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Some Things to Watch Out for When Choosing a WordPress Theme

By on February 18, 2012 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Some Things to Watch Out for When Choosing a WordPress Theme

There are literally hundreds of WordPress themes out there and the quality can vary markedly between different suppliers. Some of the more popular options in the marketplace at the moment include the Thesis Theme, the Genesis Theme, Woo Theme, Elegant Themes or even that vast range of themes available through Theme Forest.

It’s important before deciding on a particular theme supplier to have a look at the pricing plans they have on offer and compare these to the rest of the marketplace. Ideally, a consumer shouldn’t be spending more than $39 on a premium WordPress theme however some themes such as the Thesis Theme do offer extra functionality for the additional cost. It’s also important to watch out for recurring monthly fees – some theme providers will charge a monthly fee for access to all the themes in their catalogue, furthermore some may charge a development fee in case you wish to apply the theme across multiple sites.

WordPress Themes are typically designed as an out of the box solution, they are provided as an out of the box solution for webmasters who have little to no design skills or even to web developers who do not have the time to continually redesign websites. However, due to the fact they are an out of the box solution it’s important to be able to control as much of the layout of the site as you possibly can, this means being able to edit all of the various elements on the homepage and maybe even change between a two and three column layout.

Some WordPress themes also come with pre-installed sliders – a slider is an image board that rotates between different images and is usually found at the top of a page. Some webmasters do not like the slider being positioned so prominently on the page and may in fact wish to remove it – it’s important then to be able to either change the images contained in the slider, or even remove it if you so choose.

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An Introduction To WordPress Plugins

By on January 21, 2012 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

An Introduction To WordPress Plugins

WordPress is an amazing CMS system that is renowned for its flexibility as not only a blogging platform, but a platform for those who are simply seeking to publish content based websites to the Internet. It is for this reason that usage of WordPress has skyrocketed over the fast few years, as such, a very active community has given the platform support by developing what would have to be the largest directory of plugins for a single platform in history. So, what is a plugin?

A WordPress plugin is a simple script or software package that extends the functionality of the WordPress platform further than what the original developers of the platform have decided upon. It is for this reason that the CMS is quite raw, and offers only basic functionality such as creating posts, pages, and editing basic code. A plugin is generally installed via the plugin administration area in WordPress, and can either be done automatically from the plugins directory hosted by WordPress, or can also be done manually via FTP, or via an upload in the back end of WordPress.

In most cases, you will never need to install a plugin manually, however, as the availability of premium plugins is rising significantly, this is happening more and more. There are two plugin types that you will more than likely find. Freely available plugins, and premium plugins.

Free plugins are usually available en-masse in the WordPress plugins directory, and are searchable based on set keywords and criteria, however premium plugins are usually available via their own marketplace or shopping cart. Needless to say, the need to pay for a plugin generally warrants extra functionality such as code tweaks, creation of clone WordPress installations, and so on, more often than not, functionality that exceeds its own monetary value significantly.

Plugins can transform WordPress almost into its own separate systems. For example, there are many premium shopping cart and membership site plugins that will transform WordPress from a blog to a paid of free membership site. Some will also transform the installation into a sales letter with a payment portal, and other plugins will offer much more simple functionality such as admin extension, social media links, and clone wordpress backup files for your own security. To get started, simply enter the plugins area within your WordPress admin area, and select ""add new"". In this area, you will be able to explore plugins, and their functionality further, and most importantly, you will be able to experiment with different plugins and get a grasp of this brilliant functionality that lies within WordPress.

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5 Essential WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have

By on July 17, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

5 Essential WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have

WordPress is easily the best blogging platform on the internet. Its easy to use, yet powerful enough to run huge websites. Some of the top websites in the world run on WordPress, including sites like TechCrunch, WSJ Blogs, etc.

Its very easy to customize WordPress. There are a ton of themes from free to premium ones that can make your blog look like anything you desire. But more importantly, there are a host of free and paid plugins that you can use to customize your blog and make it easier to read.

Here are five WordPress plugins your blog shouldn’t exist without:

1. All in One SEO PluginThis is an essential plugin for all WordPress blogs. It automatically takes care of generating meta tags and keywords for your blog posts. Without this plugin, you would have a hard time ranking high in search engines.

2. Advertising ManagerIf you plan on monetizing your blog, then this plugin is a must have. You can insert your ads almost anywhere in your site’s template. Moreover, this plugin supports the Open X ad marketplace, which means that you can configure it to show only the highest CPM ads.

3. Add to AnySocial bookmarking is a great way to gain additonal eyeballs. With this plugin, your visitors can quickly add your blog post to the most popular social bookmarking directories in the world, or email it to friends.

4. AkismetThis is a plugin made by WordPress itself and is included in most installations automatically. It acts as a spam blocker for your blog. Akismet is highly effective at blocking and automatically deleting spam comments. An absolute essential, especially if you run a popular blog that might get a lot of spam comments.

5. Google XML SitemapsSitemaps make it easier for the Googlebot to go through your website. This plugin makes high quality sitemaps automatically that can be indexed by Google. A must have if you want to rank high in Google.

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