The 30 WordPress Plugins that I Use on My Blog

Every WordPress user probably has a couple of plugins that they use to enhance their blog/site, be it on the back-end or front-end.  Here are the 30 WordPress plugins that I currently use on my blog.  Are there any that you use that I didn’t list?

1.  Akismet – Akismet is a must-have plugin if you want to have extra spam protection.

Version 2.2.6 | By Matt Mullenweg | Visit plugin site

2.  All in One SEO Pack – The All In One SEO Pack plugin is a great way to add SEO to your blog/site without having to be a SEO expert.

Version 1.6.8.1 | By Michael Torbert | Visit plugin site

3.  CommentLuv – CommentLuv provides a way for your blog commenters to show their last blog post.  I’ve talked to some people who say that this is a way to have readers leave your blog, but I think it’s a great way to help your fellow bloggers out.

Version 2.7.63 | By Andy Bailey | Visit plugin site

4.  Easy Contact – Easy Contact provides an easy way to add a comment form on your blog/site.

Version 0.1.2 β | By Scott Allan Wallick | Visit plugin site

5. FD Feedburner Plugin – The FD Feedburner plugin helps to redirect your feed to your Feedburner feed

Version 1.41 | By John Watson | Visit plugin site

6. flickrRSS – The flickrRSS plugin allows you to beautify your blog/site by adding Flickr images.

Version 5.1 | By Dave Kellam and Stefano Verna | Visit plugin site

7. Front-end Editor – I love this plugin.  The Front-end Editor lets you edit your blog posts directly on the page without having to access the WordPress admin dashboard.

Version 1.5.1 | By scribu | Visit plugin site

8.  Google Analytics for WordPress – For Google Analytics users, this plugin is a must have.

Version 3.2.4 | By Joost de Valk | Visit plugin site

9. JS-Kit Echo – I decided to use JS-Kit’s Echo commenting system after receiving no response from Disqus on issues I had after I changed domains.  I must say that I love it.  I plan on writing more about Echo in a future blog post.

Version 2.2.0 | By js-kit.com | Visit plugin site

10. MediaRSS – I use this so the image I use in my blog posts can show up on RSS readers.

Version 1.1.4 | By Andy Skelton | Visit plugin site

11. MobilePress – MobilePress is a great plugin so that your blog/site can be mobile-phone friendly.

Version 1.1 | By Aduity | Visit plugin site

12.  Most Commented – Plugin to retrieve your posts with the most comments.

Version 1.6 | By Nick Momrik | Visit plugin site

13. Official StatCounter Plugin – I have been using StatCounter for years.  This plugin allows you to enter your StatCounter information without having to mess with code.

Version 1.0 | By Aodhan Cullen | Visit plugin site

14. Recent Comments – Retrieves a list of the most recent comments.

Version 1.18 | By Nick Momrik | Visit plugin site

15. Recent Posts – Returns a list of the most recent posts.

Version 1.1.3 | By Nick Momrik | Visit plugin site

16. Redirection – Manages 301 redirects and monitors 404 errors

Version 2.1.24 | By John Godley | Visit plugin site

17. RSS Cloud – RSS Cloud plugin pings RSS Cloud servers

Version 0.4.1 | By Joseph Scott

18. SEO Friendly Images – Automatically adds alt and title attributes to all your images.

Version 2.4.4 | By Vladimir Prelovac | Visit plugin site

19. SEO Slugs – Removes common words like ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘in’ from post slugs to improve SEO.

Version 1.0 | By Andrei Mikrukov | Visit plugin site

20.  Shared Items Post – Plugin that works to show your Google Reader Shared Items.  I only use it once a month, but you can change the frequency to whatever you like.

Version 1.3.0 | By Craig Fifield, Google Tutor | Visit plugin site

21. The WordPress Bar – This plugin adds a navigation bar to external links.  Very similar to the DiggBar.

Version 0.6.2 | By Anthony Montalbano | Visit plugin site

22. TweetMeme Retweet Button – TweetMeme plugin to show your retweets and allow your readers to tweet your blog posts.

Version 1.7.2 | By TweetMeme | Visit plugin site

23. Tweet Stats – Plugin that allows you to show your most tweeted posts and your most recently tweeted posts.

Version 1.0 | By Improving The Web | Visit plugin site

24. WordPress Related Posts – Plugin that generates related posts at the bottom of each blog post.

Version 1.1.1 | By Denis | Visit plugin site

25. WP-PageNavi – Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.

Version 2.50 | By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan | Visit plugin site

26. WP SUP – Adds the SUP-ID HTTP header to your site’s feed and pings FriendFeed’s public SUP feed.

Version 1.1 | By Derek van Vliet | Visit plugin site

27. WP Super Cache – Helps with your blog’s caching

Version 0.9.8 | By Donncha O Caoimh | Visit plugin site

28. WP Widget Cache – Goes alongside the WP Super Cache plugin.  Helps cache the output of your blog widgets.

Version 0.25.2 | By Andrew Zhang | Visit plugin site

29.  Zemanta – Zemanta helps you find related images, links, and content without lifting a finger.

Version 0.6.3 | By Zemanta Ltd. | Visit plugin site

30. Google XML Sitemaps – Generates a XML sitemap of your blog

Version 3.2 | By Arne Brachhold | Visit plugin site

10 Items That I Am Thankful For as a Writer

I hope that everyone has a happy Thanksgiving filled with family and friends eating all the insanely-delicious food.   In my personal blog, “What I’m Thankful for 2009,”I wrote about all the wonderful people who I am thankful for. 

Now, I want to write about all the wonderful things that I’m thankful for that help me with my writing:

1.  Stationery and Pens – I am obsessed with stationery and pens.  Whenever I head to a store where I can get some, I don’t think twice.  I get it.  I have a diary I write in every day, and I use colored pens to do it.  To-do lists, writing book, sketchbook.  You name it, I have it.

2.  My Laptop– I can’t imagine life without my laptop.  I write, write, and write away in it.  I’m thankful that I have one.

3. My Music – Whenever I write, I have you to help me get the thoughts out in my head.  Thanks for always being there with me through all the times in my life.

4. WordPress – You have given me total control over my blogs, and I love you for that.  I love the flexibility you give me, and I don’t know how I could ever use another blog platform after finding you. 

 

5. Windows Live Writer – You are my favorite Windows product, and I wish that you were available on Mac.  I have written great blog posts due to you.  Thank you for that.

6. NeoOffice – You are my favorite word processing software ever. 

7. Scrivener – For writing stories, you are awesome! Even though I don’t think I am going to be a NaNoWriMo winner, you definitely kept my writing organized and in one place. 

8. Social Networking Sites – You might sometimes distract me, but you have also given me inspiration and ideas.  The people are mainly what I am talking about.  You all rock!

9. Coffee – Whenever I am too tired to write, you keep me going.  You are the accessory every Writer should have.

10. Technology – You have given me software, hardware, a way to find interesting people, and information for me to use in my writing.  You make the world go round.

Hope this list made you laugh and agree on some of the items.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Research Before Starting Any Project

1. Research the Client’s Documentation - When a client hires me to write a proposal, the first thing I do is reading the RFP or proposal guidelines carefully, and I create a requirements matrix. Tip: Placing a proposal requirements matrix at the front of your proposal showing that you have covered all the points that they had already creates a good first impression. After doing that, I begin trying to understand the client’s problem. There have been so many times where companies only rely only on their past performance and their name. Yes, past performance is important, but you have to also consider that every problem is unique. Even if something you have done in the past covers the majority of what they want, it usually won’t satisfy the problem 100%.  Research their reports, system documentation, and anything you can get your hands on.

2. Interview Your Clients – Interviewing is also very important. You can do this for gathering requirements. Understanding what clients do every day, and what they want is key to developing a product or service that will better help them. It’s a great way to also build a rapport with them. Whenever you take the time to speak to clients, you are showing them that you are fully invested in helping them do their jobs better.

The best way to do this is create open-ended interview questions that you can further build from. A child learns by asking why after why questions. You have to do the same. Don’t be afraid to ask anything you need to know, even if you feel that it’s a dumb question. This is the only time that I will say that there is no such thing as a stupid question.

3. Look at External Resources - I’ve written many responses to government RFPs, so I usually read what reports the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the agency’s Inspector General has written. These are reports created after months of analysis, so they are extremely useful. There are also reports that non-profit organizations looking for grants can view that are similar to these. Maybe think-tanks, research organizations, and many others have probably done some type of research.

My internship as a Research Assistant at a think tank when I got out of college taught me that. In order to create full-depth analysis reports, we had to research for months. It’s one of the reasons that think tanks are considered experts in their field. Definitely learn to do the same.

Photo Detail: Problem and Solution – Magnifying Glass, originally uploaded by iQoncept. 7JEQ7FG8JA22

Companies Offering Telecommuting and Flexible Schedules Will Win in the End

It’s something that Tim Ferriss wrote about in the “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.” The typical office environment: People usually spend four hours or less doing actual work, and then the rest of the time is pretending to actually do it.  There are meetings about meetings about meetings, and that time could have been spent actually being productive.

I wrote a blog post, “Telecommuting Should Be An Option for Everyone,” which I talk about my philosophy about telecommuting.  It seems companies are still hesitant on allowing their employees to telecommute.  I do understand that there are some jobs where you can’t actually do it (e.g. working with classified information).  However, there can be some flexibility.  If the work is completed early or within deadline, then there shouldn’t be a need for someone to clock my time.

If the person is a fast and accurate worker, then I don’t see why companies insist that the person HAVE to be in the office eight hours a day.  There are some people (like myself) who can do a project in two hours, in which it takes another person eight.  When I interview, I usually ask the interviewer up front the following questions:

1. How is the work/life balance at the company?
2. Do you allow telecommuting?

I had two people say that “the company frowns upon telecommuting.” When I told my friend this, he said exactly what I was thinking:

“Are they stuck in the 90s?”

One thing that I learned after my horrific ordeal early in my career with a Micromanager is that I would never put myself in a position where I am not happy and satisfied at my job.  I don’t need someone looking over my shoulder checking my work, and I don’t need to be at the office at all times.  What does this show? That I am working? It really doesn’t.

I have seen some progress on the matter.  More companies are offering telecommuting and flexible schedules, so we are moving in the right direction.  We are now moving into cloud computing, web and video conferencing, and white label social networking sites, so the need to be at the office is diminishing.

For companies who are still trying to maintain some control over their employees, you will eventually lose out in the long run because you will have a higher employee turnover rate than a company that is working with their employees.

Photo Detail: telecommuting, originally uploaded by mccun934.