TipsTree dot com

Here’s Friday’s top Wordpress tips from you guys:

• ” Hehe. I’ve been using Wordpress for over one year now and I am constantly amazed how effective this CMS is. A few tips I can share :

  1. Make your own set of “must-have” plugins. When you want to implement a feature, instead of installing the first plugin you’ve found, try all of them and select the best one. Or, you can use my selection :
  Spam Karma 2 for anti-spam protection
  Google Analyticator for stats
  Google Sitemap Generator for sitemaps
  SEO Title Tags + Add Meta Keywords for SEO
  Related Posts + Random Posts + Latest Comments for internal linking
  Feedburner Feedsmith + Get Recent Comments for regular visitors
  CformsII for best contact forms

  2. Don’t use live statistics plugins (such as Firestats) because it might result in CPU exceeded errors.

  3. Try applying minor edits to your templates, you will learn a bit of PHP/HTML and will be able to customize your theme (if you’re using a free one).

  Hope it helps ” - Cigar Reviews

• “When first installing a blog, one of the first things that you should do is set up permalinks. To set up permalinks, 1. go to your administration panel > options > permalinks 2. select custom permalinks 3. use this code - /%postname%/ This will make the url for your posts look like this: www.yoursite.com/your-post-title. I will do a post on my blog with a more detailed description.” - FredPeters

• “Aswell as offering an RSS feed consider giving your readers the option of subscribing to your posts by email. TipsTree uses Feedburner but I think a more popular alternative is FeedBlitz.” - Andy“

• “To send first time commenters an automatic e-mail to say thanks This plugin will do it for you. ” - Matt

Thank you very much to Cigar Reviews, FredPeters for contributing to TipsTree dot com

Next Tuesday we want your best tips for Working out and using Equipment. As usual the best tips will be posted here Tuesday evening. Over and out.

Bonjour, how is everyone? Today I have some great iPhone tips for you, so listen up:

• “Instead of tapping on the “.?123″ button to switch over to the numbers and symbols, just tap and hold the “?.123″ button and the screen will change to the special characters screen. Slide your finger over the character you want and then let go. The character will be inserted into the text and the screen will switch right back to the letters.” - Budz
• “If you’re looking for iphone wallpapers then head over to www.thememyphone.com for tons of images made for the iphone.” - Budz
• “I hope most people know this by now but if you were an early adopter and bought an iphone at launch, Apple are giving you $100 coupon (for free!) to be redeemed at an Apple store.” - Beetle_juice
• “http://mashable.com/2007/08/03/iphone-toolbox/ is a giant toolbox stuffed full of useful sites to get the most out of your iphone, applications, blogs, podcasts, hacks…” - Andy

Thank you very much to Budz, Beetle_juice for contributing to TipsTree dot com 

Your next assignment is to write me some great Wordpress tips. To all blog owners out there give me your top tips and I’ll post the best on the home page on Friday night at the usual time.

Aloha everyone, it’s that time again where I pick the best tips and feature them on the TipsTree homepage. In my previous post I asked for your money saving tips and as usual we have some very insightful contributions:

• “Here’s an idea, sell your unwanted items on eBay. Just last week I sold some games I hardly (never) play and I got over £50. Depending on what you sell you could make quite, and as the old saying goes, one mans trash is another mans treasure.” - Andy
• “Shop around! Things like insurance, gas and electricity are expensive so why not shop around for a cheaper alternative. Thanks to the wonders of the internet a website will do all the hard work for you, a good site to use is money supermarket.” - Andy
• “I like to keep track of all my spendings for a month and cut out anything I don’t really need. This allows me to have extra money for the next month and finally buy my new car. Hey if it works for businesses why can’t it work for people too? ” - Daguru
• “I’m guessing a lot of you already do this but buying goods online is almost always cheaper, often a LOT cheaper. eBay is your friend. As long as you know what you’re doing and don’t go overboard with the bidding (I have been guilty of this in the heat of a bidding war!) You can get a great deal on some items.” - KK
• “If you really want to save money then you need to read Martin Lewis’ website (www.moneysavingexpert.com). He is the expert on saving money for just about anything, I really recommend subscribing to his newsletter as over a million people do so!” - Harrier

Nice one guys, a big thanks to everyone who contributed to TipsTree dot com

I’m going to echo Harriers tip of using Martin Lewis’ website, he has some great advice so definitely check it out.

The next topic I’ve decided to feature is the iPhone. Submit your tips, tricks tweaks and hacks with us and I’ll post the best here on the homepage on Tuesday at 7:00pm (GMT).

You want some good tips for the Wii? You got it. Read on to find 5 useful tidbits straight from the TipsTree:

• “While the Wii is powered down you can press any button on your Wiimote and lights will flash. They indicate the amount of charge left in the battery, 1 being the least and 4 being the most charge. ” - Andy
• “I leave my Wii switched on at all times in standby mode when I’m not using it (obviously), then new content is automatically download on my wii and I have a nice surprise when I go to play on it again ” - Gjg
• “If you hold A and B down you can move the windows on the main menu around.” - Goggle
• “If you go to the Channel section in your menu you can choose to save VC games on an SD card. Not sure if you can put them on other peoples wiis but I’d like to try it out ” - Mattip
• “If you register your Wii console on Nintendo.com you’ll get a free 90 day extension to your warranty. My launch day console hasn’t had a single problem and I don’t know anyone who has but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.” - Bazooka

Hope you found something useful, a big thanks to Andy, Gjg, Goggle, Mattip and Bazooka for contributing to TipsTree dot com

This Friday I’ll be highlighting the topic of Saving Money. Being as I’m off to university in under two weeks I’m going to need all the money saving advice I can get Get submitting tips and I’ll pick the most useful and include them on the home page at around 7:00pm (GMT).

We’ve had some really good tips submitted on the topic of Windows Vista, here are my top 5 picks:

• “When performing a search with Vista’s instant search feature, you can save the search in a special folder. This feature allows you to create a virtual folder which, by default, is saved in your \\Searches\ folder. Every time you open such a folder, the search results are updated.” - Beetle_juice
• “You can add additional clocks to the system tray. Click the clock, and then click Date and Time Settings. Click the Additional Clocks tab, you can add one or two additional clocks to the tray and select their time zones.” - Beetle_juice
• “Windows Vista desktop is far more customizable than in previous versions. You can view the desktop icons in three different styles now, including Extra Large Icons, which is particularly handy if you have a hi-res display.” - Foster
• “Some Windows Vista keyboard shortcuts:+ G = cycles through the Gadgets
  + L = locks the computer
  + U = activates the Ease Of Use Center
  + X = cycles through the Mobility Center
  + Spacebar = moves the focus to the Sidebar
  + Pause = opens the System Properties portion of Control Panel)
  CTRL + + Tab = opens persistent Flip 3D” - Beetle_juice
• “It is possible to insert a USB flash drive or a flash memory card to serve as an additional memory cache. This feature is called ‘Readyboost’.You can get a 1gb+ flash drive pretty cheap these days, so it’s a low cost and easy way to improve the performance of your pc without having to go under the hood.” - Mr.T

I’d like to thank Beetle_juice, Foster, Mr.T and everyone who contributing to TipsTree dot com.  I’m going to try that tip from Mr.T later tomorrow, see if I can notice any boost in performance.

For Tuesday I’m going to ask for your top Wii tips. My Wii has been sitting idle now for a few weeks just gathering dust, I need you guys to breathe a bit of life into it. Please share your interesting tips and tricks by visiting the Nintendo Wii page and do your thing. At 7:oopm (GMT) I’ll pick the best and write up a post. Enjoy your weekend.   

It’s Tuesday and that means another post on Tips Tree dot com. Again I’ve enjoyed reading all your thoughts and comments, the top 5 time management tips are as follows:

• “This may sound silly but sometimes I will set my clock forward by 5-10 minutes so I arrive places earlier and make sure I’m on time “ - Daguru
• “I’d suggest to use your spare time wisely. When your on the train/bus get some reading done or call whoever you need to call, basically make the most of the situation your in.” - Joel
• “Instead of having little bits and pieces of info scattered everywhere, use sites like del.icio.us or pageflakes to keep everything organised in one place. Keeping everything central makes things a lot easier to manage/search/organise things.” - Peanuts 
• “The best piece of advice, based on personal experience is start work as early as possible. It is not wise to leave things to the last minute. To all students here, when you’re given a large timeframe to write an essay, don’t leave it to the last few days, get to work on it asap, you will thank me.” - Joel
• “You gotta find your weakness, find where you waste your time and then counter it. We all waste time in one way or another, I spend way too much time playing computer games, maybe you spend too much time surfin the net or texting. If you can replace a certain percentage of this time on something else then you’ll have managed your time better. Hope that helps ya ” - christmastree

Thank you very much to Daguru, Joel, Peanuts and Christmastree for contributing to TipsTree dot com 

You can read the rest of the entries on the Time Management page. The next highlighted topic will be Windows Vista, go to the Windows Vista Tips page to submit your tips. I actually have Vista on my new laptop and I’m pretty happy with it. Wether you love it or hate it I want to hear your tips. On Friday 7:00pm (GMT) I’ll pick my favourite tips and post them on the home page.  

Last Tuesday I asked for your energy saving tips and you’ve come through for me with a wealth of fascinating tips. I was amazed at the many little things that is possible for us to do to lower our energy consumption. Take note of the tips below and give them a try if you can:

• “It’s a good idea to actually turn the plugs off behind electrical appliances when not used i.e a television when you go to bed, not just the button at the front. This will stop the electricity usage full stop and you will save more money in the long run and also save the planet ” - Mattman
• “It’s a smart idea in the early spring/summer to gradually increase your thermostat. I make it a degree hotter every other week starting in March/April (depending upon the weather). By the time it’s really hot out, I feel comfortable with the house at 78* where as before I always kept it at 72*Got some big savings from this! I also do the reverse come the winter!” - Steven Kaminski
• “Dry clothes naturally instead of using a tumble dryer and apparently you save about 280 kg CO2 per year. When boiling water boil just enough for your drink and to save around 25 kg CO2 per year. Turn off or fix dripping taps and save about 20 kg CO2 per year.” - Dad
• “The most efficient speed varies between car to car but is typically around 55 - 65mph (88 - 105kmh). Faster speed will greatly increase your fuel consumption. Also, check your tyre pressure, under-inflated tyres are not only dangerous but increase fuel consumption aswell.” - Georgie_b0y
• “One of the most effective ways to save energy is to switch to a green supplier, you could save about one and a half tonnes of C02 a year, that amounts to a lot after a few years. Do a quick online search and see what you can get. ” - LLL 

Thank you very much to Mattman, Steven Kaminski, Dad and Georgie_b0y for contributing to TipsTree dot com 

Now I’m not very good at keeping time, I get distracted very easy and am forever late to the places I need to be. Can you help me? Head over to the Time Management section and submit your tips, I’ll pick the best and post them on the TipsTree home page on Tuesday night (7:oopm GMT). Don’t be late!

We had some great tips submitted on the topic of StumbleUpon, here are the top 5 tips:

• “When tagging a site use tags that are more broad and less specific, these are more likely to be searched or stumbled. For example, “architecture”, “money”, “design”…” - Doodlebug
• “Use eye catching headlines so that stumblers will be curious enough to click on. This is true for other aspects of promotion of your site, digg, del.icio.us and so and so forth.” - Spitfire
• “Sites such as www.stumblexchange.com allow you to exchange stumbles and reviews with other members to improve your traffic. Be warned though I’m not sure how Stumbleupon feels about it.” - SUV
• “Problogger has written an interesting post to do with running a successful stumbleupon advertising campaign, he discusses some of the things you should and shouldn’t do, check it out here” - Andy
• “In my opinion what determines the sucess of stumble upon is the amount of people you have in your network. By adding friends you will increase the amount of users who will see your newly added webpages, making them more likely to give your site the thumbs up.” - Skipz

Thank you very much to Doodlebug, Spitfire, SUV and Skipz for contributing to TipsTree dot com 

You can go to the StumbleUpon page to read more on the topic. Also, my StumbleUpon profile is here if you’d like to add me as a friend.

There is an ever increasing pressure for us to be more responsible for our effect on the enviroment, therefore the next topic to be featured on the home page will be the subject of Saving Energy. Usually I update the site every Tuesday and Friday but this Friday I’ll be unable to get to a computer so I’ll write the top Energy Saving Tips on Saturday at 7:00pm (GMT).

On Tuesday I asked for your Poker tips and without further ado here are some top poker tips:

• “Playing more hands doesn’t mean winning more, it usually means losing more, the moral of the story is don’t play every hand. What you don’t see when you’re watching the pros on tv is that they fold way more than they play hands.” - TheJoker
• “This tip doesn’t really have anything to do with playing better but whatever. I can’t stand it when people don’t pay attention when playing online and it takes an age just for them to respond. If you’re not paying attention to the game then gtfo ” - yoyo
• “If you’re unsure of the poker hand ranks (you really should know it though!) here are the ranks from high to low.” - Spitfire
• “When playing poker at the table consider wearing sunglasses, they prevent other players from reading your eyes. Also they look cool ” - Spitfire

A big thanks to TheJoker, yoyo and Spitfire for contributing to TipsTree dot com 

I’ve been using StumbleUpon for a few weeks now and I love it. Whenever I’m bored I just hit stumble and I’ll eventually find something of interest so I’d recommend you get the toolbar if you haven’t already done so. For next Tuesday I’m going to ask you lovely people for tips on StumbleUpon, I’m expecting a lot of great tips so don’t let me down. At 7:00pm (GMT) I’ll pick my favourite tips and post them on the main page. Enjoy your weekend.     

So you’ve been out drinking the night away and you’ve had one (or ten) too many, your going to suffer the consequences tomorow. But don’t fear, here at TipsTree dot com we have some great tips to help prevent a hangover. Check out these tips, cheers!!:

• “Because alcohol dehydrates your body, I drink as much water as I can BEORE I go out. I’ve noticed I feel a lot better in the morning than if I don’t drink enough water beforehand.” - iGotSoul
• “I’ll let you in on a secret, this is the sure fire 100% fool proof way of preventing a hangover. Ok here it is, don’t drink! I guarantee you it will work. ” - Jayne
• “Preperation is key. Eating a full meal beforehand will slow down the absorbtion of alcohol, fatty foods in particular sticks to the stomach lining to slow down the absorbtion.” - Chris
• “This taken from howstuffworks. Eating bananas in the morning recovers lost electrolytes aswell as replenishing the potassium lost to alcohol. Other potassium-rich foods such as kiwi fruit or sports drinks work just as well.” - Chris

A big thanks to iGotSoul, Jayne and Chris for contributing to TipsTree dot com 

The next topic to be featured on the home page will be Poker. We have three different Poker topics; Omaha Hi, Seven Card Stud and Texas Hold’em. I look forward to reading your tips, you have until Friday at 6:00pm (GMT) I’ll pick the best and post them on the home page. Cyaz.