Testing Blog Updates
How do you test the updates that you make to your blog? If you are tech savvy you may simply know that what you did will work. But for me, or anybody else who does not have a lot of tech skills, this can be a bit difficult.
Although I am working hard to learn a bit more about the technical side of blogging, I am still far behind. It only takes me a minute or so to get plugins working, but when it comes to more difficult tasks such as changing code, I am still working on my skills.
I guess the only way to test blog updates, as well as tech skills, is by trial and error. Until my skills improve, this is the way that I will have to do things. Unless you have a better idea of course?
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August 13th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Trial and error is generally the best way to learn. Even books and websites sometimes have errors in their code examples. (I have lost count of how many times I’ve grown frustrated trying to get code to work that I have copied precisely from trusted source.)
If possible, you could also set up a separate blog that you just use for testing. Or, just make sure to do a backup of your blog before changing stuff. The former is preferable, since there would not be any downtime on your regular blog should your code fail miserably.
Note that this is advice from someone who has been able to crash a PC with the FIRST line of code.
August 13th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
trust me in terms of blogging you have it good. i am the other way round. I have magnificently tech savvy but unfortunately i’m not that good at creating content. the latter is more important
August 13th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
dcr - I am in that trial and error stage right now. I dont know much about coding, or anything else technical for that matter. But of course, learning is the fun part, right?
flexy - I guess we are in the same boat; sort of. I’ll keep working on my tech skills, you keep working on your writing!
August 13th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Trial & error is always the best way to learn, and using a separate test blog is something I started using months ago - I have copies of my blog’s templates on it, so when Wordpress upgrades I always upgrade the test blog first, just in case.
It’s also a good place to play around with CSS, plugins etc.
August 13th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Chris - Having a test blog is definitely a great idea. That is something that I have done in the past, and should definitely do again in the near future!
August 13th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
It works! It works! Yay! Good job Chris!
August 14th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Unfortunately, I’m learning a little bit slower than I would like..good luck!
August 14th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Cooliojones - You were a great help on the title update! Many thanks…
Michael - Everbody learns at their own pace! And when it comes to tech skills, it can take time. I would know!