How To Set Categories On WordPress Pages

I have a site, CoachGuiden, where I list coaches and needed to be able to set categories on the coach pages. I found Ninja Page Categories and Tags which is a plugin that solves my problem. CoachGuiden is in Swedish but you’ll be able to see how the plugin works anyway.

On the individual coach-pages, see Bengt Wendel – Key Coaching as an example, the coach categories are listed at the bottom. Clicking on any category will bring up a list with all coaches that are in that category.

I then created a main category page, Coach per kategori where all coach categories are listed and clicking on any of them brings up the coaches in that category.

WordPress 3 becomes multisite

WordPressThe coming WordPress 3 will be a multisite solution. Within one installation of WordPress you can have multiple blogs. You can also set plugins to be sitewide, used on all blogs within the WordPress installation.

For people like me who run several WordPress blogs this is a huge step towards simpler site management. Instead of the six installataions of WordPress that I run today I can have one. And instead of maintaining plugins on each of the separate blogs I do it all in one place.

You install WordPress multisite for your core blog and then the other blogs will be set up on sub-domains. There is a plugin that makes it possible to run the “sub-blogs” on their own domains. This means that to visitors they appear as separate blogs.

SexyBookmarks for WordPress

WordPressI noticed really nice social bookmarking on several blogs but it took me a while to figure out that what they use is SexyBookmarks. It’s bookmarks are clearly visible yet not ‘in your face’, I find them attractive and it’s easy to share a link.

Though the name may be a little “edgy” for some, SexyBookmarks has proven time and time again to be an extremely useful and successful tool in getting your readers to actually submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites.

I signed up for bit.ly and use that as URL-shortener in SexyBookmarks. The plugin handles lots of bookmarking sites plus Twitter and email. The Twitter option gives a clean nice tweet with your username in.

Update
I think SexyBookmarks is too big for the bookmarking I need.

For current plugins at this site: see WordPress Plugins I Use.

My design among inspiring Headway Customizations

My blog design is included in 60+ Headway Customizations That Will Inspire You, it’s # 11.

Bengt’s Notes primarily focuses on personal development and presenations, but occasionally touches on business, networking, and career-oriented subjects. The site’s jig-saw art theme is attractive, and the gray on white theme is very elegant.

I am proud since this design is my own creation.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

WordPressI came across the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin again and decided to give it a try. The description says:

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site

I have installed YARPP here and I am impressed by the result. Now the plugin suggests related posts and I don’t have to do that manually anymore when writing a new blog post.

YARPP can add related posts to your RSS feed too, a nice feature.

For current plugins at this site: see WordPress Plugins I Use.

TweetMeme Button WordPress plugin

WordPressI have installed the TweetMeme Button on this blog. It’s a nice WordPress plugin that is focused, it’s about retweets and nothing else. The plugin shows a button and the number of retweets so far.

I used Tweet This before but it had too many features compared to what I want.

Update.
I have switched to SexyBookmarks for WordPress

For current plugins at this site: see WordPress Plugins I Use.

Wibiya Blog Toolbar

The Blog Herald writes about Add a Free & Useful Toolbar to Your Blog which is about the Wibiya toolbar.

It’s a new tool, Wibiya is currently by invitation only, but it looks really interesting. You can see the Wibiya toolbar in action at Jobacle, see bottom of screen. I have signed up and look forward to an invite, it will be interesting to see it in action on this blog.

Update.
I tested it but did not found it useful enough to keep it.

8 First Step SEO Tips for Bloggers

WordPressIn 8 First Step SEO Tips for Bloggers Darren answers this question:

What are the first steps to optimizing my blog for searches?

Darren expands on his eight tips, in short they are:
1. Content is King
2. Anticipate What People Will be Searching For
3. Titles Titles Titles
4. Keywords in other parts of your post
5. Link to Your Own Posts
6. Links from Outside Your Blog
7. Plugins
8. Readers Begat Readers

For help with item 2, what people search for, I use a plugin called WordPress.com Stats. It gives me the statistics I need and is easier on your blog than Google Analytics.

Under item 7 (plugins) Darren links to an older post, 9 SEO Plugins Every WordPress Blog Should Have, but the plugins I checked were not updated for WordPress 2.8.