Wordpress 2.7: You have NO excuse for not plugging in

Recommendation: WPhone

My new plugin favorite is called WPhone. It’s a plugin just for you, the administrator, and it makes your Wordpress software work beautifully on any mobile device browser that doesn’t have full internet like iPhone does.

I used to try to work on posts from my Sidekick, but it was freaking impossible. Nothing fit right on the screen and a bunch of background scripts took way too long to load. This handy plugin gives you access to not only write and edit posts, but to manage everything from your posts and pages to links and plugins.

Just search “WPhone” in that plugin search box and you can be up and running in two minutes.

Recommendation: Easy Gravatars

Does your Wordpress.org theme display Gravatars with your comments?

No?

Would you like it to?

Easy Gravatars is simply that. Comments will now include Gravatars if the person writing has one. I like pictures, so I picked up this one.

Search “Easy Gravatars” in the search box.

Keep it simple

The new Wordpress 2.7 has added a feature that makes it possible to install plugins without messing with FTP. FTP scares some people. Acronyms scare some people. But now you have a way out.

If you don’t know what a plugin is, kick it in reverse and read my first plugin guide:

And how do I do this?

Your Wordpress 2.7 dashboard has a drop-down menu called – wait for it – “Plugins.” Go to “Add New” and you’ll see a screen with a search box and a tag cloud. This is where you can waste tons of time looking through the hundreds of plugins offered for the easy upload system.

All you have to do is search to find a plugin you like and then click the install button. This is not hard. Some of them even give you the option to automatically activate the plugin when you install it.

Once you’ve installed the plugin, check the “Installed” section of the Plugins drop-down menu to verify that it’s there and switched on.

You’re good to go, my friend.

Recommendation: Bird Feeder

Do you Tweet?

Twitter users will love the Bird Feeder plugin. Instead of making a snurl and then having to go to your Twitter account and tell everyone that you’ve just posted, Bird Feeder does it for you automatically. It will post something like this for you:

Posted:  Your Post Title http://shortna.me/something

This is a good plugin if you’re me and you always forget to Tweet your posts. Bump up your blog traffic a little bit with this one!

Search “Bird Feeder” in the search box.

Recommendation: All in one Easy SEO Pack

And speaking of bumping up traffic… you can optimize your posts for search engines INDIVIDUALLY with this plugin. When it’s activated, the SEO PACK appears as a gray bar at the bottom of your post page, right beneath “Excerpt” and “Trackbacks” and those others that you’re already used to seeing.

Click on the gray box, and you’ll get a drop-down where you can enter your post title and a description of your post. This is the description that will appear if your post comes up on a search engine. Use keywords and tags to bring in the most traffic.

The drop-down also includes a link for support and more info on how the plugin works, which is nice.

Search “SEO Pack” in the search box.