Sunday, March 6, 2011

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QuickOnlineTips Newsletter

QuickOnlineTips Newsletter

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How to Change / Shorten Excerpt Length in WordPress

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 02:12 AM PST

Most index pages, archive pages in WordPress display excerpts of 55 words. How can you change, or shorten excerpt length (or even increase it) easily.

If you look inside your WordPress theme index.php or archive.php, you will find this excerpt tag coming beneath the post title, which displays post excerpt in the front page or archives, category pages.

<?php the_excerpt(); ?>

It will display 55 words by default and then end abruptly with [...]. So how can you change excerpt length?

Change excerpt length in WordPress

Edit your theme functions file functions.php and add the following code at the bottom just above the last line of the code ?>

function new_excerpt_length($length) { return 20; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length');

Remember to place it just above the last line of the code ?> or your functions.php file may become unusable. Change the 20 and use and number to specify the words you want to display in excerpts.

Its a good idea to backup your themes file before editing it, as any error will give major WordPress theme errors. And then you would have to FTP your site, and restore the functions.php to the previous one.

How to Add Unique QR Code to All WordPress Blog Posts Easily

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 12:51 AM PST

Want to add a unique QR Code to all WordPress blog posts? QR codes are a great way to let mobile users use QR code readers to visit urls and get custom experiences in a click.

Add QR Code

Use Google Chart API to generate unique QR codes for each WordPress blog post. Simply add the following code in the your single.php file where you want the QR code to appear.

<img src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=150x150&chld=L|4&chl=<?php the_permalink(); ?>" width="150" height="150" alt="QR code" />

QR Code Parameters

Here is the break up of the QR code parameters which you can change

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart? -  calls the Google Chart API

cht=qr chooses to display the QR code option

&chs=100x100 calls for the 100 px square size

&chld=L|4 – call for default error correction level and margin (in rows). So want more white border around the code, increase the 4

&chl=<?php the_permalink(); ?> call for the permalink of the single post. Use the url you want.

This will add QR codes of size 100px x 100px to your site. You can change the 100 to 200 or whatever pixel size you like as per your blog template. But remember that very small QR codes are difficult to read by many QR code readers.

So for the main page, I can use this
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=200×200&chld=L|1&chl=http://www.quickonlinetips.com

QOT QR CODE

Scan it with your QR code scanner and see if it works.

How to Use PAD Files to Get Links

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 08:44 PM PST

Guest post by Ramandeep Singh. In this article I have shared that what are PAD files and how to use those PAD file to get successful links and better SEO.

Get linksWhat is a PAD File?

When software developers want to submit their software to various freeware and shareware directories, there is a standardized format used to hold all of the information about the software. A file in this format is called a PAD file, and it uses basic XML markup to store information about the software in question. The file size, the download URL, relevant keywords, and other data are stored in these files. Instead of requiring developers to fill out tons of different forms, most shareware and freeware directories just accept PAD files directly.

While you’re more than welcome to type out a PAD file in a basic text editor like Notepad, a more efficient way of creating a PAD file is by using a freeware program like PAD Creator. There are a few programs out there like PAD Creator which are free to download, and allow you to quickly fill out a series of forms to generate a PAD file for your new download.

How can a PAD File Generate an Inbound Link?

First, you have to create some sort of download relevant to your site. Something as simple as taking a few text articles and putting them in a zip file is sufficient for this purpose. Second, you create a PAD file that uses your website as the URL for more information about the download. Third, you submit the PAD file you created to tons of shareware and freeware directories using an automated program like RoboSoft or the Ideas Beta PAD Submitter.

What happens next is that each of the directories that accept your submission will create a page that lists all of the information in your PAD file. This page will include a link back to the website you used as the URL for more information about the download, and that’s how building links from PAD files works.

Generate Links from PAD File Directories

For people involved in SEO, building links is one of the most important tasks there is. Despite being so important, boosting the ranking of pages in search engines with inbound links isn’t very difficult. The main problem people have when working on SEO is that link-building is tedious.

Because of this, any link-building approach that can quickly gather high-quality inbound links is very valuable. Here we’re going to take a look at one such approach that will allow you to generate links from PAD file directories quickly and efficiently.

Getting Ideas for Downloads

When people start using this idea for building links, one of the main problems they have is coming up with ideas for downloads. For sites that use content that is mostly text, it can seem difficult to come up with anything that is relevant enough for a software directory.

To get out of this mode of thinking, you have to realize that any type of media that you own the rights to can be made into a download. In fact, you could just take some of your own articles, repackage them as a PDF, and call it an eBook. Each article can be a new eBook, and a different download. The more downloads you have, the more links you get from submitting PAD files.

Making the Links Relevant

Search engines don’t value all links equally. One way to make your links count for more is to have them come from sites that are relevant to the content on your website. What this means is that when you generate links from PAD file directories, you’ll need to make sure that the pages those links come from have content on them that is relevant to your niche.

The best way to do this is by populating your PAD file with lots of quality content, especially in the program description field and the keyword list field. Adding good content here will boost the quality of all of the links you generate with this method, and give you a big collective push in the search engine rankings.

Guest author Ramandeep Singh is the Founder of 200.co online directory. He is an Engineer and passionate for growing online business. Connect him via Twitter. Licensed image by Getty Images.

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