The beauty of ElegantThemes is that you only pay a one-time fee of $39, and that gives you access to ALL their premium themes. Your membership also gives you access to all the future themes they will develop. Definitely worth the price since they already have dozens of beautiful themes to choose from. All their themes include a unique administrative interface called ePanel, which allows you to customize the look & feel of your theme in minutes!

ThemeForest

This is probably the largest WordPress theme database on the web! If you can't find anything you like at ElegantThemes, you should check out ThemeForest, they have thousands of amazing themes to choose from. That's right, thousands! The world's best WordPress designers post their themes for sale in this marketplace, so you can only expect top quality. However, unlike ElegantThemes, you will have to buy each theme individually. Prices generally range from $30 to $50 per theme.

WooThemes

 Another Top Contender when it comes to High Quality WordPress Themes. WooThemes has been delivering premium quality themes for years now. With over 122 themes to choose from (as of January 2012) you will certainly find a theme you like. They have more themes than ElegantThemes, but they are more expensive. Expect to pay around $70 for each theme, more if you want a developer license.

Because of its exponentially growing popularity, WordPress also became one of the main targets for hackers and spammers alike. If you are running a WordPress site, it is your responsibility to take all the measures to secure both your server and website to minimize the chances of being hacked. Below are our top tips for a secure WordPress site:

Backup Regularly

This is THE most important tip of all. Despite all the security measures you can take, a serious hacker can always find a way in if they try hard enough. Backing up is generally something that should be done outside of WordPress. If you are using a large hosting company such as HostGator, you should have access to a cPanel or any other type of administrative interface to manage your hosting account. From there, you should have an option to backup your entire site. Sometimes you will have the option to set automatic backups to be executed every day or every week. Make sure you are doing FULL backups (Database & Files) at least once a week. If you have a very active website that has new content daily, consider running full backups a couple times a week or even daily.

Always Update

Now this is something that many website owners ignore. They're probably thinking: why should I upgrade when everything is running fine? Yes we all know the proverb "Don't fix it if it's not broken", however in the case of WordPress, it is extremely important to keep updating your core WordPress engine AND your plugins, as many security holes are being fixed with every upgrade. Earlier WordPress versions have a much higher chance of getting hacked than newer ones.

Do not use "admin" as your username

Make sure you don't use "admin" as your username. It is much harder for a hacker to run scripts to find both your username AND password, rather than knowing the username already and having to figure out the password only. Simply create yourself a new admin account with your name or nickname, and delete the default admin account. You can do all this through the "Users" menu in your WordPress admin panel.

Move your wp-config.php file one level higher*

This is one of those secret tips that most people don't know about. the wp-config.php is the most important file of your WordPress website. It contains your database name/password and a bunch of other details that would allow a hacker to totally take control of your site and even delete it entirely. The wp-config.php file is always located on the root directory of your WordPress installation. (~/home/user/public_html/). We recommend that you move it one level higher (~/home/user/). It takes one minute to do through your favorite FTP program (we like using Filezilla). You can even ask your Hosting support to do it for you. WordPress knows to automatically look one level higher if it doesn't find it in your root folder.

*Note: this tip only applies to those that installed WordPress in the root of their domain name (www.domain.com). It does not work if you installed WordPress in a sub-directory (e.g. www.domain.com/blog)

Top WordPress Security Plugins to Consider

• WP Re-Captcha: Re-Captchas are one of the most secure captchas out there. Originally invented at the Carnegie Mellon University, it has since then been acquired by Google. the WP reCaptcha plugin will automatically insert strong captchas in every form of your WordPress site (login, comments, registration, etc...) which will block 99%+ of spambots from publishing content on your site.
• Limit Login Attemps: this is a very useful plugin that can help you set a maximum amount of login attemps before blocking the IP address that is trying to connect. By default, WordPress will allow you an unlimited amount of attemps to login to the admin panel. This is a problem because most experienced hackers can code scripts that will automatically attempt to login using different combinations of numbers and letters every milli-second until the proper combination is found!
• WordPress File Monitor: Oftentimes when your website is hacked, the hacker was able to get into the file system and make changes to one of your key files such as wp-config.php or .htaccess. WordPress File Monitor is a very useful plugin that will automatically email you whenever a change occurs in one of the important files on your server.
• WP DB-Backup: Earlier in this post we recommended that you execute regular full backups of your website. However, if your host doesn't allow you to achieve this easily, you can always install the WP DB Backup plugin and do a backup of the database locally. However, keep in mind that this won't backup your files, so if you made any modifications to your theme, consider doing a full backup as explained in our first tip.

This is a guide to help you choose a great color so you send the right message to your visitors.

Black: This is the color of strength and power, authority and intelligence. Ideal for government institutions & security firms. However, use this color with caution because  too much black can overwhelm.

Blue: This is a calming color, related to blue seas and skies. It is restful and is associated with dependability, loyalty and wisdom. Think blue uniforms. Blue enhances focus and can actually make people more productive. Ideal for any type of business!

Brown: This is the color of earth so stability, natural and organic is what you are communicating. In India this is a color of mourning so avoid it if that is your market.

Gold: As expected this color conveys prestige and excellence. Ideal for luxury websites, jewelry stores, financial advice websites and the such.

Gray: When you want practical, solid and timeless information this should be your choice. Use sparingly, if overused it has a dull numbing effect. Choose the shade carefully as darker gray will look more academic than light/silver gray which is more light and casual.

Green: This is a calming color that can be related to money, nature and growth. It is also associated with envy, good luck, fertility, masculine, wealth, peace, harmony and generosity. Ideal for ec0-friendly and health websites.

Orange: When you want to convey fun, happy and flamboyant this is a good choice. If you have organic products this should be in your web marketing. This is an energetic color associate with ambition; there is nothing calm about this color.

Purple: This color is related to royalty, dignity and spirituality. Keep in mind that this color represents death in Brazil, so avoid using it if that's your target market.

Red: This color is an attention getter. People around red can find themselves out of breath and have their heart beating a bit faster. Red is to be used sparingly, but a bit of red can draw interest. Never use it as a background color as it will make your content hard to read.

White: This is a color of purity, safety and cleanliness. White can also project neutrality and the absence of color and creativity. This is the color of death in China. White is the most versatile and therefore the most popular color on the web.

Yellow: This one is a cheerful color and is optimistic because the human brain actually releases more serotonin when people are around this color. It should be used sparingly. This conveys sadness in Greece and jealousy in France.

As you can see each color conveys a different message in people's subconscious minds. Depending on your niche/products, use the proper combination to instate the ideal climate for your visitors to take action. Since this is no rocket science and everybody is different, we recommend testing a few different combinations to determine what works best for you. Good Luck!

‎"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying you've done something wonderful … that's what matters to me." - Wall Street Journal 1993

"You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." - Stanford commencement speech 2005

"That's been one of my mantras: focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." - Business Week 1998

“Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do” - MACWorld Conference

"My position coming back to Apple was that our industry was in a coma. It reminded me of Detroit in the 70s, when American cars were boats on wheels." - Fortune magazine 2000

"The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people – as remarkable as the telephone." - Playboy 1985

"My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people." - Interview with 60 Minutes, 2003

We also would like to share with you one of Steve's greatest speeches, the 2005 Stanford Commencement Address:

Since many people have been asking us about this by phone and email, we decided to do our own case study and test these services out with a newly created Facebook Fan Page. We went ahead and optimized the page, added relevant info, photos and even added a custom landing page (set as the default tab) that has a link to the corresponding website. We tried 2 different providers (which we won't name to avoid trouble. We're a peace & love company!). The details/results of our case study are as follows...

Provider #1
(a popular website that sells Fans, Followers, YouTube Views and Google +1s)

Amount paid: $59

Delivered: 1,123 Fans total within a week.

Turnaround Time: about 4 days.

Observation: Odd thing we first noticed was that 90% of these newly acquired fans had profile pictures of highly attractive women.  Now, if the fan page was about make up or fashion, perhaps this would have made sense, but in this case the fan page was about Finance/Investment. Nevertheless, we sent a message to about 10 of them to ask them how they found out about our page. No response.

ROI: (1 week after delivery)

• Wall Interactions: 0.
• Web Traffic from Facebook: 0.
• Sales/Leads: 0.

Conclusion: those were 100% dead accounts. Either they were generated using a blackhat profile generator, or they were created by someone whose job is solely to create Facebook accounts all day long for the purpose of mass-liking. Regardless, this was $59 thrown out of the window in this case.

Provider #2
(a highly-ranked website that sells Fans & Followers only)

Amount paid: $79

Delivered: 1,007 Fans total.

Turnaround Time: about 1 week.

Observation: Looking through the accounts, we noticed that a lot of them seemed to be young kids/teens. We also noticed quite a few foreign profiles (India, Pakistan, Philippines, etc...) despite the fact that we requested US-based profiles only. Just like in the previous case, we sent about 10 messages to ask them how they found our page and we got 2 responses: 1 saying "dont know" and the other one saying "click here to learn how to make $50,000 per month". Not very convincing, is it?

ROI: (1 week after delivery)

• Wall Interactions: 3. (all "spammy" posts, none of these posts were relevant to the fan page)
• Web Traffic from Facebook: 5.
• Sales/Leads: 0.

Conclusion: these accounts clearly had no interest in our page or product. These were people that are probably paid by a third party to massively "like" hundreds of pages every day. Not only will such accounts not give you any kind of ROI, but they can actually damage your brand/reputation by posting offensive, self-promotional and/or off-topic content on your wall. Stay away!

As you can see, this was a total waste of money in both cases. Although this was for Facebook Fans, you can imagine that it would be a very similar scenario & outcome if we had purchased Twitter Followers, YouTube views or Google +1s.

You simply cannot buy real fans. Getting a genuine fan or follower is no easy task, but it's definitely worth it. 10 genuine & targeted fans/followers are a gazillion times better than 1,000 fake/dead/untargeted ones. A genuine fan/follower will not only buy from you but will also interact with you, refer you to their peers and share/like/tweet your content. A thorough study conducted last year by Syncapse determined that the average annualized value of an individual fan is $136.3.

Large brands like GAP, Coca Cola, HP, Apple, etc... have spent (and continue to spend) millions of dollars in their Social Media Marketing efforts to strengthen their online presence and acquire large amounts of targeted fans/followers. These budgets have been spent mainly on Advertising, Launching Contests, Offering freebies/giveaways/discounts and engaging fans with quality content daily. If there was an easier (and cheaper) way to do it, don't you think they would be all over it?

Post the latest content from your blog

If you have an active blog or website, you should let your fans know about it. Where you just added a blog post or a new product, your fans would certainly be interested to know about it!

Post Product Pictures

Do you have a high quality picture of one of your products, or a a picture depicting a creative use of one of your products? Post it on your wall! Easy way to generate Likes. You can even ask your fans to post pictures of themselves using one of your products.

Post a picture of your team during a recent event

Fans like to know that they are dealing with humans behind the brand. If you went on a golf trip with co-workers, or simply to a restaurant for someone's birthday, take pics and share them on your wall!

Post a famous quote relevant to your industry

Great way to generate Likes! People love quotes. Find quotes that are relevant to your industry/services and share them on your wall. Simply search "XXXX quotes" on Google (XXXX being your industry) to find some ideas.

Post a question related to your industry

A great way to generat interactions is to post a question! If your industry is Photography, as your fans what kind of camera they prefer (DSLR vs Point & Shoot). Take advantage of Facebook's recently launched Questions feature.

Post a positive Testimonial

Did you recently receive a positive testimonial from one of your clients? Post it on your website and share it on your Facebook Fan Page. This will generate brand awareness and reinforce your brand's public image.

Share Multimedia Content, Not just Text!

You can search on Google Images and YouTube for pictures and videos relevant to your industry. There has been a recent study by eMarketer showing that people are 33% more likely to consume multimedia content than textual content.

Share a recent news article about your industry

Look for interesting news relevant to your industry on the major newspapers and media outlets. You can look at Google News if you're not sure where to start. You can do this on a daily basis if you're in a vibrant industry.

Post a Question of the Day or Week

This is a great way to generate interactions with your fans on a regular basis. Choose a day of the week (Wednesday and Thursday are the days where people are the most active on social networks) and post a question every week on that day.

Ask for LIKES!

Plain and simple. There are many ways you can generate Likes. Examples: Hit Like if you're happy it's Friday, Hit Like if you're in a good mood today, Hit Like if you had a great week-end, Hit Like if you're excited for Halloween, etc...

Ask fans for suggestions/comments about your products

Sure, you might  be afraid to get negative feedback, but negative feedback is actually good! It'll help you improve and it'll show your fans that you aren't afraid to take negative criticism and improve. Making your fans feel like their opinion matters is the first step to social media success!

Answer a FAQ (Frequently Asked Question)

If you often get the same question asked over and over by email or phone, post it on your fan page. Great way to answer a bunch of people all at once! You can even take advantage of the situation by asking your fans to post their own questions.

Post a limited-time fan-only special or discount

Great way to make your fans feel like they're part of an exclusive club! Give them a limited time discount code for one of your products. Take advantage of holidays when you do this. You can even do this during your company's anniversary, CEO's birthday, etc...

Launch a Giveaway for your fans only

If you can afford it, launch a giveaway once in a while for your fans only. The format is up to you, here are a few examples: "the first person to comment on this post will get a free ----.", "the last 3 people to comment on this post will get a free -----" (this last one will make your fans go crazy, try it!)

Post a Trivia/Quizz related to your industry

Everyone loves Trivias. Look up online for interesting Trivia questions relevant to your industry. You can even ask a question related to your company or services. Great way to generate some traffic to your site.

Post about an event you are hosting or participating in

If you are planning to be part of a local, national or global event in the near future, let your fans know. Tell them the exact day, time and location of the event. You can even use Facebook's native Events tab to publicize your event.

Share updates on your future projects

Keep your fans updated on what you're working on. If you are planning to release a new product or service in the future, they should be the first to know! Ask for their feedback before your launch.

Think Holidays!

And not just the major ones. There are holidays observed every single day! Use EarthCalendar to find out what holidays are observed Today throughout the world. Share the ones relevant to your audience, or simply share a funny one that might generate some Likes.

HostGator (Exclusive: Get 25% Off with Coupon Code "IRONHASH2011")

HostGator is a large Texas-based Hosting company. One of our favorite things about HostGator is their cPanel. It is fast, feature-rich and intuitive. They provide quick & efficient support through their Live Chat, 24/7. We had to deal with them a couple times and they were always very helpful, even when the problem wasn't actually on their end. Although we never had a problem with this host, some users have complained about their UpTime, which ruins what could have been a perfect score.

Our grades for HostGator:

Speed: 5/5
Pricing: 5/5
Features: 5/5
UpTime: 4.5/5
Support: 5/5
User Feedback: 4.75/5
Overall: 4.87/5

BONUS: 25% OFF Coupon for HostGator: IRONHASH2011 (valid for a limited time)

HostMonster

HostMonster have been in the business since 1996, which gives them an edge when it comes to features. Also, HostMonster is said by many to provide the best support in the industry. Unlike many hosting companies, they do not do any outsourcing. All their Support Staff is based in Utah.  HostMonster is known to be one of the top hosting companies out there, not just for WordPress. HostMonster also gives you a free domain name when you purchase a hosting plan with them.

Our grades for HostMonster:

Speed: 5/5
Pricing: 5/5
Features: 5/5
UpTime: 5/5
Support: 5/5
User Feedback: 4/5
Overall: 4.83/5

BlueHost

BlueHost is another great hosting option for WordPress. Very similar to HostMonster, they provide an extensive cPanel and good Support.  They provide a fast 1-click WordPress installation. All their Support team are US-based and provide 24/7 support. They also provide a free domain name, just like HostMonster. Although we never tried BlueHost, it seems that many users have complained about the fact that they are very strict in terms of what kind of websites they accept. If you plan on building a WordPress site around a sensitive topic, avoid these guys.

Our grades for BlueHost:

Speed: 5/5
Pricing: 5/5
Features: 5/5
UpTime: 5/5
Support: 5/5
User Feedback: 3.5/5
Overall: 4.75/5

Tip #1: Optimize Your Profile!

Unlike Facebook, Twitter profiles are quite simplistic. You only have 3 things to focus on: your username, your profile photo and your bio. Your username should ideally contain a keyword or two about your industry.  This will help you come up high in relevant search results. If you're a lawyer in Toronto, a username like @TorontoLawyer or @TorontoAttorney would be great to have. However, we understand that most good usernames on Twitter have already been taken, so if you can't find the username you want, just use your full name or anything that your followers might find catchy and easy to remember. Your profile picture should either be a nice photo of you or your company's logo. Lastly, your bio should contain important info about what you do and why your profile is worth following.

Tip #2: Deliver Quality Content!

Quality Content is Retweeted. Poor Content is ignored and could get you unfollowed. We have been stressing for years that Content is the most important element in any form of online marketing. It's not any different on Twitter. Also, many people are making the deadly mistake of being too self-promotional on Twitter. Talking only about your company/products/services will bore your followers and will make you sound like a spammer. If done repeatedly, this will make you lose all your quality followers. Research your niche, find out what your followers like to hear about and post content that they will like. You might also want to participate in hashtag topics (known as Twitter's trending topics) in your industry. Go to Hashtags.org and search for keywords relevant to your industry. You will discover a bunch of trending topics you can participate in. You can also start your own hashtag. If it's interesting and catchy enough, it might go viral and bring you tons of followers!

Tip #3: Find Them, Follow Them.

Don't wait for people to find your profile, follow the people that you want to follow you back. When you follow someone, they get an email notification. If they find your profile interesting, they will follow you back! It's that simple. In the email notification they will see your profile image, username and bio, so you need to make sure you have all those fields filled out and optimized. Use applications like TweetDeck or HootSuite to help you find relevant followers to follow. In HootSuite, you can create a "custom stream", which means a column displaying tweets that fit specific criteria. For instance, if you are a Wedding Photographer in New York, you can create a custom stream that displays every tweet that contains the words: Wedding, Marriage, Newlywed, Bride, Groom, Engaged, Engagement, etc... AND that is located in New York within a 25 miles radius (optionally). This will give you a list of quality profiles you can follow and interact with!

Tip #4: Organize Contests.

There are mainly 2 types of contests that you can organize on Twitter: ReTweet and Hashtag Contests. Both of them can be very successful if done the right way. First, decide on a prize you want to give away. Ideally you should give one of your products away (if possible). If not, what tends to work best is electronic equipment such as iPads, iPods, Cameras or even gift certificates for major online shops such as Amazon or BestBuy. You then need to create a page on your website to describe the contest rules. For a ReTweet contest, you want people to ReTweet a specific phrase while mentioning you. For example: "Hey all! I just joined Johnny's Retweet for Cash Contest. To join, simply follow @yourusername and retweet this message. You could win an iPad2! Details @ http://bit.ly/4GSDFG". Make sure you read the Twitter Guidelines for Contests too.

Tip #5: List Your Profile Everywhere.

This sounds simple yet a lot of people forget to do it. Your profile link should be clearly displayed on your homepage (sitewide!), along with any other social network you're participating in. Also, add a line in your email signatures and business cards encouraging people to follow you. If you are doing any form of offline advertising (TV, radio, banners) make sure you include a link to your Twitter profile. Tell people when you're speaking at seminars or conferences. Also, list your profile in the most popular Twitter directories, such as Twellow, WeFollow, TwitterPacks, Just Tweet It. These directories can also help you find interesting followers to follow.

We conducted a study of a broad range of business blogs and evaluated them in terms of how they establish authority, stay relevant for their client's needs, and the consistency of their posting schedule. Based on the results of the study, here are the Top 10 mistakes that most businesses are making when it comes to blogging...

1 - Poor Content Quality

This is the #1 issue with most business blogs. The whole point of blogging is to deliver useful content that your visitors can share and link to. You miss out on the whole SEO/SMM value of the blog if your content is not worth reading or sharing. Focus on quality, not quantity! Posting 1 quality blog post per week is much better than 5 average ones.

2 - Duplicate Content

This is a widespread disease! To discourage people from doing this, Google recently launched 2 major updates (Panda Update) that severely penalized all websites who plagiarize content. Let's get one thing straight, if you find interesting content on another website that you believe your readers will benefit from, it is OKAY to copy parts of it, as long as you add a link to the source somewhere in the article.

3 - Lack of SMM Capabilities

You could have the highest quality content out there, people are most likely to "Like"/"Tweet" it if you give them an easy way to do it. Look at the left side of this blog post for instance, we display a dynamic sharing bar that makes it easy for our visitors to share our content in 1 click. Can't get any easier! Also, our posts are automatically shared on Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn through the use of some highly efficient WordPress plugins. By having SMM capabilities within your blog, you help your content spread and go viral!

4 - Poor Formatting

A lot of blogs out there are tough to read because of poor formatting and CSS styling. Make your blog content light and easy to read by splitting your content into short paragraphs. Add headers/sub-headers within your blog post. Add images/videos/quotes/colors! Make sure your font is clear and large enough to read. All these factors influence the interest of your readers.

5 - Scarce Blogging

This is quite a popular mistake. Posting once or twice a year simply doesn't cut it. People get excited when they first launch their blog, but the excitement starts to gradually fade out and the blogging frequency starts to drop. Remember, it takes a couple months of blogging to start gaining a loyal audience. Don't give up mid-way!

6 - Blogging too often

The other side of the coin! Blogging too often can make you look like a spammer. Don't flood your visitors/subscribers with content, make them look forward to your next post! We've seen some small businesses blog 4-5 times a day! Now, that kind of blogging frequency is fine if you're a major authority like Mashable, but when you're starting out, keep your posting  at 2-3 times a week at most. If you have a lot to say, get on Twitter!

7 - Poor Headlines/Titles

Titles are the most important part of your blog. That is pretty much the only factor that determines whether people will click to read more or ignore your post. Make your titles short and sweet. Also, write them in a way that visitors will feel like the info they're about to read is unique, up-to-date and cannot be found elsewhere.

8 - Neglecting Blog SEO

Blogging is a tremendous benefit to your overall SEO initiative. To get the full value from it, you should make sure your posts have: a descriptive, keyword-rich title, a permalink (also known as keyword-rich URL), section headers that are descriptive and utilize keywords specific to each section,  “anchor” text should contains keywords relevant to what’s being linked to. Most importantly, your blog should be self-hosted, so avoid using hosted platforms such as Blogger or Blogspot.

9 - Self-Promotional Blogging

When you blog, you should focus on providing useful content to your visitors first, promoting your own services/products should come second. It is okay to add a link to your products and invite people to try out your latest service, but you must do it in a way that feels genuine to the reader. Talking about your products in every blog post is a good way to lose all your audience.

10 - Covering too many topics

If you want to establish yourself as an authority in your industry, make you sure you're blogging exclusively about that industry. It is okay to occasionally blog about an external news item or major event that is taking place in your city, but keep 90%+ of your posts on-topic and make sure you're delivering useful info to your readers every time.

Involver

Involver has developed a series of applications that integrate robust and powerful audience engagement tools to your Fan Page. Involver offers a huge range of options for continuous 2-way communication that can engage and multiply your fanbase. If you're planning on running viral contests, giveaways, quizzes or anything like that, you should definitely check them out.

Wildfire

Similar to Involver, Wildfire provides series of applications for professionals & agencies. With Wildfire you can easily design & launch Facebook marketing campaigns within minutes. Campaign formats include quizzes, contests, coupons, virtual gifts and more. Prices are affordable and you pay based on your campaign size.

FanAppz

A cheaper alternative to the above two, FanAppz provides a bunch of applications to help you run Quizzes, Polls, Giveaways, Sweepstakes and more. FanAppz is probably one of the first companies to start developing applications for fan pages, so you can rest assured that their applications are robust.

North Social

Based in Oakland, this company provides an Affordable yet rich set of applications for your fan page. They offer 5 affordable plans, ranging from Starter to Enterprise.  The Enterprise plan is ideal for agencies looking for a whitelabeling option. The good thing about their plans is that they give you access to all their apps.