3 Features that Make Jetpack WordPress Plugin a Must-Have for Any Self-Hosted WordPress Blog

Posted in WordPress Plugins with 75 Comments

Launch your self-hosted blog to new heights!

[This post is part of the Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog series.]

WordPress recently announced a very neat service and WordPress Plugin that you will definitely need to install and use: Jetpack!

It enables many features on your self-hosted WordPress blog that have been typically available only to the WordPress.com folks (read more about the differences between the two here).

I’ve been spending the last week testing out some of the features and I’m now very confident that it’s a must-have for your blog. Here are a few things that I especially like:

1. The updated version of WordPress.com Stats is sweet! No longer are you using a Flash-based reporting system!

Even more advanced features!

There are even more features available and stats are much easier to read. Please note that this takes the place of your current WordPress.com Stats Plugin so you’ll want to deactivate that one for this updated one!

I mention the need for Analytics on your blog here as well as WP Stats being one of the top WordPress Plugins I always install on every blog here.

2. Advanced Gravatar functionality in your comment section is pretty neat! You can hover over gravatar-enabled commenters and see more info about them. Try it on any post here on this blog! Make sure you get one if you haven’t (and then update it)!

Sweet new features for Gravatars!

3. Sharing is now even easier with Sharedaddy functionality! Here’s a brief overview video that’ll give you the details:

Bonus!

4. Custom Contact Forms are now available! I blogged about this here but this is a super-awesome addition to an already-great plugin!

Wow!

 

And more! Those are just some of the new features available that you’ll want to check out. Again, I put this on the “must-have” list of WordPress Plugins, so go get it today: Jetpack.me!

[This post is part of the Ultimate Guide to Launching a WordPress-Powered Blog series.]

First Published on March 15, 2011 in WordPress Plugins.
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75 Responses to “3 Features that Make Jetpack WordPress Plugin a Must-Have for Any Self-Hosted WordPress Blog”

  1. Tim Graves March 15, 2011 at 10:25 AM #

    That is sweet. I will definitely be grabbing this plugin for my sites today =D

    Reply
  2. Keiki Hendrix March 15, 2011 at 10:25 AM #

    Downloading this one now. A kind thank you for letting us know.

    Reply
  3. Matt Carlisle March 15, 2011 at 10:26 AM #

    John,

    How does JetPack integrate with Standard Theme?

    Reply
  4. Adam March 15, 2011 at 10:29 AM #

    I was wondering what your thoughts on this would be. Thanks for sharing. I will add it to the things going into the blog update :)
    Love the look of the new stats. Refreshing.

    Reply
  5. Ashley Pichea March 15, 2011 at 10:32 AM #

    Not related, but do you know why my RSS Feed might be feeding only partial feeds instead of full feeds when I have full feed selected?

    Reply
  6. Ben March 15, 2011 at 11:22 AM #

    I noticed the media-embed is now automatic, but is there a way to get it to recognize and do auto-width like we used to be able to? Or are we stuck with adding the “&w=570″ after each youtube url?

    Reply
    • Ben March 15, 2011 at 11:32 AM #

      Also curious why the Sharedaddy’s “Like” button for facebook won’t show up on the bottom of posts. I know I can add it to the slider, but maybe I don’t want it there :-p

      Reply
      • John Saddington March 15, 2011 at 12:02 PM #

        perhaps it’s because you’re using a FB plugin already with your share widget? are you having any cacheing?

        Reply
    • John Saddington March 15, 2011 at 12:02 PM #

      ben,

      i shared this here:

      http://tentblogger.com/embed-videos-wordpress/

      automatically!

      Reply
      • Ben March 15, 2011 at 8:15 PM #

        Yeah, that’s what I was talking about. I think WP’s been updated since so the auto-embeds don’t work anymore using your tutorial. Jetpack has the “shortcode embed” which almost works, but you have to add the extra code after.

        Reply
        • Ben March 15, 2011 at 8:33 PM #

          I’m probably just doing it wrong, here’s the link to the post with the video I’m trying to auto-embed: http://goo.gl/Owrk0

          Video link is at the bottom, and you’ll notice it’s not a clickable link.

          Reply
          • John Saddington March 16, 2011 at 11:09 AM #

            that’s really odd… the video seems to be able to be embedded… and that’s how I still do embeds.

            Reply
  7. JD Eddins March 15, 2011 at 11:26 AM #

    Thanks for sharing, I’m checking it out right now!

    Reply
  8. Kyle Reed March 15, 2011 at 12:51 PM #

    I cannot get the new stats stuff to work with jetpack.
    It says that a plugin might be messing with it, but I have deactivated all of them and still saying it is triggering a fatal error.
    Anyone else having this problem?

    Reply
    • John Saddington March 15, 2011 at 1:00 PM #

      uninstall/delete wp-stats and any of the other plugins that jetpack has. clear cache, disconnect to wordpress.com/api, and then re-install/re-activate plugin from scratch.

      Reply
  9. Joseph Waldrop March 15, 2011 at 1:28 PM #

    Downloading! Thanks John for the great information! Your the best!

    Reply
  10. Roseli A. Bakar March 15, 2011 at 12:50 PM #

    Thanks for sharing my Gravatar image. Cool. Thanks John :)

    Reply
  11. Dustin W. Stout March 15, 2011 at 3:52 PM #

    if I delete wp.com stats to activate Jetpack, will it lose all my previous data?

    also i noticed that you’re not using the share functionality. is it redundant when using standard theme?

    Reply
    • John Saddington March 15, 2011 at 4:15 PM #

      no, it’ll be moved over since it’s the same service. and yes, don’t need it since i’m using standard, but it’s awesome for those that don’t have it!

      Reply
  12. Henry Zonio March 15, 2011 at 7:06 PM #

    Awesome plugin! I installed it and it works great. I love having the WP stats!

    Reply
  13. Jeremy Myers March 15, 2011 at 8:26 PM #

    Hmmm…there is really nothing in here that I am not already using through another plugin. I guess it’s nice to have them all in one plugin though…

    Reply
  14. ThatGuyKC March 15, 2011 at 10:13 PM #

    I just installed JetPack and am liking so far. I saw some chatter about it elsewhere on the interwebs, but was waiting for you to weigh in.

    Reply
  15. Rich Dixon March 16, 2011 at 6:48 AM #

    I’m getting a message that there’s a glich in connecting with wp.com. I’ve deactivated all other plugins–no luck. Ideas?

    Reply
    • John Saddington March 16, 2011 at 11:23 AM #

      try again. try deactivating everything and reinstalling jetpack, re-authenticating, etc.

      Reply
  16. Adam March 16, 2011 at 8:21 AM #

    Having some issue with stats. Sometimes they work and sometimes it says failed to authenticate wordpress.com API. You seen anything like that?

    Reply
  17. Keiki Hendrix March 16, 2011 at 9:42 AM #

    Installed
    this first thing. I love it. Especially since I just moved from .com to .org

    Reply
  18. Jeremy Myers March 16, 2011 at 3:32 PM #

    Hate to say it, but this plugin really screwed up my blog. First, I had all the API problems that others are having. Then, after an hour of web searching, got that fixed. Then, I was having problems replying to comments. It wouldn’t allow me to quick reply from the back end.

    So I uninstalled it, and now I’m getting error messages all over the place in my back end. Oh, and I’m using the Standard Theme.

    I don’t know how you got it working….

    Reply
    • Jeremy Myers March 16, 2011 at 3:48 PM #

      Update (for any other users having the same problems). I reinstalled Jetpack, and this removed the warnings. Then I started deactivating the various modules in Jetpack. The culprit on my blog seems to have been the Gravatar Cards. It was restricting me from quick replying from within the comment section of the WordPress back end. All back to normal now.

      Reply
  19. Calum Henderson March 17, 2011 at 6:45 AM #

    Another great tip John!

    Reply
  20. Rick Smith March 25, 2011 at 6:39 PM #

    Bam…installing now!

    Reply
  21. dspickett April 13, 2011 at 6:52 AM #

    Looks like a great plugin – really useful! :) Good find! Particularly like the fact it groups everything together.

    Reply
  22. Rich Langton May 20, 2011 at 3:58 AM #

    Just discovered this post and Jetpack….can’t believe I missed this one. The stats alone make Jetpack well worth the install. Thanks!!

    Reply
  23. Matt May 22, 2011 at 5:15 AM #

    Hello John,

    Thanks for this awesome series and this post.

    I didn’t know about Jet Pack until I read this article and as result I just installed it on my blog.

    I see how Gravatar Hover cards could be really neat but do this conflict with comment plugins such as http://www.disqus.com ?

    On that note what do you think of Disqus for comment managment, I see your not using it so that might say someting ;)

    Would love to read your thoughts on this.

    Reply
    • John Saddington May 22, 2011 at 1:31 PM #

      obviously i don’t use disqus so you know where i stand! i’ll write a longer post on this soon.

      Reply
  24. Melanie June 28, 2011 at 10:14 AM #

    Hm, I like the look of jetpack! I’m going to try it out, but are you saying it displays social buttons cleanly? That’s a problem I’ve had with the social plugin I’m trying now.

    Thanks for the heads-up about jetpack.

    Reply
  25. Tom Jamieson July 12, 2011 at 4:37 PM #

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Just installed in at http://pastorhelper.net

    :)

    Reply
  26. kasey September 14, 2011 at 3:57 AM #

    Everytime I try to download jetpack it asks me to sign in using my wordpress login but I’m confused is the same login I use to enter my wordpress blog.

    Because I enter the login I use to access my site but each time it says that it is incorrect.

    Please help!

    Reply
  27. Sally Brown September 26, 2011 at 6:21 PM #

    Hi John,

    I’ve added the Jetpack. I can’t seem to make the ‘share’ settings to show up. Otherwise, it is good. I already have a ‘share and follow’ plugin, but even if I disable it, the one for Jetback doesn’t show up.

    I like the ‘share and follow’ one so I’ll stick with it. Let me know if I need to eliminate the ‘share and follow’ plugin all together to make the other one work. Thanks for the post. Sally

    Reply
  28. Jon Owen September 30, 2011 at 2:05 AM #

    Hey John,

    Are you having any troubles with Jetpack? Have you heard of anyone else having problems?

    Sharedaddy is not working correctly. I can’t get it to show up on current posts, only past ones.

    WordPress Stats not working AT ALL.

    By the way, I’m using Standard Theme.

    Reply
    • John Saddington September 30, 2011 at 9:41 PM #

      there have been some issues… but most of them have been addressed. do you have caching?

      Reply
  29. Louis October 16, 2011 at 7:24 PM #

    Hi john

    i don’t really know where to ask my question so i take a guess here.

    i want to know wich sharebar plugin do you use and how you configure it

    i try a lot but don’t find one like yours

    thanks friend

    louis

    Reply
  30. Thelma Bowlen February 15, 2012 at 2:47 PM #

    WordPress Dummy question! Do I need a separate corporate WP.com login for this if I set it up on the company WP.org blog since I don’t want to link it to my personal WP.com credentials? I’m guessing the answer is “yes” but I had to ask to be sure… Thanks!

    Reply
    • Dustin February 15, 2012 at 9:01 PM #

      Yes, Thelma. What I do is create a new wp.com login for every wp.org install just so I can set up a unique Jetpack installation.

      Reply
  31. Brian M. Curran March 30, 2012 at 8:41 AM #

    I installed Jetpack and “Configured” the “Gravatar Hovercards”, but no dice. Any suggestions on how to get it to work?

    Reply

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