I’m a hard worker by nature, too hard those that know me would say. While I don’t mind hard work I’ll admit it can wear on you at times. I’m also a smart worker and when I find a way for someone or something else to do it for me I won’t pass it up.

Building and working on your blog is, hard work. It takes time both on your blog and within the blogging community to make it and it’s content breathe and live. However there are tools that can work for you. What I’d like to do is share my top five WordPress Plugins that work for me and if used can work for you.

What Do I Mean By Work For You?

All of these in one way or another are a means to promote your blog and it’s content, to encourage comments, and to engage actions from your readers. These plugins in essence “work for you”, they do a job and they do it well. While you still need to do work on your part these plugins are added little helpers.

WordPress Plugins That Work For You

1. WP Greet Box

What Is It? - What this plugin does is it displays a greeting message on your blogs pages in relation to where a particular visitor has come from or a message of your choosing. An example of this at work is if someone is Stumbling and comes across your page they will see a message “Give me a thumbs up if you like this” or if they are new to your blog a message to subscribe to your RSS feed. Along with the Stumble message there are 26 others from every popular means of social media to display message.

Why It Works For You - Many of us long term bloggers have become use to a blogs design, layout, button placement, and tend to block out either on purpose or just by nature, important means of blogging interaction. A box that appears from nowhere is a pleasant reminder to the reader to do a certain action they may have otherwise forgotten. How long till we get use to this? I think we have a while, so this should be a plugin you should have working for you.

2. Tweetmeme Button

What Is It? - A plugin that displays a button similar to the digg button we have seen for sometime. It keeps count of retweets and allows the reader an easy way to retweet the content of your blog.

Why It Works For You - Again going back to just being use to a blog we may not always think or feel like using the Share This buttons at the bottom of the post. Yea it’s only a few clicks which doesn’t seem like much of an effort but for most it’s too much. The Tweetmeme is one click and done, not to mention it’s right there a part of the content. It works because it’s easy to use and the counter will encourage clicks also.

3. Top Commentator

What Is It? - A plugin that allows you to display the readers or top commentators and the amount of comments left by each that have commented on your blog.

Why It Works For You - It encourages those that read your blog to engage and leave a comment. For your readers, being on the list helps to build backlinks with their blog, this gives them a reason to comment because they are getting something in return. You in turn get more comments and the more comments the more your blog is looked at as being an authority. It works for you because it helps to get by giving.

4. DiggZ-ET

What Is It? - This is the digg button you’ll see just about everywhere. Like the Tweetmeme button it’s keeps count of diggs and also is an easy way for readers to digg your content rather then using your Share This buttons.

Why It Works For You - It gives your readers an easy way to promote your content. It’s also right there in the content and only takes one click to do it. Again it works for you because it’s easy for your readers and trust me they like quick and they like easy.

5. CommentLuv

What Is It? - When a reader leaves a comment on your blog the plugin searches back to their blog to find the last post they’d written. It then puts that posts title under their comment on your blog and creates a link for any and all to click on to read that post.

Why It Works For You - It’s another form of giving something back and to encourage more comments. More times then I could ever possibly count I have clicked on one of those CommentLuv links and either got some great info or a new blog to read. The reason this works for you is because it’s an added layer to your blog, a gift to your readers, and a point of more information.

What Plugins Work For You?

These are my top five, the ones I feel help to do work for my blog. What works for you? What helps you get more done? What cuts down on time? What helps to promote?

I had just recently written about the practice of those who auto unfollow on Twitter once they’ve got you to follow them back. I have counted at least ten of these happenings since I posted that article. So what do you do to build your list of those who will stay following?

There is a new site TwitterFollower just released by John Chow that will go a long way towards building a list of followers that will follow you back. I just signed up so I can’t say too much on whether the site will work or not but seeing as The Chow had a hand in it I have to believe it’s going to be a worth while service.

So the big question, how much does it cost? The big answer, nothing, nada, the wonderful word FREE. A site others would definitely charge for comes free of charge from John.

To learn more about TwitterFollower watch the video.

I have to admit I love “best of” stuff. I think it’s the fact that it cuts down on work for me, I don’t have to search all over because it’s all in one spot and it’s the best. What better way to apply this method then to create a “best of” post on your blog.

What Is A Best Of Post?

Quite simply a post that shows off the best posts you have to offer on your blog. A compilation of anywhere from 5 to 10 posts would be ideal as you don’t want too much information to overwhelm or too little to not make it worth it.

Now I know there are widgets we can use to display our most popular posts or most viewed posts and such, although there is a bit of a problem with this. For those who are returning readers we get use to the blog and it’s layout so we tend to ignore or block out that which we see often. Which defeats the purpose of having or showing off those posts.

Why Create A Best Of Post?

An option to solve the ignore or block out effect is to create a “best of” post. This puts those best posts where your readers go, the post itself. Here I will give you a number of reasons why you might want to create a “best of” post.

1. Out Of Post Ideas - Not having something to post about happens at some point to all of us and for many different reasons. It could be time, motivation, or just one of those days. A “best of” post takes little thought as you’ve already written the content. All you need to do is pull some old posts together and create a new post with summaries of each of them.

2. Highlight Your Winners -I know I have a number of posts I put much work into and am proud of. I don’t want them to just fade and be forgotten, why let them? You want to display these like trophies in a trophy case. Yes another reason to create a “best of” post is to highlight those posts that mean something to me, those that shine, and those that I am most proud of.

3. Boost Traffic And Rank - Your choices for your “best of” post should be high ranking and or popular post with the search engines. This is because you know you’ve had some success with these already and you can build off them. It will in essence put some muscle on those posts with more traffic that will turn into a better page rank. There more traffic sent to a post the more authority is given to that post by Google and others.

4. Make It Sticky -You want readers to stay at your blog as long as possible. The longer they linger the more potential for turning them into return readers. When you create a “best of” post you will spark the interest of readers and have them clicking to read your “best of” posts thereby keeping them on your blog.

5. Give A Little Reminder - Because of the nature of blogging and it’s updating we tend to only pay attention to what’s new. We don’t realize there is a wealth of information from days past. When you create a “best of” post it serves as a reminder to your readers that your blog has depth and valued information they may have forgotten about. It will invite them to dig into your blog and see what else they may be missing.

6. Internal Linking - Almost as important if not as equal to external links is internal links. Again there are plugins that will do this for you and they do the job but your readers may just look past it, so you only get internal links and not eyes. Internal links are no good if they are not clicked. A “best of” post puts those internal links right there front and center, to been seen, clicked, and read.

7. Center On A Topic - Take a number of posts that are centered around a particular topic and create a “best of” post about it. An example of this would be how I often write about the workings of Twitter. I would take various posts related to Twitter that I’ve written and create a “best of Twitter” post. It would be a way for all my best Twitter info to be put in one place and be used as a reference point.

How Do You Create A Best Of Post?

Well this will really vary from person to person. I would use one of these three methods.

1. Your Favorite Posts - Go threw your blog and pick out you favorite posts. The ones you worked hardest on or are proud of. Link to each of them using the actual post title and then give a summary of each and why it’s your favorite.

2. Best Traffic Posts - Use your method of gathering visitor info be it SiteMeter, StatCounter, Google Webmaster Tools, or other and see what posts get the most traffic and are most popular. Create a post using these and again link to them, use the titles, and create a small summary about them.

3. Use A Topic - Like the example above using Twitter, find posts you’ve written about a topic and bring them together in one place. You don’t necessarily have to summarize with this, you could create a new post using those posts as the focus.

Keep this in mind when creating a “best of” post. Remember to link to the original post in the new one, use the original title of the post as this is SEO in effect, and add some text or summary because search engines like text not just links.

How Many Best Of Posts?

This doesnt have to be a one time deal either. Depending on how long you’ve been blogging and the size of your blog you could potentially have many posts in which to create multiple “best of” posts.

Put Your Best Of Post Here

Seeing as I am a big fan of “best of” things I’m going to compile a post on Your Best Of Posts. What you need to do is create a “best of” post or if you already have one your a step ahead. Then just Contact Me With Your Link to your “best of” post and I will add it.

A daily activity for many of us is hoping over to Twitter to see what new followers we have. We watch as more people follow us, as we believe they have an interest in what we Tweet about and in turn follow them back. Unaware of what just happened, they just unfollowed you. How dare they?

Social Morals

This practice of following and then once they’ve got you to reciprocate to unfollow you is becoming an all to common problem. I don’t quite understand the theory if there even is one, nor do I believe it’s socially moral and Twitter is after all, social interaction. If I’m going to follow you most especially after you followed me first I feel it’s only fair you should continue to follow me.

Now there are exceptions to this rule. I do get those who follow me who are just an outright scam so of course I won’t be following them back. But for the legit or seemingly so it’s just not a good practice and I’ll not stand idly by.

The good news is there is a way to combat this. The weapon, FriendOrFollow a Twitter tool that allows you to see who you are following you but is not following you back.

FriendOrFollow

The tool is very basic and simple to use. All one needs to do is:

1. Enter your Twitter name and submit

2. Click on the picture of the person you wish to stop following

3. On their Twitter profile click on follow to bring up the unfollow button

4. Unfollow them and your done

FriendOrFollow Guidelines

There are a few thing to note when using FriendOrFollow.

1. In your search results it will list all those who are not following you. Yes even those you want to follow but you’ll probably never see them follow you back.

I do have a few I follow that don’t follow me back and I’m ok with that because I want to see their Tweets. Be watchful of this when going threw your results and not to accidentally unfollow those you wish to follow.

2. Be sure to give FriendOrFollow time to put those you recently followed into the system. If you just followed someone and do a search chances are they won’t be in there yet as following you. I don’t know the exact turn around but it is fairly quick.

3. Some people just unfollow you and not for evil, it happens.

Other FriendOrFollow Tools

While the unfollow tool part of FriendOrFollow is the mainstay you also have the option to see those who follow YOU, that you are not following back. It does happen when you get an influx of new followers that you may miss following someone back for whatever reason. This is a good place to check that out.

You can also see your friends, as represented by a full spread of pics. There is no real use that I can think of for this other then to see all followers in one big spectacle of photos.

I want people to read my blog. This is a question or rather a statement a reader posed to me in a recent email. The full text went like this.

I started blogging about six months ago and it is now, as it was then, just for fun. I don’t care about PR, SEO, or any of the other letters. I just want people to read my blog.

I think us “How To” bloggers sometimes forget when writing our how to that there still is a good portion of bloggers who blog just for the fun of it and don’t care about certain factors like building a sites authority. They just want people to read their blog’s, so I’m going to tackle this straight on with no fluff.

How Do I Get People To Read My Blog

Lets throw all that SEO, PR, and other site building techniques out the window for now and focus on the simple task of getting people to read a blog.

There is no science behind it and it’s not overly difficult with a little work. I have a few suggestions I will offer up and I’m sure my everyday readers and fellow “How To’s” will add some of their own.

1. Comment On Blogs - Yes it does seem to always come back to commenting with regards to blogging and for good reason. Many bloggers are really good about returning a comment to your blog after you leave one on theirs, so by reading others blogs you will in essence get people reading your blog.

2. Join BlogCatalog - This is a great community to join to interact with other bloggers and get your blogs name out there. There are groups of all kinds to join, trade comments, links, info, ect.

3. Promote It - I know this sounds like work and it is, blogging even just for fun is work. Submit your site to directories and your individual posts to various social networks. Your bound to get the attention of people interested in reading what you have to say.

4. Make It Interesting - It really should start here, writing something worth reading. If it’s not that interesting why would anyone want to read it. Sure it may be interesting to you but if you want others to read it it must also be for them.

5. Keep At It - If you want people to read your blog it’s going to take time. Blogging is not an over night thing. Keep plugging away at it, with time and some work they will read your blog.

These are just a few of my tips. Be sure to check back and read the comments as I know my readers will have some great suggestions.