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Get plugged into Plugins

Don Rodgers Jr — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:43:22 +0000

As we discussed in the last post, I saw a need to get some plug-ins installed right from the start. Functionality ranges from visitor tracking and admin functions to enhancing visitor’s experience. As I stated last time, I’m really focusing on Word Press powered blogs and themes as seen in my other site about parenting, life and friendship. I have categorized the plugins I’ve used based on several categories; user engagement, admin functionality, social bookmarking and traffic trackers. I admit that some of them are redundant and I am possibly a little heavy on the traffic tracking side, but after all, I am a numbers guy. To keep this post from being too long, I have provided only brief overviews. We will talk about this in greater detail in the coming weeks once I have more data.

User Engagement

WP PostRatings- Allows readers to rate your posts using a customizable format of numbers, stars, thumbs up/down or other forms.
Contact Form 7- Easy contact form to put on a page so that visitors can email you through your site.
WP Mobile Edition- Adds a mobile version of your site through use of a second theme that operates behind the scenes. You don’t have to configure a whole mobile version if you use this plugin.

Admin Functionality

Broken Link Checker- Looks through entire site for links that lead nowhere.
Forgot the Category- Great to remind you to add a category to your blog especially if you are using a permalink that utilizes the category name.
WP TimeSheets- Not such a big deal if you are the only individual posting blogs on your site, but on my other site it’s been real handy in keeping everyone pulling their weight.
WP Admin Notepad- Just a notepad to add to your dashboard. I found it usefeul to keep track of social bookmarking sites I’ve registered with along with notes for blog topics.

Social Bookmarking

Socialble- If you read and followed the steps fromt he first blog, you will have no doubt signed up for some socail bookmarking sites. If you didn’t, it doesn’t matter, I bet at least some of your readers will. This lets them share your site with others in a long list of social sites.

Traffic Trackers- As stated earlier, redundant. Just want to see which ones are accurate.

WP.com Stats- Quick overview of visits, most popular posts and search queries.
Google Analytics Dashboard- Pulls data from Google Analytics and shows some stats on the dashboard of your blog.
WP Stats Dashboard- Gives a whole list of different stat sections. Some are a little unique.
WP Stats- Another stats tracker. No dashboard view.

What have you found useful? I’d love to see what everyone else is using. Feel free to share and even promote your own plugins if you have developed any. Thanks for joining me.

Happy blogging! YW7MCJAHBZ97

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First Steps

Don Rodgers Jr — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:38:12 +0000

Yesterday I got it all up and going: bought the domain name, found a host, installed the site builder, found a theme, installed a few plugins that I have found to be beneficial and wanted from the get go (discussion regarding the plugins to come in a few days) and published my first post to welcome everyone. At least all of the easy work is out of the way. I am a person who likes to see results quickly otherwise, I loose interest. So today I chose to work on getting the name out there among some social sites and making sure the search engines knew I was here and open for business. Here’s a quick review social sites and steps taken thus far:

MyBlogLog- Yahoo! owned community of bloggers looking to share their site among other bloggers. I saw some quick vists from joining this site. I’ll have to wait to see longterm impact to traffic.
Twitter- Everyone knows this site…I don’t think it needs explaining. This can be a powerful resource to reach people on a regular basis. Since Twitter only allows short status updates, if they want to read more, they will have to come to your site.
Technorati- Another community of bloggers. After signing up with them, you need to claim ownership of your blog. This appears to be a lengthy process, 6 hours and still no verification yet (I’m still wating for my other blog, Loquacious Magpies, to be verified). There is alway the chance I’ve done something wrong. I will have to wait before I can make any other judgements about this site but it definitely looks promising.
Google Analytics- Fairly easy way to submit your sire to Google and get free tracking of visitors.
Bing Webmaster Tools- Mircosoft’s search engine and traffic reports site. Again, like all of them, some knowledge regarding where to copy and paste the validation code is necessary, but there are help guides the take you throught he process. (If you need some personal assisatance, I will try to help you out too)
Yahoo! Site Explorer- You will need to get a Yahoo! login first and then you can go to the site explorer to submit your site to Yahoo! search engine. Not nearly as robust as Google Analytics, there are some traffic reports.
I know I said that I’d cover plugins later, but there is one that you should note and install ASAP- Google XML-Sitemap Generator. This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search. This was a huge help in getting the site to come up in the search engines.

I will tell you that just signing up for these will not lead to traffic overnight. I have seen first time visitors on a consistant basis though. If you can keep new people coming in, eventually you are going to find some that will become repeat visitors.

Happy Blogging!

Don

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