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Shorten your Wordpress post links with WP.ME

If you remember, a few weeks back I talked about the need to avoid URL shortening websites such as TinyURL because of potential risks to you, not only as a blogger but from a readers perspective too. As always, a bad apple in the bunch ruins a great service and people were “hiding” URL’s in these shortened links, sending people to pornographic websites and/or websites that contained viruses. So, all in all, the safe way to avoid this was to not visit any “shortened” url.

However, today I’ve found some great news from the folks over at Wordpress.com. They’ve introduced the new “WP.Me” URL shortening service which will automatically be generated in all Wordpress.com blogs.

Below I’ve listed the new features of the service:

WP.me is the only two-letter .me domain in the world.
Every blog and post on WordPress.com has a WP.me URL now.
These are all exposed in the <head> using rel=shortlink.
It doesn’t work for any URL in the world, just WP.com-hosted ones.
The links are permanent, they will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
WP.me is spam-free, because we are constantly monitoring and removing spam from WP.com.

WordPress.com bloggers should now see a ‘Get Shortlink‘ button next to your permalink when you edit or write a post.

Even more interesting is that self hosted Wordpress.org users can now use this feature as well. You’ll see it in your “stats” page.

For more information on the WP.Me links, visit the Wordpress.com blog by clicking here.

Wordpress Plugins - August 11

One of the most interesting benefits of the Wordpress.org platform is the ability for programmers to create their own mini scripts which allow Wordpress.org blog users to add all sorts of interesting and neat features to their blog with a single click or two.

Below, I will preview a few very interesting and beneficial plugins for your Wordpress.org blog. Simply click the name of the plugin and it will take you to the download page:

WP Super Cache - This plugin “cache’s” your blog, which results in faster load times for returning visitors. It really does speed up the site for your visitors, but, at times when you update your blog it may take 15-20 minutes for the update to actually reflect. That does NOT qualify for blog postings however…those will post instantly, but any graphical changes you make to your blog, etc, will take a few minutes to show up. Even with that, it’s well worth the download.

NextGen Gallery - A very cool and sleek plugin which will turn all of the photos onto your blog into a gallery format. All pictures, when clicked, will now have a very nice looking black border and look extremely professional. You can also create gallerys to display on pages or in blog postings. A very nice plugin for all blogs, and especially for art or photo blogs.

Wordpress.com Stats - Odd that this plugin has the “wordpress.com” name in it? Not really. To use this plugin you must sign up (or have) a Wordpress.com account. Most of us do anyway, but, if you don’t…you’ll need one. This plugin gives you very intensive and deep stats on your blog, and is one of the better stat tracking plugins on the internet.

Contact Form 7 - This is a very simple plugin and is exactly what it says…a contact form. There are some nicer contact forms available for download, but, some can get pretty tricky to install. My personal preference says this contact form is the easiest to install and is pretty nice on the eyes as well. If you don’t have a blog theme that has a pre-installed contact form, try this one out. The most beneficial part of a contact form is that spam bots can not attack them and send you random spam e-mail and/or steal your e-mail address as this contact form has a “human verification” system in it which forces the e-mailer to answer a simple question prior to the sending of the e-mail (example, 1 +1).

If you didn’t find what you were looking for, stay tuned, as we’ll be adding more plugins in the near future.

Using An FTP Client To Upload Files

If you’ve recently moved to your first hosting package you may be struggling to get to grips with getting the files you want online. When using a web-based host, such as Wordpress.com, you don’t have access to your root domain but once you move over to Wordpress.org (or another self-hosted platform), you’ll need to learn how to properly use an FTP Client as it will be instrumental in the installation and maintenance of your blog.

First, the term “FTP” stands for File Transfer Protocol which in simple terms is the program you’ll use to transfer files from your computer to your website. Think of it as the car which will get you from home to work.

There are many places to download FTP clients and most are free. I personally suggest you visit a trusted website like Downloads.com (click here to visit) and download whatever FTP client you’d like. They’re sorted by popularity, so, pick one of the more popular ones in case you need some support.

Once you’ve installed the program after download, the next thing you’ll need to do is input the needed information which will be the “address”, “username”, and “password”…all information you’ll receive in an e-mail from your host once you’ve paid. There might be some additional fields that would like information, such as “description” or “name” and you can fill those out if you are so inclined. Once done, “connect” and you should be connected to your blogs root domain. One final tip you might want to look at however is the “Transfer File Type”. There will be an option for “auto”, “ASCII” or “binary”. You’ll want to leave this on “auto” unless told otherwise.

After you’ve completed these steps, the last thing you’ll need to do is transfer files. You should see the files and/or folders on your computer to your left and the directory of your blog/website on the right. Simply drag them over and they’ll then be begin to transfer. That’s it! You’ve transferred files!

If you are setting up a Wordpress.org blog, once you’ve transferred over the folder/files that it tells you to do in the Wordpress instruction/readme file, you then will need to actually go to that directory (literally type it out in your web browser). For example, once the files have transferred over, you will need to type out “http://www.YOURSITENAMEHERE.com/wordpress/wp-admin” and let the script run, which will install your blog.

About Me Widget For Wordpress.com

One of the things that makes the Wordpress.org self hosted platform more beneficial than the standard Wordpress.com platform is the flexibility. Well, that is, in most cases.

Today as I was searching a few sites, I found a great post about a new plugin that is only available for Wordpress.com users. The new plugin is called the “Gravatar Widget” which is a very advanced, easy, and updated version of the “About Me” section that you find on all Wordpress.com blogs. But before we break down the neat features of this “Gravatar Widget” plugin, let us actually discuss what a “gravatar” is. A “gravatar”, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things. Think of it as your blogging identification card. You only need to sign up once, and as long as you use compatible software, it will work universally - personally, I think it’s awesome.

So, back to the plugin now. The “Gravatar Widget” is a drag and drop widget that you will put into your sidebar, but unlike the default “About Me” section, you do not need to edit your template file to update your “About Me” section with this new “Gravatar Widget”. In addition to that, it obviously includes your “gravatar” image that you select when you set up your gravatar profile. I should add, this will now replace the old “About Me” section on Wordpress.com (you do not need to download or install this…it’s already been done).

Below, I have an included an image that displays how easy it is for you to update your information:

This is one of the first plugins/widgets that I’ve seen that outshine any similar ones on the Wordpress.org platform. So, if you’re using a Wordpress.com blog, I’m not sure what you’re waiting for -go use this awesome little tool! It is now the default “About Me” area in all Wordpress.com blogs.

To sign up (for free) for a Gravatar profile, click here.