I’m often asked, what plugins help to power the OptiNiche blog?
Well, I need to preface this entry by letting you know I’m not running a standard installation of WordPress. Also, a majority of the plugins I’m using have been modified in some way.
That said, here’s the list of plugins I use and what they do for the blog:
- Multiply - After much thought, I decided the plugin would be suitable for creating my second blog to manage display of the themes. (I made a few minor modifications to the script)
- Get Recent Comments - This is a custom written script for displaying the recent comments in the sidebar.
- Get Recent Posts - Another custom written script for displaying the recent posts in the sidebar.
- No NoFollow - As mentioned in my comment policy, I don’t use the rel=”nofollow” tag, and this plugin makes it possible.
- Post Levels - I use a modified version of this plugin combined with a custom script to restrict access to certain posts on this blog and manage the registered users.(Original Post Levels Plugin)
- SideBlog - I actually got this idea from a client. This plugin powers the mini blog in my sidebar
- Registered Only - Used to restrict access to the OptiNiche Themes blog.
- Subscribe To Comments - Allows commenters to receive the comments left after theirs via e-mail. Easily customizable and managable.
- E-mail Notification - Heavily modified version of the script powers my Weekly Summaries newsletter.
- Related Entries Plugin - Added this after I created the list, but someone asked about it in the comments, so I felt I should add it in here. To see it in action, simply scroll down to the “you may also be interested in” section.
Hi Teli
I got here as I was looking at my dashboard. Where on this blog can I learn how to set things up like you did with the security access. I find that a great asset
# January 6th, 2006
Hi Steven,
I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean.
Are you looking to customize the admin panel to feed the users different information than the ‘admin’ user or are you looking to remove the option to write/edit posts altogether?
# January 6th, 2006
Hi Teli,
Actually what I meant is how I can log into your blog but I am restricted from doing admin work.
And I like how I can go to a private area since I am on the subscription. I was just wondering how that gets set up I guess I need to test a bit. But I wanted to make sure there was not some easy way to do it, and you had references on you blog on how to do that.
Thanks
Steve
# January 6th, 2006
Thank you for clarifying Steve. Hopefully I can break down what I do on the blog for you
Admin Restriction: There may be a plugin, but for me it was much easier to do a quick and dirty hack of the ‘wp-admin/menu.php’ file.
Example:
$menu[5] = array(__(’Write’), 1, ‘post.php’);is changed to
$menu[5] = array(__(’Write’), 8, ‘post.php’);I changed the 1 to an 8 because I don’t want anyone below level 8 to write an entry to the blog.
Actually, no one under level 8 can do anything other than see the dashboard and update their profile :).
If you’re using WP 2.0, you’d need to use the user roles instead of numbers.
Blog Restriction: As mentioned in the plugin list above, I use a plugin to keep some posts private and I use a custom script to manage the users.
# January 6th, 2006
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this valuable info about what “powers” your blog.
I was wondering if you could answer the following for me:do you know of a plug-in that will list related articles at the end of each article?
For example, at the end of all of your articles you have:
“You may also be interested in”, then you list articles that are similar in nature to the present article.
Do you know of a hack or plugin that will make this easy to do on my wordpress blog?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
# February 10th, 2006
Hello Summer,
I added the related articles a little while after I published this entry and haven’t updated it to include any of those changes.
But, to answer your question, I’m using a modified version of the Related Entries plugin from http://www.w-a-s-a-b-i.com/
Hope that helps out and if there’s anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.
~Teli
# February 12th, 2006
Teli,
Thanks for answering my question about the related entries plugin. I have another for you:
Is there a function on wordpress that will allow me to show comments on my blog the way you have here in yours? What I mean is, for a visitor to read or make a comments after my post on my blog they have to click on the small comment link that appear after the title of my post, which will in turn take them to a new page. However, what I would like is the kind of format that you have here whereby after your post one can easily read comments left by others. Is there a plugin or a function on wordpress that will allow me to do this?
A big thanks again for your help.
# February 24th, 2006
Hello again Summer,
You’re welcome and it was not a problem.
Regarding the recent comments you see on this blog, I’m using a custom plugin that I developed, however, a quick Google search yields a number of results.
I can’t endorse any of them, but I’m sure at least one will be worth it’s salt :).
Hope that helps,
~Teli
# February 24th, 2006
Hi Teli,
Thanx for sharing so much information on wordpress with us.
Appreciate it.
Regards,
Anish
# March 15th, 2006
Hi Anish,
Thank you for stopping by and commenting and you’re very welcome :).
~ Teli
# March 15th, 2006
Teli
Thank you for your help recently with advice on trackbacks. I really appreciate it. I was just interested to know about the customization of the “email notification” script that you have done. I downloaded, but I haven’t installed it yet because of this reason.
Are there any flaws in the script? Also, would you advise managing the email addresses in a separate database outside of wordpress or in a program like MAILLOOP or not?
One other thing about the PINGBACKS: if I write a post on my blog about another post elsewhere, and hyperlink the post url of the other post, this would pingback the other blog, provided his blog is setup to receive pingbacks right? If so, aren’t pingbacks just a big gamble, especially since the post you make doesn’t appear as a comment on their blog in response to their post?
I just wondered, because they have to have “notify other weblogs” checked in their admin panel.
Speak soon. Sonny
# June 7th, 2006
Hi Sonny,
Let’s see if I can get your questions answered
To be honest, there may be, but every configuration is different. There may not be any flaws for me and my set up, however, you may experience some errors.
The only way of being sure is to set it up and test it.
If you do, it will, by default, set up the mailing list database using your WP database. This is to make installation/integration with WP easier.
If managing an e-mail list on your server is a concern, consider using a service like Zookoda (free) or Aweber (commercial). You can have your users sign up to your blog and both of these services allow you to e-mail blog updates from your RSS feed.
Yes, this is true and most WP blogs are set up to receive pingbacks (regardless of whether “notify other weblogs” is checked in the receiving blogs).
If you’re worried that the blog you’re pinging isn’t set up to accept pings, go ahead and use the trackback URL.
And, the “attempt to notify other weblogs” setting only applies to the blog owner that is writing the entry referencing another blog. It doesn’t need to be checked in order to receive pingbacks if they’re enabled.
Hope that makes sense and answers your question. If there’s anything else, please don’t hesitate.
~ Teli
# June 8th, 2006
Thanks Teli. Got it.
After keeping in touch with some reputable SEO sites, I’ve heard that Google is really beginning to penalize sites that link out to bad neigbourhoods.
I heard you say that you DON’T use rel=”nofollow”. If somebody spams your blog, and their site is a so called “bad neighbourhood”, what do you do? Is there a way of blacklisting them?
I’m really sorry to keep bothering you like this because I know you’re really busy. You have no idea how thankful I am for this.
# June 8th, 2006
No worries Sonny,
I enjoy helping out as much as I can.
You’re right, I don’t use rel=”nofollow” in the comments and as I mention in my comment policy, I request that commenters use the rel=”nofollow” attribute if it’s absolutely necessary to link out to a bad neighborhood.
If someone spams my blog, I simply report him to his ISP, report his domain, and delete his comments (which never see the light of day on this blog - all comments are moderated).
I also check the URLs that legitimate commenters use when they leave their comments. If the site is not up to par, I simply delete the URL and allow the comment.
In other words, great care it taken to make sure this site is as good as it can be.
~ Teli
# June 8th, 2006
Hi-
Rather late comment on this post, but this happened to be the first page of your site I landed on coming from a Google search.
I just have to say thanks for including this kind of information for your visitors. So many sites have cool features but you have to beg and steal to get the owner to tell you what is going on behind the scenes.
Now that I’m here and have looked around, I must say I love the approach you’ve taken for presenting your information - both visually and organizationally (is that a word?!?). I hope you don’t mind if I take my inspiration from you :). Now, if I only had the $97…
Keep up the great work!
Leslie
# October 11th, 2007
Hello Leslie,
Thank you for the compliment and I’m glad my blog can serve as inspiration for you.
This post (as I’m sure you noticed) was written about 2 years ago and much has changed. I’d recommend reading Powering the OptiNiche Blog Redux for a more current look at what’s going on behind the scenes.
~ Teli
# October 11th, 2007