Above is a like button. It appears on single posts and says like about the particular post.

What you want to do is actually as simple as copying and pasting.  However you are adding code to your current theme.  It does have the possibility of causing problems.  If you are at all uncomfortable with adding codes then please do not do this.

If you are still here you must feel comfortable with adding codes.  For the next step you want to scroll down to appearance on the dashboard.

Open the box and select editor.  Now you will note a whole long list of different things you can edit on the right.  As themes title forms differently you will have to read the list carefully. Most call it Single Post, you might recognize the file name as single.php.

Select this and the code will appear in the middle box.

Look for <?php the_content(); ?>

Now you can either add the code below, before for a like button at the top of the post, or below for it to appear beneath the post.    Simply copy these code and paste it in one of those two locations.

<!–Start Facebook–>
<iframe width=”465″ height=”61″ src=”http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php echo urlencode(get_permalink($post->ID)); ?>&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=65&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” style=”border:none; overflow:hidden; width:465px; height:61px”></iframe>
<!–End Facebook–>

Now read Additional Facebook Plugins that was yesterday’s post.  Find the plugin you want to add to your single posts.  You will probably want to add it just before or after the comments.  This code can vary, but ti should look similar to

<?php comments_template( ”, true ); ?>

So you will want to past the code you get before or after that.  Again if you are not comfortable with CSS or other codes, do not do this.   Otherwise remember as easily as you can paste the codes in, you can cut them out.

  YOU ROCK!

MJ Schrader

Facebook has great developers and they have made things simple for you.  You just visit the developer site and find that they have several different options for you that will give you the complete code you need with just a little bit of typing.  Type your site name, and then choose the options you need.

Yesterday was a mention of the like button.  Now you can visit the developers site and get one to add to your WordPress (or any site with HTML).  With this code here, you want to put it someplace like a sidebar since this will be for the overall site.

Simply visit the Facebook Like Button at the Developer Site.  You type in the name of your site or your fan page site or whatever URL you wish.  You have a couple of options to choose.

You will probably want to change the width unless you are putting it across a whole page.  Most sidebars are only 200 pixels.  If you have 2 sidebars, probably they are 150 pixels or less.  If you do not know, just make a guess.  You can always change the width to something smaller if it goes over and repeat the following steps.

After the width, you have a couple more options to choose.  Then you press get code.

A popup window will appear with 2 sets of code.  The first is what most users will need which is Iframe.  Most sites do not use the XFBML code.

Now you will want to open a second tab.  In it you are going to open your WordPress website, or other site where you can add HTML codes. With WordPress you are going to scroll down to appearance.  Click it.  Click widgets.

First you are going to the right hand of the screen to click the down arrow on what is called the sidebar or “primary widget area” depending on your theme.  This will open the area so you can drag and drop in  a text box.

In the middle of the screen you will see several boxes.  Scroll down to the text box.  Right click on it and drag it into the box you opened in the step above.  Now click the little arrow on the right to open the text box and head back to the Facebook developers page.

You are going to Copy (ALT+C) the Iframe code and go back to WordPress Widgets.  Inside the text box you are going paste (Alt+V) the code there.  Now go to the upper left and click your website name so you see how it looks.  If it goes over the edge you will want to reduce the width. Again these instructions will vary if you do not have WordPress.

Now your visitors can “Like” your website which will show up on their walls and hopefully bring in a few more visitors.

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

MJ Schrader

Why is it so popular?

It has a small footprint, meaning it doesn’t use much memory or power and is easy to use.   Yet like anything online there is a learning curve, hopefully this video will fully explain how to use this plugin.  Remember you must use the galleries and must have pictures in the galleries for these to work correctly.

Galleries are made up of pictures which you can load individually, as a zip file or point to a folder.   Pictures can be moved around after you have uploaded with the manage gallery feature.

Albums can be several galleries together.

The more places (within reason) that your video is, the more viewers who will get to see your video and learn more from you.  Being able to add your video not only to your blog can allow additional viewers that chance.  Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, and other social media sites are great places to debut your new video blogging skills.

You can now get my videos to use on your website at RockstarGuideBooks.com/videos

Also you can get my articles to use on your website by visiting RockstarGuideBooks.com/article

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

MJ Schrader

Tomorrow: 5 ways to create videos

Friday:  Freebie Friday

This is a second post, the first was written a couple days ago Writing for Internet Success.  Michelle Shaeffer of the Ultimate Blog Challenge added a method and I wanted to share a few more.

Brainstorm ~ via Michelle Shaeffer

In this method, you sit down and think of all the article topics you would like to cover. Write down the topic, a title, whatever comes to your mind. Write down something that might seem random but you know how to tie it into what you need.

Multiple angles

Almost any subject can be covered from multiple angles. What if you were writing about computer repairs? You could have an article about hard drive problems, problems with software, problems with hardware or problems from viruses.

Write children articles.

Now before you tell me you don’t write about children, I mean the article. You write a post covering very basic information. Then write articles to further explain what you covered. Maybe you wrote about places to find videos cheap, this would be the parent article. The children would be articles providing more information about each of the places.

But I am writing for a blog!

Just because you wrote several articles or posts it does not mean you have to post them all. You can post one on one subject and use a different subject next. Then after you cover a few subjects go back, like a rotation through all the posts you have. This way you have variety and have covered what you need.

Live ♥  Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

Create fun videos.

The number of people who watch videos on YouTube grows daily.   Below you will see a video my cat and I made as introduction to Rockstar Coaching.  I don’t think I even mentioned the coaching.  Next week I will go into getting comfortable with video.

With a fun video you could get more traffic. Create a funny video, an instructional video, a video about your products or services. Then include tags related to your business and your website link.

Use contests.

Fun contests with prizes that people love create word of mouth traffic. People tell friends and your traffic grows. There is also a curiosity factor that brings people. You can have contests that require visitors to contribute to your site, visit multiple pages and more.

Speaking of CONTESTS.

I would like to hold one, but I want YOUR input.  What kind of contest would you like to see?  What would you like for a prize?

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

~ MJ Schrader

What is the difference between a theme and a template?

Your theme may have templates included.  Many WordPress themes include an “archive template” and the template is different from the standard theme used on most pages.  You can see if you have a template by reading Creating Sales Letters in WordPress.   The theme on 365 Online Tips has different templates, the theme here has a separate box that allows me to turn features on and off.  Yet templates offered the look I wanted for my sales letters.

Where do I install it?

The video below will show you but, it may be hard to catch it.  You want to visit your File manager in your cpanel.  Then public_html.  Find the website you want to add the templates to, then look for wp_content.  Open your themes and find the theme you are currently using.   Open the theme upload your templates there.  Then find the templates you want to use and pull the contents, all of them, from the folder and put them into your theme.

And now time for your video!!

Hope you enjoy and hope it helps!

~ MJ Schrader

PS Get your templates at  Templates.LoveRockstar.com

Yesterday you learned some of the advantages and disadvantages of advertising copy in WordPress.  Today is going to cover some solutions to the sidebars and menus.

Does your theme have templates?

Many WordPress themes have various templates. If you are writing a page in WordPress you can look for Page Attributes. This is to the right of your writing if you have two columns or underneath if you have just one. In this box you hopefully will see parent and then template. Unfortunately not all themes offer various templates. The template will have a name sometimes it will tell you archive, no side bar, clean or something similar.

Template Testing

Unfortunately previous does not always show various templates. If you do not want it going live, go to the publish button and change Visibility to private then publish. Then you can see if that template is going to fit your needs.

Theme Options

Some themes have special page options. You can look for a box with the theme name and options on your page. There you can turn off the sidebar or navigation menu.

Make Your Own Template

You can learn coding to create your own template. It really does not take much, if you like your theme you just create a copy of your sales page and remove the sidebar and header information. Since this information varies so much there is no simple explanation of it.  I have created templates and now I would rather BUY MINE

Buy Your Own

This is what I did.  You can see the package I got (he’s since updated it with new templates) by visiting WP landing pages.  Tomorrow I will have a video for you on how to load it and set it up.

One Click Upgrade Plugins

If you have several plugins, you know how often you see the little tab that says upgrades are available. You know the process of upgrading each one. You may even check the bulk actions tab wishing there was a way to upgrade all your plugins in one click. No more, there it is! Check the plugins that need upgrading, look under bulk actions and click upgrade and upgrade up to 15 plugins with one click.

Upgrade Themes

Yes, you can now upgrade themes. WordPress 3.0 will tell you that you have themes that need upgrading. It will create a “child theme” which should save most of your changes to your theme while upgrading the majority of the theme. This is a great feature, because WordPress 3.0 is going to require some major theme upgrades.

Short Links

If you use Twitter or FriendFeed you know using a short link is almost always a requirement. Now underneath your post title you can choose to edit the title, view your post or get shortlink. The link starts with WP.me and then a short code like other services. Currently you can not change the code, but you may be able to soon.

SEE WORDPRESS 3.0 ROCKS!!

~ MJ Schrader

Want 25% off my products?

save 25% off any product this special page.  You have until July 17th!

During Check Out use Coupon Code: PatSpecial610

Menus

Have you ever wished you could just quickly add a new tab to your menu? Now you can!

Not all themes accept the menus option, but this impressive feature will soon be something theme developers will add. If your theme accepts it great, if not you can visit Widgets, Appearance, and drag the Custom Menu to your sidebar. Just visit Appearance then Menus.   What you see on the right side will look similar to what you see below.

Adding to Your Menu

This is impressive. Many of my clients want to link different blogs and websites. With “Custom Links” you type in the web address, called URL, and then add a label for the menu. You can check mark various pages to be added to your menu or scroll down and check the categories you want added.

Change Your Menu

Then over on the right on the new menu you can create a custom name. Click the down arrow beside the menu item and you can change the “Title Attribute” or “Navigation Label.”  You will also notice you remove the item or cancel the change you made.  Drag and drop the menu to rearrange it, even move an item a bit to the right to make it a sub-menu item.

Of course the themes that support this are limited.  You can upload the brand new Twenty Ten theme created by the WordPress staff to use this feature.  You can also add to your sidebar as noted previously.  Either way the ability to create a unique to you menu is absolutely delicious.

~ MJ Schrader

PS.  Tomorrow you can read about other features.  If you want me to go into the features of the new Theme Twenty Ten please comment!  And please comment with your favorite features!

PPS Save 25% off my products?

You can save 25% off any product this special page.  You have until July 17th!

During Check Out use Coupon Code: PatSpecial610