WP Deals is a free plugin brought to you by the folks behind Tokokoo, maker of fine premium WordPress e-commerce themes.

After you have installed and activated the plugin setting it up is a snap. First navigate to Settings > Deal Options where you can configure the general options. See the image below. (click to enlarge)

Referring to the above image the configurable options are as follows:

1. If you have an SSL certificate you can check this box to use it.
2. Here you can choose your currency.
3. Display your deals in list or grid view.
4. Set the position of the currency symbol - left, left with space, right or right with space
5. Set the thousand separator of displayed prices.
6. Set the decimal separator of displayed prices.
7. Set the number of decimal points shown in displayed prices.
8. Set the default image size. You'll want to adjust this according to your theme.
9. Set the single deal image size. Again, you'll want to adjust this according to your theme.

Next, while in the same screen click the PayPal tab at the top. Here you can configure the PayPal options. See the image below. (click to enlarge)

Referring to the above image you can set your PayPal email where you want payment sent. You can also enable the PayPal sandbox and create a sandbox email to test everything. See the developers section of the PayPal website for further info on that.

The next step is to create your invoice. While in the current screen click the Invoice tab at the top. You will see the image below. (click to enlarge)

Referring to the above image the configurable options are as follows:

1. Set your store name.
2. Insert your logo link.
3. Set your store description.
4. Enter some footer text that will appear at the bottom of the invoice.

Finally, we can now integrate some social media links. While in the current screen click the Account tab at the top. You will see the image below. (click to enlarge)

Referring to the above image you can set your Twitter, Facebook and RSS links. You can also choose to display or hide the share icons.

Okay, now that we have everything configured let's start creating some deals! Navigate to Daily Deals > Add Deal. You'll arrive at a screen that looks very much like the Add Post or Add Page screen. Add a title for your deal. Enter some info about the deal. See image below. (click to enlarge)

After you have completed that there are a few other things to fill out.

Deal Properties

Referring to the above image you can:

1. Set the base price.
2. Set the discount price.
3. Insert number of deals available.
4. Insert the date and time the deal will expire. A popup window will assist you in making your selection.
5. Select yes or no if deal is expired.

Categories (self-explanatory)

Tags (self-explanatory)

Feature Image (self-explanatory)

I've created a couple of deals to see how this thing works. Let's take a look.

The plugin will create a page called Daily Deals. Clicking it will take you to a current list of your daily deals. (either in grid or list view as per you earlier selections) Here is my Daily Deals page ...

Oooo look ... killer deals on hammers and bananas! Let's click the Bananas link to explore that deal further.

Isn't that a lovely looking product page? Everything you might want to know about the deal is listed. Price, discount, savings, description and a thumbnail image. Your social media links are also displayed. (if you chose that option earlier) You can even print out the deal. Clicking the price tag will take you to PayPal where you can buy those bananas for only $100.00!

Once you have created several daily deals and have them listed on the daily deals page you can set one of them as a Featured Deal. The plugin will create a page dedicated for that.

The plugin will track all transactions and create various reports for your perusal including Sales, Invoices, Subscribers and Reports. All of this data can be located under the Daily Deals menu on the left side of the page.

Now while all of this functionality is free, there are several paid extensions for it that you may be interested in.

Related Deals
Display a list of related deals. Options include:

• Sort by category or tag
• Set the number of related deals to be shown
• Define the display to include thumbnail image, title and/or price
• Set the dimensions of the image
• Cost - $30

Download Monitor
Track who has downloaded what. Find out what has been downloaded the most.

• Cost - $15

Subscribe Lightbox
A cool looking lightbox popup encouraging tire kickers to subscribe.

• Cost - $15

Deals Feed
A highly configurable dedicated feed for your deals.

• Cost - $30

Deal Votes
Allow customers to rate your deals.

• Cost - $15

Facebook and WP Comment
Integrate either Facebook comments or the default WordPress comment system.

• Cost - $30

I've been playing around with this plugin on a dev site for a couple of days and I think it's simply awesome. If you're running a deals-type site or thinking about running one definitely give WP Deals a look.

You can download WP Deals from the WordPress Plugin Directory. For more info about the plugin including the paid extensions and a working demo head over to the official WP Deals site.

Tokokoo is an Indonesian-based WordPress theme shop specializing in premium e-commerce themes. They also operate WPCharity where you can find and download great looking TwentyTen child themes for a small donation. A percentage of the proceeds go to charity. You can follow Tokokoo on Twitter @tokokoo. You can follow WP Deals on Twitter @wpdealsme

Having said that I always felt there was one area in which Genesis was lacking - single post navigation. Enter the Genesis Single Post Navigation plugin by David Decker of DECKERWEB.

Many of you are probably already familiar with David. He is a WordPress developer and Genesis ninja based in Germany. He has created several Genesis-specific plugins and child themes and has provided German translations of Genesis child themes created by others - including the ones released right here by WPCanada.

Setting up the plugin is simple, just install and activate it. There are no configuration options, it just works. Styling the output is a snap as the plugin comes with its own style sheet.

You can see the plugin in action on this very site - just click on a post title.

Now some of you may ask why use a plugin especially if Genesis is so easy to customize? The answer to that is (in my humble opinion) there are certain cases in which using a plugin is just plain easier. In the past I have added single post navigation to Genesis-powered sites by modifying the child theme's functions.php file but if you swap out the child theme for another you have to add the function to the new child theme. Granted, if you have added a lot of custom code such as I have done you have to redo the entire process again anyway but by using this plugin it is one less thing to worry about. It works right out of the box with any Genesis child theme. Set it and forget it as they say.

To install it just plunk Genesis Single Post Navigation in to the search box on the Install Plugin page from your site's backend. If you prefer the old fashioned way you can download it from the WordPress Plugin Directory then FTP it to your site.

If you're running a Genesis-powered site and want to implement single post navigation I highly recommend giving this plugin a look.

Robo.to is a free social service that allows you to create a 4 second video avatar that you can share with various services such as Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else you like. Creating the avatar, or video update, is a simple process taking mere seconds and you can even add a brief text message.

The Robo.to Official Plugin makes adding the avatar to your WordPress powered site a snap. First head over to Robo.to and create a free account. After activating your account you can create and upload your video update. You can choose to share your video update with various services like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr etc by adding the appropriate modules. You can add links to where people can find you on the web such as your website. You can add a status update to your video.

By using the Robo.to Official Plugin you can add the video avatar to your site via a shortcode. You can download and activate the plugin right from your dashboard. If you prefer the old school way grab a copy of it from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Once the plugin is activated navigate to Settings > Robo.to and configure it. See the image below.

Now you can add the video avatar to a post or page by inserting the [robo.to] shortcode. You can even add it to your sidebar instead of the more traditional (drab) profile image.

You can see the animated avatar in action on a live WordPress powered site by visiting www.deal-hunter.de

Robo.to and the Robo.to Official Plugin are brought to you by the people behind Particle. You can follow them on Twitter @particleteam

Tweet And Get it is a new WordPress plugin that gets you a tweet and Twitter followers in exchange for the download you are offering. In a nutshell, if a visitor to your site wants to download the file you are offering he/she is required to follow you in addition to tweeting a message of your choice.

How it works:
Simply install and activate the plugin as you would any other plugin. Once activated you will see a new menu item called Tweet&Get it. It contains 2 submenus - Make your button and Manage your buttons. To begin, navigate to Tweet&Get it > Make your button. You will now see the screen below.

Configuration is simple. Referencing the above image:

1. Enter your Twitter username
2. Enter the message you would like users to tweet
3. Upload your file
4. Name your button (important if you plan on offering multiple downloads)
5. Click Create your button

After clicking Create your button you will be given a shortcode specific to the file you just uploaded. You can then insert this shortcode into a post, page or a widget. Here is what it looks like in a post.

Clicking the button seen in the above image will bring up the following screen where your visitor can log in to Twitter.

After logging in to Twitter and authorizing the app the following screen will appear.

You can easily create as many buttons as you like for as many downloads as you like. Tweet And Get it makes offering downloads to your readers fun and at the same time gets you some followers. Your readers never have to worry about getting spammed to death since there are no emails involved. The best part of all is Tweet And Get it is 100% free.

If you want to give this plugin a test run you can install it directly from your dashboard. If you prefer the old fashioned way you can download Tweet And Get it from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Official Website.

Having said that I had a gripe, albeit a small one, but a gripe nonetheless. The linked site title on the admin pages. You know what I'm talking about - the linked site title at the top of the admin pages that takes you to the front end. Why the heck did they make it so tiny?

Fortunately there is a new plugin out there that will fix this up in a jiffy. It is called Embiggen Site Title.

The plugin is extremely lightweight, there is no configuration, no options page. It only does one thing and it does it well. After downloading and installing simply activate it and presto - your site title has been embiggened!

Have a look at the images below:

TINY SITE TITLE

EMBIGGENED SITE TITLE

Isn't that much better? Not only does the plugin enlarge the site title it also decreases the size of the page title and gets rid of the icon.

You can install Embiggen Site Title directly from your dashboard or if you prefer the old school way download it from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Thanks to Otto for that!

Developed by Automattic, Grunion is a lightweight but powerful plugin. It doesn't come with its own options page but it does create a link in the admin menu called Feedbacks. See image below.

There is a reason for that link. One of the coolest features of this plugin is the ability to create multiple forms which can be inserted into pages or posts. By default, when someone submits a message using the form the message is sent to the particular page or post author. Handy if you have a multi-author blog. Of course you can change this default behaviour but I'll get to that in a moment.

By clicking the Feedbacks link you'll be taken to a page where you can view all of the messages sent via the form. See image below. (click to enlarge)

Okay, let's set up the plugin. Go to the Add New Page or Add New Post screen. On the Post Editor Toolbar there will be a button for Grunion. Click the button. See image below.

After clicking the button the form will be initialized. It will then take you to a screen where you can configure several options. Have a look at the image below. (click to enlarge)

Referencing the above image you can see several fields already created. The plugin will automatically create the following fields:

• Name
• Email
• Website
• Comment

Here is where the real fun begins. Each of those fields can be repositioned by drag and drop. If you want to move the Comment field to the top you can do so. Swap positions between Name and Website and so forth. You can edit or even delete each of those fields. You have the ability to decide which field should be marked as required.

You can also add any number of extra fields. You can choose any number and/or combination of the following:

• Checkbox
• Drop down
• Email
• Name
• Radio
• Text
• Textarea
• Website

After you have set up your preferred options you can either click the Add this form to my post button or click the Email Notifications tab at the top for further customization.

Earlier I said, "By default, when someone submits a message using the form the message is sent to the particular page or post author." By clicking the Email Notifications tab we can change that behaviour. Have a look at the image below. (click to enlarge)

Once again, the plugin's default behaviour is to send the message to the post/page author using the post/page title as the subject line. Referencing the image above we see that we can change that. You can specify both the email address you want the message sent to as well as the subject line.

When you're finished with your configurations click the button marked Save and go back to form builder.

You'll then be taken back to the first configuration screen. See image below. (click to enlarge)

If you're satisfied with everything go ahead and click the Add this form to my post button. This will insert the form shortcodes into your page or post. Publish your page or post.

Voila! Your contact form is ready to go.

I have put together a video in HD which illustrates all of these steps. You can see it below. One day I'll actually buy a microphone and be able to add voice instructions rather than elevator music.

If you prefer to view it directly on YouTube click here.

The real beauty of this plugin is its light footprint - there is no option page, no configuration settings, no UI. Less is indeed more. All you need to do is create an image less than 326 pixels wide with a transparent background, name it login-logo.png and drop it in your /wp-content/ directory. That's it. The plugin takes of the CSS.

Here is an example I whipped up in less than 3 minutes.

You can get Login Logo from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Once activated it adds a button to the Visual Post Editor where you can choose whatever shortcode you want. Have a look at the image below. (click to enlarge)

Let's say we want to insert a button in to our post. Click the Shortcode Ninja button to expand the list of available shortcodes. From the newly revealed menu click Button. This will bring up a list of options which you can see in the image below. (click to enlarge)

As you can see in the image your options include:

• button title
• link
• size
• style
• background colour
• border
• dark or light text
• CSS class

When you're finished setting your options click Insert. Here is an image of a sample post using the default options. (click to enlarge)

Adding any of the available 18 shortcodes is a snap with this plugin.

You can download the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory. For further information on its usage head over to Shortcode Ninja.

Let's say you run an online store and you're introducing a new product. By having each word in the page title display a unique colour you not only draw attention to the post you add a little flair to it.

The plugin works by adding a filter to the the_title() function. Each word in a page title is given a unique span tag with a unique class. All you have to do is add the appropriate styling to your style sheet and you're good to go. Have a look at the screenshot below.

You can read more by visiting the introduction post at PixoPoint here. Download the plugin from PixoPoint here.

Once activated, Maintenance Mode adds a "splash page" to your site advising visitors your site is briefly offline.

The plugin comes with a number of features such as restricting access to both the frontend and backend based on user capability, allowing particular paths to remain accessible and the ability to enable/disable feeds, trackbacks and XML-RPC publishing. It also comes with two variations of a splash page and gives you the ability to create your own custom page.

Using the plugin is easy. Install and activate it as you would any other plugin. Once activated navigate to Settings > Maintenance Mode to configure the options.

At the plugin's option page you will see a number of things that can be configured.

Setting backtime and creating a custom message:

In the image above (click to enlarge) you can set your backtime and create the message you want to display to visitors. You can include placeholders (shortcodes) in the message if you wish.

Limit access:

Looking at the image above (click to enlarge) you can decide who has access to both the frontend and backend of your site based on user capabilty. (role)

Allow certain paths to be accessible:

Looking at the image above (click to enlarge) you can choose what paths, if any, you want to remain accessible while the plugin is active. You can also enable/disable feeds, trackbacks and remote publishing.

Apply HTTP header "503 Service Unavailable"

Looking at the image above (click to enlarge) you can opt to add a HTTP header "503 Service Unavailable".

Choose the style of splash page:

This has to be one of the more cooler features of the plugin. Looking at the image above (click to enlarge) you have the ability to choose between 3 different splash pages,

• The Default Theme
• WordPress Login Theme
• Use 503.php from your theme folder (create your own)

Creating your own custom splash page is a snap and is the option I use here at WPCanada. Essentially what you are doing is creating a static HTML file. You can also create its own style sheet. Be advised that you won't be able to use WordPress theme functions but that's okay - as I said you're basically creating a static HTML file.

Create your file and add whatever information you want to it. Name the file 503.php and upload it to the active theme's folder. Write your own style sheet and call it in the head of your document. Upload the style sheet to the active theme's folder as well. You're limited here only by your imagination.

As an example here is what my 503.php looks like ...

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>WPCanada › Offline</title>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
<link href="http://wpcanada.ca/wp-content/themes/wpcanada/maintenance.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</head>

<body>
<div align="center">

<div id="contentContainer">
<div id="contentTop"></div>

<div id="content">

<h2>WPCanada</h2>
<h1>Closed for Maintenance</h1>

<br />

WE'LL BE BACK SHORTLY

<p>We're sorry. This site is currently undergoing routine maintenance. As a result all areas have been turned off including the page you just requested. Please try again shortly.</p>
<p>If you're looking for some great WordPress reading while you wait why not try <a href="http://www.planetwp.ca/" title="Planet WordPress Canada: The pulse of the Canadian WordPress community">Planet WordPress Canada</a>!</p>
<p> </p>
</div>

<div id="contentBottom"></div>
</div>

<p align="center">
<small>WPCanada is proudly powered by <a href="http://wordpress.org/" title="WordPress of course!">?</a></small>
</p>

</div>
</body>
</html>

And this is the style sheet I use for it ...

/*
CSS Styles for Maintenance Mode plugin
*/

h1, h2 {
	letter-spacing: -1;
	font-weight: bold;
	text-align: center;
	font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	}

h1 {
	font-size:19pt;
	color:#DB201B;
	}

h2 {
	font-size:16pt;
	color:#000000;
	}

body {
	font-family:Verdana, Arial;
	font-size:10pt;
	}

a, a:visited {
	color: #DB201B;
	text-decoration: none;
	}

a:hover {
	color: #DB201B;
	text-decoration: underline;
	}

#contentContainer {
	background:white url(images/mid.gif) repeat-y;
	width:800px;
	border:none;
	}

#content {
	text-align:left;
	width:600px;
	}

#contentTop, #contentBottom {
	width:800px; height:45px;
	margin:0;
	}

#contentTop {
	background:white url(images/top.gif) no-repeat;
	}

#contentBottom {
	background:white url(images/bottom.gif) no-repeat;
	}

.small {
	width:350px;
	}

.center {
	text-align:center;
	}

Click here to see what the splash page looks like in action.

You can download Maintenance Mode from the WordPress Plugin Directory. For more information visit the plugin's home page.