PLUGINS
How was I blissfully unaware of the Plugins that Word Press offers to optimise ones blogging experience? It’s either a secret that Word Press users kept from me, OR, I didn’t pay attention. I’m pretty sure there is a plugin to do just about anything you want to do on your Word Press blog. Want to speed up your load time? Protect your photos from getting copied by others? {Scratch that. The plug in didn’t work so well.} Install a comment spam filter? And on, and on?
Word Press has em’. You just need to look….and then install and activate.
My favorite plugins was introduced to me by MamaKat.
This particular plugin makes me very, very happy. I actually hesitate telling you about it because I want to keep it secret. I want to hoard it for myself, but in the spirit of sharing, I’ll spill. All I ask is that you don’t install it on your blog. Okay Dokey? Kidding.
http://blog.2i2j.com/plugins/wordpress-thread-comment
This handy dandy plugin has revolutionized my blogging world. It allows my replies to comments on my blog posts to publish, and then sends the originally commenter my response. So, now when someone asks a question, I can answer it publicly if I chose and all can read it. Plus, since it sends the commenter the answer they don’t have to waste their time coming back looking for a response. The best part? My answer is attached to the originally comment, not 15 comments later. Right there.
Additionally, anyone can reply to someone else’s comment on my blog. So, it’s not exclusive to the blog owner. There’s a sort of built in spam filter too, because they can’t do it anonymously.
Another plugin I appreciate thoroughly is Askimet.
“Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not”. This plugin literally makes it so that you don’t have to worry about spam anymore. Anything that looks fishy goes to a spam filter which you can then delete or approve.
Now, it might be worth mentioning that I was introduced to a plug in that I loved the idea of:
The plug in protects the photos you’ve published on your blog from others copying them. When someone tries to copy a photo from your blog it saves as a blank file. So cool. I have to tell you though that I’ve found the functionality of this plugin is spotty at best. It works for me on images I’ve published to Word Press, but not on photos that I had imported. I’ve also heard from other reliable sources that it doesn’t work at all. So, use this plug in with caution. After a few days with weird images being blanked out I got rid of the plugin…..but, it does work for some and seems like a great plugin when it’s working properly.
Twitter: mommysstillfab
says:
I love that thread comment plug in as well. Not sure if it works though, because I don’t see the receiving end of things… but I do love it.
I also love the Stats. And the SEO pack. Love, Love wordpress.
Twitter: 7clowncircus
says:
Oh yes. The SEO pack. Tell me about the stats?
Twitter: kelly_deneen
says:
That is very cool! So glad you are enjoying your new home.
Are you trying to coax us over to the wordpress side?
Twitter: 7clowncircus
says:
Um. Just trying to justify my move.
Twitter: lula34
says:
I’m still with Blogger. ‘Cause I rarely blog. And WordPress won’t let me post just ANY video from You Tube. Therefore…I stick with Blogger.
Besides…all the cool kids have switched to WP and I have never been a cool kid. Therefore…I stick with Blogger.
Blogger should pay me for saying this. I’m not holding my breath.
Twitter: 7clowncircus
says:
EVeryone wants to be your friend. I call that popular.
Blogger should be paying you………and word press should be paying me.
so glad you’re happy with the move! i’m still too scared (and cheap) to make the jump
Word Press does seem soooo much better, but you have to pay monthly, no?
Justine
)
Those ARE cool plugins:-)
Twitter: lemusingsofmoi
says:
Okay, okay…I’m getting closer.
Now, can I have the EXACT layout of my blog now with WordPress? =)
Twitter: 1momof5
says:
I WISH my wordpress comments had worked better. I switched to Disqus again after getting thoroughly ticked with the way mine was working. I like yours, though! I’m still wondering if I should switch back. Grr.
You’ll have to tell me more about this faster load time plug in! Cool!
Man — if I was a more serious blogger, I’d sooooo consider jumping the Blogger ship. You’re making WP sound so cool!
Following In My Shoes
Hmm – I’m still trying to get used to the new design – it just seems more challenging to read previous posts and keep up. I’ll try.
But the new look is awesome.
Twitter: 7clowncircus
says:
I’m so glad you’ll try. And, that sucks that it seems LESS user friendly to you. Darn.
I can’t decide what to do. I keep going back and forth about making the switch. These posts are helping. Would you mind telling what was the thing that sealed the deal for you?
Twitter: ThetaMom
says:
You did it mama!!!! Welcome to WP, it’s a whole new bloggy world, isn’t it? You look fabulous baby!
Yikes, I’m with Lula. I scared of plug ins.
I still have blogger. And more than likely, will always have blogger. Unless some huge company comes along and wants to pay for a new blog for me and since I have never been approached by any big companies, I am not going to hold my breath