To begin using the program you can visit http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-facebook-google-plusone-share/ or you can search for Add Twitter, Facebook Like, Google plus one Social share via your “add new” option in the plugins section of your WordPress admin area.

Once installed the program is located in the “Settings” tab on the left navigation bar of your websites administrator area under the name “TF Social Share.”

Once you launch the program the first options you will see are the “General Options.”

As you’ll notice the first option is to have the program “auto display” this is a great option if you plan to have horizontal share buttons at the top or bottom of each post in any WordPress theme or if you want to hover buttons on the “left side of the post.” However you can also uncheck the automatic box and instead insert the programs PHP coding directly into your template as you see fit.

Next you simply choose which share buttons you would like. Unlike the “Sharebar Plugin” this program doesn’t allow you to add new social share buttons at will but it does have Pinterest already included which is a nice added bonus.

The next option simple asks you to choose which parts of your website the plugin will appear. If you choose “homepage, categories, tags, etc” I would highly recommend checking the output immediate as the buttons on several of my websites have shown up in strange places that broke the flow of my article output.

Once you’ve chose those options you can then choose the button placement and decide whether or not you want a border around the buttons. Notice that you can also “show background color” or leave it unchecked for transparent. If you have a certain background color you want to use it can also be entered in hex decimal format.

My favorite part of this plugin however is the ability to have it load in the Footer. This is a nice touch because occasionally Twitter will change its API and conflicts will occur that can mess up the sharebar and other WordPress plugins. By loading the plugin in the footer if it created conflicts the rest of your website loads and the share ption is the only thing missing.

As you’ll notice you can also disable on mobile devices and add your Twitter ID so your Twitter shares include the @twitterhandle response.

The next options focus on setting up your share options for the left side floating bar and for button sizes:

The first several options allow you to determine exactly where the social sharing bar will float on the left side of the page. I kept the bar in a fixed position which allowed it to always show on the page without an annoying “follow the scroll” tyep of setup. You can easily change left side spacing and the top spacing to match optimal output on your website which is a very nice feature, especially for uniquely setup pages.

The second option lets you choose the size of each button and to decide if you want count display to show. This is a self explanatory section and it comes in handy when you want to make everything match up nicely on your pages.

There are a lot of social sharing plugins for WordPress however the Add Twitter, Facebook Like, Google plus one Social share Plugin so far has been the easiest to implement on my WordPress created properties because it helps me avoid scripting conflicts with other programs.

Give this easy to implement WordPress plugin a try today and let me know what you think.

Using this plugin developer Mark Jeldi has made it simple to ignore the NextGen Gallery plugin script and style calls on all posts where the Nextgen shortcode  [nggallery id=x] is not being used.

To start using the plugin simply search for “NextGen Gallery Optimizer” in your “add new plugins” section of your WordPress setup or download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery-optimizer/ and install the plugin in your plugins program via FTP or through the upload function.

Once installed the program offers a very simple interface:

Notice that to get started all you have to do is choose the NextGen Gallery theme or the URL path to a custom theme you are using and then choose if you want the plugin to support the Fancybox lightbox effect. By selecting the lightbox effect option you now have that feature sync’d with NextGen Gallery as an added bonus. Mark says he included Fancy Lightbox integration after realizing that many NextGen Gallery users were having problems getting the two to work properly together.

As this is the first release of the plugin the developer admits to some drawbacks:

“NextGEN Gallery Optimizer ONLY looks for the [nggallery id=x] shortcode, and ONLY on Posts! This means it will not add scripts and styles on posts embedded with NGG’s single images or slideshows, or add anything on WordPress Pages…well, at least not yet!

The plugin is still a work in progress, however I downloaded and installed the plugin on a test platform and found that the NGGallery script wasn’t being called when the gallery wasn’t available on my posts and those posts saw increased load times after the plugin was installed, verifying the authors claims of faster WordPress load speeds.

Give NextGen Gallery Optimizer for WordPress a try today and let us know what you think about it’s simple to use features and increased performance.

My biggest qualm however comes from the way images are handled through the WordPress platform. Let me fill you in on this process, whenever you use a specific theme and upload a picture that photo is uploaded using all of the thumbnail sizes available for the template being used. For example if display pages require 300 x 250, 500 x 500 and 30 x 60 photos to be created that’s what you’ll receive.

Now let’s say you jump over to a new template and the thumbnail sizes require 250 x 250, 500 x 425 and 30 x 60. Two of your images will not show correctly (they will be too small to fill in available space).

That last statement is where the Ajax Thumnail Rebuild Plugin for WordPress comes into play. This plugin easily allows users to rebuild thumbnails from all of their pictures based on current theme requirements. 

You can start using the program by visiting this link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ajax-thumbnail-rebuild/ or by searching for “Ajax Thumbnail Rebuild” via the “add new” plugin section in your WordPress install.

Here’s the display screen you will be provided with once you navigate to “Tools” and then “Rebuild Thumbnails.”

As you’ll notice you can choose which files to rebuild and which files to leave alone, this is good if you only want several file sizes to be used with your new theme since it means less stress on your server as the plugin skips over certain file types.

In many cases a new WordPress template may only require several featured thumbnail images to be used throughout the theme in which case you can simply click the “Only rebuild featured images” to cut the workload severely down for the plugin.

While there are other thumbnail rebuilding plugins for WordPress they typically tell your server to rebuild all images at once, however your server will likely place a time constraint on that process and for larger sites with more images you’ll eventually receive a time out error. Unlike those plugins this program rebuilds images one at a time, avoiding time out issues since a new thumbnail rebuild command is sent to the server when the last process has completed.

Having rebuilt thumbnails for websites with hundreds of posts I would highly recommend the Ajax Thumbnail Rebuild plugin to anyone looking for a quick fix to image display issues within their new WordPress template.

When I’m building websites I prefer to not leave the placement of social buttons to chance and I don’t like to place buttons in multiple positions because it can adversely affect pageload times. For that prefer to use the Sharebar plugin for WordPress which can be found at: wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sharebar.

The plugin is extremely easy to install, simply search for “Sharebar” from the plugins screen in your WordPress administrator screen and the program will show up under the “settings” at which point you will see the following screen:

As you’ll notice the setup screen allows for automatic displaying of the Sharebar based on “Posts” and “Pages” and it also provides the ability to choose when the bar shows up, for example you can have the bar only show up when the screen display of the user is a certain resolution size such as 1000px or higher. Users with different sized templates can also choose to left or right offset Sharebar so it doesn’t interfer with the templates content area.  Also notice that you can have the sharebar display as horizontal buttons if the minimum display size isn’t available. The buttons in the horizontal display are the small sharing buttons shown in your settings area.

One of my favorite parts of Sharebar is the ability to change the programs background and border colors using simple HTML HEX codes, this means a users with a black background can blend the sharebar just as easily as a user with a white background.

Once you’ve setup the actual Sharebar display you can then choose which social buttons (Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) you want to display. You can also choose which order those buttons will be shown. For example you can place the Facebook Like button first then the Twitter button and so on.

As you’ll notice the ability to place buttons is as simple as pushing the up and down arrows to create a placement order. You can also “Edit” buttons to change the “large” and “small” button outputs by placing new code in each area.

One of my favorite parts of the WordPress Sharebar plugin is the ability to add new social sharing buttons by simply naming those buttons and adding in the code for small and large buttons. Here’s a quick look at the easy to use button sharing setup.

As you’ll notice once the buttons are added you can then click “enable” to auto add the button to your Sharebar plugin.

Once you’ve installed all of your required buttons and created the settings placement for your sharebar the display will look similar to the Sharebar page shown below:

Now scroll down your page and watch as the social sharing bar following your screen as you scroll.

Give Sharebar for WordPress a try today and let me know what you think.

The program can be downloaded at WP Really Simple Health and offers users just three simple options for setting up the program.

Here’s a screenshot for the program’s health settings:

Once installed the program then provides instant access to a users server setup in the admin bar at the top of their WordPress page setup. Having immediate access means you can quickly see your servers health without needing to navigate to a specialized area for the program.

Here’s a quick look at the navigation bar for one of my personal sites that runs the WP Really Simple Health plugin:

As you can see the uptime is listed as “up from” while the systems RAM output is shown along with CPU% which is blank in that example because it only displays Cpu last minute load.

One really nice part about Simple Health Settings is the fact that it uses classes to avoid naming collisions which in turn means you won’t have conflicts with your other plugins, wordpress files and the plugin.

Overall WP Really Simple Health is a simple to use WordPress plugin that offers users easy access to some very important statistics without any extra work on their behalf.

Since this is a new WordPress plugin I will provide my standard disclaim: Server load, stability and other issues may exist and have not fully been tested, if you use this plugin on a platform that charges for compute cycles, CPU usage or other load variables you will want to closely monitory your user account.

But while most WordPress users are well aware of Akismet, various caching plugins and other near-essential tools for blogging, over the years I’ve found a slew of lesser-known plugins that have become indespensible to me and my bloggging.

Though the full list could probably go on for quite some time, here is a list of five of the more important plugins I’ve run across and how they’ve helped to make me a better blogger over the years and are plugins I probably wouldn’t build a new site without.

Editorial Calendar

Have you ever had a great idea for a post but forgotten what it was when you sat down to write it the next day or the next week? Have you ever finished a great brainstorming session but had no idea when you’d have time to post all of your new ideas? Then you need an editorial calendar.

The editorial calendar plugin for WordPress makes it easy to jot down your post ideas, arrange them by date to plan out when you’ll run each one and then rearrange them as things change. Did you get an urgent news item that has to run today? Drag today’s planned post to another day and keep moving.

The process is incredibly smooth and efficient, making it easy to manage your posts and plan out your blog weeks, even months in advance.

WP CleanFix

One of the things that makes WordPress great is its use of MySQL database for storing posts, comments and other data. However, that database is often WordPress’ greatest weakness as it can get bloated and slow very easily.

Between post revisions, spam comments and other, largely unneeded, database entries, your database can be many times the size of what it should be. That puts extra strain on your server and can slow your site down.

WP CleanFix goes through your database and removes all of the unneeded gunk. It can then optimize your database to make sure that it’s as small and as efficient as possible. It can also do find/replaces in your post and comment content to help you bulk edit your site.

With WP CleanFix, as with any other plugin that manipulates the database, you’ll want to make backups of your database before using it just in case there are any problems.

Smush.it

Images are an important part of blogging and nearly every single post does better with an image or two included in it. However, those images can add a good deal of data to your page and, as such, can take a lengthy amount of time to download if not properly compressed.

The Smush.it WordPress plugin makes compression effortless. Simply install the plugin and it will put every image you upload through the Media Library through Smush.it, which will in turn strip out unneeded data and reduce your image size, often drastically, without reducing image quality.

In some cases, I’ve had images shave as much as 20% or more off of their file size, a small difference that can add up in a big way on a large site.

Article Templates

Many sites have recurring post types that follow a particular pattern. Whether it’s a podcast post in a consistent structure, a weekly linkroll that always has certain information, etc., repeating these posts can be a real pain with WordPress as you have to copy and paste a previous post, remove the old information and then add the new.

Article Templates plugin offers a much better way to do it. Simply create your template for the post, meaning a blank version of it, and then when you create a new one you just apply the template and fill it in. You can edit your templates at any time and create new ones if needed.

The plugin is a tremendous time saver for any recurring posts and it also prevents a lot of human error by automating as much of the process as possible.

P3 – Plugin Performance Profiler

One of the great things about WordPress plugins is that they enable WordPress to become a custom fit for the site you’re building. However, those plugins can also bea performance hazard for your site, slowing it down and frustrating your readers.

It can be a real challenge to know which plugins are causing the problem as often times the most innocuous-looking plugin is the one gobbling up all of the resources.

Plugin Performance Profile, written by GoDaddy, one of the largest WordPress hosts in the world, takes a look at your site’s loading time and analyzes which plugins are the ones causing things to slow down. You can then either delete those plugins or, if needed, swap them out for more efficient alternatives.

It’s extremely simple to use, just install and scan, P3 provides its results in simple-to-read charts and graphs that clearly highlight any plugins gone wild. It’s a great plugin when building a new site as it lets you see what plugins are problematic before you launch.

Bottom Line

With WordPress, plugins are both the true power and the true danger of the system. They can expand the functionality of WordPress far beyond its core and create an almost custom CMS for any site you want to run,

However on the other hand, they can create problems and conflicts, especially with certain themes. They can also slow your site down, create security vulnerabilities and other problems.

As such, it’s best to use plugins with caution, being careful that you need the plugin and that you can’t solve the same problem with simple HTML. Sometimes you can actually install a plugin temporarily, copy the HTML code it produces and use that instead of running the plugin constantly.

Still, there are many times plugins are necessary and useful. In those cases, you shouldn’t shy away from them but, instead, bask in the power that is the extensible WordPress.

Of course, PHP can do just about anything if you know how to tell it to. I thought it would be awesome if I could have a shared links box on the sidebar of each WordPress blog, and have a form online that I could enter in the name and URL to each new blog as I built them, and then have PHP add that link to all 98 blogs instantly. Thankfully, I was able to set this up exactly how I needed it. This is what I am going to show you today, and you can use it however you see fit. One thing I want to remind you of is that even though I am using the shared content box for links, it technically can be used for anything, your imagination is the limit. Let’s get started.

Requirements

WordPress Blog(s)
Hosting with PHP and MySQL Database (this is a common setup, so your host should have it)
PHPMyAdmin Access

Step 1

Download the Samsarin PHP Widget to your WP blog;  install and activate it. This plugin lets you create a widget that can execute any PHP code right in the widget. This is crucial for you because it allows you to connect to your PHP database and display the content right there on your blog.

Step 2

Open up your PHPMyAdmin dashboard, and create a new database called links_database. You do this by clicking on the “databases” tab from the PHPMyAdmin home page, then you can specify the name of the database you want to create. If you don’t have enough admin rights to create a database from PHPMyAdmin, then you have to create it from within your hosting panel (CPanel, etc.).

Step 3

Once you have the database created, you need to execute the following SQL code to create the table that will house the links. Do this by clicking on the SQL tab up top and pasting in and running the following SQL code:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `links` (
`site_name` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`url` varchar(100) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

That SQL code will create a table named links inside the links_database database. Notice that it has two columns/fields:  site_name is the anchor text, and url is the URL of the site that the anchor text will point to.

Step 4

Next we are going to create a PHP file named connect.php which will contain the login and password for the specific database that we want to hook up to in our other scripts. Go ahead and create connect.php with your text editor and insert the following code into it (be sure to change the username and password to your own):

<?php
# Type="MYSQL"
# HTTP="true"
$hostname_links = "localhost";
$database_links = "links_database";
$username_links = "DB_USERNAME";
$password_links = "DB_PASSWORD";
$conn = mysql_pconnect($hostname_links, $username_links, $password_links) or trigger_error(mysql_error(),E_USER_ERROR);
?>

Step 5

Now we create another simple PHP script called update.php, which will actually update the database every time we create and add a new link. Fill the update.php with the following code:

<?php require_once('connect.php'); ?>
<?php
$site_name = $_POST['site_name'];
$url = $_POST['url'];
mysql_select_db("links_database", $jim);
$query = "INSERT INTO links (site_name,url ) VALUES ('$_POST[site_name]','$_POST[url]')";
if (!mysql_query($query,$conn))
{
die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo "1 record added";
?>

Step 6

Next we are going to create another PHP script called enterblog.php which will serve as the online web form that you will go to every time you want to add a new link to the list. Create enterblog.php with the following code in it:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Enter New Blog</title>
</head>
<body>
<div align="center"><form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="update.php">
<table width="500" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4">
<tr>
<td width="190">Enter name of new site:</td>
<td width="294">
<input name="site_name" type="text" id="site_name" size="50" maxlength="50" />
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Enter the url of the site:</td>
<td><input name="url" type="text" id="url" value="http://www." size="50" maxlength="100" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td align="center"><input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" value="Add Site to Database" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Step 7

We now will create another PHP script called displayurls.php which will be the script we call from the widget in WordPress. This script simply pulls all of the rows from the links table in the links_database. Put the following code inside displayurls.php:

<?php
// Connects to your Database
mysql_connect("localhost", "DB_USERNAME", "DB_PASSWORD") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("links_database") or die(mysql_error());
$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM links") or die(mysql_error());
$rt=mysql_query($data);
while($nt=mysql_fetch_array($data)){
Print "<table border=0 cellpadding=3>";
echo "<tr><td><a href=\"";
echo $nt['url'];
echo "\">";
echo $nt['site_name'];
echo "</a>";
echo "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
Print "</table>";
}
?>

Step 8

Okay almost done! Upload all of the PHP files we created here to the root directory of your site. Then change the file permissions on them to 755. Once you are done with that, it is time to bring up the web form and enter in a few links to the database. To do that, just type in the URL to your enterblog.php script, which should be something like http://www.yourblog.com/enterblog.php and you will see a two field web form. Enter in a few sites and URL’s, and hit enter after you type each one. It should tell you that 1 row was added if it went through successfully. Once that is done we can move on to the final step.

Step 9

Go into your WordPress admin and click on the Widgets option under the Appearance menu. In the widget selections you should see a widget titled something like “Samsarin PHP 1″, make sure you drag that widget somewhere onto your visible sidebar. When the widget pops up, enter in the title of the widget which might be something like “Links” and then in the body field type in the following PHP code:

<?php include("displayurls.php"); ?>

Then hit Save. If you should run into an issue where you cannot see the links, try typing in your Absolute Server Path inside the above PHP include code (so instead of “displayurls.php” you might put something like “/var/www/displayurls.php” but the exact path is different for everyone’s server). You can get the absolute server path from your hosting company. When you bring up your blog, you should see the links box on any site you put that widget on. If you have this widget installed on every blog on your server, you can add a link to them all instantly just by entering the link info once into the web form and hitting enter! Pretty cool huh?!

Just a side note, I am not a PHP programmer. I know enough to modify some things and write simple scripts, but if you are a PHP guru and you see something that can be improved in these scripts, or see something wrong, feel free to voice your opinion in the comments and I will listen to all of your ideas. Good Luck!

You can start by downloading the nRelate plugin directly from your Admin plugin section with a simple “nRelate” search. The program is in active development and currently supported databases up to WordPress 3.3.1.

Once installed you will go to the nRelate tab on the left side of your administration screen and click on the “Dashboard” option which revealed this screen:

As you will notice you have the option to set a default image (in case all your posts don’t have images). However I would actually suggest uploading images to all your posts and then placing the image URL in a custom field. This was you can use the “Custom Field for Images” to display an image thumb using nRelate without displaying images on posts when they are not needed.

You will also need to setup an account with nRelate if you would like to earn money through their program. You will receive an ad ID number which is inputting to earn cash.

Below those options is the ability to exclude WordPress categories, simply click on each checkbox you see if there are certain sections in which you don’t want nRelate to appear.

After the dashboard options have been set you simple go back to the admin NRelate area and choose “Related Content.” The first section you will see contained the image size for your nRelate platform output:

After you have chosen your image size and your default image below those options you’ll then move on to fill out some other important information, for example you can choose the relate content box output. In the screenshot below the box reads “Related Articles” but this could be anything you choose. Next you’ll choose the number of related articles to show from your website. If for example you want to show 2 advertiser ads and three ads from your website you’ll choose the “3″ option.

One of the most important options is choosing the strength of relevancy for the post. The more relevant you can make your content the higher CTR (Click Through Rate) you will receive. Keep in mind that Low relevancy should be used with sites that may only contain a few dozen posts, otherwise there might not be enough relevant content to display any posts.

I like that you can also choose how far back in our archive to go. For example if you write evergreen content that won’t go out of relevancy to your readers you can literally go back 10 years.

Finally choose to display the post title (recommended) and then limit the number of characters if you chose. I wouldn’t make this number too high since it could leave an undesired look in the widget if you tend to use really long titles which you shouldn’t be doing anyways.

In the next set of options more settings are available including the ability to show an excerpt for each post, the ability to set content from your blogroll and even the option to choose which sections on your website (posts, pages, archives, etc) receive the NRelated Post.

After those settings have been chosen you can finally setup the actual placement of the nRelate platform. This section is pretty straightforward, you can check “top of post” or “bottom of post” to have the widget show directly below or before your content. You can also leave those unchecked and use the manual method by adding the programs php call directly into your template where you want it to display.

This is also the section where you can choose if you want to display advertising through the nRelate program.

You’ve likely noticed that there is a style gallery option, this gallery allows you to choose the CSS output for the type of nRelate image overlays you would like to choose. Here’s a quick peak at a few of the options:

With gallery options you can make nRelate content match your site which in turn means better click through rates and more earnings plus a better bounce rate as users peruse other articles on your website through the program.

Overall nRelate has become my favorite WordPress based plugin. I love that it works with any wordpress theme and that it’s easy to install with plenty of customization options.

Working with an open-source platform that provides open-source plugins means it’s often cheap to build and maintain a website using WordPress, however because the platform and plugins are often open source it can also create a security headache for site administrators and that’s where Ultimate Security Checker comes into play.

The program is simple to use, essentially users simply search for “Ultimate Security Checker” in the WordPress repository and upload it to their server or they just install it direct from the WordPress plugins search section inside the admin area of their websites WordPress setup.

Once installed the program will ask you to run a diagnostic at which time Ultimate Security Checker will examine your blocks file settings, server settings, WordPress database and required plugin updates for stability.

Here’s the output for the program after a check has been completed:

As you’ll notice each area that is checked is ranked, this shows users where areas of improvement can be made, the program also gives each WordPress blog a security points score, in this case my blog scored 102 out of 115 points because several server configuration steps could be better optimized.

Users can choose to “Run the tests again!” whenever they want while the settings tab at the top of the screen will also allow them to set a reminder scan for 1 or 2 weeks (this can also be set to “never” if you choose).

Next to the “Run the Tests” tab at the top of the screen users will also fine the “File Analysis” tab, in this option you can have Ultimate Security Checker scan each file on your blog while searching for suspicious code, this of this tab as the virus scan portion of the plugin.

Once you have found areas that require improvement simply click on the “How To Fix” tab which will in turn lead you to helpful resources that explain how to better your blog through simple fixes that you can handle on your own or with the help of your hosting provider.

And just in case you forget about Ultimate Security Checker I wouldn’t worry to much, your security score always shows direct at the top of your admin bar, ensuring you can keep an eye on the security of your blog at all times.

Use Ultimate Security Checker alongside WP Clean-Options and you’ll have a nicely secured blog that runs safe and fast for years to come.

As you may already be aware when some plugins are deleted they fail to remove their database tables from your websites MySql database, conversely they leave commands nested inside your WP-Options table. In some cases poorly constructed plugins can slow down your website and keep it slow even after removed.

WP’s Clean Options plugin however helped you find those orphaned plugins and delete them with just a few simple clicks.

To get started simply search for “Clean Options” from the “Add New” screen in your WordPress admin areas Plugins screen or download and install the plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/clean-options/

One installed the plugin is located under “Tools.”

After clicking on the plugin you will see the following screen:

As you’ll notice I only click on the “Don’t show the Known WordPress Core Options for this “Find” and that’s because I’m only trying to find Plugin files that were left behind. If you don’t know what you are doing or want to error on the side of caution I would suggest only clicking on the top box. Next you will simply click “Find Orphaned Options.”

The next display will take several seconds (10-20 seconds on average) to display the orphaned plugin and the output will look something like this:

As you’ll notice the plugin options are typically named directly after the plugin you have installed or may have removed. For example if you were using the Sharebar Plugin you would see “Sharebar_bg.” At this point you simply click on all of the plugins that you want to remove tables for. At the bottom of all your options that have been selected you then simply choose “View Selected Options Information.”

The final output screen will look like this:

After you have verified that the plugins displayed must be removed you just click on “Yes, Removal ALL of these options from the wp_options table. You can also select “No. Don’t remove them, return to the first screen” if you have made a mistake. Click submit and your choice is processed.

One qualm with this plugin, if you have installed 50 plugins over the life of your website and there are 1000 orphans options there’s a good chance the program will time out, this is because it will take longer then the typical 30 second timeout option found on most hosts. To fix this problem you can have your host extend your timeout function or add a command to your .htaccess file to do so on your own.

If all else fails you can always access your phpMyAdmin area, open the WP_Options table and select each orphaned table by hand and choose delete. However when used regularly Clean Options allows you to avoid fiddling manually with your WordPress database.

As always remember to backup your WordPress database regularly to avoid any issues that this plugin or other plugins may cause for your website.

Give the Wordress Clean Options plugin a try today and let me know what you think.

Once you have uploaded the programs plugin to your WordPress install you will find a screen explaining the different post update shortcodes that can be used by the program. As you’ll notice you have the option with each tweet to add such output as post titles, blog name, a short excerpt from your content, category information, date timestamps, the posts URL and even the post author name. These options are all great ways to brand your content in a unique fashion that isn’t your standard “Post Title – Link – Blog Name” format.

The first step of the setup process is to create a Twitter App for the program. The application will actually show you how to create that application so we will skip that step for now.

Once you have your Twitter username, consumer key, consumer secret, access token and access token secret options from your Twitter developer account you simply enter them in the provided space and click on the Connect button. This step will verify your account and give WP to Twitter access to post information from your blog posts on your behalf.

Once you have setup your Twitter application you can then choose when to Tweet posts. For example the first option allows you to choose “update when a post is published.” Below that checkbox you enter the shortcodes we talked about above. For example “#title# #url#” will post your tweet at “Title of Post – URL Link” which you can change through shortcodes. You can even add words before those codes such as “New Post - #title# #url#”

I mention added words because the new option is to send a tweet when a post has been updated, in this case you might have all edited posts go out as “Updated Post - #title# #url#”

Users can also choose to tweet out new pages or updated pages, this is especially good if you run a website with a strong privacy or copyright page and you want users to be aware of changes. For example perhaps you want a group of writers to see your privacy policy update on a page.

You can also set tweets for comments and links however those options can quickly crowd your Twitter accounts timeline.

One of my favorite parts of Wp to Twitter is the ability to choose which shortcodes I use. The system had direct support for Su.Pr (StumbleUpon) and Bit.ly shortening services along with the YOURLS Service.

To use all three services just sign up for an account at your service of choice and enter in the desired information, it’s that simple. Once installed whenever you use the #url# tag as part of your chosen output you will receive that shortened URL using your service of choice.

Of course if you don’t use one of those options Twitter will shorten the URL using the Twitter URL shortening service.

The next section is for Advanced Tweet output. One of my favorite parts of the WP to Twitter plugin is the ability to set Hashtags from tags. For example my tag could be “Facebook” at which point my Twitter message would read “Title – URL #Facebook” If you run a blog that is focused on very specific topics you can even create your own tags on your posts that match targeted hashtags you have created.

You can even choose how many tags to include in case you use 3 or 4 tags instead of one. The advanced settings also allows you to choose a Twitter date format and even choose wording to put before ALL tweets if you don’t want to specific that information in the basic settings on a per tweet basis (which I don’t see the point in doing personally).

Not pictured in the screenshot above is the “Author” tag, this allows you to use the #Author# code to make reference to a specific author in a tweet. For example my Twitter name is @TechObsessed and if I specific that name in my user account via WordPress my Tweets could read “Title – URL #Facebook @Techobsessed.”

If you want to build branding for your authors the author tag is a great way to accomplish that goal.

Overall I find WP to Twitter to be the most customize and user friendly option available in the WordPress repository, give it a try today and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Here are 5 new WordPress plugins for developing a faster and smarter blog.

1. WP Separate CSS

As a fan of tweaking my websites design on a fairly regular basis I often find that purchased themes pose one significant problem, whenever an update is made available some developers provide all new files for that theme. Unfortunate that means If I update the theme without backing up the CSS file I lose all of the changes that made the theme my own. WP Separate CSS solves this problem by allowing users to create a separate CSS file that is then added into the theme’s CSS output. Simply upload the program, create a .CSS file within the plugins folder and edit that file instead of the typical style.css and other files. Once the .css file is saved the changes are loaded alongside the templates .css files.

2. WP Put The Meta

Sometimes I want to add certain custom field options to the stories I write but not to every single post, for this purpose the WP Put The Meta plugin is a nice addition to any blog looking for smarter output of content. Simply install the plugin, create a custom field and then insert the following shortcode in your post [putthemeta key=""] where the quotations are filled in with the name of the custom field. While the author of this plugin points to Google Adsense Code insertion as a big plus for this plugin it’s also a great way to add in co-author information, highlight iframe information and provide any other type of output that would typically require HTML coding or other embed options.

3. Be It Facebook Sidetab

This is currently my favorite way to display a “Follow Us On Facebook” floating logo. Now only will uses realize very quickly that you have a fan page for your website, they won’t see your Facebook stream, followers or other intrusive information until they click on the tab. I’m a big fan of the Facebook follow box but I also implement this floating Facebook follow button on my own social media website.

Here’s a quick look at the follow button that is provided:

When clicked that button opens up to display the Facebook fan page stream (if turned on, follower avatars and other information).

4. Google Web Fonts for WordPress

Google offers a library of over 350 web fonts that can help your blogs text stand out from other WordPress sites that typical rely on old faithful options such as Times New Roman and Lucia. While I fully condone the use of those font types because of their reliable output sometimes it’s worth spicing up an arsty or cutting edge website.  For this purpose I recommend Google Web Fonts for WordPress, a new plugin that makes choosing a new Google Web Font type simple.

To use the plugin simple activate it from your WordPress backend then navigation to the ‘Fonts’ menu located under the WordPress ‘Appearance’ tab. From the Fonts menu you will see a dropdown list of available fonts, simply save your selection after you have made your choices.

If you’re not sure which font you want to use you can visit the Google Web Font Directory or preview the fonts from inside the plugins preview window.

After you have chosen your font you will simple add the properties code to your themes stylesheet.

Here are a few Google Web Fonts examples to get your creative juices flowing:

5. Custom Registration Link

The standard URL for WordPress user registration is  found under “http://website-url/wp-login.php?action=register” the problem with that fact is that spam-bots will register on your blog, causing fake accounts to throw off your registered user accounts. While you can simply turn off new user registration that does very little good if you use a WordPress forum plugin or if you require users to register in order to leave comments. With Customer Registraiton Link users are given the option to change the location of the register links to whatever they choose.

Simply install the plugin and you will see a link change area such as the one shown below:

Simply choose your registration link then click save changes and you can drastically reduce spam bot registrations.

Those are just five of the newest Wordpres plugins that can help pretty up your blog and make it a bit smarter.

As always remember that these plugins are brand new and therefore may require regular updates as the developers find bugs in there systems. Always remember to make a backup of your websites database before installing these and any other WordPress plugins.

Using Social Metrics is extremely simple, after downloading and simply clicking activate the program can be visited in a section located directly below the “Dashboard” option within the WP-ADMIN area:

After clicking on the “Social Metrics” section the main display is then shown. Before choosing any settings the program automatically displays your newest posts first.

As you can see from the screenshot below the title for each post is displayed (you can click on the hyperlink to visit each story). Next you’ll find some of the most used buttons on most sites (Twitter, Facebook, Google+,StumbleUpon, Digg and LinkedIn). Next to each type of social sharing button is the number of shares it has received. Unfortunately Reddit is now implemented which is a real shame given the buttons increasing prevalence.

Since sharing is pulled each time the Social Metrics plugin is launched you receive a real-time representation of shares on your website. Examine the screenshot:

If you happen to realize that you haven’t stumbled an article or you want to add a tweet to the overall account you can simply click each button from inside the social metrics display and it will add a share to that article. For users who may auto-tweet their posts to a website account but often forget to send stories to their own personal accounts this is a great way to mass tweet, like or stumble any article of your choosing.

You’ll also notice at the top of the page that there is the option to “Filter by Category” and “Filter by Date.” The Category option lets you choose any category you have setup on your WordPress blog at which point only those posts and shares from that category are shown. The “Filter By Date” option on the other hand provides users the chance to only examine posts based on the month for which they were posted. If you’re attempting to check your overall shares by month this is a great option.

You’ll also notice that you can sort by “Posts” or “Pages” which can help determine how well engaged different aspects of your site have become.

The main display for Social Metrics offers 20 posts at one time however that number can be lowered or raised through the settings button located below the Dashboard console on the left side of the WP-ADMIN area:

Simply change “Number of Posts to Display at a Time” to whatever you want and then choose “Save Changes.”

The rest of the features within settings can only be changed if you purchase Social Metrics Pro which at the time of this posting costs $69.90.

While the price is steep the added functionality offered is well worth the price, for example using the “Display on Admin Dashboard” allows the last five posts you’ve put up to show when you log into WordPress without needing to launch Social Metrics. The Pro version also allows for Excel and CSV downloading of metrics files and conditional formatting for those files while providing ascending and descending sort functionality.

My absolute favorite part of Social Metrics Pro however is the Search Box functionality which as the name suggests allows users to type in search terms via the plugin. For example, if you want to find out how well the term “Apple iPhone 4″ is sharing you can type in that search and examine all posts that mention the iPhone 4. You could then type in “Samsung Galaxy S II” and see how well that device is sharing. Using the search box to determine the competitiveness of one term compared to another is a great way to figure out which topics outperform others and then focus your content in those areas.

Overall I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.

1: Yoast WordPress SEO

Yoast WordPress SEO is an all in one SEO kit which gives you site wide control over some of the most important SEO factors. Most usefully it allows you to easily write SEO friendly meta titles and descriptions, or it can even choose them for you! You can use Yoast SEO to create dynamic titles and descriptions across pages or to update individual pages. Other handy features include the ability to customise the content of your RSS feed, additional permalink controls, breadcrumb creator and a handy XML sitemap creator.

2: W3 TotalCache

W3 cache is a great plug in for improving site speed. Some WordPress sites can be notoriously slow because they have a lot of information to fetch from the server and then deliver to the user. Blog posts, comments and plug in data all have to be retrieved from the server which takes a lot of time. W3 TotalCache significantly reduces that time by caching its own fully complete copy of that page in its memory and presenting that to the user.

W3 TotalCache also allows you to minify CSS and Javascript files, which is particularly useful in some WordPress themes where there are an unnecessary amount of files. W3TotalCache essentially eliminates the unnecessary files and squeezes everything into one efficient file which is delivered directly to the user. W3TC can also be used for local cache, providing information to the browser as to what to cache and how long to keep it caches.

3: Share This

As social shares are likely to carry even more weight as a ranking factor, it’s as important as ever to ensure you’ve got social share buttons on all areas of your site. There are several social sharing plug ins, but for sheer ease of use and number of services this is the best for those who just want to install and let it do it’s magic. Share This enables you to customise the social sharing sites you display and where you display them on the page. You can also register with ShareThis to get additional social analytics about your shared posts.

4: upPrev Previous Post Animated Notification

One of the best bounce rate search engine optimisation tips I can give is to get this plug in! This is a great little way to subtly capture your users attention, help decrease bounce rate and generally get people engaging with more and more posts on your site. A lot of people found it initially on sites such as Nytimes.com and oddee.com have also been using something similar for a while.

This plug in creates a slider which fades or slides into your page when a user reaches a certain point in your post. If you set this at the very end of your page, it grabs the attention of the reader and allows them to click straight through to a different post. It works because it’s not too intrusive and when used properly feels quite natural and helpful.

5: Google Analytics For WordPress

For those serious about learning about the insight of their website, there isn’t a more complete Google Analytics package than Yoast’s. This plug in allows you as much insight into your websites analytics data as you want. You can either install the tracking code and leave it to collect the raw data you need every day, or use it to set custom variable reporting, e-commerce integration and event tracking.

Scott is a writer who would urge every SEO who hasn’t got a WordPress site to go out and start experimenting TODAY!

We also examine a new way to import audio files from YouTube without the need for their included video and examine how users can easily use their social media logins to comment via the WordPress commenting system.

Take a look at each of the plugins below and let us know which one you find the most useful.

1. Ultimate FaceBook Fan Box

The standard Facebook Fan box is a bit boring and only offers two choices (light and dark). While those options may work well on a black background or white background create website they don’t necessarily blend very well (even with a border color) for other sites. Using the Ultimate FaceBook Fan Box users can customize the background color for their Facebook Fan box, thereby creating a more customize friendly interface.

Here’s one example of the Facebook Fan Box in action:

Users can also choose the width and height for their boxes, creating a truly customized experience.

2. Proofread Bot (Pay Per Use) 

If you self edit your blog and you want to make sure there are no grammar mistakes you should take a close look at Proofread Bot. Once uploaded this program allows users to perform checks for as little as $0.007 each directly from the post creation area of WordPress. The program works by generating a report that shows grammar and possible grammar mistakes which can then be corrected before a post is published.  The program uses natural language processing to check the rhythm of an article and also provides a plagiarism check tool perfect for guest posts and multi-author websites.

Here’s a first look at part of the output provided:

3. User Snap (Feedback Tool)

User Snap is currently in beta which means I wasn’t able to try their plugin directly on WordPress (I have since asked for a beta login). However the tool itself on the UserSnap.com website shows exactly how cool it is. Using this program users can provide feedback about webpages they are visiting. User Snap offers three tools (Highlight, Blackout and Notes). For example, a user clicks on feedback and can then highlight part of a page they believe needs to be fixed or could be improved upon. If that section shows a users private information they can then blackout that information (redacted it basically), finally they use the “Note” feature to place a note anywhere on the page they want to leave a message. Think of User Snap like a grading report from a teacher full of crossed out sentences, notes for improvements, etc.

Here’s a screenshot I created using all three options available:

The note for UserSnap was placed on the left side for this demonstration while the “Easy Visual User Feedback” and logo section was highlighted and the “beta button” was blacked out.

Hovering over any section added (highlight, blackout and note) also provides an “X” mark which can clear the option at any time. Simply choose the options for feedback and click “Send” to push your feedback to the sites webmaster.

4. AudioTube 

AudioTube is the easiest way to date that a user can place a YouTube file on their website while featuring only the audio track for that file. For example if you want to feature the Lady Gaga via the Vevo channel you would input the URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9YMU0WeBwU&ob=av2e. To input that URL users simple click on the “music icon” that appears on posts after the plugin has been installed and activated.

After the YouTube url has been uploaded and the user hits “OK” the following display will appear in the published post:

This is a great way to create a “podcast” out of a video cast you already have on YouTube if the audio and not the visual is all you want to showcase.

5. Social Login

If you’re using the standard WordPress commenting system social login is a very simple and intuitive way for your users to leave comments using the social networks they are already logged into such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, OpenID, Google, Yahoo and others.

The interface is very simple for Social Login, essentially social network buttons appear at the top of posts, allowing users to login and comment immediately:

If users log into your WordPress website through the admin area they can also utilize their social login features which appear below the standard WordPress login box:

Those are our top 5 new WordPress plugins as of November 17, 2011. Please keep in mind that because they programs are new they are still being tested and no guarantees are made about their compatibility with all themes while server load and other issues are still being examined.

Do you have a favorite new WordPress plugin that was just released this week? Share it in our comments section.

]]> http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2011/11/17/new-wordpress-plugins-for-social-media-proof-reading-and-user-feedback/feed/ 6 http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2011/11/10/hrecipe-wordpress-plugin-delivers-google-rich-snippets-support/ http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/2011/11/10/hrecipe-wordpress-plugin-delivers-google-rich-snippets-support/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:48:04 +0000 James Johnson http://www.bloggingpro.com/?p=23678 If you’ve built a recipe website using WordPress and you’ve become frustrated by the lack of visitor results you’re receiving from Google search it’s likely that your recipes have not been formatted using Google Rich Snippets, an option that provides a better way to leverage SEO results by wrapping your content in the correct type of Google Recipe search formatting.

In order to accomplish this goal I suggest HRecipe, a simple to use program that allows recipes to be entered directly from “Post Pages” while editing those recipes as required in the future.

The program can be found in the WordPress.org plugin repository HERE or found through a plugin search from your WordPress administrator area.

Once installed simply navigate to a new post and click on the “HRecipe” logo which is found next to your image, video and other upload icons at the top of the edit area. After clicking on the logo link you will see a page that looks like this:

Notice at the top of the screen you are provided with three options: Ingredients/Instructions, More Details and Notes/Variations. The first option “Ingredients/Instructions” is where you will place the ingredients needed (one per line) and then the instructions used for creating your dishes. It’s important to remember that each ingredient needs its own line since the program will wrap those ingredients in their proper Google Rich Snippet codes.

After that point you can add the preparation time, cooking time, server number and even a rating if you choose. While these fields do not all necessarily need to be filled in they do help enrich your recipe for the Google Recipe finder and therefore will help your recipe succeed in search results.

After completing the first tab you can click on “Insert” to place your recipe in the new post or you can click on “More” to add even more options. I always choose more which brings up the following display:

In this section you choose your recipe type, all of the major options are available including dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. You can also choose if a meal is Vegetarian or another diet type while a diet restriction can be given such as “kosher.” Unfortunately you can’t add new types for recipe, diet or diet restriction but the options given should cover most food types.

Finally you can choose other diet options and even the type of food “Culinary Tradition” such as Italian, USA (different regions), French, etc.

Finally the notes/variations section is used for creating any additional notes about your recipes, as you can see from the plugins example below you can pair wine types, offer side dish advice etc.

I personally like how HTML is allowed which means I could say “See our Red Wine Pairings” and then link to those pairings to create a more dynamic meal creation environment.

I also appreciate the use of variations which can help outline possible changes to a recipe for example if someone has peanut allergies or if a low-fat alternative is available. Just like the other two tabs these notes are placed inside Google Rich Code Snippets which in turn means better search placement in Google Recipe search.

When I first started using HRecipe I realized that I didn’t like my “Instructions” section being called “Preparation” so I changed it to “Cooking Directions” which was easily accomplished using Recipe support editor:

When all was said and done a quick “Source Code” search on my displayed pages showed a clear hierarchy for Google Rich Code Snippets which were wrapped in their proper Div tags. Here’s an example of that code from the FoodForumBlog:

I only tested HRecipe on a small blog that includes recipes along with various other post types and what I found was that the properly formatted recipes have far outperformed recipes that were placed months earlier using non-formatted post types.

If you’re using a WordPress and you don’t mind paying a very small fee (approximately $10 per 150,000 pageviews) you should definitely be using this plugin.

Installing the plugin is a simple process, simply download the file from the WordPress repository by either visiting HERE or by searching under “Amazon S3 for WordPress” in your WordPress plugins administrator section.

Once installed navigated to the plugin and you will see the following display options:

To fill in each box you will need to create a “Bucket” using Amazon S3. Simply log into your account and on the left side of the Amazon S3 admin area choose “Create Bucket.” When you are asked to choose a bucket name choose what you would like to call the bucket. For example in the screen above I named a bucket “images.example.” I suggest you use images.website-name so you’re images will link to images.website-name/location of files.

After clicking “Set Up Logging” you will be asked to choose a target bucket (the one you just setup) and click on create.

Looking back at the setup screen you will now need to fill in your AWS Access Key ID and the AWS Secret Key which can be found under your username in your Amazon S3 account. Click on your username at the top right side of your logged in display and click on “Security Credentials.”

After you have inputted your Amazon information you will be able to choose the bucket from your account that you wish to associate.

Next click “Host name settings” along with “File Uploads,” “Expires Header” and “File Permissions.”

The program is now setup and ready to use, simply upload files as you normally would using the media uploader in WordPress and your files will be uploaded and stored on Amazon S3 servers.

Important Note: It is VERY IMPORTANT that you click the “File Permissions” box to publicly share your files, if you fail to do so your images will not be shown on your website.

Once installed you should notice decreased load times on your website.

Final Tip: Upload your websites design images manually into your Amazon S3 account and point your template images to those files to reduce server load and therefore load times.

In this section we examine Facebook Comments for Wordress (plugin), Facebook Like Box (embed code) and Simple Facebook Connect (entire plugin framework).

If you want a simple commenting system check out our first option, if you want to build your fan page for your Facebook page try option two and if you want to integrate Facebook with your login platform, like boxes and other options check out the Simple Facebook Connect option.

In any case you’ll likely find a plugin or code base to serve your Facebook needs.

1. Facebook Comments for WordPress

This plugin is by far the most robust and easy to use option for WordPress users looking to upload a plugin, activate it and follow some easy instructions.

Once uploaded users have the ability to choose between two styles (Light and Dark), the dark option is used for websites with black backgrounds. The plugin also allows users to choose how many comments are displayed on each page.

For users who don’t want to or don’t know how to add code to their WordPress templates the Facebook Comments plugins allows for easy integration by giving users the ability to add the comments box to pages only, posts only or both.  If you do know how to place a simple PHP hook into your template you can turn off the auto insertion option and customize your site until your hearts content.

The program also allows comment counts to be reflected on pages and posts, while email notifications can be sent whenever a comment is posted.

2. Facebook Like Box

The Facebook Like box is the easiest way to display your websites Facebook fan page on your website with easy to customize options for better community outreach.

This customized friendly widget can be found at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/ and features several unique features.

First, width for the program can be chosen directly from Facebook’s website. Second, Facebook provides “light” and “dark” themes depending on the background and content area colors for your website, making it simple to customize your Facebook widget. Facebook also allows users to choose the widgets coloring based off hex codes such as #dddddd.

I also love the fact that the Facebook Like Box allows me to display the faces for Facebook users who have recently chosen to like my websites fan page, while I can also display the Facebook stream from my fan pages.

Finally, the box actually looks good on a pages sidebar or between posts. If you don’t want the “Find us on Facebook” header you can even remove it.

Finally, the embed code comes in three flavors iFrame, XFBML and HTML5. Given the popularity of HTML5 and the quick load times it offers it’s a no-brainer to choose this option.

It should be noted that Facebook does not offer a WordPress plugin directly however you can easily embed the provided code into your WordPress template.

3. Simple Facebook Connect

Simple Facebook Connect is by far the most robust of all WordPress based Facebook plugins. My favorite part about using this particular plugin is that I can allow users to sign up on my website using their Facebook credentials by placing a login button on all of my blogs pages.

Simple Facebook Connect also provides other useful Facebook integration options including the addition of Like and Share Buttons, the ability to send posts directly to a Facebook fan page and the ability to allow for Facebook commenting capabilities. SFC as it’s commonly known also allows users to integrate FB photo albums directly into their blog.

The best part about Simple Facebook connect is the fact that the program offers various widgets including the Facebook Fan box I wrote about above, the Facebook Like button, Facebook Recommendations which highlights a websites top recommended posts and more.

If you want connectivity with sharing capabilities this is the first and quite possible the last plugin you’ll ever need.

Since Simple Facebook Connect is a full system with a sub-set of systems it makes running a website with full Facebook integration a simple process that any user will enjoy.

The three plugins listed above offer their own customized options that will appeal to different users, one thing however is certain, each option features competent programming standards with ease of use that most users can figure out quickly and easily.

In addition to this trend, using WordPress (though Tumblr is on the rise!) to write about those travels is a popular option. Clean looking and easy to use, it can provide the average blogger with the tools that professional graphic designers might use to create their own website. Since it is fully customizable it is a great way to get the exact look and format you want. It is also useful because of the many plugins available to make the task a little easier.

Here are 11 awesome plugins that the travel blogger can use for their own blog.

1. Flickr Photo Album

I hate copy/pasting codes from websites to add images on my timeshare resales blog. I hate uploading photo after photo even more. If you have a Flickr account you can forget all that and just go right to source. It works by allowing you to install the plugin and then attach it to your account. From there you just browse your photos and select what one you want to use. You can select multiple images to create a nice little galley that can be inserted into the post itself. This saves space and makes it more loader-friendly for your viewers.

2. Shadowbox

This one is great for anybody who likes cools effects with their photos. This is pretty much a gallery plugin that allows you to create slideshows of photographs from your travels. It opens up a fullscreen viewer and dims the background. I rather like the look of this and it works pretty quickly on most connections. Since it is optional it should work for most site visitors. But some might prefer the traditional gallery format of most WordPress blogs.

3. Editorial Calendar

We all want to have a sense of organization when on the road. But staying disciplined when you have jetlag, hostel hours and shaky internet connections is difficult at best. The truth is, most travelers are only as organized as they have to be to make it on the road without completely losing everything, and they will have more important things on their minds than making sure they are online to post their next blog article at the right time. Editorial Calender is a handy scheduling program that gives you an actual calender view for you to use to better create an automatic insertion list. It works a lot better than the standard scheduler on WordPress, in my experience.

4. Travel Map (or download here)

Just like many of the hottest new travel sites, I love using programs like Google Maps when I am traveling, but only for getting directions. It isn’t much help for those who want to show a map of where you have been or where you are going for your readers. Travel Map is a customizable map agent that lets you plan and share routes or just show general areas to then post on your blog. I use this one every time I am in a new area and want to show it to my visitors.

5. SEO Friendly Images

You are probably already well aware of the benefits of using Search Engine Optimization to draw traffic and increase your visibility on the net. Which a popular genre like travel it is especially important to pay attention to your SEO. But did you know you can apply this method to photos as well as text-based posts? While WordPress has this option built in, it is a very standard program that isn’t that effective. SEO Friendly Images is a great way to boost your SEO benefits on a per-image basis and makes it more likely that your pictures will come up in Google Image and other engine searches. Which means it is more likely that they will visit your site.

6. OSM

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a simple and easy to use map program that lets you plan routes or apply pins. The image is then inserted into your post. It is a lot more basic than Travel Map, but it has no API key and so has a faster and easier install. It is also compatible with external maps, including Google Maps that will be embedded into your blog rather than uploaded as a file. Not my favorite but an excellent program, nonetheless.

7. Smart Youtube

This is a fantastic embedding program for YouTube videos, either your own or others you might want to share. It allows you to embed the clips without ridiculously long HTML codes. It also works on older WordPress without any necessary updates. All you have to do is install and then put in the videos by typing the URL to the clip with a ‘v’ following the usual ‘http’. So it would look like this: httpv://www.youtube.com/videoIDnumber.

8. NextGen Gallery

Want a more modern looking photo gallery? Maybe you want to place the gallery itself into the sidebar of your blog rather than in a post? Perhaps you want both? This is a more specific photo plugin that uses an interesting format to create cool looking galleries for your travel pictures. It is less limited than other gallery agents as it allows for some interesting types.

9. EasyGeo

You can’t do a whole lot with this plugin, but what you can do is very useful. Basically, it allows you to add geocoding to your site to give a better view of the details and descriptions of locations (such as latitude and longitude). It is much smaller than most plugins for the purpose, though this is because the features are completely bare bones. There are literally no special options to fatten it up for the user. It just tags posts with specifics of the location, which are then applied to your customized theme. This can be changed in settings to let you control how much is shared, but otherwise you get what you see.

10. Watermark Reloaded

You should never add photos to the net without a watermark. The pictures are your work and it is too easy for people to get away with taking them for their own purposes because no copyright claim or ownership was immediately apparent. Some will just assume that they are up for grabs as public domain if a watermark or notice of creative ownership isn’t immediately apparent. It is a sad but true fact of the Internet. With this plugin you can add in a watermark to all uploaded images. It is easy to use and very basic. It will add a discernible watermark to your image to keep it protected under your blog name.

11. Faster Insert

I use this one almost constantly. The plugin has some faults but it is mostly good. It works by allowing you to upload one pic at a time but without reopening the photo insert. You just upload one, then another, then another in a row. From there it lists them in the gallery section and lets you edit them all at once. Then you can either add them individually into ares of the post or create a wider gallery. It cuts the time of uploading multiple images (and especially renaming or changing details) by at least 75%. Very useful.

Guest Bio: Aimee is a travel blogger writing for timeshare resales blog.

The widget is as simple as WordPress widgets come and only requires you to add your Google+ ID. Sadly there is no option in the GoogleCards to add someone to your Google+ Circles without leaving the site but we hope that this will be integrated to GoogleCards once the Google+ is launched officially and the Google+ API will be released.

Visit PlusDevs to download the plugin here

Joking aside, moving your blog off a server can be a frustrating task, especially if one is attempting to leave the confines of a bad host.

While there are some hosting companies (usually specialized hosts) that will handle all of the moving for you, most usually leave the migration details to the user who has to delve into the world of geek or hire one on the cheap.

Fortunately this tedious affair might be a thing in the past thanks to Move That Blog by 23Press (a company started by Terry Smith) which allows bloggers to easily migrate between servers without putting a hole in your pocket.

Terry Smith was kind enough to let me give the service a test run, and here are a few features that I loved about Move That Blog.

Why Hosts Will Love 23Press

After installing the Move That Blog upon both your destination host and current host (note: setup upon your destination host first!), and typing in the API keys, Move That Blog will begin transferring your entire site to its new home (without importing files from backups).

The process was rather boring truth be told, and instead of hours filled with drama, I spent time wondering why current host doesn’t have something similar setup (as it could save their customer service reps time answering calls and emails).

Currently the platform supports WordPress fans, although in the future Move That Blog plans on supporting other platforms like Movable Type, Melody, Drupal, Joomla, etc., and will in the future allow you to migrate between platforms too!

In the future 23Press is planning on launching a backup service (just in case things go wrong) and even a way to keep the blogs in sync with each other, which is a good feature to have if you’re moving a site “live.”

What 23Press Needs To Change

While 23Press dumbed down the process of migrating blogs, in order to make the process easier for non-geeks, 23Press should ask users for login credentials instead of API keys, as the latter is very unfamiliar to most humans.

If 23Press strikes up partnerships with hosts (who would be wise to use their services or create something similar), they should also consider creating a way for users to connect “automagically” with the FTP server, without having them consult a local geek.

Is The Price Is Right?

Overall Move That Blog is an excellent service that I wish existed last year (as it could have saved me many sleepless nights), although for $10 for 1 blog and $30 for unlimited transfers, 23Press is the deal of the century if you ask me.

Have you used (or even heard of) 23Press before? If so, what are your thoughts?

Update: Corrected info regarding unlimited transfers.

If you haven’t been keeping up with our progress over the past few months, you’re in for a treat. bbPress 1.0.3 is due out any day, as is 1.1 Release Candidate 1 which includes new features like email notification on follow-up posts and anonymous posting. There’s also a lot going on under the hood of the new WordPress plugin version of bbPress, and in an effort to get more people involved we’re bringing back the bi-monthly development chats in #bbpress on the freenode network on IRC. (Official bbPress Blog)

Note: Emphasis mine.

Although sometimes considered a relic tool in the age of social networking, forums are still utilized by numerous blogs as a way to have more organized discussions around specific topics.

With the exception of a few plugins like Mingle Forum and WP Forum Server, many “5 minute install” forum options are not only sorely outdated, but also incompatible with the latest version of WordPress.

With bbPress joining the plugin route, it should help give some much needed TLC to forums in general (at least within the WordPress community) and perhaps encourage bloggers to create their own communities instead of outsourcing everything to Facebook.

Perhaps best described as an “iTunes for blog content” service, Cleeng allows bloggers to hide part of their content online which users can unlock by paying an inexpensive fee (between $0.15 USD and $0.99 USD per article).

Although similar in many ways to a traditional pay wall, Cleeng allows bloggers to monetize their content without sacrificing ad revenue, providing WordPress fans with another alternative to monetize their sites (as explained in the video below).

Readers can easily create an account by using their Facebook, Google or Yahoo! account, although unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to register via one’s Twitter account (at least not yet).

Bloggers can choose to hide content ranging from text, images or even video, which may help compensate those of you with higher than normal expenses (especially when it comes to creating quality videos or images from scratch).

In order to help readers judge whether hidden content is worth paying a few pennies for, Cleeng is introducing a rating system which allows readers to gage the quality of the article, as well as seek a refund if the hidden content was poorly written.

For those of you who write upon non-English blogs, you’ll be disappointed that Cleeng does not support other languages yet, although the team is seeking community help in order to translate their service into other native tongues.

Cleeng is currently only available for self hosting WordPress fans via their plugin, although the company is also planning on launching public modules and extensions for Drupal and Joomla users in the future, respectively.

Vladimir Prelovac, serial plugin developer, has created WP Quick Deploy, a plugin which will soon become your favourite WordPress install assistant.

The plugin lets you browse a well curated selection of WordPress plugins which then can be installed all at once. Check the plugin page for more information.