I have all kinds of readers that visit Extreme John.com on a daily basis and some of the topics from time to time may not be exactly what everyone is looking for, or in some cases vistiors might not even have a clue what I ramble about on here. That’s my Bi-Polar side, learn to enjoy it along with me.
For my good peeps that stop by EJ and have no idea what a “WordPress Plugin” is, basically a WordPress plugin adds functionality to the Extreme John.com website. A WordPress Plugin is something you can download for free from the WordPress Plugin Directory, you would of course need to be running a WordPress blog in order to take advantage of WordPress Plugins. it’s basically the editor I use to put Extreme John.com on the web that manages my daily blog posts, images and well.. Everything Extreme John.com related.
Now that everyone is somewhat caught up to speed or has closed out the site by now, I wanted to make a quick post that listed a few changes around here and share some of the WordPress Plugins I recently added and removed from the site.
New WordPress Plugin Added
Allows you to pull Google Analytics and MailChimp data directly into your dashboard, so you can access robust analytics tools without leaving WordPress.
SexyBookmarks adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts. See configuration panel for more settings.
By far the best of all Social Bookmarking plugins for WordPress blogs.
This plugin adds an administration screen which allows you to dump your users and/or unique commenters to a csv file. Built with code borrowed from IAM CSV dump.
This comes in handy if you want to use an outside subscription managment service like Mail Chimp.
Adds a Blogengage vote button to your posts, ya know kinda like Reddit, Digg, Twittley, and TweetMeme. Well except for TweetMeme which is a WordPress Plugin for Twitter users to easily retweet messages.
I haven’t honestly done anything with Blog Engage as of yet, I plan on submitting a few of my articles there later today to see how the results and traffic go.
Your very own TinyURL within your OWN domain! If you DO promote your blog posts in Twitter, then you MUST make your links look cool!
I initially only installed this plugin because the Analytics360 with Mail Chimp forced me to do it, once I installed the plugin I was pretty happy with the end result of some shorter urls that were easy for me to slap in to Twitter messages.
WordPress Plugins Removed
After installing some of the new plugins I went through my WordPress Plugins and decided to kill a few out that I no longer felt I needed, I try to keep my WordPress Plugin area clean and removing the old Plugins from the server free’s up some directory space as well. Here is a list of the my most recently deleted or deactivated WordPress plugins.
I wanted to pull the plug on this plugin as soon as I went forward with the Twittley WordPress Plugin which handled the same functionality with a cleaner, easier to use system. I heald off for a while due to the fact that Twittley is still very new, I like consistency and being with so many new plugins you never know what issues might come about.
I installed this WordPress plugin with the hopes that I would be able to post an article that would be able to display tables, would make it easy to slap a few thumbnails from a gallery into a small area instead of always posting giant pictures.
I ended up removing this plugin because it wouldn’t display in the post writing editor, could just be a problem or a clash between two plugins that is causing the issue. I don’t have time for games, plugin gone.
I no longer needed this Social bookmark and sharing plugin now that I use Sexy Bookmarks.
WordPress Related Posts
This one hurts me a lot inside… I love this plugin or at least the thought of a Plugin that offers displaying your related posts in relevant articles, I was forced to remove this one because the table scans slowed down the site way too much.
If anyone can recommend a better WordPress Plugin that will display related posts without dragging the load times down please leave a comment I would love to try it out, plus I will give you some link love when I write about it.
WordPress Plugin Requests
Twittley Button Screenshot
Twittley Button
This is probably one of my favorite plugins and one that I have watched explode over the last few months, many of the bloggers I network with are now using the Twittley button on their sites which I love because it makes it easy for me to share the information on Twitter fast and easy.
I do run into a bunch of sites with the Twittley button now, but it seems to be somewhat frustrating as of late when I go to Tweet an article that I like, either there is a MySql Database error displayed where the Twittley button should be, or I go through the trouble of submitting what looks to be an unsubmitted article, only to find out it has been submitted and I was prompted to submit it for no reason. The screen shot above shows a specific Twittley article that I have submitted at least twice now, however it still display a “?” as if it was not submitted.
That leads me to another issue as well, Twittley does an excellent job of reading the information in your article once you submit it, however if the article is not submitted by the webmaster that wrote it a “?” is displayed in place of an actual numerical value, even if it is a zero.
I am just curious if Twittley can grab the information once an article is submitted for the first time, is it possible to increase functionality for the webmaster to either submit the article from the admin panel or maybe automate the process? There is just something very frustrating about submitting articles that have already been submitted but didn’t show it, and I don’t care for a “?” in place of an actual numerical value.
My finally request for Twittley or one of my dream changes would be to have the option to remove the Twittley button from the main page view as well as on pages. Im sure that these changes aren’t easy and I am also certain that not everyone agrees or would want the same changes as me, they are just my requests.
Just add a RT button to the options for each message that shows up in the time line, it might be nice for those basic and beginner Twitter users to have as an option without having to use Seesmic, or Tweet Deck.
If you find any of this information useful or you have an excellent plugin that you would like to recommend please leave a comment, it’s no secret that I luvz me some WordPress Plugins. Before I get out of here for today I want to wish Lisa a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, now Im going to head out and work on pushing our $8 Spray Tans special.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
John… you have some cool plugins that I have never seen before, but will definitely check out. It is funny (and extremely coincidental), I just came to your site right now to ask you if it was possible to not display Twittley on pages and seeing from your post… it can’t be done yet. Couldn’t ask for better timing for a post
Doug Dillard´s last blog ..Never Pay for Premium Web Hosting Again
@Doug Dillard wow that is pretty wild! Im happy to hear Im not the only one that wouldn’t mind a few changes to the kick butt plugin Twittley.
I love your blog John, I notice the same you said about visitors expectations!!
Nice post by the way.
Hesham´s last blog ..100 Famous Bloggers Club members
Hey John, great post! I’ve had my blog up for a few months and I’m very interested in WP plug-ins. You’re site’s got style. I love the comment formatting you’re using. I’m using Ultimate Google Analytics plug-in. It automatically writes the analytic script to the home page but not to any other pages. I have to add the script manually to all other pages. Anyway, it does work very well but it isn’t dashboard accessible as Analytics360. Thanks for keeping everyone in the loop. Steve D.
Steve Deerfield´s last blog ..Emails Gmails Shemails Shazzam!!!
i always enjoy reading what plugins other bloggers are using. I will have to check out the list extractor as building a lsit is something I am planning on doing soon. I have also thought about adding the blogengage button. I have had similiar issues with Twittley but I am sticking with them as they iron it out. I am loving have several posts on their front page.
Tycoon Blogger@Promote your blog´s last blog ..Entrecard sells out – Literally!
I wish I was less lazy, and more knowledgeable about all this stuff. I’ve come a long way since I first starting blogging, but it’d be nice to have more than you and like 3 other people reading my stuff lol. Is all good. I write for the fun of it! Keep up the good work man.
The Stabbing Pen´s last blog ..7/16 – “Not The Staples Center”
Nice plugin list, nice to know what others are using.
I had the Twittley plugin installed and I was almost happy, but my issue was that button appeared on my pages as well. I did not want this so I checked out their site and got the javascript to be able to put it where ever I wanted it.
I use Thesis theme, so I used the is_single function and then used the javascript and now it only shows on my post pages.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Need to know more Twitter Lingo?
Extreme John you’re the man!
I want to send a big thank you for adding the blogengage plug-in to your blog. I see it’s not fitting very well with your other plug-in down below your post and sometimes this happens!
Regarding your comment in the top section of this article I thought it was pretty funny. Perhaps your ramblings are why people visit your blog. Heck now that I think about it this is the main reason why I visit… that and your HOT pics in the sidebar.
I sent you a tweet the other day explaining how you can change the image you use with our worpress plugin. For the word press plug-in users simply find the below code in your wp-blogengage.php (downloaded plugin) and change button.php with, button2.php, button3.php, or button4.php There are 2 places this button.php will need to be changed!
So in that file you uploaded do an Alt find for the word button and change it. Try each one and see what you like best!
Cheers bro!
bbrian017´s last blog ..Marketing Planning Process for Blogging
@Hesham thank you as always I appreciate it.
@Steve Deerfield Thanks for leaving a comment Steve, and all the kind words, it’s a work in progress thats for sure. I’m not sold on the Analytics360 yet, I didn’t add the code right off the bat and had no stats show, I need my stats. Finally added the code, still nothing when I check yesterday lemme check now…. Taking forever to load… Ahh and I DO have stats now and it looks very nice actually, if this one fails I will def try the plugin your using.
Actually im the type that will probably try it just for the sake of trying it, Im an addict.
@TycoonBlogger oh trust me Im not giving up on the Twittley people, I have been there before and wanted people to be patient. Patient I shale be.
@The Stabbing Pen haha Im sure there are more than just me and a few other people that check out The Stabbing Pen, I like your writing style and it’s usually good for a quick laugh. I really just started playing with this stuff recently, once you break some things you learn real quick. Give it a shot.
@George Serradinho Ahh ya know George thank you for reminding me that Twittley has a separate code so you can just display the button wherever you want.
You also have some serious knowledge when it comes to this stuff, Im just a newbie blogger.
Extreme John´s last blog ..Goliath Grouper Video
John, did you know that you could size the photos from within Wordpress itself, and also do things like word wrap around the photo and stuff?
Sire´s last blog ..7 Beautiful CSS Galleries To Help You Find Inspiration
The related posts plugin that i use is called “Microkid’s Related Posts”. The good thing about this is that it doesn’t create the list itself but you specify which post is related to which. This means that the overhead on the db is not that bad… Hope it helps!
stratosg´s last blog ..Efficient or non-efficient?
Oh, I didn’t know BlogEngage had a plugin already. Brian’s really good at improving his stuffs.
Liane YoungBlogger´s last blog ..Let’s Just Say I’m Not 16 Anymore, That Means Liane is Growing Old! Noooo!
@Liane Thanks for the kind words! I really try hard I appreciate it!
bbrian017´s last blog ..Marketing Planning Process for Blogging
@Sire I use NexGen for my images so resizing, tagging, etc is a snap. I would just like to be able to put some smaller thumbs into tables to display in a block or whatever ya know what I mean?
@stratosg Oh thank you, I am going to go and check this out now. Hopefully you can choose to display it on single posts pages only that would be killer. Thank you again.
@Liane YoungBlogger I wasn’t aware of it either until Brian started commenting here.
And Brian is right on the money when he says he tries hard, he was an excellent help to me in getting on Blog Engage.
You have some really great stuff for me to use.
Thanks for the tips.
Just wanted to thank you for using SexyBookmarks! It’s always great to see it “in the wild”.
In fact, I’m thinking of creating a showcase of sites who use the plugin over on SexyBookmarks.net
Thanks again, and keep it sexy!
Josh´s last blog ..v2.5.2 Bug Fixes
John, thanks for sharing your list of plugins. One of my favorites is HeadSpace. It lets you control all the site’s meta tags and headers from one place. It has a very sleek “ajaxtified” interface. Simply excellent!
Josh, your SexyBookmarks plugin is one of my all time favorites as well. I’m curious how you came up with that amazing design.
Stephen@Plasma Flat Screen TV´s last blog ..Plasma Flat Screen TV Size: Bigger Is Not Always Better
Oops, sorry for that long link. I guess I missed a closing bracket. That’s why you should install the Live Comment Preview plugin.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/live-comment-preview/ (I won’t risk it this time with the live link. 
)
Stephen@Plasma Flat Screen TV´s last blog ..Plasma Flat Screen TV Size: Bigger Is Not Always Better
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