My top 10 essential Wordpress Plug-ins

Here are my top 10 essential Wordpress Plug-ins as I use Wordpress a lot. 
I manage over 100 blogs using this great software but pretty much use similar plugins on each. 
There are many plugins that do the same thing and some times it is a process of trial and error, installing, activating and deactivating until you find one that is right for you.
So I thought I'd share my list to make it easier for everyone:

1.  Wordpress Database Backup - Helps me sleep much easier at night.  Daily backups in my email what more can I say.

2. Platinum SEO Pack - Don't know what I'd do without this great plugin.  My blogs rank so much better with it running.  This plugin is highly customisable and a must have.


3. Google XML Sitemaps - Like #1, this is very handy for getting better results in Google and does all the work for you

4. Share This - Great way to generate some word-of-mouth action

5.  Feedburner Feedsmith - Feedburner helps keep an eye on who is reading your RSS feeds.

6.  Ultimate Google Analytics - Avoids your Analytics codes getting blasted away by updates and your stats stopping running

7.  Get Recent Comments - Indispensible little plugin helps other users to see which posts on your site people are talking about.

8.  Akismet - helps control that annoying comment spam.

9.  Geo Mashup Plugin - a fantastic little plugin that makes it very easy to generate Google Maps.  A little fiddly at first but once you get your head around it and get your API key it is very powerful.

10.  EasyTube or Smart Youtube - six one or half a dozen the other.  Basically easily embed YouTube into posts - only thing I hate about Wordpress is it makes it difficult to do this and Google Maps without plugins ...

Hope this helps !  Interested to hear if I've left some out that others find indispensable.

Cushy CMS vs Surreal CMS - which is the best Lightweight free CMS

I've used web content management systems for a while, but only began recently to use some lightweight web content management systems with some smaller websites - first Cushy CMS and now Surreal CMS.

A couple of free lightweight content management systems are out there that are application hosted and use FTP to hook into websites and CSS tags to define editable areas (in the case of Cushy it is class="cushycms" and in the case of Surreal it is class="editable"). They are offered free because their business model is aimed at web designers rather than end users.

One of the big limitations with these systems is that they are only really good for existing webpages, not for creating new ones. There is also the issue of FTP security when someone else is hosting your access logins.

But once you overlook these, the systems are neat, quick and (mostly) very easy for end users to pick up.

Cushy had some great design ideas, but a newcomer, Surreal gives it a real run for its money.

There are two reasons why I have switched from Cushy to Surreal:

1. A frustrating bug in Cushy resulting from when I moved my site from a staging server to a new server, I could no longer edit the pages, even if I re-added them. Resulting in me having to create a new account

2. Surreal CMS is now set up to accept Cushy's tag class="cushycms" making it easier to migrate from Cushy

3. Surreal editor is hosted off a separate purpose built domain - edit-content.com. I've found downtime on Cushy which makes Surreal more suitable for higher demand websites

While it is clear that Surreal capitalises on Cushy's mistakes to gain marketshare and I found Surreal as easy to setup as Cushy, there are However a couple of the setup things weren't quite as easy as they could be. The interface and tabs for editing different fields initially confused me and tripped me up and they quite aren't as easy as Cushy. The rich text area is also a little trickier to use, and a little difficult to find the View HTML Source option initially.

However despite these things I'm quite happy to now use Surreal.

Gmail's threaded messages system is confusing and you can't turn it off

I usually like Gmail, much better than hotmail at least for reliability.

But one thing that gets me is the threaded messaging system.

I don't mind the concept and see where it can be useful. But in practice it can be incredibly confusing and difficult to find individual email messages.

Gmail's groups functionality can be useful, however Gmail isn't a discussion forum or mailing list, it is first and foremost a personal email application. Trying to be everything isn't always the best way to go.

I've also found that it can sometimes also cause confusing situations of replying to the wrong person because you've picked a message out of a thread. I've found the confusion gets worst when you're switching from using Gmail in groups to sending and receiving individual emails.

But its not a mode and I'm yet to find a way to turn this feature off ... there is a Google groups thread about it here ... perhaps there is a better email service that is not as confusing !

Embedding Flickr into Websites - FlickrSlidr vs PictoBrowser vs Plug in

I've recently had some success embedding Flickr into websites and blogs and found that there are many ways to skin this cat.

The easiest is online services, of which there are two main ones ... FlickrSlidr and PictoBrowser. Both generate code which you can simply copy and paste into your website HTML.

FlickrSlidr is the easiest and has some basic configuration options. However its limitations is in end users browsing pictures.

PictoBrowser is more of a traditional gallery and also supports Picasa, however the builder uses Flash and although the interface looks simple it is in fact clunky and just about crashed my PC.

However there is a simple way, using a direct Flickr API and iFrames using a piece of code supplied on this site. The code can also be made to be standards compliant.

I'm not sure about slideshows though, and I'd prefer to randomise static Flickr images. There are plugins available to do that too.

Interested to hear any other ways people have been able to achieve it.

How to tell if your website is being copied

I've had several websites completely ripped off lately. I mean content design, the whole shebang. I used to only be able to find them if they slipped up and left links to my site.

But searching around, I found this great website called Copyscape. You just type in your website's URLs and it catches the culprits red handed !

So if you are concerned about copyright infringement, then visit this highly recommended service and check for yourself:

http://www.copyscape.com/

Facebook Advertising Ineffective

I've been meaning to post this for a while.

I have become somewhat skeptical of Facebook and social media advertising.

Initially I found it was cheaper than Google Adwords and provided more profiling power. At least initially it appeared effective.

However despite dozens of clicks delivered in a very short space of time, after tracking conversions I have found that it has been about 1/10 as effective in conversion than standard banner ads and Google Adwords.

So the overall value of Facebook advertising, at least that I've found, is minimal.

This is a shame as it seemed like the platform had plenty of promise. Perhaps this is due to the type of advertising and the frame of mind of consumers using social media.

I have, however had success with Facebook Business Pages where your customers can become fans of your business. This has worked well. Perhaps the two could work better in conjunction than a standard Facebook ad. All the same though, I've been slightly burnt by my Facebook advertising experience.

There was a problem with the Windows Live Hotmail service - Gmail is better

Just about every time I try to search my Hotmail email I get this message:

There was a problem with the Windows Live Hotmail service (a temporary network connectivity issue that has nothing to do with your computer). Please try again.

Trying again is just a waste of time. It doesn't fix the issue.

I'd move from Hotmail for good, but unforunately I was an early adopter (It was a good webmail system once) and I rely on it and can't forward the email to Gmail.

Gmail is 1000 times better and more reliable than Hotmail and I can think of at least 100 reasons to switch permanently.

Google Ads with sound ! Offensive and inappropriate but difficult to disable

Google should be ashamed of creeping in Flash Video ads with sound on its Adsense Network.

I was alerted to by members of my thriving online community that everytime they visited my site, a loud spinning wheel sound would start. It was driving users away in their dozens. Noone could work out why my site became offensive all of a sudden.

The culprit - a Google image ad in the footer of my website was displaying online gambling content. Appalled, I went into my Adsense settings to disable the audio, but couldn't find a setting for it and in any case, I would have to recreate the Adsense code, reupload and change the page code on my site.

I searched the Internet to find out what I could do about it, but came up with nothing.

However I decided to contact Google directly to report the offensive ad, after searching extensively I found this link for "Feedback on a Google ad in the content network":
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?contact=adfeedback

I am yet to receive any response from Google over this.

Apparently offensive ads sometimes slip through the cracks. But when it does, as a publisher, it can do some really bad damage to your sites reputation. To date I was impressed with the performance and relevance of image ads. However as a result of this experience, if Google don't change their policy on Flash ads, I'm considering moving back to text ads or moving away from Adsense altogether to a more discrete context advertising providers (as there are now plenty of Adsense alternatives out there).

Wikipedia and American English

One of the things that really gets me with Wikipedia is the use of American English for the titles of many of its articles. Not to mention that the English version of Wikipedia's whole world view is imbalanced toward the United States and Australia, where the highest number of Internet users per capita are located.

American English is not the authoritive version of English, it is a regional variation, but Wikipedia doesn't agree. American English its own language, riddled with idiosyncrasies of laziness. Even when I set English (UK or Australian) in Microsoft Word, the evils of American English keep creeping in. Now the definition of 21st century knowledge is also spelled out in stars and stripes.

Wikipedia should have a language definition purely for American English to rid Wikipedia from the problems that it creates and enable those who speak the Queen's English, the proper language, to continue to use it.

Can't find the Create Group feature in the New Facebook ?

You're not alone there. After the recent Facebook layout change I simply couldn't find the link to it anywhere. Not in the homepage, applications or even (where you'd expect to find it) in the groups section .....

However after searching Facebook and the web extensively for the create group feature I found this direct link which you might find useful:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php

Bookmark it.

The new interface on Facebook is a disgrace. Groups and communities are a big part of what makes Facebook popular but it has been overlooked in favour of a focus on the Twitter style status updates system. As a result I've already moved to Orkut for social networking and Twitter for microblogging. They obviously don't do much user testing over there at Facebook HQ .....

Unless they find a way to quickly change direction from these latest changes I doubt it will be too long before the ship hits the Zuckerberg so to speak.

New Google Street View Interface Sucks

Yet again, Google have to ruin a completely good idea with a revamp which introduces usability headaches.

Google Street View used to be a really useful way of finding locations. It had the little option in the More Tab and you could click anywhere on the map - simple. Then you could use the arrows on street view to navigate the street scenes. Perfect.

But about a month ago, obsessed with going virtually full screen, Google went and made this handy app almost impossible to use. In the guise of "interface improvement" they've hidden it deep within the Google Maps navigation so that you have to search for an address first then find the link and click on it.
Then the street view appears in a little screen in the bottom corner while the map is still there.

But that's not the really tricky part. The interface for moving around the streets is now extremely awkward. There is an icon that you have to drag and you can no longer simply click on any point of the map. If you happen to miss your target, you almost have to simulate walking there by dragging the person icon over the map which is both tedious and annoying.

They've also introduced a split screen concept which reminds me of Nintendo 64 and makes me want to throw up. Bot the map and the street view become very clumsy to use in this mode.

All I have to say is why Google ... why ruin a perfectly good app with poorly executed ideas. I can only hope they learn from this and either return it to normal or try a different interface.