Archive for the ‘Wordpress’ Category:
Why use WordPress?
Written by Jai on April 19, 2008 – 11:45 pm - 1,380 views
If you are new to WordPress and looking for reasons to use WordPress as a CMS (content management system) in your new website, let me give you some.
Open Source Software
WordPress is an Open Source software which allows it to be used free of cost. You can use it on any kind of personal or commercial website without have to pay a single dime for it. It is built on PHP/MySQL (which is again Open Source) and licensed under GPL.
User Friendly
You don’t really have to be experienced to use WordPress on your website. Nowadays most of the hosting companies provide the ability to install WordPress on your site at a single click of the mouse. The administration section is easy to navigate and its even easy to add articles/content to your website.
Themes Support
You will never run short of templates when using WordPress. If you don’t like the themes that come with the default installation of WordPress, you can hunt on the Internet and you will find thousands of free themes that you can download and use for your website. There are themes which can even make your website look like a regular site instead of a blog.
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Written by Jai on April 14, 2008 – 6:13 am - 1,856 views
As more and more people are upgrading to the latest release of WordPress 2.5, the number of rants and complaints is increasing steadily. I am sure the developers have worked hard to make the administration section of the new release as user-friendly as possible, but there are some shortcomings which should definitely be addressed in further releases of WordPress.
Here are three things about WordPress 2.5 that have really put me off :-
TAGS
1. First of all, I don’t understand the need of including an “add” button with the tags. The old method of specifying all the tags just separated by a comma was far less time consuming and you did not have to press an extra button every time you wanted to add a tag.
CATEGORIES
2. Adding categories is the worst of all. First you scroll down to the categories section (which were very accessible in the earlier version always being on the right side), then you click on “Add New Category”, write the category name and finally click on the add button. I really hate this part as they have increased the total number of steps to add a category for your posts. Read more »
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Written by Jai on April 4, 2008 – 7:38 am - 5,091 views
After the release of the WordPress version 2.5, a few people asked me if my themes were compatible with the new version. So, I decided to check this fact today and did a test run on majority of the WordPress themes on my local machine which is running the latest version of WordPress (2.5).
As a result, I will like to congratulate myself and inform everyone that all the WordPress themes available on Blog Oh! Blog are fully compatible and ready to use on WordPress 2.5. The reason why they are compatible is, because the new version of WordPress has mostly changed the administration section and ideally there shouldn’t be any problems with the themes that were working with the 2.3 version.
If you are getting any kind of errors or problems using my themes, it can be because of some redundant plugin that you are using. Many WordPress plugins need to be updated to work with WordPress 2.5. So, you might want to inform the plugin author to release an update.
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Written by Jai on April 1, 2008 – 6:23 am - 1,287 views
Today, I am going to talk about that part of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) process, which an ordinary blogger does not know of, or tends to forget while building his blog. Normally, if you are using WordPress as your blogging platform, a bit of SEO is already done for you, thanks to the WordPress development team. But here are some very important key points that you should remember while running your blog. Let us start from the basics and move on to some advanced techniques.
Title Tag
You should never ignore the importance of your <title> tag. The keywords for your blog/website should be included in the title tag and the length of the title tag should fall between 60-90 characters. The search engine spiders always look through your titles while looking for relevant content. In WordPress, the title tag is usually formed by the name of your blog which can be found in Options menu of the wp-admin section.
URL Keywords
Make sure that your keywords are also prominent in your blog links. WordPress saves you from the hard work by providing custom permalink feature, which allows you to choose the suitable link structure as per your requirements.
Keywords in Heading Tags
This is another place where your keywords play a major role. When using WordPress, these tags are commonly used in the post titles (<h2> tags). Remember that your post content should also have those particular keywords that you used in these titles.
Keywords in Image Tags
When using images in your documents or posts, always specify the alt text for the same. Search Engine spiders cannot see the images but they can index their textual descriptions specified in the <alt> tags. This process is also used for validation purposes.
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Written by Jai on March 25, 2008 – 12:14 am - 2,386 views
Congratulations to the last free theme contest’s winner! The winner is the owner of Kahpeng.com and I will request him/her to send me the e-mail address where I should send the prize theme.
I am also giving away a free copy of the premium WordPress theme :- Trueblogger worth $79.99. This premium theme has the following features:-
1. Unique Design & Layout.
2. BBC Style News Ticker.
3. jQuery based scrollable News Section.
4. Separated Comments & Trackbacks.
5. Stylized Comments.
6. Widget Ready.
7. Fully XHTML Compliant.
8. Easily editable CSS file.
9. Web 2.0 Appeal.
If you are interested in winning this theme, all you have to do is blog about the contest and you might just win it. Make sure that you include a link to this entry so that it gets tracked through the WordPress trackbacks. The winner will be declared through a lucky draw just like the previous one. You can have a look at the premium theme here. The last date for entering into this contest is April 5, 2008.
Note :- The winner will get a single user license for the theme which he/she can use on a single website.
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Written by Jai on March 17, 2008 – 8:11 am - 2,824 viewsWordPress 2.5’s release has been delayed twice and it is now supposed to be released on March 17, 2008 which is today. To give you all a glimpse of the new features included in this version, here is my little report. The new release of WordPress will have the following upgrades.
An Overhauled Administration Interface
- The administration section will now have a different color scheme of light blue, gray and orange colors. I am sure this will bring some relief to the people who are bored of the old colors but can also turn off some loyal users. There will be two default color schemes from which the user can choose and apply their favorite one.
Here is an article on how to create your own admin color scheme for WordPress.
- The “Presentation” section has been renamed to “Design” and all your widgets, themes will be listed under this category from now on.
- The search functionality has been given extra power by allowing the users to search through the posts, pages and comments based on status, months and categories.
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Written by Jai on March 9, 2008 – 1:28 pm - 5,588 views
Here is a chance for you to be a part of the next free WordPress theme release on Blog Oh! Blog. I am looking for suggestions and ideas that should be incorporated in the upcoming theme. If you want a feature that has never been included in any WordPress theme so far (even if it’s a simple one), just mention it here and I will try to integrate it in the new theme. You can provide me with layouts, graphics, rough sketches or examples of existing websites that have always fascinated you. I will be choosing the best suggestions based on feasibility and value addition.
Reasons for you to participate in this creative experiment :-
- The theme will have your design, colors and layout.
- You also get to suggest a name for the WordPress theme. (Winning name will be chosen from all the suggested names)
- All contributors’ links will be listed on the new theme.
- The new theme will be a reflection of popular demand and style.
- Last but not the least, the theme will be free for everyone.
So, consolidate your thoughts and let me hear it from all of you.
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Written by Jai on January 24, 2008 – 9:02 am - 2,220 views
The design of your blog definitely helps to attract new visitors but the textual content will always rule the search engines and of course, the mind of your readers. The following 10 tips will give you some ideas for improving your content and keeping your readers interested:
1. Pick a focus or a niche.
There are something like 77 million blogs. In order to gain readers who are interested in your content, it helps to write about what you know, whether that be sports or politics or parenting. Niche blogs are a fast-growing concept, and blogs about knitting, cooking, gardening, and crafts are attracting more attention.
2. Decide if your content will be family-friendly or mature, and then stick to it.
You have to write in your own “voice”, and your content should match it’s subject. If your blog is a way for your Grandma to keep up with what your kids are doing, then you probably shouldn’t use too many swear words or have ads with scantily-clad women in them.
3. Don’t feel obligated to post every day unless you really want too.
Depending on the focus of your blog, you might not have a reason to post every day. And there is nothing more boring than a post that starts with “Well, there’s not much to say today.” Then, don’t say it! Wait until you have enough material for a complete post.
4. Treat your blog posts like a piece of real writing.
This is a mistake that so many bloggers make. It’s okay to once in a while publish a post that is made up mostly of links to other things, but the majority of your content should be carefully thought out with a beginning, middle, and end. Break your content up into short paragraphs rather than long ones. Start with an opening paragraph to introduce the topic, middle paragraphs to give information, and an ending paragraph that sums everything up.
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Written by Jai on January 23, 2008 – 10:39 am - 1,442 views
Our favorite blogging CMS, WordPress, has received a whopping $29.5 million as funding from four companies, to buffer as it invests in other services, including an antispam filter and an online-identity product. These companies did not reveal the size of each firm’s investment, although The New York Times Company’s stake is the smallest one.
The Times Company had previously maintained a business relationship with Automattic, the commercial arm of the popular WordPress publishing platform. The About.com guide site, which was purchased by the Times Company in 2005, is published using the WordPress platform. The New York Times has also produced more than 50 blogs using the platform.
I am really proud to be a WordPress user and so are many other bloggers around the world. What about you?
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