This fourth installment of my Wonderful WordPress Wednesday series was inspired by an event that occured right here at Philaahzophy earlier this week. One of my stories, Still Think Google’s PageRank Means Something, became so popular on StumbleUpon that not only did my blog go offline, but the web hosting server that holds it crashed in its entirety!  Obviously this was not good for anyone – my readers (because they couldn’t find the information they sought, me (because no one could read my pearls of wisdom ), my web hosting company (since they had to deal with it on their end), and even the other webmasters whose websites are hosted on the same server (and their readers).

I just happening to be watching the traffic influx live with my stats tool, Clicky and saw more than 100 visitors StumbleUpon my post in less than 60 seconds.  Then a complete and instant lack of activity.  Obviously this wasn’t natural, so I headed for my WordPress admin panel to see what the problem was and received an error stating that “a database connection could not be made.”  Of course, my next step was to contact my web host (Top Hosting Center), who were unaware of the problem.  Luckily, everything was back up and running within 10 minutes.  Unfortunately, the site was down too long to maintain the momentum that had been building.

Still, I was left pondering what I could do to avoid such a situation in the future.  Afterall, the goal of most bloggers is to have as many readers as possible.  How is that going to happen when the site crashes when too many people visit?  Obviously it’s not.  However, my love of WordPress letf me assured that someone out there had come up with a solution for me.  I was not disappointed.

Late last year Donncha O Caoimh, developed a WordPress plugin called WP Super Cache, which branched off from Ricardo Galli Granada’s WP-Cache 2.  According to Donncha-

WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress. It generates html files that are served directly by Apache without processing comparatively heavy PHP scripts. By using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly.

[...]

WP-Cache 2 caches the pages of your WordPress blog and delivers them without accessing the database. Unfortunately it still means loading the PHP engine to serve the cached files.

WP Super Cache gets around that. When it is installed, html files are generated and they are served without ever invoking a single line of PHP. How fast can your site serve graphic files? That’s (almost) as fast it will be able to serve these cached files.

Since the problem with my server was accessing the database, it seems that either caching plugin would be a solution.  However, I went with Super Cache because my host is obviously on the weak side so the less stress I can put on it the better for all involved.  If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you’ve probably heard of The Squid List, from Laughing Squid.  If you haven’t, it’s a hugely popular event listing and social site.  Well, returning to the official plugin page we find-

Scott Beale uses WP Super Cache on Laughing Squid. He posted about his experiences using the cache during a traffic spike when a posts made it onto the Digg frontpage twice, on to Slashdot, and received major media exposure. Here is his traffic graph for that time. Over 200,000 page views in one day. Could your server handle that?

I can’t imagine a spike much larger than that, so if WP Super Cache kept Laughing Squid online, don’t you think it can handle your blog?  WP Super Cache does come with a few caveats though-

• You should have mod mime, mod rewrite and fancy permalinks enabled.
• Some sites have problems serving compressed html files and need extra configuration.
• Some of the more dynamic aspects of your site’s template won’t refresh quite as quickly.
• Don’t expect a cheap hosting plan to survive a major traffic spike, even if it is cached!

WP Super Cache is also more difficult to install than many plugins.  But, please, don’t let that keep you away from it!  We’re all hunting for that flood of traffic, spend the time now to ensure you’re ready for it when it comes.  The included readme file is extensive, there’s a support forum available, and if you have any problems with installation feel free to post them here in the comments section.  I’m certainly no guru myself, so if I can get this bad boy installed than so can you.  After all, the whole purpose of this series is to help people show their WordPress blogs a little love.

I had intended to share with y’all a step-by-step walk thru of how I installed WP Super Cache and dealt with the few sticking points that occured, but (as usual) this post is already getting long. If there is interest, or I get a lot of requests for installation assistance I may still do so in the future. Until then, what are you waiting for? Head over to the WP Super Cache site right now and get this baby installed before the hordes come acrashin’ at your front gate.  Then come on back and share with others how much better you feel about your blog becoming an overnight sensation by leaving a comment.  Already have it installed?  Then please drop a comment below to encourage thosewho may be put off by the techie aspects of the install.

Post from: Philaahzophy

Popularity Protection For Your WordPress Blog

• Starting A Blog? Install These 5 WordPress Plugins First! - September 3, 2008 - 10 common tags
• Using A Default Rating With WP-PostRatings Plugin - January 7, 2009 - 6 common tags
• Lighten The Load Of Your WordPress Blog – Part Two - August 27, 2008 - 6 common tags
• Lighten The Load Of Your WordPress Blog – Part One - August 20, 2008 - 6 common tags
• Can Your WordPress Blog See The Future? Mine Can! - September 17, 2008 - 6 common tags

Welcome to the third installment of my Wonderful WordPress Wednesday series!

Over the last two weeks we looked at simple steps you could take to improve the efficiency of your WordPress blog. This week we’re going to back up a little bit and look at how to set up a blog, or, more specifically, the very first plugins you should install on your WordPress blog. Yes, even before your very first post. With all of the great “Top 10 plugins for {whatever}” posts I’ve read, the one I really needed was never found. So, I’ve now written that post for the benefit of all the new bloggers out there. More experienced bloggers are welcome to follow along, of course, and if you think I’ve made a bad choice, or left something out, please comment to let me (and the other readers) know!

Exec-PHP

What it does- Exec-PHP is short for “execute PHP code” and the plugin executes code in your posts, pages and text widgets.

Why Install Before Blogging- Exec-PHP should, without a doubt, be the very first plugin you install and activate. While it is an “activate and forget” plugin, it’s absolutely essential to so many things a WordPress blogger does that it really should be part of the WordPress core. Even if you don’t know the first thing about PHP this plugin will still regularly aid you in your blogging journey. Aside from that, many, many plugins require that Exec-PHP be installed on the blog. In fact, so many require it, that it has become simply assumed that you’ll already have it installed and few mention the requirement, leading to no end of heaaches for the uninitiated. Save yourself stress – install and activate Exec-PHP before doing anything else on your new WordPress blog.

Google XML Sitemaps

What it does- An XML sitemap is like the directory at a large shopping mall. It includes the link to every page on your site (both posts and pages) with special meta data about each page in order to help webcrawlers (like GoogleBot) more easily track down all the bits and pieces of your blog. XML is the standard for sitemaps and is used by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search, and YAHOO!

With this plugin you don’t need to ever worry about your sitemap. Not only does it create one for you automatically, but it constantly updates it (and notifies Google!) with every change you make to any page.

Why Install Before Blogging- I assume that if you’re publishing a blog you want “the public” (aka complete strangers) to find and read it. In this day and age that means being indexed by Google. By installing this plugin before writing even your first post you ensure that Google will be with you every step of the way, reporting it to any websurfer interested in your topic(s).

All In One SEO Pack

What it does- The All In One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin does exactly what its name implies. This one plugin will automatically improve the search engine optimization of your WordPress blog. Specifically, here’s the highlights-

• Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
• Generates META tags automatically
• - Avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
• For WordPress 2.3 you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
• You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.

Best of all, this is all 100% customizable for those who have an understanding of SEO techniques.

Why Install Before Blogging- It’s never too early to start worrying about search engine optimization. With the All In One SEO Pack you can just install it, activate it, and ignore it while still receiving maximum SEO benefits while you concentrate on the quality content that will keep readers coming back. The last plugin I recommended will make sure Google (and other search engines) knows about your website. This one will make sure you show up near the top of relevant searches.

I’ve been running my primary blog for about three years now and only started worrying about SEO in the last few months. When I went to research and test how effective my current SEO tactics have been I found they were considered near perfect by most online tools! At first I credited this directly to the WordPress platform itself, but after checking a few of my other blogs one was ranked down around 70% instead of the 95%-98% of the majority. While investigating what was different about that site I realized that I had never activated this plugin. After doing so that site as well jumped into the 90th percentile!

WP-PostViews

What it does- WP-PostViews tracks the number of times each post or page on your blog is viewed. This information is stored in your WordPress databse so can be easily accessed and posted just about anywhere on your blog.

Why Install Before Blogging- You may or may not be interested in sharing a list of your 10 (or 23 or 147) most popular posts on you rblog right now. Especially as you have zero posts at the moment. However, once your first post goes public views will start coming in. And if you wait to install (or activate) this plugin you’ll never have accurate data again. Install and activate it now, then the data will be ready for you whenever you’re interested.

CommentLuv

What it does- CommentLuv is designed to encourage fellow bloggers to comment on your blog by rewarding them with a link back to their latest post. It accomplishes this by accessing their blog’s RSS feed.

Why Install Before Blogging- Much like WP-PostViews, this plugin is unable to “go back in time” and add the links after the fact. Since it gathers the data as the comment is posted there is no way to append the commentor’s latest blog post to a comment that has been left in the past. Additionally, there is a growing CommentLuv community of bloggers that you will be plugged into as soon as you start your blog should you enable this plugin before writing your first post.

There you have it. Five more things to do before you even write your first post. Obviously, after installing the WordPress software you’ll be anxious to get those first few posts out the door, but taking the time to add these five plugins will get you started ion the right foot. All together it shouldn’t take you more than a half hour to install and activate these plugins, and down the line you’ll surely consider it time well spent.

That’s it for this third installment of the Wonderful WordPress Wednesday series. Next week I’ll have some more great tips for using WordPress to achieve all of your hopes and dreams!

Post from: Philaahzophy

Starting A Blog? Install These 5 WordPress Plugins First!

• Popularity Protection For Your WordPress Blog - September 10, 2008 - 10 common tags
• Lighten The Load Of Your WordPress Blog – Part Two - August 27, 2008 - 7 common tags
• Lighten The Load Of Your WordPress Blog – Part One - August 20, 2008 - 7 common tags
• Using A Default Rating With WP-PostRatings Plugin - January 7, 2009 - 6 common tags
• Can Your WordPress Blog See The Future? Mine Can! - September 17, 2008 - 6 common tags