All posts in WordPress

Get Facebook “Like” Button for your blog

by Ades on April 25, 2010 in WordPress with 38 Comments

Have you gotten Facebook’s “Like” button for your blog yet? If not you can generate one here.

If you need WP Plugin version, you can get it here. Once implemented, plugin will generate “Like” button for each post, similar to the one you see on top of this post. You can customize the position (top-right, top-left, bottom-right, bottom-left…etc).

P.S I have integrated to my blog already. So, if you like any of the blog posts, don’t forget to “Like” them! :) Thanks!

Plugin URL: http://www.minddevelopmentanddesign.com/blog/wordpress-facebook-like-button

WP Hack: Showing Only Images in Search Results

by Ades on October 14, 2009 in Blogging Tips, WordPress with 25 Comments

If you run a blog that has a lot of pics in it (perhaps photography blog?), you could easily display only images in your blog search results. WordPress by default doesn’t display any images in the search results.

For example, when people look for, let’s say “cars”, they would only see title of the post followed by pictures of cars in the search results. This would make your blog’s search function a lot more user-friendly and usable, because nothing is worse than looking for an image in the photography blog and getting search results in only text format.

Identifying images that lie behind the page through reading texts is a nightmare. Instead, it’s a lot easier to see few cars and decide which one to click right on the search results page.

Quick tutorial below on how to implement such a feature:

Download and install this plugin
Add the code below somewhere in your search results page (usually search.php). Make sure it’s inside the loop. It should be placed after the title tags and before the comments tags

<?php if ( function_exists( ‘get_the_image’ ) ) { get_the_image(‘width=640&height=300&image_scan=true&default_image=http://www.yourdomain.com/default_image.jpg’ ); } ?>

Don’t forget to define the image width and height accordingly. default_image.jpg is the pic that will be used if the post doesn’t have any images in it.

You are done! Your readers are happy now.

Plugin Link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/get-the-image/

cfformsii: Advanced Contact Form Plugin for WP

by Ades on September 10, 2009 in WordPress with 29 Comments

If you need a simple contact form for your WP blog, plugins like Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form are great.

But if you want more advanced contact form with tons of customization options (eg; upload file option, see screenshot) look no further than cforms-II by Nicky. It’s a great plugin with many features, I won’t be listing all the features here.

Again, it’s little more work to setup this plugin compared to other simpler plugins, but for someone who is looking for specific features, it’s worth it.

Download Plugin: http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin

WP Plugin: Free Rating and Review System

by Ades on September 4, 2009 in WordPress with 24 Comments

gd_star_rating wordpress plugin If you are looking for a powerful and advanced star rating plugin for WordPress, GD Star Rating Plugin is the best option. It’s a bit difficult to get started but that’s rightly so, because it has many advanced features and ways that you can use the plugin for. So in that sense the learning curve for this plugin is quite high compared to other simple star rating plugins.

I am using WP Review plugin from Dan Grossman on my Malaysian Island Review (MIR) website. I wish GD Star Rating plugin was available then with all the features that they offer now, I could have saved $97 on my MIR project.

Website: http://www.gdstarrating.com

WordPress as Invoice Management System & Auction Site – Part7

by Ades on August 27, 2009 in WordPress with 21 Comments

This is a continuation of series on “Different Uses of WordPress”. Previously I have covered:

Part 1 – WordPress as Job Board and e-Commerce Site
Part 2 - WordPress as Review Site and Portal
Part 3 - WordPress as Discussion Forum and Membership Site
Part 4 - WordPress as Social Network Site & Contact Manager
Part 5 - WordPress as Newsletter Mailing Script and FAQ Management System
Part 6 - WordPress as eShop (Shopping Cart) and Social Bookmarking Site

In this post we will be looking at two more uses of WordPress.

WordPress as Invoice Management System

WP Invoice

Credit card payments may be accepted via Authorize.net, MerchantPlus’ NaviGate, or PayPal. For recurring billing the plugin uses Authorize.net’s ARB API that will allow you to setup payment schedules along with invoices.

Price: Free
URL: http://twincitiestech.com/services/wp-invoice/

WordPress as Auction Site wp auctions

WP Auctions

Plugin Features:

Place auctions in a post or page
Auctions for registered users only
Accept PayPal, wire transfers or checks
Create and manage as many auctions as you like
Upload multiple images for each auction
Sell items on ‘Buy It Now’ basis
Show 3rd party ads when there are no auctions
Compatible with Google Adsense and any other CPC program.
RSS feed for your auctions, and many more features…

Unfortunately it’s not a free plugin, it costs $39.99.

Price: $39.99
URL: http://www.wpauctions.com

Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress

by Ades on August 26, 2009 in WordPress with 13 Comments

Here is a new, another WP plugin that will turn your blog into a mobile friendly blog for all handheld devices. It’s a new plugin that was launched just two months back by Rich Gubby.

I had disabled my previous mobile plugin because it was giving me errors after using it for some time. Maybe I will give this plugin a try.

There are few reasons why this relatively new plugin is better than the other plugins that are in the market. In their own words…

Other mobile plugins for WordPress use a default mobile style which results in an inconsistent experience for your users, Wapple Architect Mobile plugin for WordPress retains the styling of your site from web to mobile.
There’s no redirection to a mobile version of the blog – URLs are exactly the same on web and mobile giving you the ability to promote and use one single domain!
No transcoding happens here – the mobile version is written in WAPL (an advanced mobile markup language) that results in a completely tailored solution perfect for your mobile visitors.
Other plugins try to replicate every single feature and plugin you’ve installed onto the mobile version. We know what mobile users want and have written this plugin with that in mind – the result is a far better user experience.

If you like it, give it a try.

Download: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/

Transfer your blogspot blog and get free domain name

by Ades on August 23, 2009 in WordPress with 24 Comments

WPWebHost specializes in wordperss blog hosting. Currently they are offering free domain name for all bloggers who transfer their .blogspot,com based blogs to them.

Their starter plan starts from $6.67/month when you order for 1 year, or $5/month if you order for 2 years. Even if you have a high traffic blog, their 500GBs of monthly bandwidth should be enough for 99.99% of the bloggers.

Website: WPWebHost.com

Ninja Affiliate WP Plugin ($30 Off)

by Ades on August 19, 2009 in Make Money, WordPress with 15 Comments

Pawan the creator of popular Ninja Affiliate WP Plugin has informed me that he will be offering $30 discount on the plugin until this friday (that’s three more days).

ninja affiliate $30 off

Ninja Affiliate is a plugin that can simplify the process of linking certain words in your blog post to your affiliate links. To know more about the plugin read this post of mine that i wrote last year.

Last year when I was conducting free giveaway contest for this plugin, Pawan was nice enough to give me free copy. Since then I fell in love with this plugin and would say it totally worth the money (now for $67 only).

Plugin Site: http://www.mbpninjaaffiliate.com

Showing ads only to people who came from Search Engines

by Ades on August 11, 2009 in Blogging Tips, WordPress with 18 Comments

It’s a fact that people do not like ads and they hate it when they appear inside blog posts ;)

It’s also fact that bounce rate for traffic from search engines is very high. Most of the time it’s above 60% for any blog. That means these people search for something in Search Engines, see your blog in the results, come to your blog searching for whatever they have searched, stay there for 5-20 seconds and then they are gone. Let’s hope that they have found what they were looking for…

So, how about showing ads to these bouncers only and not to your regular readers? Seems like a good idea.

WP Plugins

There are few plugins which can do that. The newest being the DailyBlogTips’ Search Ads plugin. It’s a simple plugin with simple interface. You install it and put a code that you want to show to visitors from Search Engines or from any site for that matter. Actually you can put any code in the HTML field; welcome message, subscribe to RSS message etc. But of course, for monetization purposes you will put Google AdSense ads.

There is also a more advanced plugin from Ozh called Who Sees Ads. With this plugin you can tweak the behavior of your plugin more accurately.

Plugin In Action

I have implemented Search Ads plugin on my Malaysian Island Review project. For example if you go to http://www.malaysianislandreview.com you will see a clean website without ads. But if you go through Google or other search engines, you will see an ad on top of the page. Example: Click this Redang Island Review and click to my website on the search results page. See what I mean?

I have yet to implement it on AdesBlog though, maybe I won’t. I just see that implementing in Malaysian Island Review makes more sense, since most of the ads are shown about holiday packages to that particular island. People might actually find those ads useful :)

What is your opinion on these kind of plugins?

Adding “Share on Facebook” button to your posts

by Ades on July 29, 2009 in Blogging Tips, WordPress with 16 Comments

Here is line of code that if added to your wordpress blog theme will create a link “Share on Facebook”. This will make it easier for your readers to share your posts on Facebook.

No plugin needed. Just add this code where you want the link to appear, but make sure it’s in the loop… somewhere between title of the post and comments codes:

<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=<?php the_permalink();?>&t=<?php the_title(); ?>” target=”blank”>Share on Facebook</a>

You can replace the “Share on Facebook” text with facebook button.

WordPress as eShop and Social Bookmarking Site – part6

by Ades on July 14, 2009 in WordPress, WP Themes with 16 Comments

This is a continuation of series on “Different Uses of WordPress”. Previously I have covered:

Part 1 – WordPress as Job Board and e-Commerce Site
Part 2 - WordPress as Review Site and Portal
Part 3 - WordPress as Discussion Forum and Membership Site
Part 4 - WordPress as Social Network Site & Contact Manager
Part 5 - WordPress as Newsletter Mailing Script and FAQ Management System
Part 6 - WordPress as eShop (Shopping Cart) and Social Bookmarking Site (you are here)

WordPress as eShop (Shopping Cart)

While WordPress has already been covered as eCommerce site in Part-1, this is a theme that is worth mentioning here. First of all, it’s free. Secondly, it comes with multiple free themes. Finally, its web2.0 features with ajax functions make it a better choice if you are setting up an eshop.

shopperpress