iTechMax » Blogging

How to Get Notified of New Comments on Your WordPress Blog

Hammad — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:59:24 +0000

Visitors to our WordPress blog leave comments one our blog entries to express their opinion. We can greatly benefit from these comments by learning what is it that our readers think of our current posts, how can we can improve our blog posts, or perhaps what aspects were overlooked of a certain issue we discussed.

Whilst there are numerous notifications programs for services such as email and instant messaging, I had not found a similar service for blogs and the comments which were left on it. Thankfully however a friend of mine recently introduced me to wp-comments-notifier.

Written in QT/C++, this program is sized at 3MB and compatible with Windows operating systems. Its function is quite simple and immensely useful: it alerts you when new comments are posted on your WordPress blog. wp-comments-notifier works with WordPress MU as well.

Setting up the application is quite simple. On the first

run we are required to enter our blog’s URL, our WordPress username and password.

Once our information has been verified and the application set up, the application monitors our blog’s comments from the System Tray. In the event of any new comments, a notification is shown with the System Tray icon.

Perhaps the best feature is that we can view and edit the comments right from our desktop, rather than opening the webpage in an internet browser.

wp-comments-notifier is certainly a must-have application for all regular WordPress bloggers. If you blog on the WordPress platform, try out this application right away and let me know in the comments what you thought about it.

How to Add “About the Author” box in WordPress

Hammad — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:07:09 +0000

Whenever you read any blog, you might have seen “About the Author” box at the end of each post. These are used so that the author can tell his readers something about himself. It is really important for any blog as it tells the readers about you, especially the ones who are visiting your site for the first time.

If you are a blogger and want to know how to add it to your blog, follow some simple steps mentioned below and you will have an author information box in no time.

First of all, go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Users. Click on you username and add you bio and all the details. Once you are done, click on Update Profile.

This part can be a bit tricky. Open single.php from your theme editor and copy it to some HTMl editor like Notepad or any other editor. Every theme has different coding so locate the following code.

And place the following code before it.

About

Actually you can place it anywhere you want “About the Author” box to come in the post. For example, I am using the author box above the social media buttons at the bottom of the post.

Once you have pasted the code in the correct place, click Update.

Now the next part is styling the author box to match your theme. Open you style.css and paste the following code anywhere you want to. Just change the colors which match your blog theme.

#authorbox {background:#f9f9f9; border:1px solid #dddddd; width:560px; margin:0 auto; margin-bottom:0px; overflow:hidden; padding:5px;}

#authorbox h4 {font-size:16px; color:#3D81EE; margin:0; padding:0;}

.authortext {font-size:13px; padding-left:100px;}

#authorbox img {margin:0; padding:0px; float:left; border:2px solid #000000;}

#authorbox p {color:#000000; margin:0; padding:0px;}

#authorbox h4 > a {text-decoration:none;}

#authorbox a {font-weight:bold;}

Click Update and you are done.

Note: If you don’t know coding, make sure you make a backup of the specific theme files before making changes. So you can revert back if something goes wrong with the coding.

It should looks something like this:

Note: To add your picture, just go to Gravatar, make an account and upload the picture. It will show the picture on any blog you comment or post. But make sure you register with the same email address which you are using to comment or post on other blogs.

Manage Blog Comments in WordPress from Desktop

Hammad — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:09:48 +0000

WordPress is one of the best open-source blogging platforms on the internet with support for many plugins and themes. Worpdress developers are still working on new applications which can help people manage their blog from their desktop.

Comment moderation is a very difficult task which can waste a lot of time. We found a great tool, Wp Comments Notifier, which can help you moderate comments from your desktop. Wp Comments Notifier is written in QT/C++ which alerts you when a comment has been posted on your blog. It displays an icon in the system tray whenever a comment is received on your blog and allows you to manage/reply/edit your comments directly from your desktop.

This is an excellent application which can really help you improve comment moderation on your blog. There is no need of staying logged in your wp-admin or inbox to get new comments alert.

Download Wp Comments Notifier

Via

WordPress Applications for Android 1.0

Hammad — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:22:29 +0000

WordPress can now be enjoyed directly from your Android phones because a dedicated WordPress App has been released for Android owners. This applicaition will not only allow you to configure and manage multiple blogs but also give you the ability to moderate and reply to comments.

Other Features include:

Allows users to create, and edit posts, categories, tags and photos
Create and Edit Pages
Shows notifications for newly received comments in Android notification bar

Download WordPress For Android 1.0 HERE

via – TechCityInc

WordPress 2.8.1 Final Released

Hammad — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:59:39 +0000

Just one month after the released of Wordpres 2.8, WordPress Team has released another update to the most widely used blogging platform in which they fixed many crucial bugs and security issues.

Changes in WordPress 2.8.1:

Translation of role names fixed.
wp_page_menu() defaults to sorting by the user specified menu order rather than the page title.
The automatic upgrade no longer accidentally deletes files when cleaning up from a failed upgrade.
Dashboard memory usage is reduced.
Styling glitch in the plugin editor fixed.
Switched back to curl as the default transport.
RTL layout fixes.

For the complete changelog, click here.

Download WordPress 2.8.1

Studio 3 Networks taking online videos to a next level

Umar — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:01:25 +0000

Studio 3 Networks is the premium entertainment joint venture formed by Viacom Inc. They have recenly announced that will be providing consumers with access to great films and original entertainment programming on televison, along with on-demand access via broadband.

This service will offer over 15,000 films and televesion shows across multiple platforms. The next generation entertainment service is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2009 but online subscribers will be able to get their hands on the expected web launch in May.

“With epix, we are creating an entirely new category of entertainment service for consumers that is unlike anything that currently exists,” said Mark Greenberg, President of Studio 3 Networks. “epix is the first brand to hold exclusive exhibition rights to movie content that can be delivered anywhere, anytime. The name epix embodies the depth and breadth of entertainment content this brand will deliver and also captures the uniquely personal way that consumers will be interacting with great Hollywood movie content and original programming.”

What’s great about this service is the most unique and compelling features provided on demand and online will be access to directors’ script notes, outtakes, auditions and other unique extras including trivia and games which will give consumers unfettered access to behind the scenes development of these films.

Subscription prices have yet to be announced.

Track WordPress Visitors in Real Time

Umar — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:14:37 +0000

If you use WordPress and looking for a plugin which can help you monitor your blog traffic in Real Time then you must try Wussup.

Wassup is a WordPress Plugin that allows you to track your blog visitors in real time. You can view current visitors online and visitors details where you can know almost everything your users are doing on your blog. It really comes in handy if you want to work on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The aim of WassUp is the knowledge of what your visitors do when they surf your blog.

To install Wussup

Uncompress the file with your preferred unzip/untar program or use the command line: tar xzvf wassup.tar.gz
Copy the directory wassup in your plugins directory at your wordpress blog (/wp-content/plugins)
Activate the WassUp WordPress plugin at your Plugins admin page

WassUp shows a lot of data from who is visiting your blog like:

ip / hostname
referer
spider
search engines used
keywords
SERP (search engine result page)
operating system / language / browser
pages viewed (chronologically and per user session)
complete user agent
name of user logged in
name of comment’s author
top ten charts with aggregate data (top queries, requests, os, browsers)

Keep in mind that this plugin makes heavy use of your WordPress MySQL database so make sure to delete records or set them to autodelete through the options.

Discover valuable generic domain names with Firefox Domain Lookup

Umar — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:47:26 +0000

Being a webmaster it’s important for me to keep an eye on some of the best domain names that are available out there. I’ve found a very interesting Firefox add on today that speeds up this process of searching domain names a bit while I’m working on the internet. It does not automate the whole process but provides enough automatism to be a great asset for every webmaster or domain hunter.

Domain Lookup helps you discover valuable generic domain names while surfing the web. All you need to do is select the text you wish to check and hit the shortcut key. Domain Lookup will check the availability of the domain at your favorite registrar.

Domain Lookup supprts many of the world’s top doman registrars like

123reg
1and1.com
Afternic
Aplus.net
ApolloHosting
Aruba.IT
BlueHost
Daily.co.uk
directNIC
DomainTools (Search)
DomainTools (WhoIs)
Domain.com
DomainDiscount24.net
DomainDiscover
DomainSite.com
Dotster
DreamHost
Dynadot
Easily
Easyspace
eNom
EstDomains.com
Estibot
Fabulous.com
FabulousDomains.com
Gandi
GKG.net
GoDaddy
HeartInternet
HostMonster
HostRocket.com
HostWay.com
iPower
iPowerWeb
Joker.com
JumpLine
Lycos UK
Melbourne IT
Moniker
MyDomain.com
Name.com
NameCheap
Name Scout
NamesDirect.com
NameSecure.com
Net Benefit
Net Firms
Network Solutions
OVH.com
PlanetDomain.com
Register.com
Sedo Spain
Sedo.co.uk
Sedo.com
Sedo.de
Sedo.fr
UK2
UKreg
United Domains
Verio
WebsiteSource
Yahoo! Small Business

You can set your preferred registrar on the preferences panel, under Firefox’s Tools > Addons menu.

It is a Fantastic extension and works really well with FF beta 3. No bugs to report just yet. Get it NOW

Preview website links before clicking on them with Interclue 1.5.7

Umar — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:01:35 +0000

There are so many websites out there where people just want visitors to come on their website so that they can get better ranking. A very few of them provide quality content. If you’re sick of clicking such websites you might need this plugin . Interclue is the hyperlink multitool that warns you about dead links, Malware and Phishing sites. That means it will let you preview the link before clicking on it.

Interclue is easy to use,smooth and really fast. Key features include

Easy to Use
Fast and Reliable
Gives page screenshot
Summary of the link preview
Bookmarking
Stats and Metadata
Files size and date in the link

The latest version on Interclue version 1.5.7 has been released and it’s compatible with Firefox 1.5 and so on. Click HERE to get this plugin

WordPress Version 2.7 New Look – Images and Features

Umar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:39:41 +0000

The new version of WordPress is all set to be released next month “10th of November”. Version 2.7 offers Quick Post feature that will allow you to write a post from your dashboard instead of going to “Write post” page which seems pretty much useless. The only feature I was anticipating of was the “Blog Stats” and seems like we’re going to enjoy this feature in the upcoming version. WordPress is already offering this feature at WordPress.com and it seems really useful.

Major new features include

New admin UI based
New expandable edit post page that allows dragging and dropping of meta boxes
Hide columns on the content index pages
Keyboard hot keys for managing comments
Sticky Posts
Automatic upgrade of WordPress
Remove old/unused code
One-click plugin installation
Reply to comments from admin
Frame-like method for moderating ping/trackbacks

Take a look at how the new WordPress will look in future

DashBoard

Post

Manage

I guess I’ll finally get rid of upgrading my WordPress. I hate it! I’m still using version 2.6.2 =) but I guess that ain’t gona happen no more!