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Difference Between A Plugin And A Widget

In a recent post highlighting an awesome plugin which provides an amazing amount of flexibility in terms of displaying widgets on a WordPress powered blog, one of the comments I received was a question asking what the difference is between a plugin and a widget. This post is aimed at answering that question.

Instead of coming up with my own definition, I’ll publish what the WordPress Codex has to say regarding each term.

Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress.

WordPress Widgets are also known as “sidebar accessories” which are WordPress Plugins or add-ons to your WordPress blog sidebar.

So there you have it. WordPress plugins and WordPress widgets are one in the same but used differently. I can see how one could confuse the two but think of it this way, you have to install a plugin in order to use a widget. Reminds me of the question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? I’ll take answers to that question in the comments.

FreelanceWritingGigs Becomes A Network

Freelance Writing Gigs.com which is headed up by one time Performancing contributor Deb Ng has announced that, she has turned the site from one blog into a network of six blogs. This move will enable visitors to quickly find the content they enjoy the most from specific authors. When asked about the move, Deb responded:

“This is a natural progression for the site,” says Deborah Ng, who founded the site in May of 2005 to help work-at-home moms find better writing opportunities. “We have multiple contributors now. By providing six different blogs, we’re making it much more readable. Community members can subscribe to the different blogs rather than scrolling down deeper and deeper to find the content that interests them. This design will provide our readers with much more freedom.”

FWJ is strongly considered by many to be the premier site for freelance writers, especially those looking for a job. In terms of content, FWJ is covered by a variety of experienced writers such as Jodee Redmond, who blogs about writing jobs, including popular job listings, and other matters; James Chartrand, who blogs about the business of freelance writing; resident article writing expert Terreece Clark, as well as well-known bloggers Jennifer Chait and David Peralty, who blog on a wide variety of topics important to bloggers.

So while RWW has disbanded its network, others are creating them. Congratulations to Deb for being able to make the move and Performancing wishes her all the best.

TDAge Theme

TDAge theme for WordPress thumbnailWe are pleased to announce the November Performancing WordPress Theme: TDAge

A free, public release version of design guru Thord Daniel Hedengren‘s Swedish-language blog, TDAge is a light-blue themed design with big, bold feed and “about” images, and large-font headers. TDAge also has easy access links to a blog’s pages and categories from the headers, and has a clean-cut pre-defined template for use as an archive summary page.

TDAge is a pun for TDH, which stands for–you guessed it!–Thord Daniel Hedengren, who has developed various designs for Splashpress Media, including the Blog Herald, Jack of All Blogs, Blog Network Watch, Blogger Jobs, Bloggy Award, Audival, Wisdump, Devlounge, and many more. Thord has also collaborated with us on other Performancing WordPress Theme releases: One in a Million and Estranged.

Tdage-screenshot

[Read more…] about TDAge Theme

Cool WordPress Plugins Released In October

Better late than never but here is a list of plugins that were released during the month of October that caught my eye. It amazes me each time I do a post like this to see the amount of creativity that takes place on a monthly basis to either improve upon WordPress or to add functionality to it that didn’t exist before. Quite a few examples can be found within this list.

WP Blurb – Limit posts, pages, categories or your custom text. Limit the number of characters to what you like. You are calling the plugin function from your theme.

TDW Combobox Links – Display links in a combobox.

bbPress Live – bbPress Live allows you to pull data from a bbPress 1.0 forum using the new XML-RPC publishing API in bbPress.

Xavin’s Review Ratings – Xavin’s Review Ratings is a WordPress plugin that adds a shortcode tag [xrr rating=”4/5″] that displays a rating in one of several formats.

HeadSpace2 – HeadSpace is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks.

CommentLuv – Appends a titled link using AJAX to the authors last blog post on their comment giving back some love to the people that join your discussion.

Lazyest Gallery – Lazyest Gallery is an integrated image gallery with automatic thumb and slide creation

Business Directory for WordPress – Business Directory for WordPress is an easy way to host a free directory page for your readers, affiliates, advertisers, community or club members. Invite them to submit a simple advertisement listing for themselves on your blog

WP Double Opt-In List Management – This WordPress email list management plugin allows the visitors of your blog subscribe to your mailing list using a double opt-in method. The signup form (Email, Name and other fields) is placed on the WordPress blog sidebar. After a user fills in the form and clicks “Subscribe”, WP double opt-in plugin sends an email with the subscription confirmation link to the user.

FV Community News – Allow your visitors to add articles to the sidebar or anywhere else. Complete with moderation panel and a settings page, you can sit back while you have full control about the look and articles that being posted.

Update URLs – When you move WordPress to a new domain or directory, the permalinks are not updated. This plugin updates all permalinks. In addition, it also gives the user the option to update any links within posts and pages.

FTP Plugin for WP Database Backup Plugin – This plugin adds a fourth way to save the database backup files of the WP Database Backup plugin. With the standard WP Database Backup plugin you can save the database tables of your weblog a file. This backup file can stored on the server of your weblog, send to an email account or saved (manually) to your local hard disk.

Wp2BB – Wp2BB integrates your WordPress blog and your phpBB forum. It automatically creates new topics in the forum for every new post in your blog.

ZdMultilang – ZdMultilang is a Multilingual plugin for WordPress allowing you to blog in more than one language. You can define multiple languages and translate posts/tags/categories using the interface that will be added to your blog’s administration panel.

Event Calendar 3 – Manage future events as an online calendar. Display upcoming events in a dynamic calendar, on a listings page, or as a list in the sidebar.

DasboardZone – Displays statistics about your posts and post frequency on the WordPress Dashboard

Lightbox Plus – Lightbox Plus is a plugin that implements Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar. Lightbox Plus is used to create overlay display images on the webpage and to automatically add the correct overlay links to images. Lightbox Plus captures the image title for display using a fairly robust regex to capture most character that may appear as part of the title.

Stumble! – Stumble! for WordPress extends WordPress to support a “random article” feature, similar to StumbleUpon’s StumbleThru and Wikipedia’s (Mediawiki’s) ran.

FeatPlug – Featplug is a plugin that can mine your WordPress (or any other Blog/CMS/Forum software’s) posts and generates “featured content” section

Results Count – Results-Count is a very simple plugin that does exactly what it says on the tin & will count the number of posts that result from operations in WordPress such as a search, viewing a category, or viewing a monthly archive etc.

Highlight Comments – Highlight Comments allows you to highlight comments, which are worth reading. It can highlight your own comments as well and is fully customizable.

Lifestream – Lifestream displays your social feeds and photos much like you would see it on many of the social networking sites.

Backlinks – A simple function to show blog posts linking back to any article, similar to Google Backlinks

WP Hide Dashboard – WP Hide Dashboard is a simple plugin that removes the dashboard link and prevents dashboard access to users assigned to the Subscriber role. This is useful if you want to allow your subscribers to edit their own profiles, but don’t want them wandering around the rest of your WordPress admin section.

J Post Slider – Show your post in fancy jQuery box, rotating images, with show-up text box with post description.

login required – Permit access to your blog only to the logged in users

MobilePress – MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes. The plugin also allows specific themes for specific devices / mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera Mini, Windows CE Mobile and other generic handset browsers.

WP-Donators – Wp-Donators provides a smart donation function to autoleave the sponsor information in a container after payment. People can donate and submit name/URL or TextLink ad. The information of the latest donors are displayed in the cloud.

Landing sites – When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, the plugin is showing them related posts to their search on your blog.

Slayer’s Custom Widgets – This plugin will make your widgetized sidebars so flexible that you will almost think that your running a more advanced CMS system and not WordPress.

Contact Form 7 – Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.

Side Content – It enables you to define a set of widgets which are effectively placeholders. Each one is empty until you assign content to it when editing a page. This enables you to extend the content of the page into the sidebar.

MyADManager – Manages 125×125 ADs. Automatic activation and deactivation of ads. Ads can be bought directly, accepts payments via Paypal.

SocioFluid – SocioFluid is a Social Bookmarking Plugin, displaying small icons, which grows when the mouse is moved over, similar to mac effect.

Moderator – Moderator is a WordPress Plugin and associated desktop application, built using Adobe AIR, that allows you to view and moderate comments from your desktop.

eShop – An accessible Paypal Shopping Cart plugin.

New User Approve – New User Approve is a WordPress plugin that allows a blog administrator to approve a user before they are able to access and login to the blog.

WP Unique Article Header Image – Allows you to add/associate unique header image with each single post/page.So you can spice your blog to have a unique header image per post/page.

WordPress Link Directory – A link directory plugin for WordPress which allows other webmasters to add their link to your site. It can check for reciprocal links and even check the Pagerank of the other site and accept or refuse the link based on criteria you specify

List compiled via the WordPress Plugin Release posts on WeblogToolscollection.com

The Ethics of Reviewing Giveaways

In the course of my blogging life, I’ve reviewed a handful of things, including software, gadgets, and even food. Most of these I’ve bought myself, either out of curiosity or need (of course I need to eat!). But some have been sent in by companies who ask to be featured. And yes, I do admit having written a couple of sponsored reviews before.

The concept of being sent stuff for review is not new to me. I run dozens of personal and Splashpress-run blogs, and I get contacted about anything from parenting books, WiFi gadgets, personal apparel, coffee, software, and the like. I can understand that manufacturers and sellers of these would have no qualms in giving away $50 gadgets in exchange for links and publicity.

As for big-ticket items, I’ve been lent a few laptops, but those I have had to return within a few weeks’ time. And so I was a bit surprised when SonyEricsson representatives in my region invited me for a meeting, and gave me a review unit of their latest Xperia X1. I asked how long I could use it, and they said that as far as they’re concerned, the smartphone was mine. And they also gave review units to 10 newspaper journalists and three other bloggers.

And it was no $50 gadget, of course. More like $900.

And so this has made me think about the implications of being given “gifts” for review. When you buy yourself something, you usually feel comfortable writing about both the good and bad sides. And if your review is mostly negative, you would have no qualms about hitting the publish button. But somehow, when you get a freebie, would you still feel comfortable pointing out the bad side?

Think about this from another perspective–from the giver’s. If you gave out freebies, how would you feel if the feedback was bad? Sure, if someone said your restaurant’s food is a bit bland or a bit too expensive, you can definitely do something about it. And that’s constructive criticism, which can help you down the road. But isn’t it different with a $1,000 gadget that you’ve already produced, boxed and marketed? What if it was a lemon? A dud? Buyers do take online reviews seriously these days, and potential customers might shy away from your product if they see mostly bad feedback.

Or is there such a thing as bad publicity at all?

Here’s one question that remains in my mind. What’s the difference between writing a sponsored post and reviewing a freebie? Surely, the mode of “payment” is different, in that a sponsored post is paid outright in cash, while with a freebie you get an item of value, but that you may not necessarily convert to cash.

Reading the fine print, I found out that my Xperia X1 was a marked as a prototype unit, which was “not for sale.” And so while the phone was worth a thousand bucks, it couldn’t exactly be converted into a thousand bucks in cash. Does this make it less valuable? Maybe, and maybe not. Does this make my writing a review less of a sell-out? Maybe, and maybe not.

I know this has been a big issue before, but with the blogosphere arguably growing to be more mature in this day and age, is there now any much difference with how we thought of sponsored reviews before?

In my reviews, I do try to be balanced, and I try to avoid any bias. And lest I be accused of selling out, I do try to be as transparent as possible, especially in disclosing whether an item was given or whether a review was sponsored. But from the point of view of a seasoned blog reader, how do you feel when reading reviews when you know a blogger was given something in exchange? And does it make a difference if there was proper disclosure?

Taking Over Performancing

It’s time for change, and I’m not talking about the 2008 Democratic ticket. It’s something closer to home–right here at Performancing.

I’m pleased to announce that I have been given the assignment of managing Performancing effective November 1st. Ryan Caldwell, whom we consider to be one of the strong foundations of the community, has decided to focus on pursuing other projects. While, arguably, Performancing could carry on by itself as a community, Splashpress Media (which owns Performancing and its various services) feels that Performancing would benefit more from a refocusing of efforts, talent and energies toward a more active community and a unified portal for this community.

I mentioned change earlier and so far, reader feedback has been optimistic. I do have several plans laid out, such as a possible redesign and restructuring of our sites and services. And perhaps we can bring back some features that were previously in place. Now, here’s your chance to be part of the planning process. What do you think should we do to better adhere to our motto of helping bloggers succeed? Should we build more plugins? Create more free themes? Venture into new blogging-related services? Create a book?

We’re open to ideas!

Updates

In my excitement, I forgot to mention a few important points and an introduction (Thanks Brett for pointing that out).

Firstly, Jeff Chandler, who has been producing excellent content here, is staying on as lead contributor. He will be very much involved in planning (and executing) the various things we intend to have here. In this regard, I don’t think readers will think of the new editorship to be too drastic a change, since Jeff has been manning the ship for quite a while. Jeff and I will share top-billing in terms of writing and other content.

As for an introduction, I know I’ve made only a few posts here on Performancing to date, but I’ve mostly been involved in back-end work (i.e., some marketing, selling of ad space, and some tweaks here and there) since Splashpress acquired Performancing. You can mostly read my posts and features over at the Blog Herald, where I serve as assistant editor.

I do have a resume online, but it’s a bit outdated. I run my personal blog at racoma.net and my archives are at racoma.com.ph.

MakeUseOf.com Victim Of Domain Hijacking

MakeUseOf.com which is a very popular tech blog with over 20,000 RSS subscribers has become a victim of domain hi-jacking. The MakeUseOf domain is hosted through GoDaddy and somehow, the account was hacked where the perpetrator transfered the domain to a web hosting company in Dubai. Aibek who owns the domain recently stated:

We have absolutely no idea how this was achieved but we are currently in full contact with GoDaddy’s fraud department to get our legal property back. Obviously this is deeply embarrassing for us but we will not rest until the domain name is back in our possession. We have all worked too long and too hard to watch it all slip away like this.

MakeUseOf.com is an excellent resource that always makes the rounds of being read within my FeedReader. The speculation going around right now is that, a security hole was used inside of Gmail to retrieve the Gmail password which then gave the hijacker access to some other webmail. I hope Aibek is able to retrieve his domain and then on top of that, share the details on how this hijacking occurred.

What would you do if you were in Aibeks situation? Have you ever gone through a similar situation? Let me know in the comments.

Discovered via – Daily Blog Tips

New Fantastico Update

The latest version of Fantastico (2.10.4 r22) has been released which includes the following updates:

  • Drupal: 6.4 -> 6.6
  • Gallery: 2.2.6 -> 2.3
  • SMF: 1.1.5 -> 1.1.6
  • Soholaunch Pro Edition: 4.9.3 r14 -> 4.9.3 r17
  • TikiWiki: 2.1 -> 2.2
  • WordPress: 2.6.2 -> 2.6.3

These updates may or may not be available on your specific web host. If not, give it a few more days before you check again as web servers update their Fantastico scripts at different times.