3 Of My Favorite Free WordPress Plugins
I’ve been in this blogging game for a while now. I setup my first blog way back on July 4th, 2006. That’s almost 6 years ago now. Wow. Feels weird typing that. Anyway, that’s an eternity in internet years. The way I figure it, one year on the internet is like 10 years in the offline world. So that gives me about 60 years experience as a blogger.
One of the many things I’ve learned over the years are great wordpress plugins. I don’t really like paying for plugins, so in this post I’ll focus only on my favorite FREE wordpress plugins.
Enough banter, let’s knock this post out in less than 500 words, shall we?
This is a must have plugin. It’s usually the first plugin I add to any theme. This little guy let’s you setup your blog the right way. The way search engines love. You can set your title, your description, your keywords, and easily edit each post or page you make with the SEO you need.
Without this plugin, your blog will have about 25% of it’s full power. You need it. Read about it for more detail.
2) Sociable
We know the whole world has gone social, but has your blog? This handy plugin lets you add links to let your reader share your (hopefully) awesome content on twitter, facebook, and a gazillion other social networks.
This plugin is super easy to configure. Pretty much you just upload it and activate it… that’s it. From that point on, you’ll start seeing traffic coming in from social sites as the viral nature of the internet takes over.
3) Outbrain
This killer plugin is all about stickiness. In that in keeps people on your blog longer. And that is a very good thing. Outbrain offers related posts from your blog (and other blogs) at the end of your content. But here’s the cool part.
It will also put links to your content on other people’s sites. In essence, it’s a blog content link network. And it happens automatically. You just upload and look at the bottom of your blog.
The plugin scours your site for related content and offers it to your reader. The reader then reads more from you and has a much greater chance of joining your list or buying something from you or clicking an ad or doing whatever you want them to do ultimately.
So there you have it. 3 of favorite free wordpress plugins. Your blog will go a lot farther with just these 3 little guys. Of course there’s thousands of great wordpress plugins, but these 3 will put you on the right path.
And we finished with only 444 words.
60 years experience as a blogger — you’re funny! Thanks for the tips. I’ve seen Outbrain and like it but never knew what it was called, so I’ll be sure to check that one out.