blogging

Why the Headway Premium WordPress Theme Kicks Ass

When it comes to the Headway premium WordPress theme, there’s no question I’m incredibly biased about what it can do for bloggers.

I’ve written about it more than once on here, and I use it on the three sites I’ve created so far, with more to be shared soon. In fact, it’s the only product that I’ve fallen in love with so much that I’ve signed up as an affiliate. So yes, when it comes to premium WordPress themes, Headway stands head and shoulders above everything else (at least I think so).

Yet as much as I recommend the theme, it’s still only words (and obviously the design of this blog, the 12for12k site and Just Kickin’ It) that tell you some of the cool stuff Headway can do. Sure, I can say it’s easy to use and it really does make your life a hell of a lot easier when it comes to designing your blog/website. But words only tell half the story.

Which is why this video from David Wang is perfect. In less than ten minutes, he takes the standard Headway theme layout and transforms it into a great-looking business site. Sure, it’s just the home page and you still need to add all your other pages and posts. But as an example of just how quickly you can begin to build your blog/site, under ten minutes is pretty damn impressive! Have a look for yourself.

Now that you’ve seen how simple it is to make the Headway theme sing on WordPress, what else does it have in store for you? Currently version 1.6 is in beta, and I’ve been messing around with it behind closed doors. Some of the cool features include:

Live CSS editor. While the theme allows you to make a great website with absolutely no coding needed, it also allows you to get as down and dirty as you like with coding. The new live CSS box means you can drop CSS code in and see the changes take place right in front of your eyes – no saving and checking to see how it looks.
Skins and Templates. When Headway first hit the premium WordPress theme market, one of the things it promised was the option for skins. This is where you can upload a specially developed skin that changes the look of your blog completely (if you don’t want to design your look yourself). This is now live with Headway 1.6 and you can access them from within the dashboard or from dedicated theme stores.
Default Leaf set. Headway uses a system called Leafs, which is basically your content body and sidebars (albeit in a far cooler, interactive way). While you can use any mix of set-up for your blog, with a different sidebar on every page, Headway 1.6 allows the option of a standard leaf throughout your site. Perfect if you don’t want any extra work when designing your blog.
Automatic SEO slug clean-up. This is a great new feature that cleans up your search engine visibility by removing words like “the” and “and”, etc, that Google doesn’t really bother with. You can switch this on and off in the SEO area of Headway.

These are just some of the features that the guys behind the Headway theme will be bringing to you soon. The beta is almost ready to go live, and will be available as a free upgrade for existing users and available for purchase to new users imminently.

Watching the new features that developer Clay Griffiths puts out in each new update is almost like a game in betting on just what he won’t add in each new version – it’s that crazy how much he gives WordPress bloggers. And the support is second-to-none as well.

If you’re looking for a new premium WordPress theme, Headway delivers in spades. And as a special promotion, any purchases of the theme via this blog in March will see all affiliate earnings go to .

So, the best premium WordPress theme around and all Headway sales going to charity – what better time to upgrade your blog? Just click on the image to the right to get your copy.

Update: The Headway Developer License now allows you unlimited use of the theme with no need for additional license costs – a huge advantage over other premium themes.

Note: This blog no longer runs on the Headway framework. Instead, it’s a custom WordPress design by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics.

An Invite to Pimp Your Blog

Mr Bling So this week’s been really quiet on here, due to a particularly busy project over at Maritz Canada. Now that project has at least resorted to more normal activity levels, I’ll be jumping back in here and reverting back to normal frequency.

First up will be the continuation and conclusion of the 7 Days to Turn Your Blog Into a Social Media Hub series, and this will be followed by some thoughts I’ve been having around operational social media and marketing differently. So, thanks for your patience during this recent quiet spell – really appreciate it.

But before all that, I’d like to ask you a favour – share your blog.

Leave the URL and a little info about it in the comments section (don’t worry if it doesn’t appear immediately – I use a filter for multiple links, but I will publish any filtered as soon as possible).

You kindly come here to read and maybe share a post or two with your community; now I’d like to do the same. The comments are yours to share your blog with us. And while you’re there, make sure you check out some of the blogs left there – you might just find some great new reads.

Thanks for being you, guys.

photo credit: nicora

Is Blogging Dead? Yep, That Old Chestnut Again

Almost as regular as Tila Tequila’s shameless self-promotion efforts, the question of blogging being dead keeps springing up. I’ve spoken about it before (my take – most definitely not dead) as have many others.

One of the best posts I’ve read about it, though, is by Grant Griffiths, where he takes “Steve Rubel and his cronies” to task about claims that are often contradictory.

It’s a great read, and the comments add some excellent insights. Check it out now, and be sure to leave your views in the comments too.

To Blog or Not to Blog

Day 48 / 365. Here’s a quick thought I just want to share with you, in case you’re wondering whether you should start a blog (or even if you’re currently blogging and are thinking you need to up your content level).

Stop thinking about it so much. Stop analyzing every single word you’ve just written. Stop holding your finger from the Publish tab. Stop trying to find that perfect phrase to say what you’re thinking. Stop giving yourself reasons not to post.

Instead, offer the one single reason why you should post – because it’s not perfect.

Raw is human. Raw is personal. Raw is exactly what you want to say at that given moment, and that makes it what you should say.

By all means, if your blog is corporate-minded and you need it to be “just so” for legal and other reasons, then do take more time and care.

But for the rest of you (and that includes me), forget the perfection. Forget the reasons not to. Your readers want your voice, not fabricated perfection.

Ready to blog?

photo credit:?Sarah Nitt

Blogging, Transformer Gloves and Integrated Solutions

In preparation for the upcoming winter fest, my wife bought me some Thinsulate gloves. These things are the coolest ever – transforming gloves!

Basically they’re fingerless and have a strip of velcro attached to the back of each glove. Attached to the velcro (and sewn to the glove itself) are mitten tops.

So, I get the best of both worlds. I have driving gloves if I want them, or simply fingerless gloves if the weather’s cool but not too cold for full-on gloves. Yet when the cold snap comes in, I just flip a (velcro) switch and pull the mitten part over, and I have full gloves. Genius!

And as I flipped the Transformer glove from fingerless to full this morning, I thought of how we can transfer this to our blogs…

Make Your Blog a Transformer Glove

There’s a lot of information available at the minute, and we’re providing it to each other every day. It could be on Twitter, LinkedIn groups, PDF or ebook downloads, video uploads, Slideshare presentations and much more. Yet a lot of this is fractured.

Sure, we may offer (or receive) great information via any one of these mediums, but are we really taking advantage of what we can present and help with? Are we concentrating too much on one medium or solution and not seeing the bigger picture?

For example, are businesses offering a full solution to both consumers and partners/clients, or simply offering mouth service to one while the other chooses from the full menu? While some information needs to be kept separate, a lot doesn’t (or can be a stripped down version).

Here’s how it could work.

Integrated is Not Hard Work

Let’s say you’re a business with a new product and you need to educate both retail partners and prospective customers about all the great features and benefits. You know that social is one of the best ways to market this information, but how do you satisfy two different audiences?

You don’t – instead, you satisfy them together, as one.

Set up a blog as your information hub. This is where all the cool stuff will stem from.
Make cool video snippets about some of the best features and how to make the most of them and embed on your front page and rotate regularly.
Build relationships with expert bloggers in your product’s niche and ask them if they’d be interested in guest blogging with exclusive access to your product range. This helps cement brand loyalty and collaboration with your existing audience, who can help you grow while they, in turn, are officially recognized as product experts.
Regularly include your audience by asking what they’d like to see on the blog.
Have a Twitter account that can answer quick and easy questions from both consumers and sales reps. For more in-depth questions, direct to your blog hub.
Write up the best tips and advice into downloadable content (ebooks or slide deck presentations). Encourage sharing.
Award regular visitors and contributors with special discount offers or free samples.

See how quickly you can build up a resource centre for what is essentially two different audiences, yet can benefit from a single source point? And the single source builds itself, by allowing others to take the reins.

The Transformer Glove switch bit? That’s your behind-the-scenes area for retail only. You have all the front-end support for both customer and retail channels, but then you have a password-protected area where only retailers can sign into, for special incentives and rewards on selling your product. This information can be delivered via point-of-sale messaging or similar.

Your Transformer Glove

Even if you’re not in business, you can still make your personal blog your very own Transformer Glove with integrated solutions. Make your blog a little home from home to offer more answers about you.

If you look at my navigation menu, you’ll see I’ve added a Photos feature. These are basically my Facebook photos, but all collected here (via the Fotobook WordPress plug-in). Now, instead of having to go to Facebook to see more personal stuff, you get it here.

This offers a two-fold solution – it brings fractured networks to a single point, and it also offers a little bit more about who I am. By sharing that I enjoy photography and music, for example, I’m offering a more personal side to the business voice that might normally be found here.

If you want to use a business analogy, it’s (hopefully) building brand loyalty between provider (me) and consumer (you, the readers), just like integrated solutions for business can appeal to both consumer and client/partner channels.

Can you see the benefit of this approach? What else would you use?

photo credit: Jentymom