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Wordpress

CindyCindy
in Toolbox
I thought since probably so many may use, or are thinking of using Wordpress, that a tip section might be useful. I have designed four websites, two for volunteer organisations. You can find my own one here:
www.cindytomamichel.com

Anyway, my first tip is on plugins. There are a number of useful and/or must haves, but the latest I have found is 'Better click to Tweet', where you can add in a sentence within a page or blog that allows people to tweet that, with your tagline attached. It doesn't show up in an email however, if you email your posts out to people.

Thoughts or issues anyone?

Comments

  • CBDroegeCBDroege
    It took me a long time to figure this out when I started doing comics, so in case it can save anyone else time: There is not really good way to have comics and other blog posts on the same wordpress if you want to have features like navigation and comics archives. The best solution is to create a new subdomain, and install a specialized theme and plug-in just for comics on a fresh install. I use Comics Easel plug-in with the ComicPress theme. You can find both from the plug-in and theme browsers within wordpress. You can do a lot of customization to what it looks like, but I haven't done hardly anything to it, so you can see what it does with almost no effort over on my comics site. It's bland, but v. functional with the calendar and navigation tools and stuff.
  • Captain_DuckyCaptain_Ducky
    Cindy said:

    I thought since probably so many may use, or are thinking of using Wordpress, that a tip section might be useful. I have designed four websites, two for volunteer organisations. You can find my own one here:
    www.cindytomamichel.com

    Both of those are excellent posts. Thank you Cindy for starting this thread and thank you CB for your perspective.
  • CindyCindy
    Another more obscure plugin that saves people getting error messages is broken link checker. It checks all your links regularly and sends you an email if these don't work. Useful if you cross reference to other sites.
  • CindyCindy
    Goodreads tip: if you have a text box widget, you can add goodreads widget code in there and they work. You can do book lists, your shelves and quotes from books. Just go to goodreads, your author dashboard and there is a widget link to them all with more instructions.
  • PukahWorksPukahWorks
    Cindy said:

    Another more obscure plugin that saves people getting error messages is broken link checker. It checks all your links regularly and sends you an email if these don't work. Useful if you cross reference to other sites.

    Where do you find this one? My website is basically 3 interconnected blogs, and Jetpack didn't catch that the site went completely down on me. I think this would be a good back up in case I run into similar issues in the future.

    As for personal recommendations:

    If you're on a self-hosted sight I strongly recommend the twitter streaming plug in (shows your last X tweets), and other social media (I use Tumblr, which is a nightmare to set up, but worth the effort and Facebook) That way anyone who stumbles across your website/blog has easy access to connecting with you elsewhere.

    For marketing:

    Hootsuite is my preference, though Buffer fills the same niche. Lets you schedule tweets and blog posts in advance, which can free up a lot of time later in the week to interact.

  • CindyCindy
    I am not on a self hosted wordpress site, its a paid domain. So I don't think a lot of the same things apply in terms of plugins. You can add your fb/twitter feed to them as well. I prefer tweetdeck for twitter.
  • PukahWorksPukahWorks
    Cindy, since you're more familiar with the WP domains - do you know where to find (or if one's even available) the progress bar widgets or plugins? I found one for the self hosted site, but would like to add one to my WP hosted blog as well.
  • CindyCindy
    I saw you asking before, but I havent seen them myself. Can you point me to a blog that has one, and I'll have a look at plugins that might do it. I have found a few things a blog has that I can't find on a site. I remember Nano actually had one that linked to their updates, so they must be available.
  • PukahWorksPukahWorks
    Cindy said:

    I saw you asking before, but I havent seen them myself. Can you point me to a blog that has one, and I'll have a look at plugins that might do it. I have found a few things a blog has that I can't find on a site. I remember Nano actually had one that linked to their updates, so they must be available.

    I found one for the site, and have it set up on the Followers of Torments page tabs for the 2 books in progress. (Raonal Tiornestake and Keep This In Mind) Was just wondering if there's something similar I can set up on the Home Office side bar as well.
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