WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is best suited for WordPress users, but there are a few chapters for developers. Designers and developers are better served by WordPress Web Design for Dummies and WordPress All-In-One for Dummies. I’m a web designer who creates WordPress sites for small [...]
I’ve been impressed by the Wordfence Security plugin after running it on several sites for a few months. Here are some of my favorite features of this plugin: Scans core files, themes and plugins against WordPress.org repository versions to check their integrity. Lets you see how files have changed, and optionally repair changed files. Scans [...]
Since I started using the CloudFlare (free plan) on a few sites a few months ago, it’s greatly reduced comment spam and contact form spam. According to my CloudFlare dashboard, it’s also blocked many botnet zombies and other threats, reducing the risk of my sites being hacked. It also serves as a CDN (content delivery [...]
I use the WP-DBManager plugin to keep my WordPress databases clean. I like things neat and tidy, so it annoys me when I see unnecessary tables in my WordPress databases. These are often left over from deleted plugins. Some plugins delete their data from the database, but many don’t, preserving your data in case you [...]
These are my favorite audio podcasts about WordPress. The last time I posted this list was May 2012, so it needed an update. Sadly, many of the WPCandy podcasts have podfaded since my last list, but I’m glad that a couple new groups have launched WordPress podcasts. By the way, I’ve also posted a much [...]
For simple contact forms, I’ve been using the contact form in Jetpack rather than Contact Form 7, which is my go-to contact form plugin. One thing I missed was having a subject field in the form. I wanted a visitor to be able to type the subject of their message, and have that be the [...]
BackWPup is a free WordPress plugin that automatically backs up your WordPress database and files. You can back up to your web server, or send your backups offsite (highly recommended). I back my sites up to SugarSync, but you can also back up to Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Rackspace Cloud, and other services. [...]
The free Duplicator plugin makes it easy to copy and migrate WordPress sites. It’s the best free alternative I could find to BackupBuddy, the extremely popular backup and migration plugin from iThemes. Most of the WordPress developers I know own BackupBuddy, and my WordPress Grand Rapids meetup friends love it. I have nothing against BackupBuddy [...]
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress by Susan Gunelius My rating: 3 of 5 stars An easily understood, very basic WordPress guide for beginning users. It’s focused on blogging rather than building traditional websites. The first half covers WordPress.com, and the rest covers WordPress.org. The Attracting an Audience section has valuable chapters on SEO, feeds, [...]
These are excellent resources for learning the WordPress Admin Area (AKA Administration Screens). I first published these resources for my WordCamp Grand Rapids 2012 presentation: The WordPress Admin Area: A Guided Tour. Lynda.com WordPress tutorials (requires subscription) iThemes video tutorials WPTuts video tutorials WordPress Codex: Administration Screens WordPress.com Support Getting Started with WordPress, iThemes ebook WordPress [...]