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Highly Suggested WordPress Plugins – Revised

April 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Last year, I posted the what I considered the best plug-ins for WordPress.  After creating multiple sites in WordPress, my list has changed. WordPress is great by itself but the power lies in plugins, so I put together a list of plugins that I use and suggest to others they would want to consider.

SEO Plugins

  • All-In-One SEO - Last time, I was suggesting Headspace 2 SEO.  While in many ways Headspace is a superior but configuration and usage is more cryptic for you average user and AIOSEO has better automation.
  • Google XML Sitemaps – Auto creates XML sites maps for submission to Google, Yahoo and Bing
  • SEO Friendly Images – For properly setting alt tags on images
  • SEO Slugs -  Remove common words such as a, the, and form permalink slugs
  • Google Analytics from WordPress – While its hard to go wrong with analytics plug-ins.  This is just my favorite.
  • Dagon Site Maps – Not to be confused with XML Sitemaps.  This create a navigable site maps that you would place in the footer.
  • Robots Meta - Set index, follow, no index, no follow on each post and site wide.

Administrative

  • Maintenance Mode – locks down the site while your making edits and create a 503 Service Unavailable alert.
  • WP-SpamFree – prevents spam of any sort on the site.
  • WP-Super Cache – speeds up the rendering of the site.
  • WP -Minify -  reduces duplicate code by consolidating redundant css and html code rendered.
  • WP-DB Manager – enables backup access to MySQL & Automates  DB Backups
  • Broken Link Checker – Checks your posts for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.
  • Redirection – 404 Redirects for broken links and
  • TGC! Memory Usage - Great Site Administration Tool

Commerce

  • Advertising Manager – Control and arrange your Advertising and Referral blocks on your WordPress blog.
  • WP-Commerce -   Commerce solution for the WordPress. Very powerful but not for the faint of heart.

Integration

  • Social Media – A complete integration between your WordPress blog, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.
  • Gravity Forms – Full featured form plug-in (Unfortunately this is a commercial form processors)
    • Free alternatives are cFormsII (Full featured) or Contact form 7 (Simple to Use)
  • Sociable – Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.
  • SimplePress – Well integrated WordPress Forum Plugin.
Filed Under: Announcements, Blog

Tip #1 – Content is King!!!

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The number one item that affects your ranking and the stickiness of your site (how long people stay on it) is the content you create. There are 2 core components: Quality and Quantity. Each of these is equally important for the long-term strategy for your website. [Read more...]

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Bing’s Reach Around Jab at Google

February 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This week Facebook has better incorporated Bing search results into its repertoire of tools.   While there has  been some for of web search in Facebook,  I believe that it is just a matter of time before they realize they are in a position to overtake the number one search destination spot from Google.  If they were smart they would have Bing search results as a default function of search no matter the topics or search item and make sure that 1-3 results are always visible on the screen.  These are just my thoughts.

Google needs even more careful because cash rich Apple has money to threw around and Steve is mad. Job’s recently stated that not to long ago they did not consider Google a competitor. The Android Phone completely changed that and they are now compete directly in the mobile market.  Apple is a hardware company.  They develop their own software to sell their hardware.  When Google decided to step on the toes Apple and going to the hardware business,  Apple will fight back with a furious vengeance and strike down on Google.  May it’s time for Apple to buy Yahoo go after the search market. They have the cash reserves to do. I guess Time will tell.

Any Thoughts?

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Great Examples of Social Media Videos

February 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here’s some great examples of YouTube Videos.

My Favorite of All Time [Read more...]

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Why I won’t buy an iPad

February 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There are 3 major turn offs that make me not want to by an iPad

  1. It does not run OS X. To me this not a netbook, it’s an oversize iPod Touch. I want to be able to install the apps I want to install and not limited to the closed platform of the iPhone. Just imagine the outcry of the Microsoft Monopoly Conspiracy.
  2. No Keyboard. No matter how easy to use the iPad Keyboard is, I need the tactile satisfaction of pressing the keys on a keyboard.
  3. There is no storage. I think the biggest disappointment is the inability connect external devices such as a flash drive camera. If a friend has a flash drive I want to download some files to or visa-versa there is no app for that. Nor is there an app to view the pictures from my camera.

Apple better watch out, this type of arrogance will allow Google to do what Microsoft did to Apple in the 80′s. Let wait and see if history will repeat itself.

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Evernote – Personal and Business Solution for Notetaking

January 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When I first got my iPhone back in January 09, I started researching to see what apps I wanted to load on it.   Two tech columnists I respect mentioned an app called Evernote.  So I gave it a try.  What I didn’t know then is that Evernote is a powerful SaaS platform (Software as a Service) that has integrated web, desktop and mobile applications and would soon become the center of my workflow. [Read more...]

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My Favorites of 2009

January 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
WordPress 2.9
Many people know of or use WordPress as a blogging platform. Though few would repute that it is the one of best blogging platforms around, over this last couple of years it has matured into a very powerful content management system (CMS). In addition, it’s open-source therefore free and Automatic; the developers of WordPress continue to champion the efforts of the open source community through their different projects and commercial offerings.

CrashPlan is multi-tiered backup solution that offers everything from free local backup to enterprise-class online backup solutions. It runs completely transparent in the background. While the interface might not be as cool as Apple Time Machine, since the local client is integrated into the online service, it will email you reports of you backup actively even if you don’t subscribe to their online backup service.  There is even a more advanced license for their clients called CrashPlan+ which does dynamic backups unlike many solutions which are scheduled. Furthermore, it’s Windows, Mac and Linux compatible.
Though I use Firefox nearly all the time, I felt this needed to be mentioned.  For web developers, the Develop menu is great for troubleshooting performance issues on websites, inspecting scripts and general site structure and it can even simulate different browsers.  It’s not a replacement for FireBug or the Web Development toolbar, but it has been a great help for me on a couple issues on sites this year. Also, the Web Kit rendering engine is definitely the fastest on the market.  These combined makes it worth the mention.
In 2008, I was a huge critic of Google Apps on number off issues.  While I think there is much work left to be done, Google has over come many of my game stopping issues.  There are 2 versions: Standard and Premier.  Premier costs $50/user/year. Personally I find the standard version works great and it has free ad support. It doesn’t have some of the more advance administration features or the capabilities like Outlook Active Sync but the cost for Premier can add up quickly if you have 10-20 users.
I’ve been now using ActiveCollab for project management for about six months now.  While I’m still learning it and tweaking the workflow, I have found it to be a great project management tool.  It’s web-based, to it works for everyone. It is an AMP (Apache-MySQL) self-host, so it’s completely customizable.  Even thought the support is strictly via forums and email, I’ve rarely have had to wait for more than 24 hours for an answer and the answers are very clear and detailed.  While this is the only Fav of 2009 that does not offer a free version, it’s definitely worth the money if  you need a good collaborative environment for working on projects.  I also use it for my  ticketing system to manage help desk calls.  It’s been a life saver.  Things get lost in email so easily.

EverNote
This is probably my favorite thing of 2009.  If I was Oprah, I would be giving it to everyone I know. The good news is I don’t have to because it’s free.  Evernote allows you to take notes on any device then it syncs it with all your devices. I’m writing this post in Evernote, as I’m writing it is syncing with the online service which will sync with my phone.  When I’m done, there is a plugin for WordPress that will pull my article into WordPress so I can publish it. It does offer a premium version if you max out the allotted amount monthly uploads.

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog

Loose the noose that your ISP has on you. Get your own email.

December 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Recently, I was talking to a co-worker and found he was using his ISP’s supplied email (his.name@comcast.net). He was considering using a different ISP but didn’t want to switch because he didn’t want to change email.  This was my dilemma after parting ways with AOL almost ten years ago.  Everyone I knew had my AOL address, including friends, family, potential employers and even some potential clients. It took almost a year for me to update everyone with my new email.  During this time, I bought my domain and realized if I used the email hosting that came with domain I would never have to change email address again.  I could have used hotmail or one of the other free email services that were available but at that time, they all had size limitations that would have been hard for me to work with.
These days Hotmail, Yahoo mail and Gmail are very robust email services and fulfill the needs of just about anyone. I myself use Gmail powered by Google Apps which allows me use my domain name (toddjob.net) and take advantage of the network that powers gmail.  By the way, did I mention this doesn’t cost me anything to host.  I could pay for the premium version but the standard fulfills my needs perfectly.
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I just bought my 1st Mac. . . so now what?

August 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

My Aunt recently bought a new Mac and asked me what next? What applications should I get, do I need Microsoft Office and what else do I need.  This inspired me to put together a list of items that I think a new Mac User and Veteran alike could use.

Out of the box, your new Mac has nearly everything you need to get started but there always a few gaps that needs to be covered. There are some hardware and software I suggest.

Hardware

Most of my hardware advice will mimic the advice I give to anyone with a new computer. First off lets talk about what you already own. Good news in this category is as long as it is a USB device, more often than not it is compatible with your Mac and the drivers are pre-installed. If the drivers are not pre-installed, usually you can download them from the manufacturer’s site or load them from disks that came with the device. (Getting on my soapbox for the next statement) Being environment and pocketbook conscience, I advise people to reuse what they already own verses using a new computer purchase as an excuse to by new stuff.

External Hard Drive

The most critical piece of hardware you can buy is an external USB hard drive for backups.  All new Macs come with an application called Time Machine, which will keep an active backup of your computer.  I suggest a drive that is at least twice the size of your Mac’s internal hard drive. As an option, I suggest having second hard drive for archiving files that you no longer need or access less than once a year.

MS Office vs OpenOffice.org  vs Google Apps

Software is a tricky subject because it’s all about what your needs are but there is a couple of recommendations that I make to everyone.  Unless you have specific business needs to use MS Office, I promote the use of OpenOffice.org which is full featured applications suite.  Best of all it’s free.  Google Apps is also a good alternative to MS.  It is very limited in its feature set but offers true online collaboration on documents and is available though any computer connected to the internet.

Evernote

I’m a huge promoter of an application called Evernote, which is a great tool for taking notes, storing pictures and what ever you needs it to be. (I will have a complete review of this application coming soon).

Parallels

If you need to run Windows, I suggest Parallels which runs windows on a virtual machine while you run your regular Mac apps.

Security Software

Many claim that Macs are immune to security attacks.  I wish this was true.  While Macs are relatively secure out of the box, Mac users should still take the same precautions that PC users take.   First, you computer does need antivirus,  I suggest using iAntiVirus.  It’s free and lightweight but scans for mac virus problems.  The only commercial solution that I suggest is Intego’s Internet Security Barrier X5 ($89.95).  ISB X5 is comprehensive and still does not rush your computer performance like some other solutions.

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