So i want to show you how to easy apply tricks that could make your WordPress blog system more powerfully. This are the basic advices that even person without experience in WP blog can achieve. I arrange them by importance, obviously this is only my opinion.
I think this tricks should be a good start, when people installed WordPress. I will use here version 2 of WordPress (but it works also on 1.5), all of the tricks use free software.
I wrote this text because i use all of this gold tricks and i want to show you how powerfully WordPress could be with small expenses of our work.
1. Akismet - [tag]Spam[/tag]
Spam, really bad thing on internet and blogs. Spam robots that stealth our bandwidth, add stupid ad comments and stuff like that. They are really annoying. Good thing would be to do something with that problem in the first place. Solution to our problem is Akismet. Let say it this way, never have to worry about spam again and this is true. All you need to start using it today is a WordPress.com API key. Sign up on WordPress.com to get an API key. Akismet was made by Matt Mullenweg, the father of WordPress himself.
Optional you can take a look at this links:
Spam Tools
Bad Behavior
Spam Karma 2.2
But i use Akismet and the spam problem is not my worry anymore !
2. Slimstat - Statistics
With our new WordPress blog we need some kind of statistics to know how many people visit our site (and much more useful information). I wrote some words about statistics here: ShortStat vs Mint. The best (this is my opinion) and very easy to install solution is Slimstat. We can find more info about it on Slimstat. I am installing this stats system on every blog i have. It gives us very useful information like for example the list of pages that referrer to our blog.
3. No Ping Wait - Faster posting
After we have installed new version of WordPress 2 we can see somotime the posting time take ages. Here is the introduction to this plugin which resolve this problem.
“No Ping Wait is a WordPress plugin designed to further eliminate the long wait after publishing a post in WordPress. While one of WordPress 2.0’s new features claimed faster posting time for users, and for a while it did, Ping-o-Matic and other “generic pingsâ€? were not changed to be quicker (For a more detailed explanation of this problem, see Owen’s post on the subject. This plugin aims to correct the problem for WordPress version 2.0.x (Future versions will, if all goes well, have a fix similar to this applied, much like 1.5.1 vs 1.5.2 with the old version).”
I remember 1.5 version of WordPress doesn’t have that problem and was much faster. WordPress 2 add many superb options but it is generally slow with wp admin. After we use “No Ping Wait” the process of posting is faster. Problem with 2.0 speed is well described in this article Why Posts Take Forever to Publish.
There is also a good list that i add to my options in wp admin (beyond the plugin use).
We add this in Options->Writing->Update Services
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://www.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
4. Google Sitemap Generator - Google
Well, if you are not on google you are not on the net !!! This plugin is great. I also use it on every blog i have. Here is some short description.
“This plugin generates a Google Sitemaps compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. An excellent article what Google Sitemaps is and how it can help you to get indexed by Google can be found at the searchenginewatch blog.”
5. Lightbox JS version 2.0 - Cool images effect
This is a cosmetic change but it is very useful. We install this plugin and all images on our website starts to grow larger with nice JS effect. You can see how it works on my blog. Original effect is here: lightbox2. Lightbox JS version 2.0 is a plugin for WordPress, that we can switch on and profit from it on all images without editing the source. The images now grow with superb effect which makes our site nice and more modern (with small cost of energy from us).
6. SpotMilk - More fun and style with WordPress
And finally WordPress 2 admin panel looks and works very nice. But we can make it better, more stylish. Panel with this theme looks better (my opinion) and make our blog activities more pleasant. It provide more fun to blogging.
Another plugin that can change our wp panel look is “WP Tiger Administration”. You can download it here: orderedlist.com.
This is it, i hope this helps you with WordPress blogging. The best thing about this software is that all of it is free, very suitable and easy to use. I work with all of it so i can guarantee it works good. But as always i must say there is so many situation that i cannot respond to all future problems with it.
I also add news about this text here:
weblogtoolscollection.com
ma.gnolia.com
Cheers, CoXis
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Very nice, im update my ShortStat for the Slimstat, it is most complete. Tanks!
Thanks.
I was using ShortStat but when i start with Slimstat anything other is without meaning.
There is also a plugin that integrate slimstat with wp-admin but i prefer that standard working.
After we have installed new version of WordPress 2 we can see somotime the posting time take ages.
Spelling! Tuttut
Yee sometimes
But with good hosting the 3 entry really helps. But it must be a fast hosting because i use wordpress 2 also on slower host and after employment this rule the speed is the same (not so sensilbe difference).
I use “Did you pass math?” instead of Spam Karma - seems to be much more efective and false-positive free.
http://www.herod.net/dypm/dypm.html
I’d love to see your article on http://eioba.com .
Uuu nice, i try to submit my text there.
Thanks for info
This is perfect template blog. I tried install a blog and it went bad. Do you have any tips on installing?
You need to write more details about your errors
Thanx for the Slimstat website !!!
thanks for the tips especially slimstat
ironically about somethingunpredictable.com, he for sure didn’t predict his hdd going to fail him and didn’t make any backup. Is there’s any mirror for no ping wait?
Well no, but i plan to make public this plugin on my site. Hope this helps because many people ask me about it.
Thanks for the tip, I’ve only just started blogging
http://www.knoxit.com.au/blog/ and would have to admit the one I missed was the Lightbox JS version 2.0 so off we go
Jesse-Lee Stringer very nice design !
Enjoyed browsing through the site. Keep up the good work. Greetings
I want test lightbox in my site next week, thanks for suggestion.
No problem, hope you will like it
That’s good. I’ll apply this for my blog
Quote from 3. No Ping Wait - Faster posting:
“There is also a good list that i add to my options in wp admin (beyond the plugin use).
We add this in Options->Writing->Update Services”
I can’t find ‘Update Services’ under writing, and im using Wordpress v2…any help please?
I espacially appreciate the SlimStat suggestion since I had been looking to implement an “internal” stats alternative for some while.
Many thanks for these tips!
No problem, i use them for all my pages.
Brilliant site enjoyed surfingThanks
Enjoyed browsing through the site. You have very useful information. Keep up the good work.
Thanks and Greetings
Thanks for these, use most of them already and am trying out the spot milk theme at the moment.
Hey,
For all you guys out there supporting video content, you can now monetize it free with the NoPrimeTime wordpress plugin. You can also crosspromote your sites if you lack advertisers.
The plugin can be found here: http://www.noprimetime.com/plugin
Brilliant site enjoyed surfingThanks
Thanx for the Slimstat website…
I want test lightbox in my site next week, thanks for suggestion.