Stepping into Blogsessive’s Second Year
With ups and downs, with periods of abundance of content and publishing breaks too, but most important, with many new friends each day, this March, Blogsessive has stepped into its second year of existence.
It so happened that March was also the busiest month we’ve had with QBKL Media‘s projects, launching two projects and getting ready for 2 more and our own website. This frenzy was reflected in the publishing rhythm on Blogsessive. But, as I’ve always said either in interviews or here, I hate sacrificing the writing quality if my time does not allow me to dedicate myself as much as I feel fit.
Still, you have remained loyal to the this blog, waiting for new content to make its way to you through your feed readers. Friends, I can assure you the time is well worth it, and to prove it I’ll take you on a quick trip thought what’s coming from Blogsessive in the next few weeks.
One Year Celebration Contest
An event like this cannot pass uncelebrated. At the beginning of April I’ll launch a new contest to reward those of you who are loyal to this blog. As you’ve seen in my previous contests, I love to reward those who contribute valuable content to the blogosphere, and so, it will again be a group writing project. With this contest, one winner will get a nice “blogging package” which will consist in:
Click here to read the full blog post!
WP Plugin: Query Posts WordPress Widget
Justin Tadlock has recently released on cool little WordPress plugin that works miracles for those with little PHP knowledge. As the name says, the plugin is a visual reconstruction of the query_posts WordPress template tag.
So, what does the plugin do? It basically allows you to setup an infinite number of widgets in you widget-ready theme, widgets that will display posts from your blog, defined in the widget option area. You can display posts with a certain tag, posts from a certain category or published in a chosen month. You can display them in full, excerpt or under the form of a list, and many other really cool options.
Adam Warner has also released a video overview of this nifty plugin that you can view here or on WordPress.tv.
More info on this plugin you can find on Justin’s blog.
And you can download the plugin from WordPress.org.
Note: While PHP knowledge is not required in order to manipulate this plugin, a basic understanding of how the query_posts template tag works would turn out to help.
WordPress Powered Websites – The Real Deal
By now, you should know that I’m a WordPress fan. While most people regard it as a simple blogging platform, some see beyond that and realize that WordPress is a very capable CMS.
While working with it as a website CMS will not allow too many customizations for entry-level developers or users, in the hands of a pro WordPress is ready to perform miracles.
The advantages of WordPress powered websites
There are quite a bunch of advantages when developing websites using WordPress as CMS, but the most important are:
- Productivity – A lot less time spent on development, which guarantees a lower cost and still high quality;
- Ease of use – Both client-side and developer-side. The amount of tutorials, plugins and support groups available out there is a divine gift;
- Updates – The WordPress community is very involved in keeping the project up to date and bug free and the updates are so easy to apply.
It’s enough to run a search on Google and you’ll see how many people praise the power of WordPress but instead of using words, this time I’ll use results.
Click here to read the full blog post!
Domain Names for Bloggers (16)
A new edition of ‘Domain names for bloggers’ is here. This edition will also be the last on Blogsessive since I’ve been working on something new the past few weeks that will replace this successful series. On average, about 50-60% of all the suggested domain names have been registered, which makes me think that this lists deserve a “space” of their own. Stay tuned and I’ll keep you updated on the progress of this new project.
Today’s list features available domain names related to WordPress, web, design and development. So, pick your favorite, go register and start blogging with a great name!
Web & Design Domain Names
TutorialLounge.comBeautifulTypography.comDesignCaseStudies.comCSSeffect.com- ByCSS.com
CSSsnippet.com- WritingCSS.com
- BetterHTML.com & BetterXHTML.com
- CodeImprove.com
WPDesignBlog.com- WPGoddess.com
For further help, please read the How to Register a Domain Name for Your Blog article on Blogsessive.
Also, if you find this post helpful and you register any of the domains above, please leave a comment with the registered domains, so that I can erase them from the list, and it would be nice to know that one of my readers registered them.
Latest Posts by Category Plugin v1.1 Update
By popular demand, the Latest Posts by Category Archive WordPress plugin has been updated to version 1.1 which currently includes the option to also display post dates, via hardcode or shortcodes.
Also, for WordPress 2.7+ users, a dashboard widget has been added that keeps track of the version in used and compares it to the most recent version available, for you to know when it’s time for a new update.
The updated plugin can be downloaded here.
Simple Balance – Right Sidebar Alignment Bug Fix
It has been brought to my attention that the Simple Balance theme has a display bug which causes the right sidebar to drop below the content on single post pages.
After looking into this problem I’ve seen that this only happens when users are required to be logged-in in order to post a comment.
The bug is fairly easy to fix and a fix has already been included in the Simple Balance 2.2 download package.
In order to apply the fix, you only need to download the package and replace the “comments.php” file in your theme’s folder with the one inside the package.
Manual bug fix
Alternatively, you can apply the fix manually by opening the “comments.php” file in a text editor and scroll down to the end of the file where you should see this code snippet:
</form> </div> <?php endif; // If registration required and not logged in ?> <?php endif; // if you delete this the sky will fall on your head ?> </div>
All you need to do is to replace the above lines of code with the ones below:
</form> <?php endif; // If registration required and not logged in ?> </div> <?php endif; // if you delete this the sky will fall on your head ?> </div>
The closing tag of the comments section should have been placed outside the conditional loop that checks if the user is logged in. Since it was not, the sidebar was considered to be part of the comments area and displayed below.
Sorry for the inconvenience if you have had trouble because of this bug. Now it should be alright.
