I love WordPress. I use it for writing, storage, podcasting, blogging, and website creation. Without it, my life wouldn’t be complete, so I decided to share the wealth with you and show you how I use it.

Install

When I first install WordPress using Dreamhost’s One-click feature (it takes me two seconds to install it), I make sure to do several things. The first is to create a new user account, and to delete the admin account. When I delete the admin account, it also lets me delete all the pages and posts created by the account, a nice way to wipe the blog of unnecessary place holders.

Then, I grab the RSS feed of the WordPress blog I just created and create a Feedburner address so I can track subscribers. When that’s done, (if it’s a blog), I create a Twitter account with the name of the blog and use Twitterfeed to create a Twitter account with the RSS.

I also edit the Feedburner to track everything, activate the email subscription and Pingshot which lets users recieve updates faster.

Finally, I put all my subscription work together in a handy linked up text widget on the sidebar of my WordPress, with links to subscribe via Twitter, email and RSS.

Plugins

Plugins are indeed one of the flagships of WordPress. Dare I say it, thousands of wonderful plugins help customize your WordPress to be the best. Here are some of my favorite plugins:

• FD Feedburner- Very simply lets you redirect your blog feed to your Feedburner.
• WP-Supercache- Honestly, I really don’t know much about what this does, but I do know that it makes my blog faster.
• WordPress Database Backup- Emails you WordPress backups.
• Backupify- Another excellent WordPress backup solution.
• TweetMeme Retweet Button- A button that lets readers share a post on Twitter.
• Page Links To- Thanks to Neal Tucker for this gem, which lets you have links on the page navigation to other urls.
• WordPress.com Stats- Oh, what a great tool. This shows you in almost realtime how many visitors you receive.
• Podpress- What I use to create podcasts.
• Google Analytics for WordPress- This tool makes it very easy to set up Google Analytics for your WordPress.
• Broken Link Checker- Alerts you when a link goes sour.
• Favicons- Very easily add a favicon to your site.
• Akismet- Attempts to rid you of comment spam.
• Add From Server- On those occasions when WordPress doesn’t let you upload a file because of its size, this plugin is there for you.

Themes

• Lone Iguana- I use Oulipo, for the simplicity and font.
• Squealing Rat: The Word- For this, I use Punchcut, a well defined theme.
• Stretching Cow- This veryplaintxt theme really seems to suit the color choice and content of the site.
• Vulture Wit- Gormspace with colors that really suit the blog, and lines that help define it.

I could go on and list more of my favorite themes, but instead I’ll let you browse the magnificent library of WordPress themes and find the ones you love the most. That’s what I did.

What are your favorites of WordPress? Let us know in the comments!

The writer of this post compiles the latest tech news and more at Squealing Rat, and writes about tricks and tips of deception, trickery and survival at Lone Iguana. Find him on Twitter.