Once you’ve Gzip enabled on your wordpress blog, the content is compressed so that when the browser receives them, the page loads faster than before. In brief, Gzip saves the bandwidth and makes web pages to load faster.

Google has prioritized web page speed to be one of the factor for ranking in search engine. So, it is better to have a blog that loads faster, for which, there are many other techniques and one among them being Gzipping of files on the server.

You’d notice a greater speed improvement after Gzip Compressing, and I would advice gzipping if you’ve an reliable hosting server, because if you’re on shared server then this can cause high cpu usage and your hosting company might as well suspend temporarily. So, be careful.

How to enable Gzip compression on your wordpress blog?

There are multiple ways for implementing Gzip compression on wordpress, I would recommend downloading the EzGz plugin from James Socol. Click here to download. The plugin saves your time from htaccess editing or any other complex gzip solution. If activating this plugin strips your css then deactivate other plugins and reactivate them one by one to find out the incompatible plugin.

Alternately, you can also visit your wordpress options.php (yourdomain.com/wp-admin/options.php) and enter ‘1’ in the field of gzipcompression (1 stands for true, 0 is false). This does the trick for activating Gzip compression on wordpress.

To check if your website is properly compressed (gzip) visit this website.

You can read the original blog post here Enable Gzip Compression on WordPress Blog.

Funny.. not. Unusual things have happened after upgrading wordpress to its latest version. The previous article on wordpress iframe hacking did enlighten me about the hackers and those unexplored wordpress security loopholes invented by this creative minds.. I can tell you that I did my best to avoid them.

Today, there was another instance of the blog being hacked.. let’s say injected with codes. However, it was kind of amusing to see that those hackers had left an message on this blog footer that gave me goosebumps for a moment.

Click here for the message

So, as you’d notice.. the message read as:

It’s fun to be back, better tell the wordpress crew to patch their shit this is just the beginning, we will continue our world domination my advice to you is to change blog software regards, fatalz.

For some reason ‘It’s fun to be back’ was odd and comical. The reason being that few days ago the hosting server that is hosting this blog blocked few IP address from invading the server. And, as they were back.. they have really outdone and succeeded in finding some loophole.

In a matter of hours after finding the code, it was quickly removed from the infected files. To be serious, it is easier to remove the injected codes than finding the loophole.

Although this might sound weird, but I strongly sense that these hackers do it as an avocation. Maybe, hacking is truly their passion.

I love wordpress. Hopefully wordpress crew would notice this and provide some fix, a quick fix because blog domination is for WordPress, and not hackers

You can read the original blog post here Blog Hacked Again. WordPress Software is the Shit!?.

WordPress, as an blogging application is prone to be hacked apart from being an easy to use blog software. Several thousands of wordpress blogs are hacked everyday – Blame the plugins, old wp version and some unsealed loopholes.

Yet again, this blog was hacked, let’s say an malicious code was injected onto this website and let me tell you, we don’t host any Trojan, virus on this blog which you might have witnessed in these couple of days if you were using an good antivirus program. Right now, it is completely clean and it will be the same in the future.

So, this website was in the hacked state for more than a week. An rogue code was forcibly injected onto the website in the footer field, which I believe was up here for more than 10 days, letting every visitor know that this is an harmful website which of course is completely untrue.

Indication of a blog being hacked

If you’ve been following this blog then you would know I am quite an lazy person when it comes to updating the blog. However, while checking out the blog statistics, I saw an 25% decrease in the revenue (usually they are quite consistent) and to make it worse, the traffic went down with the same percentage making it an terrible start for the month of march.

Only if I was active enough in blogging, this would not have happened. In anyway, I want to share my experience which I believe might be helpful for other’s so that they can get an idea on how to deal with malicious code and remove such iframes javascript from the blog. Before that, here are some of the indication (with regard to this blog) that were seen when it was hacked..

• Decline in overall traffic, thanks to Google analytics.
• Firefox browser was shutting down whenever I visited my website.
• In the status bar of the browser, unknown components were loading along with the site elements. (the harmful code coming from roguenet.info which is hacked as well)
• Website went slow despite having an reliable server and compressed css.

Finding the malicious code

The instant way is to check out avoid malicious code is to see source code of your homepage. You can click on view –> page source in firefox to view the source of the page.

I found out 4 lines of unknown code embedded between <iframe>.. </iframe>. And I quickly knew that I never iframe any code, so the obvious – site under attack was sensed. To confirm it’s existence, I used firebug addon that cleared the minimal doubt I had. Check out the screenshot to get an idea..

Dealing with the malicious code on WordPress

I panicked for a moment, but that had to happen. Now the real deal was to take this line of code out from the website. I did face an similar situation few months ago and tried the same actual method. Do read that post and come back..

Okay, so now I downloaded all the theme files and used Notepad++, it has an exclusive option to search for text in whole files/dir which is very handy and made my search easier than ever. I was very close to find out the line of code, however, I couldn’t. Luckily, at the right time the guys hosting this blog (knownhost) came up with the information of the file that is infected which was not a wordpress theme file.

In actual, the malicious code was in the plugin, the contact form plugin for wordpress which was unexpected! In no time, I downloaded the plugin .php file and removed the malicious code.

So, that’s it! It took me around 2 hours to figure all this out, do remember to contact your hosting support, use firebug or check out the source code, download all the files and use notepad++ to bulk search the text.

You can read the original blog post here Word Press iFrame Hacking. Dealing With Malicious Code Injected on WordPress Blogs.

Here is one of the wordpress indexing issues that is set by default when you install wordpress 2.8.4 version. As you know, WordPress is one of the easy to use blogging platform with support for themes and plugins.

Though there are many security issues and loopholes that exists on wordpress version, but there are regular updates that not only fixes these  issues but adds extra customizing feature as well.

If you have a self hosted wordpress blog which you’ve installed through Fantastico panel and you are already wondering why your wordpress blog is not indexed on Google or other search engine then check out the ‘privacy’ options in wordpress.

A number of people who have installed WordPress latest version (WordPress 2.8.4) have found their blog with no-traffic for weeks because the blog has been blocked by search engine, unintentionally!

Let Search Engine Index WordPress Blog

The problem of no-indexing of your wordpress blog can be solved in this way – Login to your wordpress blog account as the admin and click on the ‘Privacy’ option situated in the sidebar panel.

By default (for the people who are facing issues with wordpress indexing and have installed wordpress 2.8.4 using fantastico panel) the second option ‘I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors’ is checked.

So, uncheck the second option and check the first (I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers) then save the changes.

If you want you can ping the blog again or wait for the Google bots to naturally start indexing your wordpress blog pages.

You can read the original blog post here WordPress 2.8 Blog indexing issue in Search Engine?.

WordPress optimization is a must for every blog, either you are achieving this with manual efforts or by installing wordpress plugin, it is important to make sure the visitors have an excellent easy browsing experience.

And that being said, here are 15 Word Press plugins that will make your blogging experience a much more pleasant one. With thousands of different plugins to choose from, it is a chore browsing through them.  

Google Syntax Highlighter for WordPress - Download

This great plugin is an integration of the Google Syntax Highlighter and it colorizes your code on the go. Most languages, such as C++, Css, Delphi, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby and XML/HTML are supported. It is very simple to use as you only have to put the code inside <pre> tags and assign them the attributes name=” your code” and class=”your chosen language”. Easy as pie!

Exec-PHP - Download

The Exex-PHP plugin executes code inside posts, pages and text widgets. You will not even have to modify your theme files when inserting the PHP code. Some other features that are included are: configurable user warnings for inappropriate blog and user settings as well as update notifications if a newer version of the plugin has been released.

All in One SEO Pack for WordPress - Download

The All in One SEO Pack for WordPress is one of the easiest to optimize posts regarding meta tags, titles, descriptions and more. Simply said; everything can be fine-tuned with this plugin.

Google XML Sitemap Generator – Download

Google XML sitemap supports all WordPress generated pages and every time you create a new post your sitemap will get updated as well. This is not only beneficial for your visitors but also for the search engines, and all major search engines support the sitemap protocol.

Bookmark Me Plugin for WordPress – Download

This is an easy and simple plugin for WordPress with links to social bookmarking sites, such as del.icio.us, Digg and Reddit. With the plugin your visitors are able to submit posts they enjoy to any of these given websites, which hopefully leads to even more visitors to your blog.

Akismet Plugin – Download

Akismet is a necessary tool for everyone enjoying WordPress. Thanks to Akismet you will not have to worry about your blog getting invaded by spam comments on posts. If you put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template you will see exactly how much spam Akismet has caught for you.

WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam – Download

This is yet another powerful WordPress plugin that will protect your blog from spam, making sure that almost all automated spam will be deleted. Some of its newest features are enhanced comment blacklist option, possibilities of seeing who that have been blocked and a new option for smaller graphic counters which displays spam stats. The WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam plugin is highly appreciated in the WordPress community.

Google Analytics for WordPress – Download

Google Analytics for WordPress is a great plugin, which will track all of the outbound links from within all parts of your blog. The plugin will also allow you to track AdSense clicks. Google Analytics almost exclusively get high ratings by people using WordPress.

WordPress.com Stats - Download

This plugin is easy to install and with it you will get easily understandable statistics. Some might want very complex stats and then this plugin might have to look elsewhere but if you are more likely to enjoy statistics that focus on the most popular metrics this is quite possibly the plugin for you. Get numbers on pageviews, the most popular posts, where your traffic is coming from and what they click on when they leave your blog.

Contact Form 7 – Download

If you want a simple but still flexible contact form plugin you will probably enjoy Contact Form 7. The plugin can manage several forms and they can all be customized. Thanks to the contribution of many users, Contact Form 7 is now available in several different languages.

WP-PageNavi – Download

If you are tired of the default navigation of WordPress you should try out the WP-PageNavi plugin. The page navigation on your blog will look more professional and stylish (that is a matter of taste I guess) with WP-PageNavi.

WP Super Cache – Download

Through this plugin you will be able to create static pages to your WordPress blog. Thanks to the static pages, created by the WP Super Cache, your server will not get too busy and hence your site will not be experienced as slow by your visitors. If you have an article that you think have the possibility of hitting the frontpage of Digg, then you will need this plugin so that your site does not crash.

WP-DBManager – Download

With the WP-DBManager plugin you will be able to do all sorts of important fix ups with your database. Some of the things that you will be able to do are: backup database, restore database, optimize database, delete backup database and run selected queries. All in all a plugin that supports pretty much everything that you need for your database.

WP-DB-Backup – Download

Simple and easy, with the WP-DB-Backup plugin you will be able to backup your core WordPress database tables, as well as other tables which can be found in the same database.

Breadcrumb NavXT - Download

The Breadcrumb NavXT plugin creates customizable breadcrumb trails for your WordPress blog. The trails show the hierarchy leading to the current page rather than the actual path that was taken to get to the current page. Breadcrumbs are good for your visitors as they help them understand where they are in relation to the rest of the site. A bonus with breadcrumbs is that they a very small and hence will not take up much space.

And there you have it!  Do you have a plugin you cannot live without?  Please comment and share with us.

David Walsh is a writer for Web Hosting Search.  Hosting maybe boring but this guy puts the spice in it.  Read hosting reviews and even find a domain name to get your online website life started.

You can read the original blog post here Best WordPress Plugins to Help Optimize Your WebSite.

The variety of availability of free plugins makes wordpress blogging quite a user friendly platform, with tons of plugins released everyday to maximize the potential of wordpress, here is another wp plugin called Short url plugin which will mask your webpages links, blog posts or affiliate url efficiently.

With Short url plugin you will be able to create short urls of your webpages links and track the traffic received to these links, you can also mask the download links or any files that will help you in analyzing the visits (as an download counter)

A Common webpage url example:

http://domain-name.com/my-blog-post..html

Url After using Short Url wordpress plugin:

http://domain-name.com/u/l

So you see this is beneficial, whether you are trying to make your blog post viral using social media or you want to share short urls in your email then this can be a better solution you should look into. Head over to the download link or search the plugin Short url in your wordpress admin dashboard and install it right away.

You can read the original blog post here WordPress URL Shortening Plugin To Mask Webpages Links.

Few months ago, blogote was affected with goooogleadsence.biz malicious code in the theme files that were spreading all over the sites I owned. Right now everything is perfectly safe and you can check out our Web of trust ranking for which I thank all the readers.

Anyway dealing with the goooogleadsence issue, I believe they were spread through the desktop software that I downloaded from the internet or other exe virus which invaded my pc unknowingly. They went all the way to my FTP and all the sites associated with me (wordpress sites) showed this code in the themes file.

Issues with Gooogleadsence.biz

The word Goooogle Adsence in no way links to Google adsense which is a advertising program. Once the malicious virus code is on your website, after a few days your website homepage will be completely blank. And in the Google search result you website will yield “This site is harmful for your computer” sign which is one of the worst situation any webmaster would hate to see.

Google Adsence code wraps up itself in iframe and looks something like this

<iframe src=“http://goooogleadsence.biz/?click=2F…” width=1 height=1 style=“visibility:hidden;position:absolute”> </iframe>

Though I am not into coding stuffs but all I can make out is this virus code affects your websites.

Solution for Removal of http://Goooogleadsence.biz

First of all when I saw this code spread on all the website theme files, I deleted the theme and re-uploaded the fresh copy but in a few days the virus was back again. So I tried to manually eliminate the code from the website index page but then I came to knew they were spread in other files too.

Suggested solutions you should use:

Virus check on my PC – I scanned my whole PC for any exe virus and deleted all of them permanently. This is one thing I don’t do most often.

Stray iframe blocker – This is the plugin that has really helped me. I downloaded this plugin, installed and after a quick run I found all the virus iframe codes blocked.

Also check out WordPress antivirus plugin I mentioned few weeks ago. If you are facing the same error then let me know via comments, do try out the above steps and comment if you have any issues! I hope this guide helps everyone, shoot me a message for any help.

You can read the original blog post here WordPress http://goooogleadsence.biz Virus Code in Theme Files.

WordPress blogging platform is considered to be one of the best server software allowing you easy customization features with plugins and various themes available. WordPress themes have been an integral part of the WordPress sites with themes available based on personal preference, niche’s and almost everything that fits your need.

Here are some of the best Islamic WordPress theme, though you can use any simple wordpress theme and modify header template but this are premade WP themes along with the demo. I hope you will find this useful..

Simple Islam WordPress Theme

A basic Islamic theme with a single sidebar column. Easy navigation with easy to read text content.

• Simple Islam Theme: Demo
• Simple Islam Theme: Download

Islamic Green Lemon

The theme is suitable for personal blogs or a blog with a strong Islamic focus. The theme has no sidebar allowing the readers to view more content.

• Islamic Green Theme: Demo
• Islamic Green Theme: Download

Urdu Islamic Theme

Urdu Islamic theme is a plain WordPress theme with an Urdu pre made header, another fast loading theme that has single column left sidebar.

• Urdu Islamic Theme: Demo
• Urdu Islamic Theme: Download

You can read the original blog post here Free Islamic WordPress Theme.

A favicon icon on your blog gives a special recognition to your blog.Making use of favicon icon is actually a good way to represent your site to your visitor and create a brand identity of your blog.In this article we will talk on how to create favicon icon files and add them publicly on your wordpress blog.

Generating Favicon in WordPress Panel

Create a suitable image file and convert it into favicon .ico file, you can do this by using JPG to ICO converter.Once you have the icon file upload it into your wordpress root directory via ftp client such as filezilla.

Though I am not a good coder but I am quite familiar with wordpress platform, so the next step is to add a favicon in your wordpress blog – Migrate to your theme section from wordpress admin panel and paste the given code in your header.php file! Make sure the uploaded favicon icon file is named as favicon.ico

<link rel= “shortcut icon” href=”favicon.ico” >

WordPress Favicon Generator

Another method to add favicon on wordpress is to make use of wordpress plugin, check out this (Favicon generator) excellent wordpress plugin to generate favicons specially for wordpress blogs.

Download the plugin from here, activate it and choose your favicon file from the set of ico files.You can also upload your own favicon file and set them as wordpress favicon without coding knowledge.Useful if you are new to wordpress platform or frequently changing your favicon files!

You can read the original blog post here Create WordPress Favicon Icon.

Couple of months ago Revolution theme gave away a wordpress premium theme for free and now they have created a website to download all professional premium wordpress theme for free .Brain Gardner took the move in creating Revolution 2 which is a open source project featuring free wordpress premium themes.

Here are all of the premium wordpress themes from Revolution 2 with demo and download link :

Revolution Chrome Theme

Revolution Chrome Demo

Download Chrome WordPress theme

Revolution TV Theme

Revolution TV Demo

Download Revolution TV Theme

Revolution Church Theme

Demo of Revolution Church Theme

Download Revolution Church

Revolution Office Premium Theme

Revolution Office theme Demo

Download Revolution Office Premium theme

Revolution Lifestyle theme

Revolution Lifestyle theme Demo

Download Revolution Lifestyle

Revolution Charred Wp theme

Revolution Pro Charred Demo

Download Revolution Charred

Do check out some more Premium Free Wp themes

You can read the original blog post here Free Premium WordPress Theme Download All Revolution Pro themes.