I’ll keep the announcement short and to the point. Like Grid Focus, The Unstandard WordPress theme has enjoyed its own share of success. Since the original release, I have made it a habit to spend a portion of my day following referrals from websites using the theme straight of the box, or as a foundation to build on top of. Today the theme jumps from version 1.1.6 to 1.2. A major milestone as I continue to build on the original idea of the theme. I have finally squashed a few bugs and integrated a couple new features including:

• Larger easier to read font sizes
• The option to select one of 4 color flavors without touching any CSS – blue (original), sherbet, lime, and licorice
• Support for custom header logos – simply replace header.png
• Enable or disable the lead_image when viewing a single post
• Previously mentioned auto thumbnailing for easier photo management

This is a first pass on the Dashboard > Theme Options panel. Additional user specified features and customizable options will surely find their way into future releases. For now, feel free to download the update, see a working demo, or watch the video intro (if you haven’t already).

Understand the WordPress permalink

The first time you install WordPress, your site is setup with a few default settings. One of which is the generic nondescript permalink:

http://yourblog.com/?p=123

Ideally, one of the first changes you should make to your site after a clean install is to update the permalink structure to something a little friendlier:

http://yourblog.com/year/month/this-blog-post

To update your permalink settings navigate to Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks. Note that the Apache mod_rewrite module must be enabled on your server and .htaccess file must be writable. Irregardless of any changes you make to the permalink structure, your posts will always retain their original unique Post-ID. In the example above, the Post-ID would be 123.

With pretty permalinks enabled, you can still see this unique ID when you hover on the URLs inside of your Dashboard (check your browser status bar). In the above screenshot, you can see the unique ID at the end of the URL post=2071. This unique ID is what we will use to generate the shortened version of a page URL when Tweeting a page.

Maximize your 140 character limit on Twitter

Twitter enforces a 140 character limit. Do you really want a long URL eating up valuable characters? See this example if I were to share a link from IBoughtaMac:

http://iboughtamac.com/2009/04/02/busy-bees-making-money-with-on-the-job/

If I wanted to share the link via Twitter, I would only have 67 characters to add any of my thoughts regarding the post:

Imagine if the URL had been shortened to something like:

http://iboughtamac.com/s/1352

The shortened URL (just an example Post-ID) turns the previous 67 remaining characters into 111 characters of free space. You maintain your personal "brand" – something you lose when you shorten URLs using a service like TinyURL.

First step: Modify your .htaccess file

Even with a custom permalink enabled (what your visitors see), WordPress will continue to redirect any URLs which point to the default ?p=Post-ID properly. We’re going to use this to our advantage when sharing shortened URLs. Using an FTP client, open your .htaccess file. Invisible files are hidden by default for most FTP clients so adjust your view settings if necessary. If you have customized your permalink structure, you will already have one of these files on your server. If not, simply create one now. Enter the following somewhere near the top:

# Redirect posts based on post-id
RewriteEngine On 
RewriteRule ^s/([0-9]+)$ ?p=$1 [R=301,L]

This rule tells Apache to redirect URLs like http://blog.com/s/1 and http://blog.com/s/9999 to http://blog.com/?p=1 and http://blog.com/?p=9999. Of course, because your WordPress site will identify posts based on their unique ID, a visitor will immediately see that shortened URL redirect to the proper friendly version http://blog.com/2009/04/20/my-new-dog-named-pinocchio-from-europe.

Second step: Add your ‘Tweet This’ link

Where and when you present a ‘Tweet This’ link is up to you. The raw HTML + PHP is this little nugget:

<a class="share-via-twitter" href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Reading: <?php the_title(); ?> <?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/s/<?php the_ID(); ?>" title="Tweet this post">Tweet This</a>

With a little bit of CSS and Komodo Media’s awesome mini social icon set, you can transform the plain link to look like a button.

Extras: Non-Twitter social links

You’ll notice that these links do not make use of the shortened version of a URL. There really isn’t a reason to shorten your site URLs when sharing through these services because 140 characters maximum is not enforced.

Digg This

<a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Digg this">Digg This</a>

Add to Delicious

<a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Add this page to Delicious">Add to Delicious</a>

StumbleUpon

<a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=<?php echo get_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" title="Stumble this page">Stumble This</a>

Update: Achieve the same results without touching .htaccess

Dan Cameron whipped up his own implementation of the shortened URL trend for WordPress users. His method requires a snippet of code in functions.php to achieve the same results. Check out his write-up here: Short post URLs.

Update #2: More social links for your site

Lauren commented introducing even more social networking links to add to your website.

[...] I hope for a major push in the distribution model to better benefit the end user. WordPress 2.7 introduced a major convenience milestone by introducing the ability to install and update plugins from within the Dashboard. When are users going to enjoy the same convenience with themes? And when are theme developers going to be able to push updates to users without having to rely on their own homegrown methods of updating users? Blog posts, RSS feeds, email newsletters, and Twitter updates can only go so far. Is this a distribution solution managed from WordPress.org, or can theme developers deploy updates directly from their own servers? Because anyone is free to distribute their own themes, the immediate challenge – of course – will revolve around the question of moderation. That in itself is an entirely different blog post.

The post includes answers from: Brian Gardner, Andrew Rickmann, Elliot Jay Stocks, Darren Hoyt, Nathan Rice, Joost De Valk, Jeff Chandler, Dougal Campbell, Andrea, Adii, Justin Tadlock, Ashley Morgan, Chris Pearson, and Alistar Cameron.

What do you think the future holds for WordPress themes?

WordPress Upgrader

WordPress 2.6 already offered immediate plugin updates directly from within the admin Dashboard. 2.7 adds a little more convenience by providing that same functionality PLUS core – WordPress upgrades – updates.

The WordPress Upgrader will give you the option of downloading, installing, and upgrading to the latest WordPress version from your Administration Panel.

Rest assured that the added functionality is for convenience purposes. Automatic updates are initiated by a site admin and are not done automatically behind the scenes.

Significant Dashboard updates

This latest update will take some getting used – navigation, shortcuts, and controls. Fortunately, most of the primary functions are available front and center (less digging through menus).

Sticky posts

Somewhere between normal posts and excerpts / asides. WordPress 2.7 provides a new editor option which allows users the option to "stick" post(s) to your front page. Great for featuring and protecting content that you do not want pushed off of the front.

Grid Focus WordPress theme update

A long overdue update for the Grid Focus theme originally released in May 2007. Grid Focus is WordPress 2.6 / 7+ compatible. If you want the threaded comments feature enabled, please update to WP 2.7 before installing. Save any personal modifications you may have made to the theme before updating (most of the code was re-written and cleaned up). More details, a summary, and demo of the update can be found on the download page.

01. Optimized code for maintainability & indexability

Invest time (and research if necessary) in writing clean code. Doing so will reduce the amount of time wasted on debugging, ensure browser consistency & compatibility, allow for search engines to crawl your pages more effectively, and save time (no wasted time if code is easy to traverse and you know where everything is).

• W3 Schools – Resource for anyone interested in dropping all-in-one editors like Dreamweaver. Online tutorials & references.
• Break or prevent bad habit(s) – plain text editors: BBEdit (Mac), TextMate (Mac), or Notepad++ (Win).

02. Code indexability taken a little further – SEO

There is a lot of chatter concerning "search engine optimization". The SEO goal is to maximize traffic referral from search engines. Fortunately, WordPress – by default – provides a lot of the basics to ensure that search engines see your content. Yoast put together a thorough guide on WordPress SEO for reference.

• All in One SEO Pack (plugin) – Automatically generates meta tags and titles.
• Google XML Sitemaps (plugin) – everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.
• Google Webmaster Central – Better understand how Google works + tools to optimize your site.

Recommendation for code organization in templates: (1) header / navigation, (2) main content, (3) secondary nav + extras.

03. Simplify WordPress site administration

The WordPress admin dashboard works well when you’re in front of a computer. But how about when you’re mobile? Rather than sitting down at a Hotspot, why not simplify the management of your site? It’s all about rich mobile handsets and mobile internet.

• Clean Notifications (plugin) – Mike Davidson contributes his solution to heavy comment moderation emails. Notifications are reformatted with a reduced visual footprint.
• iPhone / Mobile Admin (plugin) – Together with Clean Notifications, mobile users can now manage their WordPress site(s) from their back pocket.
• WordPress for iPhone – Write posts, upload photos, and edit from your iPhone. Still no comment moderation though.
• Moderator (plugin + desktop) – A WordPress plugin + Adobe AIR desktop app for that brings comment moderation to your computer desktop via Blogging Pro.

04. Improve the built in WordPress search bar

For some, the integrated search feature in WordPress falls short. By default, search queries are limited to posts with no support for booleans or indexing pages. The resolution / solution (depending on how you look at it) requires installing plugins or opting to use an external search service to index content.

• Search Everything (plugin) – Picking up where WordPress left off, Search Everything offers configuration options to index pages, categories, tags, drafts, excerpts, custom fields, and attachments.
• Google Custom Search – Use to replace or supplement the existing WordPress search. The power of Google.. Without the aesthetic coherence.
• Lijit (plugin) – Search powered by Google + the addition of providing your "other" social sites as search results. E.g. a query for baseball on your WordPress site will display results from your blog and photos tagged baseball on your Flickr account. Also lacks visual coherence with your design – results are displayed as an overlay.

05. Understand traffic

Analytics data is no longer for statistics junkies. Understanding your visitors is vital to the growth and success of your website. Compare traffic figures prior to and after the implementation of new featured content containers, advertising links, design changes, and or content focus. Understand where readers are coming from, know how long they’re staying, and see where they’re going. Are visitors landing on your home page and promptly leaving? Or, are they reading and exploring older content? Questions like these can be answered by collecting and understanding visitor data.

• Mint – Beautiful analytics package + extensions via Peppers.
• Google Analytics + Google Analytics for WordPress (plugin) – Google Analytics cann be run sans plugin but without loses the ability to track outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and more.
• Crazy Egg – User behavior tracking and visualization.

06. Promote similar, related, or completely random content

Congratulations, you have fresh eyes on your site. Why not try and lead your new visitor into the archives to continue reading?

• The content "explore" block – Utilize built in WordPress functions to promote related content to a visitor. Link to content which shares similar categories and tags.
• WordPress Related Posts (plugin) – This plugin goes beyond using tags as links to similar content. Add a list of related posts to your RSS feed, or anywhere else in your template to link with titles.
• Random Redirect (plugin) – Create an attractive button to click + this plugin to link to random posts in your archives.

07. Improve the discussion

Visitors are more inclined to explore content which has corresponding comment activity. The current iteration of WordPress supports Gravatars by default. Custom avatars coupled with select plugins and visual accoutrements transform comments into a valuable aspect of a published article.

• Subscribe to Comments (plugin) – At some point or another, we have all contributed to a discussion and never gone back to check for a reply or rebuttal. Subscribe to comments provides visitors with an option to follow a comment conversation from their email inbox.
• DISQUS (plugin) – A comment aggregation service with support for threaded replies. A direct replacement for the standard WordPress comments backend.

08. Combat spam

As of this post, the site has has over 5,500 comments / trackbacks. A small percentage in contrast to the number of spam filling up the moderation queue. WordPress ships with Akismet by default, but there are recommendations.

• Generally spam tends to offer up a nice collection of links mixed in with random garbage. For added moderation protection, reduce the number of permitted links in comments. Settings > Discussion > Comment Moderation – "Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 2 or more links". Change 2 to 1 if you’re willing to make sure safe comments are erroneously left in the queue.
• Defensio (plugin) – Similar features as Akismet. A spam filtering service which cross references flagged comments against a database of known spam.
• Postable (pre-comment) – If you anticipate discussions which might include code examples from readers, provide a link to Postable which converts code into a blog comment friendly format.

09. Offer more opportunities to connect & meet readers

The web is social. Providing the means for readers to connect and interact with you outside of your blog creates a stickiness that may translate into increased traffic. Use your WordPress site as a platform to represent your online footprint.

• Brightkite Location (plugin) – Fire Eagle and Twitter integrated Brightkite lets users update their status + whereabouts in real-time. Brightkite Location adds your most recent check-in to your site (links to your Brightkite profile).
• Twitter Tools (plugin) – two way integration of Twitter. Pulls a digest of Tweets down as a blog post, or pushes Tweets to the Twitter service.
• ShareThis – Provides readers with a myriad of options to push your content to their favorite social services.
• SimpleLife (plugin) – A "lifestream" of your social activities – Last.fm, Facebook, Delicious, Flickr, and more.

10. Reduce load times, prepare for traffic

Whether you’re planning a site for constant high traffic or throwing a site together for friends & family, WordPress performance plugins will improve load times and reduce server resource requirements – which is never a bad thing.

• What is web caching and why is it important? – Wikipedia
• WP Super Cache (plugin) & WP Cache (plugin) – WordPress caching benchmark results for both vs. a vanilla WordPress install.
• Paged Comments (plugin) – Technically, not a performance plugin. However, paged comments will reduce page load time for articles which attract hundreds of comments. Example post with 382 comments.

What do you generally do after a vanilla WordPress install? [digg this]