If you made the decision to move your WordPress install from shared hosting to a shiny new VPS you should consider optimizing Apache by making some tweaks to your httpd.conf file. Apache is a fast, reliable, and flexible server but is heavy on resources by default. If you are running a small VPS, and using it just for WordPress, you can make some small tweaks to your configuration and get some significant performance gains. read more…

While developing for WordPress you sometimes need to create a “non-widgetized” custom sidebar. You would also like to have a list of your most recent posts in that custom sidebar. Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t have a “recent posts” template tag.

Here is a simple, easy to implement PHP file you can use to generate a list of recent posts in your custom “non-widgetized” sidebar. read more…