Word Press Plug-Ins That Can Help You

If you are writing a blog on a WordPress platform, there are some plug-ins that in my opinion are must-haves, because they will probably benefit you (and perhaps boost your traffic a little bit.)  First and foremost, as the CommentLuv Plug-In.  This is a great little plug-in, because it allows anyone who comments on your blog to get a link attached to their comment back to their own blog.  This can benefit both blogs with more traffic.  Along with CommentLuv, I also use "Simple Trackback Validation" and "GASP."  Simple Trackback Validation lets you establish some criteria for Trackbacks that you will approve, and it automatically eliminates a lot of SPAM trackbacks.

GASP stands for "Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin" and is also very helpful in reducing SPAM attacks.  

The next must-have plug-in is NextScripts Social Network Auto-Poster (SNAP for short).  This plug-in will auto-post 

all your new content to your Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.  
The free version has some limitations; howeve with the paid version you can be auto-posting
 to all your social networks at the same time from an assortment of blogs.  HOWEVER; I 
caution you, that even though this plug-in can also be used to auto-post to "Blogger," the kind 
people at Google DO NOT LIKE SNAP.  I set it up originally to auto-post to three of my Blogger 
blogs, which were shut down by Google immediately for being "SPAM" blogs, even though 
they weren't.  Google says that you can appeal their decision, and they'll look at the site in 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours, because this decision is actually made by Google robots.  So, 
I notified Google about the three Blogger sites that were shut down erroneously, and I have 

been waiting over a month for a response from them.  Just be warned, DO NOT USE this plug-in

 with Blogger

.

CommentLuv Enabled Blogs

I'm sure you've heard the terms "backlink" and "content is king" if you are a blogger or if you are thinking about becoming a blogger.  Obviously, in order for a blog to be successful, people have to be aware of it's existence and that just doesn't happen all by itself.  Firstly and most importantly, what is written on your blog needs to be as unique as possible.  That means you either write content yourself, pay someone to write content for you, or a very attractive third option is to invite guest bloggers to write content in exchange for putting their own links in their content.  The more unique content you have on your blog, the better your chances of getting ranked higher in the major search engines. But, ranking high isn't the only way to get traffic to your blog.

I very handy way to drive traffic to your blog is to look for CommentLuv enabled blogs that are DoFollow blogs.  If you find blogs that are relevant to the content you already have on your site, you can make a comment on these blogs.  CommentLuv enabled blogs will allow you to link one of the posts from your blog to the comment, which can drive readers of that blog's comments section to your blog.  If you're going to write comment, don't be mundane about it.  Actually read the post that you are commenting on make some worthwhile comment.  Don't just say something like "great blog."  That isn't helping either the blog owner or you.

Some links in this article are affiliate links from which we may receive a tiny commission at no additional cost to you should you visit a merchant via our link and subsequently make a purchase.

There are other comment sections in other types of blogs that will allow you to enter your site URL, but that isn't as specific as being able to pick out one particular link.  The best driver of traffic to your site is to comment on sites that are ranked on the first page of Google, Bing, Yahoo! or Ask.com.  Commenting on first page blogs will help generate traffic faster to your site, because you have the chance to have more eyes upon you. 

If you have a WordPress blog, CommentLuv is a free plug-in, and I recommend that you had it to your site so commenters on your site can take advantage of the commenting features as well.  If someone who has a highly ranked blog comments on your site, this also helps your site to get better rankings.

My Mobile Money Pages Brief Review

When I first started on this little affiliate marketing venture, I invested in some software called "My Mobile Money Pages."  The overall concept was really good, and there are some add-on features that are worthwhile, such as the AM Content cloner, which automatically posts new content if you are an Amazon Associate, and can also posed Flickr pictures, YouTube Videos, and articles from Yahoo Answers.  The software works great, if you have your own hosting, and buy your own domain names.  You can get some pretty decent hosting pages from SiteGround (which I use excusively), GoDaddy, HostGator, and a few others where you can get hosting for an unlimited number of domains for one monthly or annual price, no matter how many domains you have.  Domain names aren't that expensive generally (maybe between $10.00 and $15.00 per year, unless you get one that has a really high demand.).  My Mobile Money Pages also has some good tips on how to get a good quality domain name.

However, MMMP promised all the free domains you want hosted on their MMMP server, which is the one thing that I have not been satisfied with.  The domain names are actually subdomains, built off of the three domain names that MMMP has registered.  These won't rank as well with search engines such as Google, Bing, etc as opposed to a stand-alone domain name.  The other problem has been server downtime.  They promise it will be fixed, but we have been waiting close to a month now.  Maybe after this issue is resolved, it will be a better deal moving forward, I hope!!!!

Below is an example of a site a built using My Mobile Money Pages software.
http://poconofoothillstrading.com

Why It's Important to Diversify

Lisa can tell you better than anybody, why it's important to diversify.  Putting all your eggs into one basket, can devastate you if laws are changed suddenly.  

Make Google AdSense Part of Your Plan

If you are writing a Blog, one important feature that you need to consider is Google AdSense.  Almost all website formats will offer you some way of integrating Google AdSense into your campaigns.  This may not make you a fortune, but AdSense will place ads on your site that are relevant to the content of your site, which also lends credibility to your site.  Personally, I'm very partial to Google Blogger and WordPress for my sites, as they both are set up very well to accommodate Google AdSense ads.  But, also you need to be careful that you are offering unique content on your website, because if you try to get by without unique content, you run the risk of having your AdSense ads pulled by Google.

For WordPress Blogs, I'm partial to registering my domain on Siteground, because it is very easy to set up a WordPress site on their servers.  It's pretty much one click and done, and then all you have to do is write your content.