Extend Archives - Plugins: WordPress Plugins Podcast

Plugins 031 – Configure SMTP WordPress Plugin

Today we’re covering the Configure SMTP WordPress Plugin. This simple plugin allows you to customize the server your blog sends email for notifications, comments, etc… It is very useful if your emails from your blog are getting blocked because of the smtp server they are relayed through is black listed.

Features Include:

SMTP host and port options
SMTP authentication user name and password
SMTP over secure SSL option
Sender “From:” name and email
Configure for Gmail option
Test configuration

Plugins Podcast Skill Level: Any

To learn more about the Configure SMTP WordPress Plugin, please visit the WordPress plugins page, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/configure-smtp/. To see more projects developed by Scott Reilly, please go to www.coffee2code.com.

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Plugins 030 – Sociable WordPress Plugin

Today we’re covering the Sociable WordPress Plugin. Similar in function to the Share This WordPress Plugin, Sociable adds link and share icons to the bottom of your blog posts and pages to make it easy for your web visitors to share your content through their favorite social network. List of social sites is extensive and include Digg, Facebook, Delicious, Twitter and MySpace and also provides an share via email option.

Features Include:

Ability to order the icons with an intuitive drag and drop interface
Disable/Enable the roll over functionality
Select which types of pages icons should appear on, such as posts, pages, homepage, etc..
Switch between icons and text links
Option to use a pop up (thickbox) to display icons
Open links in new window option
Use your own custom icon images

Plugins Podcast Skill Level: Any

To learn more about the Sociable WordPress Plugin, please visit the WordPress plugins sociable page, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sociable/.

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Plugins 028 – PodCamp Pittsburgh WordPress Coverage

In this episode, Angelo goes into detail of the WordPress coverage at this year’s PodCamp Pittsburgh.

Quick Announcement: I will be speaking on Friday, October 16th at the 2009 Blog World and New Media Expo within the WordCamp Las Vegas sessions track. I’ll be speaking on how to setup WordPress for Podcasting at 12:45pm. Friday and Saturday I will be present at the Blubrry/RawVoice booth, so if you’re at Blog World, please stop by and say hello!

PodCamp Pittsburgh 2009

The first session I attended was WordPress Knowledge Exchange hosted by Mike Woycheck (Woy) & John Carman. The session covered an array of recommended plugins and had a lot of insight on WordPress. Here are links to John’s and Woy’s recommended WordPress plugins. Plugins that stood out to me were Bookmarkify, Useful 404s, Time Zone, and Maintenance Mode.

The second session I attended was SEO Plug-ins for Your WordPress Website: Using SEO Tools for your WordPress Website hosted by Jami Broom of Clicks to My Site. Her session slides are available as a downloadable PDF. Jami covered a number of resources for SEO including Google’s Starter Guide, SEOBook.com and SEOMoz.com. Plugins that stood out during this session were Google Analyticator, Robots Meta, Redirection, SEO Friendly Images, Nofollow Case by Case, Platinum SEO Pack, and SEO Smart Links.

PodCamp Pittsburgh was a great unconference! The organizers and volunteers did a great job with the event. I can’t wait for next year!

Next episode I’ll be speaking with Max Sweet (TimeStampStudios.com), a WordPress plugin developer and web designer for WebmasterRadio.FM. Max discusses why his employer moved to WordPress and how the custom plugins he’s developed meet specific needs for the online radio station. We also discuss WordPress MU.

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Plugins 027 – TweetMeme WordPress Plugin

Today we’re covering TweetMeme Button WordPress plugin.

The TweetMeme Button WordPress plugin adds a Tweet me icon to your blog posts and pages. The plugin displays the number of re-tweets referencing your blog post. It is useful both to encourage readers to re-tweet your blog post as well as display how popular the post they are reading is on twitter. You can configure the plugin to remove the tweet me button from both static pages and from your home page. You can also customize the position and location of the button in your blog posts and pages.

The TweetMeme plugin is easy to configure and setup. One small note, some users may experience issues with the button itself depending on how well the theme is designed.

Plugins Podcast Skill Level: Any

To learn more about the TweetMeme Button plugin at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweetmeme/as well as the TweetMeme service at tweetmeme.com.

Announcements

PodCamp Pittsburgh 4: I will be speaking at PodCamp Pittsburgh this Saturday, October 10th on Plugins for WordPress to assist with Blogging and Podcasting. If you live in the area, please try to make it out, PodCamp Pittsburgh is a free event and covers not only podcasting, but social media, blogging and social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Blog World and New Media Expo 2009: I will be speaking on Friday, October 16th at Blog World within the WordCamp Las Vegas sessions track. I’ll be covering how to setup WordPress for Podcasting at 12:45pm. Friday and Saturday I will be present at the Blubrry/RawVoice booth, so if you’re at BlogWorld, please stop by and say hello!

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Plugins 026 – RSSCloud WordPress Plugin

Today we’re covering the RSSCloud WordPress Plugin.

The RSSCloud WordPress Plugin is written by Joseph Scott, a heavy WordPress developer who focuses his efforts with the blogging API in WordPress. I’ve been following his blog for years now, his knowledge in these areas of blogging are of the highest caliber.

RSSCloud (rsscloud.org) is a specification and protocol written by Dave Winer to provide instant notifications of new blog content to subscribers. It allows for a service or web application to add itself to a list on your blog that you later notify when you publish new content. It is similar to the Update Services / Ping feature in WordPress except that the blog author does not need to manage the list of services he/she needs to notify. The following sketch explains the process quite well.

One myth is that this replaces feeds. In reality, RSSCloud only enforces the standardization of using RSS 2.0 specification for feeds as it is the only feed specification that allows for the RSSCloud protocol (namespace) to be added. The use of RSSCloud also eliminates unnecessary network traffic, as the subscription service would no longer need to pull your feed on a regular basis, Only pulling your feed when there is new content.

The RSSCloud WordPress Plugin enables WordPress to become RSSCloud aware, adding the cloud tag to your blogs RSS 2.0 feed, accepting requests from feed subscription services, and sending notifications to such feed subscription services when you publish new blog posts.

You can learn more about the RSSCloud specification at rsscloud.org and download the new RSSCloud WordPress plugin at WordPress.org/extend/plugins/rsscloud/

Please feel free to leave comments or feedback for the show either by using our contact form or calling (614) 859-9007.

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