Blogging software news: 5 New WordPress Plugins For Developing A Nice Looking And Smarter Blog

I am not an advocate for WordPress plugins, most of the time users go overboard with their installation and in turn WordPress sites become server intensive power hogs that are slow to load and hard to administer. With that being said there are a handful of new plugins this week that attempt to make a developers life easier, both by speeding up a WordPress installation and by allowing for simple output protocols to be achieved.

Here are 5 new WordPress plugins for developing a faster and smarter blog.

1. WP Separate CSS

As a fan of tweaking my websites design on a fairly regular basis I often find that purchased themes pose one significant problem, whenever an update is made available some developers provide all new files for that theme. Unfortunate that means If I update the theme without backing up the CSS file I lose all of the changes that made the theme my own. WP Separate CSS solves this problem by allowing users to create a separate CSS file that is then added into the theme’s CSS output. Simply upload the program, create a .CSS file within the plugins folder and edit that file instead of the typical style.css and other files. Once the .css file is saved the changes are loaded alongside the templates .css files.

2. WP Put The Meta

Sometimes I want to add certain custom field options to the stories I write but not to every single post, for this purpose the WP Put The Meta plugin is a nice addition to any blog looking for smarter output of content. Simply install the plugin, create a custom field and then insert the following shortcode in your post [putthemeta key=""] where the quotations are filled in with the name of the custom field. While the author of this plugin points to Google Adsense Code insertion as a big plus for this plugin it’s also a great way to add in co-author information, highlight iframe information and provide any other type of output that would typically require HTML coding or other embed options.

3. Be It Facebook Sidetab

This is currently my favorite way to display a “Follow Us On Facebook” floating logo. Now only will uses realize very quickly that you have a fan page for your website, they won’t see your Facebook stream, followers or other intrusive information until they click on the tab. I’m a big fan of the Facebook follow box but I also implement this floating Facebook follow button on my own social media website.

Here’s a quick look at the follow button that is provided:

When clicked that button opens up to display the Facebook fan page stream (if turned on, follower avatars and other information).

4. Google Web Fonts for WordPress

Google offers a library of over 350 web fonts that can help your blogs text stand out from other WordPress sites that typical rely on old faithful options such as Times New Roman and Lucia. While I fully condone the use of those font types because of their reliable output sometimes it’s worth spicing up an arsty or cutting edge website. For this purpose I recommend Google Web Fonts for WordPress, a new plugin that makes choosing a new Google Web Font type simple.

To use the plugin simple activate it from your WordPress backend then navigation to the ‘Fonts’ menu located under the WordPress ‘Appearance’ tab. From the Fonts menu you will see a dropdown list of available fonts, simply save your selection after you have made your choices.

If you’re not sure which font you want to use you can visit the Google Web Font Directory or preview the fonts from inside the plugins preview window.

After you have chosen your font you will simple add the properties code to your themes stylesheet.

Here are a few Google Web Fonts examples to get your creative juices flowing:

5. Custom Registration Link

The standard URL for WordPress user registration is found under “http://website-url/wp-login.php?action=register” the problem with that fact is that spam-bots will register on your blog, causing fake accounts to throw off your registered user accounts. While you can simply turn off new user registration that does very little good if you use a WordPress forum plugin or if you require users to register in order to leave comments. With Customer Registraiton Link users are given the option to change the location of the register links to whatever they choose.

Simply install the plugin and you will see a link change area such as the one shown below:

Simply choose your registration link then click save changes and you can drastically reduce spam bot registrations.

Those are just five of the newest Wordpres plugins that can help pretty up your blog and make it a bit smarter.

As always remember that these plugins are brand new and therefore may require regular updates as the developers find bugs in there systems. Always remember to make a backup of your websites database before installing these and any other WordPress plugins.