21 WordPress Plugins that Will Make Your Life Easier

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WordPress is an amazing web publishing platform with tremendous capabilities right out of the box. But what truly makes WordPress my platform of choice is the dizzying array of plugins that you can download (for free, mind you) to customize things exactly the way you want.

Plugins are simply bits of code that you can add on (or “plug in”) that can do all sorts of things beyond the basic program.

As of this morning, WordPress had 5,546 plugins listed in their Plugin Directory that had been downloaded a total of well over 35 million times. That’s a whole lotta code!

Yesterday Rober Hruzek asked me which plugins I recommended. Well the short answer is, “It depends on what you want it to do.” But then he came back and asked if there were any “must haves” in my book.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that for me I’m a fan of things that make my life easier. So, with that in mind, here are 21 WordPress plugins that I have found make my life easier. I’m guessing they’ll do the same for you.

I don’t mean this to be an exhaustive list by any means. Heck, I’ve got more than twice that many installed here on SuccessCREEations alone. And not every one of these will work on every blog. Some of these are very popular plugins and some are more obscure.

Here’s my list: Read more

How to Use Gravatars in WordPress and Beyond

We all like to see pictures of ourselves. It’s part of how we’re wired. We’re visual creatures. Somehow just seeing an image of someone else makes it easier for us to communicate with them and have a stronger connection.

Not only that, but using a consistent image to represent yourself around the web can help improve your branding. Using a Gravatar is an easy way to do that. Easy and free (I like free!)

The name Gravatar came from Globally Recognized Avatar. An avatar is simply an icon or an image that represents a computer user. Using Gravatars is really very simple. Since version 2.5, Gravatar support has been built into the core WordPress functionality.

And even though the service is owned by Automattic (the same company that develops WordPress) it is fairly easy to implement in all sorts of other platforms too! Check out the Gravatar Implementation page to see how to use Gravatars with platforms like Blogger, MovableType, Drupal, Joomla, LiveJournal, Ruby on Rails, Cold Fusion, Pearl, Python, ASP… And the list goes on.

Gravatar as a Commenter

The easiest way to use Gravatars is as you are commenting on Gravatar enabled blogs. Simply go to the Gravatar website and click the link at the top to Sign Up.

The site will ask for your email address which you will have to validate. Once you do you can add your image from either your computer’s hard drive, web cam, or a web URL where your image is already online.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will want to crop your image to be square, which you can do after uploading the image, to keep it from distorting when it is displayed as a square image around the web.

Your Gravatar will then be married to your email address so that whenever you use that address on any Gravatar enabled web site your image will be shown automatically. That’s all you have to do. Piece of cake.

If you have multiple email addresses, you can even set up a different image for each one. Then choosing which image to use is as easy as entering a different email address. Read more

WordPress Releases Update Version 2.7.1

On Tuesday WordPress released an update version 2.7.1. This release is being called a maintenance release and addresses 68 bugs and enhancements that were pointed out by users to the 2.7 release.

WordPress 2.7 Changes Everything

If you still haven’t updated your WordPress installation to the 2.7 series that was released before the holidays you are missing out on a whole new blogging experience. The back end dashboard has been completely overhauled and greatly improved.

WordPress spent a pile of money on usability studies. They conducted several polls of the user community on a variety of things like navigation options, favorite features, and even icon preferences.

As a result of all that community input WordPress 2.7 is the best version yet. If you haven’t upgraded you really should.

And check out this video WordPress put out showcasing the new features.

Automated Update

I am still not a fan of the “one click” automated update yet that is now available.

My inner geek is not comfortable with the idea generally speaking because it can be hard to recover if there is a problem during the auto update. Since you really don’t know where in the process the update was should it hang up, it could be a challenge to “undo” the process.

I have used the automatic update for plugins with good success. With most plugins I figure that even if there is a problem it shouldn’t be a big deal to recover from them. Even so there are some more advanced plugins that I still update manually just to be safe. SuperCache and NextGen Gallery are a couple that come to mind.

I did attempt to update SuccessCREEations to the new version 2.7.1 using the automatic update function build into WordPress. Sure enough it hung up on me. So I had to go in and update the software by manually copying the files to my server via FTP anyway. Fortunately this update is fairly minor so I didn’t have any issues with my database as a result.

Backup Everything

Which brings me to a key caution. Regardless of whether you use the automatic update or update manually be sure to back up your database and your files before you update. That way, should the worst happen, at least you will be able to revert to the old version and try the update again.

WordPress Security Release Version 2.6.5

WordPress gave us yet one more security update to version 2.6 before the long anticipated major release of version 2.7, which is expected in the next few weeks.

The new WordPress version 2.6.5 addresses a security vulnerability as well as a few other very minor improvements. There are a total of five files modified in this security release. You can simply replace these five core files to expedite the upgrade process.

However performing a full normal upgrade to the new version is probably the easiest way to go if you are only upgrading one or two blogs.

The security fix is critical for WordPress installations on virtual servers and these should be upgraded immediately. Other users may elect to hold off until the new version 2.7 comes out, but again prudence dictates updating to the current version is best practice.

Fake Spoof Version of WordPress

Another reason I suspect the good folks at WordPress decided to issue a security release for version 2.6 so close to the anticipated release of the major update in 2.7 is that there is a fake, spoof version of WordPress out there.

Apparently someone bought a domain name just one character off from the official WordPress.org site and put up a rough copy of the WordPress.org site. They downloaded a copy of version 2.6.3 which they modified to potentially allow hijacking of affected blogs, and then said it was 2.6.4.

But the truly evil part of these cretians diabolical plan was when they hacked into the dashboards of some blogs running older versions of WordPress to put up a fake security warning urging users to “upgrade” to the bogus version and directing them to the bogus site. Craig Murphy explains that whole thing.

As I’ve said before, like any software older versions of WordPress are vulnerable to hacking. Keeping your WordPress blog version current is a critical step to keeping your site secure from hacker.

Because of this incident WordPress is skipping verion 2.6.4 in their official release line to avoid confusion.

WordPress Tips for Beginners

Andrew Cunningham recently asked a good question about getting started using WordPress.

Can any of you guys recommend good, simple resources for learning how to use wordpress?

How do you get started? It’s a great question that deserves some more attention.

Your Objectives

Ultimately the best way for you to get started depends on what your overall objectives for you website are. It’s the place I start with all my clients because if you don’t begin with the end in mind you will likely waste a whole lot of time and/or money working on things that don’t move you towards your real goals.

Some possible objectives include

• Raising brand awareness
• Increasing personal profile
• Driving product or service sales
• Improved search engine visibility
• Put a more personal face on your business
• Providing a personal creative outlet

Obviously the possibilities are nearly endless. But until you take the time to work out exactly what you want to achieve with your web site and write it down, you will likely be painting yourself into corners that may be difficult (and expensive) to get out of later.

Get Your Own Domain

Once you’ve got your objectives thought through, you are most likely going to want to get your own web domain. If you are planning to conduct any business via your website having your own domain is a must.

By having your own domain I mean purchasing your own .com name. There are other possibilities besides .com but for most folks, especially in the US, .com is the right way to go.

Having your own domain for your website will do a number of  things for you. The biggest ones that come to mind are

• People will take your business more seriously
• You have more control of your site

That second one is huge. Because there is no way to know what the future will bring, you want to give your self the flexibility to make changes later.

Ultimately your web site is yours, right? So you should have as much control over your site as you can.

I get all my domains through www.GoDaddy.com and I’ve got dozens of domains with them. They are the world’s largest registrar of domain names and for good reason. They are really good at what they do.

It is a good idea to register your domain for a minimum of 2 years for better search engine rankings because spammers tend to buy short lived domains and then abandon them quickly. I also recommend most of my clients get GoDaddy’s “Deluxe Registration” because it bundles some features that can be valuable for business owners.

One note about GoDaddy. They are a bit aggressive on the up-selling. Just be careful not to add on a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t need and you’ll be fine. Read more

WordPress Releases Security Update Version 2.6.3

Yesterday WordPress released a security update in Version 2.6.3. According to the WordPress development blog this version update corrects a vulnerability in the Snoopy Library.

Now unless you want the Red Barron to be able to cause havoc with your blog you will probably want to either update the two files that are changed in this version or update your entire install.

Version 2.7 Coming Soon

The good folks at WordPress are working hard on the next major revision to version 2.7 and which will reportedly be released in the next few weeks.

Version 2.7 will take another leap forward in usability improvement on the back end with the dashboard and all of the administration panels getting a thorough going over.

Last month they conducted a survey to get user input on what changes to prioritize and user preferences on how the dashboard menus should be organized. (Yes we participated in that survey. So if you don’t like the new changes after they come out I guess we are partly to blame for it.)

If you want, go take an early look at the changes. Seems like they are making an already great platform even easier to use.

WordPress Support Services

If you’re behind in upgrading your WordPress installation, please be sure to take a look at our WordPress Support services. And if your project is a little bigger in scope, take a look at some examples of our work here at SuccessCREEations, Inc. to see if we can meet your needs.

As always feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

And on that note I’ll leave you today with a little Snoopy vs. The Red Barron to enjoy.

Google Enters Browser Competition with Chrome

Internet behemoth Google took a major step towards their mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” with their recent beta release of the Chrome web browser. With typical Google focus on simplicity and functionality, Chrome shakes up the usual web browser display a little.

In choosing to release the browsers as open source software Google looks to want to tap into the same type of vast volunteer developer community that has made platforms such as FireFox and WordPress so immensely popular.

First Impressions

The first thing you might notice when using Chrome is that the browser tabs, first made popular with FireFox but now are fixtures all the major browsers, are at the very top of the browser instead beneath the tool bars.

A menu bar is conspicuously absent a la IE7. But perhaps more noticeable is the missing search box. I expected a search giant like Google to make a search box the prominent feature.

Instead they took a different tack and integrated the search function right into the address bar. Very slick, even if it will take a bit of getting used to. Read more

WordPress Issues Security Uptate in Version 2.6.2

I woke up this morning and see that WordPress released a new version yesterday. The new version 2.6.2 is a security release.

It looks like the security exploit they patched is a fairly low probability complex hack involving randomized password generation and a bunch of technical blah, blah, blah.

Even so, you probably should think about upgrading your WordPress installation to this version fairly quickly. Upgrading is especially important if your blog or web site has a higher profile, PageRank, or traffic levels.

Improved Security When Upgrading WordPress Not Automatic

One click WordPress upgrades are convenient. They fit right in with how I describe blogging platforms to the uninitiated: They make web publishing simple for people of modest technical means.

Some web hosts include the Fantastico module which also allows for one click upgrades of WordPress. I’ve used it many times. It is (usually) faster than upgrading manually.

However there is a serious shortcoming with the one click upgrades and it involves security.

Security Problem

The good folks at WordPress are very security conscious. They are continually improving the platform to make it more secure.

Trouble is some of the most important security enhancements are completely left out of one click upgrades. In fact, they may even be left out of manual upgrades.

The issue involves the wp-config.php file. This is the WordPress file that sets the login information to the data base that houses all of your blog’s information.

This file does not get updated automatically when WordPress is upgraded. In fact, the file isn’t included even when you download WordPress to upgrade manually. With good reason.The good folks at WordPress don’t want every upgrade to overwrite database passwords and lock folks out of their blogs.

Instead they include a different file name with generic info in it called wp-config-sample.php and this file gets overwritten every time WordPress is upgraded.

The problem is some of the biggest security upgrades involve modifications to the wp-config.php file, so they aren’t happening on a lot of WordPress blogs as they are upgraded. Read more

Mac Friday – Easily Protect and Remember Web Passwords with 1Password

I have an insane number of website accounts and profiles to keep track of. It goes with the territory of one who makes his living in the virtual world. Between my own profiles on dozens of social media sites, various email accounts, the blogs I own, banking and online bill paying sites, web hosting accounts, and the client work I do – it can truly get nuts sometimes.

The problem is twofold. First I need to keep the passwords someplace that’s organized where I can find them all. Quickly. The old paper and pencil password log I kept back in the day wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Then there’s the security issue. Paper and pencil is a bad idea. Even worse is keeping a spread sheet or text document on your computer with all your passwords in it!

Secure AND Easy

Fortunately 1Password keeps track of my passwords for me while keeping them secure at the same time. It was one of the very first purchases I made when I got the first Mac here at SuccessCREEations and at just under $35 for a single license is arguably some of the best money I spent getting started.

I’ve been using 1Password for about a year now and the program is easy to use, secure, and saves me countless hours hunting for my passwords.

1Password Makes Browsing More Secure

With all the social media sites that folks can join the the temptation can be strong to just use a standard password on all these different accounts. That’s a very bad idea.

And with 1Password it’s unnecessary too.

Because the program securely remembers all your passwords for you, there is no longer any need for passwords that are easy to remember. Now you can use truly random character strings for your passwords and still have them available in all your browsers.

Even better

Coming up with a random sequence to much bother for you? No worries.

1Password can generate truly random strings for you within parameters you can set. All you have to do is click your mouse and get remarkably strong unique passwords for every account you have.

That makes it much less likely that someone will hack your online information. Even if one site were to be compromised the damage is isolated to that account because all your others have randomly different passwords.

And they are even working on a web based version that will give access to this great service for Windows users too. Very nice.

Check out this video. If you are on a Mac and have too many passwords to manage, 1Password is worth a look.

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