All Entries Tagged With: "plugin"

Twitter Counter Plugin For WordPress

Do you have a Twitter Counter Plugin for WordPress? This is actually a pretty useful plugin. It displays the number of Twitter followers you have in a little icon that looks a lot like the Feedburner Counter icon. Each time you increase the number of followers you have your counter goes up in number and displays how many current Twitter followers you have. Of course, you have to be a Twitter user.

Among the features included in this plugin are:

* Display TwitterCounter badges
* Display Twitter Remote
* Sidebar widgets included for ease of use
* Complete customization from within the comfort of WordPress Admin
* Deactivating plugin will not kill your theme
* Clean uninstall if you choose to delete the plugin

That’s one plugin I don’t mind recomming. Get the Twitter Counter plugin for WordPress.

5 WordPress Plugins Every Blogger Should Know

It’s difficult if not impossible to run a WordPress blog without at least one plugin. I recommend the following plugins as plugins that can benefit every blogger, but the only one that is absolutely essential is the first one on the list. All others are helpful and I’d strongly urge you to consider them:

• Akismet - Akismet is WordPress’s default spam catcher. It will catch about 90% of your spam. If you set your WordPress settings to require a moderator approval before a comment goes live then that should get all the rest. Don’t run any kind of blog without a spam catcher.
• All In One SEO Pack – Your SEO will be tremendously improved with this plugin. Each post will have its very own title and description.
• AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget – You can also use other social widgets that do the same. I like AddThis. It makes it easy for your readers to bookmark your posts.
• SRG Clean Archives – If your WP archives doesn’t work, this plugin will save the day.
• Feedburner Feedsmith - Run all of your RSS feeds through Feedburner for easier tracking and better stats. Good plugin to have, especially if you want to include links in your feed footer.

There are many more plugins that can be useful for WordPress, but I’d say these are the five most basic plugins for any WordPress user. Akismet is a necessity, the others are a strong recommendation.

An Archives Plugin You’ll Love

I’ve seen several WordPress themes where the sidebar archives link is broken. My back up for such situations is to download the SRG Clean Archives plugin from iDunzo. In fact, I’ve got a copy that I keep on my hard drive in case I need it.

The SRG Clean Archives is a useful plugin that you can use to an archive to your sidebar or as a page in your WordPress blog. I like to add the page as it’s quick and easy. You just copy and past the code into the page text box and click “Publish.” Instant success.

Of course, to do it that way, you’ll need to delete the archives link from your sidebar. Otherwise, the broken link will still be there. But if you want to ensure that your users can find your archives, keep the archives in the sidebar but change the link destination to your newly created Archives page. That way, if your users do look in the sidebar for your archives, which is where it would normally be located, then they can click on the link and it will take them to the Archives page.

The Archives page is very well organized and your archives will be created immediately. You can organize it by category or by month and year. You can even localize the language. After activating the plugin you build the page and hit “Publish” then everyone in the world can see your Archives. If you need an archive on your blog then I highly recommend the SRG Clean Archives plugin from iDunzo.

Should You Use DDAddSig In Your Blog?

DDAddSig is a WordPress plugin that adds a signature link to the bottom of all of your blog posts. Is it worth it to install this plugin?

First, before answering that question, let me tell you the positives and the negatives. First, the positives:

• A signature at the bottom of your blog posts can help you brand your blog in unique ways
• With DDAddSig, the signature will appear automatically in every post you write
• You can even include links in your signature
• You can include graphics too
• Easy to install, easy to use, and you can turn it off in a snap

Now, the negatives:

• You can’t customize your signature from post to post
• Once you start it you must keep it or you’ll lose all of your signatures on every post
• Deactivating it takes away the signature on every post

DDAddSig is a powerful WordPress plugin. But if you want to install it yourself then it’s a decision you will have to make yourself, but here are some ways that you can use it if you do:

If you don’t want to link to your website from your blog in the posts but you want the flexibility of changing your signature links down the road so that you can promote a different site then it’s a good plugin. If you want to brand your blog long term then it’s a good plugin. Those are two good uses that I’ve used it for myself and I’d recommend it if you fit into either of these categories.

Learn more about WordPress installation and plugins.