I just got done recording TheSpew.fm podcast with Missy Ward, Karen Garcia and special guest Chris Pearson creator of the Wordpress Thesis Theme. Follow @TheSpew on Twitter to be notified when the episode is produced and uploaded online to listen!

On the show, we talked about various Wordpress Plug-Ins that we recommended.  Chris, on the other hand is “anti-plugin” and stated you don’t need plugins if you use the Thesis Theme from DIYThemes (hint, hint). Chris gasped and had to pull the sword from his chest after I said I currently have 36 plugins activated on my shoe blog (obviously I don’t use Thesis Theme…. as of yet anyway…) 

I picked 8 of the plug-ins I recommend to highlight…

1. Aggregate - Allows you to place the contents of an RSS feed into your posts, pages &/or sidebar.

2. All in One SEO Pack - Out-of-the-box Search Engine Optimization (I actually forgot to mention this one, but Karen brought it up!)

3. Google XML Sitemaps - Generates a Sitemap.xml for search engines (Chris recommends submitting your sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools.)

4. Link Cloaking Plugin - Cloaks outgoing links (ie masks affiliate links). Missy recommended the MaxBlogPress Ninja that Shoemoney has been pimping, so I may have to give that plugin a try.

5. phpBay Lite - Adds eBay auction listings to your posts with just keywords.

6. Post-Plug Library Supports Similar Posts, Recent Posts, Random Posts, and Recent Comments plugins.

7. Subscribe to Comments - Allows readers to receive an email when new comments are posted to an entry. This is the only plugin that Chris recommended!

8. Youtuber - Adds YouTube videos to posts easily.

Other Wordpress Plug-Ins we discussed were…

AdRotator - Rotates Ads (duh)

Adsense Deluxe - Inserts ads into posts

Category Visibility - Post only certain categories (Karen recommends this for “hiding” personal stuff from the main category line up)

Linkshare Link Lookup - Shawn Collins reviewed this.

Do you have a favorite plugin for Wordpress not listed above?  Please leave a comment and tell us!

Missy Ward announced that she is the new affiliate manager for DIYThemes, the home of the Thesis Theme for Wordpress. And the best part, Missy is working on a performance basis, with all the money earned to be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF). WTG, Missy!

The Thesis Theme boasts the strongest SEO of any theme, so I see why Missy herself uses it for her blog, MissyWard.com and loves it.  Lots of other well-known bloggers, such as CopyBlogger and SimpleMom use the Thesis Theme as well. In fact, I think I may purchase it for my shopping blog.

So, improve your website and donate to NBCF at the same time either by purchasing the Thesis Theme for your Wordpress blog or sign up to be an affiliate yourself.  Missy is also offering great incentives, like a free pass to Affiliate Summit East 2009 in NYC (details). See you there! 

At Affiliate Summit East in Boston, ShareASale handed out special “got babies” tees, in which I had my god-daughter, Merin, model for me (isn’t she cute?) I didn’t let her keep the SAS-Boston shirt though, as I have a friend (a fellow Kiwanian) who has a little boy named Boston.  It was too boyish for the little Hannah Montana fan anyway.

I also scored a new black tee, prepackaged as ShareASale’s signature star.  I had Merin hold it in the picture, then washed it before taking my mug shot in it, as opposed to my previous white ShareASale tshirt.  I suggest yellow tees made up for the next run since yellow is their signature color associated with the star logo. And well, I’ve been told yellow is a good color on me.

It was great to see Brian, Carolyn, Sarah and David in Boston! Yes, I missed you Nate. I have yet to meet Michael, Brian’s brother, though.  A couple years ago at an Affiliate Dinner in Chicago, I remember asking Carolyn why Michael never attends functions.  Carolyn had me believing that Michael was a figment of Brian’s imagination - that Brian was really Michael.  And I believed her, as it all made sense why I had never met him! You had me going, Ms. Carolyn!  I guess Michael was in Vegas, but I missed him! Maybe next time?!

Anyway, if you aren’t associated with  ShareASale.com yet as either an affiliate or a merchant, you are missing out!  They are the best network at listening and implementing everyone’s ideas! I got invited to the ShareASale Think Tank 2008 in San Diego next month (last year in Scottsdale was AWESOME), but I am disappointed that I will be unable to attend - my son is a senior football player, and I don’t want to miss the Parent’s Night game!  I will get to see the ShareASale gang earlier that week though as I’ll be in NYC for Affiliate Summit Social Media (ShareASale will be hosting another fabulous party) and SMXE.

On a final note here is the screenshot from ShareASale’s website yesterday in rememberance of 9/11…

ShareASale will be closed for the day of September 11, 2008, in memory of those lives lost, and to honor the heroes from that morning and thousands of other mornings when peace was chosen over war. The events of September 11, 2001 touched millions of us both here in the United States of America, and abroad. For each life that was stolen, a memory and a legacy was left behind to carry - and for those who carry them, life has changed forever. Each year, we close our offices today and we encourage others to take this day in rememberance not only of what was lost, but also in celebration of everything that we have in our lives. The families of victims from that morning would give anything to spend one morning with their loved ones, we encourage you to go out and live today to the fullest that you can. Affiliate Marketing can wait until another day.  We will never forget those who lost their lives, or those who gave their lives in the hope of saving another.

Way to go, ShareASale! And thanks for the shirt/s!

P.S. What do you think of my new Wordpress theme? It’s GenkiTheme (Fixed Width)