Introducing BigBang – a Premium Responsive Portfolio Theme for WordPress

by Tom Ewer August 24^th, 2012 1 Response

I tend to review more plugins than themes here on WPMU. After all, you can use multiple plugins on a website, but only one theme.

But every now and then, I find a theme that I can’t help but review. Something that gives me a proverbial slap around the face and demands my attention.

Today I have received such a slap, from a premium responsive portfolio theme available on ThemeForest called BigBang. If you’re in the market for a new theme, this is something you need to take a close look at.

The Homepage

Plugins

How to Display Your Facebook Page’s Feed on Your WordPress Site

by Tom Ewer August 23^rd, 2012 2 Responses

There are no shortage of Twitter feed plugins available for WordPress (like this). But the same cannot be said for Facebook, which is rather unusual, given its overwhelming popularity.

Having said that, Twitter is certainly far more suited to feed conversion, what with its character limit and largely text-driven interactions. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to integrate a Facebook page feed into a widget, does it? That’s where FBF Facebook Page Feed Widget comes in.

Facebook On Your Blog

How to Display Your Facebook Page's Feed on Your WordPress Site

Plugins

Animated Weather Widget for WordPress

by Tom Ewer August 22^nd, 2012 3 Responses

Try and say that five times in a row fast without tripping over your tongue. It is possible, but it is difficult.

In the meantime, I will amuse myself with the fact that I actually convinced you to do that.

Anyway…the Animated Weather Widget for WordPress by weatherfor.us (to give the plugin its full name) is, as you might expect, an animated weather widget for WordPress. It is very much a plug and play affair – just head over to your widgets page, and place it wherever you would like:

Plugins

Plan Your Blog Posts from within WordPress with Notely

by Tom Ewer August 21^st, 2012 6 Responses

Whenever I write a blog post, I like to have at least an idea in my head as to where I am going with it. That may not be immediately clear to those of you who have read my posts before, but I swear that it’s the truth.

That idea may be nothing more than a fleeting thought, but whenever I am writing something more than a few hundred words, I like to outline my post before writing it. This outline will typically be some indented bullet points, featuring the subheaders and content ideas that I want to cover.

Plan Your Blog Posts from within WordPress with Notely

Plugins

Get a WordPress.com Style Countdown Timer Widget for Your Self-Hosted Blog

by Tom Ewer August 20^th, 2012 Leave a comment

In my opinion, there is no contest between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress. I’ll take ownership of my site every day of the week, thank you very much.

But for all of its limitations, WordPress.com does offer up some pretty cool features. One such feature is a “milestone” widget, in which you can easily insert a rather elegantly styled countdown to an event.

But with a new plugin released today on the WordPress.org repository, you can now have your own milestone widget for your self-hosted blog.

Milestone

Get a WordPress.com Style Countdown Timer for Your Self-Hosted Blog

Plugins

How to Change the Standard WordPress Admin Greeting

by Tom Ewer August 17^th, 2012 Leave a comment

I love Texas.

My sister lives in Houston, so I go there quite often. They have steak, ribs, pulled pork, beef brisket, and possibly some other non-food items that are also good. I have nothing against the word, “Howdy”. And yet, it’s not something I would ever say.

It just seems rather inappropriate, sitting there in my admin area, like a foreign imposter:

Plugins

Create Elegant Video Galleries for Your WordPress Site with Vimeography

by Tom Ewer August 16^th, 2012 3 Responses

Vimeo is the world’s largest user-made video site in the world, with over 8 million registered users as of December 2011.

Perhaps more pertinently, it also makes video look damn sexy. With no adverts and a streamlined interface, many people choose Vimeo over YouTube as their video hosting platform of choice.

And now, with the Vimeography plugin for WordPress, there is another reason to go with Vimeo.

Beautiful Video Galleries
That is what this plugin boasts:
Beautiful, custom video galleries

Create Elegant Video Galleries for Your WordPress Site with Vimeography

Themes

vCard: A Free Business Card Theme for WordPress

by Tom Ewer August 15^th, 2012 4 Responses

A month or two ago, I managed to snaffle tomewer.com. I did so on the expectation that at some point, I would create a “business card” website for myself. Ever since, I’ve been on the lookout for business card style themes that might suit such a site.

If you feel that you should have a business card website (i.e. something that touts your wares in much the same way as a traditional business card does), vCard is a simple, no frills solution:

Plugins

Crowdsource Your Blogging Mistakes with the Edit Huddle Plugin

by Tom Ewer August 14^th, 2012 5 Responses

We all make mistakes.

The simple acceptance of that fact is something I love about blogging. It’s okay to make mistakes. Sure – I try to set high standards and don’t like seeing a spelling or grammar mistake slip through the cracks, but it happens. I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

And besides, once you get a big enough audience, people tend to let you know if you have made a glaring error in a blog post. Whilst some bloggers get irritated by this, I see it as free proof reading. How can that be a bad thing?

A Better Way?

Crowdsource Your Blogging Mistakes with the Edit Huddle Plugin

Plugins

Quick Keyboard Shortcuts for Your WordPress Site

by Tom Ewer August 13^th, 2012 1 Response

I love shortcuts.

I love it when things are quicker and easier – especially when they are things that you do over and over again, on a daily basis. Like navigating through your WordPress blog.

So when I see a plugin that claims to be “all about getting around WordPress quickly”, I’m more than willing to take a closer look. Teleport is one such plugin.
Two Stroke Transport

Quick Keyboard Shortcuts for Your WordPress Site