WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms available.
Actually, that statement doesn’t quite do WordPress justice. How about this?
From Wikipedia.org:
“WordPress was first released in May 2003 by Matt Mullenweg. As of September 2009, it was being used by 202 million websites worldwide.”
Now that’s growth.
So, what makes WordPress so popular?
- It is free. (Go to WordPress.org to learn more.)
- It offers significant functionality right out of the box.
- It’s easy to manage yourself.
- There are online tutorials and communities where you can learn more about WordPress without having to figure it out on your own.
- It’s also easy to find service providers who are experienced with WordPress when you need additional customization or personalization of your blog.
- Another very compelling reason to use WordPress is that search engines like Google.com and Bing.com love WordPress and rapidly index posts and pages on a WordPress site.
- The wide availability of plug-ins can make WordPress do more than you or I could ever imagine.
As a result, WordPress is an extremely popular choice for small business owners and entrepreneurs and it’s my personal recommendation to anyone considering putting up their own website or blog. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
blog software,
content management systems,
earn income,
earn money,
matt mullenweg,
php programming language,
plugins,
Themes,
wordpress blog,
Wordpress plugins
WordPress users are in luck when it comes to theme design, thanks to a new theme editor plugin, Website Weaver.
Websites and blogs are becoming more crucial every day for any business looking for marketing success, but hiring a website designer can be expensive and doesn’t necessarily guarantee getting exactly the look you are going for. With Website Weaver, designing WordPress themes becomes a quick and easy do-it-yourself project.
Created by Spiderweb Press, Website Weaver promises that you can create a unique look for your website without any experience. This plugin helps you do that by giving you a starter theme, which you can modify to your heart’s desire simply by clicking and dragging, all within your WordPress admin area.
WYSIWYG for WordPress!
People in the web design business call this a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Every change you make, you can see instantly. It shows you exactly what your web pages will look like when they get published to the internet, making it not only perfect for a beginner, but a big time-saver for old hats as well.
For users worried about bulky space-intensive coding that goes hand-in-hand with most theme editors, Website Weaver solves that problem. Website Weaver prides itself on it’s lightweight, clean code, and that means a faster-loading site for you. [click to continue…]
Create Your Own WordPress Themes with Website Weaver
admin
2012-01-21 13:16:42
Hiring a website designer can be expensive and doesn’t necessarily guarantee getting exactly the look you are going for. With Website Weaver, designing WordPress themes becomes a quick and easy do-it-yourself project.
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Unlimited+ |
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$65-$295 |
Tagged as:
Theme designer
Not a lot of time to do a proper review – I just got word that Woo Themes has released a free Ecommerce theme and a free Ecommerce plugin to go with it. And I am allowed to offer a 20% off coupon for just 3 days per month! Since there are only 3 days left this month, I’m having to jump right on it, so that you can benefit.
If you’ve never heard of Woo Themes, let me tell you a bit about them. Woo Themes are built on a time-tested, solid framework, and are designed by designers. Which means they work well and look great!
It wasn’t all that long ago that I went looking for a shopping cart to use with WordPress. And there just wasn’t much out there. But now, as supply has met demand, there are more and more solutions available. Not just shopping carts, but entire WordPress store-fronts. And Woo Themes ecommerce solution looks to be a really great one! Here are some of the great features: [click to continue…]
A FREE WordPress Ecommerce theme to use with the FREE WooCommerce plugin!
admin
2011-12-02 14:15:34
WooThemes has released a free Ecommerce theme to be used with their free ecommerce plugin – WooCommerce.
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Free |
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N/A It's Free! |
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Unlimited |
Tagged as:
Ecommerce Plugin,
Ecommerce Themes
Today, one of the easiest and most popular ways to make money on a blog is by using Google Adsense. However, as with any business decision, it is important to consider how this popular advertising tool is going to affect your blog. Before you start using AdSense, let’s go over both the pros and cons of using this popular ad tool.
The Pros
- AdSense ads are a great way to monetize your blog. All that’s required of you is to decide on the colors, format, and where to put them. You can take a look at several of your favorite blogs to get ideas, pick up one of the excellent books on the subject, or use the CTR Theme to automatically optimize everything.
- AdSense is considered passive income. Once you put the ads up you don’t have to worry about them. You don’t tell people to click on them and you don’t presell them like you would an affiliate product. However, you should periodically analyze if the ads are working and tweak the style, colors, or placement if they’re not. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Adsense
There are many good reasons to start a blog. You can be seen as an expert in your niche, you can let people know what’s going on in your business, you can sell affiliate products with product reviews, and you can make money with your own products or with AdSense ads.
But before you jump in and start a blog, think first about why some blogs fail. If you keep these failings in mind before you begin, you can do what you need to do to make sure you don’t fall into the same traps.
If you are already an expert in your field, that’s great. If you’re not, then it’s going to be a lot harder to compete in a niche that is already dominated by experts. You’ll have to work at building your credibility first before you can compete with the big boys.
You Need An Audience
But having said that, you can narrow your niche and specialize in your unique offerings. Just don’t make the niche so narrow that you run out of things to blog about. Also, make sure there are people interested in your chosen niche topic. You need an audience of a lot more than one. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
blog success,
blogging tips
Ever get frustrated with the way WordPress removes the whitespace you want to add to your content?
Well, here’s a quick tip that will help.
When you want to keep a line or two between paragraphs, or maybe line up some images with their paragraphs (like on my contact page, which BTW uses the Contact Form 7 free plugin) just flip over to the HTML side of the post editor, and insert the following line where you want to maintain some space:
<p style=”text-align: center;”> </p>
Now, if you flip back to the Visual editor, your whitespace will be there. But if you go back to the HTML editor, that line is going to look like this:
<p style=”text-align: center;”> </p>
The will be gone. But it is still going to work. Just be sure that you include the (non-breaking space) the first time you add the line.
And life becomes just a little bit easier 
Tagged as:
Formatting,
Whitespace,
Wordpress Tips
CTR Theme for WordPress and Adsense
Have you ever studied how to best use Adsense ads on your site? What is the best size to use? What is the best placement for your ads? Should they blend in with your site or should they stand out and grab attention?
Well, CTR Theme has done all the work for you. You can just add your Adsense codes in the admin, and CTR Theme puts them in the best possible positions – actually in the best possible combination of sizes and positions – and blends them in with your site colors and text, helping you to get more click-thrus.
CTR Theme also helps to cut down on ad-blindness.
There are about 7 different layouts that you can use to display your ads. You can choose just one of them, all of them, or any number in between. If you choose more than one layout, CTR Theme will randomly rotate between them, so that a visitor will see a different layout each time they visit, or revisit, any page on your site. [click to continue…]
Optimize Your Adsense Ads with CTR Theme for WordPress
5
admin
2011-04-20 18:15:05
When it comes to Adsense ads on your site, do you wonder what is the best size, best colors and best placement to use? This theme does it all for you, based on Google’s own recommendations.
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60 Days |
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$67 |
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Unlimited |
Tagged as:
Adsense theme
Here is a quick rundown on just a few of the many WordPress Membership plugins and themes that are available. I will add more of them as time allows. I am using both s2member and eStore to build a couple of membership sites, and I really like both of them, but haven’t gotten deep enough into them to give you a full report. I’ve played around with Mingle, but the others I have not tested, so if you decide to use them, do your research and be sure they meet your needs.
s2Member is an extremely powerful membership plugin, one that rivals the very best and most expensive membership programs out there. It's compatible with Multisite Networking and BuddyPress. In addition, with the
s2Member Pro Module (an optional paid upgrade), you can add many payment processors including PayPal Pro, ClickBank, and AliPay (AliPay can reach over 1 billion people in China). You can protect Pages, Posts, Tags, Categories, URIs, URI word fragments, URI Replacement Codes for BuddyPress, Specific Post/Page "Buy Now" Access, and even portions of content within Posts/Pages/themes/plugins. There is even a theme called
s2member Clean Theme that you can buy that is already integrated with s2Member. There's really just too much to cover in this short post, but trust me, this one rocks, and it's free!
MemberWing offers advanced SEO options, advanced security options, unlimited membership levels, and more. You can sell by recurring subscriptions, or for a set fee for specific content. You can download a free evaluation copy that is limited to 10 members. Pricing is $199 and $299, plus more if you want to join their MemberWingX University, a membership program that teaches you the ins-and-outs of running a membership site and of using MemberWing.
The Mingle plugin will turn your WordPress blog into Social Network. It will create profile pages, user friending, profile page posts (your
wall in Facebook), profile activities, social comments, email notifications (with privacy settings) and a full directory of members. I don't see any monetization methods built in, but it could possibly be monetized by combinging it with some of the paying membership plugins. And it could be a different, FUN type of membership program.
wp-Member is an advanced WordPress membership plugin that adds many membership features including registration customization, total content protection for posts, pages and categories, content teasers, automated membership management, automated payment processing, unlimited membership levels and subscriptions, full encryption and security, PCI Compliance, message customization and multiple currencies. There is various pricing for various licenses, and licenses + support. You can save 25% using the code
member25.
eMember is made by Tips and Tricks, and I really like anything that comes from them. eMember has all the usual membership functions that you expect from a full-featured membership plugin. You can protect full or partial posts, have various membership levels, including a Free level, it integrates with Paypal and various autoresponders. It also integrates with 2 other plugins made by Tips and Tricks - an affiliate plugin for running your own affiliate program, and an eStore program for selling digital or physical products. You can get eMember for less when you bundle it with any of the other programs. As a matter of fact, the posts you are reading now are being shown in one of eStore's slightly modified displays :)
DAP, as it is called, offers a very sophisticated content dripping system, email autoresponders, and a built-in affiliate program. Members automatically become affiliates and are encouraged to tell their friends and their list. It has unlimited membership levels, both free and paid. It also has download protection, and an additional plugin to protect files on Amazon S3 (with some licenses). It includes functions for dime sales, up-sells, cross sells, and more. I haven't tried it, but I'm impressed with the features!
Membership Plugins and Themes
admin
2011-04-18 16:20:33
Here is a quick rundown on just a few of the many WordPress Membership plugins and themes that are available.
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Tagged as:
DAP,
Digital Access Pass,
eMember,
membership plugins,
MemberWing,
Mingle,
s2member,
wp-Member
You know, I really have a lot of fun testing plugins. People can be so creative. Developers are coming up with more or more plugins that can be used to earn money on your WordPress blog. Check this one out – a clever way to get your attention - or rather for you to get your visitors attention!
CordToAction is an attention grabbing WordPress plugin that adds a fun and different way to present your call-to-actions on your blog. Who can resist pulling the cord? It’s slightly animated – it moves a little bit, just enough to get your attention, but not so much that it gets on anyone’s nerves.
Once the cord is pulled, a message box drops into view. You can add whatever html you want and set the height and width of the box. Use this plugin to get more views for your affiliate banners, CPA offers, opt-in forms, videos, or any messages you might want to give to your visitors. As they say “More Views = More Money $$”
To see a demo of the CordToAction plugin, just scroll up to the top of the page and look in the center of the header
Right now, CordToAction has a special introductory price of $27. They won’t try to push your buttons by saying “hurry up and buy now before the price goes up”, but they DO already have a page ready with a $47 price tag on it, so although they don’t say so- the price IS going up soon. Grab it while it’s cheaper!
CordToAction WordPress Plugin
5
admin
2011-04-18 15:05:55
CordToAction is an attention grabbing call-to-action plugin for WordPress that gets your visitors attention in a very clever way. Who can resist pulling the cord?
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$27 now, $47 later |
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Unlimited |
Tagged as:
Call-to-action
Do you like free stuff? More than likely, so do your readers. As any good entrepreneur knows, it is important to know which types of free content will bring readers to your blog. By luring people into your site with free eBooks or tutorials about your niche, you are bringing in potential customers and readers.
Always make sure to use freebies carefully, however, since only useful free content will keep your readers coming back for more. If you’ve ever gone to a trade show and come home with a suitcase full of squishy balls, highlighter pens, and t-shirts that you’ll never wear, you know the power of the freebie. And when that freebie is actually useful and valuable, the power is even greater.
That’s why by giving away a valuable piece of quality content on your blog or website, you can not only demonstrate your expert status in a very tangible manner; you can also lure people to your site and encourage them to become part of your community.
Of course, as with any marketing tactic, there are some do’s and don’ts to be aware of: [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
eBooks,
Free Content,
generating traffic
