My site is a work in progress and have come to realize that it always will be. When I decided to build my business website/blog. I knew I wanted a self-hosted WordPress site. Since I had not ever built a website I knew I had a lot to learn, I still do. I am not a coder and I am not a web-designer, but one thing I have learned is that there are many, many incredibly talented people who are coders and web-designers and they have created wonderful tools I can use with my limited knowledge and time. I am truly grateful for these people and would like to share them with you, here.
After researching all my theme options I chose to go with the Genesis Framework from StudioPress by CopyBlogger Media. With Genesis Framework as my foundation I can create a website that is secure and search-engine-optimized with the flexibility to change and improve as my business needs dictate.
For my WordPress theme I chose the Driskill Theme for 2 reasons, the first was for it’s geekiness; Theme Creator Bill Erickson built the Driskill Theme with Mobile Responsive Design, meaning my site adjusts to any browser size, on any computer, tablet or mobile device without losing any of the navigation menus or sidebars. Now, that’s pretty nifty, and I didn’t have to know any code! The second reason is for it’s beauty; in addition to all the geeky technology under the hood, it is a beautiful theme with timeless, classic design just like it’s namesake, The Driskill Hotel of Austin TX. There’s even some built-in color and design options, widgets and too many other sweet things to mention. I have made a few aesthetic changes to customize and make it my own… I have learned a little code.
Below is a list of the plugins I use, with all the descriptions and credits. I hope you find this helpful in building and maintaining your site. Please leave a comment and let me know what tools or resources you have found helpful.
Active share provides a box that shows up on individual posts once users have scrolled a specified amount to share the page. Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. It keeps your site protected from spam even while you sleep. To get started: 1) Click the "Activate" link to the left of this description, 2) Sign up for an Akismet API key, and 3) Go to your Akismet configuration page, and save your API key. Plugin that displays the Amplify button beneath blog posts With this plugin, you may plan the backup of your entire website (folders, files and/or database).You can choose: which folders you want to save; the frequency of the backup process; whether your database should be saved; whether the backup is stored on the local website, sent by email or stored on a distant FTP (support of multipart zip files)This plugin is under GPL licence The Category Order plugin allows you to easily reorder your categories the way you want via drag and drop. Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible. The Disqus comment system replaces your WordPress comment system with your comments hosted and powered by Disqus. Head over to the Comments admin page to set up your DISQUS Comment System. Add the new Facebook Like button and Facebook Recommendations widget to your wordpress blog. Fast Secure Contact Form for WordPress. The contact form lets your visitors send you a quick E-mail message. Super customizable with a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent. Includes CAPTCHA and Akismet support to block all common spammer tactics. Spam is no longer a problem. Settings | Donate Redirects all feeds to a Feedburner feed The Find Me On sidebar widget displays icons for all of your social network profiles. Includes *73* Social Network options, 16px or 32px icon size, and three icon styles, including "sexy-style". Configure all the options on the configuration page. Originally forked from the Social Links plugin. Upload your own favicon! A featured slider for the Genesis Framework. This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics to your WordPress blog, adding lots of features, eg. custom variables and automatic clickout and download tracking. This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. Easily add your HelloBar to your WordPress blog! This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page. Bring the power of the WordPress.com cloud to your self-hosted WordPress. Jetpack enables you to connect your blog to a WordPress.com account to use the powerful features normally only available to WordPress.com users. Displays all the plugins - just insert [my plugins] in post where you want to display a table of plugins that you use. Example here. Easily display related content on your website. Click on nrelate → Related Content to configure your settings. Quickly and easily create amazing landing pages for your WordPress site. Quickly and easily check your content against SEO best practices utilizing the Scribe Content Optimizer. You will need a Scribe API Key in order to use the application. If you do not have an API Key, go to http://scribeseo.com. Please make sure you are using a supported theme or plugin. For an updated list, go to http://scribeseo.com/compatibility/. Adds a range of shadow types to images, divs and blockquotes Shareaholic adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts. See configuration panel for more settings. Slick social share buttons adds facebook, twitter, google +1, linkedin, digg, stumbleupon, delicious, reddit, buffer and pinterest pin it social media buttons in a floating or slide out tab. Includes a social statistics page in the plugin admin panel showing summaries of all share totals A widget to display image links (icon buttons) to subscription services and social networking sites. Adds subscription option icons for your RSS Feed; your FeedBurner Email Service; your Twitter Stream and even your Facebook page. Thousands of colour options. Totally user-defined. Also available: The Subscription Options Add-on Pack! Place widgets into tabbed and accordion type interface. Provides a simple-to-use editor to create tabbed widgets Automatically send a 'thank you' e-mail to those who comment on your blog. This plugin engages the visitor by reminding them to check back for responses or new blog posts. The plugin is highly configurable with multiple messages, variable delay and restrictions. Enables advanced features and plugins in TinyMCE, the visual editor in WordPress. Instantly send posts from your blog from Triberr. This WordPress plugin displays the Tungle.me widget on your WordPress site. A widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It can even display profile images for the users. Requires PHP5. Bloggers use this to easily show other forms of 'social proof' very easily on their blog to help other people see that their site is worth reading. Using a simple shortcode, or the widget, users can display: - How many comments their blog has - How many posts they've written - Number of Facebook fans- Number of Twitter followers (taken automatically from account page) - Alexa rank - and Google pagerank. The highest rated and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress. Display widgets in context. Makes use of Gravatars and MyBlogLog Avatars, places Gravatars, OpenAvatar, Wavatar, Identicon, monsterID or MyBlogLog Avatars in the comments section. Uses the comment authors email to display their Gravatar. It also gives the user an Author Profile picture, based on his or hers Gravatar. Developer blog at this site. Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database. Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog's post/page. Show a different message to your visitor depending on which site they are coming from. For example, you can ask Digg visitors to Digg your post, Google visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed, and more! Best of all, this plugin is compatible with various WordPress cache plugins. WPtouch Pro is a plugin to re-format your website with a mobile theme tailored for Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm & Torch and other touch mobile devices. The WordPress implementation of the official Twitter Tweet Button. Installs a new sidebar widget that can display the recent posts with automatic thumbnail images. Highly customizable allowing different settings on the home page. Uses cache to avoid multiple database queries. You can choose to list all recent posts, or only list recent posts marked with a specific tag. You can display a different selection on the home page and on other pages. You can also insert a list of recent posts or previous posts with thumbnails in your templates and not use the widget.
Nr.
Plugin
Version
Description
1.
Active Share by OrangeSoda
1.041
By Dan Garfield for OrangeSoda.com.
2.
Akismet
2.5.5
By Automattic.
3.
Amplify Button for WordPress
1.0
By Amplify.com / Eric Weitner.
4.
Backup Scheduler
1.2.4
By SedLex.
5.
Category Order
1.0.3
By Wessley Roche.
6.
Contact Form 7
3.1
By Takayuki Miyoshi.
7.
Disqus Comment System
2.71
By Disqus .
8.
Facebook Like
5.9.5
By Ahmed Hussein.
9.
Fast Secure Contact Form
3.1.3.1
By Mike Challis.
10.
FD Feedburner Plugin
1.45
By John Watson.
11.
Find Me On
2.0.9.1
By Jeremy Anticouni.
12.
Genesis Favicon uploader
.1.1b
By Christopher Cochran.
13.
Genesis Slider
0.9.6
By StudioPress.
14.
Google Analytics for WordPress
4.2.4
By Joost de Valk.
15.
Google XML Sitemaps
3.2.6
By Arne Brachhold.
16.
HelloBar for WordPress
0.2
By digital-telepathy.
17.
Hello Dolly
1.6
By Matt Mullenweg.
18.
Jetpack by WordPress.com
1.2.2
By Automattic.
19.
My-Plugins
0.2
By Matej Nastran.
20.
nrelate Related Content
0.50.6
By nrelate and SlipFire.
21.
Premise
1.2.1
By Copyblogger Media LLC.
22.
Scribe SEO
3.0.11
By Copyblogger Media.
23.
Shadows
0.3.5
By Andrew Radke.
24.
Shareaholic | email, bookmark, and share
4.0.6.5
By Shareaholic.
25.
Slick Social Share Buttons
2.4.1
By Lee Chestnutt.
26.
Subscribe / Connect / Follow Widget
0.5.6
By Srini G.
27.
Subscription Options
0.8.9
By Tom Saunter.
28.
Tabbed Widgets
1.3.1
By Kaspars Dambis.
29.
Tabber Widget
1.0.6
By iThemes.
30.
Thank Me Later
2.1
By Brendon Boshell.
31.
TinyMCE Advanced
3.4.5
By Andrew Ozz.
32.
Triberr
1.0.0
By Triberr.
33.
Tungle.me WordPress Plugin
1.0.1
By Tungle Corporation.
34.
Twitter Widget Pro
2.3.8
By Aaron D. Campbell.
35.
ViperProof
1.1
By ViperChill.
36.
W3 Total Cache
0.9.2.4
By Frederick Townes.
37.
Widget Context
0.7
By Kaspars Dambis.
38.
WordPress Gravatars
2.7.1
By Rune Gulbrandsøy.
39.
WP-DBManager
2.63
By Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan.
40.
WP-Print
2.50
By Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan.
41.
WP Greet Box
6.3.3
By Thaya Kareeson.
42.
WPtouch Pro
2.4
By Dale Mugford & Duane Storey (BraveNewCode).
43.
WP Tweet Button
2.1.3
By Tanin Ehrami.
44.
YD Recent Posts with thumbnails
3.0.1
By Yann Dubois.
Output generated by My-Plugins plugin by Matej Nastran.
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