WordPress is a great open-development community that encourages its users to innovate. But a few years ago, it started getting hard to keep up with those innovations. That's when the WordPress Plugin Repository was born (currently hosted at s.org">http://WP-plugins.org).

The repository is a place where all WordPress plugins are pulled together and shared with the community of users. But more than that, it's a place where developers can go to see what's already out there, what they can base their new work on, and what needs to be improved. In addition to end-user utilities that anyone can download for their WordPress needs, there are plenty of development tools, including wiki-based version control and a bug tracker, that the WordPress development community is welcomed to use. Everything is licensed under GPL unless noted in the source, so almost everything is open.

If you're new to the WordPress plugin repository but not to the WordPress support forums, you should login with your forum username and password; they are currently synced. If you have any problems, you should email the forum webmaster to ask what's going on. Only logged-in users may edit on the Repository, though everyone is welcome to view what's going on.

What's Available on the WordPress Plugin Repository?

The Repository is designed to be a complete, organized, efficient method of seeing what's in development and what has been developed for WordPress. As such, the core offerings here are the plugin directory and a robust version control mechanism. You can also use a special interface, downloadable for free, to work with the Repository more easily. The Repository is powered by Trac, a source control management and project management tool. Subversion is a wiki tool providing version control, and is also the source management tool WordPress is using today.

Developers using this directory can host all their WordPress developments for free, even organizing teamwork through the WordPress Plugin Repository. By hosting here, they have high visibility, can easily manage their code and track bugs, and develop wiki-based documentation with end users more easily than they could ever do it by themselves.

But developers without users are like stores without customers. WordPress users, too, are welcome to download plugins that are in alpha or beta form, or to download and use the plugins that are fully-functional but not integrated into WordPress yet. There are tools available for users to:

Browse plugins and themes available at the Repository

Download all desired plugins and themes from one stable location

Give their own feedback and suggestions to developers by using the tracker.

Help develop documentation and improvements by using the plugin's wiki page.

Know what's going on at all times by using RSS feeds.

Anyone developing or looking for WordPress plugins and themes is encouraged to use this resource. An email will get you the hosting you need for your project, and just coming and looking around will tell you a lot about what's going on in the WordPress development world.

What Plugins Are Available Right Now?

While plugins are changing fast, a few core plugins are available and certainly worth the time they'll take to check out. The best ones right now include:

Main Categories for WordPress allows you select "main" categories on your blog's navigation bar. This allows you to highlight the parts of your blog you find most important, while still displaying everything else.

The WordPress DBManager manages your WordPress database so you don't have to. Instead of worrying about lost data, you can use this manager to optimize, back up, restore, delete backed up databases, and even run queries for specific data.

WordPress Email allow you to send your blog entries to friends, enemies, or anyone you choose.

WordPress PageNavi gives you advanced page navigation.

WordPress Polls allows you to run the ever-popular polls and make the results public when you're ready.

WordPress PostRatings allows you to have rating systems for your blog posts.

WordPress PostViews lets you display for users and for yourself how many times a post has been viewed.

WordPress Print will display for the user a printable version of any given WordPress blog post.

WordPress RelativeDate displays a relative date beside your post or comment actual date.

WordPress Stats displays WordPress statistics you want to brag about.

WordPress UserOnline allows you to note which users are currently browsing your blogs

WordPress Wap allows you to use a Wap-enabled cell phone to brows your WordPress blog entries from anywhere.

Other projects that are in development include:

Joystick controls

RPMView

A WordPress XHTML validator

Tons of tools for Python, including MySQL tools

Recording level monitor

An admin themer

A post editor enhancement

Fix broken links

Palm usage manager

There are always new things in development in the repository, like new themes and small fixes such as a way to make WordPress allow dashes.

Even if you're not a developer or interested in expanding your blog beyond what it has now, it is a good idea to check out the Repository. It's certain that many of the plugins provided or in development today will eventually be incorporated into the newer upgrades of WordPress. By keeping an eye on the Repository, you'll know what new developments are around the corner - and by logging in and discussing them on the wiki logs, you'll be able to give your own input regarding how things ought to be done. While there are other places to find WordPress plugins, it's to be hoped that most people will use the Repository in the future, making life easier for everyone.

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Danny Wirken

http://www.theinternetone.net

Are you tired of searching the web for the best wordpress plugins for your wordpress blog? If so then today is your lucky day because what I have you here is what I think to be the best wordpress plugins every wordpress blogger should be using for there blog or blogs period.

I'm sure once you go through the list I have put together below and read through what each of these wordpress plugins can do for your blog you'll soon agree that these are the best wordpress plugins you've been searching for.

I've spent countless hours searching the web for the best wordpress plugins for my blogs because with them they can simplify a lot of tedious work giving you more time to do what you need to do with your blogs.

My suggestion to you is if you want to reduce the time involved with searching the web for the best wordpress plugins then make a plan now to read through the rest of this article.

Okay, that is enough talking, let's get to the heart of the best wordpress plugins every wordpress blogger should be using.

Below is the list I have put together with some brief descriptions and hyperlinks to where you can download these wordpress plugins.

#1. Akismet -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blogs "Comments" admin screen.

#2. All In One SEO -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

#3. Broken Link Checker -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/

This plugin is will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.

#4. Wordpress Database Back Up -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.

#5. Exec-Php - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php/

The Exec-PHP plugin executes PHP code in posts, pages and text widgets.

#6. Google XML Sitemaps -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog.

#7. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer -

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maxblogpress-ping-optimizer/

Save your blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin.

#8. MaxBlogPress Favicon

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maxblogpress-favicon/

Help create brand awareness by displaying a little favourite icon (favicon) in the title of our blog next to the URL.

#9. WP-Cache

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-cache/

WP-Cache is an extremely efficient WordPress page caching system to make you site much faster and responsive.

#10. Auto Hyperlink URLs

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/auto-hyperlink-urls/

Auto-hyperlink text URLs in post content and comment text to the URL they reference.

#11. No Ping Wait

- http://onemansblog.com/2007/04/15/no-ping-wait-wordpress-plugin/

The purpose of the No Ping Wait plugin is to prevent Wordpress authors from having to wait for all of the update services to respond to new post pings.

#12. FD Feedburner Plugin

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedburner-plugin/

Redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com.

#13. WordPress.com Stats

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.

#14. What Would Seth Godin Do

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/

Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and much more.

#15. Popularity Contest

- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/popularity-contest/

This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post's popularity

That's quite the list isn't it? But they each serve a purpose as you'll see when you look into each further.

If you wish to search for more wordpress plugins you can at - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

Now if you want to get the very best out of Wordpress then you need the best wordpress plugins, so keep these ones handy.

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Cory Threlfall

Cory Threlfall owns and operates a blog called The Web Development Central BLOG. Here you'll receive Expert How-To Articles, Video Tutorials and Recommended Resources for getting your first website up and generating traffic. Visit today and subscribe to his Free RSS feed or Twitter feed so you'll be the first to receive his latest blog updates. Go now to: Best Wordpress Plugins

Is WordPress Goldmine an unconventional SCAM? It's perhaps one of the weirdest sales pages I have ever seen in the world of Internet Marketing. The sales page has the following headline...

"This is No Coventional Sales Page Because This is No Conventional Product"

Then, followed by a 7 minutes video telling you WHAT exactly you're going to get inside the WordPress Goldmine package, an unconventional way of accessing and downloading the package after your purchase, and a couple of testimonials.

In the Internet Marketing world, normally you'll see loads of HYPE and outrageous claims in the sales letters but you won't find any of this in WP Goldmine's sales page. That's why it catched my attention.

Usually, I don't pay much attention to WordPress guides. This is because I'm very familiar with WP and I find many information related to WP can easily be obtained for free (you just need to spend a little time searching the web).

Anyway, since it's such an unconventional sales page and has a 60-day 100% money back guarantee, I got to give it a try and see what is it all about. So I bought WordPress Goldmine and here is my honest review.

WordPress Goldmine is written by Mark Thompson. The main guide is 128 pages long and divided into 5 parts. For those who are familiar with WP can skip or just skim through part 1 as it's very basic. It shows you how to install WP, change the default settings, change the permalink structure (for SEO friendly purposes), set up the ping list, install new theme, install essential plugins, etc. Nothing is new to me in part 1.

In part 2, it discusses about CONTENT or what and how to add the right content. Essentially, it discusses about prewritten PLR articles and write-your-own articles. No matter where you get your content, it advises us to make our content UNIQUE. Because unique content is the linchpin for getting free organic traffic from the search engines.

Again, nothing is new for me so far. However, there is one thing that's new to me in part 2, that's a UAW WordPress Plugins that allows you to get unique content to your blog on auto pilot. I personnaly have NOT try this plugins so I can't comment too much on this. And, I don't think I want to try it in my existing blog. If I were to try it later, I would try it on a NEW blog as I don't trust anything that sounds too good to be true.

Part 3 - Monetization. This is where WordPress Goldmine really shines. This is where it shows its real muscles. You'll learn the various ways of monetizing or making money with your WordPress blog. The author provides indepth information on how he made $15,000 through just ONE blog post. You not only will see one of his LIVE blogs but he also shows you how you can follow his plan and set up similar blogs.

In my humble opinion, part 3 is perhaps the section that offers you most value for money! Even if you're a very experienced WP user, I'll guarantee that you'll pick up something new here.

BUT, it gets better! In part 4, you'll learn the author's secret Traffic Generation System, how he gets organic traffic for FREE (no PPC ad costs, no buying traffic). You'll also receive an easy to follow diagram that shows you all the steps and sites the author uses to generate free traffic to his blogs. If you follow and implement the WordPress Goldmine's traffic generation system, the potential result for your site is immense.

I really thought that the guide should have concluded after part 4 but it doesn't. It the final section (part 5), it shows you the advanced techniques the author uses to promote his blogs. However, the author strongly urges us to have created at least two blogs and apply all the methods taught in the previous sections before trying to learn the advance methods.

I agree! If you read WordPress Goldmine, you should master the basics first and then come back and tackle the advanced stuffs. Trust me on this, it will be a lot more effective if you can master the methods in previous sections first before moving on to part 5.

Last But Not Least

Besides the main guide, you'll also receive a bonus package that consists of a software called "WordPress Secure Pro" to protect your blogs from unauthorised users and a set of videos (20 of them) showing you all the tricks on how to optimize your WordPress for SEO purposes.

Closing Comments:

WordPress Goldmine is a quality product that delivers a lot of value, unlike many other IM products that are over-promising and under-delivering. If one of your online business goals is to make money using WordPress blogs, then this product is worth considering.

Hope you find this review informative.

Download Your WordPress Goldmine Now Before The Price Increase!

Get my WordPress Goldmine BONUSES (worth more than $1,400) for FREE! I believe these bonuses can provide even more value for you and can help you to achieve success faster. So go and check them out while they're still available!

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go.tagjag.com - If you have a blog, you have a theme. Chances are, you downloaded a theme off the web somewhere. It's okay that you don't know how to code your own customized theme from scratch! Very few people are capable of doing this. You want your blog to say "YOU", but you don't want to pay a designer a ton of money to accomplish this. It's a good thing Artisteer now makes it simple for you to create and customize your own wordpress theme with just a few clicks of the mouse. twitter.com - chris.pirillo.com

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Leon

Want more how to make money online tips for free? Then, follow the link and visit our site and blog. We share plenty of online business success tips such as how to do market research, how to find products that sell, how to build your site, how to generate traffic, how to monetize your site, etc.

Expert WordPress is a new blogging system that allows bloggers to save time and get more done after they create a blog. Not only that, but the system is actually a full on blogging suite with your own WordPress theme, plugins, video tutorials and instructions, all packed into one. Expert WordPress was created for the WordPress community to counteract the limitations and problems they usually face when they want to create a blog.

The Expert WordPress system takes you by the hand and explains in detail what you need to do and when. Setting up a blog couldn't be easier and more straightforward than this. Since WordPress is the number one choice blogging software on the market, most bloggers will eventually migrate to it, even if they first create a blog with one of the dozen of the free blogging tools available on the market.

You can choose Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal and even the free option of http://WordPress.com for your blog, but none of them will give you the benefits and choices of the WordPress software that runs on a self hosted domain.

Self hosted WordPress blogs are by far the best blogs for search engine optimization, great placement and the ability to monetize them in many possible ways. Smart Internet marketers have recognized this fact a long time ago and wouldn't ever go back to whatever they used prior to hosting their own WordPress blog.

Some features that really make the WordPress software stand apart from the others is the versatility of it. There are just so many options in which we can build WordPress blogs and with a bit of coding knowledge in HTML and PHP, anybody can actually design their own WordPress theme.

There are plugins, widgets and many other pieces of coding than can be integrated into WordPress. Best of all, nothing is set in stone. If you ever wanted to change the look of your WordPress blog you can do so easy with a few changes in the stylesheet.

To make the process of starting out to create a blog, by moving to your own self hosted WordPress blog a lot easier, Expert WordPress has been designed for you.

It is the system if you are sick of trying to lean code or spend hours finding the right plugins. The creators of the software have actually built in the required plugins to help you with your search engine rankings. All you need to do is activate them with a few clicks. This will not only save you a lot of time, but you won't have to worry whether the plugins you use are the right ones.

Another benefit of using Expert WordPress opposed to doing it yourself is the fact that is comes with its own support forum. Should you ever get stuck you won't need to purchase expensive eBooks or even search for answers online. You'll have your very own help support community right at hand.

It's up to you whether you want to create a blog the traditional way, or use Expert WordPress and fast track your blogging experience to something more pleasant. Either way, WordPress is the software to choose for sure.

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Alex_Sysoef

Alex Sysoef is the Co-Creator of Expert WordPress. His experience with the WordPress software has allowed him to become a wealthy Internet marketer, working from the comfort of his home.

The purpose of this article is to outline three different ways of getting a WordPress blog up and running. WordPress is a free blogging software, has many benefits and is supported by a large community of users and developers.

A "blog" is abbreviated from the term, "web log" which is a form of online diary or journal.

Since its advent a few short years ago, blogs have found numerous uses. Just to name a few, these include:

- teenagers putting their thoughts and ramblings online

- hobbyists giving updates about their interests and passion

- people staying updated with friends overseas

- professional bloggers updating specific niche products

- multinational corporations (MNC's) such as Microsoft & General Motors using blogs as marketing tool

Like a web site, a blog has global reach. However, it's far cheaper, quicker and definitely easier to maintain a blog than a traditional web site. A blog's contents can be easily updated by submitting short or long articles (commonly known as blog posts) through an easy-to-use graphical interface. As a blog's content is updated regularly, they naturally attract both human readers as well as search engines hungry for fresh content.

To set up a blog, we need some form of blogging software or platform. There are free software like Blogger and WordPress and there are paid platforms like Moveable Type and Typepad.

Blogger is owned by Google. It's free and perhaps the easiest way to create a blog and your first post, literally within minutes! Howeer, its features are somewhat limited.

Thus, WordPress is a good alternative if you are looking for free blogging software. As it is an open source software, it is literally supported by a huge community of users and developers that assists both new and experienced bloggers. Not only feature rich - it supports categories, pages and trackbacks, just to name a few - it is constantly being updated through its core software as well as through software plugin's which are bonus software components that extend the basic functionality of WordPress. For more information, visit WordPress.org

Here are 3 different ways to get a WordPress blog up and running:

1) Via WordPress.com

2) Via WordPress.org

3) Via CPANEL's Fantastico

VIA WORDPRESS.COM

Like Blogger, you can get your WordPress blog and first post up and running within several minutes through WordPress.com! This site is meant for people to get a taste of WordPress without having to go through the somewhat involved procedure via WordPress.org (see the section below). If this is the first time you are getting your WordPress blog up and running, you should definitely give this a shot.

It's as easy as going to WordPress.com, clicking the button that says "Get a WordPress Blog Now>>" or something like that and following the directions there. And then, you start posting!

In this case, your WordPress blog will be hosted on WordPress.com totally free. Therefore, you do not need your own web host. The only drawback is that there are limitations such as you can't install your own themes or plugin's.

VIA WORDPRESS.ORG

Instead of having your blog hosted on WordPress.com, you can install WordPress on your own web host. (Of course, in this case, you need to have your own web hosting account which preferably comes with a version of "CPANEL" - a an easy-to-use graphical control panel to manage your web host.)

Setting up of the WordPress blog comprises the 3 main steps below.

Step 1: Visit WordPress.org and download the WordPress installation files which are free (since it is open source software as mentioned before). As the files are in a compressed format, run your compression utility (such as Winzip) to expand the files to your hard disk..

Step 2: Run your File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program and connect to your web hosting account. Then upload the installation files to the domain (if you have multiple domains hosted) and folder that you want your WordPress blog installed.

Step 3: This step is going to be challenging for the non-techie type if they managed to survive Step 2! You log into the CPANEL of your web host and create and configure your MYSQL database. After this is done, you need to configure some files to complete your installation.

Next, launch your browser to access your blog and start making your 1st post by running the "wp-admin.php" script that has been installed.

As you can see, this is the "normal" but very tedious way of setting up of your WordPress blog.

However, the effort you expend is worthwhile as you can configure all aspects of WordPress like installing the theme you like and adding HTML codes to include Google AdSense on your blog to earn some profit, etc.

VIA FANTASTICO

Again, you install WordPress on your own web host but this time through FANTASTICO. In this case, not only would you need to have your own web hosting account, it MUST come with a version of "CPANEL" that includes "FANTASTICO" - an advanced script installer that automates a 1-click WordPress installation! (Actually a few clicks are needed.)

With FANTASTICO, all the 3 steps above are automated for you. All you need to do is to log into the CPANEL of your web host and then click the FANTASTICO icon, which is a smiley face.

In the next screen, click on "WordPress" and then click on "New Installation". FANTASTICO will open a form and you fill in a few things like which domain (if you have multiple domains hosted) and which folder to install to. Once you have typed in the information and pushed a button, FANTASTICO will install WordPress in a few seconds!

How is that possible? That's because the installation files are already at your web host. This saves you time as you don't have to download them from WordPress.org, expand them and upload to your web host. Likewise, the databas is also automatically created and configured for you.

Next, launch your browser to access your blog and start making your 1st post by running the "wp-admin.php" script that has been installed.

As you can see, this is the "preferred" method of getting a WordPress blog up and running, also within minutes.and yet you can have all the benefits of configuring all aspects of WordPress, such as adding Affiliate Programs easily (including Amazon.com) and Google AdSense to make a handsome profit month after month!

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There may be times when you want to create a blog page or that looks different than a normal page. Or Perhaps you want to use wordpress to run your entire website but want the main page of your domain to look completely different than a typical blog. This is an easy way to customize wordpress that can be very easily accomplished by creating a custom wordpress page Template.

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Roger Loh

Roger Loh spent many years setting up computer networks and is an Internet marketer focusing on Affiliate Marketing and Blogging. Get started in Internet Marketing and Blogging: His Blog Blogging Video.

WordPress has never been easier to install than the latest version. In this article, I will describe how to install WordPress 2.5.

INSTALL WORDPRESS IN FIVE EASY STEPS

(1) Download WordPress

The first installation step is to Download WordPress from http://wordpress.org/download/. I created a directory on my PC called "wordpress" in which to collect the files and images I will use for my WordPress installation and customization. Once the download competed, I saved the .zip file.

(2) Unzip WordPress

After saving the file, I opened it with the zip/unzip program I use, and selected all of the files. Since I will be testing and modifying Wordpress locally to begin with, I "extracted" the files to the root directory of the Apache server I use for my PC test bed.

If I were going to install WordPress "for real" on a live web site, I would have used an FTP client to upload the .zip file to the desired directory at my hosting service and unziped the file there. Firefox has a terrific and *free* FTP client, FireFTP, that can be used for the upload.

(3) Create the Database

At this point, the WordPress database needs to be created. WordPress requires a database to store the site content and other information. I use MySQL for my database server both on my PC test bed and on my live sites. I use phpMyAdmin as an interface to MySQL.

Creating the database is really simple using phpMyAdmin. I simply start phpMyAdmin, enter the database name, and hit the "Create" button. WordPress will create the tables it needs in the database.

(4) Create wp-config.php

WordPress needs to know how to access the database once it has been created. That's what the wp-config.php file is for. WordPress includes a file called "wp-config-sample.php." This file needs to be modified with the database access information and renamed to "wp-config.php."

Open the config file with any text editor. The critical entries are DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_HOST.

As an enhanced security measure, I obtained a unique SECRET_KEY and pasted this into the file. I then saved the edited file as wp-config.php. The text below shows the code I changed:

// ** MySQL settings ** //

define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database

define('DB_USER', 'rtivel'); // Your MySQL username

define('DB_PASSWORD', 'MyPassword'); // ...and password

define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // 99% chance you won't need to change this value

// Change SECRET_KEY to a unique phrase. You won't have to remember it later,

// so make it long and complicated. You can visit http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.0/

// to get a secret key generated for you, or just make something up.

define('SECRET_KEY', 'diq`~@|CH6)l@u>x;hA>1ew1maZ/)ToE!y%}}ZYAI!=V^L()eooB!0V+k8LJa!Eh'); // Change this to a unique phrase.

(5) Run the WordPress Installer

After completing the edit of the wp-config.php file, I started the installation script by entering this URL to my Apache server into my browser:

localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

For a live site, the URL might be something like this:

yourdomain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

The first installation screen asks for the blog name and contact email address.

The next screen announces a successful installation and provides a username and password for the administrator. Be sure to save this password!

The installation is now complete. I can now log into Wordpress and begin managing the blog, customizing the theme, or adding content.

Or, I can click the link at the top of the log-in screen and go to the blog's home page.

If you don't manually create a wp-config.php file, WordPress will prompt for the information it needs and try to complete the installation.

That's it! WordPress should now be installed.

Yours for a more successful blog,

Royce Tivel

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Royce Tivel

For an extended version of this article, complete with numerious images showing, step-by-step, the procedures described in the article, please visit http://www.selectdigitals.com. The extended version also contains information about how to theme WordPress.

It's soon going to be time to redesign my web site for the "Web 2.0 Age." I have seriously looked at two platforms, Drupal and Joomla, with which to accomplish this.

Drupal and Joomla offer comprehensive packages that, in the case of Drupal, includes a blog and forum as core modules. Theming these platforms can be accomplished through both CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and PHP (Personal Home Page or PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) code modifications. However, these platforms are complex and learning enough to install, manage, and customize these platforms can be a daunting task.

After studying the two platforms, including using them both on my test bed platform and on the Internet, I decided to take a look at WordPress as a possible solution to my future Web needs. I was surprised to discover that the latest version of WordPress is easy to install, easy to use, and easy to theme.

In this article, I will describe how to customize WordPress 2.5.

STYLING WORDPRESS -- THE JAKOB DESIGN

The current design for my personal web site, SelectDigitals.com, is based on work and philosophy of Jakob Nielsen , http://www.useit.com/. Nielsen's work has been dedicated to making usable web sites that deliver content that is easy to find and easy to read.

The design of Nielsen's site (and my site, by permission) is elegantly simple and has the primary goal of delivering content. WordPress also has the primary goal of delivering content. So, my first WordPress design will endeavor to maintain the look and feel of our sites with the added feature of visitor interactivity. I will refer to this as the Jakob design.

There are six major components that make up the look of the default WordPress blog:

1. Header Graphic,

2. Blog Title,

3. Tagline,

4. Page,

5. Background,and

6. Footer.

In order to make the Jakob blog load quickly, I decided not to use a header or footer graphic; and since the design will essentially be the default WordPress theme with a new coat, only a little graphic design work needs to be done. In fact, I only needed to create one graphic to to generate the blog page with it's two column effect. The blog page will "float" centered in a dark-blue *body* background that will serve to frame the page.

Creating the Graphic

A look in the image directory for the default WordPress theme shows the default images used for the Kubrick look. For now, there is only one file of particular interest: kubrickbgwide.jpg. For the Jakob design, the other Kubrick images are not needed but will be needed for the "Fancy", more complex design.

The blog's page will be created from a "slice" through the center of the new design. The slice is a narrow image the width of the blog page.

I began my design by laying out a basic page (760px X 600px) in Adobe Illustrator. I like using Illustrator for artwork of this kind, although other programs could be used, too.

I filled the basic page with the page's background color (not to be confused with the dark blue *body* background). The light background color will will "show-off" colored text, such as the blog's title and tagline.

I overlayed the page with two rectangles, or "columns." The left-hand, 510px-wide column is filled with a pastel yellow color; the right-hand column, 230px wide, is filled with a pastel blue color. The two columns fit within the basic page with a 10px border of page background around them.

In Illustrator, I then placed a 760px X 40px rectangle on the page and used this to make a slice. A slice is nothing more that a representative piece of a larger image, in this case, of the blog design. I saved the slice as kubrickbgwide.jpg. Kubrickbgwide.jpg will be used to generate the blog-page background. As new content is added to the blog page, copies of the slice will be stacked vertically to "grow" the two-column background. This is the only image needed by a browser to generate the blog's home page. The Blog will, therefore, load very quickly.

Pretty easy so far, right? The rest of the design is accomplished through the theme's CSS file and/or through the WordPress administrative interface.

CSS Changes

The default CSS file is in the wp-content_themes_default directory. The CSS text below shows the code changes to style.css. Before making any changes to the default CSS file, I always make and save a copy of the original. The CSS file can be opened and modified with any text editor. Text to be deleted will be shown within square brackets. New or modified text will be shown without brackets.

/* Begin Typography & Colors */

body {

[background: #d5d6d7 url('images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg');]

background: #636f89; /* Set the Body background color to blue */

}

#page {

[background-color: white;]

[border: 1px solid #959596;]

border:none;

}

[#header {

background: #73a0c5 url('images/kubrickheader.jpg') no-repeat bottom center;

}

#headerimg {

margin: 7px 9px 0;

height: 192px;

width: 740px;

}]

#footer {

[background: #eee url('images/kubrickfooter.jpg') no-repeat top;]

background: #fffef2; /* Very light yellow */

}

h1, h1 a, h1 a:hover, h1 a:visited, #headerimg [.description] {

text-decoration: none;

[color: white;]

color:red; /* Make the title red */

padding-bottom: .5em; /* Put a little space between the title and tagline */

}

.description {

text-decoration: none;

color: blue; /* Make the tagline blue */

text-align: center;

}

/* End Typography & Colors */

/* Begin Structure */

#page {

[background-color: white;]

background-color: fffef2; /* Very light yellow */

[border: 1px solid #959596;]

border: none;

}

#header {

[background-color: #73a0c5;]

background-color: #fffef2; /* Very light yellow */

}

/* End Structure */

After making and saving these changes to the style.css file, the newly designed blog page is accomplished.

STYLING WORDPRESS -- THE FANCY DRESS DESIGN

Although I like the simplicity of the Jakob blog design, it will not appeal to everyone. Lots of people just love "glitz." The price of a fancy WordPress dress is often a slower loading blog with no increase in usability. However, for those who want to "dress up" the appearance of their blog, here are additional ways this can be accomplished.

First of all, it should be noted that the background of the default WordPress page uses header (kubrickheader.jpg) and footer (kubrickfooter.jpg) graphics. These graphics are not filled with a solid color, as in the Jakob design, but with gradients. There also appears to be a very small drop shadow under the page.

Because of the complexity of the default page, additional graphics are required and, thus, more slices will be needed. Additionally, when a more complex body background is desired in which to "float" the page, a "seed" image for this might also be required (this is what the kubrickbgcolor.jpg image is for).

As before, I created a drawing of the blog page in Illustrator. The page, with rounded corners, floats on the default WordPress background, has a yellow gradient, and has a small drop shadow.

I first created a 760px X 600px rectangle on the Illustrator artboard. I filled this rectangle with the background color (C:8, M:6, Y:6, K:0).

Next, using the Rounded Rectangle Tool, I drew a 736px X 584px rectangle and filled it with the yellow gradient. Essentially, I made the page as large as possible within the background while leaving enough room for the drop shadow.

Finally, I gave the rounded rectangle a small drop shadow.

In order to insure that the slices will merge perfectly into the *body* background, I created a 60px X 60px square of the same background color (C:8, M:6, Y:6, K:0) and saved it as kubrickbgcolor.jpg. The small image will be used to "paint" the body background. This is an important step as the background used for the body and the background used for the page must match perfectly for the Fancy design.

Creating the Slices

Using the Rectangle Tool, I placed a 760px X 200px rectangle on top of the layout described above. I positioned this rectangle at the top of the layout and used it to make a slice for the header graphic. Before doing this, I disabled stroke and fill.

I saved the slice as kubrickheader.jpg.

I created the footer and page slices in a similar fashion and renamed them as kubrickfooter.jpg and kubrickbgwide.jpg, respectively. Kubrickfooter.jpg is 760px X 63px and kubrickbgwide is 760px X 40px.

There are two other Kubrick images in the images directory: kubrickbg-ltr.jpg and kubrickbg-rtl.jpg (left to right, and right to left). These images are the same as kubrickbgwide.jpg. So, I made two copies of kubrickbgwide.jpg and renamed them accordingly.

CSS Changes

The default CSS file is in the wp-content_themes_default directory. The CSS text below shows the code changes to style.css. Square brackets show which code to delete and new code is shown without brackets. Before making the change, I copied and saved the original file. For the Fancy design, the CSS changes are minimal.

/* Begin Typography & Colors */

body {

[background: #d5d6d7 url('images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg');]

background: #e7e7e7 url('images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg');

}

#page {

[background-color: white;]

[border: 1px solid #959596;]

}

#header {

[background: #73a0c5 url('images/kubrickheader.jpg') no-repeat bottom center;]

background: #e7e7e7 url('images/kubrickheader.jpg') no-repeat bottom center;

}

#footer {

[background: #eee url('images/kubrickfooter.jpg') no-repeat top;]

background: #e7e7e7 url('images/kubrickfooter.jpg') no-repeat top;

}

h1, h1 a, h1 a:hover, h1 a:visited, #headerimg [description]{

[color: white;]

color:red; /* Make the blog title red */

padding-bottom: .5em; /* Put a little space between the title and tagline */

}

.description {

text-decoration: none;

color: blue; /* Make the blog tagline blue */

text-align: center;

}

/* End Typography & Colors */

/* Begin Structure */

#page {

[background-color: white;]

background-color: #e7e7e7;

[border: 1px solid #959596;]

border: none; }

#header {

[background-color: #73a0c5;]

background-color: #e7e7e7;

}

/* End Structure */

After the design and CSS work, the WordPress shows it's new clothes to the whole Internet.

STYLING WORDPRESS -- THE NO-GRAPHIC DESIGN

Nothing every goes wrong when a browser loads a page from the Internet, right? Even if this were, in fact, the case, it is still wise to consider how a page will display in case the graphics can't be found.

In the case of the Jakob design, if kubrickbgwide.jpg did not get downloaded, for any reason, the page would not display acceptably. Because of the light background used for the header and footer, they display normally on the dark-blue background assigned to the body. However, the page content becomes difficult to read: it almost gets lost in the dark-blue background. A lighter background for the body might have been a much wiser choice.

The creator of the Kubrick design solved this problem by assigning alternate background colors to be used if the graphics were not available. The assignments are made within the style.css file:

body { background: #d5d6d7 url('images/kubrickbgcolor.jpg'); }

#header { background: #73a0c5 url('images/kubrickheader.jpg') no-repeat bottom center; }

#footer { background: #eee url('images/kubrickfooter.jpg') no-repeat top; }

If the images are not available, the alternate RGB color value will be used.

If the graphics are not available, the default WordPress blog is still presentable and usable. For an initial page redesign, starting with the basic Kubrick design, without graphics, might be a good place to begin. This can be accomplished by simplifying the statements above:

body { background: #d5d6d7; }

#header { background: #73a0c5; }

#footer { background: #eee; }

The colors can then be changed to try out various blog color schemes. Just change the RGB color codes, save the CSS file, and refresh the browser to see the changes immediately.

Yours for a more successful blog,

Royce Tivel

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Royce Tivel

For an extended version of this article, complete with numerious images showing, step-by-step, the procedures described in the article, please visit http://www.selectdigitals.com.