A very quick post about how to get posts show up in the home page of a Lifestyle theme – This is quite an easy process – In fact a two step process.

Before I show you how though, I have attached a snapshot of the Lifestyle theme to show you what posts I am talking about.

Okay, now let’s get started:

1. In the admin panel of your wordpress blog, click Appearance and then select ‘Lifestyle Theme Options’.
2. Enter the options for ‘Homepage Featured Top Left’, ‘Homepage Featured Top Right’ and ‘Homepage Featured Bottom’.
   

   I have attached a snapshot of the settings I entered…




3. Add a new custom field for that post called ‘thumb’. Enter the url of the image you want to be shown in the gallery in the value field.

That’s it – you are done – The images you entered under thumb field will show up on the home page – next to the excerpt of the corresponding post.

I love how complex things are made so simple in StudioPress themes.

What do you love the most about StudioPress themes – Please leave a comment below…

Best,

Featured Content Gallery is a WordPress plugin that creates an automated rotating image gallery of your posts for use anywhere within your theme. As I mentioned before I am currently working on a new affiliate site and this site uses the LifeStyle theme.

This morning I loaded the Featured Content Gallery plugin on to the home page of my new site – and it looks really cool. Pity I can’t show you a snapshot – because it is under a pen name.

Though I can’t share my site, I am going to do the next best thing – I am going to take you step by step through how to load this plugin on to your lifestyle theme. Let’s get started:

1. Go to Featured Content Gallery website and download the plugin – and then install it on to your site.
2. Go to the admin page of your wordpress blog – click ‘Settings’. At the bottom of Settings menu you should see a link to ‘Featured Content Gallery’. Click that.
3. Now we are going to configure the settings – There are only 5 things we need to change:
   • Category Name: Enter a category name. All the posts under this category will be shown in the Featured Content Gallery. I have entered ‘Featured’.

   Number of items to display: For now I have entered 3 but I later plan to change it to 5.

   • Gallery Width: This is totally up to you but I prefer ’570′.
   • Gallery Height: Again, this is totally up to you but I prefer ’300′.
   • Text Overlay: I prefer 80 – this is the text overlay on the bottom of the image in the gallery – basically the first few lines of the post.
4. You have now changed the settings – click ‘Update Options’.
5. Next go to a post you want to appear in the gallery and add the category ‘Featured’ to it – If this category does not already exist, you will have to create it.
6. Add a new custom field for that post called ‘articleimg’. Enter the url of the image you want to be shown in the gallery in the value field. Make sure this image is at least 570 *300 (otherwise it will still work but will not look that good).
7. Do the same for another post – For the plugin to work properly you need at least two posts set up (category and articleimg custom field)
8. Now go to the home page – You should see the rotating images – That’s it you are done.

I love the Featured Content Gallery Plugin on my lifestyle theme – Gives it such a professional touch.

Have you used this plugin before – Any tips/experiences you would like to share with us? Please leave a comment below…

Best,

In my previous post I talked about the eBook Cover Design Software (Push Button Software) that I recently purchased. In this post I am going to quickly take you through the steps involved in designing a ebook cover (using the Push Button software).

Step One: Open Push Button Program.

Step Two: Select the template you want for your eBook.

Step Three: Use the right hand pane to load background, front and side images for your ebook. I am not going to have any background image for this ebook cover I am designing – just front and side.

Step Four: Adjust brightness, shading and highlights – until the book looks the way you want it to.

Step Five: You are done…Click ‘Save picture’.

Here is my final ebook cover design:

And here is another ebook cover I created using a different template:

This is a very easy to use software and gets the job done in a few clicks. I am glad I purchased this software because my ebooks finally have professional looking cover designs.

Don’t just take my word for it though – Go here PushButton, see the free videos and then decide for yourself.

Best,

I have been selling eBooks on the internet for more than a year now. My ebook covers though were very primitive – did not look like professional ebook cover designs at all.

Six months ago, I decided that my ebook cover designs needed a makeover. I was after a simple, reliable, easy to use cover generator – all for a reasonable price . 

I was after a software solution so that I can use the same software for designing covers for my future ebooks as well. I wanted a do it yourself solution for my cover designs. With my huge wish list in my hand, I began my search.

One product kept coming up in my searches – ‘Push Button eCover’. The price was reasonable and it had all the features I was after. There were some good video tutorials and I decided to view them all before making my purchase. The more I looked, the more I was convinced that this was the ebook cover design software solution I was after.

If you are after some good, professional looking ebook cover designs at a reasonable price then I highly recommend this software solution. It costs $27. Here is a snapshot of the type of covers you can create with this software.

In my next post I will take you through the steps involved in creating an ebook cover.

P.S.: You can read my new post about ebook cover design software – this post is a demo of the steps involved in creating a cover design.

Best,

For my new affiliate site, I decided to use a premium wordpress theme. This is my first wordpress theme purchase. Until now, I have only used free themes and tweaked the free ones to suit my needs. This time around I decided to opt for a premium theme.

Rosalind Gardner in her Super Affiliate Handbook recommends Lifestyle theme from StudioPress. I have looked at what Rosalind has done with her site using this theme plus I also had a look at few other websites that use this theme – all beautiful and very professional looking. I agree with Rosalind that a premium theme have all the work done for you and they work the way they say they will.

Late December I bought the Lifestyle theme, installed it and played around with it on one of my other websites. I am quite happy with the purchase and falling more and more in love with the LifeStyle theme.

So, I decided to do Lifestyle theme review today….Here are some of the features / advantages:

• All StudioPress themes look good – professional, neat and cool
• The support is top notch – there are in-depth tutorials (both text and video). You get access to a free support forum. I actually tweaked the design a little bit (changed background colors, added a new logo, changed headers and the sidebar) – I was able to find easy to read and understand tutorials on all of these topics.
• All the images also come in the psd format. This is the source file format. So you can just open this image, make your changes, save it back in the right place, in the right format – and you are done !!!

  No need to start your images from scratch. StudioPress says that these psd files are specifically supposed to be of great help to all designers out there – I agree with them but you know what they are also of great help to people like me (people who don’t have a ‘designer’ bone in their body). I normally don’t know where to start when I have to create my own logo or image – but having a psd file made a huge difference to my confidence (and my skill).

• You can actually make most changes without touching the code – there is a custom interface that you can access from your wordpress menu
• The themes are developed for localization – the themes can easily be converted into your native language – I personally haven’t tested it – but from what I have read, looks promising
• The themes are all widget ready – So if you want to use wordpress widgets, it is as simple as drag and drop
• Uses latest features of WordPress – including threaded comments and gravatar integration
• StudioPress also has a list of approved designers and developers – so if you want more customization or a logo designed then you can look into their database and pick someone from there to help you out
• The themes are all optimized to rank well in search engines. StudioPress has taken special care to make sure the code is search engine optimized (with the help of SEO experts)

Purchase Options

You can buy an individual theme for $59.95. Studio Press has over 15 beautifully designed themes. So, instead of just buying one theme, you can also buy the entire package (all themes) for $199.95.

I decided to buy just one theme for now (lifestyle theme) – When you buy a theme, you get a coupon code, which you can use to buy the entire package at a later stage. You get a 25% discount with the coupon code and the entire package will only cost you $140.

Though today I only have Lifestyle theme, I will soon be upgrading my purchase and will be buying all theme package.

And one more thing, the package entitles you to future themes as well – so if a new theme is released after you have made your purchase, you get free access to the new theme as well.

There is also no restriction on the number of websites you can use your theme – this I found to be really good. Most premium themes actually restrict you on the number of websites you can use the theme on.

All in all, I am quite happy with my purchase – Like I said, I have made some changes to the theme (to suit my site) – and I was able to do them all quite easily.

Before my purchase I had read great reviews about StudioPress Lifestyle Theme but I had a double mind – even while I was making the purchase – I was not sure if it was the right decision, especially considering that there are so many free themes available – but now, I can honestly say that it was money well spent.

It has saved me heaps of time and effort – and has given me a professional looking theme – all without hiring a designer/developer.

Best,

I end my blog posts with my signature. The signature gives the post a professional outlook plus it lets the users know who wrote the post. I mean, the author’s name is at the top of the post but when the signature is at the end of the post, the user is likely to pay more attention to who the author is. This signature is very easy to create – it can be done online and here is the best part – it is totally free.

MyLiveSignature.com is my preferred online signature creator. The service they offer is very simple and easy to use.

You can either create your own signature using their inbuilt wizard or you can draw your own signature on the screen and then make alterations to it. I chose the first option as me and creativity don’t go side by side and I can never create anything as pretty as the in-built wizards can.

I entered my name – the online signature creator wizard then gave me 10 different signature options (all very beautiful, elegant and professional) – I picked the one that I most liked – the wizard then gave me 10 size options for the signature – After I made my selection, I was asked to select my background color and I chose the color to be the same as my blog background – I also had an option to change my text color, I gave this a miss and stuck to the default black. Finally I was given 10 different slope options for my signature.

I was surprised at how simple the whole thing was. I downloaded my signature, uploaded into my blog directory and I was set to go.

You are also given an id for your signature and if you want to come back and make some changes to your signature then rather than starting from the beginning, you can retrieve your signature using the id.

This signature is not my actual signature. I prefer not to use my actual signature for security reasons. But if you want to use your actual signature then there is an option there to scan your signature online.

Sandy Naidu is my real name but on my affiliate sites I use pen names – so over time I have ended up with a few different signatures. MyLiveSignature.com has a membership facility. You can register and become a member and store all your signatures on their online facility – all for free.

There are a couple of premium options that MyLiveSignature.com offers – they are animated signatures plus hand made signatures. If you use the free wizard, you are given ten different signature options.

Now, if you want more options then you can order a more realistic signature for $9.95. You can also opt to get your signature animated – great for presentations – basically anywhere you want extra focus on your signature, animation is excellent. Animated signatures will cost you $19.95.

I opted for the free service but signed up for the membership option – This online signature creator is excellent and the best part is that nothing is left to your imaginations – all the options are clearly shown on the screen and you pick the one that you most like.

Best,

p.s: Get an online signature created for free today, click here.

Yesterday evening I bought ‘Super Affiliate Handbook‘. As far as affiliate marketing goes, it is not an overstretch to say that this ebook is the industry standard. Super Affiliate Handbook has been on my wish list for sometime now – It is only $47, so not a huge investment. But I don’t usually make spur of the moment purchases.

I have been reading reviews of this ebook for some time now – most of them positive but I was still not ready to make the investment.

The reason I did not buy the book for so long is because I was not ready for the eBook – I love internet marketing – I have been making a steady income from affiliate sales, ebook sales and niche directory sites for more than a year now. But affiliate marketing was the thing I am most enjoying. 3 months ago I realized that this is the aspect of my business that I was getting most fun from – I sat on this realization for some time.

Sometimes when you make a decision straight away, it can end up being the wrong one – This was an important decision for me – I knew that if I still had the burning desire for affiliate marketing by end of October then it was the right choice for me.

It is middle of October now and I can honestly say that the burning desire has only increased. I have been making money from affiliate marketing for more than a year now, but it is not the major portion of my income – Most of my income comes from eBooks – I am now ready to change that.

By October 2010 I want affiliate marketing to be the major contributor of my income.

I have not finished reading Super Affiliate Handbook yet – Once I am done, I will write a detailed review of the book. I am super excited and very determined to make my dream come true.

Affiliate Marketing is basically commission on online sales – You build websites that promote products and you get a commission for every sale you make from your website. Getting the user to buy from your site is not easy let me rephrase that getting the user to your site is not easy. The competition is intense and you have to stand out from it. And this is where the real fun begins (and sometimes frustration).

From what I have read so far, Rosalind Gardner’s book is quite detailed and takes you step by step into the process. And one more thing, there are actually heaps and heaps of ebooks on affiliate marketing but here is the reason why this ebook is the most popular one – Rosalind Gardner has written the book from her own experience – She is a super affiliate and makes more than half million a year from affiliate sales. She is not a pretend expert, She is a real expert.

Over the coming days, I am going to read the book, digest the information and then will come back and share a detailed review with you all.

Best,

p.s: If you are interested in joining me on my journey to becoming a super affiliate, then get a head start by downloading the ebook today at Super Affiliate Handbook.

ps: Check out my super affiliate handbook review.