Widgets for WordPress

Let's talk widgets! What's a widget, you may ask? A widget is a tool that allows you to add a variety of features to your sidebar. There are many widgets available via WordPress. If you have a WordPress.com site, all widgets are included. With a self hosted site, there are a few basic ones included, and many others are bundled within Plugins. (See Ashley's recent post about Plugins here.)

To get to your widgets, choose the 'Appearance' menu from your dashboard, and then click on 'Widgets'. To activate a widget, just drag the corresponding box of the one you want to use to the sidebar panel.

Below are a few of the widgets I use and recommend:

1. Text Widget: This one lets you add text, photos, or video to your sidebar via plain text or HTML. I use the text widget for my social media buttons and my 'About Me' section.

2. Follow Blog (WordPress.com) or Blog Subscriptions (via Jetpack Plugin): This widget allows readers to sign up to receive an email each time you publish a new blog post.

3. Search: This widget adds a search bar to your sidebar area. This is a very important widget to have on your blog. I use it all the time on other blogs that I read, and I have been disappointed before when I couldn't find a specific post that I was looking for because the blogger didn't have a search bar. Without a search bar, your readers may not be able to read that special post that they set out to find.

4. Archives: This one also helps readers find more of your posts. It displays the posts based on the month and year they were published. With the archive menu, there is potential for your blog to receive more page views because it is one more way readers can browse through your posts.

5. Instagram: This is my new favorite widget that I just activated on my blog. I am a little obsessed with Instagram. It's by far my favorite social media platform, and now my photos can be shared on my blog too. This widget is included on WordPress.com sites. For self-hosted sites, it is a downloadable plugin called  'Instagram for WordPress'.

Do you currently use any widgets on your blog? What are some of your favorites? Leave a comment below and let me know. I'd love to hear from you!

My Favorite WordPress Plugins

One of my favorite things about being a WordPress user is the near unlimited number of plugin options that I have access to.

Plugins can be used for anything - tidying up the back end of your blog, helping you organize and schedule your posts and content, formatting pages and posts and image galleries. Some plugins are totally priceless, too, like the ones that protect your admin panel from hackers, or others that automate your SEO keywords and such so you get optimal Google ranking.

I've tested out a lot of plugins over the years, and while some aren't all that great, others very quickly made it onto my "must have" list. Today, I thought it would be fun to share my top three favorite plugins!

Jetpack
This plugin is totally indispensable to me now. Jetpack lets you crosspost your content to social media, add share buttons at the bottom of every post, track stats daily, build contact form pages, and a ton of other cool tweaks. This plugin was created by the official WordPress team, and is one of the best that I've used yet.

Stealth Login Page
I only recently began to think about the security of my blog. After reading a few different articles on WordPress security, this was the first plugin that I installed to combat hacking. It's really easy to use, and basically just forwards the default WordPress admin panel address to your homepage, while giving you the option to set a custom, secret URL.

WordPress SEO
Over the last few months I have been testing various SEO plugins to find the one that suited me best, and I think that I've finally found it in Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin. It's extremely easy to use, and features an innovative red-yellow-green light system to show you how effective your SEO is. This is definitely a plugin that I would recommend any WordPress user add.

How about you guys? If you are a WordPress user, leave a link to your favourite plugin in the comments! I'm always on the hunt for new and awesome plugins.

Five Helpful Tips for Choosing a WordPress Theme

Choosing a theme for your WordPress site is one of the first steps to getting your blog up and running. A theme dictates the basic design and layout of your blog. With thousands of themes out there, picking the right one can be an overwhelming task. Here are some important things to consider when shopping around for the perfect theme.

1. Cost: How much do you want to spend on a theme? There are many free themes available through WordPress and other sites. There are also a variety of places where you can purchase a theme which will usually run anywhere from $10-$80. Or, you can go the more expensive route and hire a web designer to create one for you.

2. Support: Be sure with any theme you choose that there is good support offered. This support may be available from the company you purchased your theme from or through online support forums. Be sure to find out how much information is out there about your theme. In the event that you have a question about how to modify something within your theme, you want to be sure you have somewhere to turn.

3. Reviews: Check out what other people are saying about the theme you are considering. Look for a theme with a high rating and multiple reviews. Read through the reviews to see what people like and don't like about the particular theme before making your decision.

4. Style: It is important to choose a theme that fits well with your style. Focus on the layout of the theme. Do you prefer one, two or three columns? Do you like the sidebar on the left or on the right side of the screen? Most sites allow you to demo their themes. Activate the demo and poke around to see how you like it. After navigating around a few of them, you will start to get a feel for what you like. I personally prefer two columns and a sidebar aligned on the right side.

5. Customization: Find out what features of the theme are easily customizable. Some themes will allow you to change more items while others will be more limited. Assess what options you want to have the ability to change and make sure the theme you choose allows for it.

I am currently using a free theme through wordpress.com created by WooThemes. It fits well with my style and has been very easy to use. It has up to 7 different color schemes and has the capability to support a custom header and background image. Overall, it has completely met my needs as a first time blogger. I hope with these helpful tips you will be able to find the perfect theme to help you build your special place in blog world.

Six Things You Can Do Today to Improve WordPress!

Over the years that I've written online, I've used various platforms.
Like a lot of people, I started out with LiveJournal. I've also dabbled with tumblr, for about two seconds I had a Vox account, and a few years ago I registered my own Blogger - which I still continue to use.
Since Blogger, I have also become a user of WordPress, which very quickly became my go-to for blogging needs. The most difficult thing about WordPress is how incredibly sharp of a learning curve there is in learning to use it.
So today, I'm sharing six things that I recommend doing to all WordPress blogs - whether they're freshly made, or just looking for a quick face lift!

1. Deactivate and then delete all of the plugins you don't like, or aren't using.
Benefit: Not only will your blog run faster, it will also be more secure! One of the most well-known ways of compromising WordPress blogs are through deactivated files that haven't yet been deleted, so cut your chances from the get go and get those files gone.
2. Change the default settings on your Permalinks page
Benefit: Your posts will rank higher in SEO.
WordPress default (for some reason) is to file your posts by /year/month/date/your-post-name. Change it to just /your-post-name and your content will automatically become more likely to be crawled successfully by Google's search index program.
3. Limit yourself in categories, not Tags
Benefit: Your content will be easier to discover.
Think about your categories as genres, and your tags as ways to narrow those genres down. This will allow your reader to discover more content (via category), yet still find specific content when they want it (via tag).
4. Make WordPress work for you and your content!
Benefit: You can spend more time writing, promoting, and networking.
Install an Editor's Calendar plug-in to schedule posts ahead of time, find social network plug-ins so your content is automatically published to Twitter, Google, and Facebook, and automate as much SEO as you can! Make your blog "work for you" and you'll cover more ground in success in a shorter amount of time.
5. Remove your beginning widgets, and start fresh
Benefit: Your blog will have a cleaner, more customized look
Removing your starter widgets will allow you to decide the flow of your website that you'd most like your reader to follow. What is more important to you for your reader to see first: Instagram photos? Your pins?
Also, remember to remove the "meta" widget. Not only do you not really need to display it, if you do, you'll basically be showcasing a direct link to your admin panel to those who may use it for not-so-nice purposes.
6. Start adding META information to each image
Benefit: Increased ranking in Google Image Search
When you upload post photos or graphics, type in some keywords or even an image caption into the various ALT values that are there. Google will scan through your keywords whenever someone searches with Google Images, and can potentially be a great source of traffic if you nail the right words!

That's it! My six favourite tips. What are yours? Feel free to leave your own in the comments.

Introduction to Wordpress

It may seem odd that I am using Blogger to talk about WordPress, but all of us at B.You thought it would be a great idea to diversify the content of this site and provide information to you both for Blogger and WordPress. It seems foreign for me to be typing a post in Blogger because all I know is WordPress. I can't say that I have a preference for one or the other because I am not familiar with each of them on the same level, so I will stick to what I know and tell you a little bit about WordPress. I started my blog on WordPress.com back in February. There are two different ways to start a blog through the WordPress publishing application. One way is through their dot com site. This is the approach I took when I started. There are many benefits to this approach. First of all, it is free ninety-free. Who doesn't like free stuff?! Secondly, it gives you the option to publicize your posts on multiple different social media sites (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). And, my favorite part is that you can track your stats within the application through the built in "site stats" page. 

The other approach to starting a site with WordPress is for more advanced users (in my opinion). It involves downloading the software and signing up for website hosting. This is done through a web hosting service. There are many hosting companies out there. Do your research before you sign up with one. Web site hosting will usually run you between $4 and $8 per month, and many companies offer free trials. If you choose this route, you have more options for customizing your website. It is more work for sure, but the benefit is that you have full control of your content, your design, and your space on the internet. The WordPress platform is the industry standard and is used by many businesses and bloggers. With this option, you will be able to advertise on your blog, whereas you do not have that capability through the dot com option.

I want to touch on design for a second. Both options allow you to choose a pre-designed template for your site; however, with the dot com option, you can only customize a few things within the template, so what you see is pretty much what you get. However, with the self-hosted option, you have the ability to edit the coding of the template to change way more stuff. This is part of the process that will take more advanced knowledge to navigate through or you can hire a web designer to create your site if you don't have the desire and/or time to design it yourself.

So, in the end, the best thing to do before starting a blog with WordPress is to decide what you want to accomplish with your blog and how much time you want to put into it. If you just want a place to share your thoughts with others and do not have much time to dedicate or money to put into it, the dot com option may be best for you. If you want to have a place that feels more like your own and you don't mind spending hours of your time creating your space to be exactly how you want it (or hiring a designer), then you might want to check out the self-hosting option. 

I know this is a lot of information and it may be a bit confusing at first, but if you are really interested in starting your own blog, I urge you to do your research and find out which option best suits your needs. I started with the more basic dot com option. I love it, and it was great for me for a while, but I found that I wanted something that felt more like my own, something that I could call mine and mold into my happy place. So right now I am in the process of transitioning to a self-hosted site using the WordPress software. It has taken me countless hours to design the site because I have had to learn so much along the way. It will take me many more hours to finish it, but it will be mine and it will be worth it to me.