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wordpress

DIY Scheduling automatic tweets with WordPress links and hashtags

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I have recently blogged about moving WordPress away from a CPanel managed domain to a self-managed Ubuntu server. I wanted a faster server with a free encrypted SSL certificate, no usage capacity limits (that I had on CPanel host) on server capacity and improve SEO. This guide aims to automate tweets with links to existing blog posts based on recent twitter command line research. I plan on using the Ubuntu crontab to schedule bash scripts to automate sending tweets. I plan on automating tweets with this GitHub repo: https://github.com/sferik/t every 6 hours.

Source posts for automation

I have the Yoast SEO plugin installed in WordPress and it automatically creates a Pages and Posts sitemaps when new content is posted in WordPress. I used to choose Pages and Posts for publishing WordPress content but recently switched to using Posts only.

Here are my websites sitemaps XML files.

My Sitemap XML’s

Sitemaps

I plan on automating tweets from random pages in https://fearby.com/post-sitemap.xml

More on setting up the Twitter command line utility here.

Test tweeting from a bash file

FYI: real twitter accounts have been renamed below in all output below to @twitteraccount01 and @twitteraccount02

I created a bash file to handle the logic for automation

I tested the bash files ability to send a tweet

I made the file executable

I tested the script

The bash script sent a text message 🙂

Test Tweet

Now it is time to authorize a second twitter account with the t utility (see this guide for help creating a Twitter app and linking it to t).

Summary:

  • Goto https://apps.twitter.com/ and log in with the right Twitter account.
  • Create a new app.
  • I had to link my twitter account to a mobile number before I could create the app.
  • Set twitter app permissions: Read, Write and Access direct messages.

I ran these commands to Authorize a second twitter account in t

I can now see I have two Twitter accounts added to t

Now let’s see if we can tweet to the new twitter account (while keeping the old account linked): https://www.twitter.com/FearbySoftware

I edited the bash script to have a different message to tweet.

Success

Test Tweet

https://github.com/sferik/t suggests I can set the active Twitter account by entering the following command before tweeting

You can find linked twitter account usernames and id’s by running

I have updated the /scripts/tweetrandomblogarticle.sh  file to switch active accounts before tweeting

I ran the bash file to test sending multiple tweets from different accounts

Success

Processing the sitemaps file

At this point, I realized I have setup t on a different server than the server with sitemaps.xml. This is not a problem, I can easily download the sitemaps file onto this server with curl and process the XML with bash before tweeting.

Downloading the XML file

Now what does the XML Sitemaps file look like (Important for processing)

XML Sitemap Contents:

Processing the XML file

Here is my final bash script that manages temp files, downloads a sitemap, finds URLs in the Sitemap, chooses a random article, loads the page to get the title, finds hashtags and posts a tweet.

Final script with hashtag routine.

Hashtags

I added custom hashtags routine to the tweets body depending on the article url by adding the code below over the hashtag=”codetba” placeholder above.

Automation

This is how I scheduled the auto-tweet in the crontab (every 6 hours (0:00 6:00 12:00 18:00)).

Pros

  • Automated
  • Does what I want

Cons

  • I have to add new URLs in order to add hashtags

Hope this helps.

Need a server?

Set up a Server on Vultr here for as low as $2.5 a month or set up a Server on Digital Ocean (and get the first 2 months free ($5/m server)). I have a guide on setting up a Vultr server here or Digital Ocean server here.  Don’t forget to add a free LetsEncrypt SSL Certificate and secure the server (read more here and here).

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Revision History

v1.1 Revised (24th Sep 2017)

etc

Installing and managing WordPress with WP-CLI from the command line on Ubuntu

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Here is a really simple way to manually manage WordPress installations on Ubuntu.

My previous WordPress (and related) guides

My Server Setup Guides

Go to https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/installing/ and read the install instructions.

How to install wp-cli on Ubuntu

First read this post too install WordPress from the command line. You should install WordPress here.

Telnet to your server (SSH)

Did the file download?

Execute

Make the file executable and move it to /usr/local/bin/wp

Now you can run wp-cli by typing the following from the command line

Read the official wp-cli quick start guide https://make.wordpress.org/cli/handbook/quick-start/

Ever since I moved my WordPress to a self-managed server I have not been able to update my plugins and I have not installed an  FTP server (by choice for security reasons).

Wordpress manual update plugins page

Let’s see if we can update plugin with wp-cli

Yes, it worked

I have now updated all active plugins from one command line.

WordPress Plugins

I have been unable to update WordPress itself since I moved my website (without an FTP server).

Update WordPress

Let’s try and update WordPress with wp-cli.

Run this command.

Success

WordPress version

Awesome 🙂

Now time to create a few executable bash files to update plugins and WordPress files in future.

Update WordPress Plugins Bash Script

Contents

Make Executable

Update WordPress Bash Script

sudo nano /scripts/updatewordpress.sh

Contents

Make Executable

More Commands

More commands can be found here: https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/

Information on exporting tables can be found here https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/db/export/

Site Wide Search and Replace

Results

If you are updating past pages and post links do include https look for www alos

When you are ready to run the replace remove the

As always, backup your database and files before you make changes.

This was the easiest way to update my WordPress site and force existing links use https links.  Of course, you can downgrade https links if you don’t want to have https anymore.

Troubleshooting

wp needs to be run from the root folder of your web server (or it will report an error). You can specify a path location as a parameter  too ( –path=’/path/to/wordpress’)

All the following the wp command if you are logged in as root (not recommended for security reasons).

Adding “Advertisement” text above Google ads in all WordPress pages and posts, read this guide on setting up AdSense on your blog (unless you go Auto Ads).

Official Troubleshooting guide here

I had an issue where I received error messages running the wp tool, iI fixed this editing my php.ini file and changing this..

memory_limit = 128

to

memory_limit = 128M

The M made all the difference after I restarted PHP/NGINX.

to this

Thank You, Kerry Hoath for the tip on this awesome cli tool.

fyi: WordPress fixed a SQL injection vulnerability and the wp-cli tool helped me update WordPress from the CLI.

Update Themes

Update Plugins

Update WordPress Core

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v1.5 Updating WordPress themes, plugins or core

v1.42 added ‘cd /www’ before calling wp cli.

Deploying WordPress to a Vultr VM via command line

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Here is my guide on setting up WordPress on an Ubuntu server via the command line. Here is my recent guide on the wp-cli tool.

Read my guide on setting up a Vultr VM and installing NGINX web server and MySQL database. Use this link to create a Vultr account.  This guide assumes you have a working Ubuntu VM with NGINX web server, MySQL, and SSL.

Consider setting up an SSL certificate (read my guide here on setting up a  free SL certificate with Let’s Encrypt). Once again read my guide on Setting up a Vultr server. Also moving WordPress from CPanel to a self-managed server and securing Ubuntu in the cloud. Ensure you are backing up your server (read my guide on How to backup an Ubuntu VM in the cloud via crontab entries that trigger Bash Scripts, SSH, Rsync and email backup alerts).

Ensure MySQL is setup.

Ensure your server is setup, firewall enabled (port 80 and 443 enabled), NGINX is installed and working.

Check NGINX version

Check NGINX Status

Check your PHP install status to confirm your setup, put this in a new PHP file (e.g /p.php) and load it to view PHP configuration and to verify PHP setup.

Loading PHP Configuration

First I edited NGINX configuration to allow WordPress to work.

location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
        proxy_set_header Proxy "";
}

Mostly I added this line.

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$uri&$args;

I restated NGINX and PHP

nginx -t
nginx -s reload
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart

If this config change is not made WordPress will not install or run.

Database

In order to setup WordPress, we need to create a MySQL database/database user before downloading WordPress from the command line.

From an ssh terminal type (and log in with your MySQL root password)

Create a database (choose a database name, add random text).

mysql> create database databasemena123;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Create a user and assign them to the blog (choose a username, add random text)

If your password is simple you will get this warning.

A 50+ char password with 10 digits and 10 numbers should be ok

You can now apply the permissions and clear the permissions cache.

Go to your /www folder on your server and run this command to download WordPress.

You can now move any existing temporary index files in your /www folder

mv index.html oldindex.html
mv index.php oldindex.php
p.php oldp.php

ls -al
total 8724
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    4096 Aug 21 11:17 .
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root    4096 Aug 13 22:27 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      37 Jul 31 11:51 oldindex.html
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      37 Jul 31 11:51 oldindex.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      19 Aug 21 11:04 oldp.php
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 8910664 Aug 21 11:16 wordpress.zip

Now I can extract wordpress.zip

First, you need to install unzip

Now Unzip wordpress.zip

unzip wordpress.zip

At this point, I decided to remove all old index files on my website

The unzipped contents are in a sub folder called “wordpress”, we need to move the WordPress contents up a folder.

“wordpress” folder contents.

Remove the wordpress.zip in /www/

Move all files from the /www/wordpress/ up a folder to /www/.

Now we can create and upload folder

mkdir /www/wp-content/content/

Apply permissions (or you can never upload to WordPress).

chmod 755 /www/wp-content/uploads/

I think I need to apply permissions here (to allow plugins to upload/update)

Edit the wp-config-sample.php

Add your database name to the WordPress config.

Before:

After:

Add your database username and password to the WordPress config.

Before:

After:

Go to https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ and copy the salts to your clipboard and replace this in your wp-config-sample.php

..with paste over whatever you generated (e.g)

Now save changes to wp-config-sample.php

Rename the sample config file (to make it live)

You can now load your website ( https://www.yourserver.com ) and finish the setup in the WordPress GUI.

Wordpress Setup GUI

WordPress should now be installed and you can log in.

Don’t forget to update your options – /wp-admin/options-general.php

I would recommend you review the options to prevent comment spam – /wp-admin/options-discussion.php

Also if you are using the twentyseventeen theme consider updating your header image (remove the pot plant) 0 /wp-admin/customize.php?theme=twentyseventeen&return=%2Fwp-admin%2Fthemes.php

Signup for a Vulr server here for as low as $2.5 a month or a Digital Ocean server ($10 free credit/2 months, signup for G Suite email on google here and read my guide here.

Read this guide on using the wp-cli tool to automate post-install.

I hope this helps.

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v1.1 added wp-cli tool

Moving WordPress to a new self managed server away from CPanel

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I recently moved my domain from a C-Panel hosted domain (and Email to Google G Suite (my guide here)) to a self-managed Digital Ocean domain (my LetsEncrypt Guide here, my Digital Ocean guide here, my AWS setup guide here, my Vultr setup guide here) and needed to transfer my WordPress site.

Buy a domain name from Namecheap here.

Domain names for just 88 cents!

I had issues with a CPanel domain on the hosts (Uber/Netregistry) as they were migrating domains and the NetRegstry chat rep said I needed to phone Uber for support. No thanks, I’m going self-managed and saving a dollar.

I backed up my old WordPress site files with FTP (and my database (sql export) on my old site and zipped it up and uploaded it to a public location as I did not want to set up FTP on my new site. More info on this here.

This downloaded mg 1GB backup zip.

I install unzip onto Ubuntu.

I unzipped the WordPress instance with Unzip (my blog lives under a blog folder).

I created an /index.html to redirect people to the blog folder.

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="1; url=http://simon.fearby.com/blog/">
</head>
<body>Loading <a href="http://thesubdomain.thedomain.com/blog/">http://thesubdomain.thedomain.com/blog/</a></body></html>

I updated my NGINX configuration to ensure WordPress worked.

I checked my databases with mysql (command line) to ensure MySQL was up.

mysql -u root -p
Enter password: ************************************
mysql> SHOW DATABSES;

I uploaded https://www.adminer.org/ to my site. I opened my wp-config.php and got db and username and created the user and assigned it to the database in Adminer.

I had a SQL backup of my site buy from experience I had not modify the SQL file before importing it (replace MyISAM with InnoDB).

You can read more about me previously moving a CPanel domain with email to a self managed VPS and Gmail.

I tried to import my 7mb sql file into the database with Adminer.

But it kept timing out (I suspect PHP upload limits were set to 2MB).

I fond my php.ini files (4 of them). No PHP file was found when I ran which PHP command was run and opened that folder.

I had to make the following PHP.ini changes to allow the larger file size to restore uploads with the Adminer utility (default is 2mb).

I had to make the following changes to nginx.conf (to prevent 404 errors on the database upload)

I navigated to the WordPress and all was good (even had SSL as I set that up on the new server)..\\

Conclusion

I now have a faster WordPress on a server I manager with SSL.

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v1.1 NetRegistry info

Add Google AdWords to your WordPress blog

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Google says “Turn your passion into profit. AdSense is a free, simple way to make money online by placing ads on your website.” How hard is it to setup Google AdSense on your WordPress site?

First, you will need to create a Google AdSense account here and add your site to Google AdSense. Don’t forget to add your account and payment type here.

Ad Sense

You will need to add a bit of HTML script from Google to your site to verify you own the domain you are adding ads too.  Lucky for me my theme Genesis allows me to paste code straight into the header and footer sections for my site.

Ad Sense

Google AdSense steps are quite clear and will let you know what you need to do (I monitor this from my phone).

Ad Sense

After your site is verified (automatically) you will have to wait up to 1 week for Google to review your site. You will receive an email when Google has approved your site.

Ad Sense

Then you are ready to log in to Google Adwords page and create an Advertisement style that matches your site. Now you can create your first ad type in the Google AdSense screen.

Ad Sense

I created a “Text and Display Ads”.

Ad Sense

I then entered a name and chose “Automatic Size” and “Responsive”, feel free to add your own colors here and customize.

From the Google Adsense page go to My Ads, Content then Ad Unit, Now you can click get the code.

I can use this code to place auto responsive ad’s on my web pages.

I should have embedded this code into my WordPress theme but I decided to place the code manually into each of my posts (in text mode).

This is how a Google AdWords Ad looks in this post (below the first paragraph).  Very smart that Google chose to serve an AdWords company Ad in my post about Google Ad Words.

Here are my earnings 10 minutes after adding my first ad to my blog ($0 as expected).  I plan on using any revenue to speed up this website as the host is very slow.

Ad Sense

If you like this post please click my Ad’s.  I will update my revenue numbers here in the future.

Thanks to Emma who runs a great blog and encouraged me to blog years ago and big thanks to my wife Alison who ran a blog for years (way before me with loads more visitors).

Payment

It appears you can’t add a payment method or add a payment method until you reach $100 earned.

It looks like earnings will be paid monthly if you meet the target. Payment placeholders are available at https://play.google.com/store/account#  I guess new payment methods can be added here.

AdSense Mobile app.

I use the AdSense mobile app



FYI: For me, Estimated revenue on the mobile app is in Australian dollars and estimate revenue at https://www.google.com/adsense/ is in USD.

Searching reveals that estimated revenue will be evaluated at the end of the month and the final amount will be reduced.

Content

Make the content relevant to the reader to gain revenue. I guess I need to look at Google Analytics and blog more of what people want.

SEO

Don’t forget to ensure your sites SEO is working as expected. Also, a slow website will have poor SEO  so consider a faster private VM from Vultr or Digital Ocean.

Ad Glossary

  • Page RPM – Page revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.
  • Page CTR – The page click through rate (CTR) is the number of ad clicks divided by the number of page views.
  • Impression CTR – An impression is counted for each ad request that returns at least one ad to the site. It is the number of ad units (for content ads) or search queries (for search ads) that showed ads.
  • Cost Per Click – The cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount you earn each time a user clicks on your ad. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser; some advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others, depending on what they’re advertising.
  • Impression RPM – The impression revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) is the average earnings per one thousand impressions.
  • Page ROM – Page revenue per thousand impressions (RPM) is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.
  • Coverage – Coverage is the percentage of ad requests that returned at least one ad. Generally, coverage can help you identify sites where AdSense isn’t able to provide targeted ads.
  • Maximum CPC Bid – A bid that you set to determine the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad.
  • CPM Bid (Cost Per 1000 Impressions) – CPM bidding means that you pay based on the number of impressions (times your ads are shown) that you receive on the Google Display Network. Starting this year, CPM bidding will be replaced by viewable CPM bidding.

How costs are calculated in AdWords.

Read the Google AdSense Glossary and help here.

Ad Sense Rules

Ad Sense Beginner’s Guide – Stay compliant with our policies.

Summary:

  1. Don’t click your own ads.
  2. Don’t ask others to click your ads.
  3. Don’t include any prohibited site content, including adult content, violence or excessive profanity, drugs (including alcohol and tobacco) or copyrighted material.
  4. Don’t modify the AdSense code.
  5. Do follow our Webmaster Quality Guidelines.
  6. Do provide a good user experience.
  7. Don’t place more ads than content on any page.
  8. Don’t place images near ads in a way that may mislead users into thinking that the images are associated with the ads.

Google Webmaster guidelines.Payment

Payment

You will be unable to receive payment until you verify your address.

If you are on a 14-day free trial you will need to setup billing before the trial expires

Tips

  • Do add the show ad’s code to WordPress over manually adding to pages or posts.
  • You can only add one script to your page once (e.g Header or Footer (not Both)) or multiple ad banners will be visible and only one will be clickable.

Bonus

Read my guide on managing WordPress via the command line where I automatically (with one command line added the word Advertisements) to over 80 post and pages.

sudo wp search-replace '<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com' 'Advertisement:<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com'
sudo wp search-replace '<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com' 'Advertisement:<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com'

Update June 2019

Google is now demanding you add a /ads.txt file to your site (with this format).

I added the following to mine

google.com, pub-9241521190070921, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

I used this site to validate my ads.txt file

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Draft: v1.91 June 2019 ads.txt info

Why choose a WordPress website over a static HTML site edited with Dreamweaver.

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All websites files on the internet live on a web server and web site content is mostly made up of HTML and graphic files. When customer’s access your website the web server sends raw HTML to the customer’s web browser. The web browser then reads the HTML, downloads additional assets and regenerates the webpage on the screen/device.

This guide compares using WordPress and building your own HTM website and editing the site with a HTML editor like Dreamweaver.

There are a number of standards for HTML syntax and rules for making accessible webpages.  If you do not meet the latest standards your website will be ranked a lot lower in Search engines or even be blocked.

If you are technically minded you can have fun learning HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for nice layouts, JavaScript and JQuery for interactive widgets along with SQL and PHP for building pages that load and save data to databases.  If you are building a static HTML website, you should use the mobile responsive Bootstrap HTML framework. You can buy in a bootstrap theme or design your own site using sites like layout-it.

Google tips for web developers: search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf (cached here).

  • Create unique, accurate page titles
  • Make use of the “description” meta tag
  • Improving Site Structure
  • Improve the structure of your URLs
  • Make your site easier to navigate
  • Optimizing Content
  • Offer quality content and services
  • Write better anchor text
  • Optimize your use of images
  • Use heading tags appropriately
  • Dealing with Crawlers
  • Make effective use of robots.txt
  • Be aware of rel=”nofollow” for links
  • SEO for Mobile Phones
  • Notify Google of mobile sites
  • Guide mobile users accurately
  • Promotions and Analysis
  • Promote your website in the right ways
  • Make use of free webmaster tools

Dreamweaver CC and Expression Web are the go to HTML web editing tools along with my favourite code editor Sublime Text 3.

HTML editors:

Dreamweaver CC
Dreamweaver CC
Sublime Text 3
Sublime Text 3

 

Ok so what about the non technical people, how can they setup and edit a website easily.

This is where WordPress CMS saves the day 🙂

wordpress

WordPress is a free CMS that you can download from http://www.wordpress.org or host on WordPress Servers at http://www.wordpress.com.  WordPress saves you from having to learn HTML and all the other technical bits.  You can access your site using WordPress from a desktop computer, tablet or mobile device (no need to install HTML editing software).

WordPress powers over 25% of all websites on the internet and is the most popular content management system. Shopify and SquareSpace have less than 1% market share.

Check out some sites running WordPress: https://wordpress.org/showcase/

 

WordPress Extensions

You can choose from thousands of free and commercial themes and thousands of free and commercial plugins. I have guides on Building a WordPress website from scratch and choosing a theme and essential plugins.

wordpress_org_01

WordPress Support

WordPress has great support, forums and documentation, there are loads of free lessons for the beginner through to writing posts and beyond.

 

WordPress Mobile

WordPress apps are available on iOS and Android mobile devices so you can add and edit on the road.  There is nothing stopping you adding and editing ALL content on a WordPress website from a mobile device. You could be at an event and create a post, take photos and submit a new page to your site all from your phone.

wp-ioswp-android

You can download the WordPress apps from https://wordpress.org/mobile/

 

Using WordPress.

WordPress offers a “WYSIWYG” editor for pages and posts. I use WordPress and this is what I see when I am editing this article.  wordpress_editing_now

Media Manager

WordPress comes with a simple media manager (for uploading graphics and attachments) and it is quite simple use.wordpress_editing_media

Pro’s and Con’s

WordPress needs some pre requisite software and has some limitations so here is a breakdown of the pro’s and con’s.

  Pro’s Con’s
WordPress
  • Needs securing from the start.
  • Needs occasional updating.
  • Limited flexibility to modify a theme.
  • Best to choose a mobile/compliant theme at the start.
  • Security concerns with out dated plugins or versions of WordPress.
Static HTML
  • Does not need prerequisite software (if the content is basic).
  • Best for simple non interactive sites.
  • Cheaper.
  • Can be faster.
  • You need to design and develop a lot o the site by hand.
  • A lot of web servers don’t allow unencrypted FTP connections ( encryption support lacking in some versions of Dreamweaver and other FTP apps).
  • Hard to add database support.
  • You need to be on the ball with coding standards.
  • harder to hand over support to a different person.
  • Security concerns if you roll your own database support.
  • Dreamweaver CC costs $19 a month

 

Where to next

The real trick is setting up and clean WordPress installation with a nice theme (preferably commercial) and building in your sites pages/content and securing the site.

You can use my guide here to build a local WordPress installation or you can deploy straight onto a compliant web host.

Good luck.

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