Upgrading and adding WordPress plugins to my blog

I’ve written a lot on my blog very publicly about how much I’ve learned from my good friend Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss604). She was, and still is in many ways, my blogging Jedi Master. This past year, 2008, was a total breakthrough for me in regards to my use of content management systems tools (like WordPress), my involvement in social media and my growth as a blogger, and it was in great part thanks to Rebecca. I absorbed an immense amount of bits and pieces of knowledge about all things WP. As you know, I like to do my own stunts. I cleaned my own URLs last year, I bought and re-directed my domain to WP.com and even gave a presentation at WordCamp Fraser Valley. Last year, at WordCamp Vancouver 2008, Rebecca presented on how to insert photos to your posts and make them very pretty. This year, neither her nor myself have really had the time to spend together geeking out (even though we thoroughly enjoy doing that at either coffee shops or during our traditional lunches) and therefore I have had to do much of my own stuff, including upgrading my plugins and learning by doing. This is the best way to learn, albeit the learning curve is sometimes steep. Rebecca is naturally geeky and her technical skills way surpass mine. I could ask my good friend Karen Parker (who has helped me a lot in the past) but I know she’s busy too. So I have had to test much of the stuff I want to use on my own this past year.

As JT was driving me last Friday to my office (he tried very generously to solve a problem I had with my computer but there was a problem with the electrical energy and we couldn’t work on my stuff), we were chatting about how much time I was wasting going to my Flickr account and trying to find a photo to use (from me or from my own friends). JT suggested that I needed to spend the time exploring a number of new plugins that would give my blog more functionality ONCE and that I would be set for the future. JT was right. I just installed WP Touch (which should make your visualization of my blog on any smart phone like Android or iPhone much prettier), developed by our friends Duane and Dale; installed also Flickr Photo Album which allows me to insert photos much faster (although I still need to figure out how to do the footers quickly, I need to create a QuickTag). There are a couple of plugins I still need to upload and activate, including the one that allows you to tweet a post (or RT) and the one that lists the tweets that have mentioned your post.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related posts:

1. 6 Simple Plugins to Make Your Basic WordPress Blogging Easy
2. Learn some basic coding/HTML if you have a WordPress blog
3. Rebecca Bollwitt (@miss604) on WordPress plugins bloggers should use #wcyyj10
4. Which are your favorite WordPress plugins?
5. Inserting Flickr photos on your WordPress blog – courtesy of Miss604.com