WordPress Top Plugins

Book description

Find and install the best plugins for generating and sharing content, building communities and generating revenue

  • Learn WordPress plugin basics for both Macs and PCs
  • Focuses exclusively on 100% free and open plugins
  • Screenshots for each plugin
  • Organized by complexity to install and manage
  • Search Terms for automatic installation of plugins
  • Instructions on configuring and setting up the more complex plugins

In Detail

Bloggers, authors, coders, photographers, moms, dads, big companies, small companies, and even kids use WordPress to manifest their personas online. WordPress is used in every market, in every country, and continues to grow everyday. This explosive growth and international open source love affair was ignited the day WordPress announced the simple idea of a 'plugin'

A WordPress plugin is a collection of files (PHP, javascript, css) that creates a small feature or modification to your WordPress blog. WordPress Top Plugins will teach you to add these plugins to an already built base WordPress site, and customize them where applicable.

This book will walk you through finding and installing the best plugins for generating and sharing content, for building communities and reader base, and for generating real advertising revenue.

There is literally a plugin for almost anything you want to achieve in WordPress. This book will show you how plugins work, and more importantly, how to install and activate them on your blog without you having to touch a single line of code, unless of course, you want to.

Content is king, and it’s pretty hard to generate. This book will cover some of the best plugins available on WordPress to generate unique and dynamic content.

Once you have your blog loaded chock full of juicy content, you will learn how to turn your blog in to an overnight sensation by helping your readers to share it, using tools to retweet, post on Facebook, and so on.

This book will teach you how to build a community with one single killer plugin, namely, BuddyPress—the best community building plugin available for WordPress.

Once you are through with plugin basics, content, and building a community, this book will show you how to generate revenue! It will cover the top plugins for turning your blog into a money making machine! This book will also cover plugins focused on tweaking and perfecting your blog’s overall look and feel, and functionality.

Nothing helps build a powerful online blog brand than a horde of talented writers to contribute their ideas and content – as well as their social network. This book will cover a bunch of plugins that will make working with multiple authors easy, efficient, and effective.

Last but not the least, it will cover the best plugins for ensuring that your blog is secure, the database is running optimally, and in the case of an emergency, you have a full backup copy of your blog. While most plugins in this book are focused on a blog’s frontend, this book will also cover some great 'non-public' facing plugins that make our lives so much easier and make your WordPress site a productive powerhouse.

Find and install the best plugins for generating and sharing content, building communities and generating revenue

Table of contents

  1. WordPress Top Plugins
    1. Table of Contents
    2. WordPress Top Plugins
    3. Credits
    4. About the Author
    5. About the Reviewer
    6. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Errata
        2. Piracy
        3. Questions
    7. 1. Plugin Basics
      1. Safety first
      2. Automatic install versus manual install
      3. Automatic plugin installation
        1. Plugin detail
        2. Downloading, unpacking, installing
        3. Activating the plugin
        4. Connection Information required
      4. Manual installation
        1. Manually installing a plugin with a Mac
          1. Transferring a plugin
        2. Manually installing a plugin on Windows
      5. Creating a bookmark with WinSCP
          1. Transferring a plugin to your blog
      6. Activating your plugin
      7. Finding a plugin's settings
      8. How plugins work
      9. Managing plugins
      10. Keeping your plugins up-to-date
        1. Learn by tinkering
        2. WordPress plugin API
        3. PHP references
        4. CSS
        5. JavaScript
      11. Troubleshooting plugins
      12. Editing plugins
      13. Summary
    8. 2. Generating Content
      1. GD Star Rating
        1. Fixing the default ratings
          1. Turning off Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down on posts
          2. Turning off Star Ratings on comments
      2. Better Tag Cloud
      3. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
      4. My Page Order
      5. Get Recent Comments
      6. Viper's Video Quicktags
      7. WP Greet Box
      8. NextGen Gallery
        1. Setting up your first gallery
        2. Adding your gallery to a post or a page
      9. Zemanta
      10. CForms II
        1. CForms administration
        2. Modifying the default form
        3. Adding your form to a page, post, or widget
        4. Advanced CForms customizations
          1. File upload settings
          2. Messages, text, and button label
          3. Core Form Admin / e-mail options
          4. Admin e-mail message options
          5. Auto confirmation
          6. Multi-part / multi-page forms
          7. Tell-A-Friend form support
          8. WP comment feature
          9. Third-party read-notification support
      11. MapPress—Google maps
        1. Adding a map to a post or page
      12. WP-O-Matic
        1. Creating your first campaign
          1. Adding feeds
          2. Categories
        2. Understanding WP-O-Matic's options
      13. Search unleashed
        1. Setting up your search index
        2. Creating your first index
      14. WP Web Scrapper
        1. Copyright warning
        2. Adding a scrapping
      15. Summary
    9. 3. Sharing Content
      1. TweetMeme
        1. Setting up TweetMeme
      2. Wordbook
      3. WP Download Manager
        1. Adding a new download
        2. Inserting a download into a post
      4. Twiogle Twitter Commenter
      5. ShareThis
        1. Setting up ShareThis
      6. Wibiya Bar - Beta
        1. Installing the Wibiya bar
      7. WP Facebook Connect
        1. Creating an app ID for your blog
        2. Adding the connect button to your comments
      8. Twitter Friendly Links
      9. Feedburner Feedsmith
        1. Burning your feed
          1. Create a Google account
          2. Verify your blog's feed URL
          3. Burn your feed
          4. Name your feed
        2. Configuring WP-Feedburner
      10. SendIt
        1. SendIt overview
        2. Creating your first newsletter
        3. Adding subscribers
          1. Automatic import
        4. SendIt Widget
        5. Sending a mail
      11. Subscribe-Remind
      12. Sociable
        1. Understanding social options
          1. Disabling sprite usage for images
          2. Disabling alpha mask on the share toolbar
          3. Tagline
          4. Position
          5. Use Text Links
          6. Image Directory
          7. Use Thisbox/iFrame on links
          8. Open in New Window
          9. Awe.sm
      13. Summary
    10. 4. Style and Function
      1. About Me Widget
        1. Setting up your About Me Widget
      2. Category Posts Widget
      3. After the Deadline
        1. Using After the Deadline
      4. WordPress Mobile Pack
        1. Mobile themes
        2. Browser detection and domain detection
        3. Important Mobile Themes settings
      5. WPTouch
        1. Web App icon
        2. Page icons
        3. Creating your own icon
        4. Push notifications
      6. WP-Prowl
        1. Setting up WP-Prowl
      7. Favicons
        1. Setting up your Favicon
          1. Picking from the gallery
          2. Use your Gravatar as Favicon
          3. Using a remote icon
      8. Theme Switcher
        1. Advanced marketing use
      9. Image Widget
      10. Post Layout
        1. Inserting content
      11. Breadcrumb NavXT
        1. Inserting the Breadcrumb
          1. Basic Breadcrumb
      12. Exec-PHP
        1. Using Exec-PHP to list your latest tweets
      13. Summary
    11. 5. Building a Community with BuddyPress
      1. Before setting up BuddyPress
        1. Sticking to your Community Purpose
      2. BuddyPress
      3. BuddyPress features
        1. Smooth member signup
        2. Twitter-like posting
        3. Profiles
        4. Member communication
        5. Forums
        6. Groups
        7. Members Directory
      4. BuddyPress themes
        1. Cosmic Buddy
        2. BP Nicey
        3. Sense and Sensibility BP 1.6
        4. More themes
      5. BuddyPress plugins
        1. Group Documents
        2. TweetStream
          1. Connecting to Twitter
        3. BuddyPress Album+
      6. Setting up your Community Groups
        1. Step 1: Group details
        2. Step 2: Settings
        3. Step 3: Avatar
      7. Tips for driving traffic to your community
        1. Friends and family
        2. Social networks
          1. Twitter
          2. Facebook
        3. Google AdWords
        4. Google search
      8. Summary
    12. 6. Generating Revenue
      1. Donation Can
      2. Zazzle Widget
        1. Setting up the Zazzle Widget
      3. AmazonFeed
        1. Setting up AmazonFeed
          1. Configuration
        2. Post / page specific items
      4. Advertising Manager
        1. Creating a Google AdSense Ad
        2. Creating your first ad in Advertising Manager
        3. Adding the Widget
      5. iTunes Affiliate Link Maker (iTALM)
        1. Adding links to a post
      6. WP e-Commerce, FREE Version
        1. Setting up WP e-Commerce
        2. Adding a digital product
          1. Product Detail
          2. Categories and Tags
          3. Price and Stock Control
          4. Shipping Details
          5. Product Images
          6. Product Download
        3. Setting up your Payment Gateway
      7. Web Invoice—invoicing and billing for WordPress
        1. Setting up an invoice
          1. Select the client
          2. Client Information
          3. Recurring Billing
          4. Invoice Details
          5. Publish
      8. My Ad Manager
        1. Creating the Advertise Here Page
        2. Adding the Widget
        3. Setting up your House Ads
      9. Summary
    13. 7. Working with Multiple Authors
      1. Authors Widget
      2. Author Spotlight
        1. Styling the Author widget
      3. Blog Metrics
      4. Cimy User Extra Fields
      5. Pre-Publish Reminder
      6. Edit Flow
      7. Audit Trail
      8. WP-CMS Post Control
      9. Guest Blogger
        1. Adding a new article import
      10. Subscribe to Author Posts Feed
      11. Author Advertising
        1. Setting up Author Advertising widget
          1. The Author Page
          2. Advertising code
      12. Co-Author Plus
      13. Private Messages for WordPress
      14. Summary
    14. 8. Security and Maintenance
      1. Security basics
        1. Passwords
        2. Update often
        3. Back up often
        4. Limit Login Attempts
        5. Setting up Limit Login Attempts
          1. Lockout
      2. Secure WordPress
        1. Secure WordPress's options explained
      3. Akismet
      4. Bad Behavior
      5. Upload+
      6. WP Security Scan
        1. Latest version
        2. Table prefix
        3. Hiding Version # and Meta Tag ID
        4. WordPress DB Errors
        5. .htaccess in Admin folder
      7. WP-DBManager
        1. Understanding your database's health
        2. What is a database?
        3. What is MySQL?
        4. How does WordPress use MySQL?
        5. Repair, Optimize, and Backup
      8. WP-DB-Backup
      9. WordPress Backup
      10. Maintenance Mode
        1. Customizing the maintenance notice
      11. WP-Optimize
      12. Quick Cache
        1. Quick Cache Options explained
      13. Error Reporting
        1. Auto Delete old log files
        2. Configuration
      14. Summary
    15. 9. Power Admin
      1. Fluency Admin
        1. Quick key access
        2. Styling the login screen
      2. StatPress
        1. Key datapoints
          1. Latest Referrers
          2. Search Terms
          3. Operating Systems
          4. Browsers Used
          5. Spy View
      3. Notifier
      4. Shockingly Big IE6 Warning
      5. Admin Links Widget
      6. WordPress Admin Bar
      7. Code Editor
      8. WordPress Admin QuickMenu
        1. Setting up your links
      9. Email Users
        1. E-mail ideas
          1. Exclusive e-mailer
          2. Special deals and offers
          3. Helping a cause
          4. Tips and tricks
      10. Broken Link Checker
      11. Admin Management Xtended
        1. Understanding the interface
      12. Menu Manager
      13. Simple Tags
        1. Configuring third party Taxonomy Services
      14. Redirection
      15. Widget Logic
        1. Commonly used logic
      16. Summary
    16. 10. Time for Action
      1. The open source business model
      2. WordPress for prototyping
      3. Real business models with WordPress
        1. Selling digital goods
        2. Selling themes
        3. Selling plugins
        4. Selling advertising spots
        5. Job board
        6. Corporate blogging software
        7. Hosting WordPress
      4. Continuing education
      5. Summary
    17. Index

Product information

  • Title: WordPress Top Plugins
  • Author(s): Brandon Corbin
  • Release date: September 2010
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781849511407