If you are a blogger who makes a living from it, you should really read this post to do more in less time and blog more effectively. Here are the few WordPress Hacks that I use
1. Control Spam on Your Blog
Spam is one of the thing that bothers each and every one of us. Getting rid of it can save a huge amount of time. That surely can be done by using a number of plugins. A plugin called Akismet is great for preventing spam comments on your blog. If you open registrations to your blog then you must have this plugin to prevent spam registration.
2. Use a Link Cloak for Affiliate/Sales links
I use a plugin called GoCodes to cloak those ugly looking long affiliate urls, but that’s not the only reason I use this plugin for. The best part is, you can use the cloaked link everywhere and after putting it in 100 of posts, if you feel like changing the affiliate url, you simply edit the cloaked link in GoCodes. Saves you enormous amount of time.
The plugin has not been updated but it works pretty fine, and I have not found any better alternative, (If you do know then please let me know in the comments below)
3. Add Nofollow option to the post editor
Those who use Windows Live Writer or any other Desktop Publishing tool, have an option to nofollow links in their posts, but those who use WordPress Post editor, you really need to know the html code and switch back and forth to nofollow a link, and boy thats time consuming.
This plugin called NoFollow Links does the job of putting an option to nofollow a link every time you add a link.
And if you use the WordPress post editor to create blog posts, you can use the post editor in full screen mode to make the most out of it.
4. Automatically create thumbnails from the first image of the post
WordPress has this feature of putting a featured image that is used on the homepage of the blog. Those small thumbnails on the right or left side of the posts. Either put thumbnails to each and every post manually or simply use a plugin called Get the Image.
Few WordPress themes have this feature of automatically pulling thumbnails from the first image, please check weather your theme offers the same because using this plugin.
5. Create a Floating Sidebar in your blog
The sidebar of a blog usually contains a subscription form, related or popular posts, and an advertising banner. nothing else, you can get the maximum attention span by making floating sidebar with the post content and stay there right in front of your reader’s eyes.
6. Edit Posts from Front End of Your Blog
To edit a post, you have to go back into the backend of WordPress and takes too much time to edit a post and correct typos by going back and forth. The simplest solution would be the ability to edit a post from the front end. Saves a huge amount of time using this trick.
7. Write in Full Speed using Keyboard shortcuts
If you use WordPress Editor to create posts, then learning the keyboard shortcuts will makes you write fast. Keyboard shortcuts like giving a heading, inserting a links etc.
Here is a list of keyboard shortcuts
Windows and Linux use Ctrl + letter. Macintosh uses Command + letter.
| Letter | Action | Letter | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| c | Copy | v | Paste |
| a | Select all | x | Cut |
| z | Undo | y | Redo |
| b | Bold | i | Italic |
| u | Underline | 1 | Heading 1 |
| 2 | Heading 2 | 3 | Heading 3 |
| 4 | Heading 4 | 5 | Heading 5 |
| 6 | Heading 6 | 9 | Address |
The following shortcuts use different access keys: Alt + Shift + letter.
| Letter | Action | Letter | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| n | Check Spelling | l | Align Left |
| j | Justify Text | c | Align Center |
| d | Strikethrough | r | Align Right |
| u | • List | a | Insert link |
| o | 1. List | s | Remove link |
| q | Quote | m | Insert Image |
| w | Distraction Free Writing mode | t | Insert More Tag |
| p | Insert Page Break tag | h | Help |
Editor width in Distraction Free Writing mode:
| Alt + | Wider | Alt – | Narrower |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alt 0 | Default width |
8. Changing/Removing dates from Posts
If you don’t run a news kind of blog where the date of a published entry is important, you woould either want to totally remove the dates from your articles or change it to something that shows Last Updated on rather than Published or Posted on terms.
To remove, you can go to the single.php file from the Theme Editor under Appearance tab in WordPress Dashboard and remov the codes that loo something like this.
Published on
And If you want to show Last Updates on time then put this code.
Last updated on
Or, if you want show the date on posts but keep it hidden from search engines then use the javascript code below.
So this is it, these hacks are going to make your blogging smooth and will let you work on other things that are more important. Here is a list of things you should to when you install a WordPress blog.
