BloggerDesign just took the plunge and upgraded to Wordperss 2.2 (from 2.1.3). It was simple and easy, just as it should be. Going from 2.1.x to 2.2 isn’t as big of a deal as going from 2.0.x to 2.1 (or 2.2) is.

The biggest update I saw was the hook for WYSIWYG support in a future version of Safari. This will make a lot of Safari users happy. Of course, it’s in an up-coming version of the browser. My guess is that Safari in Mac OSX 10.5 (aka Leopard) will be a nice upgrade. Can’t wait!!

Wordpress 2.2 also claims it’ll protect the user from activating a plugin or making edits that will break the blog. So far, I’ve activated a plugin that broke the plugins page so it didn’t protect me from that. I’m not sure what I’m being protected from yet.

One GREAT feature is that they brought back the ‘Preview’ post link when writing. And this time, it links out to the actual blog and not just down the page to a preview in an iFrame. I’m really happy to see this feature return as I missed it quite a bit.

The SEO Title tag is a plugin that I’ve known about for a while, but never messed with. Boy was I missing out.

What SEO Title Tag does is add the ability to customize your blog’s title tags per post. No longer are they tied directly to the post title. You can customize almost any title tag across your blog giving your site a possible edge in search engines.

One can customize individual posts, categories or pages. The default Wordpress title tags are OK, Optimal Title makes them better, SEO Title Tag makes them into whatever you want them to be.

There is also the ability to customize the separator, create a shot blog name to show on post pages, remove the blog name from post pages, use category descriptions as titles on category pages and tie the Title tags into UTW (Ultimate Tag Warrior).

Title tags are easy to customize too. They can be mass customized though the plugin options under the Manage tab or you can also create the titles as you create your post as it adds a custom ‘Title Tag’ field to the post screen.

Wordpress has launched an official stats plugin named Automattic Stats. It a stats plugin that ties into Wordpress.com to track your visitors and works well, but it’s not available for everyone.

One of the Wordpress.com exclusive features is the ability to get blog and feed stats in your dashboard. Everything from the number feed reads to incoming links, keywords, clicks and top posts. A great feature that was sadly missing from anyone who installed Wordpress on their own servers. That was until recently when the Automattic Stats plugin was released.

The plugin is a snap to install. Just upload the file into your plugins directory, then put in your Wordpress.com API. Yes, you need one of those. If you use Akismet, then you already have one and don’t need another. If you don’t have one, signup for a Wordpress.com account and they’ll give you one. After that, just sit back and wait for your stats to roll in.

There are a few downsides to the stats plugin though. The main one being that it’s not integrated into your Wordpress install. You have to go to your Wordpress.com dashboard to actually see your stats. It does add a tab on your dashboard screen though, so it’s only a click away.

The FeedBurner plugin has got a new name and a new owner. Steve Smith from OrderedList.com handed off the plugin to the FeedBuner crew. It wasn’t a multi-million dollar deal like you hear with internet companies these days, but FeedBurner did rename the plugin in Steve’s honor. It’s now the FeedSmith plugin.

If you’re not familular with the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin, what it does is automatically reidrects your Wordpress’ feeds to the FeedBurner version. You don’t need to update your template or give out your FeedBurner URL, just update the setting via your Wordpress admin and it’ll do the rest. Quite handy and works well.  It’s a must install on my list.

Congrats to Steve!

[tags]FeedBurner,FeedSmith[/tags]

Now that you are searching everything on your blog, it’d be a good idea to know what others are searhing for. If you are running Wordpress, this is easy enough to do with the Search Meter plugin.

Search Meter’s job is to capture anything put into the search box. This information is then displayed on the admin side of Wordpress. It also comes with the functionality to output it on the public side of your blog if you’d like to.

Knowing what your visitors are searching for is important as it’s a clue to how they are using the site. You may find out that everyone is searching for information on a certain topic. If it’s not something you post on often, it may be a good idea to post on it more often. Or maybe you’ve created a tutorial or plugin that isn’t easily accessible from your main navigation. If everyone’s searching for it, it’d be a good idea to modify your navigation so it was easier to find.

By default, Wordpress is setup to search every post. What they don’t tell you is that doesn’t include pages. However, with the Search Everything plugin, you can search pages, posts and more.

No only will Search Everything allow you to include pages in your Wordpress search, but also comments, drafts, attachments and custom meta fields. You get to choose what extra fields you want to include which is good as I have no idea why you’d want to include drafts or un-approved comments.

This is really handy for those that use Wordpress as their website content management system. I’ve used Wordpress not as a blogging platform, but as an easy content management source. Some sites have more pages than posts and searching proves problematic.

Even if you use Wordpress for blogging, like most do, there is probably a good chance that you’ve created some pages. Maybe an about page, content, resources or one of many options. And, all those pages deserve to be part of the internal search.

By installing the Search Everything plugin, not only will the search box look though posts, but pages also and give your visitors better results.

[tags]search-everything,search[/tags]

I’m tossing this question out to all visitors to see if I can get a bit of concrete information. Ultimate Tag Warrior’s compatibility with Wordpress 2.1 is still in question to me. I’ve got a few blogs that I’m waiting on upgrading as UTW is an important plugin and I’m not willing to chance it. I don’t see any documentation that all the bugs have been worked out, but then again I may have missed it.

Does anyone know if Ultimate Tag Warrior & Wordpress 2.1 work well together? Are you using them together with no issues?  Let me know.

Last year I was given the honor of becoming a judge for the annual WebAward competition. This year, I’ll again get to juge outstanding sites from 96 different industries. Ok, so I don’t judge one in each industry, but I’ll get to see a wide range of different sites.

The WebAward competition judges sites on six different categories including design, ease of use, copywriting, interactivity, use of technology, innovation and content. You’re blog doesn’t need all of these, but the more you do have, the better your score will probably be.

The 2007 call for entries is open and one of the newer categories is blogs. If you think your blog stands out from the competition, go ahead and enter it. Judging will happen later this year as we pick the best of the best.

Good Luck!

[tags]webaward,award[/tags]

Following up on my last post/rant on the official Wordpress Plugin directory, I thought I’d share a few places to find Wordpress plugins.

• Wp-Plugins.net - The biggest and best listing if you ask me.
• LearningWordpress.com - This one is newer and looks pretty nice so far.
  
• Wordpress.com - The official directory. Fewer plugins, but it’s growing.
• A Google or Yahoo search always works well too as there are many that are not listed in the directories above.
• Internal searches on blogging sites like ProBlogger.net or BloggingPro.com can also uncover some new and interesting plugins.

Where do you go when you want to find new or useful blog plugins?

When I first read last week that Wordpress had launched an official plugins directory I was excited. There are lots of good plugins out there that are not in any sort of searchable database other than a search engine. However, the Wordpress plugin directory isn’t living up to my excitations yet.

The directory holds less than 150 plugins out of the thousands out there. What is there seems to be organized well and has a nice star rating scale, installation information, screenshots, a FAQ and even download stats for the plugin.

I then tried to add the FB StandardStats plugin and that’s where my excitement died.

Signing up for an account and submitting the basic plugin info was easy. A couple hours later I got notification that a SVN area was setup for my plugin and the URL took me to a page with no GUI, no instructions and no clues as to what to do next. A quick email back to support and they said it was easy, just get a SVN client and they sent me here.