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8:16 am
February 11, 2010
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In the past we've talked about blog designs. Now let's talk about our favorite plugins -- those lovely little add-ons that give our blogs the extra functionality we want them to have.
Here are three of my current favorite Wordpress plugins:
1. Broken Link Checker -- When you've run your blog for years, you're bound to have some dead links on there. Pages you previously linked to will vanish, and readers showing up at those old posts through search engines will get error messages when they click. Broken Link Checker makes it easier to find these broken links. It scans your site and gives you a report of broken links and what error messages they return. You could do this by digging through site stats too, but it would be much more tedious. An extra bonus is that you can unlink those in bulk. It also automatically updates links that have a 301 redirect if you tell it to. Very convenient.
2. Simple:Press -- Simple:Press is more than a basic plugin. It's an all-out forum solution. In fact, that plugin powers the very forum you're on right now. 
3. Editorial Calendar -- I love the editorial calendar for multi-author blogs like this one. It lets me see who has what scheduled and when. But I'd love it even on single author blogs because it lets you look at your post schedule (frequency, spacing, etc.) in previous months too. It's a great tool when auditing your blog content or deciding what you need to improve moving forward.
What great plugins would you recommend? Why do you like them?
Jenn
3:19 pm
July 30, 2011
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I adore Backup Buddy. I purchased some PLR blogs and the Backup Buddy setup made creating the blogs very, very simple. I can see how it could be a very helpful plugin for keeping good backups of your sites.
1:03 pm
June 15, 2011
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I adore Backup Buddy. I purchased some PLR blogs and the Backup Buddy setup made creating the blogs very, very simple. I can see how it could be a very helpful plugin for keeping good backups of your sites.
I like Backup Buddy, too – knock on wood – I haven't had to restore file.
Jenn – Broken Link Checker is one of my all-time favorites. It's saved my butt more than once. I looked at Editorial Calendar, but since it's just me, I decided against it. I would think it would be invaluable in your situation.
I know you're not a fan of CommentLuv, but I love it. I'm using the free version. I have found it has driven more traffic to my sites and I like it for finding posts of interest from readers who leave a comment. I've found some good posts that way.
3:59 pm
February 11, 2010
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With all the support for backupbuddy, I may have to look into it. Thanks ladies.
And yeah Cathy. I couldn't believe how many broken links were on this site. A lot of them were from the old job listings -- all those Craigslist ads and such. I could never stay on top of it manually, so this is a real lifesaver.
I actually don't use Editorial Calendar for the group blog aspect as much as I thought I would. It's good in that sense when I'm paying the contributors here because it reminds me who's on what posting schedule, and it helps b/c I can schedule guest posts in without interfering with the regular contributors. But I think my biggest use for it moving forward will actually be blog audits. It will let me compare post frequencies in past months with stats for the blog -- so I can look at the correlation between frequency and traffic for example. And it serves as a reminder that I need to get my own rear in gear on certain sites when I look back at the slipping post schedules. So I think most of the benefit for me will actually be about my own posts rather than necessarily being a group blog thing.
8:13 am
June 15, 2011
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With all the support for backupbuddy, I may have to look into it. Thanks ladies.
Social media guide just had a post about how to use it=> Backup Buddy When I 1st got it, I didn't see about a different implementation for multiple site. Now, I have to find out what I need to do to fix that.
8:22 am
February 11, 2010
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It looks like it just does things I can already do easily enough (quicker to do backups all from a master admin area on the server than by logging into every site's admin area for example -- which I'm assuming I'd have to do with this). But I'll dig a bit more. It might save time to combine backups with the malware scans (which I use a 3rd party site for now, and which has saved my rear a few times).
I don't think it's for multiple sites, is it? I saw something for multi-site blogs (that's one domain with several blogs for users -- like a blog network). But admittedly I've only skimmed that post so far, so I may have missed something.
8:26 am
February 11, 2010
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Just checked the pricing. Not sure if I'd want to spend $150 on a plugin that does things I already do anyway. It might save a little bit of time, but not enough -- especially since I'd still have to do the setup and everything on every domain I own. There are just too many. In my case I think it'll make more sense to stick w/ backups directly from the server admin and my third party malware site.
For anyone interested in checking their blogs for malware (which happens when hackers find vulnerabilities like the old timthumb issue), here's the site I use:
http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/
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