The Free Christian Music Blog

A Plea for Advice

I need some help.  Since I moved to WordPress earlier this year, TFCMB has added a new author, got a sweet logo, several hundred new free songs, and all kinds of other cool stuff.  The problem is, I’m just not good enough with WordPress to keep up.  There’s so much stuff I could to with the site that I haven’t been able to because I don’t have time or knowledge, usually both.

So, really, this is a bit of a plea.  I know there are tons of smart, geeky, bloggers who read this, and I would really like some advice.  Do you know of any better (preferably free) templates then what I’ve got now?  How about poll software?  Or social bookmarking tool (FYI:  I got on del.icio.us, Digg, and StumbleUpon recently, so you can add me if you want )  I saw Sociable on Lightvox, and thought about trying it, but if there’s something better I’d rather use it.

Anyway, thanks ahead of time for the help!  I’m working on getting a couple of exclusive download with some sweet new artists, so keep it locked.  I don’t want to say anything specific in case they don’t pan out, but this I’ll say:  It involves electronic music and hymns.  For the rest you’ll have to wait and see. 

Update: Wow.  I’ve been swamped by the response.  I’m going to go though and try and digest all the information, but while I work on that I just wanted to say thanks to everyone!  You have blown me away.

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12 Comments to A Plea for Advice

1. 

   You can just google “free wordpress themes” and you’ll get lots of good options.

   I think del.icio.us is the best social bookmarking site I know, you can also sync that, twitter, digg, etc with http://friendfeed.com

   Don’t know about poll software, since I’m on blogspot, I just use theirs.

   If you already know HTML, http://www.w3schools.com/css/ is a good link so you can learn CSS, and get some better web design skills. If you don’t know HTML, you should learn it. It’s one of those things that anyone who likes the internet should know.
Seth on October 1st, 2008
2. 

   Matt,

   Shoot me an email let me know what you are looking to do. I would be glad to help you out.

   Later..
Christopher on October 1st, 2008
3. 

   I don’t know exactly what your goal is, but I ran an online saw shop a while back, and we used XOOPS. We were able to run the whole website fairly easily. It’s free and from Xoops.com. It’s a website template. I’m not sure if that’s what you’re looking for. They also have other features that can be added to the program, which is also free. I was really happy with it (as far as free software goes).
Jeff on October 2nd, 2008
4. 

   Though I no longer have them up, I have designed a couple of web sites around WordPress. I’m currently redesigning our church web site using wordpress as a content management platform (not just as a blog).

   The easiest and quickest way to design is to find a template that you like from the WordPress free themes and then play with the CSS. If you don’t know CSS I suggest learning as much as you can. The current design of our church web site was done with CSS.

   There are several great free social bookmarking plugins at the wordpress site. Here is the link to the plugins site: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ Just download into your plugins folder and activate them through the dashboard. You can find some poll plugins as well. There is a plugin for just about anything you want to do.

   I’d love to help you out anyway I can. Shoot me an email if you have any questions. eilersrobert@insightbb.com and I’m also a friend at Myspace.
Robert Eilers on October 2nd, 2008
5. 

   Hey Matt,

   For WordPress themes, start here: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
   And here: http://www.amazingwordpressthemes.com/
   And here: http://topwpthemes.com/

   All should take your current site and just update it to a new, cool theme.

   I know you use Firefox, so you should be aware of Shareaholic which will let you post to this blog from any web page. Should make it SUPER easy to blog the latest iTickets giveaway, for instance, without having to log into WordPress. It will also post to those other social sites at the same time with one click of a mouse. http://www.shareaholic.com/

   For polls, I’d use http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-polls/ which is a WordPress plug-in widget that’s easy to install.

   –JD

   PS You should also add clustrmaps so we can see where visitors are coming from to download songs from your blog. You can see it on my blog and follow the link.
JuryDuty on October 2nd, 2008
6. 

   Matt,

   I think the website looks good the way it is!
   It shows up well on a Mac. It is also good to find ways
   to improve things, however, like you are in the process
   of doing now. I’ve designed web sites, but I’m not familiar with
   blogging or new templates that are out now.

   Erik
Erik on October 2nd, 2008
7. 

   I just wanted to say that I think the website looks great the way it is!! You can look to improve things in various ways, but I just want to encourage you and thank you for the good job you’ve put into creating this great site! May God bless you for all the energy and fervor you’ve put into this site for the glory of God!
Daniel on October 2nd, 2008
8. 

   Also, get a plugin for S(earch)E(ngine)O(ptimization)… I use the Platinum SEO Pack, configured properly it will help drive search engine traffic to your website. Also, consider getting a plugin to help you manage your personal downloads (there are some good ones available where you can make special downloads available to subscribers, etc). Also, there are plugins to track the number and stats of clicks on the download links you provide, a chat box, and list just goes on.

   Is there an idea of something else you would like to integrate? There is probably a plugin already developed for it. I know I have developed a few myself.

   Oh, and ShareThis is a popular sharing service that you could use for social bookmarking, sending, etc.

   Hope these tips help.

   Brian
Brian D. Goad on October 2nd, 2008
9. 

   I’d suggest putting more images in your blog posts. I use sociable and it works fine for me.
Brian Alexander
Twitter: brianfalexander
on October 2nd, 2008
10. 

    Not sure about templates and wordpress but as a graphics designer I would suggest expanding on the new logo a bit. Extend qualities of it to the rest of the site. The colors and/or the color splashes would be a good design element for the entire site. Then it would look like it was meant to go together.

    Need any help with graphics, just drop me an e-mail.
Verbina on October 5th, 2008
11. 

    Nice new layout Matt..thanks for the logo section
Sean on October 6th, 2008

12. [...] at The Free Christian Music Blog.  It was the result of some of overwhelming response to my recent advice plea, and features Sean’s winning logo design, and sports a trendy grey & white color [...]
New Epic Poll | The Free Christian Music Blog on October 7th, 2008

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