Links: February 19, 2013

Let’s face it…the interwebs are big and only getting bigger. Here are 5 WordPress links you need to know about.

  • Microlancer – If you love any of the Envato marketplaces, this upcoming service will allow you to become a service provider. Still in beta.
  • WooThemes Shuts Down Affiliate Program – Out of nowhere, WooThemes shut down their entire affiliate program citing “lack of traction.” No blog post, no detailed explanation. Lots of frustrated affiliates.
  • Community – We discuss the free/premium debate often here at Blogex. WPDaily suggests it’s all about community.
  • Why Free? – With the recent dust up between Automattic and Envato, the age ol’ Why Free debate is front and center again.
  • WordPress CDN – Get the skinny on content deliver networks (free and premium) from our buddies at WPLift.

The WordPress Dashboard for WP Beginners

According to the WordPress,

The Dashboard is a tool to quickly access the most used areas of your blog’s Administration and to provide glimpses into other areas of the WordPress community. The Dashboard Screen presents information in blocks called modules. WordPress delivers eight modules: Right Now, Recent Comments, Incoming Links, Plugins,QuickPress, Recent Drafts, WordPress Blog, and Other WordPress News.

The first screen you see when you log into the administration area of your blog is your Dashboard. The main idea of the dashboard is to give you a place where you can get an at-a-glance overview of what’s happening with your blog. You can catch up on news, view your draft posts, see who’s linking to you or how popular your content’s been, quickly put out a no-frills post, or check out and moderate your latest comments.

The Dashboard acts like a cockpit with all the controls and switches you need to help your website function the way you want it to. This might seem basic to those who have been using WordPress for quite some time now but there are still quite a few out there who are still struggling to figure out how to find their way through the backend, scared to death lest they “break” their website beyond repair.

Getting to know your WordPress Dashboard

If you are a WordPress beginner, the Admin Section or backend can be quite intimidating at first, but once you become familiar with the different sections, everything will make sense. What do you see after you successfully login to your WordPress website? Here’s what you can expect.

The Dashboard contains the following default modules. These modules can be dragged, dropped, repositioned, or toggled on and off according to your preferences.

Right Now

This module, at its basic, gives you a concise overview of your what’s going on with your site. It contains information and stats about your content (posts, pages, categories, tags), discussions (approved, pending, or spam comments), the name of your WordPress theme and the number of active widgets you are using, users online, and the WordPress version installed. More information can be included in this module depending on any additional plugins you install. You can also customize your Privacy Settings if you wish to keep your site private.

QuickPress

This module is the best and quickest way you can create a simple post. You can add a title, content, media files, custom forms, tags, and save your post as a draft or publish immediately. It’s a great tool for capturing and publishing ideas without going through the “Add New Post” module.

Recent Comments

If you allow comments on your website, this module helps you moderate the discussions on your posts. You can approve (unapprove), edit, reply, mark as spam, or delete comments right on the dashboard.

Recent Drafts

This module displays saved drafts of posts and pages that you are working on which still needs to be edited or published.

Incoming Links

This module reveals the urls of other websites that has linked to your WordPress website. You may or may not find this module useful as it does not always include all the websites that link to you. You can also configure incoming links you allow by editing the RSS feed information ( url, number of items to display, item date).

What’s Hot

This module displays recent posts from the official WordPress Blog, Other WordPress News, Popular or Latest Posts from around WordPress. This keeps you updated on the latest WordPress related news such as version announcements, security notices, and general WordPress community posts and updates.

Plugins

This module lists the Most Popular, Newest, and Recently Updated plugins available. If you are adventurous and you want to experiment with how different plugins work on your site, this is the perfect resource to find plugins to play with.

Site Stats

This module is probably the one you need to pay most attention to. It shows you a graph of your website’s activities – views, visitors, traffic – per day, week, or month. It’s a great tool to find out how many visits you get, what your top posts are, top searches on your website, and overall statistics to help you improve, maintain, and optimize your site even further.

Knowing the functions of each of these modules will help you learn how to use them to manage your website. Take some time to go through each one of these modules and familiarize yourself with each of them. You’ll soon be mastering all of them and it’ll be instinctive later on.

WordPress Theme Support – The Awful or Awesome Truth

So you’ve finally uploaded your shiny new premium WordPress theme but it looks nothing like the theme you loved so much in the demo and now you’re wondering if you just wasted your money on a lemon. You fiddle and you tweak but the errors just keep piling up. Not all premium WordPress themes include free support so it can be a bit perplexing especially if you are setting up a website for a client. Frustrating, is a mild word. Where do you go and what do you do?

Here are some of things to look for, support-wise, before, during, and after purchasing a premium WordPress theme. Some theme providers have all of them while some don’t so use your own discretion and judgment before you make your final decision and click that “Confirm purchase” button.

Documentation (Theme or Plugin guides – online or offline)

Check if the theme includes extensive and detailed documentation and a troubleshooting guide if available. Find out whether installation and setup guides are available online and offline as access to these guides serve as your reference documents as you setup your WordPress theme.

XML file or demo content

Most of the time we get attracted to a particular theme because of the demo. The demo gives us an idea on what is possible for our own individual projects. Unfortunately, recreating the same demo can be challenging if the elements used in the demo are not included. Some authors do not include the demo file but there is a growing trend among a lot of authors where they include the XML file or demo content as a bonus.

Photoshop files (layered)

Trying to recreate the WordPress theme in the demo can be much easier if the author includes all the allowable files used. Photoshop files make it easier for you to duplicate or customize the theme’s design elements without having to start from scratch.

Detailed tutorials (video or text)

Text based tutorials are great but video tutorials are best because the author can demonstrate and guide you on exactly what to do when setting up or modifying your WordPress theme. Video tutorials save you a lot of time, and, mistakes are reduced because of misinterpretation. Simply pause and play when you need to go back to a certain instruction.

Screenshots

In the absence of video tutorials, screenshots are also great because they serve as visual guides to help you install and get your WordPress theme up and running. Visuals are always effective as it gives you a clear picture of what you are supposed to do. You can always go back and refer to these screenshots if you get lost along the way.

Basic support services for installation, setup, guidance, bug fixing and general support for basic WordPress issues and concerns

For non-WordPress savvy users, authors and developers provide basic WordPress theme setup and installation. The extent of this service varies from author to author although generally this service includes simple adjustments and tweaks that do not fall under their customization services.

Support or Community Forum

WordPress authors and developers who have been around long enough in the business are most likely to have a dedicated support forum or community support group to help each other out. Access is generally limited to members or customers who have purchased themes sold by these authors. Make sure to register in these forums and be active in the community to learn hacks, tips and tricks that don’t normally come with the documentation and tutorials.

Help desk, live chat, or available hours for technical support

Some WordPress authors or theme providers might even have the legroom to provide a dedicated support system which includes a help desk or ticket based support system, live chat, and dedicated technical support crew. Be sure to note the time or hours support is available as some of these teams live in different time zones.

Update and Upgrade Support

WordPress updates its software from time to time and problems arise when the WordPress theme you purchased is no longer compatible with these updates. Same thing goes with plugins and other elements like short codes, etc. Make sure that your WordPress theme author or developer has provision for updates and upgrades that will affect the theme and if there are any additional charges related to it.

Author/Developer Contact info

Find out and store the author or developer’s contact information online and offline. Request for an email address, a business phone number, or any other means to get in touch with the author if he does not have a dedicated support forum. Leaving comments on the WordPress theme’s product preview page does not guarantee your concerns will be attended to in real time.

Finding the perfect WordPress theme that matches your dream website is more than just appearances. Make sure you know what you are getting when you pay for that pretty theme you’ve been eyeing. It pays to know what’s in the fine print…or what’s not in it.

5 Great Resources for Stock Imagery for your WordPress Themes

Choosing the right photos for your WordPress theme demo is key. It’s what catches your visitor’s eye when they arrive at your website and hopefully it is interesting enough to sustain their attention and make them stay. Poorly chosen photos can spell disaster for your excellently coded theme and wastes golden opportunities to close a sale. The multiracial corporate group shot and the guy or girl in corporate attire with a headset are unexciting and kinda cliché.

Here are some excellent sources for stock photos or graphics you can use to enhance your WordPress theme.

Photodune

Photodune is a huge marketplace of royalty-free high quality photography. Photodune is part of the highly creative Envato community of which Themeforest is a part of. File prices range from $1 up.

Licenses:

  • PhotoDune Regular License allows use of the item to create multiple (more than one) end products, which are distributed free to end users by you or by one client. Unlimited copies are permitted for websites, and for other uses there is a limit of 250,000 copies across all products. If you are a freelancer, one license is needed per client.
  • PhotoDune Extended License allows use of the item to create multiple (more than one) end products, which you or one client may sell to end users. Unlimited copies are allowed. If you are a freelancer, one license is needed per client.
  • Other licenses include Tools license, Logo license, T-shirt license (regular or extended), App license, Personal license

500px

500px is a premier worldwide photo sharing platform for aspiring and professional photographers who get to discover new photographs, share their own images, buy featured photos, and also sell the best of their own portfolio to thousands of subscribers. Browse through thousands of images from all types of content neatly categorized by subject. Settings can be adjusted to restrict displaying photographs classified as adult content. Downloads are all HD digital files and can be sold as downloadable hi-res files or canvas prints. Transactions are handled via the website or an iPad app. Download costs start at around $3 for hi-res files and $120+ for canvas prints. You can signup as a member. Membership starts from $0 (free account) to $49.95/year.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is a stock photography agency and global image marketplace that maintains a library of royalty-free stock photos, vectors, illustrations and footage available by subscription or per item.

Plans and Pricing

  • Standard License – 25-a-day Subscriptions allows you to download 25 images everyday including access to all JPEG and Vector sizes (starting at $249 up to $2500+)
  • Standard License – Images on Demand allows you to download images (jpgs and vectors) any time for up to one year (starting at $49/5 downloads to $229/25 downloads)
  • Enhanced Subscriptions allows you to download images (TIFF, jpg, vector) any time for up to one year (starting at $199/2 downloads up to $1699/25 downloads)

Fotolia

Fotolia is a community of artists, graphic designers, creative agencies devoted to offering affordable creative royalty-free images, vectors, illustrations and video footage clips which can be used for any design project or document with no time limits or restrictions on the number of printed copies.

Subscription Plans:

  • Daily – Daily Subscription plans allow members to download from 25 to 250 creative files per day. Download high-res images, vector illustrations and video footage every day from $0.16 per file.
  • Monthly – Monthly Subscription plans allow members to download each month from 5 to 5000 creative files without daily limit. The monthly Subscription plan allows you to download high-res images, vector illustrations and video footage from $0.84 per file. If you don’t use all of your downloads within that month, these unused downloads rolls over to the next month for as long as your subscription is active or renewed.
  • Individual – Individual Subscription option allows one user to download images daily or monthly, according to the Subscription plan purchased.
  • Multi user – Multiple Users Subscription option allows a company to share access to Fotolia’s images, vectors and videos within its company.

Stock.XCHNG

Stock.XCHNG is the world’s leading FREE stock photography site. SXC was launched in February 2001 as an alternative for expensive stock photography. The idea was to create a site where creative people could exchange their photos for inspiration or work. It is now wholly owned by Getty Images. Images are totally free as long as you stick to the rules in the Image license Agreement. Also, in some cases you may need to notify the artists about using the images and sometimes you need to give credit to them.

WordPress theme demos need not have the same stock photos, images, or vectors. Take your pick from premium or free images to make your demos less predictable and boring. Spice up your demo pages and make them as interesting and as eye-catching as you can with the right image. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Cool WordPress Themes for Churches: 2013 Edition

Churches and other religious or advocacy centered organizations have very specific website needs. Most of them require a combination of magazine, events, multimedia, and community features rolled into one theme. Here are some great WordPress themes that have great features and functionalities that can address those needs:

The Good News

The Good News Premium WordPress Theme is a theme specifically designed for churches but it is flexible enough to fit other uses. This premium theme includes: custom posts (Events, Sermons, Media), custom templates (Events, Sermons, Media), custom widgets, a contact form, 11 PSD files, and a complete HTML version, everything you need to set up your church’s website. The Good News is also responsive.

Evolution

Evolution Premium WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes is a simple, clean, responsive multi purpose theme that can be used for any type of website but it can also work well for advocacy groups or church and religious blog sites. Pastors or church leaders can use this theme to publish regular preachings or inspirational articles to inspire their readers beyond the Sunday sermon. This theme includes several useful page templates such as an image gallery, portfolio, a blog feed, and a member login template, among others.

Peacemaker – The WordPress Theme for Churches

Peacemaker Premium WordPress Theme is an excellent church theme that incorporates all the elements of church related activities into one theme. A notable feature is its events countdown feature which is a helpful events management tool to inform people about upcoming events. This responsive premium theme also includes: four custom post types (Events, Videos, Audio & Galleries), custom widgets, a unique homepage slider builder with the Slider custom post type, layered PSDs for detailed customization, and extensive documentation for easy setup.

Genesis

Reaching your audience has never been simpler with Genesis Premium WordPress theme, a church theme that’s designed to help you create a dynamic and responsive church website easily. This premium WordPress theme includes a simple custom solution for events that other events plugins complicate. This responsive theme also includes an unbranded theme options panel, unlimited photo galleries (masonry style), video, MP3 streaming, PDF download capabilities, and other useful features to enhance your website.

Spurgeon

Sunday preaching time too short to say all you have to say? Not a preacher but inspired to write all your thoughts and insights from your personal devotionals? Write about it and take all the time you need in your very own website. Spurgeon Premium WordPress Theme is a great way to compile all your thoughts and share them to as many as you can on your website. This responsive premium theme is equipped with features to help you easily publish your messages to inspire people and encourage them in their faith.

Saving Grace

Saving Grace Premium WordPress Theme is a theme geared towards charities and non-profit organizations. What’s unique about this theme aside from its outstanding layout and typography is the built in donation facility, via PayPal, using its donation page template and donation button and progress bar. This functionality takes advantage of impulse donation and gives visitors the option to donate straight away. This theme also includes 5 alternative color styles for you to choose from.

Malachi

Today’s church generation is so much different from before. Technology has changed a lot of the traditional methods of reaching people and replaced it with multimedia and audio-visual systems. Malachi Premium WordPress Theme integrates these modern tools and gives you a theme that is in step with today’s demands giving you technical functionalities that include podcasts, streaming music, and music videos. These modern communication tools are seamlessly integrated within the theme so you can create a website that can effectively reach today’s tech savvy generation.

Check out the WordPress themes above to see which ones will match your needs.

WordPress Plugins for Front End Content Management

As the internet continues its path towards building stronger online communities, greater interconnectivity and increased social networking, website owners are opening up their doors to accepting content contributions from their audiences. To address the issue of privacy and confidentiality, some plugin developers have come up with front-end solutions to enable website owners to accommodate contributions from the community without compromising their backend controls.

Here are some useful plugins you can use to put everything you need for posting, editing, and uploading content on the front-end.

Front-End Editor by Scribu

Front-end Editor is a plugin that allows you to edit your content directly from the front end of your site. This comes in really useful when all you need is just to correct a typo or something you overlooked.

Front-End Uploader

This plugin is useful if you have multiple contributors to your site because this plugin allows them to generate content and easily upload it right on the frontend of your website. Essentially, the plugin is a customizable upload form that adds files with allowed MIME-type to your WordPress Media Library under a special tab “Manage UGC”. There you can moderate your user submissions – whether to: Approve, Delete, or Re-attach to other post/page/custom-post-type before they are officially published.

Frontend Checklist

Create HTML or PDF checklists your visitors can save or print anytime they come back to your site. These lists are saved via cookies which enables visitors to continue using the checklist where they left off when they re-visit your site.

MarketPress FrontEnd

MarketPress Frontend is a powerful ecommerce plugin that can be used to set up a stylish online store easily. This WPMU Dev created plugin can help you: manage orders, create and edit products, product tags, and categories, set up store settings such as shipping, payment gateways, and coupons, all through the front end. This means that all your confidential dashboard information will be hidden away from sellers or other users who don’t need to see all that information.

FV Community News

Need more content but challenged? This plugin allows users to contribute articles while still maintaining full control over what gets published.

With this Community News plugin you allow your visitors to add fresh or related content to your blog. This plugin comes with a moderation panel and a settings page including support for custom post types, images, widgets, and shortcodes. You can simply sit back and relax knowing that your blog will have a continuous supply of fresh content.

Just make sure that the plugins are compatible with your current WordPress version before you install any of them.

80 Reasons To Join Elegant Themes

According to Leonardo Da Vinci “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” True. If you observe a lot of the high end designer brands, there is a common thread among all of them – simple sophistication. Elegant, timeless, classic designs that stand the test of time always wins over outlandish, over the top fads that shine bright like a falling star only to fade later on. Perhaps this is why Elegant Themes continues to remain strong. Their commitment to elegant, classic design gives their themes that timeless appeal. That doesn’t mean that their designs are dated and irrelevant but instead, their consistency, as far as delivering beautiful and highly functional themes, is constant.

Their recently released WordPress Theme, Fusion, is a good example of the quality of design work they put out. Fusion Premium WordPress Theme is just one of 80 high quality themes Elegant Themes members enjoy. That’s 80 good reasons to join Elegant Themes today. Imagine owning 80 beautiful themes for the price of mere pennies for each theme. That’s cheaper than buying an upsized or Big Soda – and hey, no calories too! For WordPress professionals who create websites for clients, that’s a great investment indeed. It’s better to upsize your business rather than your waistline.

There are many other reasons why you should seriously consider joining Elegant Themes. A good sign that a company is healthy and thriving is its growth rate. Elegant Themes membership has grown more or less 30% in a span of 6 months. From 120,000+ members last year they jumped to 160,000+ at the start of this year. The numbers tell the story and that is really worth noting.

If you haven’t heard of Elegant Themes yet or if you are a WordPress beginner still trying to find your way around the WordPress community, check out our recently updated article – “Nick Roach’s Elegant Themes Review”. It’s a great resource with lots of information and samples  for anyone who wants to find out more about Elegant Themes. Click on the title “ Nick Roach’s Elegant Themes Review” to read.

Get 80 Premium Themes for $39

Elegant Themes Has Over 160,000 Customers! Time To Join.


In a span of 6 months, Elegant Themes’ customer base grew from 120,000+ to over 160,000. That’s more or less a 30% jump and quite an achievement really. Something right must be happening and this is great news for the WordPress community. On a macro scale, this means that more websites are being powered by WordPress and are enjoying the variety of designs available in the WordPress marketplace as well as the robust functionalities of this ever improving content management system. On the micro level, more WordPress consumers, particularly Elegant Themes customers, are enjoying more quality WordPress themes at incredible bargain prices. If you are member of Elegant Themes this means that you are enjoying 80 (latest count) high quality WordPress themes for pennies!

If you are a WordPress professional and you’ve been scouting around the WordPress marketplace for quality themes, check out Elegant Themes and the great value you can get at a price for less than a cup of Caffe Americano. If you are simply a WordPress user, think of the many ways you can dress up your site (80 themes and counting) to fit your every mood.

What’s so great about Elegant Themes? Consistency. Through all the years that they have been in business, in the middle of ups and downs, redesigns, and all the normal and abnormal challenges all businesses face, Elegant Themes has been consistent. As far as quality of design, commitment to improve, and sensitivity to their customer base are concerned, Elegant Themes has been consistent. This communicates longevity and stability which are important to consumers, especially loyal ones.

When is the best time to join Elegant Themes? Now is the best time to take advantage of Elegant Themes’ current pricing scheme. The current price has remained the same since 2010 when it rose to the present $39 rate. As far as design quality is concerned, it is still one of the best WordPress deals on the web. For those of you who are on the fence or still contemplating whether to join or not, now is the best time to join. Why? A little birdy told us that this pricing scheme may change pretty soon. Maybe you can skip the Caffe Americano for now while this price scheme is still hot. Head on out and check Elegant Themes today.

Get 77 Premium Themes for $39

Blazing the Trail in 2013

Greater things are yet to come and they are exciting. There’s always something magical whenever the New Year comes. Technically, if you really strip this day down to what it really is and take away all the fireworks and celebration, it’s actually another normal sunrise and sunset in the calendar. Fortunately, this is not how majority of us see it. Many of us look forward to it with a lot of hope and expectations, a chance to start again, an opportunity to embrace new challenges, a time to let go of the old and wipe the slate clean, a new beginning for many.

For those of us in the WordPress community and the greater Internet population, things have never been more exciting. Imagine a single video garnering more than a billion views and still counting. Why is this significant? This simply gives us the information that there are a billion or more active Internet users out there that we can reach out to. As global interconnection continually increases, social behavior continues to adapt and our world seems closer and more reachable everyday. By force majeure the older generation are being pulled in by the tech savvy younger generation into the digital age as this has now become the common tool for communication. Social networking continues to expand and so has its demographic base.

For those who are in the WordPress marketplace and are serious about it, the hard questions need to be asked. Is it enough to simply ask what the ideal WordPress theme really is or what the perfect theme looks like? Are the current themes in the market today meeting the needs of the consumers, real and perceived? What about creativity and originality? Or innovation? Are we willing to think out of the box and be experimental as far as theme features and designs are concerned or are we just going to play it safe and blend with the crowd? Are we ready to meet the demands of the unstoppable rise of mobile computing and the multilingual global marketplace?

As we look into the future, those in the Internet and web development industry, (WordPress included) need to take a wholistic approach in planning for the next 12 months and beyond. Maybe some are just dabbling in WordPress theme development for fun while others are seriously considering it as a viable business opportunity worth investing in. Perhaps as we plan future steps maybe we can take a step or two back and view the WordPress themes market from a different angle or with a fresh perspective – to work backwards and use the future to strategically determine today’s activities. Somebody once said, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” Who would have ever thought that an Asian guy would teach the world (1 billion+) how to do a horse dance? Mind-blowing but undeniably real and possible. Maybe he did what wasn’t normally done and got the results nobody expected. Guess what? So can all of us.