Here is a list of our Top 10 Favorite WordPress plugins:

Akismet – This plugin already comes installed with WordPress, so we aren’t linking to it within this post. It is the #1 plugin you will ever install that protects against comment spam. It’s kind of tricky to install though because it requires your WordPress API key, however you can see instructions on how to retrieve your WordPress API key here.

All In One SEO Pack – This plugin allows you to add meta tags, keywords, and keyphrases to your WordPress blog, pages, and posts.

cForms – It’s one of the best free contact form plugins out there. Not all that easy to use, but definitely keeps unwanted contact requests at bay.

Feedburner Feedsmith – This plugin is great for redirecting your WordPress feed to your feedburner feed so you can keep track of how many subscribers you have.

RSS Footer – This plugin allows for yo to add text, images, whatever you like to the footer of you RSS feed. It also provides a direct link back to the post via your RSS footer so you readers can go straight to the original post.

Sexy Bookmarks – One of the most popular social bookmarking plugins around featuring big fancy bookmarks (hence the name sexy bookmarks.) This is one of my favorites. You can see it in action at the end of this post. While you are checking the icons out, why not go ahead and share this post with your friends. ;)

Subscribe Remind – With the Subscribe-Remind plugin, some text will automatically be placed at the end of each of your posts inviting your readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.

WP Video Lightbox – This plugin is super simple to use and allows you to display your videos in a fancy lightbox overlay.

WordPress eMember – WordPress eMember plugin is an easy to use wordpress plugin that integrates with your current WordPress design, and blog, in order to create a membership site. This is great plugin for those who would like to create a paid membership website.

WordPress Affiliate Manager – This plugin gives you the ability to run an affiliate program for your WordPress website.

What are your favorite plugins?

Disclaimer: Some affiliate links have been used within this post.

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Step 1: Get into your dashboard and click ‘write a post.’

Step 2: Give your post a title.

Step 3: Start writing. You can write your post before or after you enter your image. Typically the image is positioned at the beginning of the post.

Step 4: While in the ‘write a post’ page, scroll down the page and you will see a section where you can upload photos, videos, etc…

Step 5: Click on “Browse” to find the photo you want to upload. It’s often easier if you keep your photos in one file so you don’t have to waste time searching your computer for the photo you want. If you’ve uploaded a file from a stock photo website, make sure to label the photo because they’re easy to get mixed up and disorganized.

Step 6: Give your photo a title and a description. This helps keep you organized when your uploaded pictures become plentiful.

Step 7: Choose the size photo you want and where you want it linked. Choose “File” if you want the photo uploaded into the post you’re writing. “Page” if you’re creating a page and “none” if you just want the file uploaded for future use.

Step 8: Now you’re ready to insert the photo into your post. Click “send to editor.”

Step 9: The image should now be seen in your post. If you want to edit the image, you can click on it and then click on the toolbar icon that is labeled “Insert/edit image.” There you have alignment choices, dimensions, and borders.

Step 10: Save and publish.

Inserting an image into your WordPress Blog post is a simple and straightforward process. Enjoy and keep blogging!

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What is an internet entrepreneur to do when their computer goes on strike?

I have to admit I was totally frustrated, and the do it yourself person in me wanted to search and search the web until I found a solution to my problem. But I knew I didn’t have time, I needed to get the problem fixed, and NOW.

So I did what any other person would do, I called the Geek Squad. Which they were all very helpful (ALL 20 agents I spoke with over the course of 3 days!) Come to find out my OS (operating system a.k.a Windows Vista) is corrupted. We found this out after Geek Squad had removed the virus and then tried to install an update….which was a huge mistake!

For 2 days I would spend literally 6 hours to boot up my computer, and another 6 hours to boot down my computer (is boot down even a real phrase?) It was so stressful. I couldn’t work – that made me feel so helpless. The only computer access I had was to my husbands computer which is like 10 years old (OK maybe that’s an over exaggeration, it’s really 7 years old.) and with all that power (about a 9GB hard drive – no that’s NOT an exaggeration) I was able to simply check my email. Definitely no designing for me, ha!

So where am I going with this post? I just want to inform everyone out there, your computer is not 100% safe. SO many things can happen. Taking precautions to keep your information safe needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Turns out after all that we have tried to do to save my computer, we will actually need to obtain the recovery disk from the computer manufacturer and restore the computer back to what it was the day we bought it. Which means all software and files I have on the computer will be gone (trust me I have a lot of files, my hard drive was maxed out and only had 3GB left. Hmmmm….9GB doesn’t look too bad after all!)

Fortunately (Praise the Lord!) I was able to one last time access all my files in safe mode and put them on an external hard drive. All my kid’s pictures, and client work is now safe. My software on the computer will need to be re-installed which is fine I have the disks still available. It will take time, but at least I have what’s important to me.

As for what I have available to me now, well it’s a new computer. There was no way I could wait another week or two for the recovery disk to arrive in order to fix my computer and start working again. It’s not what I wanted to do, but it’s important I started working again.

After this whole ordeal I have learned some very important lessons:

1. Backup your files onto an external hard drive. Yes, there are online sites that can back up your information but the space you receive from an external hard drive for the money beats online backups by far.

2. Backup your files to a SECOND external hard drive. If the first one fails then what are you going to do?

3. Backup your files to a THIRD external hard drive. Hey you can never be too safe. Your kid’s pictures, and work files are worth it!

4. Obtain the recovery disk from your computer manufacturer to keep on hand. Not all computers come with a recovery disk, or a system in place where you can easily restore your computer back to day one. Having this disk on hand will ensure that if you ever have to restore your computer you can do so in a timely manner, and not have to wait on the delivery of your disk.

When you work from home your computer is your number one asset. Keep it safe because one day it may go on strike!

God Bless – Heather B. ;)

P.S. UPDATE: We are now auctioning off WordPress Cheat Sheets on Flippa. Let me tell you it is priced to SELL! You can learn more by viewing the auction here.

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All across the web there is a network of work at home moms helping out a WAHM who was devastated when her 2 year old little boy, Kyle, passed away during his sleep.

I first met Melissa Ingold on a network I belong to called Mom Masterminds. Melissa is a work at home mom who owns the website Internet Marketing Sweetie, and recently she lost her little boy, Kyle who was recently diagnosed with Gaucher Disease.

Melissa and her family were just starting to get into the routine of taking care of a little boy who had special needs, and whom they expected to have a life expectancy of 10 years, when Kyle unexpectedly passed away during the night.

As a mother I can’t imagine the pain and the loss she is going through. And on top of that pain, her family is now faced with a very large funeral bill.

I know there has there has been a lot of loss this year around the web. It’s been a difficult year for a lot of people. However I feel the best thing we can do for others is to love, and to give in every circumstance. These are truths that I personally cling to because of my Faith in Jesus.

So with all that being said, the owner of Mom Masterminds, Kelly McCausey, is hosting a fundraiser to raise money to give to the Ingold family in order to help pay off Kyle’s funeral bill. I have to say this fundraiser is SO generous, and I am just so thankful to belong to a group of women who care SO much!

Blog Internship 10 Week Course ($29) – This is a great course designed to help you learn more about growing your WordPress blog. It’s a great price, and with Kelly as your host I know you will gain a wealth of knowledge. 100% of the cost will go to the Ingold family as well!

The final option is you can also donate money directly to the Ingold Family.

To learn more about this fundraiser and how you can help, please go here. Thank you!

God Bless YOU! – Heather :)

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I currently have a complete website for sale.

The sale of Motivated WAHM will include the following:

• Complete transfer of domain name ownership.
• Complete blog with content already posted (over 65 posts!)

Motivated WAHM Site stats:

• Motivated WAHM is an online resource website for the internet mom in business.
• It has a page rank of 2/10
• MWAHM has established several online link partnerships with other Work at Home websites.
• Has a business directory.
• Average Monthly Income: $10 from sales of PLR articles packs (not included with the sale) and directory listings sales.

Motivated WAHM is a great foundation for someone who has the time to put into growing the website and adding valuable content.

Asking Price: $150 OBO

If you are interested in purchasing this website then please contact me here!

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However it’s the summer – and I LOVE the summer. Swimming pools, cold icy drinks, soaking in the sun, fun days at the park – it’s enough to make a girl so happy that she is all delirous and decides to giveaway free stuff!

Yep, I must confess I’m that girl, ha!

From now until July 30, 2010 we are currently giving away a free matching banner and button design with a header design purchase.

Time over here is very limited so we are only offering it to the 3 people who email me requesting this deal!

Then once I email you back saying yes the deal is still available you can then make your purchase here!

If you have any questions then you know I’m all ears – you can contact me here!

I hope you all are having a fabulously fun summer! OH, and if you miss out on this summer deal, no worries, we have another one coming up soon – so stay tuned. :)

P.S. Have you checked out our portfolio lately? If not you can check it out here – I updated it pretty recently!

P.P.S. If you are looking for something a little more than a header design, like say a complete custom design then we have a deal for you too! For the first three people to contact me you will receive our repeat client discount of 10% off a custom design. OH and our queue is open for July. If you are interested in this deal just contact me here!

On a little side note – have you seen WordPress 3.0 yet? If not you can check out the video below – it’s pretty awesome!

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Staci check your email box because you’ve got mail! Congratulations!

Thanks to everyone you participated in the giveaway. Stay tuned for more giveaways like this one!

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One of the biggest boasts of Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate, and one wordpress users love to hear, is it’s easy-to-use. From installation on, very few of us want to code anymore and worry about messing up our site. So was it as easy as advertised and as helpful?

Max Blgo Press Ninja Affiliate has one link to click in your admin navigation to get to everything you need to set up. I love that everything I need to use the plugin effectively is right here on this one page.

(Click to view larger.)

From the Ninja Affiliate dashboard you can add a new link, set up the keywords, click to look at conversion stats, backup your plugin and alter any options you set up previously. No fancy wording, merely click on the add new link to get started!

When you add a new link it walks you through everything needed to get posting this affiliate link live. After saving your options it then gives you a direct link to use if you want to track conversion on other blogs, forums, and social networks and have it pointed to this friendlier looking link url.

I really appreciate the option for campaign tracking as it keeps everything handy instead of needing to log into multiple affiliate programs to see what links are working and not working. You can log into your worpdress admin and check the stats for the affiliate link. Sub-campaigns can also be set up. So if you are going to test links out on twitter and facebook, two different links can be created in order to track which website gave you the best click-thru rate. Ideal option!

Setting up the option to limit how many times a keyword on a page, post, or the full site gets linked to is a big difference to me. Too many keyword links can make a site look spammy and that is not helpful for affiliate marketing and return traffic.

When you set up the link with keywords, it will automatically insert the affiliate link when you click publish button. But if you want to use a link with a different keyword or just manually insert a link, there is a handy dropdown menu with your links ready to click and insert at a seconds notice. A quick pop up will show and you can change the keyword to whatever you prefer as you go.

Ninja Affiliate is very easy to use, and the time saved not having to look up your affiliate links and not logging into multiple sites to check stats will be better spent on creating new content and marketing!

We give Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate TWO THUMBS Up!

Giveaway!

The creators of Max Blog Press Ninja Affiliate have been generous enough offer the Girly Blog Designz readers a FREE license to giveaway to one lucky winner.

To enter the giveaway just do one or all of the following:

1. (1 entry) Simply post a comment to this post your name and valid email (email will only be seen by me and used to deliever the license at the end of the giveaway.) stating why you think the Ninja Affiliate plugin will help you grow your online business!
2. (1 entry) Post about our contest on twitter! Then COME BACK HERE AND POST A COMMENT with a LINK to your twitter status. Here is the tweet you can use:
   

   RT @hbixler03 – Ninja Affiliate Plugin: Easy as advertised? (Review AND Giveaway!) ==> http://tinyurl.com/gbdninja

3. (1 entry) Follow us on Facebook! We now have a new Facebook Page and would love for you to join us. To gain another entry join us on our Facebook Page and then COME PACK HERE to post a comment stating that you are following us. Be sure to submit your email address!

Please be sure to post a comment with your name and a valid email for every single entry you make! Thank you!

Winner will be announced on June 18, 2010!

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This beautiful 3 column EXCLUSIVE premade WordPress theme is great for any blog looking to create an inviting, yet simple home like feel, for their readers. Add a touch of summer to your blog with the Summer Garden Exclusive Premium WordPress Theme!

All of our EXCLUSIVE premade WordPress themes include the following:

• Free Installation within 48 hours of purchase (unless purchase is made on the weekend, and in that case your theme will be installed on Monday)
• Customization of the Header with your blog title and slogan.
• Exclusive use license – which basically means this theme will only be sold ONCE!

Cost: $175

To purchase this theme then simply click on the buy now button below!

This theme is only available for WordPress users that currently host their WordPress blog on their OWN domain name. The “Summer Garden” Exclusive WordPress Theme is compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

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Are you craving a new Custom WordPress Design for your blog? Then Contact Us today to request a quote!

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