This being the fourth or fifth blog that I have started I have become quite familiar with the administration and overall installation process of plugins and themes. Everytime I do a blog install either for myself or a friend I have a tendency to install the same plugins and themes so I have decided to finally list them, as well as why I use them. Another thing I like to get setup for blogging is Firefox–I’ve come to notice I have a tendency to update my blog more if it is easily accessible direct from my browser.
Sidebar Widgets
After getting a widget enabled theme I generally go right into installing sidebar widgets along with some of my usual plugins including FlickRSS, and Del.icio.us bookmarks. The Del.icio.us bookmark widget comes included in the sidebar widget zip file. After unzipping the .zip or .tar.gz files, upload them using your favorite FTP Client (mine generally being either Dreamweaver, gFTP, Transmit, or Cyberduck depending on what system I’m on) to your wordpress installation’s plugins folder.
(yourdomain.com/wp-content/plugins)
Login to your admin located at http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin and click on the plugins tab. Active widgets and any other plugins you have uploaded, and holy crap it’s that easy….but guess what…only 3 of my plugins actually showed up. Great.One thing that you have to remember to do before hap-hazardly uploading a ton of freshly unzipped plugins is to explore the directories of the plugins to make sure that:
- The directory structure is intact
- The plugin is the latest version (I recommend downloading only direct from Wordpress)
- The plugin is compatible with your version of Wordpress.
Setup Firefox for Blogging!
Now that you have a few plugins and templates working on your site it’s time to get your browser setup for blogging. I install Performancing for Firefox as I’ve found it’s the easiest to use, and…it’s Free! Click here to download the Performancing Plugin
As I was writing this tidbit I found a few more cool links from del.icio.us popular links that may also be of help to first time blog installers:
There’s plenty more Tidbits to come on this subject including how to link up your del.icio.us bookmarks for quick automated blog posting, and how to customize your own Wordpress Themes!
