Do you want a Maserati

One of the cars I covet is a Maserati, especially the Maserati Gran Tourismo GTS. If you had $140,000 to drop what care would you go with. I know there are plenty of exotic cars out there but the one I covet is the Maserati Gran Tourismo Sport. I have test drove brand new 2009 Maserati GTS a couple of months ago and I tell you that car is a nice car. Sure you can have a Ferrari but for whatever reason the Maserati just appeals to me more.

I recently saw one in parked on the street. It was not a GTS it was just a regular one. The regular Maserati GT is kind of boring, you really have to pay the extra $25K+ to get the GTS.

This guy once told me he would take a Corvette over a Maserati GTS. I politely told him that he was stupid. An Italian sports car vs an american one? Are you kidding me?

My question of the day is what car do you covet?

Review of Revolution Themes now StudioPress Wordpress Themes

Revolution Themes Wordpress Themes are now StudioPress in case you did not know. I believe by far Revolution Themes aka Studio Press Themes are one of the best Wordpress themes out there. The earlier versions of WP themes were difficult to change and modify. The Studiopress WP themes have been redesign to allow for easy modification. There is also now an excellent support in their support forums.

Blogger911.com now uses the Corporate Theme which is an excellent theme. The Wordpress theme combines a static page based site with a blog site. Minimal code changes were needed. The only change I had to make was to change the logo link. Every change from there is based on widgets. The Studiopress Wordpress theme is compatible with Wordpress 2.7 and should be compatible with previous version fo Wordpress,  I have not verified.

I would say in about an hour of work I had my Studiopress Corporate theme configured for Blogger911.com. If you do use a Studiopress theme, the featured content plugin is a great tool. It adds a dynamic twist to the theme.

I do have one thing that I would improve with the Studiopress themes. It does not offer the granularity of the Thesis Theme in terms of custom configuration options. There is no way to add analytics code, change a logo, and quickly ad advertising banners. Just a few minor things that need a little extra effort. But hey you cant have everything. Overall I am happy with the Studio Wordpress themes. It adds a modern and sleek look to any website. A single theme is $59.95 and the Pro Plus is $199.95, the Pro Plus offers you all themes.

Free Subs from Quiznos

In an effort to combat Subway’s $5 footlong sub campaign, Quiznos has released their campaign 20 subs for under $5 / Million Sub Giveaway. Actually in Washington DC it is actually $5.50 becuase of the 10% food tax.

Any ways, get your free sub today, you do have to register so there is a price to pay for a free sub, but free is free.

Quizno Free Sub – http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php

Social Media Wordpress Plugins Review

Over the past couple of days I have been playing around with Social Media Wordpres Plugins. Some may call it Social News WP Plugins. These Wordpress Plug-ins allow readers to instantly share your posts or articles on your Blog to the masses through social media outlets such as Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Facebook, etc…

Through your blog software such as Wordpress these plugins can be easily configured. The two I have stumped upon are the Sharethis plugin and the Digg Digg Plugin. I have previously reviewed the Digg Digg Plugin, you can read it here.

Most WP themes are compatible with these social media plugins. As you will see in my review of Digg Digg it can cause your Wordpress blog to load slower than usual. Hence the Sharethis plugin comes into play. The Sharethis plugin is pretty easy to configure. It is a three to four step process to install. Its pretty basic steps setup and install. Register for an account on the Sharethis site , then configure your Sharethis code, download and install the plugin (FTP and Activate), and then copy the code into the configuration field for the plugin.

The Sharethis Social Media Wordpress plugin has the same functionality as the Digg Digg Wordpress Plugin but more. Digg Digg limits your blog search engine submission to only four social media and news outlets, while Sharethis allows for 20+. The plugin shows the twenty most popular social media outlets but if you click on the more link it will allow for more. The plugin also allows functionality to link to your blog or another blog or email the post or article to another person all from one single location.

I would definitely recommend the Sharethis plugin. I am keeping both the Sharethis plugin and the Digg Digg plugin for now for testing purposes. If you like this article Shareit, Digg it, Stumble it, etc… Give me a Digg !

Signup for the Sharethis Plugin and check it out for yourself.

-Happy Blogging

Digg Digg Social Media Wordpress Plugin Review

The Digg Digg Social Media Wordpress Plugin is a great WP plug-in. This Wordpress Plugin is particularly useful because it integreates a Digg button, reddit me button, dzone button, and Yahoo buzz button on a post or page on your blog. You no longer have to do anything to have someone digg your posts. The WP plugin will automatically create the URL to be dugg at the top or middle or end of your post.

This Wordpress plugin is by far one of these best plugins for social media. One of the drawbacks that I have noticed is that it is a little slow in loading the pages when you it configured. It maybe because the icons or buttons are high resolution graphics. I have not investigated that closely. I have found a slight workaround, I dont have the buttons showing up on the home page so atleast the home page loads faster. I also use the compat icons when possible.

The social media plugin is developed by Programmer Life. The plugin can be downloaded from Wordpress Digg Digg Plugin page.

I’ve got it configured in this review, Digg it below and check it out !

Blog Checklist

Sign up for a free Blog Checklist from Blogger911.com. This is a small article about what Blogger911.com does when we install a Wordpress Blog for our customers and what every should do. The Blog Checklist details what our recommended settings for Wordpress are, recommended plugins, setting up your RSS feed with feedburner, and setting up site analytics with Sitemeter and Google Analytics. Sign up with the form below. Enter Blog Checklist for the subject to receive the free Blog Checklist for Wordpress.

Top Wordpress Plugins | Blogger911

For any Wordpress blog I highly recommend these top Wordpress Plugins. The plug-ins are must haves for Wordpress.  They should be incorporated into everyone’s blog design.

Top WP Plugins that Blogger911.com recommends:

1.       All in One SEO Pack – This Wordpress plugin automatically optimizes your titles for search engines and generates META tags automatically.

2.       Google Sitemap Generator – The Google Sitemap Generator Plugin automatically creates a google sitemaps compliant XML sitemap.  Every time you add, edit, or change content it will update the XML sitemap.

3.       Wordpress Automatic Upgrade  - Worried about upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress ? Have no fear, install this WP plug-in and with a click of a button your Wordpress software will be automatically upgrade to the latest version.

4.       Wordpress DB Backup – Backs up your Wordpress database for easy restore in case there is a problem with your Wordpress site. It can save it to a file on your web host provider or better yet email you a copy of your database so you can archive it.

5.       Related Posts Plugin – The Related Posts Plugin will display older posts that maybe related to a newly posted post. This is an excellent tool for a “sticky” blog. It keeps the reader engaged and on your site more.

6.       DD Form Mailer – Allows you to create forms such as contact information or newsletter signups.

7.       Wordpress Audio Player – Need a way to introduce yourself on your blog? Need a way to embed a podcast on your blog? Try the Wordpress audio player plugin. Embedding an audio player into a post couldn’t be easier.

8.       Whydowork Adsense Plugin – Whydowork Adsense plugin is a WP plugin that inserts adsense code into a post, below a post, above, etc… without having to modify the theme or template files. You can insert almost anything into posts with this plugin not just adsense code.

9.       Wordpress e-commerce – The Wordpress e-commerce plugin allows you to setup an e-commerce site or ad a shopping cart to your WP blog in no time. You can easily setup a product list and start accepting payments through Paypal or Google Checkout.

10.   WP-Polls – The WP-polls allows you to create polls for your Wordpress Blog. It adds a voting feature to your website.

Whether you are blogging for money or blogging to blog these are ten of the most essential plugins available. There are many more useful plugins out there but I think these are some good ones to start with. Your blog setup process should involve installing these plugins. If you don’t have these plugins installed, contact your tech guy now and have him or her install them. If there are more that I am missing please don’t hesitate to contact me rob@blogger911.com.

Unique Wordpress Widget Titles | Blogger911

Unique Wordpress Widget Titles can be easily created by adding a couple of simple lines to your stylesheet.css. I found this article titled, Pimping Your Wordpress Widget Titles.

Changing the widget titles will make your boring Wordpress widgets appear bold and alive. You will be able to have individual fonts for widget titles, blocks as background to widget titles, different colors to widget titles, etc…