Official WordPress Plugin Directory Gets Improved from WordPress Mods

Matt Mullenweg today announced that after hanging out with some plugin developers, the official WordPress plugin directory has been refreshed.

At first glance it is difficult to see any major changes to the directory. The plugin home page and search result pages haven’t been changed in any way though there have been some subtle changes to plugin listing page itself. The image below shows the difference between the old and the new listing page for Contact Form 7.

The sidebar looks much nicer now. Plugin authors get more exposure with a small image link to their profile, a note of the number of plugins they have released and a donate button (which should hopefully reward plugin developers more).

Previously, the link to the forum posts wasn’t very prominent. It has been replaced with a support section that links to the forum and shows how many problems have been resolved over the last few weeks. This is a good way of seeing active the developer is at supporting the plugin.
Behind the scenes.

Security scanning has apparently been improve behind the scenes to help developers detect any problems though the best addition is the ability to ‘Favourite’ a plugin. As long as you are logged in, you will now see a link at the top of each plugin to mark it as a favourite. Favourites will be linked from your profile page. It’s a great way of saving plugins that you use often.

The changes are certainly more evolutionary than revolutionary though I’m sure they will prove popular with WordPress users.

Thanks,
Kevin

Link: Plugin Directory Refreshed

Official WordPress Plugin Directory Gets Improved is a post from: WordPress Mods.

©2012 WordPress Mods. All Rights Reserved.

Original Article can be found at Official WordPress Plugin Directory Gets Improved WordPress Mods : WordPress Mods - WordPress Themes, Plugins and Modifications

Create Exams, Tests and Quizzes With WatuPRO from WordPress Mods

WatuPRO is a great premium plugin that lets you create exams, quizzes and surveys.

The plugin is very easy to use. It has a few basic general settings. By default only one question is shown at a time though you can show all questions on the one page if you want. Answers can be shown at the end of a quiz and you can use one answer, multiple answers or open ended answers for your questions.

The settings for each quiz or exam have to be configured first. Quizzes can be made available to everyone or only those who are logged in. Questions can be randomised too if you wish.

One of my favourite features is the ability to place a timer on the quiz. This adds an extra element that is sure to test participants in difficult tests.

Points are awarded for each successful answer. You can award grades to those who take part in the quiz. For example, you could award gold to those who answered 10 our of 10, silver to those who answered 9 out of 10 and bronze to those who got 8 correct.

The content that is displayed to users at the end of the quiz can also be changed. 9 different variables can be selected and as the output is controlled via the WordPress editor, there is no restrictions to what you do here e.g. images, videos, coloured text etc.

Next you need to set your questions. Once again, the WordPress editor is used, so you could incorporate images and videos into your questions if you wish e.g. ‘Who is this famous musician?’ etc. You can add as many answers as you want and if the multiple answers option is selected, you can award different points to users depending on the answer they gave. For example, you could ask people to name the 4 musicians from The Beatles but offer additional points to those who also selected Pete Best or Stuart Sutcliffe.

Once you have added all your questions, you can insert the quiz into any post or page on your website using the shortcode WATUPRO followed by the number of the exam.

The great thing about WatuPro is that you don’t need a dedicated page for your quizzes. You could add a quiz at the bottom of a blog post if you wish. Alternatively, you could create a dedicated quiz area for members.

At the end of the quiz the user is shown the correct answers. They can then see what they got right and what they got wrong. As noted earlier, the final output can be customised as much or as little as you wish. Certificates can also be created and awarded to those who pass your tests. This will be useful for educational websites or those that want to reward the user with a voucher or discount for taking part in the quiz or survey.

Quizzes are a great way of encouraging users to stay longer on your website. The plugin can be used for surveys, fun quizzes or exams. It’s very flexible in this regard. I could see how this could be used effectively on a language website or even a competition website. For example, after the user has studied all the necessary modules they will be presented with a quiz at the end to test their knowledge. They could then be returned to the first page if they did not pass the test.

A license for WatuPRO retails for $47 and can be used on an unlimited number of domains. It comes with a 60 day money back guarantee and one year free support and updates. If you are looking for a way of quickly inserting quizzes, surveys or exams into your website, I highly recommend checking WatuPRO out.

Thanks,
Kevin

Link: WatuPRO

* Thanks to WatuPRO for providing a test copy of the script for the purpose of this review.

Create Exams, Tests and Quizzes With WatuPRO is a post from: WordPress Mods.

©2012 WordPress Mods. All Rights Reserved.

Original Article can be found at Create Exams, Tests and Quizzes With WatuPRO WordPress Mods : WordPress Mods - WordPress Themes, Plugins and Modifications

Win 10 Copies Of Typecase Pro From Upthemes from WordPress Mods

Typecase is a web font management plugin for WordPress from developers UpThemes. A few version is available though the pro version, which retails for $19, offers a lot more features such as a live front end preview that lets you see changes in real time.

UpThemes have kindly donated 10 copies of Typecase Pro to WP Mods readers. One lucky winner will also win an UpThemes t-shirt.

Typecase Pro Font Management Plugin For WordPress

The plugin lets you choose from over 500 Google web fonts. Font weights and styles can be adjusted easily through the settings area. In addition to the live Front-End editor, the pro version comes with lifetime support and updates.

How To Win A Copy Of Typecase Pro

This competition is being tracked through Rafflecopter. 10 copies of Typecase Pro and one awesome UpThemes t-shirt are up for grabs.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are a number of ways to enter. Below is a list of the options available to you and the number of entries that each option gives you:

• Follow @wpmods on Twitter (earns 4 entries)
• Follow @upthemes on Twitter (earns 4 entries)
• Tweet about the giveaway (earns 2 entries)
• Like the giveaway on Facebook (earns 2 entries)
• Like UpThemes on Facebook (4 entries)
• Like WP Mods on Facebook (4 entries)

Best of luck to everyone who enters and many thanks to UpThemes for donating such great prices to WP Mods readers

Thanks,
Kevin

Link: Typecase

Win 10 Copies Of Typecase Pro From Upthemes is a post from: WordPress Mods.

©2012 WordPress Mods. All Rights Reserved.

Original Article can be found at Win 10 Copies Of Typecase Pro From Upthemes WordPress Mods : WordPress Mods - WordPress Themes, Plugins and Modifications

Switch WordPress Themes With Theme Switch and Preview from WordPress Mods

Last month I was talking to my friend Zac Johnson about theme switching plugins for WordPress. For years I used the plugin Theme Test Drive to allow people to change the WordPress theme being used. Unfortunately, Vladimir Prelovac hasn’t updated the plugin for 18 months and it doesn’t work very well with the latest versions of WordPress.

Zac went on the hunt for a good replacement. Eventually he found a good theme switching plugin called Theme Switch and Preview. Ironically, the plugin is even older, haven’t not been updated since the Summer of 2010, though it still works.

The plugin lets you choose who can switch themes. You can restrict this to admin, give a special passkey to certain users or allow theme switching for everyone. It comes with a theme switching widget too, which allows you to place your ‘change theme’ link anywhere on your page.

Theme switching links can also be placed in posts and pages using the ‘nkthemeswitch’ shortcode. You can either display a list of links or show a list of thumbnail previews for each theme. This is a feature that few theme switching plugins have ever offered.

Despite the plugin not being updated for around two years, Theme Switch and Preview still works great. It’s a useful plugin for anyone who want to make some changes to their theme in a live environment or offer visitors different theme designs (e.g. different colour schemes or theme demos).

As always, if you know of a good alternative solution, please feel free to share it in the comment area with fellow WP Mods readers

Good luck,
Kevin

Link: Theme Switch and Preview

* Kudos to Zac Johnson for bringing this plugin to my attention

Switch WordPress Themes With Theme Switch and Preview is a post from: WordPress Mods.

©2012 WordPress Mods. All Rights Reserved.

Original Article can be found at Switch WordPress Themes With Theme Switch and Preview WordPress Mods : WordPress Mods - WordPress Themes, Plugins and Modifications

Learn How To Make Money With WordPress With WP Blog Videos from WordPress Mods

WP Blog Videos is a new tutorial website from affiliate marketer and blogger John Chow. The service offers over 100 video tutorials and will teach you how to create and develop a WordPress website step by step.

7 modules are included in the course, ranging from basic topics such as registering a domain name and uploading files using FTP, to more advanced topics such as email and social media marketing.

• Module 1: Internet Marketing Basics
• Module 2: Basic WordPress Tutorials
• Module 3: Advanced WordPress Tutorials
• Module 4: Making Money from Blogs
• Module 5: SEO and Link Building
• Module 6: RSS to Email Marketing
• Module 7: Social Media Marketing

Most videos are around 5 to 10 minutes in length. The lady who walks you through each tutorial speaks clearly and ensures that everything is covered so you shouldn’t have any problems following it (A sample video can be seen on the home page of WP Blog Videos).

In my opinion the name of the course is perhaps a little misleading. Beginner and intermediate WordPress topics are covered however anyone who has been using WordPress for a while will not find anything WordPress related here that they didn’t already know. It’s not a course that will show you how to develop WordPress themes or plugins or understand how common WordPress functions work.

The course is better viewed as a marketing course rather than a , and in that regard, it’s a great course and a fantastic introduction to making money online. A better name of the course would be ‘How to make money on the web using WordPress’ as every module shows you how you can build a website and promote it using WordPress and integrating useful 3rd party services.

In addition to the 100+ video tutorials, the course also comes packaged with 5 additional tools including a keyword research tool, blog commenting tool and link cloaking script.

Lifetime access to the course retails for $97. It’s worth checking out if you have no experience with building a website with WordPress or if you are looking for how you can use WordPress to build, develop, promote and make money from a WordPress powered website.

Thanks,
Kevin

Link: WP Blog Videos

* Thanks to John Chow for providing access to the member area of WP Blog Videos for the purpose of this review

Learn How To Make Money With WordPress With WP Blog Videos is a post from: WordPress Mods.

©2012 WordPress Mods. All Rights Reserved.

Original Article can be found at Learn How To Make Money With WordPress With WP Blog Videos WordPress Mods : WordPress Mods - WordPress Themes, Plugins and Modifications