How to Attract Traffic by Making Your WordPress Blog Mobile Friendly

smartphone wordpress jetpack mobile friendly

Hi friends!

Today I would like to introduce a very special person to you.

This person has been my web developer and adviser for all things computer and internet related for quite some time.

I have recently asked him if he could share some of his knowledge and valuable ideas with you, my dear readers. And I am beyond happy and excited that he said yes to being a special contributor on this site.

This friend’s name is Peter and today he would like to share with us How to Attract Traffic to a WordPress Blog by Making it Mobile Friendly…

Petra

 

Guest Post by Peter.

Traffic is the blogger’s lifeblood. Not only does traffic bring in ad revenue, it also creates a community around the blog.

Many bloggers started out a few years ago when smartphones and tablets were rare. But in today’s world, these devices are present everywhere and are used intensively. So it is very important to enable easy access to your blog for these mobile users.

Since WordPress is the best and most used blogging platform, I will show you how to make your WordPress blog responsive. Responsiveness is that quality of a website which automatically changes its layout, so it is optimized for various devices. In other words, a responsive site is easily readable on a cell phone, a tablet, a laptop, and a desktop computer.

The following tutorial is intended for self-hosted WordPress blogs (wordpress.org) like the one that Petra uses.

 

The whole process consists of only six easy steps. And here they are…

STEP ONE

Go to your WordPress dashboard. Click Plugins, click Add New.

wordpress dashboard plugins add new
 

STEP TWO

Search for a plugin called Jetpack by WordPress.com authored by Automattic. Install the plugin.

wordpress dashboard install plugins jetpack
 

STEP THREE

Activate the plugin.

wordpress dashboard activate plugin jetpack
 

STEP FOUR

Click Connect to WordPress.com in order to enable all the nice features of this plugin.

wordpress dashboard jetpack connect to wordpress.com
 

STEP FIVE

If you already have an account with wordpress.com, just enter your username and password, then click Authorize Jetpack.

wordpress authorize jetpack
 

If you don’t have an account yet, you can create one by clicking Need an Account?. After signing up by entering your email address and selecting a username and a password, WordPress will swiftly send you an email with an activation link. By clicking on that link in the email, a new browser window will open, where you will be able to click Authorize Jetpack.

wordpress sign up for new account authorize jetpack
 

STEP SIX

Activate the Mobile Theme feature in WordPress Dashboard > Jetpack.

wordpress dashboard jetpack plugin activate mobile theme
 

At this moment, you may check out how your blog looks like on mobile devices. If you are not completely satisfied, choose one of Jetpack’s four available mobile themes that best suits your blog. You can find Jetpack’s themes in WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes.

wordpress dashboard appearance available mobile themes
 

Easy and beautiful, isn’t it? 🙂

Please, let me know in your comments whether your blog is already responsive or if you found this tutorial useful to make your blog responsive.

Happy blogging!
Peter

(Note: Mobile support is also available for wordpress.com users. It can be easily set up via the wordpress.com Dashboard in Appearance > Mobile.)

 

Photography ~ How To Create White Vignette

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial

Because many of you, my dear readers, liked my last article on adding more light to your pictures during these tough months of winter, I decided to share another one of my light finding tricks with you.

I call it ‘white vignette’, despite the fact that the word vignette is usually used to describe dark blurred border around the picture.

I like adding dark vignette to my pictures. I find them cute because they nicely draw attention to the center of an image. I even wrote a tutorial about it once.  But my winter photos, oh my winter photos do not need it that much, they need more light, that’s what they need.

Long story short, one day it occurred to me that  – maybe – if I used white color instead of black one while creating the vignette, it could help my darker pictures to look better.

I liked the idea, and I loved the result.

Just have a look…

 

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial

This is the before picture.

When I was taking this picture, the display of my camera was saying it looked alright and that it was properly exposed.

But I did not think so when I saw it on the screen of my laptop.

 

 

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial, unsharp mask to add contrast, sharpening with unsharp mask, light with levels

This is the same picture after a little bit of editing in Photoshop Elements 8 has been done (no vignette yet).

Much better, I think.

I corrected exposure with levels (tutorial here).

I improved contrast with unsharp mask (tutorial here).

And I sharpened the picture a little (tutorial here).

 

 

how to add white misty border to a picture Photoshop tutorial, white vignette

And then I added my white vignette.

I like how it creates an illusion of more light coming in.

These are the steps that I took:

Send this to a friend