Did my last blog update post about a couple months back and I’ve done some changes to the blog so I decided to do another blog update post. These blog update posts have become a “regular” habit of mine here on JaypeeOnline and I consider it as some kind of “checkpoint” to help me remember the plugins I installed/uninstalled on the period of time. Its also a way for me to inform my readers of the changes I’ve made to the blog especially the changes I’ve made front-end wise, changes in the blog theme, design, layout, etc.

The changes I’ve listed below are the changes I’ve made since my previous blog update.

Uninstalled Plugins

• LinkWithin – Displays recommended stories and associated thumbnails from your blog.
• Most Commented – Retrieves a list of the posts with the most comments.
• Popularity Contest – keeps a count of your post, category and archive views, comments, trackbacks, etc. and uses them to determine which of your posts are most popular.
• Global Translator – automatically translates your blog in the following 41 different languages.

I removed LinkWithin because based on my observation, visitors weren’t using it that much and it uses up too much space and makes the overall post page layout more cluttered. Uninstalled the Most Commented and Popularity Contest plugins because my theme has built-in functions that make both plugins redundant. Removed the Global Translator plugin because of security issues and I will discuss more about it in an upcoming post.

Installed Plugins

• Where did they go from here – Show “Readers Also Viewed” links on your page.
• Theme Authenticity Checker – scans theme files for potentially malicious or unwanted code.
• TweetMeme Button – Adds a button which easily lets you retweet your blog posts.
• WP Super Cache – Very fast caching plugin for WordPress.
• Yoast Breadcrumbs – Outputs a fully customizable breadcrumb path.

Installed the Where did they go from here plugin and placed it beside the Related Posts to display posts that readers visited after viewing/reading that current post. This is very useful because it lists some posts that aren’t displayed in the Related Posts and lists posts that may also be of interest to the new reader. I installed the Theme Authenticity Checker to help me verify the themes that I review in my WordPress Theme reviews. The TweetMeme button is the small graphic displayed on the upper left portion of each post and displays the number of times the post was RT’d (retweeted) and enables the reader to easily RT the post.

I installed WP Super Cache in the efforts of solving the problems I had with my previous web host. It didn’t work because the problem was not with my blog but with my web host its just that they didn’t want to admit it and they were trying to put the blame on my blog.

I’ve been planning on implementing breadcrumb navigation on my blog for a long time now but didn’t get to do it. I finally found time to install Yoast’s Breadcrumbs plugin. This plugin displays the path and location of the post/page that the reader is currently viewing. Helps users to easily navigate through the blog/website. The breadcrumb path is the text displayed at the top most part of each post and page (Home > Post).

Other Changes

I didn’t do much changes to the blog theme and layout except for some minor tweaks on the sidebar.

• Added the JaypeeOnline Facebook Fan Page at the sidebar.
• Removed the Entrecard widget. Still thinking about whether I should put it back or not.
• Moved the Trackbacks/Pingbacks section below the Comment form.

I think thats it, I mean that’s all the changes I’ve done since my last blog update. Sometimes my memory fails me so I might have missed one or two changes and if I did, I’ll update the post later.

If any of you guys have comments, ideas or suggestions to make JaypeeOnline better, please don’t hesitate to share it with me via the comments section or if you want to remain anonymous, you can send me a message via the contact page. Thanks and you all have a great weekend!

It’s been a while since I last published a blog update. The last one was in March and since that time, there’s been a lot of changes made to the blog. For those of you who are new to JaypeeOnline, you might be wondering why I publish these blog updates. The purpose of these blog updates is to make my readers aware of the changes I’ve made to blog theme, design and layout, newly added features and the plugins I’ve uninstalled or installed so that they’ll have an easier time navigating through the different areas of the blog and make their browsing experience a better one.

Here are some of the changes I’ve made to the blog since my last blog update.

Uninstalled Plugins

• WP-Clickmap – Plugin that creates a clickmap (similar to heatmap) that displays the areas where visitors click for each page.
• Google Syntax Highlighter for WordPress – Plugin makes using the Google Syntax highlighter to highlight code snippets within WordPress simple.
• UserAgent Spy – Plugin that displays the visitors operating system and web browser in each comment they make. Used this to replace the Firestats plugin feature that displays country, operating sytem and browser.

I uninstalled the Google Syntax Highlighter plugin because it is no longer compatible with newer versions of WordPress 2.8+. I’ve since replaced it with the SyntaxHighlighter Evolved plugin that works exactly like the first plugin, although the codes displayed by the Google Syntax Highlighter plugin looked better. The WP-Clickmap plugin is a very useful plugin especially if you want to know the areas where your visitors click on your blog. It also helps you determine the best spots to place your ads. Unfortunately, this plugin caused a problem on my web server and I had no choice but to uninstall it. I can’t remember exactly why I replaced the UserAgent Spy plugin with the Comment Info Detector plugin, but I think it was because of an issue or conflict with the theme or one of the other plugins I’m using.

Btw, I’ve removed the Twit This Post option with Twitter bird icon and my custom Social Bookmarking icons/buttons after each post because of the Sexy Bookmarks plugin. I’ve also removed/uninstalled the UserVoice feedback widget because it wasn’t doing the job or the readers/visitors aren’t accustomed to using it.

Installed Plugins

• Comment Info Detector – Enables you to detect your commenter’s info and show their country flag, web browser, operating system automatically.
• CommentLuv – Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.
• WP Greet Box – Shows a different message to your visitor depending on which site they are coming from.
• LinkWithin – Displays recommended stories and associated thumbnails from your blog
• Sexy Bookmarks – SexyBookmarks adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts.
• SyntaxHighlighter Evolved – Easily post syntax-highlighted code to your site without having to modify the code at all.

Other Blog Changes

• Added a blog mascot. Hired a professional designer to create a blog mascot for JaypeeOnline.
• Changed the header image/banner font style.
• Changed the subscription options and added new buttons. Readers and visitors can now easily subscribe to JaypeeOnline’s RSS Feed or get updates via Email, Twitter and join JaypeeOnline’s Facebook Fan Page.
• Created a help page for RSS, Email, Twitter updates and other subscription options
• Tweaked the Author Info box.
• Added a Google Custom Search box below the post.
• Added the Wibiya Toolbar.
• Minor changes include changing the post title font from Times Roman to Trebuchet MS and making the content font size larger so readers won’t have a hard time reading or won’t have to squint their eyes while reading the posts.

Screenshots:

Subscription Options Buttons (top of the sidebar site-wide)

LinkWithin (after each post)

Sexy Bookmarks and Author Info box (below LinkWithin)

Btw, those icons aren’t misaligned. If you hover over those icons, they would pop up. Just wanted to make that clear coz I received a comment from one reader that my social bookmarking icons were hidden or covered by the author info box.

In-post Google Custom Search Box (below Author Info box)

I guess that’s it. In case I missed something, I’ll just update this post later on. Anyways, these are the changes that I’ve made to the blog and I hope that these changes can improve your browsing experience and make the blog more reader-friendly.

If any of you guys have comments, ideas or suggestions to make JaypeeOnline better, please don’t hesitate to share it with me via the comments section or if you want to remain anonymous, you can send me a message via the contact page. Thanks and have a nice day!