Yeah, it’s definitely recommended you go without the flash background, and try to minimize your plugins after looking at your speed scores.
I have you graded as a 68% (D) on YSlow. Use a tool ilke the p3 plugin profiler to see which plugins are hogging these resources.
Why would you create extra sidebars? You don’t want to smush your content too much; remember, some people still use a 1024 x 768 screen resolution.
I would assume this plugin calls for you to upload your .swf file to your media library, where all your images are (wp-admin >> media >> add new).
Here’s a tutorial on how to add a sidebar to your WordPress theme, however.
Personally, although I wouldn’t use a flying goldfish, if that’s your thing, then you would go into single.php and just above:
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
You’d add:
<?php wp_swfobject_echo(“movie.swf”, “width”, “heigth”); ?>
if your .swf file is called movie.swf. On page.php, it’d be above:
<?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
You’d repeat for index.php, above:
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
And you can always experiment with the placement(s) if you don’t like it/them. To ensure consistency, you could always add your plugin’s php snippet in every one of those php files above the:
<div id=”content” role=”main”>
and see how that looks.
