12 of the Best Social WordPress Plugins
I have used WordPress to develop multiple sites and have found that there seems to be a plugin for almost anything you can think of. Having spent hours searching the web for the most useful plugins out there, I have come across some gems. However, instead of just list a bunch of plugins that I think every WordPress site should have, I decided to brake them up into categories. This particular post relates to the best social WordPress plugins available (at least that I have came across so far). And by social, I mean plugins that will allow and ask your readers interact with with the site and keep up to date about what is going on there. If you see any missing below that you have come across and found useful, please share by commenting below. If screenshots were available with the plugin, I used those. If not, I created my own real quick so you could see how they are used.
blippr
From wordpress.org:
Enhance your blog with ratings and reviews from blippr.com. Simply install the plugin and your content will automatically be scanned and enriched with the blippr plugin (don’t worry, we don’t change your actual posts – you can turn it off at any time by disabling the plugin).
Example:
digg digg
From wordpress.org:
Integrate “Digg”,”Reddit”,”dZone”,”Yahoo Buzz”,”TweetMeme(twitter)”, “fbshare(facebook)” and “Polladium” Into WordPress Content
Example:
disqus comment system
From wordpress.org:
Disqus, pronounced “discuss”, is a service and tool for web comments and discussions. The Disqus comment system can be plugged into any website, blog, or application. Disqus makes commenting easier and more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion community.
Example:
microkid’s related posts
From wordpress.org:
This plugin makes it super easy to manually select related posts. You can search and select posts that fit your criteria, all from within the write/edit post screen.
Example:
referrer detector
From wordpress.org:
This plugin displays a greeting message to visitors that come from different urls (known as referrers). For example, you may want to welcome Diggers with a message that reminds them to digg your story, or you may want to ask Del.icio.us users to bookmark your post, and so on.
Not only about a cool greeting box, it greatly helps to more efficiently interacts with your readers and build a better relationship between you (your website) and them.
Example:
sexybookmarks
From wordpress.org:
Though the name may be a little “edgy” for some, SexyBookmarks has proven time and time again to be an extremely useful and successful tool in getting your readers to actually submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites. Our sole aim was to stray away from the “in the box” thinking behind most social bookmarking plugins, and add a little flair that would entice your readers, rather than deterring them with microscopic icons that get lost in pages heavy laden with content.
Example:
subscribe2
From wordpress.org:
Subscribe2 provides a comprehensive subscription management and email notification system for WordPress blogs that sends email notifications to a list of subscribers when you publish new content to your blog.
Example:
twitter widget
From wordpress.org:
Adds a sidebar widget to display Twitter updates (uses the Javascript Twitter ‘badge’)
Example:
wp cumulus
From wordpress.org:
WP-Cumulus allows you to display your site’s tags, categories or both using a Flash movie that rotates them in 3D. It works just like a regular tags cloud, but is more visually exciting. Clicking the tags can be a little hard (depending on your speed setting) but does take you to the appropriate page :).
Example:
wordpress 2 ping.fm
From wordpress.org:
Links and integrate your WordPress account to Ping.fm. Once linked, the plugin will update all your social networks every time you publish a post. You can customize the look of your pings, send custom pings, and set rules for which posts you want to notify your social networks about. This is la creme de la creme of social network plugins, created by people who just happen to specialize in communication and social networks. You will need a Ping.fm account and an application key to use this plugin, which you can get for free at http://ping.fm
Example:
wp-email
From lesterchan.net:
Allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog’s post/page to a friend.
Example:
newsletter or wp email capture
Both of these plugins allow you to capture email addresses and then to send out newsletters to those who sign up. I currently use newsletter, but both have their benefits. It would be nice to combine the two! Visit each of the links above to see more details about them.
Example:
Google to Include Twitter Updates in Search Results
According to the official Google blog and Google’s Vice President of Search Products, Marissa Mayer, Google plans on including real-time updates like those on Twitter in their search results. In fact, she specifically mentions that they have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates. From what I can tell so far, these search results will show up like the image, video and news results do now.
This is definitely going to create a huge movement for companies and Internet marketers to get on Twitter and start using it if they have not been already. However, just like having your own website does not mean you automatically get on the first page of Google, having your own Twitter page and posting updates does not mean this will automatically happen either. The same techniques used to get your site ranked organically will most likely need to be implemented, but I’ll bet the results will be much quicker. 🙂
Anxiously awaiting more information…
A True Startup & Affiliate Marketing Success Story – Mint.com
Watch the video below to see how Aaron Patzer, the CEO of Mint, took an idea he had, built and funded a profitable business around it, and then sold it for $170M in just over three years! This guy took affiliate marketing to the next level. Mint.com is a free online personal finance management service (which I have been using for over a year). One of the first questions I had when I signed up was “how can this be free?” as it was the best personal finance solution I had come across yet. Then I noticed how affiliate offers were cleverly integrated throughout the site. Being an affiliate myself, I could see right away how this company was making money. However, the way they were doing it was genius. There was really no sales involved. Because Mint imports a user’s banking information, Mint is able to know what rates and services their users are getting and then suggest other services that would save them money. If a user happens to sign up for one of these offers, then Mint gets the affiliate commission. So it is a “win win” for both Mint and the customer. The thing I admire most about Aaron was that he not only had the idea, but really took action to see that it turned into a reality. When I first logged into Mint and saw what he was doing, I kicked myself for not thinking of something like this, but to be honest, even if I had the idea I am not sure that I would have followed it through like Aaron. Check out his story below.
Best Web Hosting for WordPress
If you know even a little about me or take a quick look at the sites I have developed, you will quickly notice that I build most my websites on the WordPress platform. Many use WordPress just for blogging, but I have found it to be a simple, yet powerful content management system with near endless possibilities.
Because I build so many sites using WordPress, I have had to learn what kind of server is required to run it and how to set them up quickly. So if you are looking to build a WordPress site and are wondering where the best place to host it is… you actually have a lot of options. Basically, you want to host in on a Linux server with a host that uses cPanel as their back end control panel.
Although you have many choices when is comes to choosing the best company to host your WordPress site, let me tell you what has worked extremely well for me. I use a company called HostGator to hosts my sites. Their ‘Baby’ package has met my needs so far and I actually host most of my domains under that one account. I do not actually use HostGator to purchase or manage my domains, I use GoDaddy to do that. I then make sure I sign up for the Linux plan (not the Windows plan) and I am good to go. Out of the couple of hosting providers I have worked with in the past, HostGator has been the fastest when it comes to processing requests. I can point my domain name system (DNS) settings to HostGator and almost immediately login to my control panel and configure the domain and start publishing content.
The reason I like using cPanel as the control panel for the back end is because it allows me to use a service called Fantastico where I can install WordPress, database and all, with just a couple of clicks. It is not too difficult to install WordPress manually either, but this saves me a lot of time.
Still have questions or would like to talk more about this? You can contact me here or leave a comment below.
Using Affiliate Marketing as Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy
Do you own a website and are looking for ways to drive traffic to you site and increase sales? If so, joining an affiliate network as an advertiser may be a good option for you. As you have probably found, most articles out there about affiliate marketing are for publishers, or those promoting other sites for some kind of compensation. This article though is geared towards those website owners looking to use these “affiliates” to promote their product or service.
When it comes down to it, there are four main ways to drive traffic to your website: search engine optimization, pay-per-click, joining an affiliate network and social media. Each of these methods have their own pros and cons, but I will focus on the main benefit and cost of what joining an affiliate network can do for your business. First things first though, let me list for you some of the affiliate networks out there that you could join:
- Commission Junction
- LinkShare
- Pepperjam
- AffiliateBOT
- Clixgalore
- Shareasale
- Google Affiliate Network
- Clickbank
- and much more…
The downside to signing up with an affiliate network is the ongoing cost and performance standards required. If your plan is for visitors to your site to make a purchase and your site converts well, then you may not have a lot to worry about. However, this can get very expensive very fast and eventually get you kicked off the network if you are not converting traffic to sales.
The upside to joining an affiliate network is that you have the possibility of having an army of marketers across the web market your product or service. Remember that your commission structure must be attractive to these marketers for them to show interest. Even though there are a lot of affiliates out there, it seems that only a few really know how to market well on the web. You either need to search them out and make them an offer or look for affiliate sites within your niche where you could promote your product.
The most successful sites that use affiliate marketing as a strategy have at the very least an affiliate manager hired from within. These managers may perform such tasks as communicating with affiliates, approve/deny affiliate applications, create creative ad content and copy for affiliates to use, create landing pages, perform split testing to see what pages are converting best, create email drip campaigns, manage email lists, etc. So obviously you either need a very talented affiliate manager or a team that may consist of a marketing manager, web developer, graphic designer, writer and analyst.
If you are looking to use affiliate marketing as part of your online marketing strategy, I hope this has answered some questions for you. Still have questions or would like to talk more about this? You can contact me here or leave a comment below.
