It isn’t until I go to do posts like this that I realize how much catching up I’ve got to do in certain areas of my business (I have SERIOUSLY neglected my social media acct.s over the last few months).

I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook ‘like’ box on many sites now. Facebook has changed to the ‘like’ box from the fan box. I wish I could give you a lovely, detailed explanation as to the why for this…but…sorry (any social media experts out there? Feel free to add a comment if you know ‘why’ ). What I do know is that I definitely knew I needed and wanted to add this to my WordPress sidebar!

There are two ways to add the ‘like’ box to your sidebar. I’ll show you both options in the video, but keep in mind that it’s better to run with less plugins- so any time you can do something on your site without a plugin- use that option instead. However, many people prefer using plugins- so  I thought it would make more sense to show you both options. And feel free to ‘like’ my page while you’re here!

OK..no more more grovelling….back to the post. There are plenty of different ways to incorporate Facebook into your WordPress site. One thing you need to be aware of though is doubling up on things. Meaning- if you are already pulling your tweets into your Facebook account and have also installed a Twitter plugin for WordPress that automatically sends your posts as tweets…that’s all you need. Which is why I don’t have another Facebook plugin which pulls my posts into Facebook- I just let them get there via twitter. Makes sense? (kind of seems like a mouthful, huh?)

The next thing will be on adding the Facebook share button to my posts. I still haven’t gotten around to adding a few social media buttons to my posts via code and getting rid of the sexy bookmarks plugin…but I will. It’s a BEAUTIFUL plugin- and I have to admit I feel guilty for deleting it because I know the developer, but as Google has now decided that site load time will be taken into consideration when ranking sites…I need to do everything I can!

Ok..enough said. Enjoy the video and feel free to retweet or share your comments. It’s ALWAYS appreciated!

You’ve probably heard some of the buzz about WordPress 3.0.…which is on its way! I’ve been following the beta launch, the testing and some of the articles that highlight what is coming with this new version. I’m going to install this later on a dummy site to test it out and get familiar with it. I’ll be recording the process and sharing those videos with you as I go along. In the meantime, I wanted to share this video by Nathan Rice on the custom menu option that is being built into WordPress 3.0. Nathan Rice is one of the developers at StudioPress, is a blogger and web developer.

Before showing you the video- here are some of the great new functions that are coming with WordPress 3.0! (Screenshots and videos will be on the way soon). You can also check out the complete list of version 3.0 on the official WordPress site here.

• Custom Menu’s (I know, kind of obvious considering the video I’ve mentioned)
• The dashboard is getting a clean new look…looks like it will be easier to focus on YOUR content
• Bulk upgrade of plugins! WOO HOO! No more needing to upgrade individual plugins one at a time
• The ‘Install Themes’ tab has been moved to the top of the themes page (will make more sense when you see it)
• New default theme- it’s called Twenty Ten…so long Kubrick! You can easily upload custom headers AND custom backgrounds
• Advanced Menu’s – this relates to the dashboard. Not your theme menus
• Network all your WordPress sites- from ONE dashboard
• Security Updates: upon installation you’ll get prompted to change your ‘admin’ username. Security keys will also be generated which improves security.

So…there’s a sneak peek into what’s coming. As far as when to upgrade to WordPress 3.0, I’d probably wait a couple of weeks until after it’s officially launched. There’s some big changes coming with this release, so you might want to wait until you’ve seen some videos on 3.0 or install it on a practice site and get a feel for it. And so I don’t forget- StudioPress is of course testing everything with 3.0, so Genesis will be fully compatible with the new version.

Here’s the great video by Nathan Rice on the custom menu’s!

I’ve had a few comments over the last few months about all the different buttons/options in my WordPress Editor (I sort of forget about what else people see when recording videos)…also known as the ‘WYSIWYG’ – “What You See Is What You Get”, so I thought I’d do a post with a video showing you what each button is, what it does and why I’ve set it it up this way!

This may seem SUPER basic to many of you- but one thing I’ve started to realize is that there are SO many different skill levels with WordPress and it’s easy to get caught up assuming that most people probably already know what I know. My goal has always been to help the EVERYDAY user with WordPress….hopefully that’s what I’m doing.

Here’s the video….hope it helps!

I have to be honest….keyword research is not one of my favorite tasks when it comes to marketing….unfortunately, it’s one of the MOST important things you need to be doing on a consistent basis to drive traffic, increase rankings, etc. So needless to say I was super thrilled when I found this free keyword research tool! And it’s by none other than WordTracker! I’ve made a quick video showing you how to download and use this tool. By the way, this tool is a Firefox plugin…so it won’t work with any other browser.

Here’s the link to SEO Blogger by WordTracker.

So I found this audio a while ago through one of my Google Alerts I receive for WordPress and just hadn’t gotten around to testing it or installing it, but then had a client that needed a better audio solution for their site, which of course gave me a good excuse to actually go and use what I had found (funny how that happens…. ).

Anyways, the video will explain everything you need to know about installing this microaudio player plugin for your WordPress site. You’ll also see how I’ve created the thumbnail image and am using headspace….all in one little tutorial. I’d love some feedback in the way of comments….hope this helps!

Here’s the link to download the plugin directly:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/microaudio/

Here’s the link to the audio added using the audio player plugin:
Test Audio

If you’re not using a plugin such as Sexy Bookmarks or Sociable (there’s a bunch more out there, but for the sake of this post, I’ll just reference those two)- and you want to add social media icons to a page, this video will show you how to do that.

Keep in mind the difference with adding the icons and linking them to your profile as opposed to utilizing a plugin is that this will just allow people to follow you/friend you/connect with you on whichever social media site you’ve listed.  This will NOT make your post or page shareable. If you want to make it shareable- then you’ll need to install a plugin that utilizes a script to do that. If that’s what you want to do, both of the above mentioned social media plugins allow you to select ONLY the sites you want to show (ex: just twitter, facebook, linked in, youtube, etc.).
Hope it makes sense…

And as always, leave a comment if this helps or you have more questions.

Everyone knows how much I love using StudioPress themes. Every now and then I get a client or subscriber asking how to change out certain aspects of their theme. Recently I had a client ask me how to change out the color of the headline that appears in the widgets and featured content boxes of the StudioPress Lifestyle theme. Because she wasn’t sure if the change was going to be what she wanted permanently, she asked if I could explain how to change or customize this one aspect of her theme. SO…I made a video showing exactly how to do this.

If you’re not using the Lifestyle theme, you’ll still get a good understanding of how to customize different aspects of the theme. In the video I also recommended a tool that is a Firefox add-on called Firebug. This is a great tool to use if you’re going to be doing ANY customizing….even if you’re just going to do your own site. It will save you a TON of time! After watching the video, you can find Firebug here.

I have to admit, this was one of those things that I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one who had issues setting this up…..although I’m not terribly proud of it. It’s one of those things that when you see how easy it is, you realize how easy it is to be your own worst enemy. I was definitely making this harder than it is.

It’s not like uploading images for the featured content gallery- which is what I was doing. The magazine theme is set up to automatically re-size the images that you use in your post for thumbnails- so you don’t have to upload anything to your host. So, here’s how you do it. Time permitting I’ll do a video later today on this…

After you’ve written your post (or before-whichever way you prefer)-upload your image:

Then, once your image is uploaded- click the HTML button in the top right hand corner of your editor:

Now, you’re going to highlight the html for the image you just uploaded (and will use as a thumbnail)

The html that you’ve copied for your image is what you’re going to place in the value box in the custom field, using “thumb” as your key:

That’s it- now just add your tags, select your category and publish! The Magazine theme will resize it for you for home page featured boxes.

I received a dm yesterday on twitter about installing new themes via cpanel, so thought I’d do a quick ‘how to’ for the cpanel version as well as simply uploading them in your dashboard (which was a new feature in WordPress 2.8). I have a tendency to just install them through cpanel since I’m already there, using Fantastico to install WordPress.

So, this won’t be a very wordy post- it will have more pics than words- which is kind of what it needs!

Log into your cpanel, then go into ‘File Manager’:

Once you’re in your File Manager, go into ‘wp-content’:

From here, you’ll see a ‘themes’ folder – click on that.

Once you’re in your themes folder, you should only see the classic and default (unless of course you’ve already installed other themes…..in which case you don’t need this tutorial! ).

Go to the menu bar above the folders, and select upload. **NOTE**  When installing a theme you have to install it in a zip /compressed file. Once it’s uploaded, you can extract it (then delete the zip version):

Once it’s uploaded, you’ll see the theme in the list of them folders – but the icon will be a box or another version of a compressed file. Now extract it (You have to check the box next to the zip folder to get the extract option to become clickable):

Once you’ve extracted it, the new theme will be in file folder just like the classic and default. Then just delete the zip file as you don’t need it.

Now, simply go into your dashboard, click on Appearance, click on the new theme and simply activate it! (The ‘Activate’ will show up in the upper right hand corner).

That’s it for cpanel.

Now for the REALLY easy method….using your Dashboard! Remember – this is only available if you’re using WordPress 2.8 or higher.

Go into Appearance in your Dashboard and select “Add New Themes”.

You can search WordPress.org for themes, or upload a theme from your computer- which is what we’re going to do:

Now you’re going to upload the theme from your computer (also in a zip/compressed file) and click ‘Install Now’

Once you’ve installed your new theme, you will get the option to preview or activate the theme. Just activate the theme and you’re ready to go!

So, you can see that installing the theme through the Dashboard is WAY easier……if you haven’t upgraded to 2.8, you should go ahead and upgrade (plus it will get rid of that pesky message at the top of your dashboard which is constantly asking you to upgrade). Just make sure that you do a COMPLETE back up (download the backup to your computer) before you upgrade. Just to be safe!

Hope this helps!

Because I primarily use StudioPress themes (for my sites and client sites)- I’ve gotten pretty familiar with how this plugin works. StudioPress makes it pretty simple because they’ve already put the code into the theme in order to have the featured content gallery show on the home page (you can see where the gallery will show up when looking at any of their theme demos).

One thing I’ve noticed whenever I visit the StudioPress forums (if you’ve purchased any of their themes you have access to the forum(s) ) is that there is usuallya  new question (daily) in regards to setting up this plugin. The people that answer the questions in the StudioPress forums are approved designers (approved by StudioPress) and donate their time to answer everyone’s questions. So, as a way to help other StudioPress and WordPress users (and hopefully alleviate some of the questions in the forums to thank the designers), I created this ‘How To’ pdf  for the Featured Content Gallery plugin. There is also a website for this plugin with installation ‘how-to’s’ as well. I tend to be a visual learner and thought the screenshots would help.

I’d love your comments/feedback and of course would appreciate any re-tweeting if you find the pdf helpful.

Click the download box to download the Featured Content Gallery pdf: