Here’s a list, complete to links, of plugins I’m using and what they do. Apparently, I have a knack for finding the useful/cool ones.

• Add to Any: That’s the handy little button at the bottom of every post. I haven’t even heard of half of the sharing sites/services on that. Oh, it lets you bookmark and email the posts, too.
• Adsense Manager: That’s where the pathetic, meager attempt at generating some cash comes from. It’s also what prompted me to redesign the site AGAIN this week. I think that it’s finally right now.
• Akismet: Okay, it’s included in all the WordPress distros since they own it, but it’s handy. Of course, if it weren’t for spam I’d have no comments at all. Speaking of which, I appreciate the emails but leave a comment already!!!
• All in One SEO Pack: This is a super Search Engine Optimization plugin. Ever since I installed it, my spider traffic has really started cooking. Plus, coming from a site called SemperFiWebDesign.com, I’m supporting family.
• Broken Link Checker: This one works in the background, but it’s very handy for keeping me from looking like any more of a dumbass than I normally do. It keeps the site neat and tidy and makes sure the links I used a year ago are still valid.
• Cross-linker: This is one I haven’t taken the time to really setup yet, but it promises to be pretty handy. Basically, you setup keywords (e.g., WordPress) and then tell it to link it to a website every time it sees the text. This goes back to a post I made asking how to do something cool like this, a la real websites.
• Google XML Sitemaps: This is the other plugin that helped out with the spiders. It’s configurable to update pretty much whenever you want it to.
• Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu: If you’re a WordPress admin, especially one with this many plugins or as impatient as I am, this thing is absolutely invaluable! Instead of having to clicking links and waiting for pages to load to drill down to a function, it’s available from anywhere.
• Simple Tags: This is where that handy tag cloud comes from. It also keeps my tags handy, has a type-to-find feature and suggested tags feature. It has the ability to auto-tag posts, too, but that worked a little to literally for me.
• StatPress: This is SO much better and more informative than WordPress.com Stats. It gives you more info, details on pages, views, hosts, RSS and spiders, and lets you drill down to users and see traffic flows. Someone told me that this one isn’t supported anymore and that somebody else picked up the flag and released an updated version, but I haven’t looked yet.
• WordPress Database Backup: Three words: handy, handy, handy. And it’ll do it automagically for you, too. I haven’t had to restore from backup yet, but I’ve had some upgrades that I would have otherwise worried about.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade: Three more words: handy, handier, handiest. No more fooling with FTP and figuring out which folders to save or move or delete – it’s all done through the web interface now. I found this one after I upgraded this site and then used it on another and it worked like a champ.
• Zemanta: Another handy plugin for finding relevant external content. It finds keywords in your post and suggests links, pics and tags. I plan to use this in conjunction with Cross-linker to improve my outbound linkage.

That’s all I’m using for now, but as the idea strikes I go hunting for plugins. I also keep an eye on the Dashboard for new plugins that may be useful. As I get and approve them, I’ll post them.

Okay, a quick plea for advice and education here. Should I use tags, categories or both. More importantly, what the hell is the difference? I recently upgraded from 2.x to the latest version of WordPress, so this whole tag thing is new to me. Feel free to email me with suggestions, or point out how much of a dumbass I am in the Comments section – just answer my question, please.

And since I’m editing this and adding links like all good bloggers should (I think), does anybody know of a cool, preferably Open Source, tool that will find keywords and suggest links? It’d help me out on the common keywords I use (like WordPress and Open Source above). Muchos Gracias, Muchachos!

Looky here, it’s only been about 8 months since my last post. I have reasons, most of which aren’t good, but I’ll blame work and moving and all sorts of other stuff you’d all rather not hear. Mainly, I don’t know if I was in a six month long existential funk and finally came out of it, or I just finally have all of my passions converging at once and feel like writing (venting) again. So, lots of posts to come in the near future but I’ll give a brief synopsis of what’s happened since the last post:

January

– Yes, I still owe all of you the conclusion to the Sugar Bowl story. I don’t really recall all of the cool stuff I was going to include, but I’ll hit the high points and embellish what I don’t remember.

April/May

– Got to go to a pretty sweet conference for us lowly government IT-types and have some cool stuff to say about that. Also, on the way back I got word that the EX finally decided to close on her refinancing of the house, so I got me some money. That didn’t last long. Paid off my debts, which was actually a detriment to my credit (oh, there is SUCH a rant coming about that) and then I moved. In with Whit and her heathen, and mine every other week. And we’ve managed not to kill each other. Yet. read this entry »

This month. Being that I have the lethal combination of OCD and ADD working for me, every time I see something shiny I HAVE to have it and make it work. I was pretty happy with the old CMS, but it was a shit ton of work just to run a blog and a message board. Then, lo and behold, I fell in love all over again with a new message board. Basically, I wanted the ability to send PMs with the board, and e107 didn’t offer it with theirs. It may have been an extra module, but I’m too impatient to deal with that shit.

So, I’m pretty happy with WordPress and pretty happy with the message board that I’ll put on line as soon as I have a spare couple of hours. I also have an assload of stuff to post – yeah, I know I’ve been saying this throughout the 843 redesigns I’ve been putting you through – and some of it is time sensitive, so that’s coming pretty soon. I’ll probably take a month or so to put all the old posts back up, just so it looks like I’m updating daily and maybe, JUST MAYBE, Google will notice me again. So, yes I did it to you again. No, I will not do it again any time soon. I like what I have to work with, so I’m happy. Until the next shiny trinket crosses my vision……