One of the more valuable features that you will find within a standard WordPress installation is the ability to preview a post before you publish it. By leaving it in “draft” or “pending review” status, you can see what the blog post will look like when it goes live without actually hitting the “publish” button. This is also true if you have a post time-stamped to go live at some point in the future.

However, in order to preview any of these posts that have yet to be published, you must be logged into your user account through the WordPress dashboard. This is so that the public cannot see your post before it goes live, which is exactly what you’d want most of the time. However, there may be reasons why you may want to share a post with some people before the post actually gets published. How do you do this without making an account for these people?

One way to do it is with the Public Post Preview WordPress plug-in. This produces a special URL for posts still in draft, pending review, or scheduled status so that they can be viewed by an anonymous public user. You’ll only want to share this URL with the people who you want to see the unpublished post, but this means that you don’t have to create a special login for these people to use. It also means that you don’t have to grant them access to your admin dashboard.

You could be collaborating on a blog post with another writer. You could be asking for some proofreading or editing help from a friend. You could be letting your affiliates and other business associates preview a sales pitch, so they know what to expect when they promote your product or service. Whatever the case, Public Post Preview looks like it could be a valuable tool. Find out more at Sivel.net, the site of the developer.

Many pundits will tell you that it is important for you to keep track of the trends within your particular industry or niche. You want to know what your competition is doing, you want to know what your customers want, and you want to know how to best approach a market that may be shifting one way or the other. That seems to obvious enough, but some of the most successful companies choose to buck the trend instead.

This is when you go against what everyone else is doing, taking a wholly different approach or offering a wholly different product altogether. For example, a reviewer who heavily criticizes a film is said to be bucking the trend if everyone else who has reviewed the movie has offered it nothing but praise. This can help you stand out from the crowd and it can help you get noticed. That seems to be a good thing, but it comes at quite a risk. You want to stand out, but you want to stand out in a good way.

For instance, it seems that everyone is moving toward rechargeable batteries for just about every type of application. The argument is that rechargeable batteries are friendlier to the environment, since we can reuse them for an extended period of time. They also seem to be more cost-effective in the long-run when compared to single-use alkaline batteries. If you were to follow the trend, you’d want to get into the business of selling rechargeable batteries.

However, makers of alkaline batteries can buck the trend by offering their single-use alternative. While rechargeable batteries may be more cost-effective for high-draw, frequent-use devices like digital cameras and video game controllers, the same cannot be said for low-draw, infrequent-use devices like TV remote controls and wall clocks. It seems to be more cost-effective and convenient to use single-use alkalines in these applications instead and, as such, alkaline batteries are still reasonably popular today.

Do you buck the trend or do you go follow the masses?

When you begin to separate data into distinct tables, you will gain advantages as well as disadvantages. With this data separated, you may have instances where you need relatable data from two or more tables. Your first thought may be to query the database multiple time, then do some looping conditional checks in PHP to string your data together. This would certainly work; however, it is not the most efficient way. For starters, the code to string this data together is messy, and could be tricky to get perfect. Additionally, you’re making multiple calls to the database, with is putting more strain on your server’s resources.

There is an easier and more efficient method of accomplishing this. We can use MySQL’s table join functionality to get MySQL to do all our heavy lifting. Given a reference point, MySQL can join multiple tables together and return the final result to us, all in one database query. A reference point being two fields which will share matching numbers in both of the tables. For example, if you were storing data for school students, you may have a student information table and a student marks table. To join these two tables, you will need a field in the student information table that will match one of more rows in the marks table via a field. A student ID would be a good choice, as it would relatable to other tables.

Now that we are familiar with what is required to create a table join, we can learn the syntax for it. Basically, we select from the first table, tell MySQL to join with another table and then specify the reference point.

[sql]SELECT * FROM table1 JOIN table2 ON table1.id = table2.id[/sql]

You’ll then receive a result with all the fields of table1 and table2 (the reference point will only appear once). You handle these results as normal MySQL queries.

In our next article, we’ll be covering joining more than two tables together, as well as different types of joins.

What do you do if you like the look and feel of an Apple MacBook Pro, but you need a Windows-based environment for work purposes? Sure, there are plenty of ways for you to load Windows Vista onto a Mac, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could get something like that right out of the box? The company may not own up to it, but this concept seems to the motivation behind the recently announced HP Envy 13 and Envy 15 notebooks.

The designs for these new HP laptops are clearly reminiscent of laptops from the MacBook Pro line, boasting similar aluminum construction and similar black-and-silver color schemes. You get the sense of a higher end product, but the HP Envy 13 and the HP Envy 15 are quite affordable with prices starting at $1,699 and $1,799, respectively. These aren’t entry-level budget notebooks, to be sure, but they’re not $3,000+ behemoths either. The screen sizes are also in line with what you get with a MacBook Pro 13 or MacBook Pro 15.

The smaller of the two is the Envy 13 and it gets a 13.3-inch widescreen with a 1366×768 pixel resolution. You get an edge-to-edge glass screen, a 0.8-inch profile, a tiled keyboard, and multi-touch glass touchpad (without a separate mouse button). There is no optical drive, but the optional extended battery can provide up to 18 hours of continuous use.

The 15-inch HP Envy 15 notebook comes in your choice of a 1366×768 or 1920×1080 screen. Other highlights include a one-inch thickness, Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, and ATi graphics. Like its 13-inch counterpart, the Envy 15 does not have an internal optical drive. You can opt for the external Blu-ray drive to take advantage of the 1080p screen though.

Both the Envy 13 and Envy 15 will come powered by Windows 7. Look for them in late October.

Many people go back to school in September to further their educations. For those of who worked through the summer and into the fall, we still have an opportunity to learn and to renew ourselves in preparation for the months and years ahead. Looking at your line of work, is there a way that you can take it to the next level? Let’s see what these bloggers have to say.

Thursday Bram answers a very common question that some people may have about what she does for a living. How much education does a freelance writer really need? It’s very possible for someone to embark on a freelancing career right out of high school, but depending on the project, more education and training may be needed to properly address a client’s needs. The short answer: as much education as it takes to get the job done.

Neil Patel has been very successful making his living online, so he knows a thing or two about Internet marketing. He also recognizes the importance of in-person interactions, so that’s why he has put together a beginner’s guide to attending conferences. It may be tempting to stick with people you know, but the true value of conferences can be found when you meet new people and exchange ideas.

Mason Hipp knows that it can be difficult to stay motivated when you work from home. Based on his experience, he now knows five easy ways to finish your day with a bang. You need to define your boundaries, set a specific “end of day” time, and have an afternoon snack to recharge those batteries. Keep your energy levels high and your motivation higher.

Sonia Simone helps to debunk some myths and educate the public with her complete newbie’s guide to marketing. The guide isn’t comprehensive in and of itself, but it can serve as a great launching pad of information for people new to the world of marketing and advertising. While you’re at it, be sure to check out our Marketing 101 feature every Thursday.

The Smartlife Blog finishes us off by looking outside of ourselves for some help from others. They say that two heads are better than one, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. When you need to have an extra set of hands around the office, you may want to read about how to hire an intern. Hiring an intern isn’t really the same process as hiring a regular full-time employee, after all.

You should invest some serious time and thought into choosing the right spokesperson for your company, because this spokesperson will become the face of the company and the face of many of your products or services. Generally speaking, there are three main strategies that you can consider, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

First, you could use a real employee from your company as the spokesperson. Most commonly, this person should be a high-ranking executive of some kind. For example, the face of Apple is Steve Jobs. If you catch any of the Sprint commercials on television, you may also notice that the wireless carrier selected CEO Dan Hesse as its spokesman. This can help to make your ads seem more legitimate and authentic, but it can pose a problem if this person ever chooses to leave your company.

Second, you could use a professional actor or actress as a spokesperson. Verizon Wireless has that guy with the glasses who asks if you can hear him now. T-Mobile uses Catherine Zeta-Jones. The advantage is that professional actors are well-trained and practiced in reading lines. They’ll also know how to conduct themselves in front of the camera and, depending on your chosen spokesperson, they can also bring a great deal of celebrity star power to your company as well. However, these individuals don’t have the same kind of vested interest as a CEO or President.

Third, you can invent a fictional mascot of some kind, just like how Geico Insurance has a gekko. Using cute animals and other cartoon characters can bring some much needed appeal to your company and, if the mascot is digitally animated, you can get the mascot to do things that are not humanly possible. There is a great deal of flexibility and creativity to be enjoyed. On the other hand, these mascots can seem very artificial and superficial.

What kind of spokesperson do you think is most effective?