Archives for January 2008Popular Wordpress Plugins of 2008I have installed countless Wordpress plugins out of curiosity over the past 2 months. I have found some which have been sent from the powers that be, to a few which have been … not so great. I will make an attempt to compile a short list of plugins which I think are beneficial to any Wordpress blog. WP-Super Cache - What I would do without this plugin … This plugin is great for load up times. I saw major improvements after using this plugin on my blog. This is definitely a recommended plugin for anyone who is in the midst of creating a blog that is increasing in traffic. Over its original, this one produces static HTML files as well to cut down on even more loading times. It’s a great plugin. Plugin Installer - This makes installing plugins very painless. After transfering files via FTP to the plugins directory, all you have to do to install future plugins is enter in the zip file location in the plugins tab and there you have it, it installs any plugin you give it! SEO All-In-One - This is the tool that has helped my keywords rank on the first page of google, among millions of other results. This plugin really works and its great, reliable, and easy to use. WP-SpamFree - Don’t want to see spammy comments or bots? Do not want to install the cryptographp plugin so people get irritated with Captcha? Then this is the solution for you. I installed it a few days ago and I have had no spam comments. It works great! If you are weary with this, then install the CryptograPHP plugin instead. With a bit of installation needed, it requires visiters/commentators to enter in a captcha text in order to comment (to avoid bots or mass spam postings). Google Analyticator - This lets you easily integrate Google Analytics to all of your blog pages dynamically. Just enter in your ID, press go, and your done! (Of course, you have to go to Google.com’s analytics page and set it up for your blog name, but this plugin cannot do everything for you) Google Sitemap - This plugin lets you easily generate site maps and it automatically submits/pings to Google, Yahoo, and Ask (I believe). Its a great tool and I think I have definitely gained more visibility because of it. Every time you post, it updates the sitemap dynamically. Lucia’s Link Love - I currently use this plugin and it is great. If you want your blog to no-follow to those ‘one stop’ commentators, yet want your blog to reward those who stick around and comment multiple posts (rewarding them with do-follow links), then this is for you! It is fully customizable and great to use! I strongly recommend it CommentLuv - A rather nifty plugin which I intend to activate again once this blog becomes a bit more popular. It allows the commentator to trackback their last post on their own blog and feed it directly into the comment at the end. Oddly enough, when I saw this in action, it did not seem too intrusive - plus, it is free link love after all. Daiko’s Text Widget - If you utilize your widgets on your sidebar, then this is probably something you would want to invest in. I used this and it was great (until I decided to hard code my sidebar on a single php document). SlashDiggLicious - I use a customized version of this as well, it appears at the end of each post you see. It has buttons which connect to certain sites. People have actually been clicking on these and I thank you for supporting this blog! Some Miscellanious/Fun Plugins: WP-Polls: Put a poll onto your blog! Let visitors vote. Poll: New DesignWell, here we have it. I tried to go for a new color and a new feel, while at least keeping some elements the same. I know, I know.. some of you are probably getting tired of the polls.. I kind of like them [poll=5] Now, I will try to continue changing it around a bit to get the right feel. However, I think I did quite well. Please leave comments or even some suggestions. Thanks Yesterday was a Nice Day.I just finished looking at my Awstats for yesterday and I must say, I am very happy to announce that we reached 1485 unique visitors yesterday. Not only that, but the average page views for yesterday were 10.5 and that as amazing. (atleast in comparison to my previous stats of 2.5-4). This has sparked some interest as all I really did yesterday was some stumbling, so someone must really like me I am quite impressed with this as my usual is about 400-500 visitors per day, so I tripled my visitors in one day by doing some free marketing. This has sparked some motivational juices and I might be redoing my blog theme around yet again (while giving this one away for free in the templates section in the near future if I come up with one that I am happy with). I will keep you all posted, and I might have another poll in the future, specifically for this. Thank you again to all the visitors. Poll: What Blogging Platform do you Use?I am just curious I guess, as to what Blogging Platform you use. Feel free to participate and vote. [poll=4] | |
