Use partial feeds. Everyone loves having to visit a website to get update. Especially when they have 100 to 200 feeds they read daily. Do yourself and your readers a favor and install a plugin like Full Text Feed and say goodbye to partial feeds forever!

Forget about search boxes and just let your readers manually search through dozens of posts for that ONE post you wrote about your favorite webhost. Seriously, you can go the simple route and add this code:

< ?php the_search_query(); ? >

to your sidebar or where ever you’d like in your WordPress template (Source: WP Template Tags; be sure to remove the spaces before the first ? and after the second ?).

Or, be a little adventurous, and sign up for Google Search Engine. The website will walk you through the steps to create a custom search engine JUST for your WP powered site - and you can even make AdSense money off of each search!
Don’t give visitors a way to contact you! I mean seriously, do you really think that anyone wants to contact you? Maybe you like having your comments cluttered with email-type requests that are off topic. If you don’t like this, then get Contact Form with Spam Protection. Be smart about it and change the question regularly, and don’t make it so hard that no one can answer your spam protection question!

Thoughts? Let’s hear it in the comments!

photo credit: chegs

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I blog here because I enjoy sharing knowledge and challenging myself by coming up with blogging ideas every week. However, I cannot forget my obligation to myself to enjoy life - even blogging!

As you can see, I’ve changed the theme (again) and I am straying away from PINK as the main color. I also modified the OIOPublisher code to improve the visibility of the ads and affiliate links I have, including including text about pricing. LIMITED TIME ONLY - $5 banner ad for 30 days!

ultimate geek girl is a small blog, but design changes can be helpful not just to me as the main user of the site, but also to you! Improvements in the design should facilitate finding information faster and easier!

Of course, feedback is appreciated - positive or negative, as I do feel we are a community here! Enjoy!

The deadline is QUICKLY approaching for submissions into the Ultimate Geek Girl’s Blog Contest! Enter today!

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While I generally use around 30 plugins for this site, I do have a favorite… hands down —- RSS Footer.

Why is RSS Footer such a great plugin? For starters, you can add just about any text you can imagine to your RSS feed’s footer! Start thinking ads, links to posts you want to feature, copyright information, contact information, inspiring quotes - the sky’s the limit!

RSS Footer Options - Click for a Larger Version

Installation is a breeze and getting started using this plugin couldn’t be any easier!

The options for RSS Footer are straightforward - type in what you want to display in your footer (HTML is allowed), then note if you want this content to display before or after your posts in an RSS reader like Google Reader or Bloglines. You can also decide if you want to include a link back to the post you wrote, so your RSS readers can click on the link and be directed back to your homepage - or scrapers (the bad guys who steal your content) must link back to your site.
And that’s it! RSS Footer does exactly what its name says - and does it without a lot of complicated jargon or settings. If you are looking for a way to display links to some of your best posts to your RSS readers, generate more buzz for your website or Twitter page or add affiliate links, RSS Footer is the plugin for you!

Don’t Forget! Enter the Ultimate Geek Girl’s Blog Contest TODAY!

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So, ditch some of those plugins and use these three WordPress hacks to get the same functionality and at the same time improve your page load time!

First up is Gravatar, the globaly reconized avatar that ‘follows’ you no matter where you go online. Yes, there are WordPress plugins available that make adding Gravtars oh so simple, but be adventurous and set up Gravatars on our own!

To begin, navigate to Design > Theme Editor > comments.php

Find this code:

<?php comment_text() ?>

And replace with:

<div class="gravs">
<?php if (get_bloginfo('version')>=2.5)
echo get_avatar( $comment->comment_author_email, $size = '50', $comment->comment_author_link);?>
<?php comment_text() ?>
</div>
<br clear="all" />

Save the comments.php file, and open your style.css file. Add the following code:

.gravs {margin-top:20px;}
.avatar {float:left; margin-right:5px; margin-bottom:5px; padding:3px; border:1px solid #999999;}

Save the style.css file, and refresh your homepage. You should now see the Gravatars next to all comments on your blog!

Now, let’s get your most popular posts onto your blog’s sidebar! First, open header.php and paste the following code at the bottom of the file:

<?php function most_popular_posts($no_posts = 5, $before = '<li>', $after = '</li>', $show_pass_post = false, $duration='') {
global $wpdb;
$request = "SELECT ID, post_title, COUNT($wpdb->comments.comment_post_ID) AS 'comment_count' FROM $wpdb->posts, $wpdb->comments";
$request .= " WHERE comment_approved = '1' AND $wpdb->posts.ID=$wpdb->comments.comment_post_ID AND post_status = 'publish'";
if(!$show_pass_post) $request .= " AND post_password =''";
if($duration !="") { $request .= " AND DATE_SUB(CURDATE(),INTERVAL ".$duration." DAY) < post_date ";
}
$request .= " GROUP BY $wpdb->comments.comment_post_ID ORDER BY comment_count DESC LIMIT $no_posts";
$posts = $wpdb->get_results($request);
$output = '';
if ($posts) {
foreach ($posts as $post) {
$post_title = stripslashes($post->post_title);
$comment_count = $post->comment_count;
$permalink = get_permalink($post->ID);
$output .= $before . '<a href="' . $permalink . '" title="' . $post_title.'">' . $post_title . '</a> (' . $comment_count.')' . $after;
}
} else {
$output .= $before . "None found" . $after;
}
echo $output;
} ?>

Save the file and open the file for where you want to display your most popular posts - sidebar.php, index.php, footer.php, etc. - and paste this code:

<?php most_popular_posts(); ?>

Again, save the file, refresh your homepage and now you can see your most popular posts!

And last, but definitely not least, add a “subscribe” reminder directly below each post without using a plugin like What Would Seth Godin Do.

Open index.php, and look for the code (the_content) - paste the following code directly afterward, and remember that you can tweak the colors using a color picker, the font face and even the wording. Don’t forget to add the link to YOUR RSS feed!

<div style="padding:5px; border:1px solid #999999; margin-top:10px; background-color:#FFF8AF;">
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my <a href="RSS LINK HERE">RSS Feed</a>
</div>

Don’t forget to save your changes!

If you like, you can also add this code to single.php, which will add this gentle reminder to subscribe to each single post page. This is helpful if you only show excerpts of posts on the homepage.

Do you have any tips for WordPress code tweaks? Let’s hear it in the comments!

Special thanks to Blog Oh Blog for their complete tutorial on WordPress Hacks and Fabworker for the “Subscribe to a feed” code.

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The author of the plugin says that he gets about an 80% success rate of approved pings - so that’s not bad for a day’s work of blogging!

PingCrawl does inject its own link every 10 or so links, so visit ANTY.INFO to learn how to remove the code if you want to.

Installation was easy, since we use Plugin Central for all of our plugin installation and updating needs! If you do not use Plugin Central, don’t despair. Installation is as easy as unzipping the installation file, uploading to your plugins folder and activating in your plugins management screen.

We’re going to test out this new plugin here, to see if it does add some value for our readers or not. Visit the poll in the sidebar or leave a comment to let us know what you think about the new plugin’s functions over the next week!

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Automatically Add Links to Related Sites

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Keith Dsouza at Weblog Tools Collection compiled a list of the upcoming features in WordPress 2.7 that bloggers can look forward to, but here are the top 5 features that I think will make some plugins obsolete and/or blogging so much more easier for WordPress users:

1. One Click Plugin Installs – Installing a plugin will be much easier with the ability to click a button or link and the plugin installs automatically! Plugins with similar features are One Click Plugin and Plugin Central.
2. WordPress core updates – This is a feature many users have been waiting for, with core updates you can easily upgrade your WordPress versions. A plugin with the same functionality is the WordPress Automatic Upgrade.
3. Admin Panel Comment Replies - This function will allow administrators to reply to comments using the admin panel. There are several plugins which allow you to this, including WP AJax Edit Comments, Better Comments Manager (my personal favorite) and Absolute Comments.
4. Comment Threading – This feature will allow users to reply to other commentators in a threaded manner, where replied comments will display below the actual comment. Brian’s Threaded Comments is a does the job of allowing users to reply to comments.
5. Batch Editing of Posts – This feature will allow users to batch edit their posts. This can be incredibly useful if you want to add tags to specific posts or change the category without having to do it manually!

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You are getting an error “Fatal error: Call to undefined function.” and part of your blog’s content is missing!

Fortunately, there’s a fix for the plugin deactivation error issue - it just takes a little detective work and some patience.

1. First, make a note of where the error occurred on your blog - was it the sidebar? The footer? This is important, because when you go to edit the blog template, you want to make sure you are looking in the right place!
2. Now go to your WordPress Administration screen and select Design, then Theme Editor.
3. Select the file for the section of your blog template that is broken because of the plugin deactivation.
4. Look for any code related to the plugin, and delete.
5. Save your template.
6. Refresh your blog’s page (press F5) to see if the error is now gone. If it is still showing an error because of the plugin deactivation, go through your blog theme files one-by-one, to make sure you removed all instances of the plugin’s code.

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The solution is simple, and hopefully other thememakers will take notice of this change; and include this code in their new templates.

Insert the following code:

img.alignleft, div.alignleft {
float:left;
margin:0 0.5em 0.5em 0;
}
img.alignright, div.alignright {
float:right;
margin:0 0 0.5em 0.5em;
}
img.aligncentered, div.aligncentered {
text-align:center;
margin:0 auto;
}

anywhere in your .css file, and save. Now your images should align properly!

H/T to HackWordPress.com for this great piece of information/code! (Source)

Handle Images Easily with a Quick CSS Update

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Now WordPress comes with a built in word count, so you can see in real time how many words long your post is! Look for the Word count directly below the Save and Publish buttons in your Publish Status box.

The way images are controlled and modified is one of the biggest changes; now image management is fully compatible with the WYSIWYG view, and you can move the picture’s location and even edit its size directly from the screen. Note that you can actually see a screenshot of the image as it would appear in your blog post, and there are more options under Advanced Settings.

There are more new features, including a popup that lets you know when you have updates to your plugins and even more ways to use WordPress as a power user without having to add a lot of plugins!

View the video that gives you a tour of WP 2.6 before downloading:

Check out some of these posts around the blogosphere about the WordPress update, and let us know what you think about this new version in the comments!

Around the Blogosphere:

WordPress 2.6 from the WordPress Blog
You Gotta Love Automattic from NateWhitehill.com
WordPress 2.6 Rocks from Michelaneous
Google Gears and WordPress 2.6 Is Not About Offline Blogging from Digital Inspiration

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Use it to display a welcome message, reminder to visitors, an affiliate link, an “extra special” link to a favorite or popular post, and more - the sky is the limit, as long as the text and html will fit in the stripe!

As you can see from the screenshots, setting it up is a little cumbersome - a lot different than the average plugin - but it seems to be worth it if you want a low-key, customizable message to appear at the TOP of your screen when your visitors come to your WordPress powered site.

Registration, is in fact, free, but you are asked if you want to buy a eBook that can turn your blogging life around - I declined, so I could get to the meat and gravy of the setup!

The advanced options allow you to customize the look and feel of your “Stripe Ad”, so you can color-coordinate the stripe with your template.

Like What Would Seth Godin Do, you can customize MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad to only display for a certain number of days, visits,  all of the time, etc. However, the MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad has the added capability of being closed by the viewer if they so choose and you don’t have to know HTML to customize the displayed ad.

Also, you can have multiple messages set up at a time to rotate; so you can link to your affiliates, other blogs, popular posts and more, and each time the page is refreshed, the visitor gets a new, fresh link! Weight the individual messages, so that some will display more than others - if you really want to draw attention to a contest on your site moreso than your webhost affiliate link.

Here’s a quick look at what my stripe looked like once activated:

MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad is free but you must register to use; and if you want to remove the “Powered by MaxBlogPress” link from the stripe, the Pro version of the plugin is $47.

Use Custom Welcome Messages for your Readers!

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