Rumblings from Nifty Galoot

I have a number of websites, and many of them are WordPress blog based. There are lots of great plugins for WordPress to use. Here’s a list of some of them I’ve found useful:

• Akismet – Spam blocker
• Bad Behavior – Spam blocker used in addition to Akismet
• CommentLuv – Gives a backlink to a commentor’s last post
• Contact Form 7 – Customizable contact form
• Lightbox 2 Plugin – Used for showing larger views of images in posts
• List Subpages with Descriptions – Just what it says
• NoFollow Free – Remove nofollow from comments, with customizable settings
• Popshops.com – Add products you affiliate to your blog
• ShareThis – Make it easy for folks to share posts they like
• ShowIKRSS – Display Imagekind galleries in your blog and make links affiliate links.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade – A must have for upgrading WordPress
• WP-Ads – Useful for showing ads or content wherever you want in your blog
• WP-Amazon – A way to find Amazon.com products to add to your blog

There are many other great plugins I’m not using because I don’t have a need for them or haven’t heard of them. I did want to share the ones I like and use most often.

I’ve written a plugin that makes it easy for WordPress bloggers to show Imagekind member galleries in their blogs.

Images can be displayed in a number of sizes and are clickable. Links are converted to affiliate links that can open in a new window.

Custom tracking code can be set for each gallery displayed.

Defaults can be set for site wide display, but can be over ridden in individual posts if desired.

Go to the ShowIKRSS plugin home page to download a copy.

The plugin comes with ‘Purple Crayon Instructions’ for using it, you can read the ‘Purple Crayon Instructions’ online if you wish.

You can see how the plugin shows my IK galleries by clicking one of the gallery pages in the sidebar.

In the last few days I’ve been exploring the web and learning about comments and plugins for WordPress. What have I learned? I’ve learned that the default for most blogs is to have nofollow set for an author’s website, or links in comments.

There were a quite a bunch of plugins I found to remove nofollow from comments.  The ones mentioned most often were:  LinkLove, DoFollow, and NoFollow Free.

They all looked like good choices, with DoFollow the simplest if someone wants to remove nofollow from all links in comments. Just install it, activate the plugin, and you’re done.

By default, LinkLove leaves the nofollow set until a comment author reaches 10 posts. That could be a good choice for some folks. There are instructions for how to change the number of posts to something other than 10, if a different number is desired.

I decided to use NoFollow Free. It takes a tiny bit more time setting up, since you’ll likely go to the options page and customize the settings, but you have options for whose posts you want to remove nofollow from, and the number of posts before it will do so. It also allows removing nofollow from a author’s website, links in comment contents, or both. Plus… There’s a built in option to put back nofollow if blacklist words are matched.

CommentLuv is a plugin that will go to a comment author’s website (if they fill it in) and posts a link to their last post at the time of the comment. A fun way to share a little luv by making it easy for readers to check out a commenter’s site. It may also encourage folks to comment on your site.

And lastly…  You may have wondered about the… U Comment – I Follow design:

You can find one for your blog in a number of colors or a css version  from Randa Clay Design.