More WordPress Plugins

• If you can’t install NGINX, APC, and Memcached on your server, try W3 Total Cache to speed up your site.
• If you can install APC, make sure to drop this APC Object Cache Backend PHP file  into your wp-content folder.
• The best social sharing tools come from AddThis, which can be installed as a plugin or as a service.
• If you take a lot of photos, you can’t miss out on NextGen Gallery, the best image handling plugin for WordPress.

Additional Free and Low-Cost Services

• Expand your font choices with Adobe Typekit and Google Web Fonts.
• Turn your RSS feed into a beautiful HTML newsletter with MailChimp.  Send up to 12,000 emails a month for free, for life.  I mentioned this before, but it’s too good of a deal not to mention again.
• Use HootSuite to turn your RSS feed into tweets.
• You’re probably already using Google Analytics to measure your traffic, but if you want to learn more about your audience, install Quantcast.  You’ll get demographic data like age, sex, income, educational attainment, numer of children, etc.

If you have any questions about these plugins or services, please email me at cord@readymadeweb.com to get free advice.  ReadyMadeWeb only charges when we touch code or push pixels—never for consultation.

Below you’ll find my presentation for BlogCon 2011 that outlines how to optimize a standard WordPress install along with a series of links to setup elements, plugins, services, theme stores, hosting software, and additional resources.

Basic Setup

• Change your Permalink Structure to include the date and title of posts.
• Add Updates Services under Settings, Writing.
• Make sure Privacy Settings are not set to block you from search engines.
• Check your Discussion Settings.
• Update your Blog Title, Tagline, and Time Zone under Settings, General.

Must-Have Plugins

• Get an API Key and Active Akismet under Plugins, Installed Plugins, Akismet.
• Install and take a long time to carefully configure Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plugin.
• WP-DBManager is Incredibly Important!
• Limit saved revisions with Revision Control.
• Shields up with WP Security Scan.
• Never forget to categorize again with Category Reminder.
• Backup with VaultPress, XCloner, BackupBuddy, or ManageWP.

Cool Plugins

“Drupal is free but it’s free like a puppy is free,” he said, noting ongoing maintenance and upkeep costs.

The downside to an open source CMS is that it requires significantly more work on the agency end, either by in-house coders or by vendors that manage the transition and maintenance.

“If you don’t want to do any coding, this isn’t the solution for you,” he said.

The ability to include nearly anything in an open source system — as opposed to relying on pared down, standardized offerings from a vendor — also can lead to paralysis, he said, especially in a large organization where a lot of different divisions have an interest in what goes online.

Let’s deconstruct that statement:

Open-Source Maintenance Costs

Ongoing maintenance for open-source platforms like WordPress and Drupal couldn’t be a smoother or more pleasant process, especially in recent years with the advent of auto-update features. Sites with custom designs might need extra care to ensure that updates don’t break existing code, but this is a rarity that hasn’t happend for years on the dozens of sites I manage running open-source systems.

Perhaps in some instances maintenance costs are higher, but only because CMS systems produced by vendors are seldom updated if they’re updated at all.  Of course, this isn’t a good thing.  Software invariably moves forward and your website better be moving along with it, if only to keep up with other evolving standard.

On top of that, software that isn’t updated isn’t be debugged and if you’re running software from even a large web agency, chances are bugs in your software are being found at a rate that’s orders of magnitude slower than bugs are found in open-source projects.  That’s not because open-source projects have more bugs to be found.  Instead it’s because there are more users and therefore more potential bug checkers to find vulnerabilities and flaws before something bad can happen to your site.

The False Flaw

Marks also decries “the ability to include nearly anything in an open source system.”  I suppose this temptation can be too much for an organization with no self-control, but that’s hardly any reason to subject yourself to the buggy, home-made offerings of a web agency.  I’d much rather deal with the “burden” of thousands of ready-made software modules and plugins that I could add to my site with little or technical expertise than suffer through the process of asking a web agency to modify its proprietary code.

Say you want to try out a new feature on your site to generate sales.  With an agency’s home-rolled CMS, it might take you thousands of dollars and weeks of testing to discover the feature you wanted to test isn’t unneeded or doesn’t create the kind of conversion rates you need.  With open-source software, your experiment could have been free of charge and executed with code that’s already been tested on thousands of sites.  So where’s the downside here?

Define “Standardized”

Let’s say that every Sunday morning I mixed myself a screwdriver, but instead of using orange juice I used grapefruit juice.  If I did it that way for years I may even refer to it as my “standard” way of mixing that drink, but if someone came over to my house for brunch and a drink and asked me to make a screwdriver, chances are grapefruit concoction would not meet their definition of a standard screwdriver.  My standard for that drink isn’t the universal standard, no matter how much I love grapefruit juice.

The same logic applies to software.  When Marks mentions “standardized offerings from a vendor” he isn’t necessarily referring to software that strictly follow W3C standards for good design.  Instead, he’s probably talking about a widgetized website, a “standard way of doing things,” rather than a universal standard.

The great thing about open-source software is that you can have both of these types of standards.  You can have time-tested, standards-compliant software and then determine a standardized way to implement it.  That is to say, you can get all the benefits of a CMS used by millions and then agree that your organization will only run that software with a limited set of the countless add-ons available to you.

Deconstruction complete.

So, Kruger is right, open-source software may prompt you to upgrade more often than you would with other options, it will present you with a huge number of choices, and it will not be as widgetized as some proprietary offerings, but none of these things are downsides.

Note: When I first posted this piece I misattributed Kruger’s opinions to Marks. My apologies to Mr. Marks for confusing his reportage for his opinion.

It’s important to note the SBA’s emphasis on offsite backups.  Offsite backup is crucial as external hardrives or similar solutions may guard against internal hard drive failure, but they don’t guard against site-wide losses that could result from a fire, water damage, a power surge, or even a virus/malware problem.  Pushing data offsite is the most reliable backup solution for any business and the plummeting costs of such technologies make it the cheapest insurance policy any small business will purchase.

ReadyMadeWeb recommends services like DropBox for Teams and Box.net as a way to keep your small business both backed-up and able to work from anywhere at anytime.  Not only do these services offer fast backup of data, they also serve as a way to free your team up from the tethers of VPN software and in-house servers.  Instead, both data storage and backup are outsourced to low-priced service that also makes all of your files available online, anywhere, with better security than you could provided with your own solution.

If you need help getting started with either of these services, ReadyMadeWeb is happy to help.  Contact us at info@readymadeweb.com to learn more about how we can help you implement the online backup and file management service that’s right for you.

Image courtesy of Flickr User Kino Praxis.

Those of you who spoke with me after the talk, don’t worry, I have a stack of your cards on my desk and I’ll be emailing you all shortly.

Also, be sure to check out Knudr.com for the marketing wisdom of my FreedomFest co-presenter, Knud Berthelsen.

First, use grab yourself a copy of MySQLTuner.  This is a handy little Perl script that will give you great recommendations on how to change /etc/my.cnf, the preferences file for MySQL that allows you to play with a variety of memory settings.

To do this navigate to usr/bin, download the script from get, and then set the permissions:

cd /usr/bin

wget mysqltuner.pl

chmod 755 $_

After you’ve done this, you can run the script by using the file itself as the command, so just type mysqltuner.pl if you’re in the /usr/bin file or run /usr/bin/mysqltuner.pl to run from the base directory.

From there, I recommend making the edit the script recommends, and then watching the server’s performance using top—simply type top into the command line anywhere you like—or use whatever server performance monitoring may be included with your host.  If you see usage still at levels you don’t like, run the script again.  The longer MySQL is running, the more that mysqltuner.pl will tell you.

Remember, every time you edit my.cnf, make a copy first:

cp my.cnf my.bkup.110711a

Also, remember to restart MySQL with each save:

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

Have fun!

Note: For other Drupal admins out there, be careful when using the script provided in the MySQL article that rewrites your my.cnf file.  The script produced overall better settings for MySQL’s memory usage, but I found that it totally neglected to define max_allowed_packet, which renders Drupal unusable, at least in my current setup.  This value should probably be set to 32M if you’re loaded up on RAM, but more often to around 8M.  I also recommend setting your query_cache_size and thread_cache_size to lower values than is produced by the provided script.  Though with all things MySQL, it’s more art than science, so experiment with different settings and see how your machine responds over the course of a few days.  With time, you’ll find what’s right for your software and your pattern of usage.

This site has already done its job, grabbing the attention of the Washington Examiner.

This site was built using WordPress, the Experience theme by Maximus, FormStack custom web forms, and Piryx online fundraising platform.

If you’re interested in a similar mini-site for your upcoming issue campaign, product launch, or special event, please drop us a line at info@readymadeweb.com or call us at 707 RDY-MADE.

These new services break down into three categories: a new website platform offering as part of our ReadyMadeWebsites service, four additions to our ReadyMadeCloud offerings, and a new core service, ReadyMadeAudio.

New at ReadyMadeWebsites: Off-the-Shelf E-Commerce

ReadyMadeWeb has partnered with Shopify to bring the the world’s best e-commerce solution.  With Shopify, you can create your own online store, accept credit cards, use your own domain, and customize your store’s design—all without ever having to worry about hosting.

Just like our favorite web publishing platforms, Shopify is also extensible, meaning that they allow developers to create add-ons to make your store an even more powerful platform.  The most popular of these apps allow you to place your store directly on your Facebook page, sell digital goods such as .MP3 or .PDF files, create a mobile-friendly store, or promote your products via email and Twitter seamlessly.

We love Shopify because it’s so easy to use, but you may need help getting started.  Drop us a line and we can take care of designing your store, integrating your payment gateways, and setting up whatever apps you need to reach your customers.

New at ReadyMadeCloud: Four New Services for Growing Teams

As workplaces become decentralized, IT services need to follow suit, that’s why we’re now offering a host of services in addition to our popular implementations of Google Apps for Business, SalesForce, and productivity products from 37Signals.

Enhanced Google Apps for Business
We’re now rolling out Backupify and Srubly with every implementation of Google Apps for Business.

Backupify allows users of Google Apps for Business to backup their data—Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar—in a central location that they have total control over.  This eliminates one of the chief concerns we’ve heard from clients interested in moving to the cloud, namely no longer owning your data.  Now you can have your data and use the cloud too.

Scrubly, meanwhile, makes the transition to Google Apps for Business much easier by cleaning up duplicates and formatting errors in migrated contacts.  Your data will be clean, consolidated, and ready for business after your migration with this new feature.

Box.net Scalable Online File Sharing

Need to share more than simple Google Docs with your team but don’t have a file server, or even an office?  Box.net is your solution.  With all the features of a shared network drive, without the need for an IT team to manage it, and the added convenience of online access, mobile access, and integration with applications like Google Apps, Salesforce, NetSuite, Microsoft SharePoint, Box.net is the hands-down best choice for file sharing for your team.

Free Box.net plans are available and business plans start at $15/user/month.  Let ReadyMadeWeb roll it out for your business or non-profit.

Ditch Your Traditional Business Phone Line

We’re encouraging our most mobile clients to drop their traditional landline and make the move to Grasshopper, a virtual phone system that can make even the smallest business sound like a Fortune 500 company.  It’s simple, you choose a local and 1-800 number for your business, record your greeting, add departments, add employees, and now you can get your phone calls anywhere you are with Grasshopper’s forwarding and voicemail.  You can even transfer calls to other members of your team, regardless of what phone you’ve used to receive the call. Oh yeah, it’s only $9.95 per month.

Save Airfare, Meet Online

We’re partnering with Citrix, the leader in online collaboration, to help you save on airfare and throw away that terrible conference phone.  Instead, you can enjoy rich interactive meetings with GoToMeeting.  Better yet, if you want to get your message out to the masses, but can’t book a hotel conference space, try GoToWebinar instead.

GoToMeeting starts at $49/month and it’s easy to get started with the help of ReadyMadeWeb.

Finally, Our New Core Service: ReadyMadeAudio

ReadyMadeWeb is now offering audio editing services to those folks who want to share their expertise with the world via podcasting or other forms of digital audio distribution, but aren’t expert at audio engineering and editing.

We provide a complete consultation, recommend the right equipment for your budget, create an intro/outro for your show, and handle all of the post production. You just record, send us the files, and we’ll take of the rest.

We can also provide a home for your audio production on the web—just check our our page on open-source website development.

For more on our audio services, check out ReadyMadeAudio.

If you’re interested in creating an e-commerce site, implementing enhanced Google Apps, online file sharing, virtual phone services, meeting online, or our new audio editing services, call us at (707) RDY-MADE or email us at info@readymadeweb.com.