Tag Archives: Wordpress

WordPress related posts LinkWithin and Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

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As standard on blogs you will see that many offer a “suggested reading” or “other posts you may like” function at the bottom of the current post.  This is to encourage visitors to stay on your site while at the same time offering them something else that may be of interest. There are loads of plugins that do this and of course the merits can be argued on each one depending on what you want and aim to achieve.

YARPP

One of the most popular is YARPP or Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. This gives you extensive control over the display of realted posts at the bottom of your post for things like the number of related posts to display, how to display them and also it has integration into your RSS feeds and Atom feeds and even allows you to filter out certain categories you do not wish to include.

The power in YARPP is that it scans your database of posts and attempts to match up the current post with something similar you have produced previous, helping to maintain the theme of the information and of course relate the information to something similar as the plugin name suggests.

Im not using YARPP at the moment as I am currently using another plugin called Linkwithin.

Linkwithin Plugin

This plugin has two very specific features I am currently enjoying.  The first is that it includes automatically generated thumbnails taken from the image in your posts to make the related posts look more attractive and exciting, no big deal you might think but it adds to the page and makes the link much more engaging. The other feature is that the plugin helps to generate traffic to my site by listing all the related plugins in a search engine friendly manner (meaning that the plugin itself has generated traffic to my site and im still trying to figure out how to be honest) which is an added bonus of course!

Linkwithin Author: Linkwithin

Download Linkwithin

YARPP Author: mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine)

Download Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

WordPress Contact Forms Plugin with Gravity Forms

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Gravityforms was a recently released plugin for wordpress that is under the premium license.

It might be different from other plugins because it has a cost involved but it is WORTH EVERY PENNY.  Its so damn good I’m recommending it as an essential purchase and am affiliated with the developers. (Just to be clear).

The forms on your site are one of the most important aspects, and lets be honest this is a no brainer.

So don’t be tight.

There are a few other forms available (if you are to cheap to buy this) and the best is probably CForms II WordPress Plugin though it is quite comprehensive it its functionality it tends to update frequently to cover errors and other issues and, in order to maintain the integrity of the plugin you should update asap every time so it can be a bit of a time sink. Aside from that it is the best alternative.

So why is Gravity Forms so good.

Its so good because it is incredibly simple to manage, setup, install and has a range of functionality and application.

Honestly, its one of those, “Can’t live without it” type plugins.  Even though it costs to buy it the added benefit is that you have dedicated support as well and an active and informed community who are helping the developers find new ways of increasing the functionality of the plugin and of course dealing with tech support issues and questions. Not something to be snubbed! All the new functionality, like most plugins, is then added on to your existing plugin and because the developers are being supported financially the updates are of a very high quality.

Using the plugin requires you to do a little messing about by inserting your personal reference key into the settings, once you install and activate the plugin, to validate the purchase and also create an account on the Gravity Forms community forums but this is, in itself,  is a simple enough process.  Once you create a new form and realise just how much and how easy it is to do you will be hooked.

Have a read through the features that Gravity Forms offers and im sure you will agree that its money well spent. (and thanks for the business if you do decide to buy it, it is most appreciated).

WordPress XML Sitemap Generator plugin

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I love this Google XML Sitemap generator plugin and so does Google.

To clarify (in case you don’t know) a sitemap is a single page on your site that is purposely set up for search engines to read and scan (spider) very quickly and realise what posts and pages you have (content) on your site.  If you have Google webmaster tools (get a gmail or google account and follow the instructions there) there you can submit the sitemap once you create it on the blog.

Activate the plugin and then check the settings.  They look complicated but really they are not, just take your time and read through them.

You will notice at the bottom of the list there is a list of “ratings” called “sitemap content” “frequencies” and “priorities” and its important that you set these to suit your site. They will not force the changes that you make but rather are considered as suggestions.

Author: Arne Brachhold

Download the XML sitempa plugin for wordpress here.