As my blog was hacked recently I decided to install the WP-Malwatch plugin.

This is the result of the first scan with this plugin in place and activated:

Very pleased with the initial scan and this will run in the background for me to hopefully ensure that my blog remains safe!

Akismet Plugin

The Akismet plugin is fairly straightforward – it stops spam comments. Lots of people now try and post spurious comments with links back to their own websites and this plugin identifies the worst of them and keeps them off the blog. It’s a little like the spam filter in gmail – you don’t need to go and look you just feel safe.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. This is essential when you first submit your blog to Google using the webmaster tools.

Ultimate Google Analytics

This simply provides you with the Google Analytics of your website visits. GA is very in depth and you can check all sorts of things such as keywords used, serach engines, operating systems and much more.

Easy Privacy Policy

If you are going to put Adsense on your blog then the compliance statement from Google requires that you have a privacy policy. This plugin generates the required information. You just activate the plugin then go to Settings – Easy Privacy Policy and click “Create Privacy Page”. I have just done this so look on my navigation bar and click on the Privacy Policy tab to see what it generates – pretty nifty eh?

Quick Tip: If you look at the bottom of your Privacy Policy page you will see a link to an affiliate of the plugin. To remove this simply deselect the option right at the bottom of the options page – Include a credit link for the Easy Privacy Plugin.

WordPress Database Backup

This is one of the crucial plugins you need just in case anything goes wrong. Install the plugin and activate it. You can then choose how to receive your backup. I do a backup straight away when I set up a blog and then set it to create one weekly. The easiest option for me is to have it sent to my email address which I can access if it is ever needed.

I will add more later today as it is 1.30am here and I am tired out now!

So the first thing I did was remove WordPress using Fantastico and also removed any other files that were left over using file manager so I had a clean install. I then went back into the control panel in Hostgator and performed a clean install of WordPress.

The reason for doing this is the original hack of my blog left some nasty code in the wordpress install so rather than spend hours trying to “clean” the code I started from fresh.

This presented me with the Twenty Ten theme which is the default theme from wordpress.

I need a more flexible and powerful theme that I can use to present information in my own way. The theme I have chosen is a premium theme called Headway.

The next step for me is to delete the Hello World post and comment and remove the Links as I will set up my own later.

The next post will show you the plugins that I use to make my blog super efficient.

The other reason for a fresh new look is that the old blog became cluttered and messy and lacked focus.

This new version is to work more in line with the way I think. I like to help people whenever I can and also love humour so will post jokes and funny stories in the page titled “Jokes and Funny Stories”…hehe.

I thought it would be great to help people who maybe are looking at starting a blog for the first time so will document how I install mine and get it up and running and working properly for me here.

So the next post will be just that, a real time user guide on how I set up a blog myself. I understand that other people may have different methods and that’s fair enough – but my way works for me and I hope it will help you too.

Don’t be shy and leave comments and join in as this is going to be fun!

Have a fantastic xmas and all the best in whatever you choose to do with your life in 2011.