I wanted a simple quick contact form for my WordPress blog Twitter Goals. I wanted people to be able to suggest goal ideas.
I looked at some of the contact forms out there and was suprised that the one I used to use, cformsII was not available from the WordPress Plugin library. I do suggest cformsII if you want to do something complex.
Today I want simple and here is how I did it.
Steps for Creating form with Contact Form 7
From your WordPress Dashboard:
Click -> Plugins
Click -> Add New
Enter “Contact Form 7″ into the Search field.
Click -> Search Plugins
Click -> Install
Click -> Install Now
Click -> Activate Plugin
Click -> Settings
Excellent, we are in! It will look like this:
I’m leaving the title alone but if you click on the Header you can change it.
You can use the contact form just like this, all you have to do is paste the code where you want it.
Paste this code for form: [contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"]
I’m going to put it into a Page so I’m going to:
Click -> Pages
Click -> Add New
I’m putting “Suggest Goal” in the Header.
Then paste [contact-form 1 "Contact form 1"] into the body.
Click -> Publish
Click -> Preview Changes
Presto, you now have a contact form!
Now is a good time to test it. Fill out your form and send it to yourself and make sure you get the email.
I’m going to modify mine. I’m changing the email, hiding the subject and will change the wording on the message area.
Right now the email code is [email* your-email] but I don’t need peoples email so I am changing this
[email* your-email] to [email* myemailaddress@domain.xyz]
I deleted
<p>Your Email (required)<br />
<p>Subject<br />
I put the subject code under my request for their Twitter Username.
[text your-subject]
I just tested my form and it works great for me. I wanted simple and quick so it is not pretty when the email comes. The subject is their Twitter Username and there is nothing in the “From”. This might make a spam filter catch it so be sure to check your settings if you do not get the email.
CAPTCHA is available via an additional plugin but I will not bother with it until the need for it arises.
That is what I wanted a quick short and simple form for my new WordPress blog.
My form is at Suggest Twitter Goal.
Have a good day!
For the blog I am currently creating, I have a custom graphic that I will use at the header of the blog.
I am creating this blog with WordPress and am using the Thesis Theme.
These steps involve the Thesis Theme.
There is a plugin at goes with the Thesis Theme that allows you to hook into all areas of a blog layout.
I’m going to use a hook to add a custom header graphic for my blog.
Click -> Plugins
Click-> Add New
Enter “Thesis OpenHook” into the plugin search field.
Click -> Search Plugins
Click -> Install
Click -> Install Now
Click -> Activate Plugin
Click -> Appearance
Click -> Thesis Options
We will want to turn these “off” so the site name and tagline are not shown in the header.
Click -> Big Ass Save Button
Time to up load the graphic.
Click -> Media
Click -> Add New
Click -> Select Files
Browse to your graphic
Click -> Open
Now your graphic is in the WordPress folder on your server.
Copy the “File URL”
Click -> Update Media
Click -> Appearance
Click -> Thesis OpenHook
Navigate to or use the “Select a hook” and go to Header which is under Header hooks.
Paste in the URL of your graphic.
Make it into HTML add <img src=” before the url then “> after it.
ie: <img src=”http://myblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/header_graphic.jpg”>
Make it clickable and link it to your home page:
<a href=”myblog.com”><img src=”http://myblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/header_graphic.jpg”></a>
Click -> Little Ass Save Button
Visit your blog now, it looks purdy.
One of the first things you will want to do is change some of the WordPress Settings.
From your WordPress Dashboard:
Click -> Settings
You can always change the Title of your blog here.
If you plan on showing the Tagline, either under the Title or in the Title Tag, then here is where you change it.
You can also change the date and time format here. Make the changes you want.
Click -> Save Changes
Click -> Writing
I like to change the size of the post box from 10 to 20 lines.
Click -> Save Changes
Click -> Permalinks
Most people like to change from the Default Permalink Settings. Using the Name in the post is better for SEO (search engine optimization). I’m using the Default because this blog is for Twitter and I want the URL to be under 20 characters so Twitter will not truncate it.
The other Settings you might want to change are under “Discussion.” For this new blog that I am creating, I will not be using comments so I’ve turned them off.
These are the main changes I make to the Settings for new WordPress blogs. 
WordPress comes with two themes currently. However there are lots of “themes” that you can add to WordPress. There are lots of free themes as well.
However, I choose to work with a theme that is maintained and upgraded as WordPress gets better.
I’ve been using the Thesis Theme for WordPress for over a year now. I have helped others create dozens of blogs with it and I am still enthralled. I’ve gotten lots of help in the support group and usually what I want to do has already been asked and I don’t even have to post to get my answers.
Nuff soapbox salesmanship bs.
I use Thesis Theme for WordPress so this part of creating a new WordPress blog will be about that.
The goal for this post is to install the Thesis Theme to your WordPressTheme folder. There are many ways to do this depending on your hosting company and the tools you use for FTP.
I use DreamWeaver for my FTP client.
Once I have created a new WordPress blog on my Media Temple hosting account I open DreamWeaver.
(I use Media Temple to Host my WordPress blogs – See Steps to Make WordPress Blog)
I connect to my Media Temple account then I go to “Remote View.”
Here, under my Media Temple domains, I can find and choose my new WordPress blog that I have just set up.
Open wp-content, click on Themes and download to your local drive.
Go to “Local View” drag and drop the Thesis folder into the Themes folder the upload the folder.
Once you have the Thesis Theme for WordPress uploaded return to your new WordPress blog’s Dashboard.
Click -> Appearance
Click -> Activate on the Thesis Theme
Fantastic, your new WordPress theme is now activated.
I like to make my new WordPress blogs secure.
In addition to removing the admin Username (last post) I add two plugins.
I use Secure WordPress and WP Security Scan.
From your WordPress Dashboard:
Click -> Plugins
Click -> Add New
Enter “Secure WordPress” to the search box.
Click -> Search Plugins
Click -> Install
Click -> Install Now
Click -> Activate Plugin
Click -> Settings
I like to click the boxes on:
Error-Messages –
deactivates tooltip and error message at login of WordPress
Really Simple Discover –
Remove Really Simple Discovery link in wp_head of the frontend
Windows Live Writer –
Remove Windows Live Writer link in wp_head of the frontend
Click -> Save Changes
Excellent, Secure WordPress is now set up.
Next, let’s install WP Security Scan.
Click -> Plugins
Click -> Add New
Enter “WP Security Scan” into the Search field
Click -> Search Plugins
Click -> Install
Click -> Install Now
Click -> Activate Plugin
Excellent, that is all we have to do with the WP Security Scan. By just having it activated it is ready to go.
Now your WordPress blog is not as vulnerable as those who do not take these precautions.
YanceyG Twitter me this, Twitter that, Twitter me an interesting fact.
buttaflygem English King Henry VIII marries Catharine Howard, his 5th wife on this day! @YanceyG how about that fact?
MadisonCrftNook @YanceyG Here you go>>>http://www.interestingfacts.org/
go get em tiger…
LauraCarter @YanceyG Has to be “peanut butter and jelly…
BrianRiolo @YanceyG I think peanut butter & Jelly flows better than jelly w/peanut butter.
chuckazooloo @YanceyG I think it has to be Peanut Butter AND Jelly!
) 
