Transcript of Episode 465 WP Plugins A to Z

All transcripts start from the point in the show where we head off into the meat and potatoes. This is complete verbatim of John’s discussion on the weekly plugins that have been reviewed.

WordPress Plugins A to Z Podcast and Transcript for See complete show notes for Episode #465 here.

Episode #465

John: Okay, first up for ClassicPress, we do not really have anything for ClassicPress this week; I still haven’t had time to do any ClassicPress plugin research. I do have one note from ClassicPress is that the list of ClassicPress-specific plugins over classicpress.net has climbed. It is now up to 57 from the last time I looked at 55, meaning two more new ones have been added. So they are slowly gaining these plugins. So kudos to ClassicPress. This is going to grow quite nicely. They did very well in their first year, their second year. It’s kind of hit a bit of a plateau, but I’m willing to bet is they’ve been working very hard in the background, and we’re going to see a lot from them in the next year or so.

So if you’re looking for an alternative to WordPress something that is very, very fast, it just doesn’t run all the same plugins WordPress runs now unfortunately, but that’s what happens. I expected that split to come eventually. So this is something to look at and check out. Go check out ClassicPress; it could be a value to you.

Okay, so what do I have for WordPress plugins? Well, first off, as I made a note last week, there’s a really great place you can go check out the latest and greatest of WordPress plugins.

It’s at wordpress.org/plugins/browse/new. This used to be included in the pages when you search for WordPress plugins inside your browser or inside your WordPress website, but they removed that from WordPress core for some reason, and this link still works if you go directly to it. And you can see plugins that have been released within the last couple, three weeks. These are brand new hot off the press plugins, and sometimes there’s some really good stuff in here that is yet discovered. And you can get on things early when the developer’s new, he’s really struggling, help him out, give him encouragement — all of those things. Go check that out.

Okay, the first plugin I have for you here is called User Admin and Password – or Use Admin Password. This is a plugin that will allow you to log in as any user using any administrator’s password. The user can still log in with their own password, but this one allows you to use your administrator password to log into their account and see the site from their point of view and perspective. A very interesting plugin and one that’s very useful if you run a membership site or you run an e-store, and you have to diagnose something that’s going wrong with the clients account and you don’t want to ask them for their password. You can just log right in there and take a look at it and see what’s up.

So go check this plugin out, it looks to be a very useful plugin. I discovered this plugin while doing some work on a new client of mine that is an e-commerce system, and this is something that was there to help do the diagnostics on this site. Go check it out, a really great-looking plugin. I give it a 4-Dragon rating, and it’s called Use Admin Password.

Next up, I have for you a plugin called TaxJar. This is again when I discovered working on the site and something I hadn’t seen. TaxJar is a sales tax automation for WooCommerce.

Now, this is particularly of interest to those of you who live in the states where you’ve got to collect taxes from multiple states and multiple cities and counties and levels and province.

And the insanity of having to collect taxes online is getting more and more crazy every year as governments realized that, hey, we’re missing out on a crapload of tax money because of sales online. The stores aren’t making the tax money; it’s going into an online business located five states away. They’re not collecting tax for us, we want that. Well, now, they have to – you have to collect that you have to report it.

This is a system that is set up. They have a free system which allows you up to 1,000 transactions a month. Beyond that, they want you to pay for their service to get it. It looks like it helps accumulate the taxes, it tells you what you collected, it helps you accumulate the reports, it figures out how you pay. They even offer a system in their premium where you can collect the taxes, submit it to them, and they’ll submit it on your behalf; a really interesting system. If you’re running an e-commerce store and you’re required to collect taxes across multiple jurisdictions, this might be something for you to have a good look at. Go check it out. It’s called TaxJar, and I give it a 4-Dragon rating.

And next up, I have for you WP Ultimate Recipe. Now, this one came out because of what I’m doing at The Rogues Tavern website, and I’ve been looking at putting a recipe section into the site, and I finally started working on that this past week, and I needed to download a recipe plugin. I had one from years ago that I paid a premium for, but it was no longer quite the plugin I wanted it to be. I wanted something simpler, cleaner. I didn’t have to put any real money into the plugin unless I wanted some premium features. I wanted a good basic one. So I went and looked at the few that are available @wordpress.org, and this one here popped up in front of me, and I thought why don’t let’s check this one out.

And what I enjoyed about it is that it gives you two default templates. You need to have multiple templates outside of that, but the default templates are very nice and clean. One of them fit well within the development of my website. It allows you to put all the basic stuff in for your recipes, descriptions, ingredients, separate out sections, et cetera, add in videos – all the good basic stuff.

When a person looks at it, they can adjust the system to allow for how much ingredients per number of servings recommended, auto-adjust ingredients. It also gets in and – where was I going with that? Okay, what else did it do for me? There was one other key component there that I want it – oh, printing, it has a really good print screen for you users to print it out. A really nice plugin. I liked the way it works. It could have got a five, but because it is a premium plugin, it gets tagged with a 4-Dragon rating. But if you’re looking for a good basic recipe plugin, go check this one out. It is the WP Ultimate Recipe plugin.

Okay, this show currently brought to you by…

Save time and money managing multiple WordPress websites. If you have several WordPress websites to manage either for your clients or yourself, then you know how much time it can take managing them all, time that is spent on mundane administrative tasks, and then losing that time for your important business tasks.

CMS Commander is an online service that solves this problem and makes managing multiple WordPress websites fast and easy, as simple as controlling a single site by placing all your websites in one powerful dashboard. CMS Commander makes it possible to update, backup, and manage them all at the same time in one place.

Features of CMS Commander include one-click updates of plugins, themes, and WordPress core for all sites, automatic scheduled website backups, website cloning and restoration, uptime monitoring and analytics integration, bulk posting, and automatic content. Sign up now for your 14-day trial at cmscommander.com and access all the features that will allow you to manage more websites and save time.

John: Absolutely. CMS commander, great product. Please use the links in the Show Notes or go to wppluginsatoz.com/cmscommander to get in on my affiliate link so I make a buck or two. I don’t make a lot from this, but I do make a few bucks every few months from them.

Okay, and listener feedback. I do have one piece of listener feedback this week, and it comes out as:

“Hello John, after I heard your last show, you spoke about sending content or ideas. I thought of an idea that you could add to your top plugin for a category. I thought this could be easy since there are plugins you use every day. For example, your favorite Google Calendar plugin or your favorite contact plugin. As the list grows, you can then add it to your newsletter as a list.”
-Techmanlou.

Thank you, Techmanlou. I appreciate that and I do like that idea, and I’ve got to figure out a way to incorporate it into the show and figure out a way to incorporate it into a list on the website. And it’s something I think I will start to do because I do have some top plugins I use in specific applications for different kinds of development work that I have done and some of the redevelopment work I do now or when I’m replacing plugins. So I will actually look into this one and see if I can get it incorporated into everything I do, but I do appreciate the feedback.

And anyone else who has feedback, things you’d like to see or things you’d like to see me try to accomplish, please give me that feedback and I will do the best I can to incorporate it into the show.

The contests – well, currently I don’t have a contest. I have not been on the ball for getting this done as you can tell. Sometimes I get on the ball for things, but that usually happens when I have less work and more time and so – or when I have less work more time that I don’t devote to something that I’d rather be doing, such as working in a garden. So I’m gonna be on the ball for this one. I’ll try and get the next contest up as soon as possible and we’ll let you know. If you want to follow what’s happening, go check out wppluginsatoz.com/contests.

So closing out this episode, I covered up the following plugins: WP Ultimate for the ultimate recipe, which I gave a 4 to; the TaxJar Sales Tax Automation for WooCommerce, which I gave a 4 to; and the Use Admin Password, which I gave a 4 to. So go check out those plugins, they’re very useful.

A couple of final reminders here for the day. The next WordPress Meetup in Victoria is on June 21st. That is this weekend for those of you who have not been paying attention. This is just a get-together and it’s a relaxing area. It’s in an outdoor event. It’s being held in Lake Cowichan, BC. There will be burgers, dogs, and pop. If you want beer, bring your own.

There is one spot left. This is a limited attendance party due to COVID or Rona restrictions here in BC and the number of people that can show up that don’t belong to my family. So this is a really great time to get out, relax, enjoy some fun, enjoy some fun in the sun, but there is only one spot left. If you want to claim it, email me directly for information on how to get there. You can check out more about our meetups at wppluginsatoz.com/meetup because we’re expecting to do another one in July. One of these nice relaxing summers get-togethers may be in July and can have a few more people over.

All right, there is a new interview out there with Akshat Choudhary from BlogVault. It’s a really good interview talking about BlogVault and other plugins. And BlogVault is a plugin that helps you make backups of your website, and it’s one that makes multiple types, and it will handle websites up to a GB in size and more. So it’s a really amazing plugin. Talking to the author, I haven’t had time to test it thoroughly, but I do have faith the author is not completely lying to me. He is telling me the truth. So make sure you go check this one out, it does look interesting. Anything but VaultPress, so go check it out.

If you’d like to be in an interview show, please contact me at wppluginsatoz.com/interviews. If you want to find out more about me, just go check me out at theroguestavern.com, and this is where I’m showcasing all of my adventures on the things that I am doing away from the computer screens.

Well, that’s pretty much everything I’ve got for you. For those of you listening, you want to have any questions, please feel free to dump them into the chat windows or the comment section while the outgoing credits are going, but it is time now for the tequila shot. The show is done. Let my girl take us on out of here.

Reminders for the show: All show notes can be found at wppluginsatoz.com, and while you’re there, subscribe to the newsletter for more useful information directly to your inbox. WP Plugins A-Z is a show that offers honest and unbiased reviews of plugins created by developers because you support the show. Help keep the show honest and unbiased by going to wppluginsatoz.com/donate and set the donation level that fits your budget.

Help us make the show better for you by subscribing and reviewing the show at Stitcher Radio, Google Play, and in the iTunes Store. You can also leave us a review on our Facebook page using wppluginsatoz.com/facebook. You can also watch the show live on YouTube, check out the screencasts and training videos, and remember to subscribe and hit the bell to get notifications of all new videos. Follow the show on Twitter @wppluginsatoz.

John can be reached at his website, JohnOverall.com, or email him directly at john@wppro.ca. Thanks for joining us and have a great day.

Thanks for listening to the show. This show is copyright by JohnOverall.com. So until next time, have yourselves a good morning, good afternoon, or a good evening, wherever you happen to be out there on the globe today.