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Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress – Network Solutions

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Time for another post in the “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” series where I highlight businesses and brands using WordPress that might surprise and inspire you.  If you thought WordPress and blogging was just for hobbyists and personal blogs, you’re wrong.

Today’s featured website using WordPress in cool ways is Network Solutions.  This is a company that has been around the world of domains, hosting, and more for years, and its most recent site redesign was intended to restore the brand’s position as a leader in the online space.  I’m on the Network Solutions Social Media Advisory Board, so it came as no surprise to me that WordPress would be the tool to bring the Network Solutions website into its new brand era.

Take a look at the clean, easy to read and visually appealing home page of the Network Solutions website built on WordPress:

The interior pages of the site use either a one-column or two-column layout as well as easy to read fonts, colors, and designs.  Take a look at one of the interior pages that is text-heavy but still easy to read below:

The site even includes a page that lists all of the Network Solutions blogs (also built on WordPress) in a single place, including graphics and links, as shown below.

Last time on “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” I featured a college, Tufts University, and today, you see a mid-size company using WordPress to run its primary web presence.  Stay tuned for another well-known brand using WordPress in the next post in this series, and prepare to be amazed!

What site built on WordPress really amazes you?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

5 Cool Retail and Ecommerce Premium WordPress Themes

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Do you sell products online and need a cool WordPress theme to make your online store easy-to-use, easy-to-manage, and visually appealing?

Fortunately, there are many free and premium WordPress themes that can help you create a great online storefront, complete with a shopping cart and all the features you and your customers need!

Below are five well-coded premium WordPress ecommerce-related themes from Templatic that might work for you!  One of the things I like about Templatic themes is when you buy one, you purchase a lifetime subscription for a price that is competitive with many other popular premium themes.  However, many other premium theme pricetags only include 1-year of upgrades and support. You can also create a free demo account to test drive Templatic accounts before you purchase one.

1. Store Front

Five color choices and a clean look.

Get the details or View the demo

2. Productz

Six color choices and a less “ecommercey” design for the home page.

Get the details or View the demo

3. Emporium

Four color choices and a design that’s perfect for fashion, jewelry, fragrances, and more.

Get the details or View the demo

4. e-Commerce

Five colors and a very simple look.

Get the details or View the demo

5. Store

Four color choice and a very unique design for an online store!

Get the details or View the demo

Do you use WordPress to power your online store?  What theme do you use?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

How to Truncate WordPress Posts without Creating a Partial RSS Feed – Post Teaser WordPress Plugin

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I own a blog for women working in the field of business (Women on Business) that is written by a team of contributors with varying levels of ability when it comes to WordPress.  I wanted to truncate the posts on the home page to clean the design up a bit, but I didn’t want to ask each writer to insert the HTML More tag in their posts.  Also, the contributors don’t always include images with their posts, so I needed a solution that ignored the image component entirely.

At the same time, I wanted a solution that ensured my blog’s full feed would not switch to a partial feed.  I don’t have time to redesign the site right now, so I needed a quick and easy solution.

I thought about it for a while before I finally remembered the Post Teaser WordPress plugin!

The Post Teaser WordPress plugin is a great solution for WordPress.org users who need a quick, easy, and free solution to automatically truncate blog posts on their blog home pages without cutting the RSS feed to a partial feed.  Even if you don’t care about whether or not your feed is full or partial, the Post Teaser WordPress plugin is still a handy thing.

It takes seconds to install and set up the Post Teaser WordPress plugin.  You can determine where your posts are truncated, and the plugin automatically truncates all posts at that location (or close to it if necessary for better formatting).  Also, you can customize the link message that visitors click on to read the full post.  It’s a simple plugin that can help streamline a cluttered home page or a blog that is written by multiple authors with varied styles.  In other words, the plugin helps entries appear more uniform.

So if you’re not ready to redesign your blog and want to control where all of your posts are truncated without affecting your blog’s feed, give Post Teaser a try.

Note that the WordPress Plugin Directory lists the plugin as only being compatible through WordPress 2.8, but I use it with WordPress 2.9.2 without any problems.

Do you truncate posts on your blog’s home page?  Do you use a plugin?  Do you truncate posts manually?  Or does your theme truncate posts for you?  Leave a comment and share your experiences and preferences!

Image: stock.xchng