Theme
I usually find/pick something close to what I want, hack it up and change the header, but this one is pretty slick out of the box:
http://www.flexibilitytheme.com/
Very easy to customize from the interface.
free w/footer links (somehow mine disappeared though?)
Plugins
I use many others that are site/application specific, these are mostly the regulars.
all in one seo or platinum seo pack - page/post level seo
wp database backup - backup db on schedule, to server or email
wp-pagenavi - page navigation buttons (number in a box for each page) at bottom
YARRP - related posts
sql executioner - sql access to db for quick and dirty work
Easy Link Cloaker - aff link redirect and click tracker
Use Google Libraries - uses G's files for jquery which saves bandwidth & dl time
W3 Total Cache - caches site
Yours?
Flexibilitythemes looks interesting!
Couple of things:
- for parked stuff, sites that eventually should be build, we use our own modified version of twentyten.
- thesis, www.woothemes.com or other premium themes.
Plugins:
- Wordpress SEO
- Analytics for Wordpress
- w3C total cache
- Gravity forms
- Getclicky plugin
- Transliterado
- WP touch
- Redirection
+ a bunch more depending on the current need.
Besides many of those already mentioned:
Plugins:
Akismet
Conditional CAPTCHA for Wordpress
Secure WordPress
Subscription Options
Simple Trackback Validation
Added: WordPress Database Backup
To keep it informative, can we add a quick blurb about what the plugin does?
For example, transliterado - is that a translation plugin or?
Conditional captcha - that for comments, or contact form or anything?
etc.
Akismet - anti-spam whitelist
Conditional CAPTCHA for Wordpress - for comment spam, only shows a captcha if submitter fails Akismet see http://developedtraffic.com/2010/03/06/conditional-captcha-for-wordpress/ for details
Secure WordPress - does a bunch of little things to make WP more secure vs. hacking.
Simple Trackback Validation - guards against trackback spam
Added: WordPress Database Backup - backs up your DB once a day and emails it as an attachment wherever you want. I send it to a folder in a Yahoo account. Daily off site backup.
Two of the themes I have been using on most of my sites:
Thesis by DIY Themes
Genesis by Studiopress (there are 20+ child themes also)
Both of these are paid themes and are both quite customizable. Lots of CSS editing you can do.
Plugins:
CSVPig - For building datafeed sites
CloakPIG - Link cloaker
Eclipse Link Cloaker - Link cloaker
Related Posts Thumbnails - Good related post plugin
Fast Secure Contact Form - Good, versitile contact form
Some of these are paid, some are free. I am sure there are more I use but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Doc, which version of CSVPig are you using? I see the free download at wordpress and they also sell it on their site.
Is there a way to put a feed on a site, and then use CSVPig to update only new products? (price/inventory change, etc.)
WordPress Database Backup - Backup plugin which emails you the back up.
Google XML Sitemaps - creates a new xml sitemap on every change of the blog and sends it to google, bing etc.
Dragon Design Sitemap Generator Plus - Creates a user sitemap for the site.
I use a whole host of others, but these are ones that are out of the ordinary.
Anyone ever made their own plugin? Another job on my ever growing list.
Quote from: thesaintv12 on March 29, 2011, 08:00:21 PM
Anyone ever made their own plugin? Another job on my ever growing list.
Made dozens, mostly involved in creating posts from data, and linking.
If you can code a little php you can make a plugin that does something useful in 10 minutes(though someone else has probably already made it for you ;D)
Oh another which I came across recently - Tagaroo - finds creative commons images from flickr to match your posts and includes a link to the source.
Quote from: PaulH on March 29, 2011, 08:22:37 PM
Quote from: thesaintv12 on March 29, 2011, 08:00:21 PM
Anyone ever made their own plugin? Another job on my ever growing list.
Made dozens, mostly involved in creating posts from data, and linking.
If you can code a little php you can make a plugin that does something useful in 10 minutes(though someone else has probably already made it for you ;D)
I'd be interested to see what you have done in your linking plugin Paul.
My .Net skills are not so useful for things like this. I'm still finding my feet with php, but adding knowledge everyday. Maybe a plugin would make a good learning project.
Atahualpa is another wordpress theme that is easy to customize (has a GUI interface)
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/atahualpa
Another Flexibility fan.
Plugins:
SEO, etc
- Headspace2 - an SEO Swiss Army Knife - http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/headspace2/
- Redirection - link cloaking/tracking - http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/
- Google XML sitemaps - http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/ - for some reason, the Headspace2 plugin wasn't working for a while on some sites, so I used this.
- Excerpt Editor - just discovered this one - killer plugin for bulk editing Excerpts on legacy site - http://www.laptoptips.ca/projects/wordpress-excerpt-editor/
Interface Customization
- Widget Logic - show/hide widgets for certain categories, pages, users, tags - http://freakytrigger.co.uk/wordpress-setup/
- WP Greet Box - show content to users with/without a cookie - http://omninoggin.com/projects/wordpress-plugins/wp-greet-box-wordpress-plugin/
- WP Post Admin Column Filter - filters the post admin screen so that it only shows columns you want - no website as I just wrote the pre-alpha version. Very simple and currently hard-coded column selection only.
- Exclude Pages - lets you keep specific pages out of Page widgets/menus - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/
Spam Protection
- Hashcash - block most spam without making users deal with a captcha - http://wordpress-plugins.feifei.us/hashcash/
Ads
- Ad Injection - inject ad code or any code into posts - http://www.reviewmylife.co.uk/blog/2010/12/06/ad-injection-plugin-wordpress/
- Ad rotation - if you want something simpler than OpenX or Doubleclick for Publishers - http://code.openx.org/projects/show/advertising-manager
Image Display
- Lightbox Plus - http://www.23systems.net/plugins/lightbox-plus/
- Floatbox Plus - a paid lightbox, but very nice - http://blog.splash.de/plugins/floatbox-plus
Debug
- wp pear_debug - sort of like the Drupall devel module - krumo output for var dumps - http://www.communitymodder.com/
- Debug Bar - system info - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debug-bar/
Contact Forms
- cForms - awesome contact form plugin that allows you to build complex forms and require specific information. Very good if you're capturing leads, taking reservation requests, that sort of thing - http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin
- Contact form from Joost de Valk - simple - http://yoast.com/wordpress/enhanced-wordpress-contact-form/
- Secure and Accessible Contact Form - simple - http://green-beast.com/blog/?page_id=136
Geek
- syntax highlighting - if you post code on your blog - http://www.viper007bond.com/wordpress-plugins/syntaxhighlighter/
Third-Party Integration
- Twitter - http://rick.jinlabs.com/code/twitter - display tweets on your site... except that I never tweet
Automated Backup
- Back up file uploads and your custom stuff - http://www.blogtrafficexchange.com/wordpress-backup
- database backups emailed to you or just archived - http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/
Being a little late to the party I'm just going name one that hasn't been mentioned yet.
VaultPress.com
It's a backup/security solution develop by Automatic (the guys behind WordPress). Not only does it keep remote backups of your WordPress site it also scans the code to see if it has been modified by hackers
lose track of all the plugins i've used - keep using some even though better ones might be around now
caching: i use hypercache
all in one seo or platinum seo pack, headspace
Used to be a fan of 'all in one SEO' but very bloated, was causing all sorts of mysterious problems on one server - Was exhausting memory, plugin alone consumed 20+mb of ram, + wordpress using about 12mb, meant when busy the server died. Platinum seo used about 1mb. (they may have fixed this now)
Recently need a plugin that allowed me to keep old posts on the same url, but change format of newer urls(didnt want to 301 old ones)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-permalinks/
Need a google news sitemap - first one i looked at seemed pretty good
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gn-xml-sitemap/
Quote from: PaulH on March 30, 2011, 09:15:34 AM
Recently need a plugin that allowed me to keep old posts on the same url, but change format of newer urls(didnt want to 301 old ones)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advanced-permalinks/
Actually need this bugger today. Unfortunately, seems it is not updated and there are lots of problems with later versions of WP. Might give it a try anyway on a demo install.
Quote from: Drastic on March 29, 2011, 07:40:36 PM
Doc, which version of CSVPig are you using? I see the free download at wordpress and they also sell it on their site.
Is there a way to put a feed on a site, and then use CSVPig to update only new products? (price/inventory change, etc.)
I am using the most current version which I think now is 2.4.9.
You can upload a new database and have it update everything based on a certain field so if you update by Product Name or something like that if it sees a post with the same data it will only update what is new (changes in price or whatever) and then add in new posts that don't already exist.
Looks like most here use wordpress for a general CMS and downplay/remove the blog like features and comments. Any tips on how to do this? On how to use WP and not have it look/feel like a blog site?
Quote from: littleman on March 31, 2011, 06:29:38 PM
Looks like most here use wordpress for a general CMS and downplay/remove the blog like features and comments. Any tips on how to do this? On how to use WP and not have it look/feel like a blog site?
Really easy.
First disable all the comments and blog parts in the admin settings.
Most of the crap left behind will be in the sidebar(archives,blog roll, etc). With old themes simply edit the template file and remove the very few bits of commented code, or with a modern theme you can remove widgets in the sidebar through the admin panel.
To cleanup all the shit in the header add these to the functions.php file bundeled with the theme/tmeplate
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3 ); // Display the links to the extra feeds such as category feeds
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links', 2 ); // Display the links to the general feeds: Post and Comment Feed
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'rsd_link' ); // Display the link to the Really Simple Discovery service endpoint, EditURI link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link' ); // Display the link to the Windows Live Writer manifest file.
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'index_rel_link' ); // index link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'parent_post_rel_link', 10, 0 ); // prev link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'start_post_rel_link', 10, 0 ); // start link
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link', 10, 0 ); // Display relational links for the posts adjacent to the current post.
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'wp_generator' ); // Display the XHTML generator that is generated on the wp_head hook, WP version
Some good examples of using wordpress as a CMS
http://wordpress.org/showcase/tag/cms/
Until very recently http://www.discountvouchers.co.uk/ :) used WordPress for the whole site(lot of pages and lot of traffic).
Moved away from WP to custom cms, for scalability and performance reasons - To be fair to wordpress i don't think any other free CMS's would have coped any better.
Good stuff Paul, thanks.
Any recommendations on contact form + email list management? There are a LOT of related plugins, but I'm trying to weed it down.
Quote from: littleman on April 04, 2011, 09:09:59 PM
Any recommendations on contact form + email list management? There are a LOT of related plugins, but I'm trying to weed it down.
Euro recommended this one:
http://www.satollo.net/plugins/newsletter
for email, haven't yet played with it myself.
There's a couple recommendations on the first page of this thread for contact forms. I've used a couple just basic ones. wpcontactform I think it is.
Depends on what you need, but if you need a complex contact form (i.e. optional/required fields, drop downs, text boxes, etc), I love cForms II (should be a link in my previous post).
For newsletter, you could use MailChimp which plugs into WP no problem either as a form on a page, as a widget or both. I'm only just now getting it set up myself and have never done anything else with a newsletter except manually having a list and emailing, so I can't compare it to anything else.
I thought that in general MailChimp, GetResponse, Aweber and the like had better deliverability than mass mailing from your own server. Is that incorrect?
wp spam free:
http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/library/wp-spamfree/
Is a spam blocker for comments & trackbacks and has a contact form built in. Just use a tag on a page to add the contact form.
Quote from: littleman on March 31, 2011, 06:29:38 PM
Looks like most here use wordpress for a general CMS and downplay/remove the blog like features and comments. Any tips on how to do this? On how to use WP and not have it look/feel like a blog site?
This is a good template builder for control of everything on a page level:
http://impactpagebuilder.com/
Also, I've replaced wp db back and sql executioner with one plugin that does both:
wp db manager: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/
It also optimizes your db, removing overhead and offers more control over your db (drop tables, etc.). Backup and optimize on schedule.
Quote from: littleman on April 04, 2011, 09:09:59 PM
Any recommendations on contact form + email list management? There are a LOT of related plugins, but I'm trying to weed it down.
Contact form 7 is the most versatile of contact form plugins newsletter the most versatile of newsletter plugins that I have found.
Regarding CMS, yes wp is handy for this because of its versatility and there are some plugins that can help you create a backend that helps with this function. To get rid of comments simply cut out the comments template tags on generally page.php and single.php. What I say to customers is use your pages for your main framework and the posts for newsletter. However you can create custom posts to help with this as well. Here are a couple to help organise/brand backend for clients.
Dashboard Heaven - excludes widgets from the dashboard based on userlevel
Fluency Admin - customisable admin, signup and login, looks good only conflict found so far is with updating thumbnails with nextgen gallery
Regarding useful plugins in general I have a large list of ones I have used or ones I have noted down to use and this file is quite frankly a mess, I need to go through it but it is one of those jobs that I never get around to. If you PM me with what you are looking for chances are I may have a plugin that does it in the list so please feel free to give me a shout.
I've spent what seems like years messing around with themes and plugins.
I really like Thesis, but it does take some getting used to, starting out as it is more of a framework than a theme.
In terms of plugins the ones I have used in the main are :
Advertising Manager - Handles the placement of ads using basic tokens, works well with OpenX (same developers built both)
Akismet - But I noticed they are charging now for commercial licenses, got in before hand looks like they have grandfathered
Backupbuddy - Saves a backup, can be remote to Amazon S3, but also exports all database features, handy if you ever get a hosting account shut down and need to move to a different server
Broken Link checker - Checks for broken links in the background
Chennai Central - You can contol bots access to your bandwidth
Contact Form 7 - Create simple forms using one line of code
GD Press Tools Pro - Like a swiss army knife plugin, does a bunch of things, like really a whole bunch of things, the thing I like is I can access file manager directly from within WP
Google Analytics for Wordpress - Does what it says on the tin
Google Sitemap Generator - Although GD Press has one, I prefer this one
Jetpack - Replaced the stats that used to come with WP. Also handles media a lot better, so good for tweeting, videos etc.
Mobile - Creates a mobile version of your site (from the same guys who do Backupbuddy)
Digitalquill Multifeed - A token based plugin that you can create a site from a product datafeed, works well with any feed
Post Corrector - Does a lot of things, but I use it to create categories in bulk, if I am not in PHPMyAdmin that is
Redirection - Identifies and manages any redirects that WP misses
Robots Meta - Obvious really, I am just lazy
W3 Total Cache - handles caching of stuff and minifying of CSS etc
YARPP - Handles related posts. I bet most people never get this one configured right, you need to drag the templates into your theme.....
No bloddy wonder servers run slow!
PlugSiteMap - generates html sitemap for WP http://www.seosapien.com/blog/2009/04/html-sitemap-generator-for-wordpress.html
You guys are aware that a lot of the mentioned plugins are combined with Yoasts Wordpress SEO plugin - which is done the right way in terms of coding.
Quote from: Rumbas on April 16, 2011, 11:06:05 AM
You guys are aware that a lot of the mentioned plugins are combined with Yoasts Wordpress SEO plugin - which is done the right way in terms of coding.
I just started using that in place of AIOSEO and platinum SEO. Looks good.
Also like some of this guy's stuff: http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins
Plugin:
TAC (Theme Authenticity Checker)
http://builtbackwards.com/projects/tac/
Scans all theme files (even other inactive themes) and points out any hardcoded links, including encoded ones.
BTW Yoast SEO has a great new update today.
Yeah I just installed that on a new blog, looks like post level seo help?
Yep that new tab thingy - basically telling the user to "go back and try again".
Xcloner (www.xcloner.com)
.... is a free WP and Joomla plugin that lets you clone sites easily.
I am using it to clone Wordpress sites, with database, plugins, themes etc all installed and intact.
It is way better than any of the paid tools I used previously - highly recommended.
Quote from: 4Eyes on July 25, 2011, 08:12:07 AM
Xcloner (www.xcloner.com)
Very interesting. This should save quite a bit of time. Thanks for the tip.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-unusual-and-surprising-uses-for-wordpress/
1. A Private or Public Social Network
2. A Company Intranet
3. Zoho/Google Docs Alternative
4. An Online Business Card or Resume
5. A Directory
6. Your Lifestream
7. A Countdown Website
8. RSS Aggregator/News River
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-creative-uses-for-wordpress/
Create a Help Desk
Create a Wiki
Use for GTD
Create a Directory, Classifieds, Jobs Board, etc.
Private areas
members - (wonderful can create custom roles & private pages specific to that role)
Adminimize - great for cms as you can hide menus and elements via css in the backend based on role)
Peters login redirect - redirect on login based on role.
Just found this:
http://themify.me/demo/#theme=parallax
Very 2014. Will be loading and will let you know how it goes.
Edited to add more info. A really neat product offering parallax, on a single page, with loads of options.
A bit like the Google Nexus 5 page.
http://www.buzzblogger.com/top-wordpress-plugins/