10 WordPress Plugins You Can’t Live Without

One of the many things I love about WordPress is the insane amount of plugins available to users. If you’ve thought of it, I can almost guarantee that there’s a plugin out there that can do it! And, with the WordPress Plugin Directory, you can see ratings, reviews, and statistics on how many times a plugin has been downloaded as well as installation instructions all in one place.

I’ve used all of these plugins and can personally vouch for their effectiveness and ability to improve your WordPress site.

The following list was hard to narrow down. There are SO many good plugins…. But, I did my best. Let me know what you think.

All in One SEO Pack: This is one plugin that every WordPress site should have.  If you’re a beginner, you can use All in One SEO Pack out of the box. But, if you like to fine tune and tweak… then get after it. All in One SEO Pack allows you to add keywords, tags, optimize page titles, and much more.

Akismet: Akismet is the best anti-spam plugin available for WordPress. No one likes to waste time weeding through spam comments. Set up is easy with Akismet and then you don’t have to worry about spam comments any more!

Contact Form 7: Manage multiple contact forms with Contact Form 7. I’ve used many different forms for my sites, but I always come back to this one. It’s simple, reliable and flexible. Contact Form 7 supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and more.

WP Super Cache: This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. This reduces the loading time of your blog. Visitors can browse your blog faster and navigate more easily. No one want to lose visitors because your site is slow!

WordPress Related Posts: WordPress Related Posts Plugin will generate a related posts via WordPress tags, and add the related posts to feed. This plugin generates related posts according to the tag and category. These posts are then shown at the end of the article. You keep your readers interested and entice them to explore more of your site by showing them related content.

Thank Me Later: So Cool! Thank Me Later automatically sends an e-mail those who have left a comment on your blog. You can use this plugin to say “thank you”, invite them to subscribe to your RSS feed, find you on Facebook or Twitter or email you personally. A great way to create personal relationships with your visitors and keep them coming back.

WPtouch iPhone Theme: Transform your WordPress site into an iPhone application-styled theme whenever your site is viewed from a mobile device. You don’t have to alter any code from your regular WordPress theme. A definite must these days!

Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin generates an XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com index your blog. With a sitemap, search engine crawlers see your site structure more easily and are able to retrieve your information. Move on up the Google index with this one!

Google Analyticator: Add Google Analytics to your site with this simple plugin. Google Analyticator also offers several widgets to display analytics in the admin section of your WordPress site.

Sociable: Seen those cute little social networking icons at the bottom of pages or posts? Well, here you are. Sociable automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites! Give your readers an easy opportunity to share what you have to offer.

Site updates… what do you think?

We’ve updated our site. Mostly just some new design on the main page and a few tweaks here and there. Curious to hear what you think and if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

How to Set Up a Facebook Page for Your Business

You may think that Facebook is just for 20 and 30 somethings, rock bands and causes that pull your heart strings… but really, Facebook is for YOU, too. You can learn to utilize the free social media marketing aspects of Facebook to promote your business. You may be surprise at what you learn about your customers and even more surprised at how easy it can be to get people excited and taking about what you do.

What is a Facebook Page?

Facebook has two types of pages: Facebook Pages and Groups.

How are Pages different from personal profiles?

Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook.

In addition, Pages are managed by admins who have personal Facebook profiles. Once you have set up a Page within your profile, you may add other admins to help you manage this Page. People who choose to connect to your Page won’t be able to see that you are the Page admin or have any access to your personal account.

So, let’s get started…

Create a new facebook page.

Here’s an important decision… You will see a few category options here for the type of page you want to create. If you’re a strictly local business or organization, choose your type of business from the Local drop down menu. If you are a national business or organization or brand, then choose the category that best suits you from the Brand, Product or Organization category.  There is also a category for Artist, Band or Public Figure. Be sure to choose wisely, because you cannot change this later.

Once your page is created, then you get to move on to the fun stuff!

Adding Content to your Facebook Page

1. Upload pictures so you have a profile photo on your page. Choose either ‘upload from your computer’ or ‘take a photo with your webcam’. Most likely, you will choose the first option.
2. After you have uploaded the photo into your photos section, you will select a profile picture. Just hover your mouse over the giant question mark image that you see at the top left of your page and click the box that pops up that says “change image”. The image can be your logo, a photo of your location or a product image. Your logo might be a good choice if branding is your main focus.
3. Fill in your business summary in the box under your profile picture.
4. Fill in your basic information by clicking on the ‘edit page’ button under ‘basic information’. You will see a place to add your business location, phone number, and business hours, if applicable. then click on the title underneath, ‘Detailed info’ to add your website (if you don’t have one, you know who to call:)) parking and transit information. Again, if that doesn’t pertain to you, just leave it blank.
5. Click on the ‘Post Update’ button to go to your wall to post an update for your page. This is where you will do most of your work, adding information, links, comments, etc… for your fans to see and hopefully, pass along to others.
6. “Like” your own page… People will see that on your personal profile page.
7. Share your page with your friends. You can add a message to your shared page. This will also appear on your profile page. This is a good place to introduce your business, service or product and kindly ask people to support you by becoming a fan. If you think you will be offering certain types of benefits through your posts, you can mention that as well.
8. Finally, click on the ‘Suggest to Friends” button and select friends who will recieve an ‘invitation’ to be a fan.

Here’s a visual, in case you’re that type of person…

Voila! You’re done… Well, almost!

Now you just have to USE your page. Interact with your fans. Offer them something interesting, engage them in conversations. More on this in my next post!

Vickie White Travel

Vickie White Travel is a site we designed for a high-end travel planner and tour guide. Vickie wanted her site to reflect the variety of places that she take her clients to, as well as an old-time feel that is reminiscent of an early 1900’s tour experience. This design has received many compliments. VickieWhiteTravel.com was designed in conjunction with KickStart Media.

Suzanne’s School of Dance

Suzanne Moreaux from Suzanne’s School of Dance came to use a few years ago, needing to take her website in a different direction. She needed to be able to easily update her site, since her dance studio’s schedule changed so frequently. She wanted to be able to post class updates, rosters, recital schedules, registration forms and photos of her dancers. Previously, she had to wait for a web designer to get around to updating her content. That wasn’t working for her, so I set up her site with WordPress and gave her and her staff a training so they could update all the pages, the images, forms and other content themselves. They’re so pleased with it, and so am I!

Next Page »