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FLV Embed is a super WordPress plugin made to simplify the process of adding Flash videos (FLV’s) into your blog by using Jeroen’s FLV Player. For information about encoding videos into FLV and why you should use FLV, Jeroen has written an excellent article which you can find on his website.

The FLV Embed’s main features are its ease of installation and a no bells and whistles approach to getting this plugin to display FLV files instantly on your blog!

Plugin Features

• uses simple, intuitive tags to generate Flash video (FLV) movies for your posts
• supports video sitemap generation
• standards compliant: valid XHTML
• many options are configurable, such as autostart, show/hide control bar, player colour, poster image, full screen button etc.
• highly interactive admin option panel for player configuration
• supports text only output for RSS that prompt readers to visit the original post for Flash content
• supports outputting poster image for RSS if desired
• accessibility: requires Javascript to display FLV player, but will prompt user to enable Javascript when disabled
• accessibility: prompt user to download latest Flash player if it is not installed or too old
• accessibility: no annoying “click to activate” for IE users

Installation

1. Download the plugin from FLV Embed
2. Extract to the “flv-embed” folder
3. Upload the “flv-embed” folder to your WordPress plugin directory, usually “wp-content/plugins”
4. Activate the plugin in your WordPress admin panel

Usage

The great thing about this plugin is it uses one universal, standard tag style, which is;

[ flv:url width height] (remove space before flv when using it yourself!)

• url – the URL of the FLV file you want to embed, the path can either be site relative or absolute
• width – width of the FLV movie
• height – height of the FLV movie

Jeroen’s FLV Player also supports the use of poster frames or clip preview frames so that you can use a single still image from anywhere in the FLV video and have it display automatically once the flash player is loaded. (For an example of this see the video at the start of this post.)

A great time-saver when using this plugin is that if you upload an FLV and JPG image and they both have the same name, e.g. demo.flv and demo.jpg, it means you can still use the short bit of code above and it will automatically display the JPG as the preview picture for the video clip. Very Nice!

Download

You can download the FLV Embed plugin 1.0 for WordPress and try it out for yourself here.

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Caroline Middlebrook has just released a free ebook on how you can develop money-making niche sites with WordPress. The ebook is completely free and is available for instant download on Caroline’s WordPress Niche Sites webpage.

The ebook is very well put together and all 41 pages are jammed with useful information regarding configuration, setting up new WordPress blogs, monetizing your blog and lots more.

So if you’re ever wondering about generating income from your blog or niche site, it is definitely a book thats worth taking a look at.

You can download your free WordPress ebook here;

http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/niche-sites-wp/

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There is no doubt that the All In One SEO Pack for WordPress is the ultimate SEO Plugin that you have been waiting for. The plugin has undergone many updates since I first blogged about the benefits of this plugin in a previous post and it just keeps on getting better and better!

I love it!

Because this plugin has been updated so often, there has been a small bit of confusion about the exact download location for it. The latest version of the plugin can be downloaded from here, and it is well worth checking the creators blog page here; All In One SEO Pack for WordPress, which features the latest news about updated versions.

Video Tutorial

And now Tubetorial has just released a new All In One SEO Pack Video Tutorial about this great plugin. The video is Part 1 of a brand new 7-Part series called “7 Must Have Killer Plugins”. I would definitely agreed that the All In One SEO Pack should be first and the tutorial is sure to be of use to those that may be discovering this plugin for the first time, or even those that have been using it for a while and would just like to see what new features have been added recently. A great tutorial and I’m already looking forward to the other 6 videos in this series.

The Tubetorial All In SEO Pack Video Tutorial can be viewed here.

Plugin Download

To download the latest version of the All in One SEO Pack plugin please visit here.

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This is a very simple way to distinguish your Blog from everyone elses and that is by having a Favicon appear next to the URL in many browsers such as FireFox or Internet Explorer. The great thing about this is that it takes just a minute or two to setup.

About Favicons

The browsers of today have a facility where if someone visits or bookmarks your website an icon or small picture can be associated with that particular website and bookmark. Browsers try to obtain that icon by requesting for ‘favicon.ico‘ from the root directory of your website. When the favicon.ico file is found, the icon will be displayed beside the web address in the browser address bar and beside the link name in your Favorites/Bookmarks menu. Favicons are usually 16 x 16 pixels or 32 x 32 pixels in size.

Getting A Favicon

There are many online resources for obtaining Favicons, but the easiest way is to create one yourself by visiting the Favicon From Pics site. With this online tool you simply upload any picture and it will be automatically converted to the appropriate size along with additional options such as scrolling text and animated pictures. I prefer to just use the static icon. The file containing the favicon.ico can be downloaded to your desktop.

Favicon Plugin

The WordPress plugin that is used to automatically show the Favicon can be found at Favicon Head. Simply download the plugin, upload to the plugins folder and activate. Next upload the created ‘favicon.ico‘ to the root directory of your blog and that’s it!

The Favicon should appear the next time you visit your blog. Sometimes it can takes a few browser refreshs for the Favicon to appear and if at first you do not see the Favicon, then click CTRL+F5 on your keyboard to do a hard refresh.

Download

Favicon Head Plugin

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There are many ways to add Google Adsense to your blog – either hard-coding it into the theme itself, using special plugins and now you can use Widgets. This tutorial will focus on using Widgets as it a great way to quickly add Adsense to your blog as fast and easily as possible.

Many of the best WordPress themes now support the Sidebar Widgets plugin and it is simply a matter of downloading the plugin, uploading to your plugins folder and activating in your blog plugin admin area. Widgets are great as you can completely re-arrange your sidebar to the way you want it!

The Google AdSense widget is designed to work with Widget Ready themes and it is very easy to install. Although it is possible to add AdSense (or any other kind of JavaScript) directly into the standard Text Widgets that comes built-in with Automattic’s Sidebar Widgets plugin, using the AdSense widget has several advantages. For example, the color, size and h2 title tag of the AdSense unit are fully customizable from within the sidebar widget tab in your theme admin area.

Requirements:

• Sidebar Widgets Plugin
• Widget Ready WordPress theme

Widget Download:

• wp-widgets-adsense.zip

Installation:

1. Unzip and upload to your /wp-content/plugins/widgets directory
2. Activate the plugin from Plugins tab
3. Drag AdSense widget to your sidebar from Presentation tab > Sidebar Widgets
4. Click the configuration icon and enter your Google Adsense Client ID
5. Optional: Customize the color, size, and sidebar h2 title tag.

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One of the great things about WordPress is the wide variety of themes that are available for it. However, often when I change my theme, I forget to change the Statcounter code that I had to manually put into the footer.php file of my original theme. This can become a real pain, so I went looking for a “Set and Forget” solution to changing themes without having worry about manually adding the Statcounter code each time. I found two plugins that will do the job and I will list them here for you;

#1. Citizen K’s Statcounter Plugin

The first plugin I found is simplicity itself. It’s by Citizen K who has developed this Statcounter Plugin. To use this plugin, simply download from here, upload to your wp-content/plugin directory, activate in the plugins admin area and then add your statcounter code in Admin Options/ Statcounter section. That’s it! Remember, that you will only need to add the invisible counter code that is provided by Statcounter.com.

#2. Luke’s Statcounter Plugin

The second plugin is slightly more advanced but it is also an Set and Forget method to get Statcounter set up on your blog. It’s by Luke and it can be found here. Luke developed this plugin based on the works of Ronald Heft and his Google Analyticator WordPress plugin.

As before, simply upload, activate and configure. The admin options for this Statcounter Plugin are slightly more involved than the one above. You need to add the three bits of information required and then enable the tracking for it to work. Again, this plugin does not create a user-viewable counter, it simply adds the proper javascript code for an invisible Statcounter.

Download

So, if want a simple solution to add Statcounter tracking to your blog, download the Citizen K version here. For a slightly more advanced option, you can download Luke’s statcounter plugin here. Both work great, so the choice is yours.

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A new book called the WordPress 2 Visual QuickStart Guide has been released. It features an easy to follow, step-by-step guide which shows you how to install, use and customize WordPress in order to get the most from your blog. It also includes tips that explain why certain techniques work better than others, how to avoid potential problems when blogging and lots more tips.

If you are fairly new to the world of blogging and would like a solid introduction to using WordPress, this book will serve you well. The more experienced web developers will not find it as useful as it doesn’t cover the deep technical aspects of what makes WordPress tick. However, if you have even a modest amount of web design experience, the WordPress 2 Visual QuickStart Guide book is a great way to get into blogging straight away.

WordPress is simply the best blogging platform around at the moment and of course it is free to download from WordPress.org. So, if you want to get started blogging and need a solid introduction to installing, using and customizing WordPress, check out the WordPress 2 – Visual QuickStart Guide.

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