Tag Archives | Downside

A Brief Explanation of WordPress Themes

By Randy R on November 10, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

A Brief Explanation of WordPress Themes

WordPress is an excellent tool that many small businesses and individuals are using to reach their target audiences. So, what exactly is WordPress and what can you do with it? WordPress is a blogging platform which allows users to either create their own theme or use one of the many free themes available. Let’s take a look.

Dashboard

Once you sign up for WordPress you will be able to log into what is called your dashboard. This is where all the magic happens. The first time you sign into your dashboard you might feel a little overwhelmed. Don’t fret. The dashboard is the grand central station of your blog. From here you will have access to your blog posts, the different pages of your blog, links to and from your blog, different media you are using, comments to your blog, and of course your WordPress design. WordPress design falls under the “”Appearance”” section on your dashboard and there is much you can do with it.

Free WordPress Themes

To begin with WordPress you need a theme. This is what people see when they look at your blog, but it’s also so much more. It determines the control you have over your blog in terms of look and feel. There are many free WordPress themes that you can choose to use. To gain access to these simply click on “”Appearance”” on the sidebar of your dashboard and then select “”Themes””. This will take you to a section of WordPress where all the free themes are available. Each theme will have a brief description, and allow you to be able to preview it via the “”Preview”” button. If you find one you like you can click the “”Activate”” button to have the theme active on your blog. The good news about free WordPress themes is that you can switch them anytime you like. On the downside, you are not likely to find a theme with every design element you want on it and while you can add your own design elements like your company logo, in the free WordPress themes, this ability is somewhat limited.

Custom WordPress Themes

To get a custom WordPress theme you can go about it in two different ways. In the first option you can choose a free one and tweak it to your liking. One way to tweak it is to utilize the various widgets that are available with that particular theme. To do this, select the “”Widget”” selection on the sidebar of your dashboard under appearance. On free WordPress themes you can also edit the stylesheet. This is the code behind the design of your chosen theme. To do this, select the “”Edit”” option on the sidebar of your dashboard under appearance. It is important to note that stylesheets are set up in CSS which means that in order to edit the theme you will need to possess knowledge of at least basic CSS code.

Your other option is to create your own WordPress theme. This is also done using CSS. WordPress itself gives an excellent tutorial called Theme Development ( http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development ) that is very helpful if you want to develop your own theme. It is important to note that if you want to get a clean looking, professional, custom WordPress theme that no one else will have you are going to need to know coding and have access to a design program. If you have neither of these, a simple solution is to work with a design service that will be able to create a custom WordPress theme for you.

Having a Great WordPress Theme in Time For Warcraft Cataclysm

By Randy R on October 15, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Having a Great WordPress Theme in Time For Warcraft Cataclysm

Updating Your WordPress Theme In Time For Warcraft Cataclysm

The web is full of sites promoting or talking about Warcraft, but many look and feel quite dated and in need of an overhaul.

Perhaps like many people looking forward to the Cataclysm expansion, you are often looking through the web for sites updated with the latest news. Only to find that the sites you find look very dated and have graphics that pre-date The Burning Crusade.

Of course content is king, but if the look and feel of a site seems out of place, then many people will assume the worst and “”bounce”” straight back out again without so much as a glance at your content.

That’s not something you want.

Like visiting a distant relative or changing your tyres, updating your web page to look and feel new and fresh is not something many look forward to. But just like those things, it is something you really should do now and again.

Technically it can seem a little daunting. Changing the theme and look of a site might mean tinkering under the hood at all the HTML and CSS. But it really shouldn’t have to. There is really nothing that technical about changing your WordPress theme, or even starting a new blog from scratch for that matter.

There are perhaps three thousand sites on the web at the moment that could do with an update. Guild site, information, support, or just general Warcraft chit-chat. So installing WordPress from a host that offers a one click solution – then installing a theme which probably takes no more than seven clicks really is a piece of cake.

Why WordPress? Well search engines love it. It’s rock solid stable, and even a complete first timer can have a pleasing looking, and very functional site up in a matter of minutes. It’s hard to find any downside.

If the web-host offers one click installation, and the theme provider gives you a good “”over the shoulder”” tutorial on how to install one in less than sixty seconds – then there really is nothing to lose. No tech skills required.

So if you have a well run site promoting or discussing Warcraft, get yourself up to date. It’s vital to have lots of information, but if it isn’t displayed in a way that looks modern and reflective of the way the game is played now, then many visitors to your site will never spend enough time there to find out just how good you are.

Search the internet for WordPress themes, preferably ones that come with video tutorials. Soon you’ll be bang up to date.

Of WordPress and Widgets

By Randy Roedl on May 9, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, article directory, article plugin, article themes, Blog Business, Blog Platform, Blog Posting, blogging, Blogs, Conversion, Domains, Free Reports, Google Adsense, Membership sites, Mobil Blogging, New Blogging, SEO, Themes, Traffic, Web Design, Websites, widgets, wordpress, World Internet Summit, Wp Headers, Wp Themes, Youtube Video

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.

Navigation

Tag Archives | Downside