Theme option pages suck. There, I said it.
No related posts.
In a lot of WordPress sites’ sidebars, you’ll probably see the monthly archive links make an appearance. These are a list of links that categorize your post by month. If you want to get more specific, you can even group the posts by week or even day. Unless you’re using widgets, these lists are output using the wp_get_archives function. Here are some examples:
<?php wp_get_archives(); ?>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=weekly'); ?>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=daily'); ?>
<?php wp_get_archives('type=yearly'); ?>
So what’s the problem? Well, depending on the site, monthly archive links aren’t very useful to your visitors. I mean, how many times have you visited a site and said “Hmm…I want to check out some posts written in January 2008″?
Probably never, and these links waste valuable space in your sidebar (or footer, whatever) that could be occupied by more useful links.
In this post, we’ll go over how to insert the following into your WordPress theme, including a widget alternative (if available):
There are a few methods to get a link list of popular/useful posts. Here they are:
Sometimes the quantity of comments is a good way to gauge a post’s popularity. If you want to generate a list of links with your most commented posts, here’s the code for that:
First, paste the following function in your functions.php file:
functions.php
function popularPosts($num) { global $wpdb; $posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT comment_count, ID, post_title FROM $wpdb->posts ORDER BY comment_count DESC LIMIT 0 , $num"); foreach ($posts as $post) { setup_postdata($post); $id = $post->ID; $title = $post->post_title; $count = $post->comment_count; if ($count != 0) { $popular .= '<li>'; $popular .= '<a href="' . get_permalink($id) . '" title="' . $title . '">' . $title . '</a> '; $popular .= '</li>'; } } return $popular; }
Then paste the following into your sidebar (or wherever you want a list of popular posts by comments):
<ul> <?php echo popularPosts(10); ?> </ul>
You can change the “10″ to however many posts you want. I’m assuming you already have CSS in place in your theme for lists like this, so I won’t go over any CSS styling.
Source: How to List Your Most Popular Posts in WordPress
– This is a relatively new method of generating a list of popular posts. It requires you use the WordPress.com Stats plugin. Here’s the code:
<?php if (function_exists('stats_get_csv')) { $top_posts = stats_get_csv ('postviews', 'days=7&limit=8'); if (count($top_posts) > 0) { echo '<ol>'; foreach ($top_posts as $p) { ?> <li><a href="<?php echo $p['post_permalink']; ?>"><?php echo $p['post_title']; ?></a></li> <?php } echo '</ol>'; } } ?>
Remember: You need the WordPress.com stats plugin activated for this code to work. If you just installed it, you should probably leave it on for a few days to collect enough relevant data before using it.
If you want to hide the smiley face added by the plugin, make sure you hide it the right way.
Hint: Change the “ol” tags to “ul” if you want an unordered list instead of a numbered list.
Source: Quick and Easy Popular Posts for Your WordPress Blog
Using WordPress’ built-in blogroll functionality, you can manually select a link to whichever posts you want. This is probably the most flexible way since you have the most control over how your links are displayed, and they don’t even have to be on your site.
You can also categorize your links and list them all in separate lists, using just one line of code with the built-in wp_list_bookmarks function.
<?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_before=<h3>&title_after=</h3>&category_before=&category_after='); ?>
This will output all your blogroll list categories with “h3″ titles. Depending on your sidebar’s markup, you may want to add code to be displayed before and after each list.
If you want to exclude any categories, you can use the exclude_category parameter with a comma-separated list of link category IDs.
exclude_category
If you don’t know how to use the blogroll feature, I found this pretty nice screencast on WordPress.tv (try watching it in full screen mode).
This is something pretty simple that I’ve gone over before. Using the same wp_get_archives function we went over above, you can modify to get a list of recent posts.
wp_get_archives
<?php wp_get_archives('title_li=&type=postbypost&limit=10'); ?>
The type=postbypost is the type to use. If you have a ton of posts, I’d recommend using a limit so all of your posts don’t show up.
type=postbypost
You can also use the “Recent Posts” widget, assuming your sidebar is widgetized.
I know on some sites, monthly archive links can be useful, like perhaps on a news site, or an “of the day” site (like for cartoons or recipes).
Some people glance at them just to see how long the blog has been active, it can help credibility (hint: add the show_post_count=1 parameter to show a post count next to monthly archive links).
show_post_count=1
Most of the time, however, it’s a waste of space. It can be replaced with some other much more useful links, like popular content or related posts that users would find more value in.
In the comments, I’d be interested to hear your feedback. Do you use monthly archive links? When do you think they could be relevant? Do you have any other useful alternative examples?
Related posts:
Guest post by Tom Walker. Do you know which are the best printer friendly WordPress plugins? When you are in the process of creating a WordPress blog, trying to get your head around all of the jargon and available plugins can seem quite daunting. To put it simply, a plugin is designed to help you achieve more with your blog and can make many tasks a whole lot simpler.
Photo by Deapeajay (under CC)
When you have visitors to your blog it is often the case that they would like to print out information to use either immediately or in the future. This could involve details about your company, contact numbers or email addresses, or general information that they have found useful and would like to keep as a reference.
If you have tried to print information from a blog before, then you will know how many pages end up coming out of the printer, many of which are useless, and sometimes even the full width of the page doesn’t print out. However, there are some extremely useful plugins that you can get that will help to make your blog printer friendly.
Most plugins can be used immediately to help improve the success and look of your site. Here are some of the best plugins available and we have outlined some of the features to give you a better understanding and to help you decide if they would be useful on your blog.
1. PrintWhatYouLike This plugin is a great way to ensure that your blog prints out in a print-friendly manner for your customers or potential clients. It works by automatically formatting your blog for printing, but it also has some additional benefits as well. It will allow you to save a blog page as a PDF file, individually customise a page, and create your own layout for printing.
2. VoucherPress If you would like to be able to offer discount vouchers or special deals to your customers and visitors, this plugin will allow you to customise your own individual vouchers that can then be downloaded and printed. One of the advantages of this plugin for those wishing to create a potential client base for email marketing purposes is that you can set the parameters to require email addresses and individual logins. This could very well set your WordPress blog up to be far more successful in the long run.
Another advantage of using the voucher or token system is that once downloaded, a specific voucher cannot be downloaded again. You could also place limits on the number of offers available, once the limit has been reached the offer will cease. This allows you greater control over specials and promotions, if you so choose.
3. PrintFriendly This plugin is exactly as its name suggests, a button that can be added to your WordPress blog to enable potential customers and clients to easily print your pages in a friendly manner. Visitors familiar with the web will appreciate this add on, as they know they will be able to print exactly what they want, without multiple sheets of paper being used and wasting ink. This plugin will also allow you the ability to remove any imposing pictures when printing leaving you with a printout of information only.
4. Blog2Print If you are extremely pleased with your blog and think it would have some value as a book, it is now possible to turn all of your blog posts that you have made into a book. It is up to you whether you would like to actually hold this book in your hands physically, or download and save it as a PDF document. If you would like it in a hardcopy, then it will cost you money, however the PDF version is free. If you wish to print the PDF, it is important to note that it is currently formatted to an A5 paper size only, and this could be a disadvantage for some.
5. Cleanprint The use of this plugin will provide your readers with many advantages and will promote your blog as one that is thoughtful and professional. Having pages that have been optimised for printing, and showing readers that this is the case, could set your blog apart in terms of convenience and repeat visitors. This plug in will also enable you to customise the logo that will appear at the top of each printed page and will omit useless on-screen details that the reader doesn’t need on their printed page. Imagine your blog post coming out of the printer looking like a page straight out of a magazine, advertising your product or service. If this appeals to you, then this plugin is a must for your blog.
This guest post was written by Tom Walker, a blogger who writes for a UK based specialist in ink, toners, paper and other supplies for the creative industry called Cartridge Save. You can subscribe to their blog to keep up with his posts on art, design and technology. You can also share WordPress tips and write a guest article here.
Original article: 5 Best Printer Friendly WordPress PluginsCopyright 2010. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.
As a follow up to Massive Free PSD Giveaway #1, here’s giveaway #2. Once again, all the PSD designs are designed by Anto that he had laying around. We figured they could come in handy for something, so here they are.
Be sure to click on the image for a full-size Lightbox preview.
See the rest after the jump…
Have a favorite? Vote in the PollDaddy poll below. I’m interested to know your fave of the bunch. Just a note, “Redata” is the one displayed at the top of the post.
View Poll
Remember, these are not WordPress themes. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments, but keep in mind they were just quick designs by Anto and aren’t necessarily “complete” in anyway.
Feel free to code them, be inspired by them, do whatever you want with them. Enjoy!
Some of you may have noticed the new ladder image labeled “Underground” in the top right corner of the site. I’ve been working on this behind the scenes for a while, basically it’ll be a new section of the site with primarily paid content/access.
Inside I’m planning on having a few things:
Best of all, you’ll be able to buy individual themes and tutorials a la carte, or get an all access pass for the whole kit and kaboodle. Forum memberships will probably be a low monthly fee.
When will it launch? Aiming within a couple months, but an official launch date has yet to be determined.
In other news, I’ve been meaning to start a mailing list for a while (that’s not directly tied to my RSS feed). I finally started one with MailChimp and it was actually way easier than I thought. I’m still learning more about it but the basic set up was pretty painless.
In the newsletter I’ll announce any news regarding Theme Lab, share any cool WordPress tips I come across, and other stuff. You can sign up using the form below.
Close
Just the e-mail is required. You can enter your name too if you want the emails to say “Dear Your Name” at the top, but not necessary. Don’t worry, I won’t spam.
After confirming your e-mail address you’ll get the download link to the free WordPress theme below.
This theme is called Bright Spot, I’ve been using it as a “framework” for semi-custom themes. By framework I mean I customized the base theme with custom colors and a header, not to be confused with the likes of Thematic. I’ll go over this in the following screencast.
I went over all these in the video, but here are the basic features:
To download it, just sign up to the mailing list, confirm your e-mail, and the download link will be in the welcome email. You can check out the live demo too.
It might be a paid theme in the future, but for now I’ll leave it as a bribe to get people to sign up to the newsletter. If all you care about is the theme, feel free to unsubscribe right after you confirm your email address and download it. You’ll be missing out on some other newsletter goodies though.
Some of you may have seen this coming. I’ve had so many requests for detailed tutorials on coding/porting WordPress themes, but I felt that a high-quality detailed tutorial like that could (and should) be paid.
With the new forum, I’m hoping it can become a bustling community where people can get answers to their CSS and WP problems, fast. It will also be the home to all the free theme support, which means the current (sparingly used) support forums will be closed.
Oh by the way, the ladder graphic, Underground landing page were designed by James McDonald, the same guy who designed this site.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Guest Post by Mark. I admit, there are a lot of articles on the topic of promising you to share how to make WordPress faster and safer. Most of them under deliver. I’ll try my hardest not to make this article get into that category.
Before we start, I want to ask you: Have you ever heard about the 80/20 rule? This rule states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts (80/20 is just a rule of thumb, it can be 90/10, 70/30 and so on.) My point is, the same principle applies for making WordPress faster and safer. Spend several minutes, change some things, and reap big results. Those will be covered below.
When it comes to making WordPress faster, 2 things matter most: - Hosting - Optimizing WordPress
a) Hosting – How to Choose a great WordPress host
99.9% of webhosts support WordPress. So, when it comes to the question ‘Which is the best WordPress hosting solution’ you’re actually asking: ‘Which is the best hosting solution?’ Honestly, it’s very hard to give an answer to this question. The best answer would be, it depends (on your needs.)
There are some research sites like Netcraft that provide monthly reports on the most reliable hosting solutions. However, most of the hosts there, are for businesses and cost over $100 monthly. On the other hand, you can go with the most popular solutions (following the logic: if they’re popular and a brand, they must be at least above average.)
Another thing you definitely want to do before deciding to deal with a web host is to check out the business via BBB. In my experience, there seems to be a high correlation between the BBB rating for the company and the actual reliability that the company will offer.
To get to the point, which hosts do I recommend?
Please be aware I haven’t mentioned many well-known hosts in this list. I was shocked to see that many of them (I don’t want to mention any names) aren’t even BBB accredited businesses!
b) Optimizing WordPress
By optimizing WordPress, I mean caching and compressing EVERYTHING (CSS files, the WordPress database and so on.) Obviously, you want some automated solution to do all this for you.
Okay, so we need a caching plugin. Many people prefer WP-Super-Cache. However, my tests have shown very small or almost no significant improvement in performance when using this plugin. I just used this tool and measured my blog’s performance before and after I got the plugin enabled.
One plugin that improved my blog performance significantly was W3-Total-Cache (the creator is the Chief Technology Officer at Mashable.)
Proof: Here’s a screenshot of my blog speed without any caching plugin:
Now, here’s a screenshot with WP-Super-Cache enabled:
As you can see, this plugin not only didn’t improve my blog performance but also made it worse!
Now, let’s try WP-Total-Cache:
The speed improved by 300%! Why? Well, the author has a good explanation here.
Conclusion: WP-Super-Cache is way more popular than WP-Total-Cache. However, if something is popular it doesn’t have to mean it’s better than the less popular alternatives!
Here’s a checklist of some of the basic things to make WordPress secure:
Honestly, while researching, I found many posts on how to secure WordPress but they all seemed to be repeating what is said in the WordPress Codex on this topic. So go and read it, better do that than read hundreds of fancy posts on new techniques to secure WordPress. Get the basics right before attempting something advanced.
In case you want maximum security, add a second layer of protection with AskApache Password Protect plugin. Warning: Test this plugin on a test blog first before attempting to use it on your main blog. And read the full warning in the codex above.
I don’t recommend you use this plugin unless your blog is extremely popular (gets 50k+ visitors per day.) Let’s be real here…most hackers attack the most popular blogs manually. Not many go after the less popular ones (they might use automated tools for the less popular ones but if you upgrade your installation regularly and use some basic plugins for protection like WP Security Scan, you’re safe.)
Also be sure to backup WordPress. Oh, and forgot to tell you, that’s my site by the way. Feel free to subscribe if you want to. I hope you’ve learned a lot!
Mark is currently one of the authors for Mix The Net, a site for helping the casual surfer get more of the web. You can also write guest articles and share your WordPress tips and tricks.
Original article: How to Make WordPress Faster and SaferCopyright 2010. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.
If you know me, you might have heard about my addiction to domain names. If I see one I want, I’ll buy it. I have a lot of them, and most of them are unused because I’d like to focus most of my time to Theme Lab and not developing new sites. So, I’ve created a new page to list my domains for sale.
On the page I’ve broken up the domains into three categories, the “WP” domains, the “theme” domains, and everything else in the miscellaneous section. There’s a bucketload of names there, chances are you’ll find at least a couple you’ll like.
At the moment I don’t have any fixed prices, this may change in the future. If you inadvertently lowball me, don’t worry, I won’t send my internet hounds after you.
At first I was against this idea because I questioned myself how it would be relevant to this blog. Then I started thinking, if you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in web development, blogging, design, stuff like that.
Chances are, by extension, some of you are probably into domains too, and I might have something that interests you, so why not offer it up for sale?
I first got the idea for this when I saw a similar page over at Cats Who Blog where my good friend Jean-Baptiste Jung lists some of his domains for sale.
Also, pretty much all of my recent domain sales have come through people who know me through this blog in one way or another, I just think it makes sense.
So head on over to my brand spanking new domain sales page and make me an offer if you’re interested in any.
If you have a surplus of domains, would you consider doing something like this on your own site/blog? See any names you like on my list? Have I gone completely insane?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
For the past week I’ve been running a contest to win a free license of the BackupBuddy plugin. It’s a premium WordPress plugin which basically just makes it super easy to backup and migrate your WordPress site.
Up for grabs were one developer license ($150 value) and one single use license ($25 value). There were 26 people who entered the contest, so each person had about a 7% of winning.
Like in my last contest winner announcement, I’ll post a screencast of myself selecting the winners.
I just used the Random.org Integer Generator to select two random numbers between 1 and 26. The numbers correspond to the comment order made on the giveaway post.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for, here are the winners along with their respective prize.
Thanks to everyone for entering, and of course Cory Miller of PluginBuddy for sponsoring the contest. If you didn’t win, you can still buy a license of BackupBuddy starting at $25.
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