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Today’s episode marks the almost two year mark of Your Website Engineer podcast. Every week for the last 100 weeks, I have share information about WordPress or I’ve interviewed a guest about a WordPress topic.
This week, I shake things up a bit as I’ve asked people to send me an audio recording of a plugin that they have to install on every site. Plus, we had a hangout online and some of the episode comes from the live chat formula. Enjoy!
Cliff Ravenscraft – Pretty Link Lite
Dave Stachowiak – Backup Buddy
Brian Wallace – W3 Total Cache
Samuel Lewis – Shareaholic
Matt Shane – Backup WordPress
Brian Retterer – Cimy Swift SMTP, infinite WP
Adam Silver – JF3 Maintenance Mode
Jeff Long – Word Fence
Chad Warner – Dupicator
Marianne Hegedus – Advanced Access Manager
Peder Aadahl – nRelate
Patricio Parada – File Monitor Plus
Joe Cannon – WP Insert
Andrew Blane – W3 Total Cache
Lynn Dye – Backup Buddy
Jim Krenz – Bulletproof Security
Andy Lehman – Limit Login Attempts
Others’ mentioned:
Google Analyticator
BackWPup
WP-Remote
Login Logo
Simple Menu Delete
Better WP Security
Here’s a snapshot of those who were on video:
Listen to the full 2+ Hour Hangout
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@dhartzler10 I've been pondering setting up a new Wordpress site but a bit concerned + intimidated by the learning curve - however I've been on your site for less than 10 minutes and I'm getting the feeling of increased confidence by the minute!
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So sorry I missed your 100th episode! Happy birthday. I have no idea how you find time to still put on a great podcast and manage your clients. You must have clones.
Anyway, my favorite cannot live without plugin is Backup Buddy (Gravity Forms is a close second). I love that Backup Buddy is adding cool features all the time. My favorite feature is the migrate tool. I remember the first time I used it to move a client site from development to production and the site was up and running in 5 minutes. Saved me tons of time!
@CascadeVDesigns I've been hearing more and more about Gravity Forms. I've always gotten by on Contact 7, but I think it's time I check out Gravity Forms and give them a shot. I've hears a lot of good things about them. Thanks!
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@jaypeg I still use Contact 7 on several sites for basic forms but when a more complicated one is needed Gravity Forms does it all. It can be integrated with Paypal, Mailchimp and much more. Check out this doozie of a form I just created with GF.
http://duvallchamberofcommerce.com/business-services-directory-purchase-your-ad
There is even Conditional Logic fields. Select Full Page ad and Prime spots open up. It was fun (sort of) to create.
@dhartzler10 @CascadeVDesigns Absolutely! For some reason, we just haven't had man clients that have wanted / needed that, but I can think of countless use cases for it. It's not priced too badly either.
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@CascadeVDesigns @jaypeg I like using conditional logic because it can make a long form seem short (okay, well, shorter in Ann's case, haha )
Latest blog post: Live
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@CascadeVDesigns Very slick! The conditional logic makes is REALLY cool! Thanks, I'm going to give it a whirl.
@CascadeVDesigns Don't worry about it. I'm going to have another live session coming up soon :) And I'll never reveal my secrets of how I get everything done, hehe, just kidding ;)
Latest blog post: 102 - WordPress Custom Post Types
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Hey Dustin, 100 episodes, what a fantastic achievement! I know my business would not be half of what it is today without your podcasts so thank you and congratulations.
@stefangr Thanks Stefan! Sorry the live show was at a time when you were sleeping! It's so hard to find a time that works for everyone around the world!
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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Congratulations on 100 episodes!!! I started listening just a few months ago and have really been enjoying the podcast. It's always chalk-full of good information. I wanted to join in, but wasn't able to. I just voted for you for the podcast awards and wish you the best of luck.
I really thought about JUST ONE plugin, but that really is too difficult as there are a few plugins that go into virtually every project. So, since a few people recommended more than one, I'll give a few of my favorite "must haves" for nearly every project.
Wordfence Security
W3 Total Cache
BackWPup
CMS Tree Page View
Plugin Organizer
Sociable
Smart Slug
jQuery Colorbox
Contact Form 7 (in conjunction with "Contact Form 7 Honeypot")
Keep up the great work!
@jaypeg I've never heard of CMS Tree Page View, what does that one do?
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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@dhartzler10 It's a nice plugin for building out your page structure quickly and being able to see the page hierarchy. It places a widget in your dashboard where you can see your top-level pages and you can expand them to see the sub pages as well as quickly add / edit any page. For me, it just makes building out a site structure much quicker. It's a bit hard to describe, but they provide pretty good screenshots of it here http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cms-tree-page-view/screenshots/
@dhartzler10 Yeah, they just started it a few months back. There's a plugin called "Favorite Plugins" http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/favorite-plugins/ that I use to install first, then you just use it to find your WP user name and it'll pull-in all of your favorited plugins so you can quickly pick through them from the site's plugin area. It makes adding your most common plugins much faster.
@jaypeg Wow! I didn't know about the profiles section in WordPress. Thanks! I'll definitely be checking on setting up my account.
Latest blog post: 102 - WordPress Custom Post Types
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@CascadeVDesigns @dhartzler10 You bet! I've actually been taking advantage of the new "Favoriting" Plugins on my WP Profile. I haven't rated them all yet, but you can see the one's the I've given stars and the ones I haven't I hope to get to soon. You can check it out here http://profiles.wordpress.org/jaypegI hope WordPress eventually allows you to break them up into groups by Plugin type. That would be nice once you start adding a lot.
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@jaypeg @dhartzler10 OOOO - I like CMS Tree Page View too. Never heard of it. Great for some of my client's large sites. Thanks for the suggestion!
@dhartzler10 You bet! I hope you find good use for it. I love anything that speeds up workflow.
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@jaypeg ooh! I like that a lot. Thanks for pointing out this plugin!
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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Thanks for all the time and effort you put into your 100th show-many congratulations. I just voted at the podcast awards for you - good luck there.
Could you change my plug-in choice to BackupBuddy - that's the one I mentioned - thanks! Oh, @iThemes just had a webinar yesterday to let everyone know that if you have a BackupBuddy license, you now have some free storage with their new BackupBuddy Stash!
@lynntotherescue @iThemes I haven't had a chance to check out BackupBuddy Stash yet, but it seems pretty cool. And I've changed your pick from above, sorry about that! There were too many things I was trying to keep track of :)
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
Congrats on 100 episodes! Looking forward to the next 100 episodes. ;)
Also great information on this show and I'm really looking forward to checking out these plugins.
@Jon White Do you have a favorite? You can add it here :)
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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We also talked about several plugins to check for exploits. Here are a few: Exploit Scanner (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exploit-scanner/), Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tac/), Theme-Check (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/theme-check/).
@warnerchad Yea, it was hard to keep track of everything we talked about. Thanks Chad!
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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Congrats on the 100th show!! I always look forward to your weekly episode, and have been listening to the past ones all day at work. :)
My fav plugin is probably "No Right Click Images Plugin" as I run a photography website, but I'm trying to use as few plugins as possible by finding alternative code that can be directly put inside theme files.
Anyways, thank you for what you've done, and good luck with podcast awards!
@JoeyF I tried this plugin for a client, but there was a noticable slow-down on the site, so I removed it. Have you had any problems?
@lynntotherescue Oh really? I didn't feel any slowing-down at all, but I cannot really tell cos mine is a hobby site that gets almost no traffic!
@JoeyF I've never heard of that plugin. Does that do what I think it does? Disables people from saving images to their computer? That's pretty sweet!
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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@dhartzler10 @JoeyF Wow that is a great plugin suggestion, Joey. One of my clients was just asking for that. Thanks!
@CascadeVDesigns @dhartzler10 No worries! I remember you from episode 95. Your website looks very nice and professional. :)
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@dhartzler10 @JoeyF Yes, the plugin does disable people from saving images by right-click or dragging to desktop. But... if someone is keen to steal images, they can still do that by saving the page or taking a screenshot, though.
@JoeyF That plugin just makes it a little bit harder for someone to steal your images. I like it!
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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Great show! I've been following the show and love it.
Thanks everyone for sharing your plugins.
Mine would have to be WordPress SEO by Yoast.
:)
@hawaiiwp WordPress SEO by Yoast is another great plugin that I use every time have a new blog post.
Latest blog post: Podcast Archive
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I posted instructions for using the Duplicator plugin to copy and migrate a WordPress site: http://optimwise.com/copy-migrate-wordpress-sites-with-the-duplicator-plugin/
100 – Your Can’t Live Without WordPress Plugins
This week's show is a little different as we had a round table discussion to hear what are the can't live without WordPress plugins from our community.
095 – Software for Everyday WordPress Users
In this episode, I interview 4 different WordPress developers and learn what tools they use on a daily basis to build websites.
126 – Take Your Website Mobile with WPtouch
Sometimes responsive design isn't the way to go. In today's episode we talk to the co-founder of WPTouch.
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