Tag Archives | Tweaking

WordPress Themes and Styles

By Randy R on December 22, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

WordPress themes are styles and files that work together to form layouts that you see on WordPress blogs. Kubrick theme is used the Default Theme in WordPress for its innovative design and use of tags for people to customize their websites. Soon after that, custom themes come into the scene. Custom themes offer plenty of choices for users to take advantage instead of using Kubrick theme all the time.
Users are able to create their own unique WordPress websites without having to resort to Default Theme. The possibilities to more beautiful designs are endless if more time is spent in creating high quality blog layout designs. Instead of tweaking Kubrick theme, it is advisable to make your own design through available tutorials in the Internet.
Although Kubrick theme can be tweaked too, it is horrendous to read through long list of tutorial pages. Beginners are easily confused with the alien IT languages used in changing Kubrick theme that it is almost not possible for beginners to tweak Kubrick theme without giving up half way. Custom themes are so much easier to use and are available in readily downloaded form.
Another reason to choose custom theme is custom theme provides alternative template for specific site features such as category pages and search result pages without cramping everything into one column. Sometimes people would love to have things to click on their websites. This means that personalization is a better choice if people want to increase readership.
Using only Kubrick theme means that you are going to stuck with it whole year. It makes your website looks so boring and not well- updated. You can solve the problem by switching to custom theme. It is also easier to switch between two site layouts to allow users to change site layout according to occasion or season. Some people purposely switch to festive theme when festive seasons like Christmas and New Year are approaching.
You can also design WordPress themes as a service so that others can enjoy your design through public release. This is especially true for graphic designers who created many different themes as charity to others through their free websites. Users can take advantage to further customize the themes if no copyright is stated. If it does, all users need to do is creating design that has the some elements of the copyrighted design to make it truly a new design. It is that easy to make your own custom theme.
Building your custom theme rather than just using Kubrick theme helps you expand your knowledge in web building. It is an opportunity to learn more about CSS, HTML and PHP. To those who are already good in the mentioned IT knowledge, it gives you the opportunity to put your expertise to work. You will be surprised at your level of creativity once you lay your hands on customizing your site theme.
Kubrick theme is not a bad theme. Nevertheless, we need to create something new to make our sites less likely to resemble each other. Therefore, it is time for Kubrick to retire to give way to more exciting and interesting themes.

People do not want to feature only their blog contents

By Randy Roedl on December 19, 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

People do not want to feature only their blog contents. They also want to show beautiful things like inspirational header and pretty layout. This is a theme comes into rescue. WordPress is highly respected blog publishing software which is known for its well- structured layout. Its default theme, Kubrick theme, which is designed by Michael Heilemann makes a beautiful theme for your blog. However, custom theme is making its wave for being versatile and workable compared to Kubrick.
Custom theme is a theme that is altered into a new layout design. Kubrick is losing out in this case because it is difficult to customize. Even K2, the one version of Kubrick theme is not really improved in terms of workability. If you attempt to install upgrade, strange errors might occur when you explore the Options Page. Sometimes the blogroll and side bar disappear if you messed up with the application.
We are living in a world of convenience. This is applicable to changing your blog theme. You do not have to go through the agony of tweaking Kubrick theme that might take hours to configure. Everything that you ever wanted in a blog theme can be found via World Wide Web. The themes can be downloaded into your computer before uploading the theme into WordPress.
Also, it is not wise for beginners to tweak Kubrick codes if they are not good at codes. The changing process of PHP and HTML is a bit tricky which means you need to certain knowledge before tweaking Kubrick theme. It will be easier if Kubrick theme is plainer which unfortunately not the case in reality. The best thing is to use themes provided by free websites to reduce your agony and pain in tweaking Kubrick theme.
Custom themes are more practical to be used as compared to Kubrick theme. If you are bored of the theme you are using you can simply switch it with another themes that are easily available via the Internet. The best part is that you do not have worry about losing your blog content or some functions of the blog because WordPress has it all covered. Tweaking Kubrick theme blindly might jeopardize your bog if you did not save the default codes of the theme.
Blogging is not only a platform to rant and post about personal life, it is also a place for business and advertising. Giant advertising companies search for blogs that best represent the corporate world and the blogger. Kubrick theme is not a good theme for advertisement because it does not have the space for advertisement. Unlike custom themes, people have ample of space to put HTML and Javascript codes for advertisements.
Furthermore, custom themes come in wide range of selection. Whether you want your blog to look fancy, gothic or professional, it is up to your choice when it comes to design. Custom themes are really easy to upload and they function very well. You do not have to worry if there is no comment box in custom theme because there are some themes that re created for blogs with high readership. This means it is up to you to customize your own blog layout. The restriction is your imagination, not how the theme is set to be.
In a nutshell, Kubrick is great to start up a new blog but it does not shine when a blog needs a revolutionary change. Therefore, custom theme is still very much users’ favourite in layout makeover.

WordPress Leading the Way

By Randy R on December 10, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

For many reasons, WordPress is preferred as the leading blog publisher for websites. Its structured and sophisticated features make blogging so enjoyable and fun. One of its modern features, Kubrick template, is easy to install and customize. Kubrick comes together with WordPress as the default style. For advanced version of Kubrick, K2 is modified to make blog administration easier with the addition of logistics- handling tabs. However, users feel that Kubrick is not user- friendly enough simply because there better themes out there. It is custom theme that can be personalized accordingly.
Bloggers find Kubrick boring after a few posts because of it lack of customization. Upon installation of WordPress, the default theme is Kubrick, which is not sustainable in long-term use. This is because plug- in need to be installed to keep track of comments left by readers. Although WordPress allows easy installation of plug-ins into your blog, it is still a hassle compared to other custom themes that often comes with plug-ins.
In these days, it is not a good idea to use Kubrick as the base theme for WordPress as this leads themes that are difficult to customize. Moreover, Kubrick theme has little documentation and it makes unattractive layouts. For beginners, this is a source of headache when changing layout with Kubrick seems to take forever. In short, Kubrick theme is not user- friendly to bloggers.
Kubrick theme might look too formal with its rigid vertical columns for art lovers. People with art and graphic base often choose more organic and soft-edged designs instead of rigid designs that you would see in Kubrick theme. This is why Kubrick should be changed into a more beautiful theme that suits everyone’s taste.
Also, Kubrick theme should be developed in minimal way for easier customization if it is still going to be WordPress default theme. People always prefer to break away from the default look by tweaking the codes. However, Kubrick codes are not easy to work with. The theme should be plainer so that customization is easier. Therefore, in long-term, Kubrick is not a good base theme for its bad workability.
It is not the end of the world for those who are not good in CSS and HTML editing but yearn for a revamp for their blogs. They can always download themes from websites such as WordPress Theme Generator and IMJTK. These highly informative and useful websites dedicate themselves to provide countless gorgeous WordPress themes to replace Kubrick theme. Downloading and uploading your custom theme is easier this way and saves a lot of time too.
You can also switch themes as much as you like to check the theme’s suitability to your blog. You can always remove the theme if you find the theme looks awkward in representing your blog posts. Unlike Kubrick, there is not much you can do if you find the design not attractive enough for your taste. You need to tweak the finest details to get the result you want which means more time is spent on blog layout rather than concentrating on the blog content.
All in all, custom theme is so much better than Kubrick theme because of its versatility and functionality. It is hoped that one day WordPress decides to replace Kubrick theme with a better-looking theme that is easy to be customized.

WordPress Featured Content

By Randy R on December 7, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

So What

By Randy Roedl on August 21, 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

So What’s New In WordPress 2.5.x?

In the beginning, everyone was excited about the news of the release of WordPress 2.5 but just when it was about to make its official debut on March 10, 2008, the release date was pushed back crushing the hope of millions of bloggers worldwide waiting anxiously for its release. Now, the latest stable release of WordPress (Version 2.5.1) is available for download at http://wordpress.org/download/

However, as of the time of release, it’s still in its early copy and was still under some concluding rounds of testing the program and also tweaking it; but it is now stable enough to provide you with a quick overview of some of the feature changes and additions, along with a brief comparison against its predecessor, WordPress 2.3.x series. It’s time to change!

i) The Dashboard

The very first thing you laid eyes on will be the dashboard which is similar to the hub of your blog. The new dashboard now not only features a sleek and more focused design but also comes with a few colour schemes which has switched from very cool, cool blues to the even colder icy blue, sexy dark grey and exotic burnt orange. The other change you will notice right away is the content’s layout. You will no longer have the content on your left and the blog statistics on your right but now you have a single column which has some quick links to the post composing screens, followed by blog stats, any recent comments you received, incoming links and lastly aggregated feeds.

On the plus side, now you can customize the feeds to the feeds that you want to see at a glance. Thus, you are no longer restricted to feeds from the WordPress development blog or WordPress planet. You’ll also be able to personalize your incoming links display such as from Google Blog Search to Technorati.

ii) The Navigation Menu

The navigation menu also has been changed from the straight forward menu of items in WordPress 2.3.x to a reduced menu with a few menu items completely renamed. While Write, Manage, Design, and Comments could be found in the usual spot, but the Plugins, Users, and Settings are now in the mid-upper right corner. The name changes are Presentation to Design, Options has become Settings and Blogroll renamed to Links and can be found under Manage. Under Write, there is also a Link navigation item where you’ll be able to add links to your blogroll.

iii) The Post and Page

The write pages have also undergone complete overhauls, leaving power bloggers who has grown accustomed to the many of the advanced WordPress features such as tags, categories, and trackbacks to do quite a bit of scrolling. Gone is also the option to drag and drop items in the order you’d prefer as you could in version 2.3.x. However, you may find a cool new addition which is the media manager. Currently, it only supports uploading from your computer but soon, there will be an option to add media from popular services such as YouTube and Flickr.

iv) The Post/Page Management

The Manage page no longer has the manual one at a time posts delete or clicking on the Edit link next to a particular entry. In version 2.5.x, to edit post, instead of edit link, just click on the post title while to view posts with a particular tags listed on the Manage page, just click on the tag and WordPress will list all those posts, the same with clicking on the author or category. As an added bonus, you can now mass delete entries.

The date format has also changed to sporting a user friendly “2 hours ago” as opposed to an actual date. After a 24 hour period, it will change to the usual date format. Besides that, you’ll also be able to see the posts’ tags and publication status.

v) The Edit Post Page

Most notable change is the “View this Post” button which has replaced the “preview” link that was hidden between the title and post content. In addition, you’re also able to quickly edit the post slug on the fly. Finally, there’s a quick link for deletion that enables the users to quickly delete their posts and there is an option to view the comments associated with the post, all comments, or even all posts.

vi) The Tag Management

Under Manage, you’ll probably see a brand new sub-menu named Tags. It allows you to do some basic tag management such as adding, editing, or deleting individual tags similar to category management page.

vii) The Media Management

The other new link appearing under the Manage tab is called Media Library, which has replaced Upload, and it’s where you can find and manage each of your uploaded files. WordPress is now supporting a multitude of file formats, such as video and audio.

viii) The Widgets Management

There will also be no need for you to click on any particular widgets onto the sidebar because you now can click on an Add link next to it and it is added! Once it’s already on the sidebar, then you’re free to click and drag however you want them to be arranged. To help beginners, each widget now comes with a brief description detailing what the widget does and widget filters as well as a search function (in case you lose track).

ix) The Other Changes

First, the user filters have been improved a little and clicking on a specific role’s link will only display users with that particular role. Secondly, WordPress will now show you exactly how many comments you have waiting for review in the navigation menu so you no longer have to click on comments to discover them. Third, there is an option (you can also disable it) to support avatars straight out of the box.
In conclusion, this version seems to be heading in the correct direction which has improved over the previous version with several small, yet significant changes to WordPress. For the most part, most people will either love it or hate it. But one thing for sure is WordPress will certainly leave a lot of commotion in its wake.