“Plugged in” is a reoccurring feature on Torque that aims to take a closer look at different plugins each week. If you have any suggestions for plugins you’d like to see reviewed, write us at [email protected] Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? My first ever article written for Torque was this one: 4 ways to turn WordPress into a multilingual website. As the name suggests, it describes how to display any WordPress site in more than one language. In the article I also mentioned a plugin which had been among my absolute favorites for a long time: qTranslate. […]

It’s very frustrating to spend hours refining a writing piece only to check your analytics after it’s been published and see that visitors are merely giving it a quick glance before leaving. “I poured my heart into this! There is a piece of me on that page and you should pay more attention to it!” is what your inner monologue might sound like at these moments. (Or is that just me?) While taking things personally is always a very productive strategy (I don’t care what my therapist says), as a website owner or online marketer there might be better ways to […]

Be honest: Is your WordPress backend a clean and appealing working environment? Does it make you feel relaxed and focused, and taking care of your website a pleasant activity? Or is it a mess of update messages, unanswered comments, and other distractions? Where you have to scroll over dozens of unused plugins until you get to the one your are looking for? You know, kind of like this browser window: If so, it’s time to set aside time for a “declutter WordPress weekend,” and do some serious housecleaning. With spring around the corner, what better time to make a fresh […]

When we think of people who should build a portfolio website for themselves, we will often automatically think of creatives. Photographers, designers, web designers, and such folk are obvious choices to display their work online. However, the benefit of having an online portfolio is not merely limited to this group. In fact, maybe everyone should have one. Why? Well, think of portfolios like a resume, only better. They let you showcase the entirety of your professional life and work. Why are online portfolios better than resumes? Well, can your resume play videos, dynamically display photos, and be mobile optimized? No? […]

Mastery is a fascinating topic. Anyone taking pride in what they do are constantly striving to improve. To improve their skill set just a little more — to get a little better, faster, or more precise. Yet, mastery of any discipline comes down to one thing: practice. Whether you play the violin or are just trying to get really good at FlappyBird, you will need to put in the time it takes to get there. Mastering WordPress is no different. Increasing your skill set to an exceptional level is hard work. However, there are good reasons to do so: WordPress has […]

If you’ve ever installed WordPress, you know that every WordPress website consists of two parts: The core files and a MySQL database. Of the two, the database is the much more important component. Should your core files go kaput or be corrupted, you can easily replace them and wouldn’t lose too much. However, if your database vanishes and you don’t have a backup — best find a good therapist now. Therefore, it is important to know how to properly take care of this crucial part of your website. One of the most common tools used for doing so is phpMyAdmin […]