WordPress Plugins

Spice Up Your Site With WordPress Shortcodes Ultimate

Filed Under: WordPress Plugins September 30, 2016

Even with the best WordPress Theme your site could still look pretty dull…

Large pieces of text about your products and or services do not look very inviting to your visitors to read through. But how can you change all that and make your content more “scan-able”?

Shortcodes Ultimate

Shortcodes Ultimate plugin could be plugin that you need to rescue you as well as your readers.

What are shortcodes? For those of you who have never seen or used shortcodes, it's a function within WordPress that can call a specific function or macro by using a simple code in your post or page. With that code WordPress can show things like Galleries or Tables.

The Shortcodes Ultimate plugins gives you a truckload of possibilities right at your fingertips without the need for you to remember the codes and functions that come with them.

If you install and active the plugin you get an extra button on your editing screen Insert shortcode.

Once clicked you can choose the function you want to use:

Shortodes Ultimate Plugin Overview — Shortcodes Ultimate Plugin Overview

One of the many usages is to create content in Columns or even Tabs to break up large pieces of text.

A 3 Column text breakup

This is the Content that will be shown in the first column of this text part

This is the Content that will be shown in the second column of this text part

This is the Content that will be shown in the last column of this text part

A split column breakup

This is the Content that will be shown in the first column of this text part but now spread over 2/3 of the page widht

This is the Content that will be shown in the last column of this text part

Including a Youtube url with options

Extra options to check:

List items with icons
List item with color changes
List item to create extra attention

Service to promote

You can write your own Service description and promote all the things you can do for your visitors

Create a Box

Type your Box content and show extra options to highlight certain options in you page content, you can also change the box options and colors

As you can see in the above example, you can also use shortcodes within shortcodes.

Keeping WordPress Up To Date and Secure

Filed Under: WordPress CMS, WordPress Plugins August 21, 2016

After you installed your new WordPress website you need to make sure you keep it up-to-date and optimized. An up-to-date WordPress website is better protected against hacking attempts and runs better with fewer errors.

Optimizing your WordPress website goes beyond keeping it up-to-date with the most recent version of the core files and plugins. You need to optimize your database as well and make sure your site loads fast.

Keeping WordPress Up to Date

– updates for core files: WordPress will inform you if there is a new version update once you log in to your dashboard. This can be an upgrade or, very important, a security update. Note: some minor security upgrades are now installed automatically.

– updates for plugins: WordPress plugin updates can add new functionality or bug fixes and sometimes also have security updates.

– update themes (aff): WordPress theme update is mostly focused on new layout options, getting responsive or extra layout functionality. Sometimes bug fixes and security patching.

– remove no longer used plugins and themes (aff): Don't leave possible security problems and clean up all plugins and themes you tried once and decided not to use any longer. WordPress will check these plugins and themes as well so save yourself some time and clean up!

Keeping WordPress Secure

Keeping your WordPress site up-to-date is the first step.

Next step is to use a plugin that will shield your site from people who want to hack your site or fill it with spam comments.

One of the fastest ways to block those people is with the Shield security plugin.

Shield has an easy to use Dashboard that will show you which option you have configured for use.

Just follow the icons in Orange once you have installed and activated the plugin.

One of the most important options if the Firewall. The firewall will block a lot of hacking attempts.

In the configuration, I have the Firewall Blocking options all set to active except for the last two.

And to be able to work in your Dashboard without any problems, you should use these options in the Whitelist part.

The rest of the options in Shield are pretty easy to configure, so go ahead and run through them.

Have a special look at the Login protection where you can easily rename your login option to redirect wp-login.php! This one is a no-brainer as Shield makes it very easy without you needing to create special rules in your .htaccess file.

There are so many other nice options in this plugin that I will create a separate post for it to go through the complete plugin settings. But for now, make sure you block out the basics and see what other options you might want to use.

Affiliate Link Disclosures

20 Basic WordPress Plugins for Your WordPress Website

Filed Under: WordPress Plugins August 21, 2016

A couple of years ago I wrote a list of 20 basic WordPress plugins and how you can install them on a new WordPress website in 5 minutes.

Here is a complete explanation of that list and what each plugin is used for.

The Basic WordPress Plugins List

BackWPup
This plugin can create a database back-up, back-up your files, optimize your database and store in somewhere in the cloud for you.

Contact Form 7
Elementary plugin to create an email form for your contact page

Fancybox for WordPress
Shows media file in an overlay instead of separate pages, you can click through all linked images on a page

Flare
Social share plugin with great options to add more like Google+ and more

Google XML Sitemaps
Creates an XML sitemap file that makes sure that search engines now what to index. Make sure you make this file link is in your Google Webmaster Tools account.

Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin
Blocks all kinds of automated spam comments that can fill up an unprotected site with all kinds of bad unrelated comments.

Limit Login Attempts
Secure your WordPress site for hacking attempts by limiting the number of login attempts. Too many attempts will block access for a set time.

No Self Pings
Do not ping back to your own site if you link to previous posts. This plugin prevents trackback links to your own site.

nrelate Related Content
Great plugin for showing related content with thumbnails. Good option for getting visitors to read more on your website.

PS Auto Sitemap
Can create a well-formatted sitemap page for your visitors. You can disable the link back to the developer, something that is harder to do with the Dagon Design sitemap plugin.

Quick Adsense
Not just for automatic placement of AdSense code on your page, you can also use it for affiliate links and even HTML coded text blocks. Also, it has a built-in Widgets function.

Revision Control
Limits the number of post revisions that will be stored in your database. This will help to keep your database running fast.

Simple Trackback Validation with Topsy Blocker
This plugin checks of trackback (backlinks) to your posts are valid and blocks them if they are spammy.

Subscribe To Comments
Keep your visitors updated on new comments or replies to their comment if they choose to get those updates.

W3 Total Cache
The speed of loading time is essential for both your visitors as for search engines. This caching plugin makes sure that the pages are presented fast. Needs some configuration for best performance.

Wordfence Security
Keeping your site secure and up-to-date is needed for every WordPress website. Wordfence will check your site for changed files, can compare files with the core WordPress plugin and theme repository and send you a notification if it finds problems.

WordPress Popular Posts
A good way to show you visitors that there are other well-perceived articles by showing the best ones in a sidebar widget.

WordPress Seo
A most have plugin if you are serious about getting better rankings in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Is also gives advice for on-page SEO improvements and keywords to use in your pages and articles.

WP Updates Notifier
Send you an email if your WordPress website is in need of core, plugins or theme updates. Very good for WordPress site owners that don't log in on a regular base. Helps to keep your site secure by getting the updates done on time.

WP-Optimize
Keeping your WordPress database optimized is a good thing and this plugin does that very well and is easy to use. You can also clean out old post revisions and spam comments.

After you installed and sometimes configured these basic WordPress plugins you are set to go. Get a good theme for you site layout and start sharing your passion, products and or services by writing great content.

If you are running a WordPress website for a longer period of time you might have your own basic WordPress plugins list. If there is anything you are missing on this list, please let us all know in the comments below!

WordPress Social Share Buttons and Follow Me Widget

Filed Under: WordPress Plugins July 12, 2013

Using social share buttons in WordPress is almost a must have for search engine optimization and getting traffic for your website.

Having a quick and easy way for your visitors to follow you on these social networks like Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and Google+ is just as important.

I have used several plugins to get this working and most of them do a great job.

AA's Digg Digg Alternative

I used the Digg Digg Alternative as one of the more recent ones before I changed to Flare (more on that later on).

It looks good as a floating sidebar and you can set the top and side offset to fit your theme layout.

The reason fore using the alternative instead of the original Digg Digg plugin was based on performance in loading time.

Shareaholic – Sexy Bookmarks

This plugin is widely used but it slowed down my site, doesn't mean it will do the same with yours, still looks good.

On the WordPress Plugin site is shown now as Shareaholic | share buttons & related content as it is now extended to show related posts as well.

Flare – Social Share Buttons, Bar & Follow Widget

Earlier this week I was reading the Traffic Generation Cafe Blog and I saw this great looking, very slick share buttons. I was only when I scrolled down, this sidebar appeared with those share buttons.

So I looked at the source code to find out what she was using to do this, and after a short investigation I found out it was a plugin called Flare.

I switched over and removed all others I was using, so you can now see the plugin active on this website.

Installing and Configuring Flare Social Share Buttons and Icons

Installing flare is a breeze, just go to Plugins -> Add New and search for Flare.
Find it, install it and activate it, first steps done.

Now you will find a new Menu option in you Dashboard called Flare, click on the Share option and set your options.

The first option you need to set is where your social share buttons and sidebar will appear on you website.

I choose to show them on top, on bottom and floating, all left aligned to fit the theme layout.

Next step: Your styling Options

You can choose the button type, round, square, etc.

Choose what you want to show, like the counters of how many shares you got, when you want them to show up and if you want your visitors to have the possibility to close the sidebar.

Upon fist installation you only see Twitter and Facebook buttons, click the big + button to add more.

Last thing you need to do is decided when you want these social share buttons to be shown, on posts is standard. For this site with a lot of pages I also want them to show up on pages.

Save it all and check if it works as expected.

Configuring Flare Follow Me Widget

If you are done with the Social Share Buttons, you can start with the widget and configure the follow me options.

Got to Flare and choose Follow, it should show you a screen like this one.

Again follow the instructions and push the plus button for more.

Configure your settings with things like your Twitter user name, your Google+ profile, your Facebook profile page and every other thing you want to show.

Once you get all the options done and saved, go to the widgets (Appearance -> Widgets) and place it on your sidebar.

I have set it up with a bigger then standard icon and with more spacing.

I like the cleanliness of the layout and all the options it gave me.

How about you? What is your favorite WordPress social sharing buttons plugin and why?

Update: How to remove the purple new Flare plugin button.

The new version of the Flare plugin shows you a purple button that brings you to the site of the plugin authors.

Many people, me included, don't like this new button.

It might be a good idea to promote your work and get lots of inbound links, but if you cannot choose to opt-out of that link, that is a bad thing.

There is a way though to hide the buttons and icons.

Paste this code into the style sheet of you theme:

/* Remove Filament Icon
———————————————————— */
.flare-flyout-filament {display:none !important}
.button-type-filament {display:none !important}

Update 2:

With the new version (1.2.4) you now have the option to hide the purple button by deselecting the Show Love checkbox!

Thank You http://www.dtelepathy.com/ for listening to and acting upon your plugin users request!

Secure Your WordPress Website with Wordfence

Filed Under: WordPress Plugins June 7, 2013

Even though some people will tell you that WordPress is insecure, you should know that the core of WordPress is one of the most secure open source content management systems there is today.

Even the latest hack attempts were not targeted to the software itself. It was an attack by sending brute-force password hack attempts for default users names and weak passwords. So make sure you don't use admin as your administrator username and have a good strong password. If you want to learn more about those attacks, read WordPress Security Attacks and Solutions.

To secure your site there is one plugin that I highly recommend. It will check and monitor your WordPress website, it's called Wordfence.

Wordfence Security Plugin

Wordfence is free and you can get it for your WordPress security by following these steps:

Sign in to your WordPress website.
Go to your “Plugins” menu and click “Add New”.
Enter “Wordfence” in the search box.
Install Wordfence and set your options.

To set the Options, go to the Wordfence plugin options choice.

In the settings screen you get large screen with a lot of options!

Start with the basics and set your email address and the option on How does Wordfence get IP's. Save the changes.

Now lets see what else you need to set, most of the options can remain as offered by the standard installation.

There are only a few things that I change:

Disable the Life Traffic View options
Set Scan theme files and plugins files against repository to enabled
Enable the Firewall rules and set the block fake crawlers option to active
Under Other Options put in your own IP address to the Whitelist
I choose not to set the option to Participate in the Wordfence Security Network, but that is just my personal choice

Save all the options you have set, and run a first scan.

Working with WordPress Security Alerts

After the scan is complete you will get some WordPress security notifications, especially if you have the option active to scan plugin files against the repository.

You have several options on how to proceed with this notification.

It depends on the severity of the problem and on what kind of file it is.

In this case I only check to See how the file has changed to make sure it is just a minor change, if that is the case I choose to Restore the original version of the file. Wordfence will then get the file from the repository and overwrite your current file.

Most of these kind of notifications will be around readme files, so no problem there. After the check, do the restore to prevent a new notification next time the scan runs.

Since I do run Dutch websites I also get errors on language settings, in that case I will choose to Ignore until the file changes.

Check out the options and see if you want to use by the options mentioned before and run a scan on your own site. You will see that Wordfence will monitor your site and scan it once a day (free version) and send you an notification if somethings changes.

I even got a Warning: * Your DNS records have changed notification today after my hosting (aff) company replaced some servers and had to change the IP addresses…

Wordfence Drawbacks

So this Wordfence plugin sounds great, but is there a down side to it?

Yes there is, but its minor. It has to do with the database tables it uses. As you can see they can grow pretty large.

Here are the same tables after optimization with the WP-Optimize Plugin.

Still pretty large right? I did not see any performance problems though and I do think that these tables will improve over time.

Nothing to worry about directly, but certainly something to look out for and do preventive maintenance on your database. You can also choose to not back-up these tables if you run into trouble with your back-up files.

Despite this drawback I do recommend your install, configure and use Wordfence to secure your WordPress website!