A quick explanation of CommentLuv: Basically, it’s a special comment feature that rewards people who comment here on the site with a link to their most recent blog post. The plugin grabs it automatically and does all the work without the commenter having to do anything special. The links are still nofollowed, so there’s no incentive for spammers, but hopefully commenters will get some real traffic from interested visitors to this site. Cool, huh?

Anyway, that’s not what this post is about. This one is about showing you how easy it is to give the commenter’s CommentLuv link some special CSS styling. I wanted to do this because I noticed that the post links didn’t stand out as much as I wanted them to. I wanted to put a little extra space between your comments and the actual CommentLuv latest post link, and I wanted to italicize it as well. So, I dug around in the source code for a second and realized that the plugin was using a class called “cluv”. That’s all I needed to know. Woot!

So, if you want to style your CommentLuv links, just go to Appearance / Editor and edit your blog’s stylesheet. Scroll down to the bottom and add the following line:

.cluv {margin-top:10px; font-style:italic;}

Save your edit, and that’s it! You’ve now added a little extra space between the comment and the link, and you’ve italicized it as well. Of course, feel free to style them any way you want. That’s just an example of what I did.

Let me know if you get any traffic from your CommentLuv links when you comment here. I really hope I can send some your way.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: commentluv, CSS

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Themeforest

Themeforest offers a dizzying array of themes to choose from, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one I didn’t like. This one might just be my favorite of them all.

iThemes

iThemes has some very nice themes, with two that are different, in that they have the ability to be extremely flexible (Flexx and Builder).

Woo Themes

Woo Themes are a favorite amongst many WordPress aficionados because it offers monthly membership to get new themes each month. You can still opt to just buy a theme without membership, however, and they are always giving free themes with each purchase, so good deals abound here.

Kadom

Kadom Themes hit my radar because I was trying out one of their plugins. They don’t have a lot of themes, but the ones they have are crisp and clean.

Templatic

Templatic changed its name recently but that didn’t distract from the quality of the themes. I like the wide array of “types” of themes that will work for many niches and business models.

Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes are not only outstanding, but the yearly price for complete access to all themes is ridiculously awesome.

Solostream

SoloStream has a more “classic” array of theme choices than most, but sometimes classic is just what someone is searching for.

WPRemix

WPRemix is really just one premium theme, but it comes bundled with over 50 layouts to choose from, so it’s an interesting and useful package.

Headway

Headway is less of a theme and more of a framework. This is for the do-it-yourself’er or designer who wants to create their own designs, but with an awesome place to start, and options designed to make the process easy.

Thesis

Thesis, like Headway, is a framework, that lets you create whatever design you want, while still starting from a powerful base. It also is designed to make the creation process easy, with options built in.

Those are my favorites. If you’re looking for a special theme, or like me, just like to browse for inspiration on rainy days, these are great places to find extreme themes and incredible inspiration.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: premium themes, WordPress

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But try remembering even those two things when you write posts for several blogs. If you’re anything like me, you never remember and you end up digging through old notes or View Source on blog posts to see what the format is. Don’t you wish you could just jot down a note on the WordPress admin dashboard to remind you of those little things? Guess what?

There’s a plugin for that!

Actually, there may be several, but the one I use is Dashboard Post-It. Here’s how it’s described:

Adds a simple ‘Post-it’ widget to the Dashboard that allows you to leave yourself or other authors a note. The plugin can be configured and moved around as any other Dashboard widget. It will accept plain text or (sanitized) HTML.

If you own a multi-author blog, this is a great way to make sure everyone remembers all the little rules you have. If you’re a blogger who posts for someone else, let them know about this little plugin. It can make things easier for everyone.

Sometimes it’s the tiniest things that increase productivity and keep us from tearing our hair out in frustration.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dashboard, HTML, plugin, WordPress

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I’m really excited that the Southeast United States is getting its first WordCamp ever! Woohoo! I’ll be speaking on SEO for WordPress there, so it would be just kickin’ if I could get to meet some of you there. It’s going to be held September 27-28, 2008 (yep, like 3 weeks away). The cost is only $25, so it’s well worth it! There will be lots more info posted on the official blog soon, but you can get the first bits of info there now. That blog will be updating pretty rapidly over the next couple of days so check it out now and then.

You can register here, and I’ll remind everyone about it later, in case some of you forget. I’d really, really, really love to get to meet some of you, so I’m hoping lots of you will go.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Birmingham, unconference, WordCamp, WordPress

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Update: If you like this post, you should check out my 10 favorite WordPress premium theme sites post, as those will contain lots of awesome non-blog styles.

Remember the post I wrote a couple of months ago, titled When Is A Blog Not A Blog? Well, I was reminded of that post when I started thinking about a new site I’m about to begin working on. You see, I plan to use WordPress to run the site, but I don’t want the site to look like a blog. It won’t be date-oriented, like a blog is, and in keeping with the idea of having it be more like a regular site, I want it to have a non-blog look as well.

Not all WordPress themes have to look like blog themes. In my quest to find just the right look for my new site, I realized that there was a “style” that could be useful to others looking for the same thing. Generally speaking, that style is called “magazine style” or “newspaper style”, but I find that some of them could be referred to as “corporate style” as well. So rather than trying to put a specific name on this, I’ll just refer to the following styles as the “non-blog look”. That work for you? Good.

The next thing you should know is that I chose my favorites to present here, but each of them is a premium theme, which loosely translated, means they aren’t free. Still, the features and options warrant their cost in my opinion. Sometimes, it’s necessary to spend a little. (And just for those of you who absolutely won’t spend money on a theme, I’ve included a link to a review of some free non-blog themes at the very end).

All prices subject to change, and I may not know about it *

Flexx $79

Click here to view more details

Flexx is by far the most flexible and most awesome premium theme I’ve seen. Frankly, all you need to know is that with just a few clicks of your mouse, you can change the layout to any one of over 1000 different possible layouts. You decide how many columns you want, where you want them, where to put special widgets, how to organize the menu, etc., just by clicking your mouse. Seriously, it’s so cool, it’s unreal! So the screenshot below is just ONE of over 1000 possible looks! Lots of other way cool features, too, like flash-like rotating headers, seo friendly, and plug and play graphic changes.

WP Remix $75

Click here to view more details

WP Remix comes with:

• 20+ Custom Layouts
• Multiple Page Templates
• 5 Homepage Options
• 10 Sub Page Options
• 2 Product/Portfolio Pages
• 2 Event Listing Pages
• FAQ Template
• Testimonials
• Multi Level Drop Down Menu
• 1, 2, and 3 column Pages
• SEO optimized
• Image Gallery
• Newsletter form
• and on and on and on

The screenshot only shows one possible layout, but the layout options are almost endless.

Revolution and Its Iterations $79.95 each

What can I say about Revolution? It comes in various flavors and each is wonderful and highly flexible.

Original Revolution:
Click here to view more details

Revolution Magazine:
Click here to view more details

Revolution News:
Click here to view more details

Revolution Sports:
Click here to view more details

Revolution Tech:
Click here to view more details

EggHead $49

Click here to view more details

This theme has a very nice admin options area that makes it easy to customize the text for each section.

Features:

• 8 color schemes
• 2 layouts
• Dynamic menus
• Easy ad placements

Egghead works well for a traditional web site look.

That’s it. I haven’t yet decided which I’ll choose, but I’m leaning heavily towards Fjord09 at the moment. Anyway, as promised, here’s a link to a good review of 11 Free Magazine Style WordPress Themes for those of you who insist on free. (I insist on free at least 99% of the time, so I totally understand).

*

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: plug and play, regular site, web site look

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I discussed installing WordPress in Part Six of my series, and discussed WP themes in Part Seven, but if you are looking for more details, then Caroline’s ebook may just what you need. The ebook is called How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress.

Here’s the outline of the ebook:

Chapter 1: Getting and Installing WordPress
Chapter 2: Basic WordPress Administration
Chapter 3: Installing a New Theme
Chapter 4: Setting up Adsense On Your Site
Chapter 5: WordPress Plugins
Chapter 6: Creating Your Site Content
Chapter 7: Final Thoughts
Appendix 1: Uploading Using FTP
Appendix 2: External Resources

If you are looking for a good free resource on setting up and using WordPress, this might be just what you need.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Adsense On Your Site Chapter, Basic WordPress Administration Chapter, Caroline Middlebrook, ebook, Getting and Installing WordPress Chapter, New Theme Chapter, WordPress, WordPress Plugins Chapter, Your Site Content Chapter

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Want to know a little secret? My most profitable site is not a blog. It’s just a regular site. You know, the kind that has existed for years, long before the word blog was invented. I almost never update it. I hardly ever even think about it. I certainly don’t post daily or weekly like I would do with a blog. But if I had to do it all over again, I would build it as if it were a blog. I still wouldn’t update it very often or think about it very often. But when I needed to, it would be oh so much easier to do than it is right now. So unless I plan to do some extra-special, hoop-jumping, programming wizardry on my next site, I’ll create it using WordPress as if it were a blog.

But it won’t be a blog.

It will be a regular site that just happens to use WordPress as its foundation. And you probably should too. In the old days, I would have recommended something like Drupal or some other CMS (Content Management System) to you. And then you would have asked me 5,000 questions about how to use it. Keep in mind that a CMS is supposed to make life easier for non-programmers, but just using them can be a daunting experience.

WordPress is pretty darn easy to use. It might not be as easy as 1-2-3, but it’s not much harder than that. And it actually comes enabled with an option to make it work more like a regular site than a blog. It’s not completely designed for it, and some tweaking needs to be done – usually to your theme (design) – but it doesn’t take much tweaking.

Normally, when using WordPress as a blog, any time you write a new post, you are writing just that – a post. But you can also write pages instead of posts in WordPress, and these are handled differently than posts (they aren’t displayed in chronological order for example). And if you tell WordPress to use one of those pages you wrote as your home page, it will! So if you want a 10-page site, write 10 pages and assign one of them as the home page. Easy, right?

Like I said, it’s not quite as simple as that, and the biggest issues almost always center around making changes to the theme you choose. Frankly, unless you’re ready and willing to learn about HTML, PHP, and CSS, I’d probably recommend that you hire someone to make the theme changes for you. Since you might be doing that anyway in order to get a custom theme for yourself, it probably won’t cost you any more than you would have paid in the first place.

You might want to check out this Essential Keystrokes post, as it gives yet another view of someone who went through this process. You might also want to check out Drikatruu Jelly. That theme is one I’ve already mentioned that I like, and the site shows you how you can use it as a template for a WordPress CMS. If you are feeling like tackling the project yourself, it might be the way to go.

So if you want to build a site, but you don’t want to be a blogger, you might want to consider using WordPress as a CMS. If you plan to create some mind-blowing site that requires lots of custom programming, then this probably isn’t the way to go. But if you want to just a build a regular site, put some pages up, maybe throw some affiliate links around, and then let it stand on its own, this might be a great way to make that happen. When you do need to add a page, or change something you’ve written, it will be a breeze to do it through WordPress’s admin panel. And over the years, that ease of use will be something you’ll come to appreciate very, very much.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CMS, Content Management System, HTML, mind-blowing site, profitable site, regular site, WordPress

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Easy Video Insertion Plugin: I currently use a WordPress plugin that makes it simple for me to drop a Youtube type video into any of my blog posts. I highly recommend it if you want to include a video in any of your posts. You can get it here.

Video Gallery Plugin: This allows you to create a gallery of an entire Youtube video collection. It does a few other things as well, such as:

• local thumbnail caching (youtube can be slow to display thumbnails)
• random thumbnail in your sidebar
• display an entire video collection as a gallery
• display your favorite videos as a gallery
• display a specific video in your post/page

You can get this cool plugin here.

Video Comments Plugin: Video Comments allows you to post video in your blog and let your users comment on it. A popup window displays the video and commenting area; as a video is viewed the comments associated with a current video time will be displayed, viewers can also see all comments and jump to a specific point in time. The comment area can accept a comment at given point in the video and saves itself in the existing word press database so no additional configuration is needed. All comments are listed in the individual post as a regular comments (with timecode) and can be easily modified or removed by the editor. (You really need to see this one to appreciate it).

As I play around with video more and more, I find it interesting to see what tools are available to make this media more accessible and interesting for everyone. I think all 3 of these plugins can help you create visual interest for your own blog and give your readers a little something extra to appreciate.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: caching, editor, plugins, video, video on your site, WordPress, Youtube

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I don’t know about you, but that seems to take forever. OneClick is an installer that does all of that for you, and it even comes with a Firefox extension to make things even easier. Right click on a link that points to a plugin, tell it to upload, and bam! Uploaded and ready to go in about 2 seconds flat. It’s just about the coolest plugin ever. I love it. Get it.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: essential, favorites, OneClick, plugins, widgets, WordPress

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