One of the things that has come about because of blog spammers is the default no follow link built into WordPress. I do understand why they did it but I prefer to reward those that actually take part in the conversation on my blogs.
See if you are going to add to my content and good comments do that, then you should get something for your effort too. Now this does take a bit more work on my part.
To allow me to do this I added a plugin called do follow so that all the links from your comments are set up to follow and will help you with your linking with the search engines.
The work comes in because I now have to monitor all comments. It takes a bit more effort on my part because there are way to many pieces of software that let people know that you are following.
This does bring in the bot software that adds generic comments on the subject. Most times it is relatively easy to tell these and click the spam button in the dashboard but it is a bit more effort.
The key is that using do follow makes it beneficial for people to comment and the more interactivity you can generate the better your blog will perform.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
One of the biggest questions that comes up consistently is which plugins should I be using.
To celebrate the holidays I will be listing what I am currently using. Now a quick caveat
The plugins I am listing are what I am using right now. The plugins change constantly as new ones come and others stop getting supported. You do need to keep current because things change constantly in the WordPress world. (Why you should be subscribed to this blog end of shameless plug.)
This will be delegated into two sections - Must Have, Nice To Have
Must Have
All In One SEO- Very functional plugin that really helps your blog rank better.
Google Analyticator - Easily adds your Google Analytic code into your theme without any editing of the template. You need to be tracking and you can use other services but Google Analytics is a great free resource.
Simple Tags - Proper tagging can really allow you to improve your rankings. There are other tagging plugins that work also but this is my current choice.
WP Spam Free - One of the better anti spam plugins.
Nice To Have
All In One Bookmarking Button - Links directly to Socialmarker service and makes it easy for people to bookmark your blog on multiple services.
Commentluv - Pulls commenters last blog post as a link. Rewards your commenters.
Do Follow - Again a plugin that rewards your commenters with do follow links from their comments.
OnlyWire Autosubmitter - Automatically posts to Only Wire if you use their service and you should .
Pod Press - Great plugin to allow you to podcast easily from your blog.
Tweet My Blog - Automates Twitter with your blog. Allows you to import your latest from Twitter into your sidebar and posts to Twitter each time you post.
What Would Seth Godin Do - Allows you to invite new visitors to subscribe to your blog but disappears when they continue to visit.
WP Comment Remix - Allows you more control over comment display on your blog
WP Security Scan - Checks your settings and helps you keep your blog set up properly. Finds security items before they become problems.
There are thousands of plugins available but hopefully this list will help you to find a solid list of plugins. I am sure that many of you have others you like and I may have left your favorite off the list. There are others on my other blogs that I use but limited this to what is here right now.
Also I am doing a special for readers of this blog only. I have set up a special page with a discount of over 20% to get me to install and set up your blog. Check it out at the special install page. There are only 8 spots available.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Despite the eminent release of 2.7 WordPress has issued a new security update. They skipped from 2.6.3 to 2.6.5 because of a bogus release from someone of a 2.6.4 to make sure there would not be anyone grabbing the bogus download by mistake.
Today was kielbasa day here in the coal region. For us it is not Thanksgiving without getting your kielbasy to have with Thanksgiving dinner. For us that means we go to Kowolanek’s to get our kielbasy.
Now going there is a trip unto itself. There is always a line even when it is not a holiday but you come in the door and they are playing the Kielbasy Heaven song. (You can even buy the cd there to take home if you want.)
The thing is that it is a special atmosphere that you look forward to when you go there. There is a spirit of community whether you are a customer or a worker. Despite there always being a line it is quite enjoyable to go there and make your purchases.
They have truly created a community atmosphere. Lots of fun and interaction.
You should be doing the same thing with your blog. Create an atmosphere where people want to interact. Make it fun and interactive and people will return.
Think about what you can do to make your blog more interactive. Create the fun atmosphere and help to foster the community and it will increase your traffic.
Pay attention to successful businesses that you frequent and see what they have done that draws you back. Ask yourself what you can do to make your site a must visit.
How many different ways can you come up? Leave your comments and let me know.
Hello Great show last night. I don’t know if you can help or not
I’ve been searching for a way to change the format of plr articles
They’re full of goofy code. I copy just the article,but I can’t get them to work. I pasted one in my word press blog and the words break and they go edge to edge in my blog.
This is not an unusual problem if the content you are using is in Word doc format. You actually have two different items giving you problems and it can be very frustrating to say the least.
First Word documents have a lot of formatting code in them and when you copy and paste this formatting comes with it.
Second the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) in WordPress adds it’s own formatting and the two do not play well and you end up with a big mess to say the least.
The key is to get rid of the formatting on the original before you paste it in to your blog WYSIWYG. This is relatively easy to do. You just need to add a step to your process.
Copy from the Word document and paste it into a blank notepad document. Then copy the notepad document and paste that into your WYSIWYG. This will remove all of the formatting that was in the original Word document and you will allow the WYSIWYG to format it without being over written from the original formatting.
Now you may still have to go in and add any features from the original article like bolding or italics but you will be able to have it display according to your blog’s normal display.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Tomorrow evening at 7pm est the latest edition of WordPress Questions and Answers will be held on Blog Talk Radio.
This works best when I can get your questions and supply you with answers. The replay will be available and I have Steve Roye coming on line with me so it should be a fun time but…
I really would like to get a few questions here in advance. Just leave them in the comments and then tune in tomorrow at 7pm to the show at
This is the last post in the blog traffic series this time through .
Quite often I see people not use the most powerful part of their blog - the feed.
Here are just a few places and sites that you may be using where you can add in your feed and give people a chance to find your blog from things you are already doing. (This is not an all inclusive list by any means.)
Facebook Profile
Friend feed
Squidoo pages
Hub Pages
Wet Paint pages
In almost all of these you just need to add the url to your feed and they will start updating your listing on all of those pages each time you update your blog.
If you have not set up feed burner or done anything special with plugins the default feed url for your self hosted WordPress blog will be http://yourdomain.com/folder/feed.
Now if that is not your feed look for the feed link, right click and check properties and you can see exactly what your feed url is.
Adding your feed into all these places will give more people the chance to find your blog while just doing what you normally do anyhow.
Even better especially for the various sites like Squidoo, et al your lens is getting new content added each time you post to your blog. Gotta love things that allow you to automate updating and we all know how much Google loves fresh content when the spiders visit.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Earlier in the traffic series I discussed blog commenting. Blog commenting is one of those win win situations. The blog owner wins because they get more fresh content and the commenter wins because they get a link back to their site and potential visitors clicking through to their site.
Caveat - This is based on quality comments and not people just spamming for links. Yes actually add value with your comments. Nuff said!
Also the default for WordPress is to use no follow links for commenting. Reward your commenters by using the do follow plugin so they get the benefit of the link. I do.
Comment Luv is a plugin I use here and on other blogs to reward commenters. When you add your url it will go look for your latest post and if it can find it will add a direct link to it as part of your comment.
This gives back a bit more to the people that are helping you by adding additional quality content to your blog.
Well to help promote the use of this plugin the creators have started a contest and you can win by simply using the plugin and registering your blog with them. This means that anyone leaving a comment here has the chance to win a prize from comment luv because this blog has been registered there.
The contest is run by the owners of Comment Luv and while we participate here we have nothing to do with the rewarding of any prizes and are not liable for any part of it.
So take care of your commenters by using Comment Luv and Do Follow and increase the interactivity of your blog.
As always your question and comments are welcomed.
end of shameless plug.)
