So I add to my wp-config.php the following line:
define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, false);
And the URLs look nice and clean again . 
Although I activated Ultimate TinyMCE and then TinyMCE Advanced, I got no more buttons, nor (as I realised when comparing with my old setup) the visual editor.
I could resolve the latter by enabling again the visual editor in the user preferences (I might not have gotten there without a chain of hints here and here, then I would also have found the solution here).
Just change the number of rows or open your browser wider (I really did not realise I could do that… done too much on the net, then?) – or choose the 1-column-view in WP (slider on top of the page). You could also add rows in the code, maybe.
I checkmarked “fin Yoast. For quite a different advice see http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/dont-show-page-title-in-page-body?replies=9#post-606411, http://www.prasannasp.net/fix-seo-by-yoast-prints-site-title-twice, http://wordpress.org/support/topic/site-title-showing-double, http://voodoopress.com/modify-header-php-to-get-the-most-out-of-yoasts-seo-plugin-in-a-twentyten-child-theme.
I am still looking for a solution. I hope that someone will reply here.
When about two months ago my hitherto web space provider (I was so lucky to have a reseller account for free) returned his server, I had to seek a new home for my websites.
After a long quest, inter alia using Hostjury and Webhostingtalk to find a good new one, I decided in favour of MadGenius [Disclosure: Affiliate-Link]. And, indeed, as I had read, they provide quite a good service, even enabled a certain option, the possibility to switch off statistics for my German websites, especially for me, and the support is friendly, polite and helpful.
So I decided to move my blog, too.
I had hosted it with Hostingsociety before, a fully functional German free space provider without advertising on one’s site, and I still do like them, but for security reasons they had disabled a certain option (fsockopen() ) I prefer using.
After my move I finally could connect to Jetpack and use a couple of other (also: plugin) functionalities I could not before.
When reestablishing my blog, I encountered a few problems the solution of which I was glad to have documented before here. In addition, I will document solutions to a few further challenges in a follow-up article here.
It is incredible how many Malaysian dictionaries and grammars you can find online at archive.org. Although they are rather older, I hope they can help (be careful with the spelling in the first one, though), as I have read the Malaysian language has not changed that much.
I will see whether this is true.
I have just watched Deepak Chopra and Oprah in Oprah’s Lifeclass on OWN. As someone not from the U. S., I became more aware of her work through this event (also see here) with Eckhart Tolle.
She does a good job. [Incidentally, by the way, she also addresses the relationship between religion and spirituality I discussed in my previous post. Her stance of distinguishim them may be understandable especially in a country like America, where there are some quite fundamental people who might otherwise object to some of the important insights.]
Deepak Chopra gives some valuable advice during the broadcast – have a look!
A. Preliminary Remark in English (Für Deutsch bitte nach unten scrollen!)
This article is in German, about moving from wordpress.com to a wordpress.org-installation. You might also profit from merely following the links, or using Google Language Tools.
B. Einrichtung, Optimierung und Umzug (m)eines WordPress-Blogs von WordPress.com zu WordPress.org/eigenem Webspace
Vor kürzerem stellte ich fest, daß unter meinen Artikeln auf wordpress.com, wo ich mein Blog gehostet hatte, Werbung geschaltet wurde. Ich hatte es zuvor nicht bemerkt, vielleicht, weil das zuvor nicht der Fall war, vielleicht, weil man die Werbung im eingeloggten Zustand nicht gezeigt bekommt.
Da ich keine Werbung (außer, ich integriere sie selber auf optisch möglichst ansprechende Weise) auf meinem Blog haben möchte, aber nicht weitere 30 $ dafür zahlen wollte, habe ich mein Blog auf “wordpress,org” umgestellt undbauf http://www.hostingsociety.com umgezogen: Kostenlos und ohne Werbung : )
Ich habe mich dabei gefragt, ob es sich für WordPress.com nicht mehr gelohnt hätte, mir keine Werbung einzublenden und dafür weiter das Geld für das Aufschalten meiner Domain, daß sie verlangen, zu kassieren.
Ich hätte den Blog auch auf meinem anderen Webspace hosten können, aber der Update-Service von Webhostingsociety bietet mir eine gewisse Beruhigung dahingehend, (hoffentlich) rechtlich nicht für potentielle Folgen eventueller Bugs der Software bzw. Security-Breaches verantwortlich zu sein, soweit sie sich aus fehlender Aktualisierung ergeben. Nur sehe ich nun, daß jedenfalls gerade meine Version gar nicht die aktuellste ist (?), von daher… Nun, immerhin habe ich AntiVirus installiert. (Update: Ich habe immer noch Domains / Webspace bei Hostingsociety, bin aber, nachdem ich meinen Hauptwebspace zu MadGenius [Affiliate-Link] (wirklich sehr freundlich; exzellente Leistungen) verlagert habe, da mein bisheriger, kostenloser Hauptwebspace nicht mehr zur Verfügung stand.
Nun wird mir die Aktualität von WordPress und der Plugins und Themes angezeigt, und ich kann auf Knopfdruck updaten – das ist wirklich sehr praktisch. Auch vieles andere (vgl. evtl. a. unten VII.) geht nun.
Da der Umzug natürlich wieder viel Arbeit war (das nächste Mal – falls denn noch einmal erforderlich – kopiere ich einfach die Daten von einem Webspace zum anderen und aktualisiere dann…), sollte man sich vielleicht doch gleich überlegen, wie wichtig einem diese Funktionen sind.)
Die Einrichtung und der Umzug haben dann doch gedauert, und damit es, falls es noch einmal angezeigt erscheint, umzuziehen (daß fsockopen nicht läuft, s.u. I., könnte ein Grund werden), beim nächsten Mal schneller geht, möchte ich hier meine Erfahrungen und Notizen sammeln. Vielleicht kann auch der ein oder andere meiner (ehm… künftigen?) Leser davon profitieren.
I. Auswahl eines geeigneten Webspaces
Hier wird neben den Kosten eine Rolle spielen, ob alle gewünschten Funktionen zur Verfügung stehen, insbes. fsockopen und Curl etc. (vgl. unten VII.),
Werbefreiheit und die Voraussetzungen für die gewünschte Gestaltung der Links und den Import und Export der Daten im gewünschten Umfang. (Bei unangenehmen Hostern kann es anscheinend passieren, daß, wenn die Datenbank zu groß ist, vor dem Export erst upgraden muß.)
Vielleicht möchte man auch einen Provider wählen, dessen Statistiken und Speicherungsverhalten die Anforderungen des deutschen Datenschutzrechtes erfüllen.
II. Erste Schritte
Nach der Installation und der Bearbeitung der wp-config-Datei funktionierten bei mir die Links bzw. das Login nicht. Dies könnte an der Aufschaltung meiner Domain (i. V. m. .htaccess-Einstellungen?) gelegen haben.
Die Eintragung der Blog-Domain in der wp-options-Tabelle in der zugehörigen MySQL-Datenbank wie unter http://codex.wordpress.org/Login_Trouble unter “Site URL Redirecting” beschrieben, behob das Problem. Damit alles richtig läuft, sollte man dann, wenn man einmal im WP-Admin-Bereich eingeloggt ist, auch noch unter “General Settings” die gewünschten URLs eintragen.
Einloggen konnte ich mich dann mit meinem für meinen Provider, also Hostingsociety, gültigen Login und Paßwort. Ich nehme an, ansonsten kann man auch direkt über die Datenbank User ergänzen?
III. Import der Artikel und übrigen Daten vom bisherigen Webspace
Eventuell muß man das Import-Plugin erst installieren und aktivieren (vgl. http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-import-http-error-500-api-request; http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-importer/).
IV. Userzuordnung
Leider ist mir die Zuordnung zu meinem bisherigen Usernamen beim Import nicht geglückt. Da muß man wohl aufpassen – eventuell vorher den betreffenden User manuell anlegen?
Nachträglich geht es aber auch, wenn man auf die jeweiligen Artikel geht, in dem Menü rechts oben (“Screen Options”) das Häkchen so setzt, daß man die Möglichkeit angezeigt bekommt, den Autor zu ändern, und das dann auch tut, oder, auf einmal, nach http://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-post-author (genau befolgen – ich hatte nicht gleich begriffen daß man im eher links auf der Seite befindlichen Drop-Down Menü wirklich erst “edit” einstellen muß).
V. Links
1. Interne Verlinkungen, insbesondere bei den “Pages”
Bei internen Verlinkungen (bei mir bei den “Pages”, also “About”, “Contact” etc.) habe ich darauf geachtet, alle umzustellen. Gerade läuft zwar noch eine Weiterleitung, aber wenn ich die Möglichkeit, meine Domain bei WordPress.com zu verwenden, nicht erneuere, entfällt die vermutlich im September.
2. Links und Blogroll
Zum Übertragen der Blogroll bzw. der Links, falls die nicht mitgekommen sind, gilt es, http://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/import-export-links/ und http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/import-blogroll-with-categories/ zu lesen und zu befolgen.
Ich habe mir dazu http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/import-blogroll-with-categories/ installiert und die als xml-File von https://poetinlight.wordpress.com/wp-links-opml.php, meiner bisherigen ursprünglichen URL bei WordPress.com, gespeicherte Datei importiert.
3. Ansonsten
http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/
http://www.blogtrainer.de/2009/02/23/permalinks-in-wordpress-optimal-nutzen
http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/suchmaschinenoptimierung-seo-fuer-wordpress/
VI. Themen
Leider mußte ich feststellen, daß mein genutzes Theme (“Enterprise“) nur auf WordPress.com in einer kostenlosen Form vorhanden war.
Daher verwendete ich zunächst Twenty Elven, und dann Twenty Eleven Three Menus, wollte mich aber auch noch nach weiteren Möglichkeiten umschauen. Dabei stellte ich, nachdem nach einem Theme mit verschlüsseltem Code gar nichts mehr ging (d. h.: per FTP deinstallieren…), fest, daß jenes Theme irgendetwas veränderte, so daß auch mein bisheriges nicht mehr funktionierte. Neben dem andernorts in diesem Artikel erwähnten AntiVirus und BulletProff Security empfehle ich daher und im Hinblick auf Informationen wie diese (lesen!) dringend, immer erst vor der Aktivierung das Theme mit dem Theme Authenticity Checker zu checken, und es zunächst mittels des Theme Test Drives auszuprobieren.
VII. Änderungen mangels offenem fsockopen u. a.; zugleich: Anti-Spam-Plugins
Leider bieten nicht alle Hoster fsockopen und Curl (vgl. I.) an.
So entfallen viele Optionen, u. a. auch, Akismet (zu einer aus Datenschutzgründen gegebenenfalls hilfreichen Ergänzung siehe hier) zur Spam-Verhütung einzusetzen.
Jedoch gibt es Alternativen: siehe z. B. http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/plugins/simple-trackback-validation/ und http://www.642weather.com/weather/scripts-wordpress-captcha.php; http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nospamnx/. Ich habe eine (zudem datenschutzkonformere) gute Alternative in Antispam Bee gefunden.
Ansonsten könnte man sich SI Captcha Anti-Spam und auch Simple Trackback Validation anschauen.
Auch die Möglichkeit, u. U. die eigenen aktuellen Twitter-Einträge, z. B. über My Twitter von Xhanch, anzeigen zu können, entfällt. Immerhin kann man mit Add Twitter RSS seinen Twitter-RSS-Feed im Meta-Widget der Seitenleiste anzeigen lassen, und man kann ja auch ein Text-Widget verwenden, um, eventuell mit einem Bild versehen, das man mit einem Link versieht, zu seinem Twitter-Account weiterzuleiten, wie ich das getan habe.
Auch Jetpack läuf nicht.
VIII. Duplicate Content vermeiden
Um “Duplicate Content” und eine eventuelle Abstrafung durch Google zu vermeiden, sollte man diesem Risiko durch geeignete Maßnahmen, gegebenenfalls die Löschung der Artikel auf dem bisherigen Webspace begegnen.
IX. Weitere Plugins
Weitere Plugins, die ich installiert habe oder hatte, oder die ich gern nutzen würde, wenn es ginge (vgl. VII.) nenne ich im Folgenden, verbunden mit einigen Hinweisen (allgemein zu datenschutzrechtlichen Problemen s. u. a. hier).
Plugins zum Social Networking, z. B. AddThis, WordPress Social Ring, Share Buttons by Lockerz / AddToAny sind sehr interessant. Sehr vorsichtig muß man aber insbesondere sein, wenn die eigene Website deutschen oder EU-Datenschutzgesetzen untersteht (der Ort des Hostings oder die Domainendung sind dabei nach deutschem Recht nicht maßgeblich, also de iure kein Ausweg).
Hierbei ist besonders die datenschutzrechtliche Lage in Deutschland und er EU insgesamt zu beachten (vielleicht auch anderswo), mit vielen Fallstricken. Plugins wie 2-Click Social Media Buttons, WP Social Share Privacy und SiN Social Share versuchen da zu helfen, man muß aber auch in jedem Falle schauen, ob sie datenschutzrechtskonform sind, soweit das Blog dem jeweiligen Recht unterfällt, und was gegebenenfalls die Konsequenzen sein könnten. Dies gilt übrigens auch bei den bereits behandelten Anti-Spam-Plugins (und überhaupt natürlich allen Plugins), soweit sie Daten “nach draußen” senden, Cookies setzen etc.
Aus Datenschutzgründen habe ich auch für Benachrichtigungen über Kommentare Subscribe to Double-Opt-In Comments gewählt.
Auch gibt es ein Plugin von Jens Ferner, das die Sammlung von IP-Adressen durch das WordPress-System verhindert (Vorsicht: die Funktion von Anti-Spam-Plugins kann dadurch beeinträchtigt werden.). WP Do not Track kann ebenfalls helfen.
Möchte man Erweiterungen bezüglich der Nutzer-Avatare vornehmen, lohnt ein Blick auf Avatar Privacy, Gravatar Hovercards, Custom Gravatar. Bitte darauf achten, inwieweit man diese datenschutzkonform verwenden kann (und dies dann auch wirklich tun!). Insbesondere sollte man sich auch überlegen, welche rechtlichen Risiken die Zulassung von Avataren haben könnte, und ob man nicht, wenn man Avatare möchte, vielleicht einfach ein paar vorgibt, um Fälle wie diesen zu vermeiden.
Wenn man Event- und Kalender-Plugins installiert (etwa den All-in-One Event Calendar oder den Event Organiser), wird manchmal auch die Einbindung von Karten angeboten. Sowohl in diesem Fall (als auch, wenn im Hintergrund die Kalender vo Drittanbietern laufen sollten, falls es das gibt), sollte man sich vorher gründlich informieren, ob man tatsächlich auch die Rechte zum Display und in der verwendeten Einbindungsweise auf seiner eigenen Homepage hat. Die Tatsache allein, daß ein Anbieter Materialien dritter in sein Produkt einbaut, besagt das ja noch nicht. Entsprechendes gölte, falls der jeweilige Kalender keine Eigenentwicklung des Plugin-Autors wäre. Zu einem älteren Artikel zu Google-Maps siehe hier, checke auch die aktuellen Nutzungsbedingungen.
Beim Editieren kann u. U. Ultimate Tiny MCE helfen, ferner Save Post. Check Links. Wer auf Deutsch bloggt, wird außerdem möglicherweise an Permalauts interessiert sein.
Post Teaser hilft beim Anzeigen von nur Teilen der Artikel auf der Homepage.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin zeigt thematisch verbundene Artikel an, dies tut auch SEO Auto Links & Related Posts.
Zu SEO-Zwecken interessant sind u. a. SEO Ultimate, WordPress SEO von Joost, HeadSpace2, BWP Google XML-Sitemaps, Google XML Sitemaps.
Comment Redirect by Yoast (zum Gruß von erstmals auf dem Blog Kommentierenden)
Mit Conditional Widgets oder Widget logic kann man genauer steuern, welche Widgets auf welcher Seite angezeigt werden.
Für datenschutzkonforme Statistiken ist Statify hilfreich (Als umfassendere Lösung könnte, mit den richtigen Einstellungen, anscheinend Piwik in Betracht kommen.). Zum Backup WordPress Data Base Backup.
Fluency Admin transformiert die Benutzeroberfläche. Zur Performance-Verbesserung dient Quick Cache.
Zur Sicherheit der Installation kann neben den genannten Möglichkeiten auch BulletProof Security beitragen (vgl. a. hier), ebenso LimitedLoginAttempts (eine interessante Alternative könnte, wenn aktualisiert, LoginLockDown sein). Auch NinjaWPass setze ich ein.
Manchmal gibt es Konflikte zwischen Plugins, oder es gibt Memory-Probleme (z. B. konnte ich einmal diesen Artikel plötzlich nicht mehr bearbeiten, und [ich weiß aber nicht, ob das wirklich an einem Plugin lag, jedoch waren die Phänomene verschwunden, nachdem ich einige wieder deaktiviert hatte] eine Zeit lang endeten meine schönen Permalinks auf eine Ziffernfolge, vor der ein “#.” stand, und mein Events Calendar funktionierte nicht optimal); da kann das (notfalls: temporäre) Abschalten des ein oder anderen Plugins helfen (oder das Experimentieren mit den Settings – im Falle der seltsamen Endungen findet sich die Lösung hier). Wenn gar nichts mehr geht: eventuell das zuvor aktivierte Plugin per FTP löschen.
Man sollte auch daran denken, nach dem Aktivieren von Plugins wieder etwaige Anpassungen vorzunehmen, auch innerhalb Jetpacks (für das es übrigens ein extra Sprachplugin für Deutsch gibt), auch Formulierungen (z. B. bei der Funktion, die Blogeinträge via Email zu abonnieren etc., bei der ich aus Rechtsgründen in meinem deutschsprachigen Blog auch einen Hinweis gesetzt habe, daß Bestätigungsmails auf Englisch folgen – das ist anscheinend noch nicht angepaßt?)
X. Support
Die WordPress-Seiten bieten Support-Foren, durch Googeln kann man eine ganze Reihe an Antworten selber finden, auch gibt es Websites von WordPress-Experten, die einem gegen Entgelt oder sogar mitunter aus Freundlichkeit zu helfen bereit sind.
C. Schlußbemerkungen
(Warum eigentlich habe ich diesen Artikel auf Deutsch in meinem sonst englischsprachigen Blog verfaßt? Ist es einfacher, auf Deutsch systematisch zu denken?)
Ansonsten: Ich melde den Block jetzt auch einmal bei Technorati an. Hier mein Technorati Claim Token, DJ2M6ZN2B6DM, das ich sicher gleich hernach wieder lösche.
Bei Bedarf (ich prüfe noch weitere Plugins) werde ich diesen Artikel von Zeit zu Zeit aktualisieren. Die gegenwärtige Version ist Version 1.5 vom 9. November 2012. (Hinweis: Ich habe im Sommer 2020 meine Blogs wieder online gebracht, erneut einen Umzug vorgenommen und alles an die DSGVO angepaßt. Meine umfassende Anleitung und weiteren Erkenntnisse von dann sind derzeit in meinem privaten Wiki notiert. Wenn Ihr mich kennt: Bei Interesse bitte nach der Datei fragen!).
Ergänzungen zur Fehler- und Problembehebungen finden sich i. ü. auch in meinem Folgeartikel in meinem rein deutschsprachigen Blog hier.
I like good design and good services. Both, Google has provided.
But I also like privacy and being able to remain anonymous, when I wish to.
I. The Google Privacy Policy
The new privacy policy of Google does not allow that.
Admittedly, I have not read the previous versions since quite some time, but I would be delighted, if anyone could tell me how the paragraph about collecting device-specific information, i.e. identifying my computer uniquely and my phone number, if I am on a mobile connection, which may automatically (!) connect these with my google account, are not a perverted thing that can be used for evil purposes. That is not less “evil” than the new time line by Facebook (the practices of which they seem to wish to be sharing in pointing out that they may reject requests about which data are stored about someone if they are, int. al., “extremely impractical”).
Basically, if I understand it correctly, it means that if one has got a google account, even if I log out and then use google on my notebook, they will know that it is me – they will even then know what I have searched for.
II. No Real Anonymity for the Masses
Furthermore, even towards the outward world, despite the outspoken criticism of many a user, Google has decided to allow for nicknames only in addition to displaying one’s real name, and the use of real pseudonyms is strictly limited, cf. e.g. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/500-words-into-the-future-10014052/do-you-trust-google-is-the-wrong-question-10025295/, http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/pseudonyms-on-google-plus-wrong/983
III. Censorship
Additionally, Google is walking in the footsteps of Twitter in aspiring to enable similar means of Censorship in Blogger (the argument, thus one would “only” have to not show certain posts in a country were they are illegal – informative on Mashable– does not mention that, in being able to do this, the threshold for actual censorship can become much lower).
V. Enough of that
I have got enough of that (Actually, that is esp. about I. and II.).
In the next days, I will delete most of the contents of my Google+ account and stop using Gmail as my primary mail-account. I have deleted most of my photos (which, admittedly, I had never intended to stay online for longer anyway). I will inform many of my contacts of the reason.
I will also mostly use either Tor, when using Google (although with the awareness that the content of my searches may be viewed by ill-willing server operators, and I wonder, whether not this risk might also be too much), a Google scraper, or other search engines (This article is also informative; the use of add-on like “TrackMeNot” may also be an option, although I am not sure how “fair” it is in relation to that Google does provide good services and needs to earn money, after all.)
If only enough people would do the same.
VI. Further Reasons for leaving
Another reasons for leaving is unrelated, although, if not Google had forsaken anonymity, I would not have left: Even if one is not very active in a network, it can cost time.
Unless one profits greatly from it in terms of one’s real aims in life, there are more important deeds to be done. And my field of interest, spirituality, still does to be more active on Facebook (or, maybe, I just had not circled enough people). One whom I sincerely enjoyed reading, though, is active here.
VII. Outlook
I will keep the accounts for various reasons for the time being, but use them quite carefully; if I should leave completely, I will take with me the knowledge where to find those I have circled – and you can find me right here, at my blog, or one of my homepages.
What is so precious to Google, my data – they shall have them to a much lesser degree.
It may be, that, in the future, I might return to using Google+ for marketing reasons. Then, strictly limited to entering data I want to be disseminated as wide as possible. Better we use Google than letting Google using us. But, in general:
VIII. Do we need Social Networks anyway ?
As to social networks – why do we need them? Do we have to be so convenient? We can just interact with our blogs or homepages. We can link each other’s pages, as we used to do, comment, use the names we like and have our data stored at the servers of a provider we trust.
And freedom shall rise anew.