If you are hosted with Hostgator, you may have a problem with the automatic thumbnail generation feature that many WordPress themes provide.To solve this:1. Login to your Hostgator control panel and contact Live Chat Support. 2. Ask the support technician to white list your thumbnail generation file for mod_security . You will need to give your file name and path. The file name mostly will be timthumb.php . You can find this file inside the WordPress theme folder. An example file path wp-content/themes/theme_name/timthumb.phpThis is a known issue with Hostgator's WordPress hosting and all the technicians can recognise your request. This problem will be solved by them in … [Read more...]
WordPress Freelancers
Sometimes, when I am unable to accept a project, my clients ask me to recommend some WordPress freelancers. So, here is a list:1. Bage - Bage does WP installation, theme design and customization.2. Srinath - Srinath does WP installs, theme customization and image editing work. He also manages Twitter, Social media marketing.Both of them are leading service providers in Elance and have excellent performance.3. Srini - Srini is a well known WordPress developer of popular themes like Plainscape. He can make custom plugins, customize themes and plugins.4. Ganesh - Ganesh manages blogs for some of the popular Tamil writers. He has been in business for years and offers range of … [Read more...]
WordPress Security Tips
WordPress security tips:* Keep your WordPress installation and plugins up-to-date always and immediately. Many attackers try to take advantage of loopholes in outdated software. So, do not hesitate to upgrade WordPress fearing it would break custom made themes and plugins. Security should be the top priority. Use only trusted sources for WordPress themes and plugins. Please be aware that most of the pretty looking free WordPress themes may be having malware.* Use a strong, unique and different password each for WordPress admin user name, WordPress MySQL database, FTP user account and the web hosting control panel user name.These two steps are the most important WordPress security … [Read more...]
GPL Premium WordPress themes reselling
I saw a site reselling Premium WordPress themes released under GPL. This is legal but I am not convinced it is ethical. I strongly discourage anyone buying from such resellers or venturing into such business model.Why should you buy from the original theme designers?I have bought developer / membership licenses from iThemes, WooThemes, Thesis Theme, StudioPress and Elegant Themes.Buying from the original theme designers gives you not just the theme but access to support forums, knowledgebase, tutorials and theme documentation. I have found these resources invaluable and saves you loads of time spent in understanding and customizing the theme. I am also guaranteed to get the … [Read more...]
WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org
Which is good? WordPress.com or WordPress.org? Both have their pros and cons.WordPress.com advantagesReliable hosting:A WordPress.com blog gets world class free hosting. So your blog is always fast. A WordPress.org blog in own domain, if not maintained well, may become slow. Also, some hosts have problems with some of the WordPress.org features. So, you need to choose your host carefully.Technical Expertise:In WordPress.com you need not worry about anything except writing. But, in WordPress.org you need to have mimimum technical skills atleast. Or, you need to find someone who can maintain it for free or cost.Security:WordPress.com blogs are safe from hacking, … [Read more...]
Slow WordPress?
Is your WordPress site slow? Try these simple steps to increase your page loading speed:1. Upgrade WordPress software, current theme and plugins to their latest versions.2. Use W3 Total Cache plugin. This will increase page speed for repeat visitors and non-bouncing visitors.3. Deactivate and delete as many unnecessary plugins you can. Even the WordPress founder Matt uses only two plugins :)I try to keep my plugins count below 10. With so many useful WordPress plugins, it is tempting to use them all. But they slow down your site. Especially, get rid of plugins which query your database. If you can implement a function by directly modifying the theme without using the … [Read more...]
WordPress Tips
WordPress tips which I personally found useful:* Bulk delete spam comments * How to fix if your stats plugin keeps showing zero visits? * WordPress page specific header images * To speed up WordPress, add the following to your wp-config.php:// Enable the WordPress Object Cache: define(ENABLE_CACHE, true); … [Read more...]
How to Troubleshoot WordPress?
Whenever you have a problem with your WordPress website,0. Don't Panic. So far as your WordPress database and wp-contents folder is fine, you are fine.1. Switch to the default WordPress template and deactivate all plugins. If you are fine now, switch to another trouble free template or activate the plugins one by one to find out the culprit.If you still have problem, it is possibly a WordPress problem. Then, there are few places to ask for WordPress help:* WP support forum for How-To and Troubleshooting. Check other WP help forums too. * Frequently asked questions for WP troubleshooting * WP documentation for troubleshooting. * Tweet your question with the hashtags … [Read more...]
How to install WordPress?
How to install WordPress?Many of my friends have started moving to self-hosted WordPress websites. Most of them think that they need to install it manually. No need. Follow the steps below.InstallationThere are few automatic tools to enable one click easy installation of WP and many other popular software.Fantastico Deluxe, Simple Scripts are some of the popular tools. Sometimes, your hosting company may have in-house autoinstallers like QuickInstall (Hostgator), Hosting connection (GoDaddy). All or either of these will be available in your hosting cPanel usually.If you do not any such tools, then you may have to install manually. Download WordPress software, create a … [Read more...]
Blogger to WordPress converts – Beginner Questions
WordPress is better and different compared to Blogger. This article answers common questions asked by people who moved from Blogger to WordPress.Where is my Dashboard?See Site admin under Meta section in the right side bar of your blog.Can I edit my theme?If you have installed WordPress software in your own site, yes. If you are using WordPress.com then you need to pay 15 USD to edit your theme. Alternatively, you can choose from different themes given at Site Dashboard -> Appearance -> ThemesDo I have facility like edit layout->page elements in Blogger?Yes. Check Site Appearance--> Widgets. You can re arrange the order of widgets in your side bar.How … [Read more...]
