I found this WordPress tutorial on how to add images to custom menu links helpful. This is especially handy for inserting an RSS image next to your feed link, or some other identifying icon or small image. It doesn’t fundamentally change the function of your WordPress site, but it does add a nice, small design touch that can make a difference in the user experience. Click the screenshot below to see the tutorial.  We at Pingable love new, helpful WordPress tutorials, so please send them our way.

You’ll find some really incredible AJAX WordPress Themes out there.  AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XHTML.  If you’re not familiar with AJAX, you may be familiar with some of the features it is responsible for on WordPress sites.  For example, almost any feature that allows you to stay on the page while updating the content is using AJAX.  Search results are a common use of AJAX in WordPress themes.  When you search and the results automatically appear without clicking search or pressing “enter”, this is AJAX.

The following are 50 of the best AJAX powered WordPress Themes for Fall of 2011.  We sincerely hope you enjoy.  If you liked this post, we would love to share more with you with Facebook.

Minimalista (An Ajax WordPress Template)

Animated Under Construction – Twitter & Ajax forms

Hungarian (CSS3 + HTML5 + AJAX Navigation)

jSale – jQuery and Ajax For Sale template

Under Construction Page with AJAX, Twitter feed

PhotoGrid – One Page Ajax Photography WP Theme

Ajax Launch Page

Powerful Errors – PHP/Ajax error template

Under construction/maintenance – Twitter & AJAX

Under Construction Page w/ AJAX contact form

Ajax Portfolio

Grace powerful HTML CSS AJAX template

Divine – vCard/Portfolio – With AJAX Contact Form

AIDA AJAX Paper Landing Page

Minimalisto – Premium WordPress Theme

Multimedia – Music, Video, Picture, Blog HTML 5

LauncherX – Countdown Template

XYLON UNDERCONSTRUCTION PAGE

Revoltz – Premium WordPress Theme – 3 in 1

Ultra Sleek 3D Look Under Construction Page

Distinct – Portfolio and Business WordPress Theme

DynaX – Landing Page.

SlickApp – iPhone / Mobile App Website Theme

Stuff

Alabastros Studios WordPress Version

FreshServe – A Web App / SaaS Website Theme

COSoo COming Soon Page Template

Style and Fashion

Atheron – Under Construction Template + WP Theme

Photorific – Photography WordPress Theme

4elements – Multi Purpose Business Template

Rounded Biz – Professional Business Template

Feature List – a template designed to sell

DesiredFolio

Vendible – Site/Domain For Sale XHTML/CSS

Mobius Domain For Sale xHTML/CSS

Manilla WordPress Theme

DigitFlip, UnderConstruction with twitter

Minerva XHTML Theme

cleanTypo Website Template 6-1 for clean websites

web access Website Template web 2.0 look

RamInfo Clean Corporate Business Website Template

Atlas Magento Theme

Integrity Website Template web 2.0 style

Business Showcase – Corporate Layout (HTML)

Grunge Under Construction Pages

Premium Company Template

Stuff – template

Carta – Minimalistic Html Template

ONELAND Landing page

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I build a lot of WordPress sites and these are, in my opinion, the must-have WordPress plugins for 2011.  I start almost every new WordPress install with these plugins, even if I don’t have a specific intention for them all at the time of development.  If for no other reason, these WordPress plugins will make your websites function at a top-notch level in 2011.

Jetpack WordPress plugin for 2011

Jetpack is a compilation of handy features for any WordPress installation.  It includes Gravatar Hovercards, WordPress stats (available as a standalone plugin), Twitter Widget, wp.me shortlinks, Sharedaddy social sharing plugin, and Shortcode Embeds.

Usernoise Contact Form WordPress plugin for 2011

Usernoise is an absolute must.  It is the easiest, smallest and best-looking contact form plugin available for WordPress.  It is super-simple to setup, but that means there’s not a lot of customization options.  Usernoise Plugin ads a floating “feedback” image on the side of your site, that when clicked, created a slick AJAX powered overlay contact form.

Donation Can WordPress plugin for 2011

Donation Can creates a widget that accepts both set and custom donations via Paypal.  It works magically, letting you choose fundraising goals like “Pay for our server costs” or whatever you’d like.  Set weekly, monthly goals, anything really.  Perfect for kickstarting your WordPress website development.

Password Protect WordPress Plugin for 2011

Password Protect plugin is essential for development, especially if you’ve got a great idea that you don’t want stolen.  Make sure your WordPress install is not indexable by search engines, then install this plugin.  It will only show the front end to logged in users, ie: you.  You can even set a custom message to users who try and view your site.

Facebook Traffic Pop WordPress Plugin

This plugin creates a floating Facebook like box that utilizes jQuery overlay to catch visitors for a set period of time.  They can either “like” you or wait for it to fade away.  This is a great, albeit pushy technique to increase your social networking presence.

Foobar Announcement Bar WordPress Plugin for 2011

This plugin expertly mimics the HelloBar which is a free but branded dropdown bar at the top of your page.  HelloBar limits what you can place in their bar, and asks for $25/monthly to unlock the best features.  That’s pretty steep, especially when this plugin only costs $9 once at CodeCanyon.

Google +1 WordPress Plugin for 2011

Despite how you feel about Google’s foray into social networking, savvy webmasters will need to adopt Google +1 as the next wave of content sharing.  This plugin is free, in the WordPress plugin directory and gives you tons of flexibility to choose how the button is displayed next to your content.

Fiverr is a marketplace where you can list what you would do for $5.  Some people wouldn’t do much for only $5.  Others would do some very labor intensive, complicated, desperate things.  If it’s worth $5 is for you to decide.  The flip side of this service is that you can offer your WordPress expertise for $5.  Who knows, a simple theme customization or blog post might be worth $5.  It’s all up to you.

The interface mimics Twitter, which makes sense as a $5 gig is a small, quick thing to handle.  There doesn’t seem to be a limit, however, to what people are willing to do (or ask for).  One person is asking for a complete logo and theme design for only $5.

Here are 20 things people are willing to do with WordPress for only $5.  Some might surprise you.  What would you do for $5?  If you’ve got something creative (and family-friendly), leave it in a comment below.

What people will sell you for $5

1. Make WordPress SEO friendly.
2. One hour of WordPress “killer tricks” taught via Skype.
3. A custom “professional” WordPress theme! (probably an Artisteer user)
4. Host five WordPress sites monthly.
5. Fix any WordPress problem related to PHP or a theme.
6. Complete WordPress setup. (If you’re reading Pingable, you should probably be able to do this yourself)
7. Design a custom eBook cover.
8. Review your website.
9. Get 2500 backlinks. (sketchy SEO!)
10. A tutorial on writing high quality, original articles quickly.
11. Update all of your WordPress sites. (unlimited!)
12. Get a dirty, rotten tool for replacing words with synonyms.
13. Install and setup a WordPress ecommerce theme.
14. Add Twitter share buttons to 25 posts.
15. Remove encrypted links from your footer.
16. Any small code project.
17. Install the top 5 WordPress plugins. (says who?)
18. Optimize your VPS Linux server.
19. SEO your blog.
20. Manual submission to the top 20 bookmarking sites.

Tutorials are all the rage right now, especially WordPress Tutorials. I understand why. There used to be a plethora of posts like this one for a while. Many people still write posts like this: “100 amazing themes” and “50 creative logos”. They’re nice to look at, helpful and inspiring.

However the trend is definitely towards tutorials. Look at Envato’s newest marketplace as an example.  And we at Pingable understand the trend.  Tutorial posts are more helpful in a tangible way.  Users can read a post and walk away with a real, measurable, helpful new skill set.

In light of this trend, we thought it would be nice to combine the two types of content.  Here is a list of 25 extremely Helpful WordPress Tutorials.

Free WordPress Tutorials

16 Vital Checks Before Releasing a WordPress Theme Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by Ludovico Fischer

This tutorial will help you check off those must-do steps before making your new theme public. You spent countless hours developing the theme, don't forget these steps. From protecting comments on posts to correctly paginating posts, don't forget any of these steps.

Designing the Post Meta Data Section

WordPress Tutorial by the Codex Team

Using post meta data is one of the most versatile and helpful features of WordPress. You can essentially generate all of your post excerpt information on the fly which can make for a rich user experience. This official codex tutorial walks you through creating this section of your design.

Creating Custom Fields for Attachments in WordPress Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by Andy Blackwell

WordPress custom fields are incredibly useful and versatile. They can turn a regular theme into a dynamic and user-powered design. However when displaying attachments the code needs some tweaking. This tutorial walks you through the necessary tweaking to make it work.

Fun Character Entities WordPress Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by the Codex Team

Using various character entities in your designs can make the user experience smoother. This can be navigation arrows, ampersands, etc. This tutorial by the official codex crew will help you incorporate those characters into your next design.

How to Integrate an Options Page into your WordPress Theme Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By Dan Walker

All of the latest quality WordPress Themes include backend (administrative) options themes to help the user utilize all of the incredible, complicated features coming standard with the latest themes. This tutorial will guide you in creating this feature for your next theme.

Premium WordPress Tutorials

WordPress, Beginner to Master Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By Dan Harper, $5

This tutorial walks you through creating a complete WordPress site including a blog and portfolio. Written after the many new features in WordPress 2.7, this tutorials brings you up to speed before looking closely at WordPress 3.0.

Securing and Hardening WordPress Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By JT Pratt, $5

WordPress is inherently secure as a blogging platform. However as it is converted into a CMS, more user data is being transfered and more opportunities to access core files are created. This makes it less secure. This tutorial will help you secure WordPress against data theft but also make it less prone to malicious attack and forceful entry. A must-read for any serious WordPress user.

Creating a Custom WordPress Portfolio Page Tutorial

WordPress Tutorial by By nuResponse, $5

This tutorial will help you leverage the WordPress custom template functionality to create powerful design functionalities within your site. You will be walked through creating a portfolio page to display information in a unique way which can be applied in unlimited ways.

We hope you enjoyed these Helpful WordPress Tutorials.  These are some of the best free and premium tutorials we could find.  If you have your own must-read WordPress Tutorials, please leave a comment below!

Commanding 2% of the websites globally, WordPress produces a lot to write about.  Subtract the junk, ad-bait and plagiarism and you’re left with only a few quality articles each day.  I sorted through the latest WordPress articles and identified the quality, helpful posts.  I hope you enjoy.

18 WordPress Plugins for RSS Management and Tweaks

What’s Coming in WordPress 3.1

A New Home for the WordPress Trademark

Tips for Your WordPress Comment Page

All Killer WordPress Websites are Built Around These Concepts

In a recent post, we hinted at the development of an exclusive jQuery powered WordPress Plugin. Today is the day! We have released the brand new, completely unique WordPress Constant Footer Plugin.

It uses a jQuery plugin combined with the simplicity of a WordPress plugin to create a super-simple sticky footer. The footer sticks to the bottom of the browser window regardless of how/where the user scrolls.

Complete with an easy-to-use dashboard settings page, the WP admin can change the opacity, color and height of the footer. Utilizing a slick fade-in effect, the plugin allows any HTML to be entered by the admin and displayed to the public.

Use the plugin to:

• Showcase new content
• Display site news
• Encourage Twitter, RSS or other social media following
• Offer premium, unique advertising space
• Flag user attention for breaking news
• And anything else you come up with!
• (Tell us how you’re using the plugin in the comments belows)

The plugin is completely free, although donations are much appreciated.  Here are some helpful links:

Plugin Homepage | Demo | Documentation

Inclusion in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory is pending.  Until then, you can download the plugin from the homepage or by clicking here.

This plugin was developed by Pingable.org and released to our community of readers first.  We like you that much!  As with any new plugin, be patient as we work out any bugs.

Here are some screenshots:

We’ve written a pretty popular review on Thesis Theme recently, which added to the debate discussions between Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress and Chris Pearson, the creator of Thesis Theme.

Mr. Mullenweg argued, with a strong contingent of WordPress enthusiasts behind him, that Thesis Theme is violating the GNU/GPL license of WordPress because Thesis Theme entirely depends on the WordPress framework to work, yet is not released under the GNU/GPL license as WordPress requires.

Pearson argued that he could, in fact, create anything using the WordPress framework and sell it as a premium product just like premium theme providers do.

Here’s where Pearson ran into trouble: the GNU/GPL license specifies that derived works must be re-released under the same license.  Meaning people cannot take the code, modify it, then sell it using more restrictive licensing guidelines as Pearson has done.

Thus ensued a heated debate among the open source community.  There was talk of court battles, and a moderated Skype debate even occurred.  The issue went as far as to garner debate and odds on SBRForum, a odds-making site.

Matthew Ross, Media Strategist for SBRForum gave us his two cents: Both sides of this debate have compelling arguments.  What we can say at this juncture is that the outcome of any potential ruling on this matter will be landmark and have far-reaching consequences. The fact that both Mullenweg and Pearson are active, well-known personalities in the space, only adds to the intrigue of this intense storyline. From an odds perspective, SBRforum.com has a beat on the matter. But, we also know that the odds could change based on any number of potential variables in the coming weeks and months.

After weeks of debate and controversy, the issue is over.  Pearson yielded, offering Thesis under a split GPL license which will allow him to maintain control over the product while staying in legal compliance with the WordPress folks.  This will also allow people who purchase the Thesis Theme to develop, modify and redistribute the code as their own with the necessary attributions.

In my opinion: we’ll take this as a victory for free software.

Many beginning bloggers start on Blogger because well, it’s free, isn’t it? Plus, it’s not nearly as scary as having to deal with hosting and servers and FTP and who knows what other impossibly complicated things.

The thing is, if you’re serious about your blogging, you’re going to have to deal with these things sooner or later, and the cost for an entire year of hosting isn’t much more than a movie night for a family of four. With professional hosting in place, you’ll feel far more investment in your site.

Still not convinced? Here are five reasons WordPress is better than Blogger.

1. WordPress is much more customizable. Sure you can do a few things to pretty up your Blogger blog and there some things you can add on, but when it comes right down to it, the difference between the two is like the difference between renting and owning a home. A rental might let you paint or maybe plant some begonias out front, but ownership allows you to tear that baby down to the studs and go crazy building it back up.

Some people might not want or need that option, but your site IS your presence on the web, don’t you want it to fit you like a glove?

2. You’ll be taken far more seriously on your own domain. Although you can use blogger in conjunction with your own domain, most people don’t go through that step and are thus nameofblog.blogspot.com. It’s not easy to remember and looks amateur. And if you’re going to go through the trouble of buying a domain name and pointing it to Blogger, why not go the extra step and secure your own hosting? Most web hosts will install WordPress for you if you purchase a hosting package and it’s not that much more difficult from that point to begin blogging on WordPress than it would be on Blogger.

3. WordPress is very search engine friendly. Although Blogger is owned by Google, the WordPress platform has an edge when it comes to search engine optimization. Not only is it structured better for the search engines right out of the box, there are plenty of plugins designed to give you every sliver of SEO advantage possible. And with all the competition for search rankings, you do need every sliver you can get your hands on.

Of course Blogger blogs are indexed by Google and can of course achieve search engine rankings, but WordPress does offer a clear SEO advantage.

4. You own your WordPress blog. Blogger blogs are owned by Google and can be shut down at any time. Of course, Google isn’t insane and most of the time they have a good reason for shutting down a blog, but do you really want to be that one case out of 10,000 where they make the wrong call? Even if you’ve saved all the content and images you’d posted on Blogger, how will you rebuild all the inbound links and PR on a new site? If this were to happen to you, you’d more or less have to start from the beginning.

On the other hand, if you own your domain and WordPress site, if your host decides to shut you down because they feel you use too many resources or have violated their policies, you can simply pack up and move to a new host, blog intact. Again, it isn’t likely that Google would shut you down like that, but do you want to give that control to an outside corporation?

5. Blogger blogs have a certain reputation. It’s not fair and nobody should be judged by their platform, but many people have a prejudice or bias against Blogger blogs. I know sometimes I’m hesitant to even try to comment on one as so many make you comment with your Google account and then require a CAPTCHA on top of that. Blogger seems to have a reputation as being more for mommy/journal type blogs rather than serious bloggers.

Of course, that isn’t true of everyone who uses Blogger, but if I were starting from scratch, I’d go with the platform that didn’t come with a reputation for being amateur.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Blogger platform if it fits your needs. But if you have the smallest inkling that one day you’ll grow out of it and want to make the move to WordPress, it’s far simpler to start with your own WordPress blog today and save yourself the hassle of trying to move later.

Hosting can be found for as little as $5 a month and you’ll be working with one of the most customizable blog and content management systems out there. WordPress offers so many advantages over Blogger, it seems silly to start with anything else, unless you’re not planning on going anywhere with your blog.

Sean Platt is a content marketing specialist who offers free WordPress tutorials at WPSimplified.Com. Follow him on Twitter.

Image Credit

This excellent tutorial was put together by Jared over at Design Juices.  As a key feature in WordPress 3.0, custom post types have the potential to turn your blog inside-out. (In a good way)

Custom post types promise to bring WordPress one step closer to being a real CMS, not just a blog platform.  Check out this tutorial on custom post types to see what’s involved in custom post types.