Uzzz Productions http://www.uzzz.net Web Design, Custom WordPress Themes, and SEO Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:34:18 +0000 en hourly 1 How to Prevent Youtube oEmbed from Overriding your WordPress Content http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/zcySV9OZRdk/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/zcySV9OZRdk/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:34:18 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5168 Have you ever been to a site where you notice that media elements such as youtube videos override other content? This can happen if you have drop down menus, floating bars, lightbox popup etc. Well as designers, this get really frustrating for us. In the past, you would have to add ?wmode=transparent to each video embed code, but with WordPress 2.9, embedding videos have gotten much easier. All you have to do is paste the URL of a video, and...

How to Prevent Youtube oEmbed from Overriding your WordPress Content is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Have you ever been to a site where you notice that media elements such as youtube videos override other content? This can happen if you have drop down menus, floating bars, lightbox popup etc. Well as designers, this get really frustrating for us. In the past, you would have to add ?wmode=transparent to each video embed code, but with WordPress 2.9, embedding videos have gotten much easier. All you have to do is paste the URL of a video, and it will auto-embed. However, this makes it harder for us to add the ?wmode=transparent tag to each video. Well, you don’t have to worry. In this article, we will share with you a snippet that prevents Youtube and any other media files that are embedded via oEmbed from overriding your WordPress content.

Example:

Youtube oEmbed issue

All you have to do is open your theme’s functions.php file or better yet your site’s plugin file and paste the following code:

function add_video_wmode_transparent($html, $url, $attr) {

if ( strpos( $html, "<embed src=" ) !== false )
   { return str_replace('</param><embed', '</param><param name="wmode" value="opaque"></param><embed wmode="opaque" ', $html); }
elseif ( strpos ( $html, 'feature=oembed' ) !== false )
   { return str_replace( 'feature=oembed', 'feature=oembed&wmode=opaque', $html ); }
else
   { return $html; }
}
add_filter( 'embed_oembed_html', 'add_video_wmode_transparent', 10, 3);

Source

How to Prevent Youtube oEmbed from Overriding your WordPress Content is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-prevent-youtube-oembed-from-overriding-your-wordpress-content/feed/ 0 How to Add Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in your WordPress Site http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/n79x2Wqrsi0/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/n79x2Wqrsi0/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:14:41 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5176 Recently, one of our users asked us how they can add the Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in their WordPress site. In the past, we have shown you how to add the Google +1 Button your WordPress Posts. In this article, we will show you how to add the Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in your WordPress site. Preview of how a Google+ Badge looks like: Before we begin, you should note that this is only for Google+ Pages not...

How to Add Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in your WordPress Site is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Recently, one of our users asked us how they can add the Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in their WordPress site. In the past, we have shown you how to add the Google +1 Button your WordPress Posts. In this article, we will show you how to add the Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in your WordPress site.

Preview of how a Google+ Badge looks like:

Google+ Add to Circles Badge

Before we begin, you should note that this is only for Google+ Pages not profiles. Example of Google+ Page. Example of Google+ Profile.

First thing you need to do is put the following code in your <head> section of your site which you can modify by editing the header.php file of your theme.

<link href="https://plus.google.com/{plusPageID}" rel="publisher" /><script type="text/javascript">
(function()
{var po = document.createElement("script");
po.type = "text/javascript"; po.async = true;po.src = "https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js";
var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();</script>

Don’t forget to replace the {plusPageID} with your Google+ Page ID. Your Page ID is a 21-digit string at the end of the URL. For example if your page URL is: https://plus.google.com/101634180904808003404/ then the numbers in bold is your Page ID.

Once you have added the header code, then all you have to do is place the following code wherever you want the Google+ Add to Circles widget to show. Most users like to display this in their sidebar, so you can either modify your sidebar.php file, or simply add it in a text widget area.

<g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/{plusPageID}" size="badge"></g:plus>

For the Small badge, simply use this code:

<g:plus href="https://plus.google.com/101634180904808003404" size="smallbadge"></g:plus>

We hope that this article has helped you. If it did, then please consider adding WPBeginner in your Circle.

How to Add Google+ “Add to Circles” Badge in your WordPress Site is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-google-add-to-circles-badge-in-your-wordpress-site/feed/ 0 How to Show Your Latest Pinterest Pins in WordPress Sidebar Widgets http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/eSHnK2jTS7g/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/eSHnK2jTS7g/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:23:12 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5160 Few days ago, we showed you how to add the Pinterest “Pin It” button in your WordPress blog. We are seeing more and more people joining Pinterest every day. Some of you might even want to show your latest pins in your sidebar. Well, in this article, we will show you an easy way to displaying your latest pinterest pins in your sidebar or any other dynamic widgets area. First thing you need to do is install and activate the...

How to Show Your Latest Pinterest Pins in WordPress Sidebar Widgets is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Few days ago, we showed you how to add the Pinterest “Pin It” button in your WordPress blog. We are seeing more and more people joining Pinterest every day. Some of you might even want to show your latest pins in your sidebar. Well, in this article, we will show you an easy way to displaying your latest pinterest pins in your sidebar or any other dynamic widgets area.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Pinterest RSS Widget plugin. After installation, simply go to Appearance » Widgets. There will be a widget called Pinterest RSS Widget. Drag it in the appropriate widget area, and configure the settings.

Pinterest RSS Widget for WordPress

You can customize the size of your thumbnails. You can also choose to display the titles below the images or not.

If you want to show the Pinterest Pins on a post or a page, then you can do that using the following shortcode:

[prw username="syedbalkhi" maxfeeds="10" divname="myList" printtext="0" target="newwindow" useenclosures="yes" thumbwidth="100" thumbheight="100" showfollow="medium"]

If you want to show the Pinterest Pins in your theme by hard coding it, you can also do that using this plugin. Simply add the following codes wherever you want to display the latest pins:

<?php get_pins_feed_list($username, $maxfeeds, $divname, $printtext, $target, $useenclosures, $thumbwidth, $thumbheight, $showfollow); ?>

The parameters are:

  • username is the Pinterest username you wish to display Pins from (mandatory)
  • maxfeeds is the maximum number of Pins to display (optional, default = 25)
  • divname is a name suffix for the list class. “myList” will become “pins-feed-myList” (optional)
  • printtext must be 1 if you want the first few words of the Pin description to be printed below the thumbnail (optional)
  • target is “samewindow” or “newwindow”, depending on where you want links to open (optional, default = samewindow)
  • useenclosures is “yes” or “no” (optional, default = yes). Use this if you don’t want to use the tag in the feed and force the script to find an image
  • link in the feed item description.
  • thumbwidth is a number that will set the width in pixels of the Pin’s thumbnail (optional, default = 150)
  • thumbheight is a number that will set the height in pixels of the Pin’s thumbnail (optional, default = 150)
  • showfollow is “large”, “medium”, “small”, “tiny” or “none” (optional, default = none). Use this if you want to show the “Follow Me On Pinterest” button below the thumbnails. Select the size that best fits the space allowed (“large” is 156×26, “medium” is 78×26, “small” is the square 61×61 logo, and “tiny” is the 16×16 logo.)

When installing this plugin, we ran into the issue of images not showing up. Thankfully, it is a known issue and the author has already covered it into the FAQ’s section of the plugin. If your images are not showing up, then below are the possible solutions:

  • TimThumb requires the GD library, which is available on any host sever with PHP 4.3+ installed. Make sure your host has this installed (most do).
  • Once installed and in-use, TimThumb will automatically create a /prw_tmp/ subfolder in your/ wp-content/uploads/ directory with proper write-permissions. If your host server doesn’t allow this by default, be sure to manually create the /prw_tmp/ subfolder in your/ wp-content/uploads/ directory and set the /prw_tmp/ folder permissions to 755. If this still doesn’t work, try setting the /cache/ folder permissions to 777.
  • Known issue with timthumb.php on Hostgator: If your website is hosted on Hostgator, you may need to contact HostGator to request “mod_security whitelisting”. More info here: http://support.hostgator.com/articles/specialized-help/technical/timthumb-basics

Download Pinterest RSS Widget plugin

P.S. Don’t forget to follow Syed on Pinterest

How to Show Your Latest Pinterest Pins in WordPress Sidebar Widgets is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-show-your-latest-pinterest-pins-in-wordpress-sidebar-widgets/feed/ 0 How to Show Weather Forecast in Your WordPress http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/3xL3Yb-CbPQ/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/3xL3Yb-CbPQ/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:31:19 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5151 Recently one of our users asked us if there was an easy way for her to display local weather on her blog. After doing some research, we found that there were tons of plugins available that will let you display weather forecast in WordPress. In this article, we will share two plugins that will let you show daily weather forecast in your WordPress blog. WP Google Weather The reason why we picked this plugin was its ease of installation. Unlike...

How to Show Weather Forecast in Your WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Recently one of our users asked us if there was an easy way for her to display local weather on her blog. After doing some research, we found that there were tons of plugins available that will let you display weather forecast in WordPress. In this article, we will share two plugins that will let you show daily weather forecast in your WordPress blog.

WP Google Weather

The reason why we picked this plugin was its ease of installation. Unlike many other plugins, this plugin does not require you to signup with a third-party service to get an API. Also, this plugin does not require any link backs on the front end.

All you have to do is install and activate WP Google Weather. Then go to Appearance » Widgets. Then simply drag the WP Google Weather widget into the Sidebar. Enter the title of the widget, location, which language the display should be in, which unit the display should be in, and whether you want to show just today’s weather or the 3 day forecast.

Here is how the settings and the front-end display looks:

WP Google Weather

The front-end display is not the best however it can be customized to your liking. All you have to do is edit your stylesheet.

Weather and Weather Forecast Widget

This plugin comes with a lot of options. It allows you to use the services like Wunderground and World Weather Online API to get your data. This plugin also has the auto-detect option for location, but you need to signup for another API service for that. The biggest downside in our eyes is that it is mandatory for you to display the link to the provider otherwise your API can be terminated. All those companies do have monthly paid API options where you can remove their link back.

First thing you need to do is install and activate Weather and Weather Forecast Widget. Then go to Appearance » Widgets. Drag the GoGadget Weather Widget. Fill out all the settings. There are tons of options.

Here is how the preview looks:

Weather Forecast Widget

Although the preview looks a lot nicer, the data powered by link is a really big turn down for us.

We hope that you like these plugins. If you know of a better plugin, then feel free to suggest it in the comments.

How to Show Weather Forecast in Your WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-show-weather-forecast-in-your-wordpress/feed/ 0 How to Add Pinterest “Pin It” button in your WordPress Blog http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/MqtzILVJ6aE/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/MqtzILVJ6aE/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:51:47 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5144 Recently while monitoring our blog stats, a new traffic source was popping up enough for us to notice. This traffic source was Pinterest. We started using the platform and saw great potential in it therefore we have added it on List25. In this article, we will show you how to add the Pinterest “Pin It” button to your WordPress blog. First thing you need to do is paste the following script in your footer.php file right before the body close...

How to Add Pinterest “Pin It” button in your WordPress Blog is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Recently while monitoring our blog stats, a new traffic source was popping up enough for us to notice. This traffic source was Pinterest. We started using the platform and saw great potential in it therefore we have added it on List25. In this article, we will show you how to add the Pinterest “Pin It” button to your WordPress blog.

Pinterest Buttons

First thing you need to do is paste the following script in your footer.php file right before the body close tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
(function() {
    window.PinIt = window.PinIt || { loaded:false };
    if (window.PinIt.loaded) return;
    window.PinIt.loaded = true;
    function async_load(){
        var s = document.createElement("script");
        s.type = "text/javascript";
        s.async = true;
        s.src = "http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js";
        var x = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];
        x.parentNode.insertBefore(s, x);
    }
    if (window.attachEvent)
        window.attachEvent("onload", async_load);
    else
        window.addEventListener("load", async_load, false);
})();
</script>

Once you have done that, you can add the following code in your single.php file at a location of your choice:

<?php $pinterestimage = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), 'full' ); ?>
<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=<?php echo urlencode(get_permalink($post->ID)); ?>&media=<?php echo $pinterestimage[0]; ?>&description=<?php the_title(); ?>" class="pin-it-button" count-layout="vertical">Pin It</a>

The code above is basically pulling your Featured Image, the title of your post as description, and the URL of the post. It is designed for the vertical share button. If you want to put the horizontal share button, simply change count-layout parameter to horizontal.

We hope that this will help. P.S. if you are on Pinterest then please follow Syed Balkhi

Pinterest Shortcode

Update: one of our user wanted to create a shortcode for the Pinterest “Pin It” button. You can easily do so by pasting the following code either in your theme’s functions.php file or your site plugin’s file:

<?php
function get_pin($atts) {
$pinterestimage = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), 'full' );
return '<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url' . urlencode(get_permalink($post->ID)) . '&media=' . $pinterestimage[0] . '&description=' . get_the_title() .'" class="pin-it-button" count-layout="vertical">Pin It</a>'; }

add_shortcode('pin', 'get_pin');
?>

How to Add Pinterest “Pin It” button in your WordPress Blog is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-pinterest-pin-it-button-in-your-wordpress-blog/feed/ 0 Online Community Management for Dummies (Book Review) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/nXWtfj-oLr8/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/nXWtfj-oLr8/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:16:25 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5137 I was at a session in Affiliate Summit West where I ran into Deborah Ng, Conference Director of BlogWorld Expo. Over the past years, her and I have become good friends. I was honored to speak at the last two BlogWorld events. I knew Deb had a book out, but I was truly surprised when she pulled one out of her bag and gave it to me. I was crazy busy once I came back, but I am finally done...

Online Community Management for Dummies (Book Review) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> I was at a session in Affiliate Summit West where I ran into Deborah Ng, Conference Director of BlogWorld Expo. Over the past years, her and I have become good friends. I was honored to speak at the last two BlogWorld events. I knew Deb had a book out, but I was truly surprised when she pulled one out of her bag and gave it to me. I was crazy busy once I came back, but I am finally done going through the book. Below are my thoughts about the book: Online Community Management for Dummies.

Community Management is something that you will have to do as a blogger. Just like most other things communities do not start out big, but it will only grow big if you are a good community manager. Deb. shares all different type of aspects to community management. For someone who is relatively new, it could be a lot to handle. I know that from personal experience. This book outlines not only all the hats that you have to wear as a community manager, but it shows you how to do it well.

The book covers topics like Basic outline of community management, establishing community policies and guidelines, building a productive online community where you listen and communicate with your members, growing your community by encouraging interaction and involvement as well as attracting more people through other measures. Most importantly, Deb shares her expertise on how to assess your growth, evaluate the results, and make decisions on what you find.

One of the aspects I love about Deb is that she takes her online connections offline. I talked to her over the web for the first time, but now I have met her at numerous events. She is exactly the same person as she is online who is welcoming and friendly. I find it a rare characteristic to have. A lot of people I meet online are totally different in real life. Deb shares her expertise of taking your online community offline by hosting meetups, tweetups or other events. The book ends with ten essential tasks for community managers, ten must have skills, and ten best practices.

I think the book was a breeze to read. I cruised through the information really fast. I wished that it talked a little bit more about the monetization aspects, but I realize the book already covers too much and it is hard to cover everything.

If you are a blogger or an online community manager, this is a must read book. Most of the time, I don’t like Dummies books, but this one was well-worth the read.

Order your copy of Online Community Management for Dummies

P.S. Thanks Deb for signing my copy. I love collecting the books with author signature :)

Online Community Management for Dummies Signed by Deb Ng

Online Community Management for Dummies (Book Review) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/books/online-community-management-for-dummies-book-review/feed/ 0 How to Split WordPress Posts into Multiple Pages http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/6dcA9AgB0f8/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/6dcA9AgB0f8/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:36:38 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5133 Yesterday we wrote an article on the site showing you how to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress. One of the tips we mentioned was splitting long posts into multiple pages. You can see an example of how we split our posts into two pages or even into five pages. After writing that article, we got a lot of inquiries from people asking us multiple questions. How do you split the posts into multiple pages? I put the...

How to Split WordPress Posts into Multiple Pages is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Yesterday we wrote an article on the site showing you how to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress. One of the tips we mentioned was splitting long posts into multiple pages. You can see an example of how we split our posts into two pages or even into five pages. After writing that article, we got a lot of inquiries from people asking us multiple questions. How do you split the posts into multiple pages? I put the <!–nextpage–> tag, but no pagination shows up. Well worry not. In this article, we will show you how to split WordPress posts into multiple pages.

On most well-coded themes, all you have to do is paste this code: <!–nextpage–> wherever you want the next page to start. The pagination will automatically show up. But that might not be the case if your theme is not coded properly.

If for some reason, pagination is not showing up after you have pasted the next page tags, then you would need to add the following code in your single.php loop.

<?php wp_link_pages(); ?>

Once you add that, then the pagination will start to show. There are several parameters for this function that you can use. The codex page for Styling Page-Links does a good job explaining that.

How to Split WordPress Posts into Multiple Pages is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-split-wordpress-posts-into-multiple-pages/feed/ 0 How to Increase Pageviews and Reduce Bounce Rate in WordPress http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/EVGb-7nNKtY/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/EVGb-7nNKtY/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:44:56 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5128 When starting out, most bloggers believe that it is super hard to get people to your blog. Whereas most expert bloggers think that getting people to your blog is the easy part. Getting the users to stay on your site is harder. Most users come to your site and end up leaving without even going to the second page. When a user leaves without even going to the second page, it increases your bounce rate. It also decreases your pageviews...

How to Increase Pageviews and Reduce Bounce Rate in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> When starting out, most bloggers believe that it is super hard to get people to your blog. Whereas most expert bloggers think that getting people to your blog is the easy part. Getting the users to stay on your site is harder. Most users come to your site and end up leaving without even going to the second page. When a user leaves without even going to the second page, it increases your bounce rate. It also decreases your pageviews per visit. On a bigger picture, it decreases your ad revenue. In this article, we will share with you tips and tricks that will help you increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

Before we start

Lets cover some basics regarding terminology and technology. Bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who enter your site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site. Page view is a request to load a single page on an internet site. We use Google Analytics to track our data. You are welcome to use another analytics service, or you can simply install google analytics in your WordPress site.

Now that we have taken care of the basic terminology, you are probably wondering why the heck do these numbers matter?

If you are running a site that is primarily monetized by banner ads, then the number of pageviews matter. If you are trying to build a loyal audience, then the number of bounce rate matters. Also the lower your bounce rate, the better ads eCPM (cost per thousand) or CPC (cost per click) you will get. When the same user views the next page, your ad provider most likely has a better ad to serve them thus giving you a higher eCPM or CPC.

We have consulted with a lot of clients helping them increase their pageviews and reduce bounce rates. We have also done a lot of experiments on our own sites like List25. So all the methods that we will share are the ones that we have used in the past and know that they work.

P.S. These techniques will ONLY work if you have Good Content.

Interlink Your Posts

Anytime that you can interlink your other posts within the post content, you are going to see an increase in pageviews. In WordPress 3.1, interlinking got even easier because you can simply search for the post you want to link while adding links. Interlinking techniques work great when you have a site with a lot of articles. If you are just starting out, then you will be a bit limited. So how do you go back and interlink older articles when you have something new? You can manually do it, but it will take some time. There are plugins that lets you automatically link keywords in WordPress (Although that article is showing you how we did this for affiliate links, you can use it for internal linking purposes as well). Not only does interlinking help you increase pageviews and reduce bounce rates, it also helps with SEO as well.

If you want to see an example of interlinking, then just look at the paragraph above.

Show Related Posts After the Post

One of the main reasons why the user leave your blog after reading the post is because you are not showing them what to do next. By showing the user with a list of “related posts” or “other popular posts”, you may get them to go on to visit another post in your site. There are a lot of ways you can add related posts to your blog. You can use a plugin called YARPP that has its advanced algorithm that picks the related post. You can show related posts by category or tags without using a plugin. You can also show related posts by showing other posts by the same author.

Show Excerpts on Front / Archive Pages

Showing excerpts on front/archive pages have two advantages. First, it decreases page load time. Second, it helps increase the pageviews. You should almost never show full posts on your front page or archive page. Imagine having like 25 images in one post, and then have 5 of those on one page. It would be a horrible user experience because of (slow load time and super long page) which would make the user leave your site. We have a tutorial on how to display post excerpts in WordPress themes. Most good theme frameworks like Genesis, Thesis, Headway etc. already have this option built-in.

Splitting up Long Posts

Are you writing a super long posts? Well, you can split it into multiple pages using the WordPress <!–nextpage–> tag in your post. Simply add it wherever you want, and your post will split into multiple pages. You can see an example of how we split our posts into two pages or even into five pages. You have to be very careful when doing this because if you do not have a sufficient amount of content on each page, then the user might get pissed of. We have seen a lot of big name sites like Forbes, NY Times, Wall Street Journal and others utilize this technique.

Interactive Sidebar

Your sidebar can play a crucial role in increasing pageviews and reducing bounce rate. You can show your popular posts in the sidebar. You can even customize it to show popular posts by week, month, all time. You can also show your most recent posts only on single post pages. We have seen sites that create custom images to navigate to specific posts of theirs. You can integrate other sections of your site in your sidebar for example look at our WordPress Coupons section or the gallery section in the sidebar.

Encourage Random Browsing

On List25 we created a feature called I’m Feeling Curious. When a user clicks on this button, they will be redirected to a random post in WordPress. We put the button in our header bar which was a very hot spot. After seeing good results, we ended up putting it on WPBeginner as well and called it Explore.

Results

When we started out List25, we faced a lot of criticism. People were saying that sites like these fail to grow because it is hard to keep a loyal audience. We asked around and a lot of people who had done something similar in the past reported that the bounce rate for a siimlar site was soaring in 80% range. Average user would view only one page per visit and leave. We started the site out to get some base data. Our bounce rate was in the 75% range. We slowly started implementing the changes mentioned above. Bounce rate decreased from the average of 76% to 42%. Our pageviews per visit increased to 2.79 / pages per visit. Average time spent on page went to the average of 3 minutes and 40 seconds << This is the average time spent for our 1 million unique visitors!

What are you doing to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate? Share with us.

How to Increase Pageviews and Reduce Bounce Rate in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-increase-pageviews-and-reduce-bounce-rate-in-wordpress/feed/ 0 Gravity Forms vs. Wufoo (Which is a better form management solution?) http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/aq6gDAVksf8/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/aq6gDAVksf8/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:06:29 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5121 Recently one of our users asked us which is a better form plugin between Gravity Forms and Wufoo. In the past we have done a lot of posts about Gravity forms but none about Wufoo. We have used both form management softwares personally, so we can give you a fairly un-biased comparison of these two platforms. In this article, we will compare Gravity Forms vs. Wufoo to determine which is the better form management solution for WordPress. One thing that...

Gravity Forms vs. Wufoo (Which is a better form management solution?) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Recently one of our users asked us which is a better form plugin between Gravity Forms and Wufoo. In the past we have done a lot of posts about Gravity forms but none about Wufoo. We have used both form management softwares personally, so we can give you a fairly un-biased comparison of these two platforms. In this article, we will compare Gravity Forms vs. Wufoo to determine which is the better form management solution for WordPress. One thing that is important to note is that we will be using our frugal blogger / developer mentality to cast the winner.

Pricing

Yes we know that pricing is one of the most important factor for bloggers when choosing a platform. It is even more important in this comparison because it shows you a key difference between these two platforms. Gravity Forms is a plugin whereas Wufoo is a hosted service. Having that said, to utilize the full set of features Gravity Forms has to offer, you must get the developer option which costs $199 with a coupon it can get as low as $149. This gets you all what Gravity Forms has to offer with 1 year of support and updates, so it is sort of like an annual subscription except for the renewal price you can get a 50% discount. To utilize all what Wufoo has to offer, you must get their Bona Fide plan which goes for $29.95 / month. This makes it roughly $359 / year.

Winner: Gravity Forms

Usage Restrictions

Because Wufoo is a hosted platform there are usage restrictions. With the Bona Fide plan you are only allowed 5 users which is something most can deal with. You get unlimited forms / reports. However, you are limited to 3,000 Entries / month. If you have file attachment option in your form, then you have a total of 1GB storage. Ofcourse you can upgrade to one of their higher plans which goes as high as $199.95 / month for 100,000 entries. So this really depends on how large your site is. Note: If you go over your allocated amount of entries then you pay $0.05 USD per entry.

Gravity forms allows you to have unlimited forms, unlimited users (you can have as many in your WordPress install), and there is as much storage available as your web hosting plan allows. Last but certainly not the least, you have unlimited entries.

Winner: Gravity Forms

Ease of Use

Both platforms are fairly easy to use. Both Gravity forms and Wufoo has a drag drop form editor. You can select the type of field and create it with one click. The process of creating forms on both are fairly intuitive and easy to learn. When it comes to managing entries, the interface is far superior in Wufoo probably because they are not restricted by the WordPress backend UI. Gravity forms tries to adhere to the WordPress user-interface therefore cannot provide a superior UI with icons and such like Wufoo. While Gravity forms have all the similar features, we personally like the Wufoo interface better. You can see it for yourself how Wufoo makes it so much easier to browse between the entries with the navigation. You can also edit, delete, email, or print the entry all from one spot.

Wufoo Entry UI

While gravity forms have these options, its just not as clear. P.S. There is no option navigate between the entries from the entry page in Gravity forms.

Winner: Slight edge to Wufoo

Security

Security can be crucial when you are collecting important information through your forms. While gravity forms is a secure plugin, it is not a service. So the security responsibility of the data collected falls on you. Wufoo comes with SSL encryption, so all of your data is transmitted securely. Getting a SSL certificate can cost as much as $79 bucks, but if you install it on your server then Gravity Forms is hundred percent compatible with it.

Winner: If you are paying for SSL with Gravity Forms and handling your server security then there is tie. Otherwise Wufoo wins.

Multi-Page Forms

Often when doing lead generation, you may find a need to collect some extra information to provide superior service. Multi-page forms help a ton in order to increase your submission rate. Thankfully both of these platforms have the option that allows you to easily create multi-page forms. In the layout, you have the option to show the progress bar which helps the user see how long the form really is. However, one thing that gives Wufoo a huge edge in our eyes is the partial form submission. A lot of times users tend to leave the survey / form half way through if they feel that it is way too long. Wufoo allows you to save that partial entry everytime a user goes on to then next page of the form. If you are only showing like 2-3 questions / page, then you will get as much information from the user as possible. Gravity forms on the other hand has no way to store a partial submission.

If you are a consultant and you have a client survey, you might as well have as much information possible rather than losing the whole lead entirely.

Winner: Wufoo

Third Party Integrations

Gravity Forms offer integrations with Aweber, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, Freshbooks, PayPal, and Twilio. This allows you to collect emails from your forms and collect payments as well. Wufoo which has been in the market since 2006 with a fairly recent acquisition of $35 million boasts a lot of third party integrations. To list some popular ones: PayPal, Authorize.Net, Google Checkout, Freshbooks, HighRise, Salesforce, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and more.

Wufoo has a lot of third party integrations, but they have a much larger team and funding. Not to mention they have been around for longer.

Winner: Wufoo

Ability to take Guest Posts

Gravity forms has an option that allows you to accept guest post submission using Gravity forms and save them as drafts. This has made our life so much easier in managing our WordPress Gallery. You can have the option for attachments, categories, tags etc. While Wufoo is a great form management solution, it does not have this feature available for WordPRess.

Winner: Gravity Forms

User Registration

Gravity Forms have a powerful user-registration add-on that works seamlessly with Multi-site and BuddyPress installs. Wufoo lacks such integration with WordPress. You can use this add-on to create custom user meta so much easier than before.

Winner: Gravity Forms

Cool Examples

Wufoo has a page dedicated to examples of how users are using their service.

Gravity Forms should have something like that, but they do not. The two cool uses that we have found are:

WPBeginner WordPress Gallery
Custom Post Type Generator

As you can see that both of these platforms have something unique to offer. It is very hard to say that one is completely superior to other. We still use Gravity Forms on our sites. We are also using Wufoo on some of our other projects. It really depends on what you really need.

Gravity Forms vs. Wufoo (Which is a better form management solution?) is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> http://www.wpbeginner.com/opinion/gravity-forms-vs-wufoo-which-is-a-better-form-management-solution/feed/ 0 How to Create a Blogging Checklist in WordPress http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/b-FkmlDAux4/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wpbeginner/~3/b-FkmlDAux4/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:59:35 +0000 WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=5110 Whether you have a multi-author blog or a single-author blog, a checklist is something that everyone needs. When writing we often make careless mistakes. Often we go live with those changes and have our users point out the errors. Sometimes the error in the post goes uncaught for weeks. Well that is when you need a checklist can come handy. Checklist can serve as a list of reminders that you set for yourself before you publish a post. Most folks...

How to Create a Blogging Checklist in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

]]> Whether you have a multi-author blog or a single-author blog, a checklist is something that everyone needs. When writing we often make careless mistakes. Often we go live with those changes and have our users point out the errors. Sometimes the error in the post goes uncaught for weeks. Well that is when you need a checklist can come handy. Checklist can serve as a list of reminders that you set for yourself before you publish a post. Most folks just create a PDF checklist for their authors and send it to them via email. Some utilize services like Google Docs or even a project management platform. In this article, we will show you how to create a blogging checklist in WordPress.

First you need to install and activate the plugin called Blogging Checklist. Upon activation, a new menu “Blogging Checklist” will appear under the Settings tab.

Blogging Checklist Settings

You can add whatever you like in to your checklist. There are examples to copy and paste on the checklist screen. Once you click save changes, then your checklist will be visible on the post write page.

Blogging Checklist

One of the downside of this plugin is that it does not store any of the checklist data. So lets say you did 3 out of 5 things on the checklist and you reload the page, it will reset all boxes. It would be great if this plugin can actually store the data and not let the user hit publish until all boxes are checked.

Download Blogging Checklist

How to Create a Blogging Checklist in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

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