Jimvesting.com’s got a brand new feature just for you:
GET THE STANDOUT COMMENTS PLUGIN – FOR FREE!

Two weeks ago, we saw the launch of a brand new blogging tool from John Chow, Alex Shalman and Jeff Rose. Their product called “Standout Comments” is a WordPress plugin that integrates all of the useful features of a comment section into one — in order to help you drive traffic to your newsletters, RSS feeds and marketing lists.

What’s new about this product you ask? NOTHING! And that’s the beauty of it (?). For a limited time… you can own this fantastic repackaging of plugins that already exist for a lower price… for only $67!!!

RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME DEAL ALERT!
Not only is this a killer deal, a few bloggers have upped the ante!

• If you sign up through John Chow’s link you will have a 1-in-10,000 shot at winning an Apple iPad that he doesn’t want!
• If you sign up through ZK of Web Traffic ROI, you get a truckload of eBooks he says are worth a combined $447 on the open market!
• And if you hit up Dan Scocco of Daily Blog Tips you can get his obsolete domain advice eBook for FREE!

But I’ve got ‘em all beat — No… I am not going to provide an illegal download

How to Get “Standout Comments” by John Chow for Free

When I told John Chow that I thought $67 was way overpriced for everyone, he responded: “Then don’t buy it and all day searching for the 2 to 3 free plugins. For others, time is money.” What John didn’t factor in is that I’m not concerned about me not buying it… I’m concerned about people getting taken for a ride because they think they need it. You can get every single feature of Standout Comments for free, and you can do it in less than an hour. Better yet — you can do it in under 15 minutes because I am going to provide you every single component of Standout Comments in a package I call “Jimvesting’s Comment Miracle.”

If your time is worth $268/hour, please disregard this post and buy it.

The Features of Standout Comments

• Subscription Options
• Sharing Options
• Advertising Banner
• Admin Panel
• Aesthetics
• Tweetback URLs
• Money Back Guarantee

Subscription Options
The main component of Standout Comments is that it offers you a way to provide a link to your newsletter at the end of your comment entry section so that any time anyone posts a comment, you are offered a chance to subscribe to a newsletter as well. This can be perfectly replicated by a lot of premium plugins, including: Opt-In Comments ($57), Action Comments ($17) and WP Optin ($27).

I’ve found our free solution (after a LOT of digging, this thing was totally buried!) in “Aweber WordPress Plugin” by Guru Consulting Services. This plugin puts a checkmark in your comments (AND on user registration if you want) to automatically add anyone who comments to our Aweber opt-in list. Bravo! That’s the same thing Standout Comments does!

The second thing that Standout Comments accomplishes is that it adds a checkbox for users to be “subscribed” to the comments, so that whenever anything new is posted they get an email. There are literally dozens of these plugins available for free, my favorites are: 1) Subscribe to Comments and 2) Enroll Comments. Bingo bango… we’re done here!

Sharing Options
Sharing options is something that we discussed a week ago: Linking Your Blog to Your Social Profile. To recap, there are quite a few social plugins that will accomplish exactly what Standout Comments is doing, and my favorites (for the purposes of looking like Standout Comments) are: 1) SexyBookmarks; 2) Socialize This; 3) Sociable.

Advertising Banner
This is another easy one, as everyone and their grandma has thought of doing this. Personally, I’m not a fan of putting an advertising banner by the comment section. However, if you really want to, my favorites for this purpose are: 1) Banner Garden; Max Banner Ads; Ad Minister; Advertisement Management.

Admin Panel
All of our plugins can be edited in seconds through the WordPress admin panel.

Aesthetics
I was kind of surprised that they brought this up “plays nice with your theme, and integrates seamlessly.” Well, so does ours, as all we are doing is adding a few links, boxes and banners. Aesthetics couldn’t be sexier… check!

Tweetback URLs
Plenty of Twitter plugins to go around… I’ve searched for and found a few. For simplicity, I am using Tweetbacks by Yoast.com which allows all of the tweets that mention my posts to be listed as a new kind of trackback (a “tweetback”). Also, I’m going to combine this for maximum effect with the simple added form field for twitter usernames in my comment section with WP Twitip ID.

Money Back Guarantee
They offer a 100% money back guarantee for 30 days… I’ll offer you a 200% money back guarantee for 60 days! In all seriousness, pretty much every marketable product has a return policy, but don’t believe for a second that it means the product is priced effectively.

Introducing: Jimvesting’s Comment MIRACLE!

I’ve compiled my entire guide and all of the plugins in one place, and have made it available for you to download for free! I spent a few hours going through all this and testing to make sure it works… but yes indeed, it has every last feature of “Standout Comments” but you will save yourself the $67 price tag.

In case you didn’t pick up on it, this post is extremely sarcastic and I am only trying to poke fun at John Chow (a good friend of mine) & other bloggers who promoted it for him. While I am upset he didn’t gift me a free copy like those other lucky guys, Standout Comments is actually a damn good release. While I don’t agree with the price tag, it was the first plugin on the market to put everything in one spot for you — easy to install, use and implement. But yes, the Jimvesting Comment Miracle actually is 100% compatibility, real, free and devious!

Where’s the Proof!?
Below is a screenshot of the Jimvesting Comment Miracle plugin working on my test server, which you can access here. I’m not trying to hide anything, and every plugin that I have gathered is indeed 100% free and customizable… making MY package more flexible than Standout Comments if you know your way around.

Download Jimvesting’s Comment Miracle (JCM)
Like What You See? It is darn near identical to the actual plugin.

Download Jimvesting’s Comment Miracle
Jimvesting’s Comment Miracle (Version 1.0): DOWNLOAD HERE!

Promote The JCM Plugin Package
First of all, I’m not exactly sure why you WOULDN’T want to promote this! If you are in the blogging camp that believes these kinds of plugins should be free, than why not show your support by writing a blog article, tweeting about it, or trying to blow up Digg/SU/Facebook with spam for my new plugin. Anyone who helps me to promote this (use my banner if you’d like, link back to this blog post) can shoot me an email and get a free copy of my eBook “Thirty Day Blog.” Sweet!

I hope you enjoyed this feature (I know I did). I’ll be sure to update this post as improvements get added to the world of WordPress plugins (happens on a weekly basis). I’d use this myself if I hadn’t grabbed Optin Comments when it was free. Drop a comment if you use it and let me know what you think.

Stay Bullish on the Net!
-Jimvesting Dot Com

Related posts:

1. Day 21: Installing and Adding Plugins to your WordPress Blog
2. Day 22: Installing and Adding Plugins to Your WordPress Blog
3. WordPress Plugins: Monetize Your Blog With The Best Plugins Around

The brand new WordPress platform has finally been released!

Though still in beta, version 3.0 of the world’s most popular blogging platform is already causing chatter on the internet. We’ve been dealing with version 2 of WordPress for awhile, so whenever we step up to a new version it is a big deal. I’ve installed a fresh copy of WordPress on a testing server, and have messed with all of the new features to find out how it ticks.

To make things easier, Jimvesting.com brings you the first ever video review of all of the features! This thing is hot off the presses, because the blogging platform was just released a few hours ago… check out our comprehensive look at the new WordPress 3.0 Beta below:

So what’s different? Here are the three biggest features:

1. A New Default Theme!
Wave goodbye to the old “default” theme with a very generic-looking blue header with basic text and a standardized layout. The new theme in town is called “Twenty Ten” (for the year 2010), and it has a much sexier layout with the ability to quickly change out the header images and background colors.

2. Complete Integration with WordPress MU
If you’ve ever used WordPress Multi-User (MU), then you know the power behind the system. What was originally an extension off of the WordPress system, that allowed you to have a blog where you could install as many sub-blogs as you wanted, has been merged with standard WordPress so you can use both together!

3. Custom Post-Types
If you have used WordPress, you’ll know that the basic setup is to have Pages and Posts… nothing in-between. But what if you do a fair amount of podcasts, reviews or whatnot? You don’t want to label everything you put out as a “Post,” and now you don’t have to! Add a new section for just Podcasts or Reviews (& etc.) and you can more easily organize your blog for different types of content.

There are certainly a lot more features, but I have identified the above three as perhaps the most interesting. Feel free to check out the download page for the new version of WordPress… and hold on for the official release of WordPress 3.0 coming soon!

-Jimvesting.com

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After a one-month break that I used to work on a few blogs as a part of the first round of Blogger Stimulus, I’m now back in action and ready to ease more “liquidity” into the system. But I do believe that I completely botched the first round of stimulus by completely ignoring the money-multiplier effect of stimulus packages!

What I did WRONG in the first blogging stimulus package on Jimvesting dot com

The purpose of a truly economic “stimulus package” is to have money flow through the system in as many ways as possible. My first blogging stimulus promised a great new blog with a premium theme to anyone who wanted to sign up for a new web hosting account. The logic here was that if you wanted a blog… you’d need hosting regardless. By signing up under my affiliate link with HostGator, we created a profitable scenario for both of us…. but this wasn’t much of a stimulus because it stopped multiplying through the system right there!

Here’s what blogging stimulus v1 looked like:

Let’s change that… INTRODUCING STIMULUS PACKAGE 2.0!!!

What more can I offer you? How about an incentive to refer members to the blogging program. By creating a tiered system, I’ve found that I can offer THREE people economic benefit from the stimulus package… much better than the original one-way street. Here’s what our stimulus now looks like — and yes, it does ripple through the system much more effectively:

What does this mean for you? That’s right… anyone that refers someone to use Jimvesting’s Blogging Stimulus will now receive $20 INSTANTLY! Am I serious? Yes. Is there a catch? No. Am I going to be operating at a loss? Probably. But hey… the economy needs our help!

How to Get Your Free $20 Per Referral:

• Advertise the Official Page for the Blogging Stimulus on your blog
• Have your readers mention your blog when they sign up to HostGator through my affiliate link
• Get paid $20 every time I track a commission coming from your website!

It’s a simple way to boost your own online income, and help your readers start up their own blogs. This might very well be the best deal I’ve ever offered. People called me crazy after the first blog stimulus package… and I’ve upped the ante even more with this latest promotion. Don’t let this offer expire without taking advantage!

Stay Bullish on the Net!
-Jimvesting

Related posts:

1. Jimvesting's Blogger Stimulus Package – Want to Start a Blog? Let Me Help!
2. The Fool's FREE Blog Domination Package
3. Jimvesting's Hosting Bonanza RESULTS!

Over the course of the past several years, the internet as we know it has been evolving. As someone who interacts with marketers, small business owners and news sources on a daily basis, I can tell you that there is one clear trend: MOBILE!

As more and more individuals pick up smartphones (20% annual growth rates have been downright common from the major providers according to Gartner Research) the web will naturally evolve to a state where users are checking websites on the go at all times. As you can see from the image above… my readers here at Jimvesting.com have grown to almost 2% of all views (which is hundreds of users each week!). This may not seem like a lot, but at the start of the year this number was almost zero. The way I see it, this mobile trend is real and you need to climb on the bandwagon!

Three WordPress Plugins to Get Your Blog Into the Mobile Age

I buckled down and bought a Blackberry the other week, so I have had the chance to try out all of the best mobile plugins for WordPress to see how they look in real life on a smart phone. You should note that all three of these plugins are fantastic, with only marginal benefits/disadvantages, and installing these will not impact the normal view of your blog… so it is a quick benefit to your readers with only 5 minutes of your time to install it!

1. WordPress Mobile Edition (Jimvesting RECOMMENDED!)
WordPress Mobile Edition puts a great spin on your phone, and supports slightly different views for every phone that I have ever heard of (and then some!). It comes with the mobile “Carrington” theme which works great on phones and will probably load faster than your existing blogs. Everything is clear to see, and installation is easy to figure out. It even works with WP Super Cache and other popular plugins!

2. WPTouch: Mobile Plugin
The “WPTouch” plugin is definitely the best looking of the bunch, and it is even optimized to run faster than ever. This plugin is geared toward mobile users that are looking at your website on the iPhone (or another touch-screen phone). If you and your users are using touch-screen phones, I would recommend that you use this one over “WordPress Mobile Edition”… but I favor comparability a bit too much.

3. “MobilePress” WordPress Plugin
MobilePress is another top-notch browser that will identify what phone you are using and pair the browser to meet your preferences. This one is slightly lower on the totem pole than the other two, but the theme that MobilePress uses is quite sleek and if you like it… you should use it! Go ahead and cruise over to their website and check it out.

Bottom Line: All of these plugins will launch your blog into a mobile-friendly state, which will benefit anywhere from 1-5% of your readers right now… and potentially up to 15-20% of them a year down the road! For a five minute installation, it’s not a whole lot of work to bring your blog into the 21st century.

-Jimvesting

UPDATE: One of our readers, James Pearce from Tripleodeon.com, suggested the “WordPress Mobile Pack” as an alternative solution. This one also combines an administration feature for your phones! Though I recommend simply downloading a supplementary smartphone application, I like this idea a lot so check it out!

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One of the “hot ticket” items in blogging is maximizing the amount of RSS readers that you bring in to your website. As unfortunate as it might be… bloggers nowadays are judged much more by the amount of followers that they have, then on actual content quality. Maybe you aren’t a believer in strong RSS numbers, but because other people are looking toward this number for a sense of reputation… we need to find ways to increase this as soon as we can to stay ahead of the curve!

Can you really DOUBLE your RSS count, without “cheating the system?”
Absolutely! But only if you have the right tools at your disposal.

Today, I’m giving you a method that only the best bloggers are using to boost the amount of RSS readers that they bring in. It is unfortunate that only the big boys use tools like these… but it is a very affordable trick that can more than double your RSS subscriber count with relative ease if done correctly. Let’s get to it!

Using an Opt-In List to Boost your RSS

This method starts by considering an alternative method of recording who is and isn’t a “rss reader” of your blog. I know of three methods that directly impact your RSS count, assuming that you are using Feedburner to manage your feeds (if you aren’t, sign up!).

1. Signing up through an RSS Reader
2. Registering to receive email RSS updates
3. “Opting In” to a Blog Newsletter, and being converted to RSS

Not too many people know of the third option, but it can actually jump up your RSS subscriber numbers in a day if you have a list built up and decide to use the option. I know that many bloggers have done this to win RSS competitions and the like… and it is truly a smart way to increase your readership in an alternative way. We are going to discuss option three today, and get you acquainted with Opt-In lists.

Five steps to double your RSS feed count

The following is a five-step process that I have developed to get anyone who is willing to put in the work a much more healthy RSS booking. You can literally double your reader number within a few days easily… and it’s a shame that bloggers don’t take advantage of this method.

Step One: Signing Up for a Newsletter Service
Unfortunately, if you want to run a newsletter service for your blog, it’s not going to be free. The service that I use, and most of the world for that matter, is called Aweber… and it is truly a great service that I have never once regretted buying. For a small monthly fee, you can register for this service and design awesome newsletters, send out weekly blog post updates or even offer digital content exclusively to your readers. If you are planning on being a successful blogger, I want to encourage you to use Aweber sooner rather than later.

Step Two: Setting Up Your Newsletter
Once you have registered with a newsletter service (and I highly recommend a “paid” service here), it’s time to set up your first newsletter. The methodology here might be different depending on which service you use… but through Aweber they guide you through it until you are 100% complete with the setup. Essentially, you need to put together a few things like a welcome note, address, newsletter format and email setup.

Step Three: Creating an Opt-In Landing Page
In order to get people to sign up to your list, we need a landing page. Want an example? Here is one I just set up for Bullish Bankers LLC. Making an attractive landing page can be difficult. Fortunately for me, I purchased a complete package of landing page/website templates that all work together and can make you a handsome profit. You can get this yourself, as it is available online: Turbo Power Graphics. With Turbo Power Graphics, you get 10 awesome corporate identities… everything from an opt-in page, to a sales page, video pitch page and even an Adsense-enabled revenue page. It’s well worth the price tag, and you won’t need to hire a designer… so that is well worth it. The important thing here is to throw in some catchy graphics, and talk like a salesman… make the customer really want to join your newsletter and emphasize that it is free!

Step Four: Syncing Your Newsletter with Your Landing Page
Now that we have a landing “opt in” page set up on your website, you need a way to take hits onto your landing page… and convert them into newsletter subscribers. Log into your newsletter service (AKA Aweber) and make a “web form” that will link users into your list. There are usually a few ways to do this, for example a pop-up message or overlay, but what you probably want to use is the “inline” method as it is the best to work with. Set up your web form to tie into your new list, and grab the HTML coding for the form (typically a “name,” “email” and “submit” form).

You have your web form in HTML format, so now it is as simple as loading up your opt-in page that we have set up… and putting the code somewhere on the page that makes it identifiable. If you are using an “Opt In” page like in my example, then there will be another way to enter on the top. Make sure to switch that coding around with the code given to you from your newsletter (Aweber support will help you do this if you get stuck). I recommend testing all the forms you have on your “Opt In” page right now, just to make sure that it truly will sign users up and you aren’t wasting your time.

Step Five: Let Readers Know About The New Service!
Everything should be good to go at this point… so what to do now? That’s right. Tell somebody about it! You can generate buzz pretty easily, so I would recommend the following: posting about the newsletter on your blog, letting people know in a forum, contacting your blogging buddies asking for their help.

One thing that I absolutely recommend is having some kind of digital download. People need an incentive to subscribe, so be sure to offer them a custom eBook or other file that people would be interested in. The good thing about Aweber is that you can have downloads automatically sent to anyone that subscribes.

By this point, you should have a few people that took the bait, and have now signed up to your newsletter. Now, you simply need to send out what is called a “Blog Broadcast” to your newsletter readers to get them actively counted in your Feedburner RSS count. This is a pretty simple step that goes under-utilized despite the obvious benefits. So make sure you are in on it!

Bottom Line: You can literally double your RSS feed count with an “opt-in” list that ties in directly with your blog. Imagine if you had 500 readers and all of them signed up to your newsletter (not a stretch of the imagination). You could convert all these newsletter readers into active subscribers and reach the 1,000 level the next day! Not bad for a few extra bucks a month and an hour of work setting up the “Opt In” landing page, eh?

-Jimvesting

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It’s no secret, a lot of us our running blogs with the intention of making money online. Blogging can serve as a powerful tool to generate consistent revenue, as everything that you write is available forever… and can keep people buying products through your affiliate links over and over again. If you are new to blogging, or perhaps just thinking about better monetizing your blog to get revenue coming in on a consistent basis, there are a few tricks of the trade that can really help you out.

Way back in March of 2008, I wrote up an article on the “top wordpress plugins” to monetize your blog with ads. Since then, all but my #1 choice, OIO Publisher, have pretty much fallen down the drain… no longer updating their services or running support. Also since then, a few other tools have come up that are supposedly “reputable” ad management services for WordPress blogs. I want to use this time to once again recommend OIO Publisher to you. Why? I’ll give you five reasons!

1. The Un-Disputed #1 Monetization Tool for WordPress
There is really not much of an argument here. If you look across the top blogs in the “make money online” niche, pretty much EVERYONE has gone ahead and bought OIO Publisher to manage their ad space! It’s really a no-brainer at this point in time, since they are working around the clock to improve their services, always offer rapid support and have developed quite the time-saver! Personally, I tend to stick to the products that are the proven leaders in their industry… and OIO Publisher is that product.

2. Easy to Use, with Great Support
The WordPress blogging platform prides itself on being user-friendly, and one of the easiest systems to install in order to own and operate a website on your own… even with limited knowledge. It would make sense, therefore, to have your plugins be just as easy to use and configure. While many of the add-ons to WordPress are confusing by nature, you will find that OIO Publisher is surprisingly easy to manage and deal with. From a simple installer page, it seems at times almost TOO easy… especially with the amount of features it supports on its own.

3. Worth The Money
If WordPress is free… why would you pay for a plugin? I was hesitant at first… but after making over $100 the first month after I bought OIO Publisher, I understood exactly what made it worth the money. Advertisers look for easy access to ad-space on the internet, and typically don’t mess around with blogs that don’t have a system in place. When you have OIO Publisher, you have a system that manages everything automatically. Advertisers can simply click on an empty box on your website, and they will be directed straight to a professional order page. Once payment is received (PayPal works best), their ads are automatically placed on your site! It’s that simple… and it’s the fastest way that I have ever made money on my blog. And hey, I was in the black on this purchase after less than a month (when I had under 100 RSS subscribers too!).

4. Consistent, Powerful, Automatic
I love the fact that this plugin has generated $1000s in revenue for me, and keeps working without me doing a thing. I have it set up to notify my whenever a purchase is made so that I can approve it manually. This works nicely for me, because I like to make sure that all of the banner ads and text links that go up are aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, OIO Publisher allows you the flexibility to sell pretty much, well, everything! From banner ads to text link ads, to digital downloads and in-post advertisements… this plugin can cover all of your bases.

5. 90% Referral Commissions for January!
So why am I recommending this now? Because for a limited time, they are graciously giving away 90% of the referral commissions in January. How do you sign up to the program? Well… you have to have bought the plugin already. It’s well worth the buy, PLUS you can then promote it and make your money back through their affiliate program (in addition to selling ads). This offer is simply too good NOT to take action on… so get in on it now while the offer lasts.

If you are just starting a blog or even if you have been blogging for a while, I want to encourage you to buy OIO Publisher now! I used to put purchases like this off… thinking “oh, I’ll just buy later”… but this is the wrong way to do business. The price, simply put, won’t be falling anytime soon. Plus, the sooner you buy this plugin, the sooner you will bring in revenue from your blog and look a bit more professional. Truth be told… advertisers and readers alike think that blogs with ads up are more professional (weird, eh?). For this and the reasons above, I think that OIO Publisher is indeed an essential plugin to boost your profits!

-Jimvesting

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I’ve seen a few posts around the blogosphere that offer up lists of ten, twenty or thirty WordPress plugins that they claim are essential for every blog. The bottom line is that the more plugins you have, the slower your website will become. We want a quick and efficient blog, so sometimes it’s better to deal with simplicity than shiny extras. That being said, I wanted to make a list that broke things down into category-intensive labels… plugins that you will want to have if you have a certain type of blog.

Dump the large lists of WordPress plugins and focus on the essentials. Sure, there are some awesome plugins that you should install on any blog you ever own… but there are plenty of plugins that work better if you have a photo blog, a stock market blog or even a collection of essays. So without further ado, here are my personal “Top Ten WordPress Plugins That You Need,” followed by a few high-caliber plugins that you should install for various niche blogs.

The Top Ten WordPress Plugins That You Need!
You might be writing about politics, or you might be writing about animals… regardless, you are going to want to install all of the following plugins to boost your reader participation, increase traffic and boost your blog to the top of the rankings.

1. Akismet
Naturally, the self-proclaimed “king” of spam catching has to be your number one plugin. I’ve caught about 15,000 spam comments on theNetFool.com with this plugin and absolutely love the fact that it is catching about 95% of the junk that comes through. Best of all… it’s completely free to obtain a license!

2. All In One SEO Pack
If you are trying to boost your Google Search Engine Ranking Positions (SERPs), it’s important to optimize your entire website so that it is better received by major search engines and news agencies. Make this a priority. WordPress by default is terribly organized, so set up AIO and max out your traffic.

3. Google XML Sitemaps
I’m a big proponent of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Google absolutely gobbles up websites that make an updated “sitemap” available. The Google XML Sitemaps plugin does this for you, so you’ll have everything ready to go.

4. Brian’s Threaded Comments
Threaded Comments is the most recent plugin that I have installed, and I couldn’t be more pleased. This adds the functionality of having your guests respond and interact on a whole new level in the comment area. By embedding “replies” inside of the original comments, we no longer have to sort through a laundry list of comments to read a conversation.

5. Subscribe Remind
Want to boost your RSS subscriber numbers? Sometimes, this really is as simple as a quick reminder. Subscribe Remind is my favorite plugin to add a short plug at the bottom of each post… asking for readers to subscribe to your feed. A simple WordPress plugin with a huge implication on your traffic.

6. WWW Redirect
Did you know that having people link to your site differently (e.g. “http://yoursite” v. “http://www.yoursite”) is killing your traffic and rankings? WWW Redirect changes everything automatically to “www.” format with no need to muck around in your .htaccess file. This is a no-brainer!

7. CommentLuv
Give your readers an incentive to comment on your blog! CommentLuv really spreads the link love around, and will allow you to reward every comment with a fresh link back to their latest blog post. This is a win-win situation that will encourage more comments than ever before.

8. Comment Relish
Too many people ask me how I generate that nice email that goes out the first time you comment on theNetFool.com. I have used Comment Relish to mail out an automatic “welcome” letter on every blog I’ve ever owned, and you can even ask them to subscribe to make things more useful. It’s completely automatic after you set it up, and your users will thank you.

9. Top Commentators
Going with the theme, having a blog where people are commenting is a powerful tool. Since we want to leverage our reader base to the best of our ability, the Top Commentators plugin will gift your shining stars with a free link back to their blogs if they are among the most active.

10. ShareThis or Sociable (Social Media Networking)
Social Media has exploded as a reliable and fast-paced source of traffic and reputation for many blogs. Use either ShareThis or Sociable (both are great) to add a quick link on the bottom of every blog post/page so that people can Digg/Stumble/Reddit/etc. your best material with better accuracy.

This list is ordered to the best of my ability, and I really feel like I hit on all of the areas that you will want to optimize and add features to on your own blog. I use all of the following on Jimvesting dot com, and have never thought twice as they all add something unique.

Top Five Finance Blog Plugins
Got a financial blogsite? You probably would love to have some streaming news on the market and stock quotes in a prominent position of your website. Try out these WordPress-compatible plugins to increase the functionality of your blog!

1. Embedded Stock Data
This plugin is my absolute favorite overall, very smart. Chances are, if you are writing with a financial slant, you are going to at least mention a few publicly traded companies here and there. With Embedded Stock Data, you can embed the stock price and some more information right in your posts!

2. Stock Quote Sidebar
Research shows that a majority of the American public has money invested in the stock market in 2008, so the odds are strong that you have at least a few thousand invested in publicly traded stocks. Keep track of your performance and let your viewers know how you are doing with Stock Quote Sidebar!

3. Stock Quote Tooltip
Similar to the Embedded Stock Data plugin, Stock Quote Tooltip creates an awesome mouseover effect that will reveal a daily stock chart of any company that appears in your blog posts. It’s lightweight and very easy to set up.

4. Stock Symbol Plugin
Despite a slight lack in support, SaneBull is my favorite “tooltip” (mouseover) stock market plugin because of the beautiful streaming data that it pulls every time you mention a stock in your posts. Try it out and see for yourself!

5. Yahoo Finance Badge
Yahoo has come up with a great sidebar widget to stick in your financial blog anywhere you want. Called the “Badge” by nature, Yahoo’s new tool let’s you track your portfolio live, and you can even grab the latest news headlines and have them displayed on your website.

Top Five Community & Multi-Author Blog Plugins
Lot’s of websites nowadays are run on a community basis. With WordPress so easy to use, many people have multiple authors feeding articles into the website. Let’s have a look at some of the plugins that make this functionality more worth your while.

1. Role Manager
This is one of the best kept secrets in WordPress plugins, and is definitely in my personal top five. If you have multiple authors on your blog, you can use Role Manager to change specific capabilities on a user-to-user basis… so you can give control to your best writers in a more effective and safe way.

2. Get Author Profile
One of the best functions of WordPress is that it allows you to set up user profiles for each author. But this is no good if nobody can see it! Use the Get Author Profile plugin and get your writers’ information put into the spotlight.

3. Profile Pics Plugin
If you have multiple writers, it looks much neater to allow each to submit their own image for you to list alongside their posts. Profile Pics is the plugin for you! Use this simple add-on to enhance the way each post looks when published.

4. Future Posts Calender
Ever scheduled a post into the future but weren’t really sure when you wanted it to launch? Use the Future Posts Calender to manage and organize your posts in order to have everything go public at exactly the right time. This one is new to me, and absolutely brilliant!

5. Our To-do List Plugin
What if you have multiple authors, but can’t always communicate? Out To-do List lets you put up a public chalkboard to write down and designate tasks throughout the week so everyone is on the same page. This brings a whole new level to your administrative backend!

Top Five “For-Profit” Blog Plugins
Are you just in it for the money? No need to be shy, we all like a little revenue to keep us motivated to write… so here are the best five monetization plugins to get your advertisements pulling in more cash than ever before.

1. OIO Publisher
If you are looking for your end-all solution to manage, sell and promote advertising on your website… look no further than OIO Publisher. At $37, it’s the best buy that I have ever made and you will make the initial investment back 100% in no time!

2. Adsense Manager
I don’t use this plugin because I no longer have an AdSense account. However, the Adsense Manager is known far and wide as the best Google Adsense ad management system for WordPress blogs.

3. WP-Amazon
If you’ve ever wanted to link to a book, movie or product relative to your post, you probably should be using WP-Amazon to pull live links from Amazon that display professionally where you want.

4. PayPal Donate
One of the more simple ways to make money on your blog is to ask for it. Add a PayPal donation button to your blog with ease with the PayPal Donate plugin made for WordPress.

5. AdRotator
AdRotator is the best system that I’ve come across other than WordPress for installing different ad slots around your website so that you can list your advertisements in the most effective places possible.

Top Writing and Document-Intensive Blog Plugins
Many blogs nowadays focus on writing. With a lot of professionals publishing new websites to write on, many of these are very article-intensive and a lot of people write things like newspapers, poetry and case studies. Let’s pick the best for these blogs!

1. WP-Print
As simple as it sounds, WP-Print adds the function to allow your readers to print each article straight from your blog in an optimized format. This one is simple, but very effective, and is one of my favorites.

2. Post2PDF
If you can’t have it in printed version, Adobe reader (.pdf) files have started to become the new standard in reading technology. Give your visitors the chance to grab posts in .pdf format with Post2PDF!

3. ThinkFree Document Viewer
Many of us have important documents to distribute or personal works that we want to reveal on the internet. ThinkFree Document Viewer solves this problem and allows you to let your viewers check out what you have uploaded much easier.

4. Blurb Book Publisher
Did you know that you can mold all of your articles into an actual book format? With the Blurb plugin you can publish everything quite easily, making this one heck of an addition.

5. AttachFiles
It’s not easy to list files you have available for your users to download if you are running a blog. AttachFiles solves this problem and let’s you provide incomers with a quick link to the files you have offered.

Top Image and Photo Blog Plugins
Photographers are some of the most influential bloggers of our time, and many blogs like to recount personal episodes with the use of images on their websites. Check out some of the best image plugins for keeping track of it all.

1. Image Manager
This is by far the number one plugin for getting your images up in your blog posts and articles every day. With more features to account for, you’ve got to check out what Image Manager has to offer.

2. Batch Image Uploader
If you’ve ever used the WordPress image uploader, it can really be a pain if you need multiple images at once. The Batch Image Uploader plugin solves this issue.

3. iMax Width
Many of the images you will use exceed the width of the content area. iMax Width fixes this forever by establishing some simple resizing rules that will get everything fitting where it needs to be, saving your layout the horror.

4. ThickBox
Once of the best Web 2.0 effects is having images load up in a nice browser-centered overlay in a zoomed-in view. Don’t know what I mean? Check out ThickBox for one cool effect.

5. Yet Another Photoblog
Photographers and photobloggers rejoice with YAPB, one of the best photo-blogging WordPress plugins available. Organize your images in a whole new way.

Whew! Those sure were a lot of targeted and reliable plugins, eh? My suggestion would be to use no more than 15 of these… meaning the ten must-have’s and five from one of the lists depending on how your blog is focused. WordPress plugins are great, but they can slow you down if you have too many. Still, some are simple too cool to pass up… here’s to the great developers that gift us with these awesome additions!

-Jimvesting

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One of the best ways to get traffic to your blog is by making a self-proclaimed link bait page. This is often done in a post, as I have done many times in the past. With a post, you can get a huge inflow of traffic to your blog just by pointing out something new that people find interesting. But while I already wrote about creating an effective link bait blog post, can you actually do the same thing in a link-baiting page?

Setting aside an entire page on your blog for the purpose of drawing traffic, boosting search engine ranking placements and signing up massive amounts of fresh visitors is easier than it sounds. I believe that every single blog on the net should set up their own dedicated “promo page” of sorts as an alternative to the homepage of your blog.

Why Is A Link Bait Page Necessary

Speaking in general, as bloggers… we can’t always be putting out our best stuff day after day. There are times when things break from the norm, and there are times when things get too informal or too professional. The lesson here is that people seeing the homepage of your blog for the first time might not get an accurate picture of what you do. The solution? Make a link bait page to give readers a sample of your writing and a reason to subscribe to your feed right off the bat.

The Method… Simplified
In making a link bait page, we don’t want to just throw up a page that has general non-specific information on it. We want something that is going to be as beneficial for us, as it will be for the viewers. What we need is a game plan.

What I recommend is first targeting your primary keyword phrase. By now, you should have your favorite phrase that you would like to rank highly on Google for. Using my new finance blog Bullish Bankers as our example, this phrase would be “investing ideas.” The advantages of using a link bait page, rather then just a post, is that it can be much more effective in creating a static destination to force through some killer Google ranks and really drive readers toward your subscribe page en mass. It’s a must-have part of any blog!

Link Bait Pages a’la Jim… A True One-Two Punch!
Once you have started your page, we are going to focus on boosting our Google rankings by linking over to it as much as possible. With a normal blog post, you can only do so much. With a page, we can literally dominate Google rankings.

Here is what I recommend for my one-two knockout punch:

• Change the “permalink” to your keyword phrase
  By making the actual URL include your targeted phrase, you are going to rank much better for the search engine results that you are seeking. A quick example? My BullishBankers.com link-bait page is located at “http://www.bullishbankers.com/investing-ideas/”, my targeted term!
• Use a catchy title that includes your keyword phrase
  If you haven’t figured it out already, the title of your blog posts is the most important thing in deciding where you will rank in Google results. When search engines poll for the best website to match a search term, the first check is in the title of said page… so we want our phrase right in there. It doesn’t have to be your target phrase alone though! The title on my demo page is “Top Ten Investing Ideas for 2008.” This is an example of a title that is catchy and useful!

What To Put On Your Link Bait Page!?
This is secondary in my opinion to organizing your search engine optimization, but equally important. Your content can literally be anything! It needs to be something catchy, easy to read and maybe even humorous. It should be a sort of easy to read sampler of the kind of content you have on your website, but not written like a typical blog post either.

Some suggestions:

• A List – Practical, easy to read and great for social media
• An Image – Or multiple images. Something funny or amusing
• A Joke – Humor works. Use it to your advantage
• A Cliff-Hanger – Something that poses a call for action, or a reason to read

No matter what you do, I feel that it is essential to include somewhere an option to subscribe to your blog’s rss feed or newsletter… or both! You need people to subscribe to your stuff, and there’s no better way to do this on a link-bait page. I decided to use an “above the fold” technique where I listed reasons that subscribing would benefit readers for free. Use what you have to offer to your advantage, free stuff is golden… so if you don’t have anything to give away, try to rub in that you have a free feed.

My Page is Done! … But How Do I Promote It?
Once you have everything good to go, it’s important to use your link-bait page to your advantage. Instead of linking to your main blog, why not link to your link bait page? If you have designed it effectively… it should be much more convincing than a look at your homepage to first-time visitors.

1. Linking Technique: Try to link to your page using your actual keyword phrase as much as possible. Google absolutely loves this, and for good reasons. If you have people linking to a page as “investing ideas,” with a url ending “/investing-ideas/” and a title “Investing Ideas” then you have yourself a first page result in most searches! The more people you can get to link to the link-bait using your keyword phrase, the higher you will rank.

2. Social Media Storm: One of the other effective ways to push an otherwise undiscovered gem into the spotlight is to use social media. I have seen tremendous success by having pages land on the famed Digg.com front page, and you can also increase all your rankings by using other programs like StumbleUpon or Reddit. Social media is good for more than just intermediate traffic, it can completely change the face of your website and link-bait page.

Essentially, we want to make our newly formed link bait page into our new homepage for anyone who hasn’t visited our blog before. The best ways to do this is to advertise it as your website when you link to you site from outside sources. Google likes individual pages a lot more than generalized website homepages when it ranks things in search engine results… so use this to your advantage!

Check Out The Bullish Bankers Link Bait – Investing Ideas

A big thanks for John Cow and his “Make Money Online” link bait page for being the basis for this project. As you can see, I borrowed and modified his subscribe image because I loved it so much and it fit with my design once I made some quick changes. This type of layout is very effective, because it presents a non-obtrusive call to subscribe on the top, and features some easy to read content on the bottom. I highly recommend using this approach, though there are many different ways to boost your SERPs and RSS subscribers using your link bait page.

-Jimvesting

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