All in One SEO Pack

This plugin simply optimizes your WordPress installation for search engines. As you know, WordPress doesn’t include Meta Keywords and Meta Description in its installation, so you need this plugin to add those. It also overrides any title, Meta Keywords and Meta Description per post/page.  All in One SEO Pack generates META tags automatically, provides advanced canonical URLs, support for Custom Post Types, automatically optimizes the titles and so on.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Simple Google Sitemap XML

This plugin generates an XML sitemap which can be used with Google’s Webmaster Tools. A new sitemap automatically gets created every time you publish or deletes a new post/page. You can also configure what to store in your XML file.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-google-sitemap-xml/

Redirection

This manages 301 redirection without accessing your .htaccess file, this is important if you are migrating pages from an old website, it also automatically adds a 301 redirect when a post URL changes. This plugin also monitors 404 errors in your website.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

Contact Form 7

This plugin can manage multiple contact forms in your WordPress installation, you can fully customize the form and mail contents easily.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

Akismet

This plugin checks the comments in your WordPress installation against the Akismet web service to see if they are spam or not. It also lets you review the spam it catches.

* included in the WordPress installation

The mock-up the design company did calls for a customized system, we all know that there’s no one-plugin-fits-all in wordpress. What I did was customize some plugins so it will look the same as the mock-up and explained some plugin incompatibility with the design company; he said “whatever it takes, just make it work”. So I did everything to make it work, and it left me with one problem, the map of all listings won’t work because it’s incompatible with the other real estate plugin which we need for the detailed listing page because his mock-up calls for that specific plugin.

What I did was explained to the web company that there’s nothing I could do (I am not a php programmer) and the plugin hasn’t been updated in a year. I told her that if it really needs to have the map of all listings work, she should get a php programmer to make a bunch of php codes to call all the longtitude and latitude from the database and show up on the front end.

The last message I received was if we didn’t make it work by Monday, the design company will not pay us.

What? They wouldn’t pay at least half of the fee?

It’s not even our fault that he designed this website that needed a lot of plugins in a page, which means 3-6 javascripts running at the same time! What he should have done is hired someone to do the templating and another one to build a system specifically for his design. Or he should’ve checked other wordpress ran real estate, which uses free plugins before designing!

It’s a blue, 2-column css-based theme which you can download for FREE. Some of the features include: gallery, featured image/post thumbnail and threaded comments.

See the demo and download it here.

• mcrypt
• simplexml
• PDO_MySQL
• iconv
• SOAP
• DOM
• hash
• curl
• GD

Most servers don’t have mcrypt, PDO_MySQL and curl initially installed. And of course, you need to have a dedicated server for it to run smoothly.

Although Magento has really great features that comes with the installation, like seo-friendly urls, easy to use administration panel, payment gateways, shipping options, etc.

Anyway, here’s a tutorial on how to install Magento without Mcrypt which I found from http://adrianschneider.ca, but unfortunately, his site is down.

Installing Magento without Mcrypt

Step 1:

Edit /app/code/core/Mage/Install/Model/Installer/Env.php, and find

Mage::getSingleton('install/session')->addError(
Mage::helper('install')->__('PHP Extension "%s" must be loaded', $extension)
);

just above it, add
if ($extension == 'mcrypt') {
return true;
}

Step 2

Create /lib/Varien/Crypt/Base64.php and add this into it

<?php
class Varien_Crypt_Base64 extends Varien_Crypt_Abstract {
    public function __construct(array $data=array()) {
        parent::__construct($data);
    }
    public function init($key) {
         return $this;
    }
    public function encrypt($data) {
        if (!strlen($data)) {
            return $data;
        }
        return base64_encode($data);
    }
    public function decrypt($data) {
        if (!strlen($data)) {
            return $data;
        }
        return  base64_decode($data);
    }
}

Last Step

Edit /lib/Varien/Crypt.php and change

    static public function factory($method='mcrypt')

with

    static public function factory($method='base64')

And that’s it. I’ve used this with 6 Magento installations, and I haven’t had any problems so far.

Creattica.com

BestWebGallery.com

CSSBased.com

IncrediBlend.com

SiteInspire.net

Moluv.com

BestDesignWebGallery.com

VanityClaire.com

Artist-In-Design.de

OrmanClark.com

JohnHarfield.com

DesignZoom.in

Zupadupa.ro

CreativeMints.com

Client #1: R

R sent me a list of more than 20 TV/LCD image urls of a stock photography site, and asked for my opinion of which image to use for a video she wanted in a site, she said she wants people to feel that they’re watching TV.

All the images R chose were angled, except for one, which looks like a green and blue cartoon TV. So I told her it’s not possible to use the angled TV/LCD images if we’re going to insert the video in the screen and out of all the images, the cartoon TV is the only image that’ll work for what she wants. So, she purchased the image and sent it to me to work on, when she saw the page, she got mad and said it doesn’t look professional, which I honestly didn’t get, since it was her idea in the first place.

Client #2: S

S sent me a screenshot of their old website and said she wanted a new one using the blue and red from their logo and the (light) sand color from the screenshot. I made 6 different mock-ups and 1 text revision. After a few days she sent me a mock-up of the site she wanted for slicing and integrating; and it’s in red and white.

Client #3: C

C wanted and elegant website in blue and based on the photo of a woman wearing pearls which will also be the main image. After more than 20 mock-ups, it ended with a dark blue website without the photo of the woman wearing pearls.

Good thing is, these clients pay me by the hour so I don’t feel completely ripped off.

For more “Clients from Hell” stories, go to their website in which this post is based from.

Our WordPress MU installation was more than a year old that time and because of spam we have more than 10,000 users and blogs; and more than 5GB of database. And because of the size of the database, I can’t view the database via phpMyAdmin.

What I’ve noticed though, through the admin panel, was that all of the blogs don’t have any users attached or vice versa.

I’ve deleted wp-config.php and .htaccess to re-install WordPress MU; and removed all the plugins as per suggestions from websites and forums.

The only thing that worked was exporting the wp_usermeta table, then on the meta_key column, look for wp_(id no.)_capabilities, meta value should be a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;} and also wp_(id no.)_user_level, meta value should be 10.

After changing the meta values, I imported the table and, voila, it works!

Hosted vs standalone (self-hosted)

Hosted blogs are those that run under blogger.com, livejournal.com, wordpress.com, multiply.com, etc.

Pros

• It’s FREE!
• You don’t have to worry about updating the blog application since the administrators/moderators do it for you
• Some of these hosted blogs have a social networking feature which will alert or inform the other users once you’ve updated your blog

Cons

• These hosted blogs can not be fully customized.
• You and about 50 more others will have the same theme/template as you, unless you have a bit of CSS, HTML or PHP knowledge.
• You get a http://yourname.thehostedblog.com url.
• Some services also places ad in your website.

Standalone

Standalone blogs are those that are hosted under your own web server, and the application is usually installed by you. Most web hosting control panel has an automated web applications installer like Fantastico for cPanel, etc. which can be used to easily install and upgrade a web application.

Pros

• A http://www.yourname.com domain gives a more professional/personal feel.
• Since the application is in your web server, it’s easier to customize it; you can choose which plugins and themes to use.
• It has SEO advantages.
• You can create backups as much as you like.

Cons

• If you don’t have much knowledge and isn’t willing to learn a few html, css, php, database, etc. then this isn’t the one for you.

If you’re on a tight budget, then a hosted blog is the one for you. Although you can shell out about $10/year for a domain and point it to your hosted blog (yes, some hosted blogs allows it).

If you’re planning to blog in the long run, then get a domain and web hosting service.

Whatever blog application you choose, make sure you choose the right one that will fit your budget and won’t give you headaches in the future.