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Keep WordPress Update :)

Why It’s Important To Keep WordPress Updated

In the early days of WordPress, the platform was considered insecure and unstable. Most companies did not want to place their business site on the platform. The stigma has slowly dwindled away with big corporations adopting the platform for a high end website. WordPress.org has a showcase of enterprise size companies who have designed sites on WordPress. The platform is powering sites such as the New York Times and the kings of rock n roll The Rolling Stones. There have been some scares this past year most notably the highly publicized XSS vulnerability that affected dozens of plugins, including Gravity Forms and Jetpack – and people started to worry again. The way to manage a WordPress site is to make sure all of the plugins, themes, and core files are up to date to the most stable version.

 

Let’s discuss best practices for site updates:

  • Why is it important to keep your site up-to-date
  • Best practices to keep the website updated to the most stable version
  • Which components need to be updated

 

Why It Is Crucial to Keep WordPress Updated

The obvious reason you should be updating the website is security. Each update patches bugs that have been newly discovered during the newest iteration of the platform. Hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities in a system and the goal of the update is to find these bugs before anybody else and squash them. A content management system (CMS) that powers more than 20% becomes a target for individuals to look for security holes. Whether these holes are found in themes, plugins, or core files, making sure the components are on the latest version provides a peace of mind. Customers we have interacted with in the past have had dozens of updates that need to be pushed out and when pushing out the updates the customer is assured the site is up to date and more secure. A good example to compare these updates with Windows update. You receive a little notification about updates that are required to be run in order to provide the highest possible security.

When we encounter a site, the first action item we perform is an audit on the back end of the site. If there are numerous updates that need to take place, the best plan is to clone the current site and perform these updates on a test server. We’ll discuss this in more detail in the next section. The point is make sure you have an updated site were all security holes are plugged and can prevent any damage to the website.

Updates aren’t just for security. More often than not an update will improve the performance of WordPress itself or of a plugin or theme. When WordPress releases an update performance to the site may improve. For example, there may be code within the platform that had been used in the past, but has been slowly useless and becomes obsolete. This allows the engine for the site to improve and run faster. Same goes for theme or plugin updates, performance can improve. Whether the author removed unnecessary code that slowed down the site or updated the code to run faster, the update will help increase the performance of the site. The faster the website, the more likely visitors will interact and engage with the content.

Lastly, updates can squash bugs that have lingered within a plugin, theme, or WordPress itself. These are potential bugs on the back end that gets cleaned up. Bug squashing is not a sexy task, but necessary to make sure the code is clean and the consumer does not experience any issues now and in the long run.

Best Practices To Keep WordPress Updated Completely

With the importance stressed in the previous section about keeping your site updated, we will provide some great steps in order to keep your site updated without any issues occurring. We will provide a high level overview of what we perform for our customers. To get the details of setting up a WordPress site and how to setup a stage website, you can read the article by Patrick Garman.

To begin, the best idea of working with a website is to have a copy of the website on a separate server, we call this a stage website. A stage website is an exact copy of the production website, but only accessible from the development team and the customer. The stage website acts as the development environment where code changes are made and components are updated to determine if anything breaks the site. The best aspect of having a staging environment is the ability to break anything and have no consequences. For example, if a plugin, theme, or core update is pending, you can test the update on the development site and make sure all components look good. On the other side, if an update is pending and pushed on the development site and components begin to break, chances are you know what happen and can resolve the issue almost immediately. The good news is the development server went down and not the main website. Having the development site helps prevent a fire alarm for all parties involved.

The staging site is a trick website developers have been using for quite some time. The practice provides developers and customers to test new feature changes on the stage site before the production (public facing) site see’s the changes. It ensures a smooth transition were all features are quality assured before seeing the light of day.

What Components Need To Be Updated?

As a WordPress website owner, you know how important it is to keep the website updated and ways to test updates when needed. Let’s discuss in more detail all of the components involved for updating. Starting with plugins. Plugins are defined by WordPress as a way to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. There are numerous types of plugins, everything from converting a regular WordPress site into an eCommerce site to adding a simple contact form. By keeping WordPress plugins updated, you ensure all components are working on the latest version and prevent most security vulnerabilities. Updating a plugin can help with enhancing the website’s speed. The developers who manage these plugins are continuously modifying and stripping unnecessary code from the plugin, which in turn will help increase site load speed. Same argument can be said about theme and WordPress updates. By being on the latest version, you ensure the site’s security and enhance the site’s speed.

Whether the updates be the plugins, website’s theme, or WordPress core files, having the site updated to the most stable version provides peace of mind. Keep the website up to date and always ensure you are the safest you can be with having the site updated.

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What Are WordPress Themes?

WordPress themes have been around since the first days of WordPress itself. Themes are what make a WordPress site look beautiful. The theme controls how your customers interact with the website. Themes are the design aspect, while plugins help provide additional features and functionality. In a previous blog we touched on what exactly WordPress plugins were and how you as a WordPress site owner can use plugins to add even more features. In this next blog post, we’ll discuss what themes are, how can you take advantage of preexisting themes, and what to look for when choosing a theme.

 

What Exactly Are Themes?

Think of WordPress themes as a template for a website. A WordPress theme comes equipped with numerous features, such as responsive design for mobile devices, designed to look amazing on retina displays, and a whole lot of robust goodies. There are numerous places a WordPress site owner can obtain themes. For starters, WordPress.org has its very own repository of free and premium themes. You are allowed to browse thousands of themes to see which type of design best fits your goals. Most of the themes on the repository offer a demo site to take the theme for a test drive. WordPress puts these themes through rigorous testing prior to the theme seeing the light of day on the repository. The team over at Automattic want to ensure all themes pass a specific checklist, before allowing the author to publish the theme on the WordPress.org site. Once the theme has been approved by Automattic, the template is added to the repository. There are two different types of themes for WordPress websites, free and premium. Both differ in terms of features and support. For example, free themes are standard templates that have minimal features. However, if your site is small and has between 10 – 15 pages, a free theme may be enough for your site. The premium themes come with a robust set of features. Including customized shortcodes, page builders, and custom functionality. Here’s an example of a premium theme named Avada, found on another WordPress repository ThemeForest.net. The Avada theme comes equipped with many features that a website owner can take advantage of. Such as a custom page builder for novice WordPress users and the ability to build an eCommerce store. Before purchasing a premium theme, it is bes tto perform some due diligence and read about what people are saying about the theme. Focus on the reviews, the comments users leave behind, and if the themes features meet all of your site requirements.

The Pros & Cons Of Preexisting Themes

Any type of web development for a website involves design. Each business wants a unique site that makes them stand out from the competition. When the term unique is used as a requirement, the developer understands time and costs will be much higher to accomplish the task. With WordPress, this notion is much different. Of course you can have a custom design within WordPress that meets your specific goals. The question is are you ready to spend more money that comes with custom design? Custom designs can be pricey and time consuming. Talk to professional designers and they can tell you how expensive custom sites can become. The good news is with WordPress there are options. As mentioned earlier, WordPress.org has a dedicated repository of themes. Some are free to download, while others are premium and can be bought for a price. When choosing a theme lots of money is saved and the design phase can be cut out. Design is a heavy part of any web project and saving money for small businesses is an aspect all owners can appreciate. There is a good news, bad news situation when using preexisting themes. The positive is you save time and money on a design with a standardize layout already predetermined. In addition, for most individuals who are building there own website, having a an established design allows the person to plugin content were needed. There will be a learning curve with any theme, but once the user has experience with the theme completing specific tasks will become more efficient. The negative aspect about purchasing a plug and play theme is the robustness. For example, a lot of themes from ThemeForest.net have many features the website may or may not use. Sure it is nice to have a drag and drop builder on the back end, but is this a feature the website owner really needs? Themes that are developed from third parties are wonderful, you have to make sure the theme is right for you and being supported on a regular basis. Lastly, make sure the theme works with the many iterations of the WordPress core system. There’s more we can discuss about the pros and cons of established themes. The goal is to provide you a basic understanding of how these themes work and what to look for when choosing a theme.

 

What To Look For When Choosing A WordPress Theme

I began to dive into what attributes to look for in the previous paragraph. Making sure a theme is continuously supported, the author who developed the theme responds in a timely manner, and the theme works with the latest versions of WordPress are good starting points. The more research you can perform on what individuals are saying who have purchased the theme, the more informed decision you can make when deciding on what theme to choose. We’ll stay at a high level with this post, you may have come across the term WordPress frameworks. One definition of a WordPress framework is a stand-alone base/starter theme that is intended either to be forked into another Theme. This basically means, the framework is a separate entity that works within a specific theme. There are numerous blog posts that can be read for this specific topic and we will cover it down the road. Here’s a standard checklist of what you want to look for when deciding to purchasing a theme.

 

  • The theme works with the latest version of WordPress and beyond.
  • The author is responsive to questions about the theme and may even have his own support forum
  • The theme has excellent reviews from previous buyers
  • All of the minimal features are programmed onto the theme ready to go out of the box
  • The author is reputable and a decent size portfolio of other WordPress Themes
  • Take the theme for a test drive by viewing the demo site (always my favorite part!)
  • The developer has worked within WordPress for quite some time

 

There is no perfect way of choosing a theme, but making an intelligent decision by using basic deduction skills can prevent headaches down the road. Most pre-designed themes can be modified by a WordPress developer should the occasion rise. Good luck when choosing a theme and if you have any questions, let’s chat in the comments section below.

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What Are WordPress Plugins?

You have a WordPress website and have heard about plugins, but are not quite sure what a plugin is. What exactly are WordPress plugins? Definition from WordPress.org, WordPress plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. Plugins range from adding a contact form to the website to implementing the functionality of converting a simple WordPress site into a powerhouse eCommerce store. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of WordPress plugins and how you can make sure you have the right plugins installed for your WordPress site.

WordPress Plugins – The Good

Plugins are wonderful components to add specific functionality to a WordPress site. For individuals who are not WordPress programmers, plugins are a way to add a component to the site without asking the developer to program. Think of it as an app being installed on an iPhone. Before installing any plugin, it is best to perform due diligence on the plugin and the author who developed the plugin. For example before downloading the plugin and installing the plugin onto the WordPress site, read the reviews that are left by actual users. You can see what customers who use the plugin are saying and if anybody is experiencing any issues with the plugin itself. We’ll provide an example for supportive purposes. You research and find the following plugin, Deprecation Checker. Here’s where you perform your due diligence. You’ll notice a couple of red flags with this plugin. First the plugin is outdated which is indicated by a banner at the top of the page. The banner reads, this plugin hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress. A superb way of informing users that this plugin is no longer being kept up and should refrain from using.

Second, you’ll notice the plugin is not compatible with WordPress 3.4 or higher. You never want to install a plugin that is not compatible with the most recent WordPress version. As of this writing the most current version of WordPress is 4.2.2. If a plugin is not up to date, the plugin can cause issues within your WordPress site. More on this subject in the next section. Overall this specific plugin is outdated and is not supported by the developer. The plugin should not be installed on a WordPress site and avoided at all cost. Let’s go over the con of plugins and why plugins separate WordPress from other platforms.

WordPress Plugins – The Bad

There are multiple ways of obtaining plugins. There are dedicated repositories for WordPress plugins that you can download for free such as WordPress.org/plugins or premium plugins from third party sites like ElegantThemes, Themeforest, and iThemes. Why are WordPress plugins bad? Let’s start with outdated plugins. Let’s say you download a free plugin and install it on your WordPress site. The plugin is used on a daily basis. Time goes on, the WordPress core gets updated as well as themes. Months pass by and the installed plugin has not been updated for quite some time. Even worse, the developer who made the plugin decides to no longer support the plugin, what is a small business to do in this instance? For starters, do not panic. The good news is most WordPress developers have the ability to comprehend the plugin code and take over the plugin to determine what can be salvaged. If a plugin is poorly coded then chances are you will have to deactivate, then uninstall the plugin, and hire a developer to program a new version of the plugin, which may be costly. The solution is to always download or purchase plugins from developers who plan to stick around for the long haul.

Plugins take up space on the web server the website is hosted on. Managing plugins is no small feat and having multiple plugins not in use can possibly slow down the website’s performance. One other aspect of having multiple plugins not in use can leave a security hole. If plugins are not updated when new releases come out and the plugin is not updated, this leaves a possible vulnerability that hackers can use to access the website. We discussed the importance of keeping plugins updated in another blog post.

Conclusion

WordPress plugins outweigh the good more than the bad. WordPress was able to separate themselves from other web platforms by including this unique feature. By allowing non-website individuals to install plugins without having to pay a developer a fee to program a new feature saves the business owner money. The goal is to make sure you perform due diligence when installing a plugin, making sure the plugin is constantly supported by the developer, and the plugin is keeping up with WordPress changes by staying compatible with the most recent instance of WordPress. Happy plugin hunting!

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Is WordPress Right For You?

You may have heard of WordPress and all of the recent issues the platform has experienced over the last several weeks. We are here to tell you that WordPress is right for you and will explain why this platform is still one of the best platforms a website owner can use. Let’s begin with the obvious – WordPress is not a perfect platform, heck what platform is perfect. WordPress suffered some recent hacks from nefarious individuals looking to collect sensitive data. WordPress may have flaws with bugs being discovered, but the platform as a whole is one of the most used and secure systems used within the web design industry. Yes you read that correctly, security is an aspect the WordPress community takes seriously. Without further ado let’s discuss the real reasons WordPress is the right website platform for you and your business.

WordPress System

There are two different WordPress systems that are available to the general public. WordPress.com is the free platform that hosts blogs and websites for free. The free platform is managed by the good folks over at Automattic and is a closed ecosystem that offers limited customization. The other instance of WordPress is an open-source software which is located on WordPress.org available for download. You can download the latest version of the WordPress open-source software and install the files on a web host such as Bluehost, HostGator, and others. The open-source WordPress system is one of the most used software that powers millions of websites around the web. If the software is good enough for companies like Vouge, Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, and the New York Post it’s a safe assumption that the platform is good enough for any business.

Manage WordPress Website

This section was actually covered in depth in another blog post, but the importance of proper WordPress management is so critical we thought we would reiterate the importance of WordPress management. Before we continue, we will be discussing the open source software version of WordPress going forward. WordPress itself is famous for its many aspects the system comes with. Everything from themes, plugins, and custom post types, the platform comes equipped with additional components to enhance the website. Once the open-source software is installed, you now have the access to the dashboard where you will be doing all of your content updates, design modifications, and adding plugins to enhance the functionality of the website. All these little nuances provide enhancements to the site and are aspects you must manage. Plugins, themes, and WordPress itself are constantly being updated which help keep the open-source software secure. Making sure all of these components are up-to-date and functioning properly is key to having a website secure and performing at an optimal level.

WordPress Dashboard
WordPress Dashboard

Why WordPress Is Right For You!

If we were unable to convince you of how secure and safe the platform is, lets discuss the security in more detail. The recent activity that caused a stir in the WordPress community was a vulnerability that left the WordPress instance open to attack. The discrepancy was found in the default twenty fifteen theme inside the genericons package. Once the vulnerability became public, the WordPress team got together and within a respectable amount of time delivered a patch to resolve the vulnerability. Here is a great example of how fast the community got together, put in place a solution, and was able to push out the update within a week. If this were to happen to a non WordPress site, chances are the website would have remained exposed without the webmaster or customer knowing. The community within WordPress are friendly and helpful individuals who assist when possible. You can visit the forum were lots of questions are answered about multiple issues. Security has and will get better over time.

Conclusion

There is no bullet proof firewall that will block intruders from accessing data on your website. However, there are ways to help slow down such attacks and having a proactive management approach is one of them. When working with customers, we ensure the WordPress instance is locked down with difficult passwords to guess, security protocols to prevent brute force entry, and other secure methods. Let’s chat in the comments section below about WordPress and perhaps you disagree with what has been proposed in the blog post. We’d love to hear from you!

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Why You Should Outsource WordPress Support

WordPress is a wonderful software lots of businesses are adopting for their website needs. The platform provides a built in content management system (CMS) that allows for simple updates to the website. Managing a WordPress website is certainly a full time job. As a business owner, the time and resources it takes to manage a website takes away from resources focusing on generating revenue. Here’s the real question for business owners, can you afford to give up revenue in order to maintain the site? WordPress support is an aspect most, if not all, businesses should be outsourcing to a WordPress management company. We’ll discuss three reasons why. Let’s begin!

Benefit Of Outsourcing WordPress Support

The concept of outsourcing is not new. A lot of large corporations are outsourcing customer service to provide round the world support. By delegating and outsourcing these tasks to other departments within the company free up other departments to focus on generating revenue for the company. What does this have to do with WordPress support? Simple, hiring a boutique WordPress management firm who specializes in proactively managing a customer’s website allows the business to focus on the business as a whole, while generating more revenue and growing the company. As a business owner you don’t have time to monitor all the fine details of the WordPress site and are better off focusing on running the business. The message is simple, delegate tasks to a professional while maintaining the day to day of the business.

What Comes With WordPress Support

Now the fun part begins. What exactly is a business owner getting with WordPress support? For starters, all of the WordPress related tasks are managed by a professional who is an expert in WordPress. Tasks that take more than an hour or more to accomplish can be delegated to the management company who can finish in half the time. Responsibilities include assuring the entire WordPress website is programmed with tight security. Website security has been a hot topic as of late with lots of websites having vulnerabilities exposed to the public. A WordPress expert can plug these holes up and stays up to date with the latest trends. All plugins and the WordPress database are updated to the most recent releases to ensure security holes are plugged. The main message is WordPress support provides peace of mind to the business owner knowing an expert WordPress team is monitoring all facets of the website.

What Type Of Support Is Right For You

As a business owner, you have a better understanding of the day to day operations and as the official webmaster of the website, plugin updates and posting new content is time consuming. There are a variety of support plans WordPress management boutiques can offer. Everything from updating plugins, themes, and the WordPress core database to securing the WordPress website, updating customer provided content, and making sure the web host is optimized. The plans each company provides can be tailored to a customer’s requirements. Determine the type of WordPress support you’ll need going forward and see how having a dedicated team can alleviate these daily responsibilities.

Conclusion

The message we want our readers to understand is how important it is for business owners to focus on generating revenue for the business. Give the keys to a WordPress support management company who can optimize and streamline the process of updating the website, while sales, accounting, marketing, and other departments focus on growing the business as a whole.

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Top 5 Changes To Make After WordPress Install

Since the humble beginnings of WordPress, the platform started out as a primary blogging system back in 2003. Fast forward 12 years later and the blogging platform has become a powerful content management system accounting for more than 60 million websites. I will let that sink in for a second. There are five important changes that a WordPress site owner should make once WordPress has been successfully installed.

#1 Change Permalink Structure

Unfortunately the minute you setup WordPress the URL structure for the website is defaulted to a not so search friendly structure. Head over to the Settings section on the admin side. From here, click on the Permalink option and the optimal choice is to use Post Name option. This provides the cleanest and most search optimized URL structure for the website.

#2 Modify Reading Settings

By default the reading settings are default the home page to the most recent blog entries. Like a lot of websites, a homepage is the initial page all visitors will land on when visiting a website. In addition, these settings provide the website owner the opportunity to display the business services on the home page and setup the blog page. Let’s take a journey over to the Reading option on the back end of the content management system and decide if you want your front page to show your latest posts or if you want to use a static page for the homepage. You can always modify later, so don’t feel pressure that this will be the only choice you have.

#3 Delete Unused Themes & Plugins

We have tweeted and posted about removing unused themes on numerous occasions on social media. Always delete unused themes and for that matter plugins as well. Leaving unused (i.e. not active) themes and plugins on a WordPress site can leave vulnerabilities for website owners. Many hackers have been known to attack WordPress sites who leave outdated or inactive themes and plugins. Once a hacker gets into your website, there is no telling what type of damage has been left behind or if a backdoor has been opened up for future attacks. Delete unused themes and plugins period.

#4 Install Anti Spam Plugin

Spam has run rampant on the internet on numerous comment fields and will continue to do so going forward. With spam bots and companies dedicated to filling out comment sections with non-targeted content, what is a website suppose to do? Simple, install a plugin that will prevent spammers from filling up a website’s comments section with junk. We strive to install plugins that are minimal in code and pack a lot of useful functionality. Anti Spam is a plugin recommended by numerous WordPress developers, us included, with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars and 356,000+ downloads on WordPress.org. The developer keeps the plugin up to date and we personally have used this plugin for many of our own customers. Highly recommended.

#5 Install Backup / Security Plugin

Backups of any data is highly recommended. A website’s data is no different. There are numerous services that provide backups and security for a WordPress site. However, there is one highly recommended plugin named VaultPress that provides backup and security on a WordPress site and is extremely simple to setup. The software works effortlessly inside the WordPress ecosystem and integrates within the WordPress platform. The plugin was developed by the guys and gals from Automattic who are responsible for WordPress itself. Backups and security are very important and we highly suggest implementing VaultPress or any of the other plugins in the WordPress repository. Keep data safe and secure the website.

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WordPress 4.1 Has Arrived With New Features

Let’s take a journey down memory lane and remember the good ole days of WordPress 1.x, 2.x, and 3.x. Let’s discuss WordPress 4.1 and what to expect. The platform has come a long way and today boys and girls the all new WordPress 4.1 has been pushed to the masses for updating. We’ll discuss the newest features for WordPress 4.1 release and how you can start using these features today. As always, before upgrading your WordPress database, please be sure to make a backup copy or install a plugin that will help create a backup. Better safe than sorry.

Twenty Fifteen Theme

2015-theme

The annual twenty fifteen theme shipped with WordPress 4.1 and comes equipped with a brand new design. Think of the theme in a 2 column format. The left column is the location of the static menu items, while all of the dynamic content is located in the right column. The menu comes equipped with minimal descriptions for users to read and have a better understanding of what to expect on the next web page. In addition, widgets and custom HTML code can be inserted in the left column. Only your creativity will limit you here. The right column of the theme will be where the dynamic content will live. With a somewhat infinite scrolling feature, content can be simultaneously loading while the user scrolls through the page. Big images will really take advantage of the theme. Notice how elegantly the large images appear on the theme and professions such as photography will take advantage of the theme’s large imagery display. The theme really breathes freshness into the ever changing annual theme produced by the WordPress team. We are looking forward to the customization’s designers will be making to the twenty fifteen theme. I’m sure a showcase will be displayed in the next couple of weeks.

Distraction Free Writing

dfw-screen-1024x614

From brain to keyboard is a process lots of bloggers implement when drafting a blog. WordPress 4.1 tweaked an already existing feature called Distraction-Free Writing mode. The icon appears in the upper right hand corner of the writing pane and below the Visual and Text tabs. The feature is a nice way of eliminating the noise surrounding the post and provides only the essential tools that are needed when composing a blog entry. Depending on one’s writing style, this may or may not be of use to all. Either way, the mode is welcomed and judging by the revisions to the mode I’m sure we will see more tweaks done the road.

These were some of the big feature updates that came with 4.1. We provided a bullet list of other featured items that include language translation, Vine embed codes, and plugin recommendations.

  • Choose a language – Right now, WordPress 4.1 is already translated into 44 languages, with more always in progress. You can switch to any translation under the General Settings.
  • Vine Embeds – Embedding videos from Vine is as simple as pasting a URL onto its own line in a post. See the full list of supported embeds.
  • Log Out Everywhere – If you’ve ever worried you forgot to sign out from a shared computer, you can now go to your profile and log out everywhere.
  • Plugin Recommendations – The plugin installer suggests plugins for you to try. Recommendations are based on the plugins you and other users have installed.

Have you updated your WordPress instance? Let us know in the comments section how it went!

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All New Twenty Fifteen Theme Has Arrived!

The holiday season has arrived and we are excited to share a WordPress holiday treat. The hardworking boys and girls over at WordPress announced the all new Twenty Fifteen WordPress theme on December 10th. The new theme comes with many features and ready for WordPress bloggers and web designers to fully utilize. The theme is a nice, modern design that comes equipped with Noto Sans and Noto Serif type faces, custom colors and headers, and numerous HTML elements. The familiar aspects of social media icons, a search bar, etc. are included for WordPress regulars. The theme is responsive ready, which is great for all mobile devices. The real fun will begin with custom irritations of the theme and how designers redesign the theme to their liking. We are looking forward to the showcase of themes once designers and developers get their hands on the theme.

Here are screen captures of the theme.

Twenty Fifteen Home Page

Twenty Fifteen Theme Home Page

A welcomed edition is the static navigation bar aligned to the left while all of the content remains to the right with an infinite-like scrolling feature. Scrolling to the bottom is possible, but if the settings of the theme are not adjusted users will continue to scroll and scroll and scroll some more. For websites with loads of content, plan on modifying the settings to scroll to a certain instance.

Twenty Fifteen About Us

Twenty Fifteen About Us Page

The About Us page is a simple design with the dummy text added for visual presentation. The navigation include a small description about the menu item, which adds to the design and functionality traits of the theme. The white space throughout the theme is truly eye pleasing and compliments the theme’s design.

Feel free to add your Twenty Fifteen theme when it is complete or any theme you designed to the comments section! We enjoy looking at a wonderfully designed WordPress website.

Take the theme for a spin: Twenty Fifteen Theme.

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Top 3 WordPress Freelancer Tools

Freelancers are highly aware that having the right tools to run a side business are critical for success. The right productivity apps will keep the individual organized and in tune with the business. That’s why we provide a list of 3 tools all freelancers can use and implement today.

1. Google Apps for Work
Google Apps for Work (formerly Google Apps for Business) is an exceptionable email, calendar, contacts, and collaboration system for freelancers. Email is as essential as the water and power in a business. Email will be the main communication for the freelancer. Contacting potential customers, working with other freelancers, and marketing purposes, will be the majority of email’s usage. Keeping your life in order with a calendar will be your new best friend. All meetings will be scheduled in your calendar and keep your schedule and projects in check. Google Apps for Business comes with a lot more features we couldn’t cover in this post. The big question is how much does this cost? You receive everything mentioned and other features for about $5 per month per user. Not too shabby.

2. Dropbox
If you have not heard of Dropbox, here is a summary. Dropbox is a file hosting server where users can store, share, and collaborate with others. How can freelancers use the service? There are numerous ways Dropbox can be used. For starters, all company documents can be placed in a dedicated folder. Documents such as non-disclosure agreements, documentation, company spreadsheets, just to name a few. Google Docs which is included in Google Apps for Work is a solution for document storage. When working with customers collaboration and organization is key. Another use for Dropbox is creating a folder for a specific project and sharing the folder with all collaborators. This helps keep all project documents centralized. The service does offer a free account. The free account allocates 2GB of storage space and for $9.99 per month you will be bumped up to 1TB of storage. Who doesn’t want more digital space? Dropbox is a great service that can be used for numerous facets for a freelancer.

3. Freshbooks
Starting out as a freelancer requires you to wear numerous hats. Everything from human resources to the accountant of the business. This is were Freshbooks comes into play. Freshbooks is a jack of all trades software, the service provides accounting, a ticketing system, project time tracking, and automated invoice generation. A WordPress developer can use the service to setup automated monthly billing for customers and use the ticketing system for customers to input feature or website change requests. Freshbooks is a service we have used personally and is highly recommended. As most of the services on this list, Freshbooks offers a free account, but upgrading to the $19.99 per month account is worth every penny.

Being organized and having services work for the freelancer is truly the best method for running an efficient side business. These tools are certainly not the end all be all, but have helped us stay organized with all of our customers, maintain an easy work flow, and keep track of all incoming and outgoing payments. As a business ourselves, we know the importance of making sure all service components associated with the business help us in the short and long run.

We’d love to hear about other services freelancers or businesses have used! Fill up the comments below.

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4 Plugins All WordPress Sites Need Today

According to WordPress.org plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. These all range from numerous types of services. Everything from search engine optimization, custom contact forms, to social media sharing and basic website backups. These awesome add-ins can really pack a punch on a WordPress website. We’ll provide 4 must have plugins that all WordPress websites should include. Whether your site is just starting out or has been on the net for awhile, these plugins are sure to help.

#Yoast SEO

The Yoast SEO plugin has been around for quite some time. The plugin provides more than just optimizing title tags and descriptions for search engines. It easily allows webmasters to optimize entire websites for search engines. Services like snippet preview and page analysis that assist optimizing web pages, images titles, meta descriptions, and tons of optimization options in between. The plugin has been downloaded more than 13,000,000+ to this day. The plugin has grown to just more than a SEO optimizing tool, the plugin incorporates other services like video & local optimization as well as a premium version of the plugin. Get started with the free version of the plugin today!

#Contact Form 7

Contact forms are crucial for websites. How else would you collect leads on the web? There are a plethora of contact form plugins that compare to Contact Form 7. From experience working with the plugin, Contact Form 7 is a simple, clean, and functional contact form that integrates well with most WordPress themes. If you were on a WordPress theme recently, there is a solid chance that the form on the page was programmed with Contact Form 7. Speaking of the form, were there is forms, spam will follow. The great feature about about Contact Form 7 the plugin plays nice with Akismet, which is a comment spam prevention service. This will help in keeping spam at ease. Check out the plugin and let us know what you think.

#Shareaholic

Social media is one of the most prominent marketing channels of today. With blogs containing sharing options for the big social networks, every WordPress blog should include the option of sharing content. Not only does this plugin work with the biggest social media network, Facebook, the list includes social channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. This type of link juice will assist in your social media strategy and search engine optimization. Search engines view social signals as a way of ranking websites on the search engine result page. The more content the website’s audience shares, the higher probability the website will rank higher. Take the Shareaholic plugin for a test drive and let the content sharing begin!

#VaultPress

Every website needs to have a secure backup with security monitoring the website on a daily or real time basis. VaultPress is both. A daily or real time back up solution that provides website owner’s peace and comfort. The VaultPress plugin connects your website to VaultPress servers. Backups and security scans take advantage of WordPress and are optimized for WordPress-powered sites. The good news is if something were to happen to your WordPress website, VaultPress would have a clean backup copy. The process of restoring is easy as clicking the restore button. The other plugins mentioned in this post are free, VaultPress on the other hand is a premium plugin. An annual cost of $55 is well worth it for the plugin.

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