Setup your WP Blog? Part 2

This is Part 2 – The Outside Applications

Read Part 1 – Paying to setup your WP Blog?

I started compiling this list when I started setting up my newest site, http://AreWeConnected.com

WordPress.com says

Takes seconds, costs nada

You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence.

And that’s true.

But to fully get the best results out of WordPress you need so much more.  So I put on my consultant hat and thought about what needs to be done and how to do a complete job .  Here’s what I came up with.

The Outside Applications

For clarity, I’m defining an outside application as one that appears to the public.  When setting up an outside application it’s a back and forth affair.  You’ll need to have your site up and running first before you signup for the application.  Then you’ll find yourself inserting the application into the blog, only to have to return to change a setting or two back on the application, and then updating the application code on the blog again.  Here’s a few of the more popular.

MyBlogLog: Owned by Yahoo, it’s a wonderful sidebar exposition of who’s visited your site. While to most it’s just eye candy, I think the power of this tool is very much under used.  Do you click on your recent visitors and read their blog? Do you add them as a contact?  I have a MyBlogLog widget on my site but you are unlikely to see it (it’s way down in the footer).

RSS and Email Subscription: I like FeedBurner but there are plenty of other options including doing nothing at all.  WP will provide an RSS feed automatically, but why stop there?  With FeedBurner I can track and see numbers of subscribers as well as details.  My feed is customized with the look and feel of my site.  Subscribe to the email and the entire post  is delivered to your inbox automatically.  Remember, getting your message out is one thing – giving your readers the ability to read it in the form they desire is another.

Custom Google Search: You can add the search function that comes as a WP sidebar widget and go with that.  Like the RSS above I have to ask, “Why stop there?”  Google Custom Search can be branded with your site logo.  It can be setup to open as a new page or as a popup.  You can restrict the search to only within your site or open it up to the internet.  We all know the power of Google – why not harness some of it?

Twitter: While you may be on Twitter (you are, right?) and using twitter to get new business there is still the remote possibility that your reader isn’t on Twitter, or worse yet not following you!  You can still bring your tweet stream to them with a widget from something like Twitter Badge / Twitstamp . Remember to keep in mind the look and feel of your blog when setting up the widgets.

Vflyer or Postlet: You already use then to post your listings to Craigslist.  You use them to post your listings to your blog.  Why not use them to also bring snippets of your listings to your sidebar? Simply add a Vflyer Widget or Postlet Mini to your sidebar.  Keeping in mind the the look and feel of your blog when setting up the widgets.

While that’s the end of The Outside Applications , it’s really just the beginning, just the tip of the

next we’ll tackle the “The Hidden Plugins ”.

Part TWO of TEN

Read Part 1 – Paying to setup your WP Blog?

To be continued…

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