Factors To Consider When Choosing A WordPress Theme

WordPress themes are loved by many people as you can use them to create any type of website that you want. For you to get the most from your theme you need to choose the best. To help you out, here are the factors you should consider when making the choice.

Price

The price of a product is very important not only when buying themes, but also when buying anything else. WordPress themes can be free or paid. While you won’t be required to pay anything when you go with the free theme, the theme is usually limited in features. You also might not receive the support that you might want in the event of problems.

Premium themes on the other hand will cost you between $50 and $200 but will have plenty of features that you can use to give your site a professional look. Your choice should be informed by what you want to achieve. If you want a professional look, you should go with premium themes.

Ease of customization

We all want different looks and there is nothing as bad as being unable to give your site the look you want. Before you settle on a given theme you should take your time to research it. The first thing you should look for is the theme’s layout. If it has a lot of colors, flashy animations and other distractions, it might not be the right one for you as you will have a difficult time customizing it.

Most of the WordPress themes have a dashboard feature, where, although limiting, you can customize the look of your site without going to the stylesheet. This allows you to achieve an ideal look even if you aren’t a coder.

Responsiveness

Nowadays people use all types of gadgets to access the internet. They use phones, desktops, and tablets, all of which are of different screen sizes. To ensure that all of these people have a great experience when they visit your site, you should ensure that your website is responsive.

This means that your website should automatically adjust itself to the size of the gadget people are using. The best way of knowing that your theme is responsive is by adjusting your screen size. A responsive theme should adjust to the screen size without tampering with the original look.

SEO friendliness

Nowadays almost everyone has a website and wants to be visible online. To be visible, your website needs to be search engine optimized. When choosing a theme you should look for the “SEO ready” or “SEO optimized” in the description section. It’s also wise to get the opinion of an experienced professional to guide you in choosing the right theme.

Conclusion

These are some of the factors that you should consider when choosing a WordPress theme. As mentioned, you can go with a free or paid theme. It’s up to you to choose the right one. If you want a premium theme, there are many places you can buy it. To be on the safe side, choose a reputable seller who provides you with optimum security and support.

9 Basic Steps In Moving WordPress Website to a New Host

Not satisfied with the service? Not getting what you paid for? Not having 100% assistance from your provider and afraid of losing data? Well, you might want to start moving your WordPress website to a new host. Don't worry about damaging your site. You can move your WordPress website to a new Host free from frustrations and delays once you follow the correct procedure. Here's how.

  1. Select a New WordPress Host

It really takes time to migrate your WordPress website to a new host. So, you better take your time as well in choosing your new WordPress Hosting provider. If you prefer a shared hosting provider, Bluehost is the best for you. Plus, you are eligible for 50% discount. Siteground could be the best if you choose cloud hosting or location specific providers. Not to mention their three data center in the country.

  1. Back Up Your Website's Files

After deciding which WordPress provider to choose, the next major project to do is to back up all data in your site. Remember to back up your files before making any change on your website.

Plugins that can back up your files are ubiquitous. You can choose any plugins of your choice. After installing the plugin, you will see a quick set up wizard. But prepare yourself for it uses manual steps to complete the process. You can have a FTP program then connect to your web host to copy your files to a folder on a computer. It might take sometimes to complete this step depending on the number of media uploads on your website.

  1. Migrate your WordPress Site

Don't lose your patience yet. It will be easier. Just login to cPanel account on your web server and open phpMyAdmin application. Then, choose the database having your WordPress installation from the list and select Expert tab on the menu.

Quick export and SQL settings would be enough for the migration. The migration process will start once you click the Go button. Once the database and FTP transfer have both accomplished, you're good to go on the next step.

  1. Create the WordPress Database on Your Chosen Host Server

You're doing a great job. See, It's not that difficult moving your WordPress Website to a new host. But before completing the migration, you must create a database where you can transfer your SQL data.

Connect your new web host to the cPanel software. In you find this process difficult, contact your web host support team to assist you in establishing your new data base. Don't forget to jot down MySQL username and password for you might need that later.

  1. Edit the wp-config.php File

Open the folder on your computer where you downloaded the files on your website. Open wp = config.php that controls the connection between WordPress and your database. You have to make a copy of this file in another folder on your computer. Just to make sure you can still restore it after the changes. Next, open the original version of the file and do these three steps:

  1. Change the Database Name

Don't be surprised if you see this:

  1. define ('DB_USER', 'db_user');

db_user – this part will be set to MySQL database name of your old web host. So you need to change to the name you just created.

  1. Change the Database Username

Change db_user from the old host's username to the new one you just made.

  1. define ('DB_USER', 'db_user');

Change db_user portion from your old host's username to match the new username you just created.

  1. Change the Database User Password

Lastly, edit the third line.

  1. define ('DB_USER', 'db_user');

Make sure change this to the new password you made for your MySQL. Then, save wp-config.php and close the file,

  1. Import Your Database

Alright! You just created your new database. This time around, Let us begin the import procedure.

Go to your new server then cPanel and open phpMyAdmin to choose the database on the left hand sidebar. From the navigation menu, choose Import tab . Click choose file from the File to Import section and click on SQL file you exported earlier. Uncheck the Partial Import check box , secure that it is set to SQL then click Go to start the import process. The import time depends on your database size. Notice you will receive a message confirming that the import has been finished.

  1. Upload the WordPress Files to Your New Host

After setting up the new database, start uploading the files on your website. Using FTP program, connect to your new web host and check to the folder where your website will be held. If it's primary then upload the files to public_ HTML folder . Your website files will now include the updated version of wp-config.php having the remote directory selected. This would take several minutes. Just a reminder, do not remove these files from your computer. They will be needed until the last step.

  1. Link to New URL and Defining New Domain

To avoid any issues in this process just like others have experienced, do not include your links to other posts or inserted images directly by pointing to a URL on the server that may cause to break when moved a new domain. Run the search and place on the new domain you are transferring the site to not the old one.

Changing Site URL: You are changing the site_url and home URL values ​​in your database while doing your search and replace on your old domain. This is for the assurance that when you log in it will automatically direct you to the new domain.

  1. Reconfigure the Domain's DNS settings

You're just a few steps away from the finish line. Before using this site you need to reconfigure your domain's DNS settings. Since it will be point on your old host, you will have to point the correct records to the new IP address. Of course, that depends on where you registered your domain. Don't worry because your domain registrar will provide you with all the information to make the process successful. The DNS changes can fully finish up to 48 hours. Do not make any changes on your website with in the 48 hours.

Right after the 48 hour period, you will be able to access the new web host on your website. You can now visit the old host to remove file but keep a back up of these files just to be on the safe side if in case you need to repeat the migration process.

As promised, moving your WordPress website to a new host will not make you sweat. If you follow these easy and friendly steps then you can successfully complete the process. If ever you have to move your WordPress to a new host again in the future, you can always refer to these steps.

How to Make Money on WordPress

WordPress is a versatile software platform that is most commonly used as a content management system and an open blogging tool that was originally released in May of 2003. Currently, it is the most popular blogging system on the Internet with over 60 million websites using it as their preferred site platform. It is also important for you to note that websites on WordPress typically perform much better than websites on other blogging systems. For example, 22% of the world top ten million websites run on WordPress. Unfortunately, many WordPress users do not know how to make money on WordPress, but a few users make millions off it. Join the few users making loads of money off this blogging system. Here are a few different approaches on how to make money on WordPress.

– Develop a WordPress Theme
A theme is necessary for any website on WordPress because it allows users to change the functionality and appearance of their website. Thousands of themes exist on WordPress and users can choose the theme they want depending on their personal tastes and preferences. Develop a theme that appeals to these users and they will buy it from you as soon as they see it. Web developers already have themes on WordPress that generate a lot of money for them. Remember, anyone can develop a theme on WordPress as long as he or she possesses the skills and desire to do so.

– Set Up Blogs for People
Over 2.5 billion people worldwide use the internet on a regular basis yet the number of people worldwide exceeds 7.184 billion people. This means that the number of people and businesses setting up websites will continue to increase as more and more people gain access to the internet. Start a blog setup service on WordPress to prepare yourself for this imminent surge in website owners. Hundreds of people setup blogs on WordPress each day but at the same time, thousands of people fail at it. Help those who cannot setup their own blog for a small fee and you will generate thousands of dollars each month.

Now you know how to make money on WordPress. Other ways of making money on this extremely popular blogging platform include creating and selling plugins, writing content for WordPress websites and even affiliate marketing. Use this knowledge on how to make money on WordPress wisely. It will help you to develop a nice income stream.

Which Is Better: A Premium WordPress Theme or A Free WordPress Theme?

There is a constant battle on the thought of using a free WordPress theme over a premium theme or vice versa. WordPress themes are widely used nowadays especially by most of the entrepreneurs who like to use a theme to have a more inviting and catchy website.

Let me ask you a question. Would you invest your money on a premium theme or would you just settle for a free theme?

Let's discuss and consider the pros and cons of both sides.

Free WordPress Theme

The advantages: The best thing about this is that it is entirely free, no hidden charges, taxes or fees whatsoever. Availability is not a problem because free WordPress themes are all over the internet so there are many to choose from. Since they are open source, it has fewer features so it's easier to install and use and the good thing is it doesn't require any programming skills.

Configuring the theme on the other hand may require you to have at least a little bit of knowledge on the basic fundamentals of web programming, no worries though, it's pretty easy since the complexity of more dynamic and complicated features are not present. You can also try as many designs as you want because you don't have to concern yourself with the price.

The disadvantages: As what was stated earlier, free themes are all over the internet therefore making it common to many. You might have the same theme with several sites. Another thing is, the developer doesn't have the responsibility to give you an update or upgrade in your chosen theme so there is a lack of support from them unless they have some time to spare for you. There are also some instances where free themes contain viruses or bugs that may cause a lot of damage to your site so you need to be extra cautious with your choices. Some of them also have poor code practices. It is made by developers who wanted to practice their skills or because they wanted to build up their portfolios and or links.

Premium WordPress Theme

The advantages: A Premium theme offers a lot of features to its customers and has a great design per se. Since the customer invested money for the theme it is just right that the developers give its full responsibility to support them whenever there are problems or bugs that they may encounter along the way. Questions and clarifications from the client are supported as well hence having a very functional and a nice looking website. It is safe to say that you are more secure in the premium scenario. Upgrades are also given often so the theme will not be left in the Stone Age.

The disadvantages: You need to invest money for the theme and it is not 100% sure that it will support you for life. We never know if the developer or its company will be around for updates and support. You need to consider choosing a premium theme because some of it may be far from your expectation. Remember you cannot change your theme easily because it will cost you more.

If you want to configure it, you may want to rethink. Subsequently it offers more features thus making it more complicated to modify especially the structure of the theme.

Every exceptional theme comes with a price. Better check your budget before purchasing.

Conclusion

Using a free theme is advisable if you are just starting with your online business but it is better to change it to premium once you have built up a good business. But in the end, the choice is just up to you.

WordPress Tutorials

In this article are WordPress tutorials used to troubleshoot a number of bugs and or problems one might encounter when using WordPress specifically when using the WordPress Shopping Cart plugin.

How do I install WordPress?

Well in order to install WordPress you have to have (FTP) File Transfer Protocol access along with a mysql database and php admin rights. Once you have this information you are ready to install WordPress, instructions on how to do so are found at: http://www.wordpress.org.

How do I install plugins?

Using FTP access a good way to get into your FTP account is to use a free software program called: http://www.smartftp.com once you are logged into your FTP account you would go to your public HTML folder (in most cases) then wp-content, then plugins. To get a bunch of good plugins go to: http://free-wordpress-plugins.blogspot.com, the WordPress Shopping Cart Plugin is included in the list. Then download the plugin to your computer, unzip the file if you need to then drag and drop the folder into the plugins folder within the FTP account. Then you activate the plugin by logging into your WordPress account and going to plugins and left click the plugin to activate it.

Why can’t I install images to my posts?

To solve this problem you will need to get into your FTP account then go to wp-content and create a folder called uploads once you have done that, that should solve the problem.

Why can’t I add product images?

To solve this problem you will need to get into your FTP account then go to wp-content, then plugins, then wp-shopping-cart, then using a program like Smart FTP mentioned above highlight all the content in this folder, then right-click and choose properties/CHMOD and change the permissions to 777 and that should fix the problem.

Why are my prices not sticking?

This is a simple fix, make sure you don’t add a $ symbol when putting a price if you do the will reset the price to $0 dollars.

When I try to add a product I get weird code saying that it cannot find some kind of table, what do I do?

The easiest solution to this problem is to uninstall the shopping cart plugin. Note remove the images folder from the shopping cart plugins so you don’t loose your product images, the content is stored in a database so you will not loose that if you uninstall the plugin. Then re-install the WordPress Shopping Cart plugins and replace the images folder information as well so you can maintain the product images, this should fix the problem.

I have re-installed the WordPress Shopping Cart plugin and now my products are missing?

When you re-installed the shopping cart plugin the reference to the product categories have changed. To fix this within your WordPress account go to e-commerce, then shop options, and change the default category to an existing product category, then view your website. Get the website address for the products page and copy it. Then go back to shop options under e-commerce in WordPress and change the: ” The location of the product list” to the website address make sure the other 3 fields follow the same pattern as well and that will fix the problem.

My products are missing from my website what do I do?

Follow the instructions above and that should solve your problem.

I am trying to add affiliate code to my WordPress site using iframes and the code is not going in correctly, what do I do?

This is a solution if you are using http://www.bluehost.com as your web host, however most web host will have a similar layout as well.

This is how you would fix the problem, it is a work around but it is guaranteed to work.

1. First login to your bluehost account, then go phpMyAdmin under Databases.

2. Once here on the left hand side click on wp_posts

3. Then you want to click on the tab that says browse

4. Then click on the pencil icon for the page you want to edit

5. Then in the post_content area is where you would paste the Amazon affiliate code

The code from here will stay intact so you should have problems with it going through here.

This should fix a great number of the issue one might encounter when using WordPress and the WordPress Shopping Cart program. New WordPress Tutorials will be added as needed.

Understanding The Pros and Cons Of a Pre-Built and Custom WordPress Theme

WordPress has become the primary choice of the majority of people seeking to develop their site using a content management system. After all, it holds the maximum CMS market share (around 59.1 percent). Moreover, there are myriad of themes and plugins on the web that helps in building an appealing WordPress website with a rich feature set.

But, remember building a site is not just limited to installing themes and plugins in today's ever-growing competitive web world. And so, other than having an attractive and functional site, it is imperative to present yourself as a unique online identity. However, using a pre-built theme for constructing your WordPress site might not help you establish yourself as a distinct brand online. This usually happens if some other business entity is using the same theme as yours.

Needless to say, users would not like to waste their time in visiting a website that cannot offer them something unique. But, you cannot ignore the fact that a ready-made theme help saves you enormous time in setting up a site. Also, you can build your website without spending a single penny on the assistance of any free WordPress theme.

Reading this article will help remove your doubts regarding whether you should choose a pre-made or create a custom WordPress theme. Basically, we will be covering the pros and cons of both the approaches to developing a site.

Pros and Cons of a Pre-built Theme

Pre-built WordPress themes are the ones that are created by theme developers and made available online. You can find free and premium pre-made themes in the official WordPress Theme Directory or any other third party sites (such as Themeforest, Themeisle, Elegant Themes and many other sources).

Pros:

1. Affordability: This is the biggest benefit of using a pre-made template. A free theme saves you from churning out your hard earned money. On the other hand, a premium model can be purchased under $ 100. Even if, you select a paid theme from a recognized source, you can easily find one suitable for your niche at a reasonable price.

2. Real Time Saver: You can have your website up and running in just minutes using a common theme. You just need to spend time in searching for an appropriate design template that meets your particular business needs. Also, a premium option is designed according to latest web trends. This further saves time in customizing your existing website design as per the ongoing trends.

Cons:

1. Faulty Code: This is one major issue with pre-built themes, especially the ones that are free to download. In fact, at times, you may even find fault code in a paid template.

2. Can Prove Costly in the Long Run: If your theme provider does not offer required support, then you may end up spending more than planned on making changes to your theme.

Pros and Cons of a Custom WordPress Theme

A custom-made WordPress theme is built to achieve your particular needs. It is an excellent approach to establishing a unique looking website. And thus, such a template helps in representing your business in a far better manner than your competitor's site.

Pros:

1. Uniqueness: Just like said before, a custom built theme assist in creating a website with unique design and functionality. As modern day people prefer sites offering distinct and exceptional experiences, a custom designed layout will surely help you create an edge over your counterparts.

2. Better Control: Unlike a pre-made theme that restricts you from making changes to your website layout, a custom design provides better control over modifying the layout. For instance, you can add / remove elements (like images, buttons, etc.) from the site based on your preference.

Cons:

1. Cost: Building a custom template from scratch can cost you a lot of money, not just in hundreds but thousands. With that said, you cannot deny that investing money in strengthening your online presence is crucial to your success. So, when opting for this approach make sure to plan out your requirements beforehand, and then decide if the custom theme will prove a good investment in the long run or not.

2. Future Updates: Premium pre-built themes are, in general, upgraded by the support team. However, you will have to remember about updating your custom design on your own. However, when focusing on other crucial aspects of your website development or customization project, you might forget to run the desired upgrades.

Conclusion:

Make sure to read all of the discussed key aspects in this article carefully to make an informed decision about choosing a pre-built theme or a custom WordPress template.

WordPress – The Ultimate Blog Platform?

I have chosen WordPress as our blog platform for our internet marketing business and that is for some very good reasons. Below is a (somewhat subjective) review and reasons behind our choice. First off some Advantages and Disadvantages.

Advantages:

– WordPress is a FREE blog platform

– WordPress has tons of plugins that will help you optimize your blog according to your needs and requirements

– WordPress is very easy to install and use

– WordPress has thousands of followers and developers that continuously improve and develop plugins, tools and software

Disadvantages:

– We have some difficulties using the editor, so we use a free HTML editor called NVU, make the post there and copy it into the WordPress “Add New Post” editor.

– A lot of spamboots and automatic comment poster “attack” WordPress blog posts

– Except for that we haven’t found any weaknesses or disadvantages so far.

Plugins:

Plugins are small softwares that is developed by either WordPress OR webdesigners like you and me, in order to complete and optimize WordPress. There are literally thousands of plugins developed, soe not so good and some truly amazing. Below is a couple of examples of plugins just to give you an idea of what it really is:

Plugin 1: TweetMeme – this FREE plugin puts a small button on every blog post which enables your visitors to easily share YOUR blog post link to all their Twitter followers. HIGHLY recommended (check it in the upper right hand corner of this post)

Plugin 2: MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate – this $97 plugin enables you to manage ALL your links, create your own link names etc etc.

We’ll cover some really good, both free and paid, plugins in later posts, but we just like to mention specifically that there are some excellent plugins for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that will drive free traffic to your website/blog.

Software:

In the blogging world there are constant need for different softwares, and for WordPress (and other blog platforms) there are a lot of good ones developed. Again, just to give you an idea of what we’re talking about, here is an example:

Artisteer – this software enables you to MAKE your OWN WordPress themes (soon also Blogger/Blogspot) without knowing any HTML codes. You can set the width of your blog, colors, header, footer… you name it – you can do it with Artisteer. An excellent software if you’re setting up and managing many blogs.

Conclusion:

WordPress is in our eyes the ultimate blog platform for your internet marketing and business. It has ALL the features and tweks we’re looking for and it continues to develop and improve day by day. Before you chose your blogging platform, you definitely have to evaluate them and see if it’s suitable for you.

Thanks for taking time to read this review, and whatever choice you make – we wish you all the best in your business endeavours.

PS – Comments and suggestions are HIGHLY welcomed:-)

Yours Respectfully

Tom Hammerborg

Free WordPress Themes Against Premium WordPress Themes

With the increasing popularity of WordPress, a great amount of amazing websites have been designed and developed by WordPress theme designers/developers.

Fundamentally, there are two type of themes available in the market – the free WordPress themes against premium WordPress themes.

Whenever I start recommending people to use premium WordPress themes, they often ask me this question, “why use premium WordPress themes when I can use free WordPress themes?”

In fact, there has been much debate over free WordPress themes against premium WordPress themes

Well, all I can say is both are great to work with, depending on what type of website you are intending to create.

In here, I will discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of using free WordPress themes against premium WordPress themes pros and cons

Advantages of free themes:

– It is free! There is totally no financial risk involved in using free themes. If you don’t like theme A, you can just abandon it and try out theme B!

– A large library to select from. Do a simple search on “free themes”, and you will find yourselves overwhelmed with the thousands of choices you get to choose from! With so many to choose from, there will bind to be one which you will like!

Disadvantages of free themes:

Virtually all free themes do not have the option for you to customize your website the way you wanted. You need to be a coding expert to be able to understand the WordPress coding and change the coding yourself.

– No updates at all. Do not expect your free theme to be compatible with the latest WordPress version. You will most likely face compatibility issues.

– Practically no help is available. The biggest problem with free themes is that if you will to face any issues, you will not be able to get any help from the developer.

– Quality varies. Although there are some high quality free themes available in the market, there are also a couple of low quality free themes. Numerous free themes are developed very quickly with no quality control, and therefore, don’t have the features found in numerous premium WordPress themes.

– A couple of free themes make it mandatory for you to keep the developer’s name in the footer. There are some other developers who encrypt the footer and promoting links which you just can’t remove from your website. There have been numerous reports of some developers installing detrimental coding in free themes to spread viruses without you realizing it.

– Furthermore, a great deal of the free themes is designed for personal blogging purposes only. If you are a small online business owner and is looking to create a professional business website, then a premium theme will clearly be a better option for you.

Premium WordPress Themes

Typically, the pricing of premium themes is in the range of $25 – $180, and these are developed by a very skilled team of website developers. More than often, designing premium themes is their full fledged business. Keeping this in mind, no developers will jeopardize their reputation by creating a substandard product, putting their business at risk. Their goal is to establish a pool of happy and loyal customers and they do this by developing great looking premium themes and helping people with any problems they have.

Now, lets take a look at some of the

Advantages of using a premium WordPresstheme:

– Great looking themes. It is without a doubt that premium themes are usually more elegant, stylish and professional compared to free themes, not forgetting that premium WordPress themes are abundant with great features as well.

– Consistent Theme Updates. Virtually all theme designer themes will release frequent updates to most of their themes. Updates will mean that you get to enjoy using the brand new features added to your website without you having to do any extra work. Most importantly, you can rest assured that your theme will always be compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

– Technical help is always available whenever you need it. Encountered some major problems with your newly installed premium themes? Well, not to worry. Top notch premium theme developer team will always be there to help you solve any pressing problems/issues you have with their premium themes. Most premium theme developers are able to respond to any of your enquires within 24 hours!

– Customization is as easy as ABC. As mentioned above, if you want to perform some basic customization (such as change your website font or colours, background images etc ) on your free themes, you will need to try to understand the WordPress coding and then try to edit it (a very tedious chore to go through). With premium themes, you do not need to go through the great length in editing the WordPress coding. In fact, you do not need to know anything about coding at all! Virtually all premium themes come with a custom theme option, allowing you to make any changes with just a simple click.

Disadvantages of premium WordPress themes

– The only complain I had about premium theme is that you have to pay for it. However, considering the flexibility and features you get with premium WordPress themes, I have to say that premium WordPress theme is a worthy investment.

If you are a business owner and is serious about setting up an impressive website to attract more visitors/buyers to your website, keep in mind that the cost of engaging a website designer to develop your website can easily rack up to thousands of dollars. Premium themes on the other hand, only cost a tiny portion of that amount, and still able to deliver outstanding results.

Backup WordPress, Transfer To A New Web-Host and Change The URL

Backup Your Website To Your Computer

  1. Download a copy of Filezilla, it's a rock solid open-source program for everyone to use for free.
  2. Get your current web-hosting FTP information (usually found in the web-host's Control Panel information or your web-host's website information page).
  3. Install Filezilla, when installed input your FTP login information in the "Site Manager".
  4. Make sure that you can successfully connect to your hosting space and view the files contained within displayed on the right pane.
  5. Find a suitable local backup location, preferably on a removable hard drive or on your own computer's file system on the left pane, example: C: UsersMeWebsiteBackup.
  6. In Filezilla with example: C: UsersMeWebsiteBackup selected in the left side pane, right click on the root of your website directory in the right pane and choose to "download".
  7. If Filezilla prompts for a duplicate file message, choose the "rename" option and just rename the files index1.HTML, index2.HTML and so forth. You can monitor the completed and errored downloads on the below tabs in Filezilla.

Change Your Database Name, User and Password in Wp-Config

1. Download with FileZilla the WP-Config file in the root of your WordPress installation or edit it by using the built in edit function in your web-host's Control Panel. Make a copy for safe keeping in case something goes wrong.

2. Change the following values ​​DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD to reflect your new database name, username and password: <? Php

// ** MySQL settings ** //

define ('DB_NAME', 'Your Database Name');

define ('DB_USER', 'Your Database Username');

define ('DB_PASSWORD', 'Your Database Password')

Save your changes and upload the file back into your hosting space if needed, overwriting the original.

Edit Your Functions.php Temporarily

Note: To minimize excessive linking, " * example " will be used in place of you typing in your own website's address complete with the http: // <— please leave out the periods when typing it in.

1. We will tell WordPress about your Domain Name change without actually logging in using the functions.php file. This file can be found in your Wp-contents / themes / folder. If one is not present you can create one using notepad or a similar program and naming it functions.php.

2. Make a copy for safe keeping in case something goes wrong. Open functions.php up for editing, either locally or editing in your Control Panel.

Replace the * example with your new domain name:

<? php
update_option ('siteurl', ' * example ');
update_option ('home', ' * example ');

3. Save your changes and upload the file back into your hosting space if needed, overwriting the original or just choose save if editing within the Control Panel.

4. Access your WordPress site " * example " x3 times and then attempt to login " * example / wp-admin". At this point you will be able to login or choose the password reset option to do so.

You can now remove the:

update_option ('siteurl', ' * example ');

update_option ('home', ' * example ');

From functions.php

Clean Up Any Traces of Your Old Domain (Optional)

Note : This is optional, use only if your website still appears to be broken.

1. We will use a small program called Search and Replace DB2, grab a copy of Search and Replace DB2 here .

2. Download, extract and rename the Search and Replace DB2.php to whatever you like just leaving the.php extension.

3. Upload the renamed Search and Replace DB2.php into the root directory of your WordPress installation directory.

4. Then in your web browser, go to * example /renamedfile.php

5. Just follow the onscreen instructions to replace all instances of your old domain to your new one. * Note : you may have to run this a couple of times.

6. When this has been completed, for security purposes, please delete the Search and Replace DB2 renamed file from your web-space.

Top 5 Reasons to Use WordPress

Individuals who are just starting out in the world of Internet marketing might find that it is somewhat overwhelming at first. There are so many different choices they need to make and if they are not careful they can end up spending weeks or even months reading and learning without taking any action. The most important step toward success in Internet marketing is taking that first step. The first thing people can do is deciding what type of content management system (CMS) they will use. A CMS is a system that allows users to manage a wide variety of content in an easy to use way.

The vast majority of sites on the Internet today use some sort of content management system because they are so simple to set up and extremely customizable. The most popular options are WordPress, Movable Type, Drupal, Custom CMS and Blogger / Blog Spot. Each of these tools has its own set of loyal users, but most people agree that WordPress is the ideal option for almost any type of site. People just starting out who haven't yet made a dime, and people who have been doing it for years earning millions of dollars use it.

The top 5 reasons to use WordPress are:

1. WordPress is free to use – WordPress is an open source piece of software that is completely free to use. Many of the other options may be free for a limited time, or free to use with limited features but not completely free. WordPress, on the other hand, is free to use forever, and there are no restrictions on the features you can use or how many sites you can use it on.

2. Finding WordPress hosting is extremely easy – Creating a website with WordPress is so easy because almost all web hosting companies support the technologies needed to run WordPress. In fact, many companies have specific WordPress hosting options available that will allow the WordPress software to be installed automatically with just one click. This means it is possible to have a site up and running within minutes of signing up for some hosting packages.

3. There are thousands of WordPress plugins – A plugin is a small piece of software written to expand the features of another piece of software. WordPress is an open source content management system, which means that other programmers can see its code and write plugins to help make WordPress look and function exactly as they want it to. Thousands of these plugins are available for free so website owners can create a truly unique sites that have all the amazing features available on the web today.

4. Google loves WordPress – Anyone looking to make money on the Internet will quickly learn that one of the best ways to get visitors to their site is through Google. The WordPress system is designed with Google's search algorithms in mind. In addition, many of the plugins are written specifically to optimize a site for Google. This gives site owners who use the WordPress content management system a big leg up over their competition. It makes running a site much easier and less time consuming than could otherwise be possible.

5. WordPress is expandable – When people start out with their first website they often don't fully grasp how big it could become. As time goes by site owners will continue to add more and more content, and without a good content management system it will quickly become confusing and difficult to browse for the users. In addition, the technologies used on these sites continue to advance as more and more features are being developed. Using WordPress allows the web master to keep everything well organized, and the software is updated regularly to ensure all the latest technologies can be used seamlessly on any site.

Freelance Web Designer | WordPress Developer | Hong Kong