Lisa Angelettie

Bestselling Amazon Author

  • START HERE
  • BOOKS
  • COURSES
  • RESOURCES
  • HIRE LISA
  • BLOG
You are here: Home / Archives for Wordpress Plugins

How To Create A WordPress Comment Thank You Page & Redirection

March 25, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 12 Comments

I talk a LOT about how to attract new clients but today I’d like to pay attention to how we are going to “convert” those prospects into paying clients. Well there are a lots of strategies for this, my primary one being building a “trust relationship” with readers. Yet that takes some time to nurture and cultivate, so here is a strategy that works quickly and produces immediate results — the art of saying thank you. A thank you goes a long way, especially on the web where things can get really impersonal. So today I want to show you how you can “thank” people who graciously take time out of their day to leave a comment on your blog.

Step 1 – Create A Thank You Page

The first thing you need to do is create a page in WordPress where you speak specifically to people who have left a comment on your blog. People who have left a comment on your blog are interested in you and your content, so it’s a good idea to ask for them to take the next step and subscribe to your updates/newsletter. You can also talk a little about yourself and start building a “connection” with your readers that’s a little more personal. Here’s a chunk of my thank you page, but if you want to see the entire page and it’s your first time leaving a comment, just leave a comment below so you can see what my page includes as well as well as the “magic” of the redirection:)

wordpress comment redirection

Step 2 – Create The Redirection

There are a few ways you can do this. Pick which one works best for you and is easiest to implement.

Option 1 – Create the redirection in your functions.php file by adding this piece of code. Special Thanks to Paulund for this tip. This avoids you having to download yet another WordPress Plugin. If you use the Thesis template, then add your code to your custom_functions.php file.

wordpress redirection

Option 2 – Use the Comment Redirect WordPress Plugin by Yoast

This is probably the easiest solution to implement. You can download the WordPress plugin simply by going to the “plugins” section in your dashboard and searching for “Comment Redirect By Yoast”. Download and activate the plugin.

I use quite a few plugins on my site and am trying to be very selective about anything I add, it’s better for my site (any site really) if I can perform many of the “tricks” I want by adding code rather than plugins. Therefore I have gone with option 1.

Check It Out!
If you’d like to test drive my site out first, feel free to leave a comment of any length to this post, and watch how it works.

Questions? Ask me over on Facebook.

Filed Under: Article Blogging, Content Marketing, Get Clients Tagged With: Blog Comments, Thank You Page, Wordpress Plugins

Google Analytics WordPress Vs. WordPress Stats Plugin

February 1, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 1 Comment

Google Analytics WordPress Vs. WordPress Stats Plugin

If you are contemplating whether to use the Google Analytics WordPress plugin or the WordPress Stats plugin for keeping an eye on things on your blog, I’ve got the right answer for you today.

Choose Both.

It’s no secret to readers that I love stats. I spend about 5-10 minutes everyday taking a look at my stats. I do this not because I am obsessed with traffic, rather with content. I want to know what content on my blog is working and what content isn’t. What did visitors to my blog come to read and what articles enticed them to stay on my site and read a bit more? When you have that sort of insight – you can do MORE of what works and hopefully see better results in conversion, sales, etc. Yet I use both of these stat programs to do it.

So why do you need both plugins? Well let me explain…

1. WordPress Stats gives you your blog stats in “real time”. Meaning that you can see what your traffic stats are right now. Google Analytics isn’t in real time. Typically when you visit your stats, you can see up to about 24 hours ago – which isn’t bad – but if you published a post and you’re looking to see what kind of feedback you got on it immediately, then you can see that in WordPress.com Stats.

Another think I like is that WordPress Stats also appears in your WordPress admin section, so every time you login to your blog, your stats are front and center – in real time. I love this because without having to log into Google Analytics, etc., I can get a quick glimpse of what my traffic looks like and what keywords people used to find me.

If you are an affiliate marketer, this is also fantastic because this lets you know which posts you should spend a bit more time monetizing. The ones with the most traffic right and the ones that stay and actually read the entire article – not just “bounce” off.

*Update – I forgot to also mention that WordPress Stats does not include visits from your own computer straight out of the box. Google Analytics counts visits from your computer. Now if there is a way to turn that off in G.A. (which there probably is), I haven’t figured it out yet. So just something to keep in mind when looking at your stats with either tool.

2. Now having said that, you must also use another comprehensive stat system to really be able to dig deep into your site and see what works. That’s what Google Analytics does for you for free. I love using Google Analytics because I can see “everything”. I can see who visited my site, how they got there, what browsers they used, if they were on a mobile phone (which is more important than ever now!), what page the exited on, how long they stayed, what keywords they used to find me, what search engine they may have used, etc.

Google Analytics will also let you know what “trends” are going on with your site. What kind of traffic and how much traffic they predict based on past traffic, etc.

*Now just a note here, if you use the Thesis Theme, you do NOT have to download the Google Analytics WordPress plugin. There is a nice little box in your Thesis options where you can paste in your Google Analytics tracking code.

But if you are using a different theme on your WordPress blog, you may not have this option, so it’s easiest to download the plugin which will help you integrate your Google Analytics account with your blog in a few clicks.

So my final word is to use both: Analytics for comprehension and WordPress Stats for immediate gratification. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Article Marketing, eBusiness Tools Tagged With: Google Tools, Wordpress Plugins

Redirection WordPress Plugin

January 24, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie Leave a Comment

Redirection WordPress Plugin

One of my clients has to move her WordPress site over to a new url. This move will change the url addresses of all her articles and pages on the site. It has to be done for legal reasons – but of course it’s important that people who have linked to her old articles are still able to find her articles after she’s moved. If this sounds like your story, then you’ll want to hear about this WordPress plugin.

Also, about two years ago, maybe longer, — I had to move one of my own html sites over to WordPress. My site was huge, there were hundreds of pages, and it was hard to edit because I would have to go into each page manually to update things. So many of the pages on the site were outdated with bad links, etc. It was a mess. Yet I also knew moving over to WordPress was going to be a mess as well, so I had a choice to make.

I chose to move to move to WordPress. I chose to hire a professional to do it. And there were still problems. Many of old links were creating 404 errors. I use go into Google and run a check and would see over a 100 errors. Does this sound like you?

Well if you are looking to make a smooth transition from url to url or from html to WordPress, then you may want to consider using the Redirection WordPress Plugin. According to their description:

Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation.

I have installed it on all my blogs, especially that first one, checked my Google stats and seen an improvement. Thank God for plugins:)

Download Redirection WordPress Plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

Filed Under: Article Blogging Tagged With: Wordpress, Wordpress Plugins

Pop Up Domination – Review

January 7, 2011 By Lisa Angelettie 4 Comments

Pop Up Domination – Moved Me To Write This!

You will notice that I do not do too many reviews on this site. That’s because I am so busy trying new things out (I’m a bit of a closet techie geek) that I completely forget to write about them after I’ve implemented them — but I’ve got to admit, this one moved me to write. Anytime you can see a dramatic difference in an aspect of internet marketing, you owe it to the rest of the web to let folks know.

I purchased the Pop-Up Domination WordPress plugin and installed it on my site a couple of weeks ago. I can’t tell you the day because honestly I couldn’t find my receipt – but I saw immediate results. The plugin creates a customizable subscriber pop up light box on your home page or every page ,where visitors to your site can sign up to be a subscriber to your list. You probably saw mine when you visited the site today (if you are a new visitor this week).

This is a look at my stats over on Aweber (my ezine list/autoresponder company) for most of the month of December. After installation, my subscriber sign-ups began to increase per day almost instantly. People even signed up on Christmas!

pop up domination review

So what makes the Pop-Up Domination plugin so great?

1. It’s a WordPress plugin. Installation and activation is easy vs. adding code manually to the proper area on your site’s template.

2. It is customizable. The plugin comes with templates and you can easily customize the colors, text size, etc. You can add your own images (or not) and the opt-in box will still look good.

3. There is an X clearly visible on the opt-inbox for visitors to close  if they aren’t interested. (Many pop-up boxes don’t have this which annoys the heck out of visitors!)

4. It works with most of the top autoresponder companies out there. Just copy and paste their generated code.

5. You can control how often visitors see your box and you can control at what point they see it.

6. It looks good. It really gives your site a polished look.

7. Many of the pros use this plugin. I’m sure one of the leaders in your niche is using it. Don’t let them be the only one who maximizes conversion of new visitor traffic!

8. Bottom line – my subscriber rate doubled! Do I have to say more? Want to try it on your site? I think you should. Worst case scenario, it doesn’t work, then you can simply deactivate it like any other plugin.

Try: PopUp Domination (aff. link)


Filed Under: Article Marketing, eBusiness Tools, Reviews Tagged With: List Building, Wordpress Plugins

Slow Loading Web Pages

November 12, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 7 Comments

Do You Have Slow Loading Web Pages?

Sometimes when I am having a mental break from writing, I like to tinker around in the backend of my websites. This week the break was all about figuring out a few tweaks to end some of the slow loading web pages on my site. This is important because search engines penalize slow moving websites AND ultimately we want visitors to our site to have a positive user experience. It’s crucial actually. If someone comes to visit your site and it takes 5 seconds to load, they may just click away.

I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but in this world of instant gratification, people want speed, accuracy, and results. So the faster your website moves, the better. I knew this in the back of my head, but I never really did anything about it. Instead I just kept adding things like images, javascripts, videos, etc. that were slowing things down even more.

This week I took some first steps to speed things up, and I thought that you could take these steps with me.

CHECK YOUR SITE

Check to see what the REAL user experience of your website is. You may think your site is fine, but you are on it everyday. You are use to the speed and the movement of your site and your internet connection. Others are not. You may have slow loading web pages and not even realize it.

1. Check your site info at Alexa first. Alexa will give a description of how fast your site moves in the “site info stats”. Mine unfortunately was “very slow”.  That’s how I knew that I better get started doing something to change things around.

2. Also check your site over at Pingdom and get a full and comprehensive look at how fast every element on your home page loads.

3. Your browser also has developer tools that will allow you to check the activity, errors, etc. of your site. You probably have to turn them on via the Preferences section of your browser. I use Safari’s developer tools to check on the code of my pages ( thanks to Kristerella!)

If you find that your site is slow or very slow, AND your site is powered by WordPress, then here are a few things you can do that I’ve tried so far with great success.

CACHING

Use the W3 Total Cache Plugin or the Super Cache Plugin. I think my brain would explode if I tried to explain what it does, but the general idea is that it helps makes things on your home page as well as your entire site load faster by:

“Easily optimize the speed and user experience of your site with caching: browser, page, object, database, minify and content delivery network support.” – W3 Total Cache

“This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.” – Super Cache

These plugins work extremely well, I recommend you take a look and test both to see which works best on your site and is completely compatible with your other plugins.

PLUGINS

Take a look at your plugins. Do you still have that Hello Dolly one or an old Twitter plugin you don’t use – get rid of ’em. Don’t just deactivate them, but delete them. You can do it right from your plugin admin. Sure I just told you to add a caching plugin in #1, but that one is necessary. It’s all about trimming the fat.

HOME PAGE

Keep you home page clutter free. Try not to put every widget and other javascript coded items in your sidebars. Your site has to load all those items every time someone clicks on your home page. Just use a few. (This was one of my issues). Also, it’s a good idea to not show a million blog posts on your home page. It makes the home page heavy and creates slow loading web pages.

IMAGES

My next step is going to be host all my images, videos, CSS files, etc. on a CDN (Content Delivery Network). What that means is that all those images and files will be served from a variety of servers and not just yours – freeing up your site to move at the speed of light or something close to that:)

I’ll probably follow up this article with another one of whatever CDN I decide to go with and how I did it. Many folks that use this says that it really speeds things up on their sites AND of course it prepares you for that day when your fabulous articles hit the front page of Digg 🙂

Go and end your slow loading web pages today!

Filed Under: Article Blogging, Article Marketing Tagged With: Wordpress, Wordpress Plugins

Google Analytics WordPress Plugin

November 10, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 6 Comments

Google Analytics WordPress Plugin

When I work with a new client, I find that one of the reasons that many of them are floundering in their marketing is because they have no idea who is visiting their site(s), how they found them, what pages they visit when they are there, how long they stay, what keywords they may have used to find them, and the list goes on and on.

Without knowing how people find and use your site – you really have no clear idea of what content to create, what products and services to offer, and how to attract more traffic. Without the knowledge of what’s going on inside your website, you are flying blind. How can you possibly expect to make more money than you did last week, last month, or last year flying blind?

That’s why I strongly recommend using the free website statistics tracking tool – Google Analytics.

If you take a look at your statistics through the admin panel of your webhost (Bluehost, Hostgator, GoDaddy), you can get a somewhat general overview, but nothing like all the robust and user-friendly information that Google Analytics will give you. And it’s so easy to get started with Google Analytics if you have a WordPress blog (and you should:).

All you have to do is install the Google Analytics WordPress Plugin. It’s fast and easy.

1. You need to sign up for a free Google Analytics account: http://Google.com/analytics

2. Download the Google Analytics WordPress Plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

You can either download the plugin to your computer and FTP it to your blog, upload it through the Install Plugins section of your blog, or you can search for it and install it right from the plugin section in your blog’s admin.

Google Analytics WordPress Plugin

*Please note that if you use Thesis as the framework for your WordPress blog that you will not need to download this plugin. All you have to do is sign up, get your Google Analytics code and paste it in the section for tracking scripts in Thesis:

Thesis Script Installation

Filed Under: Article Blogging, Article Marketing, eBusiness Tools Tagged With: Google Tools, Thesis Wordpress Theme, Wordpress, Wordpress Plugins

Scribe Vs. SEOPressor: Which Plugin Is Best?

September 8, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 9 Comments

Every entrepreneur and internet marketer has their particular skill. I have a knack for writing search engine optimized articles. I am always looking for better ways to accomplish good SEO, and so I’ve looked into the two WordPress plugins promising me an easier path to well optimized articles: Scribe and SEOPressor.

Scribe WordPress Plugin

Scribe WordPress Plugin

COST
Scribe is a plugin that requires a monthly subscription. I purchased my subscription when it was first released so I pay about $27 per month.

FEATURES
For your monthly fee you get to make 300 SEO evalutions of any article you are writing in your WordPress blog. This evaluation takes a look at your SEO details such as your title tag, meta description, and your article body to assess what your major and minor keywords are, the percentage that you are using them in the article, and an assessment of what you need to do to make the article 100% search engine optimized.

PROS
I really liked this plugin. I felt that I really learned how to tweak my articles for the search engines using the optimizer. I also felt that the creators of this plugin really designed it to be user friendly AND knew exactly what features were necessary. This is not a bloated plugin.

It’s also NOT a janky plugin. I never had any problems with installation or running it. Updates are regular with WordPress updates, etc.

CONS
I think after a time, the developers realized that they needed a few more features to justify the 27/mo fee. So they added a few features that you can access via the scribe website. I wasn’t impressed. I think that you are either going to invest in this plugin for the optimization with the WordPress admin OR you’re not going to do it all.

Also, after you’ve done a few optimizations, I think you get “the formula”. I don’t know if everyone is going to continue to pay $27 per month to use this as what will undoubtedly become a sort of “spell check” for article marketers. To keep this plugin current and use as a sort of SEO check of my articles, I would have to pay less for this. A one time fee or $10 per month maybe.

LINEAGE
Scribe is created by CopyBlogger’s Brian Clark. So there is a reason why the plugin works well and why it costs what it does. He is a trusted name in marketing and SEO.

SEOPressor

SEOPressor WordPress Plugin

COST
There are two options for buying SEOPressor. One site plugin use is a one-time $47 fee. To use it on multiple sites costs $97. That fee also includes installation.

FEATURES
SEOPressor works pretty much like Scribe albeit a little differently. Basically you set up each article to be optimized for one keyword. (With Scribe you can optimize your article for more than one keyword – primary and secondary keywords.) After you’ve chosen your keyword and written your article, you can go obtain your SEOPressor score and you will get results telling you what things are well optimized in your article and the things that you still need to add. Just like Scribe you are trying to achieve a score of over 90%, preferably 100%.

PROS
I think that SEOPressor is a little easier to use for the novice, simply because you are optimizing the article for ONE keyword. Things with Scribe could get a little more difficult because it pulls both primary and secondary keywords from your article. It was easy to install and set up, and the quick start guide was simple and easy to use. It’s also easier to promote this plugin if you are a marketer, because it is in the Clickbank marketplace.

The biggest pro is the cost. I think that this plugin basically does everything that Scribe does (the important things anyway) for a fraction of the cost.

CONS
I used Scribe for several months before I tried SEOPressor, so I could see that each calculated their respective SEO scores differently. Their “formula” for success is a bit different from each other. So your articles are optimized by two slightly different standards. As a longtime web writer, I think that I lean more towards Scribe’s optimization recipe. There are a few things about SEOPressor’s that I don’t agree with.

It’s also difficult to optimize your article towards that one keyword when article marketers write lots of articles that target long-tail keyword phrases. You cannot use those in SEOPressor.

Also, I used the optimizer and sometimes found errors. It was not seeing things that I had in place. So that was a little frustrating.

LINEAGE
This plugin is developed by SEO expert Daniel Tan. Not the same legacy as Clark, but definitely a respected marketer.

BOTTOM LINE: I own both and am still comparing and contrasting, but can say that if you are a beginner SEOPressor does the job for less money, It might be the way to go. If you are an advanced marketer and want to use the optimizer for clients, etc. then Scribe may be the better option. There is slightly a bit more flexibility as to the results you can report to your clients.

Filed Under: Article Blogging, Article Marketing, Reviews Tagged With: Article Marketing SEO, Wordpress, Wordpress Plugins

Search Me!

READ ON KINDLE

MY FAV’ WRITING TOOL

Scrivener

PERSONAL CONSULTING

FREE WORDPRESS PLUGIN

IMPORTANT LINKS

Subscribe To This Blog On Kindle
Wordpress Guest Post Plugin
Testimonials
Newsletter
Terms of Use
Copyright
Privacy
Disclaimer
Contact Me

From The Blog

  • Back Matter 101: How To Add Killer Call To Actions To Your Books
  • Shelfari Is No Longer An Option In Author Central
  • What Are The Most Well-Read Cities In America?
  • Google Play Is Closed To New Publishers
  • Kindle Blog Publishing Is Amazon Bestseller!

CONNECT WITH ME

Twitter
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn

Copyright © Lisa Angelettie · Powered By Hostgator And A Whole Lotta Love:)