So it seems when many of us move to blogging type sites, it’s sometimes hard to mentally leap the barrier of “static” to dynamic (dynamic meaning content that changes). Blogs are something that engages your readers, they (blogs) facilitate two way communication between you and your readers (who, for business operators, are potential clients). All to often I notice new blog owners place some content on the blog and then sit and wait for traffic. Invariably I often get a message or phone call asking what can be done as nothing’s happening. The conversation usually sounds something like this (below being an actual transcript):

BloggerSavvy: “Have you added in-demand, valuable content to your blog?”

New Blog Owner: “I did that a while back, but nobody visited the site.”

BloggerSavvy: “Have you added anything recently, content?”

New Blog Owner: “Well, no, not really, there’s not enough traffic and I don’t want to waste my time.”

BloggerSavvy:  “What things are you doing to draw traffic to your blog?”

New Blog Owner: “What do you mean? This is the Internet, won’t Google provide the traffic?”

BloggerSavvy: “Oh, I see, okay, what sites and online communities are you participating in, what activities are you doing to attract the attention of readers?”

New Blog Owner: “The blog is on the Internet, so shouldn’t I get some traffic because of that? There are millions of people all over the world on the Internet.”

BloggerSavvy: <Pausing…>

New Blog Owner: “I don’t really know what you mean or what I should do, can’t you do something? What now?”

As I’m sure we can appreciate, it seems that much of the issue is related not only to understanding the concept of a dynamic web site (blog), but also in appreciating that the off line, tangible world (where we make friends, connections, etc.) is mirrored in the online world! – The Internet. With this in mind, let’s think about that conversation…

In-demand, valuable content. That’s important, it provides original information that is demanded by readers. In other words, copying content from somewhere else (even with permission) is simply not going to garner any traffic or blog popularity. After all, if the blog uses duplicated content, what incentive is there to visit? Most readers would prefer (and will)  visit the source.

Post new content consistently. Business demands are very great on our time (myself included).  However, it’s important to always post regularly, the more often the better (as long as the content is of good quality – posting tons of low quality content will simply motivate readers to leave). When your blog is not busy, you should still post content! The thought process that it’s not worthwhile to post (since there are not many readers) is, in my opinion, a defeatist perspective. If I don’t post there are no readers – They will leave! If I’m low on readers, that’s when I must post regular content – It gives new readers some meat and potatoes… If the table is bare, it’s not very inviting – is it?

Be active in promoting your blog. You’ve got to get out there and participate, shake the trees, be active – Just like Baloo (Don’t know what that means? See the video below).

It’s a matter of gaining the experience of knowing were to participate, where to look for traffic, readers, connections – As Baloo puts it “the bare necessities”. Or… more to the point how to search. Just because your blog is accessible to Internet  subscribers, does not impart a degree of excessive traffic. This still begs the question, what now? What can new blog owners do to improve their visibility and increase readership.

To get noticed, you’ll have to make some noise. For all those new blog owners, here are some of the things I’ve done that have worked for me.

• Create a signature for your email and include and invitation to your URL. This will automatically be appended to every email you send out. eMail applications like Thunderbird, Evolution, Outlook Express, etc. all have the ability to do this.
• Join forums that appeal to your niche. When you answer questions (or ask them), most forums have the ability to include your tag line and/or signature. Again, include and invitation and a link to your URL. Do not spam forums (you’ll get banned). Instead, legitimately participate in them.
• Allow some of your content to be used on other sites only if the content links directly back to your blog.
• Participate in communities such as twitter, digg, etc. and those which appeal to your niche subject,  ensuring your profile in each of the communities you join all contain a URL to your blog.
• Comment on other blogs (do not spam – comment legitimately) with valuable content, insight, links, opinions, etc. – While making sure you include the URL of your blog in the appropriate area of the comment form you are completing.
• Always do your best to respond to readers who comment on your blog. Invite their opinions.
• Ensure your blog has the facility to allow commentors to be notified when someone responds to their comment – This invites return visits and further discussion.
• Offer to be a guest blogger on other blogs and invite your readers to be a guest on your blog.
• Make sure your blog has a “search” feature. Nothing could be more annoying than having to flip though page after page to try and find something. Make your blog user friendly.
• eMail readers and thank them for visiting.
• Get your best content seeded (included) in social bookmarking services like Stumbleupon and Delicious.

The above suggestions should help give new blog owners a good push in promoting their blog readership and traffic. Remember, don’t expect instant results, rather focus on community participation and providing quality content. If you do, your readership will grow all by itself.

What works for you that I’ve not mentioned? Have a success story you’d like to share? Feel free to add your comments below!

In my opinion, the lack of understanding the importance of social media is one of the biggest contributing factors to the lack in targeted web traffic, of any volume. All too often it seems, a web site or blog is launched and there’s almost not effective growth plan or activities that capitalize on the benefits of social media.  To be quite blunt, I’m not aware of any other low-cost effective blog promotional venues that has the capability and reach of social media.

For those not familiar, by social media venues, I’m referring to avenues such as Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Friendster, Facebook, and the like. Sites and services that are able to connect large communities of people in any given niche. Remembering of course that the better you can cater to a focused niche, the more pre-qualified your traffic is going to be.

With regards to social media marketing (or the lack thereof), I think each of us falls into one of four categories:

1. Fully aware and know how: Individuals who are fully aware of the value of social media and use it consistently to build their blog.
2. Aware and don’t know how: Individuals who are aware, but do not know how to effectively take advantage of it.
3. Unaware and don’t know how: Individuals who are unaware and do not understand how it works.
4. Don’t care and not interested: Individuals that simply avoid social media or don’t realize the value of it.

For those not familiar with social media or it’s impact, the following video illustrates the forces that shape it:

Regardless of which category of social media usage any of us fall into, it’s important at times, to be reminded of two primary inherent benefits social media offers bloggers. For those of us not familiar, the following may be an eye-opener!

Social media has a direct impact on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). How? It’s quite simple, social media builds (increasingly) the number of links back to our blogs. The more links back, the better the ranking. You might be thinking “Wait! I participate in paid link exchanges that can improve my ranking” . To be blunt, paid link exchanges that claim to improve SEO (in my opinion) are a worthless exercise and waste of financial resources. I’ve worked with numerous sites that have garnered no real benefits. In fact Matt Cutts of Google has often commented on this very issue: “Text links and PageRank” and “SEO Mistakes: link exchange emails“.

In my opinion, the most important issue with regards to social media based link building is that the links are not paid, they are permanent and of course obtained in a natural manner. By natural I’m referring to another site or blog linking to your blog as there is a genuine relationship or discourse between the two blogs. Such links are in essence a vote of trust and confidence in the value of your content. As such the more genuine links (or votes of trust) you garner from social media, the higher the authority of your blog.

I know from experience, the birth of a new blog with no traffic or social media buzz, has a difficult time to garner traffic and back links. One of the most effective ways to build them is to participate in the social media sphere! Join twitter, digg, technorati, linkedin, stumble, and so on… develop contacts, communicate, share. These are the activities that are going to help you grow your blog traffic and help you appeal to your target niche. From experience, here is one trick DO NOT ONLY POST LINKS TO YOUR CONTENT. Doing so is obvious to others in your social sphere; that you are only interested in self promotion.

Think of it this way. If you’re at a dinner party and the conversation from your side of the table always revolves around you, wouldn’t that make other guests think you’re self centered? Key issue: You’ve got to give if you want to get. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. That’s how it works. If you want others to help you, then you’ll need to freely help them. Therefore, when you’re twittering, stumbling or digging though the web, make sure you twitter, stumble and digg the content of blogs or sites you enjoy; other than your own.

Initial primary traffic encourages secondary traffic. What does this mean? Think of it this way, the more you socialize, the more contacts you make. They tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so on… Remember, social media is not about making money, it’s about making friends. Every blog, web site, business, group, organization, etc. needs friends, that’s what brings us the secondary traffic that can enable us to grow. Perry Belcher‘s video (blunt language and all) expresses this very clearly (for those interested, Mr. Belcher’s blog can be found at perrybelcher.com):

As I’m sure you’ll appreciate from the video your house is your blog. That’s the place where you invite your social media friends too. That’s where you focus on your content and on listening to your readers. If your social media mission is to make money and get traffic, that’s just not going to work. Think about it this way, if you go to a party, is your “mission” to have fun or to garner followers?

The crux of the issue is that most blogs (and the businesses associated with them) seek to grow, becoming more profitable. Social Media can collect a core group of supporters (along with their peers) who can effectively recommend your blog to others. As such, it’s often these others who help grow your sales (as they were referred) and who in turn refer others through their social media networks.

Finally for those who don’t care and are not interested in Social media, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, right? Wrong… as the video below will clearly explain:

In conclusion, the more social media friends you have, the faster word of mouth will spread (with regards to your blog). Social media networking is an extremely effective manner with which to invite people to your blog. Your traffic will grow in leaps and bounds when there are a group of readers ready to answer your call to action. Readers that you found via Social Media.

What are some of your thoughts, commentary? Do you agree or disagree with some of the ideas above? How do you approach the issue of social media and blogging? Feel free to include your comments below.

“How to measure traffic to tweets & twitter profile? On regular web pages you can include some tracking codes to generate traffic reports, click-through%, etc. (Google Analytics, eXteme, etc.). How can I measure the traffic to individual tweets and my Twitter profile?”

It dawned on me that all of us who use twitter to increase our business (or personal) visibility have no tool that measures traffic going to our twitter profiles or individual tweets. For my readers who are not on twitter yet, the video below will explain, what twitter is, and should allow you to realize how important and effective it can be in promoting your business; and increasing your visibility to existing or potential clients:

Back to the question at hand, unfortunately until twitter allows its members access to such data, I don’t see a way that we could gather statistics that show the traffic to our twitter profiles or specific tweets. In my opinion, a great solution would entail twitter having an agreement with Google Analytics to that end. That would be a win-win-win scenario. We win by garnering access to such statistics, Google wins (as we need an analytics account to access our twitter profile and tweet statistics, thereby increasing their user base) and twitter wins by becoming even more valuable to the business community (and in turn increasing membership).

The only immediate advice I could offer (and offer to you) was:

“I’ve not seen twitter release access to that in their API. Currently the only method I see is in my own stats (looking at the referrer), which at least gives me an idea of who clicked on the link (in the twitter profile) to reach your page. I also, don’t think there’s a way to track traffic TO individual tweets (again, that would mean twitter would need to allow access to that data).

Since you mentioned Google Analytics, this link (following) should at least give you something: Twitter and Google Analytics: What to Track

Also helpful: Simple Way to Track Your Twitter Tweets Using Google Analytics

Please remember that  methods such as this are only of value to track actual click throughs to your designated pages.”

I’m hoping the powers-that-be at Google and Twitter pick up the idea on this post and try to make it work.

What tools do you use to track or analyze traffic from twitter? Do any of you have a tool, code, idea or an existing web based service that can provide statistics to your tweets and twitter profile? Thoughts, comments? Feel free to ad them below.

Oh… and one shameless plug, please follow me on twitter to keep an eye on what’s going on in BloggerSavvy and access the tons of useful and helpful links, tips and tools I find on the web.

The #1 strategy to garnering more traffic to your blog is:

“Write good quality, in-demand content“. (Remember you are writing too people, not at them).

And of course some of the activities I successfully use are:

• Use social networking tools such as: StumbleUpon. Run an advertising campaign via StumbleUpon. Use twitter. Ensure you provide tweets of value and customize your twitter page to match the branding of your blog. Never complain needlessly on twitter (do you want to spend your day with a whining sour-puss?) Invite people to follow you on twitter.  You may find my earlier post “Common Blog Traffic Sources?” to be of interest – Hint… Google is NOT my biggest traffic source .
• Include information about your blog in the signature of every email you send (including the URL).
• Use subscription systems on your blog. Plugins such as Comment Approved Notifier and Subscribe2 can help you accomplish this. More useful plugins can be found in the post “25 Most Beneficial WordPress Plugins“.
• Enhance your update services. When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the site update services you configured. Here is a robust list of 145 Update Services for Blogs.
• Use your blog information and URL in forum signatures.
• Comment on other blogs. However, don’t comment just for the sake of obtaining a link, doing so is often very obvious, instead, provide valuable feedback, thoughts and ideas.
• eMail readers and thank them for visiting.
• Post new, quality content regularly. Doing so keeps readers interested and momentum going. Additionally, ensure you provide valuable links to external resources as well as those within your blog.
• Trust your readers. Often it is very annoying (and a bit of a turn off) to wait for comment approval every single time, when they participate (comment) on your blog. Instead, it may be better to “lift the embargo” for those who have provided valuable comments before. If a comment from those individuals is inappropriate, you can always edit or remove it later.
• Use lists on your blog. Lists are attractive as they are scannable,  easy to use and link to; and easy to add to later.

I’ve been following a fair bit of the happenings in the blogsphere (and for me some of them are new). Of note is the changing landscape where word of mouth seems to be successful whereas viral marketing appears to be waning.

Most importantly, we’d like to know what some of the new strategies are, that you use or recommend. How do you approach them? What do you do or recommend? What’s your perspective in new blog promotion strategies? Comment below. Also, for a bit of link love, comments added to this post will have the no-follow tag removed as I move them into the post with your credit. So… don’t be shy.

One thing I’d like to clarify before continuing. Online social media promotion tools (such as the sites mentioned above) are best used as an extension of your existing, traditional marketing activities. The benefits in most cases result in:

• More targeted audience.
• Greater geographic reach.
• Reduction in marketing costs.
• Save time (in other words using time in a more productive effective manner).

However, the above are only some of the most immediate that come to mind.

One thing I always try to advise clients is to break down their business or blog promotion requirements to reflect the jobs (or responsibilities) at hand. Generally, there are four primary groups:

Management. Your are the blog and/or business owner. Your primary goal should be to raise awareness and visibility of your products, services, content, etc. You should work towards being the leader in your niche (whatever that is). Additionally, you’re the one that should seek out talent you require to that end.

Public Relations. You are the one that should be monitoring what visitors, blog followers, clients, etc. are saying about your blog and business. You should be responding to them and illicit discussion, creating “spins” and attention to your blog and the business or community it represents.

Marketing. Your job is to ensure you’ve targeted the appropriate venues to stream your information to (the blog, products, services, etc.) You are doing this to build traffic, that is one of your primary functions.

Sales. Your role is to find or create new business leads. As such, you need to establish an effective network in order to move forward, expanding it as new contacts are added to your database.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, most people who launch and maintain a blog, provide the functions at each level above. For many of us, that is where some of the questions begin. Which tool is best for which function?

The illustration below illustrates this issue:

As I’m sure you could appreciate, there are hundreds of social media tools available. In the above diagram, I’ve only selected a few of them. So… Let’s recap:

Managers/Blog owners can use tools like Pownce (closed on Dec. 15, 2008), Plurk, Twitter, etc so as to increase awareness of their information (as well as their visibility) within online communities. You are using a blog, right?

Side note: You can follow me on twitter here: @BloggerSavvy

Marketing gurus however, can best capitalize on tools like Stumbleupon, Digg, Flickr, Reddit, Furl, Delicious, Youtube, Newsvine, Mixx, etc. to get the “word out” where communities can access it and visit the appropriate content on your blog. Such tools provide a superior venue for increasing your blog traffic and at a cheaper cost, than traditional solutions.

The sales people need to maximize their contacts and find others contacts. Tools like LinkedIn, hi5, Bebo, MySpace, Orkut, Facebook, Freindster, etc. are best able to facilitate this. You can build your contacts much faster then via traditional methods.

Of course the PR people need to keep their fingers on the pulse. They need to be aware of what is being said and need to respond (which I’ll note in a moment). Some good tools to help monitor what’s being said about you in the blogsphere are Technorati, Backtype, GetSatisfaction, Twitscoop, etc. As I just mentioned, PR people need to respond to some of the things they find. Commonly, tools like Dig, Reddit, Flickr, GetSatisfaction, etc. provide the facility for effective responses to individuals and the community as a whole.

In conclusion, one point I’ve also tried to impress is to ensure you’re using the right tool to get the right response and right traffic. After all traffic just for the sake of traffic is a futile exercise. For example, I’d rather have visitors to this blog that are genuinely interested in the contents, than to have a ton of disinterested traffic that does nothing other than use my bandwidth up (costing me more money).

What tools do you use that I’ve not mentioned? What are your thoughts? Feel free to let us know in your comments! Any new startups we all should know about? – Announce them below.

• Enhanced blog visitor experience.
• Increased traffic and blog promotion.
• Improved security and blog performance.
• Simplified blog management and productivity.
• Better visitor communication.
• More effective search engine optimization.
• Greater integration with popular Internet communities and services.

In my post “Why Every Business Can Benefit From a Blog“, I discussed some of the tangible benefits inherent to businesses and people who maintain a blog. How blogs can improve your business growth. These plugins further enhance the effectiveness and usability of your blog.

All these plugins work with WordPress 2.6.3. Without further ado, below is my top 25, most beneficial plugins list (in alphabetical order).

1) Admin Management Xtended

Extends admin functionality by introducing: toggling post/page visibility inline, changing page order with drag and drop, inline category management, inline tag management, changing publication date inline, changing post slug inline, toggling comment status open/closed, hide draft posts, change media order, change media description inline, toggling link visibility, changing link categories.

Why I like it:

I can manage page/post visibility, order and more all from one single page – Easy and fast! It improves productivity.

Where to get it:

For WordPress 2.5+ only. http://www.schloebe.de/wordpress/admin-management-xtended-plugin/#english

2) Akismet

It checks each comment visitors type on your blog against the Akismet web service. If any of them appear to be spam, they are automatically marked as spam and automatically deleted after one month.

Why I like it:v

Automated spam removal and blocking. I don’t spend time filtering out spam. It keeps blog comments spam free, which improves visitor experience and reduce blog administration.

Where to get it:

It’s automatically included in the source files for WordPress. You just need to get a WordPress.com API key for it to work.

3) All in One SEO Pack

It automatically improves each post or page SEO by improving Titles, Descriptions, Keywords and Duplicate Content issues on a per post basis.

Why I like it:

You can leave it running on automatic, or more importantly tweak the SEO aspects of each page or post individually as you create and publish content. Also, you can return latter and make tweaks to improve SEO performance for each page. It helps build more targeted search engine traffic.

Where to get it:

http://semperfiwebdesign.com/portfolio/wordpress/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

4) Avatars

Makes it simple to include local Avatars. WordPress (from version 2.5) includes native support for global avatars. But, what about adding local (private) avatars for your users? Maybe your users don’t want a global avatar or are not able to set a gravatar up.

Why I like it:

It makes setting up user Avatars a snap. Avatars are a good way to not only add a bit of artistic flair to a blog, but more importantly to make it easier to spot comments from a specific individual (as his or her avatar will always be the same).

Where to get it:v

http://www.sterling-adventures.co.uk/blog/2008/03/01/avatars-plugin/

5) Better Comments Manager

Better Comments manager allows you to view your comments post wise, it also allows you to reply to your comments from within admin panel without you having to visit the site to respond to comments.

Why I like it:

Simple comment management and response from one page. Again, it improves productivity in that I can communicate with visitors (responding to comments and questions) from one page.

Where to get it:

http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/better-comments-manager-wordpress-plugin-release.html

6) Better Howdy

Removes the “Howdy” and restructure the “Howdy” line in the administrative interface.

Why I like it:

We don’t say “Howdy” where I live, that’s lame. Also It provides better links and information (logged in user) on the Howdy line.

Where to get it:v

http://sivel.net/2008/10/better-howdy/

7) cforms

It’s a very flexible tool to deploy contact (and other) forms across your blog. It supports captcha, Spam protection, tracking and more. It was be a bit tricky for me to get working properly.

Why I like it:

It made the building of my contact page very easy as I needed a captcha feature to filter out spam messages emailed to me. It save me time.

Where to get it:

http://www.deliciousdays.com/cforms-plugin

8) Chunk Urls for WordPress

Shortens URLs in comments so that they won’t break your site design.

Why I like it:

Keeps things neat and professional looking. Shortens URLs automatically. An readers don’t see excessively long URLs in comments.

Where to get it:

http://www.village-idiot.org/archives/2006/06/29/wp-chunk/

9) Comment Approved Notifier

Sends an email to your commenter when you approve their comment.

Why I like it:

It allows me to communicate with readers. They see their comment was approved and are invited to return. Also, it’s automatic! That way, a reader can return and add more if they wish, or follow up on responses.

Where to get it:

http://www.yakupgovler.com/?p=291

10) Dashboard Editor

Allows you to edit the dashboard in the administrative interface.

Why I like it:
Keeps the dashboard clean, only showing what I really need to see.

Where to get it:

http://anthologyoi.com/plugins

11) FD Feedburner Plugin

Redirects to feeds to Feedburner.

Why I like it:

I can change the location of my feed without losing subscribers. Browser friendly and keeps count of my subscribers.

Where to get it:

http://flagrantdisregard.com/feedburner/

12) Google XML Sitemaps

Generates a sitemap which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo. Each time you add a page or post, it regenerates the sitemap and then pings (notifies) the search engines to tell them you have updated content.

Why I like it:

It’s automated and I can also tweak the post priorities, change frequencies, etc. I can even exclude specific posts or pages from the sitemap. it’s a nice tool to let Google know the blog is “alive”.

Where to get it:

http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

13) MySpace Crossposter

It enables automatic crossposting from your blog to Myspace.

Why I like it:

It’s automatic, I don’t have to keep manually logging into Myspace to add blog my posts. It’s a good to to help build blog traffic.

Where to get it:

http://noumenon.roderickrussell.com/wordpress-to-myspace-auto-crossposting

14) Register Plus

Enhances your blog’s Registration Page. You can add a custom Logo, password field, invitation codes, disclaimers, captcha validation, email validation, user moderation, profile fields and more.

Why I like it:

In addition to branding the registration/login to be consistent with the blog theme, it also avoids duplicate email registration. A big plus is that it also helps build blog traffic via the use of invitations, etc.

Where to get it:

WordPress 2.5+ only. http://skullbit.com/wordpress-plugin/register-plus/

15) Simple Tags

Extends the tagging in your blog.  Includes autocompletion, suggested tags, tag cloud widgets, related posts, mass edit tags, etc.

Why I like it:

When posting, I don’t have to manually type all the tags, just click the pertinent ones. If a tag does not exist, I can add it on the fly. It drives the tag cloud automatically – Simple to use! It’s another nice way to help promote to search engines. Viewing the tag cloud gives visitors an idea of the busiest topics on your blog.

Where to get it:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-tags

16) Sociable

Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.

Why I like it:

It does not slow your site down like some other related plugins do. I tested several of them and some of the better ones were very slow as they always connected to another web site first. This plugin is fast (local) and inobtrusive. It’s a great way to help get more exposure on some of the social sites, to let people know you have content they may be interested in. It can also be disabled on specific posts if need.

Where to get it:

http://yoast.com/wordpress/sociable/

17) Subscribe2

Notifies an email list of subscribed visitors when new entries are posted. Visitors can subscribe or unsubscribe to be notified at any time.

Why I like it:

It helps busy visitors with time management. Why visit a blog to see if there’s new content when you can be notified? Granted, another option is to use RSS, but I’ve found that email (like newsletters) is a great way to keep in touch and let visitors know what’s happening, and not everyone uses RSS. It’s also a traffic builder.

Where to get it:

http://subscribe2.wordpress.com/

18) Twitme

Automatically tweets your new posts on the twitter.

Why I like it:

Again, it’s an automatic cross poster, but more importantly, helps you keep in touch with your community and build traffic by letting twitter users know there is content of value for them.

Where to get it:

http://www.phpvrouwen.nl/twitme

19) WP-DBManager

Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize the database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.

Why I like it:

It improves my blog’s security by automatically emailing me a backup of my database every day. I don’t even have to do anything, just set it up and it runs. That’s a nice feature. If something happens, I can simply go to me email and restore the most recent database. You and your visitors don’t lose a lot of valuable content.

Where to get it:

http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-dbmanager

20) WP-PostRatings

Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page.

Why I like it:

It allows visitors to rate content, which helps you to see what is most in demand. As such, you’re better able to provide the content that visitors want. In a way, it’s another traffic building tool.

Where to get it:

http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-postratings

21) WP-PostRatings Widget

Works in conjunction with WP-PostRatings above. Displays the most rated and/or highest rated posts and/or pages on your sidebar.

Why I like it:

It helps visitors queue into the most highly rated content. It helps them find the hotest content right away.

Where to get it:

Remember to install and activate WP-PostRatings first. http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-postratings

22) WP-Sticky

Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress’s blog.

Why I like it:

I can display announcement and sticky posts only when viewing categories or not. I can display an announcement banner or display the date instead of the announcement banner (on announcement posts).

Where to get it:

http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/#wp-sticky

23) WP Super Cache

It’s a very fast caching module to help improve blog performance. Why have the server create your pages every time there’s a visitor? This plugin will cache previously created pages, to speed up surfing through your blog.

Why I like it:

I can turn it on or off as needed (even partially on). I can specify how long to keep cached content for. I can even prepare the blog for an expected spike in traffic by enabling the lock down feature. When this is enabled, new comments on a post will not refresh the cached static files. The lockdown feature is only useful if you are expecting a major Digg or Slashdot level of traffic to one of your posts or pages.

Where to get it:

http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/

24) Wordbook

Allows you to cross post your blog posts to your Facebook Wall. Your Facebook “Boxes” tab will show your most recent blog posts.

Why I like it:

It’s automated and helps build traffic while letting Facebook visitors know when valuable content has been posted.

Where to get it:

http://www.tsaiberspace.net/blog/2007/07/29/wordbook/

25) Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Returns a list of the related entries under each blog post,  (based on a unique algorithm) using titles, post bodies, tags and categories; with RSS feed support.

Why I like it:

It easily helps visitors find other content that may be of interest to them, and it’s also works automatically.

Where to get it:

http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/

Again, these are the 25 I’ve found to be most beneficial not just to this blog, but others as well. Of course there are tons of other WordPress plugins that benefit us. Have a suggestion? Use a good plugin that I’ve not listed? Please, include the links in your comments below.

Update:

I’ve tested another plugin and it’s working great. It’s called What Would Seth Godin Do.

Why I like it:

It displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors; and I can place it at the top of posts and pages. I also like it because it automatic. (I like automated tools). Needless to say, it’s a good tool to promote features on a site, inform visitors, make announcements and lots of other benefits.

Where to get it:

http://richardkmiller.com/wordpress-plugin-what-would-seth-godin-do