7 Ways You Can Make Your WordPress Sidebar Work Harder. The sidebar is an important part of a typical WordPress blog, but many people just follow the crowd and use it for ads, social media widgets, links to recent posts and perhaps a monthly archive.
And while this is perfectly acceptable, today I’d like to offer you a challenge – take a good look at your sidebar and think about the way you’re using it. Ask yourself this question: What could I do to make my sidebar work harder for me? In this post, I’ll be looking at the way that many popular blogs use their sidebars, and offering you ideas you can take away to use on yours.
While the suggestions might not work for you straight away, don’t let that put you off experimenting and coming up with new ideas. There’s always room for improvement, and I believe that the sidebar is often not used to its full potential. The Typical Sidebar In your average sidebar you generally see the same things: All these elements are perfectly fine. 1. Should You Care About Losing Blog Subscribers? Yes.
No. Maybe. It depends. Improving WordPress Commenting with Postmatic. We've set out to create a fantastic commenting plugin for WordPress.
It's called Postmatic and what it does is a first for any blogging system: to allow synchronous 100% email and web-based commenting. The web folks can engage via the web. The email folks can stick to email. And everyone can remain focused, engaged, and most important: at their own pace. But WordPress has a spam problem. The spam challenge we face People are funny about their email. As email lovers we are keenly aware of all this. If there is one thing email users hate more than clutter it is spam. Get One to One Blog Consulting with Danny Brown. For the last 8 years or so, I’ve helped a lot of friends and family dive into the wonderful world of blogging, both for personal and professional use.
Many have been put off blogging up until then, thinking it was either something we did in solitary, or something that they had little time (and even less inclination) to do so. Danny Brown sur Twitter : "Take your #blogging up a notch and save 15% into the bargain. Use code TWITTER15 - Get One to One Blog Consulting with Danny Brown. Blogging isn’t a one-size-fits-all category – every blogger has different goals, with different requirements, timescales and resources available to invest their time in.
Because of this, we’ll work together on what you need specifically, on your time, and at your pace. If it’s simply an initial consult to see where you could improve, we’ll do that. If it’s an ongoing and regular requirement, we’ll do that too (and these will be applicable for loyalty discounts that will be sent to you privately as your consulting goes on). Really, the choice is yours. Get One to One Blog Consulting with Danny Brown. Get One to One Blog Consulting with Danny Brown. What I Learned From Taking a Blogging Break. I’ve really backed away from blogging in the past several months.
The reason? Quite frankly, I felt that I had run out of things to say. Pair that with being overloaded with other projects, including writing projects, and I guess I just wandered away from it. For me, it was a healthy break, something that I think I needed after 9 years of consistently posting here. 9 years! In that time I’ve learned so much, made so many new connections, and grown my business. I missed it like crazy. I felt “out of the loop”. I stopped listening. All in all, I didn’t mind walking away from my blog for as long as I did. And to you, dear reader, I appreciate you stopping by, for taking the time out of your day to spend a few minutes with me. We've Made It Super Easy to Get Our Posts and Comment! One of the things we want to do here at MRP is make your life easier and less busy (so you can enjoy that time reading our books!).
How to Build a Loyal Blog Community With the Power of Give. One of the conversations that often arises when talking about blogs is community, and how to both grow and reward loyalty.
The Future of Content Part 4: The Return to Pure Blogging. Black Magic Voodoo Tricks with Postmatic. So my husband – who I shall hereby name The Geek – introduced me to something called Postmatic, and I have to say, it’s pretty cool!
Basically, it’s a super easy way for you to get my latest news and blog posts and leave a comment on it too – all without leaving your email account! It seems obvious when you think about it – you (usually) get a blog post update via email, you get notifications of new tweets, Facebook statuses, Google+ interactions, etc., via email, and you get notifications of a new comment on a blog post via email. Taking that to its natural next step, Postmatic enables readers and commenters to reply to a blog post and/or comment via email, too. Instead of having to be at the blog post itself, the Postmatic experience is pretty seamless: You receive the latest blog post via email from your favourite blogger (me, hopefully!)
Want the Best Sign-Up Form Ever? Here’s 7 Clever Examples. When I re-designed Blog Tyrant one of the main additions was a homepage sign-up form that uses the photo of me blogging on the couch.
It was a huge success. That particular form converts at around 25% and has led to me getting thousands of new subscribers to my mailing list. In today’s post I want to show you a few other blogs and websites that use really sexy email sign-up form designs to capture more email subscribers. Hope it helps! Why your sign-up form is so important. Is It Time to Trade Your Blog for a Newsletter? This is a guest post by Randy Milanovic, Principal of Kayak Online Marketing, and takes a look at a changing shift in how content is being presented.
A few months back, I noted that a handful of prominent bloggers were switching things up and taking their content straight to Google+. As a behavioural change, I found it interesting; as an online marketing practice, it wasn’t something I was willing to try. G+ isn’t the only alternative to blogging, though. Lately, another set of well-known bloggers – including our host Danny here on this blog, and Shelley Pringle of Polaris Marketing and PR – appear to be refocusing their efforts into an email newsletter. In Danny’s case, it appears he hasn’t quite given up blogging entirely, though his posts seem to be shorter and mainly feed into newsletter subscriptions. If shares and comments are to be viewed as social proof, the number of these on Danny’s site has dropped significantly from what were showing with his pre-newsletter articles.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Changing to a Newsletter Delivery Format. Danny Brown's recent decision to provide a newsletter subscription for his blog readers changed the way readers engaged with him. In this special guest post, he shares the results of that change in approach. Should You Care About Losing Blog Subscribers? Yes. No. Maybe. It depends. I know – crappy answer, right? Are All Bloggers Created Equal? Taking a look through my Feedly account, I see a lot of familiar sites about blogging, social media, marketing and SEO.
Being part of a blogging community is great but it does mean that you often end up reading and producing recycled stuff. I'm guilty of it myself. The Three Core Tenets Every Successful Blogger Needs. As bloggers, we all have different goals. 3 Types of Editorial Calendar to Manage Your Business Blog. This is a guest post by Sarah Arrow, and is part of her 30 Day Blogging Challenge. Awww.libsyn. Awww.libsyn. How to Get More Blog Readers. Posted by Shelly Kramer on May 10, 2013 · 22 Comments.