Whether you are new to WordPress or a seasoned campaigner on the blogosphere, the list of Plugins constantly being made available, and the ability some of the Plug-ins have to streamline your business venture is truly mindboggling. I am constantly finding new and improved WordPress Plug-ins and installing and tweaking them to see if they will really do what they claim to. Most are fantastic, some -not so, and you can find a gamut of blog posts listing the best and the worst of the bunch.
And guess what, now its my turn…
I have just come from CopyBlogger where I finished reading an amazing guest post from Erika Napoletano of Redheadwriting.com . Erika has been a copywriter and internet marketer for over 4 years and this is apparently her first guest post on CopyBlogger, but looking at the quality – I am 1: surprised to hear this is her first guest post and 2: will not be terribly surprised when she is asked to guest post again.
Anyway, I highly recommend you get over there and have a read. The reason I mention all of this is because Erika talks about copywriting, but more importantly she talks about the power of leveraging your content. She mentions an AMAZING WordPress Plugin that helps leverage what you are already producing and it got me thinking about all the Plug-ins I use that help leverage my content.
So without further ado, here are the 4 plugins that I use to leverage my content and hopefully help me to drive more targeted traffic to my site. (Each of the plug-in titles is a direct link to get yourself a copy)
Quite self explanatory really, but basically it sends a tweet of your post (using the Bit.ly API key to shorten your URL) thus leveraging your latest awesome post to your hundreds or thousands of followers – BRILLIANT!
Again, speaks for itself but basically this sends a copy of your post to your Facebook wall. It even grabs random images from the post and includes them in the feature box on your facebook wall, making your articles look even more appealing. Again, BRILLIANT
(I am seeing about 25% of my traffic coming through this way)
OK, this is where I have to credit Erika of Redheadwriting.com again as it was her guest post at CopyBlogger that brought this plugin to my attention. Basically what it does is allow you to publish your post to the Ezine Article Directory at the same time as posting on your blog. MORE BRILLIANCE!
Copied from the Ezine Articles site:
Accessing the EzineArticles WordPress Plugin
- Log in to your EzineArticles member interface.
- Hover over the “Author Tools” drop-down menu and click on “WordPress Plugin”.
- Follow the step-by-step instructions for installing and activating the plugin.
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, all you’ll need to do is click on the “Publish Post on EzineArticles” checkbox and then click “Publish” or “Update” to simultaneously publish your post AND submit it as an article to EzineArticles.com.
So if you’re an experienced WordPress user, go download, install and activate the plugin right now. Then take it for a test drive to see how it works. If you have any questions, stop back and leave a comment and we’ll try to help.
Finally, this plugin is supposed to not only feed your blog with keyword relevant YouTube Videos, it also apparently allows you to send your videos to your YouTube Channel at the same time as you post on your blog. (I say apparently because I have not utilised this plugin as of yet)
But what about Duplicate Content?
I know what you are thinking, and I was thinking the same thing, so let me alleviate your worry now. Duplicate Content right. You were worried about it in relation to the WP Ezine Articles Plugin weren’t you. Yeah so was I, which is why I have taken the liberty of stealing the brilliance of Erika Napoletano one more time…
“Regarding additional ways to repurpose content, my current faves are eZines and Posterous. The duplicate content issue is, essentially, a myth of days gone by. The most important thing is to not simultaneously publish content. I generally let content season 48-72 hours on the source blog before redistributing. That way, the SE’s will index the content at the original source I want and then all other repurposing is for backlinks and breadcrumbs.”
Well that’s all for now, PLEASE add more if I have missed them, or if you just know of good Leveraging plug-ins then flick me a comment or two…
Google+ it
BlogEngage it
Pin it
Kube it
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Great list! Wordpress has so many amazing plugins. I go shopping in their plugin database weekly.
.-= GetYourBizSavvy´s last blog ..Fist Pump Break =-.
Good job. I’m definitely going to bookmark you!
Thank you for your article. I am new to blogging, and I find it very helpful when I stumble upon sites which give me useful advice.
Awesome William!
Thanks for taking the time to say as much
Hey Alex,
This is a good short list of plugins. I’m glad you did it that way because most people over-do it with long lists of plugins they don’t even use.
I heard about the Ezine plugin and the duplicate issue before, but it really helps that you included the installation instructions. I was confused about the meaning of duplicate content too. I think someone got banned by Google years ago a that nasty rumor never seems to go away.
Thanks!
Hey Ileane!
Thanks, glad you appreciate the shorter list. I too hate when I leave a post more overwhelmed than when I arrived – glad that didnt happen here
Yeah the whole duplicate thing is a farce – irrelevant anyway if you ask me.
Thanks again for stopping by Ileane
Hi Alex,
This is my first comment on your site, and I’m looking forward to a long lasting journey ahead.
I just noticed sometime back that you were posting all your stuff as-is on EzineArticles, and was thinking, “Oh! That’s a bad step”. But what you quoted above regarding the “myth” of duplicate content makes me think again. I am still not taking your word for it (or rather Erika’s word, though I have not yet checked her blog), and I still have my doubts. If Google is smart to punish only the sites that post the duplicates later, then that would be nice. But again, if that is the case, then EzineArticles will fail to show up in search results in a few months time. Now what do you think about that?
Cheers,
Mark
Mark,
First impressions last – and with a first comment like that – I too hope there is long lasting journey ahead!
In response to your question – I say this ‘search for ‘Effective Blog Commenting’ in Google.
My blog post comes up ranked around 3rd, the Ezine article of the EXACT same text comes up around 5. and sometimes, (and this is the kicker) the article appears through another syndicated channel ranked 4th or something.
(at the time of writing this post I actually rank 1st again for that phrase! woo hoo)
This in itself proves that its BS. Think about this – if the post/article is the same, then OK, but the page that the article sits on is different in every instance. The HTML page coding, the tags, the sitemap, etc are ALL going to be different, so really, in the eyes of Google – that ain’t duplicate content is it.
Awesome!
Alex,
I spent some time researching your blog with Google search results. Here are some findings:
For the phrase that you mentioned, as of this writing…
1) EzineArticles has moved up 2 places and taken the 3rd place now.
2) Your site has moved down 7 places and is now standing at 8th spot.
Googles algorithms are complicated, and keep changing a lot. You never what’s going to happen in a few days time. Heard of stories where people lost huge chunks of their traffic because their sites stopped showing up in search results one fine day?
I fear it might be just a matter of time before Google takes care of this duplication.
Regarding your point that the content should finally appear different to Google with all the HTML source in between, I’m afraid that’s not the case. Google is smart enough to ignore HTML markup.
Now there’s one interesting thing about your post – the title is different in EzineArticles and your site. That might put off Google for some time.
But all said and done, the algorithms are complex. Google seems to give preference to EzineArticles, and there’s no reason why it wouldn’t with all that content! But I figure that it should not just take your site off the results, because you too have been linked to by so many other sites. That again tells Google that there’s something about your blog too that it should give preference to.
If it’s some other blog, like mine for example (as of now), there may be no back-links for a given post, and when Google sees that the same article is already there on EzineArticles, it might give me a -100 while it gives a +100 to EzineArticles!
So, that still keeps me thinking!
Mark
I was looking for a twitter plugin and currently sending my posts to twitter using software. thanks for the tip.
Alex:
I was just tickled pink when I came to this post and saw Erika’s name. BTW, I actually think she has guest posted over at Copyblogger more than once. If I remember correctly she recently did a guest post there about a comment policy (maybe??)
Anyhow, that’s beside the point, I know.
I had not heard of WordBook (I use Networked Blogs to send mine to FB).
There used to be a great one for pushing your posts to Ping.fm but it hasn’t been working for months. (sad face~I even wrote the developers to let them know it wasn’t working but never got a response)
While I have the Ezine one installed I have never used it, but should one of these days.
I’ve been using LinksAlpha to send to Twitter (it’s super fast too once that post is published). However, despite their claim to analytics I haven’t seen them working like they should.
Aww, thanks Michelle! And thanks Alex for the multiple mentions. Be sure to let me know where to send the check
This tiny little world with considerably less than 6 degrees of separation. I discovered Alex by way of @websiteweekend who I found doing some research for a client.
And who, may I ask, are you sending a check to? Me or Alex? He’s in Australia or something that like so I can / will act as his U.S. Agent.
Australian Dollar hit 1 USD last night!!! went back down to 99c shortly after but still!
OMG! SO checks or cheques can go in USD or AUD. Oh, they still go to me though
LOL! Thanks Erika for stopping by!
It is a pleasure to have the redhead writer in the house!
And Michelle, I’m sure the cheques for me, although since the Australian dollar is worth something like 99.9US cents right now, it’s 6 of one and half a dozen of the other LOL.
Michelle, thanks for your awesome value add, and Erika – thank you for putting me onto the plugin in the first place – AND for being a brilliant writer of course
Alex – figured you’d still want the checks.
Have to be able to pay you one day Michelle!
Hey Alex
Thanks for the plugin tips and opening my eyes to a new resource for article writting Ezinearticles, reading the comments above I still dont quite grasp what its all about.
I think it has to do with duplication of blog content on several sites?
I have installed the plugins and now just need to figure out how to use them.
Again thanks for an informative post.
Stan!
My pleasure man.
Stay away from the comments, they make your brain hurt more than it needs to.
Just know that its perfectly OK to submit your posts to Ezine directly.
Just remember to remove all links AND any reference to it being a blog post.
One thing I have noticed of late is that Ezine are a bunch of Nazi’s and don’t approve any posts I send them anymore. Heaven forbid they should actually get some value on their pages!
Thanks for commenting Stan, good to seeyou again mate
This is very, very useful and your Blog is becoming one of
my favourites for great news! (Straight onto my Facebook and
StumbleUpon and instantly Tweeted) Thank you very much!! Regards
from the UK! (Yes, we Blog here too!!)
Thanks Peter!!
)
Really appreciate the RTs and comments mate – yep, even from the UK!
(I’m half English so I have to send some love back, besides – I want to be close to the Ashes somehow
Pleasure Meg
{ 1 trackback }