Today, Code Poet features free eBooks from WordPress professionals, interviews with WordPress professionals, useful resources from the WordPress community, and a handy quiz to test your WordPress knowledge. As you can imagine, Code Poet is gearing up to be a massive resource build by WordPress professionals for WordPress professionals and aspiring power users.

If you’re still looking to hire someone, the Code Poet Directory still exists, and aspiring Code Poets can still apply to be part of the prestigious directory.

Head over to the new Code Poet, grab a free eBook for the road, and take the quiz right away. How did you do on the quiz, and what do you think of the newly relaunched Code Poet?

Our first focus was around improving the discussion and support around plugins.

You’ll now notice that threads about a plugin are pulled directly into a “support” tab on the plugin page — each plugin has its own forum. We’ve made authors much more prominent and with bigger Gravatars and better placement, so you can get a sense of who made the plugin you’re using. And finally to show how active and well-supported a plugin is, you can see  ”16 of 75 support threads in the last two weeks have been resolved.” Finally, if you’re logged in you get access to the new “favorites” feature that lets you mark the plugins you use the most so you can share them on your profile page and find them quickly later. We soft-launched favorites a few days ago and there have already been 2,000 saved!

If you’re a plugin author, we’ve started with a short threshold (2 weeks) for the resolved stats so it’s easy to catch up and stay on top of it. (It’ll eventually go to two months.) You also now have the ability to set stickies on your plugin forum to put FAQs or important information at the top, and of course any person you put as a committer on the plugin will have moderation access. People on the forum tag will see your custom header and links to the other resources attached to your plugin.

We’ve tightened up the styling a bit on the forums and plugin pages, though still some cleanups to do there. Some older improvements you might have missed, but are still useful for users and developers alike:

• “Plugin headers” or those cool graphics you see at the top of plugin pages have really taken off, there are over 1,600 active now.
• You can now subscribe to get an email whenever a commit is made to a plugin repository even if it isn’t yours. There is no better way to follow the development of your favorite plugins. There’s nothing like the smell of fresh changesets in the morning.
• Behind the scenes, we’ve dramatically ramped up proactive scanning of the entire repository to help authors fix security and other problems they might not even know about yet. The quality level of the repo has gone way, way up.

All of this will continue to evolve as we get feedback and see usage, but we’re happy to have been able to make some key improvements in just a few days while hanging out in Memphis. (This is why WordCamps usually have BBQ — it imparts magical coding powers.)

Art Blogazine is a simple and minimalist theme with HTML5 markup.

Outline is a beautiful, simple, elegant, monochrome theme for blogs or websites with a simple floral motif in the header.

Phire is a modern and easily customizable dark theme.

WPstart is a simple parent theme allowing you to create any type of website you want.

A lot of beginner bloggers do a heavy about of sinning when they first start out…

I’m not saying they’re bad people, it’s just that they are committing nearly all of the deadly sins that bloggers need to look out for.

“But wait, aren’t there 7 deadly sins?”

In the religious context, yes, but as a blogger, there are really only 5 sins you need to worry about…

1.) Gluttony

“What does gluttony have to do with blogging?”

Simply put: when you “consume” too much and don’t create some kind of output, you are being gluttonous.

For bloggers, this comes in the form of information rather than things like food.

The over-consumption of information is dangerous, it leads to someone who is always out on the prowl for the newest trick or tactic, but who has never put them into practice.

This is especially important if you read a lot of “blogging about blogging” blogs (hey, I’m just being brutally honest, as usual).

It’s not that they don’t provide value, it’s that they can get you captivated in the “ooh shiny” mentality, getting caught up in the so called ‘latest and greatest’ when you should be busy implementing a solid foundation of techniques that work, including things like creating great content and writing guest posts to promote that content.

2.) Greed

A lot of bloggers are susceptible to this sin, hell, even established bloggers are suspect.

So, what is it about greed that can really hold a blogger back?

First of all, greed often has people putting up invasive advertisements & promoting crappy products, all the while not maintaining a focus on building a thriving audience.

Your readers are not commodities, they can be loyal customers if you treat them well, and brand advocates if you treat them very well.

They are also people, would you want to be treated in misleading ways on another person’s website?

Of course not, so don’t promote filth with an affiliate link just to make a quick buck, and don’t throw up advertisements on your second week blogging: build an audience, build an email list, and treat people with the courtesy that they deserve, there’s much more to blogging than making a quick buck.

3.) Pride

This sin is a surefire way to failure.

“My content is so good, I don’t have to promote it, the quality will do the talking!”

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but here’s two things why that won’t work:

1. You are probably overrating how good your content is (it’s your “baby”, you’re bound to see it differently)
2. There is a ton of great content on the web now, businesses often have content strategists that work on just their blog (like I with my posts on the HelpScout blog)

The overall point: It’s a competitive market; scratch that, a hyper competitive market, in almost every niche!

There are people who are paid to do what you are trying to succeed with, how can you hope to compete?

Great content is now the price of entry, NOT the defining factor for a successful blog.

So, how can you market your content without being a sleazebag?

You’re reading a method right now: write for other blogs in your space, that one should be obvious to you if you aren’t totally new.

You also need to be creating content that’s easy to plug into conversations.

You needn’t be afraid of emailing people about a new piece of yours if it relates to them in some general way, such as if they are in the same industry.

Want to know how I got Neil Patel, a guy with 100,000+ follows, to tweet about my article?

I asked him!

Crazy, ain’t it?

I told him that I had this planned as a guest post for his site, but thought it went with my brand better.

I also (via email, the best social network) asked if he wouldn’t mind sharing the piece if he enjoyed it.

He tweeted it within the hour, he’s a nice dude!

You shouldn’t be badgering the same people every time to you post something new, but reaching out to new folks from time to time will do amazing things for your blog’s promotion, trust me.

4.) Sloth

Oh man, this one can get a lot of people.

I’ve had people email me about their struggles with their blog, and when I got to visit it, they haven’t posted in 2 months!

That’s an extreme example, and sometimes it’s more insidious: people who are posting regularly, but doing nothing to market their content.

Sometimes, it might even be necessary to have a “1:1″ ratio for posts, or an “80:20″ ratio for marketing vs. posting.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I’m saying that posting 1 guest post for every post on your blog can be the ideal way to actually build an audience.

I’m also saying that, in some cases, spending upwards of 50, 60, 70, or even 80% of your time marketing your posts can be the way to go.

As a new blog, you should be focusing on creating a unique angle and outstanding content: don’t worry about posting once a day, that’s a load of bull.

Instead, create posts that are worthy of promotion, and spend the next week promoting the hell out of them (and your blog in general) with guest posts, emails, networking, etc.

Sounds goofy, but people far more experienced than me will tell you the same thing.

People like to think great content promotes itself, and that’s true, but in such a crowded place as the internet, who’s going to get the ball rolling?

The answer: you.

5. Envy/Lust/Wrath

I’ve combined the last 3 sings because they all relate to one thing (in my eyes)…

Caring too much about what other’s are doing.

It’s easy to get envious of others reach & audience, lustful of their income, and even angry that you cannot seem to do the same.

But such is business, and such is life.

Everybody has to start from square one in some fashion or another, and worrying about others does nothing for your own projects.

It’s okay to “observe” others; learning from people who’s advice you actually trust is a great way to skip having the same failures as them.

Be wary though: in the world of online marketing, there are some seriously shady characters.

What to be weary of: “Quick” fixes to anything, bizopps that target people who are total beginners in business, software that promises the world, people selling shady SEO techniques, anything that makes a process you know to be a lot of work (like building a successful blog) look easy; if it looks too good to be true, it’s a scam.

Over To You

Do you commit any blogging sins?

How do you plan on “repenting” and getting back to business?

Thanks for reading, I’d love to see you down in the comments!

Gregory Ciotti is the founder of Sparring Mind and a regular columnist for DailyBlogTips. Download his free ‘Conversion Psychology’ e-Book today to learn the science behind increasing conversions.

Monster Widget provides a quick and easy method of adding all core widgets to a sidebar for testing purposes.

Updated plugins

Bad Behavior complements other link spam solutions by acting as a gatekeeper, preventing spammers from ever delivering their junk, and in many cases, from ever reading your site in the first place.

Yepty is yet another pay per click advertising plugin.

Instead of the traditional meet up, which is typically attended by only the core developers and their chosen guests, the core team is now looking for your nominations to decide who will attend the first ever WordPress Community Summit. The Summit will allow the core developers to get to work with the best and brightest of the WordPress community (support forum volunteers, the Theme Review Team, volunteer documentation editors, community organizers, theme shops, etc.), and who knows what amazing things they’ll come up with when they put their heads together!

If you have any favorite community members or companies, even that lone support forum volunteer who rescued your blog, make sure that you leave a nomination for them right away. Sure, you can nominate yourself too, but do be a good sport and nominate at least one other person or company.

First of all keep in mind I don’t support or see as a positive thing the massacres that happened in Central and South America when Spain, Portugal and other European nations started colonizing the continent. Quite the opposite. That being said we can still learn from their strategic and military choices, and that is what this post is about.

Hernán Cortés was the Spanish general who was responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire and sub-sequent colonization of the Americas by Spain. His military technology was far superior, but the Aztec outnumbered his men, and they were fighting for their lives (i.e., as motivated as you can get…).

In other words, he needed something to motivate his men to fight eagerly as well, else there was a chance they would be defeated.

That is why when he arrived at the shores he gave orders to burn and sink all the ships that brought his men. He wanted to make it clear that retreating was not an option. If the Aztecs were fighting for their lives, well, so were the Spanish men now. And as you might remember from history classes, it worked.

Bottom line: sometimes you need to burn the ships and the bridges behind you to make sure you’ll give all you’ve got.

Here are some examples of how this might apply to startups and websites, even if at a smaller scale:

• Renew your domain for 10 years, so you tell yourself that this is for the long run.
• Invest $1000 on a design for your website, so you tell yourself that if you stop working on it you’ll lose that money.
• Once your online business starts making some decent money consider quitting your day job, so you tell yourself that now your websites need to pay your bills.

What about you, are you willing to burn the bridges?

Core code isn’t the only way to contribute to the WordPress project. We have an active theme review team, support forum volunteers, people writing documentation, plugin managers, community event organizers, translators, and more. The teams have been siloed for too long, so we’ve recently begun the process of bringing them together by having teams elect representatives to facilitate more communication between the contributor groups. These reps will form the nucleus of the contributor summit now being planned for a long weekend at the end of October in Tybee Island, GA. This is completely different from a WordCamp. It will be a combination of co-working, unconference, and discussions among the project leaders, and participation will be by invitation.

In addition to bringing together the active contributor team reps to work together, I think it’s important to include community members who don’t fall into that category (at least not yet!). Successful WordPress-based business, authors of popular plugins and themes, and people using WordPress in unexpected but intriguing ways should have a place at the table, too. That said, part of the magic of the core team meetup is the small size; it allows every voice not only to be heard, but to engage. Since this is my first attempt at bringing together so many groups and points of view, I want to try and keep it small enough to retain that personal atmosphere while at the same time ensuring that the best possible mix of people and businesses in the WordPress ecosystem is represented. This is where you come in!

Taking a cue from events with limited availability like AdaCamp (attendance) and the jQuery conference (speaker roster), I want you to nominate people and/or WordPress-based businesses to participate in the summit. Yes, you can nominate yourself.* You can nominate up to 10 additional people — be prepared to provide URLs and the reason you think they should participate. You can also nominate up to 10 WordPress-based businesses without naming individual people, so if there’s a theme or hosting company (for example) that you think should be there, you don’t need to go looking for employee names. This nomination process will hopefully ensure that we don’t overlook someone who is making a difference in our community when it comes time to issue invitations.

Nominations will be open for a week, after which the survey will be closed and the process of analyzing the results** will begin. The nominations process will lead to invitations in June, confirmations in July, planning in August and September, and the summit itself in October. Hopefully we can stream and/or record some of the activity to share online at WordPress.tv. Additional invitations may be extended up until the event if there are people/businesses that become more active in the community. If you’re thinking to yourself that maybe now’s the perfect time to start contributing time to the WordPress project, good thinking! In the meantime, if you want to weigh in, fill in the community summit nomination form. Thanks, and wish us luck!

* Nominating yourself: Do nominate yourself if you fall into one of the categories described in the post above, or if you believe that you have a unique point of view. Please do not nominate yourself if you just think it would be cool to hang out with this group. This is a working event, and everyone is expected to bring something special to the table.

** I (and/or a helpful community volunteer) will sift through the nominations and compile a shortlist of the most-nominated people/businesses and the most intriguing underdogs. This list will be reviewed by the summit planning committee (made up of team reps) to create the invitation list.

Flourish is a lovely, simple, pastel theme with subtle decorative flourishes in the background and accents and features a vibrant, colorful image of needlework in the header.

Galaxy is a professional theme for corporate business websites and blogs.

If you still haven’t seen the piece on The Verge where they slam some Internet marketing gurus pretty hard, well, grab some popcorn and visit the link below, cause you are in for a treat (whether you agree with the opinions of the article or not).

The post is titled Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monster, and it runs for thousands of words with a very comprehensive view on the matter.

Just to give you an idea on how they didn’t hold any punches: there are pictures and videos of some pretty famous Internet marketers (e.g., Frank Kern and Mike Filsaime) all over the article, with explanations of how they “scam” people out of their money. Here’s a quote:

When you first discover Internet Marketing, whether online or at an event like this, it’s tempting to overthink things. Internet Marketers like to make their industry appear complicated to the point of obfuscation. In reality, things are pretty simple.

“The product is really irrelevant,” Frank Kern tells an audience of Internet Marketers on one of his many videos floating around the web. “Now, that’s not to say that you can’t, or don’t need to, or should not make an absolutely kick-ass product. That is not what I am trying to tell you at all. But we should never put the cart before the horse.”

Later in the same video, he explains that “the market” (what people are willing to buy) is the most important factor when developing an information product, and not whether you’re actually qualified to teach someone about a subject.

If anything, Internet Marketing is a form of “pure marketing” that exists often without the complication of an actual product. Rather than develop something useful, Internet Marketers create something out of thin air: likely a worthless e-book, or some sort of coaching session that consists of a semi-regular phone consultation.

There’s even a graph showing who is connected to whom, like they do with the Mafia and other criminal organizations…

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with everything that is on the article, but I find it pretty interesting that mainstream tech publications are starting to take an interest on the Internet marketing world, and if they are shady stuff out there I think it’s positive to see it exposed.

Check it out and take your own conclusions though.