When I created a custom date button on Zain’s Blog people really liked it. It was a well planned out design. Then I thought it would make a great post if I show you guys how to make a Customized Wordpress Date Button.

Why should you get a customized date button? Simple. It looks cool. It goes with some themes and doesn’t go with others. I think it just spice up some themes if used correctly. For this tutorial: I am assuming you can make your own graphics, if you are not using mine. You have little knowledge of html and css (I mean you know how the div tags and padding works). The final outcome of this tutorial should look like the image on your right.

This is a 3 step tutorial. First we will add the day of the month, then we will add the month, and then finally it will be the year.

We will be using the following image as our background:

First thing you want to do is make a class in your css file that is called .datebg and set your background image.

.datebg{
background: url(images/datebg.gif) no-repeat;
height: 150px;
width: 150px;
}

Than insert it in the appropriate wordpress file. Hint: index.php, single.php…

So right now your codes should be looking like this:

<div class="datebg">

</div>

Now you need to add another class and call it .day and set the appropriate margin and CSS. Choose your color and font-size. Insert that class inside your datebg class.

Within your .day class insert the following codes: <?php the_time(‘d’) ?>

This will allow you to display the date, so like today is the 22nd so thats what it will show you.

Now you need to go ahead and add another class in your css file and name it .month and add the appropriate margin and padding to it. Insert it right after your .day class in the template files.

Within this class you need to add: <?php the_time(‘M’) ?>

This will display the month of the year like in the picture shown below:

Then you will need to make another class and name it .year. Set the appropriate padding and margins. Insert it right after your month class.

Then within this class add the following codes: <?php the_time(‘Y’) ?>

This will display the year.

So in the end your template files should look like this:

<div class="datebg">
<div class="day"><?php the_time(‘d’) ?></div>
<div class="month"><?php the_time(‘M’) ?></div>
<div class="year"><?php the_time(‘Y’) ?></div>
</div>

Now you have your own customized wordpress date button. Feel free to use my image in this post. I made it 150 x 150px so people can make it smaller and not lose quality. If you are just wondering how the heck do I enter plain simple date like Balkhis have.

Then just plain enter <?php the_time(‘M j, Y’) ?>

This will give you an outcome like Aug 22, 2008.

Enjoy.

Note: Do not copy and paste codes. Type it down by looking at these.

Well I see that some people like to complain that they spend too much time on a blog and not get enough results therefore they think blogging is a waste of time. I also see some advising others on the forum that don’t rely entirely on blogging which is fine. But what I don’t understand is how long does it take you to write a post? An hour or two? thats it if you write quality posts. If you are Bs’ing a post then you can do that in 25 minutes. There are ways you can speed up your post writing process and those are shortcuts.

Here is a post that will save you some time on writing a post in wordpress. Yup some wordpress shortcuts that you should write down if you don’t already know about them. I have a list on my table that have all these shortcuts and more for photoshop. In time you will memorize them, but the way to start is writing it down on a paper and stick it on your table, so you can use them daily. Now I have all of these memorized.

Make the text Bold

Alt + Shift + b

Make the text Italics

Alt + Shift + i

Insert a Link

Alt + Shift + a

Insert a Blockquote

Alt + Shift + q

Insert a Code

Alt + Shift + c

Insert Read More

Alt + Shift + t

Insert an Unordered List (ul) – Bullets

Alt + Shift + u

Insert an Ordered List (ol) – Numbers

Alt + Shift+ o

List Tags (li)

Alt + Shift + L

Insert an Image

Alt + Shift + m

Insert Del Date time – Basically Cross a Word Comments Restricted

Alt + Shift + d

Insert timing – Basically Underlines the world Spread the Words

Alt + Shift + s

Publish a Post

Alt + Shift + p

More from Suggestions on Social Media:

Undo an action

Alt + Shift + u

Redo an action

Alt + Shift + y

Edit HTML

Alt + Shift + e

Align Left

Alt + Shift + f

Align Center

Alt + Shift + c

Align Right

Alt + Shift + r

Ctrl + Number Get you the header size on highlighted text

Edit: Ian Blackford of Blogging Rocket has confirmed that if you are using Firefox and MAC you should use CTRL + Alt and the letters above. Its in the comment so I thought I should put it here so everyone can read it.

Now when I wrote 13 ways I promote my blog post, I got questions like how much time do you spend on your blog. On email as well as comments on the forums. Now I don’t spend alot of time because I have web design firm as well. But I do take a good 1 – 2 hours a day to search for post and write a good post. Sometimes less, and sometimes more. But I can tell you one thing, if you use these shortcuts you will decrease the time you spend on writing a blog post.

Well, I have been asked this question multiple times by many people over IM and via email. Syed how do you gain so many backlinks. How do you get other bloggers link to you? I never really told anyone how because I never really bothered making a list of my techniques. But since this question was coming up so often by so many people, I thought I should write about it.

Main Idea to remember when you are emailing another blogger is never sound like that you are entirely dependant on them. Don’t seem like that you are begging for link. Now having that said, I will let you figure out how you do that because everyone can come up with their own style. Use the tricks below to guide you to come up with the right style.

First thing you want to do before you email anyone is make sure that your post is good enough. It is relevant to other blogger’s blog. It is useful to their audience. How do you do that? Visit each blogger’s blog thoroughly and look at some of their popular posts. See what their user likes, and if your post is in that niche than contact the blogger otherwise you will be wasting their time as well as your own time.

Second you need to understand you can’t ask bloggers promote all of your posts. So be very very selective in your posts that you ask them to promote for yourself on their blog. Like my ebook about How to make a Magazine style theme in wordpress. Alot of bloggers wrote about this post, and I am very thankful that they found my book interesting enough. But you know what happens if I keep asking people to promote my blog on their site? They will stop caring about the blog. That will show I am completely dependant on them to get traffic.

Don’t sound like a SPAM Email. Give your email a voice. Show to them that you have atleast take some effort in writing. I mean why should I write about your blog post or product if you can’t even put some effort in writing an email to me? So think yourself in other person’s shoe. It won’t benefit me either way. Have a friendly tone. Don’t ask them outright to link to you. First Introduce yourself. Because you want them to know a little about you before they link to you. Make connections that is all what blogging is about. Don’t drag your email to 2000 words. Make it short and quick because considering that I get 300+ emails every day. I don’t want to read your 2000 word email asking me to link to you. Summarize a little what is this product that you want me to link to. Because if you don’t then I don’t really want to click on the link with an anchor Click HERE.

Be Generous in your own link roundups. Basically do some link love. Make friends. You have to give some to get some back. So if you don’t write about other people why should they write about you? So if you see something you like than write about it. This was one of the reasons why I started doing my weekly link roundups because I want to share the love in the blogosphere.

The Barter System – I don’t know how effective this technique is because most of the time, I turn this down. Barter system is you are asking someone to promote your post and you are giving them something in exchange. Usually I am not interested in this type of things, but it does work the other way around. When I offer something to others, they usually take me up on that. So really personal choice, but I see that this one works well when I offer things to people. You just need to know what to offer.

Unique and Interesting articles/work gets the best outcome. Like my ebook because that is something cool and unique. It is likely that alot of other bloggers will take the initiative to write about that or atleast add it to social media.

Don’t take offense if other bloggers don’t write back to you. Sometimes they are either too busy. They see your email and it sound like spam to them. I personally try to respond to emails in the order that I recieve them, so before it was more like within 24 hours for balkhis, but now it is getting more like 48 – 72 hours. I am getting to many people asking me for advices and more. Also Uzzz Productions is another one of my projects that I have to keep up with. If you are a blogger and you don’t like the offer and it is a legit offer, then do reply back saying sorry not interested, so others don’t wait. If I see that the offer sounds spammy than I don’t respond.

Believe it or not network connections like this in blogosphere will get you alot of backlinks and traffic to your blog. It will also get you new readers. I am not saying you will be perfect the first time, but believe it or not you will get better as you do this more. So learn from your experience.

Do Follow Comments is a popular technique used among bloggers to increase comments on their blog. If you don’t know what Do follow comment means let me explain.

Do Follow Comments – is a technique used by bloggers in which they exchange comments. More like you comment on my blog, and I will return the favor. These bloggers also make the link on the comments dofollow.

Now how the heck do you find out which blog is using Do Follow and which one is not?

Usually they put some ugly button like this one:

Now if you know me, I am a graphics freak, and I am very picky when it comes to designs. I don’t like the design of it.

Now I have shared tricks before on how to attract commentators on your blog. But showing people the button is another nice way of attracting comments.

Well I don’t show this button. Several reasons why?

1. I don’t want to lie – I try to leave comments on my readers blog, but only if I find something to say. If I don’t like your blog, I won’t comment. If I like the blog, but don’t find anything constructive to say, then I won’t say it. So if I say, you comment I follow. I will be lying therefore I didn’t put it.
2. Too Lazy – I think I am just lazy or never got around putting it in the sidebar. It is just that when I think I am using a custom design, the default button just don’t go along and I don’t think it is something that I need on my site.

But should you get this button? Well that is a personal choice. It depends on what type of campaign you are running. If you have no advertising budget, and just want to increase your commentators and readers. Then do it. If you have a new blog and want to increase readers, then commenting on other blogs is very nice. And if someone comment on your site then go back and comment on theirs.

But if you really decide to put a button on do you really want to put that ugly button. Well to solve that issue, I made a new set of buttons.

Well you can either copy and paste the images from here, or I have it available for a download all in one in a zip package.

Feel free to use these on personal or commercial pages. Don’t claim them as your own. If you don’t mind please share them, so these get popular. You can use the download link of my server. Don’t upload on your server.

If you missed it Download these Icons here.

Hey everyone. Starting a new week with a new set of links for you to read up on. This is actually the second link round up I am having on Balkhis. I missed last week because since this is not my usual thing and it is new. I kinda forgot about it. Than I decided not to ruin the tradition, so I didn’t do it any other day. Well lets take a look at how the past week was.

Nabil over EnkayBlog write about Why you need a Contact Form. As you guys know that I have always supported contact forms. I even wrote a post about how to add a contact form in wordpress. So definately check our his post and add a contact form if you need it.

Did you ever consider reading ebooks? Well I don’t know how many of you listened to me and joined social media like Plurk and others. But I am sure after reading the 20 free ebooks about Social Media you will change your mind.

Do you want to jump start your new blog? Want to increase your traffic crazily? Well Germz have a very cool tip for you. Read How to Massively Jumpstart your Website’s Traffic?

I know my Advertise Page Sucks. But with updates coming soon (in 2-4 weeks) that will be changed as well hopefully. But do you want to know about Things People overlook with advertise pages?. Read this post and improve your advertise page.

Everyone make mistakes when they start. Well here is a blogger who is sharing his mistakes when he started blogging.

GPT Sites…. Alot of people are using those to make money online. Well if you aren’t and want to know a little about it. Then Desmond have a Guide for you. GPT Sites Guide for Dummies.

Wordpress is a very secure platform. There are alot of other security steps you can take to make it even safer. Did you just miss the simplest one?

Thats all for this Monday’s Link Roundup. If you write a good post, and want it mentioned here. Than contact me using the contact form. I will read it and consider it. Or simply just comment on my blog because I go through my top commentators before I check anywhere else.