I use and trust the following WordPress Plugins:

• Akismet – Number one with a bullet, used on every single one of my WordPress installations to control comment spam.
• Blubrry PowerPress – Turns WordPress into a podcasting machine.
• MobilePress – Like WPtouch (below) but works for a broader selection of mobile web devices.
• Add To Any – Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.  Replaced Sociable (below) as my social bookmarking plugin of choice.
• Sociable – Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.
• µAudio Player – Allows people to play MP3 media directly from the browser.
• WordTwit – The rather unfortunately named “WordTwit” keeps track of when you publish new posts, and automatically informs all followers by pushing out a Twitter tweet. All links are automatically converted to tiny URLs to save space. Most users see a substantial increase in blog traffic after tweeting their posts on a frequent basis.
• WP Easy Uploader – Easily upload any type of content without the need for FTP. You can even upload plugin and theme archives and have the files automatically extract into the plugin or theme folder.  [This is now obsolete with newer versions of WordPress]
• WPtouch iPhone Theme – Turns any WordPress site into iPhone app when viewed by an iPhone.
• SI CAPTCHA – A CAPTCHA to protect comment posts and or registrations in WordPress.  Between this and Akismet I’ve been able to turn off the requirement for people to register before commenting.

Why?  I’ll give you Because x 3:

1. Because I do web design and content editing for a living as my day job.  I don’t have time to do a bunch of tedius redesign after hours.
2. Because, basically, I’m a writer.  I write content.  I love design and yes I could tinker endlessly with CSS, etc., but it’s not my main love.  In my after-hours life I need to focus on my main love.
3. Because Tarski is one of the best themes out there, is very simple, is very easy to customize, and is well supported.  I’ve used it on this site, as well as a few others, for quite a while now with no problems (knock on wood).  I trust it.

If, after you’ve updated your WordPress installation and you suddenly notice a lot of strange characters (such as ‘Â’ etc.) scattered through your text, here’s a fix that might help.  At least, it helped for me.

On your website, find the file called wp-config.php and make a backup copy of it.  What I do is make a copy and name it wp-config.php.bak.

Bring wp-config.php up in a text editor and delete the line that reads:

define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);

Save the file, put it back on your website, and view your pages.  With any luck at all, all those strange characters disappear from your posts.

If it doesn’t work, put your original copy back and start searching the WordPress help forums.

Good luck!

I’ve been saying for over a year now that I should open up a third section of GroovyBrew.com for tea reviews, and so this weekend I went ahead and did it.  GroovyBrew Tea is live.

All you tea lovers out there, check it out!

And I feel stupid for blogging at all on any of my sites about that lame Bigfoot body hoax.  Somebody please whack those guys upside the head with a shovel … and put it on YouTube so we can all watch and feel better about the whole mess?

I’m doing all this in WordPress, by the way.  I have used all sorts of content management systems, and have put together a lot of my pages in straight HTML (which rocks by the way) but finally, in the end, WordPress wins out hands down over everything.  And my new, most favorite theme for it is Tarski.  It’s a true one-size-fits-all type theme that comes with the built-in ability to easily customize it so that your site doesn’t look like every other site out there, even though you’re using the same theme.

Brilliant.  Simple and brilliant.  Just like WordPress.

Another site of mine I went and tweaked is the subdomain http://fiction.jjdavis.net.  I added a new graphic for the banner, which was scanned from a invitation to an Atlantian Party during Marti Gras back in the early 30′s.  It has a very cool pulp sci-fi feel to it that always inspired me when I was growing up.  What it replaced was a uber high contrast photo I’d taken of a statue while in Helsinki — while being kind of cool, it didn’t really say anything about my fiction, nor did it ever really feel right.

That’s the beauty of publishing on the web.  It never actually goes to print.  You can always go back and tweak it.

Which I seem to constantly be doing.

Mine sprang from several things:

• I’m a writer and I’m endlessly writing.
• I have a lot of interests.
• One of my interests and passions is putting together websites.

Mix those three and what you get is what you see here.  I created a website for everything I have a passionate interest in, and so when I suddenly feel inspiration to write about one of these interests, I have a place to publish it.

Each domain name costs less than $10 a year.  The website hosting, through Zz Hosting, costs $8.50 a month and houses all the domains, all the websites, and gives me unmetered bandwidth.  Google Adsense ads on some of the websites generates enough income that it covers all the expenses and then some.

That’s all there is to it.

JerryJDavis.com, formally JJDavis.net (both will work) is basically my marketing website.  Marketing, well, me … or at least my writing, and also my photography.  I have all sorts of short stories and flash fiction posted there.  Free!  And if you like it, please go buy my novel.

WriterCam.com is a webcam where you can occasionally watch me writing when I’m not feeling antisocial.  This has been in continuous operation in various forms since 1997, and was once featured in a Sunday section of the Dallas Morning News.  The only reason I set it up is because I’d read about JenniCam (anyone remember her and her website?) and I had a very early version of a webcam that I got as a beta tester for Intel.

MojoWriter.com is my blog about writing.

GroovyMojo.com is about creativity, battling fear mongering, finance, health, humor, psychology, romance, technology, weird stuff, and yummy food.  The site’s motto is:  “Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.”

GroovyBrew.com is about beer and coffee.  Someday it may be about tea as well.

GroovyGizmo.com is about gadgets and gizmos, which I always find fascinating.

MojoLizard.com is about lizards and herpetology in general.  I have always thought lizards are the coolest creatures.  They’re the closest we have to dinosaurs and dragons – and I love dinosaurs and dragons, too.

Dark Energy Speculative Fiction (DarkEnergySF.com) – this site is actually closing down, but it’s still currently available as an archive of a lot of wonderful stories by very talented writers.  I started it mainly to learn the editing side of the business, and it was also an experiment to see if context sensative ads would work to support a fiction magazine that actually paid its authors.  Alas, this part of the experiment failed.  I never even broke even with this one.

QuantumKiss.com – Partnered with my friend Bill, this is one of the best places online to find romantic speculative fiction.  I merely publish, and Bill and Mary Jo edit.

PodGroovy.com – Still in the experimental stage, this is where I plan to host podcasts.