It’s that time of year again, when you hear it’s that time of year again. This is our first holiday season here at WPVibe and we’re in the spirit, so we’ve decided to put together a small giveaway.

Happy Holidays from WPVibe

WPVibe is very excited about WordPress and where it’s heading over the next year. As you know 2.9 Beta 1 was recently released and we’re looking forward to the final release which is imminent at this point. What’s our take? Well, you know by now we’re big fans, this is a great update adding a bunch of great tools

Aaron Brazell put together a great post about 2.9 and what to expect. Aaron outlines some killer new features like post thumbnails, image editing, and oEmbed capability to ease the addition of media to your posts.

On the cusp of the 2009 holiday season and the official release of WordPress 2.9, we’re excited to bring you our first official Vibe Pack Giveaway. We’re giving one lucky winner the opportunity to move into a self-hosted WordPress environment with some extra tools to help give them a great online presence based on WordPress.

So how’s this work?

1. To win the Vibe Pack, tweet an answer to the following question:

What would you create if you had your own self-hosted WordPress website?

Make sure to include @wpvibe http://bit.ly/8CDgxT #wordpress in your tweet, maybe something like this:

I would build a gourmet taco recipe website @wpvibe http://bit.ly/8CDgxT #wordpress

2. Leave a post comment with your answer and twitter username.

You can only enter once, and our favorite answer will be announced in the next couple weeks. We’ll follow up with a end date very soon.

We love to help, and will continue to give away cool stuff so don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.

What’s a Vibe Pack?

It is the giving season, and the idea here is to give a nice gift filled with cool WordPress related items. Here is our first official Vibe Pack:

1. One-year of hosting on a HostGator Business Account

• Dedicated IP Address
• Your Own Toll-Free Number
• Free Private SSL
• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth

2. One StudioPress premium theme of choice

• Search engine optimized
• Widget ready
• Theme options page
• Ready for advertising
• PSD file included

3.Gravity Forms Single Site License

• Unlimited forms
• Visual form editor
• Advanced form fields
• Attachments
• Coupon for license can also be used towards Multi-site or Developer license purchase

4. One-year subscription to PixoPoint Advanced features

• Vertical flyout menus
• Horizontal slider menus
• WordPress optimized code
• Highlighting of current page

5. Digging into WordPress e-Book

• 400 Pages of Practical Information
• Lots of Code Samples
• A Lifetime Subscription

Congratulations to Danielle (@alex_friday) on winning the first Vibe Pack Giveaway. Best of luck & Happy Holidays!

There you have it, the first official WPVibe Vibe Pack Giveaway.

We hope you’re looking forward to the continued growth of WordPress as much as we are, and we can’t wait to see your entries.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

If you or your company are interested in participating in future WordPress Vibe giveaways, be sure to get in touch with us.

This week marks the release of a new WordPress book named “Digging Into WordPress” by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr.

Digging into WordPress

I had the opportunity to catch up with Chris this week and he has been kind enough to offer a PDF version of the book for us to giveaway here at WordPress Vibe. Soon to follow will be a hard copy offering of the book with discounts to those who purchase the PDF version.

I reviewed the book this week, and let me tell you, it’s 400 pages of WordPress goodness! A great guide for people new to WordPress all the way to seasoned WordPress junkies that like having a great reference around!

Your Reward

• Digging Into WordPress

The book is jam packed with nine chapters ranging from WordPress installation, to theme creation, to best SEO practices. Here is a breakdown of the chapters:

1. Welcome to WordPress
2. Setting up WordPress
3. Anatomy of a WordPress Theme
4. Theme Design and Development
5. Extending Functionality
6. Working with RSS Feeds
7. Working with Comments
8. Search Engine Optimization
9. Maintaining a Healthy Site

Giveaway Rules

1. Follow @WPVibe on Twitter
2. Subscribe to our RSS Feed
3. Leave a valid email address
4. Leave a comment on WPVibe telling us a bit about what Veterans Day means to you. We would love to hear about those you are honoring today who have served or are currently serving.
5. Tweet this post. (Not Required but recommended)

Thank you to all of our visitors, and those who decide to participate.

We’re leaving this open for a couple day and will announce a lucky winner on Friday.

Thanks to all who serve!

As I sit here and write this post, I am thinking about my experiences from the past 15 years. As a 12 year Navy veteran, Veteran’s Day holds a special place for me.

I had the opportunity to serve with true heros during some very difficult times in our country’s history. In lieu of a simple post, we’ve decided to giveaway a small treat in honor of our military hero’s.

This day isn’t about the conflicts the US has been or is currently involved in. It does not reflect on US foreign policy or any other crazy relationship we have with any of our allies or enemies. Veteran’s Day is a holiday to honor the courage and commitment of those who have served throughout US history!

To all who have served, to those who serve today, and to those who will protect our future, I give you all of my thanks and blessings. Thank you for your service, I truly honor you for your selfless commitment!

For those of you currently in the hotspots around the world, keep your head on a swivel and check 6!

If you’re interested in becoming a WPVibe contributor, we would love to hear from you.

Good luck