I have been using Thesis WordPress theme on Tech Exclusive for last 8-10 months. Looking at the overall results, it is one of the best themes I have ever used in my blogging journey.

Of course, Thesis theme doesn’t bring many advanced UI features to the blog. I have customized it to suit the needs of regular visitors, and one such change is Tweetmeme and Facebook Share buttons in the byline.

Well, here’s how you can also implement these buttons on your blogs too.

How to add Facebook Share and Tweetmeme Buttons to Thesis Byline?

1. Open your blog’s dashboard and go to Custom File Editor.

2. Copy-Paste following code in the custom_functions.php file.

function custom_byline() { ?>

<div style=”float:right; margin-top:-17px; margin-right:-0px;”>
<a name=”fb_share” type=”button_count” share_url=”<?php the_permalink() ?>”
href=”http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php”>Share</a><script src=”http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share” type=”text/javascript”></script>
</div>

<div style=”float:right; margin-top:-17px;margin-right:-10px;”>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

tweetmeme_url = ‘<?php the_permalink() ?>’;

tweetmeme_style = ‘compact’;

tweetmeme_source = ‘TechExclusive’;

tweetmeme_service = ‘bit.ly’;

</script>  <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js”> </script> </div>

<? }

add_action(‘thesis_hook_byline_item’,'custom_byline’);

3. Change the Tweetmeme source to the name of your Twitter account.

4. Save the file.

Whoa! You’re done. You can always adjust the location of these two buttons using your CSS skills.

Also read:

• How to Add a Favicon in Thesis Theme?
• How to Add your own Logo in Thesis Theme?
• How to Add Twitter Field in the Comment Section of Thesis Theme?
• Goodbye to New Thesis Affiliate System!

WordPress team has released the beta version of WordPress 3.0 software. The popular blogging platform has been providing great features to entire blogger community.

WordPress 3.0 has also been developed to fulfill the needs of bloggers. The most interesting feature of this version is the merger of WordPress and WordPress MU. Now, bloggers can access different sites through single WP dashboard.

Although ‘Super Admin’ feature is available in WordPress 3.0, you will have to follow some methods to use it successfully on the blog. Read the important instructions here. Apart from this amazing  feature, WordPress 3.0 comes with some other new features.

WordPress 3.0 Beta 1 Features

• New WordPress Theme [Twenty Ten Theme]
• Custom Menus System
• Improved User Interface
• Custom Post Type functionality

Please note that WordPress 3.0 is available in beta version, so you may find bugs and errors in it. The beta version is good for testers and you should not try it on your main blog.

Download WordPress 3.0 Beta 1

Download Link

WordPress app is available for iPhone as well as Blackberry. Now, WordPress team has released a new app for Android devices.

With this WordPress app, Android users can easily access their blog account, dashboard from their phones. It also comes with many other interesting features. Let’s take a look at them below.

Features of WordPress for Android

• Configure and manage multiple blogs
• Comment moderation including the ability to reply to comments
• Create and Edit Posts including categories, tags and photos
• Create and Edit Pages
• Get notified of new comments in the Android notification bar

Screenshots of WordPress for Android

[Click on images to enlarge]

Video Introduction of WordPress for Android

Download WordPress for Android

You can download this application from Android Market. It’s free to use.

Thesis theme is a one of the best affiliate products I have ever come across in my life. I like the way they show all the affiliate stats, sales details in one account. Their support system also works brilliantly and they have replied to all my queries with proper suggestions.

Today, I checked my mailbox in the morning and saw an email from DIYthemes about the change in affiliate program. Later on, I checked Brian Clark’s post on Copyblogger for more information.

They have suddenly decided to switch the affiliate system to other company, ShareASale.com(SAS). After reading email and article, I registered on new website to check out their system. There are certain things I didn’t like about new affiliate system and their registration process.

1. Registration Process: You can’t use your old account details with new site!  It doesn’t matter whether you’re an old affiliate or new affiliate; you’ll have to sign up for new account. On top of that you have 5 boring registration steps to follow. In these steps you’ll have to give personal information like your home address, website ownership proof and much more.

Well, if you’re thinking that it’s easy then here’s something more interesting. Non-US residents will have to sign some tax related documents and fax them to the given address. Once you follow all these steps, you’ll be able to receive your payments.

2. Payments: There is no alternate option for check delivery. The old program had PayPal option which was much convenient for many bloggers and marketers, but unfortunately you’ll have to follow their rules!

3. 60 Days Time Limit: Do you think registration process and payment system is too much? Wait, one more thing is there to ruin your hard work. You will have to change all Thesis affiliate links with new links in next 60 days; otherwise you’ll not get commission on those links.

These are few things which will affect most of the Thesis marketers, and I personally feel that the old system was much better than new system. Brian and his team should have asked views of all the users before taking this step. He has mentioned Tracking, Support and Trust to justify his move, which is not convincing for me at least. You were doing your job very well with old system and there was no need to make this big change.

I have been using thesis theme and its affiliate program for almost one year. I was happy with its performance, but now I have decided to quit their program.

Note to my readers: Although I have stopped using Thesis affiliate program, I’ll keep writing tips and tricks for Thesis theme.

One of the Tech Exclusive readers had mailed me a Thesis theme query. He wanted to display categories in nav bar, as I have placed on the header of this blog.

Thesis theme version 1.6 has default settings to show blog pages in nav bar, but you can also set different categories in place of pages. You can display some of the important blog categories on top of the main content so that readers can get more information about particular topic.

Here’s a quick tutorial to display categories in Thesis nav bar.

1. Go to blog’s dashboard and select ‘Thesis Options’.

2. Select Navigation Menu and open the category option as shown in image below.

3. Press the ‘CTRL’ button on your keyboard to select multiple categories.

4. Click on ‘Save’ button.

Now, check your blog. You will see all the selected categories in your blog’s nav bar. If you have any doubt, please ask me.

Thesis theme customization is fun, but some people find it difficult and boring. Few days back, one of the Tech Exclusive readers sent me a query about showing advertisements in each post.

If you have similar kind of query, then you can use the following tutorial. There are actually two methods by which we can display advertising in the post of Thesis based blogs. Let’s take a look at them.

Using ‘Custom_functions.php’

Open custom_functions.php file in an editor and paste the following code.

function single_post_ads()
{
if (is_single()) { ?>
// Put your code here.
<?php }
}
add_action('thesis_hook_after_post', 'single_post_ads');

Save the file. You can also put advertise on particular location by modifying the above code.

Using WordPress Plugin

Well, if you don’t know how to edit custom_functions.php, you can use a WordPress plugin called AdMan. Install this plugin on your blog and use given instructions.

Download AdMan WordPress Plugin: Download Link

• Go to Dashboard of your blog.
• Open AdMan through ‘Settings’.
• Check the options given on the page and accordingly put your code in given text field.
• After completing the above step, click on ‘Update Options’.

You’re done. Do you have any issues with Thesis theme? Ask them here.

Note: AdMan plugin works with other themes too.

Just few days back, WordPress 2.9 has been released for all WP users. WordPress 2.9 is working pretty well for most of the users, but few people have reported bugs in it.

For some bloggers, scheduling posts on future dates is becoming difficult, as WordPress 2.9 is having weird issues. It simply changes the post dates and publishes article with an old date.

Semilogic guys have found out the solution for this problem of WordPress 2.9 users. Here’s what they have to say about the issue -

• RSS widgets are completely broken on servers that are missing both of iconv and multi-byte string functions;
• The curl transport is broken on some servers with an outdated library. This breaks the WP cron, and with it future posting, pings, etc.

WordPress 2.9 certainly have major bugs and I am sure WordPress team will come up with another update to fix these bugs. If you are really getting trouble with WP 2.9, you can use the following file to fix ‘post scheduling’ issues.

Download Patched files for WordPress 2.9

Direct Download Link

Before uploading above file, make sure you have backup of the blog on your system. Upload the file on web server and replace it with “wp-includes” directory.

Note: WordPress team will definitely release new update. If you’re not facing any serious problem, don’t use above mentioned file.

WordPress based blogs have been attacked several times by hackers and WordPress team always release newer update to fix the security bugs.

Today, WordPress team has released another update to WordPress platform i.e. WordPress 2.9 ‘Carmen’. It has been named in honor of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae. Let’s see what’s new in WordPress 2.9.

New Features in WordPress 2.9

• Global undo/”trash” feature
• Built-in image editor
• Batch plugin update and compatibility checking
• Easier video embeds

I have upgraded my blogs to WordPress 2.9 and I think you should also start upgrading your blog/s. It is always good to be on safer side rather than fighting with unnecessary troubles. For more information, head over to WordPress blog.

Download WordPress 2.9

WordPress 2.9

Also Read: 7 Simple Ways to protect your blog from WordPress Attack

Since last two days many WordPress bloggers have reported the hacking attacks on their blogs. WordPress hackers have targeted old versions of WordPress blogs, which are easily vulnerable to such malicious attacks.

These attacks are increasing very quickly among the WordPress users and now time has come to take some precautionary steps. If you don’t take immediate actions on your blog then get ready to lose all your data.

How to find whether your blog has been attacked?

It’s very simple to detect this recent WordPress attack. Check your blog’s permalink structure. If your blog is under attack, you’ll find following unusual code in permalink structure.

http://www.your_blog_name.com/category/post-title/%&(%7B$%7Beval(base64_decode($_SERVER%5BHTTP_REFERER%5D))%7D%7D|.+)&%/.

There is another way you can detect this severe attack. Go to WordPress Dashboard and check the names of users. It’s possible that you may find some unexpected users registered on the blog. If this is the case, your blog has been attacked by hackers.

These are the only two methods to find out the hacking attack. Go through your blog’s settings and if you find anything suspicious, take quick actions.

7 Simple Ways to protect your blog from WordPress Attack

Okay, now you know that your blog is not attacked by attackers. So, it’s time to make it safe from future attacks. Check out the following important steps to secure your WordPress blog.

1. Update WordPress

This is the first and major step to keep your blog clean and immune. Update your blog to latest WP version, WordPress 2.8.4. You can also download it from here -

http://wordpress.org/download/

As I said earlier, older versions of WordPress are the main victims. So, it’s very important to keep your blog updated.

2. Update WordPress Plugins

Although WordPress plugins are not the reason behind these attacks, just keep them updated to newer versions. If you find any plugin is not compatible with WordPress 2.8.4, deactivate it and remove it completely from your blog. Report the errors to plugin’s owner. Such plugins might give you trouble in long term.

3. Change Passwords

It’s one of the best techniques to keep your blog away from such attacks. Change all the passwords of your blog including FTP accounts, SQL databases, Email accounts related to your blog etc. Don’t keep same password to all accounts. Password should be a good combination of characters and numbers. Make it as complicated as possible.

4. Delete Users

If you’ve any inactive user account on your blog, delete it and transfer its data to your account. Don’t keep useless accounts on your blog.

Also, don’t keep default WordPress username “admin” as an administrator of your blog. Create a new user with admin rights and delete the default account.

5. Set the Priority and Role of User

If you’ve multiple authors on your blog, don’t give administrator rights to everyone. Set their role as “Author” or “Editor”.

As shown in image, uncheck the “Membership” option and set new user default role as “Subscriber”.

6. Check Permalink Settings

As these attacks are basically affecting the permalink structures of blogs, make sure your permalink settings are appropriate. You can check it from this path -

WordPress Dashboard >> Settings >> Permalinks

7. Backup your blog

Always keep the backup of your blog and make sure it doesn’t contain any malicious script. Save the backup file on your hard drive, don’t store it on hosting server.

One more important thing, keep a separate folder of your blog theme on computer. It’ll help you save lots of work and time during new WordPress installation.

Prevention is always better than cure! So, follow all above mentioned steps to protect your blog from hacker attacks. If you know any other easy way to avoid attacks or have any doubt regarding these attacks, please let me know via comments below.

WordPress is a popular blogging platform in the world and WordPress users adore it because of wide variety of themes.

WordPress theme designing is not that easy, it requires special coding skills and perfect knowledge about CSS. But now you can create your own WordPress template with the help of free WordPress theme generator.

WordPress theme generator is a free utility and it doesn’t need any coding skill. You just have to use your creative mind to make themes more unique and beautiful. Check out the features of WordPress theme generator below.

Features of WordPress Theme Generator

• No coding knowledge necessary
• Semantic markup
• No tables used for layout
• XHTML/CSS output
• Lean, non-bloated code base

Screenshot of WordPress Theme Generator

As displayed in above screenshot, this free theme generator also allows to export your WordPress theme. If you want to create your own WordPress theme, then head over to WordPress Theme Generator.

Are you a Blogger user? Here’s how you can create free Blogger template for your blog -

How to Create Free Blogger Templates?