Thirty Three Things Every Blogger Should Do After Installing Wordpress - Blog Forum

Indyan · #1 October 1st, 2009, 03:59 PM

I hope this isn't considered spamming. This is kind of shameless self promotion, but I really believe that this would help out new wordpress users.

Thirty Three Things Every Blogger Should Do After Installing Wordpress

Just a snippet :

Quote:

Essential
1. Configure Wordpress
After installing Wordpress go through all the settings and familiarise yourself with all the options. I will discuss critical aspects like Permalink Structure later on. But here are a few other important stuff you should not miss:
RSS Feed Settings: You have the option to choose between offering full feeds and partial feeds. I strongly believe that everyone should offer full feeds, because excerpts as feeds simply defeat the purpose of RSS. You can find this setting under Reading Settings.
Threaded Comments: Threaded comments actually increases user interaction by making it possible to directly reply to a post. Don’t forget to enable this option under Discussion Settings.
Chose your default Gravatar: Recent builds of Wordpress also integrate Gravatars by default. If a commenter doesn’t have a gravatar then a default display picture is used. You can specify this from Discussion Settings.
2. Take Care of Your Database with WP-DBManager
Wp-DBManager is one of the few plugins that I truly consider as essential. It takes care of almost all database related tasks. Some if its main features are:

Backup DB: Backup your database without having to venture into your webhost’s backend (phpMyAdmin). You can store your database backups online, have them emailed to your account or save them offline.
Scheduled Backups: Undoubtedly the best feature of WP-DBManager is the ability to schedule backups at regular intervals. You can have these backup files automatically emailed to you.
Optimise DB: DBManager also includes a built in database optimiser which you should use once in awhile.
Sql Query: You can run SQL Queries directly from your Wordpress backend.
3. Create a Contact Page
Contact Page is a must have for any blog. A Contact Page is more useful than you may think. I have had people contact me for private ad sales as well as readers contacting me with their problems (which is a good source of ideas for articles) and offering feedback. I have also had readers who were kind enough to contact me about bugs they encountered on my blog.
If you are using Wp-Spamfree then you don’t need to use any additional plugin since it comes built-in with a simple Contact Form. Otherwise you can try cForms II, which is possibly the most powerful contact forms plugin available.
4. License Your Content
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) covers all intellectual property and protects your blog against copyright violation. Don’t forget to put insert the licensing information in your blog’s footer. By default most themes include the “All Rights Reserved” clause. However, you may also want to look at the Creative Commons Licensing System as a valid alternative.
5. Create an About Me Page
An About Me page helps build trust and lets your readers know a little bit more about you. However, don’t fill your About Me page with mundane details. Writing a good About Me page can be tough. I found it writing anything in first person to be maddeningly difficult. In case you are stumped check out How to Write a Fantastic About Page.
6. Disable Post Revisions
By default Post Revisions in enabled in Wordpress. Every time you save your post a new row is created in the wp_posts table. This allows you to revert to an older copy in case you mess up. However, this I have never felt the need for post revisions. Instead it’s an annoyance since Wordpress doesn’t provide any option to turn it off. Over time post revisions can significantly bloat your database. Disabling it is relatively simple. You simply need to add the following line to you wp-config file:
define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);
If you want to delete all post revisions run the following query from phpmyAdmin.
DELETE a,b,c
FROM wp_posts a
LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships b ON (a.ID = b.object_id)
LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta c ON (a.ID = c.post_id)
WHERE a.post_type = 'revision'
If you are uncomfortable doing all this manually you can use the No Revisions plugin to disable post revisions and Cleanup Wordpress to delete all past post revisions.
7. Deal With Spam
Wordpress comes built-in with a pretty decent anti-spam plugin: Akismet. Don’t forget to activate it (you will need a Wordpress.com API key). However, one of the main problem with Akismet is that often it flags legitimate comments as spam. Hence, it is always a good idea to go through your spam queue. If find that your spam queue is getting to large to tackle you may add another layer of defence before akismet. I use Wp-Spamfree which eliminates almost all comment spam. Most bots can’t handle javascript and/or cookies. Wp-Spamfree utilises a dynamic combo of JavaScript and cookies to weed out the humans from spambots. Another anti-spam plugin with similar methodology is Raven’s Antispam plugin.
In case you would like to use something other than Akismet you can pick any of the alternatives suggested here.
8. Install a Caching Plugin
WordPress caching plugins were initially developed to withstand sudden traffic spikes. However, I consider them to be essential even for new blogs as they reduce page load times. Although WP SuperCache is the most popular solution there are plenty of other equally worthy alternatives like DB Cache, Hyper Cache and W3 Total Cache.
Security

snaeem · #2 October 4th, 2009, 03:39 AM

i just opened a blog in wordpress...i spam a a great deal on wordpress? i mean do we get lot of spam on that?

thanks for sharing info

can you please tell me what plugin u used to display that galler sort view of your blog? thanks

~kev~ · #3 October 4th, 2009, 01:06 PM

Well, I must say that is one of the best and most detailed I have ever seen. Its thought out, detailed, exact, and straight to the point on every topic.

Personally, I this is just my opinion - "32. Promote Your Content on Twitter" could be replaced with other social networking sites. I do video blogging on youtube, so I should stop that and switch microblogging on twitter? Nah, no thanks. But you get the idea. Not everyone is on twitter. Lots of bloggers have found their niche in social networking sites. Those types of sites are not a one size fits all. Twitter have nothing I want, and does not offer anything that I need. But youtube and facebook provides me with the tool that I need to promote my site.

Bizarreon · #4 October 9th, 2009, 05:26 AM

Not bad thanks

Looking into the DB Manager now.

Cheers

kuld33p · #5 October 31st, 2009, 05:27 PM

Change the Default Admin Username and Password (This is must do as soon as you login after installation)
Change Permalink as per your requirement. Mostly people use /%post name%/
Change the theme. if not millions then thousands of themes are available over the internet for free. Just do it man !
As you start blogging, you would need to add Categories and Blog rolls. Its important that you choose your category wisely, so work on it for some time.
Spam is the biggest virus for Websites/Blogs so make sure your blog is accompanied with at least 2-3 Spam Busters. I use askimet and Wp-Spamfree.
Your visitors may want to look at the sitemap so install Google Sitemap and Create a sitemap link for your visitors as well. I use Google XML Sitemaps and Dagon Design Sitemap Generator.
Backing up your Blog should be on your top priority. You don�t want to lose your posts just because of any reason.
Get your visitors an option to get the posts delivered in their mailboxes. Add your RSS feed to Feedburner
If you want to track your Blog�s activities then Activate your Analytics. Its worth the hassle, believe me. I am using Ultimate Google Analytics.
If you started the blog for discussion purpose then you want to allow every visitor to comment on your post without registering. Make sure this setting is correct as people don�t want to spend time in registering on your website. One who is really interested in registering will find his own way to do that.
If you are concerned about your blog�s visibility in Search engines then make sure you have Ping service configured. Here is a list of some RPC servers. You can also search for the same in Google.
Once you are In, you would want to install some plug-ins and themes. Installing them is not a tedious job but uploading them is. Make sure you have One Click Plug-in Updater installed in your Blog. Its the most useful Wordpress plug-in I have ever come across.
There is something called, Hacker. There are good one and some bad asses as well. The bad ass Hackers just want to do bad things. And leaving your host directories not properly CMOD is like inviting these guys to attack on your Blog. I suggest you install WP Security Scan, it takes care of most of the open vulnerabilities of your Blog and lets you know how to fix them.
Before I come to the last point let me crack a joke first. I am basically from Software Development Background. NO.. NO.. I am not the developer. I am the one who is around developer. I am in to IT Applications, taking care of all Compliance related activities. Like security and UI (sometimes) a little bit of PM. I was just testing a build of one of our applications that we were suppose to deliver to our customers. Suddenly, page crashed and what I saw was really funny. It was an error page and the label was �Error happens�. It obviously was a typo but It was so funny that we all laughed after looking at it. So all I want to say is that you might see in your Analytics report that there are so many error pages being served by your Blog. So you want to maximize and optimize your Error 404 Page. I created a small tutorial around it. Perfect Wordpress Error 404 Page.

This is from my post.