Posts Tagged ‘free’

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

• Download the CineVlog .zip file (340KB)
• VIEW CINEVLOG LIVE AND IN ACTION

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

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.

Screenr allows you to capture video of your computer desktop with ease.

Since I do a lot of video tutorials, it was time to find a good piece of screen record software that was frugal in price (think free) and had good functionality. Billed as being an instant screencast for Twitter, it does much more.

Key Features

• Records video of your computer desktop
• Allows audio record from external microphone
• Allows up to 5 minutes of recording time
• Allows you to post your video to Twitter.
• Publish to YouTube
• Save as MP4
• Plays on iPhones

I used Screenr for my How to add an “Add This” button to your free WordPress.com blog post. I recorded the video, published it to YouTube, and downloaded it as an MP4 file. Unfortunately, the YouTube video did not publish properly. After running the first few seconds, the YouTube video scrambled, looking like a satellite TV station out of tune. I ended up uploading the video to Viddler then using that video to embed on my blog.

Limitations

• Only records up to five minutes. This is sufficient for most of my mini-tutorials but not adequate for a longer HowTo video
• Publish to YouTube wonky. Note: I only tried the Publish to YouTube feature once.
• The cursor movement was difficult to track

Overall, I was very happy with the site software and will continue to use it for shorter tutorials and for segments of longer videos.

Give it a try and drop me a Comment here or “@” me on Twitter and let me know what you think.