• Various security hardening by Alexander Concha.
• Taxonomy query hardening by John Lamansky.
• Prevent sniffing out user names of non-authors by using canonical redirects. Props Verónica Valeros.
• Media security fixes by Richard Lundeen of Microsoft, Jesse Ou of Microsoft, and Microsoft Vulnerability Research.
• Improves file upload security on hosts with dangerous security settings.
• Cleans up old WordPress import files if the import does not finish.
• Introduce “clickjacking” protection in modern browsers on admin and login pages.

Consult the change log for more details.

Download WordPress 3.1.3 or update automatically from the Dashboard → Updates menu in your site’s admin area.

1. Write a guest article for a popular website

Every blog, ezine and newspaper needs content; the big boys even pay good money for content. Spend time transferring your knowledge into a simple article, something YOU would enjoy reading, then give it to a blogger. The blogger is happy because they get free content and inbound links from others who pick up your article on their site. You get an inbound link to your site because it was included in your byline at the end of your article and people who want to know more about the author (you) will click on the link to your site. Truly a win-win for both parties. Get started guest blogging with the help of My Blog Guest, a community of bloggers looking for guest bloggers.

2. Use a killer headline

Increase the effectiveness of your guest article or any content you publish on your own site with a headline that “gets the click.” Practice writing 10-20 headlines using different formulas; then pick a winner that stands out. Viral videos and link bait become so because of a killer headline.

3. Create a useful or funny video

The success of YouTube is proof that people love watching videos and the most popular videos without celebrities are generally humorous in nature. Before you get overwhelmed at the thought of producing a video check out Hubspot’s 5 Video Projects You Can Do in 25 Minutes. Make sure you embed the video on your website or blog so that you get the SEO benefit. The traffic benefits from video include visitors from video sites (YouTube & beyond), universal search results and video search results to name a few.

4. Sponsor a contest or giveaway

Everyone loves free stuff! So give the people what they want to win them over. Although the resulting spike in traffic usually goes away shortly after the giveaway ends, long term, you have a good shot at gaining customers, generating inbound links and spreading awareness of your brand. Check out RaffleDog for an easy giveaway with traffic & SEO benefits. Right now we are giving away 31 prizes from 31 sites over 31 days on the Miva Merchant Facebook page.

5. Participate in a forum

When you join and participate in an active user forum you get innumerable benefits. The most obvious yet often skipped benefit of forums is putting a link to your site in your signature. Most forums allow members to have a signature with links as long as you follow the community rules and guidelines. In addition to the link you get to take the pulse of the customer base, help people, and discover what’s missing from your niche that you can fill. Find a forum that fits you by searching Google with a keyword + forum such as “ecommerce forum”. You may also find Big Boards useful; especially, if you don’t know where to start.

For those of you who are superhuman, overachieving, go-getters, leverage all five tactics at once for uber results. Voila, 5 simple ways to get more traffic.

===========================

This article was written by Joyce Brister for Miva Corp, and was published on the Miva Merchant blog at: http://www.mivamerchant.com/blog/5-simple-ways-to-get-more-traffic

The +1 button can help publishers, too. As potential visitors see recommendations from their friends and contacts beneath your Google search results, you could see more, and better qualified, traffic coming from Google.

Since we announced +1, we’ve gotten lots of requests from Google search users and webmasters alike for +1 buttons in more places than just search results. That’s why today we’re making the +1 button available to sites across the web. Sometimes you want to recommend a web page after you’ve visited it. After all, how do you know you want to suggest that great article on Spanish tapas if you haven’t read it yet?

We’ve partnered with a few sites where you’ll see +1 buttons over the coming days:

You’ll also start to see +1 buttons on other Google properties such as Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube.

Adding +1 buttons to your pages is a great way to help your content stand out in Google search. By giving your visitors more chances to +1 your pages, your search results and search ads could show up with +1 annotations more often, helping users see when your pages are most likely to be useful.

To get started, visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central. You’ll be able to configure a small snippet of JavaScript and add it to the pages where you want +1 buttons to appear. You can pick from a few different button sizes and styles, so choose the +1 button that best matches your site’s layout.

In the common case, a press of the button +1’s the URL of the page it’s on. We recommend some easy ways to ensure this maps as often as possible to the pages appearing in Google search results.

If your site primarily caters to users outside of the US and Canada, you can install the +1 button code now; the +1 button is already supported in 44 languages. However, keep in mind that +1 annotations currently only appear for English search results on Google.com. We’re working on releasing +1 to searchers worldwide in the future.

If you have users who love your content (and we bet you do), encourage them to spread the word! Add the +1 button to help your site stand out with a personal recommendation right at the moment of decision, on Google search.

To stay current on updates to the +1 button large and small, please subscribe to the Google Publisher Buttons Announce Group. For advanced tips and tricks, check our Google Code site. Finally, if you have any questions about using the +1 button on your websites, feel free to drop by the Webmaster Help Forum.

Here is a list of 24 plugins to help you run your business on WordPress. These plugins will help you promote and sell your products, manage your customers, and maintain your site.

Shopping Carts

1. Cart66. Cart66 has a long list of tools for managing orders, promotions and shipping, including currency and tax calculations, and PayPal gateways. Cart66 has a free version called Cart66 Lite, as well as professional and developer additions. Upgrade features include recurring payments, subscriptions, and membership access features. The professional version supports several integrations, such as Gravity Forms, MailChimp, Spreedly, and Zendesk. Price: Cart66Lite is free; Cart66 Professional ranges from $89 to $399 per year.
2. Ecwid. Ecwid is a free shopping cart system that is easy to install and maintain. It is customizable and can be mirrored. Add your store to several sites, and manage it all from one place. Integrates with other social networks, including Facebook and Myspace. Price: Free.
3. eShop. eShop is a free shopping cart plugin that has a number of features. It is customizable and provides multiple ways to list products and shipping options. The admin area is simple to use for changing products and descriptions, as well as checking basic stats. It can also calculate sales tax. Price: Free.
4. Shopp. Shopp is a shopping cart plugin that adds a feature-rich online store to your WordPress site. Shopp is not free, but with the price comes an extensive list of tools. Manage multiple product images with drag-and-drop sorting, low-stock email alerts, email order notifications, SEO tools, smart categories, shipping and promotional tools. Extensive payment gateways, though many are add-ons. Price: Single domain starts at $55; add-on tools start at $25.Shopp.
5. WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart. This free shopping cart plugin is designed to sell products in one click from your WordPress site. It allows you to add an “Add to Cart” button on any post or page, and display the shopping cart on any post or page or sidebar. The shopping cart shows the user what he or she currently has in the cart and allows the user to remove the items. Integrates with the NextGen Photo Gallery plugin too. Price: Free.
6. WP Auctions. WP Auctions is a free plugin that allows you to host auctions on your blog or website. Hold as many auctions are you like with no fees. Use PayPal to accept payments. Edit your auctions, set specific end times, choose from different display styles, and manage auctions from the backend admin area. RSS feed for your auctions. Price: Free; Pro is $49.
7. WP e-Commerce. This is another free shopping cart for selling your products and services online. There are a number of features, including multiple payment options, marketing tools, flexible shipping options and integrations for real-time rates, SEO tools, and a variety of themes. Use your own HTML and CSS to customize. Price: Free.
8. Zingiri Web Shop. Zingiri Web Shop is a free shopping cart system to sell products and manage content. Features include easy configuration, complete order and customer management module, one page checkout, multilingual support, and payment gateways for PayPal, Google Checkout and others. Price: Free.
   

   Search Engine Optimization

9. All in One SEO Pack. Automatically optimizes your WordPress site for Search Engines. Generates meta tags automatically. You can override any title and set any meta description and any meta keywords you want. Price: Basic is free; Pro is $39.
10. Google Analyticator. This plugin adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on any WordPress blog. Eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. Google Analyticator also includes several widgets for displaying Analytics data in the admin and on your blog. Price: Free.Google Analyticator.
11. Google Analytics for WordPress. The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin allows you to track your WordPress site easily with lots of meta data. It allows usage of custom variables in Google Analytics to track meta data on pages. You can easily connect it to your Google AdSense and Google Analytics accounts. Price: Free.
12. Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin generates a special XML sitemap that helps search engines to better index your blog. With a sitemap, crawlers can see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally, it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content. Price: Free.
    

    Ad Management

13. AdRotate. This plugin allows you to add and manage ads on your websites to generate revenue. Tie banners to different areas of the website. Easy management from the dashboard allows you to quickly oversee, add and edit banner code; or renew, delete and add new ads. Preview banners while editing them. Receive an email when banners expire, informing you to take action. Price: Free.AdRotate Plugin.
14. Easy AdSenser. Generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. Easy AdSenser manages all aspects of Google AdSense for a blog. Insert ads into posts and sidebar, and add a Google Search box. Control the positioning and display of AdSense blocks in each post or page. Price: Free.
    

    Registration and Order Forms

15. Events Manager. Fully featured event registration management, including recurring events, locations management, calendar, Google map integration, and booking management. Price: Basic is free; Pro is $75.
16. Gravity Forms. This plugin lets you build and publish contract forms on WordPress. Forms can include shipping and total calculations, conditional fields, and buttons. Integrates with several applications and online services including PayPal, FreshBooks, and MailChimp. Price: $39 to $199 per year.Gravity Forms.
17. S2Member. s2Member is a membership management system. It integrates seamlessly with PayPal. It supports recurring billing, with the ability to track affiliate commissions, custom pages, fields for registration, account access, and more. Upgrades offer additional features and integration. Price: Basic is free; Pro ranges from $60 to $149.
    

    Distribution

18. MailChimp List Subscribe Form. This MailChimp plugin allows you to quickly and easily add a signup form for your MailChimp list. Subscribe readers to your newsletter. Also send promotions to subscribers. Build your online presence through email. Price: MailChimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers; Pricing for upgrades varies.MailChimp List Subscribe Form.
19. Share and Follow. This plugin displays a simple and adaptable social network, creating links to many social networking sites for sharing and following. Add share icons and follow links, such as Facebook Like and Twitter Tweet, and other buttons on your site, in the way you want. Price: Free.
20. Sociable. This plugin allows you to automatically add social networking links to your posts, pages and RSS feed. Choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites. Price: Free.
    

    Site Management

21. Akismet. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You can review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen and receive spam reports. Price: Free for personal sites; $5 to $100 per month for commercial sites, depending on volume of traffic and customization of application.
22. BackupBuddy. Backup your entire WordPress install, including the widgets, themes and plugins. Backup to your server, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, or email. Quickly and easily restore your site on the same server or migrate to a new server with a different domain and database. Price: $45 to $150 per year, depending on number of sites.BackupBuddy.
23. IntenseDebate Comments. This plugin enhances and encourages conversation on your site. Integrates with your WordPress admin panel for moderation. Features include comment threading, reply-by-email, user accounts and reputations, comment voting, and social network integrations. Price: Free.
24. WP Super Cache. This is a fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static HTML files. This plugin generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After an HTML file is generated, your web server serves the HTML file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts. Price: Free.

==========================

This article was originally posted on Practical Ecommerce website, June 2, 2001: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2824-24-Ecommerce-Plugins-for-WordPress

v4.4.3 is a minor bug-fix release which also features improved stability and performance. This version also includes some improvements, here are some of them:

- USPS API updated to versions RateV4 and IntlRateV2.
- Amazon Checkout integration reworked.
- Beanstream payment method updated.
- Support for MySQL 5.5.x added.
- CKEditor updated to version 3.5.3.
- JSON library updated to version 1.0.3
- jQuery API updated to version 1.5.1.
- and more…

For the detailed changes description see the CHANGELOG file included into the distribution package.

Find the installation guide at http://help.qtmsoft.com/index.php?ti…t:Installation

NOTE: The upgrade packs will be available in a week approximately.

—————— X-CART v4.4.3 RELEASED

*CHECKOUT*
[*] 11 Feb 2011, aim – Improvement (0104194): Added new API for getting/setting cart paymentid.
[!] 18 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0105228 ): Fixed some bugs with zero total_cost.[*] 21 Feb 2011, aim – Improvement (0100686): Store requires billing details for orders with zero total cost. Fixed.
[!] 24 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0099947): ‘Save as a new address’ and ‘Update existing address’ check boxes do not work properly on the One-Page Checkout page. Fixed.
[!] 28 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0100609): Shipping cost sometimes appears empty on the One-Page Checkout page. Fixed.
[!] 01 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0100941): minicart total fails to update on address change. Fixed.[*] 07 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0105521): Some changes related to the infinite loop in the checkout with an invalid payment method.[*] 21 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0106517): Added the Amazon_Checkout integration.func_cart_is_need_shipping function.[*] 08 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0101500): Reworked Amazon_Checkout integration.
[!] 18 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0106083): AJAX queries do not work in PHP4. Fixed.

*DESIGN AND APPEARANCE*

[!] 14 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103484): Default site Title tag fails to appear on the home.php page. Fixed.
[!] 27 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0104250): nbsp character not converted properly for category description, product description, etc. Fixed.
[!] 09 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0084099): Product and account tabs fail to appear properly in the webmaster mode. Fixed.
[!] 09 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0102818 ): W3C errors in customer area. Fixed.
[!] 14 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0105368 ): JS error on printable pages. Fixed.
[!] 12 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0104429): ‘Submit’ button fails to lock in the IE8 browser. Fixed.
[!] 25 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0107843): Incorrect position of the ‘Apply’ button. Fixed.
[!] 25 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0104938 ): HTML entities like ϑ Ο   € ‚ fail to appear properly. Fixed.
[!] 29 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0107951): CSS aggregator fails to work correctly with cloud-zoom jQuery plugin, Detailed_Product_Images module. Fixed.

*IMAGES*

[!] 20 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103860): Problem with image manipulation related to lower_case_table_names MySQL settings in Windows OS. Fixed.
[!] 14 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0105323): Import routine generates unnecessary zero-length thumbnails. Fixed.

*INTERFACE*
[*] 16 Feb 2011, ferz – Improvement (0104460): Improved description for the ‘Number of columns to display the product list in’ option.[*] 08 Apr 2011, ferz – Improvement (0107091, 0106625): Adjusted some email notification option texts.[*] 03 May 2011, aim – Improvement (0100421): Updated CKEditor to version 3.5.3.

*LANGUAGES*
[*] 14 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0107548 ): Removed duplicate lbl_fedex_address_2 label.[*] 28 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0107839): Small changes in labels.
[!] 29 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0108055): _lng SQL tables fail to refresh when the related language is deleted. Fixed.

*ORDERS*

[!] 02 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0103528 ): Orders placed with the Google/Amazon Checkout payment methods could not be found. Fixed.
[!] 08 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0104714): Store returns wrong provider commission values. Fixed.
[!] 18 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0107567): Payment CC data fails to show in the admin order notification message even with the option ‘Add order details (including credit card information) to admin order…’ enabled. Fixed.
[!] 20 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0107668 ): Fails to show customer information for orders with deleted users. Fixed.
[!] 21 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0100838 ): Product quantity fails to change when order status changes from ‘Backordered’. Fixed.

*SHIPPING*

[!] 28 Jan 2011, ferz – Bug (0103960): FedEx Priority Overnight shipping method fails to appear. Fixed.
[!] 28 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0100768 ): ‘Select a carrier’ functionality fails to work properly in One-Page Checkout. Fixed.
[!] 13 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0103715): Updated USPS API to versions RateV4 and IntlRateV2.
[!] 14 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0107528 ): Intershipper fails to get shipping rates if the request contains spaces and special characters. Fixed.

*TAXES*

[!] 11 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0104642): Wrong ST/DST+SH taxes when free shipping products are combined with regular products in the cart. Fixed.

*USERS*

[!] 20 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103840): 404 Not found error on some pages related to the user_modify.php?user={.id} link. Fixed.
[!] 21 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0102815): ‘Require to change password on next log in’ option on the user modify page does not work. Fixed.[*] 08 Feb 2011, aim – Improvement (0104675): Added new API for getting/setting anonymous_userinfo.
[!] 09 Feb 2011, ferz – Bug (0104703): Obsolete ‘login’ field used instead of ‘userid’. Fixed.
[!] 01 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0105651): Unnecessary data remains in the database when a customer profile is deleted. Fixed.
[!] 04 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0105673): Incorrect error message on the user modify page in the admin area. Fixed.
[!] 25 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0100420): Names like d’Artagnan fail to appear properly for anonymous customers in One-Page Checkout. Fixed.
[!] 27 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0105143): Search users by address feature does not work. Fixed.

*PAYMENTS*
[*] 25 Jan 2011, aim – Improvement (0099622): Added new option ‘Enable CVV2′ for the Beanstream payment method.[*] 27 Jan 2011, ferz – Improvement (0104227): Updated Authorize.Net information variables.[*] 04 Feb 2011, aim – Improvement (0093809): Added new-generation algorithm for the SHA1 signature (SHASign).[*] 10 Feb 2011, aim – Improvement (0104815): Updated links for the 2Checkout payment gateway.
[!] 15 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0101429): CC info visible in PayPal WPP Direct Payment when using X-Payments. Fixed.[*] 01 Mar 2011, ferz – Improvement (0105617): Updated Beanstream payment method.[*] 09 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0088553): Added the ‘Fraud check service’ option for the HSBC XML payment gateway.
[!] 10 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0101140): Customers enter CC number twice for the First Data Global Gateway – Connect payment gateway. Fixed.
[!] 10 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0106040): Incorrect number format used with eSelect Plus – Hosted Paypage payment gateway. Fixed.[*] 21 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0106491): Minor changes in the default shipping rate in the Google Checkout module.[*] 22 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0101906): Added new ‘Display the “Checkout with Amazon” button at the top of catalog pages’ setting for the Amazon Checkout module.
[!] 22 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0105549): Google_Checkout/Amazon_Checkout works only with some other payment method enabled. Fixed.
[!] 29 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0106138 ): Bibit/RBS Worldpay payment server declines transaction when login is not stored in customer profile. Fixed.
[!] 30 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0105339): Payment method configuration page redirects to HTTPS in the admin area when the payment protocol is set to HTTPS. Fixed.
[!] 04 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0089861): Adjusted Netbanx payment note in the admin area.
[!] 07 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0107260): Wrong reject duplicate ‘NEW-ORDER-NOTIFICATION’ logic. Fixed.

*PRODUCTS*

[!] 27 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0102394): Search by_shortdescr by_fulldescr fails to work in the admin area. Fixed.
[!] 02 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0082907): Advanced product search does not recognize zero values in search parameters. Fixed.
[!] 03 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0100300): File on the Internet (enter image URL) functionality does not work on some servers. Fixed.

*IMPORT/EXPORT*

[!] 14 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0104970): Address book fails to export properly. Fixed.
[!] 01 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0105587): Order export routine in the format 4.0.x exports ZIP-4 on a separate line. Fixed.
[!] 30 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0105264): Phone and fax values absent in order export CSV files. Fixed.

*PERFORMANCE*

[!] 17 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103462): The Speed Up CSS tool fails to support constructions like url(“/path_to_image.image.jpg”). Fixed.[*] 18 Jan 2011, aim – Improvement (0103699): Added new ‘Use cached buy_now.tpl template calls’ check box on the general settings page.[*] 20 Jan 2011, aim – Improvement (0103848 ): Adjusted condition for invalidating cache in the func_get_default_fields function.[*] 11 Feb 2011, ferz – Improvement (0104803): Optimized some queries in banner statistics.[*] 24 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0106652, 0099127): Slightly optimized the ‘Change user authentication mode’ functionality.
[!] 14 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0105061): ‘Language labels and customer fields’ fail to appear properly in multilingual stores. Fixed.
[!] 21 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0106486): Fixed var/cache overload.[*] 22 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0102163): Optimized module initialization.[*] 28 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0104799): Optimized Advanced Statistics module.[*] 28 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0105901): Optimized Survey module.

*BACKUP/RESTORE*

[!] 14 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0105036): DB backup/restore functionality fails to work properly. Fixed.

*PATCH/UPGRADE*

[!] 26 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0105527): Patch tool inserts hunks after the ?> tag. Fixed.

*MISCELLANEOUS*
[*] 12 Jan 2011, aim – Improvement (0103380): Minor change related to the installation_auth_code comment.
[!] 17 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103701): PHP notices fixed.
[!] 17 Jan 2011, ferz – Bug (0103628 ): Duplicate code found in the install.php script. Fixed.
[!] 18 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103725): PHP notices fixed in logging in to the admin/provider area.[*] 18 Jan 2011, aim – Improvement (0103709): SQL error status improved in the upgrade procedure.
[!] 18 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0099823): Shipping methods not available on the offer configuration page (Special_Offers module). Fixed.
[!] 18 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103758 ): PHP notices fixed on the General settings page.
[!] 18 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103760): PHP notices fixed on the offer configuration page, Special Offers module.
[!] 19 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103770): PHP notices fixed on the product page in the customer area.
[!] 19 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0103769): Typo related to the x_error_reporting variable and PHP 5.3 error-level reporting logic. Fixed.
[!] 20 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0101556): Multiple fixes related to ‘Provider commissions’.
[!] 24 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0104030): HTML tags fail to appear properly on the ‘News lists’ page in the admin area. Fixed.
[!] 24 Jan 2011, ferz – Bug (0093549): Updated ProxyPay3 integration.[*] 26 Jan 2011, aim – Improvement (0104018 ): JSON library updated to version 1.0.3. IE7 problem related to Content-type: application/x-javascript header fixed.
[!] 27 Jan 2011, aim – Bug (0104228 ): PHP notices fixed during functional tests.
[!] 31 Jan 2011, ferz – Bug (0103067): The admin side fails to stay in the HTTPS mode. Fixed.
[!] 01 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0103398 ): USPS shipping label generator fails to work properly with the new shipping methods. Fixed.
[!] 07 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0101410): Maximum thumbnail width/height settings are ignored on the Products Map page. Fixed.
[!] 07 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0104638 ): Fixed access to uninitialized variables.
[!] 09 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0104802): Fixed SQL errors.
[!] 14 Feb 2011, aim – Bug (0104968 ): Fixed the ‘Cache_Lite : Unable to remove cache’ error.[*] 03 Mar 2011, aim – Improvement (0104538 ): jQuery API updated to version 1.5.1.
[!] 03 Mar 2011, aim – Bug (0102569): Address book fails to provide correct shipping address to the checkout page. Fixed.
[!] 10 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0104096): Obsolete value in the COMPATIBLE_VERSION constant in the installation script. Fixed.
[!] 16 Mar 2011, ferz – Bug (0106246): E-mail message header is not RFC compliant. Fixed.[*] 22 Mar 2011, ferz – Improvement (0104564): SEO: Improved the canonical tag.
[!] 07 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0107274): ‘Call to undefined function func_cart_set_flag’ error fixed.
[!] 08 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0106953): Same ‘Contact us’ form cache used in the Customer, Partner and Admin areas. Fixed.
[!] 11 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0107403): SQL error fixed on the cart page related to the Special Offer module.
[!] 14 Apr 2011, ferz – Bug (0107161): ‘Operate as this user’ feature fails to restore cart content. Fixed.[*] 14 Apr 2011, aim – Improvement (0103629): Changed min MySQL version to 4.0.18 (for 4.0) and 4.1.2 (for 4.1). Added support for MySQL 5.5.x.
[!] 15 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0105559): Libcurl used in the func_http_get_request function even when disabled in the General Settings. Fixed.
[!] 15 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0089959): Code strings fail to paste properly to the command line. Fixed.
[!] 21 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0107570): Regular expression not quoted. Fixed.
[!] 25 Apr 2011, aim – Bug (0102888 ): Installer fails to create new database. Fixed.[*] 29 Apr 2011, ferz – Improvement (107472): Removed obsolete code.[*] 04 May 2011, aim – Improvement (0108185): Changed ads management.

1 Prepare your image files - Re-size and optimize your images for your website. The actual physical dimension of your images may vary, depending on your website, your gallery, and your intended use for your images. While saving your images, try to keep individual images down to roughly 100-200KB in size, and no more than 1MB. Once you have saved your images.

2 Prepare your Zip files - I recommend creating individual Zip files for each gallery. If you intend to upload more than 6-7MB worth of images at once, then suggest splitting your images across multiple Zip files, each less than 8MB, for given gallery.

3 Access your control panel – Login to your WordPress admin area, and navigate to: Gallery > Add Gallery / Images > Upload a Zip-File. This page offers options to upload Zip files from your computer, or specifying a URL to your Zip file.

4 Upload your files - When your Zip files are ready for upload, you have the option to upload the files from within WP (select the “Select Zip-file” option as seen in the screenshot below), or via FTP (in this case, select the “or Enter a Zip- File URL” option as seen in the screenshot below). If your choose the former, then be sure each Zip file is less than 8MB in size.

5 Select a gallery - Make sure to assign your image to their appropriate gallery by selecting it from the drop-down menu. To start the upload process, click the “Start Upload” button:

This WordPress plugin uses our jQuery Vertical Mega Menu plugin and allows you to very easily create vertical mega menus in your WordPress sidebar using the standard custom menus available with WordPress 3.0.

The plugin can handle multiple mega menus on each page and provides 3 different choices for flyout menu animation effect – No Animation (show/hide), “fade In” or “slide out”. The plugin also gives the option of selecting either left or right for the flyout menu animation direction and comes with 8 styled skins.

For horizontal mega menus refer to – WordPress Mega Menu Widget Plugin.

Download JQuery Vertical Mega Menu Widget 1.2 (3,529)

Installation

1. Upload the plugin through `Plugins > Add New > Upload` interface or upload `jquery-vertical-mega-menu` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. In the widgets section, select the jQuery vertical mega menu widget and add to one of your widget areas
4. Select one of the WP menus, set the required settings and save your widget

Useage

In order to use the vertical mega menu plugin you will need the following:

A WordPress custom menu

Either use an existing menu or set one up via the menu option in WordPress admin. Although the widget will work with any menu structure, for best results use 3 levels for the custom menu – see sample screenshot of custom menu structure below.

Widget area

Either use an existing widget area in your WordPress theme or create a new widget area in the required location. This is a vertical menu so it needs to be located in a sidebar or column.

For more information on how to add a new widget to your WordPress theme see our follow up WordPress tutorial – “Adding A Widget Area To Your Theme Files”.

Create Your Vertical Mega Menu

To create your vertical mega menu go to the widget admin page and drag the “jQuery Vertical Mega Menu” widget to the desired widget area. Then select your custom menu from the drop down list in the widget control panel.

Click “save” to activate the widget.

Configuring Your Widget

The widget has several parameters that can be configured to help cutomise the mega menu:

Number Items Per Row

Select the number of sub-menu items to be shown on each row of the flyout mega menu.

Animation Effect

The effect used to display the flyout mega menu – options are; No Animation(i.e. show/hide), fade in or slide out. See the vertical mega menu demo page for examples.

Animation Direction

Choose the direction for the flyout menu – either left or right.

Animation Speed

The speed at which the dropdown menu will open/close

Skin

8 different sample skins are available to either use “out of the box” or give examples of css that can be used to style your own vertical mega menu

FAQ

Updates

Version 1.3 – 19th Apr 2011

• Fixed: IE Invalid Argument bug in jQuery plugin

Version 1.2 – 15th Apr 2011

• Fixed: Sub menu positioning bug for bottom menu option

Version 1.1 – 23rd Mar 2011

• Fixed: IE7 bug with sub-menu widths

Screenshots

Widget in edit mode

Sample custom mega menu structure – For best results use 3 levels for the custom menu

Available menu skins

Example of open mega menu

For more information and tips on the best type of vertical menu plugin to use refer to – Choosing a Vertical Menu WordPress Plugin For Your Site.

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For webmasters with self-hosted WordPress blogs, there’s now a Webmaster Tools site verifcation plugin for WordPress that completely automates our verification process! You can install it directly from the “Install Plugins” control panel built into your WordPress blog, or you can download the ZIP file from the WordPress plugin site. This plugin can only be used by self-hosted WordPress blogs; it can’t be installed on blogs hosted on wordpress.com.

With verified ownership of your site in Webmaster Tools, you can receive specific statistics and information (e.g. relevant search queries, malware notices) about your site directly from Google. For recent news about verification for other types of sites, please see our recent blog post, “Your fast pass through security.”

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If you are selling goods or services over the Internet, it is important to have terms and conditions on your website. A terms and conditions page or language throughout the website about how you will treat certain transactions creates a contract between you and your customers. Having carefully crafted terms on your website gives you the opportunity to dictate how conflicts will be resolved, limit your liability, protect intellectual property, and advise customers of special processes involved in transacting business on your website. The following is a list of terms that ecommerce merchants should have on their websites to protect their businesses.

Billing; Special Fees

Any special billing charges, such as shipping, taxes, or other fees should be described and set forth in the terms and conditions. Also, it is not enough just to post such billing terms on a “terms and conditions” page that is not visible or accessible at the time of checkout. A link and an affirmative agreement (e.g. by checking a box accepting the terms) should be used prior to payment for the goods or services purchased. Overstock.com learn this lesson when a class-action suit was brought against the company for charging a restocking fee. In the lawsuit, customers argued they had not agreed to the restocking fee because such terms were not easily accessible or available at checkout. See “Website Terms and Conditions: Overstock.com Case Highlights Enforceability,” my previous article on the Overstock.com case.

Intellectual Property

Many merchants may think that the only intellectual property they need to protect are the design, content, logos, product names and business names on their websites. However, many websites allow customers and users to post content about products and services purchased. This user content needs to be addressed in the terms and conditions. The merchant may want to use the content in testimonials or other advertising on the website. A person who writes something on a website automatically is the owner of that content as the author. Therefore, for an ecommerce merchant to have full use of that content, the terms and conditions need to assign such content to the merchant or grant a license for use by the merchant. If users are required to register, they should be required to agree to such terms prior to completing registration.

Limitation of Liability; Disclaimers

If you have looked at any website terms and conditions, you have most likely seen various limitations clauses and disclaimers. It is important to have clearly-written limitation-of-liability clauses because this language protects the business from the extension of liability beyond the transaction. These clauses also limit representations or warranties on the products. You may want to provide some warranty or no warranty at all. Such limitations will need to be clearly defined. Also, implied warranties that could be claimed, such as fitness for a particular purpose, should be disclaimed. Limitations on warranties and representations should apply to the content and descriptions provided, as well as the products or services being sold.

Disputes and Choice of Law

A dispute clause should be used to dictate how conflicts will be resolved and where those conflicts will be resolved. Some companies like to use arbitration or mediation and others just use the court system. In any event, the law in the location where your business is located should be applied to the transaction, and therefore, should be stated in the terms and conditions. Also, the jurisdiction of the court should be determined in this clause to protect the company from having to fight a claim in another state or multiple states or countries.

General and Specific Terms of Service

All of your terms of service should be set forth and reviewed often to assure that the terms provided on your website match the way you do business. These terms include shipping times and dates, processing of returns, out-of-stock items, risk of loss, special programs or rebates, and any other process that the customer should be aware of in your business process.

Review and Update Often

Once you have carefully crafted your terms and conditions, schedule a periodic review of those terms to assure that items that have changed are updated. This is extremely important because your customer may try to enforce your terms against you. If your website terms provide for a $5.00 restocking fee and as of the first of the year you increased it to $10.00, you must update your terms and conditions to reflect that change. Also, you should attempt to communicate these changes with your customers either on your website or by an email update. This will show that you took reasonable steps to inform your customers of material changes to your terms. If you have questions as to what particular terms mean or how to limit liability for certain items on your website, you should consult an attorney specializing in ecommerce matters. A little review and crafting upfront can save you many headaches and expensive litigation later.

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