All Entries in the "Wordpress & WP Plugins" Category
3 Social Services That Are A Must For Your Blog
If you blog for your business then I’d recommend the following three social media services at a very minimum:
- StumbleUpon
With Facebook, you can have your blog posts automatically filtered through your Facebook profile so that your fans can read each post from Facebook. Your fans that are avid Facebook users are more likely to visit your blog through Facebook than any other service, even an RSS feed. Using Facebook in conjunction with Twitter is a very valuable combination. Install Twitter Tools plugin into WordPress so that your blog posts automatically post to Twitter. And you can create your Facebook settings to sync with Twitter so that every time either your Facebook status or Twitter status changes then they are both updated. So that blog post you just made that suddenly updates your Twitter status also updates your Facebook status. Powerful! Instant promotion to all of your fans on both services.
StumbleUpon should be used for its traffic possibilities. There is no automation for SU, but you can submit your content to StumbleUpon and share it with a handful of friends. If it is content worth reading then they will vote on it and share it with their friends. For many bloggers, StumbleUpon is the highest or second highest source of traffic.
The Weakness Of Twitter Tools
We’ve talked about Twitter on this blog a couple of times in the last couple of weeks.
Friday we talked about a WordPress plugin called Twitter Tools. We recommend it despite some prejudice against automation where Twitter is concerned. But I do agree with Michael Martine’s analysis for the most part.
I like Twitter Tools because you can still develop relationships like Michael is talking about and still use Twitter Tools to automate your blog post Twitters. Since you will likely tweet your blog posts anyway, why not use a tool that does that for you? As long as you do not do it excessively then you aren’t really spamming, and as long as you are using Twitter the way it is meant to be used beyond your automated Twitter post, then I’d say Twitter Tools is a good thing.
But it does have one weakness (which is actually a strength). You can only automate three blogs under one account. Yes, there is a limit – and I’m not sure if it’s a Twitter Tools limit or a Twitter limit, but there is a three blog limit. Don’t try to automate all 50 blogs that you own. It won’t work.
So I recommend using Twitter the way you would normally use it, but add Twitter Tools to your WordPress plugin list and automate your blog posts. That way, you don’t forget to tweet them and they are Twittered every day. Plus, since you are interacting with others and being social in addition to the automation, and you aren’t automatically adding friends because you are doing it manually, it shouldn’t be an annoyance to other Twitterers. Uh, I mean Twits.
An Archives Plugin You’ll Love
I’ve seen several WordPress themes where the sidebar archives link is broken. My back up for such situations is to download the SRG Clean Archives plugin from iDunzo. In fact, I’ve got a copy that I keep on my hard drive in case I need it.
The SRG Clean Archives is a useful plugin that you can use to an archive to your sidebar or as a page in your WordPress blog. I like to add the page as it’s quick and easy. You just copy and past the code into the page text box and click “Publish.” Instant success.
Of course, to do it that way, you’ll need to delete the archives link from your sidebar. Otherwise, the broken link will still be there. But if you want to ensure that your users can find your archives, keep the archives in the sidebar but change the link destination to your newly created Archives page. That way, if your users do look in the sidebar for your archives, which is where it would normally be located, then they can click on the link and it will take them to the Archives page.
The Archives page is very well organized and your archives will be created immediately. You can organize it by category or by month and year. You can even localize the language. After activating the plugin you build the page and hit “Publish” then everyone in the world can see your Archives. If you need an archive on your blog then I highly recommend the SRG Clean Archives plugin from iDunzo.
Should You Use DDAddSig In Your Blog?
DDAddSig is a WordPress plugin that adds a signature link to the bottom of all of your blog posts. Is it worth it to install this plugin?
First, before answering that question, let me tell you the positives and the negatives. First, the positives:
- A signature at the bottom of your blog posts can help you brand your blog in unique ways
- With DDAddSig, the signature will appear automatically in every post you write
- You can even include links in your signature
- You can include graphics too
- Easy to install, easy to use, and you can turn it off in a snap
Now, the negatives:
- You can’t customize your signature from post to post
- Once you start it you must keep it or you’ll lose all of your signatures on every post
- Deactivating it takes away the signature on every post
DDAddSig is a powerful WordPress plugin. But if you want to install it yourself then it’s a decision you will have to make yourself, but here are some ways that you can use it if you do:
If you don’t want to link to your website from your blog in the posts but you want the flexibility of changing your signature links down the road so that you can promote a different site then it’s a good plugin. If you want to brand your blog long term then it’s a good plugin. Those are two good uses that I’ve used it for myself and I’d recommend it if you fit into either of these categories.
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