Internet Marketing Strategy

Hey guys, it’s been a while, but I’m back, and with a vengeance.

In case you haven’t noticed, a WHOLE LOT of amazing things are coming to Google’s Blogger platform! Recent updates bring support for the following

• Many new default themes!
• Many new widgets, available in Blogger Draft.
• Better AdSense integration and support.
• Integration with Amazon’s affiliate program.
• Integration with Google Analytics metrics!

Those are just a few of the highlights, head on over to Google Bloggerto check out all the new features!

I set up so many WordPress blogs, for myself and others, so its really easy to overlook a step or two during the setup process once in a while. Let this post be a reminder to you, readers, and myself, to add these five nifty plugins. We do want our websites to be the best that they can be, no?

WordPress Automatic Upgrade
I definitely try to remember to install this on all of my WordPress blogs, it saves so much time when you have twenty or more blogs to upgrade when a new version comes around. WordPress Automatic Upgrade does exactly what the name details, automatically (well, you click a button in your control panel after it alerts you a new version is available) downloads the newest stable release of WordPress, and installs it. Perhaps we’ll see this plugin included like Akismet someday?

Live Comment Preview
Shows your readers exactly how their reply to your post will appear, in real time. Pretty neat feature that really increases the interaction between the user and your website.

WP Auto Tagger
WP Auto Tagger makes great use of the Yahoo! API to match search results against your current post’s content and provides relevant, popularly searched tags automatically. It doesn’t override any tags you suggest, either.

Nicer Trackbacks
The way WordPress displays trackbacks to your posts from other websites is kind of ugly, and kind of not that SEO friendly. Well, don’t forget to change all that to suit your needs with this WordPress plugin.

Most Commented Posts
Show your hottest topics with this plugin, which displays these posts in your sidebar much like the “Most Popular Posts” or “Recent Comments” sidebar items.

Don’t forget to bookmark the Five Most Overlooked WordPress Plugins, so you don’t forget next time!

I’m currently running experiments with different link sets and widget types for displaying products from Amazon’s catalog.

Currently the widget that converts to the most sales is using classic links placed within a well worded review with a nice picture of the product. Link them twice to the sales page in the text, and make the product image link to the sales page as well.

I’ve gotten a couple of conversions from the “My Favorites” A.K.A. the “I Recommend” widget, but I wish it was more customizable.

What’s your favorite Amazon widget? What works best for you?

GoogleSystem has created a really useful widget for Blogspot bloggers, similar to the WordPress Top Commentators plugin.

Introducing, the Google Blogger (Blogspot) Top Commentators Plugin!

Utilizing Yahoo! Pipes, it sorts the information stored in your comment RSS feed, and parses out the users who have posted the most comments on your blog. There is also options to filter your own name from the list, which you will probably want to do, and you can set the widget to display however many top commentators you want!

I kind of wish I tried it out a little more before I migrated to WordPress, but it’s still a worthwhile mention, I hope you folks can use it.