CineVlog – A FREE WordPress Theme For Video Bloggers

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Jesse Luna

I love creating Web/blog sites and tech tutorials. Mash those two interests together and you get the video blogger WordPress theme, CineVlog.

Features of CineVlog

Extra wide sidebar, ready to display a huge picture or a nice sized YouTube video.
Dark theme, perfect for late night video watching.
Green glow highlights to make important sections POP.
Drop-down sub menus
Dozens of hours in development time and months of live testing. I used it on this site for several months.
VIEW CINEVLOG LIVE AND IN ACTION

FREE Download of CineVlog

Installation

To install you must extract the CineVlog theme and post the”CineVlog” directory and all its contets it to your WordPress blog’s “themes” directory. You can find more information on using Themes on the official WordPress.org site.

Software Notes

This software is available with no warranties, use at your own risk. This code is available AS IS. You can modify and redistribute this theme as you like but unless you make substantial changes to the code please keep this site’s URL (www.jesseluna.com) at the bottom of the footer page.

Karma Ware

The software is available via Karma Ware. Dozens of hours of development time and hundreds of cups of coffee went into this project.

If you’d like to say “thanks” and continue supporting free projects, please feel free to:

Send money via the PayPal button below. The money will be used for my personal spending needs (coffee) and as my fund for making donations to worthy causes.
Hire me to build your custom WordPress theme creation (email me at jesse dot luna at gmail dot com)
Share this page and site with the world via your social networks (Retweet, “Like” it and Share on Facebook)
Subscribe to this blog via email or RSS (see top right part of this page)
Join JesseLuna.com on Facebook.
Share a Comment on this page
Do something nice for someone else who is in need
If you use the CineVlog theme, I’d LOVE to see what you do with it. Leave a link below in the comments.

Photo Credit

gunjankarun on Flickr – license

How To Add A Slideshare Presentation To A WordPress Blog [VIDEO]

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Jesse Luna

Have an awesome presentation that you want to share with the world?

If you’ve already posted the presentation (could be a Power Point presentation) to Slideshare.net then you can embed that presentation into your WordPress.com blog. I’ll show you exactly how to do that in this video. This process also works for WordPress.org blogs.

I appreciate and value your Comments and feedback.

BlackBird Pie – A Quick Way To Serve Up Tweets On Your Site

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Jesse Luna

Assignment: Capture a tweet and display it on your site or blog.

BlackBird Pie is a little script created by @robinsloan at Twitter Media that allows site publishers to easily display tweets.

The usual process for displaying tweets is to type them in then hyperlink to the original tweet. Or, maybe a site will go farther and take a screen shot of the tweet page then crop the image and add a hyperlink to the original tweet. It takes time.

With BlackBird Pie, I was able to capture a tweet by following these steps:

Go to a Twitter profile via Twitter Web and find a tweet to display.
Click on the time stamp link to see the individual tweet then copy the tweet’s URL.

Go to the BlackBird Pie page
Paste in the URL and click on the “Bake It” button.
Cut and paste the resulting script and paste it into your web site or blog wherever you want to reference the tweet

Here’s there resulting tweet:

Don’t just provide value to your customers, provide *irreplaceable* value.less than a minute ago via webJesse P. Luna
jesseluna

Quick Notes
Apparently, this script does not work on Tumblr blogs, according to the Twitter Media site.

Review:
We just learned a simple way to reference an individual tweet on our site or blog.

Do you think you’ll start using BlackBird Pie when you reference a tweet? Why or why not?

How To Activate A New WordPress.com Theme [VIDEO]

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Jesse Luna

New to WordPress.com or just learning how to customize the blog? Well, this brief video tutorial will walk you through the process of activating a new WordPress.com theme.

Now that you’ve seen the video, are you ready for some practice?

WordPress just released a new theme called “Twenty Ten.” It’s pretty nifty and is now one of the “default” WordPress.com themes. I especially like the drop down menu lists. Test out your new skills and try it out.

The Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org Blogs

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Jesse Luna

Just finding out about WordPress? Then you my be wondering , “What’s the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org blogs?”

WordPress.com is a free blogging site where you register and set up one or more new blogs. You blog’s Web address will be {mynewblog}.wordpress.com, where “{mynewblog}” is the domain you select for your blog.

WordPress.org blogs are blog sites that have WordPress’s free blogging system installed on them. This means you would download the code then install it on a server and run the blog from there. Many choose to use a Web hosting company that has a quick WordPress install. WordPress.org blog are often referred to as “custom blog installs.”

The following items are some of the key characteristics of WordPress.com and WordPress.org blogs:

WordPress.com

Free, most of the time. You can pay for premium services like domain mapping and video-related upgrades
Allows users to create multiple blogs under one user account.
Does not allow users to run JavaScript code. This limits a user’s ability to add many types of custom widgets.
Does not allow users to run advanced analytics programs like Google Analytics. This falls under the “no JavaScript” bullet point but is an important example of the limitation. WordPress.com does have a very basic blog stats feature though.
Has a set number of available themes. However, WordPress recently expanded it’s Theme team and has been releasing a greater number of new themes.
Has a new Slideshow tool that is wicked cool and even works with the new iPad.
Has strict rules about the type of advertising that can be done on the blog.
Has built-in widgets but does not allow for third party-plugins
Has support at http://en.support.wordpress.com/. Note: there are different Support sites for WordPress.com and WordPress.org sites.

I recommend WordPress.com to:

New bloggers or people who have only dabbled in blogging. The system is easy to use, it’s free, and if you change your mind about your blog’s focus, you can easily create a new blog under that same account. It also makes for a good introduction to WordPress.org blogs because the two function the same way.
Anyone who is “testing out” blogging.
Small companies and organizations that need a blog but don’t have the resources (time, people, or money) to manage a custom install blog.
Small companies and organizations that need a Web site with a full content management systems, but don’t have the resources to build a custom site. There are several tweaks that can be made to a WordPress.com blog that can make it run as a “regular” Web site.
Teachers/professors that want to teach blogging to their students. It’s an easy to use fully functioning blogging system.

WordPress.org

Free WordPress.org code download. The download includes everything you need to get a new blog running if the server is properly configured. WordPress.org boasts of having a 5-minute install but it will take longer the first time.
Allows for one blog per install. However the highly anticipated WordPress 3.0 release will allow for the creation of multi-site blog networks.
Allows site owners to add plugins and code that contain JavaScript. WordPress.org runs on your site domain, so you can put any kind of code you want on it. There are thousands of free plugins to help customize your blog.
Requires frequent updates to patch up new security holes and new builds.
Can use thousands of different free and premium themes as well as custom-designed themes.
Allows you to run any kind of Analytics program you like, including Google Analytics.
WordPress.org blogs are open-source.
Has its own Support site: http://wordpress.org/support/.

I recommend WordPress.org to:

People, companies, and organizations that want to leverage the full force behind blogging and have the resources and willingness to learn a full-bodied blogging system.
Individuals that want to build a personal brand.
Techie tinkerers. There are a million and one things you can do with a WordPress blog.
Anyone who wants to couple ecommerce and blogging.

So which is right for you, a WordPress.com or WordPress.org blog setup? Still not sure? Drop a comment or tweet me up on Twitter at @jesseluna.

How To Add A Facebook LIKE Button To Your WordPress Blog [VIDEO]

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Jesse Luna

Facebook unleashed its new wave of site integration tools including the new Like button for external sites. This button works like the regular Like button on Facebook, where you see a status update and can give it the thumbs up.

Please note, this post is rated D for Daredevil.

To implement these changes you will need to muck around in the PHP. So make sure you’re wearing your developers propeller hat and some sort of Star Wars attire.

This micro video tutorial shows you how to find the Facebook button code, add it to your site’s template code, and get it up and running. However, this video only shows you how to add the Like button to the Single Post page in your blog. You’d also want to do the same thing with your Main Index Template page.

If you really don’t want to tinker with the template code, there are some plugins floating around. I’ve seen three different plugins already but haven’t tested them out yet. If you developed a Like button plugin, drop a comment with a link to the site. I’ll add comments to this post as I see them as well.

JesseLuna.com

Moving people to action with social media

Category Archives: Widgets