Recently I reported on the poor donation rates that WordPress plugin developers receive and posted a follow-up article in which I criticized Matt Mullenweg for the minimal level of support he displays to WordPress premium theme developers and commercial plugin developers. The first post was received with accolades and a call for action to help support plugin developers as the reported donation rates for some of the most popular WordPress plugins were downright offensive (e.g. < 0.01%). Read more »

I believe it’s time for Matt Mullenweg to seriously reconsider the restrictive, unsuccessful business models (donations, paid support) he currently requires developers adhere to in order to have their plugins and themes hosted at WordPress.org. Theme and plugin developers have helped make WordPress the champion blogging platform that it is today without receiving a single dime of the $29.5 million in funding that Automattic raised last year. Read more »

Plugin developers are the heart and soul of WordPress. WordPress plugin developers not only extend the core functionality of WP but they drive innovation for the popular blogging platform. Compared to other blogging platforms, WordPress arguably possesses the strongest and most generous community of all. Despite this however, WP plugin developers receive very little compensation for their efforts to supply the WP plugin repository with quality free plugins. Read more »

A couple of weeks ago, I thought I would take the initiative towards making the comment system here more socially accessible. With their rising popularity and the great social features available with Intense Debate and Disqus, it made sense to put the default WordPress comment system on the back burner. I thought it would also be helpful to test, review, and compare the Intense Debate, Disqus, and WordPress comment systems prior to settling on one or the other. As I pointed out in my previous post, I had a great experience with Intense Debate but it’s lacking some of the social features that Disqus possesses. Read more »

Recently I changed commenting systems from the Wordpress default to using Intense Debate and then switching to Disqus. This need for change was due in part that I began thinking my blog needed to open up and get a bit more social. At that time, if you wanted to comment on ToMuse you needed to register. That requirement was put into place for several reasons that included cracking down on spammers, using the Social Profiles plugin, and helping to ensure good thought provoking comments instead of useless driveby link-dropping drivel. Read more »

I’ve been inundated this week by the viral 25 Random Things About Me chain note that’s circulating Facebook. Here’s what the note says: “Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you”. Every time I get tagged I usually read the list from which the tag originated. Some of the lists are very interesting and entertaining while others can be more self-serving and therapeutic for the writer. Read more »

WordPress recently launched a new site called WordPress.TV and, by the looks of it, it appears to provide how-to and instructional video tutorials for using WordPress. It is also expected to serve as a video repository for all things WordPress related such as interviews, presentations, and WordCamp footage. According to the WordPress.TV blog:

“Our goal with WordPress.tv is simple:
To make it easy for you to find up-to-date, WordPress-themed video content within a couple of clicks”… Read more »

I’ve been looking for an easy way to add HTML based signatures to Gmail for a while now. There’s been several workarounds created using Greasemonkey scripts and the Better Gmail and Better Gmail 2 Firefox add-ons but until recently it was still quite a hassle. Yesterday, thankfully, I came across a great little gem of an add-on called Black Canvas Gmail Signatures by Jerome Dane. Read more »

If you’re looking to advertise your blog, website, product, or service, online text based ads work great but they can’t beat the branding effectiveness of a great looking web banner ad.  If designed correctly, banner ads can produce higher click through rates and greater sales for you. Banner ads can be used with CPC programs like Google AdWords and they permit you to take advantage of cheap advertising options Read more »

Within the past year or so advertising marketplaces have sprung up to meet the need for the tremendous growth rate of new blogs. In this article we take a closer look at the more popular ones that are available and the differences between them. The revenue share, type of ads, size of ads, and other distinctions vary across these networks for buying and selling ads on your blog Read more »