Okay if you ever wanted to monetize your blog and couldn’t find a simple and effective way to do it than you will definitely love me! Seriously.

As it’s name ” Ad integration” says the plugin’s purpose is to integrate ads in your posts. It doesn’t mattter what ad you want to ad: Google Adsense, Bidvertiser, or just a link to an image this plugin can handle it, and just as every plugin it comes with a cool options panel.

1. Requirements

1.1 Wordpress 2.2 and above
1.2 Administrator account
1.3 Ftp acces to “wp-content/plugins” directory for upload

2. Options Panel

The options panel is divided in 3 main sections:Ad Integration, Donate to Development and Options section.

1. Ad integration section

To add a new ad  click the “Add Ad” button which will take you to the add code page. There define the ad’s title and code. Advanced users: You can define your own HTML wrapper.

“Ad name” = the name of your ad. It isn’t publicly displayed anywhere, it’s just so that you can make the difference between the many ads you will ad.

“Ad HTML Code” = your ad’s html code(Google Adsense for example)

“Use default HTML wrapper” = the plugin can conjure the ad in a custom HTML wrapper which can be defiened in the options section. If you don’t know what this is just leave it on default.

“Max repeat count on same page” = This value defines how many times the ads will appear on the same page. The higher teh value the more times the ads will appear on the page(for example a category page)

“Ad position” = The position of the ad inside the post.

If you want to edit your ad click the edit button next to your ad. This will take you to an advanced options page where you have even more flexibility.

“Load type” = The way the ad is insterted in the posts.

- auto: the ad will be automatically inserted in the posts
- manual: the ad will be shown only in the posts in which you add”<!–slayer_Ad_Integration_[AD_ID]–>” .There’s no limit on the number of ads  you insert in a post.

“Public” = you can set an ad to be visible by your readers or not. This feature is great if you don’t want to delete an ad for later usage.

To delete an ad locate in the “Ads” Section your ad and click the “Delete” button. Remember that this is undoable.

2. Donate to Development

Although i doubt that someone will donate i added a donation section(saw it at many plugins), who knows maybe Bill will start blogging, use my plugin and perhaps make a $ 1mill donation(lol).

3. Options

“Default HTML Before Ad” & “Default HTML After Ad” define the wrapper for each ad. You can owerwrite this by selecting “Default html wrapper”

“Custom CSS” gives you the possibility to add css styling to your ad.

“Max ad count per page“  This value defines how many times the ads will appear on the same page. The higher teh value the more times the ads will appear on the page(for example a category page). This doesn’t apply to manual ad inclusion.

3. Download Slayer’s Ad Integration v 1.0

Slayer’s Ad Integration v 1.0 (Primary Download link)

Slayer’s Ad Integration v 1.0 (Mirror link)

Slayer’s Ad Integration v 1.0 for PHP 4.X

4. Installation Instructions

2.1 upload the slayer_Ad_Integration directory to wp-content/plugins
2.2 activate the plugin (dashboard -> plugins -> find “Ad Integration” -> click the activate button
2.3 eat a cookie
2.4 drink some milk
2.5 you are done, now go enjoy the plugin.

Thanks again for using my plugin Feedback and suggestions are as usual warmly welcome!

Maro theme is the first of this month’s theme series. The theme features a 3 columned design and has a sleek brown background which is pretty pleasant to the eye.

Lets take a closer look at its features

The header image just as at the Chameleon theme is automatically generated, but this time it doesn’t matter what php version you are running. This was BETng4U’s idea, i wanted to include the psd in the package but he kept insisting we do it like this, so here we are.

To change the text simply go to your settings page and change your Blog Title and Tagline.

Maro has 3 columns. I decided to make a 3 columned theme because that is what all people want: mroe space for them to put widgets,gadgets,banners and other stuff. Both sidebars are widgetized so you won’t have trouble filling them up :).

All latest wordpress theme features are built in including tag cloud, tags display in post, etc.

As usual the theme is XHTML and CSS valid(although the XHTML validation will be ruined once you start posting, happens at each and every blog)

The theme is fully compatible with Wordpress version above Wordpress 2.2.

Because the Wordpress.org theme viewer doesn’t support the upload of themes which have plugins in sepparate folder we integrated Brian’s threaded comments in the theme. They will be automatically activated once you activate the theme.

NO SPONSORED LINKS! As usual you will NEVER find sponsored links on my themes, just a small link back to my blog :).

Maro theme has a Theme settings page. Once you activate the theme you will find the Maro Theme Options at the Design section. There you will be able to edit the links displayed on the right top part of the page. On the settings page you will find a Dinate section, so if you enjoy the theme feel free to donate a few bucks :).

Download and Live Demo

Live Demo: http://themes.thaslayer.com/5/

Download: Maro Theme Download

Installation Instructions

Simply extract the maro.zip archive to your computer, upload the “maro” folder to /wp-content/themes/ folder after which head over to your admin panel and activate the theme. That’s it. No more long install instructions like at the other themes :).

Other Mumbo Jumbo

If you wish to further develop the theme or add new features to it feel free to contact me at tom@thaslayer.com

If you find any bugs/problems please post a comment here and they will be solved in the next release!

Here’s the now becoming usual montly theme releases post for July. This month i had a huge lack of quality themes to select from Digitalpoint Forums, so i checked out all theme releases posted on WeblogToolsCollection .

I checked out a total number of 347 themes, 257 being from DigitalPoint Forums and 90 from WeblogToolsCollection. “Luckaly” the selection was easy, because damn!, there were lots of crappy themes… i can’t figure out how can people release such ugly themes and still put 3-4 sponsored links on them. The good thing is that this month there is 1 more theme included in the showcase than in last month’s roundup!

Let the showcase begin!

1) Gablog Magazine theme

The thing that i like about this theme is that its very tech looking, and perfectly fits a tech/gadget blog.

It features an advanced menu system, Ad optimization, pagination and auto-excerpt along with a great spot for a youtube/metacafe video.

Theme Demo: http://www.gabfire.com/demo/index.php?wptheme=GabLog
Theme release post: N/A - Download: http://www.gabfire.com/downloads/Gablog.zip

2) RemixMag

This theme looks GREAT! The wood background gives it an extra touch of smoothness and expresses the smoothness of the theme.

As you can see on the preview image this theme is also a magazine style theme. It has ad spots and featured post section. You can presonalise it by writing a little about yourself on the sticky note(you will find some great handwriting fonts at Dafont.com).

Theme Demo: N/A
Theme release post: N/A - Download: http://stylishlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/remixmag_premium_theme.zip

3) Luvin’ Grunge

Luvin’ Grunge is most probably the most beautiful grunge styled wordpress theme that i’ve ever seen. Although the base background and many elements are grunge styled the fonts give a clean look to the theme.

The big RSS button also looks great, and jumps in your eye starting from the point when you enter a blog using this theme(great way to get more subscribers).

This theme would look great for a personal blog(maybe an emo blog?).

Theme Demo: http://www.paddsolutions.com/wpthemes/switch.php?template=luvingrunge
Theme release post: http://www.paddsolutions.com/wordpress-theme-luvin-grunge/

4) Softpresence

Softpresence is this month’s sleekest blue wordpress theme. The combination between the different blue variations along with the yellow and white combination make the theme looks extremely appealable and pleasant to the eye.

Theme Demo: http://freewordpresslayouts.com/index.php?wptheme=Softpresence
Theme release post: http://freewordpresslayouts.com/?p=94

5) Probama

If you live in the US and you are a Barack Obama supporter than this theme may be for you.

The theme features Subcategory dropdown menus, Custom archives page, Control panel options for Flickr, Youtube and Feedburner, and many more nifty features.

Theme Demo: http://www.category4.com/wpthemes/probama/
Theme release post:http://www.category4.com/2008/03/11/probama-theme-for-wordpress-released/

6) Positivenoize

This theme got my attention thanks to its simplicity. It doesn’t have many images and lots of extras, but the layout gives the user a clean and easy to navigate layout.

Theme Demo: http://wordpress.positivenoize.com/index.php?wptheme=PositiveNoize
Theme release post: http://www.positivenoize.com/positivenoize-wordpress-theme/

7) Scruffy

If your a teenager in high school/college and  have a personal blog this theme will fit like a glove to your blog.

The theme isn’t very complex, but i really like the color combination and the arrangement of the elements which make the theme fun, but still keep the notebook feeling.

Theme Demo: http://fresh01.co.za/preview/index.php?wptheme=Scruffy
Theme release post: N/A Download: http://fresh01.co.za/downloads/scruffy/

8 ) Typography

This theme exceeds expectations. It’s a high-quality newspaper theme which has comment subscription built-in,built in smart archives,news slider along with a theme options panel.

The design is really clean and fast loading, there’s a lot of css work on the back end, but it surely was worth it because this is just an amazing theme.

Theme Demo: http://wp.3oneseven.com/index.php?wptheme=typo
Theme release post: http://3oneseven.com/12/typography-wordpress-theme-2/

9) SuperFresh

Superfresh is a 3 columned theme with a sleek green color. It features 2 widget-ready sidebar along with a spot for a featured post.

The layout of the post itself is really cool with the gravatar incorporated and the author and comment data acting as a sidebar for each post. The author most probably got inspired from wpdesigner.com’s layoyut.

Theme Demo: http://themetation.com/demo/superfresh/
Theme release post: http://themetation.com/superfresh/

10) BlueSensation

Enough talk about green themes. Let’s get down to serious colors like blue! Blue is one of my favorite colors, and the blue used in this theme makes the theme look really sleek.

The top and the footer of the theme are great, but the middle section is a bit rushed: elements are disorganized, there are lots of graphical elements that could have been added, but there’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a little work.

Theme Demo: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/demos/index.php?wptheme=Blue+Sensation
Theme release post: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/bluesensation-wordpress-theme-released/

11) Portfolio

This month’s post features once again a theme made by Sorel Mihai From dailywp.com. This theme is unique and one of a kind. It’s ideal for web designers or showcase artists.

The main color is brown, and it can be characterized by sleekness and to the point objectivity. The theme features a theme settings page where the user can edit all the data displayed on the theme(it’s like filling out a resume form)

Theme Demo: http://www.sponsoredwp.info/portfolio/
Theme release post: http://www.dailywp.com/portfolio-wordpress-theme/

Alright, this about wraps it up for July, see you next month

Yeah, you most probably hate me now for not posting for more than a week, but heck, i’m here now.

Before everything i want to thank Tim, Lorz and Mihaita for posting while i was in Greece. Thanks a lot guys .

For the past week i was chilling, and an urgent design job popped in so i took it(extra cash is always welcome). I got back from greece on last Tuesday morning after 22 hours of road back(damn, after this trip i really hate the buses).

Anyway, i’ll tell you guys more about my trip in greece in an other post, this post is to make short intro of what’s waiting for you guys:

My last Wordpress theme, LoveBlog was released on 19th February 2008 after that i promised the release of a free theme but i just didn’t have the time to get it done. So if my last theme was released in february, and my promise was that i’ll release a free theme every month it means that i owe you guys 6 themes(March, April, May, June, July, August). Phew…thats a lot of work.

Next month(August) i will “pay” my debts and i will create and release all the 6 themes i promised. Along the themes i will release 3 cool plugins which will very probably come in handy to almost every wordpress user.

I just want to get back into schedule, because starting with september most probably theme releases will be delayed for a few months, because i have to continue my studies, but i’ll try to stay on track.

Thanks for sticking with me,
Tom

In a previous post back in april or may i promised that i will present themes made and released by other designers. So here i am doing it.I know that it isn’t the end of june yet, but i feel like its time to present the themes for this month. The themes were selected from theme releases on Digitalpoint.

From about 273 themes i only found 10 themes that suited my exigences. The rest 263 themes are crap and just made to sell some links.

1) Brightness News

This theme absolutely fascinated me. Its with no doubt a premium quality theme. Just as a paid theme it comes with a fully featured admin page so you can do quick editing with absolutely no coding knowledge.

The colors are blended in a great way and the theme is extremely pleasant to the eye. Take this paid themes!

Theme Demo: http://sponsoredwp.info/brightness/
Theme release post: http://www.dailywp.com/brightness-wordpress-theme/

2) Meethere

This theme got my attention thanks to its simplicity and to the way the items are ordered creating a more pleasant browsing experience to the user who will very shortly notice that the bit out of common ordered elements grab his attention.

Theme Demo: N/A
Theme release post: http://themes.blogflux.com/theme/4083.html

3) Zinmag

Yet an other high-quality magazine styled theme. The theme has grey and red combined with white and light-grey gradients. The order of the elements is almost flawless.

Jinsona could have worked a bit more on the overall design, but even this way it earned my respect.

Theme Demo: http://web2feel.com/demosite1/?wptheme=zinmag
Theme release post: N/A - Download: http://web2feel.com/downloads/zinmag.zip

4) BilZone theme

I like this theme because it inspires professionalism and is a great theme for a gadget/mobile phones blog. The theme was made by a friend of mine BilZone, who decided its time to release his first wordpress theme which turned out formidable.

The theme features some great ajax features and a well organized sidebar which will also help you monetize your blog.

Theme Demo: http://bilzone.net/
Theme release post: http://bilzone.net/blogging/bilzone-theme-for-wordpress/

5) SP 142

In my opinion this theme is absolutely ideal for a valentines day blog or a more girlish blog, but it suits any personal blog. The design is a really sleek design and out of common.

Theme Demo: http://www.skinpress.com/demo/index.php?wptheme=SP142
Theme release post: http://www.skinpress.com/sp142-theme/

6) Small Magazine

If i would decide to build a blog around this theme my blogs niche would most probably be movie presentation or politics. The theme’s front end looks great, but the comments page looks like it’s unfinished, because i feel like some key elements are missing which could make the comment page as pleasant as the main page

Theme Demo: http://sm.gabfire.com/
Theme release post: N/A - Download: http://www.gabfire.com/downloads/small-magazine.zip

7) Personal Mag

The thing that i like about this theme is the simplicity itself. With no doubt its a lightweight theme, and although it doesn’t have fancy web 2.0 gradients it inspires a modern look.

Theme Demo: http://ythv.info/personalmag/
Theme release post: http://freewordpressthemes.com/themes/3133/

8 ) BlueSleeky

Sleek indeed! You will find this theme a very sleek theme, it’s pretty lightweight and you will simply love using it especially if you like bright blue. The guys at skinpress could have added a bit of ajax to the sidebar, but what the heck it looks great even without it.

Theme Demo: http://www.skinpress.com/demo/index.php?wptheme=BlueSleeky
Theme release post: http://www.skinpress.com/bluesleeky-theme/

9) BlueSleeky

This is an other not too complex but good looking theme. I really like how the top of the sidebar elements have their right corners bended. Also it’s ad optimized, i don’t really like the default ad block images, but an average wordpress user can change them easily

Theme Demo: http://themes.mygreencorner.com/demo/themedemo.php?d=Cozan&td=1303
Theme release post: http://themes.mygreencorner.com/1303/cozan/2-column/

10) BlueGreyWhite

Last but not least i present to you an other theme from Skinpress. I’m telling you this theme is a wonderful theme, and to be hones till now this is the theme that i like the most from all the themes released by Skinpress. Keep it up guys!

Theme Demo: http://www.skinpress.com/demo/index.php?wptheme=BlueGreyWhite
Theme release post: http://www.skinpress.com/bluegreywhite-theme/

Phew…i finally got to the end of this post. I’m sure you will find a theme that will suit your needs, or grab your attention.

If you wish to add your theme to a month’s release post all you have to do is mail me a preview of the theme and a download link. Note that i will post up only quality themes.

The wordpress plugins that i’m about to show you are mandatory for me and they ease my job and make my blog more interactive.

Akismet

To be honest i have no idea what would i do without the latest version of Akismet. Here’s an example to make my point:

Akismet has protected your site from 200,930 spam comments already, and there are 129 comments in your spam queue right now.

In my opinion Akismet is the best spam filter for wordpress, as i tested it it works better than Dave’s spam karma.

All in One SEO Pack

This is yet an other plugin that i would never deactivate. It increased significantly my SERP rankings. It is like hiring a SEO master to work on your blog.

Don’t believe me? Download and install it and see the difference.

Sexy Comments

Initially i wanted to use Brian’s threaded comments, but eventually went with Sexy Comments which has some great features like digg alike system (if Comment Karma is integrated) , mybloglog/gravatar integration, post preview and post quote.

Feedburner Feedsmith

The feedburner integration plugin which redirects your feeds to the your feedburner feeds page. Feedburner offers advanced feed usage statistics(hits/subscribers/etc).

Google XML Sitemaps

This cool plugin generates a sitemap and updates it every time i make content changes to my blog(for example when i write a new post or a a page).

You can view my sitemap at http://www.thaslayer.com/sitemap.xml

My Video

My Video wordpress plugin allows me to embed youtube/google video/metacafe videos on the fly, just by using a simple tagging system which looks just like bbcode @ forums.

No Ping wait & No self pings plugins

These are 2 great plugins. No Ping wait speeds up posting by moving generic pings to execute-pings.php, while No self Pings keeps WordPress from sending pings to your own site.

Wp Lightbox JS

Even though this is a really lightweight plugin Wp Lightbox JS really helps me give a better aspect to the previews of the themes in my portfolio, and the images that are posted on my blog.

Wordpress Download Monitor

For a while now i link all downloads to this download manager which counts the number of downloads, using this plugin i can stop some users from leeching.

Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form

Me being a web designer and a blog owner i need to have a contact form which can allow my customers/readers to contact me. This handy plugin offers an advanced configurable contact form.

You can check out my customized contact form at http://www.thaslayer.com/contact-me/

ShareThis

At first i used sociable plugin, but when i switched to the new theme i decided that there’s no need for so many icons that link to social bookmarking websites, so i implemented Sharethis which can allow the user to submit to social bookmarking websites or to mail the page.

OIOpublisher Direct Pro

Last,but not least the most recent plugin that i installed is the OIO Publisher Direct PRO plugin for which i paid 37$ i think, and to be honest it’s worth the price and hopefully i will get back my investment soon :).

That’s it, 13 plugins aligned which work side-by side and add a few extra queries to the database, but what the heck, as long as the load time of my blog is okay there’s nothing to worry about