Random WordPress of the Day #0020

Title: How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer eBook

Click here to get more details and purchase the eBook for 29$!

Theme Like a Professional!

Managing web content has always been tricky, but with WordPress, any web designer can have a flexible, free and powerful CMS to use not just on blogging projects, but on all sorts of websites. In How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer you will learn step by step how to take a straight HTML site and power it with WordPress.

During the course of the book you’ll build THREE WordPress themes, a blog, a portfolio site and a general site with menus and submenus. Each theme demonstrates different aspects of WordPress theming and all three are packaged in with the book so you’ll have Photoshop, HTML, CSS and WordPress PHP files to refer to.

Who is This Book For?

The book is aimed at anyone with a solid understanding of HTML/CSS. You don’t need to know PHP, you don’t need to have ever even touched WordPress before. The examples begin from scratch and build on each other, while basic PHP principles that are used are explained in an easy to understand manner.

If you’ve ever wanted to get started with WordPress theming, or you’re looking to take your skills to the next level with advanced theming concepts, this is the book for you!

About the Authors: Collis Ta’eed

Co-founder of Envato, Collis has been designing and building websites for many years for small sites and large, mom and pop businesses, multinational corporations and governmental organisations. His work has been featured on numerous design and CSS galleries including BestWebGallery, WebCreme, CSSRemix, CSSMania, TheBestDesigns, and many more.

Collis has an easy to read style of writing, and his tutorials at PSDTUTS and NETTUTS have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of Photoshop and Web Design enthusiasts. Collis is also co-author of How To Be a Rockstar Freelancer and is passionate about teaching and training others.

About the Authors: Harley Alexander

Harley Alexander is an up and coming WordPress designer and developer. Author of more than a dozen WordPress tutorials on the popular NETTUTS site, Harley pretty much speaks in WordPress! With experience in jQuery, PHP and of course WP, Harley’s technical skillset is impressive for anyone, but even more so for a young author still in his teens! You can find Harley over at his own blog – BaffleInc.

Random WordPress of the Day #0017

Title: 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook

If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the ‘one day’ basket – you’re not alone.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.

Each day in the project contains:

1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

This two pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.

Click here to view more details!

Random WordPress of the Day #0002

Title: Free Vs Premium Themes

I personally have used both Free and Premium themes for my websites, I think there are a lot of free themes that I would be willing to pay for and vice versa. The most important thing is to make sure you really like the theme you are about to purchase and that there are no free alternatives.

Over time you will gain enough experience to modify a free theme enough that it won’t just blend in with all the other themes. Design wise the header is probably the most important part to get someone to consider your blog, after they have considered it, then you must provide the reader with good creative content, and some good features, most people want a good constant flow of information, but not too much. A lot of regular blog readers use RSS readers, so if you have twenty new posts per day and your content is diluted you won’t have as much success as someone who posts every day or two with good solid content.

I started this blog on a free theme, but since I monitor all new themes, I found one that matched exactly the personality of the website so I purchased it, and haven’t regretted it so far. It has actually motivated me in my work.

Anyways I’d like to hear your ideas and thoughts on the difference between free and paid themes, and what experience have you had with both.