I've been using WordPress since 2004 (less than a year after it launched). I launched my own WordPress blog and wrote my very first blog post on Jan 24, 2005.

And in all those years of working with WordPress, developing WordPress plugins, building my own WordPress websites, and helping my clients build their own websites, I've found the following to be among *the very best* and "must have" WordPress plugins I use (or have used) - and highly recommend.

I've separated them loosely into multiple categories, like Making, Managing, Marketing and Monetizing. Most of these are best-of-breed plugins. But doesn't mean you should install all of them. In fact, trying to install a plugin just-because is a sure-fire way to make sure you never launch anything :-). So don't do that. Use them IF and ONLY IF you absolutely need to implement a specific feature.

And be sure to bookmark this page, as I add and remove plugins over time as plugins evolve.
Legend: * (f) Free * (p) Paid * (fr) Freemium (Free tier, Premium extras)

Stuck in "Social Distancing" prison? Here are some things you could do instead of simply creating more episodes.

Yes, they absolutely do!

WordFence is the #1 plugin I install on any new WordPress sites I create, and it's installed on every single one of my existing WordPress websites.

• A security plugin can monitor a lot of things for you as the site owner or admin:
• Monitoring successful logins,
• Login attempts
• Throttling login attempts,
• Preventing PHP execution in the uploads folder
• Firewall to detect malicious traffic and "protects against a number of common web-based attacks as well as a large amount of attacks specifically targeted at WordPress and WordPress themes and plugins" - especially useful because it's learning in real-time from 100s of thousands of websites around the world
• Protect against SQL Injection, Malicious File Upload, Cross Site Scripting (XSS), Directory Traversal, Local File Inclusion, etc
• Malware scanner to scan files on your website to make sure neither WordPress or other files have been compromised (" checks core files, themes and plugins for malware, bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam, malicious redirects and code injections")
• IP banning (both manual as well as database-learned)
• Hiding WordPress version (which can be used by hackers to target vulnerabilities in older versions)
• Brute-force protection
• Locking out invalid username login attempts
• Banning certain usernames
• Enforce strong passwords
• Preventing users from using usernames like "admin" when registering
• Prevent discovery of usernames
• Block IPs who send POST requests with blank User-Agent and Referer
• Blocking fake Google crawlers trying to spoof Google user-agent
• Country-based blocking

The list goes on.

You can no longer afford to run a WordPress website without WordFence installed. That’s just... begging to get hacked 🙂

I saw this question asked on Facebook, so I wanted to address it here.

Question: "Do you prefer listening to a podcast that is is edited? Or nah?"

My Answer: For the most part, I prefer podcasts that are edited for umms and aahs and pauses. Now, there are shows which the conversations are just absolutely incredible (Bill Simmons, Tim Ferriss, Marketing Over Coffee), and it would actually do it injustice to edit the natural flow - so such shows are the exception. But those are far and few in-between.

Most regular "interview" shows can use all the editing they can, not just to improve the length of the show, but for improving the audio quality (sound leveling, cross-talk, etc), and to improve the show quality just by cutting out the completely unnecessary stuff - like "Can you hear me now?" pre-interview banter, "Hold on, my door bell just rang", "Sorry, my child is calling me, let me quickly check what it is", "Mind if I grab a quick drink of water?", type stuff which is not important to the show or to the listeners.

Some additional points:

I've been building websites since 1995. And I've built hundreds of my own websites over the years. And over 100+ of them are WordPress websites.

And I've also created and launched several WordPress plugins, and my team and I have had to support those plugins, which means logging in to many of our users' websites.

And from all those years of experience with being a website owner, plugin developer and tech-support person, I can tell you that a majority of the web hosts that the average "influencer" peddles (on podcasts and blogs) are utter crap.

When it comes to hosting your website, I recommend only two hosting companies. If keeping your site(s) running practically all the time, and having insanely great support from your web host, are both important to you, then you go with a VPS server from one of the two hosting companies below. 

If you haven't already checked out my podcast episode about whether you should start a Facebook Group or a Forum on your own website, you should definitely give it a listen before reading this post, as it will add a lot of context. You can do that via the player below as well.

PODCAST: Facebook Group or Forum? How to Create a Thriving Online Community That Will Be Around For The Next 5-, 15- or maybe even 50 years

03/15/2018

SubscribeMe.fm by Ravi Jayagopal Facebook Group or Forum (On Your Own Website)? 03/15/2018

00:00:00 00:00:00

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PODCAST: Slack vs. Forum for Your 1000 True Fans and How I'm using Scarcity, Exclusivity and Urgency to Build My Online Community

11/27/2018

SubscribeMe.fm by Ravi Jayagopal Slack vs. Forum for Your 1000 True Fans and How I'm using Scarcity, Exclusivity and Urgency to Build My Online Community - Ep #78 11/27/2018

00:00:00 00:00:00

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So when it comes to creating your own Forum on your own site, what are your options?

Here are your 3 primary options for forum software, in order of increasing complexity, but also increasing quality, features and benefits.

If you’re a Digital Creator or Entrepreneur, then you’ve got to...

Create more than you Consume.
Promote (as much as, if not) more than you Create.

Check out the video and 2 podcast episodes I published about this topic.

I've been selling online since 1997. And in all of those years, I've tried and tested an insane number of tools, desktop software and apps and online services, as you can probably imagine. And today, it's just absolutely crazy to think that I depend on so many of these tools on a day-to-day basis, yet I've never had to pay for most of them. All of these are either completely free, and/or open source, or offer a free tier that I can pay to get additional features - basically a freemium (free + premium) service.

So here are some of the greatest free and freemium tools most of which I couldn't - and wouldn't want to - live without.

See the big blank box in the screenshot above? That's supposed to be a massive image of something, in an email "newsletter" I received.

And it's missing because I deliberately turn off images in the email from automatically loading, because I don't want to be tracked, you know? They may be tracking a lot more than just open rates, and I'm not taking that chance.

“The Twitter of Audio”?
“Twidio”?
“Twaudio”?

Take your pick — those are my maybe-lame nicknames for Alexa Flash Briefings 🙂

I launched my own Alexa Flash Briefing (AFB) - which you can listen via the player below - in August 2018. And here are some random thoughts and comments regarding my experience.

Do you have an Alexa Flash Briefing? If yes, what is it? If no, why not? Let me know in the comments below.

It’s a digital goldmine right now, ripe for the gold rush. Very much like Podcasting, but even more exclusive, as not too many know about it, and not too many will put in the effort to create one, even though it's super-easy.

Which of these would you rather compete with for attention?

5+ Billion YouTube Videos
1+ Billion Websites
850,000+ Podcasts
10,000+ Alexa Flash Briefings

(The numbers have been aggregated from various resources, many of them making their best- and educated guesses. Anyway, the general idea — and my main point — remains the same.)

4 tips for better Audio​

It's better to put just a little bit of thought and effort BEFORE you hit record, rather than try to fix bad audio in post-production. Remember "GIGO" - garbage in, garbage out. People will tolerate a little bit of poor lighting or slightly choppy video, but not many will tolerate bad audio.

If you showed people the video of a person using nails on a chalkboard, without the audio, they won't be too bothered by it. Then try playing the sound of nails on a chalkboard, and you'll see people cringe and go crazy. That's because audio can impact us more emotionally, than video. Which is why, podcasts are such a powerful way to build a deeper connection with your audience.

Watch the video for the 4 tips.