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7 WordPress Plugins that Don’t Exist But Should

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As of this writing, the official WordPress plugin repository has just over 13,000 plugins in it. All of these plugins are free and  can be easily installed via the WordPress administration panel.With so many plugins out there, one might think that everything that can be created has been and that, as the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun.

However, there’s no shortage of great plugin ideas out there and still a lot of new ideas for developers to tackle.

With that in mind, here are seven ideas for WordPress plugins that either haven’t been tried, haven’t been implemented in quite the way desired or aren’t available on modern versions of WordPress. [Read more…] about 7 WordPress Plugins that Don’t Exist But Should

Making the Most of Live Chat WordPress Plugins

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WordPress is one of the most commonly used platforms of blogging, currently supporting a large number of blogs. It is known for its ease of use (you can install and use it even if you don’t have a technical bone in your body) adding quality and distinct features to the blogs, furthermore, the search engine friendly script goes a long way in improving your organic traffic. WordPress plugins are the user friendly web clients, which are used by almost all WordPress users. Live chat WordPress plugin is a great live interaction and customer support tool that facilitates live chat by adding a customizable plugin to your WordPress website. Live chat WordPress plugins are especially beneficial for all e-commerce businesses in a number of ways. Let’s discuss how using a live chat WordPress plugin can help you in making the most of your WordPress site. [Read more…] about Making the Most of Live Chat WordPress Plugins

Back Up Your WordPress Blog with BackupBuddy

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Some time ago, Jonathan wrote about a blogging pitfall: the failure to back up your blog. He made a very strong case for taking the time and effort to regularly back up your blog. Along the same lines, I share with you a very useful back up tool: BackupBuddy.

In a nutshell, BackupBuddy is more than a backup tool. In addition to backing up, it also offers restore and migration options. The service has been around for a while now, but the recent addition of the ability to back up to Amazon’s S3 data center service makes this an even more viable option because you can store your files off site. In the event that your hard drive or server crashes, your files will be safe in another location – S3. You still have the option to back up all your blog’s data – including media and themes – locally and via FTP, but this additional option does offer more advantages. More so, you can schedule your back ups in advance in case you have memory issues and do not remember to back up regularly!

As for the restore option, you can easily do this within minutes. You do not have to worry about having your site down for hours on end and losing out on potential revenue. If you find yourself facing the need to migrate, you can work on development in one server and then launch on a different server – within minutes as well.

If you want to know more about what BackupBuddy can do for you and how to use it, watch the videos below.

BackupBuddy Overview from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.

This is how you back up your WordPress blog without breaking a sweat.

How to Backup WordPress from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.

6 Tools to Monetize Your WordPress Blog

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While many writers blog because they are passionate about their subject matter, no one can deny that getting compensated for your efforts is a huge plus! But monetizing a blog can be time-consuming and tricky.  For instance, promoting an irrelevant or scammy product can wear out reader trust. Thankfully there are a number of tools that bloggers can utilize in order to make the process easier.

For monetization purposes, WordPress is an unbeatable platform that will help you get the best of almost everything. Its strength lies in its user-friendly interface and a thriving community of developers who continually create new plug-ins for the platform. This makes it a lot easier for bloggers to automate routine tasks to become more efficient and up-to-date. In this article, I have compiled a few top WordPress monetization tools that are designed to increase your blogging income… [Read more…] about 6 Tools to Monetize Your WordPress Blog

PressHarbor: WordPress for the Rest of Us

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A long, long time ago, in a place not so far away a company emerged from the shadows offering WP fans an alternative to Automattic’s WordPress.com.

Launched in 2007 by the folks behind RackShare, PressHarbor provides a safe haven for WP fans looking for a WordPress centric hosting company without the limitations of Automattic (the latter who created WordPress).

Probably considered one of the first WP centric hosts to emerge online, PressHarbor prides itself on offering users features that they will need instead of presenting options that they will probably never use.

The folks behind PressHarbor were kind enough to let me test out their hosting service, which presented a few surprises “under the hood.” [Read more…] about PressHarbor: WordPress for the Rest of Us

Add Subheadings to Your Blog Posts with the SubHeading WordPress Plugin

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Is the title box always too small for your blog posts?  Do you find yourself wishing you could add more details or catchy copy to your blog post titles?  Are you tired of adding header tags to the subheadings you create for your blog posts?  Or perhaps you just want subheadings that appear directly beneath the title of your live blog posts rather than at the top of the body copy?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, then the SubHeading WordPress plugin is for you!

I tried this plugin for the first time recently, and I love it.  It’s useful for clarifying a catchy blog post title or adding some keywords for an SEO boost.  You can see it in action on a live blog post below:

And here it is on a blog home page:

Looks good, don’t you think?

The SubHeading plugin is available for free from the WordPress Plugin Directory (just search by “subheading” or by the plugin author’s name from your WordPress dashboard’s plugin installation page or download the SubHeading plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Once installed, you can follow the SubHeading plugin installation instructions and configure the settings so subheadings are allowed on posts and pages, display in your blog’s RSS feed, and more, as shown below in the SubHeadings Settings configuration page:

Once the plugin is installed and configured, a new area appears in your blog post editor where you can enter a subheading for that post beneath the title box, as shown below:

It’s that easy!  What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress – Network Solutions

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Time for another post in the “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” series where I highlight businesses and brands using WordPress that might surprise and inspire you.  If you thought WordPress and blogging was just for hobbyists and personal blogs, you’re wrong.

Today’s featured website using WordPress in cool ways is Network Solutions.  This is a company that has been around the world of domains, hosting, and more for years, and its most recent site redesign was intended to restore the brand’s position as a leader in the online space.  I’m on the Network Solutions Social Media Advisory Board, so it came as no surprise to me that WordPress would be the tool to bring the Network Solutions website into its new brand era.

Take a look at the clean, easy to read and visually appealing home page of the Network Solutions website built on WordPress:

The interior pages of the site use either a one-column or two-column layout as well as easy to read fonts, colors, and designs.  Take a look at one of the interior pages that is text-heavy but still easy to read below:

The site even includes a page that lists all of the Network Solutions blogs (also built on WordPress) in a single place, including graphics and links, as shown below.

Last time on “Bet You Didn’t Know that Site’s Built on WordPress” I featured a college, Tufts University, and today, you see a mid-size company using WordPress to run its primary web presence.  Stay tuned for another well-known brand using WordPress in the next post in this series, and prepare to be amazed!

What site built on WordPress really amazes you?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

The Secret to Boosting Search Traffic By Being Fast and Easy

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Did you know that sites which load quickly get higher search engine keyword rankings thereby getting more search traffic to their sites than slow-loading sites?  It’s true for your blog, too.  Even Google has admitted that fast load times equate to higher search rankings.  However, most bloggers haven’t taken the time to evaluate their blogs’ load times.

The more “stuff” you put on any given page on your blog, such as flash effects, ads, images, videos, and all the other stuff that clutters bloggers’ sidebars, the slower your blog posts and pages will load on a visitor’s web browser.  Fortunately, there are ways to both analyze your blog’s load time on an ongoing basis and there are ways to speed up page load time across your blog.

Out with the Old

First, take a look through the content on your blog.  Are there flash items, images, video or other content that slows down the page load time that you can remove entirely?  Common culprits for slow-loading pages are flash elements and third-party ads.  Each element on a page on your blog or website has to be “called up” and displayed on screen each time that page loads.  No one wants to hang out and wait for a page to load for more than a couple of seconds.  That’s simply the way that web browsing works in 2010.  People expect pages to load instantly.  If they have to wait more than a few seconds, they’ll click away never to return again.

In with the New

Second, use a tool like Google Webmaster Central to keep track of page load time on your blog.  Using the Site Performance option in Google Webmaster Central can give you all kinds of information about your blog page load time, so you can make changes to pages that are loading particularly slowly.

Add a Little Something Extra

Third, if you use WordPress, use a plugin like W3 Total Cache to speed up page load time on your blog.  You can follow the link to read more about WordPress plugins to reduce load time.  You also should read about 9 easy steps to speed up your WordPress blog.

Bottom-line

Page load time can help or hurt the organic traffic that comes to your blog from keyword searches.  What are you waiting for?  If you want to get more search traffic to your blog, then you should take some time to find ways to make sure your content loads quickly so Google gives it the highest ranking possible.

Image: stock.xchng