Had to run out to Starbucks real quick before they closed!

While I don’t consider my blog to be of great literary value, there are a lot of blogs out there that are creating some truly valuable content.  Blogging is like the modern-day newspaper column, except you have no censorship and you get a live, active community of readers that become involved with all your writing.  Blogging creates a unique creative outlet, and in my opinion can be used educationally if you do it right.

That said, there are many technical aspects that determine whether anyone actually gets involved with a blog.  Things like Search Engine Optimization fall into this category, but right now I’m thinking about the stickiness of a blog.  How likely are you to stick around and read that blog?  We’re superficial creatures.  Looks count.

If you want to do it up right, the best way to go is to get a custom design.  However, some people can’t justify the expense of something customized.  Today it was announced that free WordPress themes will now be available on WordPress’s actual website!  Take a look at the WordPress Theme Directory and pick out a shiny new suit to wear!

My opinion may be a little influenced by the fact that my boss wrote this book, but in my opinion, the best blogging book is WordPress for Dummies, by Lisa Sabin-Wilson.  Anyone who is considering blogging should give the WordPress platform a good look, because in my opinion it is the best.  And this book is a phenomenal introduction as well as a good go-to guide for those who already have WP experience.  Blogging - books of the future !

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

I always love seeing what plugins people are using on their WordPress sites, so here is a list of mine!

• All in One SEO Pack
• Amazon Links Pro
• Akismet
• Admin Management Xtended
• admin-menus
• Browser Sniff
• Book Reviews
• Bannage
• Commentluv
• Comment Email Responder
• CA-Credits
• DropCap First Character
• Wordpress Duplicate Content Cure
• Daiko’s Text Widget
• Dashboard Widget Manager
• Easy Gravatars
• Gravatar
• KB Robots.txt
• LinkedIn hResume
• Random Quote
• Netflix
• Organize Series
• One Click Plugin Updater
• Preview Frame
• Popularity Contest
• Post Count
• ShareThis
• Simple Tags
• SEO Slugs
• Twitter Tools
• TTFTitles
• Theme Switcher
• WPListCal
• WP Grins
• StatPress
• WP Ajax Edit Comments
• WordPress Related Posts
• Wordpress Automatic Upgrade
• WordPress Mobile Edition
• WordPress Database Backup
• Countdown
• Zap_NewWindow

I thought it might be nice for me to share some of my favorite plugins and why I like them so much. So, here is the first post in my Plugin Review series!

Do you even get tired of having to search for things in your admin area? I have found a GREAT solution – dropdown menus for the WordPress admin panels!

Vital Stats:

Plugin: Admin Drop Down Menus
Author: Andy Staines
WordPress Version: 2.2 (though verified as compatible with version 2.3)

When you hover over one of the panel titles (Dashboard, Write, Manage, etc.), all of the sub panels appear as clickable dropdown options. One click and you are at the page that you need to be at! This is especially helpful if you have lots of plugins installed and can’t find the plugin options to change your settings because you can’t remember which panel it was filed in! Here’s a screenshot from the plugin’s webpage:

I have used this on my personal blog with WordPress 2.3 since the version was released and have had no problems. This plugin saves me so much time and frustration! Do you know of any great plugins for modifying the admin panel? Share them in the comments!