On the way home last night I was browsing through unread feeds and saw someone talking about installing the new WordPress app on their iPhone. I jumped straight into the App Store and downloaded it for free (look for it under “Utilities”). The download was quick (even on an Edge connection), and within seconds I was setting up my own blogs and checking out the available feature set.

Continue reading…

Click Tracking is a simple and useful tool for WordPress users to track clicks with a heatmap (for free). While there are services like Crazy Egg out there that will provide meatier results, some of us might not want to spend a few bucks just to get some quality results. Besides, those of us who are WordPress purists are going to be interested in a WordPress solution before we’re interested in paying for anything, right?

The author says, about the Plugin:

1. You can quickly see which links are popular and which are not.
2. You can put ads next to your popular clicking spots.
3. You can see on which ads do people click the most.
4. Find out which pages are getting most of the clicks.
5. Some people actually read with their mouse (I’m one of them), they mark the text to ease their reading. You will see clicks inside of popular text.

Sound interesting? Let’s get on with it then.

Installing Click Tracking

1. Head over to the Plugin author’s homepage and download the Plugin.
2. Open up WP-Content/Plugins and drop the unzipped Click Tracking Plugin folder onto your FTP.
3. Navigate to Plugins from your WordPress Dashboard to activate your new Plugin.

Setting Up Options for Click Tracking

Once you’ve installed Click Tracking, it’s worth a look at its options page to make sure everything is set up the way you want it to be. Here I’ll go over the most important stuff and make sure you don’t miss anything vital.

1. Navigate to Options > Click Tracking to be sure that the initial settings for Click Tracking are set up the way you want them to be.
2. Don’t change anything on the first few options. I can’t even think of a reason you would like to track anything other than “100%” of clicks—can you?
   
3. This is where you want to pay attention. On “Display Mode”, choose Detailed until you find that the results take too long to view. On “How is your blog designed?” you will want to be precise here. If your blog is centered, say so. Left or right, say that too. Fluid simply means that the size of your site conforms to the width of the browser. If you have a fluid site you should know it.
   
4. Finally, be sure to set the right width for your site, assuming it is not a fluid design. If that number isn’t something on the top of your head (950px for me, what about you?) you may want to try out something called Screen Calipers, which I’ve discussed as a useful tool in the past. Plug in your number and hit “Update Options”.

And you should be set to see some results. If you’re wondering where to go to see the results of the click tracking (as I did) run back to your Dashboard and look for the link for Click Tracking as in the image below.

Now comes the patient part of the game. Don’t you hate that part of statistics? I’m right there with you, as I’m waiting to see some initial results with my installation here at the Playground. But I’m excited to see how it turns out, as well as how it stacks up against Crazy Egg.

Any questions? If they have to do with this tutorial, hit me up in the comments. Otherwise, head over to the Plugin author’s homepage.

(Link via Daily Blog Tips)

One of the best and most widely used WordPress Plugins on blogs is the Related Posts Plugin. I can think of plenty of big name sites that use some rendition of it, if not this very plugin (Daily Blog Tips and Problogger, for example). But even more than using this plugin is using it well. This is both a conceptual and a stylistic issue, and hopefully I can help with both. First of all, you’re going to want to download the plugin and get it installed.

Installing the Related Posts Plugin

1. Visit the author’s page and download the most up to date version. You have to scroll down a little, but it’s there.
2. Upload to your plugin folder and activate the plugin on your WordPress Dashboard.
3. The place to change settings for this plugin is not under Options. It’s under Plugins > Related Posts Options. Weird, but that’s how it works. Go there.
4. Obviously you can set up the plugin to work however you wish. But to fit in with this tutorial, set up your plugin just as I have in the following image.
5. Hit Save! and then click this script at the bottom to finalize the setup process.

Now you’re all good to go. But unless we keep going, you won’t have anything on your blog. So let’s get the plugin working for you and style it so it looks as good (hopefully) as the rest of your blog. I’m going to discuss a couple of the conceptual aspects of using this plugin (and how best to use it) but if that doesn’t interest you feel free to skip down to the tutorial.

How Many Posts is Too Many?

There are many resources out to discuss the pros/cons of more posts vs. less posts, etc. Actually, most recently Daniel of Daily Blog Tips switched his front page post display style. That raised some eyebrows, but the discussion was still a pretty even divide. In this scenario we have the ability to show your readers other posts that they may be interested in, assuming they enjoyed what they just read. The first stop, obviously, is to create solid content that people would want to read. That’s the first challenge. The second challenge is not to give them so many related options that they don’t even bother with the list but give them enough that one of the links catches their attention. Anyone will tell you, this can be a tough balance. In my experience three is the lowest number I would go to, and five is the highest. Anything below is no good (what’s the point) and anything above gets to be too much. Find your balance, and go with it. But be sure that you are taking your blog’s niche into consideration, and what your audience would be interested in (or, conversely, what they can handle!).

Where to Post Related Posts

I would say that the only place related posts are even remotely welcome is on the single post view of WordPress. Anywhere else and it just becomes offensive. For example:

• On the homepage: Too busy. Even if you use more to post only snippets, you’re lengthening the amount of time it takes to scroll down your page. Bad idea.
• On archive pages: Same answer as above.
• On search pages: Seems a bit redundant, doesn’t it?

I could go on, but I hope you get the point. So the following tutorial is going to instruct you to put the call for the plugin on the single post pages only, and now you know why.

Using and Styling the Related Posts Plugin

1. First, be sure you have the settings for your plugin set up the same way I do, in step four above.
2. Now we’re going to want to actually place the plugin on a page. As explained above, we want to put this on the single posts page for the sake of your reader’s sanity. Pull open your single post template under Presentation > Theme Editor.
3. Find the following code in your page:

   <p class="postmetadata alt">

4. Right above that paragraph, drop in the following code:

   <?php related_posts(); ?>

5. But that isn’t enough. We want the list items to actually be contained in a list, so surround that call with the following code, like this:

   <ul><?php related_posts(); ?></ul>

6. And include some sort of header for the post. I like to bold the reference, just above it. Anything like “Related Posts” or “Read more posts like this” will work fine.
7. Hit save and there you have it!
8. But we’re still not done. We want to be sure it is styled correctly.
9. To make your list/paragraph turn out the way ours do here at Theme Playground, use the following code for your lists and paragraph:

   p { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.8em; margin-bottom: 1.8em; } ol, ul { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.8em; margin: 1.8em 0 1.8em 3em; }

10. And you should end up with a listing at the end of your posts that looks something like this.

    

Thanks for reading and be sure to ask any questions that you have about the tutorial here, and send any plugin questions over to the author’s homepage.

When setting up a new website, one of the most important things to consider is how well your site will rank on search engines. Arguably the most influential of these is Google. Having a Sitemap is one of the first things Google instructs a webmaster to do (it’s good practice anyway) and Google Sitemaps Generator will create one for you, ping Google when you update, and generally keep your site more optimized for search engines.

This guide will show you how to install the Google Sitemaps Generator on your WordPress website.

1. Download and unzip the Google Sitemaps Generator Plugin. The plugin website also has lots of information about what new features are included in the latest version and how to stay up to date with new releases.
2. Open up your FTP to your wp-contents/plugins folder. You will want to drop the contents of the zipped file you downloaded in step one into your site directory here.
3. Copy the plugin to your FTP. If you haven’t done so already, do it.
4. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard. Kind of a necessary step, don’t you think?
5. Navigate to Plugins. Good thing I’m here to direct you, or you’d be lost!
6. Activate the Google Sitemaps Generator.
7. Navigate to Options>Sitemap. This is where we will configure and create your sitemap.

   

8. Read over the page. Most of the instructions are very nicely laid out, cut and dry. It shouldn’t be hard to determine what options are best for you: only you know your own setup.
9. Give it some time. As with any SEO related issue, time and content is all that separates you from a better search listing. Instead of continually searching for yourself on Google, try writing another post to improve your site. Odds are that will help out and make it worth adding a sitemap to your site.

Using Google Sitemaps Generator to the Fullest

But that’s not all you can do with GSG. Here are a couple ways to enhance your sitemap using this plugin:

• Add other pages if you own other pages that belong with your website. By this I mean that if you are running a blog on a subdirectory, this plugin won’t find that and won’t include it unless you tell it to. Use the directions under Additional Pages to add more if you feel the plugin won’t find them.
• Under Basic Options be sure to check the first and the last boxes. The first will automatically configure the priority of posts based on the comment count. Of course if you don’t want this, un-check it (but why wouldn’t you?). The last option will make the plugin auto-ping Google each time you update your site. Brilliant!
• Keep your sitemap named sitemap. Don’t be so creative with it that Google can’t find it: that’s the whole point. The sitemap needs to be very accessible. In other words: leave that option alone.
• Keep your priorities fair. I won’t claim to be an expert at all, but I would say that by ranking each element of your website a 1.0 will actually degrade your content in the eyes of Google. Be fair. If your homepage is the most important page, keep it at 1.0. If your archives are, then switch them around. But don’t go so crazy ranking yourself high that you wash out the quality of the sitemap.

  

For any questions regarding this tutorial or the setup process, feel free to ask here. Otherwise, for specific plugin questions, direct them over to the official Google Sitemaps Generator Plugin page and ask there.

WordPress comes with an easy to use (and find) RSS feed location. It’s sort of a staple for a blog nowadays, so it isn’t all that commendable that a blogging platform uses it. The only disappointing thing about the default WordPress feed is you can’t really find out much about who is subscribing to your feeds, let alone detailed statistics about what feed reader they are using. These days, those kind of statistics are not only nice to have (for obsessive compulsive webmasters) but also for the sake of keeping your website healthy.

Arguably the best source of information about your feeds is FeedBurner. In this quick tutorial I will give a few steps (with visuals) to setting up your WordPress feeds as FeedBurner feeds using the FeedSmith plugin.

1. Register with FeedBurner. Shouldn’t take long, it’s a simple form.
2. Download FeedSmith. Head over to the FeedBurner website’s quickstart guide for WordPress.
3. Install FeedSmith. Open up your favorite FTP client and drop your newly-downloaded plugin into your wp-contenst/plugins folder.
4. Activate FeedSmith. You know the drill. Turn it on.
5. Burn your feed. Now, log into FeedBurner and look for the (big) submission field that says Burn a feed. That’s the one you want. If you know your feed address, put it in. Otherwise, drop in the address of your blog and let FeedBurner find the RSS address.

   

6. Give your new feed to FeedSmith. Now that your feed has been burned and output as a new FeedBurner feed address, head back to your WordPress Dashboard, under Options. The FeedBurner tab (remember, you should have activated the plugin by now) has what you want. Drop your new feed address into the second submission field and submit.

   

7. Give it a try. First of all, be sure that you are subscribed to your feed. There are a couple of good reasons. First, you should be your own biggest cheerleader. Second, you want to be one of the first to know if something isn’t showing up right in your feed. So keep an eye on it. Also, make sure that your new FeedBurner feed is working out.
8. Enjoy your new statistics. Well, by enjoy them I mean enjoy them tomorrow. Statistics don’t show up right away, as much as you want them to. Now begins the difficult part of the process: waiting for your statistics to become available. And sorry, I don’t have any tips for that one.

   

News cometh forth: the new version of WP Text Ads has been released.

WP Text Ads is a pretty sweet WordPress Plugin that you can see in use along the top of the main page and between posts on our site here. Basically it allows you to run your own ad system and retain 100% of the profits based on the pricing you set. And it’s all run quickly and simply from the WordPress Dashboard.

A quick rundown of the new features in 1.1:

•  Optional use of rel=”nofollow” in links
• Addition of the Marketplace, where advertisers can now find you
• Numerous bug fixes

The Marketplace sounds like the most interesting piece of this update. I’ll be looking into it, and I’ll let you know how it pans out.

Oh, and Alex Choo (the author behind the Plugin) is a cool guy that is always looking to improve his work. Be sure to shoot him any question/suggestions at your discretion.

See my review of WP Text Ads 1.0 at Problogger.

(Update: Since this post was written, the Automattic crew has added some optional styles you can add to your theme to hide the smiley face. See David’s comment below.)

Earlier this week I posted a tentative review of Automattic’s new WordPress.com Stats plugin available for all WordPress blogs. Now, as a follow-up, I offer a guide to ridding one’s blog of the Smiley Face (read: frustration and, somewhat, freaked-out-edness).

The Story

My friend Cory and I were throwing ideas back and forth on a WordPress theme when he directed my attention to the footer of the page.

“Did you put a smiley face down there?” asked Cory.

“Um. No.” said I.

“Are you sure?”

“Um. Yes.”

“Well there’s definitely a smiley face down there.”

“Yeah. Looks like it.”

…

“That’s pretty freaky man.”

The Explanation

First I checked the theme’s footer.php. Nothing in the source. Then I checked the HTML via a View Source of the page. No go. There wasn’t a single sign of the little bugger anywhere.

I changed themes. It was still there.

Then it hit me. Plugins. What plugins had I installed that could bring about something so…so…evil.

WordPress.com Stats!

Now, to be fair, it’s understandable that they would need to drop in a gif to track the stats on a blog. I get that. And I suppose it was also my fault for not checking the README before installing or playing with the plugin…but…um…uh…

Where was I going with this again?

The “So What”

Check the README for information on how exactly to get rid of that smiley face. Don’t set the image display to none, as that will hurt the stat tracking. The exact CSS to use is in the documentation for the plugin.

Of course, I would still suggest ditching the plugin because it isn’t locally hosted. If you’re going to branch out for stats anyway, check out how to use Google Analytics on your WordPress blog. Trust me, it’s better.

Here’s a look at another one of my prized plugins. And by prized I don’t mean I have sexual feelings for it.

I promise.

I use this one on every WordPress blog I set up; in fact it’s one of the first plugins I install. Page Link Manager adds a little check box into every page editing pane you have. The check box gives your option very simply: Include Page Link in Navigation.

It’s that simple.

The implications of this may not seem clear right away:

• If you’re a WordPress user, you can now create pages (of less-than-really-important information) which don’t show up on your main menu. This really expands the possibilities for WordPress as a CMS.
•  If you’re a WordPress developer, you can easily shift between lots of pages and few pages whenmcreating a theme. There’s a page in the control panel under Manage Page Links that gives you a list of all the pages on your site. From there you can choose to show or hide any amount of pages you want.

Note: This shouldn’t effect anyone’s sitemap or other search engine optimizations. Just keep in mind that you won’t, by default, have a link to the page from anywhere on your site. Don’t be careless!

Kudos to Garret Murphy for the plugin. You are an amazing man, and I promise I don’t have a poster of you above my bed.

I promise.

Let me preface this by saying I won’t endorse any plugin I haven’t used and enjoyed.

I’ve been using Advanced WYSIWYG Editor for ages. But maybe it only seems that way because I can’t remember what it was like before I used it.

If you’ve used WordPress for a while now (or are just starting, I suppose) no doubt you’ve grown pretty familiar with the standard Worpress tool bar. The options available are something like bold, italics, strikethrough, various lists and alignments, and some image settings. Basically that’s the formatting you get. It isn’t bad, but for the advanced user it can be a bit stifling.

Then there’s the Advanced WYSIWYG Editor. Options available in your tool bar now extend to things like inserting anchor tags, horizontal rules, subscripts/superscripts, and (above all) special characters. Honestly the special characters are enough of a selling point for me; I’d keep the plugin if that’s all it did.

For anyone who’s ever looked up and punched in a 5 or 6 digit HTML code when using something like an ellipsis (…), em dash (—) or pointing arrows (») it’s all included in a little button on your editing window. Priceless.

Enough raving and ranting already. Try it out for yourself. I highly suggest it.

Thanks to Assaf Arkin for the plugin.

Just heard about a new “official” plugin called Automattic Stats. I haven’t had a chance to test drive it much, since it needs a period of time once it’s installed on your blog to deliver any sort of stats.

Prepare to enter your WordPress API code in the same way you would for Akismet.

Somewhat annoying—although it seems that the stats plugin is installed straight onto your own blog (it even sits in you Dashboar) the link just sends you to WordPress.com’s Global Dashboard. For purists like me (who took to WordPress because it could be installed on my own space) this can be…well…unacceptable.

Try at your own risk.

Found via WordPress.com blog