So let’s say you are writing a post that you want to include an image gallery in.

1)   Using the usual upload/insert image button, upload any images you want to include in the gallery BUT make sure to just click “Save All Changes” instead of “Insert Into Post.”

2)   If you want your gallery to have captions, make sure to fill in the Caption field when uploading your images.

3)   To display the images you just uploaded, simply use the shortcode:

[gallery]

You can type the shortcode in either the HTML or the Visual tab,  and it will automatically display the images you uploaded.

Slightly more advanced options:

1)   By default the gallery shortcode will display thumbnails – at the size set in your Media submenu under Settings.  You can choose to display the images at Medium or Large sizes (again, according to the settings in your Media menu), or at the full size of the image. Just use the following format:

[gallery size="medium"]

2)   You can determine how many columns you want the images to display in by using this format:

[gallery columns=”4”]

This example would display images in 4 columns.

4)   If you want to show images that are attached to another of your posts, just locate the ID number of that post and use this shortcode:

[gallery ID="123"]

and replace “123” with the ID of the relevant post.

5)   Combine options in the following way:

[gallery size="medium" columns="2"]

6)   If you want to get fancy with it, you can style certain elements of the Gallery. See the Codex for more detailed information

The example gallery below features 3 images I uploaded, displayed as thumbnails (which I had set at 125×125) in 3 columns, and I assigned a caption for the first image.

**header image courtesy fionamclaren

The online workshop series will provide training on various aspects of WordPress and also general online marketing topics. Some workshops will be free and others will cost money, but will be affordably priced.  There will always be time for question and answer so it’s a good opportunity to get help on a specific issue you are facing. If there’s a topic you’d like to have a webinar dedicated to, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line.

I’ll be doing a couple of posts about the new features – in this one I’ll be discussing the brand new default theme that you’ll find if you upgrade.

New Default Theme – Twenty Ten

Twenty Ten is the new default theme and it’s infinitely better than tired ole’ Kubrick. Twenty Ten serves as a demonstration of many of the new WP 3.0 features, making it much more functional and customizable right out of the box, but also making it a great framework on which to build child themes. Some of the new WordPress features aren’t obvious to the non-developer because they require adding some code in order to activate the features – Twenty Ten makes many of them visible to the ordinary user and provides a nice guideline for theme developers to understand and expand upon what’s now possible.  See the theme in action.

Here are some of the main new features that Twenty Ten demonstrates:

Easy Header and Background Customization

Appearance > Header

Twenty Ten comes pre-stocked with 8 header images from which to choose. You can also choose to upload your own image, either at the exact size of 940×198 pixels, or upload a different size and crop it, all within the WP admin. At last – simple, code-free branding for your site!

Appearance > Background

The background feature allows you to easily customize the background of your site. You can upload an image, which can be tiled or fixed and aligned as you choose, or you can select a solid background color.

Both these features will give beginners a much simpler way to give their site a more custom look, all without touching code.

Customize Header Per Post

You can set a different header image for an individual post or page by utilizing the “set featured image” option, which is included by default in Twenty Ten. You’ll find it on the Edit Post or Page screen, in the right-hand column underneath the Categories and Tags boxes. Click “set featured image” and you’ll see the familiar image upload pop-up. However, if you upload an image of 940×198 pixels, you can then choose the new “set as featured image” option, to create a new header for that particular post or page.

Custom Menus

Appearance > Menus
Perhaps the biggest and most significant (from a non-techy user point of view) is probably the new custom menus feature. No more worrying about how to mix and match categories and pages in your navigation bar, or trying to include links  to other sites in navigation. Previously such tweaks required hacking code or at least using plugins – not any more. If you’ve ever used a Wootheme, you’ll be familiar with the custom menus system since it’s based on this popular Woothemes feature.

Now you can easily create a menu that includes pages, categories or other custom links by using a simple interface.
Twenty Ten offers space for one custom menu (horizontal beneath the header). But a theme may offer multiple menu areas in which case you could create a different navigation menu for each one which would give much more powerful and unique navigation possibilities. Support for custom menus has to be added to the theme, otherwise you can only add a custom menu as a sidebar widget, which is cool but less powerful.

Developers – read this guide to see how to utilize custom menus in your themes.

Another wonderful feature of custom menus allows you create dropdown menus that are no longer tied to page hierarchies. Any menu item can drop down from any other simply by indenting the item in the menu screen.

*Bonus tip – Click on Screen Options (top right of the page) to reveal some ‘hidden’ options such as the ability to include links to specific posts or tags giving you even more granular menu control! For developers, there is an option to add CSS classes to each menu item. Check out how Ivor Padilla used it to add a wee icon next to each menu item, which is a really nice touch.

Additional Widgetized Areas
Twenty Ten offers 6 widget areas giving you even more control over your theme right out of the box. There are 2 widget areas in the sidebar and 4 in the footer.

Extra Page Template
Twenty Ten comes with an additional page template called “one column, no sidebar” which is a great default option to have if you want to create a landing page on your site, or just have access to a slightly different look. This is available in the Page Attributes drop-down, under the Publish box of the Edit Page screen.

Gallery and Asides Post Styles

Another somewhat ‘secret’ feature is the in-built styles that have been provided when you set up categories called ‘gallery’ and ‘asides’. Simply creating categories with these names will activate the styles.

Taken from the Codex:

Twenty Ten includes special styles for posts that you file in the “Asides” or “Gallery” categories. When viewed on an index page (like your home page or a list of posts from a particular month), asides get a simplified look that seamlessly fit between full-length posts, while galleries give a peek at the photos that lie within. If you don’t already have those categories on your blog, just add them and start assigning posts to them. Twenty Ten will recognize the category name and start applying the correct styles automatically.

The image below shows the homepage display for a gallery post followed by two asides:

This covers what I have found so far to be the main features of the new default Twenty Ten theme, from a non-developer perspective. By providing such a full-featured and easy-to-use default theme, I imagine that it provides incentive for developers of themes such as Thesis, which are touted for being user-friendly, to step up their game a little bit and provide even more user-friendly options for their paying customers.

For an alternate look, I like them to display the full width of the column so you only have one per row, like this:

To achieve this look:
Go into Custom File Editor in the Thesis submenu
Make sure custom.css is selected in the pulldown.
Scroll to the bottom of this file and paste the following code underneath: */

.custom .teaser {
width: 100%;
margin-top: 2em;
padding-top: 2em;
border-top: 1px dotted #bbb;
text-align: justify;
}
.custom .teasers_box {
padding-top: 0;
padding-bottom:0;
border-top: 0;
}

Save this and you will now have teasers that span the full-width of your main column!

I really like the way this looks, particularly for image-heavy blogs since it allows you to display a good size thumbnail making your posts all the more compelling. Once you’ve changed the teaser width, you now have more space to play with so you can increase the size of the thumbnail graphic to really catch attention. That is found in the Design Options menu, in Default thumbnail settings

The addition of an image to the teaser is a really simple way to give your Thesis design an extra boost. This is especially great for creative sites that use wonderful imagery – food blogs, arts n crafty blogs, art/design blogs etc.

Assuming you also typically use a header image at the very top of your post (similar to the way posts on this blog look), the easiest way to achieve this by default is to use Thesis image fields to handle the main image for your post, from which it will also auto-create the teaser thumbnail.

Set up the default options
In the Thesis options menu, go to the Design Options submenu, then Post Images and Thumbnails. The Default Post Image Settings control where the main image for your post will be positioned. I personally prefer ‘before post/page content’ so that it shows up under the headline of the post, immediately before the text of the post. You can play with the options to see how it changes the look.

The Default Thumbnail Settings relate to how the thumbnail will be displayed in the teaser. I prefer “Left with text wrap” but again, play with it and see what suits you.

All of these settings can be overridden on a post by post basis if necessary.
Don’t forget the big ass save button.

Implement in a post
When you are writing your post and you want to add an image to the top of the post, you click on upload image as normal. The difference happens when you would ordinarily click ‘insert into post’. Instead, you now copy the url of your image and hit save instead.

Now scroll down the post editing page past several fields until you reach “Post Image and Thumbnail”. In the field labeled “post image” – paste the url of your image, then enter the alt text in the field below.

Now save your post and that’s it. Your image will automatically appear at the top of your post AND in the teaser as a thumbnail.
The other fields will inherit the information you set in the default Thesis menu as above. If you want to override the defaults, this is where you would do that, but generally speaking you won’t need to touch these.
You can play with the placement and border options to change the look.

This process will give you the same teaser thumbnail as main header image. If you want a different thumbnail – you’ll have to upload a separate image to your media library, grab the image url and paste it into the Thumbnail image field on your post. Note that if you specify an image url here Thesis will not resize it, so you will have to upload the exact size image you want to display.

Other images you want to include in the body of your post can be uploaded and inserted in the usual manner – this method relates to a main header image for your post only.

When developing a strategy for your site, the first and most important question to ask is:

Who do you want to come to your site? Who is your target audience?

Thou shall not answer “everybody”!

Get specific since the answer will provide the basis for all aspects of your online marketing strategy.

For more on this topic, also read:
Recharge and Refine Your Marketing Strategy
What Is An Online Marketing Strategy?

Does your site speak to your target audience?

Does your site….

Communicate your message clearly to the reader?
Have a great tag line?
Make it clear what you are all about and what you offer?
Guide the reader what to do next?

Example of a site that does this really well: www.IttyBiz.com

Keep it simple and focused

Don’t clutter your site with too many options  by loading up your sidebars (tag clouds, archives, categories etc) just because you can – that can be confusing. Focus on finding out what your visitors actually want, and how they behave on your site in order to better organize and focus your content. Some tools to do this:

Heat Maps

- Use the Site Overlay tool in Google Analytics for a rudimentary ‘heat map’ of what people are clicking on. Find it under the Content menu

- For a more true ‘heat map’ experience use ClickHeat – a free tool which is easy to install:
http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html

- For advanced users who want to get serious, you can use a paid service such as Crazy Egg.

These tools can show you where the most important, attention-grabbing areas of your site are so you can be strategic about where to place info such as your subscribe options, or your products etc.

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is where you compare different elements of a web page (or email blast) to see which performs better. So you can compare different calls to action, different designs etc. Your web server will show one version of the page to half your visitors and the other half see the other version and you can compare the results.

To do this you need to:

– sign up with  Google.com/WebsiteOptimizer
– Install this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-website-optimizer-for-wordpress/

Carsonified has the definitive video tutorial to implement this on a WordPress site.

You can also take a shortcut by checking out results from other people’s tests which might give you some ideas:

http://www.abtests.com/

http://whichtestwon.com/

Generate ideas for tailoring your content:

Find out what your visitors really want, by tracking searches on your site in Google Analytics:
http://www.webtrainingwheels.com/2010/02/do-you-know-what-your-site-visitors-really-want/

Also pay attention to the keywords that people use in your Google Analytics reports– this will give you ideas for more content, and also insight into the way people search – the way they phrase things. Useful for developing your SEO strategy.

Try and match up keywords with other metrics such as goal conversions, time on site, bounce rates etc, in order to pinpoint the most effective keywords for your purpose.

What are your most popular posts?

Develop a following

Encourage subscriptions via RSS and email
Email still crucial for businesses – try to develop your own targeted mailing list of potential customers.

RSS is well handled by Feedburner. Though Feedburner also offers email subscriptions, I prefer to send those through Mailchimp in order to consolidate my mailing lists.

Easy way to keep an active email list is to use an RSS to Email feature –Mailchimp and Aweber have this. Your RSS feed is converted to an email blast automagically on a weekly basis. This enables you to send regular email communication without having to produce a newsletter.

What can you offer as an incentive for someone subscribing to your list? A free ebook, coupons, a special offer etc.

“Sticky” Plugins

To customize the experience for your visitor and encourage them to stick around

- Microkids Related Posts Plugin , Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, LinkWithin
- What Would Seth Godin Do, or WP Greet Box – for customized calls to action.
- Yoast’s RSS Footer Plugin does the same for your RSS feed.
- enhanced commenting  – Disqus, Intense Debate

Tracking

Bounce rate is not the only metric !

Depending on your goals, also look at : Time spent on site, goal conversions (e.g. a sale, email sign-up etc), first time visits vs returning visits, traffic sources etc.

Some great resources suggested by audience members:

Ad management plugin:
WP 125

Alternates to Google Analytics for tracking:
Woopra,  GetClicky -  better than Google Analytics for real time tracking

Making your site mobile-friendly:

WPTouch – mobile friendly theme
Mobify.me

• Some plugins you can use to help make your site ‘sticky’
• How to discover what people really want from your site
• How to collect information from your visitors and develop your mailing list
• Making sure your site effectively communicates your desired message
• Find out what’s working and what could be more effective on your site

And more, including plenty of Q&A.

I’ll post up notes and resources here after the fact.

If you didn’t get your ticket yet, go buy  it!

And if you’re going to Wordcamp be sure to come say ‘hi’! You can also submit any questions to me here and I’ll make sure to cover them in my talk.

When choosing a theme you must consider design, layout and functionality.
When considering these, keep in mind the general type of theme you are looking for (see previous post). If you are looking for a free theme,  you need to find something as close to what you want as possible (or be savvy enough to tweak it yourself). If you are looking at Premium themes,  you may have some flexibility on colors and admin options. The closer your theme is to what you want to begin with, the less tinkering you will have to do. Determining what options the theme gives you will be important.

Remember as you are looking at themes that colors and fonts are easier to change (with a little CSS) than things like sidebar placement, and changing the layout/ structure, unless you’re comfortable with PHP.

BEFORE looking for a theme:
1) Look at other sites you like/dislike and try and identify those characteristics that turn you off or on.

2) Think about what you want your site to do and look like first. Sketch out a rough diagram of how you want it laid out – where’s the navigation? Where’s the sidebar (left or right)? Do you want a prominent footer (for archive and category links for example)? Think about which of these factors are important, if any and make sure to identify those in any theme you are considering.

3) For each section you outline on your site, figure out whether it will be static/evergreen content (a page) or updated, timely content (a blog post) – this will help you figure out how to create your site and also pick a theme that displays content the way you want.

4) What do you want your homepage to look like? If your site is a straight up blog this might be easier to determine. But if you are using Wordpress for a magazine, portfolio or business site, you might have specific content you need featured on the homepage.

5) Know which things you’re willing to compromise on, and which are crucial. For example, you may know you want a sidebar on the right, not the left, but you don’t really care about the footer.
The clearer your vision (or the more flexible you are) the more likely you are to find something you are happy with.

Some Design Considerations:

1) Do you like the color scheme?
2) Is there an obvious place for a logo image to go? Replacing a default image that the theme provides is easier than having to create your own place for it.
3) Do you want to put a customized banner-style header on your site? Look for a theme that already has that – you can just swap out the image.
4) Do you like the details, such as the color of links or the way images are displayed?
5) Does the them enhance your particular type of content? E.g for text-oriented sites such as  blog, does the them present the text in a clean, easy-to-read manner?
6) Does the overall look appeal to your target audience?
7) If you plan on having pages with sub-pages, how does the theme’s navigation handle that?
8) Is the theme designed with SEO in mind with good use of Heading tags? Ideally H1 tags should be used for the title of your blog post, not the title of your blog.
Generic links like categories, comments, tags etc should be h3 or less – this will leave h2 tags for you to use as subheaders in your blog.

Layout Considerations:
1) How many columns do you want?
2) Do you need built-in advertising banner spots? Or pre-loaded spaces for Adsense?
3) Do you want images with each post that are displayed on the homepage and in posts in a particular way?
4) Is the sidebar where you want it?
5) Does the layout suit the type of content you have e.g. does it showcase videos well, if that’s a focus for you?
6) Does it have the kind of footer you want?
7) Is the layout for a single post page different or the same as the homepage or the archive pages? Some themes hide the sidebar on single post pages for example. Make sure to check such details.
8) Is the navigation bar where you want it?

Functionality Considerations:
1) Does the theme have the types of features you’ll need for your specific content – eg. multimedia features if you are showcasing video or images? Or good social media integration if that’s important to you. Some theme come pre-built to display your latest tweets for example.
2) The homepage can be a source of frustration, especially if you don’t want your site to look ‘bloggy.’ Does the theme allow you to display your content the way you want to? If you need to showcase a video on the front page – choose a theme that has that feature so you don’t need to create it yourself. Does it feature posts from specific categories, for example, which would give you additional ways to highlight content,  or is it just chronologically arranged?
3) What admin options does the theme provide? How easy will it be for you to change things and how much flexibility does the theme give you out-of-the-box?
Does the theme provide ‘widgetized’ areas which easily allow you to change what content is displayed where on the page?

Once you’ve installed a theme, make sure to try it out with a few test posts, comments and images, to see how it all works and if there are details you may have missed, before making a final descision on whether you like it or not. It’s really difficult to get a good feel for how a theme will work for you if you have no content for it to display.

What other features or considerations should be included in these lists that you look for in a theme? Leave a comment!

Selecting a theme is about more than the way it looks. Functionality and the ability to control options from your WordPress dashboard can be just as important. Many people choose a theme on looks alone and then become frustrated because it doesn’t work the way they want it to.

Generally speaking, there’s 3 types of themes available – free, premium and custom-built. To help decide which category you might be in note down your answers to the following questions:

Which best describes your budget?
a. Non-existent, I want to do everything as cheaply as possible
b. Limited – $50 – $150 approx
c. I am willing to spend at least a few hundred dollars  to get what I want.

Do you have a clear visual brand identity including a logo and color scheme?
a. Nope.
b. I have a logo but that’s about it. I just want a nice-looking site.
c. I have a logo and full visual identity that I want my WordPress site to match

How important is uniqueness?
a. Not very. It won’t hurt my site if others use the same theme
b. I don’t mind paying a little to look different but it’s not mission-critical
c. It’s important that my site looks unique.

What is your level of technical savvy, especially regarding design, CSS & PHP?
a. I’m pretty savvy and/or willing to learn & experiment
b. I get how WordPress generally works but am not too familiar with code.
c. I’m not savvy at all and/or would like to be as hands-off as possible

Very generally speaking, if you know some CSS, you can easily change things like fonts and colors and other cosmetic features. If you know PHP you’ll be able to adapt layout & functionality easier.

Which is more important to you in this process– time or money?
a. Money – I have limited resources and would rather expend my own time and energy
b. Hard to say – I have some resources and would be willing to pay in order to make things easier.
c. Time -  I have a budget and no inclination to get my hands dirty with code. I’d rather someone else handle all that stuff and hand me the finished product.

If you answered mostly A’s you will probably want a free theme that either provides some admin options, or that you can tweak a little. If you’re willing to get your hands a little dirty with code, you can probably get it to do what you want, but if not you’ll have to take the theme pretty much as it comes. Some free themes are better-supported than others, so keep that in mind when selecting.

If you answered mostly B’s you will probably want to look at Premium themes that have a lot of dashboard admin options to make customizations easy. Premium themes usually cost around $30 – $90 and are typically well-coded with support of some kind so you can ask questions if you get stuck.

If you answered mostly C’s you may want a custom designed theme which will guarantee a unique theme that does exactly what you want, with minimal effort on your part. This could cost anywhere from a few hundred, to a few thousand dollars depending on the complexity of what you need.

A 4th option is what I call a ‘blank canvas’ theme such as Thesis or Headway which provide the core functions but little design.  They allow you to lay your design on top of their canvas without coding, using a visual interface and/or dashboard admin options to get the look you want. Only buy such a theme if you know how you want your site to look, or have a design to work from,  otherwise you’ll end up with a theme that blends in with everyone else’s. Poorly designed Thesis themes can be spotted a mile away. If you’re pretty savvy and know what you want your site to look like you could also try a free framework theme like Thematic or Hybrid. These are probably not recommended for absolute beginners as the sheer number of options might become overwhelming.

I realize my outline is quite a generalized way of breaking things down – there could be lots of combination of factors. But no matter what your circumstance, keep in mind that there are often trade-offs based on time, money and savvy. If money is no object, or if you are pretty savvy and can put time into working on your theme– you can usually get what you want, one way or another. However if you are restricted by money, and/or time you may have to make a couple of compromises in the way things look or work.

So now you know roughly what type of theme you’re looking for, what are some of the specifics you should look for in your theme? Read: How To Choose A WordPress Theme – Design & Functionality Considerations

What other considerations go into your decisions to choose a theme? I realize my list is not exhaustive, so let me know your experiences.

WordPress for Blackberry
The new WordPress app for Blackberry allows you to write posts, upload images, manage comments and more. You’ll need to enable the XML-RPC setting in the Writing submenu of Settings in your WP admin. This allows for remote publishing.

Also handy for mobile bloggers is a way to keep connected to your RSS feeds and Twitter. Viigo for Blackberry is pretty awesome – you can import your Google Reader subscriptions into the app, and Viigo also provides social sharing buttons (Twitter, Delicious, Facebook) for each article – a feature that Google Reader itself could stand to add. And for Twitterholics, UberTwitter is the best Twitter app I have come across as yet for Blackberry.

WordPress for Iphone
More info

WordPress for Android
more info