Tag Archives: WordPress

Use WP125 as an Ad Rotator

I’ve received a few emails now asking for ad rotation features in WP125. Now, that’s not something I want to build into the plugin’s core files. Only a few people want it, and I don’t want to make the code needlessly bloated over something that doesn’t fit the ordinary uses and intention of the plugin.

After telling most of those people something along the lines “sorry, unsupported,” I came up with a quick solution (that one emailer was lucky enough to get). This solution doesn’t modify the plugin code, and seems to work pretty well. I figured I’d share it here, in case there’s anyone else who wants it.

Basically, if you want to have a rotation instead of a “normal” block of 125×125 ads, you just need to make use of the handy <?php wp125_single_ad(num); ?> template tag I created for “unforseen circumstances” when I wrote WP125. Just put this code where you want your rotation to appear:

<?php wp125_single_ad(rand(1,6)); ?>

Just replace the “6” with the number of ad slots you have.

Now, fill your ad slots with banners and you’re done.

WordPress Theme of the Month: Agregado

Agregado is October 2008’s featured free WordPress theme.

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WordPress 2.7 Feature List Finalized

The features coming in WordPress 2.7 have finally been set in stone. In addition to the UI changes, which have sparked much debate recently, there are a number of welcome additions to the feature set.

The ones I’m most excited about are:

  • Automatic upgrade for the core files
  • Integrated plugin installer and browser (essentially people can browse WordPress Extend and install plugins with a single click)
  • Threaded comments
  • Inline post editing

Read Ryan Boren’s post for the full list.

The features are not all completed yet, obviously, so we probably still have a ways to go before a release candidate, let alone a final release. I think this is going to be the next WP 2.5 though. A lot of new features, not just back-end improvements, but new toys to play with.

Preparing Your Blog For Easy iPhone Usage

I’ve previously talked about scripts that make it easier to develop iPhone web apps, or parse blog RSS feeds into a format easily navigable format for the iPhone. But that’s a lot of work, isn’t it?

What if you just want to make your WordPress-powered blog easy to use on the iPhone? Pro Blog Design has the answer. It covers the usage of a WordPress plugin to automatically reformat your blog for iPhone users, as well as how to create custom Web-Clip icons for your site.

Reading text off a colored background isn’t always a great experience at iPhone level, and given that very few people on a small screen are going to read your ads, there is little gain in showing them.

The iWPhone plugin provides a clean, simple interface that’s easy to read from. It also has a pretty cool feature where tapping anywhere on the content of an excerpt will load the post page.

However, the iPhone web browser is great. The vast majority of sites look great on the iPhone, and yours is probably one of them. If so, keep your custom design. It’s much more unique and much more memorable than the iPhone theme will ever be.

You may or may not want to go through the trouble to do it, and it’s not necessary for a lot of blogs. But if you run a blog updated multiple times a day, with content that people want to see right when it’s added (news comes to mind), you definitely have a situation where the iWPhone plugin could be useful.

Read the full post for the rest of Michael’s info and tutorial.

WordPress Theme of the Month: Notepad Chaos

This month’s featured WordPress theme is Notepad Chaos by Smashing Magazine.

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First Look at WordPress 2.7

The WordPress team is hard at work on the next major release of WordPress, 2.7, which Weblog Tools Collection says may be every bit as important of a release as 2.5 was. It will have another major interface overhaul, and it looks like it will be quite different.

It appears that we may be getting editable widgets on the Dashboard, and it seems that the comments and links boxes have been combined into one marked inbox (?). The new interface features a side column for navigation in addition to the top horizontal bar, in an effort to cut down on scrolling.

On the Write screen, drag-and-drop elements are back, so you can re-order the page parts to suit your needs. And there is also a new Settings tab to allow you to completely remove unneeded elements.

And that’s just a teaser. Go to the original post on Weblog Tools Collection for the rest. WordPress 2.7 looks like it’s going to be a fun release.

WP-OpenID

OpenID has been starting to gain more traction lately, with more and more large companies (e.g. Yahoo, AOL, MySpace) starting to become OpenID providers. (Though irritatingly they don’t allow you to use another provider’s OpenID to log in to their services…) I still think the concept has some flaws, which probably can be rectified, but I don’t want to turn this into another opinion post.

WP-OpenID is a plugin that integrates OpenID into WordPress. Once installed, it opens up a couple uses for OpenID with your blog. Accounts can be linked to OpenIDs, and should you select the option, people will be able to enter an OpenID to leave a comment, rather than entering an email and name. I like the idea, since it makes commenting quicker and easier, but there’s one flaw. You enter the ID into the URL field in the comment form, so your name will link to your OpenID URL instead of your blog. The remedy is to delegate your OpenID.

“Super Switch” Plugin For WordPress

In recent versions of WordPress, some features were introduced that some people may find annoying. Some blogger’s have complained about WP nagging them to upgrade, via a yellow stripe along the top of admin screens. Other’s find the new theme preview box annoying. Still others don’t like post revisions or autosave. (I have to say I really like autosave. It’s averted a few disasters for me…)

Remember that line in some WordPress themes, in the header, that read <meta name="generator" content="WordPress <?php bloginfo('version'); ?>" /> <!-- leave this for stats -->? A lot of us would delete it because it added a couple milliseconds to page loads, and was a security risk. (Malicious web users would Google the string it outputs to find sites to target — sites that weren’t up to date.) Well now you deleting it won’t matter. As of WordPress 2.6, the line is added automatically, by way of some hook in the WordPress core files. Nice job, developers, now the “hackers” will be able to tell at a glance whether or not we have the latest patch installed yet.

On the plus side, someone’s put together a plugin to solve the version line problem, as well as many other annoyances out there, such as those mentioned in the first paragraph. It’s called Super Switch. Install it, tell it what you don’t like about WordPress, and it will fix things for you.

Want Traffic? Have PHP/Design Skills?

How would you like to gain a steady stream of quality traffic to your website? Traffic that won’t vanish in a few weeks. Traffic that will keep on coming for a long time.

Write a WordPress Plugin, or if you lean more toward design rather than coding, make a WordPress theme. WordPress resources are the ultimate linkbait. It may take you awhile, but it doesn’t take much work to get the traffic coming. Write a page about the plugin on your blog, submit your theme or plugin to WordPress/Extend, post a quick note to WLTC News, and submit to a few social bookmarking sites. It won’t take long before the plugin spreads through the blogosphere, netting you some incoming traffic, and some good links and mentions on other blogs. I’ve done this twice, with WP125 and GoCodes, and both plugins have really added a helpful boost to Webmaster-Source.

If you Google “WP125,” a good many of the 12,000+ results are related to my plugin, though I have to admit there are some scrapers and non-plugin-related posts in there. “WP125 ad” returns higher quality results, and 4.890 at that. Not bad considering the plugin is only a month and a half old…

Now I know not everyone has the skills to put together a good theme or a useful plugin, and therefore may not be able to make use of this tip at the moment. But don’t give up on this idea yet. Anyone can learn PHP, or pick up blog design. If you’re already blogging with WordPress, chances are you’ll be able to pick up said skills without too much difficulty if you put your mind to it.

Amazon Auto Affiliate Linker

Prolific plugin author Joost de Valk has put together a WordPress plugin that’s simple in function and insanely useful.

Are you a member of Amazon Associates? Amazon’s widely-used affiliate program can be an effective way to monetize a blog, especially if the blog publishes book reviews, or something of the sort. However, it’s a bit of a pain to, when writing a post, traipse over to associates.amazon.com, log in, and go through the menus to generate an affiliate link, search for the product you want, and paste the resulting URL into your post.

Enter Amazon Auto Affiliate Linker. Install the plugin, tell it what your Associates ID is, and go back to blogging. Now you can skip the Associates dashboard when you write posts. Just go to Amazon.com to search for the book, and copy the URL to the product listing. From there you can use that ordinary URL in your post, and the plugin will automatically add your Associates ID when you press publish. Simple, I told you.