3 Reasons You Should Be Using a Related Posts Plug In

Related Posts
SEO is a term that is overused in the world of blogging and it's usually done so by people who have absolutely NO idea of what good SEO is compared to bad SEO. The truth is that 95% of bloggers probably don't have to do much more than use a good SEO plug in like All in One SEO and change your permalinks and you will be in good shape.

If you do want to take it a step further then there is a great little plugin called Related Posts that will benefit your blog in a number of ways.

Benefits of Related Posts

Internal Linking - Internal linking has a number of benefits and which is more important is up to you. If you make it a habit to build a number of links that link to your other posts then this will allow the Google Bot to more easily traverse your website and will allow more of your content to be indexed quickly.

Free Advertising - Using the related posts plug in will place a series of "related" posts at the end of your article. If a reader completes one article and liked it, sees a few more with interesting titles, then they are much more likely to click on them and read your content. Using this plugin is like free advertising for your older content.

Page Views - One "stat" that shows a readers interest in your blog and allows you to measure how compelling your content is to readers, is the number of page views for your site. The higher the number then the better, readers are enjoying your content and checking out other articles as well.

Tread Cautiously

The Plug In that I use is a "tag" plug in that uses the tag function of Wordpress. It is simple and very easy to install. As you search for RP plugins you will find about a dozen of them, tread lightly and be careful, they range from a snap to install to fairly complicated for a new blogger.

Take advantage of a simple way to advertise your content, if you are just starting out then you need all the help you can get. To find the plugin that I use simply click here . It couldn't be a simpler install, you just need WP 2.3 or higher since it uses the tags to associate posts.

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5 Plugins for a New Blog

plugins.jpgI am continuing my previous article on setting up a new blog and in this article we will discuss a few must have plugins that you should install right out of the gate.

If you haven't yet discovered the world of plugins when it comes to Wordpress, then you are in for a treat.  Plugins allow an incredible amount of versatility and I would urge you that anytime you are trying to figure out a way to do something with your blog, do a Google search for your issue and add "wordpress plugin" to the search string.  Chances are someone has already developed a solution.

Wordpress comes packaged with a great plug in and that is Akismet. It is a SPAM catcher and won't allow a bunch of junk comments to pollute your blog, but their are a few others you should really consider.  Wordpress should package them with the zip file in my opinion but for some reason they don't. They are:

  1. All-in-One SEO Pack - A must have plugin for any blogger. SEO pack allows you to add keywords and a description to your post so that it fares better with search engines.  The description is useful so that you can describe your posts rather than the search engines just using the first couple of sentences from your post.  If you want to read a detailed article on it's use then read this article here from one of my other blogs.
  2. Feedburner Feedsmith - Forwards all Wordpress feed entry clicks to your feedburner feed.   This plug in makes maintaining your feed a snap.  RSS subscribers are a sign that people like your style and want more...don't make it hard for them to subscribe.
  3. WP Database Back-up - I recommend that everyone back-up their blog’s at least once a month. With this plug-in it couldn’t be easier to do this. Think of the work lost if you crash and lose all of your posts?? That would bring a tear to the eye of some Bloggers.
  4. Subscribe Remind - Inserts text and a link at the bottom of every post reminding readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.  Again...subscribers are the foundation of your blog.  Make it as easy as possible.
  5. Related Posts - This allows you to posts links at the end of your articles to archived posts that may be relevant. It decides what is relevant by tagging your posts or choosing to just pull from a relevant archive category.   If a reader did read all the way to the end, then with this plugin activated they might read another article, rather than clicking out of your blog.

These are the basic plugins that I would install on day one.  You will find dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of plugins available for Wordpress and just as many opinions on which ones you should be using.  Be aware that plugins can cause problems if you are not careful installing and/or the author of the plugin isn't competent in programming.

 Use the backup plugin above frequently and stick to the common and popular plugins at first until you get a better idea of what you are doing.   You will run across a zillion "My Top xx Plugins" posts around the blogosphere, just tread lightly and be cautious. 

These are my must haves.....what are yours?

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100 Really Cool Wordpress Plugins

 As I sit here for hours on end trying to get my blog to look, feel and smell the way I want it to, I found myself constantly googling plugins.

These may not be the only plugins out there but through my searching they grabbed my attention when reading about them.

I have not tried them all but I do recognize many of them from other people's blogs...so at least now I know how they did that. :-)

If I missed one of your favorites then please feel free to let me know via the comment section.

Enjoy.

  1. WP Database Back-up - I recommend that everyone back-up their blog’s at least once a month. With this plug-in it couldn’t be easier to do this. Think of the work lost if you crash and lose all of your posts?? That would bring a tear to the eye of some Bloggers.
  2. Permalink Redirect - Did you start your blog before you knew what good SEO format was? If so, just use this plug-in so that you can change your permalink structure without having to lose the search engine rankings of the old posts.
  3. Popularity Contest - This plugin will help you see which of your posts are most popular. Views, comments, etc. are tracked and you can configure the settings in any way you desire to show which of your posts are most popular.
  4. Wp-Contact Form - This plugin gives you the ability to post a contact form anywhere you’d like on your wordpress blog with one simple snippet of code. This is handy so that people can contact you without you actually having to post your email address for spammers to harvest.
  5. Subscribe to Comments - Ever post a comment on someone’s blog and you were curious to see if anyone replied? Ever forgot which blog you posted the comment on? This plugin allows you to subscribe to comments for that particular thread. It will send you any responses to your comment via email.
  6. Related Posts - This allows you to posts links at the end of your articles to archived posts that may be relevant. It decides what is relevant by tagging your posts or choosing to just pull from a relevant archive category.
  7. Time Zone - Have you ever noticed that even though you’ve selected the right time zone, Wordpress is still an hour off? That’s because Wordpress doesn’t recognize DST (daylight savings time). This plugin fixes that.
  8. Gravatars - This plugin allows commenters to upload a picture to the Gravatars website, and this picture will appear next to their name when they post a comment on blogs that allow gravatars. Great plugin… I’m getting ready to try this one out!
  9. Ultimate Tag Warrior - Allows you to tag your posts so that sites like Technorati have an easier time indexing them. Could potentially bring a lot of visitors!
  10. Adsense-Deluxe - AdSense-Deluxe is a WordPress plugin offering advanced options for managing the automatic insertion of Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads to your WordPress posts.
  11. Pod Press - Are you a podcaster? Pod Press makes it really easy to post your podcasts, and even includes an in-line media player.
  12. WP-Notable - This plugin includes links and pictures to major social bookmarking sits such as del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Newsvine, and Digg. It includes these links at the bottom of every post, making it easy to submit your articles.
  13. Digg-This - This wordpress plugin is a plugin that detects incoming links from Digg.com to your wordpress post and automatically display a link back to the digg post, for people to digg your story.
  14. Get Recent Comments - It allows you to show your most recent comments in a widget so that others can check it out.
  15. WP-Cache - Stores a cache file of your Wordpress blog so that it loads faster.
  16. flickrRSS - Integrates photo’s from a flickr RSS feed so that you can show flickr photo’s on your website.
  17. Update Manager - Checks for updates for all of your existing Wordpress Plugins.
  18. WYSIWYG Plugin - Makes your write/edit screen an advanced WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Makes for easy formatting of posts. Great plugin.
  19. Paypal Donate - Similar to the Buy Me A Beer Plugin, only without the beer.
  20. One Year Ago - Shows posts that were written one year ago.
  21. Comment Relish - Sends a thank you email to first time commenters.
  22. Show Top Commenters - Adds a widget to your sidebar to show who leaves the most comments on your blog. You can set it to clear daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
  23. Threaded Comments - Allows users to respond to each others comments directly under the comment they are referring to. Sort of like a forum thread in the comment section.
  24. Math Problem Spam Protection - This plugin makes users answer a simple math problem to prove they are human and not computerized spammers. Simple little addition...between this and Akismet you will not have a spam issue.
  25. Link Love Plugin - This plugin removes the rel=”nofollow” tag from comments after a user has commented on your blog 10 times. You can adjust this to as many times as needed.
  26. Trackbackers - This plugin is like the “top commenters” plugin only it shows the “top trackbackers”. Basically the more times people link to you, the higher they are on your list. Completely customizable.
  27. Batch Image Uploader - Allows you to upload multiple images at once.
  28. WP-Polls - Allows you to seamlessly integrate polls into the sidebar of your Wordpress blog.
  29. In Series Plugin - This plugin allows you to link posts together to form a series of related articles.
  30. All-in-One SEO Pack - A must have plugin for any moneyblogger. SEO pack allows you to add keywords and a description to your post so that it fares better with search engines. The description is useful so that you can describe your posts rather than the search engines just using the first couple of sentences from your post.
  31. Feed Footer - Allows you to customize your RSS feed by adding a copyright notice, rotating banner ads, and enables you to show HTML in your RSS footers.
  32. Robots.TXT - Allows you to easily add a robots.txt file to your template for easy searching from search engine spiders.
  33. Feedburner Feedsmith - Forwards all Wordpress feed entry clicks to your feedburner feed.
  34. Ultimate Google Analytics - This plugin allows you to easily integrate Google Analytics risking the source code.
  35. Live Wordpress - Allows you to check out your visitors every move while they are on your site.
  36. WP-Ultimate Gamers Pack - Allows gamers with wi-fi access to view your site from their PSP, Nintendo DS, or Nintendo Wii.
  37. Feedburner Standard Stats - Installs the Feed Flare script on your Wordpress blog so that Feedburner can track your statistics.
  38. Image Manager Plugin - Allows you to upload, crop, rotate, and re-size images from your Wordpress Admin panel.
  39. Got Banners - Allows you to rotate your banner advertisements so that your readers don’t get “ad blind” by the same ad panels they see everytime they visit.
  40. Homepage Excerpts - Allows you to post excerpts of your posts rather than full text on all pages except for the homepage. Makes for easy archiving of old posts.
  41. Instant Upgrade Plugin - This plugin allows for a one click update to the newest version of Wordpress.
  42. Add Related Posts to Feed - Adds related posts to your RSS feed. Similar to the Related Posts plugin, only for your RSS feed.
  43. Do-Follow - Removes the re=”nofollow” tags from comments. This allows links left within a comment to be counted as an incoming link by search engines and Technorati.
  44. Super Edit - This plugin allows you to push a button on the “write” screen to use a full screen version of the text box. Writing in full-screen mode is much nicer and it includes some extra editing features that the standard WYSIWIG does not.
  45. Full Text Feed - A plugin that allows your RSS feed to show up as full text even if you use the <!–more–> tag in your posts.
  46. No WWW - This plugin won’t allow users to visit the WWW version of your site. Instead it redirects them to the non-www version, which eliminates the chances of being double indexed.
  47. Subscribe Remind - Inserts text and a link at the bottom of every post reminding readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.
  48. About Me Widget - This plugin allows you to create an easy “about me” section in your sidebar.
  49. Category Excluder - Allows you to make some categories private so that readers can’t see them.
  50. Blogroll Auto Linker - Creates a link in your posts anytime you use a name from your blogroll.
  51. Front Page Excluded Categories - Allows you to exclude certain categories from your homepage.
  52. Post Notification - Sends an email alerting everyone in your database about new posts.
  53. On This Day - Links to post which share the same calender date.
  54. NAVT - A Wordpress navigation tool that allows you to customize your Wordpress navigation links.
  55. Simple Graph - Allows you to create graphs for your sidebar or posts.
  56. Word Tube - A media center plugin for Wordpress blogs.
  57. DMS Guestbook - Creates a guestbook for your blog.
  58. Semi-Secure Login - Increases the security of your Wordpress blog by using a better encryption.
  59. New Posts Pop-up - A plugin that displays a pop-up window above the fold to show recent posts and comments.
  60. De-link Comment Author - Allows you to remove the link from a comment authors name without removing the entire comment. If someone is taking a shot at you....at least you don't have to link back to their site. :-)
  61. Upload Plus - Allows you to upload photo’s inside of the admin panel and customize their display names.
  62. Mini-Slides - Allows you to create a minimalistic slideshow from your uploaded images.
  63. Find Us - A plugin that integrates Google Maps into your Wordpress Blog.
  64. DBD Footprints - Allows you to track visitors from the admin panel of your blog. Easily customizable.
  65. Adman - Lets you insert Adsense code before or in the middle of your posts.
  66. Ad Wrap - Uses section targeting to try and get relevant ads from Adsense.
  67. Disclosure Policy Plugin - Allows you to disclose your policies as a blogger. For example, I won’t write a sponsored review without telling my readers that it’s a paid post. This plugin makes it easy to create and display your blog’s policies.
  68. WP Footnotes - Easily create footnotes at the bottom of your posts.
  69. Sexy Comments - Uses forum like styling for your comment section. A great way to liven up the comment field.
  70. WP Table - Easily create and insert tables for your blog posts.
  71. Members Only - Only makes your posts viewable to members that are logged in. Everyone else is denied.
  72. Order Posts - Allows you to put your posts in any order you’d like. Great for those who don’t want their posts appearing chronologically.
  73. AWSOM - This plugin displays an announcement or featured post above all of your other posts. It’s easily editable and stays on top for as long as you’d like. Pretty neat!
  74. Random Posts - This widget displays links to random posts in your archives.
  75. KB Linker - Links to phrases that you specify. For example, everytime you mention Dell it would link to Dell.Com. If you're a page rank junkie...be careful of this one.
  76. Flickr Tips - Shows a pop-up thumbnail image everytime you mouseover a link to a flickr image.
  77. FeedStats - Simple statistics for RSS.
  78. Bot Tracker - Allows you to track search engine bots and spiders when they crawl your site.
  79. Post Teaser - Creates a snipper or “teaser” of your post before prompting users to click a link to read more.
  80. Running Time - Shows how long your blog has been live. Displays days, weeks, months, and years.
  81. Google Pagerank Plugin - Displays your Google PageRank.
  82. Alexa Ranking - Displays your Alexa ranking in your sidebar.
  83. Add To Any Bookmark Button - A plugin that allows users to bookmark your posts using the most popular bookmarking sites.
  84. WP Definitions - By including the [[definition]] tag in your post, it will allow you to define the term at the bottom. All definitions that you use will only have to be defined once, and then they are stored in a database for future use.

Anybody who read this far will realize that 84 doesn't equal 100...that's because I am counting on you to share your favorites that I might have missed here.  Just reply in the Comments section and I will add your plug in to the list.

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Blogging Essentials is launched

A short post simply to kickoff of my 2nd blog.  This blog will discuss "blogging" and will be geared towards those who are learning to blog or who are interested in becoming better bloggers.

I am not planning on promoting the blog much in the first month as I need to get my pillar content written and some of the asthetics of the theme worked out but if you do stumble across my humble little site I would love to hear from you.

I would welcome guest posters as well so feel free to shoot me an email through my contact form or just post a comment on the threads, I will be following them regularly.

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