WordPress Plugins « Lorelle on WordPress

Category Archives: WordPress Plugins

What Does WordPress, iThemes, Goodwill, Home Depot, and Target Have in Common? Your Identity and Security.

September 25, 2014 – 2:57 pm

We received a new credit card in the mail today to replace our old one AGAIN. An “unsuccessful attempt” to access our secure security data happened and this is a precaution the bank is taking to protect us. I have no other information so I’m left wondering. Yesterday I received an email supposedly from Home […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips | Comments (9)

Code Standards Project to Take WordPress Into the Future

July 29, 2014 – 9:57 am

WP Tavern reported recently that WordPress Developers are organizing a community initiative to standardize common post types, taxonomies and meta data. Led by Justin Tadlock, popular WordPress developer and author of Professional WordPress Plugin Development, the goals of the community project are to name these common parts of WordPress to create a more stable and […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Themes | Comments (6)

Blog Exercises: Patterns in the Stats

August 27, 2013 – 4:06 am

As we proceed through this year of blogging tips and exercises, we’ll talk more about statistics and web analytics to help you check in with yourself that you are on the right track. Today’s blog exercise is to familiarize yourself with tracking your site’s stats, learning the key numbers and data to watch. I introduced […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in Blog Exercises, Blogging, blogging tips, WordPress, WordPress Tips, Writing | Comments (2)

Blog Exercises: Own Your Site and Protect Yourself

May 1, 2013 – 4:10 am

I hear it every day. A webmaster, developer, or designer does the site owner wrong and the site owner is victimized, helpless, and frustrated with what to do next. I’ve gotten calls in the middle of the night from people around the world trying to get help recovering their WordPress password because their “web guy” […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in Blog Exercises, blogging tips, Web Design, WordPress, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips | Comments (13)

WordPress Anniversary: WordPress and Evil

March 11, 2013 – 1:29 pm

As I look back on the ten years of WordPress, there is a dark side to blogging. While many blamed WordPress for the evil, like guns, WordPress doesn’t cause evil, people cause evil. In fact, WordPress, Automattic, and the WordPress Community has fought longer and harder against the evil doers in the world than most […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips, WordPressDotCom | Comments (8)

How Many is Too Many WordPress Plugins?

September 27, 2012 – 2:17 pm

In “How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install on Your Site?” WPBeginner asks a question I bring up in my workshops, training programs, and college courses: How many WordPress Plugins are too many. The article brings up some valid points worth considering when choosing WordPress Plugins. Are WordPress Plugins a security risk? How would you […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips | Comments (52)

Evaluating What Makes a Shopping Cart Work Best

September 5, 2012 – 4:45 am

Before you check out your next WordPress shopping cart or ecommerce WordPress Plugin, you need to read this. In April 2011, Smashing Magazine published “Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design” in their UX (User Experience) column exploring what they called the “harsh reality” of e-commerce websites. According to recent e-commerce studies, at least 59.8% of […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in Web Design, WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Tips | Comments (31)

What You Most Need to Know About WordPress

August 24, 2012 – 6:48 pm

At the recent WordCamp Portland 2012, I was asked by several attendees to cover the basics of WordPress and we came up with What You Most Need to Know About WordPress. Here are the “notes” from that unconference presentation. The Difference Between Categories and Tags I hear this question at WordCamps, from readers, students, and […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in blogging tips, WordCamps, WordPress, WordPress Events, WordPress News, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips, Writing | Comments (18)

What are the Essential WordPress Plugins You Can’t Live Without?

April 2, 2012 – 5:18 pm

In my WordPress session at Barcamp Portland this past weekend, one of my favorite questions started the discussion: What are the most essential, must-have WordPress Plugins? My answer? None. Okay, not really. My honest answer is one: Akismet. Spam is the bane of our web experience. It comes in our emails and site comments. While […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Tips | Comments (50)

What My First WordPress College Class Taught Me

March 20, 2012 – 11:44 am

As the last day of class approaches for the world’s first WordPress College Course at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, and the next one begins in a couple weeks (filling fast), I’d like to share some lessons my students taught me about WordPress – and teaching. They taught me humility and pride. I stand truly […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in blogging tips, WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips, Writing | Comments (17)

Defying Brute Force Attacks on WordPress Logins

March 16, 2012 – 1:29 pm

Sucuri, the web security specialists, published “Brute force attacks against WordPress sites,” an in depth look at not just the importance of a strong password but the brute force nature and anatomy of login and registration access attacks. There is a technique known as brute-force attack. Like the name implies, access is gained to your […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Tips | Comments (24)

Creating a WordPress and Blogging New Year’s Resolutions List

January 11, 2012 – 2:09 pm

Small Biz Trends released “5 Website Resolutions to Put on Your List for 2012,” by my friend, Shashi Bellamkonda, with some great ideas on what needs to be on your New Year’s resolution list for your business this year for building content, web communications, community building, and embracing and integrating technology. I’d like to add […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in Blogging, blogging tips, WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Themes, WordPress Tips, Writing | Comments (6)

Counting Number of CMS Downloads with beCounted WordPress Plugin

November 15, 2011 – 1:37 pm

I’m often asked which content management system for web publishing I recommend. While I’m clearly biased towards you-know-what, at last there is a WordPress Plugin that can help you show others which one they should consider. My friends at beAutomated have taken their powerful beCounted WordPress Plugin to new heights with a live stats comparison […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in WordPress, WordPress News | Comments (9)

Managing Multiple Authors: Managing Writers in a Multiple Author Blog

August 18, 2011 – 4:31 pm

In this series on managing multiple bloggers in WordPress, I want to now focus on the content, specifically managing the editorial voice and purpose of a site with multiple bloggers. There is a huge caveat to this topic. Every blog is unique, as are all the voices within it. It is often that uniqueness that […]

By Lorelle VanFossen | Also posted in blogging tips, WordPress, WordPress News, WordPress Tips, Writing | Comments (16)