Not only is this a quick & easy read, but I guarantee you’ll discover at least one trick that you’ll want to implement on your WordPress site.
Insert a Link Shortcut
Geez. How did I miss this shortcut for so long?
The next time you add a link to a post or a page, highlight the text and hit Control – K (Command K on Macs) and the “Insert Link” box will appear like magic.
Bam! 
Highlight Your Recent Content With a “What’s New” Tab
I’m often asked how I setup the “What’s New” tab at the top of my site.
I created this menu item on my navigation to highlight new content since I use my homepage for introductory content that leads to more subscribers and course income.
First create a new category and call it “New” or whatever you’d like.
Be sure to tag all your posts with this category so they’ll automatically show up there.
Then add this to category to your main menu using the Menu editor on WordPress.
Customize The Top of Your Category Pages
This tip goes along with the previous one. If you click on my “What’s New” tab, you’ll notice a gray box at the top of the page that encourages people to join my email list.
I created this promotional box by editing the top of my category page.
If you have a StudioPress theme (affiliate link), this is as easy as clicking on your category and then “Edit Category” from your WordPress dashboard bar that appears when you are logged in.
Once you click “Edit Category”, scroll down to the boxes titled “Archive Headline” and “Archive Intro Text.” This is where you enter your text.
Good news! HTML code is allowed here.
If you don’t have a StudioPress theme, this article will guide you.
Change Your Default Post Category
Because all my posts go into the “New” category (as explained above) I thought it would be convenient to set that category as my Post default.
After all, who wants “Uncategorized” as the default? Not me!
You can easily set your default category to whatever you’d like by going to Settings > Writing.
I was so happy to discover this because I would always forget to change the default Uncategorized category when creating a new post. Problem solved!
How to Display a Code Box
Ever wonder how people created those boxes of code for their readers to copy and paste like this?
<title>Your HTML Title Goes Here</title> <meta name="description" content="Insert Your Meta Description">
Wonder no more!
Install the SyntaxHighlighter Evolved plugin. There are different styles and settings so you can customize the display.
Roll Back Your Plugins
I’ve needed this so often in my blogging life.
Have you ever updated a plugin and something broke or you preferred the previous version?
Install WP Rollback and you can revert any plugin back to a previous edition. You can also roll forward.
Reverse Your Comments From Newest to Oldest
This tip may seem incredibly basic, but have you considered this? …
Showing the oldest comments first (the WordPress default) could actually discourage additional comments.
Say you have an old page or post on your site that still gets a lot of traffic.
If your oldest comments are listed first, it may look as if no one is discussing the topic anymore — especially if your comments are broken up into multiple pages.
However, showing the more recent comments first, will highlight the newer ones, and encourage the discussion to continue.
I made the switch a while back because many articles on my hair site are a few years old, but still get a lot of comments thanks to getting found in Google.
A woman commented on an article and wrote that she was replying even though the discussion is old, but there were actually 10 replies made in the last couple of months.
Because I had the oldest comments first and the new ones were on another page, she missed the latest ones altogether and thought no one was discussing the topic anymore.
Lesson learned. Now I always display newest comments first on my blogs.
You can do this easily by going to Settings >> Discussion and checking the box that says “comments should be displayed with the newer comments at the top of page.”
The other option is to remove dates from comments altogether. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers do this now.
Change Your Optimal Image Sizes
We all tend to have our image size preferences, but did you know that you can tell WordPress what they are and overwrite the defaults?
Go to Settings >> Media to update to set the defaults for thumbnails, large and medium images.
The next time you add images to your content, these sizes will be the default.
Sweet!
Speed Up Your Sluggish Blog by Killing Bloated Plugins
Slow-loading pages are not only a pain for your readers, but it can negatively impact your search engine rankings.
Yes, page speed is one of Google’s 8.7 million page ranking factors. 
But wouldn’t you like to know exactly what’s causing the lag?
Install the Plugin Performance Profiler plugin to find out what plugin is taking up the most resources. Just make sure you delete it after you find the culprit. It’s a resource hog.
Kind of ironic, eh?
Sure, some “bloated” plugins like “Related Posts” (plugins that scan your entire site) are hard to get rid of because they are useful. I just keep these to a minimum.
In fact, I try to keep my active plugin totals around 20 for optimal loading and to minimize security risks.
Also remember not all plugins need to be active at all times. For example, WP Rollback can be deactivated until you are ready to update your plugins.
That’s all folks! Hope you learned something new that you can use.
Hope you’re enjoying your Holiday.
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