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Social Links for Your WP Blog: Use a Plug-in or Roll Your Own?

This is Part 1 of a 2 part post.

It is rare to find a blog these days that doesn’t have some type of social networking links on it. You see them everywhere: follow my tweets, add to delicious, share on facebook, and the list goes on. These days, the knowledge of and the effective promotion using social networking is critical. The question is not “should you add social links to your blog,” but rather, “what is the best way to add social links to your blog?”

There are essentially two ways to go about this. First, and seemingly easiest, is to utilize a plug-in.

Editorial comment: Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I prefer to NOT use plug-ins when it is simple and more efficient to do something directly. Too many people are quick to use a plug-in for every little thing they want to add to their blog and soon it becomes bloated with plug-ins. This is usually followed by compatability issues when upgrading, or finding that new plug-in you just installed breaks your site, but only when plug-ins “A” and/or “D” are active, but not when “B,C, and E” are active. So, I weigh the pros and cons for any plug-in that I might choose to use. If it makes more sense to add feature directly myself, then I don’t bother using a plug-in.

Reasons To Use a Plug-in

1. It’s Easy

Well, I can’t argue with that answer. It is easy to add a plug-in to your WP blog, especially these days when you can do it directly within the admin panel (I recall the “old days” when we had to download a zip, extract, upload to our site, then activate. I also had to walk barefoot through the snow to school and it was uphill both ways; but that’s another story). If your answer is “it’s easy,” I think you will see later in this article that it is just as easy to “roll-your-own.” Essentially then, this reason is offset.

2. Fear of “Programming”

Many of you probably think that because you don’t know the first thing about programming, that your only option is to use a plugin. But you will be surprised how easy it is to add these links yourself. If you can make edits in your template to handle the CSS of your plug-in’s output, you already know enough to add these links directly into your template without a plug-in.

3. Integrated Stats

This one I do not have an answer for. At least one plug-in offers stats integrated into your WP admin panel. I must admit, that is a good reason to use a plug-in. So if this is important to you, then you should find a plug-in that offers this feature.

Recommended Plug-ins

The only plug-ins that I would recommend for this feature are those that offer some type of stats, or other additional features that make their use more than just adding social links to your blog. Honestly, the only one I have found so far is the AddThis WP plug-in (if anyone else knows of some others, feel free to chime in via comments).

Reasons to “Roll Your Own” Social Links

Well, you have stayed with me so far. To quote Tim Robbin’s character Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption, “If you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further.” Now let’s cover reasons to “Roll Your Own” social links.

1. No Upgrade Compatibility Issues

As a plug-in developer myself, I understand how difficult it is to keep up with new versions of WordPress. It seems every time I turn around, there’s an upgrade. Don’t get me wrong here, that is a good thing. It shows that WordPress is growing and improving. But everytime there is an upgrade, there is a risk that particular upgrade will not be compatible with your plethora of plug-ins. And all it takes is one to bring down your site – then you need to figure out which one it is. That is why I recommend not using plug-ins for simple tasks that you can implement yourself. Don’t use a plug-in if you don’t need to. Then you don’t have to worry about whether it is compatible or not. (And for those of you that put off upgrading because the latest WP release is not compatible with a plug-in you are married to and there is no upgrade yet for the plug-in, just remember that many times these WP upgrades involve security patches. If you don’t like being hacked, or don’t want to be hacked, then don’t put off the upgrades!! I can’t over emphasize this enough!)

2. Less “Bulk” to Your WP Installation

Every time you add a plug-in, you are adding one more thing that has to load for your site. Too many plug-ins can slow down your site. So again, don’t do with a plug-in something that can be done just as easily without.

3. Just as Easy to Implement

I promised you way at the beginning of this article that I would tell you how easy it is to implement social links into your site without a plug-in. Part 2 of this article is going to cover that process.

4. You Can Have Any Social Links

An added benefit of doing it yourself is that you can utilize any social links you want without begging the plug-in’s author to add them for you (or adding them to the plug-in yourself, thereby making your version incompatible with future upgrades – but if you already have the knowledge to do that, why are you reading this?) Part 2 will teach you how to add any social link you want.

Read Part 2, Social Links for Your Blog: How to Roll Your Own

Methods to overcome writer’s block

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

One of the hardest things about being a blogger is the need to consistently write new material. When you are trying to write worthwhile content, this can become an overwhelming issue. If you are anything like me, this can lead to frustration with the process. That frustration inevitably results in procrastination of the writing process, followed by complete shutdown.

Here are some techniques and guides to help you have a constant flow of material and to help prevent the onset of procrastination.

Plan Ahead

Successful bloggers suggest that you plan and write ahead. I know that I find it more difficult to write one post at a time. I am much more prolific when I brainstorm ideas ahead of time and have three or four good pieces I am working on simultaneously. That way, I always have something ready to go.

ProBlogger.net has a great article that suggest developing a writing schedule. Develop a schedule of writing all of a week’s posts at once, then take the time to refine them as you publish. Try to add an extra post per week to build up some extra content to publish later. Tony Newton at Tony’s Blog Tips makes a similar suggestion. He brainstorms 7 days of posts on the weekend so that he has something to work on throughout the week.

Start With a Headline

As Julie Andrews says in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.” Start with a killer headline that will grab your readers. Brainstorm a few and write them down (or type them in your blogging platform of choice).

Work on Writing

The following resources will provide you with a plethora of techniques and ideas to combat writer’s block and get you writing again. You should be able to find enough material here to keep you going like the energizer bunny:

Don’t Procrastinate

This last point is the most important. It happens when I’m feeling unmotivated or overwhelmed by the process. Certainly, we all fall victim. I’m tired, not feeling creative, can’t think of anything to write about, yadda, yadda, yadda. But those excuses will cause to you just put of what you must inevitably do – write! Also over at ProBlogger.net, Karen Andrews provides some ideas on overcoming procrastination: Are Excuses Hurting Your Blogging Success?

Go into your drafted posts. Find one that’s been sitting there for ages; the one you don’t quite know what to do with, but can’t bring yourself to delete. (We must all have one or two!)

Scan it briefly and then write down a word or phrase which best suits its theme/tone. Sometimes it helps to just have that guideline back in the foreground of your mind so you can then develop it further, with the insight you’ve, hopefully, gained since it was originally drafted.

After consideration, be honest. If you cannot breathe life into the piece, let it go. Not all ideas come to fruition. Make the decision to keep it ‘just in case’ if you must, but in my experience it’s often best to delete, thus freeing up my mind for the next project.

There is enough information here to keep you busy writing from now until doomsday. To quote Merlin Mann’s paraphrase of Laurence Olivier

When all else fails, just try writing.

31 Days to a Build Better Blog

By Chad Butler 1 Comment

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had just finished reading “ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six Figure Income.” As I stated in that article, whether you are a complete blogging novice or a seasoned veteran, I highly recommend this book! As someone who has been blogging for quite a while (more than 8 years) and actually earning from it (although it’s not my sole source of income), I found new and interesting ideas. I can tell you that I wish this book had been available when I started. If you are new to the blogging world, you’ll save yourself some heartache and headache if you read this book.

Author Darren Rowse runs ProBlogger.net and is also co-founder of the b5media blog network. After reading Darren’s book and realizing I could find room for improvement in my own blogging, I decided to buy Darren’s workbook . I’ll be working through the workbook in the coming month so feel free to follow along with my progress.

Having purchased the workbook and reviewed it, I can say that I recommend you get a copy. This is not some empty sales pitch for an affiliate program I haven’t tried myself (we’ve all seen too many of those!). I’ve bought the workbook. I’ve read through it. I’m using the techniques. You should, too!