PureBlogging

If you’ve taken a look at your Dashboard recently (and why haven’t you – it should be one of the first things you look at each day) you may have noticed a post from WordPress.org’s Dev Blog concerning the release of Wordpres 2.2.1. This update features various patches to modules within the WordPress system (ATOM, XML-RPC, and Widgets) as well as 3 security patches. It’s highly recommended you upgrade as soon as possible.

I’ve seen across numerous forums and blogs people expressing their dislike with the WordPress upgrade process – some people really seem to have a problem upgrading and it’s usually because of their plugins – not WordPress itself. Nonetheless, I’m going to walk you through the process of upgrading to WordPress 2.2.1. This article assumes you are running WordPress 2.2, but it shouldn’t make a difference.

• Head on over to WordPress.org and download the WordPress 2.2.1 archive (ZIP, TAR.GZ).
• Unpack the archive wherever you feel like, then delete the wp-content folder. If you are using the default theme, just delete everything else in that directory – this update includes an update to that theme. Better yet, switch to a decent theme that won’t make you immediately stand out as a splog.
• Now, head on over to your blog’s Plugins panel and write down all of the plugins you currently have activated. If every plugin on your server is activated, you can skip this step. Personally, I never do this and have yet to run into an issue.
• Upload the WordPress 2.2.1 files to your server – overwriting any existing files.
• Head back over to your plugins menu and reactivate all of your necessary plugins
• Perform a quick test of your blog to ensure it’s still operational:
  • Refresh home page
  • View single post
  • Leave a comment
  • Search for a term
  • View an archive/category
  • Make a post
  • Delete the test post and comment
• Depending on the upgrade, you may be presented with a WordPress Error window when you first refresh your home page. This is pretty normal and just means WordPress needs to update your database. WordPress has made it really easy for you – all you have to do is click the link. Note: This upgrade does not require a database update.

I just performed a quick upgrade on all of my blogs, without deactivating any plugins, and it worked fine. I don’t expect any plugin incompatibilities with this release of WordPress, but I can personally confirm it works fine with the following:

• Akismet
• Author AdSense
• Batch Categories
• cForms
• Google Sitemaps
• Jerome’s Keywords
• Litebox Plugin
• Most Commented
• Recent Comments
• Related
• Simple Tagging
• Social Bookmarks Bar
• Subscribe2
• Trackbackers
• wp-Cache
• wp-Forum

Michael Wales is currently a Senior Airman in the United States Air Force awaiting a July promotion to Staff Sergeant. Michael also writes a blog at http://www.betaflow.com/ about Web 2.0 companies and new media.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Every blogger would like to get more search engine traffic so here’s a list of WordPress plugins that can help make your blog more search engine friendly.

1. Google Sitemap Generator – Generates a compliant XML sitemap for your WordPress blog that is supported by Google, YAHOO, Ask, and MSN Search.
2. Permalink Redirect – Helps you avoid duplicate content penalties by making sure that pages and posts are always accessed via the permalink. If a requested URI is different from the permalink, a 301 permanent redirect will be issued.
3. SEO Title Tag – This plugin makes it easy to optimize every title tag for every post, static page, or category page on your blog.
4. Dup Prevent – Helps you avoid being penalized by Google for duplicate content by inserting NOINDEX meta tag in pages that might trigger Google’s duplicate content filters. (Update: It seems that WPSEO.com is having technical difficulties but you can also try All in One SEO Pack which offers the same functionality plus additional features.)
5. WWW Redirect – This plugin allows users to have more control over the URI in which search engines and users access their blog. By doing so, you’re giving search engines and users a consistent link for accessing your content.

What are some of your favorite WordPress SEO plugins?

This post was written to take part in Darren’s latest Group Writing Project.

Popularity: 74% [?]

I think most bloggers would agree that interaction with your visitors gives your blog a personal touch and helps to grow your community. With that in mind, I think it is a good idea to thank your readers for leaving comments via email but you and I both know that can be time consuming.

Well not anymore. I recently installed a new WordPress plugin developed by Justin Shattuck called Comment Relish.

Here are the details from his site:

Visitors love interaction, especially a personable approach at gaining their attention and spiking their interests. Increasing the overall readership of your blog revolves primarily around content, accessibility and presentation. In an attempt to gain return readers and possibly subscribers, I present Comment Relish.

What is it

Comment relish is a WordPress plugin developed to send an e-mail message to users who comment on your website who have never commented before. The message dispatched to the user is defined within the plugin’s preferences. Numerous tags have been integrated to allow for information to be included in the message easily (I.E.: timestamp, author name, comment, ETC.).

So, you can now automate the process of sending a thank you to your visitors the first time they leave a comment.

It also gives you another opportunity to invite your reader to become a regular subscriber. I added a link to my RSS feed, a link to opt-in for an email subscription, an I tell them how to track additional comments.

If you are looking for a way to add a little interaction, check out Comment Relish.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Google Adsense is the most popular method of monetizing your blog. Because of it’s popularity, a number of plugins have been developed that help you easily integrate AdSense ads into your WordPress blog. Listed below are what I consider to be the best AdSense plugins.

• AdSense-Deluxe – Offers advanced options for managing the automatic insertion of Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads to your WordPress posts. There is also AdSense Deluxe+ which claims to be a slightly improved version of the original AdSense-Deluxe WordPress Plugin. The main difference is an improved ad limiting algorithm.
• AdSense Injection – Takes a random paragraph (or br tag) break in your post and inserts AdSense code. It does one per story on multi-post pages (home, archive, category) and let’s you pick how many to show on single post pages. You can also specify how many total ads to show on a page (0-3).
• AdSense Inline – Allows you to display AdSense ads in individual posts.
• AdSense Beautifier – Makes your AdSense ads look beautiful by placing images beside them which can increase your CTR (click through rate). Please note that this practice may violate Google’s policy on images near ads. You can find discussion on this topic at JohnTP.com.
• MightyAdSense – Allows you to host your AdSense code in WordPress without having to modify any templates. The ads are automatically displayed in your posts. You can control the location of the ads and specify how many ads are shown on a page. I use this plugin and love it.
• AdRotator WordPress Plugin – Displays a randomly selected ad at your chosen location. Can be used to rotate your AdSense ads with other affiliate programs like Yahoo! Publisher Network, AdBrite, BlogAds, and Chitika Eminimalls.
• AdSense Earnings WordPress Plugin – Allows you to check your daily AdSense earnings from your WordPress admin panel. You can also use the plugin to show to the public how much money you make from AdSense.
• AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System – Displays your AdSense earnings for today or any selected date range in your WordPress admin panel and allows you to share your AdSense impressions if your blog has multiple authors. (Based on AdSense Earnings WordPress Plugin and Author AdSense WordPress Plugin.)
• Author Adsense WordPress Plugin – Allows blog authors to enter their Google AdSense Publisher ID and have ads displayed on their own posts generating revenue. Admin can set the ratio of author’s ads to admin ads. This plugin could be used for creating a program similar to writingUp, or just for allowing your contributers to get something back.
• AdSense Attachment Plugin – Allows you to show your attachments (best for Images) in a new page surrounded by ads. This great way to earn some money and show large images in new window. This plugin shows attachments as a thumbnail image, and when you click on it will show image in full size.

Do you know of any that I missed? What are your favorite AdSense wordpress plugins?

Popularity: 32% [?]

The WordPress Development Blog has announced a security update for both branches of WordPress. These releases include fixes for several publicly known minor XSS issues, one major XML-RPC issue, and a proactive full sweep of the WordPress codebase to protect against future problems.

This update is highly recommend for all users of both branches.

You can find the latest version here and if you need help upgrading you find lots of great information, including detailed upgrade instructions, at the WordPress Codex.

Popularity: 11% [?]

A few weeks ago, Lorelle compiled a collection of links to everyone that has created a list of their favorite WordPress plugins. I don’t know if the list all-inclusive but it is quite a list.

Well, Stasys of Staska.net has taken it to the next level by putting together a list of the top thirty plugins used by bloggers after looking over all the top plugin lists.

The list is based on the Lists of favorite WordPress plugins, made by Lorelle last month. Lorelle found 48 lists with a total of 280 plugins that were recommended by other bloggers to their readers.

So I went through all those lists and compiled a spreadsheet of the mentioned plugins to see which of them were the most used in blogosphere.

Not too many surprises on the list. Plugins like Akismet, Google Sitemap Generator, Related Posts, Wp-Contact form, and WordPress database backup are the most popular while many other well known plugins made the cut.

It’s an interesting project that is worth a read. I suggest you check it out.

Popularity: 19% [?]