Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner
UPDATE: A new (2019) version of this article about WordPress plugins is available.
Below is a list of my most frequently used WordPress plugins, along with descriptions of how I use them and links to examples in some cases.
The name of each plugin is linked to its download page (each link opens a new window).
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bob Harris recently asked this question about working with the sidebar in his Lifestyle theme from StudioPress:
How can I clean up the clutter on the right side of my page (Admin box & Blog Roll Box)?
When you install the basic Lifestyle Theme, you'll see both a Blogroll and an Admin section show up in your right sidebar (as shown to the right).
Instead of getting rid of the blogroll, you could rename Blogroll and edit the names and URL's. For example, you could link to your most popular posts, or trade links with your favorite bloggers within your niche.
You'll find those links (also called ‘bookmarks') listed under ‘Links' in the left hand navigation of your WordPress Administration panel.
To get rid of the links altogether, we'll need to make some changes to the right sidebar theme file, named sidebar_right.php.
You can do that from the theme Editor, found under Appearance > Editor. Make sure the permissions are set on your theme files – otherwise you won't be able to edit them and you'll see “You need to make this file writable before you can save your changes. See the Codex for more information” at the bottom of the file.
If you prefer to work with your theme files offline (like I do), open up the file in an HTML or text editor.
If you don't have an HTML editor, and don't want to spend money on one, I recommend NVU, which is available free of charge. Otherwise, I like to recommend CoffeeCup which is very intuitive.
The Lifestyle Theme's default right sidebar is coded as follows:
<!– begin r_sidebar –>
<div id=”r_sidebar”>
<ul id=”r_sidebarwidgeted”>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar(‘Sidebar Bottom Right') ) : ?>
<li id=”links”>
<div>
<h2>Blogroll</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘title_li=&categorize=0'); ?>
</ul>
</div>
</li><li id=”meta”>
<div>
<h2>Admin</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_register(); ?>
<li><?php wp_loginout(); ?></li>
<li><a href=”http://www.wordpress.org/”>WordPress</a></li>
<?php wp_meta(); ?>
<li><a href=”http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer”>XHTML</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</li><?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<!– end r_sidebar –>
To get rid of the Blogroll and Admin sections, simply remove the following portion:
<li id=”links”>
<div>
<h2>Blogroll</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘title_li=&categorize=0'); ?>
</ul>
</div>
</li><li id=”meta”>
<div>
<h2>Admin</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_register(); ?>
<li><?php wp_loginout(); ?></li>
<li><a href=”http://www.wordpress.org/”>WordPress</a></li>
<?php wp_meta(); ?>
<li><a href=”http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer”>XHTML</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</li>
Remember too, that you can always add the bookmarks back into the sidebar using a widget.
I was plugging away today at building content for my new membership site (the mulitmedia version of the Super Affiliate Handbook) when I stopped long enough to read an email from Stu McLaren.
The email pointed me to a video about the top 10 membership models created using Wishlist Member — software that you can use on a WordPress blog to turn it into a membership site.
One of the membership models that Stu mentions in the video was one I hadn't thought of before – but it's brilliant – and now that's what I want to do with the site.
Too, some of the models that he talks about in the video you wouldn't normally consider a “membership site”. However, once you hear how they are setup, you're going to get a lot of ideas for how you can use it in your business.
Each of the models discussed in the video also includes a real-world
example of a web site using these models — along with the URL, so you can check them out first-hand.
Watch the membership model video and check out these sites. Stu also gives you a link to see some how-to videos. If you decide to optin, you'll also see comments from other people who've created similar sites. They've even added their own “twist” to the “Top 10”.
Check out the videos for really great blogging / membership site ideas.
Too, the first 5 readers to leave a comment correctly naming the model I've chosen, will win a free membership to the new site. 🙂 (I anticipate it will launch in January).
Comments are now closed and the winners have been announced here.
Daniel recently asked the following question about the site map created for use on this blog:
The site map on this blog was created with some minor manual modifications to the default one that came with the StudioPress theme, a file named page-archive.php.
The site map that comes with the default WordPress theme is called the Archive Page Template and the file is named archives.php.
Here is the coding in the default WordPress template.
<?php
/**
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Default_Theme
*/
/*
Template Name: Archives
*/
?><?php get_header(); ?>
<div id=”content”>
<?php get_search_form(); ?>
<h2>Archives by Month:</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives(‘type=monthly'); ?>
</ul><h2>Archives by Subject:</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_categories(); ?>
</ul></div>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Here is the coding for the current NPT site map, named site-map.php. Coding will be deciphered later in this post.
<?php
/*
Template Name: Site Map
*/
?><?php get_header(); ?>
<div id=”content”>
<div id=”contentleft”>
<div>
<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH.”/breadcrumb.php”);?>
<h1><img src=”https://rosalindgardner.com/images/300-map.png”  style=”float: right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 10px” border=”0″>Archives and Site Map</h1>
<h2>Main Pages</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=2&exclude=2938,1683'); ?>
</ul>
<h2>Popular Posts</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘title_li=&categorize=0&category=831'); ?>
</li></ul>
<hr>
<h2>Last 25 Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives(‘type=postbypost&limit=25'); ?>
</ul></div></div></div>
<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH.”/sidebar.php”);?>
</div>
<!– The main column ends –>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
To list all the pages on your blog, you would use the code:
<?php wp_list_pages('title_li='); ?>
Because I wanted to show subpages (depth) and not show (exclude) others, I used the following code:
<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=2&exclude=2938,1683');
depth=2 specifies that I want the subpages to show 2 levels deep.
For more information about visit the Template Tags/wp list pages page on the WordPress Codex.
The list of most popular posts is generated by a links (bookmarks) list, all filed under the ‘Popular' category, numbered 831.
<?php wp_list_bookmarks('title_li=&categorize=0&category=831'); ?>
For more information about the coding used to display bookmarks, see Template Tags/wp list bookmarks on the Codex.
To create a list of the most recent 25 posts, I use the following code.
<?php wp_get_archives(‘type=postbypost&limit=25'); ?>
To learn more about coding bookmarks lists visit Template Tags/wp get archives on the WordPress Codes.
Or, you could always just use a site map plugin, but you won't have the same latitude as you do when you hardcode the template. 🙂
“Zilch, zip, nix, nada, nothing…”
In a NPT forum post entitled “Is This Odd?”, Kaycee reported:
“About 6 weeks ago, all of a sudden conversions from the one of those merchants completely tanked! Zilch, zip, nix, nada, nothing. I'm not doing anything different, links are working fine, their merchant account is active, nothing broken on their website that I can see and I'm still sending them more or less the same amount of traffic which is reflected in my Shareasale stats.”
Given those facts, my immediate assumption was that there was a problem at the merchant's checkout.
Sure enough, Kaycee discovered that affiliate commissions were NOT being tracked, and I suggested that Kaycee request to be compensated for lost commissions.
Kaycee's request was denied.
Some affiliate program managers will go one better and add a downtime ‘good faith' bonus as shown in the example below:
May 12, 2006 – Downtime compensation for May 11th
Late May 10th until very early May 11th, we came under a strong network attack. The total downtime lasted for approximately 3 hours, however all affiliates will be credited for 6 hours worth of time.
You should see the compensation amount, in the bonus column of your stats for May 11th. This amount is calculated by taking your average hourly earning for May, and multiplying it by 6.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and thank you for your continued support and loyalty. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your account rep.
Any merchant partner that does NOT compensate for downtime, especially downtime during which they continue to profit from traffic sent by affiliates, needs to be dumped.
Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!
Cheers,
This video might explain the reason…
For those who have watched the video, I only have 95 more to go…
I have no idea what Ed was doing when he was posting to our travel blog back in 2006 – 07, but it seemed that each one of his blog posts had strange characters popping up.
From a reader's perspective, it made for frustrating reading.
From my perspective as the blog owner, it was frustrating because not only would it put my readers off, it also looked like hell.
At one point I tried to eliminate the strange characters by doing a search and replace from phpMyAdmin. I'm no geek, so wondering what I would ruin in the process of doing a global search and replace on the database was too scary a prospect, so I gave up on that plan.
Every so often I'd sit down and try to pluck out the weird characters one-by-one, but that too was frustrating and I could see it eventually leading to madness. Indeed, the idea of fixing the problem that way was sheer madness.
Then I found Mark Cunningham's Search and Replace plugin for WordPress.
Eureka!
Simply install, activate, check off in which areas (title, content, authors, etc.) you want the search and replace executed, then enter what is to be replaced and what it should be replaced with.
As you can see in the screenshot below, there were 1696 ocurrences of Â. There were thousands more when it came to the Ò's and §'s, ¿'s, Å's and ¥'s, each instance of which took only seconds to replace.
And while I was at it, I moved most of the top-of-post pictures from the left-hand side – where they were incurring on the Tweetmeme button – to the right side of the post.
What a great plugin, especially if you ever had to change a million affiliate links on your blog.
Best of all, you can download Search and Replace for free.
What do you think? Do you run Search and Replace? How have you used it to remove those typical frustrations? Do you use something comparable? Or, are you just thrilled to have learned about it? Share with us!