Product

Products

Wordpress eStore Plugin

WordPress Shopping Cart, Sell digital and non-digital products from your Wordpress blog securely. (Includes Free Updates) More Info

Price: $49.95

WP Affiliate Platform

Easy to use, simple Affiliate Management Software for Wordpress blog/site. (Includes Free Updates) More Info

Price: $49.95

WP eMember

Simple membership management plugin for your WordPress site. (Includes Free Updates) More Info

Price: $49.95

WP PDF Stamper

Protect your eBooks from being uploaded to file sharing sites by automatically stamping the footer of your PDF files with the customer's personal details (e.g. name, email, address) upon purchase! (Includes Free Updates) More Info

Price: $39.95

WP Lightbox Ultimate

The WordPress Lightbox Ultimate plugin allows you to embed your media files (images, videos, mp3 etc) on a post or page using lightbox overlay display (Includes Free Updates). More Info

Price: $27.00

Affiliate Link Manager

Revolutionize your approach to your affiliate marketing business by automating the repetitive tasks. (Includes Free Updates)

Price: $27.00

Infinity Remix Theme Package

Infinity Remix is a multi-functional WordPress theme with a simple and unique design that displays the content in a stylish and traditional way More Info

Price: $25.00

Plugin Installation

Installation, initial setup and testing of the plugin on your server. More Info

Price: $25.00

Frequently Bought Together (Bundle and Save Big)

WP Affiliate Platform + WP eStore Plugin
Price: $69.95

WP eMember Plugin + WP eStore Plugin
Price: $69.95

WP eStore + PDF Stamper
Price: $69.95 (Please note that PDF Stamper has single site license)

WP eStore + WP Affiliate Software + WP eMember
Price: $89.95

WP eStore + WP Affiliate Software + WP eMember + Infinity Remix Theme
Price: $99.95

WP eStore + WP Affiliate + WP eMember + PDF Stamper
Price: $119.95 (Please note that PDF Stamper has single site license)

WP eStore + WP Affiliate + WP eMember + PDF Stamper + Infinity Remix Theme
Ultimate eCommerce Starter Pack
Price: $129.95 (Please note that PDF Stamper has single site license)

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Blog Setup - Featured - Site Optimization Tips - Wordpress - WordPress Optimization Tips and Tricks for Better Performance and Speed

Is your WordPress blog performing at it’s best? How quickly does the page load? Is it sluggish? Your website’s performance is one of the key factors in ensuring that the visitors are having a good experience with your site. So I personally think it is worthwhile to spend some time tuning/optimizing the site for performance. In this article I have listed various tips and tricks on how to speed up a WordPress Site.
Before diving into the optimization tips and tricks I recommend measuring the current performance of the site so you have some benchmarking figures to compare against after you make the changes and see how it has affected the performance.

How to Measure the Performance of a Site

1. I use YSlow Firefox addon to measure the page load time of a site. YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages. YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the Firebug web development tool. So to use YSlow you will have to get the Firebug addon and then install the YSlow addon.

The site in question takes about 23 secons to load which is not a very good page loading time. Some optimization could help!
2. You can also use the Page Speed tool from Google. Page speed has a browser addon similar to the YSlow addon.

3. The number of database queries a webpage makes to load the page have an effect on the page load time. You can use the following piece of code in the footer of your theme to find out how many database queries a page is making:

<?php echo get_num_queries(); ?> queries in <?php timer_stop(1); ?> seconds.

Make sure the webpage is not making any unnecessary database queries.
4. You can use the website speed tester to find out how fast your site loads.

Website Speed Tester

5. You can also use the stopwatch on numion.com to test how long it takes to load a webpage.

Basic WordPress Site Optimization Tips and Tricks

• Upgrade to the latest wordpress release (you should be doing this for security reasons anyway)
• Use W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin (Forget WP Super Cache). W3 Total Cache is just awesome… even I use it
• Minimize simple unnecessary PHP queries. For example, instead of using <?php get_bloginfo(‘wpurl’); ?> just replace it with your wordpress installation URL so the browser can simply read it instead of making a query.
• Load javascripts in the footer (The golden rule – CSS on top, javascript on bottom)
• Kill some plugins that are unnecesary or doesn’t add much value to your site (Disable or delete these plugins)
• Optimize and Repair your Database from myPhpAdmin. You can use the Optimize DB plugin that does this for you.
• Check your theme Code (Use valid HTML code)
• Get a Good hosting

Intermediate to Advanced Optimization Tips

• Keep your page sizes less than 100kb. Do not use too many unnecessary images and video on a page. Always compress the images appropriately.
• Combine css files into one big css file (One 50kb file loads a lot faster than five 10kb files)
• Combine javascripts into one big file.
• Reduce the number of dynamic PHP and http calls (Use subdomains to share the load)
• Use external scripts. Instead of placing tons of code in your header.php file, use external scripts. This allows the browser to cache the script so it won’t have to read it for every other page.
• Add far future expires header to images, CSS and javascript files (How to Add far future expires header).
• Don’t use ETags unless you are taking advantage of it (How to configure ETags).

You can use the PHP speedy WordPress plugin which takes care of few of the tips mentioned above. The Plugins to Speed Up Your WordPress Site article is also a good read.

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Blogging Tips - Featured - Shop Admin Tips - Free Premium Plugin and Theme Downloaders – Beware!

Reading this article may end up saving your site from getting hacked.
This Tips and Tricks HQ blog gets so many queries on the term “Free eStore Download”, “Free WordPress eMember” and many similar terms from bloggers not wanting to pay for the WP eStore or the WP eMember plugin. I am pretty sure the same is true for most premium plugins and themes. I understand some of you not wanting to pay for a plugin or a theme but trying to get a free download (possibly from a warez or torrent or file sharing site) is not the solution.

I always believed in the fact that there are no free lunches in this world. If you see someone giving a someone else’s premium plugin or theme for free you have to ask yourself the following question:
“Why are they giving it away for free?”
When people offer you something for free, like premium plugins or themes because they know thousands are looking for it, you need to think twice before downloading and USING it.
Anyone can easily add code to the original plugin or theme and offer it to you for free. Now this premium plugin that you got for free can give them a backdoor access to your site after you upload it to your site. As soon as you upload a plugin to your site it has admin access to do whatever. Once the plugin is uploaded there is no going back! This model of malicious file distribution is widely used by hackers.
For example, the bad plugin can change the admin email address of the site to the hacker’s email address when it is activated. Now, all the hacker has to do is use the reset password feature of WordPress and the new password will be sent to his email address… suddenly you don’t have access to your blog anymore!
I have seen instances whereby someone downloaded a free copy of the Thesis theme and it inserted bunch of hidden links to questionable sites in the footer section of that site. The admin of the site had no idea about this until his site dropped from Google’s index!

Increased Number of Websites Getting Hacked

WordPress itself is very secure but why do so many WordPress sites get hacked everyday? Majority of these sites get hacked because the admin of the site decided to upload plugins and themes that they got from questionable sites, giving the hacker an easy backdoor entry!
Remember the story of the “Trojan Horse”? The plugin or theme that you download from questionable sites is essentially a Trojan horse that you are putting inside your site yourself (you never know when the hacker will strike!). Always download a WordPress plugin or theme from the original developer’s site.
Mattcutts from Google has mentioned that there has been an increase in website hacking since the desktops are getting harder to hack after the release of Windows Vista and Windows 7. If you own and operate a website then this means you need to be extra careful.

No, Antivirus will not Save You

You might be thinking, “I will just check the package with an antivirus software”.
I have got news for you… Malicious code in a PHP file cannot be detected by your antivirus software. WordPress plugins and themes are written in PHP (these are not like your average desktop softwares), PHP scripts can be edited by anyone and there is nothing malicious about it. The hacker can easily add a few lines of code that will email him some details from your website to his email address when you activate the plugin!
Always remember that these people offering plugins and themes for free might seem like your best friend because they are giving you something but it is only because they want something in return (Access to your site!).
There is no point in securing your site using other means if you are going to upload content (disguised as a plugin or theme) that you got from questionable sites.
My advise is, why put yourself at risk over a few bucks. If you do not have the money now, you can always save up and get the original at a later date. You need to spend money to make money and there is nothing wrong with supporting the original developer who spent countless hours working on the plugin or the theme. When you pay for a product you also get support for it.
Don’t forget to leave comments below to let me know what your thoughts are on this topic and read the Essential WordPress Security Tips post to learn more on WordPress security.
Edit: Since I published this post there has been some good comments, so make sure you read them.

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Featured - SEO - Top 15 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques I Forget to do

Search Engine Optimization is a very hot topic in the World Wide Web. After all, everybody wants to rank higher and come up on the first page of Google search and get more traffic. I have identified and made a list of top 15 SEO practices that I tend to forget quite often. These simple SEO techniques if practiced properly can make a significant difference as to how my pages are ranked in the Search Engine Queries.

1. Use rel=”nofollow” tag on low value links to not pass the page rank juice. For example ‘Read the rest of the entry’, ‘About’, ‘Contact’ etc.
2. Use proper anchor text for interlinks. Don’t use ‘here’ or ‘there’.
3. Optimize the images, always create alt tags and write description in the alt tag.
4. Use search engine friendly permalinks. Make sure the URLs do not have ‘&’, ‘?’, ‘!’ etc characters.
5. Use hyphens (-) between words to improve readability.
6. Do not use underscores (_), use hyphens (-) instead.
7. Do not use session id in URLs.
8. Use sticky posts.
9. Use tag clouds.
10. Have a category description paragraph.
11. Let the visitors subscribe to category specific RSS feed. (Use category specific RSS plugin for WordPress)
12. Use internal linking when possible and appropriate.
13. Use sub-directories rather than sub-domains when possible. Sub-domains do not share link love from the main domain as it is treated as a different domain.
14. Research the target audience and aim the site content appropriately.
15. Keep the content up to date. Visitors don’t like outdated content. Updating the content frequently also attracts the Search engines spiders to index the web pages frequently.

Going forward I will try to use this list to optimize my web pages for search engines.
Don’t forget to read the 6 SEO Strategies That Can Generate Highly Targeted Traffic and Blog Commenting Strategies to Improve Search Ranking articles.
Have you identified any SEO mistakes that you commonly make?

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Featured - Wordpress Plugin - WordPress Simple Paypal Shopping Cart Plugin

The WordPress Simple Paypal Shopping Cart is a very easy to use plugin that allows you to sell products or services online in one click from your WordPress blog.

Plugin Description

WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart lets you add an ‘Add to Cart’ button anywhere on your blog. This plugin also allows you to add the shopping cart anywhere in a post or page or sidebar easily. The shopping cart shows the user what they currently have in the cart and allows them to add or remove items. The payment is processed by PayPal.

Screenshots

Simple Product Display

Product Display with Variation Control

Shopping Cart Screenshot
Below is a screenshot of how the shopping cart looks when customers add products to the cart.

Sample Shopping Cart Screenshot

Demo of the WordPress Paypal Shopping Cart Plugin

I am using the WordPress eStore (plugin to sell digital products securely) which is a premium version of the WordPress PayPal Shopping Cart plugin. So I had to disable this simple shopping cart on this blog as I didn’t want to run two WordPress shopping cart plugins on the same site but you can visit the WordPress eStore plugin page and play with the add to cart buttons to see how this plugin works (It will give you a good idea as the “add to cart” feature of both these plugins are similar).

Installation and Usage

The following video tutorial on basic installation and usage guide is a good starting point:

Detailed WP Shopping Cart installation and usage instructions can be found on the Documentation site

NextGen Gallery and WordPress Paypal Shopping Cart Integration

NextGen Gallery Integration

NextGEN Gallery developed by Alex Rabe is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a Flash slideshow option. A demo shop that was created with the NextGen Gallery and Paypal Shopping Cart plugin and Instructions on how to do it can be found on the wodpress-ecomerce.com site.

Download Latest Version (v3.0)

Download the WordPress Paypal Shopping Cart Plugin.

Support/Donation Option

Donation option can be found on my projects page.
You can also try the WordPress Easy Paypal Payment or Donation Accept Plugin that can be used to Accept Paypal payment for a service or a product or Donation.
If you need help with this plugin or if you are having an issue with the plugin then please post it on the WordPress Shopping Cart Documentation Site on the post that you think is relevant to the issue and I will try to address it as soon as I can.

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Hosting - Domain - Find out which web hosting company offers the cheapest and reliable web hosting solution Categories: Featured, Web Hosting

I have been looking for a good web hosting company who offers cheap but reliable web hosting solution for quite a while. The keywords here are cheap and reliable and for some reason these two words do not want to go together very well . If you are willing to pay big money then you have nothing to worry about… your options are endless. My focus is finding that sweet spot where reliability meets affordability. I update this page with my findings on affordable web hosting solutions. Hopefully this information will be of some help to someone looking to find a good web hosting company.
I am very strict when it comes to the reliability of the web hosting company. Server uptime is very important for anyone who has a website doing whatever business that they are doing. If your site is down when a visitor or customer goes to your site then you are losing traffic and business. In addition to losing temporary customers, if your site goes down frequently then there is a good chance that your customers will get annoyed and will try to avoid coming to your site in the future.
Most web hosting companies guarantee 99.9% Server uptime but in reality a lot of them do not deliver 99.9% server uptime that they guarantee. Most of the time you won’t even know that your site was down and you lost customers. None of your visitors complained doesn’t really mean that your site was up 100% that month.
I am particularly interested in a reseller account. A reseller account that allows you to create multiple cPanel based websites. The ability to create multiple cPanel based website is really useful as each website has individual cPanel control panel for administration purpose. Not many of the cheap web hosting companies offer reseller account with the ability to create multiple cPanel based websites.
I was with Surpass Hosting and even though they have a 99.9% uptime guarantee, recently my site has been going down frequently. When you complain to them they reply to you with the result of the UNIX ‘uptime’ command which shows the length of time the system has been up, saying our servers were up all month! The system was up all month doesn’t necessarily mean that your site wasn’t down (The CPU load could have been at 100% so it wasn’t processing any other requests and hence your site was not accessible).
I have decided to change my web hosting provider and after doing some research I found that Web Hosting Buzz offers the cheapest reseller hosting solutions and looks reliable (from their server uptime data). So I have decided to give web hosting buzz a try.

Migration to WebHostingBuzz

WebHostingBuzz offers Reseller accounts from $5 per month with some great features. They have 99.9% server uptime gurantee. You can check their server uptime history from WebHostingBuz Server Uptime figures. WebHostingBuzz website has Google page rank of 7/10 (Page Rank reflects Google’s view of the importance of the web page). I tend to use the website’s page ranking as a trust factor. A website with high Google page rank is less likely to be a fraud.
Web hosting buzz offers pretty cheap reseller account but is it reliable? It looks reliable from the Server uptime data but I will have to see how I go with them to be sure.

Update (6 Months Later)

The reseller account wasn’t doing it for me so I decided to give WebHostingBuzz.com’s Virtual Private Server (VPS) a try as my traffic has gone up heaps since I first signed up with them. The VPS upgrade was a disaster… they probably put me on an overpopulated sever so my site response time was horrible. After having a chat with their support team they made it seem like it was my fault for using WordPress. Over time my site is going to grow so it is important that the hosting solution is scalable and Web Hosting Buzz’s VPS was just a mess not to mention that they were charging $8 per month extra for using cPanel! I knew it was time for me to look for another hosting solution.

Migration to InMotionHosting

I started looking and InMotionHosting seemed to be a good hosting provider so I signed up with them and now I am really happy with my site response time and InMotionHosting charges less than WebHostingBuzz for the same plan. I later upgraded my hosting plan to a dedicated server.

Update (1 Year Later)

I am still with InMotionHosting and everything is going well. I have also signed up with MediaTemple to host some of my other sites and they seem to be really good too.

Update (2 Years Later)

I needed another hosting account for one of my new sites so this time I signed up with West Host after taking Yoast’s advice and West Host seem to be very good too. So currently I have hosting accounts from the following 3 companies and am happy with them:

1. InMotionHostin
2. West Host
3. MediaTemple

Short List of Good Web Hosting Companies

Below is a list of web hosting companies that provide affordable and reliable web hosting solutions:

• http://www.inmotionhosting.com
• http://www.justhost.com
• http://www.hostgator.com
• http://www.greengeeks.com
• http://www.bluehost.com
• http://www.ipage.com
• http://mediatemple.net
• http://www.westhost.com

Which web hosting solution are you using? Are you happy with your hosting service provider? Feel free to leave your comments or suggestions in the comments area below.

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