To add to its list of recent acquisitions, Automattic snatched up New York startup Scroll Kit last week, and added its creators to the WordPress.com product group. If you haven’t heard of it, Scroll Kit is a visual website building tool, with a snappy drag and drop interface. Their platform features simple WYSIWYG tools that allow users to create a simple one-page website simply by dragging images and text around a page in pre-configured templates. These tools were able to recreate the NY Times “Snowfall” website in just under an hour, and allow people to create a series of “scrolls” […]
Advanced Online Marketing for WordPress
Welcome to the companion article for my presentation “Advanced Online Marketing for WordPress,” which I gave at WordCamp Austin 2014. In this article, I’m going to walk you through the techniques I shared at WordCamp, covering how to build sites focused on driving revenue. This article covers a little SEO, site monetization, conversion optimization, and analytics tracking. Enjoy the read! Create Designs That Create Revenue As a web designer or developer, my guess is you’ve created quite a few sites that you’re proud of and that your clients were ecstatic about. That’s great! But do you really know if what […]
BlackBerry: Fallen Out of Favor?
Recently, Microsoft announced that they will be rebranding Nokia as Microsoft Mobile. A company that once was a de facto entity in the world of mobile phones, Nokia surely seems to have come full circle. But, while the world is currently busy talking about Nokia, there’s another smartphone brand that has seen better days: BlackBerry. Alphanumeric pagers, email machines, and smartphones—BlackBerry seems to have done it all. But BlackBerry’s tango with stardom appears to be coming to an end, as the figures don’t looking promising. In this article, I talk about the historic rise and imminent fall of BlackBerry. Good […]
Free WordPress Themes: April 2014 Edition
April witnessed the release of WordPress 3.9, which brought many improvements and new features to the table. April also saw the release of several new free WordPress themes, almost all of which were geared towards personal blogging sites. In this roundup, we take a look at some of the best free WordPress themes released during the month of April 2014. Free WordPress Themes: April 2014 Edition 1. Crangasi Crangasi is a content-centric theme meant for personal blogs. It’s fully responsive and translation ready. Demo | Download 2. Resolution Resolution is a multipurpose WordPress theme mainly meant for magazine websites. It […]
The 3 Best Map Plugins for WordPress
To find more great plugins, check out Torque’s free eBook, The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Plugins. Download it here. Maps are one of those things that make the web great. They allow you to provide directions, context, and a good amount of information about your business, all in a single interface. But for WordPress there are a lot of different options for the simple task of placing an interactive map on your site—big, medium, and small. Here’s a good option from each. Simple Google Maps Shortcode Simple Google Maps Shortcode, by Pippin Williamson, is one of the most compact implementations […]
Using LinkedIn to Give Your Landing Pages Better Social Proof
When people first land on a page that’s selling them something—whether it’s a service, theme, plugin, or hosting—they may not know you. And if they don’t know you, or have no preconceived notions of who you are, then you know that the sale will be challenging. Some developers will push a long list of features. And it can work. But it can just as easily lead people to a sort of analysis paralysis. After all, they have to figure out what all those features mean and what they will do for them. And determine if they need them. Some developers […]
AffiliateWP: The New Kid on the Block for Affiliate Marketing with WordPress
In today’s WordPress community there’s no shortage of entrepreneurial developers—many of whom are working on new ideas, new products, or new WordPress related services. And they all have one thing in common: constantly trying to come up with the next big thing! In 2014, innovation may seem increasingly more difficult. This is due to the fact that many “new” ideas have already been executed, and many needs are already being met. But sometimes taking a fresh look at a seemingly “solved” problem can result in great breakthroughs . . . particularly when you have a vision that provides a better or […]
WordCamps 2014: Spring & Summer Edition
WordCamps are important events for the WordPress community. They draw WordPress users, developers, designers, and enthusiasts together to talk WordPress and build connections. The dialogue is meaningful, the atmosphere is light, and the sessions are productive. It’s been an exciting journey since the first WordCamp, WordCamp San Francisco, in 2006. Now there are almost 350 WordCamps worldwide—and that number is expected to reach over a thousand in the next few years. With the summer months approaching, it’s a busy time for WordCamps. So, in this post, I’m going to outline some of the upcoming WordCamps for Spring and Summer 2014! WordCamp […]
Using WordPress Starter Themes
The continued adoption of WordPress across the web has facilitated the development of some robust themes. We’re able to create a child theme from almost any parent theme, use a theme framework, or build our own—with the latter option offering the most flexibility and leanness in exchange for extra work. But, today, building your own theme rarely requires you to start from scratch. A well-written starter theme can give you a head start on custom theme development by providing the files and structure you need. Plus, if you use one that’s truly community-vetted (like the three I’ll share below), you […]
Important Updates for Plugin Developers in WordPress 3.9
The WordPress update ready to drop this week will lack the flair and pomp that accompanies some of the more extensive updates. It will mostly feature a few UI enhancements in the Post Editor, a better theme preview, and a few stability and security improvements. But, if you’re a plugin developer, there are a couple of things to pay attention to in the update. Consider this a heads up. PHP’s MySQL Functions Deprecated As of PHP 5.5 the MySQL extension is officially deprecated, which means it will no longer be supported in WordPress. Instead, WordPress will be switching to the […]
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