Wordpress Blog Tools

These are some Wordpress tools, plugins and themes that I have found that I like. They are helping me keep what remaining hair I do have and while this stuff isn’t really related to fishing I know there are a lot of bloggers out there that might benefit so I’ll throw them up here. Hey, if it buys more fishing and outdoor time- it’s a good thing.

Wordpress Themes- Thesis (careful, this link will get you an eye full)

I don’t claim to know a lot about chic design and I’m definitely not a code hacker and once in awhile I write a good post or two; one thing I do know is that Chris Peterson’s Thesis theme is awesome. I used his free Neoclassical theme for a year, it was very good but was limited by some of the stuff that I eventually wanted to do so I decided to spring for the Thesis upgrade.

What’s so good about it? First, it’s user friendly. If you are a “newbie” and just starting out with a blog it’s really easy to be up and running in no time. To get started the only real things that you have to be familiar with are how to carry out common computer operations, writing, copying, pasting, dealing with images, inserting, and saving. As far as hosting your Wordpress blog, there are several around that run Wordpress, all you have to do is upload the Thesis Theme and you are in business. Most hosting outfits will probably even do this for you.

Second, you can customize it very simply right out of the box (you actually download it) and then get as crazy as you want later. If you are familiar with html, xhtml, php,  any one of those and you have a good running start, but even if you don’t; the Thesis theme has a great (and very active) support forum where you can learn at whatever level you are at.

Thesis is extremely versatile in terms of adding your personal design touches, from simple color and font changes to a full court overhaul you can pretty much set it up the way you want. I’m still fiddlin’ with my layout but it will do anything I’ll ever want it to, it will take me a long time to really use the potential customizations it contains.

Finally, Thesis supports SEO (search engine optimization) very well. Again, it is built write in as part of your writing/posting process, no hacking. You can customize all your META tags, Title and keywords at the same time you write your post. Thesis also allows you to monetize your site very easily and creatively. You really have the flexibility to place ads where ever you want and format them so they fit in with your content.

That’s my basic Thesis theme plug. If you want to get a feel for Chris’s themes try his free ones, Neoclassical, Copyblogger, or Cutline.

Wordpress Plugins

Eclipse Link Cloaker- Have you ever looked at the length and goobly gook that is added onto some of your outbound links? Especially, if you are putting up ads on your site. Hover over an adsense URL and you will see a string of characters a mile long. Same with affiliate ads. Not only are they ugly but they might be killing your sales.

Unbeknown to myself when I started putting up ads, there were a couple bottom feeders in the sales pool (always!). People pirating your unique sales ID’s (how vendors track your sales) and the fact that people see your ID in the  product referral link and somehow can’t stand the idea of you making a couple bucks on any purchases they might make so they trim your big ugly link  down and cut you out of the deal. Fine thank you for your market research and deal hunting.

Enter the link cloaker. Cloakers vary in type and effectiveness. Most basically build a redirect of your page and then send it on to the original address, minus the long unsightly URL and your identifying vendor ID. They are effective most of the time however, like everything else- if they want  to find you bad enough, they will.

The first thing the Eclipse Link Cloaker has going for it is that it’s a Wordpress plugin. It does the work inside an application that your are already using. If you manually cloak, you’d better be ready to learn some code hacking and be prepared to code each instance by hand. Yes, as in one at a time. I tried it and I’d rather watch Dr. Phil all day long.

Again, set up is easy. Follow a few simple well documented directions from the tutorial site and your ugly, nasty worm of a link is now a sleek shiny little baitfish pattern with a well disguised hook. In a nutshell, you enter a small piece of code into your URL and that’s it.

Further, you can accept default shortened URL names or create your own, add keywords, and you can even set up some tracking features to see how well the links perform over time. You have the ability to specify the parts of your pages/posts where links appear and you can also enable keyword links site wide that are enabled with your ad links. Editing is very straightforward, your link list is search enabled so you can easily find specific links which in turn are simply managed and edited from the same list. Very painless, and even more important, very quick.