You made it into our gallery because your website is beautiful and it caught our attention. Why not flaunt your hard work? Or add some more viability to your site? It’s simple to set up a WeLoveWP Award Ribbon and adds a nice flare to your website! Just use our ribbon generator at the bottom of the page to create your ribbon.
With patience at an all-time low for internet browsers, a fast WordPress site is the first step to a successful blog. No matter how great your content, how captivating your photos galleries, or how witty your “about” page copy, if your site runs slow people will turn away before they make it through the virtual door. Fortunately, your WordPress site can easily be tweaked to run faster. Here are some tips for a speedy WordPress site.
Most bloggers don’t need much bandwidth when they first start out and it is easy to opt for share hosting to save money. However, as your traffic grows and your website starts to see large influxes of visitors from social networking sites and more, you may need to consider upgrading to a host that offers faster and more reliable hosting. It may cost more, but the money is worth it because it will help you keep all your new visitors coming back for more great content on your blog.
A cache is simply a place where something is stored. This can be a pile of nuts stored by a squirrel, or data from the internet stored on your computer. A cache plugin installed on your WordPress site will allow visitors’ computers to store information, such as the photo for a certain page, so that if they revisit that site, without clearing their cache, the photo will not have to be retrieved from your far away host and will therefore appear faster. A good cache plugin, W3 Total Cache, is often recommended and will greatly speed up your WordPress site.
Lazy loading is when an image or other content will only load on a page when it is in view by the reader. For example, a photo on a blog post will load when it is on the reader’s screen, but all the photos that are further down will not load until the reader has scrolled down to where he or she can see them. There are plugins which will activate this feature on your WordPress site.
Most visitors will enter your blog via the homepage making it important that this landing page runs fast and impeccably every time. One way to do this is by adjusting the WordPress settings to indicate you only want 5-7 posts to show up on the first page (or less depending on your preferences). While it is possible to have upwards of one hundred posts on your home page, it just isn’t necessary and will slow your site down.
If you have tried a bunch of plugins and adjusted your WordPress settings but your site still is running more slowly than you’d like, your problem might be your theme. Not all themes are created equal. Clean and tight coding, proper use of style sheets, and more are all necessary for a theme which runs efficiently and reliably. The default WordPress theme is actually a great theme for people who want a fast theme, but if you are looking for something a little more unique you can hire a professional to customize your theme to look good and run fast or just search around the web for a prepared theme with good reviews for speed.
Instead of scouring the web looking for beautiful, modern navigation examples I decided to take these inspiration’s directly from our fan-base at We Love WP. We looked at the most recent submissions to our WordPress gallery and found the most appealing navigation’s to us. Also, all of these selections are either from our most recent selections on our homepage or the second page of listings, so they’re fresh designs! Anyway here they are:
There are many web hosting providers out there that claim to offer the best blog web hosting but do they really? Of course they don’t! You shouldn’t be surprised by that at all. In today’s day and age a web hosting provider will say anything to get a new customer. The web hosting industry is very competitive. That is what makes it so tough in finding a blog web hosting provider that is honest. There are a lot of web hosting reviews out there that can help you but we have done some of the leg work and found a couple that we think offer some of the best web hosting that supports blogs and our WP themes!
Before we talk about our two companies, we first want to give you some pointers when looking for a blog hosting provider. First, remember earlier when we said that the web hosting industry is very competitive? That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Competition means the web hosting companies have to stay on their feet and offer you the latest and best features. Features are our first pointer we want to discuss. With all the different hosts out there, the features can vary. Some of the variance isn’t that important while some is very important. The important web hosting features to look at are disk space, data transfer, and hosted domains. Disk space is the amount of the storage you are allowed, data transfer is the amount of data you are allowed to transmit over the host’s server, and hosted domains are the number of domains you are allowed to host on your account. Let’s look at these three features a little closer, especially when it comes to blog web hosting.
Another pointer we want you to offer you is to look at the control panel and specifications of it when choosing a web hosting provider. There are a few control panels out there and then there are a lot of “host made” ones. We highly recommend you stick to a host that offers you the cPanel control panel. The cPanel control panel is very easy to use, even for novice webmasters! Plus, most of the hosts that offer the cPanel control panel offer you the ability to use SimpleScripts or Fantastico. These are two applications that you can access within the cPanel to easily add third party applications to your website. One of the applications that you can access in these programs is WordPress. Simply click on the WordPress icon and follow the few easy steps and you will be running a WordPress blog in a matter of minutes!
The last pointer we want to offer you is to pay very close attention to the customer support that the web hosting provider offers you. Everybody at one time or another needs help from the web hosting provider so you need to make sure you get all the support you can! Customer support from web hosting companies come by means of phone support, email support, live chat, tutorials, and forums. It is nice to have a web hosting company offer you all of these as you never know which one will be the easiest for you to access ad solve your problem!
So who offers some of the best blog web hosting that supports WordPress? Both BlueHost and iPage offer some of the best web hosting when it comes to that! Both offer you unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer, unlimited hosted domains, SimpleScripts, free customer support, and all the other tools that you need to run a successful WordPress theme website! A key benefit of using both of these web hosting providers is how reliable they are. They only use the best servers to host your website on and are very proactive when it comes to keeping them secure.
You may be thinking that BlueHost and iPage are expensive because of how good they are. That is incorrect thinking on your part! The normal BlueHost price is only $6.95 a month and the normal iPage price is $7.50 a month. However, when you use a BlueHost coupon or an iPage coupon, you can save over 50% off the normal prices! These web hosting coupons are a great deal and you don’t lose any of the web hosting features that we talked about! It’s like finding free money!
In the end, we hope you are able to make a more educated decision on finding blog web hosting now that you have read this tutorial. There are many aspects of finding the best web hosting and we hope to have just given you a good insight on some of them!
Today we’d like to share with you some simple advice for writing your blogs which can go a long way.
Too often today, blog authors promoting a company can be focused on how spectacular their company is. For customers, it can be tiring reading on about company after company talking about “their” capabilities and “their” accomplishments. Instead, write more articles about what you can do for your customer. Write about clients’ needs, and what the company can do to service them. Write about why the client should use your company’s service, to put them in a better position to appreciate what you can do for them.
For example, here are some “company” centered sentences.
“We hire only the best pest control specialists.”
“We can reduce your pest control problem by 90%.”
“We will exceed your expectations and make you a happy customer.”
Here are some better statements.
“Our pest control specialists are specially trained to cure your business of its bug or vermin woes.”
“Let us reduce your pest control problem by 90%.”
“Your happiness and satisfaction is our primary goal.”
As you can see, the change is slight. On the large scale, however, the entire impression of your article or WordPress site page is different. The customer will read that you are focused on them, not on you.
Next time you’re writing an article, take a moment to edit with this lens on. Ask yourself, “is my article audience-centric?” and “am I telling the customer how I can help them, or how great I am?”
See you next time!
Hey there fellow WordPress devotees! In our last article we promised to give you a down and dirty method to keep your WordPress blog from pinging the search engines every time you update it. We would hate to disappoint you, so here we go!
As we explained last time, when a WordPress blog entry is updated it sends out an automatic ping, or return-service packet, to several search engine indexing services. This is good at first, as it lets the world of web-crawlers know you exist. After a time, however, it will cause your blog to get banned because constant editing will cause a succession of pings which look like spam. Of course one method to prevent this would be to edit several times in your word processing application before posting, but we all know that blogging isn’t really like that. Besides, in all copy writing the editorial process is constant.
So, how do we prevent our blogs from being banned? Drum roll please…
Introducing a free, must have WP Plugin: MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer.
This plugin, among other things, completes the simple task of preventing your WP Blog from pinging the entire world just because you took out a bracket or a repeat indefinite article. You can edit to your heart’s content, clicking “Publish” after every character change if you desire with no ill-repute from the web-crawlers. Additionally, it helps with scheduled blog posts by limiting the times when Word Press sends out the pings. When done correctly, pinging the search engine indexing services is important and powerful, but done incorrectly it will just get your post banned.
Let us know if you have any experience with MaxBlogPress, the Ping Optimizer Plugin, or have other methods of keeping your ping count down.
Howdy, WeLoveWP Fans! Sorry for the delay in between blog posts. We’ve been busy poring over your sites to bring you the latest and greatest the WordPress community has to offer.
Today we’d like to mention something that could hurt your WordPress site rankings. As we all know, it’s easy to write a WP blog post only to find a mistake just seconds after posting. Then, a few minutes later another pops up. It’s neither unheard of nor poor practice to revise an article four or five times before it’s ready for public consumption. What you may not know is that this can be disastrous to your search engine rankings!
In a second, I’ll get to the important part. Just for some background, a “ping” is an internet term where one server sends another server a “packet” of blank information. Although there’s no real content, the packet is marked to be returned to sender as soon as the second server receives it. It’s kind of like mailing a letter knowing it will be undeliverable, assuming the Post Office will put it right back in the slot as soon as it arrives. These pings are important in WordPress blogs and other types of sites because when a search engine will receive them from new and updated sites. It is a refresher to the search engine that there’s something new there and they need to send out a web-crawler to check it out.
Search engines, however, are no fools. They know that smart internet marketers take advantage of this, and will artificially “ping” them to get their sites higher rankings; the actual inner workings of this process are beyond this article, but are explained in-depth in any book on basic Search Engine Optimization.
The problem with updating your WordPress site several times is that Google will think that the repetitive pings are from an underhanded marketer trying to cheat the system. They will mark your site as “spamming” them, and may block you from receiving web-crawlers for a period of time only known to the search engine programmers.
Don’t dismay, there’s a fix for every problem on the Web. Tune in next week and we’ll explain how to get around this “spam block” so when you edit your WordPress blog you don’t get put on the blacklist.
We here at WeLoveWP would like to share with you a great tool which has recently come to our attention.HTMLForm.com is an exceptional site which can save you time and frustration. Their online cloud-ware can generate an html form for any need: guest or event registration, contact forms, and more. Their service is free and easy to use, and we highly recommend it if you’re not prone to designing complex HTML forms by hand (Who is?)
For WordPress, HTMLForm has a built-in system which allows users to design their form on their site and export it as a WordPress plugin. From there it’s a simple installation from your dashboard and you’re ready to rock ‘n roll. Just check on the “shortcode” within the plugin, type it in your post, and publish. The only way to be easier is if they read your mind and wrote it for you.
One of the toughest things for ongoing website optimization is the blog. At first, everyone loves writing their own blog! It’s fun, and it’s an opportunity to showcase your unique knowledge of the topic at hand. After a while, it can start to become more of a chore. One option is to hire out your blog writing to a third party; indeed for website developers who are more “big picture” this is pretty much mandatory. However, for those running one WordPress site, use out-bound links to get in a quick post. Properly attributed articles are always appreciated, and sharing visitors is hardly dangerous to your bottom line. Out-bound links can also improve your SEO rankings, as web crawlers bounce from one site to another.
Pick good outbound links; if you run a daycare service, don’t link out to a bodybuilding website. Choose relevant articles and topics which will help your visitors out. It is a good way to keep them coming back for more, since they will see your blog as a valuable resource for external information as well as internal. If you’re sitting at the computer, staring at the screen for more than ten minutes wondering what you’re going to write, just link out!
With the new software available, both in the form of software and cloud-ware, many designing their WordPress site have never found the need to learn HTML code. Even if you are just using the default WordPress editor, the visual interface allows authors to do all basic functions. While this is convenient, every web developer needs to know enough HTML code to get around. Being able to make changes in HTML is extremely powerful, and a huge time saver in situations where the graphical user interface (GUI) just won’t take you where you want to go.
When reviewing your pages, you will invariably come across something which needs to be changed. It may need to be bolded, italicized, underlined or a link added. If so, modifying the HTML can be far quicker than going all the way back to your visual editor. Luckily, these are also the easiest to modify. To make a word bold, just add <b> in front of the word and </b> on the other side. For italics and underlining the code is <i> and <u> respectively. To add a link, the command refers to “an html reference at…” like so: <a href=”http://www.welovewp.com>. To make this open up in a new window, add “target=”_blank” to the end of the code before the closing bracket (>).
That’s the easy stuff. To change sizes, indents, and so on, you will probably still want to use your visual editor. It’s easy to accidentally miss one letter or bracket and end up with a broken page, especially with how complex most HTML is these days. You should still know, however, how to modify that code for quick changes. For example, if you want to increase or test an increase in size, check the <span style> code at the beginning of your paragraphs. You can quickly modify the size by changing the font size within that code, or change the font itself by typing in the name of one you would like to see. Once you get the hang of it it can save a lot of time by making quick ad-hoc changes in HTML instead of importing and exporting entire pages.
Every up and coming web developer should own a copy of HTML/XML for Dummies, or a similar title. This will give you the tools you need to be a power-user. Modifying and writing HTML code after a while becomes natural, and it is great to be able to see an error on a page and think “Oh, there must be a missing break there.” Plus, learning code is fun, like learning a language written in math and logic. It’s written very intuitively, so anyone can do it.
Have a great weekend from WeLoveWP!
WordPress is inherently designed for constant content generation. In other words, it is most effectively used when putting new content on the site on a regular basis. Still, even if you are changing up your landing site regularly and reviewing your site for improvements here and there, you’re missing out if your site doesn’t have a blog. WordPress was originally designed around blogging because it is an effective and sought after website base. Here’s some tips on how to start or improve your WordPress site blog.
Write Regularly
It’s not enough to have a blog, you need to fill it! Regular content posting puts meat and potatoes into your site; further, it gives followers or repeat visitors something new to look at and a reason to visit repeatedly. If your blog is good, you can get visitors to repeat simply because they want to see what’s new. This can be especially effective if your site is based around an online storefront.
Keep it to the Point
There’s a nasty rumor going around the internet that all posts should be between four and five hundred words for marketing and web design purposes. We here at WeLoveWP aren’t sure exactly where it started, but it’s patently false. Blog articles should be tailored in size and shape to the topic. Sometimes short blurbs are best, such as when telling readers about a deal or discount. Other times, you may wish to write a longer article. If that’s the case, put the most interesting content up top to entice your viewer and leave the main content a bit lower, where the reader will read it when they follow the blog entry to its’ own page.
You don’t have to go it alone!
If you are writing your site’s blog all on your own, don’t get “blogged” down! Guest writers in the form of friends, co-workers, or associates can bring a breath of fresh air into your blog. If you want a longer article for your blog but don’t want to write it yourself, there are services which will connect you on a contract basis to freelance copywriters for a nominal fee. These articles won’t be specific, which is why they can be great for off-topic posts which you aren’t particularly specialized in. Contract copywriters are also an excellent option; they tend to be a bit more expensive but provide a regular voice with writing experience to your blog.
For a variety of reasons, don’t skip the blog for your site. Put it somewhere prominent on your WordPress site, not tucked away in a sub-menu. Make it a priority to enhance your blog, and promote it to encourage more visitors to check it out on a regular basis.
See you next time!
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO to experienced web developers, is one of the most important investments you can make into your WordPress site.
Search engines work with two different engines: paid and organic. Paid results are, just as they sound, bought and paid for by website owners or developers. They ensure that when someone searches for a service in an area, their website shows up on the first page. These entries are usually on top in a highlighted box, or on the side.
Paid search results are, however, not as sought-after as organic results. Organic results are derived from a complicated algorithm unique to each search engine. A combination of robotic web-crawlers and human search result sifters, the highly classified algorithm decides which results show up in order outside of the paid links. Market research shows that organic results are the most effective; typically a person will go to them before the paid links. SEO is the art and science of modifying a website so that it will rank highly in the organic results.
There are many different components to search engine optimization. One is the “meta” tags in your website which will be picked up by the web-crawlers. There is also content generation, both inside and outside of your site. Essentially if your site is “talked about” and linked to by external sources, it will rank better. Internal site traffic is important too; community-based sites always do well in search engines. There are all kinds of methods and strategies in the SEO community, some more ethical than others. It is entirely possible to run an ethical SEO campaign, however, and it is done every day by web marketing professionals.
For your WordPress site, don’t neglect SEO. Even if you are just loading a WordPress plugin which will install the meta tags into your site, it is time well spent. More aggressive SEO often involves hiring a web marketer to design a campaign designed to make your page rank highly in search engines like Google and Bing. It is also worth mentioning that SEO is a continuous effort; just doing it for six months and stopping will result in your site falling off the first page. Usually an initially strong campaign can be weaned off to a less intense one, but some work must be put in continuously to ensure good results.
So there you have it: don’t skip the marketing! If your site is all about marketing a product, then yes, you will have to advertise for your advertisement! Have fun, and feel free to leave questions and feedback in the comments.
Today, we’d like to highlight an exciting and impressive WordPress Plugin: ProPlayer WP Plugin. Although WordPress has a built-in video insert button, it will not place all media types and it does not offer total customization. ProPlayer WP Plugin, by Iga Goksu, is the solution.
All types of media, from .mp3 files to YouTube clips, can be placed within your WordPress site and customized however you wish. You can quickly and easily modify the pixel size, change the theme, add borders, install a rating system, and use playlists. The customization is what really sets ProPlayer WordPress Plugin apart from the others. Being able to change the size and appearance of your video content is crucial when you are trying to deliver a cohesive message with your WordPress site.
ProPlayer WP Plugin is extremely easy to use. You just need to install the plug-in by copying it to your plug-ins folder in /wp-content/plugins/directory, and load it with the plug-ins option in WordPress. From there it is as simple as a push-button interface, or you can do it by hand by using the [pro-player] tag. From there you can modify the dimensions simply by adding a width=”" and height=”" or use a type=”" if, for example, you only want it to display the audio player for mp3 files. The options for customization are endless, which is the point of the plug-in.
There are many opportunities to use video in your WordPress site. Some prefer to right-side their videos to showcase their business or employees. Others may wish to use free content on YouTube to demonstrate a selling point of their business. While we at WeLoveWP generally suggest not using automatic music on your site, it is an option and can be used tastefully. You may consider using video on your “About” page; this is a great place to use a self-uploaded YouTube video to greet your customers. Having a camera-friendly employee greeting your viewers can impart a very effective sense of relationship between you and them.
Have a great weekend from WeLoveWP!
One element common to almost all WordPress sites is the banner. The banner is like your trademark; it lets your viewer know they’ve arrived. Making or modifying a banner is easy, as is installing it into your theme.
First, you will need a quality image editor. If you haven’t invested in an over the shelf software package, try Paint.NET. It’s free, and has nearly all the features of the expensive image editing programs. Once you’re in Paint.NET or your editor of choice, you will need your base image or background. To avoid royalty fees, use a service like iStockPhoto.com. With it, you purchase credits which can in turn be used to buy images. Most small images used in a banner cost around three credits, or just under US $3. Simply downloading an image from Google may be construed as copyright infringement or intellectual property theft.
Now that you have your image, you will need to create your template. It’s up to you the size, but somewhere around 800×200 pixels is a good start. Now, go back to your original image and crop it so you have the desired portion. Copy and paste it into the new banner template, and move it until you are satisfied. Wash, rinse, and repeat with other images and backgrounds until you are satisfied. You may also, obviously, add text and animations if you so desire. When you’ve finished, save your image as a .gif or .jpeg.
Now, to place the banner in your theme! Access your WordPress theme in whichever manner suits you, and find your way to the \wp-content\themes folder. Replace the existing “banner” file with the new one, and reload your page. Presto! Your beautiful new banner should show up as expected. If it requires modification, which it probably will, just stretch, shrink, skew, or otherwise change the image in your editor and save the file again. It may take some experimentation, but it will be well worth it in the end.
Last, we leave you with a few quick tips on banners. Keep them low-contrast, or in other words blend them with your site. Use at least one image and some text, but avoid an all-text or all-graphic banner. Keep animations to a minimum, if you really must have them at all. Last, make your banner match your business theme; as we mentioned in earlier blogs, all design elements should mesh together on your site.
Good luck, and feel free to post any questions to the comments!
Recently, we here at WeLoveWP have encountered several people who want to start up a site for their small business, but do not know how to go about it. While a professional website can cost upwards of US $1,000 to build, it is not always necessary for a new business. Sometimes a brief, to the point site can do the job quite nicely until business improves to the point you can afford to have a large ad-campaign centered site.
For starters, beginners should know that the most important page you have is your landing page. The first page a viewer sees is the thirty-second commercial that matters most. Keep your WordPress theme simple at first, so you can focus on content, which should be interesting and streamlined to “sell” the website immediately. For a barber shop, this might mean a streaming banner showing different haircuts or smiling customers; for a musician, it might be pictures of a show. Beneath that, some written content is often good, but keep it short and to the point. Leave the extra content for the blog.
The blog is an important piece of a new website. It helps establish it with search engines and gives viewers content to read, and more importantly a reason to come back. Update it regularly, and as always keep it simple. Very few will read a five page essay unless they are a dedicated follower.
Next, you will need an “about us” page with which the viewer can learn a little bit about your business (or whatever your WordPress website is geared toward), and has the information they need to contact you if they wish. A small contact form is good, but ensure you include key information like an email address and possibly a telephone number if you have it. If you are a local business, make sure you put a map to your physical location as well.
These three pages can establish a simple WordPress website for any up and coming business or other venture. Ensure you update regularly, and as soon as possible look into search engine optimization and other efforts to expand your online presence. Picking up WordPress for Dummies is also a great idea, as it provides methods to optimize your WordPress site.
Finally, don’t forget to register your WordPress site with us! Head over to the “submit” section and enter your site’s information for instant exposure. See you next time!
Now, we here at WeLoveWP assume that you are not going to use “wingdings” to write your content. Still, from time to time we run across a blog or web page which uses a font which is so difficultly to read it gives us migraines. There are a few elements of font selection which are important, but sometimes overlooked.
Size
The size of your font is doubly important if you have a low-contrast background. Remember that even if you are young and eagle-eyed, some of your readers might not want to go get their reading glasses just to see what you have to offer. Use size 12 as a minimum, and consider going 14 or higher if you are in doubt. You can also zoom out with your browser; try your page at around 83% as well as 100%.
Serif vs. Sans-Serif
Serif fonts are the ones which include the little “hooks” on letters. A good example is Times New Roman. Serif fonts are easier to read over the long term, since they help the eyes more quickly identify letters. Choose serif fonts for blogs, newsletters, press releases, articles, or any other content which is over a hundred words. Sans-serif fonts, of which a popular example is Arial, are fonts which do not include the small “hooks.” They are viewed as more fun or exciting, and as such should be used for content like headlines or short blurbs used to entice viewers or customers. Use your sans-serif fonts wisely, and remember that just because your landing page is the first one your viewer may see, it is most likely not the first page your viewer has seen all day; in other words, assume their eyes are already strained.
Bold, Underline, and Italics
There are simple grammatical rules that should not be violated with reference to the special type cases. Bold words should be reserved for headlines and titles. Bold may occasionally be used for emphasis, but do not overdo it. Italics, as used above, are meant to indicate a change in tone or author voice. Use it for emphasis or stress. Underlining should be reserved for hyperlinks and headlines. Avoid overuse of these elements; using a lot of bold italics is the hallmark of cheap, poorly written ad copy.
A running theme of the WeLoveWP design ideas are simplicity and choosing a successful theme for your WordPress site. Like with your theme, remember to ask yourself “does this fit with my site?” when choosing a font. See you next time!
