A lot of WordPress theme designers have asked me if they can submit their own wordpress themes to Blog Oh! Blog for free distribution. From now on, I have decided to accept public submissions. If you are a theme designer, you can contact me and tell me about your theme. If the theme is really good and I like it, it will be announced on Blog Oh! Blog. Here are some requirements which your themes need to incorporate to be eligible for selection.

• The theme should be CSS/XHTML validated (I will accept exceptions if there is a proper reason).
• The theme should be original and unique.
• You can only have your own website’s link in the footer. No sponsor links.
• The theme should include all the required files as per the WordPress theme format.
• You cannot sell the theme once its uploaded for free download.

While submitting your theme, you should send across a demo link where the users can test the WordPress theme. You can also send a download link too but if not, I will make the theme available for download on my server. So, if you design WordPress themes, get in touch with your work and I will showcase it for you

For a start, I am releasing a fresh new WordPress theme called Cloudy Day. This is a 2-column, widget-ready, blue colored theme with a very elegant design. It has an incorporated Lightbox functionality which lets you add enlargeable thumbnails. The theme also has inbuilt CSS styles for downloads, warnings, notes and info. This WordPress theme has been developed by Patrascu Vlad.

Test Run | Download

I am looking forward to all your feedback on the new policy and also on this free WordPress theme. Also, don’t forget to submit your work if you are theme designer!

Many of you may already know all about RSS but a lot of Internet surfers and newly established bloggers are still not familiar with the three-letter acronym. In order to make life easier for them, here is a detailed article that explains the word. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary; syndicating means republishing an article that comes from another source such as a website.

RSS is a means of publicizing updates about websites. It may or may not include a summary and photos of the latest posting. But those that provide summaries (thus Rich Site Summary) allow users to skim through the article so that they could decide later on if they want to access the website source. The RSS feed usually contains the title of the update originating from the website. It is also usually the link to the website source.

What are the benefits of RSS?

RSS gives benefits to both readers (users) and web publishers.

• It gives you the latest updates. Whether it is about the weather, new music, software upgrade, local news, or a new posting from a rarely-updates site learn about the latest as soon as it comes out.
• It saves on surfing time. Since an RSS feed provides a summary of the related article, it saves the user’s time by helping s/he decide on which items to prioritize when reading or browsing the net.
• It gives the power of subscription to the user. Users are given a free-hand on which websites to subscribe in their RSS aggregators which they can change at any time they decide differently.
• It lessens the clutter in your inbox. Although your email address will be required to enjoy the services of online RSS aggregators, RSS does not use your email address to send the updates.
• It is spam free. Unlike email subscriptions, RSS does not make use of your email address to send updates thus your privacy is kept safe from spam mails.
• Unsubscribing is hassle-free. Unlike email subscriptions where the user is asked questions on why s/he is unsubscribing and then the user would be asked to confirm unsubscribing, all you have to do is to delete the RSS feed from your aggregator.
• It can be used as an advertising or marketing tool. Users who subscribe or syndicate product websites receive the latest news on products and services without the website sending spam mail. This is advantageous to both the web user and the website owner since advertising becomes targeted; those who are actually interested in their products are kept posted.

What are the drawbacks of RSS?

The disadvantages of RSS use are brought about by its being a new technology and some user-preference concerns.

• Some users prefer receiving email updates over an RSS feed.
• Graphics and photos do not appear in all RSS feeds. For conciseness and ease of publication, RSS feeds do not display the photos from the original site in announcing the update except for some web-based aggregators.
• The identity of the source website can be confusing. Since RSS feeds do not display the actual URL or name of the website, it can sometimes get confusing on what feed a user is actually reading.
• Publishers cannot determine how many users are subscribed to their feed and the frequency of their visits. Moreover, they would not know the reasons why users unsubscribe which could be important in improving their advertising.
• RSS feeds create higher traffic and demands on the server. Most readers still prefer the whole update over a brief summary of the entry, thus they still access the site.
• Since it is a new technology, many sites still do not support RSS.

How do I start using RSS?

There are two things needed: an RSS feed and an RSS aggregator or reader. The RSS feed comes from an RSS-supported website. There are also websites that provide a list of RSS feeds of different websites. An RSS aggregator is used to read the RSS feed from the source website. It scans and collects data on latest RSS feeds from the worldwide web.

An aggregator comes in two forms: a downloadable program also known as desktop aggregator and an online or web-based aggregator. Downloadable aggregators may require payment before they can be acquired, while internet-based aggregators are usually free of charge. All you need to do is to register an account then you are ready to use their services. Both versions allow you to customize or choose which RSS feeds to enter. Paid aggregators are usually chosen by more experienced users and they usually allow more freedom in customizing feeds.

• Choose an RSS aggregator to use. For beginners, web-based aggregators are recommended since they are usually user-friendly.
• Scan the homepage of your target website for the RSS or XML button. It contains the RSS code you need to enter in the aggregator. Copy this code. Syndic8 provides a directory of websites that support RSS.
• Paste the code (which contains the URL of the website) in your aggregator. There is a space provided for pasting the code.

After you have done these three easy steps, you can start reading the RSS feeds coming from the website. New postings appear as they are published real time at the source website.

RSS and Internet Marketing

The original idea of RSS came from Netscape, where their intention is to provide a means for users to customize their personal homepage to contain links to websites that interest them, similar to bookmarking websites.

The application of RSS to internet marketing was an unforeseen development to RSS technology developers. Since users are given the freedom to add RSS feeds to their aggregators, those who are interested in particular products and services available in the internet can now be notified real time. Marketing becomes more specific to interested people and not a hit-and-miss operation.

Those who intend to use RSS for marketing their products and services should consider linking up with email account providers, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Google mail); networking websites (e.g. Friendster, Multiply, My Space, Hi5); websites of newspapers and television network websites (e.g. New York Times, CNN) for medium to big-scale companies. Small-time industries can also look into networking websites as well as personal blog websites (e.g. Blogspot) and websites of clubs and organizations that would probably make use of their products or services e.g. a fishing supplies store can look for the website of their local fishing club for possible RSS marketing.

Clearly, RSS is an innovation in information management in the worldwide web as well as online marketing. We can expect better RSS technology in the not-so-distant future as its popularity increases among users and website owners alike.

Do you publish daily on your blog? Here is a new WordPress theme from Blog Oh! Blog to help you in your blogging adventures. The new theme is called “DailyPress” and comes with widget-ready sidebars, tabbed content, banner ads, minimalistic color scheme and social bookmarking options. The theme is compatible with all versions of WordPress including the latest 2.6 version and has been tested with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.

I have included the logo.psd file with this theme so that you can edit it and make your own logo instead of the default one. The 125×125 banner ads are controlled separately through a php file called :- ad250×250.php

Test Run | Download (81.52 Kb)

This is a free theme and comes with a Creative Commons License which allows you to modify the theme according to your requirements. I will appreciate if you keep the copyright information intact.

Please download the theme and let me know what you think about it?

I am sure that everyone has come across WordPress themes which use alternative stylesheets (CSS) to switch between different sets of style information. For example, you can have a look at the following themes that have this functionality :-

• Xplosive Reloaded
• Wicked Lemon
• Wpdesigner7

Here is how these themes do it :-

Default Stylesheet

Ideally, every WordPress theme has a style.css file associated with it that contains all the style information for the theme. This default stylesheet is usually called in the header.php file of your WordPress theme by something like this :-

<link rel="stylesheet" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>" type="text/css" media="screen" />

Rel=”stylesheet” is what defines the active stylesheet as the default one.

Alternative Stylesheets

Now you will need alternative stylesheets that change the look or the layout of your theme. For example, you can change the color of the background, fonts, positioning of the sidebar, header images etc. To define the alternate stylesheets, you should use something like rel=”alternate stylesheet” during the stylesheet call. Here are some examples :-

<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/orange.css" media="screen" title="orange" />

<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/blue.css" media="screen" title="blue" />

You can make new stylesheet files called orange.css and blue.css files and maybe change the background colors for the body of your theme (for this example). Use something like :-

body {background-color:#FF6E1F;}

Goes in orange.css for orange background color

body {background-color:#2C85EF;}

Goes in blue.css for blue background color

Now, place these files in your theme folder (same path as your style.css).

Style Switcher

The styles in the above alternate stylesheets will be included into your theme but will not be used until it is specified in some way. To do this, we can take help of Javascript code which will serve as a style switcher. You can download the Javascript file here :-

Download styleswitcher.js

Please the styleswitcher.js file into your theme folder and include it into your theme by placing the following code above the tag in your header.php file :-

<script type="text/javascript" src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/styleswitcher.js"></script>

Now, you need a control scheme that will allow you to switch between the alternative stylesheets. Place the following code anywhere in your theme body :-

<a style="color:#ffffff;" title="Orange" onclick="setActiveStyleSheet('orange'); return false;" href="#">Orange</a> <a style="color:#ffffff;" title="Blue" onclick="setActiveStyleSheet('blue'); return false;" href="#">Blue</a>

The above code will make new hyperlinks in your theme called Orange and Blue. When you click on these links, your theme’s background color will change to the specified color.

Conclusion

So you can now experiment and tweak different things in your theme using the alternate stylesheets. You can make any number of such stylesheets but make sure that you call them through the Javascript code. I hope you benefit from this article

Today, I will list some very cool JavaScript hacks and tricks that you can use creatively or just have plain fun. To make each one of these codes work, all you have to do is copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser window and hit “Enter”. So here they are :-

Play the “Lord of the Web”

This code lets you edit any page/website in real-time . With Firefox, you can even edit and save the modified pages to your computer. Very nifty code!

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

The Big Wheel

This piece of code pulls off all the images from your web page and rotates them in a circle. Really makes any page go naked (without its images). The best place to test is a website with many images. (Google Images for an example)

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+"px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+"px"}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

If you look carefully in the above code, its rotating the HTML “img” tag. Just replace it with “a” or “p” and watch some links or text rotate instead of images.

Tremors

Your browser will be very afraid of this code If the code below doesn’t seem to work, please replace > with > and < with

javascript:function flood(n) {if (self.moveBy) {for (i = 200; i > 0;i--){for (j = n; j > 0; j--) {self.moveBy(1,i); self.moveBy(i,0);self.moveBy(0,-i); self.moveBy(-i,0); } } }}flood(6);{ var inp = "D-X !msagro na dah tsuj resworb rouY"; var outp = ""; for (i = 0; i <= inp.length; i++) {outp =inp.charAt (i) + outp ; } alert(outp) ;}; reverse

The Calculator

In case you are not in a mood to use the standard windows calculator and want your browser to do the dirty job for you, use this code.

javascript: alert(34343+3434-222);

You can change the numbers according to your choice and also try creative complex equations. Just put your arithmetic into javascript: alert( );

Finding Spoof Websites

There are times when you are not sure that the website that you are visiting is authentic. Use this code whenever in doubt :-

javascript:alert("The actual URL is:tt" + location.protocol + "//" + location.hostname + "/" + "nThe address URL is:tt" + location.href + "n" + "nIf the server names do not match, this may be a spoof.");

And finally here is something that you can only get to hear if you ever worked in a Tech Support department