Blogger vs WordPress Blog

If you are an SMB owner with a small website reading this, chances are you started out with a WordPress site to make the process quick, easy and ready-to-roll.

It's not without reason that a little over 4.5% of all sites on the internet are built on WordPress. The beauty of WordPress is not in being a free platform (though I love that aspect of it, for sure!) What makes WordPress stand out from other website platforms is the seemingly limitless number of apps and plugins that are built just for WordPress.

This mind boggling library does not only make life easier for webmasters who use WordPress, but also makes sure visitors have a superlative, smooth user experience. Here are a handpicked collection of just WordPress plugins that each enable you to complete a specific and essential online functionality.

Allow Social Login

Does your site ask users to create an account and log in to access all your services? Make life easy for your users by incorporating a social login option into your site; users can sign in with the credentials of any of their social media accounts and essentially pair their social media profiles to their user profile on your site. As the site owner, you get access to your users' social media data and get to know them even better.

I love the JanRain social login plugin for its comprehensiveness. It allows users to access your site via more than 30 different social media platforms. Users logged in with a social media platform can also comment freely on your site with their social profile as the identifier. Sharing is made easier by allowing users to share content from your site to at least 4 different social networks simultaneously, thus multiplying engagement rates on your site.

Sell Online

A WordPress blog that you've built and nurtured over the years is a perfect candidate for being taken to the next level: monetization. Capitalize on all the TLC you've put into your site by turning it transactional and making some moolah out of it. I'm not even talking about transforming your blog into an ecommerce site. You could do that of course, but if being an online merchant is not one of your life goals, you can always sell your expertise in the form of an ebook or a whitepaper via your blog.

The Shopify "Buy" button gets my vote for being quick to setup, super simple to integrate and inexpensive to boot. It comes with the entire ecommerce muscle of Shopify behind it, so you can change the scale of your selling ambitions anytime you feel like it. The plugin supports over 70 different payment gateways and a wide variety of currencies, so you can be an international seller in minutes.

Offer Personalized Content

Personalization has become de rigueur for websites of all shapes and sizes in the last couple of years. Thanks to pioneers in content personalization like Amazon and Google, users expect to see content that is suited to their tastes and past behavior on every site they visit, no matter what its size or scale.

What was once a tall order is now just a plugin away! InSite is a personalization plugin that allows WordPress site owners define hundreds of different situations where content that is most relevant to the user is displayed on the site. This could take many different variations. Greet a returning customer with a specific welcome back message. Or remind them of the last items / articles they browsed. Show up content related to the article a visitor is currently reading. And so on. The more relevant your website is to a visitor, the more likely is she to convert and return over and over again.

Optimize for Mobile

We know that there are more mobile internet users today than desktop users. Unfortunately, the number of sites with responsive WordPress themes, or even the total number of responsive sites on the web, *still* does not reflect this reality. A substantial number of WordPress sites still fall back on non-responsive themes as they often do not find all the features they need in the limited number of ready to use responsive themes available.

Enter WPtouch. This awesome plugin turns your regular, plain-Jane WordPress site into a sleek mobile optimized site in no time. WPtouch comes with a range of built-in mobile optimized themes to pick from, which are lighter and quicker to load than traditional responsive themes. Instead of loading all the pieces of content on your site regardless of the visitor using a mobile or desktop device, WPtouch prioritizes content display for mobile devices and displays only mobile-optimized content like responsive images, making site load times lightning fast. Not only does it offer its own themes, it also turns non-optimized themes mobile-friendly with one click.

Let Users be Heard

Most websites tend to be one-way channels in which business owners or bloggers convey their messages to visitors and expect them to respond by visiting them again or by buying something from them. However, this approach leaves a user out in the cold. They end up with no way to convey their opinions to the people that matter and soon lose interest in such sites.

An interesting way to keep your users engaged and allow them to voice their opinions is via regular polls and surveys on your WordPress site. TotalPoll offers WordPress site owners a simple yet extremely versatile poll plugin they cannot pass over. Not only can you put your own branding on polls created using the plugin, you can even add images, videos and HTML code to your polls to make them more enticing. TotalPoll's polls are SEO friendly, helping search engines comb through the poll itself to improve your search rankings. They are also cheat-proof by incorporating various layers of authentication to prevent any funny business.

Wrapping Up

Picking WordPress to build your site is a smart decision to begin with. Kudos on that. A smarter move would be to make full use of all the flexibility that comes with being a WordPress user and take your website to the next level.

Source: 5 WordPress Plugins to Make your Site More Fabulous

As a postscript to the saga involving Petroceltic and its attempt to shut down a critical website, a curious email from the anonymous blogger landed in the inboxes of journalists this week. "My job will end. Yours begin NOW," it read.

The company last week succeeded with a court attempt to force the US company behind Wordpress to remove the blog, which made a number of serious accusations against Petroceltic, which denied them and said they were defamatory.

The email from the anonymous blogger gave journalists the logon and password for the administration of the site. It exhorted the media to press Petroceltic on its response to the detail of the allegations in the blog. "You're the journalists, I'm merely the person pointing you where to look."

Wordpress has about 10 days to fulfil the second part of the court order obtained by Petroceltic – to identify the mystery owner of the paid-for blog.

Source: One More Thing: Petroceltic critic hands over blog keys

Hot Off the Press Get Up to Speed at learn.wordpress.com

Krista

Aug 26, 2015 @ 4:00 pm

Resources

Customization, quick-start guide, WordPress.com education

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Source: Get Up to Speed at learn.wordpress.com

WordPress.com has a new action bar, which makes it easier for readers to follow blogs of interest and for bloggers to make changes to their own sites.

If you're a blog visitor, and you're on a WordPress.com blog that you're not yet following, you can click the "Follow" button that appears in the bottom-right hand corner so new posts from that blog will appear in your WordPress.com Reader. If you click on the three dots that appear on the button, you'll get more options such as the ability to add the blog's theme to your own blog, copy the shortlink, report the content, or manage the sites that you follow.

If you're on one of your own pages, you'll have "Customize" and "Edit" options. You can use these to go to the customizer where you can adjust your site's appearance, change themes, change settings, etc, or go to Edit to make changes to your actual content.

The action bar will appear on the desktop, tablets, and smartphones. You can minimize it if you don't like it.

Images via WordPress.com

Source: WordPress.com Gets A New Action Bar

If you're in charge of marketing at a small or a medium sized company, you have enough on your plate to work on, and troubleshooting your website shouldn't be one of them. That's why you need to build your website on a platform that allows you to easily design according to your organizations brand standards, manage your content, and make modifications without diving into code. WordPress is the world's leading content management and blogging platform and helps you accomplish all of that, plus its themes allow you to customize and build a site suited to your needs.

Picking the right WordPress theme is crucial to your websites success; there's a lot to think about and consider. After all, most people come to your website to learn about what you offer, get contact information, or to make a purchase. The right theme makes a great first impression, delivers a good experience, and helps your visitors do what they need to do. Most importantly, it helps you achieve your business goals.

Before deciding on the right theme for your website here are a few things you need to consider.

Website Goals

The right WordPress theme closely aligns with your websites goals.

What is the main purpose of your website? Is it to provide information about your product? Generate leads? Generate sales?

Clearly defined goals help you narrow down the type of theme most appropriate for your website. If your only goal is to build authority and provide information, your theme selection criteria differ from using your site as an online store.

Current and Future Needs

A good way to think about your next theme is to consider if it will serve your needs today, next month, and next year.

Review the theme's update history, and make note if it has been able to keep pace with web design, digital marketing trends and technological innovations.

When Google explicitly stated that they would promote mobile friendly sites in mobile search, was your theme already mobile friendly? Or did you have to wait for the developer to release a mobile friendly version?

Look for themes developed by those who submerse themselves in latest technologies, who keep innovating and are able to gauge and understand how users interact with the web.

Your Web Development Skills

Developers are constantly improving their themes, and not just to make your site look and work better but to make it easier to customize without knowing code.

If you have web development skills you already know how to push the limits of your website theme and make custom modifications. But if you lack these skills, fear not. Many of the most popular themes come with enough options to make your site look truly unique.

Seek out themes that will allow you to do what you need without digging into code, so you can be in control of customization.

Access to Developers

If your website needs go beyond the theme's customization options, make sure you have access to the skills of a web developer or at least a budget to outsource any work. Otherwise you need to make compromises with the theme limitations and revise your website needs.

SEO

SEO is a beast. With over 200 known ranking factors, you need to select a theme that is SEO friendly. With so many ranking factors, it's unrealistic to go through every one and test each theme against every item on the SEO list.

Instead, stick to the top themes that have been tried and tested by other users. Read the theme descriptions and look for details mentioning how exactly the theme is SEO friendly. Look for things like: fast page load speeds, mobile friendliness, quality code, security, and if it is built with up to date technology. These details reveal and gauge the theme developer's commitment to SEO.

Customizability

Most popular themes are loaded with all kinds of bells and whistles. It's nice to have options and settings at your disposal, but you also need to consider their ease of use.

When choosing a theme, ask a developer to grant you access to an admin panel to test drive the theme. Have your needs list ready in hand and go through the admin panel to see if you're able to customize the theme according to your website specs without having to dig into code.

Speed

Speed was mentioned earlier, but it deserves its own section. It's impossible to stress enough how important website speed is. It allows search engines to crawl and index your pages faster, and it provides a good user experience.

If the page loads too slow users bounce and move onto your competitor's site.

If you can't remember the last time you waited more than five seconds for a page to load, neither can your potential customers.

Mobile friendliness

Your website needs to be mobile friendly.

As the smartphone market continues to grow so does the amount of mobile web browsing. Many of us use our phones and other mobile devices to access the internet not just while waiting in line, but as a primary device to browse and communicate with others.

On top of that, Google recently made mobile friendliness a ranking signal. This means that during a web search done on a mobile device, Google favors mobile friendly results.

Design

Ever hear the old adage you don't get a second chance to make a first impression? When you attract new visitors to your website you need to make them stay there.

One way to accomplish this is with a good design and layout. I'm not saying you need to hire an award winning art director to dazzle visitors with glossy graphics and HD videos, but you need to create a pleasant user experience. Some themes are too basic and uber-modern, others are just too cluttered. Find a happy medium that meets your website wishlist, compliments your brand and can help you fulfill your website goals.

Integration with other software

A WordPress theme can't do everything alone. Most websites running a WordPress theme have third party plugins and integrations powering many of their functionalities. Everything from social share counters to lead capture forms are powered by third party plugins.

When testing and evaluating a theme investigate whether your current integrations work with it or what needs to be changed.

Support

Technical support is one of the most important considerations you need to make when purchasing a new theme. It may not be a critical factor if you have a dedicated developer on your team, but if you're a solo marketer in your organization technical support is a must have.

Look for developers that provide a dedicated support channel, be it forums or a direct email address. Depending on the complexity of your theme and your web development skills, it's worth upgrading to premium support if available.

Reviews

Reviews are critical deciding factor. Don't just look at the star ratings; actually read the reviews, both negative and positive. Learn what others like about the theme, dislike, challenges to its use, and where improvements can be made.

Pay attention to developers responses. How do they respond to the reviews? How quickly? Based on their responses would you want to do business with them? Do you feel confident they're able to provide you with the support you need?

You can even take it a step further and reach out to other users to get their feedback directly.

Theme updates

WordPress developers are constantly innovating and updating the platform to include the latest features, bug fixes, and security updates. Is the theme you consider to purchase just as consistent? Will the theme be updated in time for the next WordPress release? Sometimes small releases don't affect theme functionalities, but as technology gets more advanced you can assume that your theme may lose some functionality.

During your evaluation process review the update history of your shortlisted themes. Learn how often the theme was updated, what goes into the updates, if it was updated before or after a major WordPress update, and what impact the update has on your theme setup.

Next Steps Where to Buy

A good place is ThemeForest, where you can browse through 5400+ themes. You can search by keywords, browse theme categories, and filter by ratings and number of sales to help you narrow down options. But ThemeForest isn't the only place to find good themes. There are many other theme shops that are often run by the developers themselves such as StudioPress and Woothemes.

Try Before You Buy

WordPress themes are relatively inexpensive, but your time and resources could run high if you pick a theme without testing it first. All themes have demos of their capabilities and most of the time the demo is what the site would look like to a visitor; rarely you'll get access to the admin panel. Although many developers will go into great detail about administrator and customization options in their theme description and provide screenshots, its important to inquire about admin panel access. Sometimes developers already have a demo admin account for you to login to but they do not advertise it. If they do not have the option, inquire about previous versions of the theme for you to test drive on your own development server. Having a hands-on trial with the admin panel gives you a sense of how much effort you need to put into making the theme fit your website needs list.

Picking the right WordPress theme is crucial to your websites success. Consider all of the points discussed before committing to a theme. There isn't a theme that's strong in every area. Sometimes you have to give up on excessive customizability for lightning fast speed, or choose a prettier theme but give up some speed. It doesn't matter what you favour or give up as long as your site performs better tomorrow than it did yesterday.

Next Read:

Image source: Pexels

Source: A Marketer's Guide To Choosing A WordPress Theme

Automattic, the Californian company behind the world's most popular blogging site, Wordpress, has finally removed an anonymous site that was allegedly defamatory of an Irish exploration company, avoiding potential fines of up to €100,000 per day and possible legal action against its directors.

Justice John Hedigan warned the company on Friday it faced the "most serious consequences" if it did not comply with an order given by the High Court on Thursday to remove the material concerning Petroceltic International.

He gave Automattic and its Irish subsidiary until Monday to comply with the order, following complaints to the court on Friday from lawyers acting for Petroceltic, who sought the fines.

Automattic has several weeks to comply with a separate order to identify the blogger.

Allegations of fraud The allegedly defamatory material, which made serious allegations of fraud and mismanagement against Petroceltic – all strongly denied – was no longer available on Sunday on the Wordpress-powered blog, Exposure and Truth.

The site had been replaced with a note from Wordpress saying it had been "archived or suspended for a violation of our terms of service", although there was no mention of the court order.

The note also did not specify which specific term it violated, although Wordpress users must sign up to a commitment to indemnify Automattic from any claims and expenses it incurs as a result of the activities of those who use its software.

Automattic declined to comment on the court orders.

Dissident shareholder Petroceltic is preparing for a showdown next month with Worldview Capital, a dissident shareholder that owns 29 per cent and which has called for clarity over some of the claims that were made in the blog.

A shareholders meeting is scheduled to take place in Dublin next month.

Source: Automattic removes blog commenting on Petroceltic

The US owner of investor blogging site WordPress.com has been directed by the High Court to identify the author of allegedly defamatory material posted about the Irish-based exploration company, Petroceltic International, and two of its executives.

Auttomatic Inc, which owns the world's most popular blogging software, was also ordered by Ms Justice Marie Baker to delete the blogger's "blatantly untrue" remarks about the company and CEO Brian O'Cathain and its financial chief Tom Hickey.

Petroceltic, which is headquartered in Dublin, has welcomed this decision and said it would consider all legal options upon receipt of the information.

Barrister for the company and its two executives Bernadette Quigley told the court the blogger had threatened to post further allegations on the site.

"The allegations posted by the so-far unidentified blogger are entirely unsubstantiated and blatantly untrue," Ms Quigley said.

Barrister Ronan Lupton, counsel for Aut O'Mattic A8C Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of Auttomatic Inc, told the court his client had not published any defamatory material on any website and should not be before the court.

Later Judge Baker heard that the US parent company, Auttomatic Inc, could be joined by consent and it was against this company that the court made its orders.

Ms Quigley asked the court to grant an order restricting reporting of the case but Judge Baker refused.

She said she did not think any responsible court reporter would make references to the user name or alleged defamatory material that had been posted on the net.

Mr Lupton said the Irish Times had 14 hours earlier published a story to the effect that his client, Aut O'Matic A8C Ireland, the Irish unit of Wordpress's US owner Automatic was being sued by Petroceltic.

Ms Quigley told the court that nothing had been disclosed to the Irish Times by her side.

Earlier she told the court that the blogger, whose remarks or username are not being reported, obviously had to pay to post his blog and therefore his identity had to be known to the owner of the site.

The proceedings have been adjourned until 8 September.

Source: Court orders owner of defamatory Petroceltic blog to be identified

(Newswire.net -- August 22, 2015) --With more than 78 million Wordpress sites, bloggers and writers that write independently on a world-wide basis, its very easy to get overlooked by the mainstream media and become lost in all of the competition to be heard and seen. With traditional advertising budgets as they are, the new online digital platform makes it easier for writers and bloggers to gain access to what was normally only available to advertisers and media professionals with deep pockets. The social media platform has now leveled the playing field, making it equally accessible for all who want to participate. But sadly enough, there are still millions of independent bloggers and writers who just don't have the time or the know how to maximize their marketing and media efforts and get the most out of the social media platforms.

As an author or blogger, what do you do to get your newsworthy event or new product or service out before the media? Are you maximizing all that the social media platforms have to offer, or are you an overlooked long-ranger - continuing to go solo? None-the-less, did you know that you can now combine your social networking efforts with millions of others on a syndicated platform that will allow you make more challenging media related tasks take place with ease? Now, with the new PressRoom by Newswire, you can have your very own online press room by using a software program that allows users to turn their underutilized website into a full blown media room. With fully optimized software that allows you to both publish and manage content, you can easily integrate it to the WordPress application.

Maximizing Your Media and Broadcasting Efforts

You will find that this service will eliminate the fruitless endeavors associated with going it alone with respect to attempting to promote yourself independently through your own efforts.

Features and Benefits

Writers and bloggers can now report the news on a reputable platform and reach a much wider audience while being affiliated with credible broadcasters and media professionals.

PressRoom by Newswire also has built-in features and benefits, such as general ethics policies that are built right into the process, an editorial and review process as well as a distribution platform. Its distribution platform also allows you to both publish and distribute your press release on a world-wide basis.

You can also gain access to an online press pass that can be verified, with press pass credentials that PressRoom by Newswire makes available to independent journalists.

Another benefit includes having access to centralized online editors and the ability to have all approved articles obtain direct publication on Newswire. This process drives targeted keyword generated traffic to Newswire's syndication network.

Additionally, writers and bloggers can now submit their Wordpress blog to their accounts on the Newswire platform, and, upon approval by the editors at Newswire, the blog or article will be syndicated through their network. This will make the voice of the independent blogger or writer louder than doing it on their own.

In essence, the PressRoom by Newswire provides a platform for independent writers, bloggers and journalist to broadcast from.

Technical Capabilities

The PressRoom by Newswire also allows you to have many layout options and content blocks in your choice of colors, fonts and styles. Including borders, headers and footers, background colors as well as other capabilities.

Just imagine how convenient it will be for those who want to write about your book, article or blog. All they have to do is take advantage of your brand new media press page – it will be a very welcoming experience for today's top P/R professionals and marketing experts. To that end, when functioning properly, your media press room can work while you're sleeping. That's right, this software works around the clock, 24/7, making it even easier for others in different time zones.

Other advantages to utilizing this platform is the different plug-in features that it offers, such as the plugin content creation interface that includes image albums, press releases, text, content, link, social media, quote and embed blocks. An even greater thing about it is that you can actually organize your content any way you like and create as many blocks as you want.

In addition to all of the other benefits, this platform will provide much more visibility and exposure to your site through search engines. It will also tremendously increase traffic to your website, and best of all, key journalist can easily find the information that is needed to write about you and your writing and blogging business.

Lastly, one of the greatest benefits of using this platform is that you will be associated with some of the best news writers and journalists in the industry. Case and point, you wi ll be in very good company as you combine your social media efforts with PressRoom by Newswire.    

Source: Take Wordpress to New Limits With PressRoom by Newswire

The US owner of investor blogging site WordPress.com has been directed by the High Court to identify the author of allegedly defamatory material posted about the Irish-based exploration company, Petroceltic International, and two of its executives.

Auttomatic Inc, which owns the world's most popular blogging software, was also ordered by Ms Justice Marie Baker to delete the blogger's "blatantly untrue" remarks about the company and CEO Brian O'Cathain and its financial chief Tom Hickey.

Petroceltic, which is headquartered in Dublin, has welcomed this decision and said it would consider all legal options upon receipt of the information.

Barrister for the company and its two executives Bernadette Quigley told the court the blogger had threatened to post further allegations on the site.

"The allegations posted by the so-far unidentified blogger are entirely unsubstantiated and blatantly untrue," Ms Quigley said.

Barrister Ronan Lupton, counsel for Aut O'Mattic A8C Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of Auttomatic Inc, told the court his client had not published any defamatory material on any website and should not be before the court.

Later Judge Baker heard that the US parent company, Auttomatic Inc, could be joined by consent and it was against this company that the court made its orders.

Ms Quigley asked the court to grant an order restricting reporting of the case but Judge Baker refused.

She said she did not think any responsible court reporter would make references to the user name or alleged defamatory material that had been posted on the net.

Mr Lupton said the Irish Times had 14 hours earlier published a story to the effect that his client, Aut O'Matic A8C Ireland, the Irish unit of Wordpress's US owner Automatic was being sued by Petroceltic.

Ms Quigley told the court that nothing had been disclosed to the Irish Times by her side.

Earlier she told the court that the blogger, whose remarks or username are not being reported, obviously had to pay to post his blog and therefore his identity had to be known to the owner of the site.

The proceedings have been adjourned until 8 September.

Source: Court orders owner of defamatory Petroceltic blog to be identified

Petroceltic International, the Dublin-headquartered exploration company, is taking a unit of the company behind Wordpress, the world's most popular blogging software, to the High Court in an attempt to unmask the anonymous author of a site critical of Petroceltic's management.

Petroceltic, together with its chief executive, Brian O'Cathain, and its chief financial officer, Tom Hickey, this week filed a case against Aut O'Mattic A8C Ireland, the Irish unit of Wordpress's US owner Automattic.

The writ concerns an anonymously written site hosted on Wordpress called Exposure and Truth, which contains a slew of serious allegations against members of Petroceltic's management team, board and advisors.

Algerian gas field The site went live last month, with a posting that focused on certain decisions taken by Petroceltic in relation to the development of its prime asset, the Ain Tsila gas field in Algeria. For legal reasons, it is not possible to repeat the detail of the unsubstantiated allegations.

When the company first became aware of the site shortly after it appeared, it is understood that Petroceltic's top management resolved to ignore it. Other commenters soon started posting on the site purporting to provide further information about the issues .

Over the following weeks, a series of further posts were made, making more specific and serious allegations against named members of the management team. It is understood that this escalation prompted Petroceltic to change course, and seek the removal of the material, which it considers to be defamatory and untrue.

Petroceltic recently engaged in correspondence with Automattic. It wanted the material removed and the identity of the author to be revealed.

When Petroceltic did not get the information it was seeking from Automattic, it moved to try and force its compliance through the courts. It decided to sue the Irish unit of Automattic because it understands that any Wordpress sites that originate from outside the US are hosted by this entity.

Petroceltic declined to comment, while Automattic had not responded to a request for comment from The Irish Times by last night.

Tendering process Separately, Petroceltic yesterday announced it has begun the tendering process for the construction of its gas field facilities at Ain Tsila, located in the Algerian desert.

This project has recently been at the centre of a dispute between Petroceltic and Worldview Capital, the company's biggest shareholder, which has called a shareholders' meeting next month to limit the ability of management to sell assets.

Source: Petroceltic sues Wordpress over blog criticisms

WordPress has released version 4.3 of its content management system, which is now available as an update in your dashboard.

Version 4.3 comes with several new options for easier customization — the most notable of which is the ability to modify navigation menus in the customizer.

Using the WordPress site customizer you can create menus, edit them, move menu items around, and so on, all while live previewing your changes as you go.

New formatting shortcuts have been introduced, which includes things list using asterisks (*) to create bulleted lists and number signs (#) to create headings.

WordPress has finally added the ability to customize browser icons — those little square icons that appear in browser tabs. The company has also made its platform more secure, if you forget your password WordPress will now send a reset link instead of sending a new password direct to your inbox.

A minor, but no less important change will see comments turned off on pages by default. Comments will now be confined to blog posts.

With this update one of the most widely used content management systems becomes even more user friendly. The new menu customizer will no doubt make a lot of site owner's lives easier.

Formatting shortcuts is a useful new addition, but it's a curious decision by WordPress to not just adopt [markdown formatting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown).

In markdown an asterisk is used to create italicized text, while in WordPress it's used to create lists. These sorts of things may end up being confusing to WordPress users who religiously write in markdown formatting, but that's just a small gripe about an overall sound update.

Editorial Credit: 360b / Shutterstock.com

Source: WordPress Version 4.3 Now Available: Here's What's New

If you have a website or blog on WordPress, a call-to-action plugin can help you grab the attention of your visitors and help them to take action. Use call-to-action elements to build your email list and convert more visitors into buyers.

Here is a list of call-to-action plugins for WordPress. There are smart popups, timed popups, exit popups, and opt-ins for email or content access. Most of these call-to-action plugins offer A/B testing, analytics, and integration with email platforms. Over half of the plugins are free.

Call-to-action Plugins for WordPress

Bloom Email Opt-In Plugin. This is an email opt-in plugin for WordPress. Target or exclude specific posts and pages, and display unique forms with unique offers based on visitor location and interaction. Access over 100 customizable templates. Employ pop-ups, fly-ins, inline forms, below content forms, widget area forms, and forms to unlock content. Price: $69 per year.

Bloom.

Easy Social Share Buttons. Easy Social Share Buttons allows you to share on more than 35 major social networks. It includes 18 automated display buttons, 7 shortcodes, 22 templates, and 12 native like, follow, and subscribe buttons. The social sharing plugin comes with 8 premium modules, including after share actions and social share analytics. Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress has extended integration with multiple ecommerce plugins for WordPress. Price: $19.

Opt-In Content Locker. Opt-In Content Locker is a plugin to lock important content on your WordPress website and display it only to subscribers. To view content, users must submit their name and email. After submission, locked content becomes visible. Submitted data is saved. Integrates with MailChimp, AWeber, GetResponse, iContact, Campaign Monitor, Mad Mimi, Benchmark, Sendy, and MyMail. Price: $15.

Hello Bar. Hello Bar is a simple and unobtrusive web toolbar that sits across the top of a website. It allows you to grab your user's attention and direct them to a call to action. Send subscriber data to your email lists in AWeber, Campaign Monitor, and MailChimp. Test and discover the messages that work best for your website visitors. Price: Free. Contact for premium pricing.

Hello Bar.

Exit Intent. Exit Intent provides a simple way to convert more visitors to buyers and build your email subscription list. Messages show up with a special offer at the moment a visitor is about to leave your site. Get a second chance to convince your visitors. Price: Free.

MailMunch. MailMunch lets you create multiple types of opt-in forms, including popups, embedded forms, top bars, and scroll boxes. Customize themes to match your site. Create different forms for different posts or pages. Easily A/B test and get full analytics and reports. Price: Free for 1 site. $6.30 per month for 3 sites.

WP Subscribe Pro. This plugin lets you choose a variety of different animation effects for popup display. Control how quickly, how often, and when a popup subscribe box should display, or exclude popups from certain posts or pages. Add custom HTML or shortcodes. WP Subscribe Pro supports FeedBurner, MailChimp, and AWeber. Price: $39.

WP Subscribe Pro.

Simple Side Tab. Add a "Global Call To Action" on your website. Simple Side Tab adds a vertical tab to the left or right side of the browser window that links to any page. The tab stays in place as your visitor scrolls down the page so it's always visible and ready for action. Price: Free.

WordPress Popup Plugin. WordPress Popup Plugin lets you create unlimited popups to increase your subscribers and leads. Show popups only when the visitor's scrollbar is at the end of the post or page content. You can also set trigger positions in your post/page content. Associate popups with specific categories, posts, pages, or after clicking on a link or image. MailChimp is supported in the free version. AWeber and Campaign Monitor are supported in the premium version. Price: Basic is free. Premium is $27.

Foobar. Foobar is a plugin for adding customizable notification bars to your blog or website. Display different notifications on different pages and define a default bar that will display on all your pages. Foobar features custom HTML or shortcode integration, RSS feed integration, unlimited Foobars, social network integration, and more. Price: $17.

Foobar.

PopupAlly. PopupAlly allows you to create signup forms quickly without code. Show a popup when someone arrives after a number of seconds, or right before someone leaves. Control layout and position of an opt-in. Create horizontal opt-in options, sidebar opt-ins, below-the-post opt-ins, and more. Embed opt-ins in your sidebar, header, footer, or anywhere on the page. Price: Basic is free. Premium is $97.

Scroll Triggered Boxes. With the Scroll Triggered Boxes plugin, boxes can slide or fade in at any point, containing whatever content you like. Customize the box appearance, animation, fading, and position. Price: Free.

WPCB. WP Conversion Boxes helps you to create email opt-in and call-to-action boxes to put almost anywhere on your blog or website. Choose from more than 60 templates. Apply smart popups, timed popups, and exit popups. Create multiple conversion boxes, each variation specific to the content of a select post or page. Use different boxes to target categories. Integrates with a wide variety of email service providers. Price: Basic is free. Premium plans start at $27.

WP Conversion Boxes.

Subscriptions. This plugin allows visitors to subscribe to new posts, or to follow a conversation on a post they've commented on. Subscriptions is part of Jetpack, a single plugin that gives you a variety of WordPress.com features. Price: Free.

Ultimate Social Media and Share Icons. Add icons for RSS, Email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and "share" (covering roughly 200 other social media platforms.) Pick from 16 different icon designs or upload custom icons of your choice. Customize animation, such as automatic shuffling and mouse-over effects. Give multiple actions to one icon. Price: Free.

Top Bar. This plugin adds a simple and clean notification bar at the top of your website, allowing you to display a message to your visitors, as well as a custom link. Price: Free.

WordPress Calls to Action. This plugin is from Inbound Now, which offers inbound marketing plugins and templates with a variety of integrations. Easily implement your own custom call to action design or use a library of custom call to action designs. Track conversion rates on your calls to action. Easily clone existing calls to action and run A/B split tests on variations. Price: Free.

WordPress Calls to Action.

Source: 17 Call-to-action Plugins for WordPress

The Press Information Bureau, under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday launched its blog to mark the country's 69th Independence Day.

The blog, https://pibindia.wordpress.com/ , currently has posts or articles by various Union Ministers such as Birender Singh, Minister of Rural Development and Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Environment and Forest, and by Ministries such as Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, highlighting the key achievements of the government.

A colourful factsheet on the governments activities is also embedded in the blog.

The move is a part of its overall shift towards more interactive social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,among others.

The initiative is an attempt to facilitate the qualitative flow of information to the concerned stakeholders such as journalists, citizens and keep them engaged with the government.

The blog can also be accessed from PIBs website, www.pib.gov.in, through the link on the homepage, Our Blog.

Source: PIB launches blog to mark 69th Independence Day

IANS

New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) The Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Saturday launched its blog to mark India's 69th Independence Day and ensure "qualitative flow of information".

 

The blog, https://pibindia.wordpress.com/, currently has articles by various union ministers such as Minister of Rural Development Birender Singh and Minister of State for Environment and Forest Prakash Javadekar.

It also has posts from the ministries of skill development and entrepreneurship, highlighting the key achievements of the government, a statement issued here said.

A colourful factsheet on the government's activities is embedded in the blog.

The move is a part of its overall shift towards more interactive social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the statement added.

 

© 2015 IANS India Private Limited. All Rights Reserved.The reproduction of the story/photograph in any form will be liable for legal action.

For news, views and gossips, follow @IANSLIVE at Twitter. Find us on Facebook too!

Update: 15-August-2015

Comments: [0]

Source: PIB launches blog to mark Independence Day

NEW DELHI: The Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Saturday launched a blog to mark the country's 69th Independence Day.

The blog, https://pibindia.wordpress.com has posts and articles by Union ministers of rural development Birender Singh and of environment and forest Prakash Javadekar and also other ministries highlighting achievements of the government.

A colourful factsheet on the government's activities is also embedded in the blog.

"The move is a part of its overall shift towards more interactive social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. The initiative is an attempt to facilitate the qualitative flow of information to the concerned stakeholders such as journalists, citizens and keep them engaged with the government," a statement by the Information and Broadcasting ministry, under whose aegis PIB functions, said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Prakash Javadekar,PIB,Birender Singh

Stay updated on the go wit h Times of India News App. Click here to download it for your device.

Source: PIB launches blog, ministries list achievements

Hot Off the Press New Theme: Independent Publisher

Ernesto Méndez

Aug 13, 2015 @ 4:00 pm

Themes

Themes

Previous Post Heather Matarazzo's Personal Stories from Inside and Outside Hollywood

Please do not use these comments for asking questions, support, or bug reporting. Use the forums or support contact form for that.

Please read our comment guidelines before posting.

Source: New Theme: Independent Publisher

Most small businesses struggle when it comes to technology and which platforms they should be using for their website. Just keeping up with the endless options is mind-numbing. Here are five reasons why WordPress sticks out as a publishing platform, including an infographic from our friends over at WPEngine.

1. WordPress is easy to setup and manage. You don't need to be an Internet expert or a HTML coder to use WordPress. If you put in the time, anyone can master WordPress, eliminating the need for hiring outside technical teams which can be expensive for a small business. There are countless guides and articles out there that cover everything from basic setup to advanced strategies to help your content stand out.

2. WordPress is a solution for your website and your blog.  WordPress started out as a blogging system, but has evolved into a full-blown content management system allowing you to manage your entire website and blog.

3. Thousands of website themes. Dealing with designers is difficult, using WordPress allows you to choose a template you like and easily customize it to fit your brand. Spending $50-100 on a professional theme is well worth it, check out ThemeForest (by far our favorite WordPress marketplace)

4. Plugins provide all the functionality you need. There are WordPress plugins for pretty much anything a small business would need for website functionality. No need to hire that custom programmer, just do a search for a plugin, install and go! Similar to WordPress themes, there are free plugins and advanced plugins you can purchase, which generally range between $20-$50.

5. Search Engine Optimization. Custom websites are hit or miss when it comes to SEO. WordPress is a great platform for search if combined with a solid content marketing strategy.

Check out the following infographic from WPEngine:

Source: Infographic: Why Companies Choose WordPress

WordPress is a powerful and widely used tool for building and managing websites and blogs. It's both free and open source, with a huge community of users worldwide. And with Microsoft Azure, you can deploy and configure your own WordPress website in minutes at no cost for students!

Before you get started, have you already activated your free Azure student subscription? There's no credit card required for students to get this great offer.

Okay, let's get started!

Go to the Azure preview portal:

http://portal.azure.com

and sign in with your Microsoft Account.

Select +NEW > Web + Mobile > Marketplace from the menu on the left. This allows us to create a new website based on an existing template. We are going to select the WordPress template from the marketplace:

There are multiple WordPress templates, but we want to use the basic one that works with your free Azure subscription. So type WordPress into the search filter to find all the WordPress templates in the MarketPlace, and then select WordPress from the results:

When you select WordPress you will see a description of the website created using this template. Select Create at the bottom of the page to start creating your website:

A WordPress blade will open up with several options including Web App, Database, etc. Start by selecting Web app and on the Web App blade enter:

Web app – specify a URL for your website (ensure you see a green checkbox in the textbox; this indicates you have entered a valid URL that is not already in use by another user. YOU WILL NEED TO REMEMBER THIS URL; this is the address of your new website! The website URL will be yourURL.azurewebsites.net

AppService Plan – Enter a name for the AppService plan that will be associated with your website

Pricing Tier – this determines the CPU, memory, availability, features and price of your web app. For now, select a Free tier. You can change it later if you decide you want to switch to a paid version.

Web app Settings – you can leave these at the default settings

Location – This is the physical data center where your web site will be hosted. Select a location that is geographically close to you for the best performance.

Select OK when you are finished entering the Web App settings

After you click OK, you'll be back on the WordPress blade. Now select Database and select New MySQL Database. On the MySQL Database blade enter the following:

Database – Select the option 'Create a new MySQL database' and give your database a name

Pricing Tier – This determines the maximum size, availability and price of your database. Select a free tier for now. You can change it later if you need more storage

Location – This is the physical data center where your database will be created. Select the same location as your website for the best performance

Legal Terms – Open the legal terms and select OK to select the conditions

Select Ok to save your database settings

Now back on the WordPress blade, specify the remaining settings:

Resource Group – when you create a service on Azure, it may require one or more components, for example when you create your WordPress site you create it with a database. The Resource group is a way of grouping related resources together

Subscription – This is the subscription to associate with the website. Select DreamSpark, which is the free student Azure subscription

Pin to Startboard – this creates a tile on your Azure home page that allows you to quickly access your new website

Then click Create to finish this blade:

You will automatically be returned to the Azure home page, where you will see a tile with the message "Creating WordPress".

After a few minutes, your website will be created and you will see the results summarized:

From the left navbar, select BROWSE ALL and then click Web Apps to see a list of all your web apps.

Select your WordPress web app:

Then click on the URL for your new WordPress site to navigate to your new WordPress website:

Because this is your first time visiting your WordPress website, you will now be prompted by WordPress to install WordPress and get it configured.

Select your installation language.

Specify a Site title, username and password to use in WordPress, then select the option to install WordPress.

When you get the message saying WordPress is installed, select Log In.

Use the username and password you just created to log into your new WordPress website so you can start editing the site.

You are now on the WordPress home page where you can start using the WordPress tools to create your website – hosted in Microsoft Azure!

Want to learn more about configuring your first WordPress site? Check out this great guide at WordPress.org.

Posted by Susan IbachTechnical Evangelist, Microsoft Canada

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Source: Creating a WordPress website with Azure

Blogging using wordpress blog development have immensely helped interaction worldwide, solve product related queries & impart valuable feedback that helps businesses improve their product offerings & services. WordPress Development & Word press customization have not only helped businesses but also individuals who want to share their views & thoughts wid different people. Being an open source blogging Content Management System (CMS), wordpress CMS development platform should be easily customized to suit different requirements including simple & advanced.                         � �                  WordPress was easy to install & was powered by Php & MySQL & should be fine tuned to big multinational corporations too. Wordpress development platform was used by milli

ons inn their day to day lives as it helps companies promote their brands inn cost-effective manner & facilitates posting latest press releases to keep customers informed about d latest happenings inn an organization. WordPress Customization through custom made wordpress blogs give rich features, graphics, themes, templates & much more.

 Choose reliable wordpress CMS development company having expertise inn offering solutions like PSD to WordPress conversion, wordpress blog customization, wordpress maintenance & much more. Reputed wordpress development companies also offer wordpress theme integration solutionswherein ready-made wordpress theme and template was installed & integrated into wordpress website/blog.  WordPress was highly acclaimed to its flexibility to integrate wid other open source software & third party applications. few off d highly sought after wordpress integration solutions include wordpress blog integration, wordpress php integration, wordpress magento integration, wordpress Joomla integration, wordpress plug-in integration etc.

 WordPress Development platform supports number off free as well as premium plug-ins & modules. WordPress plug-ins help inn search engine optimization, monitoring day to day traffic, adding videos, social media sites, podcasts, permalinks, pagination & much more. 

Source: Blog on WordPress Development —Better way to build interactive websites & blogs

Napa resident Dominique Gebru, a Peace Corps volunteer and youth literacy adviser serving in Jamaica, is a finalist in the Peace Corps' Blog It Home contest.

During her volunteer mission, which began in May 2014, she's maintained a blog about her experiences to keep family and friends up to date about her volunteer work. Out of 400 blogger submissions, Gebru's blog Two Years Pon Di Rock was ranked in the top 20 by the Peace Corps, qualifying it to advance to the public vote. Voting is now open on the Peace Corp's Facebook page, facebook.com/peacecorps. Voting concludes Monday.

As a youth literacy adviser, Gebru works at a small primary school helping its 130 students learn to read and write.

"I have done a lot of work with the school's library," Gebru said. "I added a kid-friendly classification system to replace the piles of mixed adult, children's, and reference books that we had when I arrived, and I have also successfully designed and implemented a student library monitor program to make sure that someone is helping the students check out books.

"This upcoming school year, I will be helping teachers to improve their literacy instruction tactics to include more games and other kid-friendly activities that will help boost students' confidence and ability."

Gebru is a 2008 Vintage High graduate. She completed her degree in international relations and history at UC Davis in 2012. Before joining the Peace Corps, Gebru worked in the medical field and volunteered at the South Napa Homeless Shelter. She's also volunteered with Camfed International and Ronald McDonald House Charities.

While serving in Jamaica, Gebru lives with a host family, which has provided a home away from home. In her spare time, she enjoys running and writing.

"Blogging has really helped me in a lot of ways during my service," Gebru said. "Jamaican culture can be really tough to encounter sometimes, but writing about it with the intention of sharing it with friends and family back home has really helped me to make sense of it.

"Writing gives me something to do when school gets cancelled due to heavy rain, it helps me keep my head up on the worst of days, and it helps me share my experience in this incredibly warm culture with the people I care about."

Read Gebru's blog at twoyearsponderock.wordpress.com.

Source: Napan's blog a finalist in Peace Corps contest

TrendsPosted at: Aug 8 2015 1:33AM Over the years, blogging has given its patrons much more than just a virtual space of expression. It has helped to build relationships, ever-lasting friendships and associations that otherwise would have been impossible to form

Vibha Sharma

Manasi has been waiting for the last weekend of August with almost bated breath. Her excitement is clearly palpable in the whole house. But this is not the first time it is happening; it is the annual feature since the last three years now. This is the weekend when she gets to meet her special friends who are equally, if not more, passionate about food. They, a group of seven, proudly call themselves 'Food bloggers of New Age'.They all hail from different parts of the country. A few years back they did not even know each other and had never met each other.It so happened that Manasi had started chronicling her journey in the world of recipes and flavours, on a blog. As she blogged more, she started visiting many other blogs in the same space. She used to leave comments on some of these and invited some others to her blog. The six of her these friends came in her contact through the virtual space that she had created through her blog. Gradually, their association bloomed to become much more than just an acquaintance to reach a stage where they share how they feel about their common interest — foods — like they do with nobody else.These seven know that they have a family other than their own families and in this special family they are connected through their shared passion which makes them food aficionados. Through their blogs they share their adventures and misadventures in the kitchen, their recipes, their analysis about various cuisines and restaurants.

What is it?

In very simple terms, a blog (short form for weblog) can be understood as an online personal journal or a diary which is usually frequently updated. It is a space where one can express oneself to the world - a place to share one's thoughts and passions. Actually, it can be anything that one wants it to be.Over the years, blogging has given its patrons much more than just a virtual space of expression. It has formed relationships, ever-lasting friendships, connections and associations that otherwise would have been impossible to form. In a way, blogging caters to the innate social nature of humans. Through blogging, one gets to make one's voice heard to the people who are interested. Thanks to internet, the same voice can potentially get a global reach easily.Some bloggers choose to chronicle their daily routine while many dedicate their blogs to a specific area of interest/hobby or passion. The blogs can be on as diverse topics as there are people in the world, ranging from - travel, music, sports, food, fashion, books, technical, personal, political, home décor, photographs to art and craft and much more.Anybody can blog and no technical knowhow is required in order to become a blogger. Easy to follow instructions make the task of setting up the environment of blogging a smooth sail. Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, Medium, LiveJournal, Weebly, Postach.io, Pen.io and Ghost are some of the websites which give one an option to create one's own space and to update the same as one wishes to.

Dynamic virtual community

Blogging is a vibrant world and great content is being created on a daily basis. Location and time do not pose any hurdle when it comes to any interaction within the blogging communities. While the platform is helping the bloggers to stay connected with the people who understand the language of the same passion, their spaces are working as great inspiration and motivation for the followers as well. If one is looking for some interesting art and craft ideas, one just needs to search online and umpteen blogs will be get listed where one can find the most creative ways to try something new.Many avid readers are regular bloggers who catalogue their views on the books that they read, comment on the story and the writing style of the authors. So if one is contemplating buying the newly released Scion of Ikshvaku, head on to some book blog and sure enough one will be able to take an informed decision about the book.Travel bloggers form another very lively community. These regular globe trot ters write about their sojourns with detailed information about the places they visit, sightseeing places, eating joints, must-see events along with breathtaking pictures. So before planning a holiday one can hop onto some travel blog to decide on where to go and how to plan the vacation to that place.People, who capture beauty of the world through their lens, feel that 'staying in touch with other photographers keep their creative juices alive.' Whether it is wedding photography or clicking candid moments, there is so much that one can try and do in visual arts. And thanks to many people who continuously share their work on the sites like tumblr, one stays vibrant with fresh ideas always.In fact, some early (to-be) mommy bloggers get the credit of making blogging world a happening place when they started sharing their pregnancy experiences with each other followed by their delivery stories and eventually parenting tales. Though they spent sleepless nights taking care of their infan ts, they were happy that they could share their woes and jubilations of motherhood with other mommies who were sailing in the similar boats. This association continued and once virtual friends eventually became life-long friends. Having kids with similar age groups helped them to stay connected as they moved from one growth milestone to the next, of theirs as well as those of their kids.Computer geeks share their codes with the programming community and interact with each other so even if one gets stuck somewhere while programming, there is enough help that one can get through the co-coders and their blogs.Many people already possess the raw material in terms of talent, interest and ability to work hard. Earlier, these individuals with similar profile progressed in isolation and on their own. But now easy access to what others are doing in the same field can work as great catalysts in progressing at an accelerated pace. And this exchange is mutual as we all are global citizens now. Everyone thrives for constructive feedback, acknowledgement and appreciation and if the same comes from those who actually understand the language of one's interest then nothing like it.Corporates/NGOs riding the blog wagonNot to miss the effective reach of blogs, many companies have been maintaining their blogs as well, which help them in two ways — one, to stay connected with their clients and followers relatively informally and two, to stay current in the memories of their followers by updating the blogs frequently. To entice more traffic on their blogs, they often conduct surveys and give-away contests so that audience stay engaged with them. Pratham books is a wonderful example as they have been using their blog to create much required awareness towards reading for all.While blogging is offering a win-win situation for many, yet as a responsible virtual citizen one should be careful how much is one sharing and to what extent because digital footprints last till eternity.
Source: Bonding over blogs

Mid-Del School Administration Building (Mark Hancock)

Rick Cobb's ideas were known for two years before they were actually connected to his real name. Starting in 2012, he was the anonymous author of the evocative issues blog OKEducationTruths.wordpress.com.

But he is anything but anonymous now.

This month, staff, teachers and students at Mid-Del Public Schools are getting to know him as their superintendent and no doubt will be addressing the Ph.D. as Dr. Cobb — and for good reason.

Reputation

Cobb has a reputation of listening and being highly interactive with teachers, according to Elise Robillard, President of The Education Association of Moore, the local teachers' union for Moore Public Schools.

In an interview with Oklahoma Gazette, she praised Cobb for his intellect and willingness to listen to those who are doing the work in the classroom.

"He does deep thinking about issues. But he doesn't get stuck in the thought," Robillard said. "Once he sees a clear picture of everything, he is willing to act. He loves innovation and creativity. If he can see how it's going to benefit kids, he's going to do it."

Challenges

Praising outgoing Superintendent Pam Deering, Cobb said finances are the biggest challenge for any school district in the state.

"From discussions with the board and Dr. Deering, the carryover amount is in pretty good shape," Cobb said. "But it's hard to keep it there with everything that has gone on over the last seven or eight years of funding in Oklahoma."

He also identified academic achievement as being a common concern for the leader of any school in the state.

"I know that Mid-Del has a lot of student achievement, but improving or keeping that in place is going to be one of the great challenges," Cobb said.

Anonymity

Being in such a public role now, it's hard to imagine that once upon a time, in addition to his very public work as an assistant superintendent in Moore, he was an anonymous education blogger and sometimes the bane of the top school official in Oklahoma.

In the 2010 election, dentist Janet Barresi became the first person in the state's history elected to the position of State Superintendent of Public Schools who was not credentialed as a certified public school teacher and administrator.

Critics of the state's public school system saw it as an opportunity to make needed reforms that would enable charter school development and a wider spectrum of education options, including religious schools.

But others, including those who spent years supporting public education, saw something else.

They saw too much change pushed through with too little explanation.

Where teachers and administrators had a simmering past of opposing one another, steadily increasing numbers now joined forces to oppose the new chief.

So a new model of education activism developed.

Teachers, administrators, parents and even the normally vanilla PTA came together in opposition of Barresi.

Anonymous blogger

An outlier among those who were doing education issues blogging at the time under real names, Cobb's insights overcame readers' initial caution toward an anonymous source.

The author of that blog knew a great deal about highly technical details of testing, curriculum, education data and the massive guts of public school administration in Oklahoma in addition to general education issues.

And the author knew that information and system so well that he could explain it clearly to anyone, even those parents who had no training in the education professions.

With his announcement and claim of ownership of the blog in January, everyone started to understand why those posts were so informative.

Cobb was the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Moore Public Schools, which he held until he was hired to be the superintendent of Mid-Del schools.

Cobb explained that he had watched some schools in Moore get the reward school designation, which he was happy about. But at the same time, he saw other schools that served large numbers of poor students receive failing grades.

"It was a pretty straight line between testing data and free and reduced lunches," Cobb said.

Intellect, influence

Angela Clark Little has become one of the better-known parent activists in support of public schools in Oklahoma. She traces her early influences to Cobb's work on his blog.

"He really opened my eyes to the real issues behind what's going on in education," she said. "With the media that we have in Oklahoma, we don't always get the truth."

Little said that Cobb's blog has been and still is a good tool beyond her edification and thinking about education issues.

"If I have to explain an issue to a parent, it helps to direct them to the blog to show parents what is happening," Little said.

Rob Miller, an education blogger and a new assistant superintendent of Sand Springs Public Schools, identified Cobb's passion and thinking about education issues in Oklahoma as one of the early influences in his becoming an education blogger.

In years past, it was assumed that teachers, and especially administrators, would be politically quiet and compliant.

Miller, formerly an active-duty Marine officer, characterized the approach as "being good soldiers."

"This is one of the problems in education," he said. "It's that teachers and administrators are good soldiers. We do what we're told."

But he and other administrators could see a new model for intelligent, respectful activism of administrators in Cobb's blog.

He and several other administrators are regular contributors to education debates in Oklahoma through their blogs.

Miller summed up Cobb's influence: "He was one of those trailblazers."

Print headline: Trail top, Rick Cobb goes from anonymous education blogger to superintendent of Mid-Del Public Schools.

Source: Education blogger is new superintendent of Mid-Del Public Schools

How much more successful would your business be if you could produce more content? While writing fast isn't all that matters (quality's important too!), the faster you can write, the more opportunities you'll have to get your message in front of an audience.

If you are a developer or an entrepreneur who struggles with writing, then here are the ten quick tips that I use to help me write faster blog posts that are actually good.

1. Separate Your Writing Process into Distinct Stages

I often notice that people try to write a blog post by staring at a blank page until they come up with an idea, then writing the first sentence (and rewriting it ten times).

It's much more efficient to break up the writing process into different stages:

Coming up with ideas (a pitch)

Doing research

Planning your blog post (or whatever piece of content you're writing)

Drafting the post

Editing the post

When it comes to ideas, research, and planning, try to batch tasks together: for instance, list ten ideas at once, or research three related posts so you don't waste time going back over the same material again and again.

I strongly recommend using the Edit Flow plugin for WordPress because it helps you create different stages that I mentioned above.

If you're having a hard time coming up with ideas, one of my sites, OptinMonster, has a list of 50 blog post ideas that you can write today.

2. Plan Every Post You Write

Don't skip the planning stage, even if you're a seasoned blogging pro. If you want to write fast and well, you need a plan.

This is especially crucial for ideas you're not sure about. Creating a plan can help you decide whether or not they're worth pursuing.

It might only take five minutes (or less) to jot down a few bullet-points for your post, but those points will keep you on track, so you don't waste time writing paragraphs of material that you later cut.

Plus, a plan will help motivate you to get going. If you plan your posts in advance, you're never starting with a blank page.

3. Write at Your Most Creative Times of Day

Some entrepreneurs are most productive and creative in the mornings; others prefer evenings. Whatever time of day works for you, use it. You might well find that an hour at your best time of day is worth three at your worst time.

If you're not sure when you're at your best, experiment with writing at several different times of day and see which feels most effortless to you.

If it's truly impossible for you to use your best hours (perhaps you're still working a day job), then make sure you're using the other tips on this list to really enhance the hours you do have.

4. Aim to Eliminate Interruptions

One of the key reasons why entrepreneurs struggle to produce content as fast as they want to is because their writing time gets interrupted frequently.

If you're always available for emails and phone calls and Skype chats and Facebook messages, you could easily find yourself spending all your writing time dealing with those tasks.

Eliminate as many interruptions as you possibly can. Switch off your phone, close your email program, use the WordPress distraction-free writing interface and shut your office door. If you're in an open-plan office, wear headphones – even if you're not listening to anything through them.

5. Draft the Whole Post Before You Edit It

When you're working on a blog post or other piece of content, it's very easy to start editing as you're going along. Perhaps you decide midway that you want to change direction, and you go back to the introduction to rework everything you've written so far.

Unsurprisingly, this seriously hampers your forward momentum and makes it difficult to ever finish everything. Instead, keep moving in the right direction: if you do decide to make major changes, jot down brief notes ("rewrite first three points to fit new title") and just keep going.

You can fix what needs fixing once the draft is complete.

6. Don't Stop to Look Things Up

Have you ever paused in your writing to look up a quick fact or URL only to find yourself aimlessly surfing the web twenty minutes later? When you get back to your post, you might spend several minutes trying to remember where you were going next. It's very easy to do, and it's incredibly disruptive to your writing.

Instead of stopping, make a note about what you need to know and just keep moving. If you want to link to a blog post, for instance, write "[ADD TITLE AND LINK]" and move on. You might want to highlight these sections so they're easy to spot when you edit.

7. Use a Checklist for Key Parts of Your Post

If you find yourself spending valuable writing time trying to remember the elements that should go in your post or newsletter – or valuable editing time fixing everything you accidentally left out – then try using a checklist.

For a blog post, it might look something like this:

Make title compelling

Begin post with eye-catching image

Introduction: start with question, quote, or bold statement

Main body: break into short paragraphs, use H3 for subheadings

Conclusion: sum up, add call to action

You might want to use a standard template for all your posts or newsletters – this doesn't need to be complicated. It helps you produce high-quality content even when you're in a rush.

8. Write in a Natural, Conversational Tone

Try to write your blog posts in an informal way – as though you're chatting to the reader over coffee. Although this can take a little bit of time to get used to, it's a much faster (and better) way to write than sounding stilted and formal.

If you find yourself struggling with this, pretend your blog post is an email where you're answering a fan's question. You don't need to use a fancy vocabulary or long, complex sentences – just write the answer in the words that come naturally to you.

9. Preview Your Post Before Editing

Have you ever published a post that you've carefully edited only to immediately spot several typos? Self-editing can be tricky. It's easy to miss mistakes because you know what you think you wrote.

Simply viewing your post as it would appear on your blog (previewing it) can help those mistakes leap out at you. It can also help you to sit back and see the bigger picture of your post.

You may need to make more significant edits than simply fixing spelling mistakes.

To make spell check easier, I use After the Deadline browser extension.

10. Start Your Next Post Before Stopping for the Day

If a lot of your writing time seems to get eaten up in "getting started", this should make all the difference. Instead of stopping for the day when you've finished the piece of content you're working on, start the next one.

This might simply mean copying your plan into a fresh document or post, and writing the first two lines.

Now when you start work the next day, you're already part-way through a post and you won't have your usual resistance to beginning. Use this technique before stopping for lunch or a break, too.

Which of these tips will you be trying out today? Which do you think will make the biggest difference to your writing speed – and writing quality? Let me know in the comments below.

You may also want to check out my 10 Two-Minute Tweaks to Instantly Revitalize Your Blog.

This post originally appeared on SyedBalkhi.com, and is re-published with permission.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Marta Paniti/Shutterstock.comIn-post Photo #1: Milanin tata/Shutterstock.comIn-post Photo #2: PathDoc/Shutterstock.comIn-post Photo #3: LiliGraphie/Shutterstock.comIn-post Photo #4: ChristianChan/Shutterstock.comScreenshot by Syed Balkhi. Taken July 2015.

Source: 10 Secrets to Writing Faster Blog Posts That are Actually Good

If you, or your business, run a self-hosted WordPress site then it's time to update.

It's only been a couple of weeks since the last security update for WordPress, but already new vulnerabilities have been found which could be exploited by malicious hackers to compromise your website.

In an advisory posted on WordPress.org, users were advised to "update their sites immediately".

Here is the skinny from the advisory:

This release addresses six issues, including three cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and a potential SQL injection that could be used to compromise a site, which were discovered by Marc-Alexandre Montpas of Sucuri, Helen Hou-Sandí of the WordPress security team, Netanel Rubin of Check Point, and Ivan Grigorov. It also includes a fix for a potential timing side-channel attack, discovered by Johannes Schmitt of Scrutinizer, and prevents an attacker from locking a post from being edited, discovered by Mohamed A. Baset.

The good news is that WordPress comes with the option of automatic security updates - hopefully meaning that less sites will be left unpatched than would have been the case in the bad old days (two years ago).

But, it is inevitable that some sites aren't using automatic updates for their own reasons, and may miss the news of this latest security release.

Fortunately, updating WordPress manually is easy. You just go to Dashboard → Updates and click "Update Now."

I do recommend, however, testing a new version of WordPress on a non-live version of your site before rolling out to the world - just in case any conflicts or problems arise.

Note: Sites running self-hosted versions of WordPress from WordPress.org are different from the many millions of blogs which run on WordPress.com. WordPress.com, run by Automattic, manages the installation of WordPress for you, and looks after security on your behalf.

Although there are some limitations on what website owners can do on WordPress.com, they can always be sure that they are running the latest version of WordPress.

Yes, just about everybody finds the names confusing.

About the author, Graham Cluley Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and gives presentations on the topic of computer security and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, Google Plus, Facebook, or drop him an email.
Source: WordPress 4.2.4 released, fixing critical security holes. Update immediately!

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Gil C/Shutterstock.com

A competent presence on the web is becoming more and more of a must.

It's a simple idea: The sketchier your company website or personal blog looks, the harder a time you'll have getting potential customers to take you seriously. 

WordPress has long been a go-to platform for both professionals and amateurs looking to easily create their own sites. It offers dozens of pleasant-looking templates at no cost, and while that's convenient enough for most, getting a more original layout can prove expensive.

The cost has been lessened a bit today, however, with StackSocial's aptly-named WordPress Theme Bundle. Like similar bundles we've highlighted in the past, this is a "Pay What You Want" deal — you can get a set of three themes for as low as $1.01, or a set of 12 for the average price paid. Right now, that's a hair under $8.

If you opt for the fuller selection, you get a series of designs that are each aimed at different kinds of businesses. "Invisi" and "Magma" are laid out for smaller web magazines and personal blogs, "Photex" is designed for art marketplaces, "Immensely" works for more traditional businesses, and so on.

Aside from looking sharp, the designs also adapt naturally to smartphone and tablet browsers. They usually range from $35 to $55 on their own, so there's some value here.

If you want change up the look of your blog, this could be a good place to start.

Pay What You Want: WordPress Theme Bundle, $7.92 (average price), available at Stack Social.

 

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Business Insider's Insider Picks team. We aim to highlight products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners, including Amazon. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Have something you think we should know about? Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.

Read the original article on Insider Picks. Copyright 2015. Follow Insider Picks on Twitter.

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Source: This $8 WordPress Theme Bundle will make your business website look more professional