To find more great plugins, check out Torque’s free eBook, The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Plugins. Download it here. Shortcodes are one of the most beloved capabilities of WordPress. There are few things that have the ability to extend a WordPress site’s functionality like a good package of ‘em. Without shortcodes, most users would have to install an awful lot of plugins, each with a single function (e.g. one plugin for pricing tables, another for toggles, another for tabs, etc.). A full library of such plugins would undoubtedly slow down your website to a half-dead crawl; a simple package of […]
Keeping Content Honest with Plagiarism Detection
The growth of the Web has considerably lowered the barrier to gathering and sharing information. It has also made it far simpler for students and Websites to deliberately or accidentally copy text without proper citation or licensing. To address these concerns a wide variety of so-called plagiarism detection tools have emerged to help match new content with existing bodies of text. While they are not perfect, they do promise to help keep students and contributors honest, and to help businesses identify and rectify infringements of their work. Leading plagiarism detection tools in the academic space include Ephorus, PlagScan, Turnitin, URKUND. […]
The Best WordPress Themes for Businesses and Professionals
Whether you’re a large business finally making the move to Internet-based marketing, or a lone professional looking to acquire more customers via a website, there’s a good chance you’ll choose WordPress to manage your site. The number one thing you need after you setup your hosting, domain, and WordPress installation is a theme. A world-class, incredibly good-looking, conversion-centered WordPress theme that will make your site’s visitors never want to leave. Although it’s always best to get a WordPress theme custom-developed for your specific needs and requirements, sometimes you simply don’t have the money for such a large investment. The next best […]
Interview with Nick Haskins on WordPress Development
For developers, the WordPress world is full of opportunity. Creating plugins and themes, and building awesome websites are just a few of the possibilities. Becoming a WordPress developer, however, requires a great deal of time, dedication, and practice, and isn’t a decision one should take lightly. To better grapple with the hard work and commitment that goes into becoming a developer, I reached out to Nick Haskins — Developer and CEO at aesopstoryengine.com — to understand his personal evolution, both as a developer and an entrepreneur. Q: Could you talk a little about how you’ve seen the WordPress plugin and theme industry evolve over the years? […]
Interview with Scott Bolinger on WordPress Mobile
There are 1.75 Billion smartphone users in the world. That’s roughly 25% of the world population, and this number will only continue its rapid growth. Given these statistics, it shouldn’t be surprising that now more than ever, people are using their mobile devices to access websites and browse the internet. Over the past few years, WordPress mobile has steadily gained popularity — there’s a slew of different options for optimizing your site for mobile devices, as well as options for creating mobile apps out of your WordPress site. To gain further insight into WordPress mobile, I contacted Scott Bolinger, co-founder of AppPresser‚ a fast […]
WordPress 4.1 Welcomes a New Class of Committers
With WordPress 4.0 released, it’s time to once again look to the future, WordPress 4.1. Over the weekend, Andrew Nacin announced our new release lead for 4.1, Jack Blackbourn, and a couple of guest committers that are coming along for the ride. John Blackbourn has been a core committer to WordPress for the better half of a decade, and has made some pretty incredible contributions to the WordPress community — with valuable blog posts, and plugins like Query Monitor, User Switching, and WP Crontrol. Blackbourn will be joined by a new group of guest committers, with a few names you’ve […]
On the Versatility of WordPress
11 years, 4 months ago, the world changed for the better. How, you ask? WordPress was created, published, and released to the public. It spread like wildfire and had millions of users within a couple years. And as the user base of ol’ WordPress continued to grow, so did the capabilities of the platform. What started out as a simple software to facilitate blogging has evolved into an extremely versatile content management system, which can be used to power just about any type of website. Today, WordPress is super flexible and can be adjusted every which way to suit your personal website needs. Evolution […]
Interview with Bob Dunn on WordPress Education
Recent statistics estimate that WordPress is used by a whopping 23.1% of the internet. Given the ubiquity of WordPress, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s a growing demand for WordPress education. Whether you’re just starting out with WordPress and need to learn the basics, or if you’re an intermediate developer looking to hone your skills, WordPress users of all skill levels are seeking out new ways to learn. The increasing popularity of WordPress is likely accredited to the advantageous model it was founded on — open source — which allows anyone to make improvements to the software. The open-source model also brings with […]
How Open Source Has Driven the WordPress Revolution
Open source. These two words are the driving force behind the evolution of the CMS that we all know and love, WordPress. Without open source, I highly doubt that WordPress would have gained even half the popularity it boasts of today. What Is Open Source? Open source software, if you want the Wikipedia definition, is software “for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed or modified.” In layman’s terms, this essentially means that WordPress is free for all and you can do anything with it, which includes alteration of the code and customization of […]
10 Skills All WordPress Developers Should Have
23% of the internet? That can’t be right. That’s gotta be millions of websites. How come I have never heard of it then? She must be lying. Nothing can be that important and slip me by completely. This WordPress thingy must be more like a hobby. That can’t be a real job. For those who have no idea what WordPress is, being a WordPress developer must sound like a made-up job. Web designer, yes. They can sort of understand that. After all, websites have to come from somewhere, right? But WordPress developer, on the other hand, most people have never […]

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