In this brand new article series I’m going to help you customize and hack your Wordpress blog or web site like never before! I figured that rather than writing a big long drawn out post with way more information than you could digest at once, it would be far easier to teach you how to do just one thing per day! Some of these hacks are easy, and some are a little more advanced – but if you stick with this tutorial series, you will learn how to hack and customize your own Wordpress blog and theme like never before! I will show you the best wordpress plugins to use, how and where to use them, and how to create the most usable blog for your visitors. I have read and searched thousands of blogs across the web and I assure you – you can’t find this information all in one place (for free) ANYWHERE else!
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Wordpress Hack #1: query_posts
In installment #1 of the 30 Wordpress Hacks in 30 Days Series I start out by teaching you on day 1 how “query_posts” works and how you can hack it to display what you want on your Wordpress template pages. Learn how to exclude posts belonging to certain categories, or even filter by author, time period, category, or tag.
Wordpress Hack #2: How to Create a Master Archive Index
In installment #2 I show you how to create an Archive index page. You may already have a calendar or monthly archive links in your sidebar, but chances are you don’t have an archive index page at all – especially one that’s sortable. Help your visitors while creating yet another original content page to be indexed by the search crawlers by following this hack.
Wordpress Hack #3: Custom Search Results Page and Template
In installment #3 we’re going to create a custom search page and template, but more importantly we’re going to learn how to customize our search results and monetize them as well! More usable for your visitors, more money for you!
Wordpress Hack #4: Create a Custom Error 404 Page
In installment #4 I show you how to customize and create your own 404 Error page so users don’t get a blank white screen and scurry away to another site! You’ll learn how to get notified by email each time someone sees a 404 error, and how to automatically display google search results to try and help visitors find what they were looking for.
Wordpress Hack #5: 10 Ways to Improve Navigation
In installment #5 you’ll learn 10 different ways to improve the navigation in your Wordpress blog. Learn how to add breadcrumbs, upgrade the dreaded next and previous links, and even how to make multi-paged posts! All this and much more!
Wordpress Hack #6: Protecting Content from Scrapers and Splogs
In installment #6 I’ll show you how to protect your post content by inserting a “digital fingerprint” and also an RSS Copyright signature forcing spammers and unscrupulous blogs dredging your feed to link back to you! Fight back and protect your content!
Wordpress Hack #7: Upgrading to a new Version (WP 2.5 Guide)
This is installment #7 and the end of week one of our month long “hack-a-thon” – and today I’ll give you a checklist for upgrading to a new version of Wordpress. As an added bonus, I’m also going to give you a red-carpet guided tour of Wordpress 2.5 and why you should upgrade!
Wordpress Hack #8: How to Optimize and Backup Your Wordpress Database
In installment #8 I will show you how to keep your Wordpress database running smooth, and also how to automatically do this regularly and also auto-backup your Wordpress database for safe-keeping in case of disaster.
Wordpress Hack #9: Translating Your Blog
In installment #9 I’m going to show you not only why it’s important that you translate your blog into other languages, but how to leverage a multi-lingual blog into 13 times as many indexed pages in search engines, increased rss subscribers, additional traffic, and unique monetization possibilities.
Wordpress Hack #10: 9 Things You Can Do with Categories
In installment #10 I’ll show you how you can do incredible things with Wordpress categories, like place original content on each one for more indexed pages, how to assign pages to categories (like posts), how to assign category icons, how to remove ‘category’ from your permalink, how to manage category descriptions, and much, much more…
Wordpress Hack #11: How to Recycle Blog Posts
In installment #11 you’ll learn how you can take your old archived Wordpress posts and recycle them by rotating them to your home page in scheduled intervals. Use that old content – don’t lose it!
Wordpress Hack #12: Changing Permalink Structure Seamlessly
Installment #12 teaches you how to change your permalink structure without losing any SEO, search engine listings, or getting any 404 errors at all. Ever wanted to remove the date structure from your Wordpress URL permalink? I can show you how…
Wordpress Hack #13: Traffic Proofing Wordpress
For installment #13 I’ll show you how to protect you (and your web host) from storms of traffic that come and go. From time to time we all write that great post that gets featured on digg, or redditt, or stumble upon and just brings you blog to it’s knees. By doing a little caching, your blog can get nearly 250,000 pageviews in a single day!
Wordpress Hack #14: 12 Ways to Hack Your Homepage
Everyone wants to be unique, and sometimes even the perfect theme isn’t enough to make you happy – because there’s just a thing or two you’d like to change about it. In installment #14 I’m going to show you 12 different ways to hack up your Wordpress home page and make it more you own! Stand out from the crowd – be different!
Wordpress Hack #15: Hacking Wordpress Tags
Your Wordpress theme may not fully utility the new tagging support. In installment #15 we’ll learn how to hack our Wordpress theme and add tags and a tag cloud to give users many more ways to explore and navigate your blog!
Sorry, somehow I ended up with two #16 hacks!
Wordpress Hack #16: Adding a Forum to Wordpress
You don’t have to install forum software in another subdirectory and hack up a Wordpress theme to add a forum to your blog! All you have to do is install the SimplePress forum plugin! I’m going to show you how I integrated our forum into this blog!
Wordpress Hack #16: Profit and Hack from RSS Feeds
Learn how to display RSS feeds on a Wordpress template page and profit and provide new and useful content to your visitors!
Wordpress Hack #17: Templates for Alternate Sidebar Layouts
I’ll show you how to create a custom theme template file that incorporates an alternate sidebar layout for your Wordpress blog.
Wordpress Hack #18: Hacking Wordpress Template Files
Learn how to customize your theme by learning the Wordpress template hierarchy and every custom page you can possibly create. You will understand Wordpress and your Wordpress theme 100 times better once you read this post.
Wordpress Hack #19: Hacking Tag Pages
I’ll teach you how to create custom tag template home that contains dynamic content so each of your tag pages gets indexed in the search engines.
Wordpress Hack #20: How to Setup a Post Series in Wordpress
Setting up a post series in Wordpress will increase your RSS subscriptions, bring readers back, and make it easier to write new posts and content for your blog. I’m going to show you how to plan and setup a post series for the best SEO and monetization you can get.
If you like this series, you might also like the “Managing Wordpress More Effectively” series as well!
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