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- 9 Sites With Cool Stock Icon Sets | 4 Comments
Icons are part of our lives these days when we are involved as webmasters. Gone are the days of drab looking designs and the lack of choices we had. Today, we find groovy looking icon sets all across the web and with a bit of digging, even you can find some that appeal to you.
Icons aren’t just icons either. They make a bold statement about you and your ability to look cool. They help you to set yourselves apart from the masses and like a car number plate they say something about the owner.
On my search for some nice and different sets of stock icons I came across some very good designs. Some cost a little more than others but in the end, you have to decide whether it is worth the expense or not.
As you know, looking good has its price. Enjoy!
WackyPixels
StockIcons
Med Designs
Icon Shock
IconKits
Iconica
IconFish
FastIcon
InterfaceLift
- Woopra - A follow Up Post | Leave a Comment
Not so long ago I wrote about a killer new stats system that will get you addicted. This post is to follow up and tell you a little more, since when I wrote the last post I have been accepted (finally) and am on my best way to become totally addicted to Woopra. I want to show you how much information is to be gained from their application and what it can do to help you rank better in the search engines.
So let’s get into it and see what this baby does for us. First of, it is always great to know who refers traffic to us so that we can go and say thank you were applicable plus see where our efforts to get traffic pay off.
Under My Referrers you will be able to see how much traffic you got from a referrer, who sent you the most traffic and a nice nifty graphic which indicates the portion of search engine traffic to your blog.
This is indispensable information when you are targeting certain keywords with search engines. It helps to see whether we are on track and where we can optimise our performance some more.
The My Searches function is one of my favourites. It allows me to see where I rank well in the search engines. I can then use these keywords and build link clusters to intensify my ranking some more.
If I click on the Keywords tab within the same function window, I can see which keywords are ranking the strongest and build on that.
This is an invaluable tool for any niche marketer too, since ranking for keywords will be the make or break of your niche website.
The live stats of Woopra even allow you to interact with your readers while they visit your site. It works too as I found out on my first day.
The only thing I couldn’t figure out yet is how the visitor sees that you are available.
You can further see how much traffic you had from which country, check out your bounce rate, page views and averages over all time visitors. See what the most popular browsers are used by your visitors which can help you to optimize your resolution and screen if you are technical savvy. On the Geo Overlay tab it will tell you exactly how many visitors you had from each country by hovering over the map.
The whole system is like having Google Analytics on steroids to be honest and I just love my live stats. The great thing is, the software lives on my computer whether I’m logged into my site or not.
You can see Woopra from within your blogs admin too if you add their Plugin, but to be honest I never even bothered looking there. I’m having too much fun looking at all the figures.
Have you tried Woopra since my last post and if yes, how do you like this program? Feel free to add your experience, opinion or disregards.
- Only Days To Go For Firefox 3 | 7 Comments
If the recent WordPress birthday party got you excited and ready for some fun, prepare yourself for the next big launch. Firefox will launch their new version 3 this coming Tuesday 17th June.It took 34 months of active development, 5 beta versions and 2 RC’s to get to this very moment. Hailed as the best browser in the whole wide world of the web, Mozilla’s creators have found mercy with us lowly Internet users and decided to finally put our minds at rest.
They take their development quite serious too if we are to believe their statement. Upon asked when the new version will be released they coolly say “when it’s ready”. Oh well, let’s hope that the long wait will be worth it after all.
For some reasons I do believe it will. I suppose it does take quite some work to make sure everything is compatible and enough feedback has been received to iron out the bugs before releasing version 3 to the masses.
So if that takes your fancy, you can host your own Mozilla party or attend one in your neck of the woods instead. So far there has been a lot of interest in the community and the folks at Mozilla want to set a new record. The Guinness World Record for the Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours.
To be part of this massive event, check out their party site.
Take part in the Mozilla Guinness World Record Day and take your Pledge Now:
- Blog Marketing The Business Marketing Bomb | Leave a Comment
Business bloggers have a huge marketing bomb at their disposal and many don’t even know it. Business blogs are serious marketing bombs if used correctly and I’ll tell you why.
How many businesses run a conventional website but once they launch it it is all but forgotten. You can easily see this for yourself when you do a Google search on just about any topic. Thousands of neglected websites are hanging on by a bare thread with nothing much to show for.
Guess what, these businesses hardly get any traffic. No traffic equals no sales. It’s a simple as that.
On the opposite you can sack your website designer and instead get blogging. Ok, sacking your designer might be a little harsh as they too need to pay their bills but what I’m trying to get at is that businesses with blogs stand a higher chance to get noticed.
Especially if those blogs are updated frequently. Does this spell marketing bomb or not? The sad truth is that many offline business owners still have no idea about blogs and what they are.
They simply fail to see what is possible for them if they would only launch a blog. If we look at some of the advantages, we soon see why.
Connect with customers:
What better way to connect with customers than through a business blog. We can react to their needs, answer their questions and deal with their concerns in a professional and timely matter.
React to market needs fast:
In an ever changing world, markets can change too. Often over night. Business bloggers have the power to adapt their strategies fast, without the added cost of having to print costly corporate flyers or brochures.
Get more exposure:
If you update your blog frequently traffic will come. Sure, with a website you can also attract traffic, but blogs are way cheaper as you don’t have to pay for an expensive SEO campaign. With a bit of knowledge you can do this yourself.
Save money:
Which business doesn’t rejoice at the thought of saving money? I’d be surprised to see that there are any. Especially if we can invest this money somewhere else in the business.
As you can see, business blogging has many advantages to create a massive marketing bomb for your business. I’m sure you might actually come up with some more useful tips on why we need a business blog if we want to be noticed. Feel free to share if you do.
- Clean Ndomche Summary Theme | 3 Comments
Martin Kaba of Kabatology released a new WordPress theme that looks very clean and neat. It is called Ndomche Summary Theme and I’d love to know whether this word has actually any meaning. Martin left a comment on my Silk Theme post and alerted me to his new release. So I went to have a look and liked what I saw.
As many of you already know, I really like clean WordPress themes. They are so light and carry no baggage, which also makes them fast loading I guess. Plus, a white theme is so easy to make your own. It’s like a blank canvas for a painter.
The Ndomche Summary Theme is built on WordPress 2.5. This means that you are advised to upgrade before using this theme if you haven’t already done so. It is a grid based CSS styling theme that will also show your Gravatars without having to do any customizations. Martin has released the theme under the GNU/GPL license and asks that you leave the footer link intact.
The Ndomche Summary Theme has a massive banner in the left hand side bar which could ideally be used to market an affiliate product. I’m thinking niche marketing with a special product here.
Naturally you can do whatever you want with this if you like to give it a go.
Below are some screen shots of the Ndomche Summary Theme.
Installation of the Ndomche Summary Theme
1. Download and unzip the ndomche file
2. Upload the theme into your “/wp-content/themes/” folder
3. Login into your WordPress admin
4. Go to the Presentation tab
5. Select the Ndomche Screenshot
6. Now customize to your tasteMartin also tested the theme extensively and it is compatible with most browsers.
Windows: Internet Explorer 5.5, 6 and 7
Mozilla Firefox: 2, 3
FlashPeak Slim Browser: 4.0
Opera: 9.xxLinux Ubuntu: Mozilla Firefox 2,3
Opera Web Browser: 9.27Enjoy
- Be a Super Stats Whore With Woopra | 9 Comments
Woopra is the king ping of website tracking by the looks of it and I suspect this platform will continue to make massive waves once they come out of Beta. Personally I have never seen such a comprehensive stats program before.
Not only can you see how many readers are online on your site at all times, but the program will also show you were they came from, your latest direct Google traffic hits and much more. Woopra is even available in a handy offline application that will convert your desktop into a super spy machine.
If you always wanted to be a stats whore, now you can be as Woopra is all the stats programs you already know turned into one and then updated.
One negative is that I signed up with them more than a week ago and I’m still waiting for approval. I guess they are very busy as they already made some waves via Twitter notifications and featured news.
Features of Woopra
Woopra has a rich user interface: you won’t feel lost by looking at the stats within Woopra. Everything has been preciously balanced to give you an easy to use and responsive software that doesn’t slow down your response time either.
Future developments will include various color schemes as well as themes.
Real time analytics: this is super cool. Since Woopra will give you a lot of insight into what’s happening at your site right now, you can act accordingly. If you see a spike in traffic you can be ready for action, whatever that might incorporate.
You can manage multiple blogs and websites: Whether you have one or several blogs and sites, Woopra will be there to show you the inside deal of your traffic stats.
Live tracking and web statistics: Webmasters can track over 40 different statistical events on their sites. Another bonus is that Woopra offers live stats. What is happening right now at all times. I told you, chances are that you will be the next stats whore as it will be hard to limit yourself to the basics when looking at the massive interface.
Easy installation: The installation guide will be a useful tool to help you get Woopra up and running. It works on any recent versions of Windows as well as Mac and Linux.
Developer tools: Woopra is an advanced service that contains an API which leaves it wide open for future developments and expansion.
Visitor and member tagging: If your readers make a comment or even register on your site, you can track their behavior on site, giving you valuable insights.
Real time notifications: You can set Woopra to give you instant alerts for specific users such as search terms, languages, countries, IP addresses, browsers and more. This is where Woopra will become addictive since it is cool to know when specific events or visits can become instantly actionable to the webmaster.
Click to chat: This is a cool feature since webmasters can break down the barriers of behind and in front of “house”. Interaction with readers can become possible all of a sudden with the help of chat. Readers don’t even have to download anything.
Search and deep analytics: a the click of your mouse you can execute any type of search within your Woopra admin. All the data is searchable to dig deeper.
To see this cool program and sign up for free click here. Just be aware that they are in beta and approval might take a while.
- Bling Your Blog With WidgetBox | 1 Comment
WidgetBox has been around for some time. I still remember playing around with their application last year at some stage but then forgot all about it. For some reason I was subscribed to their entries and after seeing their latest additions I thought it would be a good tool for a post here on Easy WordPress.
WidgetBox is a smart online application that lets you share, connect, create and express using widgets on a wide range of platforms. Their easy to use tools allow you to create your own widgets or alternatively use somebody else to express your interests on your blog.
You can even turn your blog into a widget using WidgetBox. There are widgets for count down clocks, series announcements, music, news, pets, weather, games, movies, family and many more topics. It ads interactivity to your blog and makes people stay around longer.You can even create a widget for your social media platforms that show your readers at any stage what you were up to. See the image to the left for more.
There are so many ways to showcase and create widgets that you will be finding yourself busy for hours.
You can even keep your readers updated on your progress at the gym with the gyminee widget.
WidgetBox also provides easy installation help for a wide range of platforms, such as:
- Bebo
- MySpace
- Blogger
- TypePad
- WordPress
- LiveJournal
- Tagged
- Freewebs
- iGoogle
- Netvibes
- Pageflakes
- Hi5
- Piczo
- Ning (OpenSocial)
- Widget Code
Once you have installed a widget panel (that is the container which holds your
widget/s) on your site for the first time you can easily rearrange your widgets without ever having to change code on the blog again.These little applications can make your blog a bit more user friendly, given that you don’t over do it. This is actually quite hard as there are so many cool widgets to choose from.
Limit is the key I believe though. You don’t want to end up with a cluttered blog full of widgets.
Go check it out and see what I mean. WidgetBox FAQ.
- Tell The World How You Feel With Smileys | 7 Comments
Ok, smileys are old history, I know that. Smileys are also called emoticons and are known as glyphs. They are used on various platforms to convey your emotions when you write. Most people use smileys in blogs, on mobile phones, in forum posts and while using instant messaging. Despite their popularity and age, some bloggers still don’t know that they can disable their blogs to display smileys. By default WordPress convert text using two or more punctuation marks to graphic images we commonly known as smileys.
To turn smileys off via your WordPress admin panel, do this:
While turning them off stops smiley images from appearing, you can still use text like semicolon/hyphen/brackets to show your emotions in your blog. Check out the different text options for smileys below:
While smileys are a great way to liven up your blog and your conversations, we can also go overboard with them. Although I like to use them in my comments, I hardly ever do in my posts. The reason being is that while I love to laugh and have fun, I feel no problem in using them in conversations. On the other hand when I write a blog post it is different. To me anyway. I guess I’m trying to bring a message across at times and while smileys would sometimes help to form a picture, in my eyes using them too often, they would make the posts look tacky.
What do you think about smileys? Do you find them loud and garish, or do you use them sometimes in your communications?
- Silk - An Advanced Free WordPress Theme | Leave a Comment
If you want an advanced free WordPress theme that is fully customizable without having to touch any code, you might like Silk from Head Set Options.
Set up of Silk is so easy, you probably wonder why you haven’t found this before. All that is required of you is to create a category called “Featured”. Wow, that was hard.
Just check out the cool functions of Silk WordPress theme:
- The featured section allows your most important posts some special limelight for more attention
- The comment block is customizable
- There are advanced theme edit options to edit elements such as fonts, colors and the header image
- There are also second level, conditional and drop down menus with zero setup required
- The sidebars are widget ready and styled for Google Adsense
- The tabbed JavaScript sidebar widget allows for more information displayed with minimal room
- The theme is also search engine optimized
The next screen shot shows the footer of Silk WordPress theme.
Check out a live demo page of Silk. To download Silk, click here.
- Happy Birthday WordPress | 8 Comments
WordPress is celebrating its fifth birthday today. Having started off with the 0.7 release in 2003, the software application has certainly come a very long way since. Thousands of bloggers have taken to WordPress and wouldn’t consider any other platform.
I’ve taken some screen shots on how the site developed over time, from the very first one all the way to today. Enjoy.
WordPress 2003
WordPress May 2004
WordPress December 2005
WordPress Today
As you can see, WordPress had a few face changes over the years too. If you are living or happening to be in San Francisco tonight, you can attend the WordPress party at 111 Minna, starting at 9PM.
For Sydney, Australia revelers, the party has already started as I’m writing this. If you are fast and keen, you can always throw together your own impromptu WordPress party to pay homage to the service.
Gobala Krisnan is a direct-response marketer turned blogger who makes over $10,000 a month from his blog empire. If you want to make money online from blogs, he is the only person who can reveal the secret of merging time-tested direct marketing strategies with web 2.0 traffic. Read more about him >>
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