Tag Archives | Themes

WordPress Themes Review

By on May 8, 2012 in Randy Roedl

takethefirststepmarketing.com – Create a custom WordPress theme in minutes. WordPress is hot. Many are flocking to this blog platform and getting rid of their regular web sites for this option. This video explains about wordpress themes, free wordpress themes and paid wordpress themes. Where to get them and what you will need. Themes mentioned on the video www.elegantthemes.com www.wordpressthemeshock.com Godaddy hosting click here: x.co Godaddy domains click here: x.co

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Why Use WordPress

By on April 30, 2012 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Why Use WordPress?

Are you interested in starting your own blog? Are you using a blogging platform right now and they’re just not happy with that? Well, I’ve great news. I have been blogging for quite some time and have used pretty much every blogging platform out there.

I have finally came to realize that there is no other blogging platform that is comparable to WordPress in my opinion.

WordPress is a far superior blogging platform and there are quite a few reasons why. I will list just a few in order to keep this article relatively short period

The Ease-Of-Use

WordPress by nature is just very easy to use. When it comes to writing down your thoughts and categorizing them in an easy to use and read format WordPress nails it.

The control panel that WordPress uses is super simple. You login, click a couple buttons, start writing and then click another button in your post is ready to be read by the world. Does it get any easier?

Search Engine Friendly

WordPress comes out of the box pretty search engine friendly. Although, you do need to change a few things after you install the blog.

The first, in my opinion, would be the permalink structure. Unfortunately, when you first set up your blog the permalink structure is not very pretty. But luckily that is easily corrected. Now, thepermalinkstructure is just a sample of what you can do with the default WordPress platform.

The Plug-Ins

Oh the plug-ins. You definitely cannot forget the plug-ins when it comes to WordPress. The wide range of plug-ins that are offered for WordPress for absolutely free is astonishing. You can find a WordPress plug-in to do pretty much anything you want.

Especially optimize the blog for search engine performance. A wide range of plug-ins that are available will make your blog a powerhouse when it comes to dominate in the search engines.

The Themes

WordPress has thousands of themes that are available. You can pretty much find a theme for any niche you can possibly imagine. The themes are well coded and very sharp.

You can find many styles of themes that will fit your personal needs, and most likely you will find it for free.

Anyway, that is just the few small reasons why I choose WordPress over the other blogging platforms. I could go on and on for hours about why you should use WordPress, but unfortunately I am limited to the space I can use here today.

But, knows this… WordPress is the number one blogging platform out there right now. That is my opinion at the time of this writing.

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How to Install WordPress Theme

By on April 16, 2012 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

How to Install WordPress Theme

So you have hunted high and low and found the perfect WordPress theme. Now you need to know how to install WordPress theme or it will just be a pretty file collecting dust on your hard drive.

Installing a WordPress theme is not as complicated as many people think it is. The thing that tends to confuse people is that there are two different methods you can use when trying to figure out how to install WordPress theme.

Manually install WordPress theme

First I will go over how to install WordPress theme manually to help you get familiar with the WordPress structure.

To install a WordPress theme manually you will need to download the theme, which I am assuming you have done by now.
You will also need to unzip the WordPress theme to a folder on your hard drive (try not to forget where you put it).
Now you will need to fire up your FTP program and FTP to your site.
At this point you will want to navigate to the themes folder by going to the ‘wp-content’ folder and then the ‘themes’ folder.
Once you are in the themes folder on your web site, you will want to navigate to the theme you unzipped on your hard drive (you did remember where you put it, didn’t you?).
You will then need to upload the theme on your hard drive (folder and all) to the themes folder on your web site.
After your all FTP’d out you will want to go back to your browser and log into your WordPress blog on your site.
You will then go to the ‘Appearance’ option on the left side menu and select the ‘Themes’ option.
At this point you should be able to see your theme listed as an option. If not then you probably uploaded it as a folder within a folder and will need to double check it.
You should now be able to preview and then activate your theme by selecting the appropriate options listed under your theme.

Automatically install WordPress theme

If you are lazy like me you will want to let WordPress do all the work for you. So now we will learn how to install WordPress theme by letting WordPress get down and dirty.

To put WordPress to work you will need to first log into your blog.
You will navigate to the ‘Appearance’ option on the left side of the menu.
Next you are going to click on the ‘Themes’ option located under the ‘Appearance’ tab.
Once you are under the ‘Themes’ section, you will see ‘Manage Themes’ at the top of the page. Next to the ‘Manage Themes’ tab you will see the ‘Install Themes’ tab which will probably be grayed out. You will want to click on the ‘Install Themes’ tab to make it the active tab.
Now you have a couple options here.
Option one is that you don’t have a theme in mind yet and want to search for one. In this case you will select the options you are looking for and click Search. Once you have the results up on screen you can scroll through until you find one that you like and want to use. At this point it is only a matter of previewing the theme to make sure it is what you are looking for and if it is, then you can click Install and let WordPress do its magic.
Option two assumes that you have already downloaded the theme you want to use. In this case you will want to select the Upload option that you will find available under the ‘Install Themes’ tab. Once you have selected the Upload option you will want to browse to the theme file you downloaded and select it. (Yes WordPress will even unzip the file for you. How’s that for service!) Then it is just a matter of clicking ‘Install Now’ and let WordPress go to town.

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Best WordPress Plugins to Help With Website Design and Functionality

By on April 10, 2012 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Best WordPress Plugins to Help With Website Design and Functionality

The great thing about WordPress is the ability to continually add new functions into your blog as they are developed. This functionality is added through plugins which can be easily added through an admin panel. As someone who uses them daily, these are the best WordPress plugins in my opinion.

Deans FCK Editor

This replaces the default WordPress editor that comes with WordPress 3.1. The main reason that I use this is for setting columns and rows inside the pages. This plugin makes it child’s play for setting pages as you can tell it to make the width 100%. The plugin then figures out the pixels for you. With different width themes this is a time saver.

All In One SEO

Setting a website without this plugin is tantamount to criminal neglect. The plugin adds fields underneath the blog post for title, description and keywords metatags. You don’t need to know code or visit metatag generator sites any more.

CBNET Ping Optimizer

During the initial set up of your website, you will probably make lots of changes to pages. This will save your WordPress blog from being tagged as spammer as it won’t post the edits only the new pages.

Contact Form 7

This allows you to set up a contact form on any page. You can create as many forms as you like for the various pages including radio buttons and drop down selections. It creates a piece of code that you can then place on the web page in the appropriate area.

Really Simple Captcha

This useful plugin allows you to have a simple captcha on your contact form above. It’s not the hardest captcha to break but it will stop a certain amount of automated rubbish traffic to your email which can be very annoying otherwise.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin automatically updates your sitemap and sends it to Google, AOL and Bing automatically. You need to get an API from Yahoo for it to send automatically to it. You can manually rebuild the sitemap or leave on automatic. It is a great set and forget plugin.

WP-Sticky

This allows you to make a post sticky at the top of the blog. For those who have never heard the term sticky it simply means that when you click the sticky option on a blog post it is never pushed to the bottom of the page when other posts are made.

Multi Level Navigation Plugin

This allows you to have drop downs from any top menu on your site. It allows unlimited drop down levels if you want. For SEO purposes placing too many sub levels will not be great but it’s there if you really want it.

Page Lists Plus

This allows you to create pages but not show them in the menu. This is perfect for creating privacy policy, terms of use and similar pages which you will probably want to manually add in the footer.

To add in a plugin for your blog, simply click on the plugin menu on the left in the admin section and then choose the “”add new”" option. It will then give you a search box. Type the plugin name and it will find it for you from the WordPress extension site.

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