Yesterday I posted an extensive review of the OIO Publisher premium WordPress plugin. Since then, I’ve managed to set up with a new contest for Hack WordPress readers!

I have been in contact with Simon, the creator of OIO Publisher, and he has generously agreed to offer two copies of the OIO Publisher plugin to two of our readers. In order to be considered for one of the plugins, here are the two simple requirements you’ll need to follow to enter into this contest:

1. Review the blog demo, the admin demo, and then write a post on your blog explaining what you feel is the biggest strength of the plugin and what you feel is missing that you’d like to see added in a future update of the plugin.
2. Place a link to both this post (so I can track entries) and the OIO Publisher’s homepage somewhere in your post.

This way Simon can get feedback on what features you like and also find out what things he can do to improve the plugin. All posts must be published by June 5, 2008. We will then review the posts and announce the two plugin winners on June 7, 2008. Good luck!

Update: If your blog post is not in English, please send the translation to Kyle AT HackWordPress DOT com.

When most people start out blogging, it is usually because they love to blog. Remember those days? Over time, you either quit or continue to grow as a blogger, and it is almost inevitable that at some point you will start to look into monetizing your blog. Whether you use Google AdSense, affiliate marketing, or direct advertising sales, there is nothing wrong with getting paid for doing what you love to do.  In fact in many ways, getting paid can cause you to work harder and up both the quality and quantity of your work.

One of the many problems with selling direct advertising is that it can sometimes be a pain to manage, and it often takes you away from what you love to do, which is blogging. It is kind of like small business owners who love their job, but hate all the paperwork and accounting that is involved with running and managing their own business.

Fortunately as WordPress bloggers, there is a solution available to us in the form of a WordPress plugin called OIO Publisher. This is an incredible premium WordPress plugin that will completely automate the entire advertising process on your blog. In fact, chances are that you have seen people using it (including many high profile bloggers), but just not realized this plugin is what they were using to control the entire process from their WordPress dashboard.

When you download OIO Publisher, you’ll receive a WordPress plugin and be able to get an API key for each blog you want to use it on. The plugin will create an OIO Publisher tab in your dashboard where you can manage your blogs advertisements (designate how many links, paid reviews, inline ads, banners, or custom advertising your blog will have available), create and manage an affiliate program for products or services on your blog from your dashboard, and even see statistics regarding your advertisements!  Possibly my favorite feature of this plugin is that you can even set the plugin to send weekly reports to your advertisers or place your statistical information into their marketplace.

The best part about this premium plugin is that it will just about manage everything for you for a one-time fee of $37.00. Once purchased, you then have access to use the plugin on as many blogs as you would like, as well as get access to their downloadable sales platform, marketplace, and all of the other features mentioned above!  You also get free updates each time the plugin is updated.

In my opinion, the value of this plugin heavily outweighs the low price, but if you’d like to see for yourself the plugin in action, I recommend you check out a demo of OIOPublisher and purchase your copy today. The demonstation allows you to view how it will look on your blog and how you can manage everything from your WordPress dashboard.

It has been awhile since I’ve done a batch of WordPress Talk links, so here are a few WordPress links for you to enjoy:

• How to Avoid Duplicate Posts in the WordPress Loop – This post by Weblog Tools Collection explains how to avoid duplicate posts in both a single WordPress loop and a double WordPress loop.
• How to Get Rid of the WordPress Visual Text Editor – I know a lot of people do not like using the visual text editor when writing posts. If that sounds like you, Leland does a great job of providing the steps you need to take to remove yours.
• Get the Image WordPress Plugin – Justin Tadlock has released his newest plugin, which was designed to help people with images that use Magazine WordPress themes.

In the past we’ve talked about how to add a print button to your WordPress theme. Today I wanted to give you the javascript code you need to create an Email This button on your WordPress blog.

Before getting to the code, I wanted to first say that this code is designed to allow readers to click on the button and have it open up their default email software and create a subject and link that point to the post the reader is currently visiting. This code is not designed to allow readers to contact the blog author.

If you are wanting your readers to be able to contact you, I recommend you use one of the many great contact form WordPress plugins available. You should never embed your email address into some HTML code because it will be picked up by spam bots. Contact forms prevent spammers from finding your email address. The other thing you can do is offer “EmailAddress AT EmailCompany DOT com” (which your email address information filled in) to avoid spammers.

Okay, so back to the Email button code. Here is the javascript you will need:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- Begin
function isPPC() {
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("PPC") != -1) return true;
else return false;
}
if(isPPC()) {
document.write('<a class="contact" HREF=\"mailto:\?subject\=Take a look at this page I found, ' + document.title + '?body=You can see this page at: ' + window.location + '\" onMouseOver="window.status=\'Send your friends e-mail about this page\'; return true" TITLE="Send your friends e-mail about this page">Email to a Friend<\/a>');
}
else { document.write('<a class="contact" HREF=\"mailto:\?body\=Take a look at this page I found titled ' + document.title + '. You can see this page at: ' + window.location + '\" onMouseOver="window.status=\'Send your friends e-mail about this page\'; return true" TITLE="Send your friends e-mail about this page" rel="nofollow">Email This!<\/a>');
}
// End -->
</script>

This will create an email where the reader can enter in someone’s email address and send them a link to your post/page.

With many of the top theme designers switching their focus to creating and selling premium WordPress themes, it is always good to see some premium quality WordPress themes being released for free.

Today’s theme is called WP Freemium, and it was originally created by Ptah Dunbar for BloggingTips.com. It looks like due to some complications, BloggingTips.com decided to go another route so Ptah has made this theme available for anyone for free.

Here are the advertised features:

• Valid xHTML Strict 1.0 / CSS
• Code is well commented for the non technical savvy
• Sidebar Widgets enabled
• Custom Front Page with 3 featuring articles
• By default – 6 advertisement spots on all pages
• Gravatars highly Supported for Comments, Author Profiles and Author Posts.
• Author Byline + Promotion on single pages
• Author Profiles feature prominent image of the author with bio, contact details and more
• Image Gallery Support
• Print Stylesheet is included.
• Favicon + iPhone Webclip icon Ready
• SEO Optimized title tags and headers
• 404 Error Page notifies admin each time someone stumbles across a broken link so they can fix it.

I was unable to find a demo, so here are some screenshots provided by the author:

Homepage

Single Page

Author Bio

Author Page

I really like how this theme was setup for a blog that has multiple authors, making it a great free option for anyone starting a multi-author WordPress blog.

If you’d like to get a copy for your WordPress blog, click over to get WP Freemium.