When setting up a WordPress blog that allows for multiple authors, it seems many people think all that is involved is to setup additional author profiles and/or start accepting guest posts.   Unfortunately, it really isn’t that simple if you want to create a high quality WordPress blog.

Setting up a multi-author WordPress blog may require you to use a number of WordPress plugins to support a variety of functions.   Ideally you’ll also want your theme to be hacked to help maximize the exposure your authors get.   Examples include creating a “Write for Us” page, creating author profile pages, setting your theme to display the author’s profile below their posts, etc.

Multiple Author WordPress Plugins

Here are a couple WordPress plugins that we’ve covered in the past that are ideal for multi-author WordPress blogs:

• Author Exposed – Adds a full featured display of the authors profile.
• Role Manager Plugin – Allows you to control what the various WordPress user roles can and cannot do.

And here are a few other WordPress plugins that you may also have an interest in (we use a few of these here at WordPress Hacks):

• Author Advertising – Plugin that allows you to share Google AdSense income or other advertising between multiple authors.
• Blog Metrics – Collects blog metrics based upon the author of the posts.
• List Authors Widget – Displays a list of authors in your widgets panel linking to the authors.php page.
• Multiple Authors – Allows multiple authors to be listed for an individual WordPress post, automatically keeping track of who has edited the entry.

Multiple Author WordPress Hacks

Here are a few WordPress Hacks we’ve published in the past to help you hack your WordPress theme to be more multi-author friendly:

• How to Add an Author Page to Your Theme
• How to Change the Author Archives Permalink
• How to Single Out Author Comments
• How to Link Author’s Gravatars to Their Posts
• How to Add Bio Information to Your Posts
• How to Point Author Links to the Authors Website
• How to Create a Maximum Size for Your Images
• How to Use Multiple Stylesheets

I’m sure there are also some WordPress plugins or WordPress hacks which aren’t listed above.   Have any multiple author tools or resources you’d like to add to this list?  Let us know in the comments so we can update our post!

Because I’m such a big fan of WordPress, I am always looking for great ways to help out or to give back to the WordPress community.

Awhile ago, one of my ideas was to create a WordPress resource page to spotlight a number of the top WordPress resources available.  Within that list are a quite a few other WordPress blogs, websites, or other WordPress resources which do a lot of the same stuff as we do here at WordPress Hacks.   My hope was that this page would help draw attention to the great work many of those sites are doing and in turn help the WordPress community to grow as a whole.

A few weeks ago, after I announced our new WordPress Forums, I decided the next project I wanted to tackle was to expand this resource idea out into its own stand alone website.   It was with that thought that the WordPress Nexus was born!

What is a Nexus?

According to Wikipedia:

A nexus is a connection or the center of something.

What is WordPress Nexus?

For some reason I’ve always loved the word “Nexus” so I have to say I was really excited when I realized it was the perfect word for the WordPress resource site I wanted to build.

WordPress Nexus is a hub or directory of all the top WordPress resources found around the internet.   Or at least I hope it will be in a few months.    The way it is currently setup, anyone can submit their WordPress resource to the WordPress Nexus directory to get their site included in the index there (it currently does require a reciprocal link).

Why Should I Submit my Resource to WordPress Nexus?

If you’re wondering why you should submit your WordPress blog, forum, business website, etc. to the WordPress Nexus directory, here are a few reasons:

• Make Your WordPress Resource More Findable – The way the website is setup, it will receive a lot of targeted traffic.  This means people will come looking for something specific.   Having your link included will get more of this targeted traffic over to your website over time.
• Quality Inbound Link – Though the site is new right now, over time WordPress Nexus will likely gain a high Google PageRank, making for a quality inbound link to your WordPress resource.

What Type of Resources is WordPress Nexus Looking For?

If you are wondering if your blog or WordPress-related website qualifies to be included in the WordPress Nexus directory, here is what we are looking for:

• WordPress Blogs – Do you run a niche blog that covers WordPress?  If your blog is dedicated to covering WordPress, or primarily devoted to covering WordPress, you’ll want to submit your blog in this category.
• WordPress Designers – Do you offer custom WordPress design or custom coding services?  If you are looking for work, you’ll want to make sure your blog is listed in this category.
• WordPress Forums – Have a WordPress-related forum?  If so, you’ll want to submit your forum to this category.
• WordPress Resources – Have a WordPress resource that isn’t a blog?   You can submit your resource to this category.
• WordPress Social Networks – Have a WordPress voting site or some other type of social website?  You can submit your site to this category.
• WordPress Themes – Are you a WordPress theme author?   You’ll want to list your business website or blog in this category.   It includes a separate section for people offering free themes and people offering premium WordPress themes.

Any other questions about WordPress Nexus?  Feel free to ask them in the comments.  Otherwise go submit your link!

One of the most anticipated new features with WordPress 2.7 is the new core update feature which will automatically update your WordPress installation, removing the tedious process of installing the software yourself or waiting for Fantastico to update with the latest version of WordPress. 

However, this new feature is not necessarily compatible with every web host, so it looks like the WordPress community has created a very nice list of Web Hosts that the Core Update Feature is Compatible With.   It probably won’t affect whether you upgrade or not, but you can check this list to confirm your web host is included.