Blogging posts

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about markdown as an alternate way to format text.

I decided to do a little research and see what all the talk was about and I was actually quite glad of what I found; markdown is simple markup language that makes it easier for writers to write good content for the web without having to worry about the HTML code in their articles.

The benefit of using markdown is that...

When Google Plus was launched a year and a half ago, it set in motion a multitude of changes to the search landscape. From this point forward, getting traffic from the famed search engine is no longer about the number of backlinks you have.

A personal element was added to the search. The problem most small businesses have discovered over the past 18 months has been how to work with this new...

WordPress has evolved hugely over the years from simple fork of blogging software to a powerful platform. According to a WordPress Survey, 66% of respondents use WordPress as a CMS, not just blogging software.

The growth of WordPress adoption for various type of site has created a new market with its own landscape. Companies and individuals are creating new products and services that cannot be qualified as plain website building. It’s something much more innovative.

At the beginning of this evolution we dealt with simple models of premium products like themes or plugins and services like web-design or consulting. But new players have come up with new approaches...

Whether you design WordPress themes or just use them, you’ve got to stay on top of what’s happening in the world of WP theme creation.

Every few months we round up some of the best new themes, both free and premium, from some of the best theme designers out there. There are great features in both kinds of themes, with free themes offering ever-more premium-like features.

Regardless of what you do with WP themes, whether you just use them on your sites or...

If you run your website on WordPress, chances are you use at least a handful of plugins. That’s what’s so great about a CMS like WP: rather than some huge bloated system with every feature under the sun, the use of plugins lets you add just the functionality you need, without taxing your site’s resources more than necessary.

But you may be wondering which plugins are really ressential, and which aren’t. Part of that depends on what you want to do with your WP installation. Essential plugins for a personal blog are different than those for a corporate blog, just like must-have plugins for a podcaster are different than for someone using WordPress as a CMS.

Below are more than forty fantastic plugins. Most of them would be valuable on any WordPress site, though there are a few included that are more essential only for specific niche sites. In any case, check them out and decide for yourself...

Since the advent of the world wide web, people have been using it to bear witness to the events around them, some trivial, others world-shattering.

While Hurricane Sandy was making its way up the Eastern sea board, Chris Ackermann and Peter Ng threw together instacane.com a feed of Instagram photos documenting the storm and now, its aftermath.

The resulting collection is a fascinating glimpse into...

One of the main problems with technology is the frequent lapses in security we experience; a lot of information is stolen daily and used to steal more information, send spam messages, open backdoors to systems and sometimes even do damage to our computers.

None of these issues unknown to WordPress, a staggering number of sites have become victims of unpleasant criminals exploiting the community for their own personal gain.

In order for you to beat this threat we’ve...

If you want to stand out in today’s digital age, it’s vital that you establish an online presence.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, web developer or social media strategist, you need your own online platform for showing off your greatest pieces of work. 

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing exactly how you wedge your foot in the door of the World Wide Web, with WordPress, Blogger, About.me and TypePad all being...

In May this year, our editor suffered an unfortunate accident.

Having booted up his machine and fetched his morning coffee he sat down at his desk to review the overnight comments: we’re lucky enough to have a global readership and it’s always a pleasure to read the opinions of subscribers from Arizona to Azerbaijan.

It was when his gaze settled on the number of pending comments that he fell from his chair, hot coffee sprayed liberally about his person. There were more than 500,000 posts awaiting approval. We pride ourselves on engaging with our audience, but half a million responses...

Obviously you are reading this blog. Why? You learn something that helps you become a better designer is the popular answer. Blogs inform, educate and entertain. Then there’s The Oatmeal, which is just weird but people love it.

Webdesigner Depot is just one of the top design blogs and, as I tell the editors for the blogs for which I write, “get this article published quickly before it’s covered in another blog!”

Sometimes I submit an article just as the same subject is published elsewhere.

Managing a blog with a single author can be time-consuming enough, but adding in multiple authors can exponentially increase the amount of time and effort it takes to manage.

There’s editorial workflow, scheduling, and author management to consider, among other things.

Below are fifteen plugins that can make managing your multi-author blog a lot easier.

They...