Many folks make a living off of reviewing iPhone, iPad, and Android applications. It is not an easy job by any means. You not only have to review apps properly but also find interesting ones to review every single day. Writing quality reviews is going to take you a bit of time. There are things you can do to save yourself some time when preparing your articles. For instance, you can rely on these plugins to embed official iPhone / iPad info in your content:

App Store Assistant: a highly customizable plugin that displays iOS app information on your website. It gives you a lot of control on what shows up in your posts.

Embed iPhone/iPad App: converts iTunes URLs to iOS app info. It grabs icon, screenshots, and everything else from iTunes.

WP App Store Connect: displays app store data and charts within your posts and pages. It has a shortcode and widget. The data is fully customizable.

App Display Page: pretty simple to use. Just install the plugin and use the “ios_app” shortcode with App IDs to get started.

AppStore Links: useful for review sites that rely on affiliate links to make money. Just use the right shortcodes to add the right info to your posts.

These plugins won’t write your reviews for you but they do add app data to your site fast. They could prove useful for app sites.

Anyone who has sold products online would tell you that adding testimonials to your website is a no-braier. It may not look like a big deal but could improve your conversion rate and encourage more people to pay for your product (we are talking about real testimonials and not the fake ones some people use). Adding testimonials to your WordPress site is very simple. Plugins such as Testimonials Widget make the process easy.

Testimonials Widget displays random or rotating quotes, reviews, and other information on your website. You can inset testimonials via shortcode, functions, or widgets. You can have more than one widget active. The plugin is highly customizable. It gives you control over height, rotation speed, text, CSS, and the information you would like to display. You get an admin interface to manage all your testimonials.

Testimonials Widget allows you to apply category and tag filters to your entries. You can include and exclude items by ID.  Want to hide e-mail, title, location, or other fields? No problem.

The Testimonials Widget plugin is a free plugin. A paid version is available that offers even more flexibility (with caching and many more features). This script could prove quite useful for folks who have made a business out of selling their own products online.

Many of us are very active on top social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It is generally a good practice to buy the domain for your name to brand yourself and help your friends and followers find all your work online in one place. These 6 WordPress themes look simple but allow you to showcase your social profiles and previous works online effectively:

Prestige: a dynamic theme for your social profiles, resume, and personal blog. It has many animations and icons. It comes integrated with Google Maps.

Profile Theme: has a responsive design and allows you to promote your social profiles, resume, and previous work on your site.

Visiting Card: more than decent for those of you who want to put a mini website together to promote your social profiles.

Biopic: a minimalist but good looking vCard theme for your site. It is coded in HTML5 and CSS3. You get 11 shortcodes, 3 custom widgets, and sample data.

Summit: a responsive vCard theme for the pros. It lets you promote your previous work and resume online. The options panel is easy to get a handle on too.

Zwin: another responsive vCard theme for your mini site. It looks quite stylish and has 5 color skins. The theme is jQuery-powered and comes with 8 backgrounds.

There are plenty of more sophisticated themes available for professionals. The above themes look simple but work great for mini-sites.

Many webmasters assume that their readers will check out all parts of their websites. That is simply not true. Studies have shown that folks look at certain areas first when visiting new websites. They are trained to behave that way. It is up to you to design your website in a way that gives your content the best chance to get attention. Using tools such as HotSpots could help too. This plugin generates a heat map of mouse clicks and taps so you can improve the usability of your site.

HotSpots is designed to help you analyze the behavior of your visitors on your website. You can save mouse clicks and touch screen taps. Each page on your website will have its own heat map. You do have the option to ignore zoom level and device pixel ratio when drawing heat maps. I would not recommend it as your site does not look the same on all devices. You can target specific pages by taking advantage of the URL filters.

This is a free plugin and does not require you to sign up for an account to use it. You can change its heat value, spot radius, and opacity from the Options page. You are going to have to give it some time to gather enough data for you to make serious decision. But if you have a site that is not converting well or would like to know how your visitors view and interact with your content, the HotSpots Heat Map Plugin is worth checking out. I personally prefer CrazyEgg though.

Planning the perfect wedding event can be quite challenging. No matter how much effort you put into preparing for your event, things could always go wrong.  The last thing you would want to do as a couple is spend time trying to learn HTML coding when you are just a few weeks or months away from your big event. Game Over for WordPress makes it much easier to build a professional presence for your event.

Game Over is responsive and has a drag & drop layout builder. You can use this theme to announce your wedding, engagement plans, and other important events. Couples can share their story and photo album with the world. A guestbook feature is available just in case you would like your friends and family members to share their messages.

Game Over is social media ready and has multiple layouts for posts. The back-end options panel is easy to get a handle on. Adding Twitter, Flickr, posts, and other content to your sidebar is not complicated. You do have the option to enable Facebook comments for your website. Visitors can RSVP and change their reservation online.

Game Over looks professional and has a lot of features for wedding sites. It is easy to customize too. Another useful theme for couples getting married.

Starting a classified ads or directory site with WordPress is not that hard. We have already covered many themes and plugins you can use for the job. Not all of those are flexible enough to handle what you have in mind. If you happen to be interested in starting a vehicle directory / portal based on WordPress, you should check out these 7 car directory themes:

Automotive: allows you to create a vehicle directory and even sell items online. It is WooCommerce friendly. The theme is powered by the Tevolution plugin.

Directory Portal Theme: a flexible theme you can use to create advanced directory portals for shops, websites, car dealers, and everything else. The theme is PayPal friendly and comes integrated with Google Maps.

ClassiPress: turns your WordPress blog into a classified ads website. It has a fully customizable front-page with custom fields and support for custom membership packs. It is social media friendly too.

WP Pro Automotive: a responsive automotive theme for WordPress. Whether you want to list cars or sell them online, this theme can handle the job. It has 14 custom widgets and 5 custom page layouts. The drag & drop homepage builder is a plus.

Classified Ads: a premium theme that turns your website into a classified ads portal. It provides support for PayPal, Google Checkout, and Authorize.net. It can handle car, real estate, food, and other types of ads.

Auction Theme: want to create a car auction website? This theme can handle the job. It supports multiple payment gateways and has a neat escrow feature.

Listings: a pretty powerful theme for content sites. It has a customizable homepage and everything you need to host listings on your website. It comes integrated with Google Maps.

Have you found better themes for vehicle directories? Please share them here.

In the past couple of years, we have covered plenty of plugins WordPress webmasters can take advantage of to integrate Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and other social sites with WordPress. As search engines start to pay even more attention to social signals, you should do your best to make your website as social-media friendly as possible. Here are 35 ways to do just that:

1. use floating social media buttons: this approach is being used by some of the most popular blogs and news portals around. Plugins such as Sharebar let you implement this on your own website. You have the option to make your buttons go into horizontal mode on smaller screens.

2. Add a social profiles box: your visitors will be able to use these to follow you on Twitter, Facebook, and other top social networks. Plugins such as Social Media Tabs allow you to promote your social presences on your site effectively.

3. send your posts automatically to Twitter, Facebook, …: you can automate the process by using plugins or tools such as Hootsuite. Posting your latest articles to these sites improves your site’s chances of getting found by more people.

4. implement Google Authorship: Google+ is a fast rising social network. By implementing Google Authorship on your website, you get to make your content stand out in the SERPs.

5. add Facebook recommendations: the Facebook Recommendations Bar feature is used by many popular sites. It could encourage some of your visitors to spend more time on your website.

6. adopt a social-media friendly comment system: we use IntenseDebate on our site and are quite happy with it. Disqus is worth exploring also. Let’s not forget that many popular sites have had success with Facebook Comments & Google+ Comments.

7. display top posts by social share count: we all use popular-, related-, and random-posts plugins to let our visitors know about our works. Using your social stats to promote your most popular articles is an idea worth exploring.

8. Implement a social header: by adding your social buttons to your site’s header, you will have the chance to grab the attention of your visitors right away. Foobar is one of many plugins you can use to make that happen.

9. add social sharing buttons to your site’s footer: yet another way to grab the attention of your visitors. Wibiya does more than that though. It also lets you target visitors from specific social networks. Meebo was another option worth exploring though Google killed it.

10. add Pinterest button to all your images: Pinterest is a great community to target if you have unique images hosted on your website. Adding Pinterest to all your buttons would only increase your chances of getting more love on that site.

11. add social buttons to all your images: it is true that Pinterest is a great place to share images on. But your visitors may want to share your pictures on Facebook or other sites. Adding social sharing buttons to all your images could pay dividends in the long run.

12. give your visitors incentives: this strategy could pay off if you play your cards right. You could always encourage your visitors to earn freebies by sharing your articles with their friends.

13. implement social lockers: have great content you don’t want to offer for free? You could always ask your visitors to share your work with your friends before gaining access to your premium content.

14. target your visitors by referrer: want to offer visitors coming from Google+, Facebook, or Twitter special treatment? WP Greet Box is one of many plugins you can use to pull this off.

15. promote your social pages aggressively: it should go without saying that not all your visitors will notice your social buttons and profile boxes. You could use plugins such as Facebook Page Promoter Lightbox to let all your visitors know about your social outposts. This particular plugin displays a Lightbox on-load with or without a delay. This approach could work for Twitter and Google+ also.

16. create and display your social stream/wall: are you active on multiple social sites? By creating your WordPress social stream, you will have an easier time keeping your visitors updated on your latest activities.

17. add related YouTube videos to your site: many of your site visitors love finding interesting YouTube videos. By adding related videos to your posts, you will make the process easier for them.

18. make your content tweetable: people love being able to share your content with their Twitter friends as fast as possible. Adding the Tweet This button to your posts is a great idea.

19. implement social login on your website: many folks are active on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ these days. Giving your visitors the ability to join your community with their social credentials might encourage more of them to get active.

20. add related social content to your website: when it comes to adding related content to your posts, you may not want to limit yourself only to videos. Adding related tweets or photos to your posts may not be a bad idea.

21. make exit links social media friendly: there is nothing wrong with linking to other sites. But some of your visitors may not come back to your site after using your external links. With plugins such as Exit Through Facebook Like, you get to ask them for likes before they leave.

22. create a social bio: many WordPress webmasters already have author-boxes available after or before each posts. Plugins such as Social Author bio make your author box social media friendly.

23. display content with social widgets: there are plenty of plugins you can use to add your latest Facebook posts, Instagram photos, or tweets to your website. You should not go overboard with this idea but it is worth exploring.

24. implement social sharing analytics: Google analytics can give you a lot of information about your top posts. You can also use plugins such as Social Sharing Analytics to track your top posts based on likes, shares, and +1s.

25. import your social content: having your posts stored only on Facebook or Twitter is not always the greatest idea. You could always do some neat things by importing your posts from top social sites and turning them into special posts.

26. add Google+ Hangouts and Events to your site: Google+ is still a growing social network with millions of users. It has Hangouts, Communities, and plenty of other useful features for businesses and individuals. Putting together Google+ Hangouts for your readers regularly could do your community wonders. You can display those on your website with the Google+ Hangout Events plugin.

27. use gamification to your advantage: there are plugins you can use to gamify your social media promotion approach and encourage more of your visitors to get involved. This approach might not work for every site but is worth testing.

28. display your social stats: displaying your social stats to your visitors could make your site look more credible and encourage more people to give your content a push on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.

29. make your website tablet/e-reader friendly: many of your visitors view your content on their smartphones and tablets. If your site looks terrible on handheld devices, you won’t be getting many likes or tweets from your mobile visitors.

30. install read-it-later buttons on your website: some of your visitors won’t read your posts immediately. But adding Instapaper, Readability, and Pocket buttons to your site, you will give them a way to save your articles to read at a later time instead of just leaving your site and forgetting about your work.

31. target the right social networks: as a small business owner you may not be able to stay very active on all popular social networks. Targeting the ones that are working for your business and fully integrating them with your WordPress is the safe approach. We have already covered how you can integrate Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare, and Quora with WordPress.

32. enhance your website with social search: want to keep your visitors engaged for longer? Giving them the chance to go through tweets, pins, and other social content on your site may not be a bad idea.

33. adds Schema.org microdata to WordPress: search engines use the markup on pages to optimize the way they display search results. Implementing the Schema.org markup could make your listings stand out in the SERPs and improve your CTR. The good news is there are many plugins that simplify the job for webmasters.

34. try content aggregation: aggregating your own social activities or top posts across multiple social networks and displaying them in a professional manner on your website could grab your visitors’ attention. We have covered themes and plugins you can use for these tasks in the past.

35. test social petitions: we all have causes that we are passionate about. You can use plugins such as SpeakUp to gather signatures for your petitions and remind your visitors to share your content on sites like Facebook.

The present and future of search is social. If your site is not social media friendly, you are going to have a difficult time getting your content the attention it deserves. Webmasters are going to need well-thought-out content and social media strategies to succeed. The above plugins won’t come up with a social strategy for you but play a role in the process.

Starting a news website using WordPress is not that hard as long as you love covering the news and are passionate about journalism. We have covered plenty of awesome WordPress themes for news sites. These 5 WordPress themes are worth checking out if you are building your news site using Thesis:

Quik: a modern magazine and news blog theme for Thesis. It has 6 design schemes and a landing page template.

Vizio: an attractive child theme for news and tech magazines. You can handle videos, images, and all kinds of content using this theme.

Magazine Thesis 2: this magazine theme is developed for Thesis 2. It is fully responsive and has 18 custom widgets and 15 shortcodes. You can change its colors easily.

Foxy News: designed for Thesis 2 and Genesis, Foxy News turns your blog into a news portal. It has a jQuery background slideshow behind your content and multiple article sliders.

CinchPress: a magazine-type child theme for Thesis 1.8.x and Genesis. It has a decent number of custom widgets. CinchPress should work well for small magazine sites.

Thesis makes creating sophisticated WordPress sites easy. The above templates allow you to bring your news magazine online faster.

I am a big fan of adding videos to some of my sites. Adding the right videos to your posts can make them more valuable to your visitors. If you are producing your own videos, adding them to your site is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, too many YouTube videos could slow down your posts. That’s why you should think about lazy loading them. WP YouTube Lyte makes that happen without requiring you to do any coding.

The WP YouTube Lyte plugin gives you more control over YouTube videos you add to your website. Let’s not forget that you could change the behavior of YouTube videos in various ways (e.g. with some CSS coding). This plugin lets you choose player size, position, and micro-data options. The player looks like the default YouTube player but loads only when clicked on. That is very important when you have multiple videos available in your post.

WP YouTube Lyte does have a widget. You can also use shortcodes to load videos on your website. Videos and audio can be embedded by using httpv and httpa links. There are other ways to handle YouTube videos in WordPress effectively. However, WP YouTube Lyte is capable of getting the job done if you need a way to lazy load your videos.

We have covered charity themes for WordPress here in the past. Regardless of what cause you are passionate about, you are going to have a very difficult time getting donations and the right kind of attention without a good looking website. Mission for WordPress is a decent theme that gives your charity website a professional makeover. The theme will look and work fine on small smartphones and large screens.

Mission has an elegant design and is easy to customize. The homepage widget builder makes customizing your content layout easy. You get multiple post types to handle causes, events, and staff member information for your organization. Custom widgets for news, causes, and events are included. Missions is ready to be fully localized. In order to get started faster, you may want to try the demo content.

The Mission theme looks quite elegant and has everything you need to give your charity site a professional makeover. The full HTML version of the theme is included too. There is a lot to like about this theme.