Here’s the step-by-step process:

How To Automatically Update Your WordPress Copyright Date

1. Log in to your WordPress Blog
2. Click the Appearance Hyperlink in the left navigation bar.  This will bring you to the Appearance page and also expand the Appearance dropdown.
3. Click the Editor Hyperlink under the Appearance drop down.  This will take you to the edit themes page.
4. In the right navigation you will see your theme files.  Depending on your theme these files may differer, but all themes should have a file named Footer (footer.inc).  Click this hyperlnk to open the file in the theme editor window.
5. As I mentioned everyone will have a different theme and the contents of your Footer file will most likely be different then mine.  However, if you have either a static (meaning you’ll see the actual date like “2008″)  copyright date then you need to change this to a dynamic (meaning depending on the year the date will programmatically change to the current year) copyright date.
6. You can automatically update your WordPress copyright date by adding the following code instead of the current year you see in your footer.inc file.
7. Delete the year (for instance “2008″).  Replace the year with <?php echo date(“Y”) ?>
8. Click Update File

*Note – depending on your theme you may not have a copyright date or your copyright date may already be automated.  To verify your copyright date just take a look at the bottom of your blog and make sure you see the current year.  If you’d like to add a copyright date just follow the same steps as above and add the following code where you’d like to see the copyright date:

Copyright &copy; <?php echo date(“Y”) ?>

That’s it!  Now you no longer have to worry about updating the copyright date in your future years of blogging.  It may seem trivial, but the copyright date is something I usually remember to update around February.

WordPress Automatic Upgrade Fatal Error

Today I was going about my daily blogging business and noticed that WordPress 2.7.1 was available.  I attempted to use the built in automatic upgrade and received the following error:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class pclzip in /home/mysite/public_html/wp-admin/includes/class-pclzip.php on line 171

Here’s what I did to try and fix my problem:

1. I decided to try my handy WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin instead, but it informed me that I was already up to date (even though I wasn’t).
2. I next tried upgrading one of my newer blogs.  It upgraded just fine without fail.
3. I did a little research on the internet and found that my faithful WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin was causing the problem.
4. I went to my plugins panel, deactivated WordPress Automatic Upgrade, and attempted the built in Automatic upgrade.
5. It worked like a charm!

Now my blogs are all upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1.  One final note: I also read that if you do not have the WPAU plugin and you are experiencing this problem you might try disabling all your plugins then try the built in autaomatic upgrade again.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

How To Install A WordPress Theme

I’m going to assume that you found the WordPress theme of your dreams and have already downloaded the zip file…the adventure begins…

UPLOADING YOUR WORDPRESS THEME

1. Most (if not all) WordPress themes can be downloaded in a zip file.  The first thing you need to do is extract the contents from your zip file.
2. The process for unzipping a file may vary slightly depending on your “zip program”.  I usually just double click (open) the zip file and drag the contents from the zip file to my desktop.  There are other ways to extract contents from a zip file and hopefully you already have this skilled mastered.

1. The next step is to upload your extracted file to your web server.
2. Have you used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) before?  If so, use your FTP program to upload your extracted zip file to the following directory: /public_html/yourdomain.com/wp-content/themes
3. If you don’t know what FTP is then I have an easy way for you to upload files to your web server…that is as long as your web host uses cPanel…if your host doesn’t use cPanel then your shit out of luck…kidding…just contact me and I’ll do my best to walk you through FTPing your files.
4. Access your cPanel by going to http://yourdomainname.com/cpanel.  For this blog it would be http://www.bloggersproject.com/cpanel.
5. Enter your username and password – by the way, if you don’t normally access your cPanel here you need to know your 8 letter login name.  My account uses the first 8 letters in my domain name for instance, “bloggers” would be my domain name.  If you know how to access your cPanel through your host’s front page then access it there and look at the upper left corner of your cPanel home page under stats you’ll see your username.
6. Click on the little Unlimited FTP button (grouped under “Files”).  This runs a little Java program that allows you to use FTP inside your browser.  If you don’t have Java installed then you’ll need to take care of that now

1. You should be looking at two file directories now.  The left one has your local computer file directory and probably looks similar to what you see when you use windows explorer.  The directory on the right side is your web server directory.
2. Navigate through your file directory (left side) and find your extracted zip file.
3. Navigate through your web server directory (right side) to the following location: /public_html/yourdomain.com/wp-content/themes
4. Now just use your mouse to drag the extracted zip file to the directory mentioned above on your web server.

ACTIVATING YOUR WORDPRESS THEME

1. Go to your WordPress blog admin panel: http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin.
2. Enter your username and password.
3. Click the Appearance hyperlink in the left navigation.
4. Click the Themes hyperlink under the Appearance drop down in the left navigation.
5. The themes window should open and you should see an image of your new theme
6. Click the image or hyperlink with your theme name.

1. This will open a lightbox popup with your new theme (this is a sample of your site).  Click “Activate” ThemeName in the upper right corner.
2. Test your blog by going to your live website/blog.

That’s it!  Lots of little steps that should get you up in running in no time.  Of course there are always little snafu’s so if you’re having a problem feel free to contact me in the comments area below.