Tag Archives: Wordpress Plugins

WordPress Comment Redirect and Thank You Notes Plugin

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Yet another of Joost de Valks handy plugins, this one is a great tool for adding a little extra to your blog and helping visitors who take the time to comment feel that bit more welcome.

By installing the plugin, you can set it to direct first time commenters to a specific page, with a thank you message, or to any other page of your choosing in or outside of your site.  The great part about this is the extra value it adds to the commenter’s experience in exchange for taking the time and effort to leave their thoughts and respond to the post content.

Not everyone has or takes the time. But, by making sure you thank them for the effort, it can leave a lasting impression and personalise the site for the visitor, while encouraging continued interaction and return visits.

There is a hitch, of course (damn, isnt there always?).

If you’re using the DisQus Comment Plugin instead of your default template plugin, the comment redirect plugin will NOT work.  This is disappointing because of the value of the plugin. I guess it’s the usual story of balancing what you want with what you need.

Author: Joost de Valk

Download the Comment-Redirect plugin.

WordPress plugin Apture for linking

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Apture is a lovely, smooth little plugin that integrates itself as a button onto the post WYSIWYG editor.

Admittedly, it’s a bit of an aesthetic plugin rather than adding any SEO, blog loading time or speed benefits. It’s dead smooth, works a treat and its one major attribute is that it adds some nice stickiness to your site.

What do I mean by stickiness? Well, without digressing too much, links to other sites are all well and good, but when you give a link to something else, there’s a healthy chance that the visitor will click this link and move to that landing page, meaning they will have left your site. Stickiness means that you can still serve that link via the Apture plugin, but when they click the link, it springs into action with some really cool pop up boxes and windows rather than a new browser window. This helps you retain the visitor and encourages them to stick around. Hence: stickiness!

Once you install the plugin, you’ll see the buttons appear on the top bar of the WYSIWYG editor. The step by step instructions are dead intuitive, so get it on and enjoy.

Heres a video to explain a little more about it.

Author: Apture

Download the Apture plugin

WordPress Anti Spam plugin with Akismet

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For the maintenance and control of spam comments, this plugin is essential for any blog.

Without Askimet, you’ll probably find yourself spending the better part of your day clicking “Delete” or “Spam”. Once you install your blog, take the time necessary to get your Akismet API KEY from their website.  Its completely free, and simply by following their instructions, you’ll register for a personal API KEY by creating an account on WordPress.com.

If you’re making money on your blog, then, choose the commercial version; you’ll more than likely need it.  Don’t get cheap on this, or you’ll regret it. I would also encourage you to make a donation to Akismet to help them keep running to maintain the free personal use system. Dont be embarrassed. Even if it’s one dollar, it will all help.

Author: Akismet

As it’s already installed, there’s no need to download it again, unless you accidentally deleted it…if so download Akismet here.