by Ben Cook on July 1, 2009
WordPress has gone commercial… in a GPL sort of way.
An official Commercially Supported GPL Theme subsection cropped up today on the theme repository on WordPress.org.
In the past, only themes which were “kosher with the GPL and didn’t claim or promote otherwise on their site” were allowed to be featured in the theme repository. The practical application of this was that hundreds of sponsored themes were purged from the repository late last year never to be heard from again.
However, today a “Commercial” subsection appeared featuring websites which
“provide GPL themes with extra paid services available around them. Some of them you may pay for access, some of them are membership sites, some may give you the theme for zero-cost and just charge for support. What they all have in common is people behind them who support open source, WordPress, and its GPL license.”
by Ben Cook on June 23, 2009
The Thesis theme has been hailed as the most flexible WordPress Theme ever. And, given the diversity of quality designs its users have cranked out, it’s tough to disagree.
The flexibility centers around the theme’s unique use of a custom CSS (cascading style sheet) file so you can drastically change the look of your site by editing just one or two lines of code in one single file.
If you’re an amateur (at best) web designer like myself, just reading the three letters of CSS probably sent shivers down your spine. But, while CSS can certainly be intimidating at first, Thesis actually makes it MUCH more approachable and easier to learn.
While I still wouldn’t consider myself an expert, in just a few hours I was able to learn enough to create the custom design you see on this site.
by Ben Cook on June 18, 2009
The single universal truth about every website owner is this:
We all need more traffic.
And, since Google and the other search engines have essentially become the gateway to the internet for most web users, site owners are increasingly seeking to optimize their sites for search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a simple concept; structure your site to provide search engines the information they want, and in return they’ll deliver hoards of visitors straight to your virtual door step.
While WordPress is fairly SEO friendly “out of the box”, there are several settings and options that need to be tweaked in order to achieve higher rankings and receive more search engine traffic to your site.
by Ben Cook on June 11, 2009
For the first installment of our Essential Plugins for your WordPress Toolbox series, I’d like to introduce you to a plugin that will not only make your life easier, but can also bring more traffic to your site and may even help you make more money!
SEO Smart Links
The concept behind SEO Smart Links (SEOSL) is pretty simple. Every time select words or phrases appear on your site, SEOSL will automatically convert them into text links.
by Ben Cook on June 10, 2009
The newest version of WordPress (v 2.8) has been officially released.
Most users probably won’t notice all that much of a difference from 2.7. However you WordPress developers out there are going to have plenty of changes to catch up on.
Thankfully, WordPress put out this handy video explaining exactly what’s been changed.
by Ben Cook on June 10, 2009
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the internet today for one simple reason: versatility.
While the core software is powerful in its own right, it is the wide variety of plugins that allow WordPress to do almost anything users ask of it.
There are literally thousands of plugins with wide ranging effects created by a diverse community of open source developers.
by Ben Cook on June 8, 2009
Each week here on WPblogger we’ll review a WordPress theme, walking you through the ins and outs as well as listing the pros and cons of each.
While reviews are, by their very nature, subjective, we’ve selected 4 core categories on which to score each theme.
So, when all is said and done, you’ll be able to compare several themes against each other and see how they stack up.
The categories are as follows:
by Ben Cook on June 6, 2009
WordCamp Chicago is being held this weekend and despite living only 4 or so hours away, I wasn’t able to make it.
Thankfully, several presenters are putting their presentations online so we can follow along from home.
First up is Micah Baldwin, Vice President of Lijit Networks (@micah) discussing how to Measure Online Influence:
by Ben Cook on June 6, 2009
At WordCamp San Francisco last weekend, Matt Mullenweg made an announcement that has the WordPress community buzzing.
While there was some initial confusion surrounding the announcement this comment by Mullenweg left over at the Blog Herald set the record straight.
WordPress MU, the multi-user platform that allows the creation of several blogs per single install (ala WordPress.com), is going to be merged into the main WordPress framework.
