We’ll cover a wide variety of WordPress topics, but the primary focus will be giving useful and practical tips and code examples that will make your life easy as a WordPress developer, modder, or a blogger.

WP Splash includes a WordPress Design Gallery, where you can submit your WordPress based designs. And also a community news section on homepage where you can submit WordPress related articles/links.

We have BIG plans for WP Splash, so keep an eye on it. Make sure you subscribe to WP Splash RSS feed and follow it on Twitter to stay updated.

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And there’s a very good reason why.

We start with a new idea, a single objective that the site is going to achieve. But as we progress with the development, we keep adding redundant bits of stuff, and completely unneeded elements.

So as a result, we create something that ends up being too many things, and having so many features it scares everyone away.

Take the social sharing icons on most blogs for example. Some blogs display a huge stack of sharing icons at the end of every post. Such bloat discourages sharing rather than encourage it. The right approach would be to display only what you really know would work. The retweet button anyone?

Next time you embark on a new project:

Think of what annoys you on other sites: and don’t do it on yours just for the sake of following the tradition.

Look at what you have so far: and re-evaluate its usefulness. Is it what the visitors come here looking for?

Don’t lose focus: don’t try to make your site do too many things. The more focused the objective, the better.

Simplify, not complicate: keeping things simple and intuitive is the way to go. The less steps your visitors have to take to get to the info/tool they need, the better.

Now, I don’t want to get redundant here myself. So I’ll let you mull over the above points.

And please, add your thoughts below.

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Follow me on Twitter | ReTweet this post

What are all those confusing little words you come across in every other tweet? Read on for answers.

Twitter is becoming a culture in itself. Spawning new words, and creating new concepts around its lingo.

Many of us get confused when we first join Twitter and are bombarded with the inside mumbo-jumbo. This post is meant to clear up some of those words. The big ones actually, that everyone else seems to know except you!

Let’s start with the all so common Tweet.

Tweet

Whatever you post at Twitter is a tweet (and thank god not a twit).

RT or ReTweet

There’s already a big fat post on Blogging Bits that explains what ReTweet is and why and how you should use it. But I’ll summarize it here again for those of you who can’t be arsed to read the whole post.

ReTweet is a quoted tweet, a repost. You ReTweet when you quote someone else’s tweet in your tweet.

That’s how most tweeple (oops.. people) use it:

RT @originalposter this is a quoted tweet — this is your comment

Where RT stands for ReTweet, @originalposter is the guy or girl you’re quoting, the following text is the quoted tweet, and the text after dashes is your comments (comments are optional).

#Hashtags

Hashtags are a way to tag your tweets. They are keywords you use to put your tweet in certain topic.

You usually use hashtags when tracking a popular topic. Like if you’re giving updates on FOWD conference, you’ll use the tag #FOWD in your update tweets.

Use hashtags at the end of a tweet, or make a hashtag out of any word inside the tweet to save space (for example: I’m at #FOWD meeting jolly good folks).

DM

DM stands for direct message.

Twitter is all about saying everything in public timeline, but there are occasions when you want to send some a private message. That’s when you use a DM.

Method 1: If you want to send a @Friend a direct message, type it like this:

D Friend This is the message.

D at start is to ensure this is a private message. Friend is the Twitter ID of of the person you’re sending a DM, and the rest is your message.

NOTE: Always use D and not DM at the start of a direct message or it’ll end up in public timeline.

Method 2: Switch to “Direct Messages” tab on your Twitter page, select a person from the drop down menu, enter your message in the input box, and hit the send button.

Tweeps / Tweeple

The peeps or people on Twitter of course.

Twitterverse / Twitterville

Everyone at Twitter. The Twitter community.

Twitterati

The big guys at Twitter. Those with more followers than you can count in your lifetime.

Tword

Any word prefixed by Tw to make it more compatible with Twitter.

———————————

There are a lot more words with TW added at the start, and many more being coined everyday, so it’d be a waste of time and energy to document them all here.

Though you must have gotten a pretty good idea of how a Tword works by now, and you should be able to decipher any new words encountered from now on.

Any other popular Twitter words/terms I have missed? Let me know in the comments.

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After being in constant development for many weeks, our new WordPress Theme Flexis is ready to beautify your web site.

Flexis is what its names suggests: a very flexible theme that can be used on a personal blog, news site, or any general magazine style site.

Some of the features at a glance:

• Out of the box SEO
• Social media integration
• Optimized ad placements
• Built-in ad management
• Google Analytics and FeedBurner integration
• 6 Color schemes
• Two home page layouts
• Featured posts and videos
• Widgetized sidebar and footer
• Custom Twitter and Flickr widgets
• On the go thumbnail generation for posts
• Threaded comments
• Custom logo and favicon support

And many more in the package.

Flexis has a super cool tabbed AJAX-based control panel that’ll make managing theme features a breeze.

What you’re really going to love is Flexis ad manager. You can add any kind of ads in predefined optimized ad spots, preview, edit, ad delete them with any third party plugin.

I can safely say that you’ll improve your ad earnings with Flexis. Couple that with more visitors thanks to Flexis out-of-the-box SEO and social media optimization and you’re sure as hell going to double your earnings.

Flexis is also highly customizable with 6 awesome color schemes, 2 different home page layouts, different font choices, font sizes, custom logo, favicon, and much more!

What’s more, get Flexis for $20 instead of the regular price $30 in first 24 hours. So hurry up! (valid till March 27 9:00 GMT)

Screenshots and more info | Live Demo | Buy now

If you any question or comments, feel free to drop a comment below.

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Do you work for yourself?

You may think you do. As a blogger, you have your own schedules, you write when you feel like it, you write about things you love and so on.

But that’s not what I mean when I ask if you really work for yourself.

Even though you have a blog and you do whatever you want to do with it, you’re still limited by certain choices. Do you rely on Google for traffic? Do you rely on a ad network to monetize your blog? Do you promote others’ products to make small commissions?

In all those situations, you work for others. In particular, you depend on others to monetize your blog, to make it profitable, and to make your efforts worthwhile.

Now, there’s certain trend in the blogosphere about making money from your blog. And it’s mostly made popular by certain lazy bloggers (pardon me but I’m NOT referring to you).

It’s so easy to slap Google AdSense code on your blog and wait for the pennies to trickle in. Most people don’t even think they have any other choice.

The best they do is change the advertising network.

There’s nothing wrong with making money from ads. But what you make with ads is nothing compared to what you can make when you work for yourself.

How do you work for yourself? You sell your own products and services.

The first step involves building a platform that you can use to sell your products.

Build a platform

You don’t just start a new blog. It’s easy to do, and anyone with internet access can do it. You build a platform.

Blogging is not immediately rewarding. It’s only rewarding when you establish yourself as authority in your niche. When you tell people something that’s true, that makes sense to them, and that affects their lives in a positive way.

Building authority and making your audience listen to you can not happen in a few days, or weeks, or even months (unless you have a lot of pals on Digg).

It’s going to take time and consistent posting by you to make your blog stand out.

If you rely solely on ads, your interest in blogging will slowly peter out… leaving you to wonder what did you gain from all the hard work you put into your blog.

When you have a long term goal in your mind, however, you can go on creating content and building authority till you’re ready to sell your expertise.

Sell your expertise

If you blog to build authority, you’ll not only gain more knowledge about your niche, but also establish yourself as a expert in your niche.

Your readers will have certain expectations from you. They’ll read you to gain insight into whatever they want to know.

And this, my friends, is the right time to start charging for your knowledge.

You DON’T have to charge  your readers for reading your blog of course, because frankly, they’re doing you a favor by reading you out of all other bloggers.

You can, however,  use your expertise, skill, and experience to put together a product or service that solves a big problem of your audience.

The product or service can be anything from a ebook, a interactive course, a tool, or just plain your consultation and advice.

Make partnerships

You’ll do just fine on your own. However, if you feel there are certain areas that lie outside your skillset, don’t hesitate to reach out to other people with skillset that fill in that gap for you.

As the saying goes, 1+1 make 11. A joint venture can be profitable for all parties involved, there will be less work, things will get done fast, and there will be better profits.

The web is reaching a critical stage for online publishers and entrepreneurs. People are more interested in buying online than they were ever before. They want to spend their money. So this is the right time for you to start selling and accept the money they are so willingly to put in your pocket.

Work for yourself and stop promoting others’ products. A year or two from now, the Internet is going to be so saturated with online sellers, you’ll have hard time fitting in. And you sure don’t want to be collecting pennies forever.

Act now!

At the end, I’ll ask the same question again: do YOU work for yourself?

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It’s hardly been over a week since I launched Spotlight WordPress Theme and I’ve already received plenty of positive feedback from everyone who saw and used the theme  (which also means the sales are going really good).

The good reviews and comments have been very encouraging. So, to continue the good spirit and give everyone back some love, I contacted few blogger friends and asked them to give away 3 copies of Spotlight to their readers.

Well, they couldn’t be happier.

Daniel at Daily Blog Tips is running a twitter contest for Spotlight WordPress Theme. To be one of the three lucky winners, all you have to do is follow Daniel on twitter, and tweet the following message:

Entering the Spotlight contest. If you want to participate, follow @danielscocco and re-tweet http://xr.com/spot1

Daniel will pick 3 random winners on Friday, and will get in touch with them to hand ‘em over a free copy of the theme.

My good friend Steven Snell is also holding a contest on his design resource blog Design Mag. This one is slightly easier. Leave a comment on the contest post and you automatically enter the contest.

Three winner will be picked randomly on Friday.

If you really like the theme and you don’t win a free license, don’t worry. Spotlight is still so cheap, you can get it with the leftover pennies in your wallet!

Stay subscribed for more offers and future themes.

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What do I achieve by cutting the  price to half? First, I want everyone to get this theme because it’s so good. People with low budget shouldn’t be left out. Secondly, it’s good from a seller’s perspective too. The lower the price, the more people are likely to buy it.

So what are you waiting for? Get your copy now. You don’t get such amazing offers everyday!

P.S. A couple of folks who have already bought the theme will get $29 back.

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You heard me right folks! I’ve partnered with my friend Haris and have launched a new site dedicated to premium WordPress Themes over at Theme Sphere.

And the first theme is a very powerful combination of my tried and tested formulas that will make your competitors envy your web site/blog. The theme, of course, is called Spotlight.

Well, to cut a long story short, you GOT to check it out. I know you’ll be impressed.

Here are some of the best features of this powerful beast:

SEO: Be on the top in search engine result pages

With Spotlight, search engines will love your site. Enjoy high search engine rankings, higher click through rates, and exponential increase in visitors all without digging into theme code.

SMO: Pile up new subscribers with social media features

Out of the box social media optimization makes it easier for your visitors to submit your articles to social media sites, thus opening streams of new visitors from top social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious. Spotlight also makes it incredibly easy for your fickle social media visitors to discover your best content, stay engaged, and keep coming back as loyal users.

Ad optimized: Make more money while you’re at

Whether you use AdSense, other ad networks, or sell ads directly, Spotlight has a solution for all your needs. Ads are placed in key places and blended into the theme in a way that your visitors are compelled to click on your ads. And a very intuitive Ads management backend puts it all under your command.

Take control of Spotlight with its robust backend

You can customize every bit of Spotlight using its powerful backend. From social media optimization to inserting ads on your site, you can activate every feature with just a single click.

Enjoy free unlimited support

Confused on how to install it? Not sure how to perform a certain task? Not to worry. Drop by our support forum and ask for help. Our experts along with Spotlight community will solve your problem in an instant.

Main Spotlight information page

Live demo

Buy Spotlight

P.S. Please help spread the word about Spotlight WordPress Theme. Need motivation? You can become a affiliate and earn money every time someone buys Spotlight from your referral link.

Your feedback is most welcome.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

OK, first of all I’m sorry for disappearing from the face of blogosphere all of a sudden. I made a few posts in past couple of months to make a comeback, but things didn’t go as expected. But I do promise to stick around this time and do what I love doing: sharing what I know about blogging on this very blog. (For more on what’s going on in my life, and to chat with me, follow me on Twitter)

With that aside, I’m once again, and as always, excited by the spanking new release of WordPress with a shiny new backend.

WordPress was good and well before it switched to the new backend interface with the release of 2.5. WordPress 2.5 looked sexy, but it wasn’t all too usable.

Although I dislike having to use a completely revamped backend every couple of months, WordPress developers have taken a step in the right direction this time. WordPress 2.7 is here to right the wrongs of 2.5, so to speak.

There are plenty of new features and improvements in WordPress 2.7. Here are the best ones, without further ado.

WordPress upgrader

WordPress core upgrader eliminates the biggest annoyance of upgrading WordPress manually. There’s a Plugin around that can upgrade your WordPress installation with a few clicks, but nothing beats the in-built ease of upgrade, right?

You can access the upgrader by navigating to Tools > Upgrade.

Side navigation

This should have been done earlier. It’s just impossible to manage all the links and menus in top navigation bar. But well, better late than never.

The side navigation is not only more usable, intuitive, and good looking, it also gives you access to various submenus with just one click thanks to the new expandable navigation. Expand and collapse the menus as you see fit!

Dashboard and Post editor

Rearrange the panels on Dashboard and in post editor with good ol’ drag and drop. This is such a time saver. You keep only the important stuff handy, and still have all other goodies docked off-screen for one-click access.

There are plethora of other features that you can find by digging deeper into the menus. So have fun discovering the new WordPress goodness.

What do you like most in WordPress 2.7?

P.S. aren’t they trying too hard to make the backend look like Mac OS X?

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How your website is designed can actually reveal a lot about you and your company.  The problem is – your website’s “look and feel” may not match the brand you’re trying to portray to your customers.

For example, how easy it is to get around your website?  Dropdown menus have long been used to pack a lot of information into a small space, but they also have the undesirable side effect of not being indexed by the search engines.  It might sound old-fashioned, but good old graphical buttons and text links still reign supreme when it comes to on-site optimization.

The font style you use can have an effect on your readers too.  Cursive fonts denote elegance and refinement, while blocky fonts showcase a solid, reputable and grounded company.  Look carefully at the typography used on your website.  Does it work for the type of message you’re trying to convey?

Even the colors used in your website can have some unintentional pros and cons.  For example, if you run a website about food, using warm, earthy tones like brown, orange and dark red can help stimulate appetite.  Cooler tones like blues and greens are widely regarded as “safe” colors and are generally favorable with international audiences too.

To find out more about what your website is subconsciously telling your visitors about you – and your business, think of three words you’d use to describe yourself.  That’s you, personally.  Not your website or your company – just yourself.  For example, I describe myself as:

1. Creative
2. Unique
3. Practical

Now you try it.  Three words to describe yourself.  Got your list?  Good.  Now go to your website.

How well does your list match with what you see?  If your website is throwing you mixed signals, you can bet it’s doing the same to your visitors – and possibly costing you sales as a result.

Being able to take a good honest look at your website and see how well it blends with your personality and your business is crucial to building a brand that lasts.  In my case, I want people to know that the person behind iElectrify is not your average designer, but someone who’s willing to help you create a brand and a site worth promoting.

Design is serious business, and having a design that matches well with your personality and goals is what gets people to take your business seriously.

Good luck!

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this article, you can find even more web design tips at iElectrify

Sherice Jacob specializes in creating professional, affordable and creative websites that get results.  With a strong background in internet marketing and niche marketing, Sherice works with small to medium-sized businesses to help them easily create and manage their own websites.

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