I’m a hard worker by nature, too hard those that know me would say. While I don’t mind hard work I’ll admit it can wear on you at times. I’m also a smart worker and when I find a way for someone or something else to do it for me I won’t pass it up.
Building and working on your blog is, hard work. It takes time both on your blog and within the blogging community to make it and it’s content breathe and live. However there are tools that can work for you. What I’d like to do is share my top five WordPress Plugins that work for me and if used can work for you.
What Do I Mean By Work For You?
All of these in one way or another are a means to promote your blog and it’s content, to encourage comments, and to engage actions from your readers. These plugins in essence “work for you”, they do a job and they do it well. While you still need to do work on your part these plugins are added little helpers.
WordPress Plugins That Work For You
1. WP Greet Box
What Is It? – What this plugin does is it displays a greeting message on your blogs pages in relation to where a particular visitor has come from or a message of your choosing. An example of this at work is if someone is Stumbling and comes across your page they will see a message “Give me a thumbs up if you like this” or if they are new to your blog a message to subscribe to your RSS feed. Along with the Stumble message there are 26 others from every popular means of social media to display message.
Why It Works For You – Many of us long term bloggers have become use to a blogs design, layout, button placement, and tend to block out either on purpose or just by nature, important means of blogging interaction. A box that appears from nowhere is a pleasant reminder to the reader to do a certain action they may have otherwise forgotten. How long till we get use to this? I think we have a while, so this should be a plugin you should have working for you.
What Is It? – A plugin that displays a button similar to the digg button we have seen for sometime. It keeps count of retweets and allows the reader an easy way to retweet the content of your blog.
Why It Works For You – Again going back to just being use to a blog we may not always think or feel like using the Share This buttons at the bottom of the post. Yea it’s only a few clicks which doesn’t seem like much of an effort but for most it’s too much. The Tweetmeme is one click and done, not to mention it’s right there a part of the content. It works because it’s easy to use and the counter will encourage clicks also.
What Is It? – A plugin that allows you to display the readers or top commentators and the amount of comments left by each that have commented on your blog.
Why It Works For You – It encourages those that read your blog to engage and leave a comment. For your readers, being on the list helps to build backlinks with their blog, this gives them a reason to comment because they are getting something in return. You in turn get more comments and the more comments the more your blog is looked at as being an authority. It works for you because it helps to get by giving.
4. DiggZ-ET
What Is It? – This is the digg button you’ll see just about everywhere. Like the Tweetmeme button it’s keeps count of diggs and also is an easy way for readers to digg your content rather then using your Share This buttons.
Why It Works For You – It gives your readers an easy way to promote your content. It’s also right there in the content and only takes one click to do it. Again it works for you because it’s easy for your readers and trust me they like quick and they like easy.
5. CommentLuv
What Is It? – When a reader leaves a comment on your blog the plugin searches back to their blog to find the last post they’d written. It then puts that posts title under their comment on your blog and creates a link for any and all to click on to read that post.
Why It Works For You – It’s another form of giving something back and to encourage more comments. More times then I could ever possibly count I have clicked on one of those CommentLuv links and either got some great info or a new blog to read. The reason this works for you is because it’s an added layer to your blog, a gift to your readers, and a point of more information.
What Plugins Work For You?
These are my top five, the ones I feel help to do work for my blog. What works for you? What helps you get more done? What cuts down on time? What helps to promote?
Amazing information! But sadly I’m using blogger. Why? I don’t know. it’s what i first leanred how to use.
Blogger is a good way to start blogging, once you’ve learned the ins and outs using WordPress would be the next step. You can do so much more with it.
Nice plugin list. The tweetmeme button plugin really comes in handy.
DiggZ-ET is just fantastic honestly. Just get your site up in the ranks without even going to the Digg site. Gets a lot of guys flowing in to check out your stuff.
great list…I was actually trying to figure out how people had that digg button for the past week or so…thought it was coding. Thank god its a plugin! hehe.
That greet box looks like an interesting one to try also. Never knew about that one either.
Thanks!
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I currently use all of the above on my site and I love them all, WP Greet is an excellent tool you see results with as soon as you add it.
I like Tweetmeme my only problem with it is the @tweetmeme in every retweet it annoys me, I cant stand when developers slide their little “extras” into the mix.
Comment Luv is also an excellent networking tool, all though I am having some odd cURL 7 error that simply doesn’t make sense and started out of nowehere.
Another excellent informative article, nice!
Extreme John´s last blog post..Throwback: Girls in Body Paint
Yea I agree on Tweetmeme, I suppose you take the good with the bad. Don’t you love how stuff stops working right just out of the blue.
Interesting! Comment Luv & Top commentators are plugins which i think i should use to increase traffic
Keep up the good work
Cheers
Sandeep
Sandeep´s last blog post..Do you Ping too Much!
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the great list, although it is only shorten into five.
Actually I love top-commentators and comment luv, and I am using them currently.
I will try WP greet box, it seems so useful in directing your visitors and at the same time increasing your traffic.
Vic – BusinessAccent´s last blog post..How to Get More Customers and Increase Your Sales
Thanks Michael – good list!
I really like Comment Luv; the only thing is it’s not compatible with Wordpress 2.7.1. I guess I’ll have to wait for the plugin to be updated.
I’ll also have to try out the WP Greet Box and Top Commentator; I wasn’t aware of those before. It’s hard to know what’s out there.
Holly – The Work at Home Woman´s last blog post..Lovable Links – Social Networking, Marketing and Blogging
CommentLuv works on 2.7.1 it may not say so on the plugin but I’ve been using it and it works.
Hi Michael – Thanks for the follow-up. I now have Comment Luv successfully installed.
Do you recommend DiggZ-ET or Tweet This over the Share this Button? I have the Share Button now, and I had the Tweet This button, but it looked too crowded. I want to keep a nice, clean and simple look.
Holly – The Work at Home Woman´s last blog post..Lovable Links – Social Networking, Marketing and Blogging
I would use all of them. I place the digg and tweet at the top and keep the share at the bottom. The share gives readers other options like Delicious, Stumble, ect. If I were to take one over the other I’d choose tweet over digg button.
That Greet Box is a good find. I’ve seen people use custom code for this, but a plugin just makes things so much easier.
Thanks Michael!
Actually it already looks like you use all of them. The placement is very nice and fits well. Would there be any other service you’d think to add if they had a button to use for blogs?
WP Greet Box is my new favorite. Just got it installed and I like the fact that it greets people from specific networks in a custom fashion. I also think in conjunction with the CommentLuv plug-in, the DoFollow plug-in gives an extra reward to your commenters, thus inspiring more people to take the time to comment.
Also, on the non-design side, there is a Wordpress Database Backup plug-in that does wonders. It will automatically backup your site’s database and email it to you daily, in the event of a crash.
~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog post..Getting Started with the Thesis Theme & Resources
I’ve already HAD to use the backup a few times. WP Backup is a must have tool.
Kikolani, which backup plugin is it? can you provide a link?
Kushmoney´s last blog post..Blog Updates May 2009
WP Database Backup is a smart plugin to have. Here is the link for it http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/
Thanks for the link.
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Yep I’d suggest every WordPress user have that plugin installed and us it OFTEN.
Thanks again for all of your help! Your blog has helped me out tremendously!
I installed the tweetmeme button and it makes my site download really slow – any suggestions?
Love the WP Greet Box and Top Commentators! I’ll have to check out the Do Follow that Kristi from Kikolani was talking about.
Holly – The Work at Home Woman´s last blog post..Mom Finds Perfect Home-Based Franchise
great post it was very helpful it had a lot of useful information. All of the plugins you provided are certainly the most crucial to building a valuable but yet enjoyable blog to come across.
spread the word´s last blog post..Review Of The Email Messenger “Mostly Known” As AWEBER
I reaaally like the Greet Box plugin. I’ve seen it on a couple of other blogs but haven’t installed it yet, it keeps growing on me more everyday but sometimes I wonder if I already have too many plugins..
Now I wonder what kind of words would be perfect to pair with the box that will make more readers subscribe..
Melody´s last blog post..The Top 5.5 Myths of Online Marketing
Nice list of plug-ins. Do Greet and commentluv are just excellent and do wonders for your site/blog and also help out the commentators on your site. It’s a win-win situation.
Hey Micheal, Haven’t been around for awhile but I’m back and wanted to come over to see what you’ve been up to. Good information you have here, there is nothing like Wordpress in my opinion and I just finally update the newest version (i hate change I went kicking right to the end) and at first I thought I had made a BIG mistake. Put your cursor on a bar or wherever and you can move that box around drag it here or there…. why would one want to do that?? I thought this is certainly invented by some techi gami person that thinks it would be cool to drag and drop …well I’m getting use to it and it’s not too bad now. I still wonder about the drag ‘n’ drop. I think I like the Greet Box Plugin or the Top Commetator and will have to remember to put them in right now. Thanks for the info. JJ
jj-momscashblog´s last blog ..JJ’s Back at MomsCashBlog
Great info. I have several of those plugins already but not all. I will have to check out the commentluv plugin.
Jeanine´s last blog ..12 Bible Study Guides to Learn More About Jesus Christ
Nice list buddy ..I use three among those plugin list..
sham´s last blog ..How to Add Clickable Image to Yahoo! Signature
I love to use commentluv. It helps me feel as I am giving back to the community with it. I also love to use AntiSpamBee plugin.
shaunjudy´s last blog ..Best MMA Knock Out(s) Ever!
I am a fan of GreetBox too. And of course a plugins list isn’t complete without All-in-One SEO and WP-SuperCache. If you want to increase your search engine friendliness, you should use an SEO plugin. And a caching plugin helps keep your site responsive when you have a lot of visitors. -Mike
This is a great source of information. I am trying to learn as much as I can about wordpress. I am just starting to blog and look like I have come to the right source.
Please keep up the good work.
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