Nowadays, custom blog pages are becoming the latest trend when it comes to blogging. [ I myself am thinking of a custom page for Q4News! ]
You would have seen a few custom blog pages that list the recent posts of the blog in a synopsis. Well, it is an easy to do job. Make your design and in the custom php page, add the following code
<?php $page = (get_query_var(’paged’)) ? get_query_var(’paged’) : 1;
query_posts(”showposts=10&paged=$page”); while ( have_posts() ) : the_post()
?>
The “showposts=10″ can be changed to any desired value. If you change the number 10 into 15, then 15 recent posts would be seen. I hope this was helpful in a way too. 
Posted by Guru on 07.23.2008 at 5:10 pm// Tagged: Wordpress Customization , custom page, custom wordpress page, designing, php, recent posts, Wordpress Templates //Have your say »
Many of you might have heard about the term “robots.txt” often in the webmaster world, actually not knowing what it is used for. Well, if I had to explain what it is in simple words, then I would say that it is a simple text file present in the root directory of some sites that require such a file’s services.
A robots.txt file is used effectively for blocking certain pages from Search Engine bots, and hence prevent the pages from getting indexed in the Search Engines. People who sell virtual products that are downloadable would not want their download pages to appear in Search Engines. Then they would not be able to make a single sale. So, using robots.txt they can protect their download pages from getting indexed in Search Engines.
Disallow :/cgi-bin/pagename.php - The code you see in blockquotes need to be used in the robots.txt file for stopping Search Enginesfrom visiting that particular page. Replace the “pagename.php” to whichever page you want to safeguard in your site.
Not only this, the robots.txt also makes your job of declaring the sitemap easier. Instead of creating accounts in Yahoo and Google to submit the sitemap, you can simply use the following code in your “robots.txt” file
Sitemap: http://www.nameofyoursite.com/sitemap.txt/
Hope this has enlightened you a bit on the term robots.txt
Posted by Guru on 07.23.2008 at 4:15 pm// Tagged: SEO Tips , accounts, deindexed, engines, google, index site, indexed, indexing, results, robots, robots.txt, search, search engine, search engine optimization, seo, txt, yahoo //2 Comments »
1.Click on Custom Shape Tool (U). Then choose Ellipse.
2. Hold Shift while dragging an ellipse, so that you can make a perfect circle.
3. Choose Horizontal Type Mask Tool (T), then click where ever you want from the line of the circle. Type the text you want. You’ll have something like this
4. Create a new layer and color your text using paint bucket or Gradient tool. After you color your text just hide the path layer and you’ll get something like this
I hope this tutorial was informative too! In my next post, I will be releasing our first plugin for wordpress probably! Please wait patiently while the plugin is being made ready to hit the road!
Posted by Guru on 07.19.2008 at 3:12 am// Tagged: Photoshop Tutorials , circle, design, designing, designs, follow, logo, logo tutorial, photo, photoshop, Photoshop Tutorials, plugins, text, tutorial, tutorial logo, tutorials, Wordpress Templates //Have your say »
Upgraded my wordpress to version 2.6 just now. I could not find time to come online for the past 2 days as I was busy choosing our first car! [Yes! We are purchasing our first car!:)]
I must say, they have made quite a few changes in honor of McCoy Tyner, the Jazz Pianist. There are quite a few good changes noticeable in my admin cpanel now. For example,
- The plugins section now has a separate list for activated and deactivated plugins.
- We can now have infinite number of categories and pages with no interface problems.
- Media can be uploaded in full screen mode.
- The total number of words in a post is displayed. Sweet!
- There is an option to toggle between flash uploader and the classic version.
And a few other good changes too. Check it out today and upgrade if you haven’t! If you need to upgrade your wordpress installation, follow their detailed instructions in this page - Upgrade wordpress to 2.6
Posted by Guru on 07.16.2008 at 4:15 pm// Tagged: Webmaster News , 2.6, blog, blogging, codex, installation, mccoy tyner, pianist, wordpress 2.6, wordpress new, Wordpress Templates, wp //1 Comment »
Whether you blog for an income or hobby, you must take care of a few good pointers in order to make your blog get regular traffic. Or else, you are most likely to end up as a big failure.
- Always provide something informative to your readers. Nobody like a blog post which talks about your food specifications or travel fantasies. Unless of course you are johnchow or shoemoney where people come in just to see what food John eats everyday. LOL!
- Bulleted lists in a post catch the eyes of visitors and make them stay onto the page and completely read it till the end. A big paragraph of very good content can be irritative rather than a pile of shitlike info being bulleted.
- Be upto the point. Do not elaborate and deviate from what your trying to say in your post. People wont like if you try to entertain them with two different sets of imagination.
- Add outgoing links to your post if you find them useful to that post. People like outgoing links in a post. And even more liked by Search Engines.
- Do not over advertise. Meaning, do not force people to think of ad blockers as soon as they see your blog. Use advertising only at the bottom of post content, and on the sides. Usually ads on top are the most irritating ones. If you could expertly blend the ads into your design, then no problem in having ads on top.
- Use good Post titles. Like headlines which attract your eyes in a newspaper, a good Post title attracts the eyes of visitors.
- Be regular and systematic in your job. I have already told you about this in my previous posts, but I feel it is important in this post too. Try to do posts in your blog with equal intervals between each successive post. It helps visitors in keeping a tab in their minds as to how often they can find new posts in your blog.
- Add images in your post if you think they will do some good for your content. People like colorful posts rather than a simple mass of text content.
Well, this is all I can think of telling you guys. See you all in the next post with a nice tutorial in photoshop.
Posted by Guru on 07.11.2008 at 1:28 pm// Tagged: Blogging Tips, Webmaster News , blog tips, blogging, Blogging Tips, blogs, content, how to do blogging, images, short posts, tagging, tips, tips for blogging, writing //3 Comments »
