A look at my Plug-Ins page
- Image via Wikipedia
I thought I would leave a little giftie to those who went to Agent Reboot. If you have a WordPress blog, you may have noticed the thousands of plugins that are available to improve functionality. These are the ones I use, with the WordPress description, and my “why” after each in red.
If you need help, email me at diane@realtyman.com. We set up blogs for each of our agents here at Towne & Country, Realtors and schedule regular training meetings so agents know how to use them. A WordPress blog seems daunting at first, but as Daniel Rothamel said at Agent Reboot, once you get in there and use it, it is no harder than Word or an email program.
First of all, I don’t have LinkWithin activated yet, but that is the next one I am trying. I also need to activate WordPress Mobile Pack – we have it for the Towne & Country, Realtors blog – you can check it out here. Look at the great widget it creates in the sidebar, with a QR code and explanation.
Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need an API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” (No explanation necessary – it catches many of the nasty things you don’t want to see showing up in comments. Timesaver)
All in One SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. Options configuration panel (Easy way to optimize your site – genrally and specifically, for search)
All in One Webmaster
1) Sitemap Submission option to Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com. 2) Options to add Google, Bing, Yahoo, Alexa, Facebook Insights, Facebook, Blogcatalog Webmaster Meta Tag. 3) Options to add Google, Quantcast.com, GetClicky.com, Compete.com Analytics scripts for your blogs. Please go to Settings -> All in One Webmaster for more and detailed options. (Set and forget!)
Append Content
Append content to your posts/pages, useful for repetitious messaging and calls to action. Apply template to all pages/posts, only to posts, or only to pages. (LOVE this. Adds a block of text at the foot of your posts with your call to action, automatically and retroactively)
Broken Link Checker
Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.
Contact Form 7
Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible. (I use this for my simple form but use MM forms for more complex forms)
Facebook Like for Tags
Use the Facebook Like button as a permanent connection for ongoing updates and sharing tied to article tags. Your audience will automatically get updates into their news feed anytime you post a new article with same set of tags. (I like that it auto-posts similar updates)
FD Feedburner Plugin
Redirects all feeds to a Feedburner feed (Set up Feedburner through Google. Makes it easy for people to get an RSS feed or updates)
Google AJAX Translation
Add Google AJAX Translation to your blog. This plugin allows your blog readers to translate your blog posts or comments into other languages. (If your theme does not have built-in translation, this is useful. I can’t tell you if it is accurate or not ;))
Google Doc Embedder
Lets you embed Word Documents, PDF files, PowerPoint presentations, and TIFF images in a web page using the Google Docs Viewer (no Flash or PDF browser plug-ins required). (I rarely use this – I usually use Slideshare or Issuu and embed the code)
Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
JR Favicon for WordPress
Auto adds your favicon (small icon) in the browser’s title bar, making your blog easier to recognize. Also works in Internet Explorer, unlike some other plugins. (This helps you get the little icon in the tab: 
Have to upload it to your media library on the left then copy the URL into the bar)
LinkedIn Share Button
Add a LinkedIn Share button to your blog posts (Share, share, share)
ManageWP – Worker
Manage all your blogs from one dashboard (Still getting this one set up, but if you have multiple blogs to update, this is one way to manage them. Main site is: http://managewp.com/)
MM Forms
This is not just another form plugin ! This is THE form plugin that stores submissions in your database ! (See above)
nStatistics
This plugin generate complex blog statistics for users and robots. (I used to use this for deeper data than WP Statistics provides, but it does not play nicely- caused downtime on my site and the office’s site, so it is disabled for now)
Page Links To
Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources. (No further explanation needed)
SEO Friendly Images
Automatically adds alt and title attributes to all your images. Improves traffic from search results and makes them W3C/xHTML valid as well. (I usually am pretty good about naming and labeling photos for SEO, but have this here if I forget)
Social Bookmarks
Adds a list of XHTML compliant graphic links at the end of your posts that allow your visitors to easily submit them to a number of social bookmarking sites.
Ultimate Google Analytics
Enable Google Analytics on your blog. Has options to also track external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site. Check http://www.oratransplant.nl/uga/#versions for version updates (Easy to add the code to your blog so Google Analytics can work)
WordPress.com Stats
Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key. (I LOVE this to help me to fine-tune my posting and reinforce what is working and isn’t. Simple. You need to have set up a WordPress.com blog first to get the API key, same as for Akismet)
WP Footer Ad Pro
WP Footer Ad allows to set up banners to be displayed in the footer and,on click,a custom HTML popup. (Still deciding if I want to do this. Seems kind of spammy)
WP Google-buzz
Beautiful Google buzz integration to wordpress + admin options (Settings -> WP Google-buzz) + 5 diff button images + mouse over effects + Shows Counter. Automatically displays Google Buzz button for every post and page. (Sharing is caring)
Zemanta
Contextual suggestions of links, pictures, related content and SEO tags that makes your blogging fun and efficient. (I really like this one. Pulls up photos you can use, related links, suggests related articles. Helps to link your blog to the outside information world. Check out the photo and related articles below – they were suggested by this plugin)
Enjoy!
Related articles
- How To Use Sitemap & Robots.txt To Give Google a Complete Picture of Your Blog (johnchow.com)
- 23 WordPress Plugins I Use: Part 5 (contentmanagementconnection.com)
- 27 WordPress Plugins to Rock Your Blog – Eugen Oprea (eugenoprea.com)
- Supercharge Your WordPress Blog in One Hour (shoutmeloud.com)
Real estate or social media questions? Find me ...On Facebook where you can access a home search ...All of my online links ...On LinkedIn ...Email me at diane@realtyman.com ...or call 978-840-4014
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