While I was in the process of developing my custom theme for this site, I was also trying to think of functionality. Not just functionality ensuring that your life as a reader was easier, but also making my life as easy as possible too. In the past I have developed a few custom WordPress themes for non-profit events and fund raisers and implemented them as a complete CMS solution.

There were a great number of things to take into consideration so I turned over to get a refresher on some posts that Michael Gray (aka GrayWolf) came up with regarding creation and maintenance of a WordPress website. In fact the first section I read up on again was how to create and manage a WordPress website where Michael goes into details on various amazing plugins and solutions he uses to get a site setup in the easiest way. I downloaded a large number of the plugin recommendations.

After taking some time to familiarize myself with the various plugins I will say that his list is quite complete. I also came across some other great posts and ideas on his website about different things I might try in the future. Things like removing the date display on posts that are older than X number of days so that they appear more relevant. Or monetizing posts with a Google AdSense block, again that are older than X days. In fact a simple little search on the Wolf Howl website for how to generates a large number of results. Read them.

Links:

• How I Create and Manage a WordPress Website
• Thesis Date Hooks
  Note: This theme is not done using Thesis, but the information in the post is quite relevant.
• Thesis Tutorial: AdSense Section Targeting
• Search: How To

photo credit: Baptigrou