The Lazy Man's BEST Guide to WordPress Post-Installation Tips
Over twenty million blogs (and websites) are powered by WordPress since its inception in 2003. This open source project allows many to share their thoughts, grow their businesses and connect to followers online. What started as a single line of code has grown into an entire content management system where users can customize their sites completely with plugins, widgets and various themes.
As we all have limited amounts of time on this earth many of us have better ideas to spend our time relaxing on the couch watching movies rather than freaking out about endless lines of meaningless code. Learn how to use a few of these WordPress post-installation tips to make your blog leaner and meaner.
1. How to Reset a WordPress from phpMyAdmin
Your WordPress blog can get hacked. It happens to the best of us, and when it does happen, it is essential to know how to reset the password from phpMyAdmin in order to stop the damage from continuing. Follow these steps before a hacker can rip apart all of your hard work.
Step 1: Find out the name of your database. Go to your WordPress Directory. Locate the wp-config.php file. Click on the file. In that file you will discover the name of your database.
Step 2: Go to the Admin panel in your MySQL database. Click on phpMyAdmin and select the name of your database. Once you are in the phpMyadmin look for the prefix: wp_users or whatever prefix you assigned it in the installation. Select the prefix.
Step 3: Click on the "Browse" tab on the left side of your screen and then click on the pencil icon to reset your password. A field will pop up and you can enter in a new password using a MD5 generator (WordPress does not allow plain text passwords). Copy the password and paste it into the value field. Save and you're done. Your blog is now protected.
2. Add Some Personality to Your Blog
Do you have plain blog? If your readers yawn in boredom when they look at your site, it is time to freshen it up with personality. Do these things to make your blog look more attractive to readers.
-Add a favicon to your blog. Follow our simplest method to add a favicon to your WordPress blog.
- Add an avatar to your username. When you post a picture and simple byline about yourself or about another author posting on your blog, it will go a long way. People like to match a face to a name.
- Incorporate pictures, graphs, videos and other images. Be visual. People like color and pictures to help explain the concepts you are discussing.
- Limit your blog's theme to no more than three colors. Four is zany, three is manageable. Don't scare your readers away with a kaleidoscope that is too hard to look at.
- Use BIG fonts. Keep the font a sans serif, such as Arial or Calibri. Make the font large enough to see easily to avoid squinting and eye strain.
3. Make Your WordPress Blog Faster
Maybe you have installed a bunch of WordPress plugins to doodad up your blog. You might like how it look, but have found that it is now moving at a snail's pace. Here a tip: get rid of the unused plugins. That cool drop-down thing, or flashing, moving, icon thing might be cool for a couple of months, but if it isn't contributing to the health of your blog, cut it. Keep the essential plugins to keep the site organized and kill the rest. The plug-ins insert added coding, making it longer for your blog to respond to a user's request.
Coding can be difficult, but you don't need to know a lick of it if you can follow a few simple steps to cache your queries. Caching allows your server to make shortcuts, which reduces the number of queries, bogging down your blog. Put this little bit of code in your wp-config.php file (that's the same one you used to find your database name) and save it.
// Enable the WordPress Object Cache:
define(ENABLE_CACHE, true);
Voila! You have got a meaner, leaner and faster blog. Your readers will be happier at the faster load times, and you will be happier with the increased traffic.
4. Highlight the Author's Comments
While you should get rid of the unused plugins in your WordPress blog, a good one to hang on to is the Author Highlight plugin. This allows you to change the color of your comments, distinguishing you as someone different from the rest of your readers. This plugin makes it easier for readers to identify and follow conversations. Find the plugin at: WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/author-highlight/)
5. Use a Relative Date Plug-in
Relative date is a term that describes the date in general or relative terms. So instead of dating a post with numbers, you can install a plugin that says "4 days ago" or "1 week ago" or whatever time has lapsed since you wrote the post. This plugin, while not essential to your blog, does make it easier on the eyes. Find it at: WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-relativedate/)
Bonus Tips: Subscribe Your WordPress Site to a Monitoring Service
Keep an eye on things without checking the vitals of your blog every few minutes by using a monitoring service. Also known as a ping service, these sites will alert you when your website goes down. Some offer trouble shooting help and performance reports on the specifics how your website is running. Consider using these monitoring services to keep track of what your site is doing, even while you are away from your computer:
1. Mon.itor.Us
2. Pingdom.com
3. Watchmouse.com
Remember, incorporating even a couple of these tips will improve your blog, making it look better, work faster and become more enjoyable for your followers. Using these tips will allow you to still be lazy, but lazy with a purpose.
Guest Author: This is a guest article by Sierra Dawson is a social media advocate with CreditDonkey, a US-based small business credit card comparison website.
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