Posts Tagged ‘Wordpress’
4 Cool Wordpress Themes For Your Personal Blog
There have been many bloggers who have made a business out of branding their own names. If you happen to have had any success blogging or doing anything else for that matter, you want to make sure you build your domain name (e.g. [Firstname][Lastname].com) to help people find you more effectively and leverage the site to push your other endeavors. Personal blogs are also useful for those who just want to aggregate all their activities on social networking sites in one place. Even if you don’t have a plan for your domain name, you still want to take the first steps to make sure you get the proper credit from the search engines.
Thanks to Wordpress, anyone can put up a website in a matter of minutes. There are plenty of themes that you can choose from to give your website the look and feel you crave. But if you are interested in giving your visitors ways to contact you or follow your work online on your blog, these 4 personal blog Wordpress themes come in handy:
Social Life: integrates all your favorite social media services into one page. So essentially, you won’t have to do anything other than doing what you have been doing on Twitter and other social networking sites. This theme takes care of the rest.
AntiSocial: one of the best aggregator themes on the market. If you happen to be invovled heavily in the social media, you are going to love using this theme. It’s pretty flexible and makes it easy to create a website that your visitors can use to get in touch with your work. Read more »
Fixed Social Plugin: Wordpress Meets Social Media
In a perfect world, your readers will take the time to remember to submit your best content to all relevant social media services around. After all, wouldn’t it be nice if you got some exposure on those sites for all the work you have done without having to lift a finger. That’s actually possible as long as your content provides unique value to your readers. You also want to have the proper tools on your blog to make it easy for your readers to submit your posts to those sites. If you are running your blog on Wordpress, you are in luck. There are plenty of plugins that make it so easy for your visitors to share your content on top social networking sites.
Fixed Social Plugin is an amazing little plugin that is worth a try for anyone who’s looking to get more exposure for his/her content on sites such as Facebook, StumbleUpon, and other top sites. This plugin is very flexible. It lets you pick and choose the style of your buttons and also the ones you want to show on your blog.
reCAPTCHA: Protect Your Blog Against Spam
Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform around. It’s not only free but can easily be enhanced through its huge database of plugins. But like every popular platform, Wordpress is susceptible to spam attacks as well. If you don’t believe me, just start a Wordpress blog with no security plugins and write a couple of posts on it. Once your site is crawled by Google and other search engines, you are going to see those nasty spammers make their way to your blog with their Viagra and other obscene plugs. That’s why you don’t want to abandon your Wordpress blog as far as its security is concerned.
reCAPTCHA is a powerful Wordpress plugin that helps you manage spam much more easily. Everybody who has been on the Internet for more than a few months has seen those annoying CAPTCHA systems. Yes. They can be annoying, but if you are getting a lot of spam comments on your blog, you’ll have to do something about it. I am sure your audience would understand. With reCAPTCHA, you can stop spammers in their tracks and make the process less convenient for them. Read more »
Enhance Your Wordpress Blog Posts with WDTGFH
I don’t know about you, but I never realized I had so many posts until one day I stopped and noticed the actual number. On another blog of mine, I blog on a daily basis and have been doing it for 9 years. After a while, you stop focusing on the number of posts you have and spend more time adding quality to your posts. But posts add up quickly, especially if you write a new one everyday. If you happen to have many posts on your blog, you want to make sure you provide your readers with the chance to go through your other posts and spend more time on your blog. That’s where WDTGFH comes in. It’s a powerful Wordpress plugin that let you users discover new posts on your blog and get more out of it.
If you have bought anything from Amazon recently, you have probably seen the above message. Essentially, Amazon is trying to encourage you to browse through more of its products and spend even more money on the site. That’s exactly what WDTGFH does, except it focuses on your blog posts instead of actual products. It keeps track of what stories people click on and provides a link to them on the source page. So your readers can go through your posts and figure out what posts other readers have found interesting after viewing a specific post.
Greet Your Visitors with WP Greet Box
When you get started with your blog, you only have a handful of posts for a while. So you don’t really get too much traffic from search engines. But once you hit those magic numbers (500, 1000, …) in posts, you are going to get a lot of passive traffic from all kinds of places. Some people may digg your blog posts. Others may submit your posts to Facebook, Delicious, or even Twitter. So you are going to get traffic from different sources. Now the easy way to deal with your traffic is to do nothing. Just sit and watch as people come and go. But that’s not very smart. Perhaps the smarter way to approach your traffic is by figuring out where its coming from and treat each source differently.
WP Greet Box is a cool plugin for Wordpress bloggers that makes it easy to track your visitors and show them customized messages based on their referring URL. Essentially, the plugin lets you treat your Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon traffic differently. You can give your Facebook visitors an incentive to tweet your posts and vice versa. This process can be implemented for other blogging platforms as well, though you’ll most likely need a 3rd party script to get the job done. With WP Greet Box, you won’t have write a single line of code, which is a big plus.
Start Your Wordpress Blog with Elegant Themes
Wordpress has made it so easy for newbie bloggers to get started with their blog and manage their content more effectively. A few years ago (in the pre-Wordpress era), people used to have HTML and static blogs. You had to manage all your pages yourself as there was no system to do it for you. But these days things are so simple, you won’t have to worry about managing your content all by yourself.
A lot of newbie bloggers that I have talked to have raved about how fun using free themes it is. After all, you don’t have to pay any money for them, and all you have to do is leave those footer images in place. In reality, you are doing your blog a disservice if you get a free theme. The least you should settle for is a premium theme. Here is why: nobody wants to spend money if they don’t have to. But spending money on a cool theme is more of an investment than an expense. Besides, you can be sure that a whole lot of people will download the same free theme that you have. So your site will look the same as thousands of other sites on the market. Considering that premium themes are not that expensive, going with them is really a no-brainer.
Elegant Themes is a cool Wordpress membership site that gives you access to lots of cool Wordpress themes for only $19.95 a year. You get over 20 themes that you can use for any occasion. Not only these themes are well designed, but you also get all the PSD and Photoshop files that you would need to be able to customize the look and feel of these themes. And it doesn’t hurt that these themes are optimized for Wordpress 2.8 and are search engine friendly.
Here are some the themes that you get with this membership plan:
- ePhoto
- eBusiness
- CherryTruffle
- PureType
- Basic
- ColdStone
- LightSource
- eGamer
- eVid
- Cion
- eGallery
- …
This membership site has it all. eVid is a great way to start your own video blog. eGallery lets you start your own online gallery. And you can always build your gaming blog with eGamer. If you are into business blog, eBusiness comes in handy. Read more »
5 Cool Themes For Wordpress Bloggers
Filed under: Vlogging Tips, Wordpress | View Comments
If you have been using Wordpress to manage content on your blog, you have probably seen all those free themes that you can use to start your Wordpress blog fast. While it’s always tempting to set up a blog with one of those free themes, you want to make sure you get a theme which is not that common, and at the same time is flexible enough for you to make changes to it and make it look unique. Premium Wordpress themes may not be as unique as a custom-designed theme, but they are cheaper, and as long as you get your hands on a flexible theme, you can change it to make the look and feel unique to your site.
One thing is for certain if you are using Wordpress for your blog: you are going to have a lot of options when it comes to deciding a theme for your blog. You just want to make sure you think long-term and choose a theme that can be easily customized. To help you find a cool theme for your blog, here are 5 pro-blogging themes that are worth a serious consideration:
1. One Theme: an all in one solution designed for all types of bloggers. One of the most flexible themes on the market that allows you to use it in any niche. It’s search engine friendly as well to help you get some free traffic.
2. Thesis: Thesis needs no introduction. It’s one of the most flexible themes on the market. Almost all top bloggers have used Thesis in the past. The strength comes from the back-end where you get to change the settings of your blog without having to write a line of code.
3. Arthemia: an attractive and flexible theme for blogging portals. Great theme to start and manage your blog more effectively. And you can’t argue with the design which is simply stunning.
4. Black Aperture: a dark theme that is great for handling lots of images and is user friendly as well. It has a super professional look and feel to it. Great for those who like to plan things long-term. You’d have a hard time out-growing this theme.
5. VideoFlick 2.0: is a great theme if you plan to create your vlog/blog hybrid site. A lot of people are starting their vlogs these days, and this is a great time to do just that. You can easily embed videos from all kinds of sources, and you won’t have to spend a fortune to get your hands on it. It’s SEO friendly as well.
All in all, you want to make sure you get a theme that is well-designed, SEO-friendly, and customizable. You can always pay thousands of dollars to get a custom design for your blog, but I recommend that only when you have a major following. With these premium themes, you get to spend more time focusing on providing valuable content to your readers and less on other things.
Your turn: which of the 5 designs do you like the most?
One Theme for Wordpress Bloggers
Your blog design is not as important as the quality of your content, but it is still important if you want to share information with your readers more effectively. You can always spend thousands of dollars to order a custom-designed theme, but not every blogger can afford that. I know a lot of bloggers who use those free themes that are available on the Internet. There is nothing wrong with those themes. But since a lot of people are using them around the world, your blog is going to look similar to hundreds of other sites that are using the same free theme. By buying a premium theme, not only you get a decent premium design, but also you’ll get your hands on a design that is used by less folks. And you can always customize your theme and make it unique. Most top premium themes allow you to customize theme easily, which means you won’t have to do too much coding either.
1 Theme is an all-in-one Wordpress solution for bloggers. It’s a premium theme that is designed to help bloggers set up their sites fast. One Theme comes with multiple designs, which means whether you are looking to start a blog or a magazine site, you won’t have too much trouble doing it with One Theme. You can choose among fun, modern, professional, and default designs and customize them to your heart’s content.
One Theme has a unique back-end/control panel (One Panel) that makes customizing the theme very easy. For ease of use, all of the options are multiple choice, and you can change a lot of things right from the back-end. You can also back up your theme right in the back-end, meaning that you shouldn’t be afraid of playing with One Theme.
Here are a few other features that you get with One Theme:
- Ajax Driven
- FeedBurner/Google Email Signup
- FeedBurner/Google RSS Redirect
- Layout customization
- Featured Video/Embed Code
- Skin Switcher
- SEO Friendly Search URL’s
- Google Adsense Ready
- Google Analytics Ready
Overall, One Theme is a great looking theme and one that should be considered strongly by bloggers who are looking for a new Wordpress theme. It won’t come cheap but in comparison to what you have to pay for a custom design, this is as cheap as it gets. And you get lifetime updates at no extra cost. I could do without the complex licensing scheme, but that doesn’t take away from One Theme’s cool design.
Your turn: Please share your blog if you are using One Theme on it.
Blog More Effectively With Zemanta
Filed under: Blogging Tools | View Comments
Professional bloggers are always on the lookout for ways to blog more effectively and get more done in less time. There are only a limited number of hours in a day, which means to take your blog to the next level you need to use tools that allow you to get your blog posts done faster without you having to cut any corners. Zemanta is a cool new service that allows professional bloggers and professional media members to research more effectively and find appropriate content faster.
You can install Zemanta on your server (for Wordpress) or just use their browser extension. There is really no difference between the two. Zemanta is truly a life saver as it allows you to find content for your blog posts fast. Here is how it works. Once you download Zemanta, it adds a bunch of tabs to your blog’s sidebar. From there, you can search for images, news, and other type of content and import them to your blog fast.
How To Use Zemanta
Zemanta is simple to install. You can easily add it to Firefox or Internet Explorer. You can also download the plugin for Wordpress and put it on your server. I personally prefer the browser extension. Here is what you can do with Zemanta once you install it:
- Find images for your blog based on your keyword term.
- Tag your posts like a pro. Zemanta automatically suggests targeted tags based on your content.
- Link out to other sites that address the same topic as yours.
- Use the Reblog button to create reaction posts to what other bloggers have had to say about your topic.
You can also use Zemanta to write e-mails more effectively. You get the same features you get on your blog on Gmail as well.
Zemanta is truly an exciting tool for bloggers. Not only it allows you to find content for your blog, it helps you optimize your blog posts for search engines as well. Best of all, it comes in many formats allowing you to install it on your browser client or on the server side. If you are looking for a tool that helps you become a more effective blogger, you should try Zemanta.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=648a1fb1-c5e9-47b4-bb99-86ce631787bc)
Thesis for Wordpress – Why Superbloggers Use Thesis
If you have been spending some time online in the past few weeks, chances are you have heard about Thesis for Wordpress. Thesis is without a doubt the most popular premium Wordpress theme on the market. Many super bloggers are currently using Thesis to get more done with their blogs. Here are a few super blogs that are based on Thesis theme:
- Copyblogger
- Tipd.com
- SimpleMom
- Twitip
So why are all these guys using Thesis? After all, there are thousands of good looking premium themes out there. It’s not really that hard to figure out. Here is why:
- Design: Thesis comes with a simple design. If you don’t intend to heavily customize your theme, you can use the origial design to get started with your blog fast. Things are where they’re supposed to be, and you save your readers a lot of guesswork by using Thesis.
- Flexibility: most top bloggers have customized their Thesis design to make their sites unique. There are a lot of things that can do on the back-end. Not only that, you can completely change the look and feel of your site without doing too much coding.
- SEO: if you have read Blogging Heroes, you have probably seen that a lot of top bloggers claim that they don’t pay too much attention to SEO. But they don’t have to with Thesis. It comes with clean HTML/CSS code and is highly optimized to help you get maximum ranking on search engines. Who doesn’t like free traffic?
- Accessibility & Usability: Thesis designers have paid extra attention to web usability and accessibility. Aren’t you tired of those blogs that are all over the place and make you search for minutes to find what you are looking for? With Thesis, things are where they are supposed to be.
- Layout: Thesis’ layout is highly customizable. If you look at the examples that I provided above, you can see it’s not tough to change things around on Thesis.
- Cross-browser Compatibility: as much as I love my current theme, I didn’t know till a few days ago that it wasn’t showing up right on Internet Explorer. With Thesis, I have never had that problem. That’s what clean code is all about.
- Lifetime Updates: Thesis comes with lifetime updates. That means you won’t have to spend a time to get your hands on updates done to this theme.
- Support: if you are stuck, you can always count on the folks behind Thesis to help you out. Nice to have these guys around.
- Affordable: you can buy this theme for only $87. If you want to put it on multiple sites, you can get it for $164. Very affordable for such a highly customizable theme.
Thesis has a lot of features and is very good looking. But what sets it apart from other themes is its SEO-friendly code and highly customizable design. Whether you want to use the original design or just want to build a brand new theme, you can’t go wrong with Thesis. Super-bloggers wouldn’t be using it if it weren’t any good!
