The AgentPress real estate premium WordPress theme has been released as a child theme for the Genesis Theme Framework by StudioPress. The theme is optimised for the search engines, includes multiple page templates for property listings, 4 colour scheme options, and a backend theme options panel. Features 6 Layout Options – selectable site wide or for [...]

Probably the most common question asked in the blogosphere is “how to I start a blog?” With thousands of new blogs popping up a day, it is pretty obvious why that question is asked. Recently, I started a new blog over at CoffeeObsessed.net, so I thought I would use this opportunity to show you how easy it is to setup a new blog and be successful starting in the first month of operation.

There is no secret to success…just some fundamentals that give you a head start on everyone else out there staring at a “Add New Post” screen. Warning…once you read this…you are going to say…”Wow. It is really that easy.”

How To Start A New Blog – The RIGHT WAY!

So I had this idea to start a coffee blog for quite some time. Let me just warn you…I am literally obsessed with coffee. I don’t drink beer or any other alcoholic beverage (drank myself silly and college so that was enough for me) so coffee is my liquid outlet. I wanted to share this passion obsession online and a blog is a natural progression into this arena.

So what did I do first? – Domain Selection

I picked a domain name! Typically, I would tell you to research your niche, really think about what you want to blog about, etc., but I already had all of that covered so I needed a URL I could call home. I headed over to GoDaddy and started looking for domain names that fit what I was trying to accomplish. CoffeeObsessed.net was open so I snatched it up and it was off to the races.

What did I do next? – Hosting Setup

After I had the domain name I wanted, I hit up my boy Alex at Sliqua and told him I had just bought a domain at GoDaddy and I needed to get it hosted. He set me up and I was ready to start the install process. If you are not ready for high end hosting, I recommend using HostGator for their price and ease of use. When you are ready to step up to the big boys, hit up Sliqua for your hosting needs.

Let’s Get to Blogging! – Wordpress Setup

Forget Blogger, Typepad or any other blogging engine. If you really want to have a successful blog off the bat, you need to drop the 20 bucks it cost to have your own Wordpress install self hosted. Anything else is going to cripple you from day one. I installed Wordpress, setup my plugins and was ready to blog. I am not going to go into that entire process here. If you want to know how to do that, download Ramped Blogging. There are step by step instructions.

Getting Everything Looking Good – Design

I know what you are thinking. Robb has a successful blog off the bat because he has a team of designers behind him that make everything look perfect. It takes a ton of money to do that and I don’t have a wad of cash to drop on blog design. Guess what? You are wrong. Here is what I did with Coffee Obsessed.

I went to WooThemes and bought the Therapy theme. I took the stock background included with the theme and added a coffee cup. Once uploaded…it is the theme you see live on the site as we speak. That was all the customization I did. Easy right?

Then I must have had a pro jump in and design the logo right? Wrong again. I headed over to IconFinder.net and looked for a coffee cup icon I liked and matched that up against the logo written in a font I liked. Logo complete and the site is up and running. See? It really doesn’t get much simpler than that for a professional looking blog.

Beginning Article Setup – The Writing Process

Now…I have a pretty good Twitter base to pull from, so I knew I needed to spark conversation right off the bat if I wanted the blog to do well in the first 30 days. I wrote 3 articles that all asked questions and then hit up my social media circles (specifically Facebook and Twitter) asking them to check out the new site and comment on the articles. While not everyone did…a pretty good number chimed in and I had double digit comments on each of the brand new articles.

I Need Coffee! – Product Reviews

A large part of a coffee blog is writing reviews of different coffees and coffee equipment. I started off with the coffee I already had on hand and got to writing. I included pictures, my honest opinion and hit publish. After a couple of reviews hit and people commented…I had a new blog off the ground and rolling along smoothly. So…I used that success to contact some specialty coffee roasters for review coffee.

After a couple of emails back and forth, I was sent coffee from some of the top roasters in the country. I published their “first look” articles and later the reviews. Everyone is stoked about the publicity and honest reviews and now coffee roasters are contacting Coffee Obsessed directly for reviews on coffee and high end coffee equipment.

Rinse and Repeat – The Ongoing Process

From here…I just rinse and repeat. Everything is sipping up smoothly and I know have a great blog that I really enjoy. I get to form relationships with private coffee roasters which is a true pleasure in its own right (I have met some really cool, passionate coffee people) and I get to taste coffees from all over the world.

What You Need To Take Away From This Process

So…looks easy right? It really is that easy. So what do you need to take away from this process to insure your success in your blogging whether you are starting up today, starting another blog or trying to squeeze more success out of your current blog?

Setup Your Blog Correctly From The Beginning

I hear so many beginning bloggers say, “I use Blogger now and then switch to Wordpress if it catches on.” Be ready for disappointment if you are going to go that direction. If your blog does catch on, you are going to have a hell of a time converting it over and…worse yet…if you start your blogging with that mentality you are going to fail anyway. Your blog is going to be successful and that is why you are going to set it up correctly from the beginning.

Download Ramped Blogging…go to GoDaddy and get a domain name…go to HostGator and get a hosting account…get a good looking theme like the ones from WooThemes…make a quick logo and start off on the right foot instead of one step backwards.

Mindset Is Everything

How you start your blogging mindset is everything. If you start blogging wondering…doubting…or doing it half-assed. It is never going to work. You need to have the right positive mindset going into the whole process before you even write the first word in your first article. If you do not, you are just setting yourself up for failure.

Leverage Your Strengths

If you have Facebook friends or Twitter followers that would be interested in your blog, ask them for help in the beginning. Blogging is a collaborative effort and can not be done on your own. Your friends and family are going to be a massive resource for help in spreading the word and commenting. Do not spam them, but ask them to help in building your community.

Review Product Is Possible In The First 30 Days

Yes…you can get in review product in the first 30 days. No one in the coffee industry knew who I was before Coffee Obsessed but through a professional looking blog and a passion for all things coffee, I was able to bring in more coffee than I can drink and form really cool relationships with other members of the industry. Dealing with other passionate people in coffee has been the biggest reward of this entire process.

If you want to know how…check out Ramped Reviews.

Do not over complicate things…do not talk yourself out of success…believe that it is really that easy to start a successful blog and go after it. If you do things the right way from the beginning…you set yourself up for incredible success. If you go into it half cocked “just seeing how it goes”, you will get back exactly what you put into it…nothing!

I got a message from Callum MacLure, an iThemes Builder customer, recently and asked him if I could share it as we love hearing other people talk about our products naturally like he did. I also got a big kick from it!

Here is the testimonial from him:

When I recently found iThemes, I couldn’t write a single line of HTML and I thought CSS was a prefix for a US battleship. The fact that as a complete and utter novice I am now able to build my own websites – and recreate elements of other themes I have purchased, says a huge amount about what a fantastic, intuitive and easy to use product you and your team have both created and continue to develop. I am now able to build websites that previously I would have had to pay fairly significant amounts for – and would have had to continually pay for ongoing tweaks and changes.

I have been using and testing website building tools for many years now and have to say that Builder is by far the most innovative and novice-friendly tool I have ever seen. Please pass on my gratitude and congratulations for the achievements of your fantastic team!

Thanks again to you and Team iThemes for completely changing the scope of what I am able to achieve in both Web Design and its subsequent implementation. I’m actually a boring accountant – I wear pinstripe pajamas, I have a dog called “Abacus” and I sleep with a calculator under my pillow – so if I can create and build websites with Builder, then anyone on the planet can!

Warm regards from an avid iThemes supporter

–Callum MacLure

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When it comes to image gallery plugins, there are tons of options available. In this article we will be sharing with you a plugin that displays your Flickr photos into WordPress posts, pages, and/or sidebar widgets. Slickr Flickr WordPress Plugin by Russell Jamieson is an easy to use plugin that is great for all blogs.

Why use Flickr?

Most of you are probably thinking why someone should use Flickr, when they can simply upload the photos on their host. Flickr is great for event photos because it is really easy to make it public. Flickr can be connected with Facebook, WordPress, and any other app that you want. It saves your bandwidth, and it increase exposure.

We started our Flickr account today after we created our Events category. This is a great way to really connect with our audience.

Features

• Displays tagged Flickr photos as a gallery or a unbranded slideshow (i.e not Flickr’s own slideshow widget)
• Uses “slickr-flickr” shortcode to make adding a Flickr show as easy as possible
• Can display more than one gallery or slideshow on the same page
• Can display slideshows in sidebar widgets
• Can display slideshows at medium and small Flickr Photo sizes (500 by 375 and 240 by 180 px)
• Can display slideshows as portrait or landscape
• Best fits the slideshow if a mix of landscape and portrait photos are used
• Can display captions for each photo in the slideshow using the photo’s title from Flickr
• Can alter slideshow settings for each individual slideshow by including attributes after the shortcode (e.g orientation=”portrait”)
• Uses Lightbox jquery plugin to display each photo in the gallery using an overlaid window

Installation

• Simply Upload the plugin and Activate it.
• Go to Settings » Slickr Flickr.
• Insert your Account ID, if you don’t know what your account ID is (this cool tool will tell you).
• Add shortcodes or widget, and you are good to go.

What are you waiting for? Get the Slickr Flickr WordPress Gallery Plugin and add your Flickr albums to your WordPress posts, pages, and/or sidebar widgets.

Download Slickr Flickr WordPress Gallery Plugin

Slickr Flickr WordPress Gallery Plugin is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

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1. How to Add an Author’s Photo in WordPress
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3. WP Security – WordPress File Monitor Plugin

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AdvancePress is a two-column blogging theme with an emphasis on clean, modern design. The textured background is subtle but sets the right tone for a serious blog. Each post features a placeholder for a thumbnail image. The theme is ready-built for ads in the sidebar and the footer. AdvancePress effectively uses white and black to [...]

Cron schedules are used by WordPress and WordPress plugins to allow you to schedule commands to be executed at regular intervals. Intervals must be provided by the WordPress core or a plugin in order to be used. WP-Crontrol lets you take control over what’s happening in the WP-Cron system.

An example of a plugin that uses these schedules is WordPress Database Backup. Out of the box, only daily and hourly backups are supported. In order to do a weekly backup, a weekly cron schedule must be entered into WP-Crontrol first and then the backup plugin can take advantage of it as an interval.

Pricing: Free
Requirements: -
Source: http://scompt.com/open-source/wp-crontrol/

For quite some time I have been struggling to moderate comments on my technology blog, the problem is not only with an abundance of comments, but also with lots of trackbacks/pingbacks.

Now, for me pingbacks are really good, but it adds to a load while moderating comments. I do know that they can be disabled, but I don’t do it for a simple reason, which is to keep track of people who are linking back and sending trackbacks. However, approving, reading and responding to actual user comments has a much higher priority than the trackbacks.

Right now, WordPress displays both the trackbacks and comments together, however, it would be great if there could be a way to segregate through both of these.

The biggest gain from segregating the comments and trackbacks would be that you can quickly go through approved/unapproved human comments, and approve them or reply to them quickly without having to weed your way through the other things.

Of course there should also be a dedicated trackback section where you can view and approve all the trackbacks too. This may sound trivial, but believe me when you have to moderate comments day in and day out, this becomes quite a nuisance, specially if you get a lot of comments.

I am playing around with an idea to do this as a plugin, but would be glad if anyone could beat me at it, unless of course if there is something which does that already.

What are your thoughts, do you think that comments and trackbacks should be separated in the admin comments panel, or do you feel it should be left as is?

Colt is a business premium WordPress theme from NattyWP. The theme features a customisable layout with a widgetized homepage and featured content slider. It also includes various page template, custom widgets and a theme options panel that allow you to easily change colours, layout etc without needing to touch the code. Features Clean business layout with [...]