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You’ve probably heard a lot about the freedom that comes along with self-hosting your own WordPress site. You have the freedom to install any theme you like. You have the freedom to install any plugin you might need. You have the freedom to do anything you want with your website. Meanwhile, WordPress.com users are stuck with a limited number of themes and no plugins.

But that’s only part of the story. What you may not realize is that WordPress.com users have access to a bunch of standard features that aren’t part of the WordPress.org software that you installed when you setup your site. Features like email notification on new posts and comments, sharing buttons for social sites like Twitter and Facebook, and some very nice site statistics that integrate neatly with the WordPress dashboard.

The good news is, there’s an easy way for self-hosted WordPress users to gain access to all of these amazing features. A plugin called Jetpack brings the best of the WordPress.com features to self-hosted WordPress sites. This video introduces you to Jetpack and shows you how to get up and running quickly.
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It’s easy to create a photo gallery in any WordPress post or page, but adding a collection of images to your sidebar is a little more work. For one thing, the Gallery shortcode won’t work in the sidebar. This tutorial shows you how to work around that limitation by using the Simple Gallery Widget. As a bonus, I explain why the gallery shortcode doesn’t work in this situation (hint: it’s all about the Loop).
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Whether you’re using WordPress to run a personal blog or to power your business website, the new year is the perfect time to take a few precautionary steps that will ensure your site remains happy, secure, and healthy throughout the year. Most of these tips will only take a few minutes, but they can prevent hours (days maybe weeks) of headaches in the future.
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If you know this site from its previous incarnation, you’ve probably arrived here expecting to find an extensive library of WordPress training videos. Well, those videos are still here. In fact, they’ve been updated for the new year and are now available as part of our first online workshop, WordPress Essentials for Busy People.

The focus of WP Apprentice isn’t changing much. The site will continue to be the source of the best WordPress training screencasts available anywhere. But, we’re also branching out a bit. In the coming weeks you can expect to find how to articles, WordPress news, community interviews, and even more video training geared towards all levels of WordPress users.

If you’re just starting your journey with WordPress, the WP Essentials course is a great place to get up to speed quickly. If you’re looking for more advanced training, hang in there — it’s on the way. Whatever your level of WordPress expertise, I’m confident that you’ll find WP Apprentice to be an invaluable resource in the coming year.

For early notification on new training opportunities, be sure to signup for the mailing list.

Beyond Simple Contact Forms: Collecting Data with Gravity Forms

WordPress is a great web publishing system, but when it comes to collecting user data through a web-based form you’ll need to turn to a plugin to extend the core WP system. If you just need a simple contact form there are many good options to choose from, including CForms, Contact Form 7 and the Dagon Design Contact Form.

Frequently, though, you need more functionality than a simple contact form plugin provides. You might have more sophisticated data validation requirements, or maybe you want to allow users to upload files, or you might need to schedule your form to only accept submissions during a limited timeframe. While most competent web developers can easily create scripts to meet these requirements, let’s face it — it’s tedious work. Fortunately WordPress developers have a new power tool at their disposal: Gravity Forms.

Gravity Forms (affiliate link) makes the creation of complex data collection forms easy. Not only that, it also manages the submitted data for you.

In this video I demonstrate the Gravity Forms plugin by creating a moderately complex job application form. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is.

If you just need a simple contact form, then Gravity Forms probably isn’t for you. It’s a premium plugin — that means you’ll have to pay for it. If, on the other hand, you have even slightly more advanced needs, then Gravity Forms will pay for itself in the time you save by not having to build custom data collection forms. Read More…