WordPress is such an awesome software for building your website or blog but we all know there can be many plugins and core updates that happen every month.

We always see the message,

“PLEASE BACKUP BEFORE YOU UPGRADE”.

I have worked with WordPress for several years and I have seen many issues that can be caused by updates.  The best and only way I feel secure now before an update is to back everything up just in case things on the site go haywire.  I can just restore the site and my sanity.  There are plugins available that do this process easier than what I am going to show you below, but these plugin are not compatible with every theme and the process below is full proof 100% with any WordPress installation.

Below is a Step by Step guide on how to backup your WordPress site or blog with no mistakes.

STEP #1

Install and activate WordPress plugin WP Backup.  For info on installing and activating WordPress plugins, CLICK HERE

STEP #2

Once WP Backup is installed and activated, run Backup (found in the tools area of admin area).  Select all tables to be saved and choose to save the backup on the server.  If will create a folder and backup file on your host server.

STEP #3

You will need some form of FTP program to transfer the installed files  on your site to your local hard drive or storage device.  If you do not have an FTP client visit FileZilla.com and download one for FREE.  Works on PC and Mac.

STEP #4

Obtain your FTPlogin from your website Host and follow the instructions below for setting this connection up on FileZilla .

1. Launch FileZilla from your computer.
2. Complete the following fields, and then click Quickconnect:
   • Host — Enter your hosting account’s primary domain name. For example, coolexample.com.You do not necessarily need any prefix to the host you enter. However, if you experience any issues connecting, you can try using ftp.coolexample.com where coolexample.com is your hosting account’s primary domain name.
   • Username — Enter your hosting account user name.
   • Password— Enter your hosting account password.If you have problems connecting to your hosting account, it is most likely caused by an incorrect password.
   • Port — Leave this field empty, or type 21.

STEP #5

Once your are connected to your site via FTP you should see a list of files in the FTP program.  Look for a folder named public_html.  Click on this folder and drag it to your desired location of backup.  This folder contains all of the files related to your WordPress installation including the backup file you made in step #2.  If you do not see this folder when you first lo into your FTP client, then simply select all the files you see initially and drag and drop those into your backup location.

Check out this great post on how to Backup your website using your C-Panel

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That is it.  Let me know if you want to know how to restore as well.

So often people buy a Theme only to find out that it will not function properly and have to go on the hunt again for another one.  I have listed below my TOP 4 things to consider when choosing a WordPress Theme for your website or blog.

Is it current?

It is really important that select a WordPress Theme that is up to date and compatible with what’s being used on the web.  Below are a few items to look for to make sure you are getting a theme that meets this.

1. Check to make sure that the Theme is compatible with the most current version of WordPress.
2. Very important to make sure the Theme is compatible  with all  major browsers.  If there is a Theme demo you can test the browser compatibility at http://browsershots.org/

Does it have design flexibility?

This I think is what people tend to consider the most when selecting a Theme but rarely make sure that the Theme they purchase has allot of design and layout flexibility.  Check out the things below to look for before you buy it.

1. Different skins options built in to change the color scheme of the entire theme.
2. Make sure it comes with the Photoshop files so you can customize the design.
3. Look for easy to edit font options.  Yes this can be changed in the hard code if you know a little CSS but always better to make it easy.  Font is a big part of a well designed look.
4. Unlimited sidebar options.  This POWER option allows your website or blog to have a different sidebar for each and every page.

Does it have great content support?

Content is king and you want to make sure it is displayed properly on your site with ease and simplicity.  There are many forms of content like text, photos, audio, video and many more.  You want to look for the things below to make sure you can display your content for your visitors.

1. Look for shortcode options for displaying text and other content.  For example if you want to make a 3 column display of text there is a shortcode to accomplish this without having to make it with HTML.
2. It’s a must to make sure your theme supports video display.

Is it well documented?

This is the most important of the 4.  There are so many WordPress Themes on the web that are sold by a developer and there is no documentation on how to install and use it.  Then when you reach out to ask a question, you never get a response.  I have listed some things below to look for based on personal experience.  These things will help you stay clear from these dodgy Themes and developers.

1. If available, check to see how many sales have been made of the Theme and see if there is a feedback or rating score from the buyers.
2. If there is a comment or support area, take a look at what people that have used or bought the Theme have to say and how they feel about it.
3. MAKE SURE THE THEME COMES WITH DOCUMENTATION.

Below is a site for trusted WordPress Themes at a very affordable price.

But remember to follow the points above before you buy.

Let’s start by defining the ingredients needed to complete a WordPress E-Commerce site.  Now keep in mind that some of the following items I will list are not mandatory to use in your E-Commerce development but will make it more successful and MORE MONEY!  My list below already assumes that you have a great host for your website and a SSL certificate installed to secure the connection in order to process payments directly on your site.  A secure connection means that instead of the URL address being http it would be https.

This is what you will need:  * REQUIRED

1. E-Commerce ready theme (you can use any theme but E-Commerce ready makes life easier) *
2. E-Commerce plugin that will manage the shopping cart process *
3. Payment Processor that will allow your site visitor to purchase products *
4. Affiliate plugin that will allow others to drive sales to your products for commission
5. Members Only plugin which will allow you to create premium content pages that require membership purchase to access

Now let’s say for the purpose of this post that you will be using all the elements in the list above because you want your online store to be the da bomb diggity.  It is very important that you find the right plugins and themes that will all work together an integrate into one another.  THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT.  So in order to make sure you do it right and save you the hours of research and or massive headaches, I have laid out below what you need and where to get it.  Total investment in these items is $176 – $206.

1. E-Commerce Ready Theme ($30 – $70)

Splashing Pixels

Splashing Pixels is a theme development company who specializes in e-Commerce related themes for WordPress. At the site, you will find beautifully crafted themes that are forward thinking and incredibly intuitive. All our themes show special attention to detail and user friendliness. On top of that, it is backed by our own Splashing Pixels theme framework which you will find very easy to use. Don’t be shy, stop by and take a look at our demos!

Full Details

Storefront Themes

Storefront Themes designs all their themes EXCLUSIVELY for the WP-e-Commerce platform and offer more WP-e-Commerce themes than any other theme shop. They offer first-class support, high-def video tutorials, and an optimized theme framework. They continually push the boundaries of what the WPEC platform can do by producing unique themes, some of which integrate with BUDDYPRESS, use RESPONSIVE layouts for mobile devices, and cover a wide variety of niches with features like music players, custom widgets and ajax functionality.

Full Details

2. E-Commerce WordPress Plugin  (FREE)

WP e-Commerce Plugin

WP e-Commerce is a robust WordPress plugin suitable for anyone who wants to start selling products, downloads or services online.  Whether you sell 10 or 10,000 products, we make it easy to add a WordPress e-Commerce shopping cart to your site. Best of all it is easy to manage. Quickly add products and organize your catalog using the familiar WordPress interface.  Our WordPress e-Commerce Plugin boasts more than 1.7 million downloads – that’s quite an endorsement. But don’t take our word for it. Browse our showcase to see the remarkable e-commerce websites our users have built using the WP e-Commerce Plugin developed by the GetShopped community.

Full Details

3. Payment Processor WordPress Plugin ($40)

Gold Cart Plugin

The WP e-Commerce Plugin is a shop owners dream, with such intricate WordPress integration it is possible to do anything. The Gold Cart Plugin is our Premier Plugin that opens up a mixture of new functionality and provides customers with 1 support token that they can use for requesting help setting up their shop.

Full Details

4. Affiliate WordPress Plugin ($47)

Affiliate Plugin

The Affiliate Plugin makes it simple to sign up and manage affiliates. You can easily set the payout amount (flat rate or % of sale) per affiliate, add custom banners and text links with unique tracking codes, view stats and more.

Full Details

5. Members Only WordPress Plugin ($49)

Member’s Only Plugin

The Members Only Plugin is a perfect way to create pay to view subscription sites. This Plugin is a completely new WordPress Membership Plugin and comes packed with plenty of useful features and a nice user interface to boot.

Full Details

Please take note that the above items work hand in hand with each other and has been tried, tested and proven to sell the HECK out of your products online.  I look forwards to any comments you have on this post and I am always here for your questions.

Below we’ve identified some of the best premium membership plugins as well as a couple free WP membership plugin alternatives. We’ve also included a comparison chart for you to easily compare WordPress membership plugins according to price, features, and support. Should you need any other excellent WP plugins to improve your site, take a look at our premium WordPress plugins review list.

Premium WordPress Membership Plugins

WishList Member – An exceptional WP membership plugin that comes in two different licenses (single, unlimited sites) and a 30-day money back guarantee. Notable features include a shopping cart, multiple payment gateways, custom login pages, the ability to display partial content for different member levels, and more. One year of unlimited customer support is provided through a support ticket system, video tutorials, and numerous instructional guides.

WordPress eMember – Client support for this WP membership plugin is served via a support forums and tutorials. It’s currently only available in a single site license but your purchase includes free lifetime updates and unlimited support instances. Stand out features include the ability to restrict posts and pages per member level, category based access restriction, and a complete member management area.

Magic Members – This WP membership plugin offers lots of features to build your own custom made membership website using WordPress. Such features include sequential content delivery (i.e. drip feed, post/page delay), protected RSS feeds, the ability to create an unlimited number of member levels, coupon creation, and much more. The plugin varies in price according to the number of sites you need to install it on but it includes a 30 day no risk guarantee. Free support for the plugin is provided for one year with each purchase and it can be accessed via support tickets, video tutorials, and various documentation guides.

CMS Members – This is a premium WordPress membership site plugin that’s compatible with BuddyPress and WP MU. Features include partial content display, the ability to control content access per member level, restriction of posts and pages per membership level, a built-in newsletter, and the seamless integration with popular autoresponders like Aweber. The plugin is available in multiple languages and support is offered via instruction guides and a user support forum.

s2Member Pro – The professional version of the popular s2Member plugin for WordPress. s2Member Pro offers extra features not available in the free version. These include PayPal Website Payments Pro integration, custom PayPal form generators and checkout pages, plus tools for importing and exporting user information. Two licensing options are available: single ($69) and unlimited website installations ($129). Your premium s2Member WordPress plugin comes with unlimited support and updates for life.

WP-Member – Available licenses for this WordPress membership site plugin include a single site license and a developer license. The inclusion of support and plugin updates varies according to which license you buy and support is provided via a ticketing system. It offers example benefits like a quick and easy installation, content protection, the ability to display content teasers, and much more.

MemberWing – A WordPress membership site plugin that provides some unique features not seen frequently in similar WP membership plugins. Such things include content theft protection that can identify who is attempting to steal your articles and Google’s First Click Free feature for optimizing search traffic for your member based website. Three licenses are offered; a free non-commercial license, the Professional One (single site), and the Professional Unlimited (unlimited number of sites). Customer support is provided via a user forum.

Amember Pro – Despite its comparatively high sale price, this is one of the most popular and well known WordPress membership plugins. Many great features like content drip, the ability to alter member subscription lengths, protected downloads, multiple language support, integration with Simple:Press and vBulletin, plus a built-in mass mailer will appeal to many membership site owners. Amember Professional comes with a 30-day no risk money back guarantee, 6 months of free updates, and unlimited customer support that provided through a ticketing system.

Your Members – A premium WordPress membership plugin that includes features such as sequential content delivery, RSS tokens to protect your feeds, the ability to create coupons and discount offers/sales, a la carte pay per post access, and partial text display capabilities. Support for the Your Members WP plugin is served via a support forum and the plugin can be purchase with a single site license or a developer license.

Digital Access Pass – DAP offers an extensive amount of features and tools to turn your plain old WP blog into a full blown WordPress membership site. It even integrates with popular WordPress based forums like bbPress, Simple:Press, and WP-Forum. Purchase of a license for this plugin includes a 30-day money back guarantee as well as a robust support environment for which to provide guidance in the event you require troubleshooting assistance.

Suma – This is a basic WordPress membership site plugin that offers a few extension modules to add on extra functionality that you may want. While the basic version is fairly cheap it doesn’t offer any ability to receive payments from customers. Thus, if you intend on charging clients, you’ll need to upgrade and purchase the payments module that compliments this plugin. Support for this WP plugin is processed via support tickets only.

WP-Membership – Another no-frills type of WordPress membership site plugin that includes the essential features like the ability to create membership levels and login redirection. However, it does integrate with multiple payment gateways and allows the admin to restrict access to post and pages per member level too. Plugin updates are unlimited for the single site license when purchased and unlimited support requests are addressed via a community forum.

Free WordPress Membership Plugins

s2Member – This is a free WordPress membership plugin that is also compatible with BuddyPress and WordPress MU (WP MU). It offers admins the ability to create up to four membership levels, delay post/page content, restrict access to different member levels per post/page as well as limit access via categories and tags to certain members. Support for this plugin is only offered through the plugin’s homepage in the form of comments.

Members – Another free WordPress membership plugin that was created to allow WP admins to create a private membership site. Unfortunately this one lacks many features compared to s2Member or the other premium WordPress membership plugins. It’s still in its infancy of development offering a roles based member management interface with no payment integration. Despite that the plugin is freely available to download, the author charges for a yearly reoccurring fee to access the support forum.

1. Reduce the Size of Theme Images

Images are an important part of every WordPress theme, yet WordPress theme developers sometimes forget about optimizing them. Images in a WordPress theme include CSS background images, template logos, default stock images, icons, and so on.

Optimizing images can save you in bandwidth consumption and can improve page response times for your blog readers.

Photoshop, for example, offers a Save for Web feature that optimizes images for the web. What I usually do is lower the quality settings of the image until I start to see changes in color or quality.

Furthermore, you can use a lossless image optimization tool like Smush.it that will squeeze out excess file size without loss in image quality. You can find more image optimization tools here.

2. Use a Custom Favicon

Some WordPress themes don’t come with a default favicon (the icon that represents a website that you can see in browser tabs and browser web address bars).

A favicon can be easily created using any graphic program that will allow saving of .ico graphic files, such as The GIMP. There are also online services that will allow you to create a favicon for free.

The image should be clear and is usually designed to match your blog image and/or content, a big task for something so small.

To prepare the image to be saved as favicon.ico:

1. By cropping or adding space around the image, make the image square.
2. Resize the image to 16 x 16 pixels.
3. Save the file as favicon.ico.

If using an online service to create your favicon, such as Faviconer.com (creates 24bit favicon.ico with a transparent background) andfavicon.co.uk or Dynamic Drive, follow the instructions provided by the site. Then download the image of the favicon.ico to your computer.

When a website doesn’t have a favicon, it can look unprofessional. Make sure that your WordPress theme has a favicon. You can check out this list of favicon generators to help you design your own.

To reference your WordPress icon, simply place the following code inside header.php, which can be found inside your theme’s directory:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="PATH_TO_IMAGE_HERE" />

Modify the href attribute value to point to the location of your favicon file.

3. Style WordPress Image Captions

When you upload and post an image in a blog post, you can give them image captions to describe it.

Every good WordPress theme should include default styles for image captions. To style the default caption, you can use the .wp-caption class in your styles.css.

Here is an example of styling the image caption (using some CSS3 properties):

.wp-caption {
  background-color: #f3f3f3;
  border: 1px solid #ddd;
  -khtml-border-radius: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 3px;
  -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
  border-radius: 3px; /* optional rounded corners for browsers that support it */
  margin: 10px;
  padding-top: 4px;
  text-align: center;
}
.wp-caption img {
  border: 0 none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}
.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text {
  font-size: 11px;
  line-height: 17px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0 4px 5px;
}

Here is the result of the style rules above:

4. Use PHP Flush

By calling the PHP flush function right after your header, you will be able to speed up your WordPress blog. Simply add this line of code below to your header.php file after the closing </head>

<?php flush(); ?>

This code simply forces your web server to send your website’s header before sending the rest of the content. By using the flush function, the browser has time to download all the stylesheets referenced in the header while waiting for the other parts of the web page.

5. Use Shorthand CSS in Your Theme’s Stylesheet

The CSS files of WordPress themes contain lots and lots of code to cover all sorts of situations and usage. In order to reduce the size of the file, you can use shorthand CSS. Some WordPress theme designers will make it easier for less advanced users to tweak the styles by not using shorthand properties, but if you’re an experienced CSS coder, you can write/re-write the styles using shorthand properties.

For example, if you find style rules in your theme that look like this:

.post {
  padding-top:3px;
  padding-right:10px;
  padding-bottom:5px;
  padding-left:2px;
}

You could reduce them to their shorthand equivalent as such:

.post { padding: 3px 10px 5px 2px; }

This will effectively reduce the size of your stylesheet. Changing this won’t make that much of a difference, but every bit of optimization brings you a little closer to a faster WordPress theme.

6. Minify Your WordPress Theme Files

Congruent with using shorthand properties for CSS to optimize styles.css, if your theme’s CSS and JavaScript files aren’t minified, you can minify them to reduce their file sizes. Minification will take out unneeded characters from your files such as spaces and tabs.

For JavaScript, you can use JavaScript Compressor, a free web-based tool that you can use to minify your JavaScript files.

For CSS, check out this list of CSS optimizers.

It will be trickier to minify your HTML since the theme’s markup is spread amongst several files and they will have PHP code interspersed with them. However, there are plugins like W3 Total Cache that will minify all of your front-end code as well as perform other optimization processes such as caching your blog posts to improve site speed.

7. Secure the Theme

Remove WP Version Information – WordPress generally gives away the version number of your installation at 2 places – in the site’s header and the footer(if the theme displays it). If you are using a older version of WordPress, you should remove it lest it gives hackers information that you are using outdated version which may have some security loopholes in it for them to exploit.Removing information from the footer is easy…just find the php code below in your footer.php and delete it.

<?php bloginfo('version'); ?>

For removing it from your header, it requires you to edit the theme’s functions.php file since it is displayed automatically in header by wp_head() function call from header.php file. Add this line to your theme’s function.php just before the last ?> :

remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_generator' );

Above method of editing functions.php works only in WordPress 2.5 and above. For wordpress versions below, it remove this code from theme’s header.php file:

<meta name="generator" content="WordPress <?php bloginfo('version'); ?>" /> <!-- leave this for stats -->

This code may appear in your themes if you are using them in WordPress 2.5 or above, as some theme authors may not have removed this.

8. Hide Dashboard Login Errors

Another way to protect your WordPress theme is to hide login errors. The reason is that whenever you are trying to login using the correct username but with the wrong password, a message will show up saying “Error: Incorrect Password.” You’ve now given a clue that the username entered is in the system, and that they simply need to crack its password.

Similarly, whenever you enter an unavailable username, a message appears stating “Error: Invalid username”. This of course reveals that the username is non-existent and becomes one less permutation that needs to be checked.

In order to keep this from happening, you need to add this code to your functions.php file:

add_filter('login_errors', create_function('$a', "return null;"));

This filter will remove the standard WordPress error by displaying nothing when a login is incorrect.

9. Replace the Theme’s Search Feature

Most themes you download will use the default search function in WordPress core, specifically because it is a best practice recommended by WordPress core developers for developing and distributing WordPress themes.

However, the core search function, at the moment, is not as robust and accurate as a third-party search service such as Google Custom Search, Yahoo! Search BOSS, or the Bing API. For example, in the WordPress core search function, typing a blog post author’s name will not yield a result (unless you include it in your posts as a custom field).

On the other hand, using web services provided by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft’s Bing will not only take advantage of their expertise in search, but can also help reduce your server load for searches.

For integrating Google Custom Search to your WordPress theme, check out the Google Custom Search Plugin or this tutorial called Integrate Google Search on your WordPress blog.

For Yahoo! Search BOSS, see the Yahoo BOSS WordPress plugin or this tutorial entitled Create a Yahoo BOSS powered Site Search Engine.

Finally, if you’re interested in the Bing API (which is being currently used for one of the largest WordPress blogs in the world, Mashable), have a look at this tutorial named Bing Search API wrapper for PHP.

10. Reduce Function Calls and Hooks for Static Content

Theme files for mass consumption and use under diverse situations need to be flexible. As such, there are plenty of dynamic function calls and hooks to make the theme work in multiple ways and situations.

However, this can lead to lower performance and page speeds because every time a page is generated, it needs to make multiple function calls to render the page.

Look out for things that don’t need to be function calls; pay attention to things that are unlikely to change.

For example, in header.php, you might find a line that looks like this:

<title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></title>

This line prints out your blog’s name in the browser’s title bar. Your blog’s name probably won’t change often, if at all, so you could reduce a needed function call by replacing it with your blog name, like so:

<title>Your Blog Name</title>

Here’s another example (again, usually found in header.php):

<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>" type="text/css" />

The above example references the URL of your stylesheet. However, it’s unlikely this URL will change, so you can just directly write the URL like so:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://example.com /wp-content/themes/themename/style.css" type="text/css" />

There are plenty of these function calls for non-custom WordPress themes, and collectively, they can contribute to the sluggishness of your WordPress blog, especially when you aren’t using a caching plugin.

UberMenu

UberMenu is a user-friendly, highly customizable, responsive Mega Menu WordPress plugin. It works out of the box with the WordPress 3 Menu System, making it simple to get started but powerful enough to create highly customized and creative mega menu configurations.

Full Plugin Details | Demo

CSS3 Mega Menu

Modernize is a new era of wordpress theme. You can discover many new awesome features in this theme. For example ‘Page Builder’, it allow you to create page easily by drag-drop module. Moreover, it comes with many options on that .  Also, to change color elements, it won’t be a big deal anymore, with our new admin panel, you can access to almost of all elements color. Admin panel in this theme is a real feature rich. You can also create unlimited sidebar, choosing over 350 fonts or if you want to use your own, we provide a cufon uploader. Modernize has 15 predefined background pattern but if you want to use your own background, again, we have a custom background uploader. You can also translate each elements to your language via this admin panel.

Full Plugin Details | Screen Shots

Sticklr WP – Sticky Side Panel

Stickr WP, a sticky side panel menu WordPress plugin. Inspired by Envato site-switcher, after released as CSS3 +jQuery, due to popular demand I decided to create this WordPress plugin version. The features are similar with jQuery version, only WordPress version has an intuitively easy administration panel, so you don’t have to know the coding behind it.

Full Plugin Details | Demo 

PBK Mega Menu

PBK Mega Menu Plugin for WordPress is your easy way to add a functional and customizable Mega Menu to your WordPress website. Adding menu items and content is just like adding posts or pages… If you know how to use WordPress, then you already know how to use the Mega Menu plugin.

Full Plugin Details | Demo 

Menu Management Enhancer

The WordPress 3 Menu Management System is excellent, but it can be a bit cumbersome if you’re managing many menu items. The Menu Management Enhancer for WordPress aims to improve the menu management user experience.

Full Plugin Details | Demo

WP Sticky Menu

Sticky Menu Plugin has it’s own option panel from where you can select your styles, the alignment of the menu (Top or Bottom), the width of the menu (980px or Full Width). You can also select the animation effect for the sliding out and in of the menu. Watch the video for more information or buy it now

Full Plugin Details | Demo

Alyeska Responsive

Elegance. Flexibility. Awesomeness. These are the words that instantly come to mind when trying describe this amazing WordPress theme. This is the theme that’s going to get you or your client’s site up and running in no time. With all of the possible combinations of layout options, you’re sure to end up with a unique, elegant website that you can be proud of. Nothing has been held back with this one. It has all the professional touches you’d require in a WordPress theme along all the personal ones, as well – I’ve even named this theme after the mountain I grew up shredding as a kid in Alaska. It’s professional. It’s personal It’s the best. This is Alyeska.

Full Theme Details | Demo

Modernize

Modernize is a new era of wordpress theme. You can discover many new awesome features in this theme. For example ‘Page Builder’, it allow you to create page easily by drag-drop module. Moreover, it comes with many options on that .  Also, to change color elements, it won’t be a big deal anymore, with our new admin panel, you can access to almost of all elements color. Admin panel in this theme is a real feature rich. You can also create unlimited sidebar, choosing over 350 fonts or if you want to use your own, we provide a cufon uploader. Modernize has 15 predefined background pattern but if you want to use your own background, again, we have a custom background uploader. You can also translate each elements to your language via this admin panel.

Full Theme Details | Demo 

Sideways Portfolio Website

Sideways is a portfolio theme that offers both horizontal and grid layouts. It incorporates eye catching full screen background images that scale to fit all resolutions and window sizes as well as strong and elegant typography and design.

Full Theme Details | Demo 

White Label

TA full featured skinable and responsive CMS /Admin Panel with custom plugins, widgets, forms, validations, charts, galleries and much more.

Full Theme Details | Demo 

Super Skeleton

SuperSkeleton is more than a WordPress theme, it’s a comprehensive HTML5 framework and it includes a full templating system as well; A collection of several incredibly powerful scripts and CSS structures that’s been tied together into a kit that’s perfect as a jumping off point of your next project.

Full Theme Details | Demo

Reaction

Reaction is more than a WordPress theme, it’s a comprehensive HTML5 framework and it includes a full templating system as well; A collection of several incredibly powerful scripts and CSS structures that’s been tied together into a kit that’s perfect as a jumping off point of your next project.

Full Theme Details | Demo

Locus

Please note that with the latest update 3.0 all the theme files have been revised including the options framework. So if you are planning on updating the theme, you will need to do create your posts and pages from scratch. The help documentation explains all the steps thoroughly with video screencasts. You may choose not to update to the latest version, we will still be supporting the old version.

Full Theme Details | Demo

Angular

Angular is a responsive WordPress Theme (try resizing your browser), suited for users who want to showcase their work on a neat portfolio site. The Theme is built on top of the fabulous Avia Framework and comes with support for the bbPress Forum plugin, just in case you need it .

Full Theme Details | Demo

Aware

Aware is an interactive, responsive portfolio theme perfect for freelancers, web designers, photographers and videographers alike. Its user interactive interface delightfully enhances your most loved portfolio pieces. Now, you can take your portfolio with you, in your pocket.

Full Theme Details | Demo

Propulsion

Propulsion is a responsive WordPress Theme (try resizing your browser), suited for users who want to create a business, portfolio or eCommerce site. The Theme is built on top of the fabulous woocommerce shop plugin as well as the bbPress Forum plugin. It comes with a plethora of options so you can modify layout, styling, colors and fonts directly from within the backend. 3 Slideshows, 21 predefined skins (which are easy to modify from your backend), font and color options as well as dynamic template builder will help you create the Website you need in no time.

Full Theme Details | Demo

Click icon below to open.

Right click and save link as to download.

This list of headlines has been proven to grab the attention of your audience and bring them into your stream of content. A title is so important to get someone’s attention. These 102 headlines with get that attention.

You can use these headlines in many different ways online.  Use them on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and in your WordPress Blog Posts.

Take a look below at a few samples of some of these headlines and CLICK HERE to get the full list.

Health, Wealth, Relationships, Time and Lifestyle

10 Money/Time Saving Tips for ______
The Secret of Getting the Best Price for Your _______
How to Find the Best _____ Deals on the Web
Top Gadgets for _____
Are _____ Worth the Money?

Crystal Ball and History

The History of _______
How _____ Will Impact _____ in [Year]
_____ Then and Now
40 Predictions on the Future of ____
The Modern Rules of ______

Problems and Fears

Are _____ a Dying Breed?
How to Beat the Fear of _____
10 ____ Scams and How to Avoid Them
How Secure Are Your _____?
7 Most Frightening ____

How-To Tricks of the Trade

When is it Smarter to ____ or ____?
Little Known Ways to ________
10 Reasons it’s Better to ______
How to Plan the Ultimate _____
How to _____ Like a _____

CLICK HERE to get the full list.

Before I give you my list, take a look at the graphic below that show how this site is growing and creeping up on some of the other big dogs.

#1 Pinterest Badge

A must have plugin that adds a Pinterest badge for linking your blog to your pinterest profile and showing your number of followers.  Pinterest badge is a fully customisable pinterest badge plugin for wordpress.

It adds a widget to your blog that will display a list of your latest pinned images from your pinterest profile or page. It also displays the number of people who have followed you in pinterest along with the follow button.

DOWNLOAD  | MORE INFO

#2 Pinterest Pin It Button For Images

Add a “Pin It” button over your images, so users can add it to Pinterest easily.  Don’t like the “Pin It” button underneath your post? Want to be able to add images directly to Pinterest by just clicking on the image? Your problems are over!  Have the user just hover the mouse over the image they want to pin and watch your visits grow!

The description goes automatically as the name of the post, and so does the link of the post.  Just enable the plugin. No need for any configuration!

DOWNLOAD  | MORE INFO

#3 Pinterest “Pin It” Button

Add a Pinterest “Pin It” Button to your site to let your visitors easily pin your awesome content!

“Pin It” Button Features:

• Specify image to pin or let the reader select
• Add horizontal or vertical pin count
• Display or hide on any post, page or category
• Custom CSS for aligning just right
• Includes widget and full shortcode support

DOWNLOAD  | MORE INFO

EcoStrips is a premium WordPress theme from iDesignEco with a dynamic post wall mashup design inspired by Pinterest. The theme has a dynamic mobile responsive layout, with the wall reorganizing itself based on the users screen size.

Download | Demo

Brick and Mason

Brick + Mason is ideal for photographers and/or design studios. It utilizes infinite scrolling so users don’t have to leave the page to experience all your talent. This theme also uses the jQuery masonry plugin so the content will fit any browser size.

Info&Download | Demo 

Sentient for WooCommerce

Sentient is a smart, innovative WooCommerce theme. Products are cleverly aligned using jQuery masonry allowing you to cleanly showcase a great number of products on your shop pages without any wasted space.

Info&Download | Demo

TheStyle

TheStyle will give your blog that unique visual impact you have been looking for. With its unique jQuery-enhanced fluid width design, your posts always get displayed in a way that is best suited for your visitor’s resolution.

Info&Download | Demo 

Shaken Grid

This was our first theme which we released to the WordPress community and one of our favorites. Shaken Grid uses jQuery Masonry which

Info&Download | Demo

Imbalance

Imbalance 2 turns you WordPress-based website to an attractive blog, portfolio or even online magazine. This free template designed in strict modern style with a minimalistic touch. Imbalance 2 can easily fresh up your web-magazine or blog.

Info&Download | Demo

Liquid Magazine

This is one of a kind theme, there are no analogs on ThemeForest It will suits best for the blog with creative posts. Different thumbnails height is giving a special “style” to the template, your visitors will love it!

Info&Download | Demo

Photolux

Photolux is a powerful and elegant Portfolio and Photography WordPress Theme which is best suited for photographers and creatives who use portfolios to showcase their work. Photolux theme is powered by the advanced Pexeto Panel, which provides tons of options to manage and modify any aspect of the theme – it is well suited for both beginners with no coding knowledge and developers. The theme comes with three base skin choices: Dark, Light and Transparent, as well as numerous of back end options for easy customization and building your skin.

Info&Download | Demo

Chocolate T

If you need clean, light and simple Tumblr Theme, Chocolate T is definitely… not your choice! It is refined and elegant template with complex and precise combination of light gradients and shadows.

Info&Download | Demo

A WordPress shopping cart plugin can instantly turn your WordPress site into a full blown online ecommerce store. Nowadays there are many WordPress shopping cart plugins to choose from permitting an alternative way to earn revenue from your WordPress blog as opposed to solely depending on advertising.

A shopping cart for WordPress solution allows the administrator to sell digital goods and products like ebooks, tickets or even services from the friendly confines of his/her blog. Check out my review list of some of the best WordPress shopping cart plugins below to find a premium or free WordPress shopping cart that you can quickly add to your WP blog to begin selling your digital products today.

Cart66 – No matter what type of product or service you’re selling you can easily take payments from customers using the Cart66 plugin (previously known as PHPurchase) for WordPress. The plugin itself will cost you a few dollars, but the software is a more conclusive option for those looking to develop an online retail presence through their WordPress blog. You can create multiple stores using Cart66, and add more customization to dictate how your store plays out on your blog’s interface. From managing orders to shipping, Cart66 covers both the front and back ends of your WP based online store.

ShopperPress – The ShopperPress shopping cart plugin comes as a WordPress theme that you can install, combining the merchant tool with SEO features as well. Also rather inclusive for its feature set, ShopperPress supports several payment options and literally turns your WordPress blog into an online store. This tool is great for affiliate sellers as it also integrates with Amazon and eBay.

WP eStore Plugin – The WP eStore Plugin is another front and backend solution for online retail, though it does not have as many custom and shipping integration tools as PHPurchase. From product selection to checkout, the WP eStore plugin makes things relatively simple for you and even easier for your customers. Features include a gallery to integrate into your blog, WordPress eMember integration, and other options specific for affiliate retailers.

WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin – Tribulant’s WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin is pricey at nearly $50 but it’s a full software solution for turning your WordPress blog into a digital storefront. Particularly useful for those selling digital goods is the fact that the WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin supports multiple payment gateways, it offers affiliate retailer integrations, discount and coupon code options, and pricing tiers. You can also set things like a minimum order setting, WordPress post and page embeds, and image galleries. This tool is recommended for those that are affiliate retailers and sell products and digital goods from aggregate places on the web.

Shopp Plugin – The Shopp plugin integration is relatively seamless and it’s a great fit for those looking to add a basic but sturdy shopping cart to their blog. It allows you to customize the Shopp plugin according to your needs providing you with an ecommerce solution for generating more revenue from your WordPress blog. As with WP e-Commerce, the Shopp plugin is also integrated with the WordPress update system.

WP e-Commerce – One of the more feature-rich options, WP e-Commerce lets you add a shopping cart to your WordPress blog rather quickly. WP e-Commerce comes with multiple payment options, including Google Checkout and Paypal, so your users aren’t locked into only one way of paying for your product. With social networking tools that come with the plugin, you can also connect to the Facebook Marketplace as well.

YAK for WordPress – YAK for WordPress comes in the form of a WP plugin that turns each blog post into its own product code. If you have your own online retail presence and would like to maintain a blog to keep people updated as to your new products, the YAK for WordPress plugin is a good option. The open-source shopping cart plugin also supports categories and gives your site visitors multiple payment options.

MiniCart – The MiniCart WordPress plugin is a button that can be included into individual blog posts to easily accept payments for products or just request donations. This enables each blog entry to act as its own mini store, which can be helpful for when your blog is shared across the web via full-feature RSS readers and the like. For those that don’t need to transform their entire blog into an online shop, the MiniCart WordPress plugin will suffice.

eShop – The eShop plugin has tools for custom ordering processes letting you extend various shipping and sizing options for your customers. On the backend you’ll also receive basic stats for your purchasing performance. eShop supports many popular merchant gateways including Authorize.net and Paypal.

osCommerce for WordPress – A modified version of osCommerce, the osCommerce for WordPress plugin works with your existing WordPress themes. The installation of this plugin is a little more complex than other plugin options but the integration is also clean and offers different custom options for those that desire more control over their WordPress storefront. Two modes are available for the osCommerce for WordPress including a symbiosis mode and a standalone mode.

Quick Shop – Quick Shop works with WordPress themes that have the sidebar widget installed giving a sidebar option for your shopping cart. While you’ll need to make your own CSS for this it it requires PHP 5, the plugin supports a good amount of customization.

Have you ever come across a problem when your WordPress Website or Blog that you just don;t know what happened? Especially when you upgrade your WordPress installations, or just changed a setting or installing or upgrading a plugin? Don’t worry, it’s very common and I have some easy steps below that will help you figure out what the issue is and fix it.

I can’t tell you how many whacky issues I have seen working with WordPress over the years.  If I did this would be a novel not a Blog post.  The great thing is that when these issues do arise, it’s usually a super simple thing to fix them.  Most common issue of WordPress issues are plugin conflicts.  There are 1000s of plugin developers out there and some of the plugins available have old code that doesn’t get updated as WordPress does.  Allot of times also, plugins just don;t get another with other plugins.

There are other issues above and beyond plugins that can cause funky stuff to happen on your Website or Blog and when they happen you are baffled on how to fix them or what caused them in the first place.

So let’s dive right in and see what they are and how we can fix it.

1. Incomplete Upgrade

Partial or incomplete or failed upgrade is the most common reason behind the blank screen in WordPress. It occurs when an upgrade goes wrong or several files didn’t get upgraded. The solution is to upload all the files again using FTP and run the upgrade script again. The built-in updater in WordPress is good, but we cannot rely on that after WordPress introduced the incremental update.  You can also downgrade your WordPress version if you are completely stuck.

Visit THIS ARTICLE for Install Steps.

2. The wp-config file

Yes, sometime the WordPress Configuration file (wp-config.php) can be the culprit too.  This file is found in the root directory of your WordPress install. Download the file and open in a text editor. Check if there are any blank lines or an extra space either at the beginning of the file or at the end of the file. Delete them and save the file. Then re-upload it overwriting the existing one.

If that didn’t solved the issue, add these two lines just below the opening php tag (

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );

define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true );

That will show the exact error returning when loading the blog. By default, WordPress hides the error messages, but sometime we have to know the error in order to fight it.

Fix the errors that are returning and your blog should be fine again.

3. Incompatible Plugins

Incompatible plugins can also make your blog blank. If you have the access to Admin Dashboard, go to plugins and disable all of them. Reload your blog to make sure if it is loading properly. Then enable the plugins one by one find which one is causing the blank screen. If you cannot access the Admin Dashboard, then FTP to your blog and rename the plugins folder and create an empty plugins folder. That will force the plugins to go deactivated as the files won’t be found in right place. Then you can move the plugins to the plugins folder one by one and activating them.

4. Incompatible Theme

If nothing above worked, you need to check your theme. Sometime, the uses of deprecated functions break the loading of the theme and the page goes blank. Check if your theme is compatible with the latest WordPress version and using the latest functions.

FTP to your blog and make a backup of your themes. Then, delete all the themes except the default WordPress theme (currently it is TwentyEleven). That will force WordPress to enable and use the default theme. Go to your dashboard and check if the default theme is truly activated. Then reload your blog and it should be working now.

Also, the debug report that you enabled in step 2 should have reported the error if is something related to the theme or plugin.

Now, these are the main tasks you can do to fix any display issues or funky things happening on your WordPress Website or Blog. If you ever come across something like this, do not panic. Just follow the steps I mentioned and you will be back in no time.

WordPress shortcodes are great. They let you perform complex operations or display dynamic content with just a tiny bit of text in any page or post.

I recently needed a way to embed the most recent videos from a Youtube channel (very dynamic information) in a WordPress page, so I decided to write a shortcode for it.

The code is actually pretty simple. Just add the following to your theme’s functions.php file:

COPY CODE BELOW

function youtube_feed_shortcode($atts)
{
// Defaults:
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
'user' => 'mrinternettips', // youtube user
'limit' => 5, // maximum number of videos
'height' => 385, // video height
'width' => 480 // video width
), $atts));
$data = @json_decode(file_get_contents('http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/'.$user.'/uploads?alt=json'), TRUE);
$counter = 0;
$content = '</code>
<div class="youtubefeed">';
foreach($data['feed']['entry'] as $vid)
{
$url = $vid['media$group']['media$content'][0]['url'];
$title = $vid['title']['$t'];
$ycontent = $vid['content']['$t'];
$content.= '<object width="'.$width.'" height="'.$height.'" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="'.$url.'" /><param name="wmode" value="opaque" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed width="'.$width.'" height="'.$height.'" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="'.$url.'" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="opaque" allowfullscreen="true" />'.''.''.''.'</object>'.
'
<div class="youtubetitle">'.$title.'</div>
'.
'
<div class="youtubecontent">'.$ycontent.'</div>
'."n";
$counter++;
if($counter == $limit)
{
break;
}
}
$content .= '

</div>
';
return $content;
}
add_shortcode('youtubefeed', 'youtube_feed_shortcode');

The shortcode below is completely configurable.

[youtubefeed user="YourChannel Name Here" limit="3" height="385" width="560"]

You can change any option as needed.

You might have noticed the code gives each element a particular class to make it CSS friendly. All you have to do is add CSS rules for three classes: .youtubefeed, .youtubetitle, and .youtubecontent.

My stylesheet looks like this: (this will be your style.css file)

COPY CODE BELOW

.youtubefeed {
margin: 10px;
text-align: center;
}
.youtubetitle {
font-size: 1.6em;
font-weight: bold;
margin: 3px;
}
.youtubecontent {
margin-bottom: 30px;
text-align: left;
}

Other Plugin That Will Do This:

TubePress

TubeMatic

WordPress Plugin HOT List:

This is a HOT list of 10 plugins every WordPress Website or Blog should have installed.  These plugins will give your Website or Blog the must have benefits to make it more powerful online.  There are 1000s of WordPress plugins available for FREE but this is my list of 10 that I feel should be installed at the very least.  You can search for FREE plugins at WORDPRESS.org Plugin Directory.

1: Max Blogpress Ping Optimizer

When you create a new post, your blog will ping and notify all the ping services that it has been updated. This encourages search engines and different blog directories/services to index your updated blog properly.

When you edit an existing post, it won’t send an unnecessary ping to ping services and saves your blog from getting banned.

When you post a future post by editing the time stamp, it will ping only when your post appears in future. It won’t unnecessarily ping many times when you schedule posts as WordPress does by default.

Get It Now

2: All in One SEO Pack

Automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

Some features:

• Support for Custom Post Types
• Advanced Canonical URLs
• Fine tune Page Navigational Links
• Built-in API so other plugins/themes can access and extend functionality
• ONLY plugin to provide SEO Integration for WP e-Commerce sites
• Nonce Security
• Support for CMS-style WordPress installations
• Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
• Generates META tags automatically
• Avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
• For beginners, you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
• For advanced users, you can fine-tune everything
• You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
• Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.

Get It Now

3: Tinymce Advanced

This plugin adds 16 plugins to TinyMCE: Advanced HR, Advanced Image, Advanced Link, Advanced List, Context Menu, Emotions (Smilies), Date and Time, IESpell, Layer, Nonbreaking, Print, Search and Replace, Style, Table, Visual Characters and XHTML Extras.

Get It Now

4: Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.

Get It Now

5: 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 blog’s “Comments” admin screen.

Major new features in Akismet 2.5 include:

• A comment status history, so you can easily see which comments were caught or cleared by Akismet, and which were spammed or unspammed by a moderator
• Links are highlighted in the comment body, to reveal hidden or misleading links
• If your web host is unable to reach Akismet’s servers, the plugin will automatically retry when your connection is back up
• Moderators can see the number of approved comments for each user
• Spam and Unspam reports now include more information, to help improve accuracy

PS: You’ll need an Akismet.com API key to use it. Keys are free for personal blogs, with paid subscriptions available for businesses and commercial sites.

Get It Now

6: Filedownload

Many filetypes cannot be downloaded as a normal link. File extensions like gif, pdf, xml, gpx, html… will normally be opened direct in the browser and not downloaded.

The WP Plugin “Filedownload” opens for every filetype the browsers internal “SaveAs” dialog. You can insert the downloadlink easy with a shortcode in every WordPress post.

Aditionally for every downloadfile a download counter is created which can also be shown in the post and controlled in the admin area.

Get It Now

7: SexyBookmarks | email, bookmark, and share buttons

Adds an attractive social bookmarking menu to your posts, pages, index, or any combination of the three.

Though the name may be a little “edgy” for some, SexyBookmarks has proven time and time again to be an extremely useful and successful tool in getting your readers to actually submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites.

Get It Now

8: Link Within

LinkWithin is a blog widget that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive.

• Show Related Stories Under Each Post!
• Don’t Let Your Past Stories Go to Waste!
• We retrieve and index all stories from your blog archive, not just recent stories, making them accessible to new or casual readers of your blog who would not otherwise encounter them.
• Increase Page views, Keep Readers Engaged
• The widget links to stories that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post, keeping them engaged with your blog, and increasing your traffic.
• Elegant, Unobtrusive Design
• Our widget is minimally styled and blends in with your site design.
• Free and Easy to Install

The widget is free and ad-free. It takes a minute to get the widget up and running on your blog, no signup required!

Get It Now

9: WP-Optimize

This simple but effective plugin allows you to clean up your WordPress database and optimize it without phpMyAdmin.  Also renames any username.

WP-Optimize is a WordPress 2.9++ database cleanup and optimization tool. It doesn’t require PhpMyAdmin to optimize your database tables. It allows you to remove post revisions, comments in the spam queue, un-approved comments within few clicks.

Get It Now

10: Tweet & Like & Google +

Adds Facebook Like button, Twitter button and Google +1 button on your sites content. It has an option to add AddThis Bookmarking Services.

The Tweet & Like plugin adds Facebook Like button, Twitter button and Google +1 button on your sites content. Whether you set it to appear on top or bottom on each content or you can choose both to appear it on top and bottom of your content. You can also add Tweet & Like buttons in your sidebar via widgets. You can set the style of each button (Facebook, Twitter, Google +1) on the settings page. It also adds the capability to add AddThis Bookmarking Service along with Tweet & Like buttons.

Get It Now

Of course there are about 20-30 plugins more I recommend for every WordPress Website or Blog but these are the 10 I feel you must have installed.  Here is another GREAT list of Must Have Plugins, Top 20 Plugins to Install on your WordPress Blog.

Comment below on what plugins you recommend.