Sometimes you may want to execute some PHP code in your post or page and this plugin will allow you to do that.

There are a few plugins that allow you to execute PHP code inside a WP Post. This plugin is slightly different as it lets you include a PHP file just by using a shortcode. So you write your PHP code in a file then include and execute that file using a shortcode introduced by this plugin.

You can execute simple or complex PHP within WordPress posts. It can get tricky when wanting to include other files within your include, but essentially anything that you could typically do with PHP is fair game.

Download the Include PHP Plugin

Installing the PHP Include Plugin

Below are the steps for setting up an using the plugin.

• Go to the Add New plugins screen in your WordPress admin area
• Click the upload tab
• Browse for the plugin file (proper-php-include.zip)
• Click Install Now and then activate the plugin

Using the Plugin

Step 1) For immediate use, upload a PHP file to your current theme folder and place a shortcode within a post, page or widget like this:

[tthq_include_file tthq_file="filename.php"]

Step 2) I like using the theme folder for my PHP files because it makes it simple to make edits because the Theme Editor could be used. Some people, however, like to keep their includeds elsewhere saving grief when wanting to switch themes.

To override the hardcoded deault folder (the current theme folder) with a new default, simply go to: Settings >> Proper PHP Include and fill the empty box with a new path. Use the template path that is output to the screen as a guide when choosing a new path.

Always include a trailing slash when specifying a path.

Step 3) If for some reason you want to use a different path but just in a specific instance, simply add an extra value (for tthq_path) to the shortcode like this:

[tthq_include_file tthq_path="/path/to/specific/php/file/" tthq_file="filename.php"]

The above will override the default path. Again, always include a trailing slash when specifying a path.

Plugin Compatibility

Works with the latest version of WordPress.

Plugin Requirement

Requires WordPress 3.0 or higher.

Not much more than 10 years ago it was a universally accepted truth for most people that if you wanted to get anywhere in life you would need to get some sort of education and then find a nice job (preferably close to home with a relatively easy commute).

Alternatively those who were a bit more ambitious and courageous sought to build offline businesses in which they were masters of their own destinies even if this form of living does usually involve a huge financial risk and perpetually long hours.

All of the above situations are perfectly OK and are still a legitimate way to make a living, but the point is that now, like never before, there is another dimension in the form of the Internet which just about everyone has access to and from which people can pursue businesses or some means of income generation which simply was not possible a few decades ago.

And this leaves us with a nice segue to the point we want to make – you now have options available to you which are only limited by your imagination, creativity and willingness to have a go.

So it would seem that if you could only come up with some good creative ideas, there’s no telling where you can take them when you apply them on the Internet. This is very true and what people should realize is that you don’t have to come up with the best thing since sliced bread in order to make some inroads on the Internet.

Hence the motivation for this article is to point out some elementary things you can do to get yourself in the correct frame of mind to be more creative, driven and productive because these are really the things which will determine whether you will succeed or not (online or offline).

Because unlike the way it was for our parents and grandparents, succeeding on the Internet doesn’t require permission from your boss or hundreds of thousands of dollars or an Ivy League diploma hanging from your wall. Essentially it is all up to you and whether you’re willing to become a little creative, innovative and driven.

So below we have listed some points and tips which will hopefully help you attain the right attitude and spark some enthusiasm and give you a starting point on how to increase your creativity so you can have the confidence to pursue your online goals.

Don’t make excuses – plan on doing something and then do it!

This is the fundamental attitude which seems to be a common trait which runs through most successful people. The financial and other obstacles you may have faced in the traditional sense have now evaporated because of the opportunities the Internet has manifested for all of us and thus there is really no more reason to hide behind excuses such as “I can’t afford to open a business” or “University educations is way too expensive”…. etc.

So get yourself in the mode of setting a goal and then doing whatever it takes to make it happen.

Creativity can be learned and is not necessarily a god-given talent

A famous comedian, writer and actor called John Cleese once explained how he would spend hours trying to come up with an original idea and he almost always succeeded.

He said that this was because the way he did things and not some genetic creative prowess which enabled him to come up with creative ideas.

He actually defines a handful of ingredients which help him become more creative:

1) Time and space: you need to give yourself both time and some space where you can be free of the stresses and demands of other things in your life in order to do your learning, investigating, problem solving etc
Your mind needs sufficient time to digest things you may have just learned so it can have the opportunity to come up with new ideas.
Also having a space where you can work which is quiet and conducive to learning and productivity helps greatly.

2) Have the confidence to try things: Eliminating your fears of making mistakes makes it much easier for your mind to become more free to indulge in creative thought.
After all, as stated previously, you’re usually not risking millions when you try out some business idea on the web. (there are of course always exceptions but in general this is case)

3) Be less serious and have a sense of humor: This point is not surprising considering John Cleese is a comedian, but it should apply to all of us anyway. Being serious about things all the time allows fear to creep in and we lose confidence to try new things.

Be engaged in what you are doing

When you’re learning new things or trying out ideas you should be totally engaged in the task at hand and not thinking about unrelated matters or distractions.

This should actually apply to everything you do – even washing the dishes or cleaning up around the house.

When we are fully immersed in what we are doing we tend to persist more at solving problems and become more likely to find solutions.

Even when we aren’t necessarily trying to solve anything, by being fully engaged when performing a task results in better outcomes and higher quality of work.

Buddhist monks call this mindfulness but you don’t have to be a monk to get the benefits. Psychologists have also done studies which show that the concept of “flow” or being “in the flow” is more likely to occur when we are mindfully engaged in our task.

Attain some new skills to open creative opportunities

We’ve already mentioned how the Internet has completely changed the way people learn and do things.

For a couple of hundred dollars a year you can actually teach yourself new skills which you can turn into a valuable asset in the comfort of your own home and at your own pace.

Educational institutions are quickly becoming redundant because of the Internet revolution and the sky’s the limit for all of us.

Acquiring a new skill often opens up different opportunities and gives you a new way of looking at something.

There are now many quality online- learning websites where you can learn anything you want for a fraction of the cost of an equivalent course you might get at a traditional learning institution.

For this article I will be talking about “self-hosted” WordPress installs only. For hosted WordPress installs, please navigate your browser to WordPress.com.

Does WordPress Qualify as a Hosting Type?

There are many types of hosting that exist but I wouldn’t necessarily agree that “WordPress” is considered a “type.” When picking a type of hosting for a WordPress web site installation there are a couple of things to consider, but in general, I’m here to tell you, a price comparison is most often enough to go on.

I have installed WordPress more times than I can remember for myself and clients and have used many many hosts and when it’s all said and done, as the site “does its thing,” I often forget the host it is on. It’s almost a transparent part of the process.

Granted, there have been subtle differences. For example, when comparing GoDaddy with HostGator there have been noticeable differences in speed using FTP (when uploading and downloading files to and from the server) on comparable hosting packages. And the user interface between the two companies is significantly different. HostGator is standard, while GoDaddy is proprietary.

Is a Dedicated Server Necessary?

If you are just starting out as a casual blogger, a dedicated server is probably not a wise investment at this time. However, if you anticipate droves of traffic out of the gate from paid advertising, and a dedicated server is in your budget it will probably be well worth the investment. You don’t want to take down a server especially when sending mass amounts of paid traffic to it. If “mass amounts” of traffic is expected, find a dedicated server that will automatically scale with you based on your needs, so that there is no unwanted down time.

Shared hosting is the solution in most cases though when setting up WordPress. While it is advertised as “unlimited” there are limitations, but these are limitations that are not often reached with a typical WordPress install.

And even when running several web sites in the same hosting package alongside several web sites running on the same server with other customers, most of the time things run smoothly.

If there is a lot of traffic and a lot of revenue as a result, upping to a dedicated server at some point wouldn’t be a bad idea, and may be a necessary one. And when you find a qualified person, moving a WordPress site from one server to another is often a simple, safe, and quick procedure.

What About Managed WordPress Hosting?

Managed WordPress hosts take some of the work out of the management of the site for you. Arguably though, some of these tasks can be automated with the right plugins anyways. However, when it comes to some advanced speed and security topics, some experts argue that WordPress is not “on the level” by default. With managed hosting, the package often includes enhancements for speed and security out of the gate.

And some of the features that improve speed, like spreading static files across a content delivery network often costs money, but are usually included in a managed hosting package. But, when you break down the price, you are often still paying much more than necessary for managed WordPress hosting.

In my opinion, what might be a better use of resources is to take a list of all the features of a managed WordPress host and implement them yourself, or pay to have them implemented. And for all of the default automated tasks, find ways to get them automated for your WordPress sites, and you will find that most can be done at no charge with some freely available plugins or server features.

The cost of managed WordPress hosting is often ten times that of standard WordPress hosting. I think it is more of a “perceived” value, rather than a “real” value that drives up the price. And a lot of times you need permission to do certain things, like install custom plugins.

WordPress Minimum Requirements

WordPress doesn’t require much from a server in order to run smoothly. While it is meant to run in the Linux environment because the source code is in PHP, it is even flexible enough to run in a Windows environment. With that said, from a management, extensibility and upgrade perspective, running on Windows can be a nightmare.

When the option is there, always choose Linux over Windows when looking at the Operating System for the web hosting server. The “standard” or “default” server will be Linux so it probably won’t be a decision you need to make very often anyway.

As for WordPress plugin system requirements, some of the more advanced WordPress plugins might require certain features to be “turned on” on the server. And they may be features that are not allowed on a shared server, therefore you may run into some slight limitations, but this is rare.

All WordPress really needs to run the latest version (Version 3.5.1 as of this writing) is PHP version 5.2.4 or greater and MySQL version 5.0 or greater. It used to be that PHP 4.3 and MySQL 4.1.2 were enough but that has changed since WordPress 3.2.

As for the server, WordPress recommends Apache or Nginx. Apache is the most commonly available server software used, but some argue that Nginx is better in how it handles server requests.

The mod_rewrite Apache module is also required, and suPHP is recommended to be used on the server for better security but is not required.

What is the Best Host for WordPress?

While tens of thousands of hosts exist that support the minimum requirement and recommendations for WordPress, the top choice for hosting as suggested by WordPress themselves is BlueHost. BlueHost has been at the top of that list for more than 8 years now.

The WordPress team has “dealt with more hosts than you can imagine,” and finds that BlueHost is one “of the best and brightest of the hosting world.”

What Does BlueHost Offer?

Like many other hosts, BlueHost offers the “1-click” WordPress install, and when installed in this manner it offers auto-upgrades as well. This makes it so that one could buy a domain and hosting, and have WordPress setup ready for the first post in less than 10 minutes in most cases. If considering BlueHost for more than just WordPress driven blogs and sites, because you can host unlimited web sites with just the one package, other popular “1-click” install apps include: Drupal, Joomla, Roundcube, Zen Cart, phpBB, PrestaShop, Concret5, and more.

The quick installs are thanks to a server add-on software called SimpleScripts. More than blogging scripts, it offers scripts for eCommerce, guest books, forums, content management, help center or ticket software, photo galleries, classifieds engines, wikis, web site builders, social networking, etc. There are probably more WordPress “quick installs” than any other available package though.

The standard features for BlueHost include unlimited space, bandwidth, domain hosting & email accounts, and a $100 Google advertising coupon. The stand-out features include the anytime money-back guarantee (usually it is just 30 or 60 days), plus a free domain name. The domain is only free for the first year of course. For WhoIs privacy there is an additional yearly cost of about $10.00. Since the feature set for hosting is often the same across the board, getting a free domain which saves you about $10 is a good selling point.

The WordPress hosting package at BlueHost is currently $3.95 per month. The monthly price is pretty much on par. I have seen it at $3 and as much as $12 for similar packages. Many require a minimum of 1, 2, or 3 years up front purchase before getting the lower pricing options though. The $3.95 per month option for BlueHost requires a 3-year purchase. There is no month to month option, and to pay for just a year in advance, rather than 3, the cost per month jumps to $5.95.

The support at BlueHost may be a something to look at. I don’t know about you but I can’t stand waiting on hold too long for tech support. BlueHost claims hold times average less than 30 seconds. Plus all of their support staff are in the U.S. in their Utah offices. And of course, if BlueHost does not live up to the advertised expectations there is the “anytime” money-back guarantee that can invoked. Be sure to look closer at the terms for that before relying on it though because after a quick glance on their “terms” page I only saw mention of a 30-day money back guarantee. After 3 days you will have to pay for the domain if requesting a refund, and after 30 days the domain plus a pre-rated charge for time used will be charged. So, while the refund is “anytime,” it is not to be assumed “full.”

About the Author: This post was written by Keith Lock who is an author of Tips and Tricks HQ.

The Issue

I use the following format in the SEO plugin settings for the WordPress post and page title:

Page Title: %page_title% | %blog_title%

Post Title: %post_title% | %blog_title%

The SEO plugin kept failing to rewrite the title according to the above settings in one of my sites. So instead of showing the following in the title:

Dummy page title | My blog title

It kept showing the following:

Dummy page title

I went through this WordPress support forum topic and made sure that none of the issues mentioned in that thread applied to my situation.

In the end it turned out that the all in one seo plugin can fail to rewrite page title if Gzip compression is being used on the site.

Fix for The Title Rewrite Issue

I have compiled a list of steps that you can go through to fix this title rewrite issue.

Step 1

Make sure your theme is printing the title correctly so the plugin can filter it. Read this post to learn more. You shouldn’t have to worry about this step if you are using a properly coded WordPress theme.

Step 2

Go to the “Performance” menu of the all in all seo plugin and enable the “force rewrites” feature. See screenshot below:

Step 3

If you are using a caching plugin then deactivate it to see if the issue gets resolved. If the issue does get resolved then it is likely that your caching plugin is enabling gzip compression. So, try to deactivate the gzip compression from the caching plugin settings (hopefully you are using one that lets you turn this feature off).

If you are not using a caching plugin then check that you haven’t manually tweaked your .htaccess file to enable gzip compression.

Creating content on the Internet is what brings people to your web site, your affiliate ad, your sales funnels, or whatever it is you want to achieve. Content is generally the start of that process.

Many marketers have figured out ways to re-purpose their content and convert one piece of content into different multimedia types, each one having stand alone value in and of itself. Certainly you can find re-purposed content across the web that has no extra, and sometimes even lesser, value than the original, as is the case with spun content, or auto-transcription in a lot of cases, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.

In this article I’d like to discuss leveraging written content, let’s start with a blog post, and then converting that content into different multimedia types, first a simple PDF with free tools, then a video, then audio. You can spread the content across the web on the appropriate sharing sites for the given media type, and optionally embed them into your original blog content giving your audience more options to take in your message.

Write a blog post first

Starting with a blog post isn’t necessary, it’s just the approach I want to take here. Bloggers often write about topics from the tops of their heads and lots of words can be put to text in a short amount of time when done that way.

As you know, for a blog post you write the body, between 300 and 1500+ words is common, and the title. You can also include tags, some say to use very short words as tags, others use several long tail keywords. I have seen some high ranking posts that use long tails for tags. To me, it seems spammy and in general the tag will just link to an archive page with one page, but it is effective, so I will leave the decision how to handle tags to you.

Creating a lot of white space throughout the content, rather than just a sea of text looks more appealing to the would-be reader. Embedding images and other media throughout, as well as adding ordered and unordered lists, makes the content even more attractive to the reader. Using headlines, usually with H3 or H2 tags, and including long tail key-phrases that you pull from Google Suggest might not be a bad idea. Also floating your images left or right, or using large images the full width of the content area make for an attractive post.

Convert to PDF for free

A great strategy is to convert the post to a PDF, and then share the PDF on one or more PDF sharing sites. The bulk of the work is done, it just requires copying and pasting the content and exporting to PDF, then publishing. However, I would put a little more into it than that to create value.

First off, for getting a free tool to convert to PDF people often just search Google for “free software to create PDF” or something similar. A lot of times what they end up with is a lite version of software that will not retain hyperlinks and often times will be stamped with the product name or site. That may be fine in some cases but there is a better way. Download the free open source tool from OpenOffice.org. Launch the “Write” program and paste your content in there.

Adding intros, images, copyrights, and calls to action and perhaps an ad or two won’t hurt. You can’t do much with multimedia but that’s OK. You can make it attractive with fonts and pictures. You can set some meta data in the properties then just click File then Export as PDF and you’re done.

When publishing I would take care to create a unique 150+ (even up to 300 or 500) word description for each site you’re publishing to. Include a link to your site in the profile and perhaps to the URL of the blog post if there is an option to do so. PDF sharing sites include Scribd.com, Slideshare.net, DocStoc.com. There are a few others, just Google “PDF sharing sites” to find a list.

Creating a video

There are a few different ways to skin this cat. You can first create a presentation with points from your original post as the slides. This presentation can be shared as its own media as well on sites like SlideShare.net. Then you can create a free screencast using Screenr.com, providing you can get through the presentation in the 5 minutes that is allotted to free users. You can then download the video to be used on YouTube and optionally other video sharing sites.

Be sure to do a quick intro, and an outro with a call to action. Now, if doing the presentation (you can use free software from OpenOffice.org for this as well by the way, the presentation software is called Impress) seems more work than you would like to do, simply flipping on the web cam and reading the post into an attached mic in a conversational way is fine as well. There are ways to put your face in a smaller window and still have control over the screen that is being captured. Or you can just do a screen capture video demonstrating what is discussed in the post. This obviously works best for “how-to” type posts.

I think YouTube is an obvious choice for uploading the video to, but there are certainly a lot more options out there for video sharing. Again, I would recommend a unique, longer than average, description used for each site. I realize this is a little more work but if it’s content that originally came from the top of your head it should be rather easy, and is well worth the extra effort. Perhaps you can span this whole process across an entire week and sink real value into each step to really make it worthwhile.

One last thing, for YoutTube, if you include a plain link at the top of the description (with the http) it will turn into a hyperlink. That can be used for your site URL or post URL or both. Multiple links can be included. Something that I noticed some SEO experts doing that I have been experimenting with as well is linking to the YouTube video itself at the bottom of the video description.

They were just dropping the link in, I decided to use it with a call to action by saying something like — if you liked this video you can embed it into your site using the embed code below in the “share” section, or else link to it directly using this link — then I paste the YouTube video URL immediately after, which it then hyperlinks back to itself after publishing. I don’t know the value that really serves for users so use with caution.

Extracting audio from the video for a podcast

Now, the simplest way to get audio from this is by simply extracting the audio track from the video. Be sure that when creating the video you keep in mind that it will also be used for your podcast so it might be wise not to say “in this video…” or anything similar. You can extract sound from your video using free software called Audacity.

There’s not a great deal to say about creating the audio except that when publishing it, keep the same ideas in mind about writing a unique description. Also sharing it on multiple audio-sharing or podcast sites might be a good idea. Sharing podcasts is different in that you generally just share a podcast feed rather than upload the individual file everywhere. You start with one source, either your own blog, or a hosted site and get the podcast-friendly (and perhaps iTunes friendly) feed, and share that. There are free and paid services out there for this. I have no personal recommendations, except that if you intend to upload to just one place, SoundCloud.com is a popular choice amongst marketers and podcasters.

Extending your social reach with images

If you are using your own personal images within your original post, you can upload them to places like Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest and others, and then embed them into the post. Then you can link back to the post in the images description on the social site.

Taking it a day at a time

Now, if you are committed to providing real value, I don’t suggest you try to handle all these steps in just one day, unless you have a team behind you. If going at it alone…

Day 1 - Put your content into the blog post. Go out and capture images and unqiue video perhaps. Break the article or blog post up into sections, sections that can be discussed in a stand alone way. Publish the images and the post. Social share the post (FB, Twitter, G+, etc.)

Day 2 - Create and publish the PDF. Today is an easy day, but it may encourage you to get creative with the descriptions and to share on multiple sites. Social share. Embed in original post if desired.

Day 3 - Create the video and publish it, and/or publish any video captured on the first day. Spend time on decriptions. Share on multiple sites. Social share. Embed in original post if desired.

Day 4 - Extract the audio, publish and share it.

Tying it all together with article marketing

Day 5 - Take one of the concepts or sections from the original post and write a quick 500 word unique article about just that. Link to the post, the images, the videos, and/or the audio (or even embed some) and publish it to a high authority, high Alexa, or niche site or blog.

Check Alexa to see the top sites and find out how you can publish on them. Learn the publishing rules and always provide the same value as if publishing to your own site.

Now, take the weekend off, or perform the steps from Day 5 again. If you find that the main post becomes popular, highly shared, highly commented on, etc. consider setting up auto-tweets of the URL and short description at set intervals to keep giving the post social juice as you move onto the next killer content to share with your audience.

An image could find its way into image search results on a search engine. It can also, with the inclusion of keywords in its meta tags, potentially help a post rank for more keywords. Not only that, the image can be auto-thumbnailed in search results and show up when shared in Facebook or other social sites.

A search engine result with an image will attract the eye more so than one without, in most cases.

Adding Images to WP Posts the Old School Way

I’m from the old school. When I add an image I, more often than not, edit the image to be the exact dimensions that I want to work with. I use free tools like Gimp. You can use Photoshop too (if you have it).

I then, using good old fashioned FTP, upload the image to the trusty “images” folder off the root.

I then hand code the image tag in “Text” view of my WordPress post/page edit screens.

The code might look like this:

<img style="float: right; margin: 0 0 5px 10px;" title="pictre of a bat" src="http://example.com/images/pic.jpg" alt="picture of a bat" width="187" height="94" border="0" />

Let’s break it down shall we:

src: this represents the path to the image. I always use the full domain here so the image shows proper in RSS feeds, etc. In only one case when working for someone else they asked that I use only /images/pic.jpg without the domain in case they link-spam the domain with their SEO and need to switch domains. Doing it this way would save them the extra work later. Doing things ethically would prevent this from being a concern, but I digress.

width/height: the dimensions to the image, I always make sure they are the “real” dimensions, not just ones to force the size of the image.

alt: this is meant to be a textual representation for the image for the visually impaired, bandwidth savers, text browser users, and search engines.

title: usually, depending on the web browser, this phrase will be shown when hovering over the image. It is supposed to provide SEO value too but I think it is overkill and overoptimization personally, so I usually leave it out.

border: out of habit I always include this, which is a value in pixels that determines the size of the border around the image. It used to be that, when linking an image, if you didn’t explicitly tell all browsers NOT to include a border, then it would add a bad looking blue border. So, I got in the habit of using it. I use CSS for borders when I really want them, so I guess I’m not that old school.

style: it’s probably not best practice to include styles in this manner. It’s a bad habit I picked up. It is preferred to include styles within CSS sheets, and make reference to the style with a class name (or ID). WP does this elegantly when using the automated tools for including images which I will cover shortly.

The particular style I used in the above example pushes the image to the right and wraps text around it to the left. I specified that I do not want a margin at the top or right side (represented by the first two numbers), but that I wanted 5px on the bottom and 10px on the left to create some white space around the image so that it doesn’t touch the text. Why different amounts? I haven’t measured but it seems that there is always 5px below the image with margin space for some reason, so I just add 5 more and it always looks pretty even.

Image Sources

You have to be careful when using images on your site or blog. If they are either copyrighted or assumed copyrighted it is best to either a) not use them or b) get permission. And always cite the source of the image.

You could get images from stock photo sites (example: ShutterShock) that grant you rights to use them. morgueFile is another source, which offers a free photo archive. Be sure to read the terms.

You can always get your own images. Either download them from your digital camera or phone, or get some screenshots. There’s a free Chrome browser plugin by Google that makes it easy to take screenshots. Screenshots, at least, will provide you with unique images that you can probably use in your WordPress sites. Just be careful and always cite your sources. Get permission from the respective owner when not sure. Always show respect.

Inserting Images Into WordPress Posts or Pages

Using the Add Media within the add/edit post/page screens will give you access to the Media Library.

It will also allow you to upload images that will get auto-resized based on the set thumbnail values for the particular theme that you are working with.

You can set an image as “Featured” or insert it right within the post. When setting as Featured, the theme will have full control over placement and size, and the HTML that gets generated.

When “inserting into a post” you have a little more control. You can certainly decide where the image is placed, and you could choose from some set “classes” to decide on text wrapping, etc.

Step 1) Click the Add Media button.

Step 2) Click the Select Files button.

Step 3) Locate the image on your computer, and click Open.

You can see the progress meter in the image slot itself, plus in the right side in the Attachment Details window.

You can click the Edit Image text link for basic cropping, and image flipping options. You can choose to have the changes applied to all of the thumbnails that were created during the upload process.

Step 4) Give the image a Title, and preferably a Caption, and Alt Text as well, for some potential SEO value. Some themes, but not many, will incorporate the Description value somehow.

Step 5) Pick an alignment (center, left, right) or leave it as None.

Step 6) By default, the thumbnail image that gets inserted will link to the biggest version of itself (the originally uploaded file). That can be changed to link to an attachment page (some argue that will give the best chance at getting the image into Image search results, if it’s worthy of being there). You can also have a link to a custom URL, or nowhere at all.

Step 7) Finally, choose one of the pre-built sizes. Most often there will be a small square, and a couple sizes that are within aspect ratio of the original, and also a Full Size option. Medium is usually the default.

When using screenshots for tutorials such as this, Full Size should be used so there is no distortion.

Step 8) Click the Insert into post button.

You will be presented with code similar to the following:

The id’s and classes may be defined by the theme which will dictate how the image will ultimately look within the blog post (or page) on the site.

Some unique classes will be displayed specific to the image. They will include the image id number, 57 in the example above, which allows you to give the particular image a custom style that will not be used on other images.

Adding Featured Images Into WordPress Posts or Pages

When adding a featured image, no HTML code will actually show up in the posts/pages content area. The theme will “check for” a featured image when the post is being shown and display it according to the theme’s style.

Step 1) Near the bottom of the right sidebar of the post/page add/edit screens you will see the Featured Image box. Click the Set featured image text link.

Step 2) You will be presented with the Media Library by default where you can select an image and click the Set featured image button.

You can also click Upload Files near the top if the image isn’t already in the library.

You can then follow the Upload steps from above, minus the “Attachment Display Settings” instructions. Then click the Set featured image button.

Uploading Other Media Files to WP

You could upload other media files like videos and audio to be included within your posts, using the Media Library functions described above.

It is often recommended however, in many cases, to have the audio and video hosted elsewhere and just embedded into your site. WordPress plugins like WP video lightbox can help you with that.

This saves on bandwidth and storage space, plus also allows you to take advantage of the in-built traffic, and the search engine love, that these media sharing sites have to offer.

YouTube and Vimeo are the top choices for video. And SoundCloud is the rising star for audio. As for images, some people will do a similar thing and upload to Flickr or Pinterest for example, then embed the content into their site.

I sometimes do that for general interest type of images (food for example), that have value on their own. Screenshots, in most cases, somehow don’t qualify.

About the Author: This post was written by Keith Lock who is an author of Tips and Tricks HQ.

There are lots of different ways you can market and sell your WordPress plugin. Each method has its own set of pros and cons. So you really want to explore all the options that are available to you and then choose the option that suits best for your situation.

How to Market a WordPress plugin

Let’s go through some scenarios for selling your WordPress plugin to the masses.

1) Add Your WP Plugin to an Existing Marketplace

To start with, for a lazy, or temporary, or complimentary solution, you can find an existing marketplace that will allow you to include your plugin.

I’m not referring to a general “digital download” marketplace like PayLoadz, but a site that already sells WordPress plugins, themes, etc. CodeCanyon.net comes to mind.

This is a great way to get started, but understand that you are giving a big cut away to the company. If you sell exclusively on their site they will take less. But the moment you start selling elsewhere (like on your own site), which I highly recommend you do, then you get less of a cut if you keep the product in the CodeCanyon market place.

Be sure to understand their terms completely before considering them for an avenue for selling your plugin.

2) Sell in a Blog Post Using Hosted E-Commerce Solution

Another way to sell the script is by selling within a blog post of a niche related site using a hosted E-Commerce solution. This is just one step away from lazy bones.

You see, with the CodeCanyon suggestion, you don’t have to worry about the technology used to securely deliver the content after purchase. When you start selling on your own, you do.

Fortunately, it’s not too hard.

While the interface is brutal, e-Junkie allows you to sell digital downloads from your site for a monthly recurring price. Another solution you can look at is FoxyCart.

You add your digital product and it keeps it secure for you and handles all the transactions. You can tie it to your PayPal account for payments, and e-Junkie provides a private, expiring link to the customer to download his or her goods.

E-junkie also has an affiliate program, but I don’t recommend you get married to such a thing. You’ll probably be moving along shortly.

3) Launch Your Own Portal/Site

Having your own dedicated web site to sell your stuff is a decent idea. I recommend WordPress for simplicity. Using the WordPress platform on your site and using a WordPress e-commerce plugin to handle the selling side of things is a really good way to approach this.

I’ve actually went back and forth a couple times between selling from a blog post, and selling from my own site.

The best method between the two is: selling from a dedicated site.

The caveat? There’s a little more work involved.

However, this option allow you to have a site that looks and functions just the way you want it. Also, this method helps you build your own brand over time.

With your own site, you’ll want to have the following:

1. An online and bundled manual. The bundled manual can be text and PDF. The online version of course would be HTML with screenshots and screencasts.
2. Detailed pages or posts with a description for the product.
3. Online demos on separate pages.
4. Screen shots should be also included.

Consider what the plugin sales pages have on CodeCanyon and Tips & Tricks HQ, and aim for the best, of what you discover, putting yourself in the buyers shoes.

Plugin Selling Checklist

Put together Plugin Description, Manual, Demos and Screenshots

Regardless of where and how you sell the plugin, you will need four key items.

1) Description – come up with an “elevator” description for your product. Basically think of a quick quick description that sums up what your product does.

Now come up with a benefits list. Sprinkle in some features and round it out for a nice description. Get good at describing it very succinctly, semi-thoroughly, and thoroughly, as you will be using descriptions for all of your marketing.

Come up with a features checklist as well.

2) Manual – You should have a quick text version manual written up with the steps needed to install and use your plugin.

Also, create a rich document with screen shots to enhance the step by step textual instructions. Convert it to PDF and HTML.

And, for all major steps, do screencasts. Show the installation and basic usage in separate videos (if applicable).

Try Screencast-o-matic, which is one of the coolest tools I have discovered so far this year. It’s cheap and feature rich. It’s worth much more than they charge. Don’t tell them that though

3) Demos – you probably just need one quick demo for usage. This is best done in HTML, but a video could help there too. Essentially, try to explain what the plugin does as best you can.

4) Screenshots – I know that we’ve put together some screenshots for tutorials, but this is more for how the bad boy looks. If you have settings panels for use, screenshot them. Any screen that is viewed that is unique to your plugin during standard setup and use should be screenshotted.

Screen Capture (by Google) is a really good tool to capture screenshots from your Chrome browser. It’s free, and extends Chrome browser, and has some cool features. I like it. It makes PNGs by default.

What Else Would You Need?

You’ll probably want:

1) A system to deliver the content securely (many digital auto-delivery eCommerce plugins exist for WordPress). There are few wordpress e-commerce plugins out there to help you with this. Pick one with good support so you don’t get stuck down the path.

I’ve used the S2Member plugin for this. You can either force the person to become a member to gain access, or give them temp access to a hidden download page with their purchase. The latter is probably better in most cases, in terms of less steps for the user, and less that can go wrong.

WP eStore was written for digital content delivery. It has stepped up beyond that but that’s where its origin is and it handles that aspect flawlessly.

2) A system to capture emails to be used in an autoresponder or mailing list.

Both s2Member and WP eStore include the capability for customers to sign up to a list during checkout. There are APIs that “talk to” MailChimp, AWeber, etc.

3) A support system. Maybe a ticketing system or integrated forum. You could use the bbPress forum plugin.

4) A blog with posts dedicated to each and every feature, demos, usage examples, news, and so on. This part would need ongoing content.

5) Affiliate system. WordPress Affiliate Platform works seamlessly with WP eStore as it was written by the same developer.

6) Miscellaneous – Perhaps include an updates page, a page detailing the compatibilities and known issues, a page to reach out to translators for Internationalization, different licensing options, testimonials, FAQ page, example sites etc.

With all that said, I will say that it does require some work to put everything together just the way you want it. If you have the passion and resources, self-hosted I think, is the way to go.

Bonus Suggestions for Plugin Sellers

A couple other suggestions that I have for the would-be WordPress plugin seller.

1) I suggest having two other products/versions created.

I tell you this from experience that this is a good idea. And if you’re thinking it will cost 3x as much, it really shouldn’t, not if your developer is honest.

I actually created the earliest versions of my plugins myself. And I made the two extra versions and it took maybe an hour. Your developer shouldn’t charge a lot (depending on the complexity).

a) Make a free version. For this you want to create a version of the plugin that has some cool functionality. Allow your visitors to use the free version.

b) Make a PHP version if you can. A WordPress plugin is written in PHP. In most cases, it doesn’t take much to include a PHP version of the plugin within the script. I bundle my PHP and WP versions together at no extra charge. And really, only one extra file needed to be added.

But of course, that meant extra manuals, etc. but it was still a simple, valuable feature-add.

2) Consider, in the future, making the plugin available for Drupal and Joomla! folks perhaps.

In Conclusion

If you don’t have a plugin but have a good idea for one, hire a developer if you have the money. Just make sure there is a demand. In most cases, if the product would satisfy your needs, others will want it as well. But, there is a way to quickly estimate a wider need.

You want to know your competition before starting anyway so see what is out there that is similar. What freebies are available in the WP plugin repository or on the web? Are there lots of searches looking for these plugins?  Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool can help you with the research.

Best of luck to you!

About the Author: This post was written by Keith Lock who is an author of Tips and Tricks HQ.

The attack was specific: Use the default “admin” username and attempt to discover the password.

Now would be a perfect time to evaluate the security of your WordPress site and make sure your site is secure. In this article I have covered some tips to secure your site against brute force login attacks.

Don’t Use ADMIN as your WP Username

So, tip #1: Change your username on all your WordPress accounts pronto – actually, you didn’t leave it as admin during installation anyways right? You’ve been able to customize it since version 3 came out.

Do the following steps to change your “admin” username:

1) Login to your WP-driven web site

2) Click Users >> Add New from the left menu

3) Create a new user (not similar to your blogging nickname), and use a strong password, and specify an “Admin” role.

RoboForm is a good tool that not only generates strong passwords, but also stores the login info (including the login URL), and offers 1-click logins. It’s worth getting. There’s even a cloud version.

Now it’s time to assign all admin posts to the new user. The best way is to login as the new user, delete the previous “admin” account, and “Attribute all posts and links to” the new user (don’t worry you will be prompted.)

But if for some reason that I can’t think of, you want to keep the “admin” account, you can follow the steps below to re-assign the posts to the new user. But for sure you will want to demote the Admin role to the most basic user. But you should also reconsider your decision not to delete the admin account.

4) Go to Posts >> All Posts

5) In the list of posts, click on any of the “admin” links under Author.

Note: you will be working with 20 posts at a time by default. You can change that number to a higher one by clicking on Screen Options (top right) and upping the number of posts to display in one screen. After changing the number, click Apply.

6) Click on the checkbox next to Title near the top left. This lets you select all posts on the page for bulk editing.

7) In the Bulk Actions drop down, choose Edit. Click Apply.

8) Change the Author value to the newly created author, and click Update.

I know that it seems like a lot of work, but it’s actually fast. But next time, edit the “admin” name during install instead, and you won’t be victim of a future brute force password attack.

Patch your WP Install in Real Time

CloudFlare, a service that lets you funnel your web site traffic through them (with a simple DNS change), has issued a patch for the latest threat that will block the bot before even reaching your WP site.

CloudFlare, as many know as a CDN (Content Delivery Network), which keeps static content closer to your web site visitors for faster delivery, is more than that as I became aware today.

With your web traffic funneling through them first they will:

a) block most of the threats before reaching you
b) save your bandwidth
c) speed things up

This is for more than just WordPress sites. It will work for all platforms and apparently only takes 5 minutes to setup for most people. There’s a free plan and some premium plans. I personally don’t feel 100% comfortable funneling my traffic through a third party, but I also get nervous when they refer to my sites as “naked.”

Maybe such a service is worth considering?

Updating WordPress to the Latest Version

Gone are the days where people edit the core files of WordPress right?

I’m still guilty of editing my themes directly out of laziness. I know I can create a child theme or create some plugins, use custom styles and functions, but I don’t.

So, I lose the ability to one-click update my themes. That’s unfortunate (sometimes), but I don’t mess with the WP core, and when an update is avalable I go to all my sites and perform an update immediately.

People, good and bad, have access to the core WP code. The bad guys attack any exploits found. The good guys report and/or fix the exploits, and an update is posted. Without the update, your WP site is vulnerable (unless it’s just a feature upgrade).

Updating is easy. Go to Dashboard > Updates and you’ll see how in there. And if you are with a fully managed WP service like WPEngine, or you used your hosts “quick install” app, you are most likely getting the updates without any intervention.

But update you should. Always. Without fail. Same for plugins, and themes. D’oh!

Delete unused themes and plugins too. And make sure you are using plugins from reputable developers.

Updating the Password to Something Stronger

As mentioned, RoboForm generates strong passwords, but you don’t need a paid tool for that. There are lots of free web based apps that generate strong passwords out there.

People need to stop using kids and pets names, and dictionary words as passwords if they want any type of security.

The requirements for a secure password are:

• upper and lowercase letters
• at least eight characters long
• and including “special” characters (^%$#&@*).

I personally try to keep mine at 15 characters, and with RoboForm I can ensure a certain amount of numbers and special characters make it in there. When are they going to allow Tab, Shift, and CrLf in passwords? Is that possible? If so, get on with it password gods.

Password Protecting the wp-login.php File

Another line of defense is to password protect the wp-login.php file, which is the code that is executed to display the WP admin/user login form.

1) Create a password file – Open up a text editor, and create a file (use “save as,” and change to “all file types” because this won’t be a standard .txt extension) called .wpadmin and add the username and encrypted password using the steps below. Note the dot (.) at the beginning, and there is no actual filename, just an extension. If you are familiar with .htaccess you know what I’m talking about already.

The password to be used in the file should be hashed using the MD5 algorithm, making it useful for both Windows and Linux machines.

Here’s the format:

username:encryptedpassword

To create an encrypted password:

a) Visit http://www.htaccesstools.com/htpasswd-generator/.

b) Enter a username and desired password in the appropriate boxes and click Create .htpasswd file.

c) Copy the generated text to your .wpadmin file and save it.

2) Upload the password file – Upload the file to a non-browsable folder.

Place it in: /home/username/ if using CPanel (‘username’ is not literal, it is your CPanel username), or /var/www/vhosts/domain for Plesk for example.

3) Update the .htaccess file – All domains under the “home” directory will utilize this password file. Therefore, if you have several add-on domains in your account using WP, they will all access the same password file.

Create a .htaccess file in a similar way that you created the .wpadmin file. Also, it will ultimately be uploaded to the same place.

The content for the file: (be sure to change the AuthUserFile path to the appropriate location – in most cases that means: replace ‘username’ with your cPanel username):

ErrorDocument 401 "Unauthorized Access"
ErrorDocument 403 "Forbidden"
<FilesMatch "wp-login.php">
AuthName "Authorized Only"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/username/.wpadmin
require valid-user
</FilesMatch>

Things to consider before employing the wp-login.php file protection. Do your sites cater to many users? They will all need to know the login info. Plus, if there is already a .htaccess file in the /home/username/ folder, you may need to merge the contents.

Ok, once it is in place and you visit the wp-login.php page of a WP install you will be prompted with a pop-up login screen that says:

Authentication Required
The server http://www.domain.com:80 requires a username and password. The server says: Authorized Only.


Two Step WordPress Authentication

To really remove yourself from the “potential victim” list, you can employ another layer of authentication security, by implementing Two Step Authentication.

This is highly similar, and just as effective as the Google 2-step verification system.

It uses a random code sent to you by text as the “second” layer of authentication. Brilliant! Providing you have a smart phone, and it’s with you.

A similar system has been employed for WordPress.com users, and it seems Authy is the standard solution for self-hosted WordPress blog, at this time, based on my searches.

CloudFlare, mentioned above is apparently a company “Secured by Authy,” according to the web site.

With that said, more my style, is using a plugin created by the WordPress team. According to a post by Nandita B. on SEOHour, the 2-step auth feature used on WordPress.com, will become available at some time in the future with WordPress’s JetPack plugin.

IP Limiting Plugin

As Matt Mullenweg points out, using an IP Limiting plugin would not be useful to ward of this recent attack.

“Most other advice isn’t great — supposedly this botnet has over 90,000 IP addresses, so an IP limiting or login throttling plugin isn’t going to be great (they could try from a different IP a second for 24 hours).”

- said Mullenweg

Just performing one of the suggestions from above will put you ahead of the game. Doing them all will certainly have stronger affects. I personally have skipped the use of Authy, and plan to wait for the JetPack update. I just subscribed to its feed in Feedly so I’ll be informed as soon as they blog about it. Also, for now at least, I’m not going to setup the CloudFlare option. Are you?

I already had the rest in place on all of my installs except for the password protected wp-login.php file which took all of 3 minutes to implement. I already had strong usernames and passwords, and up-to-date WP files.

Keeping Your PC from Participating in the Bot Attacks

It’s great that we’re contributing to helping people beef up their WordPress security in light of recent attacks, but what about the other side of the coin?

Some hackers will install “hidden” software on user’s machines without them being aware of it and use the machine to do some damage on the web.

Having a strong Firewall (that is fully patched) can keep people out. Of course, Anti-Virus software helps as well. And locking down a home’s WiFi can keep the computers on your home or office network safe from outside attack (or out of reach from bandwidth thief).

Check out the video below which explains how to secure a WiFi connection. It also talks about securing an FTP connection which could be of some benefit for web masters like yourself.

Nonce – what is it and why is it important when it comes to WordPress and security?

What Does Nonce Mean?

The word “nonce” is an abbreviation for the term number used once and is a string generated by WordPress which acts as a special token and is used to identify the person doing a specific operation such as the submission of a form, deletion of a post etc.

Why Use Nonce?

The nonce’s main purpose is to protect against malicious hacking attacks such as a technique known as Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) which involves tricking people into clicking a link which will cause harm to your site.

Another way to describe a nonce is that it is sort of like a temporary secret key or fingerprint which is unique only to you and can only ever be used by you for a specific operation and it is extremely difficult to be guessed by somebody else.

How Does It Work?

The nonce value is valid for 24 hours after which it expires and a new one will be generated.

This ensures that someone cannot copy an old nonce and re-inject it into the URL of an operation or HTTP request.

Nonces are widely used in the core functionality of WordPress but you may not have been specifically aware of them. For example, let’s say you are an administrator of a WordPress blog and you want to delete a specific user account.

When you click on the “delete” link, WordPress will generate a nonce and it will add it in the URL as follows:

The above nonce will be valid for 24 hours and it can only be used by you and only for this specific operation – which in this case is the deletion of the user with the id value of “5”.

Now let’s say that moments after successfully deleting the user you also wanted to delete a post. When you click on the “trash” link for that post, WordPress will once again generate a new nonce value specifically for this operation:

Note how the value of this nonce is different to the first one and again the same rule applies here in that it will only be valid for 24 hours and can only be used for the deletion (trash action) of the post with id value of 1.

Thus when a user clicks a link in the admin panel such as the delete or trash links in the examples above, WordPress will do some checks behind the scenes to verify that the “_wpnonce” parameter is valid and if and only if it is valid, it will proceed with the completion of the request.

If the value for “_wpnonce” was found to be invalid then WordPress will not allow the operation and the user would be greeted with a screen that tells them the error.

Plugin Developers

If you are a WordPress plugin developer or have aspirations to become one, then you should learn and embrace the concept of nonces and apply them to your code where applicable.

WordPress has several useful functions available to you which you can use for all matters related to nonces.

Creating nonces

There are functions to create and add nonces to your URLs and forms in WordPress.

Adding a nonce to a URL

For example, WordPress has the following function which will create a nonce which you can manually add to your URL:

wp_create_nonce($action)

This function will create a nonce value and as you can see it takes a single argument, which is a string defining the action you are performing.

The string can be anything you wish and it is advisable that you choose something unique to your plugin which will be hard to guess.

The function will return a string in the form of the nonce token value.

Example 1:

For example let’s assume you have written a plugin which has a page with a list of items with a delete link next to each item. To further enhance security you want to add a nonce to the delete link.

The following is one way you could do it using the function above:

1) First you would create the nonce:

$my_nonce = wp_create_nonce('delete_my_rec');

2) Next you would add this nonce to your URL:

<a href='admin.php?page=mypluginpage&action=delete&recid=1&_wpnonce=<?php echo $my_nonce ?>'>Delete Me</a>

An alternative way to add a nonce to a URL is to use the following function:

wp_nonce_url($actionurl, $action)

This function takes two parameters.

1. The first is the URL you wish to add the nonce to
2. The second is the action name you wish to assign to the nonce.

If you look inside the WordPress core code you will see that wp_nonce_url function actually calls the wp_create_nonce function to create the nonce which it then adds to the URL string.

Example 2:

Therefore, we can use the wp_nonce_url function to achieve the same outcome as in the first example by simply doing the following:

1) Create the URL with a nonce added to it:

$nonced_url = wp_nonce_url('admin.php?page=mypluginpage&action=delete&recid=1', 'delete_my_rec');

2) Now add the URL containing the nonce to our page:

echo '<a href="'.$nonced_url.'">Delete Me</a>';

This second example will achieve the same outcome as the first example.

Adding a nonce to a form

To add a nonce to a form you can use the following function:

wp_nonce_field($action, $name, $referer, $echo)

This function takes 4 parameters all of which are optional:

• $action = (optional) this is a string which represents the action name
• $name = (optional) this is a string which represents the name of the nonce. If you leave this field blank WordPress will default to “_wpnonce”
• $referer = (optional) this is a Boolean. It determines whether the referrer “hidden form field” should be created. This is basically the “REQUEST_URI” value of the referring page which is stored in the PHP superglobal $_SERVER. If not included it defaults to true.
• $echo =  (optional) this is a Boolean. It determines whether WordPress should echo the nonce hidden field or return its value. If not included it defaults to true (which means it will echo the field)

This function will return a URL string which will contain the nonce action.

Example 3:

A typical usage for this function is shown in example below:

<form action="" method="post">
<?php wp_nonce_field('my_delete_action'); ?>
<input type="hidden" name="id" value=" <?php echo $id; ?> " />
<input type="text" name="rec_name" value=" <?php echo $name; ?> " />
<input type="submit" value="Delete" />
</form>

Note how we’ve inserted our hidden nonce field inside the form by using the wp_nonce_field function and we’ve included a single parameter “my_delete_action” which represents action name of our nonce.

Verifying nonces

Creating and inserting nonces in our code is only half of the work that needs to be done.

We need to also verify the nonces when the user tries to submit a form or performs an action via a URL.

To verify a nonce we can simply use the following WP function:

wp_verify_nonce($nonce, $action)

This function takes 2 parameters:

• $nonce = (required) this is the particular nonce you want to verify
• $action = (optional) this is the action you specified for the nonce when you created it.

The above function will return a Boolean “false” if the nonce was invalid; otherwise it will return an integer based on when the nonce was generated, ie,

It will return “1” if nonce was generated 12hours or less

It will return “2” if nonce was generated greater than 12 hours and less than 24 hours ago.

Example 4:
Therefore using our nonce we created in example 1 we can now expand our code to include the following check:

$retrieved_nonce = $_REQUEST['_wpnonce'];
if (!wp_verify_nonce($retrieved_nonce, 'delete_my_rec' ) ) die( 'Failed security check' );


An alternative way to verify nonces

You can also use the following function to verify your nonce:

check_admin_referer($action, $query_arg)

Where:

• $action = (optional) is the action name. It is highly recommended to include this field when calling this function.
• $query_arg = (optional) denotes the nonce name which WordPress will look for in the $_REQUEST variable. (defaults to _wpnonce if left blank)

If the nonce is valid the function lets your plugin’s execution proceed otherwise it will “die” and take the user to the “are you sure” error page if it determines that a nonce is invalid.

Example 5:

Therefore we could use the line of code below to replace the code of example 4 to achieve a similar result:

check_admin_referrer('delete_my_rec');


We’ve briefly touched the subject of nonces in this article which should give you enough info to start using them in your code (where applicable). Feel free to post a comment if you have any question on this subject.

About the Author: This post was written by Peter Petreski who is an author of Tips and Tricks HQ.

This article is for those that like to “play” in the kitchen, for people that enjoy preparing meals and testing and trying new ingredients. There is a way to make money online with a recipe or food blog, and in this post I will provide a somewhat detailed overview of that process along with some relevant tips and tricks.

Documenting the process

First, you might want to commit to coming up with a recipe each day. You have to prepare meals every day anyway right? Fast food, delivery, and take out is primarily unhealthy and expensive. People want to learn ways to eat at home cheaply, conveniently and healthfully. Your “job” could be to share your approach. It could be fun and rewarding.

Perhaps you have a speciality that you can create a weekly recipe for, such as a flavored hummus recipe.

Now, it’s important to jot down the steps and the measurements for the recipes. For the enthusiastic, filming and taking photos of the process will bring you steps head of anyone else attempting the same.

Starting a recipe blog

The simplest approach is to get a domain name, some cheap shared hosting (both can be purchased from HostGator), and to install WordPress (which is free).

Then, your best bet would be to purchase a premium WordPress theme that leverages “Recipe semantic markup.”

To keep this article succint-ish, I will just say that recipe markup will enhance your recipes within search engine results, bringing in more traffic to your web site.

Monetizing your recipe web site

Now for the making money part. There are numerous ways that the web site can generate a revenue. I will go through the main ways here.

For each recipe that you publish you should link the ingredients, and equipment used, to their own pages on your site.

For example, create a separate page for a blender which reviews the blender that you use. Also, for each, or most of the ingredients, having their own page which details their health benefits, origins, or other interesting information is beneficial for the sites visitors.

Then from each of those pages you can (and should) run a geo targeting script that determines the country of the visitor. Then you could link the visitor to the appropriate Amazon web site for their country: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, etc.

And, if you become an associate (or affiliate) for those Amazon sites, you get commissions for any purchases made.

Why use Amazon?

Amazon is a widely known, widely trusted online store that sells a wide range of products. Also, when linking to Amazon with an “affiliate link,” which is simply a link accredited to you so that you get commissions on sales, you will also be rewarded when Amazon up-sells to the customer.

Since there is a wide range of products available on Amazon, and Amazon offers free shipping on purchases over a certain amount, customers often fill their baskets with other items, items that you will get commissions on as well if you reffered the customer to the site to begin with.

Amazon has a lot of upsell methods in place including the “customers who bought this, also bought…” followed by a list of other related items.

Sure, the commission percentage isn’t as high as when promoting digital items as an affiliate, but the high trust factor and the commissions awarded for extra products make it worth the efforts.

Commissions for small appliances, like juicers and blenders, can generate amounts between $10 and $30 or more which isn’t bad at all.

Taking it all even further

Besides doing the above, you can really knock this money making idea out of the park by performing some of the following tasks:

1) Social photo sharing: Including your original photos on social photo sharing sites like Flickr and Pinterest can bring traffic from different sources. Embed the photos from those sites into yours to increase page load times and reduce bandwidth usage.

2) Social video sharing: In the same way as with photos, creating unique videos and posting them to social video sites like YouTube can increase exposure and bring more traffic. Also, embedding videos into recipe pages increases the value of the page from both visitors and search engines perspectives.

3) Recipe book creation: You could benefit immensely by adding your recipes to a stand-alone document as you go along.

If you have the time and gumption, it would be valuable to include each recipe into its own document, including links, and exporting it as a PDF file.

You can do this using free tools. OpenOffice.org Writer lets you create PDFs and retain hyperlinks. Most “free” software will not let you keep hyperlinks in tact in the exported PDF unless you pay for an upgrade, but OpenOffice does.

Each of these single-recipe booklets I would share on PDF sharing sites like Scribd and SlideShare.

Also, I would add related recipes to a larger PDF book. Then, you could either sell the book after ‘x’ amount of recipes are included, or “bribe” people with it to get them on your mailing list, or simply share it like you did the single-recipe booklets.

Then, of course, create a booklet with all of your recipes, and either share it, give it away to subscribers, or sell it. You could post it on Clickbank for example and let other people sell it for you and give them commissions for doing so.

4) Enhance recipe posts: Besides embedding multimedia into the posts (your unique photos from Flickr or Pinterest, and unique videos from YouTube) you can also do a write up for each post.

Rather than just including: Equipment list, ingredient list and procedure, also write something about the recipe. It could be anything including: the nutritional value of the main ingredients, reviews from family members on the taste, your motivation for creating the recipe, a vivid description of the taste, smell and texture, and how it feels in your mouth, and so on.

Just focus on creating unique valuable content always. By content I mean: the recipe itself (cite the inspiration if relevant), the written content, and the multimedia content.

Other ways to make money on a recipe blog

Besides sending customers through the Amazon sales funnel and getting commissions, and possibly selling your recipe books (either in digital, print, or both), you may want to consider other avenues for generating income.

You can consider selling advertising space with services like AdSense (for contextual and retargeting ads), or BuySellAds and BuyAds (for banner and Twitter advertising), or even independently.

Also, touched upon above was building a list and offering a recipe book as an incentive to join the list. Then you could send out a newsletter, which could simply be a collection of the recipe postings from the previous week to bring readers and customers back to the site.

You could also make announcements of new books, new products, or events that you have a connection with (either hosting yourself, selling yourself, or that you are an affiliate for).

Crowd recipe publishing

At some stage, even very early, you may want to open the doors to let others share their recipes on the site. This could keep you from having to publish every day, but also expand the audience.

Additionally, if your site is on a specific theme (discussed below) you might want to turn on WordPress MultiSite and let others blog about other aspects of that theme.

As an example, if your recipe site caters to recipes that are “autism” (i.e dairy and casein free) or “diabetes” (i.e. low sugar) friendly, a new blog, or family diary blog, on any of those topics can further expand the site.

Cater to a particular pocket of people

With web sites, it is often best (perhaps always best) to not try to cater to everyone. You can devote a recipe site to a specific audience and only create recipes that they would find interesting.

If you follow a particular lifestyle, like vegan or raw foods, it is that much easier. Simply, documenting what you do daily is the easiest approach.

To brainstorm ideas for a “pocket of people” here is a quick process to run through, with an example. This process can help you come up with a domain name, a tag line and the overall theme for the recipe or health site.

Tip 1) Visit Google and type in a phrase and watch what comes up from Google Suggest. For example: I began typing “what can I eat on…” (without the dots) and many things came up including:

what can i eat on the caveman diet
what can i eat on a low carb diet
what can i eat on the daniel fast

Another example: Starting with “recipes for…” came up with:

recipes for those with acid reflux
recipes for those with gerd
recipes for those with high cholesterol
recipes for people with high cholesterol and diabetes

These are examples of what people are searching for within Google. This represents a pocket of people that you can easily cater to and rank high for in the search engines to get traffic – traffic that can become customers.

Your site can quickly become the “go to” authority site in one of these niches because of low competition. In general, large food and recipe sites will have a page or category catering to these niches and that’s fine. But developing a site devoted to them will stand out in the search results.

You might have heard it already, but “there is money in the long tail”. Think about how many people are in the world!

Tip 2) Picking one of those phrases can become the “tag line” for the site. In WordPress, to edit the tag line, you will go to Settings > General.

Now, from there you can create a nice 2-word punchy domain name that represents the site. You may or may not want to include the word recipes, it really depends on your future goals. The days of exact-match domains are gone, so don’t worry about matching a keyword for the domain. Create a brand instead, something that will be easy to remember, and be simple to build a logo around at some point.

Let’s say we went with the first result “what can i eat on the caveman diet” for the tagline, here are some ideas for domains:

CavemanEats
FoodOfCavemen
GruntDiet
...and so on

There you have it. You have a domain name, a tag line and theme for your recipe site. Now, adding content on a regular consistent basis is key. It could be recipes all the time, or a mix of recipes and stories and other related content.

Perhaps the categories can be: Recipes, News, Diary

Even if you are not an authority on the topic (yet), and perhaps you are just in the process of learning about say “foods that I can eat having crohns,” you can document what you learn/do as you go, building out an authority site, and making money in the process.

Who knows, your healing story can save a person’s life, and make you money at the same time. That’s not greed, that is leverage my friend.