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Should you Disable WordPress Trackbacks and Pingbacks?

Have you wondered about whether or not to disable your WordPress trackbacks and pingbacks? You can disable them since some people feel they aren’t really necessary. Trackbacks work to offer a clip of the blog after a comment is made which can increase readership while pingbacks work to display excerpts too but very few WordPress themes will actually display them.

How do you decide if it’s worth keeping them around? Are they helping your blog gain readers? Does the control you have behind the trackbacks and pingbacks make them okay? Here is a look at what you should know about trackbacks and pingbacks so that you can decide if they should be disabled.

The positives and negatives

On the positive side, your website will get mentioned on other websites which is great for your search engine rankings. It’s always great to increase your traffic because someone else mentioned your website to the world.

It’s great for the reason of increasing interaction on your site and it can encourage a healthy debate about opinions you’ve expressed on your blog. It’s handy too because you’ll know of any website linking to your content and potentially profiting off of some of the things you wrote together with other content they’ve used to create theirs.

The downside to trackbacks and pingbacks would be the huge level of spam you’ll see. You’ll see people pushing their own websites by using your website to propel their own sites. They do this by adding their site’s URL to other websites and it’s their attempt to push their site for search engine optimization. People add links and have good intentions but it becomes spam central because they are submitting URLs to thousands of sites.

If you have spam in your comments, you’ll have to moderate them which is a waste of time. In addition, you’ll have to moderate self pings as well. You can use an anti-spam tool to help some of the spam in your comments folder though.

Do I need them?

If you can remember a time when your blog sent an authentic trackback or pingback, it may be worth keeping. Most of the time, people aren’t seeing anything legitimate and it’s better to just disable it. They don’t add much value to your website and you’ll spend a lot of time moderating.

Unless you can see that it’s showing results and you don’t mind sorting through spam comments (even with anti-spam tools in place) on a regular basis, then you could keep them working and hope for the best. Most people find that it’s better to just disable them.

How do I turn them off?

You can turn them off in your WordPress menu by going to Settings and clicking on “Discussion Settings.” From there, all you have to do is uncheck the box that says “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks)” and that will take care of it.

For self pings, you’ll have to prevent them by unchecking the box that says “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article.” This will take care of the issue for all of your future articles but you’ll need to go the extra mile to take care of your previous posts. You’ll need to use a “Simple Trackback Disabler” to handle previous posts.

While spam tools can help the issues, in the end it’s probably not worth dealing with the massive spam issue and self ping problems that come with keeping your trackbacks and pingbacks functioning. Instead, just disable them and you’ll find that you’re wasting less time monitoring these common problems.

How to Select the Perfect WordPress Theme

The right theme can make a huge difference for your WordPress website/blog. When you want to find the perfect WordPress theme, it’s important to consider your industry/niche, SEO and a few other things.

Your WordPress theme is going to provide the structure and design of your new website. It will also play a role in your overall SEO profile. Here’s a look at some of the things you should consider before you choose a WordPress Theme for your new website.

Consider your Industry/Niche

Some of the themes, both free and premium, are designed for specific industries/niches. If you can find a theme that fits specifically with your industry/niche, it may provide design benefits you won’t get from another type of theme.

However, you don’t have to choose a theme specific to the subject of your site. Some themes can be modified to fit with your niche or industry by adding your logo and other images.

Simplicity is Always Good

There are thousands of free WordPress themes found online. When you try to sort through them, finding one that is simple will serve you better than a complicated one. The same goes for a premium theme and simplicity will make a difference.

A simple theme will be easier to work with, easier to customize and compatible with most browsers. It will also load faster, which helps your overall SEO profile.

Free vs. Premium Theme

A free theme has the obvious benefit of not costing you any money. However, it may not provide the best choice for your WordPress site. If you do decide to go with a free theme, make sure it comes from a trusted developer.

Premium themes come with support, more options and are often better designed. They will cost anywhere from $10 to $200, but it’s an investment in your site. You may not change your theme for a few years, so it’s a small cost to use a premium theme over the long term.

Some of the best places to find your new premium theme include:

ThemeLab
Elegant Themes
iThemes
StudioPress
Themify
Headway Themes

You can even use the option for a custom theme design from some of these premium providers.

How to Install your WordPress Theme

After you select the perfect WordPress Theme, you will need to install it. Here are step-by-step instructions to help you with the installation of your new WordPress theme.

Download the New Theme

Whether you buy a premium theme or use a free one, you will need to download it before you do anything else. It will download to your computer as a .zip file, which you will use to install it through your WordPress dashboard.

Upload Your New Theme

After you download your new theme, you will need to log into your WordPress dashboard and go to the Appearance tab. Find the “Themes” option and this will take you to a page that looks like this:

From here, you can click the “Add New” link at the top or the “+” Sign inside the dotted box that says “Add New Theme” to access the upload page. This will take you to a page that looks like this:

Now, you need to click the link at the top called, “Upload Theme” to access the upload page.

Just click the “Choose File” button, locate the .zip folder for your new theme and select it. Then, all you have to do is click the “Install Now” button and activate the theme when it has completely installed.

You are now all set with your new WordPress theme and you can start working on designing your website/blog.

How can you Get More People to Comment on Your WordPress Blog Posts?

When people start to comment on your WordPress blog posts, they become more popular and you may end up with a good debate or discussion. This makes the search engines happy and you may get a little extra love. If you want more comments on your blog posts, here are some ways to get them.

Avoid CAPTCHA and Use Comment Moderation Instead

CAPTCHA is great for blocking spam, but it will also keep some people from commenting. It’s not very user-friendly and it won’t help you get more comments.

Instead of using CAPTCHA, you can enable comment moderation to ensure you don’t end up with spam comments on your site.

Tell Users When they Get a Reply to a Comment

Often, people will comment and never check back for a reply. If you set up your site to send out notifications when somebody replies to a comment, you may get a full discussion. This is a great way to get more comments.

It’s very easy to notify users of replies in WordPress. They will receive an email letting them know there are new replies to their comment. Then, they just click a link and join the discussion they started.

Choose a New and Better WordPress Host

Did you know, comments can take up quite a bit of resources? When a person leaves a comment, it runs a PHP script. If multiple people are commenting, it could slow your site down, which doesn’t help with getting more comments.

Choosing a better hosting company for WordPress will give you the resources you need. With the right hosting company, you won’t have to worry about slow load times and you will get plenty of speed to handle WordPress comments.

Allow Subscriptions to Comments

By allowing users to subscribe to comments, they will be able to get notifications of new comments. If you don’t do this, the user has to bookmark the post and check it later, which rarely happens. Instead, you can allow subscriptions to comments, which will help increase your page views and comments.

Allow Comments on Older Pots

WordPress comes with a default setting to shut off comments after a post becomes so old. This is great for some sites, but if you want more WordPress comments, you need to shut this setting off.

Go to Settings>>Discussion and find the section called “Other Comment Settings.” Here, you will find an option for automatically closing comments on articles older than a specific number of days. Just uncheck the box and you’re all set.

Show your Recent Comments

Showing your recent comments will allow you to get more views on the comments left on your site. This makes it easier for new users to enter into the conversation.

To show the most recent comments, you can go to Appearance>>Widgets and add the “Recent Comments” widget to your sidebar or any widget-ready area.

Reply to Comments

One of the biggest mistakes WordPress bloggers make is not replying to the comments left on their site. When a real comment is left on a post, you want to reply to it quickly. This helps to get the discussion going and will keep users commenting on your posts.

There are several ways to get more user interaction on your WordPress website. If you want more comments left on your blog posts, use these tips and you will soon have discussions going on in the comments section.

Which Free WordPress Themes are More Like Premium Themes?

It’s always a good thing when you come across one of those gem WordPress themes that looks great, has the right layout and provides everything you need. However, these themes often cost more than you might be willing to spend. Every now and then, there’s a good deal or even a free theme that fits perfect.

Some free WordPress themes are just as good at premium themes, but they are not easy to find. Here’s a list of many different choices in free themes that will be more like a premium WordPress theme.

CreativeArt Theme

The CreativeArt Theme (http://www.freethemelayouts.com/showcase/creativeart-theme/) provides a great choice for your free theme. It works with the latest version of WordPress and comes with the PSD files. This theme is widget ready and provides a great choice for your blog.

Deskspace Theme

When you choose the Deskspace Theme (http://www.freethemelayouts.com/showcase/personal-WordPress-themes/deskspace-theme/) you will have a theme ready to make your WordPress blog look great. It’s an interesting free them with a stunning look.

Bueno

The Bueno Theme (http://www.woothemes.com/products/bueno/) comes from WooThemes, which is one of the most trustworthy choices for free and premium themes. This theme works with the WooFramework and provides one of the top choices for a free theme on the marketplace. The theme features a grid-based design with banner ad management, a widgetized sidebar, seven color scheme choices and more.

Mystile

Another free theme from WooThemes worth using is the Mystile Theme (http://www.woothemes.com/products/mystile/). This theme provides a free choice with a responsive design, a custom homepage design and much more. It’s easy to customize and it comes with WooCommerce Goodness.

Unstandard WordPress Theme

This two-column WordPress theme provides three widget areas to make it easy to customize. You can use the Undstandard Theme (http://5thirtyone.com/unstandard-wordpress-theme) free of charge and gain access to a very powerful theme choice.

Overstand

The Overstand Theme (http://www.fakeblog.de/2007/10/25/overstand-theme-fur-WordPress-23/#english) has been around for quite some time and provides a great choice for any time of blog site. It comes with multiple columns and gives you plenty of options for customization.

Imprezz

The Imprezz Theme (http://www.productivedreams.com/imprezz-a-free-WordPress-theme/) is a good choice from Productive Dreams. It provides a magazine type of theme with plenty of features. You can use a three-column or two-column design and it will work well with most plugins and widgets.

Compositio

Designed for bloggers, the Compositio Theme (http://designdisease.com/compositio-wordpress-theme/) is a great choice for a new WordPress site. This theme provides a two-column layout and provides a good choice for those looking to put their content in front of readers.

Color Paper

Color Paper (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/color-paper-a-free-wordpress-theme/) is a theme that has been around for quite some time. It’s a magazine style theme with plenty of high-quality features. The theme will give you a very professional look and provides clean typography. The design is vivid and perfect if you’re after a good free theme for WordPress.

Agregado

Another free theme worth checking out is the Agregado Theme (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/agregado-a-free-wordpress-theme/). This is a unique choice with plenty of features perfect for the new blogger. The professional theme has a built-in lifestream module and plenty of custom features.

There are several great free themes for WordPress that are more like premium themes. Whether it’s a theme that has been around a while and has been updated or a new theme from a top developer, some of the best free themes work as premium themes without the cost.

Consider any of these themes as your theme of choice and you will be ready to launch your WordPress website or blog without spending a dime on your theme.

5 Things You Need to Know Before You Consider Buying a Premium WordPress Theme

If you’re considering spicing up your WordPress site by buying a premium theme, this can be a really exciting way to personalize your space and make it unique to your blog. It can be tricky to navigate through all of your options as it seems that they are endless on WordPress. While there are tons of free options, the premium options simply offer more benefits and possibility.

Whether your free theme isn’t making the cut or you’d rather start off with something premium from the beginning, it’s a great time to make the change and know that your theme is going to come straight from a professional developer offering amazing support and features. Here is a look at the five things you should know before you consider buying a premium WordPress theme in order to stand out from the competitors, give your site an extra boost, and help you know how to determine if a theme is good.

Where to find them

 

You first need to know where to find these themes. There are two main places to find them which is through theme vendors, like a team of individuals you’ll buy it from, through the WordPress Directory of Commercial Themes.

This could be vendors such as Theme Isle or Graph Paper Press. Another route is the Theme Marketplaces, an online store where theme developers pay a commission on sales to the marketplace. It’s great because the highest quality ones are usually at the top and the low-quality themes will show a bad rating.

Popular places to buy themes include WooThemes, ThemeForest, WPMU DEV, Elegant Themes and MOJO Themes.

Where to avoid buying them

You’ll want to make sure you learn where to avoid buying themes. If you were to buy themes from these spots, you could end up with something low-quality or getting yourself hacked. Avoid a discounted or free download of a premium theme because it could end up as a costly mistake. Downloading a bad theme could have a malicious code built-in. Look out for spam sites offering themes for free because you could get hacked. Watch out for misspelled “WordPress” by substituting a lower-case “p.”

Learn about theme quality

 

You need to understand theme quality next. The top quality theme vendors are good at selling fantastic products and you find resources are making the right decision. You still need to understand things like their rating system, the comments sections, the support forums, and viewing the showcase or demo. If something has a ton of four and five star reviews, you should be fine to choose this one unless it’s simply not the right one for you.

Too many one and two-star reviews is a red flag. The comments section will explain what others’ experience was like while the support forums will show you whether people are getting a quick response to support requests and in-depth responses. Lastly, check out the theme’s showcase to see what others have done with the theme and it may help you with the decision.

What theme elements to look for

Make sure at the least, that your theme is standards-compliant, responsive, compatible, customizable, and will integrate with other WordPress plugins.

The extras

 

Lastly, there are some extras that you may run into during your search. If you need any of these bonus features, look for them before making your final decision. For example, many people like the support forums, tutorials, and education. Do they have a community like StudioPress? Do they have theme documentation to help you get your website up and running quickly?

Use these tips to make sure you are choosing the best premium theme for your WordPress site.

Which YouTube Video Gallery WordPress Plugins are the Best?

When it comes to YouTube gallery plugins there are many options to choose from. If your site is heavily concentrated with videos you will want to display them in a variety of ways. To add creativity and engage viewers the following are the best video gallery plugins available and all of them are free.

Envira Gallery

The best WordPress gallery plugin is Envira Gallery. Envira lets you produce galleries from your YouTube videos, Vimeo, Wistia and even self-hosted WordPress videos.

This gallery features a lightbox where you can open the videos, it also lets you show them and paginate them. A widget is also available, and is simple to use, it allows you to drag and drop your video gallery to a sidebar in any widget ready area.

WordPress Video Gallery

If you want a highly customizable and powerful plugin then WordPress Video Gallery is it. An HD flv player built-in is included in this plugin and it has the capability of showing your videos in customized skins with HD quality.

Most websites should acclimate to the default settings, but if you want to change them there are many choices available to do so.

This plugin offers sample videos and will spontaneously create a video gallery page. You can preview the gallery and then add the default videos so you can make your own.

YouTube Simple Gallery

For simplicity and ease of use choose YouTube Simple Gallery. This plugin allows you to set up galleries by individually selecting the videos you want to use. It features a shortcode method which defines the plugin along with the URLs of the video you want to use.

This plugin also allows you to put a gallery in a widget and opens videos in a lightbox popup

Ultimate Video Gallery

An easy way to manage your YouTube videos is through Ultimate Video Gallery. This plugin allows you to paste the video URLs and the video details will automatically come from YouTube.

Limitless galleries can be produced; it lets you select the title and description of each video. Once a gallery has been made it can be easily added to a Post or Page shortcode.

Workbox Video

Workbox Video allows you to make your video galleries just by simply adding video URLs. This plugin works with YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia and enables you to add your videos one at a time.

The videos are displayed in a single column gallery with thumbnail descriptions off to the right. The video will appear in a lightbox pop up when clicked on. This plugin only permits you to make one gallery, but you can add as many videos as you want.

Presentation and Functionality

The key to picking a video gallery plugin is going to be based on the look you want to present and the function you need. There are many wonderful styles and features to choose from. It just depends on what will work best for you.

Can you Easily Manage Content Progress on a Multi-Author WordPress Blog?

Multi-Author blogs require a large amount of tools to manage them properly. They can be difficult and getting the most out of them means proper management of content progress. When you need to manage the content progress for your multi-author WordPress blog, you need the right strategy. Here’s what you can do to better manage the progress of content from all of your authors.

Install and Use the Content Progress Plugin

The Content Progress plugin for WordPress will give you just what you need for better management of authors and their content. After installing the plugin, make sure you activate it. You will be able to access it within the Posts>>All Posts section of your dashboard.

You will notice a flag icon will show up on any posts not completed. Both the Flag and the Notes columns were added to this section of your blog from the Content Progress plugin. The Flag provides a status for the progress of the post and the notes section allows you to add notes for the author. You may notice some flag icons next to unfinished posts as soon as you install the plugin.

Editing the Flag Status

If you want to edit the status of the post, you can use the quick edit option. This will give you both the flag dropdown and the section for notes.

You can also make this adjustment in the regular edit post screen. Just click the edit link and you will find a “Content Progress” section in the right hand column of the screen.

 

Adjusting the Settings for the Plugin

You will have the ability to change a few of the settings for the Content Progress plugin. Just go to Settings>>Content Progress to access the settings page for the plugin.

Within this section, you can decide which post types to allow the plugin to work with. You will also be able to set your default status and choose the type of icon for each status. You can even add new status labels with a new icon and description.

If you want to change the icons that will show up in the Flag column, you can use any of the icons found below the settings. There are several to choose from and you just need to add the new URL to the right status label.

Maybe you want to set a status label for any post missing a featured image. This can easily be done by adding a new status label called “Featured Image Missing” and adding a description and URL. You can choose any of the icons already installed with the plugin or even create your own. If you create your own icon, you just need the URL to assign it to the new status label.

There’s no limit to the number of custom status labels you can choose. This makes it easy if you have many different things you want to quickly communicate to your authors. Whether it’s a simple as a missing image or as complex as a full rewrite, you can easily tell them with the right icon.

Now you know how to manage the progress of your content on a multi-author WordPress blog. Just add the Content Progress plugin and customize it to fit your needs.

How to Create a More Secure WordPress Login

The login page of your WordPress website is the first access point for any hacker. If you don’t properly protect it, you may end up with more issues than you bargain for. Here are a few of the best ways to ensure your WordPress login page remains secure and protected.

Change the Username and Password

When you first get WordPress hosting and install WordPress, it will often assign you the username of “admin,” which is the most common username hackers will try to use. The first thing you should always do is change the username to something odd and unique.

WordPress will also give you the ability to generate a password, which will be a strong password. Make the generated password at least 12 characters and use it or another strong password. Avoid using common passwords, such as names, dates, strings of numbers, common words or anything else common. It’s best to break up words with symbols, capital letters and numbers within your passwords.

Use the Login Lockdown Plugin for WordPress

Logion LockDown is one of the best plugins you can use for your WordPress website. It will help to stop brute force attacks aimed at your login page. The plugin will lock out IP addresses trying to login more than a few times. You get to set the number of times you will allow before the IP address is locked.

Use SSL

Another great way to help secure your login page is with SSL or Secure Socket Layer. This is an extra form of security making your information unreadable when sent and received by your browser.

SSL is very easy to use with WordPress because you can simply use the Really Simple SSL plugin for WordPress. The WP Force SSL plugin is another good choice, but you will need to purchase an SSL certificate to use either plugin properly.

Mask your Login and Admin Page

If you want to make your security great, you can actually mask the login or WP-admin page with the Protect Your Admin plugin. If a hacker cannot find your login or admin page, they cannot get into your site.

Since most of the WordPress login and admin pages are the same, this makes it easy for hackers. However, this plugin will allow you to change the page and make it unique.

More Security Measures for WordPress

Along with using the above security measures for your WordPress login page, you should also choose your hosting company wisely. Some don’t have the best reputation for providing excellent security, while others provide the best security in the business.

You can also add a plugin, such as Wordfence or iThemes Security to give you even better protection. Other plugins such as, BackUp Buddy and VaultPress will ensure you have a backup of your site just in case you do get hacked.

Regardless of the security measures you choose to employ for your WordPress website you want to make sure you keep your login and admin page very secure. This will eliminate a large number of potential hacker issues as they go after your login page most often.

An Easy Way to Add a Points System to Your WordPress Blog

Adding a points system to any WordPress blog gives users a new reason to engage with your site and others on your site. This type of system allows for user participation as they can rate things on your site. Here’s how you can easily add a points system to your WordPress blog or website.

Using the WordPoints Plugin

The first thing you need to do is download, install and activate the WordPoints Plugin for WordPress. After you have installed and activated the plugin, you can access it from the new WordPoints section within the sidebar of your dashboard.

From here, you can access the Point Hooks Page to create different points types.

Enter the name for your points first and you can add a prefix or suffix, if you want. After you create a new point type, you can drag it and drop it to the left or you can leave it active. You can also drag and drop any of the available hooks from the left to the New Point Type section.

When you drag an available hook over to the right, you will be able to add a description and change the amount of points. Some will have other options, as well.

What are Hooks?

The hooks used by this plugin are the activities your website users will be able to do to earn point. You can give them points for leaving a comment, writing a post, receiving comments on a post they published, visiting your site or registering on your site. These all come by default.

How to Display User Points on Your WordPress Blog

Of course, giving points is one thing, displaying them on your site is another. If you want to display the points earned by users on your site, you will need to use the widget installed with the WordPoints plugin.

Just go to the Appearance>>Widgets section of your blog and look for the widget called Points Logs. Drag and drop this widget into the area you want to display the points and give it a title. Now the points for those logged in currently on your site.

You can also use the WordPoints widget to display the total points a user has earned. If they are logged in, this will display their points.

WordPoints Widget

There is one final widget you can use to display points on your site. It’s called the WordPoints Top Users and it will display he top point earners on your site. Just drag and drop it where you prefer and choose how many users to display.

How to Display Points on Pages and Posts in WordPress

Along with showing points in the sidebar and widget ready areas of your website, you can display them within posts and pages. This is done with the right shortcodes.

For top users:

[wordpoints_points_top]For a points log: [wordpoints_points_log]

For how users can earn points: [wordpoints_how_to_get_points]

Now you can easily use the WordPoints plugin to add a points system to your website. This is a great way to create user engagement and you can even give out prizes to the top earners.

Can you Display WordPress Recent Posts in a Drop Down Menu?

When you decide to use WordPress for your CMS and you back it up with excellent WordPress Hosting, you gain plenty of power. You can do so much with WordPress including displaying your recent posts in a drop down menu.

Why Should you Use a Dropdown for Recent Posts?

Not everybody will require a drop down menu for recent posts in WordPress. However, if you want to use this option, it’s very easy to do and can help you organize your recent posts very easily.

Often, WordPress websites will use the built-in recent posts widget to add them to a sidebar or another widget ready area. This will display a list of your most recent posts. However, if you want to display more than just five or ten posts, you will take up a large amount of space in your sidebar.

When you need a more compact way to display your recent posts, you can use a dropdown or collapsible menu. This helps to save space and it can easily be added to your site without any manual coding.

You can, of course, manually code this type of menu into your theme or even create your own plugin for the task. However, you don’t have to worry if you are not a developer or familiar with code. There is already an easy-to-use plugin available free of charge for displaying recent posts in a drop down menu for WordPress.

Using the Collapse-O-Matic Plugin

The Collapse-O-Matic plugin for WordPress will allow you to display recent posts as a drop down menu on your WordPress website. The plugins allows you to add anything to the menu by using shortcode.

You will need to add a little bit of code to your theme’s function.php file to display recent posts anywhere you want. Just add the following code:

Now, you will be able to use the shortcode

[recentposts] to display you recent posts in a drop down menu. You just need to add the shortcode into the Collapse-O-Matic shortcode and create a list of recent posts. The shortcode you will add looks like this: [expand title=”Recent Posts”][recentposts][/expand]This shortcode can be used in a post, page, text widget or anywhere on your WordPress site.

The Collapse-O-Matic plugin is only one of the choices you can use to create custom drop down menus to display your recent posts in WordPress. You can also choose the Dropdown Menu Widget plug in, which will allow you to add beautiful drop down menus for listing your recent posts, pages or anything else you prefer.

There are several other plugins out there for drop down menus for recent posts. Collapse-O-Matic is the easiest one to work with and makes it simple to display your recent posts in a more organized way.