Free WordPress Plugin “Super Custom Login” released

I’ve released another free WordPress plugin. This one is called Super Custom Login, and as the name suggests, it allows you to easily customize the WordPress login page. It also enhances security by removing error messages upon failed login attempts.

The default login page for WordPress sites shows a WordPress logo above the login form. This logo is hyperlinked to wordpress.org. Super Custom Login replaces the default logo with your own customized logo. The hyperlink is modified to point to your homepage instead.

Having a customized login page helps maintain your brand when users log into your site. It’s a professional touch that I use on all of the WordPress-based sites I create. My login page, for example, shows a compact version of my logo. Not sure if you’re logo will fit? No problem. Super Custom Login comes with a template file to ensure your custom logo fits properly.

As an added bonus, Super Custom Login also removes error messages upon failed login attempts. These error messages let you know if the username or the password was incorrect. This is a security vulnerability that could be exploited by potential attackers.

Follow the link below for more details, and of course to download the plugin for your own use.

Super Custom Login: Free WordPress Plugin

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

How To Blog: Topic Tips

It can seem daunting at times, but it’s very important to learn how to blog effectively by choosing better topics to write about. Do you suffer from writer’s block and have difficulty generating ideas? Or have you experienced information overload and just couldn’t seem to narrow down your ideas? It happens to all of us at times, but if you keep in mind the following tips, you should be able to generate engagement and interest in your blog.

1. Choose a Topic You’re Passionate About

When choosing a topic for your next blog post, you should choose a topic you’re passionate about. Your passion will show through in your writing and help you deliver quality content. Also, the entire process will be more rewarding. However, it’s important to keep in mind the goals and motivations of your potential audience. Make sure to generate engagement and interest by giving them something unique.

2. Brainstorm for Ideas

Would you like to generate more ideas for topics? While brainstorming, open the gate and let your ideas flow. Reserve all judgement till later. Only after generating a large number of alternative options should any ideas be decided upon. Give yourself a time limit of 10 to 15 minutes or whatever you’re comfortable with. Review the purpose of your blog. This is the context that your blog posts will fit into. Write down just enough of each idea to clearly identify it and then move on to the next. When the time’s up or when you’ve exhausted your brain, rewrite your ideas into a more legible and complete list.

3. Focus on One Main Idea

Identify the main idea you wish to communicate and focus on it. Having a topic that’s too broad or including too many other topics will cause the average reader to lose attention faster. If you have more than one, try writing a series of blog posts about a related topic. This is a great way to express all of your ideas while maintaining focus with your posts.

4. Write a Review

If you read, write a book review about an interesting book you’ve recently read. Briefly discuss the book and how it affected you. Give the author whatever critiques or accolades come to mind and you’re done. Apply the same principle to a movie, product, app, or whatever! This is a great way to express your opinion or showcase your expertise in a particular field, but be aware that others may not agree with you.

5. Write About a Polarizing Issue

Certain issues tend to elicit opposite and extreme responses. By weighing in on such an issue, you can attract more attention and more traffic to your blog post. You should be extremely careful when writing about a polarizing issue because you run the risk of alienating a large percentage of your potential audience.

6. Interview Someone

Interview someone who is accomplished, visionary, or inspirational. Someone in your industry is best, but not necessary. Make sure to do your homework and ask them relevant questions. It’s very important to leave the impression of a professional. This is a great opportunity to add value to your post via shared experiences and insights.

7. Choose a Topic Related to a Previous Post

If you’ve already posted to your blog, look through your previous posts for topics you could expound upon. You could approach the topic from a different angle, dive into the details of some aspect of the topic, or look at alternatives to it. Regardless of how it’s done, it should help give your blog posts continuity.

Learn How to Blog Better

I hope that these tips will help you choose better topics for your blog posts. With better topics to choose from, it should be easier to generate quality content that your readers will enjoy. Blogging shouldn’t feel like work. Learn how to blog better and don’t forget to stay creative!

Be sure to check out the previous post in this series How to Blog: For Beginners.

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

How to use FeedBurner with WordPress

Find out how to use FeedBurner with WordPress. If you have a blog, you’re probably familiar with the concept of feeds. If you’re not sure what a feed is, read my article about RSS feeds. Feeds are a great way to share content. However, there are some limitations. There’s really no way to know any stats on subscribers. How can it be done? FeedBurner, now owned by Google, is a popular syndication service that makes it easy to receive content updates in news readers. Though it is free, you get what you pay for in support.

Benefits of using FeedBurner

Okay, so you have a self-hosted WordPress site with a feed. Do you know how many subscribers your feed has? No. There’s no way to tell if anyone is subscribed or not. FeedBurner allows publishers who already have a feed to improve their understanding of and relationship with their audience by offering customization and feed management tools. These tools allow you to see exactly how many subscribers you have. Now you have another way to gauge which part of your site’s content is most relevant to your readers.

Aside from statistics, FeedBurner also provides many options for feed optimization, and feed publication.

FeedBurner with WordPress

One thing to keep in mind when using FeedBurner with WordPress is that you must make sure to unify your feed. In order for everyone to receive the same feed, your old feed must be redirected to the new. There are three ways to do this.

1. Edit .htaccess

You can add the redirects to the .htaccess file on your server if you’re comfortable editing important system files. Make sure to backup .htaccess in case anything goes wrong. Here is an example of code you can use to redirect your main feed as well as your comments feed.

# Redirect RSS feeds to FeedBurner

 RewriteEngine on
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}      ^/?(feed.*|comments.*)        [NC]
 RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !^.*(FeedBurner|FeedValidator) [NC]
 RewriteRule ^feed/?.*$          http://feeds.feedburner.com/YourFeedName         [L,NC,R=302]
 RewriteRule ^comments/?.*$      http://feeds.feedburner.com/YourFeedName-Comments [L,NC,R=302]

Make sure to change “YourFeedName” to the actual name of your feed.

2. Edit functions.php

Or, you could customize your theme’s functions.php file. The following code redirects your main feed. It can be placed in functions.php anywhere after the initial php tag as long as it’s not inside another function.

// Redirect RSS feed to FeedBurner //
function rss_feed_redirect() {
    global $feed;
    $new_feed = 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/YourFeedName';
    if (!is_feed()) {
            return;
    }
    if (preg_match('/feedburner/i', $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])){
            return;
    }
    if ($feed != 'comments-rss2') {
            if (function_exists('status_header')) status_header( 302 );
            header("Location:" . $new_feed);
            header("HTTP/1.1 302 Temporary Redirect");
            exit();
    }
}
add_action('template_redirect', 'rss_feed_redirect');

Again, make sure to change “YourFeedName” to the actual name of your feed.

3. Use a Plugin

If you’d like a simpler solution, let a plugin do the heavy lifting for you. There are many WordPress Plugins to choose from, but here are a few of the most popular.

• FD Feedburner
• FeedBurner FeedSmith
• FeedBurner FeedSmith Extend

How to Notify Your Readers

As far as I can tell, when switching from a native WordPress feed to a FeedBurner feed, your current subscribers will have to re-subscribe to the new feed. So, it’s a great idea to make a post that informs them about the upcoming feed switch before you actually change them. That way, they will know why your feed isn’t updated anymore. Furthermore, they’ll have a link to the new feed.

This solution is far from perfect, but it should make it easier for them to subscribe to your new feed. If anyone knows how to avoid this problem, or if it’s even possible, please add a comment below. Thanks.

Subscribe to my Feeds:

Middle Ear Media Article Feed via RSS

Middle Ear Media Comment Feed via RSS

Middle Ear Media Article Feed via Email

Check out FeedBurner

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

Free WordPress Theme “MEM Core” released

Word­Press is a pop­u­lar, open-source, Con­tent Man­age­ment Sys­tem built by hun­dreds of com­mu­nity vol­un­teers around the world. Although, I’ve been devel­op­ing Word­Press Themes for years, I finally got around to releas­ing my first free WordPress Theme for pub­lic use. I call it MEM Core which is short for “Middle Ear Media Core” because I plan on creating many child Themes for it. Each child Theme will inherit the functionality of MEM Core, and will modify, or add to it in different ways.

MEM Core is a pro­fes­sional, cus­tomiz­able, and completely free WordPress Theme with a clean look and respon­sive design. It works great on mobile devices as well as desktops and laptops. The Theme includes optional page layouts, customizable background, customizable header image, customizable navigation menu, and multiple widget support in the sidebar and the footer, and much more.

Follow the link below for more details, a demo, and of course to download the Theme for your own use.

MEM Core: Free WordPress Theme

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

Let’s All Help Stop SOPA/PIPA

I just wanted to do my part to show my support and help save the internet. What’s wrong with the internet? You may have heard about SOPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act or its sister bill in the Senate, PIPA — Protect IP Act, but do you really know what will happen if these bills (or any similar bills) pass? They will stifle free speech and innovation while making the internet less reliable and less secure. In other words, they will break the internet.

We need to do everything we can to fight this legislation. Oppose SOPA/PIPA however you can. Help spread the word by talking/blogging/tweeting about the issue or contact congress and let them know how you feel.

Watch this video to learn more.

What do you think? Please leave a comment below if you have anything to add.

Update

Here is a great infographic that explains the situation well.

Here is a resource for contacting your elected officials.

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

How to Blog: For Beginners

This post will help you learn how to blog. So, you finally have your own blog. Now what? You’ve been anxiously awaiting the moment, and now that you have the ability to share your thoughts with the entire world, you can’t think of anything to say. Maybe you feel intimidated by the whole concept of a world-wide publishing system at your fingertips. Maybe the user interface of your blogging software or CMS (Content Management System) is confusing and difficult to use. Maybe you’re second guessing your own ideas.

Whatever the reason, it must be overcome. Whether you plan to blog for business or just use it as an outlet for your personal ideas, to be successful, you must produce interesting content. Here are some tips and tricks to help get your blog up and running.

1. Familiarize yourself with WordPress.

One of the main reasons why you wanted a blog was so that you could make updates yourself. To do this, you must be familiar with and able to use your blogging software or Content Management System. If possible, have somebody show you how to log in and make posts, etc. First hand experience is always best. If nobody is available to assist you, you can find lots of useful information online. If that’s not working for you, you can hire someone to teach you how to use WordPress.

(Did I mention that I’m available for WP instruction and consultation?)

2. Write your post before logging in.

Don’t try to write your post from the Add New Post page in the WordPress Admin panel. Even if you’ve become familiar with WordPress, you’ll be more productive if you write your ideas down on paper or in a word processor first. This is a more comfortable writing environment for the majority of people. It will allow you to focus on the content of your blog post instead of being distracted by other elements of the WordPress interface. Most of us have too many distractions already. So, why add more?

3. Don’t copy or scrape content.

Create your own content and be original. It’s not only unethical and possibly illegal to copy or scrape content from other blogs, it can actually be detrimental to your listing on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). When the same content is found on multiple pages by a search engine, it could result in a lower search ranking for both of them. Also, if the site you copied from is more popular than yours (which is likely if you’re using their content), your site will be pushed down in the search rankings. If you find it absolutely necessary to inform your audience of some other content, write up a brief summary and why you think it’s important to your readers. Don’t forget to include a link to the original article and give credit to the original author.

If you can’t think of any ideas or topics for your own posts, have a look at How To Blog: Topic Tips.

4. Don’t worry about perfection.

Of course you want your blog post to be perfect, but don’t let that stop you from generating content. Remember, you can always edit your posts after they are published. That being said, please spell-check, proof-read, and double check everything before posting. In most many cases, the bulk of the traffic that a page generates comes shortly after it is posted.

Learn How to Blog Better

So please, take the time to nurture your blog. Consider your audience, create quality content consistently and you will see an increase in traffic. As usual, your comments and questions are always welcome. Blogging shouldn’t feel like work. Learn how to blog better and don’t forget to stay creative!

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

Dynamic Content: Why it’s Essential

There are many reasons to have dynamic content on your website, but the two most important are to increase traffic and to increase sales. Dynamic content will drive traffic to your site by helping give you a better ranking in search engine results. It can drive sales (assuming you’re selling something) or conversions by giving your visitors a better user experience.

What is dynamic content?

Back in the day, a hypertext document on the world wide web was a static file that looked the same to everybody who viewed it. If the page was lucky, it would be updated periodically, but for the most part, it just remained the same and collected virtual dust. If you’ve ever stumbled across a website that looks like it hasn’t been updated in 10-15 years, it probably hasn’t.

In contrast, a dynamic document on the world wide web can be customized for each user based on individual conditions or parameters. So it could show different content depending on the time of day, a user’s profile, operating system, browser or just about anything else.

Sometimes referred to as “conditional content”, it allows a more unique experience for the user with personalized messages and such. With dynamic content, the content is separated from the design and stored in a database. The content seen by the user is generated at the time of request at the server level using CGI, ASP, PHP, or a content management system.

How does it drive traffic?

Search engines, or more accurately, their search bots (also known as spiders) crawl the web and index the sites they find. They prefer dynamic content over static content because they figure something that changes often is more relevant than something that doesn’t. Therefore a dynamic page is more likely to ranked higher on a search engine’s results page and that means more traffic to the site.

How does it drive sales?

Even more important than its SEO benefits is the fact that human visitors like to see something different each time they visit a site. It keeps them interested. If it looks the same every time they visit, they are much less likely to return again. We humans also tend to enjoy an experience more if it’s personalized. For example, when a user logs in, they might see a custom welcome message that includes their name. No matter how it’s done, if a user has an enjoyable experience while using your site, they are much more likely to return again. They are also more likely to tell all their friends how great your site is, buy your widgets, visit your physical location or sign up for your service.

Using a CMS like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc., allows you to control your dynamic content very easily, hence the massive number of “blog” type sites that have popped up over the last several years. The key to this is quality not quantity. You must give your audience something that is interesting or important to them.

So, keep it fresh, keep it flexible, keep it dynamic.

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

RSS Feeds Explained

Have you ever noticed the sheer amount of information on the internet? It’s become overwhelming and guess what? It’s only going to grow! So content publishers need to find ways to make it easier for their audience to receive their content.

The concept behind RSS is really simple. So simple in fact that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is one of the most popular formats used to distribute content on the internet. Also known as a Web Feed, it is a great way to get your content out to the masses if you have a blog, news site, or really any website with content that is updated frequently.

You have probably seen RSS Feed icons before, even if you didn’t know what they were. There is a (sort of) standard RSS icon that looks like an orange square with some white curved lines inside it. However, many designers want their feed icon to match the look of their site so they customize it. There is no limit to how creative these icons can be, but at the end of the day they must fulfill their function of letting your readers know they can subscribe to your content.

So, how do you subscribe to a feed? First, you’ll need a news reader (also known as a feed reader or news aggregator). Some news readers are web-based such as Live Bookmarks, Yahoo, News Gator, Bloglines, Netvibes, Google, Pageflakes, FeedDemon, RSSOwl, NetNewsWire, NewsFire, Shrook, etc. Others are located on your own computer. Many Email clients such as Mozilla’s Thunderbird, and Microsoft’s Outlook or Outlook Express also function as news readers. I prefer Thunderbird, but that’s just me.

Once you have a feed reader, go to the website you want to subscribe to and simply click on the RSS or feed icon. Then copy the URL from the address bar at the top of your browser. It will probably look something like

http://www.middleearmedia.com/feed/

but not necessarily. Alternatively, you can right click the RSS or feed icon and select “Copy Shortcut” or “Copy Link Location” to copy the address of the feed. Go to your news reader and find the option that lets you add content or feeds. This should open up a window with a field to add the URL of the feed you want to subscribe to. Place your cursor in this field and right click your mouse then select Paste.

In Thunderbird for example, click News & Blogs, then click Manage subscriptions, click the Add button in the window that pops up, and paste the address into the Feed URL field.

RSS is not the only kid on the content-syndication block. There are other ways to deliver content such as Atom, Email, SMS Text, and most recently services such as Twitter have been getting in on the action.

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency

Knee Deep in WordPress

In case you haven’t heard, WordPress is a personal publishing system built on PHP and MySQL. In other words, it allows your site to be a dynamic, database-driven organism. So rather than having a couple static HTML pages sitting there getting dusty, your site can be built with PHP modules which can be combined in many different ways to dynamically generate the HTML page seen in your browser. I’ll get into why that is so important in future posts.

WordPress is licensed under the GPL and is an Open Source project. As an Open Source project, WordPress has managed to generate a huge community of users and developers. This has helped it grow from a small project in 2003 to a massively popular blogging platform in 2005 and now to a full blown Content Management System.

I’ve only been designing for WordPress for about one year, but in that time, I’ve seen drastic improvements as new versions were released. As I write this, version 2.8.4 is the latest and greatest. As a custom WordPress Theme developer, I have come to be intimately familiar with most of it’s features. I’ll be talking about WordPress a lot so check back soon or better yet, grab the RSS feed or subscribe by Email.

Web Design Marquette, MI | Middle Ear Media - Creative design studio & web agency