Wordpress

Why you should always wait to upgrade WordPress

by Diana Urban on December 13, 2011

Oooh. Look at that. The magical yellow bar has appeared at the top of your WordPress dashboard, with a pretty upgrade button. An upgrade to WordPress 3.3 is available.

You click the pretty upgrade button.

You sit patiently for a couple seconds, literally twiddling your thumbs in anticipation. You get up to make a hot chocolate while the coding faeries are hard at work, delivering magical upgrades to your WordPress experience. You sit back down at your computer, eager to enjoy your chocolaty treat and explore the new WordPress functionality. Then you stare in disbelief at the screen.

How to Add Author Box to your WordPress Post Footers

by Diana Urban on June 20, 2010

Adding an author box to your post footers will help build your personal brand on your blog. An about the author box helps your visitors get to know you, especially first time visitors. And it also is useful on blogs like this that are not personal FIRSTNAMELASTNAME.com blogs, and the picture helps personalize the post. This post will show you how to add an author post box to your WordPress blog, as well as to the Thesis theme.

WordPress Thesis Theme Review – 8 Reasons to Switch

by Diana Urban on June 19, 2010

Thesis is an amazing WordPress theme. I recently made the switch to the Thesis theme from the free Flexibility 2 theme, and I can already tell that it was a worthwhile investment. When I was looking for a new WordPress theme, my main criteria were customizability, SEO friendliness, fast load times, and excellent user support. By choosing Thesis, I got all this and SO much more.

Download the Latest Version of Thesis >>

How to Add the Facebook Like Button to Your Blog

by Diana Urban on April 22, 2010

You might have noticed that Facebook has gone a bit “like” crazy this week. One major change affected fan pages: instead of becoming a fan of a page like Coca-Cola, you now “like” the brand. Facebook also introduced a “Like” button that could be added to any page on the internet. This little like button is the easiest way to share content yet. With just one click, a user can share your content with all of his or her Facebook friends. Read More…

How to Add Google Buzz To Your WordPress Blog

by Diana Urban on February 17, 2010

Google Buzz is the latest hot topic in social media. Whether it will ultimately be a hit or a flop, many blogs are already incorporating the button into each post, just like Tweetmeme’s retweet button and Facebook’s sharecount button.

There are several plugins and methods you can use to add the Google Buzz button to your WordPress blog, at least until Google comes out with an official button. Here are the best methods I’ve found for adding Google Buzz as a share count button, a sidebar widget, and a social share chicklet:

How To Promote Your WordPress Blog on LinkedIn

by Diana Urban on December 20, 2008

If you’re not familiar, LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals. You display your professional experience, connect with current and past coworkers, and even meet new connections. It’s a great online networking opportunity. If you’re a professional blogger and want to boost your credibility as an expert in your field, you should consider putting your blog on your LinkedIn profile.

In the spirit of research, I put U Stand Out on my WordPress page, which you can see on my LinkedIn profile page. Here’s how to do it: Read More…

WordPress Plugins that Encourage Blog Comments

by Diana Urban on December 16, 2008

Why is it so important to encourage commenting? This problogger article discussed a study revealing that 90% of people online are lurkers (read or observe content without contributing), 9% of people contributing a “little,” and only 1% of people actively participate online. This is referred to as the 1% rule, and it’s your job to figure out how to break that rule on your blog.

There are so many WordPress plugins for comments, and sifting through them to find the best ones can be overwhelming. So here are four simple WordPress plugins I recommend to encourage readers to comment on your blog.