LwEEs.com

I finally found that domain name that is easy to spell, and hopefully makes sense. My name is Luis but since that is taken long time ego, I choose LWEES to replace it. Giving it a Web 2.0 look to my name. The content will be the same, hopefully everyone will enjoy my new domain name. As for www.lumencreativegroup.com, it will be redirecting to LWEES.com until renewal time which is August 18, 2009. If you are interested on my old domain name, and have an offer, let me know. Thanks.

During last week as got really busy fixing my Wordpress page because I destroy it in a way that nothing was making sense. Error everywhere, tables out of place, missing image, etc. As you can guess, it was my fault, the usual problems where caused by lack of understanding, not reading the instructions of some items and not reading the forums. I had to create a new SQL database and start from scratch by backing up only the necessary information like posts and comments everything else is new.

I thought I should share my nightmares with everyone so you can learn a little from my mistakes:

1.Careful with plugins installations

My first problem was that I was trying to get a Gallery plugin that works and looked good. With functionality that made my experience as good as it could get, in the venture I tried around 5 galleries, some complex ones like Gallery2 just to find out that the one I liked the most was all messed up because of all my prior installations. I ultimately ended up with NextGen Gallery, the best and only by reconstructing my database I got it to work. In doing so I notice that I had SQL profiles for all my other galleries, and the wp_option SQL database was almost 12 pages long. Learn from this, study what you want to install before doing so and if uninstalling make sure to get rid of everything.

2.Always check the forums

Most of the programmers out there have forums, if not Wordpress forums is another great source. I found that most of my problems had a solution already discussed in the forums. Subscribe to forums, ask questions, and if possible subscribe to the developer blog if available.

3.Learn some code

I did so much reading, spending hours in the computer over the weekend (wife, mad) to the point that I learn to deal with SQL and PHP at a very basic level. I consider myself lucky because there is so much information available on the web that almost all the topics I looked for where detailed out on the web. Read, read, read.

4.Troubleshoot wisely

I make some mistakes that could have been easily resolved by simply having patience. Inside SQL manager you can find a solution for updating and cleaning up the tables, of course I found about this too late. After applying changes you run this scripts and they work extra fine, so well that I was able to rebuild my messed up post and comments SQL’s without any other problems. Again read, read.

5.Clean up safely

When I finished re-creating my website I started erasing folders that somehow where linked to my old site. Of course my wp_options SQL picked up some code from posts and comments, I had to go back and repeat step 4 to reset my SQL database for options fixing the problem. But all these would have been easier if I just would rename the folders before erasing them. Try that out, if you are sure of the implications of erasing a folder, rename it first then if everything is ok proceed to erase it.

Hoping that you are not extremely bored with this post and have wiped me out of your online world, I want to leave the questions open for anyone that is having issues like this one on their site. Keep in mind that my hosting services are with GoDaddy so I’m not sure how to get in your SQL with a different hosting company. Find more about me at www.lumencreativegroup.com, email me at lumencreativegroup@gmail.com for questions. Thanks.

I spent some time debating about the title of this post, my blog is guided towards the media enthusiast and I didn’t want to drive away my audience by selecting the wrong title for my blog post, but that was the best I could do. I was reading an article over www.filmspecific.com about distribution tips and immediately started thinking how to apply some of those tips to my audience.

Sometimes media enthusiast work on some small projects that require them to think of small-scale distribution for their video content, lately this task has become easier and more distribution channels are open to the public. We’ll go over some of the distribution channels but first let’s think about examples of why you would need to distribute video content in small-scale.

The first example that comes to my mind is schoolwork or church, if you school is trying to get parents involved in sports with their children a good idea is to create a video of the different types of sports available and the facilities, schedules, and “how-to-help” invitations. Maybe your church is trying to distribute a video of the service, or other church activities to raise funds, these are just some examples I’m sure you are thinking on so many right now too.

There are many distribution channels that you can use to spread the word, you can start as simple as displaying ads on a bulletin board. Get peoples email, address, telephones, or other channels of communication. Flyers, posters, and other types of media are all great ideas but the first thing to take into consideration is whom your targeted audience is?

First thing you can do is to create DVD’s of whatever the video is about, there are enough tools to create a professional looking DVD. Another option is to create a Podcast, if is for a recurring activity. Promote the event or video, you can do some small postcards, shirts, mugs, etc. I encourage you to share tips, things that have work for you in the past and what not, do so by leaving your comments on this post.

I love to send family members’ video DVD’s of my kids as they grow, is not that hard to edit some footage, crate a DVD, grab a bubble envelope, and mail them my masterpiece. Need some ideas, email me at lumencreativegroup@gmail.com, also visit my website www.lumencreativegroup.com for more great content like this one. Thanks.