Beginner Level Articles

These articles are for beginner level WordPress users and mostly come from our WordPress Beginner’s Guide category

What, Why, and How-To’s of Creating a Site-Specific WordPress Plugin – If you don’t know what a site-specific WordPress plugin is, then you should read this article to find out why you should have one, especially if you plan on changing themes.

How to Create and Setup Google+ Brand Page for Your WordPress Site – See how you can create your own business brand page on Google+ and how it can help your WordPress site.

Checklist: 15 Things You MUST DO Before Changing WordPress Themes – As easy as it is to change WordPress themes, if you are a beginner you should make sure to read this checklist just in case.

Beginner’s Guide to Pasting Snippets from the Web into WordPress – If you are unsure of how to paste code into your theme’s function.php file then this tutorial will show you exactly how to do it.

How to use FTP to upload files to WordPress for Beginners – File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a fast and simple way to transfer files from your computer to your web hosting server. In this article we walk you through using FTP to upload a plugin to your WordPress site.

What is a WordCamp and Why You Should Attend? [Infographic] – WordCamps are an important part of the WordPress community so if you don’t know what they are and you have a WordPress blog, this article will explain everything to you.

Why You Need a CDN for your WordPress Blog? [Infographic] – A content delivery network, or CDN, can be amazingly helpful in speeding up your WordPress blog. This article explains what a CDN is and why you need one.

Why and How you should be using iFrames for Videos in WordPress? – As the web switches from using Flash video embeds to HTML5 we recommend that you think about doing the same for your WordPress blog and start using iFrames for your videos. This will ensure that as more and more people access your content on mobile devices, your videos will still be viewable.

What, Why, and How-To’s of Email Newsletter for your WordPress Blog – From basics to advanced tricks, this article covers everything you need to know about email newsletters for your WordPress blog.

How to Add a Gallery in WordPress with a Lightbox Effect – In this article we show you how to use the built in WordPress gallery feature as well as how to install a plugin that will allow users to open images in a lightbox rather than going to a separate page.

How to Add a PayPal Donate Button in WordPress – Since a lot of new bloggers use paypal donations to help cover the costs of their blogs, in this article we show you how to include and use the PayPal donate button on your WordPress site.

WordPress Tutorials and Tricks on WPBeginner

How to Track Site or Network-wide User Activity in WordPress – If you are managing a multi-author WordPress blog it can be hard to keep track of all the activity on your site. In this article we show you how you can use a plugin to help you with that.

Case Study: Behind the Scenes Look of List25 – Plugins and Hacks – As you may know, we recently launched a new blog called List25. Although it seems like a simple list site at first, in this article we show you all of the cool plugins and hacks that we have in the back-end.

How to Automatically Link Keywords with Affiliate Links in WordPress – Many of our users ask us how they can make money from affiliate links. In this article we show you the best way to monetize the affiliate links on your WordPress blog.

How to Remove the Password Reset / Change option from WordPress – Sometimes you just don’t want to leave the option open for blog authors to change their passwords. In this article we show you how to remove that feature from the WordPress admin panel.

How to Add Custom Items to Specific WordPress Menus – As awesome as WordPress menus are, here we show you how to make them even better by adding custom items to them.

Default WordPress Generated CSS Cheat Sheet for Beginners – For beginners and experienced WordPress users alike, this CSS cheat sheet will make it easier to customize your blog.

Prevent Email Spam with WordPress AntiSpamBot Function – Learn how to prevent email spam for your WordPress blog using one of WordPress’s built in functions.

How to Add Rotating Testimonials in WordPress – By following this tutorial we will show you how you can create a rotating testimonial area in your WordPress blog. It doesn’t have to be limited to testimonials though, as you can include quotes, fun facts, etc.

How to Add Google Search in a WordPress Site – As amazing as WordPress can be, its search function leaves something to be desired. In this tutorial we show you you how to include Google’s much more advanced search feature on your WordPress site.

How to Remove WordPress Dashboard Widgets – If you have ever found it necessary to customize your WordPress dashboard then you know how important it is to be able to remove widgets that you do not need. In this tutorial we show you how to do that.

How to Create a Grid Display of Post Thumbnails in WordPress Themes – If you have a media centric site that uses galleries or just any showcase type WordPress site, in this tutorial we show you the best way to create a grid layout for your thumbnails.

How to Create Additional Image Sizes in WordPress – In this tutorial we show you how to use WordPress core funtions to resize your images rather than third party scripts.

How to Grayscale Images in WordPress – In case you ever wondered how to automatically gray scale images when you upload them, in this tutorial we show you how to do that using PHP.

How to Change the Login Logo URL in WordPress – While the default WordPress logo url points to WordPress.org, if you have a custom login logo or page design then you can use this technique to make it point somewhere more relevant.

How to Get Facebook Insights for Your WordPress Site – If your WordPress site is integrated with Facebook, we will show you how you can take full advantage of what Facebook has to offer.

How to Add a Free LiveChat option in your WordPress Blog – Adding a live chat feature to your WordPress blog can be extremely helpful and in this tutorial we show you exactly how to do that.

How to Add the Official Twitter Follow Button in WordPress – In this article we explain what the Twitter follow button is and how you can use it on your WordPress site.

How to Add the Google +1 Button to your WordPress – Here we explain what the Google +1 button is, how it can help your WordPress blog, and how you can use it.

How to Remove Menu Item in WordPress Admin Panel – Here is a tutorial that will show you how to remove items from the WordPress admin panel in order to make it easier on your clients and not confuse them.

How to Add Facebook Send Button in WordPress – If you are not sure how to use the Facebook send button then this tutorial is for you. It will explain how you can effectively use this powerful feature on your WordPress blog.

Display Popular Posts by Day, Week, Month, and All Time in WordPress – This article shows you how to create a tabber that displays popular posts by day, week, month, and all time in your WordPress sidebar without editing a single line of code.

How to Display WordPress Post Thumbnails with Captions – Although most of you probably know how to use the feature images function in WordPress, here we show you how you can add captions to your thumbnails.

How to Change the WordPress Database Prefix to Improve Security – In order to increase the security of your WordPress site and help prevent SQL injection attacks, we show you how to change the prefix on your database to make it harder for hackers.

How to Increase the Maximum File Upload Size in WordPress – Depending on your host and the package you select you will have a maximum file upload limit specified in your WordPress admin panel. In this article we show you how you can increase this limit.

WordPress Custom Fields 101: Tips, Tricks, and Hacks – Everything from what a custom field is to how you can use them on your WordPress site is covered in this comprehensive tutorial.

Increase your WordPress Blog Performance by using Google App Engine – Here we show you how to use Google’s app engine as a CDN to speed up your WordPress Blog.

How to Add Custom Fields Automatically on Post Publish in WordPress – In this article we discuss how to add custom fields on post publish which can be very useful if you are a developer looking to push WordPress to the next level.

How to Display Ads Only to Search Engine Visitors in WordPress – Studies show that users coming to your site from search engines are far more likely to click on your ads. In this tutorial we show you how to display ads to these visitors only.

Best of Best WordPress Tutorials of 2011 on WPBeginner is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

1. AgentPress

2. WP Pro Real Estate 2

3. Templatic Real Estate Theme

4. Openhouse

5. Estate Theme

6. Elegant Estate

7. deLuxe

8. deCondo

9. Real Estate Gold

10. Quick Start Theme

11. Our Home Theme

12. Elegant Real Estate

13. Villa Grande

14. WP Pro Real Estate

15. Theme Forest Real Estate Theme

15+ Best Real Estate Themes for WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Standard Theme

Standard theme is recognized as one of the 8 best premium WordPress themes by Mashable, TheNextWeb called it the slickest WordPress theme ever, and it was also nominated as one of the 25 Best Commercial WordPress themes of 2010 by WPBeginner. With their recent update, Standard Theme now fully supports post formats.

Get 15% OFF if you use the coupon “WPBEGIN15“.

Tumblr Style Themes from WooThemes

WooThemes is one of the largest WordPress themes provider. They also happen to have the largest collection of tumblr-style WordPress themes along with their Tumblr2WP free service, which lets you transfer your Tumblr blog to WordPress.

Cinch

Crisp

Elefolio

Auld

Slanted

Retreat

You can purchase any of their themes for the price of $70 and take advantage of their Buy 1 Get 2 Free. So you can get three themes for the price of 1. Alternatively, you can join their theme club which allows you to access all of their 89 themes, support access to forums and tutorials, regular theme updates, and 2 new themes monthly.

Tumblr Style Themes from Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes is the famous WordPress theme provider known for their best prices ($39 for unlimited access to all of their themes – Total available themes 59). They have two beautiful tumblog style WordPress themes available.

LightBright

DailyNotes

Tumblr Style Themes from Themify

Nick La and the Themify team constantly produce beautifully designed WordPress themes. They have released two very well designed Tumblr style WordPress themes since hte launch of WordPress 3.1.

Wumblr

Minblr

You can use the coupon: “wpbeginner” to get a 20% discount on your purchase.

Tapestry

Tapestry is a child theme for the Genesis Framework. It is the first tumblr style theme by StudioPress with more to come.

Conversate

Conversate is a twitter-style microblogging WordPress theme with 5 color schemes based on the popular P2 theme by Automattic

CoPilot

CoPilot is a WordPress theme which takes advantage of the WooThemes Tumblog plugin. Publish quick posts from WordPress’s dashboard or your iPhone using the Express App. You can also just use the theme as a regular WordPress theme!

MyJourney

MyJourney is a theme created by Themefuse which not only is perfect for a personal blog or portfolio, but you can even have fun on the run by posting videos, photos, links and more.

MultimediaWP

MultimediaWP theme is ideal if your site needs to display different types of multimedia content such as audios, videos, images etc.

WP Notebook

WP Notebook acts like a conventional WordPress blog and a Tumblr-like website – all the while having the benefit of having complete ownership and control over your site content.

Fast Blog

Fast Blog is a WordPress theme with some extra tumblr-like features. It’s perfect for easy blogging and thanks to the WooTumblog plugin (included) you can add posts quickly even from a mobile phone. The theme comes with 12 color schemes and tons of other cool options.

Are you going to add Post Formats to your theme?

Microblog in WordPress with these 15+ Tumblr Style WordPress Themes is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Short and Simple

Because you are doing maintenance, some folks like to keep it short and simple. Confusing users is the last thing you want to do so short and simple works great for a lot of brands. One of the most popular example of Short & Simple is the Fail Whale for Twitter.

The problem with short and simple, specially in the fail whale case, is that it is not just the maintenance thing. The fail whale is also the 404 page which tends to get annoying for users. You want to keep your maintenance pages a bit different from your 404, so it doesn’t look like a 404 page rather looks like a maintenance page. Now, while twitter changes the heading text, it is not smart to use the same image for both 404 and maintenance.

Be Compassionate

Every time you do maintenance, you are inconveniencing your users. So being compassionate can keep the user from getting pissed off at you and leaving your service forever. Acknowledge that you know this is wrong, apologize for the issue, and then be compassionate with them. Twitter does a good job with It’s Cool, I can Chill image.

This twitter example is short and simple while still being compassionate to the users.

Humorous

Humor can really ease up inconvenience and keep the users entertained. So be creative and think of things that may relate to your site or your mascot. Let’s take a look at some of the examples that we think fit in this category:

Youtube

Youtube has a really neat graphic that brings in their logo with funny text. This is something that is really creative which also explains the situation along with being funny. (Image Source)

Reddit

This is another example of a funny maintenance page. However more information on it would be helpful.

Flickr

This is such a funny maintenance page that Flickr has. They have a link for updates to their blog. Because you will be doing it mainly for your blog, perhaps a link to your Twitter page would be helpful. Later in this post, we will show you better examples of how to do that.

Familiar Look and Feel

Sometimes sites try to make their pages too funny, and it looks entirely different from the actual site or product. It is crucial that you keep familiar look and feel to the maintenance page design, so your users know that they are at the right place. Below are some examples of sites that kept it simple and branded.

Grooveshark

This design keeps the look of their logo and navigation bar while still keeping it simple and humorous. Love the “Bear With Us” campaign. Also notice, they have their tweet updates embedded in the sidebar of the design. This is very smart because it is live updates, and it can certainly keep the users informed.

Stumbleupon

While StumbleUpon creates a very creative graphic, they still stick with the same look and feel along with the logo. People use StumbleUpon for time killer and find interesting content, so they are suggesting to “go outside and play for a while” which has humor aspect tied to it.

Countdown for Return

It always help when you let your users know when you will be coming back. Sometimes the site goes down for 1-2 hour, so having a countdown is very helpful. The plugin Maintenance Mode lets you do this easily. Some examples of creative designs:

(Image Source)

Progress and Updates

It is always important to keep engaging with your audience as your site is down. One of the ways to do that is by giving regular progress and updates. 37 Signals in the image below does a great job at doing that.

A good way of doing this would be through twitter updates. One way that we would improve this method is by adding Twitter Anywhere Live Tweet Box in it. So you are allowing your users to comment using your site. So you can actually engage even when your site is down.

Which one works for you?

Personally, I love the 37signals type idea as I suggested above with the Live Tweet box and even Facebook Comments. That would keep you engaged with your users which shows that you care for them even when you are experiencing downtime due to maintenance.

What’s your Pick? and Why?

Credit

While we were searching for Maintenance Pages, we could not find a good source for these images. Because these popular sites don’t go down as often, so it is hard to grab these images. If it wasn’t for Cameron Chapman’s article on Smashing Magazine, we would not be able to write this article.

Six Types of Maintenance Pages – Which one works for You? is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Frameworks

We saw some amazing things in the world of WordPress frameworks. So it is only fair that we start with them.

1. Genesis

The most powerhouse framework for WordPress that we have been using for our clients. We are also going to be using it for WPBeginner 2.0. This framework is the hottest thing in the market right now with plenty of child themes available as well.

2. Headway 2.0

Just watch the video, and you will love it. If you do decide to buy this framework use the coupon “wpbeginner” for 20% off.

3. Platform

A very cool drag and drop framework that was launched this year by the folks over at Pagelines.

Commercial Themes / Child-Themes

There were some amazing themes that were released, but again child themes is the future. So along with covering just themes, we will also be covering beautiful child themes for frameworks.

4. Woo Listing Theme

WooThemes released a very nice directory theme for WordPress. This is definitely going to be used in a lot of sites because it has a lot of potential.

5. Live Theme

Live Theme is a video-centric WordPress theme designed for live event broadcasting, community interaction, and all around awesomeness.

6. Standard Theme

7. Crystal Child Theme by StudioPress

8. Estate Theme

9. Blogfolio

10. Photo Art Gallery

11. Hand Crafted Professional WordPress Theme

12. Origami WordPress Theme

13. Themology WordPress Theme

14. Magnifolio WordPress Theme

15. WP Answers

16. Fler WordPress Theme

17. Endeavor Genesis Child Theme

18. Anthology WordPress Theme

19. FolioStudio WordPress Theme

20. FlipBlog WordPress Theme

21. Simplic WordPress Theme

22. Crisp WordPress Theme

23. Chapters WordPress Theme

24. The Developer WordPress Theme

25. Showtime WordPress Theme

Now these are just some of the ones that we like. If we decide to list all the awesome themes that were released in 2010, it would take forever to load this page. So it is best that we give you few awesome sources to look:

StudioPress
WooThemes
iThemes
Themeforest
Pliable Press
Themify

Happy New Years

25 Best Commercial WordPress Themes of 2010 is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Beginner Level Articles

These articles are for Beginner Level WordPress users pulled mostly from our WordPress Beginners Guide Category.

Which Blogging Platform Should You Use? (Infographic) – This Infographic is a visual display of the poll results taken from Darren Rowse’s chart. See which blogging platform other users prefer.

Self-Hosted WordPress.org vs. Free WordPress.com [Infographic] – This infographic does a side by side comparison of the pros/cons of each. This should allow you to make the right decision for yourself.

Step by Step Guide to Installing a WordPress plugin – WordPress is awesome because there are tons of plugins available for users that makes everything easy for us. This article shows you how you can install a WordPress plugin in your site.

How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners – This tutorial goes in great details of setting up Google Analytics and Installing it in WordPress. Everyone should be using this to track their website stats.

Step by Step Guide to Setup FeedBurner for WordPress – This article shows you how you can setup Feedburner to get analytics about your subscribers.

How to Make Sticky Posts in WordPress – WordPress has a feature of creating Sticky Posts, but many beginners do not know how to use it. This simple How to tutorial shows you how to create sticky posts in WordPress.

WordPress Tutorials and Tricks on WPBeginner

The list of articles below are the ones featured on WPBeginner in 2010 that we think are a MUST SEE.

Most Wanted Twitter Hacks and Plugins for WordPress – Features the most wanted Twitter hacks and plugins for WordPress.

How to Add Twitter @anywhere in WordPress – Very detailed writeup covering how to utilize the Twitter Anywhere Platform within WordPress.

Mega Collection of Social Media Icons for WordPress Bloggers – This showcase features some of the best FREE social media icons that designers and WordPress bloggers can use.

How to Add Custom Dashboard Widgets in WordPress – Adding Dashboard widgets is a common trend that we see with WordPress designers. It is something that people should do to add developer contact information and such. This tutorial shows you how you can do just that.

How to Insert Ads within your WordPress Post Content – Have you ever wondered, how people show ads after the first or second paragraph of their post? Well this trick will show you how you can do the same within your WordPress site.

How to Rewrite Guest Author Names in WordPress with Custom Fields – This extremely useful trick is very helpful for blogs that feature one-time guest posters.

An Automated Way of taking Web Screenshots in WordPress – As a developer or even as a blogger, you might want to display external site images within your site. This article shows you how you can utilize a WordPress plugin to get live website screenshots that are unbranded.

How to Manage your Ads with OIO Publisher – This is a plugin overview of a commercial plugin known as OIO Publisher that we use on our site. This is one of the better ad management plugins for WordPress so far.

How to Show Conditional Tags for Page/Post Navigation in WordPress – Have you ever visited a site where they have the styling for post navigation links, but there are no links there? It looks quite ugly and it is distracting for the user. This article share how you can add a conditional tag for post/page navigation links to ensure the best styling for your blog design.

How to Add Facebook Like Button in WordPress – Ever since we added the Facebook Like button, it has made Facebook the second highest source of traffic to our site. This tutorial shows how you can add the FB like button as well.

How to use Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0 – This article contains a video and a transcript tutorial that shows you how to add and use Custom Post (Content) Types in WordPress.

25+ Extremely Useful Tricks for the WordPress Functions File – In your WordPress theme folder, there lays the most powerful theme file known as functions.php. As the name suggests, this file adds unique functions to your WordPress installation. This article shows some of the most useful tricks for the functions file.

How to Create a Separate Page Template for WordPress Blog Posts – Are you using WordPress as a CMS with a custom homepage, and you want to have a separate Blog page? Well this article is just for you because it shows how you can utilize page templates to create a separate page for blog posts.

Useful WordPress Configuration Tricks that You May Not Know – If functions.php is the most powerful file of WordPress themes, then wp-config.php is the most powerful file of the entire WordPress installation. This article shows some of the useful tricks for this file.

How WordPress Plugin Affect Your Site’s Load Time – While plugins are great, some add additional stuff to your site causing it to load slow. This editorial goes in detail on how to use all the plugins you want while still keep the load time to minimum.

How to Install and Setup W3 Total Cache for Beginners – This is by far the most powerful caching plugin for WordPress and every WordPress site should be using it. This article is a step by step guide on showing how to setup and install this powerhouse plugin that is being used on top sites like Mashable and others.

How to Style Each WordPress Posts Differently – Do you want to style each of your posts differently perhaps based on category, or based on authors, or comment count? Well this article goes into showing variety of ways you can style your posts in WordPress.

Creating a Custom Landing Page in WordPress with Impact Plugin – Are you using WordPress as a platform to run your affiliate marketing campaigns? Well Impact Page Builder lets you create custom landing pages within WordPress. Check out this tutorial on how to use this commercial plugin.

Making your WordPress Mobile Friendly with WPTouch Pro – In this new tech era where the mobile traffic is increasing, everyone should consider creating a mobile version of their website. WP Touch PRO, a WordPress plugin, makes this easy for everyone. See this article for the options that the plugin has to offer.

What, Whys, and How To’s of WordPress Post Formats in WordPress 3.1 – WordPress is coming with a new version 3.1 very soon. This new feature adds an additional layer of styling WordPress posts. Our article shows you exactly how you will be able to use this new feature.

How to Embed Actual Tweets in your WordPress Blog Posts – We are seeing an increase in bloggers quoting tweets, but most are going out of their way and spending way too much time in doing so. This article shows an easiest and the BEST way to quote tweets.

How to Expire Posts or Partial Post Content in WordPress – There are always times when you are running a time sensitive deal on your site that you want to expire. Often those posts live in a category like News or Contests, but there are times when you don’t want that. What if there was a way to get rid of the post entirely? What about just getting rid of part of the post content? Well this article will share two plugins that can let you expire posts or partial post content in WordPress.

How to Install and Setup WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast – WordPress SEO Plugin is by far the most complete and most powerful SEO plugin made for WordPress to this date. This article will show you how to install and setup WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast and utilize all the awesome features that comes built-in.

How to Create Full WordPress Backups with BackupBuddy – A detailed overview of how to use Backup Buddy WordPress plugin to create backups of your WordPress site.

How to Add Custom Content and Completely Manipulate your RSS Feeds – A very cool article that shows how to add custom content to your RSS feeds.

WordPress Tricks and Tutorials on Other Cool Sites

Extend WordPress with Custom Fields – A great editorial that shows how you can expand the power of WordPress by utilizing Custom Fields in numerous different ways.

How to Display WordPress Sidebar on other (Non-WP) Sites – A very cool trick that lets you take your WordPress sidebar on other non-WP sites.

Beginning WordPress Development – A Look at Common Features – This article shows some of the common features that everyone should know about if they are looking to develop for WordPress.

How to Customize the WordPress Admin Area – Very cool article that shows how you can customize the backend of WordPress for your clients.

Showcase of Blogs with Unique Post Designs – Brilliant showcase of blogs with unique blog post designs.

How to Setup URLs as Sentences in WordPress – Ryan Imel shows here a very cool way of creating WordPress urls as sentences.

Affiliate Links and SEO in WordPress – Very good editorial that covers how affiliate links in WordPress can affect your SEO, and how you should deal with it.

7 Reasons for Malfunctioning Plugins (and their fixes) – Often you may have plugins that do not work. Well this article by Yoast covers some of the basic fixes.

An Introduction to Split Testing in WordPress – A very cool guide that shows the basics of Split Testing Designs in WordPress.

WordPress Template Hierarchy Conditional Statements – An awesome guide that shows the template hierarchy of each WordPress template file.

Working with WordPress Shortcodes – Interesting read for any new designer or developer who is looking to learn a little more about WordPress shortcodes.

Custom Login / Register / Password Code – Very cool article that shows how to create a separate page with login, register, and forgot a password tabbed area.

Using YOURLs with WordPress – Otto has worked on this cool script called YOURLs that lets you create your own URL Shortner. Here is an article where he shows how you can use it with WordPress.

Presentations by Syed

Syed Balkhi, founder of WPBeginner has given a few presentations this year at WordCamps. Below are some of the ones that you may find helpful.

We hoped that you liked our “Best of Best WordPress Tutorials of 2010″ compilation. We will be putting out more compilation for Best free themes of 2010, and best commercial themes of 2010. Stay updated, and enjoy the read.

Best of Best WordPress Tutorials of 2010 is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Note: Please respect author’s Terms of Service when using these icons because if it weren’t for them, we would not have this amazing collection.

1. Vector Social Media Icons

2. Handy Icons

3. Cute Tweeters Icon Set

4. Web 2.0rigami

5. Extended Set of Social Icons

6. Social Media Mini Icon Pack

7. Social Icons Hand Drawn

8. The Leaves Fall

9. Web 2 Badges

10. Hand Drawn Doodle Icon Set

11. The Dellifeed Icon Set

12. The Polaroid Icon Set

13. Page Peel – Free Social Media Icon Set

14. Cheers – Free Social Media Icon Set

15. Social Post Stamps

16. FreeHand Color Stroked

17. Function Free Social Media Icon Bonus Pack

18. Sweet and Unique Twitter Badges and Buttons

19. Handycons

20. Social Media Icons Made of Wood

21. Socialize Icons

22. Circular Social Media Icons

23. Heart My Website Icons

24. Social Bookmark Iconset

24. Set of Social Icons No. 2

25. Web Social Icons

26. Loon Social Icons

27. Handycons 2

28. Social Glow Icon Set

29. Social Glow Icon Set

30. Cafe Icon Set

31. 53 Brand New Twitter Icons

32. Wood Social Networking Icons

33. Sketchy Social Bookmarking Icons

34. Pixel Perfect Social Media Icons

35. Glossy Social Media Icons

36. SocioLego Icons

37. Experimental Social Icons

38. Rivet Social Icon Set

39. Free Twitter Bird Icon Set

40. It’s Twitter Time Icon Set

41. Nurture Icon Set

42. Plechi’s Social Media Icon Set

43. Stitch Styled Social Media Icons Set

44. 3D Social Media Icons Set

45. Birdies Icon Set

46. Birdies Icon Set

47. Sleek Tabbed Social Icons

48. PC Social Media Icons

49. Panda Social Media Icons

50. Panda Social Media Icons

51. Stickynote Social Media Icons

52. Curly Vector Social Icons

53. Jeans Social Media Icons

54. Black and White Social Media Icons

55. Social Network Icon Pack – KomodoMedia

Mega Collection of The Best Free Social Media Icons for Bloggers and Designers is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

Pre-WordPress

The articles in this category are for those users who have not yet started with WordPress. The resources below will be a great help in terms of getting started.

Why use WordPress – This article will highlight some of the best features of WordPress.

Tips and Tools to Pick the Best Domain for Your Blog – When starting up, this article will be a good resource for beginners in terms of finding the right domain for their site.

Choosing the Best Web Host for Your Blog – This article lists few good WordPress web hosts as well as tell you what you need to look in a web host.

How to Install WordPress on Your Site – A simple tutorial that will guide you through the installation process.

Selecting a Perfect Theme for WordPress – A guide on how to pick the perfect theme.

Recommended Plugins for WordPress – Few recommended plugins that will enhance your WordPress experience.

Publishing Your Blog to the World – Once you have setup your blog, how will you get it out to the world.

15 Unconventional Uses of WordPress in Action – WordPress is not just a Blog. You can use it in many other ways as well.

WordPress Beginners

These articles are for new users who just started using WordPress.

How to Add a New Post and Utilize all features – This article will show you how to write a post, and some features that might be helpful.

How to Add Categories and Subcategories to WordPress – Another Admin Panel tutorial showing how to add categories and subcategories.

21 Most Useful Time Saving WordPress Shortcuts – Essential shortcuts that you must know in order to speed up your blogging process.

How to Remove Visual Editor mode in WordPress – This tutorial will show you how you can get rid of the visual editor mode in WordPress.

How to rename the Uncategorized Category – Every post that you write and did not associated a category with, goes in Uncategorized category, but you can change it to something more user friendly like “Other”.

How to Schedule your Posts in WordPress – Are you going away for a vacation? Pre-write your articles and use this feature to schedule them, so they can auto publish.

Ultimate Guide to Upgrade WordPress [Infograph] – Upgrading WordPress is essential for site security.

12 Vital Tips to Combat Comment Spam in WordPress – Use these tips and tools to your advantage and reduce SPAM.

How to Make a WordPress Database Backup – Keep backups to your site for security reasons.

18 Useful Tricks to Speed Up WordPress and Boost Site Performance – Simple things that you can do with your site that will increase site performance.

WordPress World Map – Since you have started using WordPress, you are now part of the community. Tag yourself.

13 Vital Tips and Hacks to Protect WordPress Admin Area

New Theme Designers

WordPress Theme Cheat Sheet for Beginners – Must know before you take any further steps into WordPress Theme development.

Installing WordPress on a Local Server – Testing online can be tedious sometimes because a lot of time is wasted in uploading. Installing a local server is fast, easy, and does not require internet connection.

Moving a WordPress Installation from a Local server to a Live Site – Once development is over, you may transfer the site from a local server to a live site.

Create a Custom Page in WordPress – One of the most essential tutorial for your theme developing process.

Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress – One of the most desired tutorial by new theme designers.

How to Create an Archives page in WordPress – Few useful snippets for your Archives Page.

10 Most Wanted Category Hacks and Plugins

15 Killer Hacks for WordPress that are Extremely Useful

Social Media Cheat Sheet for WordPress – Embedding Social Media is becoming almost a necessity in themes. Using these will save you from using plugins.

How to Add a Favicon to Your WordPress – Favicons are the identity of a website. If you are designing a theme for your own site, we suggest that you give your site a unique identity with a favicon.

Display Feedburner Subscriber Count as Text – When it comes to styling, feedburner chicklets are not the most fancy ones. Therefore this tutorial will show you how you can display the count as text and then style it to match your theme.

How to Exclude Pages from the Navigation Menu

How to Add a Custom Author Profile Page

How to Display Any Number of Posts in a WordPress Loop

WordPress Showcases

We made several showcases throughout the year which are worth looking.

21 Popular Brands that are using WordPress

14 Truly Artistic WordPress Header Designs

17 Popular Universities that are Using WordPress

23 Eco Friendly Sites that are Using WordPress

Best Practices of Contact Form-Page Designs

Best of Best WordPress 404 Error Page Designs

Best of Best WordPress Custom Login Page Designs

Top Notch WordPress Footer Designs

Top 10 Must Have iPhone Apps for Bloggers

Miscellaneous Tutorials

21 Great Plugins to Manage Multi-Author WordPress Blogs Efficiently – Very useful list of plugins if you are running a blog with multiple authors.

15 Plugins to Unleash the Power of jQuery and WordPress

Excellent Tutorials to Utilize the Power of WordPress and Facebook

Must See SEO Guide for WordPress Bloggers – In order to increase your search engine traffic, you must check out this article.

Create a Free Email Newsletter Service Using WordPress

If you recently joined us, these are some of the most important articles this blog published this year, and you should check it out.

Best WordPress Tutorials of 2009 is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

One of the things that many bloggers shy away from is giving their users an ability to contact the author. The reason why contact pages are important is because users can be very helpful in terms of getting feedback, new ideas, and suggestions. Also contact forms provide a way for your potential advertisers and clients to reach you therefore everyone should have a contact form or page. In this article we will be showcasing the collection of some of the best contact forms and pages implemented within WordPress as well as showing you how you can create your own contact form in WordPress.

Best Practices and Trends of Contact Forms in WordPress

Each designer has their own approach to their design. In here we will be highlighting some of the popular trends that you can follow, and some very unique contact pages for your inspiration. These forms and pages are well aligned, and most of all well incorporated within the site. If you know of a contact page design or a trend that is not in this list, then feel free to share it in the comments.

Maps and Address

Maps and Address trend is something that is getting very popular. Most businesses list their physical address on their contact page, but these designers have done an outstanding job in embedding the contact form and their address.

Hand-Drawn / Realistic Touch

Having a retro / sketch look in the design is not something new, but it is getting more and more popular. These contact forms follow this trend and they do a great job in it.

When words like hand-drawn and creativity comes up, Carsonified always seem to be there. This contact page design on their site is one of a kind design that is very unique and a true representation of creativity at work.

Notepad style designs are very common but Bert Timmermans did a stunning job on the contact form. It is one of the most complete and creative contact page that list the social media networks, website, other personal information as well as a well-aligned contact form all put together in the best possible way it could’ve been.

One of a unique design real life type design that got our attention was by Rustin Jessen. This fill in the blank type contact form is a great idea and not very hard to implement.

The following two designs shows a retro post card style in their contact form. This trend gives their contact form a real life touch.

Simple yet Elegant

You don’t really have to go out of your comfort zone to get a super creative contact page design. Some of us just are not the artist type. You can still make simple yet elegant contact forms like the ones below.

Well incorporated within the Design

Sometimes you are limited with what you can do with the contact form because of your design. In that case you need to be creative and try to find a work around, so you can have a good contact form that is well incorporated within the design.

How to Create a Contact Page in WordPress

One of the things that we have noticed is that a lot of WordPress bloggers do not have a contact form on their website because they do not know how to implement one using WordPress. Some users rely on a third party program to create a contact form outside their blog and then have that. But it does not have to be that way. There are plenty of great plugins available that lets you create your own contact form in WordPress. These plugins have SPAM protection built-in such as Captcha images, security questions and others.

There are many plugins that are available for you to create a contact form in WordPress. The plugins we recommend are:

• Gravity Forms
• Contact Form 7

You can download either one of these plugins and activate them. Each plugin has their own set of directions to follow, but they are all very easy to implement. If you need help implementing or configuring one of these plugins, you can contact us for help. You would have to start by creating a new page. If you want to create a custom page and follow one of the trends mentioned in this post, then you would have to look into creating a custom page in WordPress. But by simply having a contact form is enough if you want to keep things simple.

If you have any advices that you would like to share, or a great contact form that we might have missed then please feel free to post it in the comments.

Best Practices of Contact Form-Page Designs in WordPress is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.

There are so many things that you can customize in WordPress, but one of the things that does not get a lot of attention is custom login page designs. WordPress is being used as a membership site, or site where user registration is allowed. In those cases it is wise for businesses to brand the login page with their logo and other aspects to give it a unique touch that it deserves. In this article we will be showing you how you can create a custom login page design in WordPress as well as showcasing some of the best WordPress login page designs.

How to Create a Custom Login Page in WordPress

Download and install the plugin called Custom Admin Branding.

Browse the following directory to download Admin panel PSD template to guide you while designing :

/wp-content/plugins/custom-admin-branding/psd_image_templates/

Then upload your images in this folder or simply replace the current ones. Remember to make your header and footer images in the .png format while your other login images should be in .jpg format:

/wp-content/plugins/custom-admin-branding/images/

Once uploaded you are done.

Another plugin that does the same job is called BM Custom Login

For those users who are looking to avoid using the plugin then try this method shared by Michael from Problogdesign which is also a great substitute.

Showcase

We used BM Custom Login Group on Flickr as our source. If you create a custom login page using this method, then make sure that you upload your screenshot in that group.

Best of Best WordPress Custom Login Page Designs is a post from: WPBeginner which is not allowed to be copied on other sites.