As someone who has been struggling to manage my blog’s load, I can tell you that having a decent cache plugin on your blog is a must. Wp cache is one of the more popular cache plugins for your blog, but it’s not the best there is out there. WP Super Cache is super fast, but it’s not compatible with a few web hosts, so you want to do your research before installing that plugin. That’s where W3 Total Cache comes in. It’s a super fast cache plugin for Wordpress that makes it easy to speed up your website without taking away from the experience of your readers.

W3 Total Cache is truly one of the rising stars among top Wordpress plugins. It’s been used on sites such as Mashable, Youst, and Noupe. You may not get as much traffic as those sites, but if you get any decent amount of traffic, you certainly want to test this plugin to see if it delivers on its promises.

Here is what the plugin promises:

• Speed: up to 10x improvement as far as your site’s speed is concerned. You can always measure that through Google Page Speed.
• Performance: improvements in  the overall performance of your website, helping you keep your search engine rankings.
• Load: easily enabling your website to handle traffic spikes more effectively.
• Bandwidth: enables you to save on your bandwidth costs and keep your hosting costs low.
• Compatibility: works with most web hosts unlike WP Super Cache.

So how does W3 Total Cache works? Simple. It lets you cache all aspects of your website, including your HTML, CSS, and JS files. The Minify feature by itself can bring the load on your site down significantly.

You can also use this plugin to cache your pages and your databases to improve the overall performance of your website. So you’ll no longer have to worry about those annoying bottlenecks. Perhaps the most powerful feature of this plugin is its ability to work with CDN to help you create a more scalable website. You can leverage Amazon CloudFront or S3 to bring your load down further.

Ultimately, if your Wordpress site has been getting slower lately, and you are still not ready to spend more money on a decent web host, you should give W3 Total Cache a try. It’s free, powerful, and gets the job done.

There are plenty of cool Wordpress membership websites that you can join to get high quality premium themes for your blogs. Premium themes are useful not only for beginners but for professional designers who want to get a head-start with their theme design and modify an existing theme to create unique flavor of it. Templatic is one of the best Wordpress theme clubs around. While it may not have the most premium themes on the market, it arguably has the best looking themes. Best of all, a lot of its themes work great for businesses and startups.

What we like about Templatic themes is the fact that they are very flexible and easy to customize. The back-end functions are some of the best we have seen. Best of all, new themes are added on a consistent basis, and they are getting better. With that in mind, here are [X] theme worth a try:

Job Board Theme: Job Board theme enables you to create your own job board using Wordpress fast. You can host it on your sub-domain or just link it up with your existing blog.

iPhone App Theme: it’s a very attractive and easy to customize theme for anyone who has developed an iPhone application.

Kidz Store: it’s a clean, highly customizable theme for anyone who wants to start an online shop fast. Has a ton of features to help you manage you store more effectively.

Classifieds: one of the best classified themes for Wordpress that enables you to create your own killer listing website with WP.

eShop: another clean and easy to customize e-store theme for Wordpress. It lets you create your own e-commerce shop fast. It’s ad ready and supports affiliate marketing as well.

Destination: if you are planning to build a portal for your city specifically or start a travel portal, Destination is a very attractive theme to consider.

Gourmet: a very powerful theme for restaurant business owners that saves them money and makes it easy to take an offline business online.

Mr. & Mrs.: quite a unique theme that is designed for those who are getting married and want to build a portal covering their marriage for the present and the future. Pretty clean and very image friendly.

Snippet: a versatile theme that can be used for review portals, photography blogs, and even affiliate marketing websites.

eProduct: a very clean and flexible theme for business owners and those who have developed digital products of their own. Gives you all the space you need to feature the advantages of your product as well as any testimonials you may have.

What’s your favorite Templatic theme?

TV Elements has been one of the best video blogging themes for a long time now. The theme which was designed by Press 75 a while ago had everything you need to get started in the world of video blogging. TV Elements 3 is the third iteration of this theme and comes with many improvements and a brand new design to enable you to build a more quality video blog with Wordpress. The theme has been modernized and comes with more customization features, so you can focus more on creating high quality videos and less on worrying about how to change things around on your video blog.

TV Elements 3 is designed to work with the latest edition of Wordpress. Unlike the previous version, you can now add as many featured videos on your home page. You can also display 12 video channels on your homepage, so this theme can be essentially be used for a web show or multi-author video blog. What I like about this theme is the fact that you can customize it and add new things to it without having to worry about changing the code. Whether you want to change your logo or customize what’s being displayed on your homepage, you can get it done from the back-end.

You can customize all aspects of your theme from the back-end. That includes your navigation, your content carousel, and your footer text. Twitter can be easily added to this theme as well. Just add your Twitter ID.

You can also add your Google Analytics code right in your back-end without having to deal directly with your code. As far as your channels are concerned, you can enable and disable them easily from the back-end as well.

All in all, if you are looking for an attractive video blogging theme that is flexible and easy to customize, TV Elements 3 is yet another good option to consider.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to combine two different Wordpress blogs. So why would you want to do that in the first place? Let’s say you have two niche Wordpress blogs that each cover too narrow a topic for you to come up with decent content for on a frequent basis. By combining the two, you can cover more without giving your audience the indication that you are not serious about your blog. In earlier version of Wordpress, the process would have been much more difficult, but thanks to import functionality available in Wordpress, the process don’t have to take too long.

If you want to import a Wordpress blog into your existing one, here are a few simple steps you need to follow:

1. backup everything: I am talking about your databases. Make sure you backup both your databases just in case something goes wrong. If you happen to be using PHPMyAdmin to manage your database, you can always use the export function there to back-up your databases.

2. Export Your WP: this is pretty simple. Go to Dashboard > Tools > Export to grab the file you’ll need to bring your posts from your old Wordpress site to their new home.

3. Move Your Images: if you have let Wordpress manage your images, you should be fine here. But it never hurts to bring your images to your new server just in case something goes missing. I personally do this step as I don’t rely solely on Wordpress to handle my images.

4. Import Your Posts: another simple step. Just go to Dashboard > Tools > Import and use the file you downloaded in step 2 to bring your posts to their new home.

5. Modify Your .htaccess file: there are plugins that can help you change your old URLs that are still remaining in your old posts. I personally prefer to redirect them all (HTTP 301 redirect) to their new home. That’s one of the reasons to move images from the old domain to the new domain (step 3). Here is the code you need to add to your .htaccess file (in the root directory of your old domain):

redirect 301 /index.htm. http://www.newurl.com/index.htm

That’s it. As long as you haven’t done anything drastic to your blog, you should have no problem getting everything working. Now if you are changing your Permalinks structure as well, you may need a few more redirects. But the above steps in general are what you need to import posts from one Wordpress blog into another.

There is nothing you can’t do with Wordpress these days. It’s one of the most powerful and popular content management systems on the market. That’s the main reason while small businesses and bloggers are continuing to adopt the platform. Wordpress not only makes creating a blog easy, it also can be used to create job boards, classified websites, e-commerce stores, clones sites, and even forums. You heard it right. You can use your Wordpress install to start your very own forum without relying on other scripts such as vBulletin or PHPBB.

gForums is a pretty unique Wordpress theme that turns your blog into a fully-fledged forum. And you won’t need to rely on other software packages to get up and runing with gForums. Whether you want to add a forum to your existing blog or just start a new forum on a brand new domain, gForums has you covered. It sits on the top of your Wordpress install and give you the tool to manage your users and let your visitors engage in discussions on your website.

The theme comes with member pages, image slide-show, and report buttons to let you manage your board more effectively. The theme is also pretty light-weight, so it doesn’t put too much pressure on your web server. As you gain members, you may have to increase your resources, but it all depends on how popular your forum gets. Security is always going to be an issue with forum software, but since you are using Wordpress to power up your forum, you have plenty of security plugins that you can take advantage of to protect your forum.

The theme is pretty affordable and comes with the PSD files you need to customize the look and feel of your forum. The theme is capable of handling media files such as YouTube videos. Your visitors can help you manage your forum by reporting those who engage in inappropriate discussions. In gForums, you have a clean, powerful theme that turns your Wordpress blog into a forum. Can’t get easier than that.

Meebo is quite popular for its chat client. The service makes it possible to add chat rooms to any blog or website. But did you know that you can also install a killer bar on your websites by taking advantage of Meebo Bar. It’s another product by Meebo that is designed to allow you to promote your social media accounts to your visitors and let them connect and communicate with you more effectively. The service allows you to add your Facebook fan page, Twitter, and Flickr streams to your blog fast.

The toolbar is very easy to customize and can be added to any website easily. You can choose from Digg, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and Lala and add the services that you prefer to your blog’s footer. Once you have customized your toolbar, you can grab the code that works the best for your platform or just get the general code.

Meebo also has a plugin for Wordpress that makes adding your toolbar code to your blog a little bit easier. So you won’t have to mess with your code. All you have to do is copy and paste your code into Meebo’s plugin, and you are set to go.

What I like about this plugin is the fact that it tells you about your page views and shares made by your visitors. You can essentially use this information to find out what your visitors are interested in and what topics you can write more about. All in all, if you are looking to add a social footer bar to your Wordpress blog to promote your online presences, Meebo Bar is a good service to try out.

iPhone development is one of the hottest niches around these days. If you know how to develop iPhone apps and have a great idea for an app, there is no reason you can’t build a successful business around your app. In fact, many people have quit their day jobs to focus solely on iPhone development. With iPad, you are going to have even more opportunities to make money in this business.

Developing an iPhone app is only part of the equation. Once you are done with your app, you are going to have to spend time promoting it. You certainly want to create a mini-site for your app. After all, if you want others to take your business seriously, you need to approach these things in a professional matter. Thanks to the power of Wordpress, you can easily set up your mini-website and go live fast. You are just going to need the right theme.

With that in mind, here are 6 cool iPhone wordpress themes that can help developers take their business off the ground:

iPhone App Theme: the best theme around for iPhone app developers. Doesn’t need you to touch the code. Comes ready to go out of the box and can be customized easily as well.

Featured Pitch: works for most startups and small businesses. It’s designed to help you sell your products or service. Comes with video integrated and 9 cool color schemes.

Vibrant CMS: it’s a clean and easy to customize theme for iPhone app developers or any other product developer for that matter. Comes  with 20 color schemes as well.

eProduct: whether you are a software developer or just have a product you want to create a mini portal one, eProduct is a theme that can make your life much easier.

ProductFolio: a pretty flexible and easy to use theme for any product developer. Comes with 7 color themes and lets you promote your app easily on the home-page. It’s dynamic too.

Starting your own online shop is one of the best ways to start making money online. Depending on what you are selling, you can earn a lot of money online with your own e-commerce business. And thanks to the power of Wordpress platform, you don’t have to be a genius geeks to build your online shop. All you have to do is install Wordpress and get your hands on a decent ecommerce WP theme. Thankfully, there are enough good, affordable E-commerce Wordpress themes out there to help you get started.

Here are 13 E-commerce themes for Wordpress to help you build your online shop fast:

Kidz Store: Kidz Store is a powerful e-commerce theme for Wordpress that enables you to start an e-store with Wordpress fast. It’s an auto install theme that makes your job easy. Has tons of features to help you manage your online shop more effectively through Wordpress.

eShop e-commerce theme: a sophisticated, clean theme for anyone who is planning to sell products online. You can manage your store easily from the back-end. Comes integrated with payment services.

Store E-commerce Theme: a very simple to use and flexible theme by Templatic that lets you add your products and start selling them online fast. It supports coupons, multiple shipping methods, and more. The powerful back-end makes managing things much easier. If you want to build your online shop with Wordpress, this theme can come in handy.

Ecommerce Theme: one of the best Wordpress Ecommerce themes around. It’s SEO friendly and allows you to add your own photos and set up your shop fast.

StorePress: a very flexible theme that lets you add your items easily and start making money online with e-commerce Wordpress site. Very affordable too.

Market Theme: another simple shopping theme for Wordpress. Set up Wordpress, add this theme, add your items, and you are set to go. Very simple to deploy.

Classified Theme: not your average e-commerce theme. It’s designed to let you create your listing website where people can submit their items (like craigslist). You can also easily modify it to build your own online shop with Wordpress.

Color Cart: one of my favorite e-commerce Wordpress themes, Color Cart enables you to turn your blog into an e-commerce site instantly. It’s lightweight, well-designed, and easy to customize.

auctionTheme: auctionTheme lets you create your auction Wordpress site and of course you can customize it to set up your shop as well. Either way, a great way to start building up your business.

folioShop: a very attractive theme that enables you to start selling your art work online without having to do too much work. It’s easy to deploy and dynamic.

Classipress: another cool listing theme for Wordpress that lets you not only sell your own items but also ask others for a fee to sell their goods as well.

wpShop: wpShop is a colorful and flexible Wordpress theme to set up your own ecommerce shop. You can easily add images to your online shop and start selling fast.

eGoods: comes with three different color themes and lets you set up shop online fast. The home page lets you feature your top products. And you can also promote your recently released products and bargains.

There you have it. If you are planning to create your online store with Wordpress, you can’t go wrong with the above themes.

Your turn: did I miss anything? Please feel free to add your favorite marketplace themes below.

P.S. Don’t forget to check top eBay plugins to further enhance your shop.

Take a look at the above picture. You have surely seen those CAPTCHA boxes on popular websites before. There was a time that only very popular sites had to worry about spam and implementing anti-spam measures such as CAPTCHA. But times have certainly changed. Nowadays, there are plenty of unethical, black-hat marketers who target blogs of all sizes with their automated software. So if you happen to own a blog and don’t have an anti-spam plugin installed on your blog, you are leaving your blog and community wide open to spam attacks. Thanks to JR Antispam plugin for Wordpress, you won’t have to worry too about spam.

JR Antispam plugin not only allows you to add CAPTCHA to your Wordpress blog, it also makes it easy to choose the type you prefer to keep the bots away. I personally prefer math CAPTCHA, but you can go with the regular version. Keep in mind that CAPTCHA doesn’t keep all spam away. But it does make it easier to deal with web bots.

The plugin is very flexible as well in a sense that you can change your CAPTCHA label and even define custom questions for your blog. CAPTCHA is not a 100% foolproof system. There are still ways to get around it. But it keeps the amateurs away and foils web bots as well. Great security plugin to add to your collection.

Anyone who has played with Wordpress for a while has seen all the cool themes that are available for this platform. Whether you are a hobby blogger or just want to get started with your first serious blog, there are plenty of themes to choose from. You can always go with a free theme, but if you anything serious in mind, you are better of investing in a premium theme. There are plenty of colorful premium themes available on the market, but believe or not the most popular themes on the market are the ones that are light-weight, clean, and easy to customize. Being able to customize your theme easily is really key. There is no point in investing in a premium theme that can’t be customized easily. Premium themes make cost a bit of money, but they are by no means unique to your site. There may be other people who use the same theme that you have just bought, so it’s essential to take time to change the look and feel of your blog if you want your blog design to look unique.

If you are looking for a light-weight, clean theme to build your blog around, here are 4 customizable themes you should consider:

Canvas theme: Canvas theme for Wordpress is not only highly customizable and very clean, but it also comes with a ton of widgets and back-end functions that can save you time and effort. It takes advantage of hooks as well.

Thesis: the best in this category. It’s highly customizable and very flexible. It uses the hook system, so you can add your own customizations without too much trouble. The back-end is powerful as well, enabling you to change things around without having to write any code.

Frugal Theme: Frugal theme is very similar to thesis. It comes with a very clean look and feel. It uses the hook system to help you add enhancements to your blog easily. The code is optimized for SEO, and you can address your tags in the back-end. It’s very affordable too if you plan to use it for your Wordpress clients.

WP Unlimited: WP Unlimited is designed for any Wordpress designer that wants to have a skeleton of a theme to build a super theme upon. You are provided with a clean cut look and feel, and you can customize every aspect of your theme to your heart’s desire.

The above themes (except Canvas) are not made for those who are not experienced with Wordpress. They are designed for advanced Wordpress bloggers who want to take their blog to the next level. They do provide you with a good skeleton to build your theme up around. If you want to be in control and redesign your premium theme to your liking, any of the above themes would be a great choice.