I love blogs with interesting footers.  In a typical blog, the footer describes the bottom of the website below the dynamic content and sidebars.  This area often does not receive the attention it deserves and is often used only for copyright information or some navigation links.  

I believe that a well designed footer can greatly increase a blog’s functionality and visual appeal.  Consequently when rating Wordpress themes, I give more importance to those that allow you to customize footers easily by using footer widgets.  Footers can be used in a variety of ways.

Some of the ways footers can be used

Links to important posts, pages:  This will help expose sections of your blog that need more visitors.  I have read that this also helps in SEO (although how much is debatable).  Take a look at the footer of mint.com.  I am sure that all those key words and phrases have to be adding positive SEO value to their website.

Guide your visitors to their next destination: Users reaching the end of the content on a particular page are usually itching to find something else to browse.  Unless you provide them fresh content they might just jump to another website.  If nothing else, just put a PPC ad over there.  Google link units are another option but they can look ugly. 

Affiliate links & advertisements to your own products (and other blogs): It can be argued that a high percentage of viewers who have read your blog till the bottom of the page are interested in what you have to say and would be easiser to sell to.  Take a look at the above footer snapshot from Problogger.com.  Renowned blogger Darren Rowse uses his footer to list his ‘Recommended Money Makers’ which probably contain affiliate links.  Since he blogs about blogging and has a popular ‘making money through blogging’ section, these links are a perfect fit for his website.  

Visitors that like the look of your website often look in the footer for theme attributions.  If you use a premium theme that has an affiliate program, you should definately enroll and include an affiliate link to the theme in the footer.  A short positive review of the premium theme is also recommended.

Stash content that you need on every page but does not have to be immediately visible:  This may include reciprocal links to blog directories and other links that help to promote your own blog.  Also, a contact form can be included here as visitors that want to contact you will usually make an effort to look around for the form. 

Improve your blog’s looks: Most blog footers load last and so do not interfere with the accessibility with the rest of the blog’s content.  This means that all that cool art and images that you have been hesitating to put on your blog because you fear increased load times can go in the footer (Ofcourse this does not mean you do not web optimize the images.)  If done in the right way, this can do wonders in adding personality to your blog. 

Conclusion

I am really glad the theme I am using currently for this blog came with footer widgets.  This helped me get started with using the footer effectively before I learned how to customize footers myself.  Unfortunately, the Mimbo 3.0 theme I recently switched Recipe Mobile to did not come with footer widgets.  I will try to add these myself over the weekend and will post details on this blog.  Eventually, I would also love to add some image elements there (if somebody would only help me with the art!)

Have you used footer on your blog in interesting ways or have seen it done on any other blog?  Do you believe that footers should get the same attention as sidebars and mastheads?  

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All the categories pages are automatically built.  You can access these category pages by clicking on the category name on your blog (if you have the category widget displayed) or from your Wordpress dashboard.  Copy the URL of the particular category page you want.

Once you have the URL to the category, create a new page in Wordpress and add a link tag in the title.  The syntax will be <a href’=”URL”>Page Title</a>, where URL is the url of the category page and Page Title is the text you wish to appear on the tab.  Save the page.  Refresh your blog and you should see the new tab.

Categories like ‘how-to’, ‘tips’, ‘news’ particularly can benefit from this.

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What is a child theme?

A child theme typically is a style sheet full of your customizations that you activate in your Wordpress dashboard instead of your regular (parent) theme.  The child theme points to the parent and therefore inherits all the basic functionality of the parent theme but any style customizations made in your child theme override their respective instructions contained in the parent theme.

The reasons that I decided to use a child theme were:

Protection from future theme updates

One of the reasons why I chose the Mimbo theme was that it is being actively developed and new versions are released on a regular basis that offer improvements and compatibility with new versions of Wordpress. 

Previously, every time you installed a new version, you would have to track the changes you have made to the original styling and re-implement them to the new version.  At the very least this is time consuming and can result in several errors.  Using a child theme, you can update the parent theme files and all the style customizations you have made will remain untouched (Since Wordpress 2.7, template files other than style.css can also be overridden, so you can also implement your functionality customizations using child themes)

Ease of customization

Some themes are perfect for your website out of the box requiring very little customization.  Or you might want to implement a theme right away and make minor customizations as you go along.  Very often, we want to test out different colors, sizes, placement etc for objects on a blog and so have to repeatedly make style changes to its corresponding code.  Child themes help you avoid wading through a lot of code every time to reach that particular item that you want to tweak.  All you have to do is copy the style code from the parent theme’s ‘style.css’ file and copy it to your child themes template file and make any customizations there.  This saves time and helps in bug fixing.

Learning how to create and modify themes

Child themes are a perfect way to learn more about Wordpress theme design and styling.  Whether you want to create your own Wordpress themes or just increase your skills in modifying them, you can safely use child themes to try out your wildest designs without breaking your core code.

Implementing temporary style changes

Say you want to give your blog a special look for Easter or any other holiday.  This can easily be done by adding the customizations to a new child theme and activating it for the duration of the period you want.  Then change back to your original parent (or child) theme and you are good to go!

Read on to see how I customized Recipe Mobile using a child theme.  I would love to know about your experience using child themes.

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Magazine theme

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was considering switching Recipe Mobile to a magazine theme.  This seemed like the best free magazine theme option to try out as it has built in functionality to create thumbnail versions of pictures contained in posts and display them on the index page.

Recently Released

This theme was only released in March so it is compatible with the latest Wordpress releases and tweaks.  Also, it means that fewer websites use it already.  Anyway, I just love using fresh software.

Actively developed theme

Darren Hoyt (The theme’s developer) is constantly working on this theme to churn out updates.  This makes sure that the theme remains cutting edge and compatible with new versions of Wordpress.  Also, he is very receptive to community feedback.

Support forums for help with the theme

There is a very active support forum.  This means that even if Darren Hoyt is busy or unable to answer questions, there are several others who might.  Also, this helps find other blogs that use this theme and see what they have done with it.

Pro version of theme is available

Mimbo has a great professional version available with added functionality and support. Like I mentioned before, I assume that as Recipe Mobile grows, I will have to move to a professional theme.  This gives me a chance to try out certain aspects of the theme for free before investing.  Also, I can look at websites that use the professional version and try to customize the free version myself to match the features contained in the professional version.

Next Steps

I will be customizing the theme further and will share as many details as possible with readers.  Specifically, I am excited to be using a child theme for customizations from the beginning for this new theme.  Stay tuned for updates!

I would love to hear about your experience using magazine themes and specifically any advice with using the Mimbo 3.0 theme.

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I considered buying a professional Wordpress theme for the website.  However the issues with picking this option were:

• Most of the good themes are very highly priced (Over $65).  Considering that Recipe Mobile is still new and not completely monetized, I was unsure if I wanted to invest so much.
• Some of the better free themes seemed to be a lot more attractive than a lot of the premium ones.
• Most of the professional themes are purposely created to appeal to a large variety of niches.  This means that all of them would have to be highly customized (styling, functionality & images) to make them fit the food website category.
• There are tons of premium themes available and it hard to identify the good (Good does not always mean popular as it has to customize well to your individual website’s requirements) ones without actually giving them a try and the demo does not say much about the functionality.

For all these reasons, although I know that I will eventually have to, I have decided to not invest in a premium theme at the moment.  Instead I will be trying out one of the better free themes that are not pre-customized for food websites.  This will give me experience in customizing themes and understanding the aspects that are important to my website.  Also, I am considering switching to a magazine style website and I might give that a try before investing in a theme.

After a lot of searching, I have shortlisted the following 3 free themes to consider for Recipe Mobile:

• Mimbo 3.0
• Thematic
• Simple Balance 2.2.1

I will be using the awesome Theme Test Drive plugin by Vladimir Prelovac to test the new themes without disturbing the experience of current readers.  The new theme will probably be installed within the next couple of days and and then I will start the customization process.  If there is a demand for it, I might also document some steps of the process here.  Stay tuned for the updates.

Update:  Mimbo 3.0 will be the new theme used on Recipe Mobile.  Read here to find out why.

I would like to hear your thoughts about the advantages (if any) of premium themes over free ones.  Also, do let me know suggestions of free and premium themes that have worked well for you.

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1. They have more than 1 plan which makes them flexible for future upgrades
2. They offered to move my website from my Byethost account to my account with them for free (Note: Although you can move multiple domains and websites under 1 account, they will help you move only one for free.  After the first, they have a nominal fee of 10 dollars per website you want them to move for you.)  
3. They have some great discounts that do not depend on paying unreasonable upfront fees.
4. They have a 45 day money back guarantee.
5. They have a generous multi-tier affiliate program with useful tools providing another way to monetize your website.

I decided to go ahead with the Baby plan as it lets me host all my websites for one small monthly fee.  Recipe Mobile was moved by the technicians at the Hostgator within a day of the hosting plan purchase and the move went off flawlessly.  I moved this website to my account there over the past weekend (The process was mostly hassle free – I will probably post a how-to on moving a wordpress website to hostgator soon).  I was able to take advantage of a 20% off on my order with the coupon code ‘Lucky’.

All in all, I am quite happy with my decision to choose Hostgator.  Please let me know how your experience has been.

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Seth’s Blog: Mr. Seth Godin.  Master of marketing.  Make sure you read his books.

Engadget: My most frequented website to keep track of product launches and reviews.

Duct Tape Marketing: The simple and easy to follow advice offered by these guys keep me hooked.

xkcd: The funniest (& smartest) comics on the web!

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Today, new updates have been announced by Entrecard.  Looks like there was a lot of negative feedback by publishers over some of their policy changes.  The Entrecard team has listened and made some adjustments to their plans.

1) Entrecard earlier had announced that all publishers would have to move the Entrecard widget above the fold on their websites or be disqualified.  Now they have changed this rule to a 1 page down rule.  Although some publishers will still find this hard to do on their already packed sidebars, I think it is a fair policy

2) They have dropped the fee to reject paid ads.  Earlier this was one of my biggest issues with the new policy and I am glad this has been changed.  However, I am not sure what is going to stop publishers from rejecting each and every paid ad as they do not get anything out of it directly (as opposed to ads by the Entrecard community which result in credits being earned directly by the publisher.)

All in all, I am glad that Entrecard has chosen to listen to the community’s concerns.  These adjustments mean that I will continue to give Entrecard a chance and keep it active on Recipe Mobile.

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The changes to Entrecard’s advertising model

Entrecard has finally announced that, starting in about a week, it will be opening up their network to 3rd party advertisers.  The advertisers will be able to buy up to 50% of the whole network’s (or a particular category’s) ad impressions.  This means that publisher ads will run for 50% to 100% of the impressions of the website they buy an ad on instead of 100% percent of the days impressions currently.  They will use up to 75% of the third party ad revenues to buy back credits from publishers and will delete those credits from the system.  The Entrecard team hopes that this will also address Entrecard’s inflation problem: Since there was no way to retire credits from the system (and credits can be earned by activity without needing actual money to purchase them), the number of credits circling around Entrecard’s publishers is over 44 million and growing steadily, decreasing the value of the credits held by publishers.

Will these changes solve Entrecard’s problems?

I personally feel that this move is too little too late.  A lot of the publishers that were frustrated with no way to monetize the credits earned from the Entrecard system have already moved to other ad networks.  Although they can now earn actual money through Entrecard, the earnings will probably be smaller than that offered by other networks as paid ads will only have 50% of their impressions.  The are also other issues with the changes that Entrecard is undergoing:

• Entrecard now requires their widget to be present above the fold on publisher blogs.  Currently most publishers install Entrecard below the fold reserving the better positions for more lucrative advertising opportunities.  This also helps increase average visit time while droppers look for the Entrecard widget to drop on.  Since many other CPM based ad networks insist on being above the fold, Entrecard will have to compete for space with them and may lose out.
• The price at which credits can be sold back to the network has not been mentioned.  Since the money available to buy back credits depends on Entrecard’s third party ad revenues, either the number of credits that can be sold back daily will have to be capped, or the price will change to reflect the demand of redemptions.  Either way, I expect that the new system will be very confusing and frustrating to most publishers. 
• Although, publishers will have the option to reject third party advertisements, they will have to pay a credit penalty for each rejected ad.  Considering that most other ad networks allow publishers to control the ads being displayed on this website, this condition may put off some publishers.
• If the Entrecard economy really does experience deflation because of the deletion of credits from the system, many publishers will be tempted to hoard credits until their value increases, decreasing the credits being sold back to the system.

We will have to wait for further announcements to completely understand the changes that Entrecard will undergo and how these changes will affect it’s user base.  However, for publishers wanting to jump ship, there are some alternatives out there already.   Update:  There seems to have been a lot of negative feedback against some of the policy changes and Entrecard has made some updates to their proposed changes.  Read about them here.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the changes proposed to the Entrecard system.  Will these changes satisfy users or will there be a huge decrease in the publishers that have installed Entrecard on their system?  Also, stay tuned for an upcoming post on alternative ad networks.

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WidgetBucks is a CPC (& CPM) ad netowork that is about a year old and growing fast.  They claim to provide better eCPM rates, more interesting and interactive ads and better integration into your website than what Google Adsense provides.  Some of their upcoming ad formats show in their video look really cool and seem definitely a lot more attractive than those provided by competing ad networks.  Some research on the internet also shows that users have found Widgetbucks more profitable than Adsense although some people do feel that it might be a scam.  However, considering the amount of media attention Widgetbucks has been getting recently, I doubt they could be a scam (besides, many publishers have been receiving regular payments).

The signup and setup process was a breeze.  The website is easy to use the signup form asks some basic questions about your blog and its niche and then you have to wait for approval which for me took less than a day.  Frankly, I was surprised as currently by blog is very new and has small visitor count (though growing steadily).  I have had difficulty getting into other ad networks because of my smaller blog size so I guess Widgetbucks is a good option for new and small blogs.  They also have no problem with coexisting with any other ad network on your website.

I am testing out several CPC & CPM ad networks on my website on a rotational basis.  This includes

• CMF Ads
• Adgetize
• Project Wonderful
• Google Adsense

I hope to gather enough data in a couple of months to post a comprehensive comparative analysis of my experience and earnings with these ad networks.  I hope that Widgetbucks will live up to its promise and deliver great results.

Have you tried WidgetBucks yet?  Money earner or scam, post your comments here.

Disclaimer: The Widgetbucks links contain my referral id.  This will give me a small bonus if you sign up from my link without affecting your earnings in any way.

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