Best Marketing WordPress Plugins

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Learn More from Nicole at her blogl! www.NicoleontheNet.com Expert Briefs : Nicole Dean Asks Successful Marketers the Questions You Wish you Could What are your Favorite Wordpress Plugins for your Business Blog? By Nicole Dean of www.NicoleontheNet.com © - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 1 of 13

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Your blog functions best when you install the type of WordPress plugins that make some of blogging work easier on you. In this report, Nicole Dean asks internet marketing experts a basic question: "Of all of the plugins that you've got installed on your own blog, tell us about 1 or 2 gems that you use that aren't as well known."

Transcript of Best Marketing WordPress Plugins

  • Learn More from Nicole at her blogl! www.NicoleontheNet.com

    Expert Briefs:Nicole Dean Asks Successful

    Marketers the Questions You Wish you Could

    What are your Favorite Wordpress Plugins for your Business Blog?

    By Nicole Dean of www.NicoleontheNet.com

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 1 of 13

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    NOTICE: THIS REPORT COMES WITH GIVEAWAY & MASTER RESALE RIGHTS INCLUDED.

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    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 2 of 13

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    About Nicole: Nicole Dean is the Mostly-Sane Marketer. (Ask anyone who knows her and theyll say that the mostly part is up for debate!)

    Nicole loves to help online business owners to earn more money AND have more fun! She is an expert in Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Management, Lazy Marketing for passive profits, Outsourcing Effectively, and Marketing with Content. But, shes got a secret. She uses a LOT of shortcuts.

    Nicole juggles a lot of things, but she does it all without owning a Blackberry or giving out her cell phone number. The reason she works from home is to have the freedom when and where she wishes to work. She enjoys work very much, but lives to spend time with her much-adored husband, her two silly children and also her two slightly neurotic puppies, Eddy & Einstein.

    Resources from Nicole Learn the secret shortcut that many niche marketers use to stop working so darned hard Quality PLR Articles & Reports

    Find out how Nicole has gotten a waiting list of people who want her to steal their web traffic: How to Guest Blog

    Jimmy D. Brown called her Wonder Woman when she was his Affiliate Manager. Why? She got more done in a day than he thought she'd accomplish in a month.

    Check it out here: How do you have a Business AND a Life at the Same Time

    Are you ready to get your infoproduct out of your computer and into the Internet where it can start making moolah for you? Check out: How to Sell Your Products on Clickbank

    Learn how to Blog without Going Bonkers: Blog CPR

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 3 of 13

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    Welcome Its another Expert Briefs, where I ask really smart business owners to answer your burning questions.

    Todays question is -

    This question is about blog plugins. We all know about Akismet and All in One SEO and the other commonly known favorites.

    Of all of the plugins that youve got installed on your own blog, tell us about 1 or 2 gems that you use that arent as widely known.

    And, here are our answers

    Shannon Cherry says:

    Plug-in. Plug-in. Whos got the Plug-in?

    I will admit I am almost as addicted to plug-ins as I am domain names. And why not? There are more than 10,000 of them out there to pimp out your blog. But if I had to narrow down my favorites, here are my top three:

    Thank Me Later. This one allows me to email first time commenters automatically. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. (I do both!)

    SEO Scribe. This is a subscription based plugin (meaning you have to PAY for it). It works with All In One SEO Plug In to analyze each blog post for the best SEO. It finds keywords and event backlinks you can use. Best of all, the subscription can be used on multiple blogs at once (currently I use it on 4 of them).

    WPTouch iPhone Theme.This plugin will instantly make your site optimized for mobile browsers, while keeping your normal theme for people browsing your site on their PC. If you dont use a heavily customized theme, then this plugin will be perfect to you.

    Now there is ONE plug in I dont get that comes with the WP install: Hello Dolly! Can someone please tell me why thats in there?

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 4 of 13

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    Mark Mason says:

    This is an easy one for me.

    I have 36 active plugins currently installed on MasonWorld.com, but the one I like the most is W3TotalCache (W3TC). I was previously us-ing WPSuperCache, but I was having some page load time perform-ance problems, particularly right after sending my list to my blog. So, I did some research and switched to W3TotalCache.

    According to the W3TC people..

    W3 Total Cache is the fastest and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically im-prove the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress.

    The cool thing is that W3TC uses Amazon S3 and Cloudfront (that the CDN thingy referenced in the blurb) to host some of the more frequently downloaded files on my site, and that helped perform-ance a lot.

    Regards,Mark

    Kelly McCausey says:

    Im utterly dependent on the Broken Link Checker plugin. I have several WordPress sites with thousands of pages of content going back five years or more. Dead links are going to happen and I love how easy it is for me to re-move or update them with this plugin. This is especially important with affil-iate links that have gone dead but cleaning up dead links in general is important if you dont want to annoy your web visitors.

    http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/08/05/broken-link-checker-for-wordpress/

    Im using the WP-Invoice plugin on one of my service based websites where I often work long term with clients. The WP-Invoice plugin allows me to simply issue a web based invoice for monthly re-tainers and incidental projects. My client can then easily pay via PayPal. I love that Im able to view pending invoices right within my WordPress site.

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 5 of 13

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    http://twincitiestech.com/plugins/wp-invoice/

    Lynette Chandler says:

    Alright, Ill admit Im partial to these two plugins since we developed them

    1. List Authors Plus this allows finer control over how authors are listed. You can display authors using the plugins template tag or using sidebar wid-gets. Really handy when you have a bunch of accounts on your blog but not all account holders warrant a mention on your authors listing.http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/list-authors-plus/

    2. Gulp (coming soon) this plugin has been privately licensed for a while now and proven to be well received. In a nutshell, it uploads a bunch of articles in one go. Super easy to use. You can even select author, schedule, category, post or Page options at the time of upload. While it is currently being used mostly for PLR you can really upload just about any text content posts you have cre-ated, reprint articles and so on. Scheduled for release Dec/Jan.

    The rest of the list were not developed by us though we have more in the works

    3. WP-Invites allows you to create an invite code and only those who enter the correct invite code will be able to successfully register on your blog. I love this (and similar plugins) because we often request guest posts and we like to have our guests create their own account for both their convenience and ours. But at the same time we do not like to have the blog open for others to re-gister either this stops unauthorized people and spammers from creating accounts yet still auto-mates the authors account creation process.http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-invites/

    4. Syntax Highlighter and Code Prettifier Plugin for WordPress Im not sure not many people know about this but certainly not many non-techies know how to use this. I find WP-Syntax great for affiliate sites as in sites where affiliate managers post updates and codes etc. One of the prob-lems with WordPress is, when you try to post a text article inside a textarea, you will get unexpec-ted results with the line breaks. In short, it doesnt make easy copying and pasting. This allows you to create boxes for code and copy/paste text and alsomakes it easy for people to copy and paste.

    5. WP Mobile Edition Pretty self explanatory allows you to display a mobile version of your blog/site to those who are viewing on mobile devices.http://crowdfavorite.com/wordpress/plugins/wordpress-mobile-edition/

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 6 of 13

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    6. Header-Footer Dont you hate it when you have to install a gazillion plugins just to add a code to the header or footer of your site? Many dont realize, you dont have to. This allows you to add any type of code into your headers and footers and cut down on the number of plugins too, redu-cing that plugin mess (yay!)http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/header-footer/

    7. RunPHP, PHPExec, PHP Execution lets you add PHP code into your posts, pages. While true it works well only if you know what youre doing with PHP but oh it can help you do a multitude of things. Like automatically add your affiliates ID to your products links on the page. Ive used it many times to do that and am sure affiliates appreciate the extra help.

    8. ThemePerPost love this. Lets you use different theme for a post or page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/themeperpost/

    Id have to end this by a small advise to do your due diligence on any of the plugins mentioned. While we have run it without problems and have not encountered rogue code in them but our servers may be configured differently than yours and also files on download pages change from time to time.

    Denise OBerry says:

    Its hard to believe that just a few years ago, small business owners had to struggle with learning how to code html or php if they wanted to build their own website. WordPress has made life so simple for do it yourselfers.

    And it continues to get better and better as the platform matures and those cool techie folks out there create plugins that make our lives simpler.

    Like most small business owners, my websites have the standard plugins to battle spam and allow for social sharing. But one of my favorite plugins thats not so common is Add Sig, a plugin that allows you to add standard and custom signatures at the bottom of your posts. You can find it here http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/add-signature-plugin-for-wordpress/

    Ive used this plugin to add guest blogger bios, affiliate products, email list sign up forms and many other options. Its simple and takes just a few minutes to enter or change without requiring a ton of technical knowledge.

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 7 of 13

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    Connie Ragen Green says:

    I have found that less is more when it comes to plug-ins, so I choose them carefully before installing them on my blogs. The ones Id like to share arethe broken link checker plug-in and the drafts dropdown plug-in.

    I include links in most of my posts, and I always check them before I publish them. However, things beyond our control often happen, resulting in broken links and un-happy readers. The cure for this is the broken link checker plug-in, which lets you know when a link on your blog is no longer active. This gives you a chance to correct it, replace, it, or simply remove it.

    I post regularly to two blogs, so I tend to write partial posts and save them as drafts. The drafts dropdown plug-in makes it so easy for me to choosewhich draft I want to work on, saving me lots of time.

    Pat Flynn says:

    Hi Nicole,

    Here are a couple of gem plugins that most people probably dont know about:

    Broken Link Checker: this plugin is great because it will automatic-ally detect any broken links on your WordPress blog, either links that you type in yourself that were just not typed in correctly, which happens from time to time, or links that used to work but do not anymore because the page that it points to is no longer available.

    Robots Meta: this plugin, which is a bit more advanced, allows you to choose a number of settings for your WordPress blog as far as what the search engine spiders can and cannot crawl through. So for example, if you want to create nofollow links for your comments or for your archive page, its just a click of a button away. Also, each new page or post that you create has a setting where you can choose whether it should or shouldnt be indexed by Google, which comes in handy when you are creating more private type pages, such as landing pages for lead magnets for opting into an email list.

    Cheers! -Pat

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 8 of 13

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    Alice Seba says:

    Im pretty old school when it comes to marketing. I dont look for fancy market-ing tools or plugins for every little thing. However, I am a big fan of saving time and automating things where it makes sense. With that in mind, I have to make a little plug for my own plug Speedy APLC Publisher. It is designed for our members at allprivatelabelcontent.com and it allows them to instantly load their PLR articles into WordPress. But the cool thing is, it can be used for any content. Whether its PLR you bought elsewhere, art-icles from a ghostwriter or stuff you wrote yourself. As long as its in .txt format, it can be up-loaded.

    It allows you to:* Mass upload of articles in .txt format* Schedule imported articles for publication e.g. Every 1 hour, 24 hours, 72 hours, etc.* Upload the articles as drafts if you want to edit them before they are published.* Choose your categories. Publish all articles in one category of your choice or individually select a category.* Choose your authors. Assign all articles to one author or individually assign articles to author(s) of your choice.

    Its a great timesaver, even if you plan to edit the content. All you do is upload the zip, make your setting and everything is ready for you to work your magic.

    Here is a video showing how the publisher works.

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    Got some feedback on Twitter from Warren Whitlock

    Denise Wakeman says:

    Great question, Nicole! I usually go for plugins that make things easier and automate tasks.

    I especially like

    Vipers Video Quicktags : Super-easy way to add videos from YouTube and other video sharing platforms to your posts.

    Photo Dropper : Lets you easily find and add creative commons licensed photos to your posts from Flickr.

    Nicole Dean says:

    I currently have 25 active plugins on my blog, but amazingly I dont have the broken link checker. Ill have to add that one today since it sounds really handy. Then have my Virtual Assistant go through the broken links for me and fix them.

    As for my favorite plugins, it was easy for me to choose mine, and I was surprised that they hadnt been mentioned yet.

    My absolute favorite three WordPress plugins are:

    WordPress Editorial Calendar Datafeedr Random Ads V2 Page Links To

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 10 of 13

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    I also depend on Podpress to keep my podcast running, but I didnt think that was really a hidden gem so Ill just mention it in passing as my other most favorite plugin.

    Heres a bit about each one so you can see why I love them.

    1. WordPress Editorial Calendar.Their description says:

    The Editorial Calendar makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your blog.

    The Editorial Calendar is basically a way to organize and manage your blog posts.

    Ive found that its especially useful if

    Youre a visual person You like to plan your posts and promos in advance Youre outsourcing You have guest bloggers or a community blog where others are contributing to your blog You have theme days (like I do these Expert Briefs) Youre doing a challenge or contest of some sort (like my month-long Computer Butt Chal-

    lenge)

    Heres a screenshot that I took on Monday (the 15th) of my blog calendar. You can see that I already had two blog posts scheduled for Tuesday, ready to post.

    If I didnt have this plugin, I think Id have gone crazy(ier) by now.

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 11 of 13

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    2. Datafeedr Random Ads V2

    Their description says:

    The Datafeedr Random Ads plugin is a free plugin which allows you to simply and easily show ran-dom ads anywhere in your template files or using widgets.

    Heres a video to show you how I use it on this blog. I have it installed on several other blogs, but thought youd be most interested in seeing behind-the-scenes here.

    3. Page Links To Plugin.

    Their description says:

    Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navig-ational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

    The easiest way to show you how this works is to point you to my navigation above. If you go to the top navigation where it says Tools I Use in My Business hold your mouse over those words and youll see a list of sub-pages.

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 12 of 13

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    If you click on some of the pages that display, youll be taken to pages here on my blog. If you click on others, youll go directly to other sites where you can learn more about the tools. I didnt have time to create pages for each tool yet, but wanted my readers to know what I personally use in my business, so I started to list them there.

    Heres what the plugin looks like when youre using it. This is my settings for my Contact Me page under About Nicole on my top navigation.

    Its Your Turn.

    So, now, Ill pose this question to you. What are your favorite lesser known plugins? Id love to hear what you have on your blog! Please link back to the blog post when you post so that we can all learn about your favorite plugins.

    Warmly,

    Nicole Dean

    If youre new to expert briefs, dont miss these favorites:

    Are Internet Marketers Evil? How Do I Get More Traffic from iTunes? Do Successful Marketers actually use PLR or just promote it? What does an Internet Marketers Office Look Like?

    You may certainly share this document with a friend!

    - Nicole Dean, Groovy Slug, LLC page 13 of 13