1. AddtoAny – This helps visitors to your blog share your posts with others on their social networks with just a few clicks.
2. Cross-Linker — This plugin allows you to automatically hyperlink to certain words with specific URLS, this is great if you often talk about the same word or phrase that you wish to link to the same place.
3. Simple Twitter Status Updates – This plugin allows you to update all of your new posts to your Twitter followers. When you post a new post, it automatically posts a status update!
4. SEO Friendly Images — This plugin makes it easier to optimize all the images that you put in your blog with proper tags.
5. WP-DB-Backup – This plugin is backs up your WordPress database and emails it to you. This is really wonderful and if you keep an email in the cloud, you won’t need to pay for storage off site.
6. Aweber — With Aweber which is not a plug in, you can automate the process of emailing your newsletter subscribers your most recent posts
7. RSS — This is another way to automate the process of getting your content in front of people. Make sure you have an active RSS feed.
8. Catch all blog — If you have several blogs, you can set up one more with RSS feeds that feeds in all your blog posts from all your other blogs, then you can use the WordPress app on LinkedIn to automatically feed that “catch all” blog to LinkedIn.
9. PING.FM — This sends a notice to over 30 social network sites that you’ve updated your blog. You can get a plugin for that!
10. Facebook — There are several plugins that you can use to automate your blogs and integrate the with Facebook.

Along with blogging and having your own self hosted WordPress website (or any website) you have many choices to make that will make a difference in the health of your website or blog. In addition to choosing content, graphics and design, you have to choose a host, security, plugins  and more. Well I am going to recommend some to you right now so you don’t have to.

Hosting — When you choose hosting it depends on many factors such as customer service, skill set, what kind of website you’re going to be hosting. If you’re hosting a WordPress website you need one that makes it easy so I recommend HostGator as your host of choice. The prices are really good, there are several plans to choose from and they have 24/7 customer service and a great reseller plan if you choose to be a reseller.

Managed Hosting — If you want to be super-duper sure nothing will happen to your blog or website you can invest in premium hosting for your WordPress blog or website. It cost a big more but if you really don’t know what you’re doing you’re going to have to pay someone to back up your site and take care of those technicalities anyway so honestly this is your least expensive option outside of doing it yourself.

Plugins– There are a few plugins that are very helpful for backing up and security to your WordPress blog or website. If you don’t know what a plugin is, it is essentially a little program that you “plug in” to your WordPress blog or site to perform a specific function. Here are a few you can’t or shouldn’t live without.

WP-DB-Backup – According to WordPress.org, this is an on-demand backup of your WordPress database which means that it allows you to easily back up your core WordPress database tables. This is very important. Make sure to keep your backups on an external hard drive.

WP-Twin – This is a great plug in that will clone your WordPress blog in literally seconds so that you can move it wherever you want or use it as a backup. It’s up to you! There are so many uses for this I can’t name them all but one thing they’re really good for is if you tend to use the same configuration for all your blog setups you can clone it, then upload it and save a lot of time.

WordPress Automatic Upgrade — I know that WordPress has an automatic upgrade button already but this one is better because it does a couple things that most of us don’t do. It backs up everything, and turns off plugins before upgrading, and it prompts you for each item. It’s simple to use and seems to work really well.

Digital Access Pass — Not only is this an awesome plugin for any WordPress site where you plan to sell digital items, they have many other services and plugins that are some of the most useful plugins and services I have seen for a long time. While I do create WordPress blogs and services for my clients I cannot do what they do for the price. Check them out!

AutoSiteSaver — This is an excellent service not really a plug in but it must be mentioned, that can take the worry out of losing your or your client’s sites. They have a couple of simple choices of purchase but if you have a lot of sites you serve you can ask them for a specialized quote on their form. They do all the work for you of backing up your sites properly, storing them offsite, so you don’t have to.

WordPress good practices:

• Remove plugins that you’re not using
• Remove plugins that you don’t need
• Be choosy on your plugins
• Regularly back up your entire website or blog
• Store backups off site
• Chose hard to figure passwords

I hope these plugins and tips help you create a safer, better blog or website. I know how hard it is to lose literally everything due to not backing up your websites and blogs so please if you do nothing else after reading this, go right now and back up your websites and blogs and store offsite.

SPECIAL NOTICE:

Anyone who orders Digital Access Pass through my link and if I get credit for it you are eligible to receive 30 minutes of free  business coaching. Send me your receipt, I’ll check to make sure I got the credit, then we’ll set up your appointment at your convenience. The coaching can be on anything of your choice to include:

• Website Critique
• Marketing Plan Assistance
• Content Development Brainstorming
• Virtual Assistant Niche Discovery
• Small Business Idea Session
• Product Creation Brainstorming

Great WordPress Themes: Elegant themes

Referral marketing is one of the most powerful marketing methods available today. What is referral marketing? Referral marketing is “word of mouth” marketing.

This is when you tell a friend about a great new dress shop, or a great new restaurant with fabulous service. You do it every day each time you enjoy something, or dislike something.

By using the right applications on your blog, such as a plug in or widget that makes it simple for visitors to share your information you are creating a powerful referral marketing machine.

Notice at the bottom of this post there is a button that says Share. You can click this and share in any number of ways that you like best. You can share on your Facebook, or Twitter, or in whatever method you normally use to share and bookmark information that you find important across the Internet.

Putting this easy sharing functionality into your blog, if you use WordPress is very simple. It literally takes minutes. It’s a point and click situation. You find the plugin you like, you click install, and then you configure it the way you want it. That simple. There is no reason NOT to have something like this on your blog.

Next thing you need to do is write something, or produce content that is worthy of sharing with friends. That’s simple because you are the expert in your business and in your niche.  If you write regular, original, useful content your content can even become viral, this means that it’s being shared with hundreds if not thousands of people across the Internet all via word of mouth or referral marketing that is as simple as a click.

photo credit: Hans_van_Rijnberk

A really great plug in to use for managing ads is OIO Publisher. This is a paid plugin but it is more than worth the price which is at the time I am writing this writing is less than $50.00 and it includes updates. They even have a handy auto installing feature that you can use if you are confused, or you can hire someone to load it for you. What this plug in does is if you are running ads on your blog or website, it gives you complete control over the advertising on your blog or website.

It automates the purchasing process for those who want to buy ads on your blog or website, and they even have a marketplace where you can get more views. They provide step by step instructions, information, tutorials and more. It’s worth a try. If you want to try it mention this coupon code and get a discount. It is only good during March 2011. March Coupon Code: SPRING11-HSBC