6 Must-Have Social Plugins for Your WordPress Blog
Posted on 14. Mar, 2012 by Jess Ostroff in Blog, Blogging and Content Creation, Hello Bar, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media tools, WordPress
Jess Ostroff is Managing Editor at Convince & Convert, and also runs the virtual social media assistant agency Don’t Panic Management. You can find her tweeting about social media, martinis, and music as @jessostroff.
If you have a conversation with any WordPress developer, they’ll likely tell you that less is more when it comes to plugins. And with the thousands of plugins out there in the WordPress repository, finding the right ones for your site can be a ridiculously time-consuming (and headache-inducing) feat. Social plugins and optimization are more important than ever though, and can really make a difference in your site’s traffic and engagement.
These 6 social plugins are all compatible with the latest version of WordPress, and are easy to install and customize. We use most of these here at Convince & Convert and can attest to their awesomeness.
1. Digg Digg
This popular plugin lets you incorporate all of your social sharing buttons into a customizable bar that sits on the top or side of each blog post for easy sharing. Digg Digg lets you choose which buttons you want to display, and whether you want a floating sidebar (all the rage lately) or a top bar. Digg Digg was acquired by Buffer a couple years ago, and includes all popular sharing buttons and their share count for each post.
Digg Digg with a floating left implementation
2. All in One SEO Pack
Some WordPress frameworks have search functionality already built in, but if you want to really pack an SEO punch into your posts, the All in One SEO Pack is the best of its kind (in my estimation). All in One SEO Pack sits in your WordPress dashboard at the bottom of each post and allows you to enter your own custom title, description, and keywords for search engines to index. It works with most advanced WordPress customizations and e-commerce sites, and works straight out of the box for beginners as well.
All in One SEO Pack interface
3. Facebook Social Plugins
Facebook is the social giant that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and whether you love it or hate it, you can’t argue that 500 million international users is a heck of a lot. You can find some unofficial “like” buttons and other Facebook plugins in the WordPress repository, but with the amount of changes Facebook makes on a regular basis, your best bet is to use the official Facebook Social Plugins from Facebook.com. These tend to be a little more tricky to configure than some of the other plugins we’ve listed here because they require some HTML knowledge, but Facebook provides detailed documentation on how to install their Facebook social plugins so you don’t get lost.
Facebook Social Plugins Instructions Page
4. Photo Dropper
Creating visually appealing content for your blog has become increasingly important, especially now with the advent of Pinterest. But finding royalty-free images that don’t look like ’90s clip art can be a pain. Photo Dropper is a free plugin that aggregates creative commons images and makes them available to you from directly within your WordPress dashboard. No Google or Flickr search necessary. It’s not laziness, it’s efficiency! Plus, Photo Dropper ensures that you use (and credit) photographs appropriately.
Photo Dropper Image Finder
5. Hello Bar
The Hello Bar is so simple, yet so effective. Type your promotional message, your link text, and your link URL into the Hello Bar dashboard, choose your colors and font, and voila! You now have a slick little bar sitting at the top of your site with your latest event, newsletter, or whatever else you want people to see. (you might even see it at the top of this page). Because of its location and customizable color scheme, you’re likely to get more eyeballs and clicks on your message. And that’s not all – Hello Bar allows you to measure visits, clicks, and even perform A/B testing, all for the low price of $0 (The Pro version of Hello Bar is fee-based).
Hello Bar message creation interface
6. InboundWriter
Jay has written about the impact of InboundWriter here on Convince & Convert before, and we continue to see its increasing value as Google’s newest algorithm demands excellent content. InboundWriter is a social writing application that analyzes sample copy against websites you’ve chosen, and recommends relevant keywords for you to focus on. As you continue to write, InboundWriter analyzes in real-time, providing you with suggestions and an SEO score of between 1 and 100 so you can measure your progress. You might also go back to your most popular posts and re-work them using InboundWriter. You may be pleasantly surprised with the SEO results.
InboundWriter for WordPress Interface
While plugins can provide an easy way to customize your site, it’s important to be careful about which ones you install as too many social plugins can slow down your site and make you more vulnerable to hackers. Keeping your plugin library lean and always keeping your plugins updated will take some of this anxiety away, especially if you’re not a developer.
What are we missing out on? What social plugins can you not live without?
How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral Generator
Posted on 09. Feb, 2012 by John Jantsch in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, WordPress
How to Use a WordPress Blog as a Referral Generator
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
I’ve seen and heard this scenario countless times. Two perfectly suited strategic partners determine they should start doing some things together in an effort to create referral opportunities for each other.
They shake hands and agree that it’s a fabulous idea, but then nothing happens. Mostly nothing happens because there’s no catalyst to get the ball rolling in a way that makes sense.
I mean, sure, they could both send out a mass mailing to their clients professing how great the other is, but would that really offer much value to the recipients?
One of the best ways to get a referral relationship moving is through content opportunities. It’s just such a logical way to extend what is already a proven marketing practice.
If you would like to build a killer local referral generator you should look no further than hosting a multi-author WordPress blog. (It doesn’t have to be WordPress, it’s just the best tool.)
Let’s say you’re an attorney that works with small business owners. In your work you’ve seen that small business owners need accounting advice, hiring advice, management advice, marketing advice, real estate advice, outsourcing advice, selling advice, leadership advice, and the list goes on and on.
Well, what if you built a team of best of class advice providers for many of the items listed above and you created and hosted a blog that featured contributions from each of these providers.
With any commitment at all your team could produce a local, keyword rich, content asset that would turn into a valuable resource for your clients and prospects and a logical referral generator for every member of the contributing team.
Of course, this could just be the start of your formal partnership team as you could easily turn this into group sponsored workshops and online seminars as well. Are you starting to see the power behind being the one that formalizes the network?
I hope it goes without saying that the content must be educational and valuable. This effort will offer little if it’s just an ad for all parties. Give great advice openly, use local keywords and phrases and create a consistent flow of new content and this tool will allow you to dominate local search results.
Creating a multi-author WordPress blog isn’t any more difficult that creating a single author blog, but there are a few considerations when it comes to promoting, managing and securing your platform that can be handled with the addition of the following plugins.
Promoting your contributors
WP Biographia – This is great plugin because it adds all kinds of extra fields like social links to the user profile screen and creates a bio for each author. This way when your authors post content their bio automatically shows at the end of each of their posts and features links to their social profiles making it easy for people to connect.
WordPress does not by default allow users to upload photos so add the User Photo plugin too and then Biographia will add your contributor’s photo.
Managing the content flow
User Role Editor – WordPress defines what set roles like subscribe or contributor can do (See a list) but sometimes you may want to edit these a bit. For example an author can’t by default upload images. If you have a trusted group of authors creating content and you want them to add images to their posts, which is usually a good thing, then use the editor to grant that permission.
Editorial Calendar – This tool simply creates a monthly calendar and allows you to drag drafts to dates for automatic publishing. This is a great way to take lots of content and spread it out for consistent publishing. For managing bigger groups and creating deadlines you might also look at DivvyHQ
Keeping things secure
Adminimize – This is a pretty cool tool as it lets you strip away everything you want from the admin dashboard. You might want to hide a bunch of stuff you as the admin don’t really use, but you certainly want to take away most of what your contributors see as well. Some things are naturally hidden based on WordPress default roles, but you can really make a clean posting screen for your contributors by taking away everything you know they don’t need access to.
Every business knows they need to produce great content. By facilitating the creation of this content in a way that can benefit your clients, prospects and referral partners, you can create a platform that will start to attract more of all of the above.
Want to Maximize Your WordPress Website Fortin-Style?
Posted on 21. Jun, 2011 by Michel Fortin in Blog, cms, consulting, critique, feedback, interest, introduction, marketer, News, price, product, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Success Chef, theme, Traffic, training, WordPress
Many people have asked me for this, and now I’m seriously thinking about doing it. (Yes, I hear you, Mike Sigers.) I’m thinking of offering a WordPress training course.
No, not a basics course and not something too advanced. And not any old training course teaching stuff you would expect to find for free online.
But a “Fortinized” WordPress training. A “how-did-he-do-that” course that shows you how, exactly, I tweak, optimize, modify, and monetize my WordPress websites.
Let’s just call it FortinPress.com for now. 
It’s been on my mind for the last two years now. I was supposed to put one together with another marketer, but it never materialize for a number of reasons — being extremely busy being one of them.
I want to gauge your level of interest on this. I want to see if you would be interested. So here’s what I envision, what will be included, and the price point…
The course itself will be delivered over 4-5 weeks through a series of webinars.
I prefer live webinars because you get to see me do it, in front of you, live. I share my desktop with you, and you get to see what I do, how I do it, as I do it. You also get to see the innerworkings of my websites, warts and all, and any snags that appear, which is a perfect learning environment.
Here’s the tentative course synopsis:
1. Introduction and Examples
In this session, I will go over WordPress, how I specifically use it, how I turn it into a content management system (CMS), how I use it on my clients’ sites, and more. I will also give you a sneak peek at the admin areas and the tools I use.
2. Themes and Styles
I will go over theme tweaking, styles, and graphics — from making basic layout changes to more advanced modifications. When people ask, “Michel, how did you do this or that on this theme?” This session will answer that question.
3. Plugins and Functions
This session will focus on plugins — the plugins I use or recommend, and how to set them up. Not all plugins are usable out of the box. Some need tweaking. I will show how I set them up and offer a downloadable Excel spreadsheet of all my plugins and where to get them.
4. Tools and Shortcuts
In this session, I will go through some of my tricks and external (non-WP) tools I use to speed it all up. I will show you how I use Firebug, SEO tools, page speed tools, cheatsheets, social media integration, cross-browser tweaking, etc.
5. Money and Traffic
I’m thinking this may be something a lot people will love to know, and that’s how I monetize, market, and drive targeted traffic to my WordPress website. Without PPC or advertising. I will talk about list-building, content strategy, and social media integration.
6. Open Q&A Session
The final session will be an open question-and-answer session. This is where I will answer any and all of your questions related to the course content. If it takes an hour, I’ll take an hour. If it takes three, three it is. I want to take all the time needed to answer all your questions.
Bonuses
Not sure about this one, but I think a free trial to a one-month Success Chef University might be a good bonus. This is not going to be some forced continuity thing. If you like the free trial, you will need to re-subscribe to keep it going. Just sayin’.
Success Chef also includes the weekly Wednesday night classes and the derivative products, like List Whisperer, Marketing ESP, the Copy Doctor, etc.
Upsell
I do plan on offering an upsell. The reason I’m doing it is not entirely because I want to maximize sales, although that is obviously one of the reasons. But more important, I feel like this is one upsell people will actually ask for and buy.
What is it? It’s a private, one-on-one session with me.
This is an opportunity where the student can book a time with me, and I go through their website, theme, and plugins, and perhaps even web copy and strategy.
In it, I will review their setup, answer individual questions, and provide actionable recommendations. Perhaps even fix a thing or two while on the call, and implement a few tweaks right on the spot (within reason, of course).
Again, this is a tentative list. It might change, especially based on your feedback. All these sessions will be recorded and available online in a password-protected area.
The price point will increase once the sessions have been delivered and uploaded. I want to offer a lower price point before and while I deliver the course as a special introductory price.
My thinking is $297 is more than a fair price. I looked at other courses of this type, and $297 is actually on par or less than most.
The upsell will be $997 (total) for both the course and the full, one-on-one session. Considering that I charge $1,000 for critique consulting, and a minimum of $3,000 for any copy project, I think this price point is more than fair.
Now, you don’t have to choose the upsell.
You can buy just the main course for $297.
I only want to make the one-on-one session available to those who need more hand-holding and individualized attention.
But if you have a website right now, and you’re wondering how to tweak it but don’t know how, and if you prefer to save the hassle and expense — Mike Sigers said he was charged $2,500 to modify just one page! — this will certainly be a bargain.
So let me know your thoughts.
To answer a few of your questions in advance, let’s say I’m looking at next week as the launch, and the course will be delivered throughout July. Probably in the afternoons.
(However, if you choose the upsell, the one-on-one session can be booked at any time based on any openings on my schedule.)
All the sessions will be recorded and you will have access to the recordings. You can share your private session (if you choose the upsell) with a freelancer, partner, staff member, or designer, if you wish them to implement some of the things I recommend.
(Keep in mind, I will do a few tweaks for you, and do it live. This is only if the changes you need fall beyond the scope of our time together.)
Standing by and listening…
Want to Maximize Your WordPress Website Fortin-Style? originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
Adding the Google +1 Button
Posted on 06. Jun, 2011 by John Jantsch in Blog, Facebook Like, Google +1, Linked InShare, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media, WordPress
Adding the Google +1 Button
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
As I suspect you’ve heard, Google has formally introduced their entry to the Like and Share button craze with something they have named +1. They’ve been working on this for some time but pushed it live to all last week. (So, perhaps we have yet another verb to all – +1′d)
The difference Google has to offer from the Like or InShare options is the tie to search and that’s where the +1 Button makes it’s obvious difference known.
To get started +1’ing the stuff you like, you’ll need to create a Google profile—or if you already have one, upgrade it. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend. To see +1’s in your Google search results you’ll need to be logged into your Google Account.
Now while logged into your Google account as you surf, you will start to see little greyed out +1 buttons offering you the opportunity to +1 any search results you find. This act then turns the greyed button to full color and leaves a trail for your Google contacts. When one of your Google contacts conducts a similar search, he or she will see that you +1′d the link. Word from Google is they will soon let your Twitter and Flickr contacts view your +1′s too.
There is some vagueness in Google’s language about who will actually see your +1s – “And even if none of your friends are baristas or caffeine addicts, we may still show you how many people across the web have +1’d your local coffee shop.”
Even more speculation surrounds how Google will use this new data point. They have said publicly that they will use this to show you more relevant ads on non Google sites based on your +1 activity. You can disable this through your account settings tab by clicking on Edit under +1 settings that appear there now.
Another point of speculation is how +1 data might impact Google’s search results. They have been displaying more personalized results based on your network for some time now (try some search logged in and logged out of your account and you’ll likely see different results.) and some believe +1 may become another marker of a site’s popularity and relevance.
As is the case for the Facebook Like button and the LinkedIn InShare button, Google has made it pretty simple to add the +1 button to your content. I’ve added it to this blog as I think giving people the opportunity to +1 the content at the point of interaction will certainly lead to more content getting marked by readers. (The visual highlight of the colored +1 button in search results alone is reason to take this act.)
The video above shows the basics of adding the +1 button, but here are the steps
1) Visit Google +1 button configuartor
2) Choose the size you want to add (I’ve added the Medium to this blog)
Option – Click advanced settings and add the URL of the page you are using the button on
3) Copy the first chunk of code just before the closing body tag of page or template
4) Copy the second chunk of code where you want the button to show up
In the video I also show you how to add the button to a WordPress blog so that it will automatically add the URL based on the permalink of the blog post. – you simply add the href attribute to the second chunk of code, but use the WordPress permalink code for the URL – href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"
There’s also a WordPress plugin that makes it easy to accomplish this as well.
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