Everyone seems to have a list of their favourite WordPress plugins. Not to be outdone, I felt that I should throw my list into the mix.
Keep in mind that blogs are used for a variety of reasons and have different requirements. Some WP users may swear by a certain plugin while others will simply have no use for it.
Having said that, here is the Silver Barrel list of plugins that we typically install on most blog projects. Most of these plugins are very easy to install and configure but should you run into any snags, we’re here to help. Just drop us a line at www.silverbarrel.com .
WordPress Database Backup
As the old saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Since almost all of the information that you add to your blog is stored in a database, it’s critical to back that database up at regular intervals. The WordPress Database Backup makes this easy. Scheduled backups can be automatically emailed to you or saved on your hosting server as often as you like. Manual backups can also be done at the click of a button.
Download here: http://ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/
Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator
This plugin allows for a very easy way to create a compliant XML sitemap for your site which helps Google index your site. This format of sitemap is supported by Google, Ask.com, Yahoo and MSN search engines.
Download here: http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/
Single Click Plugin Updater
Since we’re talkin’ plugins here, why not make it easy to install them and keep them up to date. Some users might be comfortable installing or upgrading plugins via FTP while some of you might have your website developer deal with it. For those of you who want an easy way to handle this on your own, this plugin is for you. It allows you to install a new plugin by either entering the download URL of the new plugin or by navigating to a plugin found on your computer. You also get an ‘update automatically’ link in the notification area of WordPress when any of your plugins are out of date.
Download here: http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/10/19/one-click-plugin-updater/
Askimet
This plugin checks any comments that users (or spammers) post to your blog against the Askimet service to see if they are spam or not. We’ve had some of our blogs hit hard by spammers before and this service has made life much easier. You’ll need a WordPress API key to configure the Askimet plugin. You can get the API key here: http://en.wordpress.com/api-keys/
Download here: http://akismet.com/download/
WordPress Automatic Upgrade
Every few months WordPress developers release an upgrade. This plugin makes upgrading your blog as easy as clicking a button. As long as the file permissions on your blog are correctly set, this plugin does all of the work for you.
WordPress automatic upgrade upgrades your current blog installation by completing the following steps:
1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers them.
6. Upgrades wordpress files.
7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
8. Re-activates the plugins.
The plugin can also can be run in an automated mode where in you do not have to click on any links to go to the next step.
Download here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/
All in One SEO Pack
Like the name says, this plugin handles most of the best SEO practices for WordPress. You simply type in the information about your site and you’re off to the races.
Download here: http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/
Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin adds your Google Analytics tracking code to all pages within your blog. If you’re using Google Analytics for stats, then you’ll want this plugin.
Download here: http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/
Lightbox 2
This creates that snazzy pop-up lightbox effect for your images. Here’s a sample: http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/ . It’s easy to install and configure so if you want to go that extra mile to make your photos really stand out, this plugin will help.
Download here: http://zeo.unic.net.my/lightbox2-for-wordpress/
Twitter Tools
For all you Twitter nuts out there, this blog plugin is a must have. It will display your tweets on the sidebar of your blog, create new blog posts for each tweet, and even compile old tweets (daily or weekly) into a single blog post depending on how you configure it.
Download here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/
WP Super Cache
As with most dynamic websites, code is being executed and a database is usually being queried every time a visitor hits a page. This means that if your hosting server is slow or if you’re getting lots of traffic, you’ll likely experience slow load times on your blog. This plugin generates HTML files that are servered to visitors rather than running any server-side code. Soooooo, what does this mean? Install this plugin and your blog pages will load faster!
Download here: http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/
September 15th, 2009
admin
When comparing social media traffic to other forms of traffic, such as search engine, the numbers typically are going to look rather bleak. While you’ll hopefully see a spike in number of visitors and pageviews, that will often be accompanied by higher bounce rates, lower pageviews per visitor, and a lower average time on the site. With stats like this many bloggers wonder if social media traffic is even worth the time and effort.
Despite the tendency of many social media visitors to quickly exit your site and move on to the next one, there are still some very convincing reasons why you should care about social media and why it is worth your time.
1. It’s Free
Unless you’re paying for a consultant or a link bait specialist (both can be good options), marketing your website with social media is free. It will cost you some time, but that pales in comparison to the value of the traffic that you can get in return. There are countless ways to market a website or blog. Just about all of them involve spending money (which isn’t a bad thing), and of the ones that don’t involve money, the vast majority of them are a complete waste of time. I’ve never tried any other type of free marketing that brought even 1% of the results I’ve gotten with social media at my primary blog. Most bloggers are on a tight, or non-existent, budget when it comes to marketing. If this is the case, social media is for you.
2. Quick Results
Building a successful website takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Search engine rankings, for instance, can take years to build in a competitive niche. On the other hand, with social media you can develop content and be seen by thousands of visitors within the same day. For this reason, social media is a great option for getting a new website or blog noticed right away .
3. It’s Flexible
There are so many different social media websites that just about every imaginable niche is covered in one way or another. There are social news sites, bookmarking sites, and general networking sites. Whatever your needs and your audience, there should be an option to use social media for your benefit.
Also, you’re not stuck to using the same social media sites over and over. If you’re not getting results in one place there’s usually other options that you can try out.
4. It Gets Easier with Time
If you’re new to blogging and social media and you feel like everyone else is getting traffic but you, understand that it takes some time and effort, but it will get easier. Once you have established a bit of a reader base and you’ve hopefully attracted some social media users to your blog, it will be much easier for you to get votes and ultimately get more exposure. The more you use social media the more you will understand about how it works and how users will respond.
5. It Will Lead to Other Valuable Sources of Traffic
Although visitors from social media sites may be less responsive than other types of visitors, success with social media will likely increase the number of inbound links you receive. Links will boost your search engine rankings and they’ll also drive click-through traffic your way. Both are generally high quality traffic sources.
6. Building Links with Social Media is Safer than Buying Links
If you plan to cut out the need for social media by purchasing links from other sites, you’re running the risk of being penalized or banned by Google. For some, this is a risk worth taking, but in most cases I would strongly discourage taking this chance. Personally, I focus on building links for my primary blog through the combination of content and social media.
7. Social Media Users are Predictable
The whole concept or link bait or Digg bait wouldn’t even be possible if social media users were unpredictable. But the truth is you can usually have a good idea of what is likely to draw a response and what is not. This will come with time, and of course there is no 100% guarantee. However, once you know a social media audience pretty well, you can cater content to their preferences with a pretty high success rate. What you learn about social media can easily be duplicated to your other blogs or to serving clients.
8. It Doesn’t Require as Much Time as You Might Think
Personally, I use social media every day, but on a very limited basis. If you think that you have to spend all day on Digg or Stumbling pages to get some results of your own, you may be surprised. With the right approach you can get fantastic results with just a few hours per week on social media sites. To be a top Digg user you’ll need more time than that, but being a top Digg user isn’t necessary to draw social media traffic.
9. Branding Through Social Media is Possible
One of the great benefits to the exposure that you can get through social media is the result it has on the branding of your blog. Branding is key to building a success blog in the long-term, and social media is an excellent, free option for helping visitors to see your blog in a particular light. (For more, see my post at ProBlogger A Blogger’s Guide to Branding with Social Media.)
10. Links Can Help Your Search Engine Rankings Rise Quickly
Earlier I mentioned to social media can provide instant results. Well, in addition to sending loads of traffic directly, the links that result from social media success can get your new posts ranking very well with search engines almost immediately. It’s not uncommon for me to see a very respectable number of visitors from Google searches to a brand new post that just drew a lot of links through social media. While it will take a while to build search engine rankings as a whole, it is possible to create specific posts to rank well right away.
11. It Allows You to Leverage Your Existing Traffic
Do you already have a solid blog with a steady flow of traffic? If so, chances are you could leverage that traffic to draw even more visitors with social media. You may want to use voting buttons on your posts or ask some of your readers and friends to give you a vote occasionally.
12. Some Visitors Will Be Targeted
The biggest knock on social media traffic is that it’s not targeted, and that is typically true. However, visitors from niche social media sites can be very highly targeted, and on top of that, a portion of visitors from general news sites will be targeted as well. For example, if you get 25,000 visitors from a post on the Digg front page, maybe only 5,000 of them will have much of an interest in your site. Still, that’s a quick 5,000 visitors that you wouldn’t have had without social media. Just because a smaller percentage of the visitors will stick doesn’t mean that they are irrelevant.
13. The Future of the Internet is Social
Social media and social networking aren’t going away any time soon. The major players and the types of social sites may change of the course of time, but this is a trend that online marketers need to adjust to. Without finding ways to build a website or blog through social media you could be left behind by your competitors.
Originally Published August 10th, 2008 by http://traffikd.com
Choosing a domain name can be a long and tedious process. With so many names no longer available, creating a new one or finding the right one requires research, creativity and sometimes a significant investment. Regardless of whether you are looking for a brand new name or considering purchasing one, the same factors come into play to determine the value of the domain name to your business.
It is important to mention that a great domain name won’t simply make your business, and a poor one won’t break it. With such a focus on search engines today, people can find your site in many ways other than typing it in the browser. However, a quality domain name can still help your business.
Relevance
For starters, a domain name should be relevant to your business. Even a great one-word name like “sneakers.com” would not serve your purpose very well if you were selling books. Try to think of a name that people will remember based on what you do, remind them of your company name (if not an exact match), and that will at least somewhat describe what is on the site. A relevant domain name will also help you in search results. There are, of course, exceptions. Many sites have created brand new words that have proved to be great successes, from Google (now a verb) to Twitter. This requires a strong sense of brand, and even when dealing with a word the dictionary has never seen, something memorable.
Length
The length of a domain name is extremely important, simply because people will remember shorter names. Shorter names may also come across as more professional and will appear better in print ads. Don’t expect to find yourself a 3-letter domain (they’re all taken), but try to think of as many variations as possible to get yourself a short domain name. Single-word domains are also few and far between, but a 2-word domain name is the next best thing. While hyphenation is not ideal, consider it as an option to grab a domain name that is already taken without a hyphen.
Extension
The most widely used domain extension is “.com” which stands for “commercial.” For many businesses, a “.com” domain is most desirable because it is the most recognized. People who remember your domain name may automatically assume it is a “.com” unless they remember otherwise. “.net” domains (for network) are intended for companies involved in an Internet-related business, but this extension is often considered the alternative when a “.com” is unavailable. Organizations and non-profits may prefer a “.org” extension, which is very common and even expected for these types of business. “.biz” and “.info” websites are also relatively common (compared to the many other extensions), but are much less recognizable than the top three extensions above.
What extension to choose will in some cases depend on your business type, and in other cases depend on what is available. A great “.net” domain might be more valuable to you than a long, confusing “.com,” which is a decision that often has to be made.
In the end, the name won’t mean everything… the promotion of the project, the quality of the website, optimizing it for searches and other factors will prove just as, and often more, important.
Eric Miller
Graphic Design Guide
http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/websitedesign/a/choose_domain.htm
There are a lot of things that contribute towards the success of a business. Having a good quality product doesn’t necessarily assure the success of a business. To build a long term impression on your customers, it is vital that you have a proper marketing strategy and something unique about your company. Here comes in the importance for having a custom logo design.
I think it is absolutely important for all corporate bodies to realize the importance of having a custom designed logo. A professional logo design goes a long way to establish the identity and exude the attitude of the company. Now, when we say ‘professional logo design”, we must understand that it is not a child’s play, its a specialist job and better if it is assigned to a professional logo designer.
The corporate bodies need to appoint the specialist in the field to get it done. I definitely do understand that its lot of fun to design your own logo; You play with colors, try out your drawing skills and spend some idle time to think what should be the design, at the end you land up with a very common concept of having the initials of your company in some twisted fashion or putting in a sleazy slogan to say your product is the best or some other things like that. However, that is not how your logo should be, it is not just a small graphics to appear in your business cards and letterheads.
A logo, if done properly can leave a long and deep impression on your customers mind. They go a long way in depicting the image of your business. You can well understand, how powerful a logo can be if you think about the golden M of McDonalds, the moment you see that, you know it’s them. Just think about the IBM logo or Swoosh of Nike, do you even take a moment to think, to whom does that logo belong? That shows how powerful impact a logo can create in the mind of your customers. Wouldn?t you like your company to have an equally powerful logo?
A professionally designed custom logo can be very powerful in representing the company profile, the nature of job they do and the attitude of the company. It helps to build the identity of the company and distinguishes your service from your competitors in the industry.
Article originally written by: Ray Smith
To view our logo portfolio, please click here.