blog chat :: what plugins to use?

to upload images to your post – faster image insert
boy, oh boy, did i struggle with this one! for someone like me who uses a lot of images on the blog, wordpress inability of inserting more than one image was a complete stressful moment! until i found that there was a way of changing that, through a plugin! yes, a miracle and my work would be so much easier! the same applies here, just download the plugin and upload it to your blog and you’re done. when you start writing your post and start choosing the images, you’ll see the differences. you’ll get these three options:

save all changes – insert all images – invert selection

save all changes is when you change something on your media, for example like i recommended two weeks ago, changing the title and alternate text of your images. you can also change the order in which they appear by placing numbers on those white squares in front of the images. insert all images is easy to understand and then invert selection was not that easy! for ages i never clicked on it, because i thought it would be something else, like inverting the order of the images. then i understood (by accident!) that invert selection was simply to invert the selection of images. for example you have 30 images uploaded and you want to add just 26. select the 4 images you don’t want to add, click invert selection and it’ll select all the other 26 you actually want to add. then click on invert selection and you’re done! it also works if you want to select all images!

for contact forms – fast secure contact form
this one is a beautiful plugin that allows you to add contact forms to your blog, instead of just providing with your email so that people may write you. some people are a bit lazier than that and want something faster, like email you through a form on your blog. so though this one needs a bit of tweaks here and there to make it work on a more complex way, you can simply add what’s by default and it will look good and simple!

to allow readers to pin your images – pinterest pin it button for images
i guess we all want to give our readers the freedom (and we may even appreciate that) to pin our images. i’m not sure about you, but even as a photographer, i want my work out there and i want people to spread their love for my work. i add a watermark to 99% of my images, and when i pin them i change the info for a more complete identification, but even so, when others do it, i want them to do it easily. so this plugin helps me on that! of course that i changed the image the plugin had for that “pin it” that appears once you hover the mouse on the image, but you can stick with it and it’s just fine!

for backups – wordpress backup to dropbox
always forgetting about backups? so this is for you! you don’t want to mess with backups, specially if you’ve been blogging for a long time! backups are an absolute need, so make it easy with this plugin! install it and add your dropbox information, so that every week (or whenever you decide) your blog is backed up to your dropbox automatically!

to keep track of your posts and take notes on ideas – wordpress editorial calendar
ladies and gentlemen this is completely fresh news to me! i found this plugin this week and i couldn’t be happier! i’m lousy in taking notes of my ideas. i downloaded a few sheets a while ago, that helped me with my bog topics, but though the idea is good, the whole work of printing out the sheets, writing them and pinning them on my moodboard in front of me was too much work. so when i found this, i found it too good to be true! this plugin works as draft calendar, which means that you get access (through your posts tab) to a calendar that looks like an outlook calendar and you can add new posts, give them a title and save them as drafts. these will automatically be saved and you can access them through “all posts”. it also imports all your older posts information, so you get to see what you published in the previous weeks, which is fantastic for an overall look of your topics of that month, for example! i keep adding posts, as i get an idea, so things are getting a bit more organized around here!

to improve your blog’s seo – wordpress seo by yoast
on this topic you can also start by reading my last post on someone asked, because i focused on seo, but one of the main advices was actually this plugin! install it and improve your seo, by filling out the form once you finish your post. before publishing it, define a focus word, write a small description and see if it’s very good, good, weak or bad to be indexed by crawlers (which are the little robots that crawl the web in search of information). and you’re good to go!

so these the tips for the day! and now i’m off to a birthday party! see you tomorrow!

do you want more tips?

+ how can i improve my blog?
+ how to find your own style and voice?
+ what do you suggest for beginners in photography?
+ what do you do when you feel overwhelmed?

did you like this post? do you think it can help you? share your experience here!