Click Here to vote <- you will need to register (which you should anyway so you can vote and rate all the great plugins you use.)

My idea is simple. Currently you can only select ONE default role with wordpress. This means when a visitor registers on your blog they are set to  for example susbcriber.

You then have to manually change each user to their role in the admin section.

What if you created new roles (maybe you have a blog for VA’s and you want  the OPTION for user to register as a VA or a Business owner ) and you want the user to select the right one when they register.

My suggestion is for WordPress to:

instead of a ‘default role’ on the general settings page ;

allow admins to select either
a Default role
OR
select MULTIPLE user roles to be included within a DROP DOWN to be included on the user registration page

So please go vote for my idea – and if you are looking for a way to create CUSTOM roles in WordPress you should check out Justin T’s Member Role WordPress Plugin.

I like the Category Posts Widget. It is light weight and has most of the features your average blogger would need.

Display thumbnail images via WP 2.9′s new post thumbnail feature.
Set how many posts to show.
Set which category the posts should come form.
Show the post excerpt and how long the excerpt should be.
Show the post date.
Show the comment count.
Option to make the widget title link to the category page.
Multiple widgets.

Another great side bar widget for wordpress is Query Posts Justin Tadlock. It allows you to display posts by tag, category, author, time/date, custom field key and/or value.
Choose any number.
Order by various terms.
Show pages.
Show the full post, excerpt, or even order them in a list.
And much more…

Justin’s side bar widget is a bit more ‘techy’ but all of his plugins get high ratings from me.

There is a solution to help you manage your WordPress pages in the admin panel. Geeky Weekly My Page Order is a WordPress Page management plugin that helps you manage the order of your pages, this makes finding the pages needing constant update a snap. It also allows you to group your wordpress pages within the WP Page edit screen. How does it work ? It inserts a DRAG AND drop FEATURE in your WordPress Edit Page screen!

My pages were a random mess of pages including drafts here and there.

The drag and drop feature allowed me to lsit them in a more organized order.  Our main pages (update often such as FAQ’s), All the pages by member type, Followed by the admin pages (like login & registration), followed by drafts, pending pages.

A quick save and back to the edit pages screen and now I can find what I am looking for. This is a great plugin to manage, group, and organize your WordPress page order in the edit page screen.

Now here’s even better news! Geeky Weekly has more of thes wordpress plugins to manage more areas of your WordPress admin panels!

• WordPress Plug in – My Link Order – Organized and manage the order of your WP links
• WordPress Plug in – My Category Order – Organized and manage the order of your WP categories
• WordPress Plug in – My Page Order – Organized and manage the order of your WP pages

You can install these from your Add new upload plugin screen in your WP Dashboard. More details can be found at Geekly Weekly.

Please note that this will not work with Admin Management Xtended which has it own drag and drop page ordering. I haven’t checked to see if the Link and categories plugins conflict with Admin Management Xtended.

I give this WordPress plugin -> My Page Order 4/4 stars !

Wishlist Member is a great premium WordPress for creating a membership site with WordPress. In fact it would be at the top of my list of recommendations for anyone looking for a membership plug in for WordPress.

However, this last week I have been trying to help a client integrate IDEV Affiliate into a WordPress Blog with the WordPress member plug in ‘Wish List’. The two programs are not compatible which is disappointing since IDev afiliate is the only Affiliate script for merchants that I recommend. The Wish List Member plugin for Word Press is hands down one of the best WordPress member plugins.

Wish List has released a beta version of a Idev affiliate plugin so they have been trying to find a solution. Though I spent four hours yesterday trying to get it working to no avail.

This blog post is not a complaint, I still think both the IDev affiliate script and the WishList Member WordPress plugin are great tools for any ecommerce entrepreneur and highly recommend them individually.

I just wanted to post this to help others researching either the WishList WordPress Member plugin or the Idev affiliate software to be sure they clarify with both companies before purchase if a solution has been developed.

I would also suggest asking WishList WordPress member plugin for a list of Affiliate scripts and WordPress Eccomerce plugins that they can verify do work with WishList Member before making their purchase.

Here is a list of potential WordPress plugins that may not work with WishList Member:

WordPress Plugin: Search Reloaded
WordPress Plugin: WordPress SEO Master
WordPress Plugin: User Access Manager
WordPress Plugin: Gravity Forms
WordPress Plugin: Permalink Redirect

I have put together a short list of possible WordPress plugins that will auto tweet your blog posts.

The following twitter wordpress plugins will help you syndicate your blog to twitter:

Twitter Tools: Alex King Plugins are a favourite, however this WordPress twitter plugin appears to have not been updated since 2009-8-3. I am successfully using this plugin on my blog.

Twitter Updater:  This twitter wordpress plugin hasn’t been updated and I wouldn’t suggest using it.

WP to Twitter: Compatible up to WordPress 2.9 this twitter wordpress plugin has a great rating. This Twitter plugin allows you to write a custom Tweet for your post. It’s on my list to give it a try on one of my blogs looks like a great yet simple twitter plugin.

When searching for a Twitter syndication wordpress plugin, be sure the plugin you select includes the ability to shorten your links. Otherwise your link will be cut off.

Some other WordPress twitter plugins I like:

Twitterlink Comments: This handy Twitter WordPress plugin will create a field in your comments to allow your users include their Twitter ID.

Twitter Keywords : This is a new Twitter wordpress plugin (only one version) but interesting. Allows you display tweets in your sidebar based on a keyword selection.

<a href=”http://www.socialoomph.com/86269-0-1-5.html” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.socialoomph.com/idevaffiliate/banners/tl_468_60_01.gif” border=”0″ alt=”" width=”468″ height=”60″ /></a>

Today’s Worpdress SEO Tip: Don’t lose your posts when you update old posts or adjust your wordpress permalink structure.

Install this handy WordPress SEO plugin:

Redirection WordPress plugin

The Redirection WordPress SEO plugin allows you to manage all your 301 redirection and track your 404 errors in WordPress. Redirection is now on my list of MUST HAVE SEO wordpress plugins.

1) It will save you money on hosting.
2) It makes your site load faster.
3) It will reduce the load on your server.
4) It can help prevent your site from going down during high traffic.

WP Super Cache (by Donncha O Caoimh) is updated often (most recently just 26 days ago), its a great supported wordpress plugin that EVERY WordPress blog owner should be using.

As your WordPress blog generates more traffic you will need to address caching, so before your host calls you to do so, simply go to Plugins -> Install new and search for ‘WP Super Cache’.

So here are the WordPress Plugins you will find used on most of my WordPress blogs:

1) Admin Management Xtended

2) Advanced Blogroll

3) All in One SEO Pack

4) CommentLuv

5) Contact Form 7

6) Exclude Pages from Navigation

7) Google XML Sitemaps

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer

9) Organize Series

10) Smart Youtube

11) Social Media Page

12) Twitter Widget Pro

13) WP Auto Tagger

Some of these wordpress plugins are for SEO and some for navigation or features. These aren’t all the WordPress plug ins I use but my favourites.

Updated November 2009 to add:

14) Redirection Manage your 301 errors, track 404 errors, and prevent lost posts caused by moving your blog, editing old posts, or adjusting permalinks.

WordPress is the ONLY content manager HerMedia endorses. Whether you are creating a BLOG, a corporate website, an ecommerce website, or membership website. WordPress has the ability to grow to meet the needs of an evolving web presence.

The interview with Chris is free click here to check it out.

You can listen on the site or download the mp3.

It looks as though I will be replacing the random quote wordpress plugin I currently have on all my sites as the Stray Random Quotes Plugin offers TWO very important features lacking in any previous random quote Word Press Plug in I have reviewed;

1) The ability to INSERT LINKS into your quote (think affiliate marketing here).

2) The ability to bold and italic (limited html options but still better then NO options).

With a little practice you can also insert the quotes throughout your entire WordPress blog including within comments,  posts, and pages (not just within widgets).

Here’s  a great feature ->  BookMarklet. Simply drag it onto your tool bar and create random quotes while you surf the Internet ( I am using this in FireFox.)

Learn More at the developers site
or install the WordPress  random quote plug in by searching the words “Stray Random Quotes”.