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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

Last week, during my scarce free time i decided to search for a wordpress plugin that could manage my ad sales on this blog in an almost automated way. I found a couple of them but none gave me exactly what i wanted.

So, i decided to invest some money to buy a tool for the first time to use on this blog. I decided to buy OIOpublisher. I knew this wordpress plugin for some time now and read good reviews about it. So it seemed the right choice for me.

The plugin is somewhat cheap, it costs only a one time fee of $37 dollars, and you can use it on an unlimited number of blogs, the buying process is extremely fast. But to talk you into buying this wordpress plugin i need you to show you exactly what oiopublisher is.

Oiopublisher lets you cut the middleman in your ad sales. The plugin is a direct ad sale platform that can manage a the majority of advertising deals you want to use.

WIth OIOpublisher you can sell in a easy way:

- Banner ads (Like the 125×125 button im using on the right side);

- Text Links (home page, site wide, single post links);

- Inline ads (video, image);

- Reviews (written by you or by the buyer);

- or you can customise your ad deal;

The plugin even comes with a referral system that allows you to reward your members that refer advertisers to your blog! pretty cool huh?

As you can see, by managing ads itself, oiopublisher will take down the headache of managing who bought ads from you, or if they have paid you or not. For the days i have used this script, i could see that was a good investment, it is a time saver. But it is not only that. You can now have more advertising options, that before you wouldn’t have the patience or the right script to do them.

The plugin installation couldn’t be easier. Just download (after you paid the $37 fee), unzip and upload to your wordpress plugin directory and activate it at the plugin panel in your administration area. Then you just need to go to the business tab and configure your ad spots. After that, go to your widget configuration and choose where the ads are displayed.

It is as simple as 1-2-3. If you buy this script you won’t regret. This is by far one of the best plugins i have found for wordpress. It is cheap, and you even get 50% for every new costumer you sent to oiopublisher.

One of the most usefull wordpress plugin i have ever found was the One Click Installer.

With this plugin, you can simply install wordpress themes and plugins at the distance of a few clicks. There is no need to login to your ftp account to upload the files. This plugin does the job for you.

You can choose to install the wanted  script from your computer or directly from the place where the plugin is hosted.

This script even has a mozilla plugin!

I really recommend this script. It made my life easier, and now i update my plugins in seconds!

Check the plugin page to download it