I’ve been pretty bad about posting here, but busy responding to requests. Thanks to everyone who has been using my services. You sure keep me busy.

On top of customer support, my family and my day job, I’ve been working with Alex Shalman and John Chow to build an awesome plugin for comments on WordPress sites. Standout Comments is now up to version 0.95 and has been quite popular with those who use it.

As with most things WordPress, it’s been a community effort. Not only with John and Alex helping me get it done and marketed, but also with the awesome users of the plugin sending in bug reports, feature requests and suggestions. It’s truly amazing in a way I hadn’t imagined.

It’s also quite challenging as the number of variations of WordPress themes and installation situations start to emerge. Wow. Talk about “I hadn’t thought of that.”

StandoutComments generally let’s you integrate your marketing efforts into your comment form and take advantage of the fact the user is entering their email, but not in a sneaky way. The user is given the option to opt-in to your auto-responder and/or your Feedburner email feed. They can also follow you on Twitter.

StandoutComments features:

• Full integration and customization with any WordPress theme
• Subscribe to notifications of new comments on posts
• Integrate with any auto-responder to grow your list
• Integrate with FeedBurner email to notify users of new posts
• Integrate with Twitter:
  • Users enter Twitter ID to show Twitter avatar instead of Gravatar
  • Display Follow site owner on Twitter below comment form
  • OR Integrate with Twitter’s @anywhere to display a Twitter Follow button
  • Use Twitter’s @anywhere to link Twitter IDs in your entire blog with hovercards (@installedforyou)
  • Use popular short url providers to display a Tweetback URL
  • Track Tweetbacks and integrate them as comments
• Nearly all text and styles can be customized to suit your blog.

Anyway, version 0.95 was just released today and expands on the features we have, and finally includes the Unsubscribe option. Yeah, it should have been there from day 1 but wasn’t.

Next up I’m making sure it’s ready for WordPress 3.0 in general (ie: still works), enhanced features for 3.0, and also the WordPress 3.0 multisite option, which may be important now that WordPress mu is integrated with core.

Blog Setup Tutorials by Tommy McLaughlin

Click here to get your free eBook.

When I first looked at this eBook I said to myself “Oh no, not another How to WordPress eBook” but to my complete surprise this eBook actually got my attention.

As I sat back and read Blog Setup Tutorials to my surprise I found myself drawn right into the eBook soaking up all the information it was providing. The information which I was reading provided a good few WordPress Golden Nuggets that even I had overlooked, I was also surprised by the level of detail provided so much so, that I would think even if you had never heard of WordPress before, you would be confident that by end of the 90 Pages you would have your WordPress Blog fully installed and personalized.

I think someone forgot to tell Tommy most FREE Products span only 30 pages!

Although Blog Setup Tutorials is 90 pages of pure content and no fluff, so I take my hat of to Tommy for that.

This information may be common knowledge to some people. However it was the in depth explanations, the how’s and the why these ways worked so well that I found truly unbelievable.

After reading on I found the information provided very helpful. I also found it easy and simple to follow.

You will find in this eBook a great step by step guide to creating and setting up your own WordPress Blog in a couple of Hours. It has been written in a clear and concise manner and all the step by step screenshots were easy to follow as well.

Blog Setup Tutorials does not stop there either. Once you have your WordPress Blog up and running, it would be simple as rinse and repeat in any niche to maximize your earning ability if that is what you wanted to do.

Blog Setup Tutorials will show you how to:

• Research and find your Niche
• Keyword Research
• Find the best WordPress Themes for FREE
• Which WordPress Plugins to install
• Adding Video & Pictures to your WordPress Blog
• Build an opt-in list
• Drive Traffic to your WordPress Blog for FREE!
• And much much more…

Blog Setup Tutorials does not tail off there either. This is one giant of an eBook packed to the brim of excellent no fluff content. 90 pages of pure information you will be returning back to again and again, I guarantee it. This eBook really is a blueprint to your success.

I mentioned earlier in this post “Yeah you can tell I don’t like How to WordPress products! Like hell I do!” I officially retract that statement after reading Blog Setup Tutorials. With the right content and the right sources, you can be as professional and productive as the top marketers in the world, churning out top quality WordPress Blogs at break neck speed.

Blog Setup Tutorials has officially earned itself a place on my printed book shelf with pages bookmarked and pages highlighted.

Excellent eBook Tommy!

Thank you for reading,

Jeff

Click here to get the free eBook now.

The upcoming WordPress 2.9 Upgrade is going to be full of some great features and of course everyone will have their favorites. A lot of the new features will focus on Media, such as basic image editing inside WordPress, easy thumbnails with each article and easier embedding of shared media (ie: YouTube et al).

The 2.9 upgrade features lots of new things for developers to hook into, but my favorite feature is one that may get little attention.

Due to the number of WordPress sites I run, manage or maintain, I sometimes don’t get back to my own sites for a while, and when I do there are inevitably updates to a bunch of plugins. On one site, I just spent 20 minutes (mainly due to a slow connection for some reason), updating 7 plugins.

WordPress 2.9 will now feature a “Bulk Update” option which would have allowed me to update all 7 of those in one click instead of 14 (update, then return to plugin page = 2 clicks per update). At that 14 is conservative because some I clicked into the details to see the changelog.

Yep. I’m thinking “Bulk Update” will be my favorite new feature. What feature are you looking forward to most?