While reading about this tip by Paul, I started to wonder if Post Revisions were tied to auto saves because if they were, decreasing the auto save time would substantially increase the number of post revisions which in turn, would substantially increase the size of the database over time. After performing some simple tests, I discovered that auto saves are NOT tied to Post Revisions. Unlike Post Revisions, there is only one auto save that is continuously over written. Also, Post Revisions are only created after the user saves the post either as a draft or an edit to an existing post. Just some food for thought.

Also on the topic of WordPress and consultants, I had the chance to interview Jacob Goldman in episode 81 of WordPress Weekly. We talked about what it’s like to do consultancy work around WordPress, some of the new features in WordPress 2.9, and his role in WordCamp Boston slated for January 23rd.

If you are a consultant, I’m interested in reading any tips you may have in addition to the ones listed in the article I linked to in order to go above and beyond for your clients.

Here is a sample for you to chew on:

Tip #1: If you are expecting a Digg Front Page you are likely to exceed your current limit of maximum concurrent MySQL connections which is among the prime reasons a site failing a Digg traffic spike.

You can prepare by increasing this number to about 250 using this line in the config file.

max_connections = 250

Check out the full list here (10 Best Tips For WordPress Optimization)

WordPress Search as a custom Google Search without addition page or post: Add a custom Google Search to your WordPress blog (and make search advertising dollars?) without too much of a hassle. Complete instructions and examples are included in the post.

Create a Flash Arcade site using WordPress: This set of instructions will help you convert a simple WordPress blog into a Flash arcade site. Pretty cool with detailed instructions on the transition.

Here is a tip which I stumbled upon accidentally, that is somewhat unrelated to WordPress. Visit a NYTimes page such as a news item and double click on a single word. You will need a free registration to view that page or have to be logged in if you are registered already. The javascript file that adds the functionality in question is copyrighted to Answers.com and I wonder if a WordPress plugin exists for the same.

1. Changing the permalink structure
2. Change the default theme
3. Update your ping services
4. Activate the akismet plugin
5. Burn your feed with FeedBurner
   

One item that I would add to this list is to figure out which stats program or service to use. You can use WordPress.com Stats which is a detailed stats plugin or you can use something like Google Analytics or MINT. One thing that I wish I could do if I could start over would be to integrate one of these nice statistical packages as they really come in handy down the road.

Jason mentions that this is only the first in a series of articles which will cover various things that you might want to tweak as you go along with using WordPress.

Although this short and quick guide is great for newcomers to WordPress, what about those who have established blogs? If you could go back in time and change the way or ways in which you began to use WordPress, what would those changes be?

If you visit the MyCroft page on Mozdev.org you’ll notice a number of links that you can click on. Each one of these links are a search engine plugin that was coded for FireFox. What this means is that, you can add WordPress specific search engines to the search engine tool bar within FireFox which is usually occupied by Google by default.

In order to install a SE plugin, simply click on the link that represents the search engine you want to have installed. For example, if you want the WordPress Codex to be one of the search engines within FireFox, click on the WordPress Codex plugin name. Upon clicking on the plugin name, FireFox will ask you if you would like to add the search engine to the list of search engines available in the search bar. Clicking the ADD button will add that specific SE to the list of choices within the search bar.

This tip has been an awesome time saver. Not only can I quickly answer questions in the chat room, but it is more convenient to search the plugin repository from within my browser than to actually search from the actual page.