WPTD: Script Enabler

Script Enabler is a critical plugin for people wanting to insert javascript into posts.

Maybe you want to add a custom JavaScript for Google AdSense or another type of ad or maybe a movie. This script is for you.

No screen shot because it’s very straight forward, it will let you insert JavaScript in posts.

Direct Download: click here

Update from Lloyd Budd: This plugin is no longer neccessary as the most recent version of the WP Post Editor does not filter out JavaScript. It did over a year ago which is the reason I still used it, I hadn’t tested it without the plugin. So alas, you do not need this plugin if you are running the most recent version of WordPress. (Lloyd Budd via Twitter)

WPTD: WP Status Notifier

The Status Notifier is a great plugin for a multi-author blog. I have used this plugin for a magazine-styled blog and it’s great to keep tabs on contributing authors.

The function is fairly basic, but it’s very effective. In short, it will e-mail you when a contributor user sends in a post for review. Then, you can go review it. If you don’t accept it, it will e-mail the user back and let them know that their post has been sent back to drafts.

Here is the screen shot of the options for the plugin.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-status-notifier/
http://wordpresssupplies.com/wordpress-plugins/status-notifier/

WordPress Tip: Remove WLW and RSD Link

This post on WordPress.org’s support forum wraps it up well, but here’s the downlow about it. But specifically, the post you should read is near the end.

By default, WordPress adds two lines of code in the wp_head() function call.

<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://example.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" />
<link rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="http://example.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" />


These two lines are essentially useless to most people. The wlwmanifest.xml is the resource file needed to enable tagging support for Windows Live Writer (Windows-only).

And, well, the RSD link you don’t really need either; I’ve never used it.

What is the solution to remove these two lines?

There are two options.

First Solution

Create a plugin with the following code

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: WLW Disabler
*/
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
?>

OR…

Second Solution

Add these few lines of code to your functions.php theme file

<?php
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
?>

---

After using either of these solutions, it will eliminate the few lines of code from automatically being hooked into the wp_head() call.

WTTD: One Theme (Paid)

One Theme is a seriously well designed and well developed theme. It is rare that I would review a paid theme simply because, well, free themes are fairly easy to come by. But, this theme I felt was worth reviewing because of how well done it is.

Points of Highlight

• Built-in 125×125 advertising space on the right (clearly visible to visitors)
• Great video integration for drawing in new users via video presentations
• A very nice looking and easy navigating Sitemap (see header)
• Great usage of thumbnails for posts under the category view
• Overall great usability

Here is a sceenshot of what it looks like,

I can’t help but to recommend this theme purely because it’s a great theme. If you have the need for this theme, I strongly suggest you purchase it. Multiple colors and clean code, there’s not much else you can ask for in a theme.

WPTD: Super Switch

Looking for added options for the core functionality of WordPress? Super Switch is a must-have plugin for you then.

This plugin will give you options for what core settings you want to use. Here is a screenshot of what options you will have available.

It can’t get much easier than this for you.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/super-switch/

WPTD: Custom Feeds via Feed Wrangler

This plugin, Feed Wrangler, is a great tool that will let you create custom feeds.

It’s a very simple plugin to use.

So why should you use it? I personally use it because I redirect my main feed to FeedBurner so I can analyze all of my subscribers.

But, you may want to more accurately monitor your subscribers. If you’re using Google Sitemaps or Live.com Webmaster Tools, you will need to submit your sitemap.

I will follow-up with a more in-depth article as to why this is important to add your /feed/ to Google Sitemaps of Live.com Webmaster Tools.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feed-wrangler/
http://www.ephramzerb.com/projects/feed-wrangler

WPTD: Simple v2

Simple, version 2, is a theme produced by the author at bob.my. It’s a simple, yet beautiful theme.

Easy to install, easy to use, and very easy on the eyes.

No apparent advertising positions open, but I’m sure you could integrate some ads on the right if you really wanted to.

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like.

Preview the theme
Download the theme

WPTD: Cross Posting

WordPress is a great blogging platform, but it’s not always the only place you may want to publish content.

Disclaimer: I do not recommend publishing your content more than one place unless it is blocked by search engines because duplicate content is bad.

But, if you need to, here are some great tools to do so.

Crossposting to LiveJournal? Click here

Crossposting to Blogger? Click here

WordPress SEO: Optimizing Your <title>

Often times, the <title> tag is overlooked when creating a theme. This tutorial will help you optimize the <title> tag for your specific needs.

I’m a huge fan of optimizing my <title>, but it takes some work to do it.

In any thing I create or modify, I always have a separate title.php file because I normally have 10-15 lines in the file for my <title>.

Edit: Use this to include the file: <?php include(‘title.php’); ?> in your <head> section of the header.php file.

Here is what I use,

<title><?php
if(isset($_GET['author_name'])) :
$curauth = get_userdatabylogin($author_name);
else :
$curauth = get_userdata(intval($author));
endif;
if(is_home()) { echo 'My News Site.'; }
elseif(is_single()) { the_title() . ' - My News Site.'; }
elseif(is_date()) { echo 'Site Archives - ' . get_the_time('M Y'); }
elseif(is_category()) { echo single_cat_title() . ' News - My Site'; }
elseif(is_page()) { the_title(); }
elseif(is_search()) { echo 'My News Site Search: ' . $s; }
elseif(is_tag()) { echo single_tag_title('My Site Tag: ',true); }
elseif(is_author()) { echo 'Site Author - ' . $curauth->display_name; }
else { echo "Sorry, page not found."; }
?></title>

Then, to simple include this file in your theme, use <?php include(‘title.php’); ?> where you would normally have the <title> and it will show up as planned.

The reason I do this for my <title>’s is because the default method used in WordPress has never been satisfactory for me. Additionally, and primarily, I have seen far better SEO results because of this.

WPTD: Flickr Mini Gallery

Flickr Mini Gallery will let you leverage your Flickr photo albums and easily embed them into WordPress.

Here are the examples pulled from the plugin homepage.

Examples

Gets photos from all the users with these tags
[miniflickr tags="travel, sunset, landscape"]

10 last images from my portfolio or shows the link if javascript is not enabled
[miniflickr user_id="56755410@N00" tags="portfolio" per_page="10" ] Portfolio[/miniflickr]

Gets photos from all the users with these tags
[miniflickr tags="poster" group_id="92076845@N00" per_page="5" ]

Here are some screenshots to see it in action.

Here is an example of what the HTML will produce for the short tags.

Cheers to the plugin author, Felipe Skroski, for creating this plugin.

I have been searching for a long time for something like this.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flickr-mini-gallery/
http://www.felipesk.com/flickr-mini-gallery/

WPTD: Thumbnails for Excerpts

One word: wow.

Something that is clearly overlooked within the WordPress core is thumbnails and excerpts. Not specifically the two together, but separately even.

Solution? Thumbnails for excerpts.

This is a well done plugin that I will definitely be using on a regular basis.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thumbnail-for-excerpts/
http://www.cnet.ro/wordpress/thumbnailforexcerpts/

WPTD: Google Reader as a Blogroll

You may or may not use Google Reader as your primary or secondary RSS reader, but I for one do use it.

I use it as a secondary reader though, it has particular feeds I read in it.

So this plugin lets you port over the subscriptions within Google Reader and displays them as a blogroll on your site. This plugin is a widget.

It’s a simple idea, but great execution and a well done plugin.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-reader-blogroll-widget/
http://blog.acidchaos.de/google-reader-blogroll-widget/

WTTD: WP_Premium by R. Bhavesh

This is a great theme. I use it on a couple of my WordPress sites. It’s overall just an easy theme to use and customize. It’s a uniquely designed theme and gives good focus on specific elements.

There are three different versions.

1. Brown
2. Black
3. Soft Red

His site comes with complete instructions on how to install it and with what features come with the theme.

Truly a job well done here.

Theme Homepage: http://cssace.com/free-wp-premium-theme-is-here/
Direct Download: Click here

WPTD: SEO Slugs

SEO Slugs is a plugin specifically for SEO. It helps because it shortens your permalink slugs by removing common articles like a, the, be, and, if, etc etc.

Why does this help with SEO? Search engines will commonly disregard articles such as these in search queries already, so it then renders them pointless to have them in your permalink slug.

Additionally, it looks better and by nature, shorter permalinks are always better.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-slugs/

WPTD: RSS Footer

The RSS Footer plugin is a great way to manage additional copyright information or possibly adding some advertisements.

I personally add information about my site and about myself because a number of sites will syndicate my content and I’ll retain those backlinks back to my sites.

Worth checking out if you need something like this.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rss-footer/
http://yoast.com/wordpress/rss-footer/

WPTD: DoFollow

This plugin, DoFollow, does essentially one thing: it follows. By default, WordPress blogs are setup with the rel=”nofollow” tag on all comment links because WordPress doesn’t want blog authors to give credit to these comment links (too much spam out there).

So to combat that, it was set to default to nofollow these comment links.

But there are plenty of competent people out there that know how to moderate their blogs well enough to know what is spam and what isn’t spam. So, to give link love and credit to those commenters that spend their valuable time to actually comment, this plugin was created.

Check it out if you want to give back to the community that supports you.

http://kimmo.suominen.com/sw/dofollow/

WPTD: Batch Categories

Batch Categories does exactly what the title says. It lets you edit posts in batches.

It’s hard to describe it, but here it goes.

Basically, you can search by keyword, using %keyword-goes-here%, by tag, or by category. Then once you get the results, you can check the box of each post you want to batch edit. You can add tags, replace tags, add categories, replace categories, or batch remove tags or categories.

It essentially lets you mass edit how your posts are filed on a large scale to save you time and energy.

Here is a quick screenshot of the plugin in action, after doing a search.

http://robm.me.uk/projects/plugins/wordpress/batch-categories

WPTD: StatPress

StatPress is a great built-in statistics plugin. It offers a ton of functionality and visibility for you about your visitors, the search engine crawlers, and where people are going on your site.

Here is a quick overview of what it can offer as far as a daily breakdown goes for visitors.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/statpress/
http://www.irisco.it/?page_id=28

WPTD: Google XML Sitemaps

Here is a slightly different sitemap plugin than before. With the Dagon Sitemap Generator, it was generating an HTML version.

This plugin creates an XML version for Google Sitemaps, Yahoo!, and Microsoft’s Live.com. This is a great utility to have for blog authors because it offers an easy way to search engines to easily see what is available on the blog.

Many themes for WordPress can cause search engine issues because the internal links are not properly mapped out. But, this tool will help give better visibility to your content to the search engines so they can crawl and index your content.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/

WPTD: WP-phpMyAdmin

The wp-phpMyAdmin plugin does essentially one thing: gives you access to phpMyAdmin when you otherwise wouldn’t be able to access it.

For instance, I was running a WordPress site on a server that did not have phpMyAdmin installed. For whatever reason it didn’t, the bottom line is that it didn’t have it installed and I’m used to getting all my database stuff done via phpMyAdmin.

So, I installed this plugin and magically, phpMyAdmin is now at my finger tips.

It’s a great plugin if you need phpMyAdmin.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-phpmyadmin/
http://wordpress.designpraxis.at/plugins/wp-phpmyadmin/