What is Themify ?

Themify is a theme club which produces  a variety of premium WordPress themes which can be easily personalized. Each  theme comes with an advanced Themify Control which allows the users to easily customize their website without touching any line of code. The unique aspect of the Themify Control Panel is that it even enables  you to change the look and feel of your theme by editing any CSS property . For example, you can easily change the coluour schme and font of your blog . Most Themify themes come with different skins and there is also an option to make and save your own skins.

Responsive themes are getting really popular these days and most of Themify’s recent themes incorporate this feature. This means that they can automatically adjust to any browser window size and also work on mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone and Android. Moreover, all the the themes include Themify’s custom widgets and shortcodes.

How to win

You need to follow these steps to participate in the giveaway.

1. Follow us on Twitter and Like our Facebook page.

2. Tweet the following message on Twitter.

Win 2 great Premium #Wordpress themes from Themify only on @bbtblog http://wp.me/p1ZxAg-i7

Do remember to comment on this post, including your valid email address and Twitter ID, to show that you are taking part in the giveaway.

The three lucky Winners will be selected randomly.

Gain an extra entry

You can gain an extra entry in the contest if you mention it (along with a linkback)  on your blog or website.

Prizes

Each of the three winners will receive a coupon code which will be redeem 2 premium themes from Themify.

Important Notes

Contest will end on 22 December 2011, after which the lucky winners will be contacted by email. Therefore, do submit your valid email address when commenting on this post. Also, do mention your Twitter ID in the comment so that we can check your entry.

Good Luck !

Update !

Unfortunately, our website remained offline for three days due to unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, we are extending the giveaway until 25 December 2011 to allow maximum people to participate.

Winners:

The Winners of the Themify WordPress themes Giveaway are:

Since WordPress 3.0 was released, the world’s most popular blogging platform has been downloaded over 65 million times. In this third major version, the creators behind WordPress have focused on the back-end and and significantly improved the user experience, especially for newbies. Here is what you need to know about WordPress 3.3 :

Saving Widgets

In my opinion, this is the best new feature. Saving Widgets means that now whenever you change your theme, but then revert to your original theme, your original theme’s widgets setting will be remembered and you will not have to reconfigue the widgetised areas. This   is a very handy feature for those who regularly like to try out new themes in order to experiment with their blog’s  look.

Better Uploading

Instead of different icons of for different type of media, now there is only a single button for media uploading as the  uploader will automatically detect the type of media . Also, the media uploader now supports drag-and-drop functionality which promises to make uploading faster and more intuitive.

Fly-out menus

Previously, full menus in the admin area only appeared if they were collapsed. Now once your cursor hovers over the main Tab, a flyout will appear containing the full menu inside. Although this feature is sure to save a few clicks, it can be counter-productive for those who have lots of plugins installed. If you prefer the ability to expand and collapse menus, you can still do so by installing the Expanded Admin Menus plugin.

New Toolbar

WordPress 3.3 has combined the old Admin bar and Dashboard header into one streamlined Toolbar, which makes accessing the things you use the most easier.  Previously, you had the option of disabling the admin bar but this option is no longer present as the WordPress team has decided to make the Toolbar a permanent fixture.

Support for Permalinks

Although most sites running on WordPress use a URL friendly permalink structure, until WordPress 3.2.1  this could have cause major problems if your site had too many pages . Thankfully, this issue has now been resolved and the WordPress team even suggest post name as one of the permalink options

Improved Co-editing Support

WordPress 3.3 features improved co-editing support which will definitely make life easier for those running multi-author blogs. Now you will no longer see the ‘ X is editing this post’  message until X is actually editing that post at that very instant. Previously, this message appeared even when someone had left their browser window open .

Feature pointers

Whenever a new functionality will be introduced in WordPress, feature pointers will now highlight and explain it . Feature pointer have a great scope for plugin developers, as they can easily explain every step of their plugins’ configuration by using them. Already, feature pointers have been employed by Yoast in the new version of his SEO plugin.

Tumblr Importer

The WordPress importer plugin has added support for Tumblr, so that even more bloggers can experience what has made WordPress so popular.

Touch support

The WordPress Admin site is now Ipad-optimized so that you can update your blog on the go without any hassle.

New Help Interface

The Help Interface has been significantly improved, which means you should have no trouble finding solutions to a problem you may face using WordPress. Additionally, the Welcome screen has also been revamped.

Improvements for Developers

WordPress 3.3 also includes several under-the-hood improvements, such as the new Editor API and a new jQuery verion which will definitely interest plugin and theme developers.

Some bloggers are reluctant to upgrade their blogs to the newest version of WordPress, but my suggestion is to upgrade as soon as possible because not doing so can be a risky thing to do. But do remember to backupyou site before upgrading as a precaution.

So how can you achieve this task? First, create a new Thank You page and make sure it does not show up in any of your Menus. As an example, you can see our Thank you page. After this, just install and activate the Comment Redirect plugin by Yoast .

Comment Redirect is a very straightforward plugin offering out-of-the-box functionality. It recognizes first-time commenters by their email. After activating the plugin, just go to its options page which you will be able to find under the Plugins Tab of your Admin area and choose the Thank You page you just created.

Now your first-time commenters should be redirected to your Thank You page. However, you can also redirect them to any page of your blog . As I am using  Comment Redirect on this blog as well, you can see it in action if you leave your first comment here !

1. Install

After downloading the plugin folder, find the file named paypal-button-generator.zip, upload it to your site using the Admin area of your blog and click ‘Install now’ . After the installation is complete, activate the plugin.

2. Configure the options

Now you will be able to find the plugin options page under the Settings Tab of your admin area. Go to this page, enter your Paypal address where you will be like to receive the payments or donations and also fill in the default Product Title and Donate Descriptions. After this, select the ‘Thank you’ and’Cancel’ pages. These are the pages your customers will be redirected to after confirming or declining payments. Lastly, choose the type of buttons you want to display on your blog.

3. Implement

To insert the buttons in your posts or pages, you will have to use shortcodes. Remember to write the shortcodes in the html editor.

To place a ‘Buy Now’ button , use the following shortcode and write your own price and product name.

[buy-now product="My Special Product Name" price="9.99"]

Similarly, you will be able to to generate an ‘Add to Cart’ button by using the folowing shortcode. Again, remember to name your product and choose your price.

[add-to-cart product="My Product 1" price="9.99"]

A view cart button can also be created just by using [view-cart] as the shortcode.

Lastly, to place a donate button use the following code. If you use this code, you will be able to specify a donation message and an exact amount of donation.

[donate description="Ongoing Support" price="5.00"]

However, if you want your readers to donate any amount they like, you can simply use [donate] as the shortcode. Also, the plugin comes with documentation that lists some more advanced features.

Download WP Paypal Button Generator for Free !

As you have seen, WordPress Paypal button Generator is a superb plugin. Moreover, it comes with special rights which means you can edit, resale or pretty much do anything you want with it. And the good news is, you can download it for free if you subscribe to our Newsletter, ‘ProBlogging Prosperity’ . Our Newsletter contains concise tips and essential resources you need to take your blog to the next level, so there is no reason not to sign-up!

Shareaholic

Shareaholic, also known as SexyBookmarks, is probably the best social bookmarking plugin if you want to insert social bookmarking icons before or after your post content as it combines ease of use with lots of functionality. Also, its icons are really attractive with a built-in animation which encourages users to click on them and share your posts. In addition to the standard menu, you can also add a like button-set before or after the posts and a topbar with Facebook, Twitter and Google+1 buttons. Shareaholic is compatible with a wide variety of social bookmarking sites and includes social engagement analytics. Its options can be easily configured from the Shareaholic tab which you will find under the Settings Tab in your Admin area.

Sociable

Sociable’s main functionality is pretty much the same as Shareaholic but it is even more easier to configure due to the fact that it does not include advanced features. So it is ideal for those who find Shareaholic a bit complex or for some reason it does not work on their blog. Sociable allows you to insert Social bookmarking icons on your blog wherever you wish, be it posts, pages, home page, Category archives, Author archives, search results and even RSS feeds. Also, Sociable is compatible with all the popular social media and bookmarking sites. You will be able to find the Sociable’s options page under the Settings Tab.

Socialize

With Socialize, not only you can add social bookmarking icons inside the post content, but you can also add them in a ‘ Call to action box’ below the content. The buttons inside the post content can be aligned left or right and you can choose which buttons to show both inside the post content and in the box below the content. The ‘ Call to action box’ also includes a message which asks your reader to subscribe to your RSS feed or leave a comment. You can edit this message and I think it a great method to ask your readers to take some action. For Example, you can your readers to check out your social media profiles or visit your other sites. Moreover, you can disable the default stylesheet  of this box and custom style it in order to match it with your theme.

GetSocial

GetSocial is a nifty plugin which adds a  floating box with social bookmarking icons to your blog. This floating box is always visible which might encourage more of your visitors to share your articles on various sites. GetSocial supports the most popular social media sites by default and you can easily add any more buttons of your choice. It also features a handy color-picker to change the look of the floating box in order to blend it with your theme. The best thing I like about this plugin is that it is quite lightweight and simple to use. I have seen more and more blogs using this plugin and you should also give it a try and see how it works for you.

Slick Social Share Buttons

By using this plugin, you can add a floating box or slide out tab with customizable social bookmarking icons. The best feature of this plugin is that it includes a social stats page which gives a comprehensive overview of the number of shares on each of tour posts, pages, category pages and the home page. This is really useful in knowing which of your articles are proving to be the most popular among your visistors and which social media and bookmarking sites your readers prefer. Slick Social Share Buttons also comes with the added functionality of shortcodes which allow you to integrate the floating or slide out panel anywhere in your site content. Moreover, it has a lot of options you can tweak to suit your needs such as the choosing the animation speed and the floating speed. You can see these options in the Social Buttons tab in your WordPress admin area.

 Some other plugins which deserve a mention are Addthis, AddToAny, ShareThis and Social Slider. If you know any other outstanding social bookmarking plugin, do share them in the comments.

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