Category Archives: WordPress

What Makes WPUnlimited Different?

Earlier this week, I released WPUnlimited, a new WordPress theme system that I hope everyone will enjoy.

While I am talking about it endlessly elsewhere, I wanted to cover one of the key differences that I think coders will really enjoy in using WPUnlimited: traditional theme files.

So you might be asking yourself why traditional theme files is important or worth mentioning, but one of the issues I have always had with Thesis, a theme I enjoyed was the fact that opening header.php didn’t really give me a normal WordPress header.php theme file. It was just a call to another PHP file, making the whole customization aspect a nightmare for a beginner programmer.

A good example of the difference is to look at a popular WordPress theme’s index file, which only includes something along the lines of: html_framework();

Just that one line… no mention of includes for headers or footers, no loops, nothing.

This leaves someone looking to customize how posts are displayed with the horrible task of digging through files to see where that PHP code is, and how they can manipulate it.

WordPress Unlimited’s theme files look very much like you’ve seen since the Classic theme was created, with easy to understand header, footer, and index pages that makes editing the theme easy for anyone immersed in WordPress already.

As a side note, WPUnlimited also has a great affiliate program, so if you enjoy the theme, I’d love it if you passed it on to your friends, and earned yourself a 40% commission on any of your sales. Even if you don’t buy WPUnlimited, you can sign up for the affiliate program. Check it out, it could be a great opportunity to promote the next amazing WordPress theme.

Originally posted on February 26, 2009 @ 10:55 pm

Group Writing Project: I am a Judge

Over on Blog Design Studio there is a little contest going on and I am one of three judges involved in selecting the winner. The other two judges are Jeff Chandler, my PerfCast co-host, and Alex Christache, a well known blogger.

The winner will get a free custom WordPress theme from the team at Blog Design Studio, and the writing project runs until the end of November, so I suggest you get over there if you want a chance at winning a custom WordPress theme.

What do you need to write about?

Here are some of the examples of topic :

1. How blog design will change your blog’s value?
2. Why a blog design is important for your blog’s authority?
3. 10 tips to keep in mind before you get your blog designed!

For more details check out their post on Blog Design Studio.

Originally posted on November 13, 2008 @ 12:06 pm

PicApp Launches WordPress Plugin

During my time working with PicApp, I mentioned how useful a WordPress plugin would be to quickly embed images from PicApp onto my blog posts, to which they responded, “we are already in the beginning stages of working on one.”

Their understanding of the niche they were trying to fill was part of the reason they didn’t need me sticking around as their Community Manager and I am happy today to announce that they have launched their WordPress plugin for PicApp.

Even better, it is in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory, so it will be easy to keep track of any updates and over one thousand people have already downloaded it.

Having hard time finding affordable, yet high end, images for your blog? problem solved. Access millions of updated images, of any topic (news, celebrity, sports, events, creative and more) directly from your WordPress environment and add any image easily to your post. The images, legal and free to use under the license terms, will enhance your blog content, improve its SEO and attract a significantly larger readership.

Moving PicApp from a destination site where you have to do everything, and bringing it inside the WordPress administration panel is genius, and PicApp deserves huge kudos for doing this.

If you haven’t given PicApp a try before because you felt it took too long to add the images you wanted to your blog, check out the new PicApp WordPress plugin.

Originally posted on December 13, 2008 @ 5:23 pm

WordPress’ “GPL” and Theme Mess

So if you follow WordPress news at all, you may have heard about a crazy thing happening right now where Automattic removed around two hundred themes from WordPress.org’s theme directory. Many of these themes were removed as they didn’t fit with Matt’s vision of the GPL. Some themes were released freely, under the GPL but were really a promotion and marketing effort for companies looking to sell themes. I didn’t have any problem with this, but it seems that Automattic does, and themes that linked back to companies that sell themes that aren’t under the GPL were removed to “protect” WordPress users.

I think this is ridiculous. I, for one, am glad that I use custom themes, and Thesis, a great premium theme. I wish that Thesis was able to be part of the WordPress theme directory to take advantage of the update and upgrade system now in WordPress core, but since Matt doesn’t agree with their business model, he punishes them directly.

Matt blames theme creators for not thinking creatively when it comes to building a business around theme development, but if he keeps cutting off their arms when they try to find ways to build a business, eventually, they will give up and move on to something that gives them a better return on investment regarding their time.

Maybe this issue will become the seed of a new mass exodus to another publishing platform? Do I hear Habari waiting in the wings? I’ve been told numerous times that Habari will let theme developers easily build a business around their themes for that platform.

This all wouldn’t bother me so much, except that Automattic is making huge boatloads of money off of WordPress and that is in large part thanks to all of the community support the platform gets.

More Reading:
Automattic putting the boot to premium theme developers
WordPress.org Pull 200 GPL Themes
200 Themes Removed From WordPress.org – Matt Explains Why
More Hypocrisy from Mullenweg and WordPress with new themes jihad

Originally posted on December 16, 2008 @ 12:33 pm

PodPress and WordPress 2.6: Last Call

This will be the last time I post about PodPress on this blog, as I am going to be removing it and trying out all of the alternatives. Some of my previous podcasts may no longer work, but I am tired of waiting for a solution from Dan Kuykendall, who has decided to leave the community in the lurch.

For those of you that don’t know the situation, PodPress 8.8 doesn’t work, out of the box, with WordPress 2.6, as the post revisions feature has broken it. There are other issues with 8.8 as well, but the revisions issue seems to be the most common. Many people have taken to disabling the post revisions feature, which requires changing core code or adding another plugin to your WordPress installation.

PodPress 8.9 was due out over a month ago, even taking the announced delay into account. When you have such an important community feature ruined by a single plugin developer, it is a shame for everyone.

With this in mind, I hope you all try out the alternatives, and let me know how they work for you. If you have been waiting to upgrade your blog for a working PodPress 8.9, please wait no longer as there are just too many WordPress security risks to be running a version of WordPress before 2.6.

PodPress Alternatives

Podcasting – A Google Summer of Code Project
Blubrry – A recent plugin development getting huge attention.

Originally posted on September 14, 2008 @ 12:02 pm