Review on Revolution Wordpress Theme

As I was planning the new look for my blog, I had decided I really liked the look and features of the magazine style blog layouts. So I did some research on what was available.

I played around with a free theme Zin Mag for a day or 2 and while it had the magazine look and feel I was looking for it still didnt have the features I was looking for.

I then started looking at 2 premium (paid) themes, One Theme and Revolution.

Ultimately I went with Brian Garners Revolution. I went ahead and purchased the theme even though Brian had just announced that as of November 1st, Revolution will be Open Source.

I must say that so far I am loving the themes features and flexibility.

Revolution themes are great for those of us that what to use our wordpress blog as a CMS (content management system) and not have the typical look of a blog.

I did feel some customization was needed (and will be doing ongoing customization) and for the average to advanced wordpress user, this is not an issue. But for those new to wordpress, this may be a daunting task. My suggestion to you would be, wait until after Novemnber when Revolution will be available open source (free) under the GPL license. This way you can work with the theme ‘out of the box’ , maybe experiment with a couple different styles of the theme- then customize as you feel ready to take on the task.

I’m excited to see what is coming with Revolution going open source and the new themes to be released.

- Rhonda

Popularity: 34% [?]

Welcome back! Be sure to grab your free Social Networking Guide.
Your comments are always welcome- Rhonda Crosby

How to setup your own wordpress blog in 5 minutes

(Video tutorial coming soon.)

If you have Fantastico in your webhosting control panel you can set up wordpress in about 5 minutes. Cpanel hosting is fairly common and its very likely you have it.

1. Login to your hosting control panel. Typically you would login by typing /cpanel after your domain name such as www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel You will then be asked for your username and password. Be sure to check your hosting account documentation if needed.

2. Once you login, you’ll see several icons.

Look for the Fantastico icon that looks like this:

Click on the icon.

You’ll then be taken to the Fantastico installation wizard and a list of over 30 scripts available for installation will be listed on the left of this page. They are listed by category so you’ll want to look under the ‘Blogs’ catigory. Under blogs you should see Wordpress listed.

Click on Wordpress.

You should now be at the Wordpress installation page. WordPress will be displayed in the box to the right. Look for the link that says, ‘New Installation’ and click on it.

Next you’ll see a page that asks you several questions. Don’t let these scare you away though…it’s very easy.

Installation location

Install on domain : if you have just one domain on this hosting account you will only have one option here. If you are hosting multiple domains, choose the domain you want to install wordpress on from the drop down list.

Install in directory : Leave this field empty to install wordpress in the root directory of the domain . An example would if you want to access your blog by just going to www.yourdomain.com

If you want the blog in a seperate area (directory) of your domain you would provide the name of the directory here to create. An example would be if you want to access your blog by going to www.yourdomain.com/blog then you would enter blog in this field.

Admin access data

Administrator-username : Choose a username to access the admin area of your blog.

Password: Choose a password to access the admin area of your blog.

Base configuration- these are some basic setting for your blog, such as how the admin is displayed whether by using your full name or a nickname. Here you would setup the administrator email address, your site/blog name and description. Any of these can be changed in your blogs admin panel at any time after installation.

Admin nickname

Admin e-mail (your email address)

Site name
Description

E-mail account configuration
E-mail account username
E-mail account password
POP/SMTP server
POP/SMTP server port

Click on ‘Install Wordpress’ button.

That’s it! Your wordpress blog will be installed and you’ll see confirmation of this on the next page.

You’ll want to highlight , copy and paste the installation information displayed on the next page and save it somewhere to refer to later. This information includes login information to your wordpress admin area.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Intro To Blogging

What is a Blog?
They are a hot topic. Everyone seems to have one or they are talking about starting one. In fact, your reading one now.

In my virtual assistant business, I’ve been recommending my clients setup blogs in addition to their websites to enhance their marketing for a couple of years now. Recently, I’ve suggested they choose to setup and use a blog ‘instead’ of a typical ’static’ website and here’s why…

1. Blogs are simple to setup and inexpensive to maintain

2. By nature blogs are fresh in content so search engines love them

3. Blogs are very easily updated by you the user from a simple admin area. No HTML skills required. If you can type an email, you can post to your blog.

4. As blog themes, especially wordpress themes have gotten more sophisticated they can easily be used as a content management system (CMS) and won’t even have to ‘look’ like a typical blog.

I could go on and on about the benefits of blogs but the main point I want to get across is that blogs are now mainstream so you should start thinking seriously about blogging.

Blogs or webLogs are simply an online journal, organized in chronological order. Blogs have been around for years; mostly used for personal websites. Most normally focus on a single topic or theme and allow visitors to add comments, thus creating an interactive dialog between owner and visitors.

Until now, blogs have been its own little niche on the Internet. But more and more are using blogs. Businesses, small and large, are increasingly adding blogs to their marketing repertoire. Search Engines love them…peope love to read them. What does this mean to you? Increased Traffic and Sales!

Internet Marketers are branding themselves better, attracting a bigger following, building their web site traffic, increasing their sales and making more money online through the magic of RSS & Blogs.

Should you be a “Blogger”?

One word – YES! Blogs are a great way to really drive the Search Engines where you want them to go plus they generate a ton of traffic if you write well.

Recommended Blogging Resources:

Wordpress.com It’s free and hosted, simple to get started. You just signup, choose a template and your ready to go. Your blog is hosted by wordpress so you would not need hosting with this option. Good way to get started blogging in the beginning.

Wordpress Pro: The software is still free but it does need to be installed on a web hosting account. This way offers more flexibility and features than the hosted wordpress blog above does.

Wordpress Tutorials -Learn To Blog Today with Wordpress. Easy to follow, Comprehensive, beginner-and-advanced, non-geek-speak, audio/video tutorials to help you blog for fun & profit! I highly recommend it!

Happy Blogging,

Rhonda

Popularity: 18% [?]