StudioPress Review: The Good, Bad, & Ugly About StudioPress.com

StudioPress, the brain-child of CoppyBlogger’s own Brian Gardner, is quickly becoming one of the most popular Theme Clubs, and we want to show you why (and how you can save over $600 by joining their all-access wordpress theme club).

If you are interested in learning more about Studio Press and the Genesis Framework, be sure to read this entire review. From theme by theme reviews to tips and trick to maximize your StudioPress Theme’s impact, we’re excited to take you behind the scenes at StudioPress.com.


What Is A WordPress Framework?

Each and every wordpress theme in the StudioPress Club is running the Geneis Framework with version 1.6 currently in beta. Now for those not familiar with a framework, the best way to think of this is like a dashboard for your dashboard.

In a nutshell, frameworks allow for fast and quick development by creating a “framework” that people can use to quickly build in the features they desire.

To be certain, the true definition of framework is about as varied as the sites you visit trying to explain it, but if you take WordPress’ definition, they conclude, “A Theme framework is a Theme designed to be a flexible foundation for quicker WordPress development, usually serving as a robust Parent Theme for Child Themes. Some Theme frameworks can also make theme development more accessible, removing the need for programming or design knowledge with options pages.” Cool, right?

Well…kind of. The problem with frameworks is often the same problem with WordPress Themes. In theory, they are simple enough and serve a purpose. In reality, their usefulness is only as good as the coding that goes into them.


What Makes The Genesis Framework Different?

Automatic Updates – So much goes into creating your site, blog (or client’s site or blog). The last thing you want is for a new WordPress core update to completely crash the jumbled mash of code and plugins you’ve rigged together to call a site. Genesis helps take the guessing game out by using automatic updates so your code is always state of the art and fully optimized for search engines.

Turnkey Designs – When you purchase the full StudioPress membership, you get access to all of the dozens and dozens of Premium WordPress Themes ever created (both now and in the future) for a reasonable one-time price.

Unlimited – You can use the StudioPress WordPress Themes on an unlimited number of sites (no “developer” price to pay), you get access to unlimited support (for any questions or help), and you get unlimited updates for any and all code changes, future releases, new themes, all of it. When StudioPress says Unlimited, they mean it!

Security – StudioPress brought in one of WordPress’ leading developers to make sure each and every StudioPress Theme has the best security possible.

Easy Customization (Really) – It seems that every developer these days says that customizing there themes are easy. That is most certainly not the case. If you are looking for themes that are both HIGHLY customizable without getting into the code while still allowing you to build in extremely high-end and custom functions, StudioPress is not just a good choice, they are probably the best.


StudioPress Themes

While we could go on forever about even more reasons why StudioPress creates some of the absolute best WordPress Themes in 2011 (through features like: My Tweets, User Profiles, eNews/Updates and more), we now want to show you all the themes you’ll receive when you join StudioPress today.

Fabric Theme: If you are looking for a modern and pastel colored theme then Fabric is the perfect fit for your personal or business site. Coming with all the functions you know from the StudioPress framework you can’t go wrong with this template.

Demo Fabric

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Generate Theme: This theme is targeted towards marketing people who would like to get their message across. Bright colors make this theme stand out of the crowd which gives you the option for easy call to action texts.

Demo Generate

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Eleven40 Theme: When looking at this theme you instantly notice the focus on content which makes this template perfect for all bloggers out there. Write and share your content with your audience anytime, anywhere!

Demo Eleven40

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Balance Theme: Balance is a minimalistic theme which is the perfect solution for people who like to put the attention on their content rather than having fancy distracting graphic elements on their site.

Demo Balance

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Blissfull Theme: Need a homepage for your wedding? No problem! Blissfull makes it easy to setup a dedicated site for your wedding or other celebrations.

Demo Blissfull

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Decor Theme: This theme is fully responsive and looks samazing on your tablets or smartphone. If you are looking for an elegant solution for your website you can’t go wrong with this beauty.

Demo Decor

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Associate Theme: This business orientated template is the perfect theme for your company. If you want to have a professional looking website which is easy to edit and add new content then WordPress and this oustanding design from StudioPress will satisfy you.

Demo Associate

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Apparition Theme: Is a very basic template which is perfect to showcase your recent pictures or stories that you want to share with friends or your followers. A simple front page layout gives the viewers all the information they need.

Demo Apparition

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Backcountry Theme: Backcountry is a multi-purpose theme which you can use for any genre of site that you want. The dakr color scheme of Backcountry makes it perfect for nearly any website.

Demo Backcountry

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Luscious Theme: Colorful and bright that’s what makes this theme stand out. If you want to go against the minimalistic theme trend and want to shock your viewers with colors that make them never forget your site this template is perfect for you.

Demo Luscious

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Metro Theme: Wether you use this theme for your magazine website or personal blog it always gives your visitors the impression of a professional and quality site. With minimalstic approach but still some contrast in the header this is one of the best StudioPress themes.

Demo Metro

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Mindstream Theme: Share your thoughts and stories with your audience. Simple, stylistish and modern. Enough said.

Demo Mindstream

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Minimum Theme: When you love white then you’ll love this theme. While some people might call this template boring others believe in simple is more. It is up to you if you like or hate this design but the trend is going towards minimalistic themes like this one.

Demo Minimum

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Modern Theme: Modern and easy to use. StudioPress created a clean and modern design which is useable on a broad variety of sites.

Demo Modern

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Pretty Pictures Theme: If you have pretty pictures that you want to showcase then Pretty Pictures is as the name states the perfect solution for you. Showcasing photos and videos within seconds make this theme even for beginners a good choice.

Demo Pretty Pictures

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Scribble Theme: Scribble focuses on content and typography. People who rather write than post pictures will love this template. It is all about your content and what you want to share with the world.

Demo Scribble

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Quattro Theme: Quattro is a basic blog theme. Nothing special but has it to be always special? Sometimes something solid can be the perfect choice. If you share this opinion check out this template.

Demo Quattro

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Stretch Theme: This theme is very creative and due the fact that you can set a full-width background it is very customizeable. Besides those options you have a wide range of page templates which will help you to publish your content faster.

Demo Stretch

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Bee Crafty Theme: Bee Crafty will display your wonders to the world. Snap in your own handmade header, stitch together a beautiful photo showcase home page, or draw up a unique and wonderful blog.

Demo Bee Crafty

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Agency Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Agency is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services and what you can offer.

Demo Agency

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AgentPress Theme: The AgentPress theme is an ideal solution for real estate agents looking to market themselves and rise above competition. AgentPress includes multiple page templates that can be used to create a complete real estate website. From single property templates to a custom homepage, AgentPress is right for you.

Demo AgentPress

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Amped Theme: You’re busy touring, writing, and signing autographs on everything put in front of you. You shouldn’t have to worry about the nuts and bolts of your website. Amped was built to spotlight your latest video, showcase your music and the show dates you need to promote… all at your fingertips and built on the rock-solid Genesis Framework for WordPress.

Demo Amped

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Church Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? The Church theme is a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from StudioPress’ content-friendly soft color schemes and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.

Demo Church

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Corporate Theme: The Corporate WordPress theme for the Genesis Framework is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business website. When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Corporate is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services, and what you can offer.

Demo Corporate

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Crystal Theme: Got lots of portfolio-style content and need a stylish frame? Crystal’s a great choice for sites that want to showcase work. When you have a lot of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Crystal is the theme for you. Use it to showcase your company, services, and what you can offer.

Demo Crystal

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Delicious Theme: Easily create a dynamic portrait of your company or project for your customers. You’ll bring them inside, before they step in the door. Delicious effortlessly projects the exact image you desire, and allows you to focus on other content as well.

Demo Delicious

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Education Theme: Your institution has a great deal of information to convey in a short period of time. Text, audio, video, curricula, and more. Help students, faculty and press find what they need fast, without the homework.

Demo Education

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Enterprise Theme: The Enterprise child theme for the Genesis Framework is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business website.

Demo Enterprise

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Executive Theme: Looking for a high-end corporate look? The Executive WordPress Theme is a corporate-style theme that will provide a professional look for your business’ internet address.

Demo Executive

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Expose Theme: When you come in from the field, you want to effortlessly create a stunning display of your photographic work. With a few clicks, Expose will give you the perfect WordPress Theme to exhibit your passion worldwide.

Demo Expose

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Family Tree Theme: Your full life never stops making priceless memories… where do you put all those stories? Family Tree is a safe and imaginative home for your family’s unforgettable moments.

Demo Family Tree

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Freelance Theme: You’ve got enough to do with building and marketing your business. You shouldn’t have to worry about your website. Freelance places a strong, professional face on your business, so you can get back to work.

Demo Freelance

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Focus Theme: We’re living in the Age of Distraction, with unlimited options pulling your readers in countless directions. It’s time to focus. The Focus Theme was built to bring your words, pictures and videos into sharp relief. It’s a clean and powerful theme with one critical objective: concentrating your priceless reader’s attention.

Demo Focus

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Going Green Theme: Maybe you want to save the earth. Maybe you want to save your neighborhood. Going Green is the clean and stable platform you can tell the world from. Make a difference with your website, and get the Going Green Theme.

Demo Going Green

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Landscape Theme: It’s a great big world out there, and you want to shoot it all. Shouldn’t your work have an exceptional home? The Landscape WordPress Theme is sophisticated and invisible enough to reveal the beauty in your pictures.

Demo Landscape

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Lexicon Theme: You might be a journalist striking out on your own. Maybe you’re going to create the next big celeb blog. Whatever the story you want to cover, do it in style, cover it in Lexicon.

Demo Lexicon

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Lifestyle Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Lifestyle’s a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from five content-friendly soft color schemes and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.

Demo Lifestyle

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Magazine Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a magazine-style format to show it off, Magazine is the theme for you. Magazine is sleek, up-to-date, and always cutting-edge… just like your content.

Demo Magazine

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Manhattan Theme: When you’ve got lots of content and you need a professional way to show it off, Manhattan is the theme for you.

Demo Manhattan

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Metric Theme: Thankfully, the days of the starched, buttoned-down corporate website are over. You’ve got a way to build exactly what you need. Metric delivers a warm new media professionalism to your online customers.

Demo Metric

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Mocha Theme: Mocha is the perfect theme for fashion, music, and style blogs… or anyone who craves stylish design. Mocha’s sophisticated design, upscale color scheme, and uncluttered layout always deliver a delicious experience for your audience.

Demo Mocha

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News Theme: Got lots of news-style content and need a stylish frame? The News theme is a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Enjoy using the featured areas and custom widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography.

Demo News

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Outreach Theme: A church is one of the most information intensive organizations on earth. Don’t let your message get lost. Outreach gives you the framework you want, so you can give your people the message they need.

Demo Outreach

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Pixel Happy Theme: Looking for a bright, modern-looking theme that showcases great images? Pixel Happy is the perfect choice. Pixel Happy’s sophisticated color scheme, generous white space, and slideshow and gallery functionality make the perfect framework for photography and other image-heavy sites.

Demo Pixel Happy

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Platinum Theme: Have a great story to tell? An incredible show to put on and to let people know about it? How about showcasing your vocal skills? Let the modern Platinum theme take the back seat while you take the stage. It’s your time to shine.

Demo Platinum

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Pretty Young Thing Theme: There’s a fresh, vibrant generation out there, and you’re a part of it. Pretty Young Thing can capture the essence of your experience and reflect it back to a world that badly needs a dose of youthful exuberance!

Demo Pretty Young Thing

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Prose Theme: Prose is an elegant theme with point-and-click design controls. With Prose, you can easily change things about the appearance of your site (like colors and fonts) without knowing anything about code. Maybe your readers prefer a larger font. You probably have certain colors you’ve chosen to reflect your individual brand. If you can point-and-click, you can customize Prose.

Demo Prose

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Serenity Theme: Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? Serenity’s a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from an amazing selection of widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles.

Demo Serenity

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Sleek Theme: There was a time when the gadget-inclined were relegated to the basement. Those days are long gone and now you can show that. Get your geek on with Sleek, bring your brilliance to the world.

Demo Sleek

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Social Eyes Theme: One of the great benefits of Social Media is the ability to meet people where they are. On Facebook? Over at Twitter? No problem. Social Eyes is an elegant and easy way to assemble a stunning home for all of your Social Media work, and to expand it with your own unique take on what’s going on.

Demo Social Eyes

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Streamline Theme: Your website shouldn’t get in the way of your stories. Here’s your chance to tell it like it is. Streamline throws light on your work, letting you get back to what’s important. Focus on the things that really matter.

Demo Streamline

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Tapestry Theme: You take pictures, you write stories and opinions, you make videos, you link to cool stuff all the time. Tapestry takes everything you make online, and makes perfect, beautiful sense of it.

Demo Tapestry

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Venture Theme: You’re not playing a game. You’re in business, and you’ve got the numbers to prove it. Venture is as stylish and bold as you are, ready to show the world what you’re made of.

Demo Venture

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If you’ve been counting, that’s nearly 40 Premium WordPress Themes plus all the bonuses, support, and lifetime updates you simply won’t find elsewhere. Join StudioPress Today.

 


Not Your Usual WordPress SEO Plugins To Try

WordPress as a Content Management System, in itself, is already a good platform for SEO goals because of the way it is structured. But you can always make a good thing better if you want to. Check out these fresh SEO plugins that you might not have heard of but might help make your SEO efforts yield even better results.

Premium SEO Pack for WP

This plugin in gives you a whole array of tools to help you optimize your site’s visibility in internet searches. The plugin includes monitoring tools like Google Analytics, SERP tracking, On-Page and Off-Page optimization tools, the premium Mass Optimization feature that allows you to optimize all your posts and pages at once. Another cool on page feature is Local SEO. This allows you to rank your pages based on the geographic locale. Other noteworthy on page features are: title & meta format, sitemap, SEO slug optimizer, SEO feature optimizer and google authorship. The SEO pack also includes Link Builders, Backlink Builder, Social Stats, Page Speed Insights, Smush It, and also an SEO code insert feature.

WordPress SEO Post-Optimizer

WordPress SEO Post-Optimizer plugin assists you in optimizing page rank posts. This plugin checks your posts againsts SEO criteria, checks for keyword density (the right amount of keywords in a post), and autochecks for the SEO score of your post every 15 seconds. The SEO scores are expressed in percentage. A real time check on the amount of words is also done in recognition of the fact that search engines usually prefer content with more than 300 words. The plugin also checks if the post has images or not and also if there are links to older posts on your blog to improve your internal content structure. The Post Optimizer plugin also checks for internal links, the usage of h-tags and alt-tags, and bold, italicized, or underlined keywords in your post.

Rankie

Rankie is a WordPress Rank Checker plugin that helps you keep track of WordPress rankings on Google keeping a close eye on each keyword position. The plugin allows you to track an unlimited number of keywords on Google and keeps updating these ranks daily. You can also check out ranking trends per week, month or all time. The plugin is also a great keyword research tool that helps you generate keyword lists by suggesting possible alternatives to keywords of interest. You can track unlimited number of keywords ranking on Google and keep updating these ranks daily as it works as a WordPress SERP plugin, generate ranking reports per month, per year or by all time letting you know how ranking is going up or down with details on every single position change for each tracked keyword, including many other helpful tracking functions.

Ultimate Video SEO Plugin

Ultimate Video SEO Plugin is an advanced stand alone plugin for WordPress which covers all aspects of Video SEO. It automatically fetches video SEO details from videos of all major video hosting providers and submit it to a video sitemap. What can it do? It supports self hosted videos in all WordPress supported video formats. It notifies search engines whenever a sitemap is updated or generated. It supports video embedded through shortcode or metabox (created by third party plugins or theme). It supports self hosted videos embedded using default WordPress media gallery. It adds schema.org video object markup to all your video posts/pages. It shows snippet preview of video search results within your post editor.

Meta Tags Optimization

Meta Tags are keywords used by search engines to find useful information. A lot of times the title and nature of the content may not be associated with the right meta tags. The Meta Tags Optimization plugin advices the admin whether the page is optimized correctly, by highlighting with green and red colors the Meta Tags that are found on the page. While the plugin will not tell us what tags to add or eliminate, it will highlight with red the incorrect inputs. This plugin gives useful information to the writer by highlighting meta tags on the page that may not be the best suited for the content. This plugin also lets you optimize meta tags for posts/pages by providing you clear instruction to repair your meta tags.


Best WordPress Plugins to Boost Your Business Site’s Performance

Most corporate websites are extensions of real-world businesses that want to create an online presence. In the real world, these companies most likely have real-time tools and metrics in place to determine how the business is doing at any given point. Reports and analysis are part and parcel of normal operations as is marketing campaigns and feedback. Does this apply to the company’s online presence?

The online address of a company serves as a virtual business card cum portfolio cum marketing tool which the company can use to expand their reach. It is not unusual for business owners to expect that the same measurables to be derived from their corporate website. The ability to track, measure, and analyze data extracted from online activities is one of the key things a business owner needs to be able to do to be able to asses the effectiveness of the corporate website.

Here are some of the best WordPress plugins and tools you can use to enhance the efficiency of as well as measure the viability your business website.

Site Security and Backup

iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)

iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. On average, 30,000 new websites are hacked each day. WordPress sites can be an easy target for attacks because of plugin vulnerabilities, weak passwords and obsolete software. iThemes Security works to fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials. This plugin hides common WordPress security vulnerabilities, preventing attackers from learning too much about your site and away from sensitive areas like your site’s login, admin, etc. iThemes Security works to protect it by blocking bad users and increasing the security of passwords and other vital information. This plugin monitors your site and reports changes to the filesystem and database that might indicate a compromise, works to detect bots and other attempts to search vulnerabilities, and makes regular backups of your WordPress database, allowing you to get back online quickly in the event of an attack.

WordPress Backup to Dropbox

WordPress Backup to Dropbox keeps your valuable WordPress website, its media and database backed up to Dropbox in minutes and on a regular basis. Simply choose a day, time and how often you wish your backup to be performed and just wait for your websites files and an SQL dump of its database to be dropped in your Dropbox account.

Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security is a free enterprise class security plugin that includes a firewall, anti-virus scanning, cellphone sign-in (two factor authentication), malicious URL scanning and live traffic including crawlers. Wordfence is the only WordPress security plugin that can verify and repair your core, theme and plugin files, even if you don’t have backups. Key features include: real-time blocking of known attackers, two factor authentication used by banks, government agencies and military world-wide for highest security authentication, includes a firewall to block common security threats like fake Googlebots, malicious scans from hackers and botnets, block entire malicious networks, etc.

Site Statistics and Analytics

Google Analyticator

Google Analyticator adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on any WordPress blog. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. Google Analyticator also includes several widgets for displaying Analytics data in the admin and on your blog. It supports Universal (analytics.js) and traditional analytics (ga.js), includes an admin dashboard widget that displays a graph of the last 30 days of visitors, a summary of site usage, the top pages, the top referrers, and the top searches, supports outbound link tracking of all links on the page, including links not managed by WordPress, and many other features to support Google Analytics on your site.

Google Analytics for WordPress

Google Analytics for WordPress plugin allows you to track your blog easily with lots of metadata, views per author & category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews. This plugin uses the asynchronous Google Analytics tracking code, the fastest and most reliable tracking code Google Analytics offers. It features simple installation through integration with Google Analytics API where its as simple as authenticating and selecting the site you want to track. You can also easily connect your Google AdSense and Google Analytics accounts.

Site Content Management

Editorial Calendar

The Editorial Calendar plugin makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your blog and gives you an overview of your blog and when each post will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right in the calendar, and manage your entire blog.

Zedity™ The Easiest Way To Create Your Content

Zedity™ is an innovative Editor to create your posts or pages amazingly easily, quickly and hassle-free with no technical skills required. It gives you total flexibility and unprecedented possibilities to create any desired design, as easily as if done on a piece of paper. Key features include: content in posts and pages that scale down accordingly to your responsive layout, additional content boxes (color box, document box, HTML5 box), audio and video embed capabilities, snap and alignment positioning, and so many other features.

WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache plugin creates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. Performance enhancement features include: Generating static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog, Minify HTML (decrease the size of page), Minify Css (decrease the size of CSS files), All cache files are deleted when a post or page is published, Enable/Disable cache option for mobile devices, Leverage browser caching which reduces page load times for repeat visitors, etc.

SEO

WordPress SEO by Yoast

WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin, designed and developed by WordPress Consultant Joost De Valk, is the most complete WordPress SEO plugin that exists today for WordPress.org users. It incorporates everything from a snippet preview and page analysis functionality that helps you optimize your pages content, images titles, meta descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization options in between.


WordPress 3.9 – Jimmy Smith

If you haven’t updated your WordPress version yet, now would be the perfect time to do so. WordPress has just released WordPress 3.9 and as it has been tradition, this release was named after another music legend, jazz organist Jimmy Smith.

As was posted in a previous article, WP 3.9 includes many refinements that will improve the multimedia experience of both site owner and site visitors. Check out the features below:

WordPress 3.9 Key Features

Improved visual editing

The updated visual editor has improved speed, accessibility, and mobile support. You can paste into the visual editor from your word processor without wasting time to clean up messy styling.

Edit images easily

With quicker access to crop and rotation tools, it’s now much easier to edit your images while editing posts. You can also scale images directly in the editor to find just the right fit.

Drag and drop your images

Uploading your images is easier than ever. Just grab them from your desktop and drop them in the editor.

Gallery previews

Galleries display a beautiful grid of images right in the editor, just like they do in your published post.

Do more with audio and video

Images have galleries; They’ve added simple audio and video playlists, so you can showcase your music and clips.

Live widget and header previews

Add, edit, and rearrange your site’s widgets right in the theme customizer. Preview your changes live and only save them when you’re ready. The improved header image tool also lets you upload, crop, and manage headers while customizing your theme.

Stunning new theme browser

WordPress 3.9 comes with the beautiful new theme browser – Twenty Fourteen.

(source: WordPress.org News)

WordPress 3.9 is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard.
ETA: WordPress 3.9.1 update is now available


Web Design Trends WordPress Users Need To Know

WordPress is the most popular content management system existing today fetching 21.8% of the world’s total internet usage and capturing 60.3% of the market share as per W3tech’s latest market report. It comes as no surprise that the majority of the general web design trends predicted for 2014 are already common features available and/or integrated in most if not all WordPress themes being sold in the marketplace today. It makes you wonder whether WordPress is only a trend follower or it is actually THE trend setter to watch.

WordPress core developers, theme and plugin developers and authors, and the WordPress community in general are some of the most passionate people on the planet. With only ten years tucked into its belt, WordPress has emerged as one the most dynamic and cutting edge platforms today primarily because of the commitment of its community.

In a recent business article on eCommerce design trends for 2014, it lists trends that WordPress users already consider as familiar features. The trend list includes:

  • flat design
  • responsive design
  • less sliders
  • more user friendly navigation
  • more creative use of web fonts

These trends have actually appeared in most WordPress themes as common features in the last year or so. Even Forbes magazine, lists similar web design trends in an article that came out early this year. Although Forbes also adds “storytelling design” characterized by concise, compelling copy coupled with strong imagery as one of the significant web trends that will emerge in 2014. Guess what? A wonderful new WordPress plugin – Aesop Story Engine – in relation to the “storytelling” trend has already been generating a lot of interest lately.

For those who have been following the development path of the latest WordPress version that is to be released (April 16), there are several new features in WordPress 3.9 that could set off new “trends” in the web design world. WordPress 3.9 emphasizes more user friendly features and improved multimedia handling capabilities. A few of these significant features that are worth noting are listed below:

  • New features like live widget previews
  • a new theme installer
  • UI refinements when editing images and when working with media in the editor including the return of some of the advanced display settings for images.
  • audio and video playlists
  • new gallery support
  • The formatting function that turns straight quotes into smart quotes (among other things) underwent some changes to drastically speed it up.

More detailed features can be viewed on the WordPress core development website.

Having said all that, it is interesting to note that the thrust towards being more multimedia savvy while at the same time being more and more user friendly could be a significant WordPress feature that could set off a general web design trend. With WordPress gaining more and more influence over the whole internet population, it is possible that whatever developers, coders, designers, authors, etc. come up with to improve WordPress products and services could eventually be the standard that the web design community will use.

Who knows what WordPress will be like in the next 10 years. The innovations succeeding WordPress iterations will bring and the vast influence it will have in relation to the entire Internet population, mobile, tablet or what not together with the hardcore commitment of its core community will definitely create an impact on the way the world wide web looks and functions. Whatever it is, anything that goes on in WordPress is definitely going to be exciting and worth watching.


Are You Ready For WordPress 3.9?

Andrew Nacin, lead developer of the WordPress Web Publishing Platform, recently announced the release of the first beta of WordPress 3.9 and it is available for testing in anticipation of its release in April 2014. Here are some of the goodies added:

  • Widget Management -For those of you who have discovered the ease and beauty of the WordPress Customizer, you are in for a treat. WordPress 3.9 introduces the Widget Customizer. This new features allows you to edit, rearrange, and even add new widgets LIVE in the preview pane. This feature can be activated using the Widget Customizer plugin (still currently being developed). This plugin allows you to edit widgets and preview changes in the Theme Customizer, with a control for each widget form in sections added for each sidebar rendered in the preview. No more blind editing.
  • Updated TinyMCE – the software powering the visual editor, to the latest version. Expect cleaner markup and the new paste handling — if you paste in a block of text from Microsoft Word, for example, it will no longer come out terrible. This one is exciting.
  • Galleries now receive a live preview in the editor. Upload some photos and insert a gallery to see this in action
  • Drag-and-drop images directly onto the editor to upload them.
  • Improved editing images in post. Easier to make changes to an image (edit, crop, rotate) after you insert it into a post.
  • WP 3.8?s beautiful new theme browsing experience brought to the theme installer.
  • New audio/video playlists.

Just a few more weeks and this version will be out. If you can’t wait that long, sign up to be a tester and get a headstart from the rest. You can download the beta version for free on the WordPress dev site. Happy testing!


WordPress dot Org Plugins You Might Have Missed

WordPress dot org has some powerful plugins that you might not have discovered yet. Check out these cool plugins that just might be the solutions you have been looking for. Some of these plugins are still in the draft or development stage as of this writing.

Admin Color Schemes

The Admin Color Schemes plugin brings some personality to your WordPress site with 8 new extra admin color schemes. If you want to add some fun and pizzazz to your WordPress backend for that not so formal look, check out this cool plugin to create the color scheme that matches your personality.

WordPress Importer

The WordPress Importer plugin will import the following content from a WordPress export file: posts, pages and other custom post types, comments, custom fields and post meta, categories, tags and terms from custom taxonomies, authors, etc. The importer also has a couple of filters to allow you to completely enable/block certain features. Take note though that if your exported file is very large, the import script may run into your host’s configured memory limit for PHP.

Debug Bar

The Debug Bar plugin adds a debug menu to the admin bar that shows query, cache, and other helpful debugging information. This plugin is a must for WordPress developers. This plugin tracks PHP Warnings and Notices to make them easier to find when WP_DEBUG is enabled, and mysql queries are tracked and displayed when SAVEQUERIES is enabled. This plugin is extremely helpful for theme and plugin developers, just make sure that plugin is installed correctly.

WordPress Front-end Editor

The WordPress Front Editor plugin is a simple and easy to use plugin that allows you to navigate between the front and back end where you can access more advanced options such as custom fields, edit content, etc. This plugin is still in the development stage.

WordPress Front Editor

The WordPress Front Editor plugin is a simple and easy to use plugin that allows you to navigate between the front and back end where you can access more advanced options such as custom fields, edit content, etc. This plugin is still in the development stage.

Tumblr Importer

The Tumblr Importer plugin allows you to import posts, drafts, and pages including media side loading (for audio, video, and image posts) from a Tumblr blog into a WordPress blog. It correctly handles, post formats, does background importing, and will not create duplicate imported posts.

Blogger Importer

The Blogger Importer plugin allows you to import posts (published, scheduled, and draft, comments, and categories (blogger tags) from a Blogger blog then migrates authors to WordPress users.


Five Drag and Drop WordPress Plugins To Try

The drag and drop feature has become one of the most popular features in WordPress themes lately. We remember how everyone clamored for responsive themes and multiple slider options. Now it’s all about drag and drop. Below are some of the available drag and drop plugins in the marketplace today.

Visual Composer

Visual Composer for WordPress is a popular drag and drop page builder plugin that will save you tons of time working on the site content. Take full control over your WordPress site. Add columns, rows and choose from 40+ predefined elements divided in logic groups with single click, by using intuitive and handy UI. Then simply use your mouse to drag elements around to re-arrange them. You can also use your creativity and skills to extend Visual Composer with unique elements by using the developer API. Outstanding features include: intuitive drag and drop interface, object oriented code, template system, responsive grid, custom post types, WordPress user access support, 40+ built in content blocks, and so many other features. Create totally unique websites with no programming knowledge required with Visual Composer.

Aqua Page Builder

Aqua Page Builder is a powerful WordPress plugin that allows you to create an unlimited number of template variations for use in your WordPress themes. It follows the same user interface used by the Menus & Widgets admin pages – making you feel right at home with the UI. Similar to the Widgets &amps Menus, Aqua Page Builder features the drag and drop interaction to build its templates.This free open source plugin blends seamlessly with the WordPress admin interface making it familiar and easy for users to get used to it. Aqua Page Builder was also designed to reside on a completely independent page, instead of cluttering the post editor. The idea was to offer the freedom to build content outside of the editor, and use it anywhere they like at all. The “template” doesn’t have to be a complete page at all, it can be part of a page that can be re-used on a unlimited amount of pages/post they like.

Themify Builder

The Themify drag & drop Builder for WordPress helps you build any page layouts with a live, frontend preview. Layouts are completely responsive, and what you see is what you get. Easily create complex grid layouts by dragging and dropping on Builder’s intuitive user interface. Content can include static text, images, videos, sliders, galleries, tabs, maps, etc. or dynamic content, such as posts, menus, and even sidebars + widgets. It works on desktop, tablet, and mobile. The Builder comes with any Themify theme as part of the Themify framework. You can also purchase the Themify Builder plugin to use in a non-Themify WordPress theme.

Elegant Themes Builder

The Elegant Themes Builder is a plugin that provides some incredible tools for structuring the content on your page. These tools were previously only available in our Convertible theme, but now they have been added to a new plugin that will work with any theme. The plugin creates a visual drag-and-drop canvas where you can add, arrange and re-size advanced elements on your page. This builder appears below the normal text editor when you create a post or page, creating a unique canvas for each. The builder allows to you quickly create columns, sliders, tabs, buttons, toggles, boxes and so much more. This plugin will work with any theme, not just Elegant Themes but is can be purchased if you are an Elegant Themes member.

Page Layout Builder

Page Layout Builder plugin is a Drag and Drop Page Builder – Layout Builder – Content Builder for WordPress. Building custom WordPress page layout using Page Layout Builder is as easy as dragging-and-dropping. No need to learn HTML or find a coder/designer to change a page layout, modify sidebars, etc. You can directly use more than 3000+ widgets from wordpress.org to place anywhere inside your page content. Modules like sliders, galleries, images, drop-down menu, progress bar, timeline, testimonials, message box, warning box, notification box, loop for custom post type, post loop with various templates, sub-pages, heading, regular html etc. are currently under development. This plugin is available in the WordPress plugin repository.


30 Different Content Slider Plug-ins for WordPress

When looking at websites, slideshows and carousels are the best way to present images and this is usually achieved using jQuery. To have jQuery slider galleries or other image presentation on your web page you have to code or download a jQuery slider plug-in and integrate it. Those sliders give effective looks and are very attractive to users.

Here you can see 30 Different content slider plug-in for WordPress. Hope these plug-ins help you…Enjoy!!!

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