chad butler's weblog
With a name like “Jetpack,” who could resist trying out this plugin package? And what could be better than FREE? Jetpack by WordPress.com is a set of free plugins from Automattic.
The nice thing about Jetpack is that it is a set of some of the most popular plugin types, including stats, twitter feed, and social sharing buttons. With the package, you only really have to install one plugin to get them all. Kind of like Lord of the Rings for WordPress Plugins. [Read more…]
This plugin fills a void in the SEO plugins that are available for WordPress. Most SEO plugins tend to focus on keywords, titles, and metatags. While those are important, one of the areas that is missed is how Search Engines rank your links based on how your backlinks are titled.
Google has an algorithm that filters for link spam and other search engines (including Google) look for keyword rich links. Your keyword rich post is not benefited when sites are linking to it with “click here.”
But how can you control the text that people use in linking to your site? SEO Link Rotator fills this void by giving you the ability to rotate the link text that people use when copying a link to your site. Much like social bookmarking plugins that provide a “link to me” type of button, SEO Link Rotator provides a button to provide a link, but it rotates through up to 5 possible sets of link text that you define via the WP admin.
Pros
This plugin is a snap to set up. And there is a free version that allows you to try before you buy. (The free version is fully functional, but does not allow you to set 5 possible links. It defaults the the post title.)
Not only is it easy to set up and install, it’s easy to start using. Once activated, it will automatically place a button at the end of each post, encouraging your readers to link back to you. No edits to your theme are required. If you are using the pro version, you can set your 5 possible text links on the post edit panel.
Cons
As a WP Plugin developer, I am generally a little more critical of plugins from both an operability standpoint and how the plugin is built and coded. The SEO Link Rotator plugin is pretty well written from a php development standpoint.
This is more nitpicky rather than a major flaw, but I’d like to see admin panel functions broken out to a separately loaded file rather than the main plugin file. While this isn’t a concern for someone running a blog that doesn’t get much traffic or is on a dedicated server, if you have a high traffic blog or are on a shared system, this is extra and unnecessary bulk that should be trimmed. I would suggest the developers consider breaking out the admin functions to a separate file that loads only if the user is an admin. This makes for a much more efficient plugin for busy sites.
Give it a try
Overall, I like the plugin. It is not an “also-ran” of the many social bookmarking/linking plugins out there already; ditto for the meta-tag SEO plugins. This plugin is unique, and as I said before, it fills a void in the the WP SEO plugin arena. Give SEO Link Rotator a try. With the free version, you can easily determine if this plugin is right for you.
This is a sponsored review for which I received compensation.
Do you like to write? How about social networking, blogging, and podcasting? You can do it all at Thoughts.
You can decide how you want to connect with friends and you can do this using various easy-to-use widgets. Here is some of what you can do on thoughts.com:
Thoughts.com is a place where you can connect with people of like (or unlike) mind and share ideas and discussions. Connect and discuss in the forums, or post your own ideas on your blog. Create photo albums to organize your photos and share them with your friends. You don’t have to rely on different sites for your blogging, photos, and video. With Thoughts.com, you can do it all in one site. You can also upload, download, and listen to podcasts. The forums are an active place to discuss a variety of topics.
If you like to blend your writing and discussions with current events, Thoughts.com has a daily news section where members can discuss these topics. The whole point of the site is to bring people together in a community environment to express their views, learn from others, and come together in an online community.
The interesting thing about Thoughts.com is their “one love policy:”
Thoughts.com is inspired by the belief that there is one universal love that we all share. You are invited to join the community, share your thoughts, enjoy great conversations, and even debate heated issues. The only thing we require is that you are respectful of one another and considerate of the other’s perspective when a point of disagreement arises. Nobody knows everything, and the potential for us to learn is endless if we only allow ourselves to learn. In order to learn, we must be open to new and different ideas.
When I was going through the site researching this review, I must say that I found the forums to be very active. In fact, there were active discussions going on regarding a variety of topics. Lots of people viewing, lots of threads and responses. In short – a very active forum. And since this is all in one active community, you can link this up through one profile connected you and your blog.
As far as the usability of the site, it is your basic community site with bells and whistles. I like the fact that everything is accessible and usable in one place so you don’t have to worry about the friends in your network being able to access or not.
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