Tag Archives | WordPress

Redirect Your WordPress.com Blog to Your Self-hosted Blog Easier Than Ever

By on January 21, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

WordPress.com is a great place to get started blogging. You can get a free blog with all of WordPress’ great features, themes, and support without having to deal with hosting and the frustrations of keeping your own site secure and updated. However, if your blog grows and you decide to take it to the next level, you’ll likely want to move on to running your own site self-hosted on your own hosting account or servers. If you were blogging at WordPress.com with your own domain (yourname.com), then it’s very easy to move: just import your export file from WordPress.com, redirect your domain, and you’re all set.

However, if you were blogging with a WordPress.com domain (yourname.WordPress.com), it’s a bit trickier to move. You can still just import all of your old posts, but any links to your blog will be dead and you’ll lose much of the traffic you previously had. If you don’t want this to happen, you’ll need to redirect your WordPress.com links to your new blog. Used to, this was very difficult. You had to add your domain to WordPress.com, which itself was a difficult task, then go change your CNAME records back to your new hosting account. With the delays in DNS propagation, it could often mean your site was more or less offline for a full day. That’s no fun!

The New, Easy WordPress.com Redirect

This past year, WordPress.com added a brand new Offsite Redirect upgrade option that makes it much easier than before to redirect all of your old WordPress.com traffic to your new self-hosted blog. Your site won’t be offline at all during any of the process, and it’ll actually take less than 5 minutes to get it redirected. Plus, your old links will be HTTP 301 redirected, which will make search engines pick up on your new links and not keep your old site’s links around.

Ready to get started? To redirect your blog, just login to your WordPress.com dashboard and open the Upgrades page from the left-hand menu.

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You’ll find the Site Redirect upgrade option near the bottom of the page. You can read more about the upgrade, or just click Buy Now to get started redirecting your WordPress.com blog to your new domain.

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Enter the domain name you want to redirect your site to, then confirm that you entered the site correctly.

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Now, just select whether you want to pay directly with your credit card or through your PayPal account.

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Enter your payment info or login to your PayPal account, and then authorize and complete the transaction.

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As soon as your payment goes through, you’ll see your new domain listed on your Domains page. Unlike the old domain redirect hack, this method will actually show that this domain is for a site redirect. If for some reason you decide to switch to a different domain, you can change the redirect domain from this page as well. You can also enable Auto Renew so you won’t have to remember to authorize the payment again every year.

Now, just try visiting your old WordPress.com domain. It should immediately redirect to the new domain you added. It’s that easy!

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Adding the New Redirect After Using the Old Redirect

If you had previously setup your WordPress.com blog to redirect by manually adding your domain and then changing the CNAME records, you could just keep paying for your Domain Mapping upgrade every year, and it’ll continue working the same. However, it’s the same price to redirect, so I decided to switch my site to the new redirect. There’s only one problem: you can’t add a redirect to a domain you already have mapped to your account. If you try to add one, you’ll see an error like the one below.

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If your domain mapping is almost ready for renewal, you could go ahead and remove the old mapping, then add the new site redirect. Just scroll down on the Domains page, choose your old yourname.wordpress.com domain as the primary one, then delete your domain mapping. Once this is done, you can add your new Domain Forwarding as above.

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Conclusion

WordPress is one of the most versatile blogging and CMS systems, and I’m certain that the free WordPress.com blogs have gotten many people (such as myself!) started using WordPress over other similar tools. Now that it’s so easy to redirect your old blogs, there’s really no major difficulty to moving your blog to a self-hosted setup if you wish. And, hey, if you ever decide that managing your own hosting is too difficult, you could go back to WordPress.com just as easily and add your domain there. The choice is yours, and that’s how it ought to be!

Comments { 1 }

Upload a WordPress Featured Image From iPad

By on January 21, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

If there’s one major thing on iPad that keeps me from using it fully instead of my PC, it’s the fact that iOS doesn’t let you access the main file system from apps. Most obviously, this means that, aside from pictures in the Photos app, it’s very difficult to move a file from one app to another. More importantly for me, though, is that you can’t upload files from the browser. As a writer that uses WordPress daily, that’s a major problem for me.

We’ve already seen how to upload draft posts directly from the WordPress iPad app, but there is still one thing you can’t do from the WordPress app: you can’t set a featured image for your post. The only way to do is is from the WordPress dashboard, and since you can’t upload new images from the browser, you can’t do it there, either.

A Workaround

Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

So, you can’t upload images to WordPress from your browser, but you can still add images from the WordPress app, right? Here’s what you need to do to add a new image and get it set as your featured image but without including the image directly in your post.

First, rotate and crop your image to the correct size for your post. I use square, 200×200 PNG or JPG images for my featured images, but this will be different depending on your theme and preferences. I prefer to use the free PhotoPad for cropping images since it lets you see the exact pixel size of your cropped image as you’re cropping it.

Now, head over to the WordPress app and write up your post as normal. Then, when you’re finished, tap on the Media tab and add your cropped image you want to use as a Featured Image in your post. Select to upload it in original size, since you already have it the shape you want. Once it’s finished uploading, just go back to your post editor and upload your post as you like, scheduled, draft, or fully published.

Finally, head over to your WordPress dashboard in Safari. Open your new post for editing, and tap the Set Featured Image link. You’ll find the image you added as your featured image right there in the top of the Gallery tab, ready for you to select it as the Featured Image. Save your changes in WordPress, and your post will be ready to go, just as good as if you’d written it the whole way from a PC.

Now, granted, this isn’t the easiest solution, but it does let you do one more thing directly from iPad that you couldn’t have done otherwise. In fact, this same trick would work just as good on an iPhone or iPod Touch. Mobile blogging no longer means that your posts have to look second class! And by the way, I used this trick to add the featured image to this post as you might be able to tell from the images. It worked!

What would be nicer is if the WordPress iOS app added an option to set your featured image directly. Maybe eventually…

Comments { 7 }

Save Draft Posts to WordPress with the WordPress iOS app

By on January 17, 2011 in Featured, Quick Tips

Whether you’re carrying around an iPhone or iPod Touch in your pocket or have a new iPad you’d like to make into a mobile writing powerhouse, chances are you’d like to write blog posts on the go. The WordPress for iOS app is the obvious blogging choice for iOS devices if you’ve got a WordPress blog. You can quickly edit existing posts, write new ones, and even add pictures and screenshots directly from your device.

The only problem I faced when using the WordPress app was the lack of a “Save as Draft” feature. By default, the WordPress app saves draft posts to your device, but doesn’t give you the option to upload the draft. When I write a post, I prefer to upload a draft of the post to make sure I don’t lose what I wrote and also so I can easily add to it online. Additionally, I write for several different tech blogs, and on most of them, I can only upload a draft post and submit it for review, and the editor then publishes the post on the site’s schedule. Many freelance writers have a similar setup, so the lack of a draft upload feature makes the WordPress app almost unusable.

Maybe I can't upload posts from my iPad...

Behold the Hidden Draft Upload Feature!

Turns out, draft uploading is only hidden, not missing. WordPress for iOS lets you set a post’s status, so you can get your post saved online just like you want. If you simply press Save by default, you’ll get a draft of your post saved locally. Tap the Status bar, however, and you can choose exactly how to save your post. Select Draft to post a draft to your blog so you can continue editing online, or select Pending Review to submit your fresh post to your editor. No matter what you want to set your post’s status as, you can choose it here. Awesome!

Post Status? We have Post Statuses ... wait, is that a word?

Once you’ve done this, you’ll simply see a Save button in the top right corner of the app instead of the Save and Publish buttons you had previously. Press Save, and seconds later your post will be online, ready for further editing, scheduling, and more.

Editing Posts Online

Speaking of which, if you ever want to edit a post on your WordPress dashboard directly from your iPad, you may have noticed that the editor box doesn’t show you the entire post. Don’t worry … You can still edit any part you need. Just drag inside the box with two fingers to scroll as you would from a laptop touchpad, then tap to start editing where you need. Everything else on the WordPress dashboard works fine. You can tweak plugins and themes, edit posts, and even add new plugins from the Plugin Directory all from an iPhone or iPad. However, you can’t add new photos, plugins, or themes directly from your device, since iOS doesn’t let sites or apps see the main filesystem. Hopefully they’ll enable this in the future … At least we can hope!

Draft posts uploaded from iPad, ready for editing and more

So, with these tips, your iDevice can become a much more useful blogging tool. Do you find yourself blogging from your iPhone or iPad often? Let us know your blogging habits in the comments!

And, for the record, I wrote this whole post directly on my iPad in the WordPress app…

Comments { 1 }

Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress

By on December 10, 2010 in Featured, Techinch

Would you like to move your blog from Tumblr to your own WordPress blog?  There’s no one-step way to do it, but you can move everything from your Tumblr blog and make your new setup as nice or nicer than your old Tumblr blog.  Let’s see how you can move everything and get your new WordPress blog working as much like Tumblr as possible.

1) Getting a New Site

First, you need to get a new site.  If you already have a hosting account, simply make a new WordPress install for your new site.  Otherwise, you’ll need to sign up for hosting account.  I highly recommend DreamHost – they’re hosting this site, and have done a much better job than other hosts I’ve used.  Other highly recommend options from others include Media Temple and HostGator.  They all offer one-click installations of WordPress so it’ll be easy to get your site up and running.

Here’s 2 articles that can help you install WordPress if you’ve never done it:

Install WordPress Manually on Your Website

Install WordPress on Your Own Server With Softaculous

Or, if you need help, ask away in the comments!

2) Install a Tumblog Theme

Once WordPress is installed, you’ll need to get a theme running to make your site look like you want.  Any WordPress theme would work fine for a normal blog, but if you want to keep using Tumblr’s unique post types, including image, link, and quote posts, then you’ll want a theme designed for a tumblog blog.  You can either turn any WordPress theme into a tumblog theme, or you could purchase a premade tumblog theme from WooThemes.  These include Canvas, Retreat, Slanted, Cinch, and Crisp, my personal favorite.  Once you’ve got a Tumblog theme running, you should see Tumblr-style editing options on your WordPress Dashboard.

3) Export Your Tumblr Content

Now it’s time to start moving your posts from your old Tumblr site to your new WordPress site.  Head over to Benapps.net, which contains a free tool that can export your Tumblr posts.  Enter your Tumblr blog address, select HTML export format, and then select how you want your post addresses to be imported.  For most purposes, the first option is fine.

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Scroll down, and under Export for, select Self-Hosted WordPress Installation.  You could leave the other options as default or change them as you wish; it’s up to you.  Finally, press Export.  Seconds later, you should be prompted to save a tumblr_yourblog.xml file; save it to your computer, as you’ll need to import the data from this file into your new site.

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4) Import Everything Into WordPress

Back in your WordPress dashboard, select Tools on the left sidebar and click Import. Then, click WordPress on the list of Import options.  The tool you used before put your Tumblr posts into WordPress format, so this is the best way to import them.

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You’ll now be prompted to install the importer.  Click Install Now so you can get your content imported.image

Once it’s installed, click Activate Plugin & Run Importer.

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Click Choose File, then select the file you just downloaded from the Tumblr export site previously.  Click Upload file and import to get all your posts moved over.  Moments later, all of your posts should be imported into WordPress!

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Now, select the author to assign these posts to, and check the Download and import attachments to get your images copied over too.

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You can see all of your imported posts from the Posts menu.  As you can see here, all posts were organized into categories based on what type of post you’d created in Tumblr.

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There’s only one problem: your posts aren’t taking advantage of your theme’s tumblog features.  This is fine; your posts will still be fully readable in WordPress.  However, if you want to take advantage of the tumblog features of your theme that let you have link, image, quote, and other post types, you’ll need to edit them.  To do this, you can bulk edit the posts by category.

On the top of the posts page, select the category you want to change and click filter.  Then, select all the posts and click Edit under Bulk Actions.

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Now, select the correct Tumblog post for the category you selected, and click Update.  You’ll now need to repeat this for each of your categories.  Once you’re done, though, your blog will look much more like it did before.

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5) Move Your Domain and Redirect Old Posts

If you had your own custom domain in Tumblr, you should now move it to your new hosting account or redirect it to your new site.  If you’re unsure about how to do this, you can follow the directions at the first part of this post, this time directing your domain to your WordPress site rather than Tumblr.

Then, you can redirect the links to your old posts by editing your .htaccess file, or with a simple WordPress Plugin.  To do this, install the Simple 301 Redirects plugin in WordPress.

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Open the Simple 301 Redirects tool under Settings once it’s installed.  Now, enter your tumblr post link on the left, leaving off the initial domain name (the link should look something like /post/123456789/name), then enter the correct address for that post on your WordPress site.  You’ll need to repeat this for each post.  This is tedious, so if your content isn’t very important then you may not want to do it.  Otherwise, though, if your posts have been linked on many other sites, this will keep your traffic flowing to your new site.

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6) Add Plugins to Automatically Share your Content

One of Tumblr’s best features is that it can automatically share your new posts with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.  With two new plugins, though, WordPress can do the same.  Just install the WordTwit and Wordbook plugins from the Plugins menu, and activate each of them with your personal Twitter and Facebook accounts, respectively.  Now when you publish a new post, it’ll automatically be shared with your friends around the world.

Additionally, if you had enabled Disqus comments on your Tumblr blog previously, you can now install the Disqus for WordPress plugin.  It will automatically move your old comments over, so you can keep the discussion going on your new site.

7) Post from Anywhere

Tumblr’s mobile app makes it easy to post to your Tumblr blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch.  Thankfully, you can get the same features on WordPress.  You can install the WordPress Mobile app on your iOS, Android, Blackberry, or Symbian device, so no matter what phone you’re using you can always share the latest things that are going on.  The only problem is, the default free WordPress app only lets you post normal blog posts, not newer Tumblog posts.  For that, you’ll need the Express app for iPhone, which is an app from WooThemes specially designed to post to Tumblog blogs.  Check out my review of Express on AppStorm.net, or head over to the iTunes Store to download it today.

Conclusion

Phew, you made it!  Congratulations, your Tumblr blog is now safe on WordPress.  Hope the move went good for you, and if you hit any snags, feel free to ask questions in the comments below and I’ll do my best to help you.  Or, if you’d like to see a WordPress blog that was imported from Tumblr, check out my tumblog at www.maybring.com.  I just got it moved to WordPress this week, and it’s working great.

Happy Blogging!

Comments { 7 }

WordPress Plugin Reviews on WPBeginner

By on November 12, 2010 in Featured, Other Sites, Writing

Would you like to take your WordPress powered sites to the next level with advanced WordPress plugins?  Recently I reviewed two of my favorite pro plugins for WordPress on WPBeginner.com, a great site to help you get started with WordPress.  Here’s a quick summary of the reviews, but be sure to click through and check them out on WPBeginner.com if you haven’t already read the reviews.

Keep Your WordPress Content Safe with BackupBuddy

Most of us backup our computers, emails, and more, but if you’re just getting started with blogging and running your own site, you may have never thought about needing to backup your website.  You could always export your database and download each individual file from your site weekly, but this would be time consuming and difficult.  BackupBuddy is a great plugin from iThemes that makes it dead simple to keep your site backed up.  It’ll backup all the files and posts on your site, saving them on your server, on a remote FTP server, or in the cloud with Amazon S3.  Then, if tragedy strikes and your hosting company goes AWOL, you can quickly restore your entire site in minutes using BackupBuddy’s restore tool.  I use BackupBuddy with Amazon S3 to keep all of Techinch.com’s data secure, and highly recommend it.

Checkout the full review on WPBeginner.com

Make Your WordPress Site Mobile Friendly with WPtouch Pro

As mobile devices become more popular, more of your blog’s traffic will come from mobile devices.  Unfortunately, it’s often difficult to view full-sized sites on smaller screens, and it wouldn’t make sense to code a new app for your site just to make your content accessible on a mobile device.

That’s where WPtouch Pro comes in.  It’s a WordPress plugin that converts your site into a great iOS style interface when you visit it with a modern smartphone.  WPtouch Pro includes tons of options to let you customize the mobile site however you want, and will soon be getting updated to support iPads as well.  My WPBeginner.com article gives you a good overview of how the plugin works and how you can use it, and then check back here at Techinch soon for more customization articles about WPtouch Pro.  I’ve been switching Techinch over to WPtouch Pro, and will be sharing what I’ve done to customize it so you can put it to good use on your site!

Checkout the full review on WPBeginner.com

Doing More With WordPress

Do you have any more WordPress plugins you’d like to see reviewed?  Feel free to drop me a note and let me know!  And don’t forget … if you want to learn more about WordPress, you should definitely check out the Digging Into WordPress eBook.  It’s a great resource that will teach you how to manage your site, write new themes and plugins, keep your content secure, and more.

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Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Tumblr-style Tumblog for Free

By on November 1, 2010 in Techinch

Would you like to be able to post Tumblr-style image, link, quote posts, and more from your blog?  Here’s how you can give your WordPress blog a makeover and give it the Tumblog power and simplicity you need.

Tumblr is a popular hosted blogging service that helped popularize Tumblogs, a type of blogs typically filled with short posts.  Tumblr makes it dead simple to post images, videos, quotes, or links on your blog, and many users prefer this to full blog posts.  Whether you’ve wanted to switch to a simpler blogging style or simply wanted to add some Tumblog-style posts to your existing blog, there’s now a way to do this without leaving WordPress behind.  WooThemes recently released a free plugin, WooTumblog, that makes it easy to transform your WordPress blog into a perfect Tumblog.  It’s slightly complicated to integrate with your site, so let’s see how it works.

Installing WooTumblog on Your WordPress Site

First, you’ll need to add the WooTumblog plugin to your site.  Simply open the Add new Plugins page on your WordPress dashboard, search for WooTumblog, then install and activate it.

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Now, open your Permalinks settings page under Settings on your WordPress Dashboard.  Click Save on the bottom of the page without making any changes to register the custom taxonomies that WooTumblr added to your site.

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You can also tweak your Tumblog settings from the Tumblog Options link under Post on your Dashboard.

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There’s one more thing you’ll need to do … you need to add some code to your theme files to get WooTumblog fully integrated in your site.  Here’s how to do it.

Editing your Theme Files

sshot-2010-11-01-1-12-20-39You’ll need to edit two of your theme’s PHP files to get the Tumblr functionality working on your site.  Depending on your theme, you’ll need edit your index.php or loop.php file, as well as single.php.  Open the Editor page under your WordPress Appearance menu, then select the appropriate file and make the following changes, or edit the files in your favorite offline text/code editor and upload the files once you’ve added the new content.

Editing loop.php

First, you’ll need to change your title style.  Find the line that contains <?php the_title(); ?>, and replace that line with:

<?php woo_tumblog_the_title(“entry-title”); ?>

You can do this easily by searching for the_title on the editor page; now just replace that whole line with the code above.  Do note on some themes, including most themes from Elegant Themes, you’ll need to edit entry.php instead of index or loop.php, so you may need to look through your theme a bit to be sure.  Alternately, if you’re using the WordPress 3.0 default theme, TwentyTen, just replace line 126 with that.

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Now, scroll down a bit, and add the following code in a new line above both <?php the_excerpt(); ?> and <?php the_content:

<?php woo_tumblog_content(); ?>

These are located on lines 134 and 139, respectively, in the TwentyTen theme.

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Once you’ve made the changes, be sure to save your file with the button on the bottom of the editor, or in your code editor program.

Editing single.php

Switch over to single.php, and add the same code as before.  Replace the title line the same as above, then add <?php woo_tumblog_content(); ?> above the line containing <?php the_content(); ?>.  These will be located on lines 23 and 30, respectively, on the TwentyTen theme.

Save your changes again, and if you’ve been editing your theme offline, go ahead and upload the changes.

If you need more help adding the Tumblog support to your theme, click the Help tab in your WordPress Dashboard Tumblog Options page.

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Adding Tumblog Posts

Your site won’t look any different until you start adding new Tumblog style posts.  The good thing is, WooTumblog makes it easy to do that.  Directly from your Dashboard, you can start adding new Quote, Image, Video, or other Tumblog-style posts via the new Tumblog widget.  Simply select the article type you want, start adding your new content, and click Submit when you’re ready to publish your content.

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If you’re adding a picture post, you can upload the picture directly from the Tumblog widget.  Quick and simple!

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Alternately, if you have an iOS device, including an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can purchase the Express for WordPress app, which lets you post Tumblog posts with images, links, quotes, and more directly from your device.  Since Tumblog posts are generally shorter than full blog posts, this is a great way to keep your blog updated on the go.  We plan to review the app soon, but if you try it out, let us know what you think!

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Once you’ve got some Tumblog-style posts up and running, visit your site’s homepage to see how the new posts look.  With those few changes, you’ve just added a ton of functionality to your site!

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My favorite Tumblr feature is the Link posts, which let the title of your article link directly to the site or article you’re mentioning.  And this works the exact same on your WordPress blog with WooTumblog.

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See it in action

Want to see WooTumblog in action?  Here’s the official video showing how to add it to your site and create tumblog posts:

Use a Theme With WooTumblog Built In

Although it’s not too hard to get WooTumblog integrated with your existing theme, sometimes it’s easier to just get a pre-existing theme that’s ready to use out of the box and go with it.  WooThemes already offers 5 themes that include tumblog functionality already, so you won’t have to do anything extra to get it working.  These include Retreat, Slanted, Cinch, and Crisp, my personal favorite.  Canvas, WooTheme’s popular theme that lets you tweak it to no end, now also includes tumblog support.  If you’d like to see how any of these themes work before you purchase one, be sure to test them out for free on the WooThemes Playground.

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Conclusion

There’s a great reason WordPress is such a popular option for building blogs and websites of all shapes and sizes.  The WooTumblr lets you keep using WordPress’ power while taking advantage of the simplicity of Tumblr.  There’s a ton of uses for Tumblog themes, so let us know in the comments how you end up using your WordPress Tumblog … feel free to leave a link to your Tumblog site so we all can see it.

Get more information about the WooTumblr plugin

Get the Express App for your iPhone or iPod touch to post Tumblog posts on the go [App Store]

Check out all the tumblog WooThemes

Comments { 14 }

Testdrive WooThemes for Free

By on October 8, 2010 in Techinch

Are you looking for a great theme for your new site or blog, but can’t quite decide on which one?  Here’s how you can try out any WooThemes WordPress theme for free to see how it works before you purchase it for your site.

WooThemes is one of the most popular WordPress theme developers, and they have themes that cover almost any use.  From a simple and stylish blog theme to a customized frontpage for your new app to a full-blown real estate site, WooThemes has nearly 100 themes that you can choose from, including some very nice free themes.  Actually, the problem usually isn’t finding a theme that will work great for your site; the problem is deciding which one will work best for your site.  Most WordPress themes let you preview them before your purchase or download, but this doesn’t let you see how easy or difficult they will be to use and customize.

WooThemes takes this to the next level, and lets you try out all of their WordPress themes on your own temporary blog for free before you purchase a theme.  Let’s get started and see how you can play with WooThemes for free.

The WooThemes Playground

To testdrive any WooTheme for free, you’ll need to register for the WooThemes Playground.  You can signup at this link, or from the link on the Try Before You Buy link on any theme’s page.

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Before you can get started, you’ll need to make a new account.  Simply enter the username of your choice and your email address, and click Sign up.

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Now, enter a name and title for your test site, and click Signup.  This will create a temporary blog for you that will run for 24 hours, but the great thing is, it includes every WooTheme available so you can try them out on this test site.

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Moments later you’ll receive an email with a link to activate your test blog, so click the link to activate it.

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Once it’s activated, you’ll receive a new email with the password for your site and a link to login.  Click the link, then login with your username and the password you received in the email.

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Once you login, you’ll be greeted with the default WordPress dashboard.  The only difference is, this WordPress install includes every WooTheme available.  To get started trying out themes, click the Appearance button on the left sidebar.

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Trying Out WooThemes

Your test site’s Appearance page will include every available WooTheme for you to try.  Just click the Activate link under the theme you want to try to see how it looks.

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Once the theme is activated, it will automatically open the theme’s preferences page.  Alternately, you can click the new Woo button with your theme’s name on the left sidebar to open it.  Now you can try for yourself and see how easy WooThemes are to customize.

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Some of the themes will have tons of options.  Here you see the theme options for Estate, WooTheme’s real estate site theme, which lets you easily list properties, agents, maps, and more.

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You can even try out Canvas, WooTheme’s increasingly popular framework theme that lets you design your own unique theme without messing with code.  Canvas is an especially good theme to try out in the WooThemes playground, as it’s hard to know if you’ll really like it until you can try tweaking it yourself.

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Take Your Customizations To Your Own Blog

Once you’ve tweaked a theme to perfection, click your test site’s name on the top of the dashboard to preview your work.

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If you like your customizations, you can save them and import them to your site once you’ve purchased your WooTheme.  Go back to your test site’s WordPress dashboard, and click Framework Options under your theme’s name.

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Select the Export Options tab in the WooThemes panel that opened, and copy the code in the textbox.  Now save this code in a safe place, as you’ll need it to import your settings on your site.

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Now, head back to WooTheme’s main site, purchase and download the theme you were trying out (make sure you purchase the same theme you were using), and then install it on your own WordPress site.  Then, open the Framework Settings page on your own site as before, and this time select the Import Options tab.  Paste the code you copied from your test site into the Import box, click Save, and your customizations will be live on your own site.  Now That’s a great way to try out and then use a theme!

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The WooThemes Playground is a great resource, and I was very impressed with their backend features after trying them out this way.  It’s a great way to see what their themes offer before you make a purchase, so give it a try and let us know which WooTheme is your favorite.  Clinch and Canvas are my personal favorites at the moment ;) .

Comments { 8 }

Get Started With WordPress.com the Easy Way

By on September 29, 2010 in Techinch

Whether you’re running a small, personal blog or a major news site, WordPress is a great platform to build your website from.  It currently powers over 8% of all sites across the ‘net, including Techinch.com, HowtoGeek.com, and many other sites you likely regularly read.  You can run WordPress on your own server or hosting account, or get started with a free blog on WordPress.com, which is a very popular way to get started blogging.  Microsoft announced recently that Windows Live Spaces is shutting down and that all Spaces blogs will be migrated over to WordPress.com.  If you have a Spaces blog and are nervous about the transition, or are just wanting to start a new blog and aren’t sure where to start, here’s some articles I’ve written on HowtoGeek that should make the transition smooth and seemless for you.

- How To Start Your Own Professional Blog with WordPress

This article will help you get started with a new WordPress.com blog

- Customize Your WordPress Blog & Build an Audience

Themes, widgets, social media, and more … WordPress.com has lots to offer, so here’s how you can use it all to make your blog more interesting

- Add Your Own Domain to Your WordPress.com Blog

You’ll want to make sure your readers can easily find and remember your blog, and a custom domain name is one of the best ways to do this.  Plus, if you ever move your blog, you can always easily move your domain name … after all, Techinch.com started out as a WordPress.com blog, and I was able to easily move my content to a new hosting account and redirect my old blog’s address here with this trick.

- Tools to Help Post Content On Your WordPress Blog

Whether you’re using WordPress.com or have WordPress installed on your own hosting account, here’s how you can easily post quality content to your blog from anywhere

- Create Your Own Twitter-style Group Blog With P2

WordPress.com doesn’t just have to be about blogs … the P2 theme (which you can use for free) lets you setup a message board or chat-style site to keep your group in touch

And if you need more help getting started with WordPress or moving your old blog, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to help.  Or, if you recently moved your Spaces blog to WordPress.com, feel free to leave your blog’s address in a comment so we can check it out.

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Free Book Giveaway! Our Review of the Digging Into WordPress 3 eBook

By on September 6, 2010 in Books, Reviews, Techinch

Are you wanting to learn more about WordPress?  From mainstream websites to personal blogs, WordPress is one of the most important and powerful publishing platforms today.  There’s a wealth of information of information available online, but it can be very difficult to learn everything there is to know about something as big as WordPress from scattered blog posts and articles.  That’s where Digging into WordPress fits in.  Keep reading for our review of the latest version of this impressive book, and for an opportunity to win one of 2 copies we’re giving away this week!

Digging into WordPress is a great eBook that gives you a through WordPress education in a fun and exciting way.  It is aimed at users that know at least some HTML, CSS, and PHP, but if you even have the slightest knowledge of web design and have a strong desire to push on and learn more, you’ll be able to learn a lot from this book.  Best of all, it was recently updated for WordPress 3.0!  Whether you’re still trying to learn your way around WordPress, are trying to hack your favorite Elegant Theme or WooTheme to work the way you want, or are trying to become the new 3rd most important person in WordPress, this is the book for you.  It covers all the following and more:

  • Unique ways to secure your WordPress site
  • Great ways to incorporate Twitter and other social media into your site
  • In depth SEO information
  • Using WordPress as a CMS with custom Taxonomies, fields, post types, and more
  • Creating and using WordPress child themes
  • Over 20 pages devoted to the latest WordPress 3.0 features, including WordPress MultiSite, custom menus, and more, with WP 3.0 specific updates throughout the book

With all that content, Digging into WordPress is a massive eBook, with nearly 450 pages of tips, tricks, and instruction.  It’s also a beautiful book that looks great on your netbook or eReader screen!

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If you’re a visual learner, Digging into WordPress will be especially helpful.  It frequently includes screenshots of websites and WordPress admin screens to illustrate what its talking about.  The whole book is beautifully designed, which makes it a pleasure to read while still giving you a ton of WordPress instruction.

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The book is filled with sample code that can help you do exactly you want to with your WordPress themes and backend PHP, even if you only have a basic understanding of PHP coding.  You always learn more when you learn by doing, so be sure to try out the code on your own site or WordPress test install so you’ll really understand how it works.  And if you’re already an advanced WordPress developer, it can be a great resource of code snippets for those little, hard-to-remember functions.

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But it’s not all code, work, and study … Digging into WordPress is fun, too.  It’s filled with funny and inspirational quotes, pointers, and off-the-wall remarks that break up the monotony of studying.  This book is as informative as a textbook, but if you’re any bit into web development, it’ll be as fun to read as a tech book can be.

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As mentioned before, the book has been fully updated with WordPress 3.0 information, so you’ll be armed with the latest tools when you set off to create your own new themes.  Best of all, if you purchase a copy of Digging into WordPress (or have purchased one in the past), you’ll receive free updates to the book when they’re published!  So you’ll learn about WP 3.0 today, and will also get the latest information when new versions of WordPress are released in the future.  Technology changes daily, so too often, books are outdated as soon as you buy them.  Not Digging into WordPress … it’s a living eBook :)

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We’re very impressed with the content and quality of this book, and highly recommend it.  If you’d like to see more, be sure to check out the free sample chapter.  Or take a look around the companion site, DigWP.com; it includes an amazing amount of WordPress tips and tricks, such as this great tip on using Tumblr-style link posts in WordPress!

Usually, when I finish reading a tech book, I think I wish it’d covered *whatever* better, but this book left no room for missing information.  You’re supposed to point out where books came short in reviews, but I couldn’t find anything to critique.  450 pages of content, up to date information, full-color graphics, and free updates in the future … what’s not to love?  If you’re wanting to learn more about WordPress, this is the book to get!

Win a Free Copy of Digging Into WordPress

Update: Our contest is now closed, and the winners are Roger and jawshua. Thanks everyone for participating!

Best of all, we’re giving away 2 PDF copies of Digging Into WordPress!  To enter, simply leave a comment below and let us know why you want to read Digging into WordPress, or follow us on Twitter (@techinch for just Techinch posts, or @maguay for more random tech stuff and interesting posts), and tweet the following or just click Tweet at the bottom of this post:

Win a free copy of Digging into WordPress from @techinch! http://bit.ly/digwp3

Important: Make sure to mention @maguay or @techinch in the Tweet, or we may not see it and won’t be able to count it in this contest!

Want a better chance at winning?  Leave a comment and retweet this post for 2 entries!  The contest closes at midnight Friday, September 10th, EST time, so make sure to comment before then.

And a special thanks to Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, the authors of Digging into WordPress, for sponsoring this contest.

Purchase Digging into WordPress

If you don’t win the contest, don’t despair.  You can still purchase a copy and learn all the great tips yourself.  The eBook version costs $27, and comes with fully free updates.  Digging into WordPress has already gone through 3 major versions, and if you purchased a previous version, you automatically got a new copy for download as soon as it came out.  It even includes several WordPress themes for free!  This all makes it one of the best WordPress book deals available.  You’ll be able to take advantage of all the tips and information in the current version, and will be able to keep your knowledge up to date as WordPress evolves!

Find Out More and Purchase Digging Into WordPress today!
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Page.ly | Full WordPress Power Without Hosting Nightmares

By on August 19, 2010 in Techinch

Are you wanting to start a new WordPress-powered website, but need more power and flexibility than WordPress.com offers?  WordPress.com is a great place to start out blogging, and it even works great for simple, small business websites, but if you want to take advantage of the ecosystem of amazing themes and plugins available for WordPress, you’ll have to move to self-hosted WordPress.org.  This means you’ll need to find a hosting company, install WordPress, and then configure it to be as secure as possible.  It’s not too hard if you’re a geek, but if you’re just wanting a website that just works, it’ll likely take way more configuration and tweaking than you’ll want.

Enter Page.ly.  Page.ly is a dedicated WordPress.org hosting service that let’s you setup a full WordPress website in minutes.  It’s as easy purchasing a book from Amazon; simply enter your info, and seconds later your WordPress site will  be setup.  And it’s not limited like WordPress.com; you’ve got the full power of WordPress.org at your fingertips, running on secure FireHost with nighly backups.  You won’t need to setup MySQL databases, change .htaccess files, or even install standard plugins … everything’s setup for you and maintained automatically!  WordPress is famous for being easy to install, but it’s only easy to install if you know what you’re doing; otherwise it can be rather difficult.

So how does it really work?  Check out this video from Page.ly to see how easy it is to setup a new WordPress-powered site:

That’s easy!  Signup, get extra premium themes and features, add some posts, and you’re set!

Now, if you already know the ins and outs of running webapps, or want to learn more and put your knowledge to the test, then running your own WordPress setup on a hosting account (such as DreamHost) may be the best option.  But most users simply want to get a website up and running, and don’t care about the technical details.  Page.ly is a great option for this.  You get the power and simplicity of WordPress without the headache of managing a hosting service and keeping your site secure.

Page.ly costs $14.95/month, which for full hosting, support, and backup is not a bad price.  But, you just might not have to even pay that, because Page.ly is currently running a 1st year birthday giveaway, including 2 free iPads and several free-for-life Page.ly accounts.  Head over to their blog for more info, so you can get a shot at a free site and an iPad!

Or, if you’d like to go ahead and get your new site on Page.ly, feel free to Signup Today!

P.S. – I haven’t personally tried it out (though I’d love to if I won the contest ;) ), so let me know how Page.ly works for your!  Here at Techinch I aim to make technology simpler for everyone, and Page.ly has definitely made WordPress.org simpler to use.  That’s always a good thing!

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