Do You Have Any Wordpress Questions?

[thunderbird]

I notice a number of threads popping up in which people new to Wordpress have questions. Some of them are about which plugins to use, or about about setting it up, or which themes are good, or about customizing themes.

What are your Wordpress Questions? I'm not going to promise that I'll know the answer, but I just might.

[KaylaB]

This may not be the type of question you were looking for, but what is your favourite paid theme? I am considering buying one, and thesis look the best.

[KaylaB]

Clarification: Re above post - Chris Pearson's Thesis theme looks like the best paid theme.

[thunderbird]

Thesis if very good. Someone yesterday wasn't finding it easy to use, so there is a learning curve. Their documentation is text-based -- they don't offer video how-tos.

I personally prefer ThemeHybrid, which also has a bit of a learning curve. It is free but for $25 you get ongoing support from the developer (who may be a bit salty in his responses at times, lol, but ALWAYS helps and answers) and it's definitely well worth the investment. I like how ThemeHybrid works with "child themes, " which one may initially have to get their head around first.

Themehybrid child themes work with a main framework which you don't touch. One of the advantages of child themes is that whenever there are updates for your main theme, you won't lose your customizations.

[KaylaB]

Thanks Thunderbird. I looked at ThemeHybrid briefly earlier today, but will need to take a better look. The price certainly seems right!

[firedragon]

Hi thunderbird,

I am using wordpress on the wordpress.com website and would like to know how I can use other templates than the ones they offer.

[thunderbird]

Firedragon, you got me there. I'm not sure how to add themes from wordpress-hosted blogs, apart from those offered. I always set up self-hosted wordpress sites. I see that they do allow you to customize the css code.

[sparky.ebiz]

Question - how hard is it to setup Wordpress on a host without Fantastico - using just cpanel? Isn't it better in the long run to do it the "hard-way" because updating later on is easier?

I'm currently with Host4Profit and it only would cost $5/mo a add a sub-domain - so that's why I would go this route instead of HostGator, if this makes sense?

Thanks,
Sparky

[firedragon]

Thunderbird,

I would like to put up a Wordpress blog on my site, but I am not knowledgeable enough to change the HTML code to alter what I want, that is why I stayed with the wordpress.com

But once I get some time again, I want to get deeper into that

Thanks for your answer, I assumed s.th. like that

Cheerz,
Marcus

[thunderbird]

It is quite easy to manually install wordpress. Furthermore you can make it more secure than you'd get with a Fantastic install. With a manual wp installation you can change the table prefix and add "unique phrases" (eg define('AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here').

I don't have opinions on Host4profit vs Hostgator or whatever. It's best if your host allows you to use 755 instead of 777 (eg, suPHP or suEXEC enabled)

[thunderbird]

Here's a manual wordpress installation tutorial I found on youtube. Youtube has lots of videos like this

YouTube - How To Install Wordpress Blog Manually...

[Istvan Horvath]

I am using wordpress on the wordpress.com website and would like to know how I can use other templates than the ones they offer

You cannot. The wp.COM blogs hosted by Automattic have limited options when it comes about customizing. You can only use themes and plugins that the owners of the site uploaded. Nothing else.
Furthermore, be aware that they usually shut down (=delete) any blog that is commercial or tries to display ads.

Question - how hard is it to setup Wordpress on a host without Fantastico - using just cpanel? Isn't it better in the long run to do it the "hard-way" because updating later on is easier?

It isn't really the "hard way". Once you get a little bit familiar with the process, it really takes 5 minutes to install a WP blog, as it is advertised on their famous 5-minutes install.

[firedragon]

Originally Posted by The Pension Guy

You cannot. The wp.COM blogs hosted by Automattic have limited options when it comes about customizing. You can only use themes and plugins that the owners of the site uploaded. Nothing else.
Furthermore, be aware that they usually shut down (=delete) any blog that is commercial or tries to display ads.


It isn't really the "hard way". Once you get a little bit familiar with the process, it really takes 5 minutes to install a WP blog, as it is advertised on their famous 5-minutes install.

Thanks for your comment PensionGuy, what do you mean with commercial, do you mean if I write a sales letter they will shut me down?

Where in CAN do you live?

[Istvan Horvath]

They, probably will - read their TOS!

Winterpeg

[firedragon]

I hardly ever read those things, too long for me

Guess for sales letters I need to use Bloggers or so, good to know

brrr, I love Vancouver, hahaha

[Brad Spencer]

How hard is it to change the color of a theme?

Cheers,

Brad

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by Brad Spencer

How hard is it to change the color of a theme?

It depends on the theme. Some use simple color codes in their stylesheet (style.css) - like #ffffff for white or #000000 for black...
others are using background images.

Although you should be more specific about what color do you want to change. Background? Font? Links?

[thunderbird]

One good way to locate exactly where the color you want to change is on style.css is through the use of Hex Color Finder (free). Just copy the background number color and search for it in style.css. Chances are you'll it quickly. Sometimes the same color may be used in a few places.

Here's a Youtube video I found on Hex Color Finder:

YouTube - Handy Free Color Finder

[Theone24]

Thanks for offering you time.

i have a few things that are slowing me down more than they should be, it would be gret if I could get them sorted.

How can I change my sidebar from lower case to upper case? For example, I have 'categories' instead of 'Categories' and it make my site look amateur.

Also, I paid someone £20 to change my 'header title' by expanding the 'box' and writing my website title in it. The only thing is that after a few days I realized it was a black box instead of brown like the rest of my header. Any idea on how I can change that from black to brown?

I have heard that google only allows three ads per page. My theme doesn't allow separate pages of the same category! So I have 5 posts (and more to add) with 4000 words and can only have three google ads. Is there any way around this?

Finally, I have Kontera ads on my site, the problem is that I only have two! Out of 4000+ words, I have asked twice for an increase in the ad density and Kontera have agreed. But still I only have two Kontera txt ads. Have you got any ideas or advice here?

Finally, how do I increase my sidebar so that it's longer? My tag cloud has about 25 relevant and related keywords but that takes up half of my sidebar!

The theme is quadro theme for wordpress

I have wordpress.org


Thanks very much and I hope you can help!

[thunderbird]

Originally Posted by JELL

Thanks for offering you time.

i have a few things that are slowing me down more than they should be, it would be gret if I could get them sorted.

How can I change my sidebar from lower case to upper case? For example, I have 'categories' instead of 'Categories' and it make my site look amateur.

Also, I paid someone £20 to change my 'header title' by expanding the 'box' and writing my website title in it. The only thing is that after a few days I realized it was a black box instead of brown like the rest of my header. Any idea on how I can change that from black to brown?

Not sure. I'd have to see it, I guess. Probably find the div that corresponds to the box in style.css (or maybe in functions.php) and give it the right color.

I have heard that google only allows three ads per page. My theme doesn't allow separate pages of the same category! So I have 5 posts (and more to add) with 4000 words and can only have three google ads. Is there any way around this?

That's odd. You should be able to adjust that in Settings>General>Reading to say how many posts appear on a page. You could add this to the bottom of a page: . If your entire post appears on category pages, how about changing the_content to the_excerpt on the archive page?

Finally, I have Kontera ads on my site, the problem is that I only have two! Out of 4000+ words, I have asked twice for an increase in the ad density and Kontera have agreed. But still I only have two Kontera txt ads. Have you got any ideas or advice here?

Also try using the widget logic plugin which allows you to control on which pages or posts specific ads appear.

Finally, how do I increase my sidebar so that it's longer? My tag cloud has about 25 relevant and related keywords but that takes up half of my sidebar!

Just add minimum height to the div in style.css that corresponds to your sidebar, whatever your theme calls it (varies from theme to theme)

.sidebar
{
width: 600px;
min-height:430px;
}

The theme is quadro theme for wordpress

I have wordpress.org

Thanks very much and I hope you can help!

I haven't used this theme, so can't offer anything more theme specific. Hope I helped a little.

[Keeslover]

I'm trying to do a PHP redirect from a page on my site to an affiliate link. When I went into cpanel to do the redirect, I thought I was following instructions to do a 301 redirect but it didn't redirect. I have a WordPress site installed, and I created a separate page (excluded it from the menu so it's hidden). Didn't know if I should have used the wild card, so tried it both ways...no dice.

Thank you for any help. I know I'm missing some small thing.

Melody

[thunderbird]

You should be able to do it with this plugin:
WordPress › Page Links To WordPress Plugins

Here's another plugin that could help in accomplishing that task:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

[Istvan Horvath]

Originally Posted by JELL

I have heard that google only allows three ads per page. My theme doesn't allow separate pages of the same category! So I have 5 posts (and more to add) with 4000 words and can only have three google ads. Is there any way around this?

1. That's not a "hearsay" - it's G. Adsense rule! Read always the terms before putting anything on your site/blog...
2. As it was said - the number of posts displayed is up to you > Settings > Reading.
2a. And what thunderbird said about using the more tag or the_excerpt.
3. WP doesn't allow you to have "separate pages" for the same category, because it doesn't make sense. However, if you have set your blog to show 7 posts on multipost view... and you have 29 posts - they will show up on 5 pages: 7+7+7+7+1 (with a Newer posts - Older posts link pair at the bottom). Regardless, the max 3 ads on one page will still apply, i.e. you will have 5x3 ads

[clarissa25]

hi there. I have a question. I hear theres this thing called "meta tags" do I need to do something to meta tags to improve my seo even if I have the all in one seo plugin installed? If so what is the easiest way to work with wordpress meta tags? I've seen some plugins, but not sure if it's even necessary to use them or what I should exactly be doing with meta tags.

[thunderbird]

Yes, All in One SEO is a good wp search engine optimization plugin (as are Platinum SEO and Headspace 2) and it takes care of the meta tags. It's best to fill in the All In One plugin description to succinctly state what your articles contain, rather than having it automatically grab the first paragraph of your articles.

Quality contents is the most important thing for SEO. Also, including subheadings, lists, bold, and italics in your articles (in ways that make article contents' meaning more clear) may help search engine response (how they respond gets readjusted all the time).

After that, SEO can be improved by such things as sharing links on relevant sites, rss feed submissions, publishing unique articles at such places as hubpages.com or blogger.com with links back to your site (not just home page), signature links, video submissions, images that can appear in google images.

[clarissa25]

Originally Posted by thunderbird

Yes, All in One SEO is a good wp search engine optimization plugin (as are Platinum SEO and Headspace 2) and it takes care of the meta tags. It's best to fill in the All In One plugin description to succinctly state what your articles contain, rather than having it automatically grab the first paragraph of your articles.

Quality contents is the most important thing for SEO. Also, including subheadings, lists, bold, and italics in your articles (in ways that make article contents' meaning more clear) may help search engine response (how they respond gets readjusted all the time).

After that, SEO can be improved by such things as sharing links on relevant sites, rss feed submissions, publishing unique articles at such places as hubpages.com or blogger.com with links back to your site (not just home page), signature links, video submissions, images that can appear in google images.

so are u saying that i don't have to worry about metatags at all with wordpress? and should I be bolding some of my words in the posts? should I get platinum seo and headspace 2?

[thunderbird]

I meant to say:
1. fill in the details of All in One SEO below your posts after you write them with page title, description, keywords. That said, All in One SEO will provide meta contents, if you don't, but it is better if you do fill in the boxes. (Note: After activating All in One SEO, one will need to configure it first.)
2. Provide quality contents. Ultimately search engines are configured so people get what they are actually searching for vs spammy sites (or keyword-stuffed gibberish)
3. Just use one of the WP SEO plugins, whichever you prefer. All in One SEO is fine.
4. Adding subheadings or bolding words should be done "organically." That is, it should actually enhance the article and make its meaning more clear.

[uclaboyz]

Originally Posted by KaylaB

Thanks Thunderbird. I looked at ThemeHybrid briefly earlier today, but will need to take a better look. The price certainly seems right!

Also, have a look at:

Premium Wordpress Themes | Elegant Themes

$19.95/year - you simply can't beat this value!