As an over-all principle most errors you'll encounter together with your WordPress blog are caused by excessive or incompatible plugins. While many find the choice of essential plugins a conundrum I rely on testing each plugin one-by-one with the latest version of WordPress so I will isolate the situation to find out the reason for the slow load times, call function errors or php memory limit warnings. The most valuable tool I will tell you when it comes to plugins is that whenever possible try to find existing code that will accomplish exactly the same result.
Needless to say there are certain plugins that even I use in my WordPress Blogs. I've compiled a list below of the very best 10 plugins that I use on a regular basis that I think will help any tech blog:
* AdSense Now - There are many ad insertion plugins for WordPress, if your tech blog is using AdSense - this is actually the plugin I would recommend https://onetech4.com/.It lets you insert your ad blocks aligned left, center or middle in 3 parts of a post. Additionally it gives you the possibility to suppress ads on pages, category pages, tag pages, archives and more.
* Audio Player - To be able to insert mp3 clips or podcasts into your blog can be a problem. Audio Player is a plugin which makes this process simple - simply create a music folder on your website via FTP and then upload mp3 tracks to the directory. You are able to insert the built-in audio player into any of your posts or pages with a simple line of code - painless, simple and easy.
* Facebook Sharecount - It's no secret that social networking sites like Facebook are effective ways to produce a fanbase, but being able to harness that power relies on an easy way to share your great content. Facebook Sharecount can make it simple for visitors share your posts and monitor your content.
* Foliopress Descriptions - Once your tech blog has hundreds or even a large number of posts you will need ways to mass edit your descriptions. As the significance of meta descriptions is debated https://linustechguru.com/, I still believe that the hand written summary must certanly be written for every single post. Foliopress Descriptions supports post excerpt, These and All In One Seo meta description fields.
* Google XML Sitemaps - If you've read my previous post on how to get indexed by Google and Yahoo you realize that having a sitemap is essential. This plugin auto generates your sitemap in a wonderful and neat XML file and let's search engines understand this content on your own tech blog. After installing and activating the plugin Google XML Sitemaps will take care of the rest.
* NextGEN Gallery - Managing your images and photo galleries can be a pain, but NextGen Gallery makes this simple. With features like auto resizing, watermarks, thumbnail creation in addition to gallery effects - NextGEN Gallery is a must have plugin.
* Star Rating for Reviews - Once you run a technology blog in the course of time you will start receiving products for review. Creating a solid review is the maximum amount of about content since it is approximately presentation http://housebeautifully.com/.Star Rating for Reviews lets you create ratings for the products you review or even rate different aspects of the item and averages the ratings to find out one last score. The options are limitless with the plugin - invaluable for anyone looking to examine tech.
* TweetMeme Retween Button - If you go through the posts on TechBlogStartup you'll notice a yellow Retweet button aligned to the right. The energy of Twitter is growing every day so rendering it easy for the reader to ReTweet great content can prove very valuable. If you've installed Google Analytics like I explained in my previous post here, then you will have the ability to monitor precisely how many visitors enter your post through Twitter. If you are wondering why I haven't included ShareThis it's because I manually insert the code rather than using a Wordpress Plugin.
* WP Super Cache - If you've heard of Digg then chances are you've heard of the Digg Effect where an article on a web site becomes so popular so quickly that the flood of traffic to the internet site causes the server to crash. Since WordPress blogs are designed on SQL Databases they are highly susceptible to the condition, but installing WP Super Cache can almost eliminate this threat. The plugin builds a cache of your posts and creates a static html page so that the server load is reduced and your website can handle more visitors http://allibmblog.com/.If your tech blog is brand spanking new I'd install the plugin however, not activate it until I began to see spikes in traffic or certainly one of my articles was picked up by way of a major tech blog like Engadget or Gizmodo.
* All in One SEO - Search Engine Optimization is a key ingredient to driving organic traffic to your tech blog. Writting great content is key, but once you have created that content you need to ensure that it targets keywords and includes some basic optimization to ensure it's internet search engine friendly. All in One SEO does this job very well. If you are utilizing the WordPress theme I use (Thesis) then you won't need this plugin, but for pretty much every other WordPressTheme I would recommend installing it straight away so that you can begin writing your custom meta descriptions
Most of the plugins I've mentioned previously may be downloaded manually and then uploaded via FTP to your blog or you can add them from within your WordPress Dashboard - personally I choose the latter. If you are wondering why certain plugins aren't listed on my top 10 list - I simply don't see them important to a technology blog. You will realize that I really do somethings with TechBlogStartup that many people use Plugins or Widgets to do - eg. the very best 6 articles aligned horizontally at the the surface of the site or the Recent Posts section in the side bar. For tech blogs that receive a big volume of traffic, limiting the plugins helps decrease the SQL memory load and if you've ever had a web site crash you realize precisely how important this is.
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