WPStart.org

First of all, you have to ignore my bad English. Norwegian is my native language.

I thought that I should tell you why and how I run WPStart.org. Why is actually very easy to tell, I love WordPress and I want to learn more about it. And why not make site/blog with WordPress so I can learn it the hard way ;)

A little bit of whom I am

My name is Terje Asphaug, I’m 40, living in a town called Skien southeast in Norway with my girlfriend Berit. I work with people in a psychiatric hospital. So this WordPress blog is just a hobby (but a time consuming one ;) )

I’m also a big fan of the outdoors. I spend a lot of my spear time out in the woods and mountains around in Telemark with my 9 year old Labrador dog, camera (Canon 30D), fishing rod and a backpack. I just love it ;) Images from my trips can be seen in my personal blog when I get the time to do something with them ;) In the meanwhile you can have a look at my Norwegian personal blog Asphaug.net

What is WPStart.org?

WPStart.org is a blog/site about WordPress, whom I think is the best CMS that’s out there. It’s very flexible, you can use it to almost every kind of sites, from simple blogs to web-stores, magazines, photo gallery’s and a lot lot more. The best of all, it’s free.

On WPStart.org I will show you the latest themes and plugins, both free and premium. But only the best of them. It is a lot of bad themes and plugins out there, but you will not find them here.

2 -3 times a week I will also show you what’s happening within the WordPress Community. Almost every day I crawl (through RSS) a lot of sites writing about WordPress, blog development/design, SEO and blogging. The most interesting articles I find I will show you in WP Links 2 -3 times a week. My plans further with this links are to put them all in one directory so they can easily be found by everyone.

Do I do this for the money?

Not at all, and that’s the trout. I do it because I want to learn about WordPress, blogging and web development. If I should live by the income from this blog, I would not afford to live at all ;) I do have some ads here and there, and I do affiliate with premium theme authors. But the income is not big. It’s just so I have a little extra.

How I run WPStart.org

Right now WPStart.org runs on WP 2.7.1 (the latest version when I write this) and some nice plugins (more about them later).

Not long ago I change the look and feel (the theme) on the site. The theme you see right now is QuickRise from ThemeForest by Darren Pangan. Not straight off, but with some tweaks by me. And I probably will tweak it more in the future. That’s how I learn ;)

Browser, plugins and software

First of all, I use Firefox to blog. The reason is the security, speed and the Firefox plugins. I can’t live without those plugins ;)

WPStart.org is best viewed in Firefox or Opera. In IE it’s some small bugs, but I’m looking at them and hopefully they will be fixed soon.

The Firefox plugins I use for blogging:

• Clippings
  A very handy plugin, and I use it on every article. In Clippings you can store code and just release it with a click. With this you can write the HTML (or anything else) one time so you don’t have to write it every time you write an article. Maybe the best plugin ever made for bloggers ;)
• ColorZilla
  A little handy color picker
• Dummy Lipsum
  Generate “Lorem Ipsum” dummy text
• FireBug
  Another very handy plugin when you want to change the CSS or want to see what others have done with the code.
• FireFTP
  You don’t need another FTP-program when you can get it within Firefox.
• FireShot
  Also a plugin I use every day. With this you can take screenshots of the whole page and it uploads to your graphic program automatically. A must have plugin for bloggers.
• MeasureIt
  Draws out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any element on a webpage
• Web Developer
  A toolbar with various web developer tools
• Window Resizer
  Resize the browser window to various standard resolution sizes.

The WordPress plugins:

Here are some of the plugins I use on WPStart.org (alphabetical order)

• Add to Any
  So readers can bookmark my articles on social sites
• Adsense-Deluxe+
  To manage Adsense ads in posts
• Akismet
  Must have spam plugin
• All in one SEO Pack
  For my SEO
• AntiVirus
  To protect the blog against exploits and spam injections
• Canonical URL’s
  Solve duplicate content issues
• Datafeedr Random Ads plugin
  For the ads in header, sidebar and bottom of archive
• Faster image insert
  Fully integrates media manager into editing interface, avoid having to reload it separately in thickbox pop-up; comes with enhanced features, suitable for precise image control.
• Global Translator
  Automatically translates a blog in 41 different languages
• IntenseDebate
  Runs the comments
• Link Hopper
  Masks outgoing links
• NoSpamNX
  To protect the blog from automated spambots
• Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu
  Replaces admin menus with a CSS dropdown menu bar
• Scissors
  Scissors enhances WordPress’ handling of images by introducing cropping, resizing, and watermarking functionality. It does so blending in nicely with the existing image upload and management dialogs
• Secure WordPress
  Little basics for secure your WordPress-installation
• Shockingly Big IE6 Warning
  We all hate IE6
• Sideblog Wordpress Plugin
  I use this to show my personal blog in the sidebar and for prevent them to show up in the ordinary loop.
• StatPress
  For real time stats
• Synected
  Shortens the URL’s like bit.ly with click counter
• WP-DBManager
  To maintain the health of the database
• WP Easy Uploader
  For uploading stuff without trough wp-admin without FTP
• WP No External Links
  Masks all external links to internal

Software I use for blogging:

Most of the software I use for blogging you will find above in the Firefox plugins. But I do use a few other stand alone programs.

• Notepad and Dreamweaver
  For coding
• PicPick
  For screenshot
• PhotoImpact X3
  For all the graphic editing

The WPStart.org categories

I have narrowed the number of categories down a lot lately. Instead I use more tags you can see them in the sidebar). I think that is better.

The Categories:

• Free WordPress themes
  All the nicest free themes that is out there
• Premium WordPress themes
  All the best themes that’s cost money
• WordPress Plugins
  Not that well updated, but there are plans ;)
• WordPress Links
  The place to find out what the WordPress Community writes about WordPress, blogging, SEO and blog development/design
• Articles
  Articles about WordPress and blogging that’s not themes or plugins.
  • WP Update
    Where I notify you of new WP versions
  • WPStart
    Article about WPStart.org
• Terje’s blog
  My personal blog in English (not well updated yet, but pictures about my trips outdoor will come soon)
  • TechStuff
    Where I post nice stuff about software and Internet.

My future plans

• To continue to show you only the best free and premium themes
• To continue to show you what’s happening in the WordPress Community in WP Links
• Make a directory for articles about WordPress, blogging and development
  I have purchased a domain and phpLD for this
• Post more about WordPress plugins
• Write more about WordPress (useful tips and tricks)
• Make free WordPress themes
  I really want to make a WordPress theme. But you may have to wait some time for this ;)

That was a little bit of how and why I run WPStart.org. You are welcome to come with suggestions or whatever you have on your mind in the comments below.

If you want to follow me, you can do it through my RSS or Twitter