5 WPEC Themes for $75

Normally these themes go for $75ea but for a limited time you can get all 5 of them for the grand total of $75 - that's a savings of 80%. The themes included in this deal are:

• Parquet - ideal for a furniture store
• Paloogada - perfect for apparel/fashion
• Dangdoot - suited for a music store
• Bangkoo - another theme geared toward a furniture store
• Tokobuku - great for a book store

Of course the suggested uses are just that - suggestions. These themes can be used for any type of online store. Below is a screenshot of the Parquet WPEC Theme.

click to enlarge

5 WooCommerce Themes for $75

Just like the WPEC themes, these normally retail for $75ea but again you can grab 5 of them in the bundle for just $75 total. Once again a savings of 80%! The themes included in this deal are:

• TokoBajoo - for apparel/fashion
• Roxx - apparel/fashion
• DapurKue - for your culinary store
• TeeShirt - again apparel/fashion
• Arpegio - a good fit for your music store

As with the first bundle you can use these themes for any type of online store. Below is a screenshot of the TokoBajoo WooCommerce Theme.

click to enlarge

If you've been considering opening an online store using WordPress now is the perfect time to get started with these great deals. Get all of the details here.

You can follow Tokokoo on Twitter @tokokoo.

Perhaps they aren't sure how, think it is too complicated or simply feel it is not necessary. Whatever the reason, having a reliable backup of your website is vital and it's really not difficult either.

If you would rather not go through the mundane process of doing it yourself you may want to consider outsourcing it to someone like Code Garage.

Code Garage is a service that provides daily backup and security monitoring of your WordPress sites. Starting at $10/mo for 2 sites, you'll get a daily backup of your entire site with a 30 day backup history plus security and uptime monitoring. They offer several plans:

• $10/mo for 2 sites
• $25/mo for 5 sites
• $50/mo for 10 sites
• $100/mo for 25 sites
• $150/mo for 50 sites

All plans come with:

• 7 Day Free Trial
• Daily Backups
• 30 Day Backup History
• Hack Scanning
• Uptime Monitoring

There are no long term contracts as they employ a pay-as-you-go model meaning each month you pay for the coming month and can cancel at any time. If you do cancel you still have access for the remainder of the billing month.

Details on how to enter can be found here.

Sadness has descended on WPEngineer last week. Michael Preuß, one of our WPEngineer Team, died suddenly after a short illness and after a memorable life.

Michael along with Alexander Frison and Frank Bültge launched WPEngineer back in August of 2008. He was also the man behind the Xtreme One WordPress Framework.

Alex and Frank have decided to carry on Michael's work along with his friend Heiko Rabe.

He leaves behind his wife Carola and his two sons Robert and Alexander as well as many friends and fans.

On behalf of WPCanada I'd like to offer my sincere condolences.

Michael Preuss

WPCanada is pleased to announce that our child themes for the Genesis Framework have been internationalized. So, what does that mean? The process of internationalization, not to be confused with localization, is where a software creator makes changes to said software allowing it to be adapted or translated. In other words it's not permanently tied to a specific language such as English. On the other hand, localization is the process of adding certain resources to the software thereby allowing it to support certain languages. Localization is normally carried out by translators, which I am not.

This is something I've been wanting to do for some time since reading a great post by David Decker called The 7 Cardinal Sins of Localizing WordPress Plugins and Themes. The only thing that held me back was I had no idea how to proceed since I have never attempted it before. So I did a little research and engaged in a little trial and error and voila!

The process was actually easier than I anticipated. However, since this was my first kick at the cat so to speak hopefully I didn't break anything. If I did, I'm sure one of you will let me know.

You can find links to the individual child themes, including demos and downloads, by heading over to the Our Themes page.

We have pushed out updates to all of our child themes. The updates are a combination of bug fixes, feature enhancements and general tidying up of miscellaneous code in keeping up with Genesis standards. The changes are as follows:

BLOGNEWS CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.
• Fixed a bug that affected the display of comments when using the dark colour scheme.
• Misc tidying up in home_loop.php and functions.php

GOGREEN CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.
• Added support for Post Formats.
• Fixed a typo in the stylesheet.
• Misc tidying up in home_loop.php and functions.php

HUMPHREY CHILD THEME

• Added support for Post Formats.
• Misc tidying up in home_loop.php and functions.php

MANIFEST CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.
• Added support for Post Formats.
• Misc tidying up in home_loop.php and functions.php

NEWSBEAT CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.
• Added support for Post Formats.

SIMPLE CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.

WINFIELD CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.
• Added support for Post Formats.

WINFIELD DARK CHILD THEME

• Added support for the Genesis Box. This is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.
• Added support for Post Formats.

You can find links to the individual child themes, including demos and downloads, by heading over to the Our Themes page.

The Humphrey child theme for the Genesis Framework has been updated to version 1.1. This is a maintenance release.

Version 1.0 contained a special file to include the Genesis Box on single post pages. The problem is the function was never called in the theme's functions.php file. This has now been corrected. The applicable styling for the Genesis Box has also been added to the theme's style.css file.

Please note the Genesis Box is disabled by default. Instructions on how to enable it are included in the README.

Ever wonder what the first default WordPress theme looked like? WPLift takes a look at the various default themes used by WordPress through the years.

Both the Winfield and Winfield Dark Genesis child themes have been updated. Both themes feature a custom widgetized home page that defaults to a standard blog format if no widgets are active. The problem was I included a function in the functions.php file of both themes that forced a full width layout on the home page. This was fine as long as the custom home page had active widgets. If no widgets were being used both themes reverted to a standard blog format, as they should, but the full width layout was still being forced.

I corrected this by removing the function from the functions.php file of both themes. I then re-wrote the home.php files of both themes and included the function as a conditional. In other words, the full width layout is in effect if widgets are active on the custom home page. If no widgets are active both themes revert to a standard blog format AND the default layout (whatever that may be) is in effect.

Actually v2.5.4 added a number of new features:

• Added author URL quick removal functionality
• Added mShot preview on Author URL hover
• Limit Akismet CSS and Javascript loading in wp-admin to just the pages that need it
• Added empty index.php to prevent directory listing
• Move wp-admin menu items under Jetpack, if it is installed
• Purge old Akismet comment meta data, default of 15 days

However the ones I find interesting are the 1st and 2nd items listed above.

See that little 'x' next to the URL in the image above? Clicking it will remove the link to the site. This is a handy feature if you have a comment that borders on spam or one that you're really not sure about. Click the 'x' then publish the comment.

The other feature I think is neat is the mShot preview. Once again, referring to the image above take a look at the URL attached to the comment. Hovering over it will result in a lightbox-type of popup with a preview of the site in question. You can get a look at the site without actually going over there first.

During the month of December (yikes, it's almost over) ThemeFuse is running an awesome contest whereby when you purchase a theme you get entered into a draw for a cash prize. The prizes are as follows:

• 1st Prize - $1000
• 2nd Prize - $750
• 3rd Prize - $500

Additionally there are 5 runner up prizes worth a $100 each and 5 consolation prizes worth $50 each. All you need to do is cough up a mere $49 for one of their themes and you're entered in the draw. You'll have to hurry though as the draw takes place 31 Dec 2011.

iThemes and it's Related Properties

iThemes is offering a whopping 33% off their iThemes Builder Developer Pack, The Builder Foundation Pack and any of the 50+ individual child themes available in the Builder Theme Warehouse. You can also get the same deal on the All Access Theme Pass. Further details »

PluginBuddy is offering a 30% discount on BackupBuddy or the PluginBuddy Developer Suite. On a sidenote, I use BackupBuddy on this very site and it's nothing short of awesome. Further details »

WebDesign.com, the "Most Comprehensive WordPress and Web Design Training Available Anywhere" is offering a 25% discount on memberships. Further details »

Gabfire Themes

Gabfire is offering a 4 for 1. That's right - buy any one of their premium themes and get 3 more FREE. Further details »

WPZOOM

Save 50% on any theme or club membership. Further details »

Templatic

Buy a theme and get 2 more for FREE. Further details »

Themify

Enjoy 30% off any theme or Club membership. Further details »

Obox Design

Obox has bundled their "7 very best and most successful themes of 2011" into an awesome pack with 2 pricing options:

• $40 Bundle - A savings of $310
• $80 Bundle - Same as above plus the layered files for each of the themes. Also includes Obox Mobile, a plugin that makes your site mobile friendly. The plugin normally goes for $50.

Further details »

GorillaThemes

Save 35% on any theme in their inventory. Note: the release post doesn't specify when the sale ends. Further details »

bavotasan.com

Get 3 great themes - Magazine Premium, Magazine Flow and Arturo - for only $99.99. That's a savings of almost $80! Further details »

Dev4Press

Enjoy a 25% discount on any themes, plugins, plugins pack and themes club membership. This offer is valid until 8 Jan 2012. Further details »

We can’t really get very accurate stats, because we only know about *installs* that phone home, not number of users on each one who might need the multisite menus. We know of about 60,000+ multisite installations, half of which have more than two sites. The average is 58.7 sites per multisite install (that gets us into the 3.5 million sites mark, times however many users per site). Then, 31 installs have more than 10k sites. Edublogs, for example, has over a million sites. Universities like CUNY have thousands/tens of thousands of users per install.

And a bit later:

Better stat courtesy of @nacin:

“Chop off the 31 sites > 10,000 sites, chop off the 30,000 sites <= 2 sites.

96.3979 average for the remaining 30,000 networks."

I actually talked to Nacin about these numbers back in July at WordCamp Montreal, so these stats are not surprising to me. Seems a little low though – what do you think?

© andrea for WordPress "Must-Use" Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Check out WPeBooks.com for multisite plugins & ebooks.

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Why did we move? There really isn't an easy answer as to why suffice it to say there are not a lot of hosting companies out there that specialize in WordPress. Most of the hosts out there have been around for a long time, long before WordPress became the immensely popular platform it is today. As such most of them have failed to keep up and offer the hosting capabilities demanded by the dynamic nature of WordPress.

That's where WPWebHost comes in. With their WordPress-optimized servers they can easily handle those demands. They make use of CloudLinux to prevent resource sharing (hogging) which happens more often than not in a shared environment. As well, their hosting plans come bundled with CDN technology to keep things on your site nice and snappy. Other features include:

• nightly backups
• free migration
• free domain for the time you are hosted with them
• one-click installation and upgrades
• support staff well versed with the ins and outs of WordPress
• large knowledgebase and repository of information including WordPress resources

They currently offer 3 hosting plans:

• Freedom Plan – $7.95/mo
• Rockstar VPS Plan – $44.95/mo
• VIP Plan – $270.00/mo

The Freedom Plan is the one to start with it. For a mere $7.95/mo (if you buy a 3yr plan) you get 50GB of storage and 500GB of data transfer. The plan can handle up to 30,000 visitors a month. With this comes bundled a 50GB/month CDN. What I really like is the ability to add up to 50 add-on domains. You'd be paying much more for this elsewhere. If you find your site growing and need more resources you can easily upgrade your plan. At the time of this writing WPWebHost is offering a killer deal on their VPS hosting plans. You can review their plans and pricing on this page.

What this means for you? Hopefully a better experience while you're visiting us. Loading times should now be much quicker. Other than that the move should be seamless.

If you're looking for a new home for your WordPress-powered site why not give WPWebHost a try?

On Day Two we did a 3 hour session on setting up multisite. We also walked through the network admin area and squeezed in at the end some of the more common plugins in use for common tasks they might want to accomplish.

The workshop was *awesome* and we very much would like to do that again. Ron & I got some great feedback, and I know I learned a few things about how I might want to do these in the future, as well as pacing, material to cover – etc. Ron and I took turns speaking and helping attendees with specific issues.

I wanted to post here to let the multisite-interested people find more good information and see how people *are* talking about it at WordCamps everywhere. Apparently at WordCamp Philly there was a session on multisite as well, on the same day.

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Check out WPeBooks.com for multisite plugins & ebooks.

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WordPress 3.3 is ready for beta testers.

If all goes well, we hope to release WordPress 3.3 by the end of November.

It goes without saying but I'll say it anyway - since this is beta software it shouldn't be used on a production site. If you want to set up a test site to play around with it or help out with the bug hunt by all means do so.

In fact, you can even set it up on your computer if you don't have a spare remote site. If you're interested have a look at our easy to follow 2-part tutorial called Install WordPress Locally With XAMPP - Part 1 and Part 2.

If you think you have found a bug there are several options to report it:

• post in the alpha/beta forum
• email it to the wp-testers mailing list
• report it on the WordPress Core Trac

In keeping with their motto quality not quantity they currently have 5 themes for sale in their inventory. Have a look at a few of these beauties ...

Malachi Theme

Ezekiel Theme

Micah Theme

Their primary focus has been on the church and band niches but they have recently announced their entry in to the world of e-commerce themes.

Our next major project is to release several beautifully designed e-commerce themes. Some will be responsive (meaning compatible with mobile devices) and work with many of the leading WordPress e-commerce plugins so that you have a choice of which plugin you wish to use.

If their current themes are any indication we're sure to see some stunning e-commerce themes coming up shortly.

The themes created by Mint Themes are released under the GNU General Public License v3. You can follow Mint Themes on Twitter @MintThemes