Installation

1. Download the zip via the download button below.
2. Extract and upload to your wordpress installation plugin folder.
3. Activate the widget plugin via the admin panel of your blog.
4. In the admin panel widgets section, drag the Simple Weather widget to the desired position in the sidebar.
5. Select temperature unit, Celcius or Farenheit.
6. Done!

Usage

To use the widget, in the desired posts simply add a cityName and possibly weatherBase custom fields with the name of the city for which you wish to display the weather. The weatherBase is only needed if Google weather API does not recognize the city in cityName.

If neither cityNamenor weatherBase is entered, the widget will not display.

Download

Weather plugin download

Therefore I was quite excited to find a plugin called Simple:Press forum, which is a forum with features and functions that is much closer to what you expect to find i a modern forum:

• ‘Pretty/SEO’ Friendly Permalinks. And the good news – should also be able to display links with the old url structure.
• Private Messaging – the second most regular request.
• Powerful User Group and Permission structure. Fine control over who can see and do what.
• New ‘QuickLinks’ dropdown on the Search Bar displaying recent and unread posts
• Bulk Moderate Posts needing approval and read new posts in one place
• Login Form bought into current page view
• Mass Deletion tool for the removal of old topics
• Many ‘Custom’ options: Up to three custom icons in login bar; set custom icons for all Groups and Forums; Use a graphic in place of page title; Create a special ‘editor’ message
• Redirect RSS Feeds to external services (i.e., FeedBurner)
• ‘Pluggable’ page rendering code allowing replacement functions and custom code routines
• TinyMCE V3 with much improved text handling and formatting
• Optional Image File Uploading (only using TinyMCE editor)
• Improved Notification, Messaging and form validations
• EMail Overrides and create text of New User Email
• Democracy Polls plugin support
• Images as Thumbnails that expand

I must say I was very very impressed both with the product and the support. I had an fully integrated forum up and running in under four hours and the result is very pleasing. I’d recommend anyone interested in adding a forum function to their WordPress installation to check it out, and don’t forget to support the developer!

This one I struggled with and in the end it came out like something of a abomination of a function, but at least it gets the job done. It uses the WP_AUTHENTICATE hook to call the function where a simple login check is done, and if successful, the timestamp is writted to the wp_users table.

You can either insert a new field called user_lastlogin (or what you prefer) in wp_users like I did, or you can make a new table to store the login log.

The code follows below. Happy logging!


function update_last_login($user_login='', $user_pass='', $cookie=false)
{
if ($_POST) {
global $wpdb;
$success=0;
// check login $_POST variables against database
$query = "SELECT ID FROM wp_users WHERE user_login='$user_login[0]' AND user_pass='".md5($user_login[1])."'";
$uid = $wpdb->get_var($query);
if ($uid!='') {$success=1;}
$login_time = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", time()+28800);
// if login is successful, update user last login
if ($success==1) {
$query = "UPDATE wp_users SET user_lastlogin='$login_time' WHERE user_login='$user_login[0]'";
$wpdb->query($query);
}
}
}
// Hook action -- this is needed to call the function when someone logs in
add_action('wp_authenticate','bm_update_last_login',10,2);

I looked at some ad providers and the eCPM that they pay for a sidebar ad sized 250×200 or 250×300 for some sites related to mine. All solutions except AdSense are Pay Per Impression, while AdSense (as you know) is Pay Per Click (PPC). None the less, the earnings from the four ad providers investigated AdSense, Tailsweep, Livsstilsnätverket and Clear Channel ranged from $US 2.2-40.6 per 1,000 impressions (eCPM to use AdSense terminology). In the case of AdSense the eCPM is likely to vary quite a lot from publisher to publisher. The number in my chart is just an example of a typical eCPM for one of my own sites.

Advertising on a big Swedish B2B site (Clear Channel B2B) yields a sky-high eCPM (in this case for a skyscraper ad) , while a more comparable number is the Clear Channel ad pricing for a very popular community site, $US 4.3 CPM which is rougly double from what can be expect from AdSense.

It should be noted though that the ad network are likely to take their share of the money, so what the advertiser sees as effective eCPM is a few percent lower (to my best guesstimate), except for AdSense which is the eCPM that you defacto see.

Conclusion: AdSense holds its own against Tailsweep, but other ad networks pays substantially higher (and more reliable) eCPM. This conclusion is valid for this example only, as AdSense CPM might vary substantially and actually outperform other ad networks in some cases.

Summary:This article covers eight important features and considerations to improve usability and the reader confidence for your blog.

This post is largely based on Jacob Nielsens ideas about writing and presenting content on Internet. The focus is on usability, and building a relationship of trust between the user and the author. If you fulfil these two conditions you have a winner. It is not that simple to get there of course but here are a few guidelines and things you can implement that will improve one or the other of usability and building trust.

1. Make an author biography. Present yourself and let the reader decide whether he/she should bother listening to your rants. If you think you are qualified, present why. If you are not that qualified, be upfront about it and people can judge for themselves whether they should listen or not. Honesty goes a long way.
2. Put your picture up. Being able to put a face on the otherwise anonymous Internet gives an edge. It is also easier to trust to an author that you have a visual relation to.
3. Use descriptive post titles. Your titles are often the only information bearer in listings and links, and generic titles like “Check this out!” and “My god, look at this” are not going to get you many new readers. Your title is your ultra-compact post summary. The three first words are the most important.
4. Use intelligible links. Users must be able to tell where a link will take them, either from the anchor text or the link title. Never open links in new windows. This is extremely annoying to the user and also eliminate the use of the so important back navigation button.
5. Identify some of your pillar posts and link to them from your main navigation system. These are the posts that defines your site. The best you have done. These will entice the reader to keep reading and hopefully, subscribe to your blog.
6. Publish regulary. It is better to publish/update once a week, but regularly, than to publish ten posts one week and then take a three week break. Use your blogs schedule function (if it has one) to follow your schedule. There is probably no single ideal posting frequency, so go for what suits you.
7. Host your own blog. This is very important, and I figure will be even more important in the future, as Internet real estate increase in importance and value. By using a hosted service you build someone else’s brand instead of your own.
8. Use a familiar layout and navigation system. Unless you already have a name and loyal readers I’d recommend that you avoid ‘cutting edge’ menu systems and advanced design. Users don’t want to learn a new navigation system for each site they visit. They want something were they instantly can identify the key functions and quickly find your key content.

I’d put a 9th item to that list, but as I’ve already covered the importance of writing specifically for an online audience previously I’ll stop here for now. I’m sure the list can be made much longer, so I will have all the reason to get back to this topic again.

To summarize a few points from what I’ve learnt:

• Be brief. Write 50% less than you want to. Excessive scrolling and massive texts are boring and detracts from the interactive experience.
• Use a scannable text layout. Reading from a computer monitor is painful. Bulletize important information, highlight keywords, use meaningful headlines.
• Use effective structure, like the “inverse pyramid” technique. Start with your conclusion, then give supporting information and lastly the introduction.

The F-shape

Studies by Jacob Nielssen has shown by tracking eye movement that people who read information (a web site) on a computer screen usually scan in an F-shaped pattern. The first lines of an entry gets the most attention, then each line gets gradually less and finally the user just scans the left side of the content. That makes it easier to understand why the inverse pyramide text structure is so important doesn’t it?

Scannability

Break up your information into readable chunks. Highlight keywords and avoid long essays unless your content and audience really calls for it. A blogger like Guy Kawasaki might get away with essay writing, but people are less likely to cut you the same slack. Don’t mislead your reader by sloppy or “cute” headlines. Facts and important points are best presented as bullets:

• Internet is an interactive media. Your writing and layout should reflect this fact.
• Users spend as little as 29 seconds per page view. That”s your window to capture their attention.
• Traditional design and layout is the best option. Visitors are likely to dismiss unknown and hard to navigate content.

Do you doubt the effectiveness of using scannable layout? Mr. Nielsen (again) has shown that usability increased 124% for scannable text compared to a block-like reference layout. By usability we mean parameters like task time, errors, memory and subjective satisfaction.
Do you really want to give this potential advantage away by ignoring it? Didn’t think so. Anyway, this concludes this article. I hope you found it interesting and worth spending your 29 seconds.