Want an Easy Way to Set-Up a New Blog Without the Headaches?

Posted by Karl Foxley on Jun 20, 2010 in SEO | 6 comments

Setting-up a new blog shouldn’t be a headache.

But let’s face it, some themes require you to have a degree in coding to get them to do exactly what you want. You’re probably saying, ‘well, you can pretty much find a plugin to do anything you’ll ever need’.

True! That being said, too many plugins can effect the performance of your blog.

Not only can having too many plugins slow it down, you also have the added worry of one of your plugins breaking the next time WordPress releases a new version. A real simple solution to managing your blog and stopping those sleepless nights when something breaks is to find a blog that has a simple and highly customisable management system integrated into the theme.

Well, this has just happened over at Elegant Themes.

You see, Nick and his team have been super busy updating their entire catalogue of themes to include ePanel. If you aren’t a Elegant Themes member you probably won’t be aware that ePanel has been available for the more newer themes.

Let’s take a look at what soon will become your blog’s best friend:

Introducing ePanel

General Settings

The General Settings allows you to choose between the different colour schemes, change the layout of your blog and control your featured articles slider. The ‘general settings’ tab gives you control over the basic functions of the theme.

Navigation

You will also be able to use ePanel to manage the navigation of your new theme. The ‘navigation management’ gives you the ability to choose which links to display, adjust their display order, disable top tier links and more.

Layout Settings

‘Layout settings’ allows you to modify what info appears in the post-info section, the option to enable / disable thumbails on posts, pages and index pages. You’ll also have the ability to change the dimensions of your thumbnails and the option to ebable / disable comments on posts and pages and more.

Advertisement Management

One of the greatest inclusions in the ePanel interface is the ‘advertisement management’. Using this you will be albe to input the destination URL and the banner image URL for each ad that you wish to promote (your own or an affiliate product), as well as the ability to toggle them on and off at any time.

Search Engine Optimisation

My favourite part of ePanel is the search engine optimisation features. You are given full control over your meta elements, you can easily add custom meta titles, descriptions and keywords for every section of the theme. You can also enable canonical URL’s to help you avoid duplicate content filters.

There are also other options / features built into the ePanel that you can read about over at the Elegant Themes website.

Theme Management and Customisation Made Easy with ePanel

To put it simply, after you’ve paid your $20 membership to Elegant Themes you can be blogging within minutes.

Instead of worrying about how your blog looks, ePanel gives you the necessary tools to set-up your site in exactly the way you want in a matter of minutes; it really is as simple as point and click.

Here’s the link to get yours: Elegant Themes

If you need a quick guide on WordPress blog installation then you may find this post handy: How to Install a WordPress Blog Using Simple Scripts.

To your success,

Karl Foxley

Image: m_bartosch / .net