wordpressguru.eu

What’s the weather like?

Owen — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:38:25 +0000

Here’s another good plugin that can fit quite a few websites. It’s called WP-Weather and lets you pop a weather forecast on your website with no effort at all. It uses the weather from weather.com and even generates an image that can be used on your site.

It’s a useful plugin that will work well on your site, regardless of whether it’s a hyperlocal site, or one that’s dedicated to rv insurance. You don’t really need an excuse really, but the weather display can be quite effective in making your site look a bit exciting.

Google Maps plugin

Owen — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:08:45 +0000

Here’s a great plugin if you ever need a map on your website. The Google Maps for WordPress plugin lets you easily embed a map into your Wordpress blog without having to mess around with code or embeds. All you need is a Google Maps API key and you can then use shortcodes to add maps to your posts and pages.

It’s a great tool to use on a blog which can be supplemented with maps. So, for example, if you have a travel website, there’s nothing better than a map to help someone out in a travel emergency. They say a picture can convey a 100 words, well; a map can convey just as many.

Affiliate plugin

Owen — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:52:37 +0000

Have you ever used your affiliate links on your website? If you have, you should be looking at a plugin like WP-Affiliate. The plugin works by masking your affiliate links and make them seamless against the rest of your website. It also lets you use affiliate links like those generated by Commission Junction, which have are composed of Javascript code and are usually quite hard to embed on your website.

The great thing about the plugin is that you can use it for whatever affiliate link you like. Whether it’s for sears coupons or Amazon books, it’s always nice to get a bit on the side.

School themes for Wordpress

Owen — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:44:44 +0000

I’ve just came across a collection of free school themes for WordPress. They will be useful for anyone building up an educational site, whether it’s for a school, an after school club, or even a particular class. There are a couple of good themes; I haven’t actually tried any out, but you can tell just by looking at them that they have some decent styling.

So, if you’re building a website for your class, or even setting up a sat prep site, check them out; I’m pretty sure you’ll find a theme that suits the idea you have in mind.

Coping with the load

Owen — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:35:02 +0000

Are you ready for the big time? What’s the difference you may ask? Well, if your site gets really really popular you may be getting thousands of page hits an hour and unless your server is designed to handle the load, you may find your blog suddenly unavailable. Let’s say, for example you have a blog about consumer electronics, you know LCD TVs, Projectors and other such gadgets. One day you write a blog post with a review of the latest 3D TV and it gets linked to from a major website. All of a sudden, you have a deluge of traffic and your server just can’t handle it.

This is where a plugin called WP Super Cache can help. It builds up static versions of each of your pages so that your server can use them without having to process any PHP. It’s an essential tool for anyone expecting potentially large traffic spikes. So, install it and set it up, and feel free to write all the projector reviews you want; you know your blog can handle anything you can throw at it now.

Wordpress 3.0.1

Owen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:34:01 +0000

Where there’s a new version, there’s bound to be a service release that fixes some minor bugs. And this was the case with WordPress 3.0 too. WordPress 3.0.1 has hit the streets with fixes for around 50 minor issues.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a blog about stories you’ve read or about adjustable beds, you always need to make sure that you’re on the latest version of WordPress if you can. most of the fixes in this drop will be relatively trivial, but there’s usually a security patch or two that you shouldn’t really be without.

Download it here

WP Auctions 3.7

Owen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:03:28 +0000

photo credit: walknboston

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

Owen — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:57:11 +0000

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

WordCamp this weekend

Owen — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:24:48 +0000

There are only a few days left before it’s WordCamp time! I’m thrilled to be able to go to WordCamp UK this year. I’ve been wanting to go since I heard about WordCamps, and this one just happened to fit really neatly. It’s in Manchester which means I can boat and train my way there. I may even do some shopping, though I won’t be carrying any wholesale appliances back home. I do want to have a play with an iPad if I find one in the shops, but there are so many things going on, I’m not sure if I’ll find the time for a spot of retail therapy.

So, what’s on the cards? Well, I haven’t had a chance to really study the Running Order, but there are a few sessions that look quite interesting. There are also a number of WordHack sessions which look quite challenging. I’ll keep blogging about it.

NextGen Gallery Plugin

Owen — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:55:00 +0000

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.