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9 free Wordpress themes

It looks like Brian Gardner, the developer of the Revolution theme series has decided to release one for the public. It’s a blueish 3 column widget-ready theme designed more for the end-user than being used as a web template for a designer.

Here’s a screen shot of the theme :

As you can see this theme is designed with 2 sidebars on the right, a big AdSense box below the related links area - not a very high CTR area, a big header and lots of space for the content . The banner in the header is well placed but I don’t think that the AdSense ads in the post, at the bottom of the post  serve their purpose quite well because it’s an area with a very low CTR. Aside from that, it features a series of things that most themes lack, like :

• A cross-browser compatible navigation menu. ( I’m really a sucker for these menus )
• The possibility of choosing your layout, either 2 sidebars on the left, content in the middle and one sidebar on the left and one on the right or the layout you’ve seen in the screen shot, 2 sidebars on the right.
•  The layout works flawless in IE and FF ( latest versions).

From my point of view, it’s a really nice release but it’s nothing compared to the premium Revolution themes. As an aside to the Wordpress Revolution theme, it looks like iThemes have also release a set of 8 free Wordpress themes. Have a look : iThemes Wordpress themes

Tutorial : How to install and configure Wordpress for a first-time run

Installing and configuring Wordpress for a first time run might not be that hard, and yet some people aren’t that skilled when it comes to installing scripts for the first time. This tutorial is written for those that need a bit of guidance with Wordpress installation and configuration. This article will actually be the first in a series.

Step 1

The first thing you’ll have to do is to go to this link Wordpress download and download the latest version of Wordpres. Be sure to check if your hosting meets the minimum requirements to run Wordpress before going to step 2. I recommend reading this post about the best Wordpress hosting and even get rid of the tedious work you’d have to do.

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Best Wordpress hosting site

In yesterday’s article, How to migrate from a Wordpress.com hosted blog to a self-hosted one I mentioned that certain hosts might not meet the minimum requirements for Wordpress installations. Choosing the best Wordpress hosting from all those available might come as a chore and some might even get confused not knowing what too chose.

To make this task easier, I’ve created the following article about the best Wordpress hosting site.

Dreamhost - enter coupon ILOVEWPL to get a FREE LIFETIME DOMAIN REGISTRATION and also save %5 on the Monthly and Yearly plan.

Dreamhost is one of the most loved Wordpress hosting site by many bloggers around the web. Why ? Because of the many great features it has to offer for Wordpress users, like :

• Low prices - for only $7.95 / month this is quite the bargain.
• One-click Wordpress upgrade and installation.
• Great customer support.
• Lots of bandwidth and space for everyone’s needs.
• Free stats package - it allows you to track everything on your blog.
• Host unlimited domains, and with the use of the ILOVEWPL coupon you don’t even have to pay for a domain - we’re offering one for free to show our love for them.

Besides the above mentioned advantages, you also get Wordpress one-click upgrade and install, 200 GB disk storage, 2 TB bandwidth, free domain, unlimited databases, 3000 email accounts, unlimited domain forwarding, Jabber support and Streaming Media.

Join Dreamhost now and remember to get your free domain with the coupon ILOVEWPL and also receive a bonus %5 discount on your Monthly and Yearly plans - the best Wordpress hosting bargain on the market.

Tutorial : How to migrate from a Wordpress.com blog to a self-hosted one

This is one of the questions I received since starting this blog - Why and how should I move my Wordpress.com hosted blog to a self-hosted one ?

The answer is pretty simple, while it’s not too much of a hassle to move your blog from the free hosted Wordpress.com platform to a self-hosted one, many people don’t know how to do it. For the benefit of anyone seeking the answer to this question, I decided to write this post.

A self-hosted blog is a blog that is hosted on your own server, rather than on a sub-domain on a free blog hosting platform. Some people might call this Wordpress.org rather than Wordpress.com but that’s a mistake, because Wordpress.org is the place where you download the software from. I don’t want to argue about the names and extensions, I’m just making sure everyone knows what we’re talking about.

With a Wordpress.com hosted blog, they take care of all the technical issues that might look challenging at first. You’ll never have to touch a single line of code, mess with upgrades, plug-ins, databases or themes. All you have to do is just pick a theme ( the design of your blog, often called a theme or template ), and simply start writing your thoughts and ideas. Easy, right ?

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Tutorial : How to hide your affiliate links using Wordpress

While there are some plug-ins out there that may do this for you, most of them are paid, and for those of you that can’t afford them this tutorial should be a life saver. One of the biggest streams of income for bloggers are affiliate networks, disguising your affiliate links can significantly improve your overall conversion rate thus leading to more profits.
The idea behind this whole ‘cloaking’ process is to make the readers think the URL the reviewed or promoted product is pointing is actually an internal URL

The idea behind using this theory is that readers will click on it thinking it is an internal link on your site, rather than taking you to a third party site. Another benefit is that all of your blog’s links point toward an internal address on your domain, giving you control to update the URL easily. This helps avoid dead links whenever a company changes a URL and makes it easy to update your affiliate links when the need arises.

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