BloggerVenue

The main objective of this list is to show you some plugins that usually don’t get nominated in these types of posts. When a blogger posts a list of wordpress plugins tends to write about the same old plugins with the occasional novelty.

Well, i am a plugin addict, and this blog uses 29 plugins!!! Yeah… i can’t help it! i know i shouldn’t have that many plugins but…. i want them! lol

All plugins below are used by me in this blog, and where chosen because in my opinion they aren’t to well advertised by the majority of my fellow bloggers:

1- Comment Milk: Oh yeah, this plugin is similar to CommentLuv, but in my opinion, it’s better. First of all, it doesn’t give me any trouble (the other one did) and second, in case i want to do a contest, i can use this plugin to help me in that Job. Very cool.

2 - Cross Linker + WP-Affiliate: Well, these 2 plugins are similar, but i use them to complement each other. I use Wp-Affiliate to cloak my affiliate links, and i use Cross Linker to automatically Link selected keywords. They work pretty well together.

3 - My Top Commentators: Before i used to show the top commentators on the sidebar, but as you can read in this post, i decided to remove this. Now my top commentators are shown on my admin area.  I can see data from 1 week, This month, last month and last year. Pretty Useful.

4 - No Follow Links: This is a useful plugin that allows you to choose which links in your blogroll you want to no follow. Using this plugin may piss off someone like the wise guy in the comment section of this post…

5 - Sociable Zyblog Edition: This is the plugin that allows you to add social bookmarking buttons beneath your post just like the one you will see bellow this one.

6 - StatPress: I like this plugin because it can give easily and quickly all necessary information about my blog traffic. It is like google analytics but inside your wordpress admin area.

7 - Wordpress Database Backup: This is one of the most important Wordpress Plugin you can have on your blog. It automatically generates a backup of your database  and send it directly to your email address.

8 - Wp Note: This is one of the most original plugins i have found lately. To tell you exactly what it does i need just to write the phrase below:

Hope you find this list useful.

Information is Power

Every wise webmaster knows that the key to success involves keeping track of their websites statistics. So we use tools like awstats and google analytics.

Usually webmasters discuss which of these two provides the most accurate and pertinent data of our  sites. Google analytics has advantage in many ways, but there are still strong supporters of awstats.

But forget these two… There is a more sophisticated tool for us to use. It is called Woopra.

What is woopra?

As they say in their website, woopra is:

[...] the world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. [...]

I have been using Woopra for some time now, and i must say that i am a fan since the first minute i start using it.

Woopra is still in beta, and i applied several months ago to use the software while it was in a closed beta. Now everyone can register and use woopra services for free.

You just need to register, add your sites, download the software to your computer and wait your sites to get approved, and off course, add a given code to your website.

Woopra’s Interface

There are two options to use woopra. One is accessing the data on their website (it does not work for me though), and the other is to use a software on your computer. That’s where the true power resides.

The software’s interface used rocks! It is dark and beautiful, easy on the eyes. Simple to use and fast. The learning curve of this software is very fast. You will learn how to use it in a couple of minutes. All options are just a few clicks distance and it is all organized for you to not get lost.

Woopra’s Features

You can see a detailed list of woopra’s features here. I will mention only a few:

1. Ability to track over 40 statistical events and analytics;
2. Real time stats: live track of visitors coming and going and moving through your site;
3. No delays in response time. The software is in your computer, not on a server.
4. Flexible interface;
5. Deep analytic and search capabilities;
6. Ability to see who is visiting your site now;
7. Chat functionality: you know who is on your website now, why not start a conversation with him? With woopra you can do this.
8. Member tagging: you can tag your visitors so that you  can easily recognize them;
9. Real Time notifications
10. And much more!

You can know a wide variety of information. If you are used to google analytics you know what you can get plus a lot more.

What i like the most, besides the information it can give to me, is because it is a local method to gather information. I don’t need to login to a website to check the information i want. I don’t have to wait… i can have the information almost instantly!

Another aspect i think it can be very useful is the Chat feature. What can be better to talk with our visitors in real time while they are browsing our website?

Ok, using woopra is great but there is a problem… Don’t really know why, but to get our websites approved we need to wait weeks!!!! Months even! I don’t remember how much time i had to wait until this blog got approved, but it was more than a month im sure. I have added a new site 3 weeks ago and it was not yet approved….

Ok, maybe writing this post was a good thing because every site i add now is approved in the next day

So if you want to used this software, then register an account and add your sites, because you will need to wait a long time… Other than this, woopra is a very valuable tool for all webmasters!

The best private advertising platform or OIOPublisher for short :p has reached version 2. This new version comes along with a new designed website, that in my opinion kicks ass!

The price and the continued support and development makes the wordpress plugin the best investment you can ever make in your blog.

What’s new in version 2.0

There are several new tweaks in this version but these are the ones worth

• Now you can integrate OIOpublisher in any website that uses php.
• Template driven purchase page;
• Full Javascript support;
• Ability to pay with Entrecard Credits!

As you can see, buying ads with entrecard is now an option. Probably many of you are happy with it and will happily embrace it but, i will do some research first to see if it is sustainable to sell ads here with entrecard credits.

If you were thinking in getting this plugin, do yourself a favour. Don’t think anymore. Just buy it. Trust me. You won’t regret having OIOPublisher do the work for you

This Saturday, the first stable wordpress 2.5 was finally released. After some delays and two beta release candidates, wordpress as reached another new level.

I could mention the new features that come with the new version, and how awesome the new control panel was, but i won’t do that. First, im not in the mood for that, and second, my first impression on the new cpanel was not that good lol.

Last week, with the release of the final version of the options theme, i decided to upgrade to the wordpress RC-2 in order to properly use the new theme, which was WP 2.5 specific.

I had to do some research first on how to safely upgrade my wordpress installation, and spent some time reading about the possible incompatibilities with some plugins.

So, after some research i decided that it was time to backup my database (obviously), not only from this blog, but from all my sql driven sites. Heck, if i was downloading one database why not download all of them and spare some time in the future?

Now, with all backups placed in a “safe” place it was time for the next phase:

Checking plugins issues with WP 2.5

Every wordpress blogger will have for certain, plugins installed, and most of you will be like me, a plugin addict, that installs almost all new plugins that appear lol. But this new version is different in so many ways, that some plugins might not work correctly, or not work at all.

So, a mandatory stop is the Wordpress Codex where you can find a list of compatible plugins, and a list of plugins that don’t work with this new version. Just browse the list and see if there’s a plugin that you use and it is known not to work with WP 2.5. Just take notice that if your plugin is not on the list, that does not necessarily mean that it is compatible.

This may be also useful. There is a plugin called Wordpress Upgrade Preflight Check that will generate a list of all your installed plugin, and it will tell you if there’s issues with the wordpress version you want to install. Unfortunately, the plugin author has not released yet a version that checks problems in upgrading to 2.5. It only does to version 2.3. But check the plugin page often, as i expect a release soon.

Now, with instant upgrade plugin, i just click to install the latest stable version of wordpress and voila! You have upgraded easily your blog and in a safe way.

Now, you just need to test your blog to see if you find any conflict with your plugins, and if everything is fine then, there is nothing more to say than:

Enjoy the wordpress features and happy blogging!

Btw, i made a new bans site

I have recently installed the plugin Show Top Commentators. I have configured this plugin to show the top 5 commentators of the month for now.

This is another cool tool to stimulate blog participation by visitors. Besides the do follow link on the comment, you will get featured on the plugin if you manage to reach the top five. Your name will be shown, linked to your Website.

IF this wasn’t enough for you, every month i will write a post giving some link love to my 5 top posters. That’s another link for your and free exposure