Categories
Blogging

WordPress Plugins for this site

I wanted to keep a running list of the plugins that I used for this blog. Hopefully it could help someone out and/or, if an experienced WordPress blogger is out there, maybe they can give me a heads up on what to use or not use.

Akismet 2.0.2
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it.  By Matt Mullenweg.
I’m not sure exactly how useful this is, or how effective.  I assume that since they included it as part of the WordPress install, it’s pretty important.  Note: as it says above, you have to get a WordPress.com API key to use this plugin.  In order to get the API Key, you will need to register with WordPress.com.  You don’t have to created a blog with WordPress.com, but you at least need to create a user account.  Your API key will be mailed to you and will be in your profile.  Be sure not to share this key as it is your private ‘key’ to WordPress.com.

Executable PHP widget 1.0
Like the Text widget, but it will take PHP code as well. Up to 9 instances of this widget may exist. Heavily derived from the Text widget code included with the widget plugin by Automattic, Inc. By Otto.
This was required by a Tag Cloud feature I’m using.  This seems like a great general purpose widget to have around.

FeedBurner FeedSmith 2.3.1
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. By FeedBurner.
Although there are builtin RSS feeds in WordPress, I thought it would be great if I could get some reporting back on the number of people who subscribe to this blog — yeah, I have high hopes. đŸ˜‰

Google XML Sitemaps 3.0.2.1
This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Configuration Page By Arne Brachhold.
This is kinda cool.  Being new to blogging, I’m getting a little education on some SEO techniques as well.  This is a ‘must-have’ plugin as it alerts a number of search engines of when you have modified your blog.  In addition, it maintains a Sitemap file so that those engines will know how often to come back to index your site – which pages need more frequent updating and other that don’t.  All of this is done auto-magically so you don’t have to work up a sweat.  Click on the plugin title to go to the author’s page on this as that website has a lot of background information on how/why this was developed.

WordPress Mobile Edition 2.0
Show a mobile view of the post/page if the visitor is on a known mobile device. By Alex King.
This was an absolute must!  I constantly surf the web on my WM6 mobile phone.  I hate any site that doesn’t display correctly on it.  This little plugin will redirect any mobile device that hits it to another set of pages that is pared down to the basics.  It works like a champ so far.

Word Statistics 1.0
Computes Gunning-Fog, Flesch, and Flesch-Kincaid readability indexes about posts as they are edited for the purpose of improving their readability. By John Watson.
I once read that the average US citizen is comfortable reading and has further comprehension of the read material if it was written at an 8th grade level.  I thought it would be fun to see what my writing is rated as and how easy is it to read.  This information only shows up in the Admin pages when you are manipulating an article.

WPhone 1.4.2
A lightweight admin interface for the iPhone and other mobile devices. By Stephane Daury, Doug Stewart, and Viper007Bond.
Another absolute must have!  This module allows me to manage most aspects of the blog from my WM6 mobile phone.  I can read, edit, create, and publish posts remotely.  It’s a great way of drafting a blog entry while waiting in line to pick up your kids — like right now; most of this article was edited in my car waiting in the freezing rain.

I will continue to add to this post as I change and add plugins.

JT

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.