WordPress.org

1. Flirtilizer
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   I thought I posted it yesterday, if I did and the admins deleted sorry for doing it again but I've spent a lot of time trying to find the answer and I'm just getting now where. Including looking in the manual. GASP ;)

   Can someone please point me to where I need to go to find out about adding my Google Adsense for Search in the 404 page that WordPress displays. I found the AskApache plugin and tried that but that didn't do anything for me. I probably didn't understand what I'm doing.

   Hope someone will help.

   Website is here http://www.rustyferguson.com I'm assuming what it is doing now is the default. I don't know php so I can't write the code to do it, even if I knew were to add it. :)

2. Ivovic
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   here's your original thread, it wasn't deleted.
   http://wordpress.org/support/topic/178975

   you can find your threads by clicking "view your profile" on the upper right hand side of this website.

   to address your question though... your 404 page should be part of the theme you're using. If your theme has a 404.php, edit that.

   If it doesn't have one, you can create one, making sure to include the basic elements

   <?php get_header(); ?>
   
     [your 404 page layout goes here]
   
   <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
   <?php get_footer(); ?>

   I understand that you said you don't know PHP, but surely you can cut and paste, right? If you can't then perhaps you need to re-examine what you hope to achieve.

   What I'm about to write isn't necessarily directed at you, but at everyone who expects to be able to change their theme/blog functionality:

   Blogging is easy, but changing your theme requires becoming an amateur web-designer. It's important to understand that one thing has nothing to do with the other. If you can write, you can blog... but if you want to be a web designer (even just so you can customise your own blog) then be prepared to learn the language(s) of the web.

3. jonimueller
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   Well said, and I couldn't agree more. It seems to me there are a lot of folks flooding this forum, who just now got shiny new WordPress sites and want their blogs to look like something Jeff Zeldman himself created.

   You have to take baby steps. Everyone was new at this once. I've been at it for many years now, and I learn something new every day, sometimes more often than that.

   Being able to tweak your own site, to change your design up a bit is a great thing to be able to do. But not everyone is meant to do that. If you can't, and your site's design is important to you, then HIRE someone to do it for you. So that you can focus on writing, blogging or whatever compelled you to set up a WordPress blog/site in the first place.

   If you want to learn web design, then don't continue to come on this forum posing those kind of basically off topic questions (as this forum is for WordPress issues, not design theory or CSS and HTML questions), but buy some books on CSS, HTML and design theory and read them. Practice on your own web site(s). Learn by doing. Same with PHP and MySQL. If you have web space, then it behooves you to understand the basics about it, and to understand how to take precautions to safeguard your server space and the data it contains.

   Someone hold my drink while I climb down off my soapbox.

   P.S. And did I miss something, or would there be a reason to have Google Adsense running on a 404 page?

4. Ivovic
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   *hands you back your drink, after sneaking a sip*

   'Adsense for Search' is designed for search results pages, or 404 pages where keywords are evident.

   Lets say you've hit a 404 page with the url yourblog.com/deals/cheap-viagra/ ... adsense for search is designed to display ads for cheap viagra based on either the search string you used, or the URL on your 404 page.

   The idea being that if you can't find what you wanted to find, you may as well leave via a somewhat-related advertisement.

   This differs from regular adsense, which looks at the contents of the page, to determine what's relevant.

5. jonimueller
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   Thanks. That makes sense. In a twisted kinda way. :)

6. Ivovic
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   You're welcome. Get you another drink? ;)

   Actually I understand where you're coming from. I don't much like the idea of being spammed when I can't find what I'm looking for.

   Especially on 404 pages, since the reason I can't find it is because the idiot site owner took it away, or moved it without adequate redirection. What the hell is that all about?

   If you get 404s, you should aim to fix them, not consider it a good way to make a buck.

7. Flirtilizer
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   Thanks for the tip on finding my post. I did a search for my screen name and found every post but that one. Odd.

   Yes I can copy and paste, I'm not that new. Just new to WordPress.

   I do plan to learn PHP, MySQL and Javascript but when I'm going to work all that in? I'm already doing 12 to 18 hours a day. :) But I enjoy it. Usually closer to 12 and a lot of chatting with pretty filipina mixed in with that work too. lol

   I said that so if someone helped me they would do more than just tell me what to alter. :)

   Thanks very much.

8. Flirtilizer
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   i would of course fix them, not taking advantage of typos by the user is foolish. The 404 would include a search this site too. I'll use Google webmaster tools to find any problems.

   Dang why does everyone want to attack on a forum ;(

9. jonimueller
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #
   

   Maybe I'm old and bitter, but heh, I learned the hard way. I searched, read, practiced, blew up plenty of sites and even once sent my local mom and pop ISP's servers down in flames. (That was back when I was trying to learn Greymatter!) So .. ask and some kind soul will probably try to help. But the best piece of advice I can give you is to try to learn by doing. THEN if you hit a wall, you can come back here and intelligently articulate your problem, and what steps you've taken to try to solve it yourself. That goes a long way toward garnering the help you need to get yourself out of whatever web related jam you are in. :)

   Sometimes it ends up being just some silly typo and having an extra pair of eyes looking at things clears it right up. Sometimes, you can be working on something so persistently that you are sick of it. Then step back, go for a walk, a drive, etc. Come back to it and sometimes your mind will magically supply the solution. ;)

10. Ivovic
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #
    

    Half your luck...

    Honestly, it's nothing against you specifically, it's more a PTSD trigger than anything YOU did specifically, thanks for being good-natured about it.

    Regulars of any help forum will tell you that "I don't know any XXX" is like putting a war veteran next to a backfiring car. Only because we're not sure when it became our responsibility to sacrifice chatting with exotic ladies just so you wouldn't have to :P

    Cheers ;)

11. Ivovic
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #
    

    oh Whooami is going to be pissed she missed out on another dogpile :)

12. Flirtilizer
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #
    

    Joni, I've read and researched too. But the problem with most linux type people and instructions is that they assume you know a lot before you get started. I research all the time, I read all the time. But I'm not so pompous that I'm unwilling to admit I need help. Go find someone else to fight with. I spent a day trying to figure out what to do. I went to the docs where it ought to be. I went to the docs on for my theme, nothing there. I saw that sometimes the theme options will allow you to configure your 404 but mine didn't. I had considered asking the theme developer but I didn't know if it was a theme issue or what. I don't want to bother the theme developer unless I need too. Frankly Joni, you don't know what your talking about. You don't know what I did. The day you own the forum, I'll care what you think about spammy newbie questions. Someone said it was spam, that really shows they know what they are doing. Attack away, you easily amused.

    Ivovic, thanks for the help.

13. moshu
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #
    

    (If you think that Joni ever attacked somebody on this forum... then you didn't see anything yet...)

    And the reason why the veteran helpers get a little bit annoyed: almost everything has been written into the Codex, it just has to be read.

    Creating_an_Error_404_Page
    Conditional_Tags#Helpful_404_page

14. askapache
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #
    

    Maybe I'm old and bitter, but heh, I learned the hard way. I searched, read, practiced, blew up plenty of sites and even once sent my local mom and pop ISP's servers down in flames. (That was back when I was trying to learn Greymatter!) So .. ask and some kind soul will probably try to help.

    ha the good old days. I probalby spent a month trying to figure SLIP out just to get on the net.. http://tldp.org/HOWTO/SLIP-PPP-Emulator/index.html

    But the best piece of advice I can give you is to try to learn by doing. THEN if you hit a wall, you can come back here and intelligently articulate your problem, and what steps you've taken to try to solve it yourself. That goes a long way toward garnering the help you need to get yourself out of whatever web related jam you are in. :)

    Anyone with any level of knowledge dealing with technology knows host true that is. Because its the part when you are trying to find a solution to a problem that you learn the best..

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