What I Do To Run A Profitable Website
How _AskDaveTaylor.com_ Runs a Profitable Website
Automation for the win
E-mail = neccessary
Dealing with stupid spammers
Beware the allure of plugins
Having said that, though, I will also admit that I am plugin-averse from a WordPress perspective. I believe that the more plugins used, the greater the chance of being hacked and of having unexpected interactions that can break things or otherwise make your happy little digital world much darker.
As a result, I always discourage people from adding yet another plugin to their site for minimal value. My must-have plug-ins are: Akismet, [Google Analytics](https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/), [Gravity Forms](https://www.gravityforms.com/), [Login LockDown](https://wordpress.org/plugins/login-lockdown/), and [Yoast SEO](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/). I also have my latest YouTube video from the [AskDaveTaylor](https://www.youtube.com/askdavetaylor) channel featured on the pages with the YouTube Channel plugin, but that’s about all I’m running. Less is more.
That’s about it for the backend of my site, actually. I write posts directly in the WordPress default editor, I use the great Mac program [GraphicConverter](https://www.lemkesoft.de/en/products/graphicconverter/) for all my image editing, cropping, doctoring (masking phone numbers in screen captures, etc) and resizing, and I read hundreds of different sites to keep up on my industry, mostly through [Feedly](https://feedly.com/) since Google shut down its RSS reader.
Of course, as most of you already know, I am an avid Ezoic user as well. This has proven to benefit just about every aspect of my site. Ezoic helps me test and optimize different parts of my site automatically — improving UX, SEO, and revenue. In my opinion, it’s a mainstay for all digital publishers who care about user experiences. You can [sign-up to try it here](https://svc.ezoic.com/join.php).
Questions about specific aspects of my site management approach? Please ask ‘em in the comments and I’ll let you know!