• 08
  Mar
• 9

• Under the Skirt : WP Plugins

• category: La Technologie

I tweeted sometime last week that I was thinking of doing a wordpress plugin related post and was wondering if anyone would find it interesting. Well, because the response was a big fat YES, here is a naked view of Glamour This! Now, I just want to point out… I’m a plugin lover. I have over 30 plugins on my site but here are a few of my favorites.

:  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :

Whether you already have a wordpress blog/site or new to it and thinking of doing the switch (from another blogger platform) there are a few plugins that are A MUST.

The first, WP-DB Backup

Backing up your database is EXTEMELY IMPORTANT. As in you shouldn’t blog unless you have a backup plugin installed. You don’t want to have something go wrong and lose everything. (Unless you like living your life on the wild/dangerous side) Backups can be done multiple ways, but the plugin I use (which I find easy to understand) is the WP-DB Backup. Once you set it up (not very complicated) this plugin will email you daily/weekly/monthly (which ever option you prefer) with a complete backup of your database.

Secondly, Akismet
We don’t like spam and to be honest if I could destroy all spammers I would. It would make our blogging lives so much easier. Alas, that’s not the case so if you blog you need to install the Akismet plugin. It will work wonders for you but you will need an API key. Sounds complicated, but I promise it’s not. You need to install this otherwise you will have to moderate all comments and dig through the pile of junky comments.

Now, let’s get into the fun stuff. If you don’t love how the basic wordpress platform works, I found that the image upload was very time consuming and I could never get the standard stats to work… I suggest these to optimize your blogging

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

The standard toolbar on wordpress is displayed on the left site. I’m not a fan of continuously scrolling so when I came across this plugin I was beyond excited. It basically moves it from the side to the top. So now, everything becomes a drop down menu. Merci! I love this plugin.

WordPress.com Stats

I have a confession. As much as it may seem I know about blogging, code and stats… I don’t really understand it all. Yes, I have a google analytics account (which too me forever to understand and set up) but my incoming links never worked and I could never figure out where my visitors were coming from. When I had my old blog, (wordpress.com) I loved the stats in the dashboard. They were easy to understand and all the info was there. I kept telling myself I wish they had those stats available for self-hosted wp. Well… I am happy to report they do!!! So go install the WordPress.com Stats plugin ASAP.

No Self Pings
If you are a blogger who likes to link to previous posts you’ve written, you know that by default you will get a pingback. It’s great an all, but I don’t find it necessary (for me) to have pings of my own posts. Sure I’d like to see who links to my posts and that’s the reason behind pingbacks… but self pings? I don’t need to clutter up my comments with my own pings. If you are like me, then install the No Self Pings

Faster Image Insert

Now this one is a time saver especially if you love post filled with pictures. No need to enter 1 picture at a time, or multiples and then have to individually select them from the gallery. The Faster Image Insert lets you multi-insert & mass-editing images. Upload multiple images, click the invert selection and insert. Voila! All your images on your post in a few clicks. LOVE!

Login Logo

Now, because I love making things pretty, here is a plugin that makes your WP Login dashobard  visually appealing. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some blue/grays & WordPress Logo…but it’s not me. This plugin allow you to switch up the very standard WordPress login page by replacing the WordPress logo with your own. How awesome is this?! you actually have a custom login page and it literally takes 2 secs to do (you need to upload the file on your FTP site) It’s not very complicated and the outcome rocks! Thank to Ty, for showing me this plugin)

:  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :

Please understand that I am no pro. That there are a gazillion wordpress plugins available and I might not be using the right ones or aware of the awesomeness that I have yet to find. If you use a plugin you absolutely adore, please share it and I’ll look into it, who knows maybe I’ll have a part two of under the skirts.

• Pin it!

Posted by: Kelly | Glamour This! official blog of Blushink with 9 comments