BLOG DESIGN JOURNAL

Whether you’re promoting your business or writing about your travel adventures, Head First WordPress will teach you not only how to make your blog look unique and attention-grabbing, but also how to dig into the more complex features of WordPress 3.0 to make your website work well, too.You’ll learn how to move beyond the standard WordPress look and feel by customizing your blog with your own URL, templates, plugin functionality, and more. As you learn, you’ll be working with real

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What kinds of things are on my holiday wish list as a blog designer? Not necessarily what you might think.

Most of us go ahead and buy whatever software and computer accessories we need to boost or uphold productivity, so my wish list contains things I may not really, actually need, but I just think would be fun or helpful to have.

I think the secret to getting some of these things as gifts is to send or post your wish list all over the place, along with a link to somewhere like Savings.com so that your significant other, parents, or other benefactors feel like they are getting even more bang for the buck by giving you a spectacular gift at a super savings.

And here is my blog design wish list for December 2011:

iPad 2 with 64GB and G4 connectivity

Super cool iPad case of some sort, preferably real leather

Styluses to go with the iPad. I want to draw directly on the screen.

iPhone lastest and greatest (nothing stays latest and greatest for long)

Super cool cases for the iPhone. You cannot have too many of these. I want different styles and colors for different occasions

Kindle Fire

Bluetooth headset (deluxe model)

High-capacity memory stick. I love those things, and the more storage space the better. You cannot have too many of them, especially if you are mobile.

Little robots and other desk toys. Just for fun and entertainment when writer’s block or design dearth sets in.

Some of these make great gifts to give others, too. Cases, for example, can range from formal and corporate to silly or glitzy or just plain wacky. The same person can enjoy using a variety of different cases at different times, for different purposes.

As you can see, the items on my wish list are generally not cheap, so it is a good thing that we can find great deals at Savings.com.

So what’s on your wish list? Come on, share! We might see some things we want to add to our own lists. Leave a comment and tell us your favorite gift and wish list items for this year.

You never know. You just might get them.

Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. The second edition of Smashing WordPress has been updated for WordPress 3.1+, which includes internal, custom post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts

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This a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial packed with screenshots and examples for easy and quick pickup. This book is a guide to WordPress for both beginners and those who have slightly more advanced knowledge of WordPress. If you are new to blogging and want to create your own blog or website in a simple and straightforward manner, then this book is for you. It is also for people who want to learn to customize and expand the capabilities of a WordPress website. You do not require any

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Attention: New Book Intro Price -The Price of this Book will Increase to $9.97 Soon! WordPress Power Guide Go Beyond The Basics and Make Your WordPress Site Rock. Are you already using WordPress on your website or blog? Ready to crank it up a notch and reap the maximum benefit from your site? Then the WordPress Power Guide is for you. Traffic Generation: Whether your goal is to make money from your site or just share your views with the world, you need traffic. Did you know there are plugins that…

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Image via CrunchBase

I use several plugins to promote WordPress blogs via Twitter. They mainly fall into three categories:

Getting users to tweet individual posts.

Getting users to follow you on Twitter  (so they are reminded to come back).

Automatically tweeting about every single post.

Getting Users to Tweet Your Posts

There are others, but the plugin I use to get readers to tweet my posts is Tweet This. It offers a nice selection of buttons. I get to select which button it will insert at the end of each post.

Getting Users to Follow You on Twitter

The Twitter badge that remains in the upper right (or the left, if you choose) corner of the blog window is one of my favorite Twitter-related blog add-ons. It is attractive and can be eye-catching without being intrusive. Basically it takes up no space.

You get the badge for free at http://www.go2web.com. You select the color, the wording, even the exact position (left/right, and distance from the top). The site generates the code to create the badge on your blog.

The Twitter badge is not technically a plugin, because you have to use the Appearance > Editor and insert it in the PHP code (usually on the footer page), but that is actually quite easy. And the thing just works.

You can edit the color on your own site (instead of regenerating it at Go2Web.com) if you want to. Simply change the hex code in the tiny script you pasted on the footer page.

Tweeting Posts Automatically

Automatically tweeting a link to each post seems to be the most effective of all the Twitter tie-ins I have tried. There are several (at least) plugins that do that, and all of them that I have tried work just fine. Here are the ones I use:

Twitter Autopost

Tweet This

Twitter Tools

Twitter Autopost

Twitter Autopost is the simplest automatic tweet plugin I’ve ever seen. It is not free. I bought it with another automation plugin for less than $5.

Tweet This

Tweet this is free. You can find and install it, using the Add New feature in your WordPress dashboard. Besides adding a Tweet This button as described above, it can be easily set up automatically post to a Twitter account. Just enter a Twitter username and password.

Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools is a whole complex of tools. It allows you to not only tweet automatically when you make a blog post but also to automatically post tweets to your WordPress blog. You have to be careful in setting up this plugin, or your tweet-post-cycle can become circular.

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