Introduction
In this article, I will explained on the WordPress themes and as well as plugins for your web blog. Beside, I will introduce some useful tools, gadgets to make your web blog more attractive and easier monitoring.
Themes
Why you need a theme? Fundamentally, the Theme system is a way to “skin” your web blog. A basic or default theme will be provided by WordPress as soon as you successfully installed WordPress Web Blog Application. You may want your web blog able to attracted your reader and you are required a new themes. From the search engine, input “Wordpress Themes” or “Free WordPress Themes” to find out available themes for download or visit WordPress organization official website at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/.
All the new themes shall upload to your host /public_html/wp-content/themes directory via your favourite FTP program. In order to activate your new theme, precede login to your WordPress administrator interface. Scroll down to “Appearance” section and select “Themes”. A list of “Themes” will appear for you’re to activate or preview.
Plugins
Why you need a plug-in? A plug-in brings your web blog more functionality, attractively, user friendly and efficiency. Plug-in can categories as follows:-
Plug-in Management, Admin Tools, Comment Plugins, External Tool Integrations, Features, Feed Syndication, Media, Metadata, Metaplugins, Moblogging, Post Plugins, Search & Stats, Spam Fighting, Themes/Styles/Layout, Weather/Time/Location and Commercial Services.
Each plug-in should come along with it own folder. For example a tweeter plugin,
Below is the list of plug-in for my web blog:-
1.) Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.
2.) Contextual
Show user defined number of contextually related posts.
3.) FeedBurner
Detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
4.) Subscribe2
Notify an email list when new entries are posted.
5.) TweetMeme Button
Adds the TweetMeme button into your posts and RSS feed.
6.) Twitter Widget Pro
A widget handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It can even display profile images for the users. Requires PHP5.
7.) WordPress.com Stats
Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.
Search from thousands of plug-in from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.
Reminder: All the new plugins shall upload to your host /public_html/wp-content/plugins directory via your favourite FTP program.
Creating Favicon
What is “Favicon”? A Favicon is a little custom icon that appears next to a website’s URL in the address bar of a web browser. They will show up in your bookmarked sites, tabbed browsers, internet shortcut on your desktop or other folders in Windows.
The pixels of your “Favicon” shall be 16 x 16 pixels. All you need to do is creating your own “Favicon” with the file name of “favicon.ico”. Then upload to the “favicon.ico” to /public_html/ directory.
Next, login to your WordPress Administration panel, click on “Appearance” then select “Editor”. An “Edit Themes” screen will appear. From the “Theme Files – Templates”, click and select “Header (header.php)”.
Search the line code begins with <link rel=”shortcut icon” and end with /favicon.icon” />. Overwrite with <link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”/favicon.ico” type=”image/x-icon”> below the <head> HTML tag. And click “Update File”. Try reload or refreshing your page to see the changes. If there is not, please clear your browser cache.
Adding Web Counter
Web counter provided to track down how many hits has done to your web blog. The readers can actually knowing your web blog reputation by watching your Web Counter. A various type of Web Counter is provided free to download from internet. Below are the few samples Web Counter URL for your reference:-
c.) www.digits.com
Remarks:-
In order to activate the Web Counter, a sign-up are required. Some themes provided with build-in Web Counter which may bring you convenience.
Setting up a Web Counter on your website is simple. Simply copy all of the code in the box provided by your Web Counter. Login to your WordPress Administration panel, click on “Appearance” then select “Editor”. An “Edit Themes” screen will appear. From the “Theme Files – Templates”, click and select “Footer (footer.php)”. Paste the code into the HTML of your website before </div>. Do not modify the Web Counter code if you don’t know how to do so. A lot of Web Counter provided free counter but certain conditions are applied such as Provider URL link, Ads etc. Click “Update” to save. Reload you Web Blog to see the changes.
Adding Site Meter
Site Meter’s is a comprehensive real time website tracking and counter tools give instant access to vital information and data about your site visitors. I highly recommend this as a plug-in to your Web Blog as you have a clear picture who has visited your website, how they find you, where are they come from, what interests them and much more. A statics chart also provided for you to monitor web blog visitors for the pasted 7 days, 1 month and 12 months.
Setting up a Site Meter is simple. Signup and register your Web Blog by input your blog relevant detail. Copy all of the HTML code in the box provided by your Site Meter. Login to your WordPress Administration panel, click on “Appearance” then select “Editor”. An “Edit Themes” screen will appear. From the “Theme Files – Templates”, click and select “Footer (footer.php)”. Paste the code into the HTML of your website before </div>. Do not modify the Site Meter code if you don’t know how to do so. Click “Update” to save. Reload your Web Blog to see the changes.
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