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So I’ve convinced you that switching plugins from Click to Tweet by the folks over at TodayMade (the makers of the top-notch content marketing editorial calendar CoSchedule) is worth it. But what about all of those tweet quotes you’ve already added to dozens (if not hundreds) of blog posts?

Going back through to switch each quote manually is a huge headache at best, or a deal-breaker at worst.

This is a tutorial for how to do it in fewer than 10 minutes, with one plugin and a few clicks.

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Warning: read carefully, and you should be fine. Skip ahead and you could irreparably (translation, I can’t fix it even if I wanted to) damage the database, and mess up everything.

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The first thing you’ll need to do is download and configure the Better Click To Tweet plugin. The two plugins should peacefully coexist, so don’t uninstall the old plugin until the end of this tutorial.

Next, before you do anything on WordPress (especially related to the database) always take a full backup, stored on your local computer (or some cloud backup server). I trust you understand that backups are a non-negotiable must-have for anybody who wants to keep anything they’ve ever said on their website, so this is more fundamental than the scope of this tutorial.

There are several solutions out there for backups, the most respected being VaultPress (made by the folks over at Automattic, the step-parent of WordPress).

I have also used BackupBuddy from iThemes, and have heard great stuff about Migrate DB pro. I don’t care how you back everything up, just that you DO back everything up. (shameless plug: I offer that as a service) Also, it’s worth having a test site to make sure you know how to restore from that backup.

Please don’t skip this step, because I won’t be able to help you get back everything if you do something even just slightly wrong.

::climbs down off of soapbox::

Now, for a bit of a basic lesson on how WordPress works. The database stores all of the words on your site, including pages, posts, and other content. For our purposes today, we are looking to find every instance of the old Click To Tweet code that looks like this:

[Tweet "Some tweetable quote..."]

And replace it with our nice new Better Click To Tweet WordPress shortcode:

[bctt tweet="Some tweetable quote..."]

Note that all we need to replace is the beginning portion of the old pseudo-shortcode. Everything after (and including) the first quotation mark can remain unchanged.

To make that change, we need to do what is appropriately called a “search and replace” on the database. There are several plugins in the official WordPress.org repository that claim to be able to make the changes. The one I have used and recommend (despite the fact that it has the ominous WordPress warning “this plugin has not been tested with your version of WordPress”) is Search Regex.

Install the plugin, make sure you’ve gotten a full backup that you can confidently restore from, and configure the plugin like so (this page can be found under the “Tools” menu in your admin area):

The first time around, click the replace button, and scroll down to see the proposed changes. If those look right (make sure that the spacing is correct in the new shortcodes!), scroll back to the top and click “Replace and Save.”

As they say in France, “Voila!” You have upgraded your Click To Tweet experience, and future-proofed your WordPress site!

You may now (after you verify that everything looks satisfactory on the front end of your site) safely deactivate and uninstall the Click to Tweet plugin by TodayMade.

If you run into any issues, restore from the backup I insisted you make above, start a thread on the support forums (so that everyone can benefit from our back-and-forth), and I will happily help you get switched over!

Welcome to the Better Click To Tweet family. Why not let others know how great it is:

I just switched to Better Click To Tweet with the help of this tutorial! Share on X

Which WordPress theme you choose has the ability to make or break you.

1. A good theme can’t help you nearly as much as a bad theme will hurt you.
2. A good theme makes WordPress a stable, scalable, and cost-effective way to run your business.
3. A bad theme makes WordPress a slow-loading joke in the developer community, full of security holes and inefficient code.

So have I convinced you yet that picking the right theme is not just window dressing?

If so, keep reading for how to pick a good theme.

Where most novices go wrong is picking the theme using two broken yardsticks: Looks and Popularity.

The first broken yardstick is looks. Like a supermodel with no ability to carry on a conversation, people will leave a website that loads too slowly or doesn’t look right on their device.

“It’s pretty, buuuut…“

The second and more tragic yardstick beginners use is popularity. Novice users flock to cheap prices, and to more features. It sounds great to say “160 color options” or “drag and drop customization,” but if those “features” are adding bloat to your website, making it load slowly or confusing your readers, they are not worth the price, no matter how cheap.

Repeat after me: just because 9,000,000 others have downloaded the theme doesn’t mean you should too. Your mother’s advice about jumping off of a bridge works well here.

This is not an indictment of cheap themes, or even popular themes. I recently recommended and installed a $100 theme on a client site. (yes, $100 is cheap) There are great themes out there for $50-$100, but the most popular ones out there are often the ones so loaded with “features” that you can forget about performance.

So, apart from a personal recommendation of a developer, how does a newbie pick a good theme?

For starters, that personal recommendation is not out of the question. It might be worth asking a developer you respect for their opinion. I am more than happy to make a recommendation before you spend $50 and commit to a theme that doesn’t do what you want in an efficient way. I’ve yet to find a theme I didn’t like officially recommended by the folks at StudioPress. They use the Genesis framework, which is a clean, lean way to build a WordPress site. If you are looking for my affiliate link, that would be http://benlikes.us/genesis (but read the rest of this article before you go buy even a StudioPress theme.)

I’ve spent too many hours trying to fix bad code on slow, bloated themes. I’d rather you not have to pay me $100 per hour to fix your $50 theme.

Second, if a theme is seeking to be one-size-fits-all, it’s probably a red flag. Look for a theme designed specifically for the niche you are in. Real estate professionals need different things from their website than do video game reviewers. Their themes should reflect that.

This is so important I probably should have led with it: Before you purchase a theme, you should have a clearly defined primary goal of the website. Then find a theme that does that one thing really well. Some example of primary goals would be

• Increasing brand awareness
• Getting people to sign up for your product emails
• Behind-the-scenes looks at your business
• Communicating with existing customers
• Providing support
• Doing product reviews
• Create a digital scrapbook of family memories

There are other great reasons to have a website. Here’s a bad one: because you just feel like you need a site that looks cool.

Nope. Just nope. I will no longer make a site for someone who can’t tell me their primary goal.

Finally, if all of the promo material for a theme stresses how customizable it is, and no mention is made of how lightweight, or fast loading, or efficient it is, that’s also a red flag. Good developers are very proud of how fast their designs are. They’ll likely tell you about it in the promo material.

The best marketers out there will tell you that content is king on the web. High quality content is the only thing that will keep people (and uncle Google) coming back to your site. But even if you put $10K per month into content, a slow-loading website will slow your traffic to a trickle.

So those marketers are correct, it’s the content that keeps them. Is your theme making that content consumption easier or harder? Focus on the user experience, and showcasing the content as quickly and effectively as possible.

Whatever you do, don’t focus on looks and popularity. That’s a shortcut to picking a theme that will break your heart and your wallet.

In the spring every year, my dad becomes a full-time scarecrow. At daybreak during gardening season he assumes his position in a strategically located chair in the yard, fending off wildlife that would render his garden a 24-hour furry buffet.

He takes a book, a cup of coffee (with water bottle chaser for once it gets warmer), and sits guard over his domain.

Even with such vigilance, last year the deer began winning. He’d wake up early, and get out to see tracks and nibbles alerting him to their wiles.

Not to be outsmarted (he has a distinct prefrontal cortex advantage over the deer in that area), he purchased and installed a motion sensor sprinkler system that stands guard in his absence.

As a sidenote, it never gets old sending my 4- and 6-year-old into the garden without reminding them that the sprinkler is on.

See, even the best attention is not critter-proof when it comes to gardens. It’s a full-time job.

The same goes for your WordPress install. You might as well plan on having “critters.” Malicious code, hackers, and spammers. They are coming. What are you going to do to ward them off? A solid maintenance plan is critical. Keeping your site up to date is a digital sprinkler spraying would-be buffet visitors.

Contact me today to get started.

If you need me, I’ll be eating some of the corn, field peas, and fried okra from my dad’s garden.