WordPress – Best Themes and Plugins

Thanks for stopping by Michele’s radio show today. Below are some of the tips we discussed on the show for setting up your WordPress blog. Our wish is that you have a successful and abundant 2009 and that your business exceeds all of your expectations.  Best wishes for 2009!

Two Chicks Creating – BlogTalkRadio.com

Date: Monday, January 19, 2009

@ProsperityGal (Michele on Twitter)
http://blogtalkradio.com/twochickscreating

@Deauxmain (Bruce on Twitter)
http://www.deauxmain.com

Must Have Plugins to Start Your WordPress Blog:

• All in One SEO Pack – Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog.
• Dagon Design Sitemap Generator – Generates a fully customizable sitemap
• Dagon Design Secure Form Mailer – WordPress version of my secure php form mailer script
• Exclude Pages from Navigation – Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation.
• Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
• Google Analytics for WordPress – A free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website.
• Sociable – Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Returns a list of the related entries based on a unique algorithm using titles, post bodies, tags, and categories. Now with RSS feed support!

Recommended WordPress Themes:

• Revolution2 – Professional WordPress Themes (These are the ones I have been using)
• WordPress Remix – Premium Theme that offers WordPress as CMS experience
• One Theme – Premium WordPress Themes
• WooThemes – Premium WordPress Themes (also have some FREE themes)
• iThemes – Premium WordPress Themes
• WordPress Themes – 542 FREE themes last time I checked

Recommended Web Hosting

Bluehost ->

Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Information

seomoz.org – The Web’s Best SEO Resources – Tons of SEO information and tools. You will need to sign up for a free account.

Link Building Notes of an SEO Kindergartner – 19 pages filled with highly effective link building tactics shared by the coolest Mozzers

• Where to look for links
• How to get links

Using Voice Recognition or Speech Recognition Software for Blogging in WordPress

Most people speak over 120 words per minute but type less than 40 words per minute. What if you could speak your blog, instead of typing it. Think about using speech recognition or voice recognition software to make blogging easier. Once your software has been set up and trained to recognize your voice patterns, you can use it to dictate your blog posts. It learns to recognize your voice instantly and continually improves the more you use it.  This can dramatically speed up the time it takes to get new posts up. Speech recognition software can type up to 160 WPM (words per minute) with 99% accuracy. Not too shabby, so give it a try.

• Windows Vista Speech Recognition – Free with purchase of Windows Vista operating system (built in)
• Nuance – Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speech Recognition Software -Starts around $99 and has many different purchasing options for Windows or Mac.

Screen Capture and Making Tutorials for WordPress

There are many times that you may want to take a screenshot of something to put in your WordPress blog or on your website. You may also want to find a way to make short tutorials, whereby you can record video of onscreen action, showing your users exactly what you’re doing. Well, I’ve found a great tool for doing just that. It’s called Jing. Jing is a free application that allows you to make screen captures or even video tutorials in 5 minute increments. Your captures or videos can be saved to  your local hard drive or uploaded to Screencast.com. This software is made by TechSmith…the makers of Camtasia Studio. I love this application and encourage you to try it out to see for yourself.

• JingProject.com – Free software that adds visuals to your online conversations.
• Screencast.com – a TechSmith solution for business and academic professionals looking to manage and share videos, images, documents, or anything else online.

How to Keep Your Video Camera Steady – Even When You Are Moving

All to often we see videos that people make that would be pretty good videos, but the camera is so shaky it makes us drunk just to watch it. Steadicams (or camera stabilizers) are attachments used to capture smooth looking video even when the camera and camera operator are in motion. The camera operator may walk (or even jog), move through tight hallways and doorways, and even climb up and down stairs without shaking the camera.

There are professional video stabilizers on the market to remedy this situation…but they ain’t cheap. One is called Steadicam, and starts around $1500. Well, I found a way to make great videos without spending an arm and a leg on a solution to make your camera steady. It’s called Steadycam, and you can make one yourself for under $14.00.  Johnny Chung Lee has a website devoted to showing you exactly what you’ll need to build it, and then shows exactly how to build it for under $14. Johnny does an excellent job and his design is brilliant. If you are not the handyman type, you can purchase the complete Steadycam for $39.95 from Johnny’s site…still a great deal. So check out the Steadycam and start making smooth moving videos today.

WordPress How it Can Make or Break Your Business 2009

OK, by now you should have realized that I’m sold on WordPress as the blogging tool of choice if you want to get found by the most popular search engines. WordPress blog design can be used to make any website more search engine friendly, and WordPress template customization can give your site a unique look that conveys your branding.  So I wanted to let you know about an upcoming radio show that I’ll be interviewed on. It’s with TwoChicksCreating on BlogTalkRadio.com.

BlogTalkRadion.com/TwoChicksCreating
Date / Time: 1/19/2009 11:00 AM
Category: Business
Call-in Number: (646) 929-0675

Bruce Soileau from http://www.deauxmaingroup.com will be out guest today sharing the basics that come up for everyone even after they have started with using WordPress for their blog. We will discuss the plugins you will want to use, themes-paid vs free, the advantages and disadvantages of sidebars, widgets when they make you pull your hair out, the little things that look good and you can do for yourself. Bruce will share a formula on when to know it is time to call for help in wordpress so you are not wasting your time trying to fix something you need a professional for and can focus on generating income.

Please join us then to discuss WordPress and how it can make or break your business in 2009. I look forward to seeing you there.  If you have a burning WordPress question, please leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you.