WordPress YouTube Video Players for More Control and More Pizzazz

by Joe Foley October 10^th, 2012 2 Responses

If you post a lot of YouTube videos on your site, or you have very specific needs for the videos you post, then you’ve no doubt found yourself wanting a little more out of your video player than YouTube offers by default.

Below we’ve collected some of the best WordPress YouTube player plugins we could find. These plugins will offer you all sorts of options — everything from hiding the YouTube watermark logo that normally shows up in the corner of your video to creating your own playlists with thumbnails.

Community

How to Wrap Text Around a Video in WordPress

by Joe Foley September 21^st, 2012 Leave a comment

Many people have run into the problem of trying to wrap text around an embedded video in WordPress. This is what they’re hoping for.

The Problem
Instead, they find that no matter what they do, they can’t seem to get the text to wrap around the video.

After inserting the video embed code, it would appear that you can wrap text around the video in the editor as you would an image. However, upon saving the post, the wrapped text suddenly unwraps.

The Solution
At least one solution to this problem is to use simple CSS padding with divs.

Tutorials

Beginner’s Tip: How to Add a YouTube Video to WordPress

by Joe Foley August 17^th, 2012 4 Responses

There are two basic ways to add a YouTube video to your WordPress site:

By pasting a link to the video page in your Post or Page
By pasting the video’s embed code in your Post or Page

We’ll go over both below.
1. Pasting a Link
Perhaps the easiest way to add a YouTube video to WordPress is by simply pasting in a link for the video on its own line in the editor.

Auto-Embed Settings

Before you try pasting your YouTube link into your site, you will want to make sure that you have your media settings properly set up.

Miscellaneous

10 Ways to Keep Your WordPress Site Updated and Fresh

by John Kadow June 25^th, 2012 Leave a comment

The best way to keep people coming back to your site is by providing them with fresh new content on a regular basis. There are a number of ways to do this, such as blogging, posting tweets, and building a forums section that will have people contributing content for you. In this list, we’ll look at some of the most popular and effective ways to get unique content that have been specially designed for WordPress, and of course we’ll take a closer look at the pros and cons for each. I may cover a few things that you think are common sense to use and implement, but trust me there are still a lot of people out there who haven’t taken advantage of them yet, and you still might get a great idea for something new.

Healthy Eating, isolated on white background.

Plugins

Launch WordPress Videos in a Lightbox

by Sarah Gooding June 23^rd, 2012 3 Responses

WP Video Lightbox is a new plugin that tweaks the prettyPhoto jQuery script to launch videos in an elegant popup overlay. It allows you to display images, flash, YouTube, Vimeo, iFrame etc, in a lightbox, as seen below.

Plugins

Dear WordPress Theme – Stop Eating My YouTube Embed Code!

by rachel June 16^th, 2012 5 Responses

Tell me I’m not alone… you’ve been here, right?

You’ve spent hours pulling your hair out in an endless loop of breaking and fixing your theme trying to get it to stop eating your YouTube embed code. No matter what you try, the post refuses to show the video, or it shows the frame, but gets stuck on “loading” or (and this is the one that really gets me!) it works perfectly, but when you go back in and re-save the post – the code disappears.

I don’t know about you – but I start hearing, “Hulk, smash!!” in my head.

Plugins

SlideDeck 2: The Ultimate Content Slider Plugin For WordPress

by Tom Ewer March 29^th, 2012 11 Responses

If you are anything like me, designing the website of your dreams can be a rather masochistic affair. My mindless perfectionism often gets the best of me, and I will willingly spend hours designing one little tweak that barely anyone will ever notice.

Plugins

How to Create a WordPress Video Gallery (The Easy Way)

by Timothy Bowers March 9^th, 2012 5 Responses

This posts shares some tips on creating a hassle-free WordPress video gallery. The article was partly inspired by a discussion we had here a few weeks ago, on embedding videos in WordPress.

It’s easier than ever for WordPress users to create sleek and sexy video galleries on their site. Whether you’re trying to start the next great video-sharing community, or simply want to add a bit of spice to your blog with some animated content, these are a few pointers to get you started.
A Caveat: Think twice about self-hosting your WordPress video gallery

Miscellaneous

One Vital Ingredient That Your Blog May Be Missing

by Tom Ewer December 1^st, 2011 5 Responses

Social proof is a blogger’s best friend. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it’s time to educate yourself:
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that occurs in social situations when people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior. Making the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation, they will deem the behavior of others as appropriate or better informed. (TimeLineSelling)
You will all be familiar with this phenomenon. You will certainly have acted upon social proof countless times in the past, and in a multitude of different situations.

Miscellaneous

How To Go Viral: A Quick Intro To How Viral Marketing Works

by Timothy Bowers November 16^th, 2011 12 Responses

Viral marketing is a pretty hot buzz word on the web these days . . . in case you hadn’t noticed.

A few years ago, to most people ‘going viral’ meant it was time for an embarrassing visit to the local sexual health clinic.

But mention the V-word these days, and most web-savvy folk think of something else entirely.

So what the hell is viral marketing, exactly? (If you already know the answer, feel free to skip the rest of this article).

“Going Viral”: A brief guide for the uninitiated