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I have noticed that many WordPress themes repeat the same HTML and PHP code quite a few times within the same theme. This is something that I have always complained about. Maybe it is the object orientated programming that I have been doing for quite a few years that makes me shudder when I see something like this. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about:

On my archives page I include an invitation to the user:

• to search for the relevant keyword;
• to browse through the tutorials previously published on the site;
• to browse through the categories on the site;
• to browse through the last 20 posts published on the site; or
• to browse through the sitemap.

This same functionality is included in my 404 page as well. Before I added a Google CSE to the site this exact same functionality was also included in the search page. This means that on some themes the exact same code is now included 3 times. If a user wants to make changes to this portion of the code these changes have to be made 3 times. This same thing is of course a nightmare for someone else who might be doing maintenance or customization on the particular theme.

If code is to be used repeatedly this code should be placed in a separate file and then this file should just be called wherever it is needed. The following is the include statement I use to open the find.php file which contains the code for the functionality mentioned above:

<?php $filename = TEMPLATEPATH . '/find.php'; if (file_exists($filename)) { include($filename); } ?>

If you are in anyway involved in the development of WordPress themes, please make use of those include statements wherever they may be necessary. You will be making things a lot easier for the users of your theme as well as for the people who have to do customization or maintenance on the particular theme.

This same idea could be taken a step further. Some pages have very long and complicated code attached to them. This code could be made simpler if some of the different components were moved to different files. These components could then just be called wherever they may be needed. Just think about it, you may even be able to use these separate files in many of your future themes without having to re-code.

Till next time.

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Many of the WordPress hacks, tips and bits of advice provided on this blog, include code snippets. If you are making use of any code provided here kindly take note that I cannot be held responsible for anything that might go wrong on your blog because of the new code. Before making any changes to your files please ensure that these files have been adequately backed-up.

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Today's post is a bit different from how we usually do things around here. Instead of a simple 10-item list, it's split into 5 pros and 5 cons. This fits quite nicely with the domino theme on the site. Let me know what you think of this format - there may be further posts like this in the future.

For the last six weeks, I've been working for a web development agency in Central London. This is a far cry from my previous job, working for a software company in Australia, especially as I worked from home. Commuting into London, working in the city, and socialising in the area has effectively transformed me into a "London blogger". What are the pros and cons of being a London blogger?

(The image in today's post is by Navona.)

Pro #1: I can blog about things that happen in London.

Working in a big city, there's a lot going on around you. People, places, events, conversations - plenty of things to inspire new posts.

Pro #2: There are opportunities to meet other bloggers.

I haven't done much of this yet, but I may just look into The London Bloggers Meetup Group in the near future. I know there are bloggers in Australia, but I couldn't find any in the area where I lived. Meeting other bloggers usually involved a 5 hour drive (each way - so at least 10 hours overall) so it wasn't something I did often.

Pro #3: Web discussions often spill into the offline world.

Whether you've made an effort to meet other bloggers or not, I've had several chats about the web and blogging when going out with friends. This discussions can become much more interesting when you don't have to type out all your thoughts. I do like posting my thoughts online too, but talking is so much faster. There's definitely a place for both.

Pro #4: I can write blog posts on the train.

This is a definite plus, although I haven't done much of it yet. On a few occasions, I've opened my notebook and listed as many new post titles as I can think of. I haven't written anything more than that while commuting. All in good time...

Pro #5: It's easier to promote face to face than via email or Twitter.

If there's always something you want to promote, such as a new blog, a new post, or a new project, you have to be careful not to come across as a spammer. I think it's a lot easier to promote your stuff by talking to people than sending links to people via Twitter, forums, blogs or email. It's very quick to tell if the other person is interested, and if they are, I think it's easier to pitch your product or post to them.

Con #1: Too much of a London focus could cut out non-London readers.

Regional blogs are tricky. If your blog attracts a relatively small audience and you can't seem to get readers who don't live in the area you write about, it can be quite difficult to grow your blog. However, London is a big place, and even those who don't live in London might read a London-focused blog if it interests them. The trick is to not make it feel like a private club, and instead, to write in such a way that people from outside the area might still find the content interesting.

Con #2: Despite its size, London is sometimes forgotten by US-centric sites.

Big social media sites such as Mashable contain plenty of content that's universal and not location-specific. But some of the sites they feature are not much use outside the US. Many of the biggest social media sites seem to be based in the US. Occasionally, you do get a story relating to the UK, but not often. And a lot of the social media events seem to take place in the US. Living elsewhere can make a blogger feel a bit left out. To counter this, you need to make the most of what's in your area.

Con #3: A lot of time is spent travelling.

This point is more to do with travelling to work than blogging itself - but as a result of commuting, it can be hard to find the time for blogging activities through the week.

The London Underground (the Tube) is easy and mostly reliable. The train network seems to experience more problems. Blogging on the train is doable, but the Tube isn't ideal for that.

Even when your journey into work is smooth, I think most people have to do a certain amount of travelling (how many people can find a place to live in the very centre, let alone somewhere they can afford?). The travelling time soon adds up.

Con #4: Lack of physical and mental energy due to the "work hard, play hard" attitude.

London is a fast-paced lifestyle. I really enjoy it, but it can leave you feeling drained, especially through the week. Making the most of the weekend is essential - and so is making the most of your time.

Con #5: What if you decide to move away?

This is a problem with location-specific blogging in general. What if you start writing about London and you build up quite a loyal following, but then you move? Would you change your blog? Would you just stop writing? Or would you sell up and start a new blog? Whichever you choose to do, perhaps location-specific blogging is a risky approach due to its limited lifespan. Why start a blog if you know it won't last forever? But then how many blogs can say they really will last forever, especially when the blog is first set up? Do you ever really know? Can you prepare for the unknown? And have I asked enough questions for you to leave an insightful comment?

You’re working hard to improve your blog and to maintain Quality. But still unhappy with the things moving around you. Right? May be correct. Of course you’re doing great job, but still some simple things are there, which you never noticed/cared.

Those are simple but valuable and helpful in the long run to improve your blog day to day. I found a consolidate list here at Seohosting…

1. Use .htaccess to redirect the non-www version of your website to the www version.
2. Extend the registration of your domain for at least five years.
3. Make sure that when a visitor clicks your website’s logo, they are taken back to the homepage.
4. If you think your font is too small, make it bigger!
5. Remove widgets that aren’t directly enhancing your website.
6. Include an easy to find contact link, e-mail address or phone number on every page of your website.
7. Use a CSS stylesheet to make your website printer friendly.
8. Fix or remove broken links (external and internal).
9. Add ALT tags to all of your Images.
10. If your website is using frames, get rid of them!

This is just an insight, find full list at Seohosting page

Hope you found the list useful. Are you following them? Share with us! Happy Blogging!!

Don’t forget to visit TechZoomIn and comment! People like you are waiting there!

We are looking for Paid Writers! Contact me, if interested..!

Related posts:

1. Checklist:20 Simple tips for new Bloggers
2. Importance of Links in SEO and PR Growth!
3. Do you Have a Blog in Your Static Website ?
4. 10 Basic Tips to Keep Your WordPress Blog Secure
5. Don’t link Blog success with Comments!

In this post I want to take you inside a secret blogging alliance. A small group of bloggers who’ve committed to work together in secret for the mutual benefit of all members of the alliance.

Image by and[w]

Last week I was talking with a successful blogger about factors that had helped us improve our blogs the most and in a comment that I think he regretted making shortly after he mentioned that he was in a ‘blogging alliance’ with a group of other bloggers.

I immediately honed in on the term blogging alliance and began to push him a little on it. What was it? What did it do? What impact did it have?

At first he was hesitant to share but once I promised not to reveal who he was or indicate what niche he was blogging in he began to loosen up and shared some details on the understanding that I’d be writing it up as a post here on ProBlogger (he actually checked with other members of the alliance before he told me any details). Here’s what I learned:

What is the Blogging Alliance?

From what I can piece together the alliance started, as many good ideas do, over a beer between two bloggers. They had both been building their blogs for a couple of years in the same niche and had been meeting up occasionally to share stories and swap ideas on how each other could improve their blogs.

The meetings had been informal, irregular and usually disintegrated into more of a social catchup than much else - but they were reflecting on this one occasion that despite this they’d both really benefited from the relationship. As they drank their draughts they began to wonder out loud what more they could do together to benefit them both.

They tossed around a number of ideas including a formal partnership (a blog network of sorts) but shied away from that as they began to realize the legal ramifications of starting a partnership and company together. Instead they began to wonder what would happen if they pulled together a small group of bloggers on related topics to work together rather than competing with one another.

One of them suggested that they form an ‘alliance’ - the idea caught on.

Each of the bloggers sounded out 3 other bloggers to see if they were interested. 5 of those that they sounded out responded positively - the 6th didn’t (and interestingly is the only one of the original group not blogging today).

The 7 bloggers who founded the alliance all came from the same niche. The niche was a very wide one though and each had different approaches, skills, strengths and focuses. None really were competing with each other directly but all were on related topics.

They decided to ‘meet’ at the same time each week on a conference call (they were scattered geographically so a face to face meeting wasn’t possible). On their first meeting they didn’t really know what they were going to DO together but they committed to keep meeting, keep sharing what they were doing, keep talking about their niche and keep looking for opportunities to help each other.

They committed to keep the group secret and to keep all activities of the group to be for the mutual benefit of one another.

This all took place two years ago.

Since that time each of the 7 bloggers have seen drastic improvements in their blogs. None are what one might consider to be ‘A-lister’ blogs but of the initial group 5 are now full time bloggers and the other 2 could be if they wished to be but have decided to keep working other jobs.

They have talked about inviting other bloggers into the alliance numerous times but have decided to keep things small.

What Does the Blogging Alliance DO?

OK - so at this point I was intrigued by the idea of a blogging alliance. I didn’t know who was involved (and still don’t) but I did know the blogger telling me the story and he’s a credible guy with a great blog who makes a good living from his blog.

So my next question was to ask what the blogging alliance actually looked like? What did they do? How had it worked?

We talked for a good 45 minutes about this but here’s a summary of the notes I took (with a few of my own thoughts) on the different activities that they engaged in to help one another grow their blogs:

1. Commenting on each others blogs

I’ll admit, when he shared this one first I was a little disappointed. I was envisaging a secret group gathering in robes practicing dynamic new tactics to grow one another’s blogs…. and he tells me that they comment on each others blogs!

However this was where they started and he tells me that it actually had a big impact. They decided as a group that rather than starting with anything too big that they’d simple each subscribe and read one another’s blogs and leave at least one comment on each others blogs once every weekday.

The idea came out of the fact that each reported on their first meeting that one of their biggest frustrations was that while they spent hours each week writing their blogs that they always struggled to get comments - it was depressing. So they started commenting on each other’s posts.

So instead of each post they wrote getting 0 comments - they each started getting 7. The impact was interesting because not only did the comments stimulate great conversations between them - but they started to notice others leaving comments too. The idea of ’social proof’ came into effect - people coming to a blog with comments are just more likely to leave comments.

Interestingly the blogger I spoke with told me of another impact on his own blogging - he started writing better posts. He reflected to me that knowing that these other 7 bloggers from his niche were going to be reading his posts spurred him on to write better and better articles. Not only that - the comments being left were not just ‘great post’ comments but each had committed to adding useful comments - so quite often he got great ideas for new posts as well - his blog improved almost overnight simply by having other bloggers leave comments on his blog.

2. Linking to One Another

The next thing they did was again simple but effective (in fact everything they did was simple) - they began to link to one another. Actually this didn’t really start as a formal strategy as such - they did it naturally as a result of each subscribing to one another because they began to see posts on one another’s blogs that related to their audience.

However they did end up getting a little more formal with it and devised a bit of a system (they ended up using Basecamp to keep track of a lot of this type of thing) where they could each suggest a single post that they’d written each week that they’d like one another to consider linking to.

They decided not to force one another to link in this way because they wanted posts to be relevant to the blog linking to them but over time what started happening was that each of the blogs in the alliance started getting linked to by at least 2-3 of the other blogs each week.

They also committed to add blogrolls to their sidebars which linked to one another (as well as a few other blogs in their niche).

The result of this simple strategy over time was that they started sharing readers with one another and that their search engine rankings started to grow.

3. Social Bookmarking and Tweeting

An extension of the linking to one another’s posts was that the bloggers also started to help one another out in social media by promoting each others links on Twitter as well as bookmarking each other’s posts on sites like Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon.

While this didn’t have a massive impact as they were such a small group of bloggers it did drive some traffic (it drove more over time as each of their social media presences grew) and also generated links for posts.

They didn’t do this for every post each of them wrote - but again were selective and did it with a single post a week each (I think this grew to a minimum of 2-3 posts a week later on).

Some of the bloggers now not only automatically tweet when they post a new post on their own blog but have got things set up to automatically tweet when other blogs in the alliance tweet.

4. Guest Posts

Another thing that they regularly do is write for one another.

This started out simply as a way to help each other out when one of them was going on vacation (the other bloggers would fill in) but they found that it ended up benefiting everyone because it helped each of them to grow their profile with each other’s readers.

Now they each commit to write at least one guest post per month on at least one of the other blogs in the alliance. In reality most of them do guest posts as much as once a week. They mix it up so everyone gets and writes guest posts and so that the one person isn’t doing the guest posts on just one blog.

5. Joint Promotions/Competitions

A couple of times now they’ve run promotions together. I won’t go into too much detail of what they did for fear of revealing who they are but they have centered around competitions with bigger prizes open to readers from each of their blogs. The results were great as they were able to attract sponsors to donate great prizes with the guarantee that the sponsor wouldn’t just get exposure on a single blog but 7.

6. Monetization Leads

This is a more recent development but has had some real success. They realized after a while that each of them were spending time each month trying to find advertisers as well as testing affiliate programs on their blogs. They were duplicating a lot of their efforts and actually competing with one another on occasions to sign up advertisers.

They talked about pooling their efforts completely and setting up an ad network to run across all 7 blogs but pulled away from that idea for the time being as it was a little complicated and they didn’t want to formalize partnerships or have to write up contracts.

Instead what they’ve done is commit to share with one another when they sign up new advertisers, to share how much they’re getting, to introduce one another to advertisers etc. The result has been great so far - a number of the advertisers have signed up for multiple blogs where they’d previously have signed up for just one.

They each still handle their negotiations with advertisers but the introductions alone have helped all improve their revenue.

They also share information with each other on what affiliate programs are working for them and what techniques they’re using to increase sales.

7. Spot Promotions

Another technique that they’ve used a few times is to run what they call ’spot promotions’ of each others blogs. I’m not sure how they came up with that name for what they do but in effect it involves them doing a promotion for another blog in the alliance by giving a strong call to action to readers of one blog to become subscribers to the newsletter list or RSS feed of another.

This is usually done in a blog post (ie Blog A writes a post talking about how much they love Blog B and highlighting it’s newsletter and/or feed).

The results of these promotions have apparently been fantastic.

8. Thank You Page Promotions

Another similar thing that they’ve recently been trying is to add promotions to each others newsletters and feeds to the thank you pages of their own newsletter signups (ie when you sign up for the newsletter for Blog A you’re taken to a thank you page that suggests 6 other blogs that you should subscribe to with links to each of their newsletters/feeds).

This is a technique that many internet marketers use to ‘up sell’ people to products - but this group have committed to ‘up sell’ each other’s lists on their thank you pages (a great idea).

9. Remnant Ad Promotions

Another technique that they’ve done a little with is to serve ads for each other’s blogs when they have spare ad spots on their blogs. So if Blog A has a spare 125 x 125 ad slot on their blog they rotate buttons for each of the other blogs in that position - driving traffic from one blog to another.

10. Product Promotion

More recently a couple of the bloggers in the alliance have released products (ebooks/membership sites). The group have committed to promote one another’s products heavily.

They have also committed to give each other ’super-affiliate’ status of each other’s products where the affiliate commissions that they pay to affiliates are significantly higher on each other’s products (so it’s not just those who release products who benefit more from the alliance but those promoting them).

11. Joint Products

They’ve also recently just started about talking about joint collaborations on products. The ‘alliance’ itself will release a product next year which they’ll all contribute content to as well as receive a share of the profits from.

12. Networking

Another thing that this group of bloggers has done really well is to help one another to expand and deepen one another’s networks. Of course a great deal of networking has gone on amongst the bloggers themselves but there have been many occasions where bloggers have made introductions for one another to other bloggers, journalists, developers, designers etc etc etc.

Collectively these 7 bloggers know a lot of people and they’re more than willing to help one another expand their networks.

13. In Person Meet Up

In the last few months the group met up for the first time in person. They all booked rooms in the one hotel and got themselves a meeting room and spent a weekend together.

The weekend involved a lot of socializing but also some intentional times together where they did

• some training (each had to present for 30 minutes on something that they’d learned and had success with)
• brainstorming (they spent time brainstorming what they could do together - this is where the idea for a joint product came from)
• blog reviews (they spent an hour workshopping each of the 7 blogs - each blogger came away with a long list of things that they could do to improve their blogs, topics that they could write on, ideas on how to better monetize etc)

A few Concluding Insights on Blog Alliances

I found this conversation to be a fascinating one. Much of what this blogger told me is similar to things I’ve been suggesting bloggers do together for years in posts that I’ve written about finding ‘blogging buddies’ (in fact this group took on some of the ideas in my posts and implemented them in their alliance) however this group has taken things to a whole new level and formalized many of them (in an informal way as there’s no contracts or legal agreements).

In chatting to the blogger I got the sense that the group has worked well because each of the bloggers had (and still have) similar sized blogs, that each of the bloggers has an attitude of being humble and committed to the idea of mutual benefit and because they have never forced anyone to promote anything that they didn’t feel was a natural or organic fit with their blog.

There have been times where a blogger (or more than one) have opted out of things that others were doing because of their own commitments or because it didn’t ‘fit’ with their blogs - but each of the bloggers has invested time and energy into the greater good of the alliance.

The Results

Lastly by all reports this alliance has helped a great deal. As I mentioned above - 5 of the 7 bloggers are now full time bloggers and the other 2 are doing pretty well with blogging as their 2nd job.

One of the side benefits that the blogger I talked with talked about was that the he didn’t think that he’d still be blogging if it wasn’t for the alliance. He’d been through a couple of times in the last two years where he’d wanted to give up blogging - but the alliance pulled him through. Other bloggers covered for him through tough circumstances and on other occasions other bloggers gave him a kick up the pants and told him to get his act together when he was slacking off. The combination of accountability and encouragement really helped him a lot.

Thanks to this alliance for allowing us to see some of what they’ve done - I’m fascinated by this glimpse into this alliance - I think it could (and should) spark ideas for other bloggers who I think could benefit a lot from similar approaches.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Let me Show You Inside a Secret Blogging Alliance

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HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language, and it is the most common language used to create web pages. The basic HTML structure is composed of tags, but you can also embed images, videos, and load scripts from other languages (e.g., Javascript) inside pages.

You probably already knew that. What you might not know is that currently we are using the fourth revision of HTML, called HTML 4.01, and that the next revision, called HTML 5.0, will completely change the web development segment.

Here are some major game changers that we’ll see with HTML 5:

• The elements will be more aligned with modern web design practices. Some of the new tags include <header>,<nav>,<aside> and <footer>.
• The DOCTYPE was simplified to <!DOCTYPE html>.
• You will be able to embed audio and video directly in the HTML code and without the need for external plugins. The two new elements for that are <audio> and <video>.
• New APIs (application programming interfaces) will be included. This will enable developers to add drag-n-drop features, document editing, drawing and so on.

Cool stuff right? Unfortunately we can’t say for sure when HTML 5 will be adopted. The first public working draft with the HTML 5 specifications was published January of 2008. The last one was published in August of this year, and you can read it on the W3.org website.

Major browsers are gradually incorporating HTML 5 specs, but it might be a while before they are fully compatible and before developers start using the language. If you want to test it, both Firefox 3.1 and Safari 3.1 should have support for some features. You can go to youtube.com/html5 to see a demo page built with HTML 5.

The notifications of WordPress for the author of an article or comments are not always right on the spot according to the needs. WordPress also knew that and created these functions so that it's easy to adapt notifications to your needs or can completely be replaced. Therefore, I will briefly show how to adjust the mails to your needs.

The two functions wp_notify_postauthor() and wp_notify_moderator() are used to send messages, but can be replaced. You can find these two functions in wp-includes/pluggable.php and there are all the functions included, which WordPress queries (if ( !function_exists('set_current_user') )), so that you can replace it easily. Therefore, it is a simple task to adjust the notifications in your WordPress installation.

In order to realize this, the function must be placed as a Plugin or in the functions.php of the themes. Thus they are available and are used by WP. The easiest way is to copy the two functions and adapt the content.

function wp_notify_postauthor($comment_id, $comment_type='') {
    ...
}

function wp_notify_moderator($comment_id) {
    ...
}

For example, it is easy not to have the URL to delete the comment in the mail, but a link. Again, a small example. The standard line, as in the screenshot above, is as follows:

$notify_message .= sprintf( __('Delete it: %s'), admin_url("comment.php?action=cdc&c=$comment_id") ) . "\r\n";

We replace this with a little HTML, and so we have a link in the email.

$notify_message .= sprintf( '<a href="%s">' . __('Delete it') . '</a>', get_option('siteurl') . "/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&c=$comment_id"  . "\r\n" );

This should only serve as an example and plain text messages are sure to be preferred. Nevertheless, there are always demands to adapt the mail; the function wp_mail() is flexible enough and the contents of the mail can be replaced by the two functions and separated from the core, so you are independent from any update.

Related posts:

• Warning Message For Self Customized Plugins
• Change WordPress Mail Sender
• Moving Your WordPress Blog To A New Domain
• Ping Problem?
• WordPress Proxysupport

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It’s easy to get caught up doing your own thing and even easier to stick to what you know already know. However, whether you’re a developer or a designer, seeking out constructive, third-party feedback can bring your projects to a new level. You may also know that finding objective, qualified sources of feedback can be near impossible (your relatives and roommates only cut it for so long).

That’s why I’m bringing you 10 fresh, useful and fun ways to get an outside perspective on your work. So no more excuses, it’s time to break out of your rut and start getting the feedback you need to learn, improve, and grow as a professional.

Free web-based feedback communities

1. Concept Feedback

Concept Feedback is a brand new community for designers, developers and marketers. Members can upload a concept (a website, logo, advertisement or other), specify an objective and start receiving constructive, actionable feedback from other members. A system of reputation points keeps users honest and helps prioritize advice. Sensitive concepts may also be posted privately for client or co-worker review.

2. FiveSecondTest

The name explains it all. Fun and easy to use, FST gives random visitors the chance to "take a test" and look at your design for 5 seconds. When time runs out, the user is asked to list everything they can remember from the concept, providing what FST describes as a "simple online usability test that helps you identify the most prominent elements of your user interfaces".

3. Please Critique Me

This cool venture from OnWired allows designers to solicit feedback from a panel of industry veterans, including your very own Jacob Gube of Six Revisions. If your submission is selected, you get an in-depth and valuable review of your project, for free! Even if you don’t get selected, you can still glean some valuable insight from these professionals.

4. Creattica

Part of the Envato network, Creattica brings together a group of top-notch designers looking to share a wide range of design projects. Membership and participation is free, however, feedback is limited to marking concepts as a "favorite".

5. Smashing Forum

This simple, but effective text-based forum from Smashing Magazine is geared towards designers looking for general feedback on web design.

6. SitePoint Forum

SitePoint is geared towards developers and provides a relatively active text-based platform for design, website and content reviews.

Web-based collaboration tools

Not quite ready to share your work with the public? Just looking for a tool to share designs with your clients and co-workers?

7. Notable

Notable is a great feedback app designed specifically for web developers. In addition to sharing concepts using a standard image upload or screen grab, Notable has a slick plug-in for Firefox that allows you to give or receive feedback on any website or application without leaving your browser. A free plan is available (although you need to look for it) and paid plans start at $44/month.

8. ProofHQ

No more FTP or attachment issues. No more back and forth emails. ProofHQ provides an easy to use mark-up interface allowing users to upload a concept and share it with clients and co-workers. ProofHQ also boasts Basecamp integration, a useful feature for you 37Signals fans out there. Free accounts available with limited projects (5/month) and storage (500 MB). The cheapest paid plan starts at $17/month.

9. ConceptShare

Similar to ProofHQ in functionality, ConceptShare is better option for users who are hoping to share video and flash files. Free accounts available with limited projects (15 total) and storage (1 GB). "Solo" plans start at $24/month.

10. GetSignOff

GetSignOff is probably the most limited tool of the bunch, but it does provide a simple option for those looking to get away from e-mail proofs. For the money, GetSignOff provides the most storage space per dollar and also allows full CSS customization and BaseCamp integration. Free accounts available with unlimited projects, however you are limited to 1 client and a 10 MB upload limit.

Related content

• 12 Excellent Social News Sites for Web Designers
• 6 Tips to Help You Get the Most Out of Google Docs
• A Simple Guide on How to Effectively Talk to Clients
• Related categories: Project Management and Tools

About the Author

Andrew Follett is marketing director at a small business outside Chicago, Illinois and founder of the new feedback community, Concept Feedback. Follow Andrew and Concept Feedback on Twitter.

Comments are the incentives you get for writing a post and if you write good ones you are bound to get 100s and 1000s of comments on your posts.

But wait not every comment on your blog is directly related to the post itself, there are times when commentators respond to other commentators, in short we call that a discussion.

Flashback to WordPress 2.7, there was a new introduction in the form of threaded comments, this was done so that people on your blog can comment and respond to each other and communicate and discuss.

Coming back to future, it has been so long and many users still do not have threaded comments on their blogs.

Reason 1: Most of the WordPress users are not programmers and use themes created by others, so unless they use a theme that has support for threaded comments they don’t make use of that feature.

Reason 2: Many users have knowledge to program and edit but are just plain lazy (example me) and do not update their themes to add threaded comments support.

Now how does one implement threaded comments in WordPress when we fall into the above two categories? Pretty simple, by using the power that WordPress itself provides users with, in the form of extensibility, in short with a WordPress plugin.

WordPress Thread Comment is a excellent choice for adding threaded comments to your blog without having to have any coding skills, once you install the plugin it does everything for you, you do not even have to edit your themes to add threaded comment support on your blog.

Another option is to use Brian’s Threaded Comments which was actually the first one to add threaded comments to WordPress blog, however it still requires users to do a bit of theme changes.

Of course there are other options available in the form of third party services, like, take for instance Automattic’s own Intense Debate and Disqus, these services make commenting and discussion more easier.

Now do you have an excuse for not having threaded comments on your blog? BTW do you use threaded comments? If not why, if yes how? Don’t stop short of just reading this we have threaded comments enabled so discuss as much you wish .

I would be thankful if you take part in this small poll with regards to threaded comments.

You can find more options for threaded comments by visiting this search on WordPress extend.