Category Archives: plugins

WP Auctions 3.7

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There’s a new version of WP Auctions in town, the plugin that turns your WordPress blog into an fully fledged auction site.The new version has some new features, like the ability to customise the automated emails sent by the plugin, the image upload process has been improved and there’s now a facility to allow remote debugging (if it’s ever needed).

The great thing about the plugin is that it allows you to auction anything you like on your site, whether it’s a Mustang or mbt shoes. Give it a whirl, there’s even a free version for you to try.

Check out all the new features

Cutting down the extra bits

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Here’s an interesting plugin. It’s called WPlite and lets you hide extra bits from your Administration menu. If you’re preparing a site for someone else to use, then having all the menu options that WordPress provides can be a bit of a heavy burden. This plugin acts like Phentermine 37.5, but instead of helping someone shed pounds, it help you shed items from your menus, making it more palatable for users without an expert background.

Here’s what WPLite promises

WPlite (“WordPress lite”) is a WordPress plugin that lets you hide ‘unnecessary’ items from the WordPress administration menu—even the Dashboard. On top of that, you can also hide post meta controls on the Write page, so as to simplify the editing interface.

The result: a minimal, Zen-like WordPress administration area.

Check it out here

NextGen Gallery Plugin

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What plugin do you use to display your photos? One of my favourites is one called NextGEN Gallery Plugin which lets you upload and store photos and even display them on a slide show on your blog. The plugin allows you to upload photos in a variety of ways, my favourite is the ability to upload a ZIP file and let the plugin take care of unpacking and storing the photos.

I’ve used it on a number of different blogs, more recently on the blog for the Isle of Man Choral Society. It’s always allowed me to make great displays on and it’s always made me proud. One I’d recommend to all you WordPress users out there.

100 Million Plugin Downloads

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Have you ever downloaded a WordPress plugin? Well, that’s a bit of a silly question isn’t it; if you’ve ever used WordPress you’ve bound to have downloaded a plugin or two; especially one of the more essential ones like Akismet. Anyway, the WordPress plugin directory has reached a great milestone, exceeding 100 million plugin downloads and counting.

I have a few plugins in the directory myself, nothing as complex as a medical plugin where you can look up all you want to know about human growth hormone; rather there’s WP Auctions, TweetRoll and a bunch of other plugins. Nice to be part of a 100 million target ;)

Speed up your site with WP Super Cache

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Here’s a plugin you really need to know about if you have a popular site. It’s called WP Super Cache and is the best way to handle a surge of traffic that could bring your servers to their knees. The plugin works by generating a static HTML version of your page, which can be served to a user at a fraction of the machine load of a normal PHP page. When a user hits the site, the page is generated, handed to them and kept in storage in case another user turns up asking for the same page.

It’s pretty useful if you have lots of traffic and can make your website leaner and meaner than any diet pills you know about. Check it out if you’re expecting your site to be popular!

New version of WP Auction Lite

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I’ve just dropped another version of WP Auctions Lite, to correct a small bug that was displaying a warning message whenever a page is loaded. It’s quite fortunate that WordPress supports the ability to tell you automatically if there’s a new drop of a plugin you’re using. It’s easy for me to push out a new version regardless of whether it’s a feature change or a bug fix.

It’s a great little plugin that lets you sell anything you like, from coconuts all the way to Lipovox. Give it a try if you want to turn your blog into a fully fledged auction machine. If you like it, you may even want to consider purchasing WP Auctions Pro, the premium version with a bunch more features.

Using reCAPTCHA to stop spam on your WordPress blog

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Image representing reCAPTCHA as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

Akismet does a brilliant job of keeping your blog free from spam, but sometimes, just sometimes you need that little bit more. This is where a service called reCAPTCHA can come in handy. It’s a pretty cool service that lets you protect your site from bots, while at the same time help you scan books by translating words that can’t be recognised by a machine. It’s a classic case of killing two birds with one stone. Protect your blog from spam while helping to translate scanned books.

There’s a WordPress plugin for reCAPTCHA that lets you add the service to your blog in a couple of minutes. It’s installed in the standard way of uploading the contents of the ZIP up to your website and activating, but has a further step that requires an API key (which is free). After that it should all be automatic. So, if you’re tired of cleaning up comments about Nigerian generals or that diet pill that works, check out this plugin; you’ll be helping others while helping yourself.

Article Workflow Plugin

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Every wanted to turn your WordPress site into a collaborative article publishing platform? Well, that’s what the Article Directory Plugin does. Here’s the blurb from the plugin:

Article Directory Plugin for WordPress allows contributors to add articles to your WordPress blog. You have the control to allow or reject the article and publish it on your web site. Add customizable content to your WordPress blog in the shortest period of time. From user-friendly customization options to easy content creation process, Your Articles Directory prides itself in content authoring for your users… regardless of technical limitations. Our unique Article Directory System allows you to backfill your WordPress Blog with targeted content.

I think I might try this out on ManxVoice, once I’ve finished what I have planned for it. I actually know someone working on a site cataloguing weight loss stories, I’m pretty sure he’ll find that useful too.

New version of WP Auctions Lite

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There’s a new version of WP Auctions Lite, the free plugin for WordPress that lets you sell things right on your blog. It’s a bit like auctioning things on eBay, except you don’t have to pay any fees for listing, for winning or for anything at all. Here are some of the features of the plugin:

  • Host as many auctions as you like.
  • Upload an image for your auction.
  • Use PayPal to accept payments.
  • Easily Edit, End or Delete your auctions.
  • Use HTML to describe your auctions, you can even include video!
  • Set a specific end date and time, down to the second.
  • Sleek AJAX popup to show your auctions.
  • Easy to use backend admin area to manage your auctions.

You can use the plugin to sell anything you want on your blog, from shoes to cars, from diamonds to that secret list you made of foods that burn fat. And the best thing is that it won’t cost you a cent. Check it out today!

Delving into Affiliate Treasure

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WordPress Affiliate Pro is an interested tool that can turn your WordPress blog into a money-making engine. It lets you set up keywords and affiliate links, then automatically scans your blog and turns your posts and pages into potential gold mines by replacing replacing those keywords with your affiliate links. It’s all done automatically and transparently meaning that you don’t have to do any work yourself. There’s no code to write and no manual changing of links, just let the plugin do the work for you.

So, let’s say for example that you have a blog with a few hundred pages talking about the hazards of modern day life. With one click you can turn all the sentences with the words free life insurance quote into a link that goes to a site you want. Or, let’s say you have a dance blog that talks about all aspect of dancing. You can set up the plugin so that every time you use the term: pointe shoes, it takes you to an affiliate shop where you can earn a commission on what’s being sold.

Sounds promising? Try WordPress Affiliate Pro today!