5 WordPress Plugins I Never Blog Without

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Those of us who use WordPress know well the power of its plugin system. WordPress plugins can help you do everything from spell WordPress correctly to adding a full-fledged message board.

However, everyone has a collection of WordPress plugins that they feel are essential. They’re the plugins that, when you set up a new blog, you install right away, before even tinkering with the theme.

On that note, here’s my list of WordPress Plugins, other than those that come with the installation, that I instantly install and activate on every new version of WordPress before pushing it live. [Read more…]

What Automattic Should Do With WP.com

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I’m happy to see that Automattic has been able to acquire WP.com, from Yahoo incidentally, who also sold the blo.gs domain to the creators of WordPress and Akismet not so long ago. Matt is thrilled, and rumor has it* that he spent a full day just typing in wp.com and watching it resolve to wordpress.com (*not confirmed).

Naturally, he blogged it as well, on the WordPress.com blog, asking the world what they should do with the new domain, and urging people to make suggestions in the comments.

My reaction to that: Whaaat?!?!

Are you mad? [Read more…]

April Fools: Nonsense Or Good Fun?

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April 1st. You know what that means: You can’t trust the news. Not online, and not in print. Everyone and his mother tries to trick you into believing some preposterous story. All in good fun.

It’s also utter nonsense.

I’ve pulled a few April Fools pranks myself, on both a personal level, and as a publisher. Some was so good that they reached trade magazines, reported as real news. That was a lot of fun, especially since anyone buying it would, in one particular case, visit a website which clearly showed what kind of a joke it was. [Read more…]

Social Networks: Blog Killers or Blog Saviors?

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wheel-spokes-hubTwitter. Facebook. MySpace. Flickr. YouTube.

Are these and other social media hangouts hurting or helping your blog?

No matter what your answer is, you must admit that blogs no longer dominate the social media landscape as they did in, say, 2006. While blogs still form the center of many companies’ social media marketing efforts, they’re now joined by a wide variety of other platforms and services.

2009: A Crossroads of Social Confluence

We stand at a crossroads of sorts. The online world is undergoing so much convergence that blogs and other so-called “social media” tools are becoming quite difficult to distinguish from each other.

We used to publish and discuss material at our blogs, reaching out on fledgling online social networks to find readers and approval. We still do that, but we now have more options and more reasons for holding substantial conversations outside of our blogs. [Read more…]

Buzznet becomes Buzz Media; Raises $12.5 million new funding

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buzzmediaBuzznet, which operates the web’s largest community of pop culture web sites with an audience of 40 million unique monthly users, has changed its name to Buzz Media. The newly-named company will focus on the continued growth of its socially programmed web sites, including Celebuzz, Buzznet, the Superficial, SocialiteLife, What Would Tyler Durden Do, Stereogum, Idolator, Just Jared and Absolute Punk.

Buzz Media announced that it has secured a new round of financing totaling $12.5 million. Focus Ventures joined the latest round. Existing investors, including Anthem Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, also participated in the round.

Buzz Media will use the funds for the continued growth of its portfolio of leading pop culture properties. More than 40 million people worldwide visit Buzz Media properties every month. The company’s pop culture focused portfolio includes leading online music and celebrity destinations.