I’ve only just set up my blog and installed wordpress 2.7 the help file in the tweet my blog plug in on how to install it looks like it was written for the old version. Do you know how to change the settings to add my twitter username etc to the plug in.
Tweet My Blog works the same on WordPress 2.7 as it did on earlier versions. The problem is that some of the nomenclature within the dash board has changed.
Here are the steps using the names in WordPress 2.7. You ftp up the plugin the same as before.
Click on plugins then activate the plugin.
Next click settings then Tweet My Blog. Fill in your information as in the directions and click update.
Here is where the change comes in now instead of clicking design which no longer exists click appearance - widgets. Then click add to the appropriate sidebar and drag it to where you want it to show on your blog.
Now click edit - add a title to the section and select the number of tweets to show. Click done and then click save changes.
The big change is that design is now called appearance.
If you are blogging Twitter is a must. It incorporates quite well with any blog traffic strategy. Twitter is basically micro blogging. You can post as often as you want but have to keep your post to just 140 characters.
It makes you get your thoughts into a very compact format. This makes it perfect as a lead in to your blog and like all social media others blogs.
Now lets look at how you can get traffic for your blog from Twitter. As there are books written on all of the ways that you can use Twitter for promoting you we will stick primarily to promoting your blog.
First like all social media you need to be participating in the community not just promoting your blog. Otherwise you are nothing but a spammer and people will not continue to follow you and no one will see your message. Nuff said.
There are some tools that can help automate the posting for you. Tweet My Blog will automatically post to Twitter and also allow you to show your latest “tweets” on you blog in the sidebar. You can also use Twitter Feed which will automatically post when it monitors a change in your RSS feed. There are probably others but those are two that I have used.
You should also remember like bookmarking it does not hurt you to “tweet” about posts that you have commented on. All of these can bring you increased traffic and enlarge your circle of influence.
Like all social media it is a matter of being a good resource and not just promoting your items solely.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Before I start my rant let me say that I appreciate the effort put in by numerous developers creating plugins. They add a functionality that greatly enhances the usability and power of WordPress as a blogging platform. I will apologize in advance to those that continue to improve and support their work this is not aimed at those.
There is a problem though with the current structure of how people look at plugins especially in the non marketing world.
Often developers create a great plugin, get a lot of people using it and then just get plain bored with continuing the development of it.
Not sure why that happens but it does happen way too often. My guess is because it is done gratis and they don’t have a way to monetize it.
Yes, they may put up a donation button but that does not necessarily generate sufficient incentive to continue the development as WordPress evolves.
At the same time those that do create a plugin and add a monetization model are skewered for asking for an email or having an offer in their marketing process to give away a free plugin. Yes, they continue to market to those people but if they are ethical (and most are) you can unsubscribe easily. (Of course you then miss the updates.)
These developers despite being seen as the lowest in the world of plugin creators have a vested interest in keeping their plugin fully supported because it helps to fill their marketing funnel.
These plugins are changed and supported well unlike some of the ones that just depend on donations and get bored.
Truthfully I would rather deal with the marketer that has a vested interest in supporting and improving their plugin than with the person that creates a great plugin and has no reason other than kindness or ego to support it.
After seeing a new plugin with a marketing funnel be skewered for their marketing (not for the quality of the plugin) like Tweet My Blog has been at this post where it only focuses on the fact that it only works on WordPress (note it is WordPress plugin - duh), has a way to make money and does not look at the differences between what is on the market and what is not.
Plugins rarely do something that is unique but make doing it easier. If you can code and want to tweak your theme and the code you can (if you know how) or you can upload a plugin and click activate and add options if necessary. Something non tech heads can handle.
Yes I can add my Twitter feed to my sidebar with the proper code, I can use other services to post my RSS feed to Twitter (at a delayed time frame as they only check once an hour) and avoid the marketing.
Now my question to you is the fact that a developer adds a marketing funnel to their delivery of a free plugin enough to skewer them?
Or would you rather deal with someone that does it out of the goodness of their heart, ego or some other factor and then has no reason to support it in the future?
I know what my answer is but would love to hear yours.
You always here the buzz about Web 2.0 and for a reason - it works. Two of the things that work well together are Twitter and WordPress blogs.
I have been usnig the two together for a while. It can be time consuming as Twitter is like a mini blog but it is ever so effectiove at getting more readership to your blogs that it is worth the effort.
Today that effort just got cut appreciably. Tweet My Blog is a free WordPress plugin from Soren Jordansen and John Merrick. It will leverage your blog feed and Twitter automatically.
Now I have been using this for a few days and it ROCKS!
My Twitter followers are increasing at 3 times the rate they normally do.
I was using a different service to post from my feeds and because this is on the blog itself it posts my content much quicker than the other did.
Set it and forget it. Yep anything that can make me more active on Twitter without doing anything extra is huge. This is a must for any serious blogger and allows you to leverage your blog and Twitter to the advantage of both.
By the way the plugin is totally free but you should take a close look at
the special offer they have in store for you when join. I instantly grabbed my own copy, and I know it will skyrocket my marketing power when using Twitter and Wordpress.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
