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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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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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.

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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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Just as a unique blog design differentiates a blog from those that are using common templates, a unique blog logo sets you apart from thousands of other bloggers who are using no logo or ordinary images as their logo.

There is a common myth that logos are expensive, and the logo designers charge hefty amounts of money for designing something as simple as , well, a logo.

Not quite true. It used to be the case that graphic designers were hard to find and they charged crazy fees for designing a logo, but nowadays, with the world shrunk to a global village thanks to the internet, the opposite is the case.

There are countless freelance designers who charge minimal fees for doing even unlimited revisions to tweak a design to your liking.

In big graphic design firms, things still function the old way. You have to empty your pockets on their hands to get your logo done. But that doesn’t concern you anymore. The big design firms are for big companies with huge budgets allocated for their brand identity.

For a single blogger running his own blog, a single freelancer running his own graphic design business from his laptop is the best choice.

The question, however, is that how to find a decent logo designer that doesn’t charge too much but has fairly good design skills?

A few years back, I’d have said: research. But now there are places that freelance designers frequent to find work. So it’s all too easy now to reach the designer you like.

On sites like Sitepoint, you get more than your money’s worth. Let me ask you this: how does a two dozen or more logos to choose from for as low as $100 sound? And what if all these logos are designed by different designers who are willing to make unlimited revisions to your favorite logo concepts?

I know it sounds terrific. And that’s why I recommend you to go straight to Sitepoint marketplace (now moved to 99designs.com) and launch a contest for your blog’s logo.

Some pointers to keep in mind before starting a contest:

• Go through other contests to get a feel of how to manage a contest.
• Increase the prize amount to get better submissions. $200 to $300 would be enough if you are short on budget.
• Be as descriptive about the goals of your blog, the kind of logo concept you have in your mind, and other details as possible.
• Provide timely feedback on all submissions, and if you don’t like a particular submission, say so outright.
• Be communicative with the designers and they’ll do even better.

Here are some more places other than Google to look for freelance designers:

Guru.com
Elance
Get a Freelancer
oDesk
Project4Hire

Or if you want me to design you a unique logo for your blog, feel free to drop me an email.

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Do you like the simplicity of default WordPress (Kubrick) theme but wish it could be a little prettier? If so, Blue Ecstasy is for you.

Blue Ecstasy is a simple, usable, and customizable (and did I tell you it’s blue!) widget-ready theme that takes after the famous Kubrick theme, but is slicker and lighter than Kubrick.

And that’s it for the description. If you have any questions, ask away in the comments.

Live demo
Download

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