If you are a regular WPMU reader, you may recall the first and/or second editions of the WPMU 100 — the top 100 WordPress related blogs on the internet.
The two editions were released four months apart, with the second edition being published in June. Therefore, I knew that October would bring about an opportunity to publish a third edition.
Cloud computing has taken over my life.
I use Dropbox and Google Drive to store and share documents. I use Evernote to keep track of everything from my shopping list to my plan for world domination (it’s a secret). iTunes is all but redundant to me now — Spotify is now my music app of choice.
Social media networks are awesome tools for bloggers.
They allow you to place your content in front of a pre-existing audience of likeminded people. Once you have started to build up a following, the snowball effect takes over, and your network begins to grow of its own accord.
Having said that, you must work in order to keep your social media profiles fresh. If you are not consistently active on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, your fans and followers will soon lost interest.
Ignorance is most definitely not bliss when it comes to the world of SEO.
If you want to maximize your rankings in Google (and ensure that you are not penalized), you must take ownership of every element of SEO — from your link profile, to your onsite optimization, and so on.
This can seem unfair for beginners — after all, how are you supposed to know what to do? The simple answer is that you can’t know. The productive answer is that whilst you can’t know, you need to learn.
Images are important.
Even if your blog’s content relies heavily upon the written (or typed) word, how well you utilize images to draw people into the meat of your content and retain their interest can have a major impact on engagement metrics such as bounce rate, time on site, and page views.
But on the flip side, images can also be a big drain on your site’s resources. Whilst poorly coded themes and bloated plugins can slow your site down, a few large images can have a far greater impact.
Back in March of this year, I published The Top 100 WordPress Plugins For Your Site. It was a list of the most popular plugins available on WordPress.org, filtered and sorted by compatibility, freshness, and ratings.
As I expected, reactions to the post were a mix between, “This is a great resource — thanks!”, and “This is the worst post I have ever seen in my life — you are an awful human being”.
Or something similar to that anyway. I’m paraphrasing.
As you will already know if you read Sarah’s recent article, the new default WordPress theme will soon be available on WordPress.org.
Personally, I love the minimalistic look of Twenty Twelve, and think it makes a great addition to Automattic’s ever-growing portfolio of free WordPress themes.
Microblogging is all the rage these days.
And why not? Services like Tumblr offer users a quick and easy way to create and curate content in a manner that is more accessible and feature-rich than social networking status updates, without requiring the full on commitment of running a blog.
You may recall an article I published back in July entitled Should WordPress.org Host Premium Subscription-Based Plugins?, in which I named and shamed a backup plugin known as CodeGuard. I therefore don’t blame you for being surprised that CodeGuard is the subject of today’s review.
Mobile design is all the rage these days. A huge proportion of people now access the Internet via smartphones or tablets, and web design principles must adjust to suit a wide variety of platforms.
Some developers even go as far as creating apps for their websites. Whilst you won’t see me doing that any time soon (partly because I’d have no idea what to do), I’m all for making mobile users more comfortable with the browsing experience.
And that brings me to today’s plugin.
WPJaipho
