I was looking for a plugin or tutorial to do this , but due to the fact that I couldn’t find any plugins I started searching more and more for a code to satisfy my needs . Today I found it , and I am going it to share it . So , here it is :
Go into the WordPress control panel > Presentation > Theme Editor
and find the following code :
< ?php if (have_posts())
above that , add :
< ?php $count = 1; ?>
Then find the line that starts with:
< ?php the_content
and add :
< ?php if ($count == 1) : ?>
Your Google AdSense code
< ?php endif; $count++; ?>
If you wanted to make it after the 2nd post, change “count == 1″ to “count == 2″. It’s as easy as it looks like .
Friday, September 14, 2007
13 Most Powerful Wordpress Plugins
1. Buy me a Beer plugin : Allows your blog visitors to buy you a beer by sending you money through PayPal.
2.Enhanced WP-ContactForm :
WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. In the message it sends to you it gives the page the user visited before the contact page, as well as the original outside referer .
3. Feedburner Feedsmith : Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
4. Firestats : Statistics plugin for WordPress.
5. GöSPress : GöSPress delivers spellcheck to those who prefer not to use the Visual Editor, along with the ability to allow spellcheck for reader commenting.
6. Google XML Sitemaps : This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
7. LinkLove : Where a commenter has commented at least 10 times (configurable) the nofollow reference is removed. For all newer commenters, the nofollow remains .
8. Live comments preview : Activate to supply users with a live comment preview. Use the function < ?php live_preview() ?> to display the live preview in a different location.
9. MyAvatars :
This plugin allows you to add MyBlogLog.com avatars to Wordpress comments.
10. Quoter : Allows commenters to quote other comments (dynamically or server side if they have Javascript disabled) and any other text in a page (Javascript only) .
11. Show Top Commentators plugin : Encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names (linked to their website if they provided one) .
12. Subscribe to comments : Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
13. Akismet : Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.
2.Enhanced WP-ContactForm :
WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. In the message it sends to you it gives the page the user visited before the contact page, as well as the original outside referer .
3. Feedburner Feedsmith : Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
4. Firestats : Statistics plugin for WordPress.
5. GöSPress : GöSPress delivers spellcheck to those who prefer not to use the Visual Editor, along with the ability to allow spellcheck for reader commenting.
6. Google XML Sitemaps : This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
7. LinkLove : Where a commenter has commented at least 10 times (configurable) the nofollow reference is removed. For all newer commenters, the nofollow remains .
8. Live comments preview : Activate to supply users with a live comment preview. Use the function < ?php live_preview() ?> to display the live preview in a different location.
9. MyAvatars :
This plugin allows you to add MyBlogLog.com avatars to Wordpress comments.
10. Quoter : Allows commenters to quote other comments (dynamically or server side if they have Javascript disabled) and any other text in a page (Javascript only) .
11. Show Top Commentators plugin : Encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names (linked to their website if they provided one) .
12. Subscribe to comments : Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
13. Akismet : Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.
Learn how to maximize your incoming links through linkbaiting
The art of linkbating has come a long way , since the first SEO optimizer discovered it till nowadays . What is link baiting you say ?
Well , put it simple : have you ever gone fishing ? if you have you know a trick or two , like getting the nicest bait , the biggest worm maybe in the hope you are going to catch the biggest fish in the pond . This is similar to linkbating , and no you don’t need worms for this one .
Picture this : you come up with a killer idea ( your bait ) related to your topic , you publish it on your site , and all you have to do next is to wait for the big fishes to bite ( other big sites in your industry ) . Easy right ?
Now , i could agree with some people and say that linkbaiting isn’t a sure thing , what if no one links to your website and you ended up with nothing after you put your heart and soul into that project , but remember no fisher caught the big fish the first time . Perseverance is the key , don’t give up , the big fishes will certainly bite.
Where can i see an example of linkbait ?
The pond of social networks is filled with linkbaits . Look at sites like :
social news sites : Reddit , Digg or NewsVine
social bookmarking sites : Del.icio.us , Ma.gnolia , Furl
These sites need content every day , the same way bloggers feel the need of linking to something almost daily .
What will help me get a set of good ol’ fashion links ?
As i have said earlier , linkbaiting is similar to fishing , you need a hook , bait , a fishing rod and a pond full of big fishes .
Hooks come in different flavors , like :
* News hooks
* Resource hooks
* Fun hooks
* Contrary hooks
I will only give examples of two of these hooks : Fun hooks and Contrary hooks .
Fun hooks : people are always searching for something fun that will make their day , life is boring as it is , try to make it a bit more joyful for them . Thus , people will never get tired of fun . Find a picture , drawing or whatever wherever you think it’s best for you and post it on your website .
Topic idea 1 : “Top 10 ugliest puppies” - well , that caught your attention : a puppy is in general nice , sweet , how can it be ugly ? it doesn’t have to be , the pictures can be of some very sweet and funny puppies . That’s how linkbaiting works , i caught your attention , now you’re going to visit my site , you see the pics , you are laughing by now . Word of mouth makes wonders this time , you spread my link across a small list of friends , someone will certainly link back to you , thank you .
Topic idea 2 : Find a celebrity star or whatever kind of celebrity and have it compared with something funny .
“Reasons why [ celebrity STAR NAME ] looks like [ FUNNY THING ] .
Contrary hooks : these need a bit more understanding of linkbaiting and actually mastering your domain . Let’s say some known blogger publishes an article on something that catches everyone’s attention , fair enough but he missed something out . Try to point it out , “Why [ blogger NAME ] is WRONG , read the truth” .
Well , put it simple : have you ever gone fishing ? if you have you know a trick or two , like getting the nicest bait , the biggest worm maybe in the hope you are going to catch the biggest fish in the pond . This is similar to linkbating , and no you don’t need worms for this one .
Picture this : you come up with a killer idea ( your bait ) related to your topic , you publish it on your site , and all you have to do next is to wait for the big fishes to bite ( other big sites in your industry ) . Easy right ?
Now , i could agree with some people and say that linkbaiting isn’t a sure thing , what if no one links to your website and you ended up with nothing after you put your heart and soul into that project , but remember no fisher caught the big fish the first time . Perseverance is the key , don’t give up , the big fishes will certainly bite.
Where can i see an example of linkbait ?
The pond of social networks is filled with linkbaits . Look at sites like :
social news sites : Reddit , Digg or NewsVine
social bookmarking sites : Del.icio.us , Ma.gnolia , Furl
These sites need content every day , the same way bloggers feel the need of linking to something almost daily .
What will help me get a set of good ol’ fashion links ?
As i have said earlier , linkbaiting is similar to fishing , you need a hook , bait , a fishing rod and a pond full of big fishes .
Hooks come in different flavors , like :
* News hooks
* Resource hooks
* Fun hooks
* Contrary hooks
I will only give examples of two of these hooks : Fun hooks and Contrary hooks .
Fun hooks : people are always searching for something fun that will make their day , life is boring as it is , try to make it a bit more joyful for them . Thus , people will never get tired of fun . Find a picture , drawing or whatever wherever you think it’s best for you and post it on your website .
Topic idea 1 : “Top 10 ugliest puppies” - well , that caught your attention : a puppy is in general nice , sweet , how can it be ugly ? it doesn’t have to be , the pictures can be of some very sweet and funny puppies . That’s how linkbaiting works , i caught your attention , now you’re going to visit my site , you see the pics , you are laughing by now . Word of mouth makes wonders this time , you spread my link across a small list of friends , someone will certainly link back to you , thank you .
Topic idea 2 : Find a celebrity star or whatever kind of celebrity and have it compared with something funny .
“Reasons why [ celebrity STAR NAME ] looks like [ FUNNY THING ] .
Contrary hooks : these need a bit more understanding of linkbaiting and actually mastering your domain . Let’s say some known blogger publishes an article on something that catches everyone’s attention , fair enough but he missed something out . Try to point it out , “Why [ blogger NAME ] is WRONG , read the truth” .
Stumbleupon Tips
StumbleUpon is one of the biggest social networks on the web, with more than 3,3 million members is the best place to immerse into. Not only Stumbleupon is a great place to submit your articles, but it’s also a good place to make friends that share the same interests as you do.
Along the years, StumbleUpon has been known for its ability to drive massive amounts of traffic in a short period of time, it’s something so big that people even named it, calling it the StumbleUpon Effect.
According to a recent analysis of the top 50 stumblers, done by Glen Allsopp over at ViperChill, it looks like building a powerful profile is not as hard as it may sound. These top 50 are averaging an incredibly 590,618 pages ( that’s 11812.36 pages rated per user ), 54322 photos ( that’s 1086.44 photos rated per user ~ 1087 ) and 25,693 videos ( that’s a little over 500 - 513.86 videos rated per user ).
What the above stats can tell us it that, becoming a top 50 stumbler isn’t that hard. Given the fact that some of them have had an account for even 2 years and have had the whole time in the world to stumble and stumble and even stumble some more.
For someone to reach that average of 11812 rated pages in 2 years, it would take about 16 ratings per day, that’s not too much and it’s highly possible. Imagine what would happen if you could double it, triple it or even quadruple it - your job would be done in no time.
The basics to building a power profile on SU
1)Make a catchy profile page. - Spice it up with a photo of yours, or something funny, it’s got to be something that catches eye sight. Change your color scheme, make it more appealing.
2)Reach out and make friends - Although SU is somehow and god knows why limiting the number of friends you can have ( 200 ) you still need to build friendships around the stumblesphere.
3)Stumble, Stumble, Stumble - For your work to be as easy as possible you’re going to need to install their toolbar. More stumbling means you’re doing well.
4)Review other SU profile pages - Whenever you’re going to review someone’s SU profile page, he or she is going to be noticed by receiving a message on his / her SU page. Most of the active stumblers return reviews, so it’s worth a shot.
5)Harness the power of your IM contacts - SU offers to its members the possibility of finding friends with the help of their IM list of names. Get friends easily and start making connections instantly.
Bonus : How to convert the traffic from StumbleUpon
The only problem Digg had with it’s massive amount of traffic was that many of the visitors that came to the site were leaving in matters of seconds, only few were subscribing, and even less were clicking on the ads or really buying something. In matters of ranks , Digg performs well but when it comes to building a community you should think of using StumbleUpon.
* Branding is ideal in this case, so your blog must be unique in it’s own way - make your readers remember your logo or tagline.
* The quality of the content is also important, be selective with what you write.
* Place your subscribing icons in visible places.
* Visit the Buzz page of StumbleUpon and see which tags are bringing in the largest amount of traffic, use them.
* Create a community that everyone will want to join, offer something in return besides valuable content.
* Be friendly, be wise, choose your friends carefully.
Along the years, StumbleUpon has been known for its ability to drive massive amounts of traffic in a short period of time, it’s something so big that people even named it, calling it the StumbleUpon Effect.
According to a recent analysis of the top 50 stumblers, done by Glen Allsopp over at ViperChill, it looks like building a powerful profile is not as hard as it may sound. These top 50 are averaging an incredibly 590,618 pages ( that’s 11812.36 pages rated per user ), 54322 photos ( that’s 1086.44 photos rated per user ~ 1087 ) and 25,693 videos ( that’s a little over 500 - 513.86 videos rated per user ).
What the above stats can tell us it that, becoming a top 50 stumbler isn’t that hard. Given the fact that some of them have had an account for even 2 years and have had the whole time in the world to stumble and stumble and even stumble some more.
For someone to reach that average of 11812 rated pages in 2 years, it would take about 16 ratings per day, that’s not too much and it’s highly possible. Imagine what would happen if you could double it, triple it or even quadruple it - your job would be done in no time.
The basics to building a power profile on SU
1)Make a catchy profile page. - Spice it up with a photo of yours, or something funny, it’s got to be something that catches eye sight. Change your color scheme, make it more appealing.
2)Reach out and make friends - Although SU is somehow and god knows why limiting the number of friends you can have ( 200 ) you still need to build friendships around the stumblesphere.
3)Stumble, Stumble, Stumble - For your work to be as easy as possible you’re going to need to install their toolbar. More stumbling means you’re doing well.
4)Review other SU profile pages - Whenever you’re going to review someone’s SU profile page, he or she is going to be noticed by receiving a message on his / her SU page. Most of the active stumblers return reviews, so it’s worth a shot.
5)Harness the power of your IM contacts - SU offers to its members the possibility of finding friends with the help of their IM list of names. Get friends easily and start making connections instantly.
Bonus : How to convert the traffic from StumbleUpon
The only problem Digg had with it’s massive amount of traffic was that many of the visitors that came to the site were leaving in matters of seconds, only few were subscribing, and even less were clicking on the ads or really buying something. In matters of ranks , Digg performs well but when it comes to building a community you should think of using StumbleUpon.
* Branding is ideal in this case, so your blog must be unique in it’s own way - make your readers remember your logo or tagline.
* The quality of the content is also important, be selective with what you write.
* Place your subscribing icons in visible places.
* Visit the Buzz page of StumbleUpon and see which tags are bringing in the largest amount of traffic, use them.
* Create a community that everyone will want to join, offer something in return besides valuable content.
* Be friendly, be wise, choose your friends carefully.
The Squidoo effect on SEO
Although I have only recently started using Squidoo , I have to say I am really impressed by the way Squidoo is conceived . While I was browsing through Squidoo and trying to create my own lenses , I noticed that there are some options that are responsible for the search engine optimization of your lenses .
The first thing I noticed was the possibility of adding keywords in the title . Although at a first glance the way their titles are created didn’t look too promising , the possibility of adding keywords in the title and properly formatting it made me stick around a bit more .
In the case of my page , the title was :
Blogging Tips with CristianR on Squidoo
Now , what I would like to tackle in this article is the effect Squidoo can have on blogs . I am almost certain that Squidoo is optimized for search engines , but how well , we’ll find out right now .
1)Tags : Giving free hand to lens-masters to choose their tags at all time is for sure a bonus , via the ‘Related Tags’ feature . Although a problem some people have spotted among the code is that on the page the tags appear at the top of the column but in backstage , in the code these tags are featured quite low .
2)Meta tags : While there has always been a keen discussion about meta tags and their role in SEO , there’s actually no harm in optimizing them . Meta tags on Squidoo are actually the 5 ‘related tags’ . The way meta tags are built on Squidoo made me thinking of two things :
a) either these tags are used for AdSense optimization , meaning keyword relevancy thus resulting better targeted ads.
b) either they’re used for SEO but in a way that will help Squidoo and not you .
I have only come to the conclusion stated at point b) because I noticed that their description tags use only a small part of your introduction text .
3)Linklove : The way Squidoo designed it’s interlinking scheme is actually deficient , instead of offering a link named ‘Explore related lenses’ why not offer a small number of related lenses .This way they will increase their traffic and also with SEO , as bots love interlinked sites .
4)Age : Although this is quite a new factor , in the last few months I have discovered that domain age is very important with SEO.This has only started when Google decided that older pages rank better than their more younger correspondent .This is not very important , but every detail counts . I am sure that in due time , Squidoo will achieve it’s legal age to attend to the Council of the Elder Websites and get ranked higher .
How would the above 4 factors affect a blog
For the time being , I am not very sure that it would be much of a deal and the effect you could have on a blog wouldn’t make much of a difference , but I dare you to try it and see for yourselves . It takes only 10 minutes to set-up a lens and it’s quite fun .
The first thing I noticed was the possibility of adding keywords in the title . Although at a first glance the way their titles are created didn’t look too promising , the possibility of adding keywords in the title and properly formatting it made me stick around a bit more .
In the case of my page , the title was :
Blogging Tips with CristianR on Squidoo
Now , what I would like to tackle in this article is the effect Squidoo can have on blogs . I am almost certain that Squidoo is optimized for search engines , but how well , we’ll find out right now .
1)Tags : Giving free hand to lens-masters to choose their tags at all time is for sure a bonus , via the ‘Related Tags’ feature . Although a problem some people have spotted among the code is that on the page the tags appear at the top of the column but in backstage , in the code these tags are featured quite low .
2)Meta tags : While there has always been a keen discussion about meta tags and their role in SEO , there’s actually no harm in optimizing them . Meta tags on Squidoo are actually the 5 ‘related tags’ . The way meta tags are built on Squidoo made me thinking of two things :
a) either these tags are used for AdSense optimization , meaning keyword relevancy thus resulting better targeted ads.
b) either they’re used for SEO but in a way that will help Squidoo and not you .
I have only come to the conclusion stated at point b) because I noticed that their description tags use only a small part of your introduction text .
3)Linklove : The way Squidoo designed it’s interlinking scheme is actually deficient , instead of offering a link named ‘Explore related lenses’ why not offer a small number of related lenses .This way they will increase their traffic and also with SEO , as bots love interlinked sites .
4)Age : Although this is quite a new factor , in the last few months I have discovered that domain age is very important with SEO.This has only started when Google decided that older pages rank better than their more younger correspondent .This is not very important , but every detail counts . I am sure that in due time , Squidoo will achieve it’s legal age to attend to the Council of the Elder Websites and get ranked higher .
How would the above 4 factors affect a blog
For the time being , I am not very sure that it would be much of a deal and the effect you could have on a blog wouldn’t make much of a difference , but I dare you to try it and see for yourselves . It takes only 10 minutes to set-up a lens and it’s quite fun .
10 essential tips on how to achieve a better Alexa rank
If you remember our last article on how Alexa interprets and analyzes your traffic , i forgot to mention that there are a few ways that offer almost instant results when you’re aiming to increase your rank .
1 ) Download the Alexa toolbar , install it , set your home page as default and surf it at least once , on a daily basis . The same goes for your friends and fellow webmasters that have the Alexa toolbar installed , ask them to browse your site from time to time .
2 ) Focus your site more on webmaster related topics , as i have previously mentioned , statistics show that it’s a higher chance that webmasters will have the toolbar installed .
3 ) Make yourself known , participate in many forums , websites and even blogs within the same niche as you .
4 ) Optimize your most popular articles and be sure to use Alexa redirects if possible .
5 ) Write an article about how to increase your Alexa rank , and have it published with major article publishing companies . Have it spread all over the web so you’re sure you’ll get backlinks as well .
6 ) Buy PPC ads on search engines to increase your traffic , don’t worry , your Alexa will go down .
7 ) Because of the way Alexa retrieves it’s traffic stats , it’s very easy to get it manipulated . Joining an autosurf network might just do the trick . Be aware that , usually people on the surfs sell credits which are not the equivalent of a visit .
8 ) Put up an Alexa rank Widget - every click will count as a visit .
9 ) Create a section dedicated to webmasters on your blog , give them a reason to come back to your blog , thus ensuring yourself with a decent amount of traffic .
10 ) Get dugg , stubmled or anything else , making it to the first page a couple of times will dramatically improve your Alexa rank because of the high number of visits you’ll be getting .
1 ) Download the Alexa toolbar , install it , set your home page as default and surf it at least once , on a daily basis . The same goes for your friends and fellow webmasters that have the Alexa toolbar installed , ask them to browse your site from time to time .
2 ) Focus your site more on webmaster related topics , as i have previously mentioned , statistics show that it’s a higher chance that webmasters will have the toolbar installed .
3 ) Make yourself known , participate in many forums , websites and even blogs within the same niche as you .
4 ) Optimize your most popular articles and be sure to use Alexa redirects if possible .
5 ) Write an article about how to increase your Alexa rank , and have it published with major article publishing companies . Have it spread all over the web so you’re sure you’ll get backlinks as well .
6 ) Buy PPC ads on search engines to increase your traffic , don’t worry , your Alexa will go down .
7 ) Because of the way Alexa retrieves it’s traffic stats , it’s very easy to get it manipulated . Joining an autosurf network might just do the trick . Be aware that , usually people on the surfs sell credits which are not the equivalent of a visit .
8 ) Put up an Alexa rank Widget - every click will count as a visit .
9 ) Create a section dedicated to webmasters on your blog , give them a reason to come back to your blog , thus ensuring yourself with a decent amount of traffic .
10 ) Get dugg , stubmled or anything else , making it to the first page a couple of times will dramatically improve your Alexa rank because of the high number of visits you’ll be getting .
5 Ways to get to the top of the Popular Page on del.icio.us
The reason why I choose to talk about del.icio.us is because it’s a great source of content ideas and links and is a highly trafficked page that indeed has the potential of sending out large masses of visitors very quickly . It is very interesting to study the type of links that get on the popular page of del.icio.us , people that try to game networks like del.icio.us and actually succeed in doing so use something that resembles to a pattern . Here are the 5 most popular patterns I have seen amongst these posts :
1. Lists : Lists dominate this one too , just by browsing the topics I was able to notice that about half ( somewhere around 45% ) of the links are actually lists : “5 ways to..” , “10 tendencies to .. ” , “7 things to not do..” and so on . Numbering your list is also very important , it seems that numbers in lists actually work like magic . Maybe it’s because the fact that when they people think of that certain topic , they can not find as many reasons , trends , tendencies and so on as you did , this arouses their curiosity most of the time .
2.Guides , Tutorials , How to : These work very good to , taking a percentage of about 22% ( or even more ) of the total links . Walking your readers through a process that teaches them how to achieve a certain goal , makes your site a bookmarking potential one . Numbers can occur in these as well and they actually seem to work good enough .
3.Concentrate on the title : It looks like the people on del.icio.us are actually relying upon the title of the link to get people to click on it . As a result , the way titles are conceived have a lot to do with converting clicks into possible readers .
4.Pay attention to the audience you’re writing to : It seems that on del.icio.us , the audience is quite tech savvy , writing on a tech subject might get their attention and tickle their tech curiosity . Articles on Linux , Word , Excel , FireFox , AJAX , CSS and so on tend to act pretty good .
5.Appeal their sense of humor : How many times haven’t you found yourselves in the position where you were reading a tech article and the writer was describing it so funny that some of the phrases within that article you just couldn’t get off of your head . Try to do the same , people have the sense of humor and they like reading funny articles , why make their lives harder when you can put a smile on their faces .
1. Lists : Lists dominate this one too , just by browsing the topics I was able to notice that about half ( somewhere around 45% ) of the links are actually lists : “5 ways to..” , “10 tendencies to .. ” , “7 things to not do..” and so on . Numbering your list is also very important , it seems that numbers in lists actually work like magic . Maybe it’s because the fact that when they people think of that certain topic , they can not find as many reasons , trends , tendencies and so on as you did , this arouses their curiosity most of the time .
2.Guides , Tutorials , How to : These work very good to , taking a percentage of about 22% ( or even more ) of the total links . Walking your readers through a process that teaches them how to achieve a certain goal , makes your site a bookmarking potential one . Numbers can occur in these as well and they actually seem to work good enough .
3.Concentrate on the title : It looks like the people on del.icio.us are actually relying upon the title of the link to get people to click on it . As a result , the way titles are conceived have a lot to do with converting clicks into possible readers .
4.Pay attention to the audience you’re writing to : It seems that on del.icio.us , the audience is quite tech savvy , writing on a tech subject might get their attention and tickle their tech curiosity . Articles on Linux , Word , Excel , FireFox , AJAX , CSS and so on tend to act pretty good .
5.Appeal their sense of humor : How many times haven’t you found yourselves in the position where you were reading a tech article and the writer was describing it so funny that some of the phrases within that article you just couldn’t get off of your head . Try to do the same , people have the sense of humor and they like reading funny articles , why make their lives harder when you can put a smile on their faces .
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