Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Best 10 Notebook and Diary Style WordPress Themes

December 9th, 2009

If you want to start up a stylish personal website with all necessary functional facilities to get the most of your everyday writing WordPress provides a wide range of solutions to choose from. So may we bring to your attention a collection of simple but very modern Notebook and Diary Style WordPress Themes which will help you to establish beautiful personal pages absolutely for free?


1. Notepad Chaos Theme



Notepad Chaos is a stunning free WordPress theme created to turn your website into a beautiful notebook. Its original design painted with flowers and ornamental patterns captivates and assures you it’s a perfect solution for your blogging.


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10 Useful WordPress Tricks

August 14th, 2009



WordPress is an amazing blogging platform, there are hundreds of ways to make your WordPress blog better and extend its functionality. WordPress community keeps on inventing new tricks, hacks and plugins to give you an opportunity to reach the unbelievable goals with your WordPress powered web presence.
I like keeping myself updated with the latest events related to WordPress, and I like keeping up to date with the most useful tricks and plugins WordPress community develops. Today I’m going to share 10 useful WordPress tools and tricks from my latest discoveries.


* Antivirus for Wordpress
This great tool will warn you of any possible attacks.


* E-Commerce Shopping Cart
You absolutely need this good looking and easy to maintain e-Commerce platform if you plan to launch an online shop on the base of your WordPress powered website.


* Broken Links Checker
Very good plugin that monitors your blog and looks for broken links.


* Random Posts from Category
You can display random posts from a category you choose. The plugin lets you choose the number of displayed posts. Plus you can tell it to show the excerpt or the full content in addition to title of the post.


* Dropdown Blogroll
This guide will teach you how to create a beautiful dropdown blogroll without javascript.


* Better Search Page
This great plugin will give you the complete control over the look of your WordPress search results page.


* Simple Post Thumbnails
This is a very easy to use plugin that will let you create thumbnails for your blog posts. There is no image editing required, the plugin will do everything for you.


* Vote Post Up/Down
Add some interaction with your visitors, let them vote and show how they liked your articles.


* Improve Page Load Time
This nice plugin will improve your page load time greatly. To do that it’ll combine and compress JS and CSS files.


* Spell, Style and Grammar Check
This smart plugin is a very handy tool that will find any writing errors at your blog entries and offer smart solutions.


Are there more new WordPress tricks and tools you use and would like to share with others?

WordPress Security Update

August 4th, 2009



As you know WordPress is an open source, this means that it’s constantly developed and innovated. The thing that makes WordPress stand out from other open source blogging platforms is a strong and devoted community. Even when developers miss some bugs the community is always there to point them out, thus helping to make WordPress better and more secure. This is the story behind the new WordPress 2.8.3 security release. Two weeks ago when WordPress security update version 2.8.2 has been released it appeared that some holes were uncovered the WordPress community quickly found the missed places, thus the new improved version is here now. You may have already seen it in your WordPress admin area.
This is the security release thus I strongly recommend you to update your WordPress to protect data and web server better.
You can download WordPress 2.8.3 and upgrade manually or do it automatically from your admin area.


Have you ever faced any problems with your WordPress security? Do share your experience in the comments below.

15 Most Inspiring Uses Of Wordpress As CMS

July 27th, 2009

Undoubtedly, Wordpress is known as a powerful blogging platform used by webmasters all over the world. But we should admit that it is capable of providing much more facilities. The point is that due to some modifications and implementation of certain plugins you can turn your Wordpress into fully functional Content Management System. In order for you to see how it looks in the issue and get inspired for your own Wordpress transformations we present you the compilation of the most inspiring designs of Wordpress successfully used as CMS.

1. Weather Pops

gallery in wordpress

Weather Pops imply the set of characters related to weather which are available for licensing. This website possesses eye-catching design and shows how you can build simple but mighty website, including galleries, standard pages and contact forms in your Wordpress site.

2. TP Hire

This rental company website is distinguished by enhanced gallery page which maintains facilities for viewing images in larger size and in a slideshow. Separate attention should be paid to the Events Page as it shows very clearly how you can customize Wordpress pages to fit your individual website requirements.

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Ultimate List of Tools for Your WordPress Part 1

July 23rd, 2009



WordPress is the hugely popular blogging platform, no wonder there is such immense number of tools developed for WordPress powered blogs. To simplify your life I’ve made a selection of the most useful plugins and extensions to give you the ultimate list of WordPress tools.
Much has been said about such essential plugins as Akismet and All in One SEO Pack, thus I won’t touch upon them here. And don’t expect to see here tools for SEO, security, audio and image sharing as I already covered these subjects at this blog.


Tools for Posts:
* Auto Link
Automatically links keywords within your blog posts to any location you specify
* Category Posts Widget
You can specify how many posts you want to be shown within the specified category
* Code Markup
This plugin allows you to put snippets of code (HTML included) into the posts without affecting your page.
* Easy Post-To-Post Links
Use a shortcut to link to another posts on your blog.
* WP-PostRatings
Let your visitors vote for your posts. Plugin also allows to display the most or least ranked posts on your sidebar.
* WP-Footnotes
This plugin allows, well… to put footnotes at your posts.
* Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Gives a list of old posts on your blog related to the current one
* WP-PostViews
Displays the number of times a post has been viewed.


RSS Feed Tools:
* Feed Control
Among many features this plugin gives you are the ability to exclude posts from your feed and add pages.
* Feed Footer
Adds copyright and ads to your RSS posts.
* DeCat
Gives you an opportunity to select categories that won’t be included in your feeds.
* Feed Styler
Style your feed as you want it to be.
* FeedStats
Gives you every statistics on your feeds
* Subscribe-Remind
This nice plugin allows you to remind your readers to subscribe to your feed at the end of each post.


Video Tools:
* Easy Inline SWF
Allows you to easily insert Flash files in .swf format into your blog entries.
* Extreme Video
Allows you to play any .flv file on your blog. Supports YouTube, Quicktime, Google Video and more.
* YouTube Brackets
With this plugin you do not need to copy and paste embed code to insert a YouTube video into your post, all you need is to enter an URL
* SeeTheFace
This tool allows you to record video and post it at your blog.


Comments Tools:
* Bannage
With this plugin you can ban any annoying user by name, email, or IP.
* Admin Panel Comment Reply
This plugin will add a “reply to comment” option in the comments section of your WordPress admin area.
* WP-Most Commented Posts
Displays the most commented posts at your blog sidebar
* Live Comment Preview
With this plugin you will allow your users to preview their comments before posting them.
* Edit Comments XT
Your users will be able to edit their comments.
* DoFollow
Removes the “nofollow” attributes from links in comments.
* DoFollow Trackbacks
Removes “nofollow” attributes from the trackbacks.
* Show Top Commentators
List your most devoted commentators with links to their websites.


This was the first part of the list of the most essential WordPress tools. What type of tools would you like to see in the next part?

Plugins to Monetize Your Blog

July 21st, 2009



It’s not a secret that most of us are blogging to earn some money. Thus I decided to make a list of plugins that can help you with this goal.
The most popular way of making money online is Google AdSense. There are hundreds of articles on how to make money with Google AdSense and a number of plugins that make the installation easier and faster:


* Adsense Deluxe WordPress Plugin
This plugin will add a screen to your options panel. From that screen you will be able to create AdSense ad units and manage them, decide what sizes ads should be and at what parts of your blog they should be placed.


The plugins named below will help you easily add AdSense to your blog:


* Adsense Injection
* MightyAdsense
* Google AdSense Widget


As most of the AdSense WordPress plugins require editing your theme you might find Shylock Adsense WordPress plugin to be the better choice for you as it allows to insert Adsense ads to your WordPress blog without modifying the theme.


* AdSense Manager is also a very good WordPress plugin that will help you manage your ads. It generates the code automatically.


* Google Ad Wrap
This fruitful plugin wraps posts and comments at your blog inside Section Targeting tags thus giving you better targeted ads.


And these plugins will help you track your AdSense earnings:


* AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System WordPress Plugin
* Adsense Clicks Tracker
* Adsense Earnings WordPress Plugin


Another popular resource of money for bloggers is Amazon.com. There are several plugins that can help you add different Amazon ad types to your WordPress blog.


* Amazon Autoposter
This free and user friendly plugin automatically posts Amazon products on any keyword you specify, thus helping you earn money with Amazon affiliate program.


* Amazon Associate Filter
This plugin will automatically add your associate id to all Amazon links in the posts and comments at your blog.


What affiliate programs do you use to monetize your blogs?

Take Care Of All of Your Readers: Create a Mobile Version of Your Blog

June 25th, 2009

In nowadays world everything and everyone is moving fast and time becomes more and more precious. Small wonder that everything mobile is so popular. Mobile technologies give the opportunity to safe time on doing small but so important things like checking your email or reading updates of your favorite blogs. And as everything here is about WordPress and blogging you may guess what the point of this post is going to be - mobile version of your WordPress blog of course.
Remember my post about the WordPress version for iPhone? Well, I assume not everyone has iPhone, thus lets figure out how to create the mobile version of your blog for everyone - iPhone and not iPhone users. There are actually several ways to create beautiful and lightweight version of your blog for mobile phones:


#1 MoFuse
This service is a very simple way of creating a mobile version of your blog. All you have to do is to put your URL and complete the necessary registration and your desired mobile version is ready in no time.


#2 Wirenode
Pretty much the same service as MoFuse, creates your mobile version in about two minutes.


#3 Google Mobile Optimizer
Official mobile site creator from Google creates the version in seconds. All your content, links and images will be nicely put into your mobile version.


#4 UBIK
If you want to create a mobile blog from scratch without doing the initial coding this is a good solution. The site offers a number of customizable templates for mobile phones, the whole process of creating a mobile blog here looks pretty much like building a common blog - you select a theme and edit it to look like you want it to be. That’s it.


And here are some useful tutorials on the subject:


* Make a mobile version of your blog with Google Reader


* Create a mobile version of your blog with plugin


* Creating Mobile Version of your blog with branding and customize it


Once you have your blog mobile version created don’t forget to put a link to it on your blog or improve your code to redirect those visitors who browse your blog through mobile phones to the appropriate version.
Taking care of all of your readers you give them another reason to come back to your blog, thus do consider creating a mobile version of your weblog if you still don’t have one. : )


Do you know more ways to make a mobile version of a website?

WordPress 2.8 Beta

May 21st, 2009



It always amazes me how extremely fast WordPress is innovated and updated, it’s not a wonder that it’s the most popular blogging platform these days. The WordPress version 2.7 is still new and fresh and seems to be released only yesterday, but here we have the version 2.8 all ready. Well, not that ready as it is still a beta version, though I think many of you would still appreciate it.


So, what the new version has for us, the WordPress addicts? Here is a list of the main improvements and innovations of WordPress 2.8 beta:
The Admin icons are improved along with the plugin search and widget user interface. Among new options is a description field for tags and per page option for plugins, besides the new version supports more than one gallery at the same page and there is a great new option of autosaving post/page when pressing Control/Command+S. The new WordPress won’t ask you for confirmation when marking a comment as spam, won’t notify you of your own comments if you are a post author and will allow case-insensitive logins.
The full list of the new and improved features of version 2.8 is here.
This update is great, but still a beta, thus be careful because beta versions usually have many bugs.


So, what version of WordPress are you using?

WordPress as a CMS: how to build a portfolio website

April 30th, 2009



Deservedly considered to be the best blogging platform WordPress is not just that. Its ease of use and maintenance makes it the most ultimate CMS (Content Management System). CMS is a Web application used for creating and managing HTML content. CMSs usually provide tools that allow creating and managing content with little or no knowledge of programming. The easy to understand and operate WordPress admin tools allow you to create literally every possible type of website without tech skills from your side. There are hundreds of ways to use WordPress not as a blog but as CMS, creating an online portfolio is one of them. So how can you actually do that? Well, there are few ways.


* You can add image gallery WordPress Plugins to your blog thus adding the new functionality to it. This is an easy way to show your pictures to the world.


* The other way is to change your WordPress theme to a pre-made theme that is especially designed to be a gallery. Here you should decide whether you want a free or a premium theme for your online gallery.


Portfolio Extended is a brilliant example of a free wp theme for online galleries. It’s three column, adSence ready skin performed in nice red color palette.


free wordpress portfolio theme


Flipbook photo blog wp flash template is an awesome example of a premium theme for portfolio. The use of Flash makes it live and vivid.


wordpress portfolio


Here are some brilliant examples of WordPress used as a portfolio website to inspire you:


Freshivore. A personal page of a designer from California featuring a very nice portfolio of his works.


wp portfolio


Best web gallery. A brilliant web design showcase built with WordPress.


wordpress gallery


How would you use WordPress as a CMS?

Be a smart blogger

April 16th, 2009



What I like about WordPress most of all is its being constantly improved, thus the system becomes more and more secure. And the errors a blogger faces are more and more frequently the blogger own fault not the CMS.
So, what should you do to avoid the most common WordPress errors?


* Update every time you have a chance to
Upgrading everything on your blog from WordPress itself to plugins makes your blog less vulnerable. Make sure you secured your blog well.

* Don’t do anything if you don’t know how
Don’t try editing your theme if you don’t know how exactly to do that. Messing the code can lead to irreparable consequences and cause the errors that are hard to fix.


* Make sure the plugins you add are up-to-date and safe
The plugins you add to your blog should be compatible with your WordPress version, up-to-date, any modifications have to be noted by the plugin author, there should be installation instructions, license and other documentation. Don’t think that checking these things is a waste of time, waste of time is adding a plugin that won’t be working and will cause errors.


* Learn some coding basics
If you want to modify your themes and change the way your blog is seen by your users you better learn some basics of coding. Knowledge can never be superfluous, read your WordPress help files carefully, ask questions at forums, don’t be afraid to learn new things.




We all once started blogging and I’m pretty sure every one of you faced the issues that baffled you. So share your experiences, what are the WordpPress errors you faced and how did you deal with them?