The web was abuzz last month when a study came out declaring that Pinterest now drives more traffic to blogs that Twitter.

I’ve read through the findings and it is still incredibly amazing to me. I mean, come on, Pinterest is like 6 months old and it’s sending more traffic to sites than Twitter?  Wow.

So, we got to thinking, what can we do to get more of our content pinned.

The way we saw it, the more we could entice people to pin our stuff, the more likely we were to bathe in all that glorious Pinterest traffic.

Sure, we’ve seen the ‘Pin It’ button that Pinterest has made available to site owners, but that is hardly a strong call to action, it is much more like a gentle reminder.  We wanted something that was more obvious, more in-your-face.

What we came up with is a WordPress Plug-in that overlays that ‘Pin It’ button on top of pictures in a post or page.  You can set it so that the button is always there, or so that when the image is moused-over, it darkens and the ‘Pin It’ and ‘Follow Me On Pinterest’ buttons appear.  Here is a screenshot of it in action on our new-ish grilling website:

I was really happy with the way this turned out.  It is pretty slick looking if I do say so myself, right?  But would it work?

A Pinterest-Friendly Test Site

To really put this to the test, we enlisted the help of my wife and her friend to run the plugin on their new mommy blog EnchantedMommy.com.  The types of pictures that do well on Pinterest are typically food, kid, wedding, or fashion related, and many of those topics are Mommy-blog-friendly.

We installed the plug-in and left the default settings where the button shows on every post and every picture.  There are ways to easily toggle it on/off for individual pictures, but we just let it show across the whole site.  To say that we’ve been surprised by the results would be an understatement.  The ladies now have two posts that have over 1000 pins, this chex mix post:

And this birthday cake post:

Before the plug-in was installed, the posts they were putting up would get just one or two pins and that was about it.  After the plug-in was installed, however, they really started to the pinning volume increase.  The great part about that is the snowball effect: the more pins they would get, the more people who would see it and repin it. Based on the behavior we’d seen before the plug-in was installed, we are pretty sure they wouldn’t have gotten these pins (and the thousands of visitors the pins drove to the site) without it.

Enjoy This Plug-in For Free & Help Us – Be a Beta Tester

We aren’t done yet, though! We need your help to polish this plug-in.  As you can imagine, a plug-in like this can be tricky.  If you can install it on your site and test it out, you’d help us immensely and you’d get to have the plug-in before anyone else.  Just submit your name, email, and site below and we’ll get back to you ASAP on how to get started.  Thanks & we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Want to be the First to Use This Pinterest Plug-In? is a post from: WPKube

WordPress is one of the most handy and practical content management systems (CMS) for a custom website or blog. However, non-programmers often find it confusing to go beyond a standard pattern and create something unique.

Fortunately, there are some techniques that allow anyone to customize design of a WordPress website or blog easily with few or no programming skills at all. Let’s have a closer look.

WordPress Themes

There are two types of WordPress themes available on the web:

• Free;
• Paid.

You can download thousands of free WordPress themes from special web resources. The main advantage of free WordPress themes is that they are pretty easy to install and you are not obliged to possess deep coding knowledge, few HTML skills will be enough.

Many blog owners cannot afford applying custom theme because they should pay for design, coding and implementation of some particular features into a theme. So let’s find out how it is possible to use ready design and apply it to your blog.

First of all, simply search free WordPress themes on Google or any other search engine. Once you have chosen and downloaded the desired theme, go to the dashboard, then click on Appearance — Themes. Upload your custom theme and activate it in the Manage Themes section.

OK, we’ve installed free wordpress theme but we’d like to make it look unique. Let’s see what we can do.

Widgets

Widgets can be useful to make your blog more interactive, searchable, improve navigation through blog pages and display valuable information to your audience. You will see the list widgets avaliable for your theme. Drag and drop desired widgets to relevant areas. Most blogs have a minimum set of the following widgets:

• recent comments;
• recent posts;
• search;
• calendar;
• archive.

You can add more widgets if you want, for example, Twitter or Flickr feed.

Menus

To customize blog menu go to Appearance/Menus section. It allows you to add as many blog pages as you want to your menu, as well as categories for your posts andcustom links to external pages.

Additional Settings

Some themes allow you to configure additional settings, for example, upload your own header and background image or set backround color, select color scheme and even use custom CSS, so you can have fully unique design of your blog.

Embedded Web Forms

With embedded web forms you can solve multiple problems related to collecting data from your blog visitors. Besides, a web form can become an eye-catching element of your WordPress blog design. It is better to use a web based service to create a form. Even if you have enough programming skills to write a form script yourself, a web form generator will save you much time and provide you with all possible per-designed form elements in one place, with no installation or downloading required.

Nowadays one of the most easy-to-use online services that allows to create fully professional web forms and online surveys is PHPForms.net. It is pretty easy to create a web form in a few mouse clicks by dragging and dropping desired form elements to form builder workspace. It also allows you to fit your forms into a WordPress theme and embed them easily in any page of your blog.

To make your form design comply with your WordPress theme, go to the Themes section within your PHPForms account and select an appropriate form theme or use a built-in theme constructor to create your own theme. You can even upload custom logo, bacground image or use custom CSS here. So, any form you create can be 100% consistent with any WordPress theme.

One of the most frequently used types of web forms is a contact form. Let’s see an example of how to embed a contact form in a WordPress blog in practice.

Once you have built your form, you should grab the generated code. Simply click on the «Get code» link on your form in the form list.

Supposing you want to create a «Contact us» page using which your blog visitors will send feedback to you. Go to your WordPress blog dashboard, find «Pages» item and select «Add New». First enter page name (e.g. Contact Us), then switch from visual to HTML editor and paste form code.

Almost done! Now you can publish your new contact page that looks awesome with embedded contact form.

How to Customize WordPress Blog Design? is a post from: WPKube

The popular WordPress resource site – WP Mods has been put up for sale on Flippa.

The reserve price is set at $60,000 and the listing itself will close in 4 days. All of the relevant stats and figures can be found on the Flippa listing.

WPMods was started by Kevin Muldoon in 2010 and it quickly became one of the best WordPress resource site on the web.

The site has an average of 105,000 pageviews and average revenue of $1300 per month. In the listening Kevin shared his plans for WP Mods and the reason for selling the site.

My original plan for 2012 was to develop WP Mods aggressively and release 2 or 3 WordPress designs for free in order to build up traffic and increase the subscriber list of WP Mods

I am still keen on doing this but in order for me to develop my new website I need capital (the domain I need for branding is around $10k alone, design could be double that). Time is also a big problem. I’m traveling South America this year and whilst I can manage working on the road, I just don’t have the time to commit to both projects. As such, I have decided that my new project is more suitable to how I want to make a living online and selling WPMods.com is the best way for me to get capital for it and free up my time to develop it.

What do you think of WP Mods sale so far? Is this a good buy? Please let us know in the comments below.

WPMods, An established WordPres Blog is up for Sale on Flippa is a post from: WPKube

Finding a job in an unstable economy is difficult whether you just graduated college or recently ended your long-term employment. Despite the obstacle that this task poses, job-seekers can improve their chances of success by utilizing as many resources as possible. Blogging is one particular strategy that allows you to show off your writing skills and creativity, while connecting with professionals and interested individuals throughout your prospective industry.

WordPress is a great platform for starting your professional blog because it features a user-friendly interface and share-friendly tools to make getting started easy for newbies and seasoned bloggers alike.

Starting Off on the Right Foot with a Professional Layout

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but let’s face it: your readers are going to make first impression judgments (either consciously or subconsciously) about your blog from the moment they first view the page. Since your goal for the blog is to exude a professional and respectable image, you’ll want to keep this in mind when choosing a layout.

According to Dainis Graveris of 1st Web Designer, less is always more when it comes to choosing a professional blog layout. Although certain blogs may call for a more eccentric look,– such as those for web designers and artists– this general rule will most likely apply to the process of choosing the right layout for your blog. The following list includes some of the most professional-looking layouts available on WordPress: Androida, Magazeen, TypeBased, Rusty Grunge, Elegan Grunge, CryBook, Max, WP-Premium, BlogTheme, SohoMag, and Hybrid News.

Network More Effectively by Connecting Visitors to Your Social Media Profiles

Your readers will certainly learn a lot about you through your blog posts alone, but taking full advantage of the many networking opportunities available can extend your outreach and encourage potential employers and colleagues to subsequently reach out to you. Although you can simply include a link to your profiles in your About the Author section, you can make the process of reaching out even easier for your readers by using social media plugins. These plugins allow your readers to view your many different social media profiles, while also making it easier to share your blogs on their own accounts.

According to Traffikd, some of the best WordPress social media plugins include Share This, Sociable, Antisocial, Gregarious, Notable, Digg This, Sphinnlt Button, and WP Super Cache. Each plugin option includes unique features and abilities that will range in value depending on your personal preference.

Remember Your Resume When Blogging

Most experts would agree that your resume and your online image should always be in harmony with one another. However, there are some things that you might include in your blog that may not be appropriate to place in your resume. Naturally, if you have an additional personal blog that is unrelated to your industry, it’s probably best to leave that out of your resume. Before you post anything to your professional blog, you will want to refer back to your resume. In fact, one of the best ways to gain inspiration about what to write for your blog is to consult your resume.

For example, say your resume references your experiences in China during a semester abroad while in college. You could probably find at least five blog posts to describe your time there and explain how it helped develop your character as both a professional and a person.

Perhaps you took a year off from college and you’re afraid this might hurt your appeal to employer. Your blog can be used as a way to explain yourself and reveal how you developed your professional skills during this period.

Blogging on WordPress is a fundamental component of an effective job searching strategy. By keeping the above tips in mind, you can maximize the potential of this platform and sharpen your image to let potential employers get to know you in a more intimate and appealing light.

How Your WordPress Blog can Bring Success to Your Job Hunt is a post from: WPKube

As it’s the weekend, maybe you have a little time to catch up on your reading. This post is part of a weekly series, Weekly Roundup. Feel free to read and enjoy some of these great posts I have found this week.

There have been some great tutorials and news from the WordPress community.

Here are some of the best articles I have read, shared, commented and retweeted on @wpkube.

WordPress Tutorial: The Proper Way to Upgrade to WordPress 3.3.2

Jim Jupiter shared a fantastic guide & video for upgrading to WordPress 3.3.2. If you have never upgraded your blog or had issues than this is the post you need to read.

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Get the Latest Launch Effect Release for Faster, Smoother Experience

No huge features to announce today, but we’re very happy to release the latest version of Launch Effect. We’ve done a number of things to make things work better including: Major speed improvements, Fixes for the Facebook Like/Send functionality, General code clean-up and consolidation.

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How To Subscribe And Read RSS Feeds

When you subscribe to a blog, online newspaper, journal or magazine, or Google Alerts, you have an option besides receiving email updates: you can use RSS feeds. Some people prefer to use RSS feeds to avoid clogging up their email inbox and be able to use an RSS reader to read articles.

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5 Things I Delete After Installing WordPress

It must speak volumes about WordPress as a product when I say that when I create a website I will 99.9% of the time use WordPress to run it with. In my eyes it makes so much more sense to use it instead of spending hours and hours editing a HTML site like I used to.

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Top 5 Reasons To Optimizing Your Blog for Mobile

One major change that needs to be embraced in the blogosphere right now is the need to start putting more effort into optimizing our blog for mobile users; the internet is experiencing a huge shift from traditional browsing to mobile browsing right now, and with all the new devices and tech gadgets being released every day it is only a matter of time before those who pay little attention to mobile are left behind.

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ManageWP Is Going Mobile with iOS!

There have been over 250 million iOS devices sold since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Pretty cool, right? But do you know what would be even better? ManageWP in the palm of your hand, on your favorite iOS device! And that got us thinking — why wouldn’t we want ManageWP to be available to our users at all times?

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CSS3 Button Generator WordPress Plugin: Max Buttons

Since CSS3 became widely supported, it has opened up a whole new world of CSS-based buttons that we can use in our web designs. You can now create the whole button in CSS with no images including things like complex gradients.

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Four Ways to Make Your WordPress Blog Faster

WordPress is an excellent blogging platform. Because of the number of features it offers, it is used by millions of bloggers across the world. WordPress today powers some of the most popular blogs and websites.

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10 Easy Fixes for your WordPress Blog

Even the smallest things that happen in WordPress can suddenly become huge problems—if you don’t know how to fix them. Here they are, some tiny, some big.

Weekly Roundup: The Best WordPress Resources from Around the Web is a post from: WPKube

Adding a donation button to your WordPress blog is really simple. You can use a Paypal button or other widgets to invite and allow readers to donate to your blog freely, rather than – or along with – ads that can bring income to your blog.

If you’re considering adding a donation button, take some time to think through your decision, asking yourself the following questions:

Does your blog support a non-profit?

If your blog supports a non-profit organization, whether it’s a local religious organization, a politically active organization, or even a local animal rescue group, then you should almost definitely put a donation button on your page. In fact, non-profits are the only ones who are technically allowed to put a Paypal “Donate” button on a WordPress blog. (Though there are other WordPress widgets for for-profit bloggers to use to ask for a donation.)

If your blog is for a non-profit, or if you’re fundraising for a non-profit through your blog, add that donation button. If not, ask yourself more questions to determine if asking for donations is right for you.

Do you have the right readership?

Unless your readership is very devoted to your blog, you’re probably not going to make much money from a donation button. You need to provide high-quality content and have readers who follow you consistently if you’re really going to make any money from a donation button, according to the famed ProBlogger blog.

Do you have enough readers?

Even if you have devoted readers, you need to have lots of them to make any money from a donation button. Traffic requirements for making money from donations are probably even higher than requirements for making money from AdSense and other forms of online income. If you don’t already have a large readership, you may want to hold off on adding that donation button until you get more regular readers.

Does your blog have other means of income?

Often times, blog readers are turned off on a blog that both runs advertisements and asks for donations. Using a donation button when you have other forms of income from your blog, particularly advertisements on your blog, can make you look money-hungry. Even if you’re up-front about being a professional blogger, your readers would normally prefer that you either ask for donations or put ads on your blog – not do both. While this isn’t the case 100% of the time, it’s crucial to think about reader perceptions before adding that donate button.

Does your blog already offer something for free?

On the other hand, if your blog offers something for free, like WordPress widgets or software you’ve developed, then a donate button is a great idea. In fact, with the right audience and approach, you might make more off of your free product asking for donations than you ever would by putting a price on the product you’ve developed. If you offer your readers something for free, you can probably safely use a donate button, even if you also use ads to generate income for your blog.

Can you give something back for a donation?

If you can offer your readers something in return for a donation, it’s only sort of a donation, but this is a model many non-profits use. Plenty of non-profit organizations will offer a free copy of a book or some other low-cost extra to people who donate any amount. Some bloggers also use a donation model that allows their readers to pay whatever they think a product or service is worth.

For instance, if you run a blog about finances, you might create a miniature ebook about some of the best credit card deals for travelers or for people with bad credit. Then, allow your readers to pay whatever they think your credit card ebook is worth in order to access it. If you’ve included solid information in the ebook and can get some good reviews for it, your readers may choose to donate more as time goes on.

Think through the donation button before just adding one in

Like all the other decisions you make regarding your monetized blog, it’s important that you really consider all the angles when it comes to adding a donation button to your blog. Adding a donation button at the wrong time or in the wrong way could turn readers off to your blog, which could lose you readers and set back your ultimate monetization plans. However, adding a donation button for the right reasons and in the right way could be an excellent way to monetize your blog or donate money to a not-for-profit you’d like to support.

Should You Add a Donation Button to Your WordPress Blog? is a post from: WPKube

WordPress has revolutionized the way websites are made and put the power of web design into the hands of anyone that would like it. Unfortunately, once an individual’s site is up and running, they are going to be at serious risk of having their hard work ruined by malicious attacks.

With over 8.5% of the world’s websites currently being run by WordPress, countless individuals have become exceedingly efficient at hacking into this platform, stealing private information, and potentially ruining one’s livelihood. If you have a WordPress website, take a few moments to protect your investment with these simple security tips.

Change Your Default Admin Account

Every WordPress page begins with ‘admin’ as the default account name. As intuitive as it may sound, many WordPress users leave this as their primary account name, and this means that unscrupulous individuals have already won half the battle. Once the admin username is guessed, hackers only have to run a quick dictionary attack on the password in order to have full access to the site. The moment that a WordPress page is made, the admin account name should either be edited immediately or deleted altogether in favor of a more secure name.

Move the wp-config.php File

If a hacker cannot even get into the login screen they are going to have a much more difficult time of gaining access to the owner’s side of the website. Much like the ‘admin’ account name, all WordPress websites come with a default wp-config.php suffix. This can be quickly and easily changed by moving this file up just one directory from the WordPress root database, dramatically increasing the security of the site.

Install Security Plugins

There are a wide range of security plugins for WordPress, but a few stick out from the pack in terms of utility and effectiveness. The majority of hackers will gain access to WordPress by running systemic, brute force attacks on the password or admin name. This can be stopped by installing the Login Lockdown plugin. Login Lockdown automatically records the IP addresses of any login attempts that fail. They will then ban the IP after a certain amount attempts. The default setting is for 3 tries in 5 minutes, but users have the freedom to change this to any number that they would like.

Secure WordPress is another unique plugin and it covers up many of the security risks inherent in the WordPress platform. It removes many of the errors on the login page as well as hides the version of the WordPress being used. It also adds an index.html to the directories, offering additional protection against backdoor attacks.

Update Regularly

The WordPress development team is exceedingly good at updating the platform the moment that they notice a security risk. While this is often merely a game of cat and mouse, ignoring to update WordPress is going to lead to an increased chance of a successful attack. Failing to update may also cause issues with other plugins and negatively impact their functionality.

Backup Your Data

No matter how diligent a WordPress user may be, a successful attack or catastrophic failure is always a serious possibility. In order for one of these ordeals to not permanently destroy a website, it is important to backup data at regular intervals. There is a long list of paid and free backup plugins that will allow one to pick and choose when to save and protect their information.

A successful WordPress site is going to take time and energy, and all of this work does not need to be destroyed in the case of a malicious attack. Everyone should take these few simple tips to heart in order to secure their website and protect their hard work.

Editor’s Note: I’d definitely suggest you to use the backup buddy plugin to backup your website.

>> Get the Backup Buddy Plugin

5 Simple Security Tips for WordPress Users is a post from: WPKube

It’s time to announce the lucky winners of the “The Ultimate WordPress Mega Bundle Giveaway” contest. It was the first big contest here at WPKube, with so much WordPress stuff to give away as prizes.

I’d like to thank all the awesome sponsors for giving away the best WordPress themes, plugins & products to the winners.

In this post, I’ll announce the 5 lucky winners.

The Lucky winners are:

• Laurent
• Chandra
• Cean
• Jason D.
• Kimberly M.

On behalf of the WordPress Kube community, I’d like to congratulate the winners of this giveaway. I would also like to thank Tom Ewer & lacmacs for helping me in promoting the contest. Please don’t feel bad if you didn’t win any prizes this time, because we’re coming up with some more giveaways.

Winners are requested to contact me through the contact form to collect the prizes.

Follow WordPress Kube on Twitter and Facebook.

Announcement: Winners of The Ultimate Mega Bundle Giveaway is a post from: WPKube