» Sidebar/Widgets

As I’ve mentioned a few times here on Blogger Institute, simply writing quality postings is not enough to have a popular blog. Despite how interesting, in-depth, or informative your articles might be, they aren’t of any real value unless you have visitors. And to get visitors, you have to market your blog. Most of us don’t have the money it requires to seriously advertise our blog(s), so we result to social media websites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and more to promote our hard work.

But, the problem many of us run into is the amount of time it takes to deal with all of these sites. I just named a few off the top of my head above and they all started running together. Between your blog(s) and life in general, you only have time to seriously use one, maybe two social networking sites to your advantage due to time restrains. It’s just impossible to use them all. Or, it was…until now.

There is a new service (free!) that will be your all-in-one social media website hub. The service is named Streamy and it’s really proving to be a very amazing tool for bloggers. First off, unlike most other “similar” services, this product is NOT a downloadble desktop application. Those only slow down your computer and eat away at your memory. With Streamy, you simply sign up, put in your information, and you’ve now got an increadible social media hub where you can view all of your social networking profiles at once, and can update them as well! No more going to Twitter, then Myspace, then Facebook, etc. You simply log in and you can post to all of them using your Streamy Dashboard. You can even chat in real time using using chat networks like AIM and Googletalk.

I’m pretty difficult to impress, but, I highly suggest Streamy for any blogger who uses social networking websites to their advantage. It’s a technological marvel. The system is set up perfectly for bloggers to share stories as well, so it’s something you really should check out.

To visit Streamy.com, click here.

One of the things that makes the Wordpress.org self hosted platform more beneficial than the standard Wordpress.com platform is the flexibility. Well, that is, in most cases.

Today as I was searching a few sites, I found a great post about a new plugin that is only available for Wordpress.com users. The new plugin is called the “Gravatar Widget” which is a very advanced, easy, and updated version of the “About Me” section that you find on all Wordpress.com blogs. But before we break down the neat features of this “Gravatar Widget” plugin, let us actually discuss what a “gravatar” is. A “gravatar”, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things. Think of it as your blogging identification card. You only need to sign up once, and as long as you use compatible software, it will work universally - personally, I think it’s awesome.

So, back to the plugin now. The “Gravatar Widget” is a drag and drop widget that you will put into your sidebar, but unlike the default “About Me” section, you do not need to edit your template file to update your “About Me” section with this new “Gravatar Widget”. In addition to that, it obviously includes your “gravatar” image that you select when you set up your gravatar profile. I should add, this will now replace the old “About Me” section on Wordpress.com (you do not need to download or install this…it’s already been done).

Below, I have an included an image that displays how easy it is for you to update your information:

This is one of the first plugins/widgets that I’ve seen that outshine any similar ones on the Wordpress.org platform. So, if you’re using a Wordpress.com blog, I’m not sure what you’re waiting for -go use this awesome little tool! It is now the default “About Me” area in all Wordpress.com blogs.

To sign up (for free) for a Gravatar profile, click here.

If you ever look into your traffic stats, you’re bound to find some postings or pages that are more popular than other areas of your blog. And while it’s nice that people are finding them (via search engines, links, etc), it would be beneficial for you to lend a helping hand as well.

There are a variety of ways you can do this, but, I’ll explain my two personal favorites below.

The first method I like to use is simply a graphic, especially if you’re attempting to promote a page rather than a individual blog posting. Do you remember the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, it is. You don’t want to make it too overbearing, but some place on your sidebar you’ll want to create a standardized graphic for each thing you want to promote. As for what I mean when I say standardized, what you’ll want to do is have them all be the same size and format. You don’t really want 3-4 different sized graphics all next to each other, as it will look silly and unprofessional. You can change the color of the graphic/border to make them stand out from each other, but a uniformed look will result in a clean looking blog.

Another useful method to take on when trying to promote your best postings would be the Popular Post Plugin. This plugin will create a simple drag and drop icon, allowing you to place a listing of your most popular blog postings some place on your sidebar. There are limited graphics (you can now included a thumbnail preview of your posting) with this, it’s mostly plain text, which will result in a simple but also clean appearance. That doesn’t mean you can’t customize it though with a little knowledge of HTML. There are a variety of choices in the options to set it to your enjoyment, and it’s not something you’ll be disappointed with by any stretch.

Using these two methods will greatly improve the number of hits and exposure your old, yet, classic postings will receive.

To download the Popular Posts plugin, click here.

When you sign up for a social networking website such as MySpace, Twitter, or Facebook, one of the first things you want to do is rush to your blog and put a “badge” on it so people can see your new profile (A “badge” is a clickable graphic that links you to another webpage). However, since many of these “badges” are different sizes, shapes, and colors, it can really make your blog look incredibly messy.

There are some nice graphical icons available on the internet but many people don’t prefer to clutter up their blog with those, so I present to you “Social Follow”. Social Follow is a new blog tool that will tie together all of your social networking profiles in clean and simple format which will allow you not only to keep your blog clean but also help you from adding your social profile links in each of your blog postings.

All you do is choose the graphic you want (it’s more of a mini toolbar), input your social profiles information, and when done install the code they give you. Personally, I’m a big fan of putting the information in your sidebar so it’s seen at all times.

When people scroll over the mini-toolbar that you’ve installed, it will expand and look like this:

To visit the Social Follow website, click below:

Social Follow Website