Since I call this “your blogging classroom on the web”, I decided it was time we talk about homework; or that behind the scenes stuff we often put off.
Today’s Lesson
As many of you have noticed, I decorated my blog for the holidays.
Since I use a theme which has the “custom header feature”, adding the photo was simple. For the RSS widgets I searched for “holiday icons” and then recoded my widgets.
Listed below are a few new (to me) plugins I am testing.
- First is Sexy Bookmarks by Josh Jones and Norman Yung which is visible at the bottom of each post.
The Sexy Bookmarks plugin is easily customizable, looks good, doesn’t take up too much space and is positioned so readers will be reminded to Tweet, Digg, or use StumbleUpon, etc. to share a post.
- The “Follow Me” plugin by WP Burn.com can be seen on the right of the page.
This plugin is to remind our readers they can follow us on Twitter. The customization includes using different colors as well as different Twitter birds images.
- The Wibiya toolbar can be seen at the bottom of the page.
What I like about this toolbar is if you don’t want to clutter up your sidebars with an RSS feed, recent posts, etc., you can include them in the toolbar.This isn’t a plugin, but more of an add-on which requires an invitation. Just go to the Wibiya site and follow the instructions. In a matter of days you should receive an email from them and at that time you can set up an account and customize your toolbar.
- Thanks to the suggestions from both Internet Strategist @ GrowMap and Betsy at Passing Thru I added Zemanta and Apture.
In a nutshell, these two applications which work for all blogging platforms* make blogging easier and faster by suggesting photos, links, related articles, etc. for our posts. (Disclaimer: I’ve only tested them on WordPress.)
Zemanta adds a interface to your dashboard from which you can drag and drop photos and/or links into your post as you’re writing it.
- Image via CrunchBase
Apture adds icons which when clicked on, does the same.
Zemanta also adds a “reblog” feature at the bottom of the post which makes cutting and pasting quotes much easier, plus and an option to add links to other posts which may be beneficial to our readers.
Thus far, the only downside I see to using some of the above applications is they do slow down the page load time.
Today’s Assignment
What are your favorite plugins or applications?
Care to share?
.
Footnote: When using Zemanta on a self hosted blog, the Zemanta plugin must be used. For WordPress, the plugin can be downloaded here.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Do you have a strategy for social bookmarking and crowdsourcing? (socialmedia.biz)
- Manage Your Social Networks In One Place With Pond (100 Invites!) (makeuseof.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1eba33ba-ccc4-4925-94fa-6d64706450da "photo")
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With CommentLuv a blogger gets to let those who comment share a link back to their site which often results in more traffic for both bloggers.
It’s a great reward for those who take the time to comment on our blogs; a way to thank others for sharing their thoughts.
CommentLuv definitely spreads the love.
Today’s Lesson
You may have noticed when a blog has CommentLuv enabled, at the end of the link to your blog post is a small red heart
. By hovering over the heart with your cursor, it can tell more about you, your blog, where you visited last as well as more of your posts. It’s also clickable.
While going through the comments on recent posts, I noticed many of you are not using this feature. Instead, if I hover over the heart, I’m either seeing,
or,
When your CommentLuv link is labeled as a Feedburner link, Feedburner is getting the link love, instead of you.
In other words, your CommentLuv heart is broken.
When I signed up at ComLuv.com, I wanted to make sure my heart was working. After several tweaks and the Feedburner “fix”, here’s what you will see if you hover over the heart after a link to one of my posts:
Although some of you may prefer not to have additional information about yourself and where you visit available, for those of you who are trying to get noticed in blogosphere, by using this feature, you’re giving readers a chance to learn more about you as well as what other posts you have on your blog AND they can click directly on them.
The fix for your broken CommentLuv heart is easy.
You MUST register your blog.
1) Go to ComLuv.com
2) If you have the plugin installed and want to register your site(s*), click on the gray “Register Your Sites” bar and follow the instructions. Be careful when entering your feed address. It must be accurate for the CommentLuv links to work.
3) If you do not have the plugin installed, click on the orange “Download the plugin” bar. After activating the plugin, return to ComLuv.com and register your site.
If the CommentLuv links shows your site as a feedburner link, the fix can be found on the ComLuv blog at How To Turn Off Feedburner Redirects
It’s that simple.
What say you?
Today’s Assignment
Are you taking advantage of all the CommentLuv plugin has to offer?
Do you see any disadvantages to using the plugin?
Or, is this just one too many plugins to worry about?
P.S. For more information on how CommentLuv was born, you can read my interview with the plugin author, Andy Bailey.
*For a small fee, you can register more than one URL or add static links.