Here are some highlights from the presentation and some thoughts of my own on what to expect in marketing and social media in 2012.

Optimize For Mobile

More and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the web. The biggest thing you can do to get ready for social media in 2012 is to establish your mobile presence. Some stats from a recent ComScore study show:

• More than 70% of users who use mobile social media use it daily
• As of March 2011, there’s been a 45% growth in mobile social media usage since last year

One way to make your site more mobile friendly is to provide an alternative site for viewing on mobile devices. WordPress users can download a plugin like WPTouch and be up and running on their smartphone easily. More recently sites have been experimenting with responsive web design that basically eliminate the need for multiple versions of your site by creating one version that adapts to fit the current screen size. It’s important to at least be aware of your site’s mobile usability as traffic to and from social media continues to increase.

Provide Mobile Offers and Incentives

As more advertisers turn to mobile it’s important to keep up to date with the most recent developments to drive better traffic. The ability to target ads based on location is getting easier and shows great promise for the future. WHERE had some interesting statistics in the ComScore study mentioned earlier. The study says:

40% of consumers who click a location dynamic ad show purchase intent while 30% will go on to share the ad in their social networks.

Here is a list of mobile advertising networks from mobiThinking to get you started.

Another way to advertise is through offers on sites like Foursquare and Groupon. This attracts a more tech savvy crowd which is in turn more likely to share or review your service through social media. Be careful however as  new data suggests these offers could potentially generate negative reviews as well.

More QR Codes and Some NFC

You may have heard of QR codes by now but did you know “About two-thirds of US respondents have seen a QR code. Of those surveyed, about half who saw a QR code, used it” - Heidi Cohen. I personally think most of its usage stems from mere curiosity but the idea behind it is important as newer technologies emerge. Near Field Communication (NFC) although limited in availability is easier to use and has much more potential if it takes off. This provides new advertising opportunities as we can target ads based off location and previous purchase history. Google already has one Android phone using NFC and will soon add another. Expect to see new creative uses of QR codes and a rise in NFC usage.

Collaboration Is Key To Innovation

Businesses already recognize the importance of monitoring social media and using it as a means of interacting with their community. Social media provides a greater opportunity to collaborate with communities to further innovate. Collaborative innovation embraces diversity and enables motivated individuals within the community to contribute in ways that were once not possible due to location, language and accessibly limitations. Expect to see a growth in collaboration tools emerging that will improve upon written, audio and visual communication as well as the organization and development of ideas and resources.

Automation

With the number of public APIs increasing and new APIs popping up from popular social media sites expect easier ways to use them. Sites like Ifttt.com and Yahoo Pipes put the power of public APIs from sites like Twitter, Yahoo, Google and Facebook in to easy to use interfaces. Expect to see more innovation around the automation of network management and content distribution.

Personal Network Integration

We need to start changing the way we think about our social media networks. My smartphone has essentially decentralized my contacts from their respective networks and recompiled them into one list. Instead of searching across multiple networks I can now instantly find the best way to contact anyone in any of my networks in seconds right from my phone.

But it’s not just about the centralization of our networks. A growing number of social media sites allow users to use their site as an authentication method for other services. Not only can you use these sites to assist in the registration process but you have access to most of the data for that user. This in turn allows you to leverage their existing networks and make the user experience more targeted to their interests.

Redefining What’s Relevant

An amazing Ted Talk by Eli Pariser opened my eyes to the problems of Facebook and Google filtering content based on usage. Eli goes on to say that by only displaying what’s relevant we create “filter bubbles” or we only see what Google and Facebook think we want to see. We don’t necessarily see the things that challenge our beliefs and make us uncomfortable but these are the things that help us grow and evolve into better people. I expect this will change as new services, and changes in existing ones, work harder to get more relevant content to us.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to be excited about for the future of marketing and social media. Social media enables those with something to say and good ideas spread faster than ever. Keep an eye on emerging mobile technologies and be willing to embrace change and innovation.

How Does It Work?

The site provides an easy to use interface that allows you to create triggers and actions to automate repetitive tasks.

The site goes beyond the traditional “send all of my posts to Twitter” type of automation to allow you to create tasks that interact with a whole variety of services. So beyond sending all of your posts to Twitter, which you can easily do, you can send your posts to Delicious, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr and more. But it’s not just about automating RSS feeds, the real power is in the interaction between other services. Sending tweets with a hashtag to Delicious or uploading new Flickr images to Facebook.

So What Can This Cool New Tool Do?

Besides being able to do what other automation tools can already do, ifttt currently allows you to interact with 36 other services with some really amazing potential. Here are some of my favorite Tasks I’ve created so far.

Send Starred Posts In Google Reader To Twitter

This task allows you to easily send any posts you star in Google Reader as links to twitter. You can then go into the ifttt settings to sign in with your Bitly account to easily track those links.

Leave A Voicemail To Create New Google Calendar Events

This is my favorite recipe I’ve created so far. Basically I just call a phone number provided by ifttt and leave voicemails with new events like “Meet Joe at Starbucks at noon tomorrow”. I’m always looking for easier ways to interact with my calendar so this has been an awesome bit of functionality.

Send My Featured Images From Posts In WordPress To Flickr

I’ve been wanting to organize all of the featured images I create for my posts in Flickr but just never got around to it. Now there’s no need and my hard work can go on display in Flickr with a link back to my post automatically.

Some Other Great Recipes

• Get A Text Message If It’s Going To Rain Tomorrow
• Send All Tagged Facebook Photos Of Yourself To DropBox
• Save Your Foursquare Check-ins To Google Calendar
• Leave Voice Memos That Are Emailed To You And Transcribed

Scratching The Surface Of Free And Easy To Use Automation Tools

I imagine I’ll find other cool uses for ifttt as they continue to add new channels. The simplicity of the site and use of recipes to share task templates should drive the service pretty far. They have laid the groundwork to become one of the most powerful free social media automation tools on the internet and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Three years later a lot has changed but there are still many ways to find some good people follow.

Find Tweeps You Know In Real Life

The first thing you should do is follow people you are already friends with. Twitter makes it easy by allowing you to import from Gmail, LinkedIn and a few other services. Learn more here.

Find Local Tweeps

Using Twitter Search to find local Twitter users is easy. You just use the near and within search operators. So to find all Twitter users tweeting within 5 miles of Boston you would just search for near:Boston, MA within:5mi.

A few other services that make it easy to find local Tweeps:

• http://nearbytweets.com
• http://www.twellow.com
• http://tweet.grader.com/index.php?Action=TwitterUsersByLocation

Here’s a great article written for businesses looking for local tweeps but it’s certainly relevant for us normal tweeters too.

Find Tweeps With Similar Interests

Anther useful feature Twitter provides is the ability to find popular users by interest.

Some services that help find like minded Tweeps include:

• http://justtweetit.com/
• http://wefollow.com/

Finding Tweeps in Lists

One of my favorite additions to Twitter during it’s rise to popularity was Twitter Lists. What I was most interested in at first was how other people classified me. Beyond being a good measurement of how others perceive you it’s a great tool to find others just like you. For example I’m listed in several WordPress Twitter lists so there’s a good chance the other people in that lists would be good candidates for me to follow.

If finding new lists becomes a challenge you should sign up and check out Listorious, a directory for Twitter lists.

Quality Quality Quality

You can follow people for days until you reach your Twitter limits but what’s the point if no one is talking to you. A few things I look at before following are the basics; a profile pic, a bio and a link to their website. Then I go on to see if they are only talking about themselves or if they actually retweet and communicate with others. Spam and bots are pretty easy to spot once you start recognizing the patterns.

Follow Us and Say Hi/Welcome

Finally be sure to follow myself (@JonDBishop) and my girlfriend Kelley (@monkelley) to say hi. We try to be friendly and talk/help others the best we can. Kelley will especially appreciate your follows and tweets as a distraction from her most recent adventure that is grad school.

I gave a talk the other night at the Boston WordPress meetup about how I use shortcodes to enable my clients to create better looking content. A problem I was having was people were paying me to set them up on WordPress so they can take control of their content and then they were paying me even more to edit the content for them to “make it look pretty”. I guess if you need the business this isn’t a problem but I like to avoid small jobs, like manipulating content, so I can focus on my bigger projects and plugin support.

Pros and Cons of WordPress Shortcodes

Themes vs Plugins

The most popular implementation is currently in premium WordPress themes as a means of creating better looking content that matches the look and feel of the rest of the site. The problem then becomes you are tied to that theme if a majority of your site is relying on theme shortcodes to lay out your content. This won’t be a problem if you plan on rewriting your content but definitely something worth keeping in mind. It’s best to take functionality out of your theme you would like to be theme independent and put it in a functionality plugin.

My problem with using formatting shortcodes in a plugin as opposed to a theme is your content is less likely to match the look and feel of the rest of the site. That’s not to say their aren’t some great solutions out there and ultimately using a plugin will keep your content theme independent.

Usability

One of the obvious problems with shortcodes is if you’re taking the time to learn them, you can probably just learn HTML and CSS. I find this is true in most cases but not all. A shortcode is still easier to to use if you find the Visual/HTML editor confusing. You also don’t have to muck around with CSS.

One thing I think helps tremendously is the presence of a user interface to assist in the creation of the shortcodes. Most of the time this is in the form of a button on the visual editor that provides a popup with more options. There is no standard implementation of this so you won’t always have the luxury. More important is you now know it’s possible and can keep an eye out for how themes approach this problem. Most premium themes in ThemeForest do a good job of this.

Speed

If you don’t have to use shortcodes, just don’t use them. We’re talking milliseconds here in most cases so it really doesn’t matter too much. One problem with shortcodes is you cannot detect if a shortcode is being used in your content from your header so you can conditionally load javascript. You can however conditionally load javascript in the footer but it can be kind of a hack.

Resources

Code Snippets

• 10 incredibly cool WordPress shortcodes - Cats Who Code
• Mastering WordPress Shortcodes – Smashing Magazine

Advanced Development

• How to load JavaScript like a WordPress Master – scribu
• Make Shortcodes User-Friendly – Gary Cao

Plugins & Themes

• Styles with Shortcodes for WordPress
• ElegantThemes
• JShortCodes
• HubSpot for WordPress
• ThemeForest

Slides from Boston WordPress Meetup

[slideshare id=8441481&doc=wordpressandshortcodes-110627214435-phpapp02]

I used the [slideshare] shortcode to display the slides!

Come to Boston WordCamp

I’ll be speaking more about shortcodes again at Boston WordCamp so be sure to go and sign up. I’ll be showing different examples of how businesses can use shortcodes to create better looking content. There are a bunch of other great speakers with some very interesting topics lined up. It’s sure to be a great time and an awesome place to get brushed up on all the latest WordPress tips and tricks.

What Are Your Options?

Google +1

The Google +1 button essentially socializes your search results and keeps tabs of your personal +1′s on your Google profile. If you needed proof of social signals affecting search results this is it.  A link in your search engine results will get a little boost if someone you know +1′d that link or if a large part of the general population +1′d that link.

This button is still pretty new but you will certainly see it often. This is Google’s direct answer to the Facebook Like button so expect to see the two together.

Facebook Like

Facebook has changed the way you share content a few times however the Facebook Like button is their most recent toy. It makes use of the open graph to identify and connect your liked content to Facebook pages, activities, music, movies, etc.

From the AOL/Nielsen Content Sharing study, we know people prefer to share content with friends and family. That makes Facebook an important place to make your content easily shareable on. Make sure to make use of the open graph to fine tune how your content is shared and to claim your stake in the open graph.

Twitter Retweet

Twitter didn’t always have it’s own retweet button. In the beginning there was TweetMeme. A few tried to copy what Tweetmeme had created however only BackType and Topsy succeeded where others failed. Finally Twitter released it’s own button that gives you the option of choosing a Twitter profile to recommend after a user shares your content. Each retweet button has it’s perks but make sure you display one on your site.

LinkedIn

The LinkedIn button is still fairly new but a great way to easily enable readers to share your content with their relevant networks on LinkedIn. This button will probably perform best with business, marketing and assorted internet related sites.

Email

That AOL/Nielsen Content Sharing study mentioned earlier stated 66% of the population use email as primary method of sharing. Offer an easy way to share your content via email because people seem to like doing that. I’m not fully convinced you need to display a button or link to encourage sharing over email because people are probably already used to just copying and pasting into email. However it never hurts to make things easier.

Social Bookmarking sites

I personally get waves of traffic from Stumbleupon and Reddit and some steady traffic from Delicious. Look at your analytics to figure out which sites your content is getting shared on and only display social bookmarking buttons that are performing well.

Some sites to consider are:

• Reddit
• Stumbleupon
• Digg
• Delicious
• Sphinn

So Which Buttons Should I Use?

Most sites seem to stick to Facebook and Twitter because the share counts are traditionally higher because of the nature of the services. You might also want to experiment with LinkedIn and the Google +1 button as they increase in popularity.

I suggest only using buttons that display share counts. Displaying buttons with higher share counts creates a form of social proof that might encourage other readers to share your content. Also, displaying too many buttons can slow down your site which can in turn result in readers leaving your site while waiting for the page to load.

Socialize WordPress Plugin

The Socialize plugin for WordPress is a social bookmarking plugin that makes it easy to insert popular social sharing buttons into your content. The plugin is unique in that you can easily select which button to display on a page to page basis as well as rearrange the order of the buttons on that page. The plugin also encourages using actionable buttons recognized by the community as popular methods of sharing content. The plugin includes the new Google +1 button, 4 Twitter buttons, 2 Facebook buttons, a custom Delicious button, the LinkedIn button and a few more widgets and buttons from popular social media sites. Learn more on the WordPress plugin page.

Useful WordPress Page Templates

1. Full Width Page Template

   This is probably the most widely used page template. It’s popular for landing pages on business sites and sometimes just an easy way to make extra space for a large graphic.

   • (Example)
   • (Code)

2. Site Map Page Template

   A sitemap could be generated by a plugin but themes can often display them much more elegantly.

   • (Example)
   • (Code)

3. Gallery Page Template

   A gallery page template could pull all images attached to a post and display them in an organized manner with some flashy effect. Also keep the new post formats and gallery shortcode in mind when creating galleries on the fly.

   • (Example)

4. List Subpages/ChildPages Template

   This page template display links of its subpages. Comes in handy more than you would think. This makes it easy to generate press release and news archives without using posts.

   • (Code)

5. Team/Author Page Template

   A team/author page template could display a list of employees at your company or authors of your blog by pulling from registered WordPress users or a custom post type.

   • (Example)
   • (Code)

6. Social Stream Page Template

   Why not have a page template that lays out all of your social streams in an organized manner.

   • (Example)

7. Logged In Page Template

   A logged in page template is an easy way to restrict access to only logged in subscribers of your site.

   • (Example)
   • (Code)

8. Widgetized Content Page Template

   This template would turn your main content area into a sidebar so you could load widgets where your content usually is.

   • (Code)

9. Portfolio Page Template

   This could display images similar to the gallery page template or it could have its own custom post type to pull from.

   • (Example)

10. Redirect Page Template

    This is a simple page template I’ve seen in a few popular premium themes. It’s basically an easy way to do a 301 redirect on your website without using plugins.

    • (Code)

11. Contact Page Template

    Some themes go as far as integrating custom form builders. You should at least look for good contact page templates. It’s also just an easy way to insert contact forms into pages.

    • (Example)
    • (Code)

12. Blog Page Template

    A blog page templates displays your blog posts. Some themes will give you a few different display options.

    • (Example)
    • (Code)

13. Custom RSS Page Template

    This page template makes it easy to display an RSS feed on any page.

    • (Code)

14. Redirect to Child

    Sometime you might have several subpages grouped together but no need for the parent page that holds them. This page template automatically redirects to the first child page.

    • (Code)

This is just the tip of the iceberg. You could have custom page templates for videos, testimonials, services pages and more.

Let me know of any other page template ideas I should add to the list and maybe any themes you think are using WordPress page templates in cool ways.

Video of Socialize 2.0 Settings

More Placement Control

I cleaned up the stylesheet a bit to play nice with certain buttons, Facebook Like, and created a new option to display your buttons horizontally. The stylesheet can also now be disabled so you can create custom code.

Sorting

I’ve wanted this one for awhile. What sets Socialize apart from the rest is the ability to selectively display the buttons of your choice on different posts, pages, etc. The only thing missing was the ability to easily rearrange the order of the selected buttons.

Well now rearranging buttons is as easy as dragging them around and saving your post. You can also change the order of the default buttons being displayed in the same manner.

Open Graph Integration

Open Graph meta tags help your site become a rich object in a social graph. Facebook and other sites use this data to learn more about your site and the page being shared.

You can now easily associate your Facebook Like button with a Facebook page using you App ID.

Bitly Integration

Bitly is a great way to get simple click data about a link all the while keeping the link small and friendly for the internet. You can now insert your Bitly username and API key to generate Bitly links you can track.

More Design Control

While I was updating the Socialize plugin, I began adding more means of controlling the looks of the share buttons. I ended up with a whole new page in the admin with complete control over every button in the Socialize plugin.

I also revamped the Call to Action area, allowing you to edit every aspect of how it’s displayed. You can change the border size, color and style as well as use template tags to change the HTML within the Call to Action area.

Custom Post Type Support

Finally, I added better Custom Post type support to the point where you can disable and enable the socialize plugin on specific post types.

The Future

I had a lot planned for this release but time forced me to trim some of the fat. I won’t give up on some of my ideas tho and here are some features to keep en eye out for:

• Mobile integration
• Shortcodes
• Developer API
• Front End editing
• New/Custom Buttons

… and some secret awesome stuff you’ll just have to wait for.

What Is Socialize?

The idea was to create an easy to use plugin that allowed bloggers to selectively add social bookmarks to their post. Furthermore I wanted to only use actionable buttons with counters because I believe displaying a posts social activity gives it positive social proof and can lead to more shares and more views.

This plugin also includes what I like to call an ‘alert box’ that is selectively displayed below posts and pages to encourage comments and sharing. You can also insert buttons into this post to increase the sharing potential.

The plugin is designed to make it easy for readers to share your content and give you full control of what is displayed where.

Download Socialize

So go check out the plugin page and try it out.

Remember if you are upgrading, be sure to deactivate the plugin first and reactivate it once you have uploaded the files.

A New Resource For Businesses on WordPress

I’m starting a newsletter aimed at helping businesses get the most out of WordPress. It’s free to subscribe and I’ll be creating original WordPress plugins as exclusive gifts to my subscribers. You can find more information at WPBusiness.info.

Plugins For Business Websites

Working with WordPress should be easy. What started out as simple blog software is now a powerful content management system with a growing list of community generated plugins to help you get what ever functionality your company needs on your website. Below is a list of plugins I think all businesses should be aware of. The goal is to minimize the amount of time needed to manage your site so you can focus on your business. Every business has different website goals so choose the ones that are best for you.

HubSpot for WordPress

This plugin from HubSpot helps you manage popular functionality on business websites like your team page and contact page. It also helps you manage calls to action across your site so you can track online campaigns and optimize your actions as needed.

WordPress SEO

WordPress SEO helps avoid duplicate content issues and encourages common SEO best practices when creating and editing posts. You could get by without an SEO plugin if you really wanted to as WordPress does a great job by itself and your content is really all that matters.

Gravity Forms

This plugin solves one of WordPress biggest shortcomings, the lack of a form generator. There are a lot of plugins that do a great job but Gravity Forms is the easiest to use. Just drag and drop the form elements you want and easily configure and insert into posts. Like I said, your WordPress site should work for you, not the other way around.

(I only endorse a few premium plugins and this is one of them. This is a paid link so if you like it please use it.)

Subscribe2 HTML

It’s important to keep your subscribers coming back to your site. If you are regularly blogging and posting valuable content you should allow visitors to subscribe via email so they can get future articles delivered to their email.

WordPress Portfolio Plugin

This post is about keeping your site easy to manage and making it work for you. Showing off your work is essential for a lot of business sites so you need an easy way to manage it. Enter WordPress portfolio. Easily group projects and display them on your site for the world to see how awesome you really are.

Events

This plugin is great for scheduling events to be displayed on your site in the sidebar or on its own events page. Events can be recurring and can link to external registration pages.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Retaining your visitors by recommending related content is an easy way to increase time on site and your odds of converting the visit into a lead.

WPtouch

The rise of the smart phone has raised the demand for mobile enabled websites. The great thing about using WordPress to manage your content is you can easily install a plugin to make your site mobile ready.

WP-Stats-Dashboard

Back to this posts mantra, “making your site work for you”, your site data should be readily available as soon as you log in so you can gauge its success. This plugin lets you display the stats relevant to your business on your dashboard so you can be up to speed on your sites metrics in seconds.

Easily navigate pages on dashboard

While we are making things easy, I’ve used this plugin on several business sites to create a one click access point to pages from the main dashboard. It’s also an easy way to see your site’s layout without having to dig.

J Shortcodes

This plugin allows you to easily create customized styled web elements like buttons, content boxes, tabs, accordion panels and more. It’s an easy way to help content stick out without having to know CSS or HTML.

Custom Admin Branding

Last but not least you should make your website yours. Branding WordPress is easy with the custom admin branding plugin.

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Your business site should be easy to manage and deliver results. You should be able to easily track those results and make changes as needed. Experiment with different plugins and look at what others are doing. Make your website work for you.

- Header photo by vladislav.bezrukov

I was surprised by some of the results and disagree with a few statements made on the side. The article suggests that students aren’t making the grade as professionals in the workplace, mainly because they feel a sense of entitlement, expecting reward without putting effort. David Polk whose firm was commissioned to complete the study mentions problems with IT etiquette and goes on to say:

“Some of these problems in the workplace are the same things we are seeing in the classroom,” … “Students and employees alike are text messaging, surfing the Internet, and responding to cell phone calls at inappropriate times. It appears that for many the need to be in constant contact with friends and family has become an addiction. The addicted no longer see it as rude to be obsessively responding to calls or text messages.”

The real problem is that organizations and universities have failed to properly utilize these new communication tools that we appear “addicted” to. Companies should instead put together social media policies to regulate and facilitate the proper usage of these tools. The internet and these new technologies create new possibilities for marketing, sales, HR, collaboration and social awareness that should not be overlooked.

When it comes to our education system, Sir Ken Robinson says it best “.. It’s like we’re all being trained to be university professors”. Students are force fed the same curriculum with little favor towards true personal growth. Kids are clumped into groups based on age and location with little attention to their passions and talents. We need to shift from the old “assembly line” mindset to a more passion driven model.

First we need to see a change in the education system where individuals learn how to better use these tools to innovate and cooperate. Then we need to see organizations change their mindset and advise employees on best practices when it comes to internet usage.

Yes, my generation does feel entitled because we have access to more information than the generation before us. Hopefully the next generation will have access to even more information and will in turn teach mine. But the fact remains that we might just know things “seasoned workers” fail to see because everything is moving so fast. Hopefully we can all catch up and move forward as the human race instead of individual generations of that race.

Conclusion

Times are changing and so should the workplace and our education system. We need more access to technology inside and outside of the classrooms for educational purposes. Learning should be fueled by curiosity and allowed to mutate and wander with the mind. The workplace should also reflect these same ideals.

Additional Resources For Teachers:

• Teachers Embracing Social Media in the Classroom
• 7 Free Social Media Tools for Teachers
• Web 2.0 for the Classroom Teacher

Additional Resources For Companies:

• How Businesses Are Unleashing Their Employees’ Social Media Potential
• Online Database of Social Media Policies

Gravity Forms

Gravity forms makes it incredibly easy to create web forms for your site. Some things I liked about it were the conditional form fields and the ability to monitor and export data. If you can’t shell out the money for Gravity Forms, Contact Forms 7 is still a suitable alternative.

Google Analytics for WordPress

As far as Google Analytics plugins go, this one is the best. Not only does it assist in adding the Google Analytics tracking code but it can also track outbound links and insert itself in the header or footer.

WordPress SEO

WordPress SEO is the most complete search engine optimization plugin you will find. Not only does it assist with titles and meta information but it can create XML sitemaps, breadcrumbs and much more.

Open Graph Protocol Tools

This plugin adds meta information to your WordPress header to enable your web page to become a rich object in a social graph. The Open Graph Protocal is used on Facebook to enable any web page to have the same functionality as a Facebook Page. If you’re having problems with Facebook or Digg using the wrong image when you try and submit your posts this plugin might help.

Socialize

I have a few plugins in the WordPress plugin repository but this is the only one I think people really need to know about. It allows you to selectively display the most popular social bookmarking buttons on your website. It also provides a call to action area at the bottom that you can edit for specific posts to request further action from your readers.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is the fastest caching plugin for WordPress and is used by a lot of popular websites.

WPtouch

WPtouch is the most popular plugin for making your website mobile ready. The plugin detects mobile browsers and styles your site accordingly.

Secure WordPress

Secure WordPress allows you to selectively turn off WordPress functionality that poses a threat to your site.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

A great way to keep people on your blog is to recommend similar blog posts when they have finished reading the current one. The plugin has a bunch of settings making it easy to customize for your blog.

WP-DB-Backup

This one is straight and to the point. Back up your wordpress site so if something goes wrong you don’t kill yourself.

Subscribe to Comments

This plugin goes on my list of essentials. It’s the easiest way to get repeat visits from your commenters. It basically allows commenters to subscribe to all future comments on a post.

WordPress Blog Stats

I use this in conjunction with Google Analytics for two reasons.

1. I like having stats integrated into my dashboard.
2. I like being able to use that data with other plugins.

It’s not like the data is collected any faster than Google Analytics as both have a decent delay however it’s nice to see what another service has to say about my websites traffic.

Akismet

This one’s simple, it marks spam as spam for you so you don’t have to.

Traffic and Visibility

Alexa.com
Alexa provides information about websites including Top Sites, Internet Traffic Stats and Metrics, Related Links, Online Reviews Contact Information and Search Analytics for SEM and SEO optimization.

Compete.com
Compete helps you benefit from click-sharing by providing free services that create a more trusted, transparent, and valuable Internet.

quantcast.com
A new breed of measurement service helping buyers and sellers quantify the characteristics of digital audiences against which they can activate addressable advertising solutions.

quarkbase.com
See people, traffic data, similar sites, social comments, description, social popularity and much more about websites.

Xinureturns.com
Check PageRank, Backlinks, Indexed Pages, Rankings and more.

SEO

Open Site Explorer via SEOMoz
Linkscape provides link data never available before on over 41+ billion URLs across 366+ million domains.

Term Extractor via SEOMoz
This tool analyzes the content of a given page and extracts the terms that appear to be targeted at search engines. It applies certain weights to HTML elements and other on-page factors to determine what it thinks is a targeted term.

Website Grader via HubSpot
Free SEO tool that provides an Internet Marketing Report for your website.

SEO Analysis Tool via SEOWorkers.com
This SEO Analysis Tool is to help you analyze and measure the ranking potential of your web pages.

MarkosWeb.com
A web service that collects and analyzes any data about domains and keywords they are optimized for.

Keyword Monitoring and Discovery

KeywordSpy.com
SEO & PPC Keyword Research software tool, that unveil your competitors’ most profitable Ad copies & keywords.

SpyFu.com
Spy on your online competitors. Download competitors keywords and adwords.

SEMRush.com
SEMRush.com is a another great competitive research tool.

Social

Blog Grader via HubSpot
Blog Grader provide a free tool to grade your Blog and provide recommendations on how to improve its effectiveness.

HowSociable.com
HowSociable provides a simple way for you to begin measuring your brand’s visibility on the social web.

SocialWebsiteAnalyzer.com
Monitoring the social presence of your website on the top 20 social media websites.

Speed and Other Site Information

BuiltWith
Web technology information profiler tool. Find out what a site is using.

Web Page Analyzer via Websiteoptimization.com
Calculate page size, composition, and download time.

Readability.info
Readability.info offers readability scores, style, grammar, school paper analysis, readability scores (Kincaid, ARI, Coleman-Liau, Flesch, Fog, Lix and SMOG) for Web pages.

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If your favorite tool isn’t listed please share it in the comments.

If you know of any other cool plugins that make use of the WordPress dashboard please share in the comments.

WP-Stats-Dashboard

Display your blog’s stats graph plus your blog traffic, social engagement and social influence directly in your dashboard. See how you’re ranking on Alexa, check out your Technorati authority, monitor your ranking across multiple sites and much more. Once you install this plugin you’ll wonder how you ever managed to track your social media worth without it.

WordPress Stats

There are hundreds of plugins and services which can provide statistics about your visitors. However I found that even though something like Google Analytics provides an incredible depth of information, it can be overwhelming and doesn’t really highlight what’s most interesting to me as a writer. That’s why Automattic created its own stats system, to focus on just the most popular metrics a blogger wants to track and provide them in a clear and concise interface.

Easily navigate pages on dashboard

Display a folder tree of your pages that is easy to expand and contract on your Dashboard. Designed for people that use WordPress as a content management system.

Facebook Dashboard

This plug-in addes the Facebook for iGoogle gadget (published by Google) to your WordPress dashboard.

Meet Your Commenters

When someone comments on your blog and writes a comment with his/her URL, is leaving more information than you think. This plugin displays web pages and profiles of those users in the dashboard, so you can add them as friends if you are in the same social network.

List Rank Dashboard Widget

Displays the rankings of a configurable list of sites in a dashboard widget. Includes a shortcode to display individual rankings in post, pages and sidebar widgets.

WordPress Easy ToDo

Create a To Do list on the WordPress Dashboard. This tool is very interesting if you’re writing posts with several authors.

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This is just a small sampling of plugins that add widgets to the WordPress dashboard but I thought they were plugins worth noting.

The best part about finding new WordPress themes through these lists is you will discover even more cool new themes as you begin to click through to the individual theme developers pages.

… explore and enjoy!

Free WordPress Themes

Premium WordPress Themes

Elegant Themes

Theme Forest

StudioPress

WooThemes

iThemes

More Premium Themes On WordPress.org

Let Me Know What You Think!

Please share your favorite WordPress themes or even just your favorite place to find them in the comments.

The purpose of this post is to educate my clients and readers on some of the best practices concerning HTML in their WordPress posts and pages. Sure you can just write blocks of text and hope the content is compelling enough to stick but knowing a little HTML can go a long way in making your posts easier to read.

Learn Basic HTML

Paragraphs and Line Breaks:

The WordPress editor automatically removes <br> and <p> tags that don’t have any attributes and  replaces them when your WordPress theme displays your content. This causes a lot of confusion when people who already know some HTML start trying to use the WordPress HTML editor and their paragraph tags keep disappearing. WordPress interprets a single line break as <br> and a double line break as <p>.

Headers:

Headers are a great way to tell your readers (and search engines) what the next block of text is about. Us humans have become accustomed to scanning posts rather than reading every little word. For this reason headers are a great way to help a reader find exactly what they’re looking for within your post.

<h1>Most Important Header</h1>
<h2>Second Most Important Header</h2>
<h3>Third Most Important Header</h3>
...
<h6>Least Important Header</h6>

I usually try to pick up where my theme left off. So if my post title is using <h2> tags I will use <h3> tags to punctuate my main points in my post.

Images:

I personally think images are the most important part of a post next to its content. You are best off using the Upload/Insert functionality in your post editor. If your theme supports featured images you should most definitely be using them.

One of my WordPress image pet peeves is when people don’t use the built in CSS classes to align their images to the content.  These are classes that the WordPress post editor uses by default and most quality themes will support.

A basic left aligned image in WordPress would look like:

<img src="example.jpg" class="alignleft" />

And there you have it. I’ll talk about the importance of additional tags like Alt and Title in a bit. For now let’s move on.

Lists:

Lists are a very important part of making your post scannable. I try and use them whenever I want to highlight key points because I know the reader is more likely to read them. There are two types of lists; ordered and unordered.

Ordered lists are exactly what they sound like:

1. First
2. Second
3. Third

And alternatively, an unordered list looks as follows:

• Something
• Something Else
• And More

Your sidebar and navigation menus are most likely already making use of lists because of their ability to efficiently organize information. The basic syntax of a list is pretty straightforward.

First you need to declare what type of list you are using

• <ol> – Ordered List
• <ul> – Unordered List

And then you need to wrap your list items with the <li> tag.

A completed unordered list could look like this:

<ul>
<li>Something</li>
<li>Something Else</li>
<li>And More</li>
</ul>

Formatting:

You’ve got your main points highlighted with headers, lists and images to draw your readers eye. Now you can run though your post and do any additional needed styling to accentuate any remaining key ideas.

<strong> – Makes your content bold. Use instead of <b> to help search engines give extra weight.
<em> – Makes your content italic. Use instead of <i> to help search engines give extra weight.
<a href=""> – The anchor tag can be used to link to other websites or within your site. The href attribute specifies the destination of a link.
<blockquote> – Most themes will indent and emphasize blockquote text so this is a great way to emphasize chunks of text and quotes.
<pre> – By default, this tag maintains a text format. Good for bits of text where you want to preserve line breaks and spaces.
<code> – This tag distinguishes text that is computer code from normal language
<del> –  This tag is useful for chunks of text you want to delete after a post has been published. Most browsers will render it as the original text with a line through it.
<ins> –  This tag is useful for chunks of text you may want to add to your post after it has been published. Most browsers will render it as the original text with a line under it.

Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities via Wikipedia. WordPress recommends that you use Alt and Title tags on images as well as Title tags on links.

Example:

<a href="example.html" title="Example"><img src="example.jpg" alt="Example" title="Example" /></a>

Using The HTML Editor (Video)

Conclusion

This is only a small sampling of the HTML tags you can use based on the ones I thought were most important. All of these HTML tags are either built into the WordPress editor or supported by popular WordPress themes. Of course focus more on the quality of your posts than using as many HTML tags as possible. Look at some of your favorite blogs to get an idea of how you might want to structure your posts. With a better understanding of whats possible you can create a more personal style.

Further Reading

Here are some sites and posts worth checking out to learn more about HTML and blogging on WordPress.

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_Posts
• http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
• http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/20/basic-in-post-html/
• http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/quicktags/

- Image by cdsessums

Download Now

How much different is this version than the last? Well here is a complete list of the latest changes:

• Commented out javascript
• Added security to page meta box
• Added Yahoo Buzz and Google Buzz buttons
• Removed custom Facebook button and replaced with official Facebook Share button
• Created Delicious button with save count
• Provided options to float in-content buttons to right or left
• Provided options to display buttons on different pages
• Added option to hide alert box on specific pages
• Fixed CSS
• Plugin now updates upon activation and keeps record of version
• Buttons can now be displayed in feeds

Highlights

New Buttons

I’ve added Yahoo Buzz and Google Buzz due to popular demand. I also went ahead and changed the old Facebook image I was using and replaced it with the official Facebook Share Button.

My favorite addition is the new delicious button. It was the only button without an official or nice looking share button with a save count. So I made my own, hope you like it.

New Position Settings

You can control whether buttons are displayed on posts, pages, archives, search pages and even your feed. You can also control if the buttons are displayed on the left or right side of the content.

Fixed JavaScript and CSS Problems

I took care or several problems where JavaScript was being displayed on pages and buttons weren’t positioning correctly.

What Is Socialize?

The idea was to create an easy to use plugin that allowed bloggers to selectively add social bookmarks to their post. Furthermore I wanted to only use actionable buttons with counters because I believe displaying a posts social activity gives it positive social proof and can lead to more shares and more views.

This plugin also includes what I like to call an ‘alert box’ that is selectively displayed below posts and pages to encourage comments and sharing. You can also insert buttons into this post to increase the sharing potential.

The plugin is designed to make it easy for readers to share your content and give you full control of what is displayed where.

Download Socialize

So go check out the plugin page and try it out.

Remember if you are upgrading, be sure to deactivate the plugin first and reactivate it once you have uploaded the files.

The tens of thousands of you who already use our paid service represent over 75% of our traffic

So I imagine most of the popular networks you belong to on Ning will remain in place.

However, for the other 25% that might navigate elsewhere you have several options. I’ve yet to see a good breakdown of some of the better free Ning alternatives out there so I thought I would give it a shot. I found most of these sites in the comments and blog posts of other despaired Ning network creators. I’ve also tried to track down these other networks reactions to Ning’s announcement. Hopefully this will help you with your own transition.

Hosted Solutions

Spruz

Spruz seems to be the network of choice for most ex-ningers. I’ve read several reports of great up time and quality service. Spruz seems to have everything Ning has and a few extras that make it somewhat unique. I’ve seen users specifically boast about its file sharing capabilities.
[Post from Spruz welcoming Ning users]

Webs

Webs gets 30 times the traffic of Spruz and any other network on this list falling short only to Ning at two-thirds its traffic. Webs promises to always be free and shares several of the main features that made Ning popular including forums, member profiles and blogs.

[Post from Webs welcoming Ning users]

WackWall

I guess being in beta it wouldn’t be fair to compare their traffic to some of the other sites on the list. However, WackWall looks very promising. They are backed by a software company and don’t rely on investments which is why, they say, they will always remain free.

[Post from WackWall welcoming Ning users]

Grou.ps

Grou.ps is another great choice based on open source software. It seems to have everything Ning has and a very reasonable pricing plan to help scale your network. They also prefer to be called a social operating system. Looks very powerful.

[Post from Grou.ps welcoming Ning users]

Grouply

Grouply looks a lot like Ning on the front end and already has FAQs on importing members from other services. Matter of fact I’ve mistaken grouply groups for Ning groups a few times. One does have to wonder why their traffic has been dropping only to be revived by Ning’s latest news.

[Post from grouply welcoming Ning users]

BigTent

BigTent may be one of the babies of the bunch but it provides all of the same services in an “integrated” approach. Users claim the support is tremendous making it worth their switch. BigTent looks like a very simple solution, maybe a little too simple for some.

[Post from BigTent welcoming Ning users]

Zerista

Still trying to wrap my brain around this one but it looks VERY cool. Imagine FourSquare meets Ning and has little mobile babies. With tons of cool features to integrate the social experience, maybe its about time you take your network to the next level and go mobile?

[Post from Zerista welcoming Ning users]

Groupsite

Groupsite (formerly known as CollectiveX) looks like an awesome network solution with some excellent features. It does seem like they find ways to lure you into buying their premium services, like limiting subgroups to 5 but overall another good solution on the free side.

SocialGo

SocialGo, like the rest has a very impressive feature list and is just as popular as Spruz traffic-wise. The site seems to have a pretty satisfied user-base as I’ve seen several people recommend the site across different blogs and networks. Definitely worth putting on the list.

Open Source Solutions

Maybe the phasing out of Ning’s free service is what it takes to get you to take ownership of your community and move to a self hosted solution. The following are all free and trusted solutions in the industry. I personally would go with BuddyPress but to each his own.

BuddyPress – [Message from Buddypress]

Elgg - [Message from Elgg]

Pligg

Dolphin

LovdByLess

Insoshi

Astrospaces

Conclusion

I wan’t to hear your thoughts. If you know of any other free hosted social network creation services, please share them in the comments. Also feel free to give feedback on any of the networks listed if you are currently a user or have used one in the past.

- Photo by Samuel Stroube

Keep in mind that these are the basics and this is not a guide on how to develop themes for public release.

What You Will Need

• An XHTML web template
• A WordPress install
• A text editor (Like Dreamweaver or Notepad++)
• An FTP client (Like Filezilla)

Getting Started

First, let’s set up our theme files.

Prepare your files

For this tutorial we are going to use the minimum number of theme files needed to create a functional WordPress theme. Your existing template files should include the following:

• An HTML Template File
• A CSS Stylesheet
• An images folder

You should rename your HTML Template File to ‘index.php’ and your CSS Stylesheet to ‘style.css’. This is important and is how WordPress knows which files are which.

This is an example of what your theme folder should look like

Add WordPress Theme Info (video)

This is where your WordPress Theme gets your theme name, description, author link, etc. All you need to do is create a commented out area at the top of your stylesheet as follows:

/*
Theme Name: Rose
Theme URI: the-theme’s-homepage
Description: a-brief-description
Author: your-name
Author URI: your-URI
Template: use-this-to-define-a-parent-theme–optional
Version: a-number–optional
.
General comments/License Statement if any.
.
*/
CSS Goes here…

Adding Template Tags To Your Theme

Template Tags are bits of code that WordPress uses to populate your website with content. Different tags display different bits of information from the WordPress database. These are the main tags needed to make your WordPress theme work.

Page Title – (video)

Change whatever is within your <title></title> tags to:

<?PHP wp_title(”); ?>

Stylesheet – (video)

We are going to need to swap out the call to our stylesheet with:

<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”<?PHP bloginfo(‘stylesheet_url’); ?>” type=”text/css” media=”screen” />

Plugin Hooks – (video)

Next you will need to add Action Hook Template Tags so WordPress plugins can access your theme. All you need to do is add:

<?PHP wp_head(); ?>

to your header (Usually write above the closing </head> tag).

Then you should add:

<?PHP wp_footer(); ?>

to your footer (Usually write above your </body> tag).

Media and Script Paths – (video)

By default, your paths will most likely reference your site root. You will need to point all of your multimedia, scripts and stylesheets to your new theme folder within the WordPress file structure using:

<?PHP bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>

The easiest way to do this is to do a search and replace for ‘src=’ and add the appropriate template tags. This is not fool proof as not all template structures are created equal but it will work a majority of the time.

Search and Replace to change paths to WordPress theme paths

Adding The WordPress Loop

The WordPress loop is what handles all of your websites content. Its main components are:

• A header
• A permalink
• Some Content

First you will need to identify where your content starts/repeats (if it repeats). The easiest way to do this is to look for your content’s header and begin The Loop there. The Loop will usually end immediately after your content unless you are displaying extra information below your entries. You will also need to identify where your content begins and ends. Scroll to the end of this section to view some example code.

The Loop Code – (video)

Beginning:

<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

End:

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

Template Tags Within The Loop – (video)

The Title:

<?php the_title(); ?>

The Permalink

<?php the_permalink() ?>

The Content

<?php the_content(‘<p>Read more</p>’); ?>

Example Code

So this becomes this.

Navigation – (video)

Most themes will have the navigation within an unordered list. This makes things easy for you. All you need to do is replace the list elements (everything between the <ul></ul> tags) with the following:

<?PHP wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=1&sort_column=menu_order&exclude=’); ?>

This is the most basic of menus and wont display child pages. You can exclude pages by simply adding the page ids separated by comas after “exclude=”. Learn more about wp_list_pages().

Upload and Activate Your Theme

Now all you have to do is upload your theme folder which should now consist of:

• An index.php file with custom code
• A CSS file with header information about the theme
• An images folder with all of your images

If all goes accordingly you should have a functional WordPress theme that allows you to add new pages and posts as well as use most popular WordPress plugins. It is important to note that you will not be able to add widgets to your sidebar and people will not be able to comment on posts. There may also be some other limitations due to the themes simplicity.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to learn how to bring your theme to the next level with a sidebar, comments and other interactive elements.

More Resources

• Theme Development
• Stepping Into Templates
• WordPress Theme generator

It doesn’t matter how big your business is or how much money you bring in. If you exist, I want proof of it on Google. I can bring up a business listing and even get reviews within minutes right from my cell phone anytime, anywhere.

We live in an on demand world where everything is a click, flick or a button press away.

But I Can’t Afford a Thousand Dollar Website!

Well me neither.

Luckily I make them for a living. For those not as fortunate feel free to learn more about how I can get you up and running with a customizable website for very short cash. The truth of the matter is, you really don’t need a thousand dollar website. There are tons of free content management systems and thousands of open source plugins on top of that creating endless possibilities for a completely unique, dynamic, out of the box website for your business. It’s not always about the glitz and the glam but about easily providing the information your audience needs.

Your Online Identity Freebies

User moderated reviews and online discussions have become the corner stone of a business’s online identity. These sites dominate the search engines and our mobile phones when searching for information about businesses and therefor should not be overlooked. You should check these sites to see if your business is already listed and add/modify as needed.

• Yelp
• Google Maps
• ZoomInfo

These sites require more attention on your part if you decide to participate. They take time to develop interested audiences but can be well worth it in the long run.

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Don’t Be A Sucker

That basically just means don’t spend thousands of dollars on a crazy flashy website for your corner store boutique. Web developers are a dime a dozen – you can find them at your local college campus, all over Twitter and dominating craigslist. Be careful any way you go about it though. If you think you are getting ripped off, you probably are. Get a couple quotes for the same project and learn the lingo. Don’t go overboard with Internet marketing techniques like social media marketing and SEO. Get yourself a functional up to date website that provides your audience with what they want.

- Photo by Curious Expeditions