Plugins Madness: Book Bloggers Unite


Posted January 2, 2016 in Book Bloggers Unite Tags:

Lets Talk About Plugins, Baby!

Let talk a bit more about plugins. Last time, I mentioned a few of my MUST HAVE plugins (Ultimate book blogger, Coschedule, and Easy Content Templates) and today I want to share a few more! Here are the plugins that I have found over the past year that have just made my blog a better place! (PS-these are all WordPress Plugins!)

Better Click to Tweet

At first, I thought “Well, I will never use that!” but I saw how other bloggers were incorporating it and thought I’d give it a try. I’m so glad I did! First, it causes me to focus on my content. I have to pull 1 GREAT line from what I wrote that I would want to make sure others get. I found this made me review more consciously. Second, I found that I get more clicks on the Better Click To Tweet than I do shares! So, check it out and see if this is a plugin that will support what you do! Cost? Free!

[bctt tweet=”Better Click to Tweet made me a more conscious reviewer and has improved my visibility! “]

plugins BCTT

CommentLuv and Comment Reply Notification

I never thought much about comments on my page. To be honest, when I first started the blog, no one was actually commenting so it wasn’t a big concern of mine to deal with managing comments! But, as I started to get more comments, I began looking into comment related plugins and these are the 2 I think are super important (Akismet is the MOST important-if you don’t have that, what are you waiting for?!?) CommentLuv allows uses to link to their most recent blog post. This is great for encouraging dialogue amongst other bloggers! We are all in this together so when a blogger comments on my page, I want to be able to easily click to their site and see what they are up to! It also allows anyone who views the page to see the commenters most recent post-so if its related to what you were posting about, your readers have another site to check out! Comment Reply Notification is great because it encourages dialogue. When someone comments, I know its super important that I comment back (and frankly, I am always THRILLED that anyone read what I wrote, much less felt compelled to comment on it!). Comment Reply Notification lets the original commenter know that I have replied! This helps keep the dialogue flowing! Cost for both of these? Free!!

plugins comment love

SumoMe

This little gem was one I didn’t find until a few months ago and I seriously wondered how the heck I missed it! There are so many great, free features in SumoMe! I use the google analytics feature, Share, and Scroll box. Google Analytics allows me to get a more detailed picture of views on my site. Share allows me to have easily accessible share buttons for all social networks. Finally, Scroll Box allows me to have a small pop up to encourage visitors to sign up for my newsletter! There are so many other great, free things you can do with SumoMe so its worth checking out. I have used Heat Maps on occasion as well to get an idea of what areas of my site people are interacting with most!

WP Media Folder

I just discovered this gem about a month ago. As my blog grew, my media folder was out of control. I had so many pictures uploaded that it was taking forever to scroll through them all to find what i needed (the stuff I use repeatedly was near the bottom-the banners I use for section headings, other common images used in reviews and posts, etc). Then I found the WP Media Folder plug in. This one is not free (I can’t remember how much I paid but it was totally worth it!). It allows me to create folders for my media files. So, I could put all my section headings in one folder, all my book covers in one folder, all my blog tour banners in one folder, etc. Its been a huge timesaver!! Plus, I am super OCD and I really needed the digital organization!

[bctt tweet=”Check out these plugins that I can’t live without and add them to your site now! #BookBloggersUnite”]

So, do you use any of these? What plugins do you find are your most important (because I am always looking for more!). Stay tuned-next time I will share my tips for connecting with publishers and tour companies!

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Samantha
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