ImagePreview Features:

1. Simple & Lightweight plugin : 40kb size.
2. Auto adjust according to space available.
3. Comes with TinyMCE Button.
4. Multiple ImagePreview supported.

See it live and Download Free for Members! Click here to Register

This content is for members only.

1. Install and active the plugin
2. You would require to add some HTML which is understood by the plugin, for example:

<ul class="preview">
<li class="imagepreview"><a href="http://www.google.com"> <!--- First Image -->
<img class="smallpreview" src="http://main.vibethemes.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/themes/vibethemes/img/flying.png"    alt="MrVibe" data-image-preview="http://main.vibethemes.netdna-cdn.com/img/VeryVibe.png">
</a> </li>
<li class="imagepreview"><a href="http://www.google.com"><!--- Second Image -->
<img class="smallpreview" src="http://main.vibethemes.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/themes/vibethemes/img/flying.png" alt="MrVibe" data-image-preview="http://main.vibethemes.netdna-cdn.com/img/VeryVibe.png">
</a></li>
</ul>

<script type="text/javascript">

$('.imagepreview').imagePreview({

});
</script>

Change Link to your desired reference point, smallimage to thumbnail ro small image version and large image to larger image version.

Share your feedback or request for next freebie at VibeThemes.com.

1. Which keywords should I select to start my SEO campaigns?
2. What kind of advertising should I start with Adwords?
3. Which banner ad style would be more successful? What should be the language of the Ad , formal or informal ?......

Various methods can be used to find or to do the analysis but have you heard of a survey followed by a simple marketing research, which can answer most of your concerns.

Why marketing research, it sounds very complicated...

Marketing research is not at all complicated provided you are clear on your objectives.
Traditionally, Marketing Research was the tool for big companies which used to analyze its promotional efforts, competitors but now with the advancement of technology and availability of research tools have made this possible for even a small blog or a website owner to go for it without shelling big bucks. Yes you heard it right, if you know some basics you can simply do a small survey followed by a simple research to achieve your objectives.

Optimizing ad placement through analysis and marketing research can reduce the cost of finding the right audience and raise the effectiveness of activities that follow like banner, text advertising etc.
One careful study of banner advertising found that proper audience affinities, the tendency of different sites to attract very different readership, boosted visit likelihood by 38% and visit to purchase conversion rates by 24%.

Not only this, marketing research` can provide you answers to your concerns such as like your competitor or other blogs from the same niche, blog content analysis, blog categories and attributes comparison etc.

We will start off by finding out

Where do you stand as a blogger or website owner against your competition? in other words How do people perceive you in the market?

Are you the most stylish among your competitors? Most knowledgeable or more fun ?

There are various direct-indirect methods available to find this out. Which we will cover in our next post.

Where do you stand against your competition.

Essential Features

1. Fast and optimized  (minimal number of HTTP requests to the server).

2. Elegant with good readability.

3. Lots of images which are optimized.

4. W3C validated

Good to have Features

5. Custom page and post template to create some promotional or special posts.

6. Custom Contact form

7. Multiple Sidebars including widgetized footer

8. Inbuilt SEO Widget ( Not my suggestion, I would still recommend using Vibe SEO Pack.)

9. Inbuilt Advertisement Widget.

10. Ability to change the Theme of the Blog with changing Campaign or seasons. ( if you have more suggestions, do post them in comments)

vCandy: Fastest WordPress Theme

This motivated me to create an ideal theme for bloggers, vCandy which as all the features mentioned above . AFAIK, it is the fastest WordPress theme till date. It scores  94 to 96 on Google Page speed and 92 on Yahoo yslow, Click here to know more, ( you can even compare your favorite theme with vCandy via this link as well). Apart form this the theme is 100% W3C validated Click here to know more. Page load time varies from 0.6s to 1.1 s.

Now, many may argue that the page load time of a site depends upon many factors, including the server configuration ( Apache or Nginix + hardware), therefore it was necessary to test this theme on the Worst case and Best case scenario. I have included lots of images in the blog posts of this theme (some are 1024x800px) but the theme automatically takes care of optimizing the images as well. In any scenario, the scores remained above 85 (Page speed) and 80(Yslow).

However, just by following few simple steps such as defining expiry of js,css and images in the .htaccess file, installing and configuring few popular plugins such as:

1. W3 Total Cache

2. WP Minify

3. WP HTAccess editor

4. WP Sanitize

I was able to improve my scores to close to 90.
All this I tried on a shared server, on a VPS you can see the current theme it scores 96 and 92. In any case I did not achieve these score even after switching to minimalist themes on the same WordPress installation.

We are providing free support to fist 25 buyers of vCandy ( Minor customizations and achieving top Page speed scores). Hurry before the count down (sum of the numbers Single Site License + Multi Site license) reaches 25!

Total vCandy sold= 11+16

vCandy Showcase Page
vCandy Features and Description
vCandy Theme Demo
Fastest WordPress Theme | Size: 250 Kb

What i feel is One page site is more manageable, can be more creative and beautiful than other multiple page sites.You can really go beyond the traditional thinking and design an awesome concept.

One page site offers many advantages over traditional multiple page based sites such as No refresh, quick, responsive, distinctive but they do have disadvantages like some might take a hell lot of time to load due to big size images.

Here's is the showcase of the best one page site with breath-taking creativity and most awesome, beautiful , out of the world concepts across the web. The main purpose is to inspire your imagination to design new trends.

A horizontal Scroll website with an awesome idea and message.
I like the manual horizontal site navigation.It is very smooth and yes you can go to any page at any point of time as it has page number mentioned at the bottom.

An out of the box idea.
The site is fast loading and what i feel is the concept is much different from the usual one page site.

Portfolio of James Garner.
This is one of the best portfolio i have ever seen.I have never seen such imagination of the designer.
On "Meet Bob" page just press the nose of Bob and the music starts...wow...just try and you will love it....!!!

A digital creative agency.It's a bit slow loading but the concept is awesome.
I like the site's earlier version too, i must say it was and is like a magical experience.

A personal resume for voting.
The concept is good and navigation is smooth & fast.

A portfolio.The vertical scroll one page site is fast and smooth.I feel the site has a clarity of thought and is seen in designs as well.

This was actually the first site which i saw years before with so much creativity.I don't really know how old is this site but it has always been a great experience to return and take inspiration from this beautiful site.

A simple yet innovative portfolio.Loves the navigation as well as the idea of the site.

Yet another portfolio but different from others.It's simple, clean and fast.Check it out to get inspired.

Think green with an awesome idea.
Use of both horizontal as well vertical scroll makes this a great concept and a lovely experience to visit and take inspiration.

If you know more creative designed one page site , please do let us know. We will surely include them in our next post.

1. Google Page Speed Score
2. Yahoo YSlow Score
3. Total Page Load Time
4. Total Page Size

And we have got better scores in most of the above metrics plus the bonus 100% validation from W3C which even Twenty Eleven fails to get. After you've successfully setup vCandy, we recommend using the following plugins in order to enhance your loading speed:

1. W3Total Cache Plugin
2. WP HT Access editor

W3Total Cache Plugin is the ultimate caching plugin on WordPress.org which would help you to leverage the real power of vCandy. We suggest you to enable the following features in the W3T plugin:

1. Enable Page Cache, Database Cache, Browser Cache and Object Cache.
2. Enable HTML, JS and CSS minification .
3. Apart from this if you are using a CDN then you must enter the details of the CDN in the Plugin.

The other Recommended plugin comes with a caution, the plugin plays with htaccess any error in it can lead to site malfunction. Therefore we recommend that only advanced users should use it. This plugin however utilizes the browser cache by adding an expires header to the files. You can verify its importance this is form the Yslow scores you would get by enabling this feature.

We suggest you to use the WP HTaccess editor plugin and add the following code on the top of your HT Access file (after backing ti up):

###################################
#   HTTP Header Caching Setting   #
###################################
# Set far-future expiry for images, css, and js
# Remember that you MUST change the filename whenever you update these items!
# Enablel this in your httpd.conf :
# LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
<ifmodule mod_expires.c>
<Filesmatch "\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf|ico)$">
    ExpiresActive on
    ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 years"
</Filesmatch>
</ifmodule>

This would greatly enhance your page load time and Page speed and Yslow scores.

Apart from this we will help you out with the customization and improving your page load scores. Contact us via the forum thread : vCandy forums
Improving Page load times

I encountered the following message:

In case you are facing a similar issue then here are quick steps which you should follow:

1. Relax and calm down , i know its hard but to avoid further mistakes its a per-requisite.
2. Click on this link Click here and scan your website. This link would take you to a trusted malware checking site Sucuri which is even recommended by WordPress.org.
3. Search for the malware term for information you obtain from sucuri.
4. In my case malware was "This link@Sucuri" and I searched the internet and found a forum post from some nice guy to remove it.
5. Contact your web-hosting company as well and ask them if they are aware of this, ask them to run an anti-virus scan and some good web hosts might even suggest which file was the root cause for the malware.
6. If you are not able to remove the malware yourself, ask your web host to restore a previous dated backup to get over the issue.

What after somebody has managed to infect your site? If are really serious about the issue you should consider getting a permanent solution to these issues. Now, there are multiple options which can help you:

1. Get your WordPress installation reviewed by an Expert: This is usually an expensive solution [ eg: Here] but is good enough to try.
2. VaulPress: Perhaps one of the best solution available today. This plugin has been developed by Automatic themselves and guarantees support and backups in case the site gets infected.
3. BackupBuddy: A very popular WordPress plugin which has recently crossed the 50k mark.
4. Sucuri: My favorite and now VibeThemes is being monitored/scanned by Sucuri. I can now be sure of my site security, since it is being scanned many times a day.
5. Create an Alert in Google alerts: View this post on how to use Google Alerts to protect your site.

After the malware has been removed from your site, make sure to submit your site with Google  for a review.Follow this for detailed steps Google Request for malware review.This will remove your site from the list of blacklisted sites and your old site will be back again "up and running" .

If you have used any of the options other than these for your WordPress Security, do tell us.

We are also in process of developing a plugin for the WordPress security, let us know the features which are  important for you while selecting a security wordpress plugin.

1. Prevent Directory browsing

Most hosts, by default allow directory listing. This can actually allow hackers to find for the vulnerable file and can make unexpected access to your site. To check whether your site is affected, type your WordPress URL into the browser address bar, followed by “/wp-content/plugins/” like http://vibethemes.com/wp-content/plugins

If you get a blank page or error 404 you are safe else, just add the following to the .htaccess file:

Options -Indexes

It’s not enough to update just the blog’s robots.txt file with Disallow: /wp*.

This would definitely prevent the wp-directory from being indexed, but will not prevent users from seeing it.

2. Change the default "Admin" name

Brute force is used by Hackers involves systematically checking all possible passwords until the correct key is found."Admin" the default username makes it easier for them to guess the right combination.

WordPress 3.0 allows you to choose your desired username by default. This tip might be useful for older WordPress versions.

If you are still using "admin" as your username run this sql query to change it.

UPDATE wp_users SET user_login = 'Your New Username' WHERE user_login = 'Admin';

This query will update "Admin" username in your wp-users table to the new user name you have given.

3.Remove your wordpress version

WordPress automatically displays the version you are using in the head of your blog files. This is harmless if your blog is always up to date with the latest version .But if for some reason your blog isn’t up to date, WordPress still displays it, and hackers will learn this vital piece of information.

Paste the following line of code in the functions.php file of your theme. Save it, refresh your blog.

remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

This will delete the WordPress version number in the header.

4. Give File Permissions

Though there is no need to alter the permissions after you have installed the wordpress but in case you already have altered, do keep in mind the following things
All folder permissions should be set to 755, Files : 644.
Files that you want to edit in the WordPress Theme editor should be 666. Never use 777 for WordPress permissions – This would allow all users on the server do whatever they want with your site, at max go with 757.

5. Limit wordpress admin access by IP address

Any visitor with web access can visit your WordPress login page and take a guess at your admin password. If they get it right, they’ll have full control of your site.

What you can do is Restrict the WordPress admin folder to allow access only from your computer, or a small group of computers. To limit access by IP, create an .htaccess file in your /wp-admin/ folder (not in WordPress root) containing the following code:

order deny,allow
deny from all
# allow  IP address
allow from XX.XX.XXX.XXX
# allow  IP address
allow from XX.XX.XXX.XXX

Just google "what's my IP" and you can find your IP address. Once you’ve done this, visitors without the allowed IP address will see a 404 message if they try to access your admin area or login.

Checkout this place for more tips and plugins on

WordPress security.

We have finally launched this plugin on WordPress.

We have received quite a few praises from our fellow WordPress companions, mainly theme designers and blog owners on the concept of WP Sanitize. The most interesting part of WP Sanitize was its plug and play solution which everyone liked.

The concept of plug and play WordPress plugin which runs on Auto mode in WP Sanitize is single most attracting feature for most of the bloggers and designers. This plugin is exploring new boundaries and should be promoted.

TheWPNinja

WP Sanitize uses WordPress inbuilt functions to set up a cron event ( a recurring event every 24 hours ) in your admin panel which keeps your content, head and database optimized.

WP Sanitize on WordPress.org

We are exploring many new features for this plugin and would like to share:

1.  Image optimization during Upload (Using Loss-less compression)
2.  Timthumb.php check and Auto Updation
3.  Malware links check

This is definitely not an exhaustive list and we would like to get more suggestions from you. You either post your suggestion below or in the forums at the WP Sanitize Forums.

• Firstly, I have to admit that Thematic is a beautiful and well polished code and the Themeshaper team has done a great job. It is flexible and simple in customization. With 13 widget areas on the theme a lot of options exist for the end user. The code is complex yet easy to work with when it comes to creating child themes.
• However, due to its complex nature there is a small learning curve which you can gather from the documentation and some helpful links such as Thematic FrameWork Structure.
• Although Design possibilities depends upon the web designer and neat code only helps in achieving these objectives I was could not find any drawbacks in the theme apart from the learning curve which really is a concern.
• By default thematic has inbuilt SEO parameters however it largely relies on plugins such as All in one SEO Pack and platinum SEO pack which they recommend. I would off course recommend using "Vibe SEO Pack".

I searched for existing free wordpress themes on Thematic and all I found was blogging themes apart from the Gallery (a gallery theme) and Simple Cart (A WP eCommerce Theme) , so I decided to build a corprate theme with Thematic to test its power.

vThematic : A Free WordPress Theme based on Thematic

vThematic from VibeThemes

Download below (Membership is FREE ! Click top menu ->Join the Vibe to login or register):

This content is for members only.

1. Download Thematic and install.
2. Download Zip and Install
3. Install vSlider
4. Create a vSlider called homepage with width and height as 928x380px
5. Create a Page with page template "vThematic homepage" and enter this page id in exclude pages list.
6. Go to vThematic options in appearance and make changes in the home page text.
7. Change the Logo and Twitter account from Vthematic options page.
8. Click Save and you are ready to Go!!

Apart from vThematic, here are  top 5 shortlisted themes for thematic:

1.  Gallery : By Chris Wallace [ Preview | Download ]
2. Simple Cart: By Chris Wallace [ Preview | Download ]
3. Crystalline [ Preview | Download ]
4. Early Morning [ Preview | Download ]
5. Commune [Preview | Download ]

In case you face any issues with the installation or have more requests for such themes, create a topic on our Forums.

WordPress optimization

As a web designer/developer many times you do not get the choice of selecting the right hosting environment for your website, therefore the task of WordPress optimization becomes more critical.

The aim of this article is to suggest tricks and tools which can yield good results in WordPress optimization.

1. Create subdomain to fetch images/javascript/css

   As the HTTP/1.1 spec suggests that browsers download two components in parallel per hostname. Interestingly this varies from browser to browser with IE7 supporting 2 components in parallel per hostname and Firefox supporting 8. Unfortunately by default WordPress downloads all the components from a single hostname. Change your default upload directory to a top level directory and connect it to a subdomain. Since all the images will be loaded to that directory use the subdomain as image source wherever you are using images.      eg: http://www.vibethemes.com/img/VeryVibe-125x125.png and http://img.vibethemes.com/VeryVibe-125x125.png . It works like forcing the browser to make more simultaneous server requests.
   

2. Using CSS sprites

   CSS sprites is one of the best trick to keep your html document size in check and enhance your user experience. Since all the images are combined into a single image the number of http requests are decreased dramatically and to the user all the images load at once.

3. Image Optimization using Smush.it from Yahoo

   Smush.it is a great tool form YUI, Yahoo. It uses state of the art loss-less image compression techniques to give you the best possible compressed image without loosing on the image quality. I

4. Combine and Minify all Css & Js

   The same logic which applies in case of CSS sprites also applies here. Minifying scripts would remove the reduce the size of your scripts and combining them into a single CSS or JS file would reduce the number of http requests by a great amount.

5. Move <script> tags in footer or bottom of content

   Whenever a browser encounters javascript, it halts the stack of yet-to-be-performed HTTP requests until the script has finished parsing and then executing. Move the not so essential scripts to the bottom of the page and you enhance your website's user experience.

6. Load jquery from Google

   Jquery is a big resource hog it is 70-89KB in size which essentially takes away a lot of your precious bandwidth and since most of the scripts are loaded after jquery load the overall performance is impacted. The best part is that Google's servers are pretty fast and would help in parallel loading of jquery in the browser. But most important thing I want to advice to all my designer friends is including the jquery the right way to avoid conflicts and multiple jquery inclusions. See example here on WordPress.org

7. Use CDN

   By Default CDNs are the best way to increase your website or blog's speed. A CDN is a content delivery network which functions like a cloud, a combination of multiple servers which increase the site's loading speed by fetching the HTML components from the nearest servers to the receptor.

8. Cache Cache Cache! use W3 Total Cache : Object Cache/html cache/query cache

   Last but not the least "Cache" is the way to decrease the loading time of your blog/website. This is an Awesome plugin from  W3edge which is a complete cache package. An ultimate caching tool for your blog with multiple inbuilt features a must install for every WordPress installation.

Apart from the above listed tricks other suggestions such as:

1. Using a Minimalist WordPress theme
2. Grade your blog by using Yslow plugin for Mozilla and Chrome from Yahoo
3. Replace normal comments by facebook comment

also can decrease the loading time of your blog.

The bottom line  is any method which can reduce the number of http request of your page would help you in decreasing load time of your blog/website.