Got WordPress? You must use this plugin
Get me! Not blogged in months and here I am with two posts in one evening!
I just wanted to write a quick bit on Google, site speed and rankings. You may or may not know that the big G now take site speed into account with their ranking algo-thingies. So basically – if your WordPress sites as slow as a one legged dog on tranquilizers you might want to look at installing the WP Super Cache Plugin. It works by creating a static html file from your blog and serves that instead of the heavier dynamic page. So your website loads faster which is good for Google but also for your visitors.
I’ve just done a little experiment in Pingdom Tools to test this out on my Maxi Dress site.
Here is the result -
1. With WP Super Cache turned off -
2. With WP Super Cache turned on (I did a sexy little dance) -
So as you can see – The website loads faster (even with the extra objects that are loaded with WP Super Cache it self) Your visitors are happy and Google is happy.
I know where not saving a massive amount, but every little helps (that’s what I keep telling my girlfriend!) And the site I tested it on is quite a light site anyway.
Another site, another WordPress custom theme
Jan 21, 2010 Affiliate Marketing, Theme Design, Wordpress
I’m quite getting the hang of creating my own WordPress themes now. I’m still having problems with them displaying correctly in all browsers but I am sure that I will have that problem solved soon.
My new site is – Cross Trainer Sale and I think the subject matter is fairly self explanatory!
I’m doing quite well with domain names that have “sale” on the end. Obviously, I would have preferred “cross trainer” but by sticking the word “sale” on there I should pickup traffic for “cross trainer”, “cross trainers” and “cross trainers for sale”.
Who knows if I will earn anything from the site. I’ve been working really hard creating my latest sites and I am too impatient to wait for natural rankings so I think I will PPC this one too.
Having said that, I have started the laborious job of link building. I use a mixture of forum posts, blog posts and link exchange requests. I’ve wrote a simple database in Filemaker that enables me to track the webmaster’s I’ve contacted and check that my link is live.
The next few weeks I’m going to knuckle down and work on my custom WordPress themes. I am confident that there is a market for affiliate marketing themes and when I have reached a level that I am satisfied with, I’m going to look at releasing some for public use.
Tags: cross trainers, filemaker, link building, Wordpress
My new website ready to launch
Jan 14, 2010 Affiliate Marketing, Theme Design, Wordpress
I have been working on my latest website for the last few days and I am really quite pleased at how it is shaping up.
The site is called Hot Corsets and I am planning to promote it with google PPC. The subject is fairly self explanitory and I must say that I have rather enjoyed researching suitable merchants.
I’ve still got a few bits to tweak, as well as adding the content. It’s been built for WordPress using a home made theme that I knocked up in Dreamweaver. One problem that I am having is getting the site to look right in IE 7 (I hate explorer!!) So I need to look at the CSS over the next few days.
I’m looking for some good quality links, so if anybody has a similar site and is interested in an exchange then give me a shout.
EDIT: I’ve since updated the site a bit, and it’s a nice little earner!
Tags: affiliate, dreamweaver, Theme Design, Wordpress
Design your own Affiliate Marketing WordPress theme
Jan 11, 2010 Affiliate Marketing, Theme Design, Web Design, Wordpress
I’ve played around a bit at building my own WordPress theme after learning CSS and a little bit of PHP. Recently I purchased a copy of “How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer” from Rockable Press. It only cost around $30 and I spent most of yesterday reading it. I’m now really excited because I am quite confident that I am not very far off being able to build my dream affiliate marketing WordPress theme.
It’s not for total newbies, but if you have a smidgen of CSS and HTML knowledge then you should be able to knock up a theme fairly easily.
The book talks you through designing the mock up in Photoshop (I use Fireworks), putting it all together in Dreamweaver before importing into WordPress and adding a few final tweaks.
I’m going to get started right away, so I will add some basic tutorials as I learn myself.
Tags: Theme Design, wordpress designer
Some tools I use when modding WordPress themes
Jan 4, 2010 Theme Design, Tools, Web Design, Wordpress
Most of my websites are built in WordPress because it is so easy to use. There is almost no limits to the stuff you can do to make it look and behave exactly how you want to. Below is a list of some of the tools I use when modding a WordPress theme -
Two books that have been indispensable to me when messing around with a theme are -
CSS: The Missing manual and WordPress Theme Design
If you really want to change the look of your site, then I strongly recommend that you learn some CSS.
The Web Developer’s Toolbar for Firefox is one of those gadgets that once you have used it you will not be able to imagine how you got on with out it. It’s just wonderful. Especially the “edit CSS” function that lets you play around with a sites CSS without changing any code. It is also a great way to learn CSS by trial and error. I also like the color information function that brings up all the hex code for the colour on any selected page.
Which leads me nicely onto the Kuler website. Have you seen it? If not get on over there immediately and have a play. It is a wonderful site that lets you come up with some beautiful colour combination’s as well as browsing thousands of others submitted by users. It also allows you to save combination’s which can later be imported into graphics programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks.
It’s attention to detail that make websites stand out from the rest, and I am surprised at the number of large sites that don’t even have a favicon! I know it’s not the be-all and end-all but it takes literally a couple of minutes to make one. A couple of seconds if you use the FavIcon Generator.
The RawHTML plugin allows you to add, well – raw html into your blog posts. I like to create price comparison type tables in dreamweaver and paste them into my site. Here is an example from my effects pedals website that I am building.
These are some of the tools that I use when modding WordPress themes. Good free themes can be found here and here.
All I need now are some tools to inspire me to write good content!
Tags: css, dreamweaver, favicon, kuler, rawhtml, Theme Design, toolbar, Wordpress
