So, if you are using WordPress 3.2 – here is how you can get into the new full screen editor.

1. Log into the Dashboard
2. Either go to Posts > Add New or Posts > All Posts > the post you wish to edit
3. In the default editor, look for the toolbar button that has arrows pointing in four directions and click it

That is all you need to do.  This distraction free writing mode comes in handy for those of us who like to clear away all the clutter and mess around us before we start writing.  This feature clears away the sidebars, menus, and options; leaving you only with an interface to write in.

If you have not upgraded yet – why wait? You can pick up WordPress 3.2 from the WordPress.org website.

The main index page gives you an image heavy magazine style layout that is definitely pleasing to the eye.  Each post page also displays the content in an easy to read format too.  You get a drop down navigation across the top of the layout – for your basic website links and the sidebar items also look nice.  Overall, if you are looking for a great new theme to go with your great new website idea – there might not be a better theme around.

Go check out the JournalCrunch preview, or download it directly from the Site5 WordPress themes website.

Great looking and free WordPress themes are really hard to find.  Sometimes you have to search for days, weeks or years to find the one that is right for you.  With that said, I am here to make your Monday morning just that much easier – here is EvoLve.

EvoLve is a great looking premium WordPress theme that includes a ton of advanced options to help you customize things to suit your own design needs. Here is only a handful of the great options and settings you can find in this flawless WordPress theme:

It features a modern design with up to 14 color variants, fully customizable layout, post excerpts with thumbnails, post boxes, author gravatar support, up to 10 subscribe/social customizable buttons, custom logo, header widgets, recent posts slideshow, footer widgets, custom footer, customizable font styles, custom CSS, ads spaces. The EvoLve theme also comes with custom Menus support and other cool features. Translated in Spanish, German, Swedish, Dutch, French, Russian, Turkish. Tested with WP 3.1 and major browsers – Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Chrome.

Want to give it a shot? You can go preview or download it directly from WordPress.org.

Here are just a few suggestions the developers give when it comes to figuring out reasons to use this fantastic little micro blogging service.

• Journal. Realistically keep a journal, 280 characters only takes 2 minutes!
• Travelling. You’re too busy having fun to write down every detail!
• Business. Keep track of your business life.
• Sport. Running a marathon? Track your progress.
• Food Diary. Losing weight or getting fit?
• Target Progress. Record progress of a large task.
• Backwards To-Do List. What did you get done today?

By bounding you to 280 characters, the website forces you to skip the fluff and get right down to business.  You can sign up and give it a shot at 280daily.com.

I have just started to play with WordPress 3.1 today.  One of the biggest updates that people will either love, or love to hate is the new admin bar that is displayed across the top of your website when you are logged in.  It gives you quick and easy access to some of the most popular administrator features of WordPress.  What if you do not like it? There is a pretty simple way to disable it from showing up.

From the admin bar in WordPress you can click on your name to be taken to your profile editor or from within the admin section of WordPress go to, Users > Your Profile. Next, look for where it says, "Show Admin Bar" and simply un-check "when viewing site".  You can also select to view the new WordPress admin bar in your dashboard too.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the Update Profile button.  You are done!

To learn more about WordPress 3.1, be sure to check out the feature I wrote over on the Site5 blog. There I go into a few more of the new abilities that WordPress 3.1 has to offer.

In a nutshell, split testing is a method of marketing where you compare two different versions of the same thing, and then you determine which was more successful at reaching your goal.  For example, I might have two different layouts for this same article, but one looks one way and the other looks another way.  I would split test to see which one people seemed to like more – then do more article layouts like that.

Here are best split test related add-ons I found for WordPress:

SES Theme Split Test

This plugin lets you set up two different templates with differences that you think might increase conversions, serve these different templates up to users, and track their activity using custom segments in Google Analytics.

Headline Split Test

This plug-in allows you to enter an alternate headline for every post on your blog. The headlines are then randomly alternated on your website until a certain number of "headline views" has been reached. At that point, a "winning" headline (as determined by the number of people that have clicked on each headline to date) is determined and that headline is shown going forward.

Ad Injection

Ad Injection injects any kind of advert (e.g. Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, ClickBank, TradeDoubler, etc) into the existing content of your WordPress posts and pages. You can control the number of adverts based on the post length, and it can restrict who sees adverts by post age, visitor referrer and IP address.

Do you know of a great all in one split testing tool for WordPress? If so, hit me up and let me know.  I would love to test it out.

ManageWP is something I have needed for a long time.  It takes your site details for each WordPress powered website you manage, and lets you take care of simple tasks for multiple blogs in one location.  This saves you time as you no longer have to log into each blog.  You can take care of things all at one.

Getting set up is easy, all you need to do is sign up, download the ManageWP Worker plugin and then install the ManageWP worker on your blogs. Once set up you can:

• Manage posts and pages
• Install new plugins and themes
• Manage your categories and tags
• Manage your comments
• Do one-click updates to WordPress and plugins

The only thing that keeps me away from using ManageWP full time would be the fact that I feel a little nervous about handing my login details to a third party like this.  However, there should be a self-hosted version of ManageWP in the works soon – so once that is out there, this is going to be something I’ll use for sure.

You can go sign up and try the remote version of the service at ManageWP.com.

As some of you may or may not have noticed, the theme I have been using across my network or projects is from WooThemes.  Now, while I might have told you a few years back that a premium WordPress theme was a waste of money and time (because you could always just do it yourself) I have had a change or heart.  My investment in purchasing a premium theme has been really fantastic.

The great thing about WooThemes is that they come with a very in-depth framework backend that allows you to tweak many of the ways the themes both look and feel to the users.  You can edit colors, styles, the layout and more.  I have been really impressed.  I have also been able to get rid of a few plugins because of the built in features that WooThemes delivers. 

For example, I no longer have to use the All-in-One SEO plugin for WordPress because my theme has SEO capabilities built into it. 

Now, I know for some of you the price might turn you off from wanting to go jump on the bandwaggon.  $70 is a lot of money.  However, when you consider you can use the theme for the rest of your life and on concurrent domains, the price is not all that bad.  You also gain access to all the updates for that theme for free too.

Go check out the selection of themes they provide, and see if you can find one or two that you like.  They have a few free themes too that you might want to play with to see how you like the way they manage the theme backend too.  Go give them a visit at woothemes.com.

Looking for an easy way to turn your WordPress powered blog into a book? Anthologize is a plugin for WordPress that will turn WordPress into a platform for publishing electronic text.  Anthologize gives you all the tools you need to publish your work in a new and exciting way.

Once you have this plugin installed, you can grab your own posts, import feeds for other websites or create new content within Anthologize.  Then all you need to do is edit your work, put it in a basic outline format and then publish.  You can export your masterpiece as a PDF, ePUB, or TEI based file.

If you have ever dreamed of publishing some of your blog posts together, in an easy to download format, Anthologize gives you all the basic tools to get the job done.

As somebody who did this the hard way with Word and a few select plugins and work arounds, I wish I had Anthologize handy when putting together my Everyone is a Marketer eBook.  It probably would have saved me a lot of time. I will definitely be giving Anthologize a closer look when it comes to any future publishing I might do.

You can pick up Anthologize for free and start turning your blog into a book today.

Everybody has a mobile phone these days (except me) so you need to make sure your website preforms both on common desktop browsers and mobile phone browsers too.  One way to insure that you have the best looking mobile website out there is to pick up the MobilePress add-on for WordPress.

This is a free WordPress plugin that makes your website "mobile friendly".  You can also create a lightweight mobile themes for different mobile browsers. Here is a little more about the add-on from the developers:

MobilePress is a free open source WordPress plugin that turns your blog into a mobile friendly blog when viewed on a cell phone. MobilePress is flexible in that it allows you to customize your mobile presence by creating your own themes, creating themes for specific mobile browsers (iPhone and generic devices) and also allowing you to decide when to display your mobile blog.

You also are able to theme the mobile version of your website to look the way you want it to look.  MobilePress integrates with Aduity.com too, which will cover your advertising side of things. I have not yet had time to install and play with this add-on myself – but after trying to check out one of my websites on my sister’s phone the other day, I am really thinking about picking it up.  You want your website to be as easy as possible to use and MobilePress gives that ability to you. 

To learn more about the WordPress add-on (or to download it yourself) go visit mobilepress.co.za.