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Top 15 Wordpress Plugins We Can’t Live Without
Written by AbNormal Email This Article Print This Article RSS 2 PDF

Top 15 Wordpress Plugins We Can’t Live Without

1. Akismet 2.0
   Akismet is a Comment Spam Filter Plugin for your blog. You need your very own WordPress.com API key to use it. However, it is well worth the trouble. Akismet is renowned for stopping some hard core comments spam. It is Solid!
2. 404 Notifier
   This plugin will log 404 hits on your site and can notify you via e-mail or you can subscribe to the generated RSS feed of 404 events. Very useful. This is a Wordpress Plugin by Alex King.
3. (Brian’s) Threaded Comments
   The very popular (Brian’s) Threaded Comments. Allows your visitors to reply to someone’s comment and have the reply nestled within the first comment, slightly offset. Gives an easier way to follow a comment conversation, plus allows for a collapsible comment section.
4. FeedBurner FeedSmith
   Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
5. Google XML Sitemaps
   While I won’t go into the details as to why it is important for your website to have a Sitemap on Google, this plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Follow this link for more information on What Are Sitemaps.
6. MyAvatars
   This plugin allows you to add MyBlogLog.com avatars to Wordpress comments. There is a way to nestle the MyAvatars plugin to work in conjunction with (Brian’s) Threaded Comments. For the installation procedure, look at John Chow’s MyAvatars Article.
7. SEO Title Tags
   I will assume that you have changed your Wordpress Permalinks option to something other than default. We use the second option here which is Date & Time based. Search engine optimize your blog’s title tags. You can create and customize various titles for every page, post, tag on your entire blog. The other alternative is Optimal Title, which places the title before your blog’s name.
8. Popularity Contest
   This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post’s popularity. You can afterwards display your most popular posts anywhere you want. Help your visitors find the most popular posts quickly and easily. This is a Wordpress Plugin by Alex King.
9. Related Posts
   Returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches. Place this option in your Single Post template and list related articles / posts. Keep your visitors reading longer and visiting your website longer as well.
10. Share This
    Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites. Note the ShareThis green icon & link at the bottom of this post.
11. Show Top Commentators
    Encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names (linked to their website if they provided one).
12. Subscribe To Comments
    Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Give your visitors a reason to come back and visit your website once more.
13. WP-Email
    Allows people to recommend / send your WordPress blog’s post / page to a friend. Note the “Email This Article” link at the top of the article. Plugin by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan.
14. WP-Print
    Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post / page. Note the “Print This Article” link at the top of the article. Plugin by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan.
15. WP-Grins
    A Clickable Smilies hack for WordPress. Allows you to give your visitors the opportunity of putting Smilies in the comments. This is a Wordpress Plugin by Alex King.

But wait, there’s more. I’ve two more plugins to mention that are also useful, yet I’ve elected not to include them in the main list for dubious reasons. I simply like absurd rationale.

1. Challenge
   Based on and improved over Steve Herod’s “Did you pass math?” plugin, Challenge restricts comment spam by throwing the commenter a challenge. You’ll notice in our comments section the part which asks “What Year Is It?”. However, we’re not using Challenge due to some technical difficulties and whatnot. Therefore, the “What Year Is It?” question is a simple JavaScript hack on our part.
2. Maintenance Mode
   This plugin is only activated when you need to take down your website, therefore, it is Always Deactivated. It adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end.

That’s it, that’s our list. If you have any other plugins you want to recommend, please do so by dropping us a Comment.

Popularity: 75% [?]

January 3rd, 2008(1) Comment[s]Trackback URL
Filed under: Blog Platform, General, Search Engine Optimization, Wordpress, seo
Tagged With: , how to, plugins, Search Engine Optimization, seo, tips and tricks, Wordpress, wordpress plugins

Our Blog Platform - Technical and General Information
Written by nygb Email This Article Print This Article RSS 2 PDF

Our Blog Platform - Technical and General Information

Well, it seems this is a relatively popular post subject to blog about. People are always asking what Blog Platform you are using, therefore, we will give you an outline of what we use and how you too can become as cool as we are.

First and foremost, you have to get yourself a [dot] Com domain, whether it be .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, etc., you have to get out from under the Blogspot umbrella. Now, this is not to say that there are not tons of successful [dot] Blogspot (Blogger) domains out there. There are, and many of them even make money for the bloggers. However, in order to Piss In The Tall Weeds With The Big Boys [~], you’ve got to get your own Domain Name and Hosting Package. It allows far more customization and control for your blog platform.

Getting a [dot] Com domain

Well, if you ask us ‘Who’s Yo Daddy‘, we’d have to say GoDaddy is our Daddy. That’s right, with .COM registration as low as $1.99 usd in some cases, why wouldn’t you Register Your Domain with them? After all, they’ve got tons of options and packages for everyone. Plus, you can get your hosting and blogging platform done with them as well. And, if all that is not enough, they’ve got IndyCar racing hottie Danica Patrick as their spokeswoman. Go Team!

Getting your Hosting Package

Our amazing blog is Powered By Bluefur hosting. They offer kick ass tech support and answer questions quickly. Plus, their hosting packages start as low as $6.95/month (us & cad) for a Unix Package. They also include the popular cPanel application and the Fantastico application manager and a bunch of great stuff. And, get this folks, if you sign up for a full year, they will knock off another 15% off the package.

But Wait, there’s more. If you use our promo code grannysmithrocks, you get an Additional 10% off, for a total savings of 25% off the hosting package. That’s a deal that is tough to beat.

Blogging Platform

We use the Wordpress Blog Platform as our tool of the trade. This is in our opinion the best blog platform currently available, and, if you get the above hosting package, it already comes pre-packaged in the Fantastico application manager. You simply click on install and in 5 minutes, you’re up and running. However, if you get a hosting package that does not have it pre-packaged, you can Download Wordpress for Free.

Wordpress Theme & Layout Design

Once you’ve installed your Wordpress Blog Platform, it is essential to customize it to fit your specific needs. You can find a bunch of Wordpress Templates using the Wordpress Theme Viewer, Top Wordpress Themes, Wordpress Themes from NDesign, etc. What about Our Theme? Where did we get it? Well, our Wordpress Theme was custom designed by the folks at Serveris Inc. They provided a Custom Website Design & Development Service for us that had our own specifications and design elements included. The work they did proved exceptional and their integration of both the Wordpress back end and their design elements was great.

Wordpress Plugins

After getting your Wordpress installed, your Wordpress Theme loaded, you need some plugins. However, this post will be dealt with separately in a post we like to call Top 15 Wordpress Plugins we Can’t Live Without.

[~] - Quote from the movie Wall Street starring Charlie Sheen & Michael Douglas

Popularity: 100% [?]

January 2nd, 2008(0) Comment[s]Trackback URL
Filed under: Blog Platform, Domain Registration, General, Great Deals, Website Hosting, Wordpress, website news
Tagged With: .COM, .Net, 10% Hosting, Blog Platform, Blogspot, blue fur, bluefur, charlie sheen, Danica Patrick, domain name registration, godaddy, Great Deal, Indy, michael douglas, serveris, wall street movie, website design, website development, Website Hosting, Wordpress, wordpress plugins

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