Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

There really are not that many custom Thesis themes out there. Of course, they are also known as skins. For me, I like to use the custom CSS, the custom configuration file, and also Thesis OpenHook.

My first custom Thesis “skin” is more of a step by step tutorial. So, before I go into this tutorial, here is what the result SHOULD look like. Plugin installed for the navigation is WP-PageNavi. Layout includes an author’s box and a simple custom comment area.

(Right click on image to open larger screenshot preview)

This tutorial is a bit long, so I broke it into 6 parts. It really does not matter what order, but this was the order I thought would be best. You are welcome to adjust whatever you wish.

Here is the download link for the images included with this simple skin/ theme.

Since returning to roller skating as an adult three years ago, I’ve become a good skater. If you know anything about roller skating – not rollerblading – the thought of rolling on those eight wheels is scary. Skating is another discipline all in itself. To actually roller skate is a combination of skill and technique. I can proudly say that I’m working on mastering both. Gaining my level of ability did not come easy. It took huge levels of courage, commitment and confidence. These are the same qualities that contribute to my success as a blogger.

Courage
Roller skating as an adult is not for the faint of heart, especially after being off wheels for at least 10 years. The first day I returned to the skating rink, I looked out at the intimidating floor with two thoughts: 1) How do I begin? and 2) What if I fall? The only way to find out was to take off – literally. Not taking that first step at all would have been a bigger failure than taking the first step and hitting the floor.

Similar thoughts occurred to me when I decided to blog two years ago. It was just me and a blank screen with the following thoughts: 1) What am I supposed to write? and 2) How do I begin? Even today I sometimes sit and stare at the screen willing it to write the next post for me. It doesn’t happen. To begin, I just type a few random thoughts. From those thoughts I pick a topic and flow. It’s easier to start with a few simple thoughts than to try to write a thesis with no direction. But to not write at all is to fail.

Since failure is not an option for me, I always muster the courage to begin. My ventures in roller skating began with a few small steps while my blogging life began with a few simple thoughts. My commitment to both ventures makes moving forward much easier because I am determined to master the skills and techniques of skating while becoming one of the most well-known and wealthiest bloggers in the world.

Commitment
My determination to become an excellent skater gets me to the rink at least once a week, although twice a week is ideal. When I do finally get there, I practice current techniques and learn new moves. My commitment to skating not only makes me more comfortable on wheels and eager to want to learn more, it also makes me a better skater.

The same is true with blogging. My commitment to blogging keeps me posting at least once a week. My creativity also expands to new dimensions. I write in different styles; vary the length of blog posts; and attempt different topics. In addition, my writing and editing skills have improved greatly as a result of my consistency.

Consistency and practice are proof of my commitment to roller skating and blogging. Not only does my skill level increase, my confidence level also gets a boost.

Confidence
Courage and commitment give me the confidence to do things I never thought I could or would do. I find myself almost speed skating around the rink and looking forward to learning new tricks on wheels. That sounds insane – and it is – but it’s such a thrill to be able to skate around the entire rink in less than a minute and do some of the tricks I only admired a few years ago. And, skaters who have been skating for years are asking me to show them moves. My skate style is all my own, and no one can do what I do the way I do it. I have learned a lot these past few years, but I’m not done yet. There is still a lot more to learn, and I’m going to get it.

My blogging confidence allows me to produce more posts in a shorter period of time. I’m also submitting guest posts to other blog sites. My authentic voice and originality creates a personal connection between my readers and me, which keeps them coming back. I am also on a mission to write topics that will incite controversy, invite criticism and hopefully ignite discussions for better understanding.

As I was wrapping up this story, I received an e-mail that read, “Action can kill any fear and replace it with confidence.” This pretty much summed up everything for me. Courage, commitment, and confidence are the three C’s bloggers can learn from roller skaters. Just know that with any venture you undertake, it takes courage to get going, commitment to keep going and confidence to keep growing.

Sixty plugins? What!?! Yes, I have heard some people say they use nearly sixty plugins for their website. And you know what – their site is slow!

Do you really need that many plugins?

NO.

A lot of self-hosted WordPress users are plugin happy for many reasons. Some include:

1. This plugin does this, but this other plugin does that, so I use both.
2. The plugin seems cool.
3. I am not sure how to implement code snippets to my theme’s functions.php file to avoid using a plugin

What you do not know is that the plugins that use database resources can hurt you. Most webhosts allocate 25 processes per hour on data usage. If you are using more, your site might be down – unless you have your own dedicated server.

Some of these plugins, even though they seem really convenient are not needed. Some, you can turn off and turn on only when you need them. So, if you are wondering how to speed up your site, here are a few questions to consider when finally putting your site on a plugin diet:

• Do you REALLY need it?
• Is there a better plugin that does all of it? (You need to carefully look for alternative suggestions)
• If given clear directions, can you copy and paste a simple code snippet into your functions.php of your theme to replace the use of a plugin?
• Can you replace the use of a plugin by some other means? (example: HTML, CSS. PHP)
• AGAIN: Do you REALLY need it?

Of course, if you are not sure, you can always ask. Some people might charge a little (there may be some in the WordPress Support Forum that might do it for free), but it is worth it to know what you should do with your site, rather than find out your website is down because your shared hosting account went over its allotment for data resources.

What other tips might you have for someone looking to go on a plugin diet?

I get a lot of invites every day to join this and that concerning communities for bloggers. I appreciate it and often join, but have no time to always participate. However, because I do see a lot of rewards in these communities, I will share them.

BlogEngage – This is a community and social bookmarking site all in one. As far as I know, the community is by invite only, but if you join the forum and request an invite, you will probably get one. The community is quite active and everyone has been friendly.

BloggerLuv – This is a fairly active and newer community. The founder is dedicated to having a friendly site where bloggers can interact. Some of the largest social networking just are not as focused toward bloggers in general, especially those who truly want to not just share their content, but also talk with other bloggers.

Seems so few, right? Actually there are more, but these totally focus on bloggers. You can find great communities on social bookmarking sites like Digg. When Blogrity, the simple social bookmark site for bloggers comes out of beta, there will be more for bloggers to do.

The great things about these communities are that there is a wealth of information always being shared, as well as eager people who actually want to connect. This is not like Twitter and Facebook where you might get people who might not be into the whole blogging concept. Beginner bloggers can learn a lot from those who have been in the community for a long time as well as share some of their newer ideals – a total win-win situation!

So this is where I come out and ask since you all may have some excellent suggestions: what are other great communities out there on the Internet that focus on allowing bloggers to connect?

So, you considered guest blogging on another site that was well known and could possibly bring you both some link love and some traffic. However, your site is still new and you are unsure if you might be welcomed in that community. While some of your worries might seem bad to you, they are not. They have simple solutions.

Guest blogging is the same as writing on your site. Most site owners will not allow you to write on their site unless you can either meet their requirements or show an aptitude for the subjects covered on the website.

You might think:

• My site design looks terrible.
• My content does not reflect where I want to be.
• Will I be able to handle the influx of visitors once I have started guest writing at other sites?
• Am I going to be taken seriously?

It is okay to go ahead and guest post at another site, but you really should consider re-branding your site to something that you are satisfied with before considering on posting elsewhere. It takes careful planning to make sure you have a fully functional site that reflects you. A site that looks unfinished makes visitors hesitant to come back even if you have made a lot of changes later on.

If you are not happy with your posts, dig for good information and write articles that you can present confidently to your site’s readers. If you are guest posting, you need to somehow show the same passion there as you have in your own site. Any less and not only will you fail to entice readers into other parts of your site, they will also not bother to read your guest article at the other site. Give is more than 100% and you will get back just as much, and sometimes even more.

As for being prepared to receive more visitors to your website because of your guest post, you should be able to handle visitors on your blog. A lot of webhosts give huge amounts of diskspace and bandwidth. You need to watch your database usages (resource usage) and make sure that you do not have too many plugins or components to bog down your site’s speed.

Some users can check their resource usage with their webhosting account. In cPanel, users can check server status. You might even email your webhost and ask them how you are doing on resources so you can avoid downtime. While you might even have unlimited bandwidth and diskspace, even on a Shared hosting account, you are not limited on database resource usage.

What other advise might you have for anyone considering or about to start guest posting?

I am excited to have been given the chance to interview Joost de Valk. I have enjoyed his site Yoast for his WordPress tips and SEO tips. In a way, he has been inspiration to not just myself, but as I have noticed, quite a lot of people.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did when I got my answers back from him.

ME: When did you start using WordPress? And, what interested you in order to use the CMS?

JOOST: First installed it in ’04 or ’05 I think, first serious go with it was when I created www.css3.info and my own blog, which was then at www.joostdevalk.nl. The first post on my own blog that remains is from April ’06, about Webalizer, the first post on css3.info (which I no longer run) was from june 13rd of the same year.

ME: For those looking to develop WordPress plugins, what are some pointers you have for people learning?

JOOST: Pick a plugin apart that does something you’d like to do, and start coding. Be sure to keep up to date with the latest stuff around wordpress plugin development, some great blogs for people interested in the topic are Planet Ozh, and WP Engineer and I’ll be doing some more posts on the topic myself soon. By the way, WP Engineer had a wonderful post recently dubbed Our WordPress Developer Toolbox, most of the stuff in there I use as well.

ME: Is there anything that you believe WordPress could not do versus other CMS like Drupal and Joomla?

JOOST: Yes, WordPress is pretty bad at looking that bad in the backend and having such an awful user interface Other than that: no.

ME: Do you have any WordPress-related projects or plugins you are currently working on that you would like to share?

JOOST: Loads I’m starting a new project called WPBasics.com soon, and working on some new and updated plugins, for example I’m working on a major update to my Google Analytics plugin and on an update to Simple Taxonomies, a plugin to make easier use of the custom taxonomies functionality that was added in WordPress 2.8 and further enhanced in 3.0.

ME: What inspired you to start blogging and making plugins to help other bloggers?

JOOST: I basically started writing plugins to scratch my own itch, still, today, I run more of my own plugins than anyone else’s, not because there’s nothing that good out there, but because I’m stubborn like that

ME: What do you think of the WordPress community versus other open source communities?  (Is it big? Is it friendlier/ helpful?)

JOOST: It’s big, friendly and helpful, and also sometimes a bit like high school, with the little riots and sudden friendships and fights. But in all, it’s a great community to be a part of. Sometimes I wish we weren’t as dependent on Automattic, even though they seem to play their role nicely, it would be good if we as a community became somewhat more democratic.

ME: What would you like to see WordPress improve upon in the future?

JOOST: Ugh, where to start I’d like to get rid of calling anything a blog that’s not a blog. WordPress is a CMS, and with 3.0 it’s about as full fledged as they come. Next to that… You know what: it doesn’t really matter. If I need something that’s not in core, I’ll write a plugin. So I fully support the core team to work on UI and UX stuff, to make it even easier for the end user.

Joost de Valk is a web developer and SEO, who writes and maintains dozens of WordPress plugins, but also non WordPress tools such as Quix, several SEO tools and other stuff. All are aimed at making the life’s of developers and SEO’s out there easier. Joost regulary speaks at conferences and consults with companies big and small on how to build and optimize their website. You can reach Joost through his blog or through twitter: @yoast.

Of course, you could jump into blogging, but you will find out after a time that you need a better direction. It might be that you decided to blog about anything and everything on your site, or you just are not happy with how your site has come. It could be that you might not have the traffic you want.

For the beginner blogger, any help is appreciated. In fact, more so now than in a couple years ago because of how blogging has become so popular.

Here are some tips for beginner bloggers:

1. Site Focus. You need to pick what you want to write about. Even if you have a specific niche, make sure to keep your focus to anything pertaining to it.
2. Your Content comes first before design. However, make sure your site is easy to navigate. If you are trying to direct people to special page, create an image or something unique that draws attention to that area. (this will help convert over your visitors.)
3. Blogging is not a chore. If you find yourself having problems with blogging, you might need to research to be able to continue writing. Do not be afraid to read other blogs and write about their topic. Of course, you should be using your own opinion and you should give some link credit back.
4. Be prepared to return comments. You like them, and others do too. If you receive a comment, try to return it. It is plain lazy to just tell your visitors – oh, I will comment if I feel like it. Although it is not a requirement, it is certainly an act of courtesy. Also, make sure to reply to comments. Your visitors may or may not agree with you, or they may provide some useful information. Your blog is somewhat like a forum so you do want to continue the conversation and keep people coming back.
5. Try learning new ways to promote and optimize your site. Social networking has come quite a way and it can be a great tool for bloggers to share their articles. As to optimizing sites, this will help your site be seen better by the search engines so when people are looking for specific information and it relates to what you write about, your article just might show up in those search results.
6. Do not be afraid that your blog fails the first time around. Just re-focus and try again.
7. Share valuable content. There are so many blog sites out there that say the same thing. Others might vary, but try to go in-depth and provide an informative and unique way to approach a subject.
8. Always ask for feedback. Never assume a handful of people is the majority in how effective your site is to your readers. Go outside your normal circles and ask people, even those who may have never been to your site on what they think about it. You might be surprised.

What other tips might you have for anyone who has started blogging or might be considering it?

Digg Digg has come quite a way. The plugin was created by Yong Mook Kim. The plugin is geared for allowing visitors to social bookmark or share the post on social network sites. Some of the sites include:

• BlogEngage
• Delicious
• Designbump
• Designfloat
• Digg
• Dzone
• Facebook Share / Like
• Google Buzz
• Polladium
• Post Comments
• Reddit
• Sphinn
• StumbleUpon
• TweetMeme
• The Web Blend
• Yahoo Buzz

I like the option to allow the social network icons to acts like a fixed background image, just like how Mashable’s posts are set up.

I do want to note that you should watch out in case Digg Digg’s code interferes with your site’s layout. I have had it happen quite a few times running it with the default settings. However, the great thing is that you can manually insert the individual social network buttons if you wish.

This is a plugin that does get updated quite frequently. It is understandable because API with social networks can change. However because the plugin is updated so frequently, it might be best to hold off a week before upgrading. It has been known to not be complete in past upgrades, so be cautious (you should be cautious in upgrading any plugins.)

Personally I use Digg Digg at the top of my posts and then a separate social bookmarking toward the end of my post. I am not quite sold on the Mashable sliding social bookmark feature. Applying this feature without a plugin is actually quite easy.

Do you use Digg Digg?