If you migrate from Blogger to WordPress, it seems the cool thing to do is to share all of the awesomeness that is “WordPress” in one great big post.
A little bit of the old “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah” routine.
You know — kind of like when you were little and you took the bag of marshmallows, climbed up the biggest tree in your yard, and ate each soft, fluffy sugary pillow . . .while your little sisters looked up at you and cried ’cause you had all that was good in life. You had the marshmallows.
(sigh — I miss sugar)
Oh, wait — this isn’t like that is it?
Nope — it’s better.
Despite the some of the annoyances over the past two months, I really do love using WordPress as my new blogging platform. It’s just plain cool and makes me feel all “tech-y” and stuff.
(Even though I have to email my tech support every day ’cause I’m still kinda swimming upstream in a river of PHP. Don’t understand what I’m talking about? Me neither — that’s my problem)
The BEST part about WordPress lies in one word two hyphenated words: Plug-Ins.
Huh, you Blogger people ask? Yeah, when I was still on Blogger, sporting my big ol’ Orange B favicon, I didn’t get plug-ins either.
But now? Oh . . . I get plug-ins.
Plug-ins are responsible for all of the cool stuff that people on Blogger wish they had.
- Great spam control
- Automatic email response options
- Automatic Comment Numbering and Threaded Comments
- Sexy Bookmarks
Sexy Bookmarks? Huh, what, who?
Let me tell you about Sexy Bookmarks . . . and a few of my other favorite plug-ins.
- Sexy Bookmarks is the uber-cool collection of social media/bookmarking icons you see at the bottom of each post I write. Those little icons stay hidden until you let your mouse caress the icon of your choice. Then, they pop up, ready for you to use them to share my post with others.
- WP Greet Box is the plug-in responsible for greeting you (at the top of the post — showing up only on your first visit) when you swing by to read something I write. It gently encourages you to subscribe to my feed — a sure-fire way never to miss one of my thought-provoking, rousing posts. Stifle your giggles — one of these days, I will write something profound and revolutionary. I will.
- WP-Ban is how I stop someone from being able to view my blog. What? Yes, I’ve banned someone. You think that was mean? Um — no, not after MULTIPLE hateful comments on one of my posts. They were ridiculous — calling me names, telling me I was going to “a place very hot,” and shouting a whole slew of cuss-words and more. Yes, (sigh) more. It was awful. So, WP-Ban became my best friend that day. The plug-in is customizable — you can set the “error message” to say whatever you want . . . nice or not!
- My Page Order is one of my latest plug-in lovers. If you’re a WordPress user, there is nothing more annoying than having to edit each page (home, about me, contact, etc.) and manually setting the page order. That time wasting activity is a thing of the past with My Page Order. It uses a drag-n-drop process to help you arrange your page navigation any ol’ way you want. LOVE IT!
- Like is my newest plug-in and we’re definitely going to have a long-term relationship. Thanks to the new changes from Facebook, you can now “like” or “fan” or “recommend” nearly anything on the web — all thanks to the handy “Like Button.” Once it’s added, each time a reader “likes” your post or article, the link to your post is shared on their Facebook page, allowing others (potential NEW readers) the chance to see you and your blog.
These are just drops in the bucket. There are THOUSANDS of plug-ins available for WordPress. If you see something cool on a blog or website, you can pretty much bet it’s a plug-in. Or if you need help “behind the scenes,” like banning an offensive commenter who won’t leave you alone, you can probably find the plug-in to solve your problem.
Plug-ins. They’re better than marshmallows.
But not better than Nutella {Sweet Nutella} — ’cause nothing is better than that!
(Think I’m missing the coolest plug-in ever? Leave comment and tell me about it! I’d love to see what else is out there.)
