Very few will not agree that WordPress is the best blogging platform currently available on the web. With its multitude of features, you will be spoilt for choice regarding how to optimally use the content management system. One thing that makes WordPress quite infamous is its slow loading time and the tendency to create problem when it has too much data. But if there is a problem, there has to be a solution. For WordPress blogging, the solution is right in front of your eyes. It isn’t difficult or cumbersome if you make it a point to keep servicing the platform regularly. Many bloggers will tell you to compare WordPress blogging with an automobile and remind you to service the blogging platform like you regularly service your car. The comparison is pretty apt considering the fact that servicing increases the longevity of your site.

5 Steps on How to Maintain Your WordPress Blog

1. Regular Backups: There is so much that can happen to your blog if you do not keep regular backups. You will find many bloggers sharing their woes of how they lost a month’s data due to a malware or an external threat to the site all because they didn’t create backups of the blog. Make it a habit to regularly create backups as this is a must. WordPress experts suggest creating a backup at least once a week. You will find appropriate plugins for this purpose too.
2. Update WordPress Versions: The WordPress community keeps on releasing new versions of the blogging platform now and then. It is advisable to make it a point to regularly upgrade into such new versions. You may be thinking that every new version will not have much different to offer that is actually true. But by upgrading you will ensure that the security improves. With an old version, the risk to threats increases that is something you wouldn’t want.
3. Update Plugins and Delete Unwanted Ones: It doesn’t matter how many or which plugin you use. The fact remains that they need to be updated regularly so that they function well. When you start using WordPress, numerous plugins must have impressed you and you may have installed several plugins. But as time goes by, you realize that you don’t really need all of them. If you ever feel that a plugin is unnecessary, immediately delete that plugin. Please note that you have to ‘delete’ it and not ‘deactivate’ it.
4. Delete Spam: Make it a habit to check the spam folder and delete all spam. Do this at least once a week to control unwanted utilization of space. You could also install plugins to help delete spam, such as Akismet and Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin.
5.  Update Themes: If you have bought a premium theme for your blog, make it a point to update it regularly. Always be in touch with the theme developer and see that you update the theme as soon as the developer makes some change in the theme. This will once again ensure that your WordPress blog is free of external threats.

Content management systems have changed the way how websites are built and managed. Businesses have benefitted using CMSs as it allowed non-technical people to contribute content to a website without having any coding skills. Joomla and WordPress have been the two most popular content management systems in the world and there has always been a raging debate on which is the best. Both these CMS solutions are being used around the globe by hundreds of thousands of websites and have their own pros and cons when brought to a comparing table. Let us now take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of each of these content management systems.

WordPress

This is by far the most popular content management systems in the world having the largest market share among all CMS solutions in the world. Built in PHP it was primarily built as a blogging platform which also allows developers to build complete websites.

Strengths

• First and foremost it is the easiest content management system in the world which allows users to publish content and manage a website or blog with ease.

• It installs in no time and comes with a built editor within the admin area which allows developers to make all the customary changes to the website as is required

• There are nearly 1500+ free and premium themes and over 20000 plugins available in WordPress making it the most diverse content management system in the world. From a corporate website to a photo blog or e-zine all kinds of websites can be developed using WordPress.

Weaknesses

• Though WordPress can be used to build all kinds of websites it is primarily used only as a blogging platform. Building complex websites in WordPress is a painstaking task.

• Security in WordPress isn’t as strong as in Joomla and the websites fall easy prey to hackers and viruses especially when using free themes.

• The navigation structure of a WordPress website cannot easily be altered as in Joomla as the navigation is determined by the theme you choose and to change this you would need to alter the CSS.

Joomla

Right at the outset it was designed as a complete website management solution. It is built in PHP and used MySQL as its database. Once deployed this content management system can easily be extended with a wide array of extensions.

Strengths

• Joomla allows multiple users to edit the website at the same time making it ideal for businesses which offer many users to permission to edit the website.

• It can be used to a community or a network with a membership area, newsroom, forums, articles etc. as it manages all these complex tasks with ease.

• This content management system supports multi-lingual websites which allows businesses to have their website in multiple languages.

Weaknesses

• The learning curve is steep in Joomla compared to WordPress and the developer and user need to get acclimated to the admin and other features of the Joomla website.

• Joomla codes aren’t as search engine friendly as that of WordPress and you need to optimize a website to attract targeted traffic from the search engines.

• Joomla uses excess JavaScript and CSS to display pages which makes the website heavy and load slow on the web browser.

It is difficult to pass a judgment over which is the best CMS solution between WordPress and Joomla and purely depends upon the need of the business. If you are planning to develop a simple website with limited features and functionalities WordPress would be the perfect choice for you. In case of complex websites with large databases one should opt for Joomla.

Social media marketing has become one of the most important things for any website or blog. On the same note, businesses that use WordPress as a blogging platform are increasingly making use of this social media to promote their blogs. They do so to get recognition among the present customers and reach out to potentially new ones. Facebook has become one of the largest social networking platform in the world with 800+ million users; this is the first choice for WordPress developers. The ideal way to promote your blog on Facebook is to use third-party plugins. These plugins or tools can easily be integrated in your WordPress blog and allow you to share your posts and promote them virally.

Popular Facebook Tools for WordPress

• Facebook for WordPress – This is one of the most popular Facebook plugins as it allows you to cross-publish content on the social networking site. The published posts appear on the Facebook Timeline as well as on the Facebook Pages helping you reach out to your followers virally.

• Facebook Fan Box Plugin – Facebook Fan Box plugin helps in gathering fans on Facebook, which is one of the most sought after things for any business. It displays a box on your blog showing recent updates made on your Facebook page along with details of the fans that have followed you, thus encouraging your visitors to join the club.

• WordPress Facebook Connect – Another popular WordPress plugin this adds Facebook functionality to your blog. Your visitors can post their comment on your blog with their Facebook account. The comments would appear on their news feed and profile pages and will be visible within their network. It encourages others to read your blog and creates a community surrounding your blog.

• Facebook Posted Items – With the use of this WordPress plugin, you will be able to display a list of items that you have posted on Facebook. This is a good way of promoting online content that attracts the visitors and would be beneficial for you as well. This way you can add some variety to your Facebook page which in turn drives in more visitors to your official blog.

• Facebook Live Stream – If you are webcasting a live event on your WordPress blog and want to promote it over a huge network, this is the perfect plugin for you. It allows your fans to share comments and activity on their Facebook profiles instantly. This real-time marketing allows you to promote events which can lead to fast sales.

These plugins allow you to market your WordPress blog virally and create a brand identity for your business over such a powerful platform helping you gather new leads and penetrate into newer markets. This marketing campaign needs to be handled methodically identifying your target audience. You should strike a perfect balance with the campaign as too much of promotion can annoy your fans and followers. It is advisable that you hire the services of a good Internet marketing company, which has expertise in social media marketing.

Since the time, WordPress was launched as a content management system, it has literally changed the way businesses develop and design websites. The essence of WordPress is that it allows you to be creative while incorporating a design that best describes your business. One can install numerous plugins for easy functionality. Most developers choose PSD to WordPress conversion as an effective way of developing distinctive looking websites with custom features and functionalities. With this technique, one can effortlessly design websites to match the business needs. What really works in favor of PSD to WordPress conversion is that it combines the best of two tools Photoshop and WordPress. Photoshop allows you to design the website as an image giving you complete creative control, while WordPress allows you to run a website without the knowledge of coding.

PSD to WordPress conversion is a technical job and requires expertise. Not everyone and anyone can be entrusted with the job. However, there are several PSD to WordPress theme conversion service providers who have adequate knowledge on how to convert PSD files for WordPress and code it into HTML and CSS. Outsourcing this conversion job is always advisable, it can add to your investment costs. Thus when you are looking for a service provider, cross check on what they provide and what is their rate. Let us look at some of the pointers that will indicate a good and beneficial deal:

• Research on Rates: To know what is the industry expectation you should run a thorough research on the current rate prevalent in the market. You should look for the companies that give value to your project and quote according to the services they provide. Tentatively aim to look for five-six service providers.

• Zeroing On A Final Few: After you have narrowed down your search to a few companies do a complete background check on them. Read through the portfolio, check their work elsewhere and contact previous client if you can through the links in their portfolio. The bottom line is that you should get value for your money and thus select the best service provider.

• Look for Flexible Plans: Several companies offer services on an hourly, daily or project-to-project basis. A flexible hiring system means more value for your money. If your demand is less, you can settle for an hourly system and thus pay less. On the other hand, if the PSD to WordPress conversion is going to be tricky, a full project payment plan will be beneficial.

• Support Services Part Of Package: Never ink a deal with a service provider who doesn’t promise after sales services. As already mentioned PSD to WordPress conversion is challenging and even the best developers may make mistakes. Thus it is essential that you get after sales service that is part of the promised package and need not pay extra for later work.

• Package Inclusive of all Taxes: Many times you can be duped for paying several layers of taxes that were not part of the package. This can increase your investment and send your budget for a toss. Always read through the agreement papers and see their quote also includes the prevalent taxes.

PSD to WordPress conversion is all about understanding the PSD file and having equal knowledge of the CMS. Service providers who follow a step-by-step procedure yield better results. When you are able to select a firm that fits into your budget, see that the developers have adequate knowledge of WordPress and the markup languages, always slice the file into different layers and make use of semantic coding techniques.

iPhones, Androids and a host of other smartphones are here to stay. It will be misleading to say this, as they are here to change the way people communicate and use the Internet. According to the industry forecasts, by the year 2013 there are going to be 1.7 billion mobile users. If even one third of these people start visiting your website through their mobile, you can only imagine the kind of exposure you will be getting. If you are running a WordPress powered website, it is important that you convert it into a mobile friendly site at the earliest. Any WordPress developer will tell you that making a website mobile friendly isn’t really difficult.

A few plug-ins, a smart navigation plan, clear and concise content and a fluid and good web design is all that is required for getting that perfectly compatible and responsive website. When you plan to make your website mobile compatible, it is important you understand the nuances of the medium. Mobile devices come in various forms, sizes and with many operating systems. The advantage of using WordPress for a mobile website is that you get the flexibility, the robustness that is inherent in the CMS and get the opportunity to install several plug-ins to enhance the functionality of the website. There are several plug-ins that will help in making your WordPress site mobile friendly. Let us take a look at some of them:

• WPTouch: Any WordPress programmer will vouch for this great plug-in that has literally swept the industry. It has been downloaded at least 1 million times on the last count! The plug-in automatically transforms the desktop version of your website into a web application that can be readily viewed on iPhone, iPod, Android or BlackBerry Storm. It has an easy-to-use admin panel and doesn’t require a dev key. The advantage of WPTouch is that you can decide what content to display on the mobile version, how to add custom code that includes CSS and Google AdSense.

• Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin: To access the dev key of this plug-in, ask your WordPress programmer to register you with the Wapple website. This is one of the most customizable WordPress plug-ins that has advanced SEO settings with about 8 in-built themes and style sheets. Moreover, The Wapple plug-in integrates mobile advertising.

• WordPress Mobile Pack: With a mobile switcher, numerous themes, widgets and an easy to use mobile admin panel, WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help in the conversion process. The mobile switcher can automatically make suggestions on the mobile and desktop presentation. For tracking usage on the website, the plug-in has the analytics powered by PercentMobile. The plug-in has been designed such that it adheres to valid XHTML-MP1 markup.

• Verve Mobile: Verve Mobile offers great solutions for detecting the standard and advanced mobile devices and displaying a website for the detected website automatically. The other key features of the plug-in includes seamless integration with the Verve network, advanced traffic tracking system, automatic formatting of content, resizing of images, etc.

Before taking the plunge, remember to use a tracking software such as Google Analytics to get an estimate of the user demographics of who is accessing your website from a mobile. Remember that tables are a thing of the past for website designs and is an absolute ‘no’ for the mobile versions. It is essential that you reduce the number of links and make it more intuitive for better site navigation. Make the website light so that users can view your website even in the slowest of Internet connections. Lastly, your content should be your top priority.

Content Management Systems have eased the process of starting and managing a website. Traditionally developing a website would mean coding it in HTML which required a lot of skills and expertise. But CMS solutions have made it a cup of tea for any computer literate person. Now, with so many content management systems available which one do you choose? WordPress has become another synonym for CMS solutions and holds a grip over half the CMS market with talented WordPress developers offering highly customized website solutions. Businesses prefer WordPress theme development when it comes to developing websites and blogs.

Five Reasons to Choose WordPress CMS

1. It is Free – WordPress is an open source content management system and thus comes absolutely free. You don’t need to incur huge expenses on developing a website or blog in WordPress. When businesses are looking to streamline operating costs, this comes as a huge boon especially for small businesses and startups. You also have access to hundreds of free themes which you can use to start your website. Most businesses however, get their custom website developed by professional WordPress theme developers, thus adding to their brand recognition and value.
2. It is User-Friendly – Not all of us are technology geeks or can afford to spend hours to learn how to manage a website. In this regard, WordPress scores a point as the CMS is very user-friendly. The learning curve for WordPress is smaller than other content management systems available in the market. One can easily manage a website using a web-based interface sitting anywhere in the world. The self-explanatory interface allows one to post text, pictures and multimedia elements in the website with ease.
3. Customization – Your website needs to stand out among competitors and for this you need to have custom features and functionalities that cater to the needs of your customers. WordPress developers can develop your website from scratch and create custom features and functionalities, which address the niche demands of your business. These are aided by the huge number of third-party plugins available with the CMS. These plugins offer high levels of features and functionality to your website and are easy to install. These plugins come for free or fraction of the cost required for developing them from the scratch.
4. SEO Friendly – The success of a website rests on the search engines as they contribute bulk of the traffic to your website. WordPress emerges as a winner in this as the codes generated by WordPress are SEO friendly and attract the search engine crawlers easily. Apart from this, when you hire the services of professional WordPress theme developers, they hand code the website using semantic coding techniques which further boosts the online visibility of the website helping you reach out to more customers.
5. Community Support – WordPress has a huge community of developers who act as a great source of support when need arises. You can post your queries and doubts in such groups and communities and get replies from the expert developers. These groups also review developments happening with the CMS and fix the loopholes that might threaten security of the website. You won’t get such support in other content management systems as they have smaller communities.

With all these advantages, WordPress becomes the ideal content management system in the world fulfilling the needs of small and big businesses alike. By hiring WordPress programmers with a proven track record, you can reap benefits out of this content management system for your business website or blog.

With websites being browsed on multiple platforms and devices, coming up with solutions that are suitable for all devices has become very important. Businesses are also making breakthrough advances by developing applications that complement their business vision and mission. With the help of PSD to WordPress theme development, businesses are getting a lot of advantages that are helping them make fluid web designs and mobile applications. WordPress theme developers are reaping unlimited benefits of PSD to WordPress conversion as it opens new windows of creativity and flexibility.

Why PSD to WordPress is an Easier Solution for Website & Mobile Applications

• Highly Customizable: With the help of PSD to WordPress theme development, developers have the liberty to create almost anything and everything they want. When the highly creative solutions of the image processing software is clubbed with the multiple advantages of the open source content management system, developers get to make responsive templates that can be viewed on multiple devices without any compatibility issues.

• Scalable Solutions: WordPress developers also aim to develop a design that can be changed according to the need of the time. A scalable solution also means the ability to install plugins as and when required. Numerous plugins can be installed according to the need of the site with the help of this conversion.

• SEO Friendly: When it comes to coding for a website, developers always have to keep in mind to cut the codes and make the back-end of the site light so that it is search engine friendly. With the help of semantic coding, themes can be made SEO friendly. Semantic coding ensures that codes are clutter-free and minimal. PSD to WordPress conversion is very SEO friendly process.

•  Use of CSS: When PSD files are converted to WordPress, developers prefer using Cascading Style Sheets. This gives them the advantage of differentiating between the content element and the design element of the site. Use of CSS also makes the pages load faster on the web browser.

• Pixel Perfect Conversion: Whether the theme is for a mobile application or a website, with the help of PSD to WordPress theme development pixel perfect conversion can be achieved. After the conversion is pixel perfect, the site or the app can be easily viewed on any browser or device.

• Perfect Theme Integration: Once the coding is semantic and the pixel conversion is perfect, integrating the theme with the CMS is not a difficult job. WordPress is extremely user-friendly and allows new themes to be integrated into the system with ease.

To get the perfect solution for your business, you can hire the services of professional web developers who have ample experience in mobile web development. With the purview of web development expanding to the mobile domain, it is essential that you look for WordPress developers who have adequate knowledge of developing responsive sites. You should hire a web developer who understands how WordPress can be best used and how a design in Photoshop can be integrated into the CMS effectively.

Won’t you like a web publishing platform that allows you to create and host a website within minutes? Well! I believe, if an Open Source Content Management System is as easy as this, it will certainly earn accolades in the industry. However, the ease to create and host as WordPress website is not the only attribute for WordPress’s popularity as there are several other benefits, which make it the first choice for small and large business.

The first thing that makes WordPress Web Development a popular trend is its simplicity. The CMS is extremely easy and any person can not only understand the entire process, but can actually build a website. The CMS promises a lot of scope for running highly efficient personal and commercial websites. Full standards compliance, Cross-blog communication tools, Spam protection, Full user registration, Password Protected Posts, Easy installation and upgrades, XML-RPC interface, Intelligent text formatting, etc are some of the features that attract people towards the CMS. However, the reason, small and large business prefer to build their sites with WordPress is something more interesting and significant…it is the customizability or extendibility this open source content management system ensures. WordPress comes with thousands of free plugins and modules that can be developed with the help of WordPress developers, resulting in increased functionality of the website.

WordPress theme development allows you to customize the theme of your website, this is the most popular practice that has earned accolades for CMS in the industry. WordPress allows you to create a theme of your own choice and integrate it with the site in easy steps. You can design any theme you wish in Photoshop and then convert its elements in HTML and finally integrate the codes with WordPress site. Large and small businesses design their websites to showcase their products and services in the best possible manner by making use of this option.

Through WordPress Web Development, an entrepreneur can instantly create and host a website. Even if you do not want to create a customized theme, you can make your website attractive, as WordPress offer hundreds of free themes and templates, which can be applied in minutes.

Have a look at the following points that will give you a quick idea, why businessperson prefer to build their sites in WordPress:

• Easy and Quick: WordPress Web Development is an easy and quick process. You don’t need to be computer experts to use the CMS. Once you create you WordPress site, you can manage it with a simple dashboard. You can add pages, create sub pages, manage users, protect the content with passwords and do many interesting things.
• Cost effective: WordPress is a free and open source CMS. You don’t need to pay to create a website in WordPress.
• Customizability: It is very easy to customize a WordPress site. You can change the complete layout of the website and manage the content the way you want. The market is abundant with highly qualified WordPress Developers, who can handle your website and guide you too.

Due to the increased popularity of the WordPress, a number of WordPress development companies have come up in India and other parts of the world. These developers offer extremely superb services and help you build a website that meets your requirements.

With the increasing number of websites being launched every day, it has become very important for you to think out of the box and have a website that can stand out in the crowd. If you are planning to jump into the bandwagon and get a website developed, you need to understand how the market is right now, what is working and what isn’t working and make your plans accordingly. If you are using WordPress content management systems, there is a lot you can do. One of the things that many are doing is PSD to WordPress conversion. You basically get your template designed in Photoshop and convert it into WordPress template. This method works great for getting a unique look for your website.

Outsourcing PSD to WordPress conversion has become a cost-effective and easy solution that you can use. Apart from getting the job done at a considerably cheap rate, you will also be assured of quality work. Let us take a look at a few points why outsourcing PSD to WordPress conversion is beneficial for you:

• Clean Codes: While converting PSD to WordPress, the WordPress developers ensure that the codes are clean. After slicing the PSD file, they convert the same into HTML/CSS codes. This not only makes the file web compatible, but also keeps the codes clean. It should also be kept in mind that clean codes can easily attract search engine crawlers.
• Pure Hand-Coded Themes: The result of outsourcing PSD to WordPress conversion is that you know you will not only get clean codes, but hand-written codes. Hand-written codes will naturally be able to give you a robust website that is not prone to crashes, long loading time and external threats such as virus attacks.
• Browser Compatible Conversion: A successful website needs to be browser compatible, i.e. it should appear and function uniformly across major web browsers such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera and Firefox. WordPress developers ensure that the website is cross browser compatible which makes your website reachable to as many people as possible.
• W3C Validation: For PSD to WordPress theme conversion it is very important to get the HTML/CSS codes validated from W3C. The outsourcing firms do this validation and thus make sure that your website follows the prescribed structure and be error free.
• Unique Look: Many times, you may have the ideas, but due to the lack of tools you cannot get your dream website. With PSD to WordPress theme conversion, you can easily realism your dreams, rather the firms you have outsourced the work to can help you realism the dream. With this technique, you will get the unique look you desired and thus your site will not look similar to any competitor. You also won’t have to rely on the templates available on the web.
• Minimum Cost of Conversion: When you outsource you work, you can be assured that least cost is involved. Most of the outsourcing destinations such as India are known for offering cost-effective solutions. Thus, you will not need to burn a hole in your pocket to get the work done.
• Minimal Project Time: You would not want to waste your time and money with a firm that doesn’t do the work on time. When you are outsourcing, you can be assured that they will take the minimal time required and give you the final result in a matter of days. However, this doesn’t mean that they will do a lousy job.

As the most popular image editing software Photoshop needs no introduction. WordPress, similarly is known as a user-friendly content management system. Has it ever occurred to you if you could design a template in Photoshop and integrate it in WordPress? If so, it is important for you to know about PSD to Wor dPress conversion. WordPress developers are increasingly using this technique to innovate and bring new themes for websites. Now you can easily create PSD to WordPress themes and build a website that is different from the rest. To make a visually attractive, user friendly website, nothing works better than PSD to WordPress theme conversion.

PSD to WordPress Theme Conversion- Steps To Remember

• PSD files are heavy and not web compatible and thus you need to convert them into a web compatible markup. The process starts with slicing your PSD files and then converting the same into a web version. You can always start by forming a mental picture of what you want and separate the different elements of the theme. For example, slice the logo, the banner, the links, the body separately so that it is easy to push them into separate layers later. These portions of your website have specific functions and need to be coded accordingly.
• For WordPress theme development remember to convert your PSD files to HTML/CSS. You can easily code the sliced PSD files into the markup language. The semantic coding techniques will help enhance the performance of the website and easily attract the search engine crawlers. The Cascading Style Sheet or CSS will further help you define your design attributes and make your site run faster. It also standardizes the fonts, color scheme throughout the website.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) lays down guidelines that validate HTML/XHTML codes. If you follow the W3C guidelines you will be ensured that you are following a valid structure for your website. Thus always remember to validate your codes with W3C.
• As a final step for WordPress theme development, you will need to integrate your HTML and CSS codes into the content management system. Using the WordPress admin you can easily integrate individual files and make it a part of your WordPress theme. Once you have integrated the HTML and CSS codes into WordPress, you will not need to touch them again and still keep updating your content as and when required.

WordPress developers have increasingly started using Photoshop for the theme development as it lets them experiment and churn out new ideas. Though there are several advantages of this conversion, you have to take care of a few things. It is important that you work precisely and know how to separate one element from another. As a PSD file will be in pixels, you also have to take care to convert pixel without distorting the image. This can only be achieved from experience and patience. After the PSD file is converted into HTML/XHTML codes, remember to keep your WordPress clean. This will ensure that the website is search engine friendly and will draw more traffic for your business.

There are many companies specializing in PSD to WordPress conversion. Outsourcing the same is something that is very popular as it is cost-effective. Several companies have made a name for themselves in this conversion technique and are regularly creating beautiful content based websites according to the need of their clients. You can get in touch with any of these companies and be assured that you will get the best results in the time period you want.