Besides better image handling – the new version has a pretty comprehensive built-in gallery (WordPress head developer honcho Matt Mullenweg did a preview screencast of the new gallery), it also has features like an enhanced in-built tagging feature, integrated analytics (so you get a better idea of your traffic picture without having to go to Google Analytics), a redesign of the user interface that should allow for more intuitive posting.

What’s uncertain is if embedding videos and other code requires having to muck around with the blog settings, because WordPress hasn’t really “played nice” with PHP, javascript and flash files in it’s previous incarnations.

Also, there’s a big question mark about the compatibility with WordPress plugins (generally developed by third party and independent developers) designed for earlier versions of WordPress.

–

So the $64,000 question (or perhaps in today’s context, the $1million question…) is as an Internet Marketer – either you promote other products as an affiliate or you have your own products – should you upgrade to WordPress 2.5 now?

Here’s my personal take…

If you started out with the later versions of WordPress  2.2.x or WordPress 2.3.x and your blog works ok now, you should not have too much difficulty with the upgrade. Maybe 1 or 2 plugins might stop working, but you might be able to get along without it.

If on the other hand, you started out with WordPress 2.0.x or 2.1.x and you use more than 20 different plugins, you can expect some pain during the upgrade process.

I know specifically if you’re using SEO-optimization type plugins and affiliate marketing plugins, and one of them breaks in the process (especially since WordPress has gone from a category-based data management system to a taxonomy-based one), you might want to hang on for a moment, and wait a couple of weeks before the dust settles.

From what I’ve seen from the notes, it doesn’t look like the ability to post video on the blog is a huge priority at the moment, so podcasters, video bloggers and lifecasters might experience some difficulty during the migration.

Whatever you choose to do, be sure to backup your MySQL database, and copy and paste important settings and information into a text file for reference later in case something goes awry.

There’s nothing more “fun” than doing a one-click upgrade of your blog, only to spend the next 24-48 hours trying to undo it.

If you have the ability to, you might even want to duplicate your existing blog on another domain or a sub-directory and upgrading that instance of your blog. The major bugbears may take a couple of days to show themselves though.

Whatever you do, tread carefully, especially if your blog brings in daily income!

On a conservative basis, I’d say that monetization from my blogging alone amounts to somewhere in the mid to higher 4 figure range per month.

Which is a pittance compared to some of the “Super Bloggers” out there.

There’s a lot of talk these days about how much the top bloggers make, especially in the light of Business Week’s “Bloggers Bring In The Big Bucks” story.

Although I know Darren Rowse and Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker and visit Mario Lavandeira’s PerezHilton and Pete Cashmore’s Mashable, the names on the list were alien to me.

It’s a testament that blogging is an open field and you pick your niche and can do well with it.

But if you’re clued in to the power of blogging, you’d realize that the payoff from blogging comes outside of blogging.

If you listened in to the episode of the Net Income radio show where Shoemoney had Matt Mullenweg, part of the team which developed the WordPress blogging platform, the real money comes as a result of having blogged, rather than because of blogging.

If you missed that episode of Net Income, you can check it out:

As an example, Darren Rowse is a founder of the B5Media blog network, which receive venture funding earlier this year and Shoemoney’s income also comes from promoting CPA offers and developing AuctionAds with partner-in-crime Dave Dellanave AKA Dillsmack. AuctionAds was recently acquired by Media Whiz for an undisclosed sum.

Personally, blogging is a platform to network and form joint ventures, it’s given me the opportunity to “meet up” with several influential super affiliates and information marketers and importantly, clients. Meeting up at events in a face-to-face context is just a way of cementing the relationship.

If you want to exploit blogging to its fullest potential, you need to look at it as more than just a website to pimp adsense or affiliate offers, it’s value as a branding platform is infinitely greater.

I’ve always enjoyed the impressionist paintings of Claude Monet, and his works are still enjoyed nearly a century later. It’s likely they’ll continue to be enjoyed for generations to come. All accomplished with a paintbrush and paint.

Similarly, a blog is just that, a tool, just like Monet’s humble paintbrush.

In the hands of an individual with extraordinary vision, you can do much more than what you thought was possible.

Significant in this WordPress release is a patch for a security hole. Though I think the security issue was blown out of proportion by some bloggers (SecurityBait?), it’s good to upgrade your blog to the latest version.

Among the changes:

• The aforementioned security fixes.
• HTML quicktags now work in Safari browsers.
• Comments are filtered to prevent them from messing up your blog layout.
• Compatibility with PHP/FastCGI setups.

Before you patch your WordPress blog, I’d recommend the following:

• Backup your MySQL database
• Read the WordPress codex on restoring a backup in case things go south
• Keep your fingers crossed

The documentation says this is a stable release, so things should go smoothly.

If you’re interested in being a beta tester for the next major WordPress release (Version 2.1), you can sign up at http://wordpress.org/download/beta/.

But unless you’re a full time blogger, you’d probably get more leverage focusing on your SEO, SEM, product creation or affiliate marketing activities.

And sometimes if you’re lucky, you encounter wordpress plug-ins!

Some plug-ins are kinda funky, like Hello Dolly! from Matt Mullenweg (aka Photo Matt) founding developer of WordPress. Matt also holds the distinction of being the #1 most important Matt in the world (according to google).

What does Hello Dolly do? For the non-Wordpress initiaited: It’s not just a plugin! It symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly.

The effect?: When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page.

Interesting plug-in. A bit lacking in the purely functional department, but otherwise good for your soul.

Then you have other plug-ins which help you do useful stuff, like link related posts, insert tags that help you get your blog found more easily (and hopefully bring more traffic).

I had a moment of ooh-ahh, when I chanced upon this plug-in while surfing the net earlier.

WP Tiger Administration cleans up the WordPress Admin screen and gives you a sleek user interface.

If you’re familiar with the WP admin screens, they’re not the most user friendly ones to use.

Based on CSS2 (cascadiing style sheets), it’s design is compatible with Safari and Firefox.

Developer Steve Smith notes that “until Internet Explorer complies with CSS2 specifications, this plugin will default back to the original WordPress administration design. The plugin does this automagically, without the need for browser sniffing. If the browser is incapable of displaying CSS2, it will not display the updated design.”

Overall a very cool plug-in.

I like this and will be installing it.