Download - Plugin Potluck
Plugin PotluckBoston Wordpress Meetup
July 27, 2009
Who Am I?Brian Krausz
A.K.A. “The Kid in the Brown Shirt”Web Developer & Idea Man
By Day & [email protected]@bkrausz
Warning: I tweet about boring things
Straw PollPersonal Blog:
HaveWant
Business Blog:HaveWant
Write Code:CanWant to Learn
General Advicehttp://lmgtfy.com/?q=Wordpress+PluginsDon’t be afraid to try things out
On a separate site!Don’t go nuts with plugins
Can overload the userLearn a tiny bit of PHP
Will help with installation of plugins/themes
General Advice (cont’d)Try to find things for free
But consider donatingIf you can’t find it for free
Consider paying for it
Ask me questions!!!
The Top 8http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/browse/popular
1) SpamActivate Akismet
All done!“But Brian, I still get spam!”
Consider reCAPTCHA (Google it!)But be careful, can lose users1!
“But Brian, what about Honeypots”Usually uselessCan solve very specific problems
1) ~3.2% according to http://www.seomoz.org/blog/captchas-affect-on-conversion-rates
2) SEOAll in One SEO Pack
Does exactly what it saysGoogle XML Sitemaps
Makes it easier for Google to parse your siteKey: Don’t try to cheat Google
Only try to make their lives easierDo NOT pay to “get your site on the first page of
Google…guaranteed!”
3) User FeedbackContact Form 7
Simple form for users to contact youLess spammy than an email addressThere are hundreds of plugins like this, hunt
around for what fits your goals.Kampyle
Ask users directly “what can I do to improve the site”
4) Social NetworkingSociable
Provide links to share your postsAlso has hundreds like it
Some kind of auto-tweeterAuto Tweet – Few optionsTwitter Blog – Just released
5) LoadWP Super Cache
Can be hard to setupBetter: make sure your server can handle the load!
Cheap monthly hosting is just that: cheapBut expensive hosting isn’t necessarily better
Slow sites cost you users1
1) http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/06/bing-and-google-agree-slow-pag.html
6) Set It & Forget ItPlugin Manager
Automates plugin installationNo real reason to use this
“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”
Pay a kid to teach you to not need these types of plugins!Experiment on a separate website
7) AnalyticsGoogle Analyticator
Or others…just get Google Analytics trackingFeedburner
Track RSS feeds
8) RevenueEasy AdSense
Use adsense adsDon’t try to run your own ad network
If you’re big enough to need this, someone smarter than me is advising you on what plugins to use.
Warning: Don’t blog to make money. It’s a losing propositionYou can make money, but don’t expect it
Cool Ideasor “Neat Things Brian Can Talk About”
Big DisclaimerI sell plugins that do things hereThere may be free versions
If they had the same features I wouldn’t have written my version
The goal is to get the creative juices flowingNot sell things
TaxonomiesPowerful and under-utilized WordPress featureExamples: Categories & TagsOther examples: Issues, People, Companies
Can associate anything about your post with any data
Custom Taxonomies (I wrote it, but it’s free)Has a few bugs (some mine, some WordPress’)
Simple TaxonomiesMore stable, fewer features
NewslettersAssign posts to newsletters
Send out newsletters with summaries of posts“Newsletter” Plugin
Only sends newsletters, not postsBe careful about sending out a lot of email
Your host may get angry (consider MailChimp)Don’t get blacklisted or spam blocked!Observe double-opt-in & opt-out practices
Download TrackingOffer downloads from your site
Require registrationTrack downloads
“Download Manager”Pretty featurefulNo permissions
CMSYou just need a theme that emphasizes pagesWordPress has all the features needed for a CMS
Any Other Cool Ideas?
Questions?Brian Krausz