Archive for December, 2011
by James Johnson on December 19th, 2011
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So what do you receive for that price? How about 300+ WordPress plugins and WordPress themes, quality code, updates guaranteed, 24/7/365 WordPress Support and Manual, Videos and Webinars!
Because their experts in the field and intimately aware of WordPress coding standards the WPMUDev team also guarantee each plugin they create will work out of the box or they’ll give you your money back guaranteed.
You can see what they have to offer by visiting:Â premium.wpmudev.org
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Categories: WordPress News
by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg on December 16th, 2011
Good Friday morning to all of you! What’s cooking this weekend? I hope that you will enjoy this two-day break from work, and if you still need to get some Christmas shopping done, I hope you get to do it without too much of a hassle.
Here are the highlights from this week’s Job Board.
Are you a parent based in Main Line, PA? They are on the hunt for writers who are passionate about parenting and the myriad issues surrounding it. Read More
Categories: Jobs
Tags: Blogging Jobs, magazine writing jobs
by Jonathan Bailey on December 14th, 2011
Pretty much everyone knows that running, if done properly, can be very good exercise and provide a lot of great health benefits. However, since I’ve taken up running in the past year, getting more serious in the last 4 months. I’ve noticed that the physical benefits are only a small part of the rewards.
Running, in particular endurance running, is a mindset more than anything and thinking like a runner, even if you aren’t one, has a lot of great benefits in your life and in your blogging.
So even if you’re not the type to get off the couch or wear running gear, getting into the mind of a runner can help you get the most out of your blogging and out of any other task that requires endurance and perseverance. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: blogging, endurance, perseverance, running
by Amanda DiSilvestro on December 14th, 2011
I spent two years teaching International students English at my University, and I truthfully feel that they taught me more in those two years than I taught them (although they will tell you, in English, this is not true). Although what I learned was not quite as clear cut as a language, I learned a lot about different countries and their Internet habits. During my time at The English Language Institute, I taught students from Japan, Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, France, Venezuela, Columbia, and Mexico. I discovered that in most of these countries, surfing the Internet in their native language was not quite as overwhelming as it is in English. They informed me that there is less content produced in their own languages, and this made sense. Now that I am a blogger, I cannot help but remember these students and ask myself: Should I be writing my content for languages other than English?
According to the Internet World Stats, English is the most used language on the Internet at 536.6 million users (Chinese comes in second with 444.9 million users). In this sense, we are lucky that we speak English fluently (as my students consistently reminded me) because we are able to write for a larger audience. However, there is no denying that reading something in your own language is preferred (ask anyone who is bilingual). Consider a few of the reasons translating your blog into other languages is worth your time. Read More
Categories: Blogger Tools, Blogging Tips, Blogging Tools
Tags: blogger tips, language, readability
by James Dunaway on December 12th, 2011
One of the questions which many online copywriters ask themselves is whether they should keep on writing for other people’s sites and get paid for it or start to write on their own sites which they could make money from.
It isn’t a question which can be answered with a quick and simple “yes†or “noâ€, so here are some of the points to consider.
Easy Money?
If you are a good, fast writer then you can make a reasonable living from writing for other people. You might never become a millionaire from it but if you want a steady, fairly predictable wage then you get it this way. With your own site things aren’t quite so clear cut, as your earnings could vary greatly from nothing at all to a lot of money. If you like the idea of striking it rich with a huge income then you might like to give your site a go, but it you are happy with safe and steady then copywriting as a job is probably good enough. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: blogs, Freelance Writing, online, seo copywriting, writing
by James Johnson on December 12th, 2011
The team at ColorLabs designs some of the nicest looking and most user friendly premium WordPress themes on the market and we are happy to announce that they are giving away 4 of their “All for One” packages to lucky BloggingPro readers.
The company’s All for One package normally retails for $69 and provides buyers with 23 premium WordPress themes that range from news and magazine templates to real estate and tech blog templates and everything in between.
Along with beautifully looking WordPress templates users are also treated to designs that display perfectly on iOS and Android based Smartphones and tablets, eliminating the need for separate applications for users who are not yet ready to invest time and money into the creation and maintenance of those mobile applications.
Among the ColorLab packages offerings is one of my favorite news/magazine WordPress themes known as Arthemia Premium, a template that provides bold colors, an excellent featured content area and easy setup that makes starting your own online magazine a snap.
Here’s a small preview of the Arthemia theme: Read More
Categories: General
by Noemi Tasarra-Twigg on December 9th, 2011
Are you counting down the days till Christmas? If so, you might want to get a few more jobs to augment your holiday budget. And even if you don’t do Christmas, a little extra cash is always a good thing, yes?
Here are the best of the job ads we have for this week. Good luck!
Speak and write Hungarian? Here is a potentially fun job for you. You do not need to translate, but you do need to be fluent in the language. Oh, and this is not a job if your sensibilities are easily offended! Read More
Categories: Jobs
Tags: copywriting jobs, grant writing jobs
by James Johnson on December 8th, 2011
The Social Metrics plugin for WordPress has quickly become one of the very first options I add to my new WordPress blogs as they are being built. The plugin in it’s most simple of terms allows me as the administrator on my website to examine which social networks are having the greatest impact on the posts I create.
Using Social Metrics is extremely simple, after downloading and simply clicking activate the program can be visited in a section located directly below the “Dashboard” option within the WP-ADMIN area:
After clicking on the “Social Metrics” section the main display is then shown. Before choosing any settings the program automatically displays your newest posts first.
As you can see from the screenshot below the title for each post is displayed (you can click on the hyperlink to visit each story). Next you’ll find some of the most used buttons on most sites (Twitter, Facebook, Google+,StumbleUpon, Digg and LinkedIn). Next to each type of social sharing button is the number of shares it has received. Unfortunately Reddit is now implemented which is a real shame given the buttons increasing prevalence. Read More
Categories: WordPress Plugins
Tags: Analytics, Social Metrics, Wordpress Analaytics
by Patrick Lambert on December 7th, 2011
The world of blogging has certainly become easier and more approachable for all types of people. No longer do you need to know how to manually code HTML, PHP, or JavaScript in order to create, design, and maintain a blog. But, for some of us, we may want to go further than what the blogging platform, or the available plugins allow. We may need to add more functionality for our users, or to integrate a new function that simply isn’t available yet through those easy to use tools. That’s when we have to be ready to learn some coding and get our hands dirty, plunging into code. Fortunately, even then there are tools to help us. When writing JavaScript, for example, here’s how using JQuery could help you write faster, and speed up your blog.
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Categories: Blogging: How To
Tags: javascript, jquery
by James Johnson on December 6th, 2011
When I first started using Facebook fan pages on my various websites I immediately began to think of those pages as an extension of Twitter. On Twitter I simply dump every story I write directly into my Twitter profile and allow my users to pick and choose what they read. However I soon realized that not only do Facebook users begin to ignore a fan page when their are too many posts popping up in their news feed, it can also cause Facebook to turn away from your pages, displaying them to less fans.
To better understand Facebook fan page engagement and why it’s important let’s take a look at what engagement does for a fan page.
1. Post Engagement Leads To Exposure
Many Facebook users don’t realize that the less engagement they receive on their fan page posts, the less future posts are shown to fan page subscribers. For example, if I setup a Facebook post on my page and of my100 page followers 5 people leave a comment I have a 5% engagement rank for that post. Because anything over 1.5% is typically seen as a high engagement score Facebook is more likely to show my next fan page post to all or most of my subscribers. If my engagement score falls below 1.5% however there’s a chance that only a fraction of my fan base will be shown my next posts in their news feed. Hence, post engagement leads to more website exposure. Read More
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tags: Facebook, Facebook Fan Page, User Engagement
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