How to Install WordPress Theme

So you have installed Wordpress successfully and now you want to switch away from WordPress default theme. Installing a WordPress theme is no really complicated as you think it is. You can always  find some interesting theme to suit your need and I recommend ThemeForest.

There are two different methods you can use when trying to figure out how to install WordPress theme which are manually and automatically. I'll only focus on manually installation.

Manually install WordPress theme

With this method, you should familiar with file transfer protocol (FTP) as the theme need to be download from theme provider and you have to upload the theme to the WordPress theme folder in the hosting server.

1. Download free theme or buy premium theme , which I am assuming you have done by now.
2. Unzip the theme and now you will need to open your FTP program to transfer the theme in the hosting server. I preffer FileZilla as the ftp software.
3. At this point,  navigate to the themes folder by going to the 'wp-content' folder and then the 'themes' folder.
   

4. At this point also, navigate to the theme you unzipped on your hard drive. 

5. Select the theme, right click and select upload to start uploading the theme on your hard drive (folder and all) to the themes folder on your web site.

6. After all of the theme folder and files transfer completed, go back to your browser and log into your WordPress admin page on your site.

7.You will then go to the 'Appearance' option on the left side menu and select the 'Themes' option.

At this point you should be able to see your theme listed as an option. You should now be able to preview and then activate your theme by selecting the appropriate options listed under your theme.

3 Tips to Optimize Your Facebook Timeline

Facebook's recent shift from Fan Pages to Timelines, are really big news for small business owners. Facebook Timeline is a new way of presenting yourself on Facebook. It's a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.

For business owner, finding the time to utilize this new format is quite difficult. How do you keep up with social media trends or take advantage of new services and still have time to finish your to long "to do" list?

Spending time to focus on Facebook marketing, lets say an hour each week, you can take advantage of the new format and put your Facebook Business Timeline to work for you. Optimizing the fan page should be your first priority and We have a few tips for doing that. Feel free to use this information to slowly transform your current Business Timeline that can help transform your social media marketing efforts.

Facebook Timeline Optimization Tips
Two simple and significant ways to maximize YOUR Timelines center around the images you select to use for your cover and profile. A Timeline cover image is your chance to tell the world what your business is all about. If chosen correctly, can help you capture the attention of potential clients.


Tip #1: Few important things to consider When choosing a Cover photo:

1. The Timeline cover image is 851 X 351 pixels and there are some very specific rules about what you can put on it, or more specifically, what you cannot put on it.

2.Your cover photo must capture what your business is. If you are selling weight management product, simply put appropriate photo of slimming model photo.The goal is to visually capture a snapshot of who you are and what you do.

3. It needs to emotionally express the feeling of the product benefit  and tell your story. Think about some of the cover pictures you have seen.

4. Follow Facebook cover guidelines. The cover photo is affectionately known as "the land of no". Facebook has a whole list of things that you may not include on your cover photo so be sure to follow their rules to avoid having your Timeline shut down.



Tip #2: Make your profile picture work for you:

1. It's the best tactics to make your profile picture is action oriented. This the icon where Facebook community sees every time you post. Use an image that encourages your friends, followers and potential customer to click on it.

2. Add a call to action. Most of Facebook owner are really clicking on profile photos and also add comments. If you put an engaging profile photos and your potential client will saw instructions on how to get more information after the click on it. They will connect to your web site/sales page, or learn more about you or your services and convertion rate will be increase.

By making these 2 simple changes to your profile you are already on your way to getting more from your social media efforts.

Tip #3: Engage your visitors:
1. Talk to your visitors. Facebook is social media platform and turning people into fans means engaging with them. Every post or your latest blog entry should be followed by respond to their comment and be sure to include their name in the response. Talk to them and make it personal.

2. Create a community. According to the research firm Razorfish, the #1 reason fans like a page on Facebook is to gain access to exclusive content, promotions and deals. So give them a reason to 'like' you! Use those tabs at the top of the page to 'friend-gate' information. This way only the people who've liked your page can access it. It's a great place to post special deals, 'fan only' info, and other things that let your fans know you appreciate them and they're considered insiders.

I hope with this new Facebook Timeline design and few tips above, small business owner have more room to higlight their products, interact with and support their customer, and market to target audiences much more efficiently and effectively.

Must Have WordPress Plugins You Need to Be Using

Wordpress Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. One of the reason that i'm in love with Woldpress plugins are it's functionality and there are literally thousands of plugins available these days to enhance the functionality and look of your website or blog. Most of them are automated making them super easy and very convenient for authors, bloggers and webmasters.

This list will provide you with must install  WordPress plugins that I often use every time I setup new blog with with Wordpress platform.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin's job is to generate XML sitemaps for search engines to easily find your blog. The search engine then records your sitemap in their databases. The result is faster search results for your blog and articles.

Facebook LikeWith this plugin, readers can just click on the Facebook like button on your post and share that action on Facebook. You can add this on top of your post or after the post. And since this is hosted by Facebook itself, people visiting your blog need not log into their Facebook account.

All in 1 SEO PackThis one is search-engine friendly. It allows you to optimise your site so search engines can easily find your blog or website. To use this to your advantage, you need to provide a Meta Title and Meta Description for your posts and pages. You may also use its advanced settings if you wish.

Digg Digg

This is the plugin that will allow you to post social icons on each of your blog posts. Being a floating style, it lets your readers easily share your post with social media sites such as Twitter without having to scroll up back to the top of your write up.

Dagon Design Form Mailer
This plugin was designed to be easy to use, while still being extremely flexible. If you just want a simple contact form, you can set one up with just a few clicks.

FeedBurner FeedSmith

Feedburner Form is a simple plugin that allows you insert Google Feedburner subscription forms in widgetized areas of you site. By using this form, you allow visitors to subscribe to your feed and receive e-mails sent by Google Feedburner everytime you publish content.

Google Analytics for WordPress

The simple plugin to enable you to track your WordPress site easily and with lots of metadata: views per author & category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews. 

WP Security Scan
WP Security Scan plugin is a free WordPress security plugin that helps secure your WordPress blog by adding key security functions. More than half a million people already use the WP Security Scan plugin with great success to protect their precious blog content and visitors.

Yahoo Messenger Online Status
This plugin will allows blog owners to show their Yahoo Messenger online status using their own status button.

WordPress Related Posts
WordPress Related Posts Plugin will generate a related posts via WordPress tags, and add the related posts to feed.

Each of Wordpress plugins above I consider are the best WordPress plugins that word perfectly on my blog  /website. You can try and use on your site too and let me know how many plugins do you use at your site!

Facebook Marketing - Integrating Facebook With Your WordPress Blog

If you already have a Facebook account, it's time to get started with Facebook marketing. As announced on Wednesday, June 13, 2012  by Facebook Developer Blog, WordPress publishers can easily integrate Facebook features, such as social publishing and mentions, through the new Facebook for WordPress plugin. Then it is a good idea to integrate that account with your blog if your blog or web site is powered by Wordpress platform. Here are five tools you can use to integrate Facebook with your WordPress blog.

Facebook Fan Box Plugin - If you created a fan page on Facebook as a part of your Facebook marketing strategy, then you can integrate it into your WordPress blog. The Facebook Fan Box plugin will display a box on your blog showing the recent updates made on your pages as well as the fans that joined your page. This is great for encouraging visitors to become fans on Facebook.

WordPress Facebook Connect - This WordPress plugin adds Facebook functionality to your WordPress blog. Visitors can sign in to comment on your blog with their Facebook account. The comments they leave will show up in the newsfeed and their Facebook profile pics will be used as their avatars. This is a great Facebook marketing plugin because it encourages the growth of a community around your blog.

Facebook Posted Items - This WordPress plugin will display a list of items you have posted to Facebook. If you are surfing the net and you find a website of interest, you can a post a link to it onto your Facebook profile. That same link will show up on a list on your blog so visitors can see what you've been up to online.

Facebook Live Stream - This is a Facebook Plugin that is best used when you have a live event happening online. This plugin lets users share comments and their activity on Facebook in real time. It's a virtual equivalent of meeting everyone at the coffee shop to watch a favorite television show and commenting on what's happening.

Why Should I Buy a Premium WordPress Theme?

This is a question I am often asked. After all there are any number of free WordPress themes available. Why not just use one of them?

I've got no problem with using a free WordPress theme and in many cases it will do the job just fine. But free WordPress themes do have a downside. Some of the most troubling issues are the links invariably found in the theme footer. Often they point to websites that are questionable or totally unrelated to your own WordPress content. Another question mark is that sometimes the theme php coding may be cumbersome or even contain hidden code that is disadvantageous to your own site.

However there are many free themes available that do a decent and sometimes even great job. But if you are wanting to turn your WordPress site into a professional presence and generate money from it then a premium WordPress theme may be the best choice.

In spite of what many will say is a five minute setup - a proper WordPress blog can take a few hours to configure properly. And if you are setting up more than one website and having to familiarize yourself with a new theme each time you will easily waste several hours on each setup - sometimes only to find out that the theme you chose doesn't do the job. And you have to start again.

If you invest in professional premium theme than it will have the versatility to handle most anything. That means that you will only have to learn how to set up the variables on one theme and use it over and over. You'll also get rid of the pesky links in the footer that distract visitors from your own site and you will create a more professional personality of prospective customers.

In addition to that you will have a theme that integrates with all the premium plug-ins that you will end up using as well as a theme that performs reliably and save an enormous amount of setup and maintenance time along the road.

Investing in a premium wordpress theme is money well spent and you can read more on how to chose the right premium theme for your application at http://wpthemereviews.c8u.org/

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Best 10 Free WordPress Themes

Let's say you have started your blog or website, you know what information you want to publish, you've written a few articles before, but you encounter one issue that makes you rethink your choice. You have a domain, you installed WordPress on it, but now you want to make your site represent you. In plain English, you're searching for a wordpress theme which suits you best.

There are a lot of free WordPress themes out there from various designers but if you're looking for a really attractive and highly customizable theme you might think of the so-called "premium themes". These are high-quality WordPress themes designed by WordPress artists or various companies, they come with a solid documentation and some of them also include their own plug-ins.

"So what's the problem", you might ask? Well, most of them cost money and especially if you're a new blogger you might not afford to buy a theme that you might find it's not exactly what you were looking for.

As a solution to this situation, here's a list of 10 FREE WordPress themes which are very attractive and you don't have to pay to try them out.

1. Balita

This is an e-Commerce design featuring a custom shopping cart, social media integration, and an ads banner you can use to promote whatever you wish.

The theme is optimized for HTML 5 and CSS3 and it also provides a blog integration tool and multiple widget areas.

2. Shuttershot

This theme is perfect for photographers or photography studios to showcase their work. The design is basically a fullscreen slideshow template and you can set a custom page template for the blog if you are using a slideshow on the home page.

3. MyCorp

A theme designed to be used either as a portfolio or as a business website. MyCorp is highly customizable offering you custom post types, a unique homepage layout, a blog page and jQuery drop-down menus. It loads fast thanks to the optimized images and the code is also clean and easy to edit and maintain.

4. Linedy

A very popular fixed-width WordPress theme which is optimized in terms of SEO and works perfect for a blog or website running the newest version of WordPress. The theme is compatible with most browsers and also offers space for advertising with 125x125 banners.

5. Nico

This 2 column theme features a very easy to use options page and it was designed with the picture of an entertainment website in mind. It supports post thumbnails and just like Linedy, it's SEO optimized and it is compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

6. iFeature

This Apple-ish design was made by CyberChimps.com. It features HTML5 and CSS3 support, an iFeature image slider for you home page, custom post formats, typography options and you can use your custom logo on it.

7. Fotofolio Landscape

This theme is free for personal use and it would make a fine addition to a photography portfolio or media designer website. It comes in 3 color themes and it features a theme widget, automatic image resizer and a special section which you can use for a blog, testimonials or slideshows.

8. Kreativ theme

This is a very premium-like free WordPress theme featuring a clean business design for your company coming in a silver/white/blue color scheme. It features a big image on the featured posts, you can easily input Google AdSense into it and it also shows posts thumbnails automatically.

9. gazpoMag

This free theme is a feature-rich WordPress theme styled as an online magazine. It features a widget-ready sidebar and footer, configurable menus, threaded comments, a custom slider and a customized theme options panel for your Dashboard. It also featured widgets for social media integration, ads and recent posts, popular posts as well as recent comments.

10. Thalliumity

This theme showcases your featured posts using a jQuery image slider, it features a front page widget for your services and it suits very well promotional blogs or company portfolios.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vlad_M_Falon

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How to Change a WordPress Theme

One of the first things people want to learn when it comes to WordPress is how to change WordPress theme. The main reason being that people love to tinker around with the design aspects of their blogs and websites.

The good news is that WordPress has a built in theme system that makes changing your design a really easy process. Believe it or not, you can install and activate a theme in a matter of minutes. It sure beats trying to design a website from scratch!

The first step in learning how to change WordPress theme is to understand how to add new themes. By default, WordPress only comes with a couple built in themes.

To add a new theme to WordPress, you can either download a theme you find on the internet or use the built in search function in WordPress. The next step is to click on the add new theme link which is found under appearance in WordPress.

If you downloaded the theme yourself, WordPress will ask you where it is located on your computer. Once you select the file you downloaded, it will automatically upload the theme to the proper directory on your computer.

If you prefer using the theme search function, all you have to do is click the install link by whatever theme you wish to use.

Last but not least, you need to learn how to change WordPress theme that your blog is using. In other words, you have to activate the theme you wish to use. To do this, just click on the themes tab in the WordPress navigation menu. Next, simply hit the activate link found by the theme you wish to use. WordPress will automatically activate the theme and make it live on your website. That is it!

Want more tips on WordPress? If so, you can learn WordPress in two hours with this video training series.

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