WordPress Plugins: Five Community friendly WordPress Plug-ins

dogsblogchat.07.12.10.gif I’ve been using WordPress for about five or six years. I started out with Blogger, hated it moved onto Typepad after one day of using it.

I liked Typepad much better than Blogger so much that I used their paid service. I stayed with them for about six months. I left when I discovered that I had WordPress tucked away as a simple install in my hosting provider package. After reading up on WordPress I decided to give it a try, five years later I’m still using it. It’s definitely my favorite blogging platform.

There are thousands of WordPress themes you can choose from; your limitations are only hindered by your imagination. I like simple WordPress themes. Occasionally I’ll tweak them to my liking (although I haven’t really done too much with this one) and move one.

However even with the numerous themes available, that’s not where WordPress shines (at least not for myself.) I’ve always been a fan of the Word Press addons that focused on community. Whether large or small it’s nice when folks stop by and comment at your virtual home.

I’m Celebrating Life is my newest personal website. I really haven’t had a chance to virtually visit too much. However, when I do stop by I tend to leave a comment, especially if they’ve taken the time to comment on my website. For myself, it just seems the polite thing to do. I never have to think about what to say on their blogs since their posts make me want to leave some type of comment. 🙂 As my workload decreases, I’ll be able to visit more people. I do appreciate those who stop by my virtual home and comment, thanks.

Five Community friendly WordPress Plug-ins

  1. CommentLuv by Andy Bailey
  2. I remember when Andy created this plugin a few years ago. I instantly added it to one of my websites. The feedback was great, and I eventually added it to others. CommentLuv is a great way to reward those who have their own blogs, since it will link to one of their posts.

  3. Edit Comments XT by Michael Woehrer
  4. I know I’m not the only one that has made typos when responding to a post. Unfortunately, many bloggers don’t have this addon, or a platform that lets them do this. If you host WordPress on your own hosting server, you can have this enabled.

  5. Subscribe to Comments by Mark Jaquith
  6. I really enjoy this, at times I want to follow a conversation. Instead of having to continually go and check to see if the author has responded I’m alerted by email when the person has responded.

  7. Top Commentators Widget by Lorna Timbah
  8. This addon gives a permanent link to your top commentators; it’s a nice way to say thanks for those who stop by to comment. I imagine we all love seeing people commenting on our site, right? This is a nice way to reward your guests. I tend to comment a lot, it’s my way of letting one of my blog buddies know I’ve stopped by. Of course, I make sure I have something to say.

  9. Quick Cache by PriMo Themes.com/Websharks Inc.,
  10. My readers/commentators don’t see this WordPress Plugin since it works behind the scenes, however I enjoy it immensely since it improves the performance and speed of my websites. Which means faster loading time for my readers.

I hope you like the my short list of community friendly WordPress Plug-Ins. Eventually I’ll create a page featuring all the WordPress Plug-ins that I use.

Question: What are some of your favorite plug-ins? If you don’t have a blog or plug-ins what are some that you’ve see in other blogs, that you really enjoy?

Technorati Tags:
Moondancer, WordPress

Celebrate Life; Settling in

Hey, how are yah? If you’re popping by my virtual home on the same day I’m posting this or few days after this post was published, chances are you found me via my old WordPress blog, Not your Ordinary Momma. I know the search engines haven’t picked up my website that quickly!

First, I want to thank you for clicking on the link and stopping by my new home. On my free WordPress blog I mentioned I was growing tired of writing there. I simply didn’t have the freedom to do many things that I’m used too.

I’ve been writing online since the early 90’s, have had a hosting provider for many of those years and just recently tried out a free blog. I didn’t like it at all, and so now I’m back to hosting my rambles under a paid service. Enjoy it, since I have more freedom to do whatever the heck I please, and I can play with my WordPress themes too.

I still have a lot of work to complete here before it meets my satisfaction but I’m happy I’ve moved to a hosted server. Celebrate Life is my new virtual home.

This WordPress theme won’t be staying; I just tossed it up until I have time to play around with themes that interest me.

As with my other personal/professional sites I’m using customized permalinks. It’s great for SEO, and I always thought it looked cleaner than having a number assigned to a post.

It took me a little while to come up with my url, but since my tagline is Celebrating Life I decided to include that in my url. Life’s too short, I celebrate the time that is alloted to me. Negativity is something I go out of my way to avoid; it’s simply not healthy.

Broken links/Things acting screwy…
Although I think I’ve updated most of the links on this site, I could have overlooked something. If you do find something please leave a comment here or send an email to info at imcelebratinglife.com just remember to use the @ in place of at.

calvinonwriting.06.18.10.jpgOn Writing…

A few years ago, I created a website that focused on natural skin care and cleaning products you could make at home. I posted a lot of recipes I’d created over the years; I even sold a lot of my products too. I’ve always enjoyed sharing what I’ve learned with others. I believe in playing it forward. It’s always a great feeling to help others out too. Creating that website was amazing since I was able to interact with more people. I could never meet that many in person. Eventually I’ll bring that website back online, but until then you’ll see me posting organic recipes here.

Protecting our environment, gardening, and enhancing our health naturally are a few things I’m extremely passionate. In fact, it’s something you’ll see me writing about a lot on I’m Celebrating Life.

I do hope that my readers don’t ever think I’m attacking them because it’s simply not my style. If I can make you think (like may writers have made me do over the years) well then that’s great. I’m vegan, but you don’t have to be vegan or vegetarian to be healthy. You simply need to make informed choices when it comes to eating.

There’s so much misinformation out there, at times it can be hard for people to cut through the crap to find credible information. It’s my hope that I can pass along tips I’ve learned or at least point you in the right direction.

What can I say, I love Calvin & Hobbes and the above cartoon has always made me laugh.

Small Honey Bee update…

Bees (more specifically honey bees) have been on my brain a lot lately and so I’ve been doing a lot of honey bee reading. I’ve picked up books from the library, chatted with some fantastic folks (like Two-Honeys) online, and thanks to Organically Managed Beekeeping (The podcaster lives in Maryland just like myself) I’ve stumbled upon some amazing podcasts. There’s so much valuable information that I’m taking my time to digest, and savor the wealth of beekeeping information.

I’m hoping everyone has a sparkling day!

WordPress: Tweaking my WP Theme & publishing with MarsEdit

wordpress-logo.05.26.10.png It’s been a while since I’ve played around with WordPress. The main thing I enjoyed about using WordPress with my own hosting provider was that I had so many more themes to choose. I always enjoyed tweaking my chosen WP theme to fit my personal tastes.

I love WordPress
I’m a huge fan of WordPress. WordPress wasn’t the first application I’ve tried.Quite a few years ago, when I started using an actual blogging program I chose Blogger. I dropped it the same day since I really didn’t like it. I chose Typepad and stayed with them for about six months before deciding to try WordPress with my Web hosting provider. WordPress was one of the available blogging applications that was built right in. Only thing I needed to do was activate it. I guess you could say, the rest is history.

Thanks to freelance-writing, I’ve had a chance to check out a few other blogging software applications, and although they are amazing. I still prefer WordPress.

Regarding posting to WordPress, I don’t actually post in WordPress. I use an offline blog editor called MarsEdit. The software application was created by Daniel Jalkut, the few times I had questions regarding the application he’s always been helpful and so I had no problems paying for is application.

In my opinion, If you enjoy blogging an offline editor should be added to your list, MarsEdit is made exclusively for Mac computers. The majority of my computer work is done on Mac computers. My favorite Apple computer is my 17″ MacBook Pro. Regarding offline blogging editors, I really enjoy that convenience. I’m not always online when I’m on one of my computers and besides, quite a few of my posts aren’t automatically published after I complete them.

Regarding this blog, I sort of like the theme I’ve selected here but…. I still have some adjustments I need to make before I’m enjoying it completely. 🙂 Anyway, I’m thinking about swapping the header and putting a personalized header in it’s place. My daughter likes pink, and so I decided to go with her suggestion and have pink somewhere on this website. I know she’ll be reading what mommy writes (occasionally) seeing the pink will make her happy. 🙂

Well, it’s time for me to crack open my WordPress for Dummies book, I need to brush up on a few things. 😉

Technorati Tags:
freelance jobs, MacBook Pro, WordPress

Not your ordinary Momma

Hello, how yah doing?

Earlier this morning I decided to create this website. I claimed my virtual spot on the WordPress community and a few seconds later Celebrate Life was born.

Based on the title, it’s obvious I’m a mom. If you want to get specific…I’m a single mom to a wonderful seven year old girl. Oh by the way, little momma just turned seven a few days ago and is quite proud of that accomplishment.

I’m not new to blogging or the intranet. I’ve been active within the interet scene since the early-mid 90’s. I’ve have/had numerous blogs/websites over the years too. A few years ago I let several of my websites die. The real world got extremely busy and I didn’t have time to devote to the type of writing I had been doing to keep those websites maintained and so I let my web hosting run out.

Naturally that didn’t stop me from writing, and you could find me writing about gaming (one of my not so guilty pleasures) a few months later, and there I wrote well over a year. Recently I’ve been thinking about bringing back my other blogs/websites (although under different names) and see what happens.

What can you expect to see at Celebrate Life!?
Basically whatever I’m interested in. What is Celebrate Life! interested in. Well the list is long, but I’ll list a few things…

  • Family
  • Fitness
  • Nutrition
  • Veganism
  • Apple (yeah I have a few Mac computers)
  • Volunteering

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you soon. I still have some organizing to do before it feels like my virtual home. 😉