Tag: Wordpress

How to Share on Twitter with a wp.me short URL

Twitter bird
Twitter bird via http://kailoon.com/free-vector-icons-set-twitter-birdy-icon/

A while back I shared a simple tip on how to add a Share on Twitter link to your WordPress blog…

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=<?php echo urlencode("Currently reading: "); ?><?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="Share this article with your Twitter followers">Tweet this!</a>

But if your URL’s are too long and you’d like a more concise Tweet — there are a few other options for doing this as well (without using plugins).
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Adding links to image captions in WordPress

As you may have noticed, I’ve recently started adding photo captions to the majority of the photos in my new blog posts.

WordPress has a great feature that lets you add these captions with ease if you’re using an image you’ve uploaded to your site/server.

Wordpress Caption Field

Simply fill in the caption field with the information you’d like to share (i.e. Rick Rocks out | Photo by Jonathan Blundell) and depending on how your WordPress theme is styled, your results will look something like this:

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Continue reading Adding links to image captions in WordPress

WordPress 3.0 is now available

I’ve been looking forward to this update for a while.

If for nothing else, this reason alone

Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation.

I’m looking forward to merging several WordPress sites into one installation to save time and effort in the future.

https://videopress.com/v/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.21

Huge props to everyone who work on making WordPress what it is! Keep up the great work.

As an added note, if you’re still using Blogger or perhaps WordPress.com (which runs on WordPress 3.0) and you’d like to make the switch to a self-hosted WordPress site, check out Hostgator, who I use for the vast majority of my sites (I was waiting for this WP release to move the rest of my sites to them). They offer one-click install and you can run all your blogs/sites on their servers for as little as $4.95 a month. And use coupon code JDBLUNDELL at check out to save $9.94 on your initial purchase. Click here to find out more.

Answering the question :: What should I blog about?

I have several friends (and family members) with blogs that get updated somewhat frequently. Others are far more occasional, and still others, I have to wonder if they’ve forgotten their password.

When I ask them about it, their usual response is, “Well I don’t know what to write about.”

I understand, I’ve had writer’s block before.

But there’s one thing I’ve found that gets me over my writer’s block every time — writing.

I know you’re all looking at me funny now but perhaps I can explain.
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Add a Buzz This button to your WordPress blog

Last week Google released Buzz to the masses — with mixed reviews.

Love it or leave it, it’s another avenue to help share your content with others.
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11 must have WordPress plugins

I’m building more and more websites and blogs on the WordPress engine.

(If you haven’t taken a look at it lately, it’s so much more than just a blogging platform.)

I’ve realized more and more that I’ve got a number of “must-have” plugins that I install as soon as I setup any site I work on — no matter what it’s for (even my local demo sites).

I’ve actually tried to cut down on many of the plugins I used to use (I no longer use Lightbox on most of my sites, rarely use social button type plugins — opting to hard code the links instead) in order to speed up page load times.

Yet, there are some that I’ve become so accustomed to using on various sites that I get lost without them.
Continue reading 11 must have WordPress plugins