Many Blog Peoria Network bloggers are fans of the Peoria.com site. This includes me.

The fine folks at that organization run a “Peoria Bloggers” feature that provides links to recently updated Peoria-area blogs. In return for inclusion on this list, they ask that a Peoria.com log be displayed that links to their site.

Fair enough.

For a while, I was hard-coding that logo onto member themes.

I’ve recently begun deleting older themes that aren’t fully functional. This has includes some of the themes that aren’t fully functional. And this includes some of the themes I’ve hard coded with the Peoria.com button.

Here is the solution, if you get a mention from Peoria.com that their button is missing: Switch to a “widgetized” theme, which allows blog owners to add content to their sidebars without having to hard-code anything. Just go to the “Design” page from your “Dashboard” and select the theme you wish. There are more than 100 themes to chose from. The vast majority of them use widgets.

Then click on “Widgets,” and start adding items you wish to appear in your Sidebar. Click the “Save: button every time you make a change. Most people chose “search,” “links,” “categories” (if they have them) and “meta.”

To add the Peoria.com logo, you will want to add a text widget. One you’ve done that, click on “edit” and add the following code.

<a href="http://peoria.com"><img src="http://blogpeoria.com/images/111peoriacom.gif" vspace="10" border="1"></a>

Once you’ve done that, click “change” and then save the page again.

If you have any problems, send me an email or use the contact page.

This theme offers a right-hand, Widgetized sidebar and lets users upload a header image. Otherwise, it looks to be based on classic Kubrick.

It’s the latest is close to 100 new themes I’m running, ALL of them Widgetized. I also deleted a bunch of older themes that weren’t Widgetized.

If this happens, the culprit is usually that you have your blog pointed to a theme that’s missing. This is how to fix it: log into your admin panel <your blog>.blogpeoria.com/wp-admin, go to “Presentation >> Themes” and pick out a new one. If you can’t found your theme, pick a new one. There’s bound to be one you like, and I’ve uploaded “Farms 100 Theme Pack,”  which contains noting but widget-ready, WPMu compatible themes.

And why would you want to do that? Because it’s a requirement for getting your blog included in peoria.com’s blog listings.

You need to be using a theme that supports Widgets. If you aren’t, and you absolutely refuse to switch to a theme that does, contact me. I might be willing to toss the image onto the sidebar. I hesitate to do that these days because it affects everyone using the theme, whether they want it there or not.

This is one reason why I strongly urge readers to use Widget-ready themes. The other is that it lets users do SO many cool things.

1. Open your admin panel. Select “Presentation >> Widgets.” Select which sidebar you wish the the button to appear. Some themes have two or even three sidebars. Some themes, like Mandigo, have “top” and “bottom” sidebars that puts Widgets at the top and/or bottom of the page.

2. Now, look on the left side of the Widget page. You will see a “Text” Widget. Click “add.” The Text Widget now is at the bottom of the sidebar you have chosen. You can drag and drop this Widget to any location in the sidebar. But I recommend leaving it at the bottom.

3. Click on the word “Edit” that’s on the Text Widget. You can give this Widget a “title” that will appear on your blog, but it’s not necessary. Inside the text field, copy and paste the following code <a href="http://peoria.com"><img src="http://blogpeoria.com/images/111peoriacom.gif" vspace="2" border="0" align="bottom"></a>

4. Click “Change” at the bottom of this Widget.

5. Click “Save Changes,” which is located at the bottom of the list of current Widgets that’s on the right side of this page.

If the code is pasted and saved correctly, the image should appear in the sidebar. Clicking on the image will send the user to Peoria.com.

Stat Counter is a flop, in my opinion. It doesn’t accurately reflect where incoming links are coming from. And Site Meter seems to have fixed the problem. Fact is, I over-reacted when they had problems.

And I am finding no evidence that putting Google ads on ALL sites is increasing incoming revenue. I think I’ll be taking down the Google ads that I’ve been inserting into member blogs.

In fact, I’ll be taking down a lot of the mandatory content, and instead I’ll be posting detailed instructions on how members can insert the site-wide blogroll and other sitewide content.

So, eventually, the only mandatory content will be a Site Meter button and a button linking to the front page of the Blog Peoria Network. And I’ll be adding more theme choices, too, and getting rid of the hacked up themes I’m been running lately.

I’m too tired and I have a busy day day that starts early tomorrow. So I will be brief.

If you can read this, then that means the Blog Peoria Network is back and and running on a new and improved version of Word Press Multi user.

All the sites I tested work. Some of the themes didn’t service because they aren’t compatible. If that’s the case, I picked something inoffensive.

If you can’t find a member blog because you are getting a blank, white page. Try refreshing your dns cache. Or try a different browser. Members who cannot find their sites: D not panic. Try going to your site’s admin page “http://<yoursite>.blogpeoria.com/wp-admin and picking a new theme.

Email me if the problems continue.

Yes, I know your categories and blogrolls are missing. I am troubleshooting the issue with people smarter than me. I even has the guy in charge of WPMu looking into it. At least, I asked him to.

I’ll let you know about other changes later.

Talk about any issue you have regarding how to use plugins, widgets, themes, etc.

This site is a project no longer. I’ve called this little experiment “The Blog Peoria Project” for a while. Now that there’s more stuff going on here (the host switcheroo is imminent, trust me) and I thought it time to give the joint its grown up name: “The Blog Peoria Network.”

I’ve started using the front page URL (http://blogpeoria.com) in my correspondence instead of the URL for Peoria Pundit. Hopefully, this will expose more people to the many other fine blogs hosted here.

I’ve been chatting with a couple of Peoria bloggers about moving their Blog*Spot sites here. That can happen as soon as the hosting migration and WordPress upgrade is complete.

His handle is “scifiguy” and his site is Random Rants and Ravings. He’s even followed my advice and posted an “About” page:

I live in the East Bluff neighborhood, so there’s plenty to rant about. My pet peeve here are the inconsiderate boobs who think it’s ‘cool’ to crank up their sub-woofers and rattle the foundations of the houses in the neighborhood from 6pm to midnight and beyond.

As a former East Bluffer, It’s always great to see another on the Web.

And my manners have failed me. I neglected to note that former Peorian Chase Ingersoll has started a blog here. I’ve aware of at least three blogs Chase started and then stopped contributing. I hope he makes at least a few more posts. Chase always has a unique perspective.