Archive for the ‘Blogs’ category

WordPress for Android 2.0 is now Available

December 20th, 2011

WordPress for Android

A new user interface, a new editor, table support and new media editing options have been added to the new WordPress for Android.

The post editor has been enhanced with new features.  A formatting toolbar has been added that displays above the keyboard as you type, allowing you to easily format text and add links and media. The post editor also goes full screen, giving you as much room as possible to create your posts while on the go.

More info on the WordPress Blog

 

5 High Quality Free WordPress Themes

March 18th, 2010

In the world of WordPress, FREE doesn’t mean poor quality or problematic. Wonderful WordPress themes are all over the net – and they are free to download and use. When you need to create a professional-looking site, the theme has to look clean, sharp and impressive. There are plenty of those themes around, many of them are free.

Here are 5 top quality FREE WordPress Themes:

iCandy

Gorgeous Theme packed with tons of features and options. Custom header image, changeable background color, flexible sidebar width and location, paged navigation, widget ready. Nice and elegant WordPress Theme.

Preview iCandy

Download iCandy

Bueno

Another great WordPress theme by WooThemes. Some features: A clear & concise grid-based design, very easy to customize; Integrated banner ad management Widgetized sidebar, with some Bueno-specific custom widgets; 7 different colour schemes to choose from
and more.

Preview Bueno

Download Bueno

MonkeyPR

A very impressive WordPress theme, which looks premium. Has a bold design, big header and a prominent look.

Preview MonkeyPR

Download MonkeyPR

GoodTheme Lead

Very clean, professional-looking WordPress theme. Among the features: -five color schemes; two-column layout but with two-column content section and triple sidebar; six widget areas; automatic post thumbnails; dropdown pages and categories menu and much more.

Preview GoodTheme Lead

Preview GoodTheme Lead

Blue Diamond

A two column theme with a nice featured post feature in grey-blues and blue coloured backgrounds and foregrounds, with web2.0 style using lots of gradients and 3 dimensional effects.

Preview Blue Diamond

Download Blue Diamond

5 WordPress Myths that Need to Die

March 10th, 2010

Over 200 million websites around the world use WordPress these days. This, above any other argument, marks the huge success of this open source CMS.

WordPress was launched in 2003, and has certainly come a long way since then. The current version of WordPress allows for many wonderful features – from threaded comments to image editing on the fly. The amazing abundance of plugins ads tons of possibilities for WordPress users, which can be anything from web developers to budding bloggers. WordPress is, of course, not perfect, but it constantly develops and grows, in an effort to fit most needs of site creators.

There are a few myths and misconceptions that have stuck with WordPress, and it’s time to finally and completely debunk them.

#1 WordPress is good only for blogs

That might have been true a few years ago, but it’s very far from reality today. Nowadays, you can create a full-fledged website with WordPress – anything from a simple portfolio for a freelancer to a huge content site with thousands of posts and pages. The system is robust and offers all the features you need in order to build a website. The blog is obviously one of the major features, but you are not obligated to use it.

#2 WordPress design is limited

A quick look at the amazing variety of FREE WordPress themes (not to mention the premium ones), will reveal that WordPress has no design limitations. Of course, if you want an original design of your own, that’s not based on themes, you can hire a professional to do that for you.

#3 It’s better to use a propriety CMS

This myth is actually related to all Open Source CMS. Buying a propriety CMS assures you nothing. Internet companies come and go, especially in recession time. When you build a site using a propriety CMS, you are limited in your options. If you feel like changing a vendor, you might not be able to do so, because THEY own the system upon which your site is built.

WordPress has a huge community of users, and many of them offer technical support for free or a small fee. The fact that it’s used and developed by so many different people actually makes it safer, more reliable and more likely to survive.

#4 WordPress is complicated. You need to be a web developer to set it up

Actually, the basic setup of WordPress is rather easy. So it creating pages and posts. WordPress is very intuitive and friendly, and it is constantly improving. Sure, there’s a learning process, but that’s true for any software or system you may use. There are plugins to accommodate almost every need you might have. There maybe a need for a web developer or a programmer if you want a specialty feature, but that’s a rarity.

#5 WordPress is easily hacked

There have been many cases of hacked WordPress sites lately, but that’s mainly because the CMS has gotten so popular, and because people still don’t adhere to basic rules of security and privacy. If you upgrade your WordPress regularly, uses strong passwords for the admin and your FTP, you should be safe. Also, there are some cool plugins that can help you protect your WordPress site even more efficiently.

WordPress Resources

WordPress SEO Tips and Tricks

February 13th, 2010

Setting up a website based on WordPress is a great idea. Not only is this CMS cool and easy to use, it’s also very effective for promoting your site’s ranking in search engines.

There are some basic things you can do in order to improve your site’s SEO with WordPress. Here are some ideas:

WordPress SEO Tips and Tricks

Install All-in-One SEO

All-in-One SEO is one of the most popular plugins for WordPress, and with good reason. This plugin is packed with important SEO features like titles, meta tags, advanced canonical URLs and more.

Install Google XML Sitemap Generator

Google XML Sitemap Generator is another very useful WordPress plugin. It will automatically generate an XML file with a sitemap of your site, and will send pings to all major search engines when you update the site.

Install SEO Friendly Images

This plugin will do the dirty work for you when it comes to images. SEO Friendly Images will automatically add titles and alt attributes to all of your site’s images.

Check for Valid XHTML

Although WordPress code is usually good, certain themes and plugins might mess it up a bit. Check your site for errors and fix them for a better search engine position.

Avoid Linkware Themes

Sponsored themes, or linkware themes, are WordPress themes which are distributes for free, but with a catch – there are paid links at the footer, which you are not allowed to remove. Google doesn’t like these links, so you are better off avoiding such themes.

Use Permalinks

WordPress has a wonderful advanced option for creating custom permalinks. Choose “Custom Structure” and enter “/%postname%/ “.  This will make your URLs look like this: www.example.com/post-name/.  This puts your post directly at the root level and uses keywords that are in your post title.

Make Sure Post and Page Titles are H1

H1 will simply make the title of the page or post the most important title on the page.

Update Frequently

Make sure you insert fresh content into your site on a regular basis. This is one of the most important aspects of improving your site’s rank on search engines.

WordPress for Android 1.0 is Now Available

February 3rd, 2010

WordPress for Android 1.0 is now available for Android users. This is a rather basic release, which allows WordPress users to:

  • Configure and manage multiple blogs
  • Perform comment moderation and reply to comments
  • Create and Edit Posts including categories, tags and photos
  • Create and Edit Pages
  • Get notified of new comments in the Android notification bar

Here’s the application in action:

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Get an Android phone