If you’ve been blogging for more than 10 minutes, then this has probably happened to you, no matter which blog platform you use:You upload a new widget, edit your template or maybe upgrade to a new version, and suddenly everything is broken and your blog looks a mess or is totally unreadable.
Now most things can be easily undone, simply by removing the offending widget, or going back to a backup copy of your template (you always take backups, right?) but sometimes a new plugin or version upgrade can make fundamental changes to your blog which are much harder, or sometimes impossible to rectify. Even if it is only something simple, there’s nothing worse, especially as a new blogger, than that sinking feeling you get when your blog breaks, and you’re not sure how to fix it.
Testing Testing
Something I’ve done for a while now is run a test blog, where I try out new plugins, upgrades etc. first. It is very simply a fully operational blog, on a private URL with copies of my blogs existing themes and plugins installed. Any time I want to try something new, I try it here first, as no-one will witness my tinkering, and if it went absolutely horribly wrong, I can just delete the whole thing and start again, without losing anything.
Typically I use it for:
- Testing new themes, for existing or planned blogs.
- Trying out new plugins: Not all of them, but certainly those that affect my SQL database, or that require editing of theme files.
- CSS experiments, and other things that would alter the appearance of my blogs.
- Upgrading: When ever WordPress upgrades, I always upgrade my test blog first, to see if anything breaks.
Whatever you choose, it’s a risk free environment.
Free and Easy
What’s more, it’s free and easy to do: If you have a hosting plan, you probably have more webspace than you know what to do with, along with vast numbers of spare databases (My plan offers 999 SQL databases!). Simply setup a new blog on a sub-domain of your main URL-call it anything you like, and it’s almost impossible for people to find it by chance.
If you use a free blogging service, you can of course just set up another blog, and configure it the same as your existing main blog, with template and customisations etc.
In both cases you can keep the blogs private, unless you choose otherwise, for example if you’re changing templates and you would like your readers to test it out in different browsers etc. In WordPress simply go to ‘Options’, then ‘Privacy’ and set your blog to block search engines etc. In Blogger, go to ‘Settings’ and then ‘Permissions’ and restrict viewing only to blog authors.
Test Case
My most successful use of the test blog came with the only occasion so far when I changed the template of an established blog. By asking my readers to view the test blog with various themes, I discovered dozens of issues with viewing and accessibility which just weren’t apparent on my own PC’s. After trying out several themes and changes, I was eventually able to swap themes on the main blog with no problems whatsoever. Had I made the switch without testing first, I would have had days of problems affecting readers of the blog, which would have done wonders for my traffic as you can imagine.
So, it’s free, quick and easy, and could save you hours of heartache and prevent you alienating your readers. It’s also a great way to experiment with editing HTML, CSS and other things you may not have touched before-what’s stopping you?
15 users commented in " Use A Test Blog To Avoid Nasty Surprises "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI have a question for you, Chris:
Is there a way to use the same WordPress install to power two blogs or do you re-install WordPress on your sub-domain?
I personally use separate WP installs, which I believe is the only way to do it, unless you go for WordPress MU, which is really aimed at 100+, if not thousands of users - i.e. something like WP.com.
You can use only a single SQL DB with multiple installs, but given the experimental nature of my test blog, I prefer to keep it all separate so it can all be deleted in the event of disaster.
Personally I don’t have a separate domain or anything like that… however I do run a personal web server on my development machines. I do all the development on there and then upload the changes once they’re working as intended.
If I understood this, it might even make sense….
Chris, excellent suggestion for all bloggers.
I run a development environment in my USB drive with XAMPP Lite and test new plugins, theme changes there. As Ben does, you could even run it on your PC, if you don’t want to deal with getting to your hosting server to test every change.
I have always said that testing ideas before moving forward is a great idea. Nice post!
I use a local installation of WAMP as a testing server. Works great.
I like the sound of that K, how simple is it, or have you already posted a tutorial? Ben’s idea is certainly a good one if you have your own server-bit beyond my knowledge at the moment.
Curmudgeon, it depends on whether you do much major tinkering with your blogspot template - if you do you could simply set up another blogger blog to use as a testbed before implementing the changes. The main use would be if you were changing to a new custom layout, you can try it first.
I have Easy PHP installed on my local drive along with wordpress . So i pretty much use that to try out themes and plugins .
It is fine to have a copy of the Blog on your local system, make the changes to your local copy, test it and sync with web copy
[...] Use A Test Blog To Avoid Nasty Surprises - Ever install a plugin or make a change to your blog’s theme, only to discover that something goes horribly wrong? Blog-Op has a suggestion: Use another blog as a guinea pig. [...]
Chris, may be I should do a post on how to do it. I’ll ping you when I have it up.
That’s what I was hoping K….
I totally agree with the idea to use a test blog to experiment with. Believe me when I say this; I learned this the hard way…
Me too
Leave A Reply