Slidedeck is a jquery slideshow plugin for WordPress. For users unable to build a content slider, this might be a nice option. Slidedeck comes in two versions: a free version and a PRO version. The PRO version costs, but you have the ability to customize the plugin further.

Even with just the free version, it is a pretty good jquery slider. You can specify the size, what type of posts (example: recent, featured, or popular posts), and the navigation type.

To implement the plugin into your site, you can either include a PHP generated code snippet into your theme or create a different slideshow for individual posts (example: blog entries with multiple photos.)

If you use this plugin for your content slider, you will have to put the image in your post, and no, not just as a thumbnail, but within the post (grabs the first pic available.) I really would like to see this plugin take advantage of including that option in the future at least for the freebie version. It would make things a lot easier. However, even if there are no images, the text for the post will take up the whole area at least.

Have you tried this plugin?

There are plenty of roundup posts about social bookmark plugins for WordPress. However, I have to ask: have you really tried them out before settling on the best, or did you pick the first one you found?

I am a real stickler when it comes to using plugins, especially social bookmark plugins. Why?

For several reasons:

1. Design – It looks good.
2. Convenience – Cuts my time down from hard coding social networking and social bookmarking icons into a layout.
3. It works. There are plugins that I have had to hard code around to get it to look right.

So, here is my list of social bookmarking plugins for WordPress sites.

Sociable

http://blogplay.com/
I use this plugin and regularly include it on all of my clients’ websites. It is easy to implement and includes a lot of selections to display. It also leaves room in case I want to customize my plugin later on without having to alter the plugin files directly.

Digg Digg

http://www.mkyong.com/blog/digg-digg-wordpress-plugin
I use the manual code for Digg Digg in my own websites. However, Digg Digg applies a floating Ajax powered plugin that kind of works like a fixed background- when you scroll down, the social bookmark area travels down. This is something that a lot of people saw first on Mashable.

Share This

http://sharethis.com/
Share This allows users to social bookmark to over 40+ websites.

Sexy Bookmarks

http://www.shareaholic.com/
This little social bookmark has some very cute icons that have a peek-a-boo effect when you hover over.

I Love Social Bookmarking plugin

http://www.milienzo.com/wordpress-plugins/i-love-social-bookmarking/
Provides a little drop down menu . Very simple plugin.

AddtoAny

http://www.addtoany.com/
This social bookmark plugin display a drop down menu that is clean and has many services to choose from. For some, it might be overwhelming. Others… well, they might just select them all.

Because of services like Add to Any and Share This, be aware that they could go down. You might want to avoid that. On the other hand, those services have been around for a while and are quite popular.

Another caution is Digg Digg. This plugin is update often and it is not unusual for the next update to be incomplete – does not display properly. It is a great plugin, but with this one, hold off a week. Typically the developer is pretty good at updating after people point out the bugs.

In using these types of plugins, select the services that are most relevant to your site. Some of the social bookmarking sites are focused on certain niches, so it would be pointless to include every single site.

What social bookmarking plugins do you use for your website?

Sixty plugins? What!?! Yes, I have heard some people say they use nearly sixty plugins for their website. And you know what – their site is slow!

Do you really need that many plugins?

NO.

A lot of self-hosted WordPress users are plugin happy for many reasons. Some include:

1. This plugin does this, but this other plugin does that, so I use both.
2. The plugin seems cool.
3. I am not sure how to implement code snippets to my theme’s functions.php file to avoid using a plugin

What you do not know is that the plugins that use database resources can hurt you. Most webhosts allocate 25 processes per hour on data usage. If you are using more, your site might be down – unless you have your own dedicated server.

Some of these plugins, even though they seem really convenient are not needed. Some, you can turn off and turn on only when you need them. So, if you are wondering how to speed up your site, here are a few questions to consider when finally putting your site on a plugin diet:

• Do you REALLY need it?
• Is there a better plugin that does all of it? (You need to carefully look for alternative suggestions)
• If given clear directions, can you copy and paste a simple code snippet into your functions.php of your theme to replace the use of a plugin?
• Can you replace the use of a plugin by some other means? (example: HTML, CSS. PHP)
• AGAIN: Do you REALLY need it?

Of course, if you are not sure, you can always ask. Some people might charge a little (there may be some in the WordPress Support Forum that might do it for free), but it is worth it to know what you should do with your site, rather than find out your website is down because your shared hosting account went over its allotment for data resources.

What other tips might you have for someone looking to go on a plugin diet?

I have gotten quite a few emails asking me on how I sent an automatic email to those who commented on my blog. First off, it is not just an automatic email, but a thank you email. I wanted to make sure that people remembered my site and knew that I constantly updated it. For those who are regulars, I blog almost on a daily basis.

I use the WordPress plugin called Thank Me Later by Brendon Boshell. It is not your normal auto-responder type email as it really does not sign you up for anything. As the blog owner, you can specify in the plugin settings when the email is sent out and how often. For me, usually it is sent 1 hour after a visitor commented on the site and only once. Others might want to send out once a month.

I think it is a great plugin. Unlike the Twitter Auto-DM (Automatic Direct Message) ability, this tool is great to help your blog visitors feel welcomed. The message that is sent can be customized and you can include links to special parts of your site or your RSS feed.

I think there could be potential to turning this plugin to have auto-responder features. However, I am fairly content as this is a good tool to inform visitors at least once about attracting them back to your website.

Have you tried this plugin?

Digg Digg has come quite a way. The plugin was created by Yong Mook Kim. The plugin is geared for allowing visitors to social bookmark or share the post on social network sites. Some of the sites include:

• BlogEngage
• Delicious
• Designbump
• Designfloat
• Digg
• Dzone
• Facebook Share / Like
• Google Buzz
• Polladium
• Post Comments
• Reddit
• Sphinn
• StumbleUpon
• TweetMeme
• The Web Blend
• Yahoo Buzz

I like the option to allow the social network icons to acts like a fixed background image, just like how Mashable’s posts are set up.

I do want to note that you should watch out in case Digg Digg’s code interferes with your site’s layout. I have had it happen quite a few times running it with the default settings. However, the great thing is that you can manually insert the individual social network buttons if you wish.

This is a plugin that does get updated quite frequently. It is understandable because API with social networks can change. However because the plugin is updated so frequently, it might be best to hold off a week before upgrading. It has been known to not be complete in past upgrades, so be cautious (you should be cautious in upgrading any plugins.)

Personally I use Digg Digg at the top of my posts and then a separate social bookmarking toward the end of my post. I am not quite sold on the Mashable sliding social bookmark feature. Applying this feature without a plugin is actually quite easy.

Do you use Digg Digg?

The Testimonials Manager plugin for WordPress by Gobola Krishnan is a pretty handy plugin, especially if you have a business that likes to share what your clients think about your product.

It holds the ability to enter a name, the person’s site address, a small avatar, and the testimony itself. Users can display testimonies in their sidebar and the plugin generates a testimony page.

For anyone wanting to use this plugin, they will note that the plugin has a credit line published at the end of the page. This can be removed by editing the plugin files. However, with future updates, the attribute will simply overwrite this – putting the credit back up. I had this happen with a client who wanted to use this plugin, but did not want the attribution link on it.

I will note that if the plugin is edited within the WordPress admin panel, that the script will generate another new page. It is a bit of an annoyance, but easily fixed by deleting the newly created testimony page.

As for customizing the plugin itself, it takes finding the correct CSS classes and such, and adding them to the theme’s style sheet. (It might actually take putting up an example testimonial and viewing the source to see what the plugin produces. It might be an easier alternative to looking into the plugin’s files.)

Have you tried this plugin? How has it worked for you?

I really hate to present a negative review. However, I really find it redundant to use a plugin like Validation Helper, which checks how valid your page’s code is after performing a conversion from XHTML to HTML.

One thing I like to point out is that despite it being a plugin with good intentions, it really is not necessary. Anyone can go to the W3 Validator and do a detailed check on their website. It is unnecessary to install and use this plugin as it is an unnecessary process that your site will have to go through.

The plugin only shows the number of errors. It does not go through and give a detailed report. For those who have been working on their site and articles, it becomes a little difficult to pick out what exactly is going on. It might be a missing piece of code, an extra space, or even a mistake in typing.

The W3 validator is a great tool. Even though it is off-site from your WordPress admin panel, it should be bookmarked and used. So, save yourself some unnecessary processes, disk space, and even some time. As a note, the other validators available in the WordPress plugin directory are not too much different from this one.

What do you think? Necessary/ Unnecessary? Needs more features?

SidebarTabs is a plugin created by Newton Horta. For a plugin, this one worked great with what I needed it to do. I could tell the plugin how my sidebar code is set up and also customize the look of within my WordPress admin panel.

Some of the options were styling the tab colors, the links, the background of the widget area and much more. You will have to create a miscellaneous sidebar in your theme’s functions.php to insert the widgets that you plan to use for your sidebartabs.

A great feature of this plugin is that you can create several intances of this plugin. You can also choose to display the widget as an accordion.

I do want to note that I discovered that if you do not label your widgets that you are using for each tab that it might not show up correctly. This depends on how you have set up your theme as well. Some of the newest versions of this plugin may not work well in Internet Explorer.

For a plugin, this is great especially since it was not easy to implement other available sidebar tab plugins without extra work. The options though are a bit basic and I would like to see more options to the styling in future versions as this could potentially be something anyone might like to use.

For advanced users it might be better to use a different option like YETII. A good example of the implementation of YETII is at Anidan Design.

Have you tried this plugin or a different type of sidebar tab plugin or implementation?

There are a lot of Facebook applications out there to help a blogger publish their posts on their fan pages and profiles, but I have not found them very handy. In fact, it took quite a few tries to get it right. I found Simple Facebook Connect. I recently started a new project called FandomNews.com. The front end is not designed yet as I am working with another individual on the backend to get things prepared before even focusing on the front end of the site.

One of the features that the site needed was the ability to automatically post content to the site’s Facebook fan page. I was not havinig any luck getting already existing Facebook applications to work, so I turned to the WordPress end and found Simple Facebook Connect.

This plugin has several features.

- Post to Facebook profile OR fan page
- Adds Facebook Comments
- Adds Facebook auto login
- Like Button
- Widgets for Events, User Status, Live Stream, and Fan boxes

and much more!

This plugin was created by Otto. The instructions to set this up on your site while being able to use the Facebook API is also on his site. I plan to to a simple step-by-step tutorial as a follow up to this article soon. There are just not enough information out there that people understand that even if an application is set it up, the developer will have to to wait until Facebook approves the application.

Requirements for this plugin are PHP 5.2 and WordPress 2.9.1 and above. Also the email address used for both Facebook and the WordPress needs to be the same.

Although I did not need the other frills, the posting part was great. I am thinking of slimming the plugin down to a bare bones plugin… although I will give credit to Otto for his hard work.

Have you used this plugin? Is there a similar one you have used – and does it work right? Are there any reliable and working applications on Facebook that will publish the posts to a fan page and profile immediately?

There are several different WordPress Plug-ins that help reduce comment spam on your blog, but one of the best ones you can find is WP-SpamFree. This plugin works differently in that you have more control over the filtering than you do with the Akismet plug-in and this plugin allows you to log all comments so you can be sure you are only catching SPAM and make sure that false positives aren’t being blocked.

WP-Spam free has an option called M2 which allows the plug-in to set cookies two ways, Javascript and Non-Javascript methods. I recommend setting it both ways as some browers (especially mobile ones) can block Javascript from running which would prevent them from leaving comments unless you have M2 check marked.

The other thing you can do is set and modify your Your current WordPress Comment Blacklist in the WP-SpamFree Options. This allows you to create a custom list of “keywords”, “emails” or IP Addresses that will automatically be blocked in the future. So if some specific IP’s or emails keep getting through your existing spam settings, you can blacklist the IP that the spam is coming from. (Use with caution as you can unintentionally block others if you put entire IP subnets or keywords that could be found on normal comments.

WP-SpamFree also comes with a built in Contact form that allows you to embed a contact for on your blog, you can customize fields and as well. It isn’t powerful or overly customizable, but can be useful if you want one plug-in that does both functions.

In my own testing I found that WP-SpamFree combined with Akismet both were an ideal way to block nearly all spam comments to your blog. Akismet alone will leave lots of comments in your Pending or Spam Bucket. WP-SpamFree will block the spam and you will never have to go weed through your pending or spam comment areas so it saves you time.

Do you use WP-SpamFree or another spam blocker? Are there any other things a site owner can do in order to reduce spam?