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lynda.com tutorial | WordPress 3: Building Child Themes—What is a WordPress Child Theme?

Watch the entire course at www.lynda.com WordPress 3: Building Child Themes shows how to create a new theme, based on a prebuilt parent theme in WordPress, which overrides or changes just the functions, presentation elements, or styling elements you want to affect. In this course, Morten Rand-Hendriksen covers importing parent themes, adding custom menus, restyling the header image, customizing the sidebar and index pages, implementing the Post Thumbnail feature, and incorporating JavaScript. The course also shows how to establish a quick and efficient theme restyling workflow, taking a design from mockup to fully functional site. Workflow techniques including modifying basic CSS by using a code editor such as Eclipse, the developer tools in the Chrome browser, and WordPress.

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Making Use of WordPress Plug-Ins

Making Use of WordPress Plug-Ins

A lot of bloggers don’t make proper use of the many WordPress plug-ins that are available to them and when you don’t utilize them your work becomes a lot harder. There is hundreds of different WordPress plug-ins that can make your blog more SEO friendly as well as more interactive, and you should be using a large number of plug-ins for each of your blogs. Some plug-ins is almost mandatory in the minds of bloggers and I’m going to list some of the more useful plug-ins that you can utilize.

– All in One SEO Pack
– Google Sitemap Generator
– KB Robots Text
– FlickrRSS
– Feedburner Feed Replacement
– Add-This
– WP-Contact Form
– Related Posts
– Popular Posts
– Ad-Man

There is many more plug-ins that can be useful to your blogging experience but typically you should make sure that you’re using the plug-ins listed above. All of the plug-ins can be found on lists throughout the internet by doing a simple search in Google. Simply type the name above and WordPress plug-in and you should find the plug-in mentioned above.

I personally utilize all of the above plug-ins for all of my blogs, and the only one I really don’t use on all my blogs is the FlickrRSS which posts pictures to your sidebar. I only use this for entertainment type blogs and that’s about it. Once you have all of these plug-ins set-ups you’ll notice more traffic coming from the search engines and will also allow for easier navigation and interactivity between users and your blog.

Making your life easier with the use of plug-ins is one of the reasons why so many people are now switching to blogging platforms for their websites and if you don’t utilize the helpful plug-ins then there isn’t much reason to blog. Blogging is ideal for people without programming knowledge which is why the plug-ins is so abundant for WordPress. If you struggle setting up sites, by using WordPress and WordPress plug-ins you’ll be able to change that around quickly. Plug-ins is very simple to activate and use on WordPress as well and most of them come with instructions in the folder file that you download. If you have problems installing I’d check their first and if there isn’t instructions then you could search for them on Google as many places list detailed walkthroughs for many of the popular plug-ins.

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WordPress Plugins – 5 Great WP Plugins For Your New Blog Or Website

WordPress Plugins – 5 Great WP Plugins For Your New Blog Or Website

WordPress is an amazing Blogging platform which makes it really quick and easy for anyone to publish their own blog or website.

WordPress Plugins are clever little programs created by Plugin Developers which can be quickly installed to produce literally hundreds of different features, effects and benefits for your blog.

So if you want to add video to your blog or website – there are many plugins to choose from. If you want to add photo galleries to your blog – then again there are lots of options to choose from. There is probably a plugin for virtually anything you can think of.

For the first time blogger or newcomer to WordPress I would recommend the following 5 Plugins to give you an idea of the range and versatility of WP Plugins. There are lots more if you need them, but the following plugins will literally give you the potential to transform your blog saving you lots of time, stress and hassle.

Here is my recommended list to get you up and running, you can find them from the Plugins Menu in your WordPress Control Panel – Just choose the option to ‘Add New’ and then just search for the following plugins:

List of 5 Recommended WP Plugins for Newcomers to WordPress Self Hosted Blogs

1) Smart Youtube WP Plugin – Add Youtube Videos

2) Photodropper WP Plugin – Add Flickr Images

3) Contact Form 7 WP Plugin – Add a professional Contact Form

4) AddThis WP Plugin – Add a ‘Share’ button to each blog post

5) Twittercounter WP Plugin – Add a Twittercounter to your sidebar

1) Smart Youtube Plugin – Add Youtube Videos

This is a plugin which allows you to quickly and easily add virtually any Youtube video to your blog post or blog page. You can easily customize the appearance of the video player in terms of color and size to fit perfectly with your blog theme and design.

To use the plugin all you need to do is copy and paste the Youtube video url into your blog post and then make a tiny amendment to the url (add the letter ‘v’) and that is it. It’s really quick and simple – no other code is required.

2) Photodropper Plugin – Add Flickr Photos

This plugin allows you to search for images by keyword from within your WordPress Control Panel. So as you are writing a blog post, you can just search out an appropriate image and Photodropper will present you with a list of photos which you have permission to publish.

All you do is simply select the image you like and publish it to your post. Again, like the Smart Youtube plugin – it is really quick and easy.

3) Contact Form 7 Plugin – Create a Contact Form Page

This plugin is really useful, apart from making it really easy to create a contact page for your blog it can also be used to produce more forms – so you could use it to collect other feedback from your readers and followers.

If someone leaves a message on the contact or feedback form, it sends you a copy of the message almost instantly to your designated email address. So you will get the feedback very fast making it easy for you to react quickly.

4) Add This Plugin – Add a ‘Share’ Button

This is fast becoming one of the most popular ‘Share’ buttons around. It allows your readers to share your content really easily through the option of selecting one of many social bookmarking sites and social networks.

Once you have installed this plugin, it will automatically place a ‘Share’ Button under every post you submit maximizing the chance for your work to spread around the web.

5) Twittercounter Plugin – Let everyone know how many Twitter Followers you have

This plugin is probably more for fun than anything, but if you do have a lot of Twitter followers then this might just boost the credibility of your blog.

Once you have installed it you will have a choice of Twitter counters, so you can select the one you think is most appropriate for your Blog.

What are you waiting for?

So, what are you waiting for – go ahead and try installing these plugins and you will be amazed at the results! Once you have tried some out you will find it much easier finding more plugins and customizing your site so that it does exactly what you are looking for.

One word of warning – don’t go installing too many plugins as each one will slow down your site a little – so just stick to the ones you really need.

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Of WordPress and Widgets

Of WordPress and Widgets

One of the world’s largest blog hosting sites, WordPress, achieved its status by offering users with loads of features, apparently more than its competitors do. However, one feature that truly sets them apart from the rest is WordPress Widgets which is quite simply, the use of widgets on WordPress blogs.

Widgets are basically plugins or tiny applications which can be placed on your blog’s sidebar. In WordPress, the most convenient aspect of putting up widgets is it is easily done without the need of html or web page editing expertise. With the ability to add and arrange widgets at your fingertips, it’s you can get your blog to look the way you want it to be making it a personalized one indeed in no time at all.

There are also huge amounts of widgets available online apart from those available in WordPress and can be obtained from websites such as www.widgetbox.com. Other than providing you with widgets of all sorts, they provide you guides on creating your own widgets to truly add a touch of personality and originality. These guides are even handy for the really tech-savvy individuals like developers and theme and plugin authors. Widget creating is important for them who work for WordPress as they have to keep tabs on the thousands of people from over 130000 blogs many of whom are constantly downloading WordPress programs each day.

With the use of Javascripts as well as Ajax, widgets are quite simply little boxes which represent content elements located within the sidebar of your theme. One downside to this is that once the widget is what it is, its look and the way it works can’t be modified. Among the elements which come as standard are;

Archives – A collection of links for older posts sorted by month.

Blogstats – A display of statcounter as well as a record of the amount of traffic coming into your blog.

Calendar – A calendar which dates can be used as links if there were any entries posted on that date.

Categories – A list of categories for post sorting and searching purposes.

Links – Quite simply, a blogroll arranged according to their respective categories.

Pages – A list of links to every page.

Most Recent Posts & Comments – A list of the most recent posts as well as comments that have been approved.

Meta/admin – A collection of links directing you to meta functions such as logging in and logging out, entries and comments RSS, Site Admin and WordPress’ homepage.

Search – A search tool to search within your blog.

Text – A feature allowing the insertion of HTML, Javascript or simply any form of plain text and can open up possibilities for miscellaneous text widgets.

Another interesting thing is the ability to add RSS feeds sourced from elsewhere using the new widgets available. With functions like these, the uses of widgets encompass almost every thinkable thing where only your imagination is the limit. However, too many widgets may not only cause your blog to slow down, but may end up spoiling the look of your blog as it is never advisable to have too much of a thing and this includes widgets.

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How to Make Money Off Of Affiliates

How to Make Money Off Of Affiliates

Most bloggers who are blogging to make money already have some experience with affiliates most likely but for those of you who don’t an affiliate is simply someone who sells a product for someone and receives a commission. You can also get leads that pay money too and this can actually be easier in the beginning and I would recommend that if you’re new you work with getting leads rather then sales. People are more inclined to join something free then to buy something, especially off of a new blog which doesn’t have too much reputation so for the first while stick with leads. I actually wouldn’t even introduce affiliate sales or leads into your blog until at least one month after you begin it. Also it’s only one month if you post everyday if you post less frequently then give it a couple months before introducing affiliates. The last thing you want to do is bombard all your new readers with affiliate ads, instead you want to first build up a readership and then move forward with affiliate ads.

Once you’ve decided to start working with affiliates you need to decide how you’ll go about the task. Some people will make a separate page for affiliates and list them all on one page so that it’s somewhat tucked away and then only people interested in the offers will have to look through them. Other people will add banners or links into their sidebar pointing to the affiliate and then others will make a new blog post with the affiliate lead or product. I find that creating a new post for the product or lead is the best way to go about getting sales, because this way you can write a review of the product and let people know a bit about what there buying. You’ll notice you get more sales from the products and leads that you offer some guidance or knowledge on rather then just posting a banner or link.

When you’re placing links on your blog that point to affiliate URL’s you should use a cloaking plug-in so that you can make friendlier URL’s. A lot of people won’t click links if they know it’s an affiliate link and it’s easy to tell because most affiliate networks use there URL to forward you to the affiliate product. There are plug-ins for WordPress which make this simple though and a quick Google search will do the trick for finding the right plug-in. I’ve noticed on blogs where I cloak my affiliate links up to 30% more action on the links then when I simply use the affiliate link normally and when you’re dealing with money 30% is a fairly large percentage.

That’s about all you need to do in order to display your affiliate links properly so that you can maximize your profits and apart from that all you should be concerned about is making sure the affiliate banners and links you use on your blog fit in the blog. Meanings don’t promote a shoe affiliate on a hat blog, only choose affiliate leads or products that are directly involved with your niche. Also ensure you don’t overdo any affiliate ads because people will quickly become turned off from your blog if everything is an affiliate ad. You should use them sparsely throughout the blog posts to make sure you don’t come off as someone just trying to make a quick buck. People are far more inclined to buy something off of someone who has taught them stuff through the content on the blog, so make sure you continue writing solid content and mix in the affiliate ads as you go.

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How To Change Themes With WordPress Training Videos

www.makemoneywithwordpresstraining.com COPY OR CLICK to learn more about how to build a website using WordPress. WordPress is the choice of Internet Marketers because it is the easiest way to build a new website. In our videos we show you How to install WP in cPanel How to change themes How to put a custom header in How to install plugins How to input hyperlinks How to install widgets How to enter affiliate ads How to put Google ads in your sidebar How to create a “Products For Sale” page How to create a video page How to put it on auto-pilot so it posts a new article everyday even while you are sleeping How to put a popup on your WP blog how to setup a membership site Anybody can make a website using WordPress and anyone can make money on the Internet. Watch as we create an astronomy site while you watch just like you were in the same room. COPY OR CLICK www.makemoneywithwordpresstraining.com

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Are WordPress Templates Difficult To Understand?

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Understanding the way WordPress works 3dCharacterstockphoto , installing the software, and figuring out how the templates fit in to themes does require the bit of techie know-how. It is actually not as tough because it initial appears though, as well as thankfully, for those of us who are a bit technically challenged, there are some excellent guides as well as resources that could assist produce the procedure the whole lot smoother.

The WordPress templates are the backbone of the themes used to create the WordPress blog pages. Themes come within all manner of styles as well as designs, and may be customized by altering the layouts, installing WordPress plugins and by adding or changing the templates. WordPress templates are fundamentally merely the bunch of files which together produce up the themes for your own WordPress blog website. Typically, a default set of templates for WordPress themes would include many of these important files:

 index.phpthis can be the main template file for your own WordPress blog

 header.php – the header template

 footer.php – the footer template

 page.php – for creating WordPress pages

 single.php – for creating WordPress posts

 sidebar.php – the WordPress blog page navigation

 fashion.css – the stylesheet which makes up the layout for your own WordPress blog.

These are just the basics; there are a large number of much more WordPress templates which may be added to customize your own blog; for illustration, links, look forms, archive posts and WordPress blog comments.

Another confusing aspect for some people will be the mention of template tags. Again, these are not as difficult to understand because they 1st seem. They are basically simply bits of code to aid the WordPress templates to perform the job adequately. The tags within the templates contain the instructions to make your own WordPress blog the cleverly designed set of pages!

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If you consider the WordPress templates because the mechanics of the themes, we could hopefully begin to realize how they work together to 3dCharacterstockphoto produce the WordPress blog.

 

of the good things around WordPress templates is actually that we can customize them to design person blog pages as well as post pages. The pre-defined templates will normally apply to all the pages on your WordPress blog, but you may add, remove or change the other template files to create unique items on every page. 

of the outstanding things around WordPress templates can be that you may customize them to style person blog pages because well because pole pages. The pre-defined templates will often apply to all the pages on your WordPress blog, but we could add, remove or change the other template files to produce unique items on every page. 

of the things which seems to place people today off using the WordPress software along the own website (because opposed to the hosted WordPress blog site) will be the technical side of the process involving WordPress templates as well as themes. There’s a lot of talk about code, PHP, CSS and plenty of other confusing abbreviations which don’t mean the lot to a large number of individuals! This particular is actually unfortunate, because the WordPress blog may create such the large impact on internet pages, and may even be utilized as a standalone web site once we get the domain name and hosting sorted out. 

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20 Best WordPress Plugins

WordPressLapdance.com 20 Best WordPress Plugins To be successful as a blogger, you definitely need a helping hand with some of the best WordPress plugins which can help you leverage your efforts to get more traffic in less time. Whilst it’s absolutely true that getting Google Traffic is as easy as ABC, it certainly cannot harm your cause to leverage your efforts with the best WordPress plugins out there. Here are the best WordPress plugins I fully recommend. The first 3 are premium plugins which will cost you a small investment, but worth every cent. 1. All In One SEO Pro This plugin allows you to optimise your content by giving it title tags, descriptions and keywords which form the essential elements of your blog posts. 2. SEO Pressor: This is like having an SEO consultant sitting with you at your computer as you sit and type your post. Save your draft as you write your blog posts and the SEO consultant scores you out of 100 in the sidebar of your post to let you know how well your post is optimised. If you’re spending your valuable time posting, you should make sure it’s time well spent to get you some love from the search engines. You can easily do this with SEO Pressor. 3. WP Syndicator: This enables you to syndicate your content across multiple blogging and micro blogging platforms and accounts. This helps you to build your backlinks each time you make a post and cascades your content to extend your brand. WP Syndicator allows you do this on complete AutoPilot. 4

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