20 Wordpress Plugins for Successful Internet Marketers

63 Comments Written by Michael Dunlop

Wordpress Plugins That Will Make Your Blog Better!

I have three more great plugins to share with you, if 66 more people join our Facebook Fan Page in 24 hours, I will share them on the page!
Every day I’m always thinking to myself “how can I make my blog better”… I would be silly not to. The more time, effort and money I put into it, the better the site will be. It’s amazing how a Wordpress Plugin can make such an improvement to a site, or save you so much time, for example the Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer, that plugin makes every amazon link an affiliate link, I was quoted $200 for someone to update the links on one of my blogs but now I can do it for FREE and it would take me 2 minutes.
I hope you enjoy the plugins, let us know which ones you use and why…
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#1 Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer Plugin

Why You Need It:
This is an amazing little plugin to get hold of; if you are an affiliate marketer you will want to read this one for sure. The Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer basically changes any Amazon link within your site to use your affiliate ID. So if you have any Amazon affiliate links on your site, but you aren’t getting as many sales as you had hoped for this may be just the plugin for you. Users are notorious for sticking to their native roots so a UK user may discard a link to a US page; this is for a number of reasons we won’t go into but as a quick example, many discard the links purely because of the postage and packaging costs as well as the delivery time. This plugin will see to it that your users get to the right place.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#2 Gravity Forms Plugin

Why You Need It:
Gravity Forms have come up with this fantastic little plugin which is great for perfecting your use of forms within your site. Forget all the boring and arduous coding and designing that usually surrounds the topic of form building; let Gravity Forms help you create clean and usable forms in minutes. It really is pretty simple; you decide what you want in the form, you decide what colour and design it should be and you’re good to go. It is a fast and easy way to create professional looking forms.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#3 Google XML Sitemaps Plugin

Why You Need It:
This is just great for those of you that don’t want to get your hands dirty with some additional coding. It basically allows you to create an xml sitemap which you can add to your blog. This is great because it helps with SEO allowing the search engines to index your site a lot easier. It is definitely a big time saver and is a worthy tool to incorporate on your site.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#4 Podcasting Plugin

Why You Need It:
If you enjoy recording audio files for your blog then this may be just plugin you have been searching for. Podcasting Plugin is great for bringing your audio files from the desktop to the website; it also has a fantastic player included so your visitors can hear you right on the page without having to redirect them to itunes or some other program. There’s zero friction as they stay on the website, which means lower bounce rates as well as great content for your site. Get this plugin if you want to make a noise on your site.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#5 W3 Total Cache Plugin

Why You Need It:
This is an essential add-on that you will definitely want to download if you want your site to run smoother and faster. W3 Total Cache greatly improves the performance of your website by caching everything from databases to pages, this makes your server run through your sites content and in turn loads them up to your readers browser faster than ever. This is a very well-known and well respected plugin; used by some of the best sites online.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#6 Studiopress Simple URL Plugin

Why You Need It:
If you use affiliate programs, or even if you just don’t like long and ugly url’s on your website; then this plugin is very much a golden nugget for you. Simple URL’s basically shortens those ghastly, long URL’s to a more manageable bite-size version. It also allows you to track each link individually; so you can see how many times it has been clicked, if you are into your statistics you will love this plugin.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#7 Shrimptest Plugin

Why You Need It:
Strange name, but this is a great plugin. Shrimptest is basically a plugin that allows you to A/B test your site. It helps you to decide upon such things as; design, layout and even the content within your site by testing alternative variations. This (as far as I am aware) is the only A/B testing plugin which was built within wordpress from the ground up, so you know it is reliable and compatible right off the bat.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#8 SEO Friendly Images Plugin

Why You Need It:
SEO is at the top of all website owners lists and it should be too; this plugin will help you to get the most out of your sites SEO. Instead of going through the usual rigmarole of creating new alt and title tags for each image you insert into your site you can sit back and relax. After uploading your images Friendly Images will automatically give you all the tags you need. A great time saver.
URL:  Click Here To Find Out More…

#9 SEO Smart Links Plugin

Why You Need It:
If you struggle with SEO then this is another great plugin from the same company that brought you Friendly Images (above) this plugin can automatically link phrases and keywords from within your blog posts and comments to all corresponding content within your blog or website; including related posts, pages and categories. Another brilliant time saving tool.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#10 All In One SEO Pack Plugin

Why You Need It:
Another great SEO plugin used by many of the top bloggers online. The All in One SEO Pack is a tool which allows you to create effective SEO for your site automatically (you do have to do a little work though). It is a very well built and in depth service which provides you with some great ways to tap into your SEO which may have been hidden to you before. This will save you some time; as well as helping you to perform better user searches. Another great alternative is the WordPress SEO plugin from Yoast; currently in Beta testing mode this is certainly one to watch out for, Yoast is highly regarded in the SEO world so I’m sure this plugin will be great.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#11 SEO Made Simple Plugin

Why You Need It:
We’ve got a few other SEO specific plugins, but we wanted to add this into the mix because it’s too good to miss out completely. SEO Made Simple from Scribe is a brilliant little plugin which again allows you to create some really effective SEO campaings to your site; in turn making you more visible to the search engines. It works by showing you the type of language users are using in their search to help you add it to your SEO campaign as well as revealing some keywords and phrases within your own content that you may have missed. It also helps you to build up your back links as well as showing you where to find the influencial users on the social media circuit. Brilliant.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#12 Feedburner Plugin

Why You Need It:
Feeds are important to any blog or website, and sometimes the jargona can get in the way of creating an effective feed stream for your site; your saviour: Feedburner. Feedburner is a web management plugin which provides custom RSS feeds for your blog/website as well as some very handy tools for creating effective feed campaigns. It’s easy to use and a very well recognised plugin.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#13 WPtouch Plugin

Why You Need It:
You need this plugin if you want the new generation of mobile/cell phone users to gain access to your site via their smart-phone. In layman’s terms this plugin will take all of your sites content and roll it up up into a neat little package ready to throw at the first smart-phone user that stumbles onto your website/blog. Wptouch allows integrated access on all the major platforms; Apple, Android and Blackberry, as well as a few more choice additions. This is a neat plugin and will give you the edge if you are looking to go into the world of mobile marketing.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#14 Comment Notifier Plugin

Why You Need It:
This little beauty is perfect if you have more than one administrator, moderator or editor; it allows all parties of your workforce to be notified when a new comment has been sent to your blog. This is great if you are away and have another staff member looking after the blog for you as it emails everyone (that you choose) so that they can act accordingly. A very nice addition.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#15 YARPP Plugin

Why You Need It:
YARPP or Yet Another Related Posts Plugin is just that; another related post plugin, but this one is the choice of a lot of professional bloggers due to the fact it just works; and it works very well at that. Basically it gives you a manageable list of posts and pages that are related to the post which is being viewed at that time. This is great not only for your users to get hold of similar pages but it also allows you to see what else you have done in the past you may have forgotten as well as being SEO friendly; bargain. The plugin also gives you a lot of control so you don’t have to worry about it pulling a list of 1,000 related posts (if you have that many). It’s a really nice feature to have on your blog.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#16 Backup Buddy Plugin

Why You Need It:
As you can guess from the name of this one; the Backup Buddy basically creates a back up of your complete site but it doesn’t just do this. Backup Buddy is capable of allowing you to back up your site and migrate it over to another server and domain, creating an exact replica of your site elsewhere. Now you may think what’s the point; but if you are testing then this is a great way to start, also if you wanted to create a new site with a new logo, domain etc. but you wanted to keep the layout and the design of everything else, then you could easily do so with the Backup Buddy, just delete the content you don’t want and hey presto, you have a new sister site for your original; this way is great branding too.
Click Here To Find Out More…

#17 GoTryThis Plugin

Why You Need It:
This plugin is a great utility for internet marketers. GoTryThis protects your affiliate and marketing links as well as protecting them by redirecting them across the domains that you own; it mirrors them which in turn keeps them away from others that may want to steal or hack the links. The organization within the plugin is great and you really can keep on top of all your links very easily. If you are struggling with your affiliate and marketing links then this plugin is for you.
http://www.gotrythis.com/

#18 Broken Link Checker Plugin

Why You Need It:
This Plugin is a must have for every blogger; it basically checks every single post you create and analyses them for broken links and missing images. It may seem like an obvious addition to the list but a lot of people forget or do not even know there is such a tool available. Add it to your arsenal or regret it!
URL: Click Here To Find Out More…

#19 Popup Domination

Why You Need It:
This one is essential if you want to build a list; and build it fast. In a nutshell, you create the design, add your content and Popup Domination does the rest: create beautiful and professional lightbox popup’s. The lightboxes are very sleek and are very stealthy which allows users to view them without getting annoyed like most of us do with the traditional popup. So if you want a professional edge to your opt-in’s then this tool is definitely for you!
Click Here To Find Out More…

#20 OIO Publisher Plugin

Why You Need It:
If you are looking of a way to create professional looking advertisements in order to monetize your site then this tool is for you. OIO Publisher allows you to create an effective advertising campaign without the messy looking blank spaces that all too often fill up website real estate when your down on your luck in the advertising game. There’s also an in-built affiliate program to help get your readers to become customers. On top of all this you can also place the ads anywhere on your site; anywhere at all, don’t like them in the sidebar? No problem. If you are still unsure go to their website and check out their demo.

20 Web Design Resources To Help You Build a Great Website

57 Comments Written by Michael Dunlop

Design Tools To Build The Perfect Website

A couple weeks back I had a couple coaching clients over and one thing they asked me was where to get a designer, how should they set up a website etc… They went on to tell me they had been quoted $7000 for a new website and showed me an example of what they were going to get, it looked just like a website you would of expected to of been made 12 years ago. This blog post is dedicated to helping those of you who want to cut costs and put together a great website for a low price.
Here’s my steps:

1. * Find a perfect domain using Instant Domain Search, then register it at GoDaddy.
2. * Start a logo competition at 99Designs giving you on average 100 designs to choose from
3. * Buy and install a Wordpress theme from either Woothemes or Themeforest
4. * Using oDesk, find a programmer to make any edits to your website theme
5. * Contact Taskus to find someone to write great content so you can start to drive traffic.

#1- Instant Domain Search

Why has it made the list?
When you’re starting out online one of the first things you need to buy is a domain name for your website; a lot of us will write huge lists of possible names, but there are some people who mistakenly choose a name and create their site and logo design before even checking it’s availability. Quick tip for you; do not be one of these people, you will more than likely lose time and money using this technique. A better way to go about this task is to use a domain name search engine such as Instant Domain Search, which immediately let’s you know whether the name you want for your website is available or not. The site itself is very clean and simple; just type your chosen name into the search box, just like you would in any search engine and wait. It’s that simple and it is very quick too. Make sure you add this to your check-list if you are starting out; or if you are a domain name addict, you know who you are. Happy hunting.
- Visit: InstantDomainSearch.com


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#2 – 99designs

Why has it made the list?
This is a quite a big resource that you will not want to miss out on; and the great thing is that it’s so simple to use too. Basically you give them an idea of what you are looking for; maybe a logo or a unique Wordpress theme. Then you add the price you are willing to pay for it, any promotions packages you’d like (if any) and then a description about your business. Once you have sent everything to them; their designers (hundreds of them) begin competing with each other in a bid to win you over and take the cash. Think of it as a competition or a contest; You set the goal and the prize, they do the work and the winner takes home the money; and you take the goods you’ve received. They also have various price ranges so before you think you couldn’t possibly afford it, check them out you may be surprised.
- Visit: 99designs.com


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#3 – Woothemes

Why has it made the list?
Woo Themes is another great resource for those of you looking for a way to create or update your Wordpress site. The layout is simple and intuitive; so you will have no trouble in navigating through the various themes they have on offer. All of their themes are built around a solid set of frameworks, which have been tested and proven to work well, again and again; so if you are worried about the reliability side of things, don’t Woo Themes has it covered. They also have a lot of great designs which often have different colour schemes as well as customisable layouts; which is perfect for those of you that love to tweak and test your sites. Their customer support is also second to none, and I’m sure you won’t have a problem with any purchase you may make from Woo Themes. If you are in the market for a new look to your site, head over there and take a look at their demo’s you won’t be disappointed.
- Visit: Woothemes.com
- Our Recommendation: Check Out The Busybee Theme


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#4 – oDesk

Why has it made the list?


oDesk is great if you want to build a successful website but you are too busy; or unable to create content regularly. It’s also a great tool if any of you out there are lucky enough to be successful enough to sit back and relax whilst you get others to do the hard work for you. So how does it work? Great question and here is the answer; basically you need or want to find staff, you post a job advertisement on their site; with details of the job(s), what pay-range you are offering, as well as any specific skills or qualifications that may be required. The applicants then reply to your post (Sort of like a very efficient job centre). Once the replies start to come in you can take a look further into their work history, as well as their covering letters and everything else on their résumé. After you have decided on a clear winner (or two/three) then you simply click hire,and you have yourself some new staff members. What’s more; oDesk offer screen shots six times an hour so you can see their progress. Finally when it comes to paying your staff you go directly through oDesk which in turn does all the necessary paperwork; including the dreaded taxes. If you are looking for a few new staff or even your first one, then be sure to take a look at oDesk.
- Visit: oDesk.com
-Our Recommendation: Hire a writer for your blog


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#5 – Themeforest + marketplaces

Why has it made the list?
Theme Forest is a very well-known place to find a lot of design and development resources that will really help you to develop the look and feel of your site from the very start; but remember you can upgrade the look of your site when you feel the need. With that in mind, make sure you don’t change your site every week because then you may begin to lose readers. So what is Theme Forest and what can it do for you? Well theme Forest is a place where you can buy (and sell) various templates popular content management systems; such as WordPress and Drupal. You can also find HTML, flash and CSS products here to. They’ve got a really intuitive website and you can find anything that you’re looking for via keyword searches, category listings and even top authors. They’ve also got featured items should you feel the urge to take a look. Within Theme Forest there is also a service called ‘Other Marketplaces’ where you can find anything from video and audio products right up to specific coding should you require it. In all Theme Forest is a very good place to start or upgrade your website.
- Visit: ThemeForest.com
- Our Recommendation: Check Out The FlipBlog Theme


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#6 – TaskUs

Why has it made the list?
TaskUs is a great site which enables you to work a lot more efficiently by delegating various tasks to people all over the world. A lot of the time you’re bound to be very busy; and if you’re on your own and starting a new website or business can be very daunting with the amount of tasks involved. This is where TaskUs.com becomes really handy, what you do is log onto the website register yourself as a user; then you decide what tasks all work needs to be done by the TaskUs users. After you have decided what you want to do, he simply set a time limit along with a deadline; after which you will then discuss the details with an administrator. After the administrator has all the details and needs, they source the most qualified people to complete it for you; which is done under supervised by the administrator that has been assigned to you. After any work has been completed it is carefully looked over and reviewed; making sure that it is personalized to your standards and needs, as well as being checked for quality. With the task done you get the work sent to you; which is covered by a satisfaction guarantee. If you ask me this is one great time-saving resource.
-Visit: TaskUs.com


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#7 – Flowtown

Why has it made the list?
Flowtown is a fantastic social media resource; allowing you to get in touch with your target audience in a very stealthy way. It basically allows you to see what people are talking about; as well as what they are doing, on a massive scale. All you need to do is add an e-mail, or your entire e-mail list; click go and Flowtown will gather a ton of information, which can you be used to your advantage. One of the biggest issues with social media marketing; is trying to wean out the good from the bad, or rather the influential people and the evangelists from those who are just not interested at all. Flowtown does this for you, by searching how popular people are; how big their groups and networks are compared to others as well as giving you an insight to their personality. This really is a great way to move forward fast in the online game; you can literally start from scratch and still manage to build a great list of people who will push you forward. You can then merge this newly built list of people and add them to your aweber or icontact account; allowing you to build a successful marketing campaign. This is a great little resource to keep up your sleeve.
-Visit: Flowtown.com

#8 – W3C Validator

Why has it made the list?
The W3C Validator is a fantastic resource; for those of you that really enjoy getting to grips with coding. This great tool is useful for making sure all of your web documents are valid across the board; meaning no nasty hiccups. Validating any coding online is a sure-fire way of making sure that it will actually work online; and not hoping it will work once the entire site is coded (and possibly coded completely wrong too). The W3C Validator is able to process a number of markup languages such as HTML 4.01 and SVG 1.1; this is great as it means you can validate a number of coding documents in one place and not searching the internet for separate resources for every language. This is a great resource although it may be a little too advanced for those of you that are just getting to grips with working online.
- Visit: validator.w3.org


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#9 – Color Scheme Designer

Why has it made the list?
The Color Scheme Designer is a fantastic tool for anyone looking to get a fresh look at their site; or creating a site for the first time. It allows you to choose a color; or colors, and create a set of schemes to use within your site, or promotion. What I like about this resource is that it gives you a various amount of colors that work along-side each other, taking out the guess-work; which for some is a big problem, I’ve often seen really great designs; let down by their choice of color schemes. Another feature I think is a killer tool is the colorblind option; this allows you to see colors the way that people who are color-blind see them, and I’m certain it could work the other way around, helping color-blind designers to get a feel of what goes well together even if they see colors differently due to the hexadecimal system. This is a very in-depth product you will want to check out.
- Visit: ColorSchemeDesigner.com


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#10 – Google Analytics

Why has it made the list?
Google Analytics is a service I’m sure you have all heard of; even if you haven’t actually used it yourself. Google has done a very good job in creating this service which basically attaches itself to your website once you have embedded a unique piece of code to your site; that’s specific to you and only you. It is a tool that allows you to see exactly how many people are coming to your site, and what pages they are browsing the most. There are a ton of various options and tools you can use inside the resource itself; you can see your bounce rate, how long people spend on your site and even which pages they are landing on the most. It is a very efficient tool that allows you to test different strategies to make your site work better for you. Traffic is a major factor in the online world, in fact any site without traffic is useless; unless of course it isn’t meant to have any traffic; such as a family website.
- Visit: Google Analytics


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#11 – Google Optimizer

Why has it made the list?
Another great resource from the internet giant we know as Google; you split testing ace’s will love this resource. In its most basic form the Optimizer is a tool which efficiently allows you to test your website via the use of alternative design variations. These variations could be something as simple as a color or perhaps where you place your sidebar or widget; in other words you can test whatever you like and you can test multiple objects at the same time. This is great as you are then able to test them against of each other in real-time. Now although this is a free service, and it is a great resource don’t be under the assumption that you will see results in a 24 hour period. It just doesn’t happen; unless of course you are using the Optimizer for a promotion you are launching, in which case you may see results provided that you do your homework and spread the word about your product ahead of the launch. One thing I really like about the Optimizer service is that once a user see’s one variant of your site, that is the only one they will see; forever, unless you change it of course. This means if a customer returns they are likely to stay longer due to the familiarity they will already have with the site. Provided you have good content of course, it can’t do everything for you; but this is a very clever tool, I recommend using it.
- Visit: Google Optimiser
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#12 – iStockPhoto

Why has it made the list?
istockPhoto is brilliant if you are stuck in a rut about photography or images for your site; and there are times when you will be, believe me. Sometimes you have a great post or article, or maybe just a product page that needs a little something extra to really make it look attractive; to really give it an added value. That’s where images come into play; there are so many people that are visual thinkers and if you decided to create a purely textual website then I wish you the very best of luck because you most certainly will need it. That being said, if your site is a text based site that uses text to create images then fair play to you. Anyway, the point is that sourcing images can sometimes be a little daunting and you could end up thinking scenarios such as; is it legal to use this image? Do I need to gain permission before using this photograph? You get the idea, well this is a common occurrence which can be easily remedied with iStockphoto. Its a very intuitive site, just fill in the search box hit search and away you go. There are other methods to searching the site but you will see that for yourself. Apart from photographs iStockphoto also has flash based animations, audio and video files for you to peruse at you leisure. Be warned though, these are files you do have to pay for, but upon paying you can use them however you wish; within reason.
- Visit: iStockPhoto.com
-Our Recommendation: Check Out Their Illustrations Section
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#13 – What The Font

Why has it made the list?
What The Font; from myfonts.com (and yes I am aware that the abbreviation stands for another well-known albeit naughtier phrase. is a very useful tool if you see a font you really like and cannot for the life of you work out what it is. This happens all the time you will travel the depths of the internet, looking at a multitude of different sites; when all of a sudden you see the holy grail of fonts. You have just got to have it right? Wrong. Nine times out of ten you will never see that font again, and even if you ask the author of the site; you are unlikely to get a response. Well if you have a font in mind but you seriously cannot find it then use What The Font; because 8/10 times it probably will manage to retrieve it for you, or at least find something that is very similar. There are a couple of ways you can search for fonts using the free service they offer; one of the ways is to directly insert a URL into the box provided, it will then crawl the internet searching the site for the font in question. After finding one or more fonts it will give you a series of images to look at to distinguish whether it has the correct one you are looking for then you just follow the directions and pick the one you like. If however you want a font you have seen in the real world, then provided you have an image of it (if you managed to take a photo of it) you can upload the image of your choice and it will do exactly the same thing. A pretty good resource if you ask me; and its free.
- Visit: WhatTheFont


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#14 – Fiverr

Why has it made the list?
Fiverr is a unique resource where you can find people that will do pretty much anything for $5. It’s basically an online community of people willing to trade services to each other for very small sums of money. This is a great idea because it means you can have people do the work you need doing for next to nothing. You want a logo creating, no problem. Not sure what to write for your new blog? Get someone else to write it for you. It’s a really simple process you just create a profile by registering for free, and then all you have to do is submit what it is you want doing and then wait for someone to do it for you. It’s also a great way to get a good name for yourself as long as what you do is of a reasonable quality. Try it out, it’s worth a look.
- Visit: Fiverr.com
-Our Recommendation: Check Out This Unusual Advertising Idea
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#15 – Browsershots

Why has it made the list?
Browsershots is a great tool; mostly for fans of coding; but it is so easy to use that anyone can benefit from it. What Browsershots does is take your website design and takes screenshots of it within various web browsers. This is a great way to getr a look and feel of how your site will look on all of your readers computers; as there will most likely be a wide range of browsers used by them. This basically allows you to adjust your web design so that it looks the best it can within every browser you feel will be beneficial.  One of the reasons why this tool is so good; is that it allows you to visually assess your website design very quickly as well as give you a variety of options. This is a very good and fast tool to use. Check it out its free to use.
- Visit: BrowserShots.com
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#16 – Dynamic Drive

Why has it made the list?
Dynamic Drive is a fantastic resource that allows you to create a favicon for your website; this is something that is deemed hard to create for new users online, but with this little resource you will be able to create them to your heart’s content. If you are wondering what a favicon is then you won’t be alone so let me explain briefly; a favicon is the little icon you see on your browser tabs, so in Firefox or Internet Explorer you will see tabs just above the main content portion of the screen. Within these tabs is a short description of the site you are connected to via that tab, as well as a small 16 x 16 (pixel) image; this is the favicon, the small image. It’s a great way to brand yourself visually within a browser window without even having your page open; as long as your website is within a tab then the user can see the favicon. It’s well worth looking into if you want that professional edge to your site.
- Visit: DynamicDrive.com
-Our Recommendation: Check Out These CSS Scripts For Better Navigation
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#17 – Aweber

Why has it made the list?
This one is more of a resource for when you have managed to design your site and get it online and running smoothly. I’m sure the majority of you know about Aweber but it is definitely worth mentioning. This will help your site by keeping you in touch with your most valid asset of all; your readership. In order to keep your website in the good graces of your fans its better to stay in touch with them on a deeper level than simple blog posts, and Aweber helps you do this. Yes it is also a great tool for internet marketing but imagine the communication you can have with your readers just by sending them a weekly or monthly newsletter or post update. It is a service you have to pay for but it’s worth the money; there are also a few different membership levels available so that you can use the service no matter what your budget. If however you want a choice in what mail services to use, you could also try out the much respected iContact, another great service which is also used by many top bloggers; ultimately it is your choice but my advice is to get a hold of one of these and keep in touch.
-Visit: AWeber.com
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#18 – Icon Finder

Why has it made the list?
Icon Finder is a search engine for finding icons and graphics for your website needs; great news for those who hate trailing through Google images. The site offers a nice browse feature too which is great if you don’t know exactly what it is you are looking for. There are also additional options for searching too such as;  newest, popular, tags and designer. This helps greatly you find the perfect solution to your graphics issues. The best thing about Icon Finder is that it’s free to use and depending on the images, they are mostly free to download too. Just make sure that you respect any licence or copyright that the designer has issued, it is their work after all.  With that said Icon Finder is the perfect place to go when you are struggling for images, vectors and icons. Try it out for free!
-Visit: IconFinder.com
-OurRecommendation: Check Out These Fresh Social Networking Icons
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#19 – KISSmetrics

Why has it made the list?
KISSmetrics is one of the leading forces to be reckoned with when it comes to premium analytic services for your blog or website. Unlike many other analytical programs and service KISSmetrics collects data per person rather than per page view so the data is raw and straight to the point. What’s more the service allows you to see in great detail, through the use of some very powerful conversion funnel visuals. The whole service seems fresh and original, which is great, this really is a very powerful tool not only because it allows you to see exactly how your website is performing but also because the powerful visual aspect of it gives you motivation to make the site better. This is something you guy’s should definitely get hold of if you want to be a step ahead of your competitors there aren’t many other programs that can stand up to this hulk of an analytic service. Miss it out at your own peril!
-Visit: KISSmetrics.com
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#20 – SurveyMonkey

Why has it made the list?
SurveyMonkey is a fairly new service that allows you to do widespread surveying in a flash. Basically it is service that allows you to create surveys on any topic you like, which you can then send out to your email lists in order of finding out whatever it is you are asking for. So if you have change? The benefits can be huge as you are keeping a very personal account of the trends and topics which you want to understand more. The service also allows you to download your results (when you have responses) through PDF format making it easy for you to see on and offline. So if you do a lot of testing or you are constantly trying to do some vital marketing analysis then this is for you; forget writing and sending hundreds of lengthy emails you can now create a great looking survey in no time. SurveyMonkey also allows you to choose from a plethora of question and answer types as well as giving you a multitude of templates for your survey. This really is a great little tool and if this is something you struggle with then SurveyMonkey will be at the top of your list. If you are interested but not quite sure then they have a basic version which is free to use, so you have no excuse for trying it out. So what are you waiting for? Start your campaign now!
- Visit: SurveyMonkey.com

How to really build backlinks and dominate google

Without a doubt, the most frequent post request I’ve had on this site is a post about link building. I rarely take requests, simply because people rarely know what they really want until you give it to them, but this time things are a little different.
First of all, I have been studying SEO day and night since I was 16 (almost 5 years ago) and I’ve ranked on the first page of Google for some of the most competitive keyphrases in the world. Therefore, I like to think I know quite a bit about the topic and can provide some insights in this space.
For those of you who don’t know why links are important, let me just say that if you want to get traffic from the major search engines, they’re crucial. Links from other sites to your site are basically a ‘vote’ that tell search engines you are trusted and you are a good resource for whatever your content is about.
A large percentage of my income to affiliate sites is from traffic via Google, and the difference between ranking 2nd and ranking 1st can literally be thousands of dollars extra on my bottom line.
SEO is generally divided into two parts: on-site optimisation and off-site optimisation. On-site is changes you make to the actual code of your website to help with rankings. In my guide on Wordpress SEO I gave a lot of tips on this that you can also apply to sites that aren’t running the CMS.
Today we’re going to look at the off-site side of things, which is building links.

15 Ways to Build Links to Your Site

Instead of just telling you to do this or do that that many link building guides do, I also want to share a few principles that I believe are crucial in building a website that attracts thousands of high quality links. A few years ago you could take a robotic approach to SEO, but the web is now far too social to rely on old tactics to help your website rank higher.

Build a Site for People

I can’t remember who said this phrase but it’s one of my favourites: “search engines follow people.” Not only does following this motto steer you in the direction of build an honest, legitimate website, it’s also a very true way to get links to your site.
Have you noticed how Wikipedia absolutely dominates Google search results? I don’t believe they should be ranking for 50% of the phrases that they do, but Jimmy Wales built a site for people. It is a resource that millions of people naturally want to use, and because of that, people talk about them.
For a lot of competitive keyphrases online you’ll also find popular blogs, forums and niche social networks ranking highly. If you can get enough real people to care about what you’re doing, then you can’t go far wrong.
When people talk about you online, links follow.

Utilise Guest Posting

I talk about guest blogging a lot here but for good reason – it has lots of benefits. Not only does guest posting get you traffic from relevant websites, it’s also a great way to get links with custom anchor text around the keyphrases you want to rank for.
I have written a massive guide to guest blogging that tells you more about the practice, so read that for a detailed guide on how to get links through this process. To explain how this works in the most basic of forms, when you write articles (for free) for another website, they’re happy to give you a backlink in the byline in return for your content.

Be Useful

Pretty much every legitimate site on the Internet serves some useful purpose to it’s users. Facebook lets you keep in touch with friends and family. Google lets you find awesome websites. Digg lets you find news that you know hundreds of other people recommend. Youtube provides educational value, entertainment, product reviews and much more.
These are some high profile examples, but there are literally millions of useful sites online. This blog helps people leave the rat race and make a living online. PluginID helped people be who they want to be and deal with the issues that come up on the path to get there.
Ask yourself whether your site is helping people to fill a need. If it’s not, then why should people care about you? This might not sound great but everyone active online in any space online is generally just thinking about what’s in it for them.
If you can give people what they want, you can receive what you want.

Check Competitors Backlinks

When I talk about competitors, I simply mean people trying to rank for the same keywords / phrases as you in Google. For example, this site is “trying” to rank for the phrase viral marketing. I put trying in quotes as I’m only implementing a small number of these strategies as I’m not too bothered about ranking.
If I wanted to find great sources of links though, I could simply see which sites are ranking well for the phrase and where their links are coming from. As an example, a site ranking 2nd for me right now is a page on Wilson Web. If I take that URL and do a link search in Yahoo (they shows more backlinks than Google) I can find link sources I can also use:

The operator I use in Yahoo is simply “link:pageurl -site:domain.com” (no quotes) obviously changing the parts in bold for the site that is actually ranking for your keyphrase.
Check your competitors to see if there are freely available link sources that you can also get for your own site. After all, if they’re helping that site rank, they’ll probably help you.

Leave Blog Comments

Most blog comments are nofollowed (this means search engines aren’t supposed to give weight to the link, though I believe Yahoo and Bing still do) so they don’t provide much link juice directly. There is a resource for dofollow blogs where you can leave comments that give link weight, but many of them get spammed and there will only be a few that are relevant to your niche.
I like using blog comments as an indirect way to get links back to your site. For example, if I contact a big blogger out of the blue and ask them to link to my latest article, it’s probably not going to happen. Yet, if I’ve spent some time interacting with their community and leaving comments, it’s more likely that they will fulfil the request (as long as your resource is relevant, and awesome).
Blog comments also drive visitors to your site, which goes back to the point of search engines following people.

Check Flippa Auctions

One of my favourite ways to find awesome sources for links is to check the Flippa marketplace. Flippa is a place for people to buy and sell websites and has a very interactive community. Even if you’re not looking to buy or sell sites though, it can be a great way to find links.
If you take the time to look around, you’ll find a number of repeat sellers who are selling websites that have ranked well in Google very quickly. In some cases, these sites are ranking for phrases that bring in thousands of dollars, just in a few short months.
Looking at these sites and finding where their backlinks are coming from has provided me with a lot of easy-to-duplicate tactics and links that Google clearly love.

Write Awesome Content

A few years ago you could write an awesome post and it would receive hundreds of links. Look at the trackbacks on old Copyblogger or Steve Pavlina posts and you’ll see what I’m talking about. With the introduction of Twitter and sites like StumbleUpon, people are more inclined to ’share’ sites, rather than link to them from their own blogs.
The amount of links you can get for awesome content has definitely decreased, but by no means has it stopped. My post on Wordpress SEO picked up a lot of blog links and is getting new ones all the time. My friend Danny also noticed the decrease in bloggers linking out and started a mini-campaign about it.
“Awesome” content means a lot of different things to different people. In terms of this site, it might be a great resource post. For a humor blog, it may be a funny image. For your Gadget blog, it may be announcing a new product before anyone else.
If you know your niche well enough, you should know what people want.

Participate on Social Bookmarking Sites

I really don’t like this tactic if I’m honest, but I can’t deny that social bookmarking links are helping a number of my sites rank. Bookmarking sites like Delicious simply give people a place to store their favourite links an organisable archive, which is generally far more useful than your browsers bookmark bar.
They’re also available from any computer anywhere in the world, so a lot of these sites have popped up due to their usefulness. Many of these sites offer dofollow links and custom anchor text, although they aren’t the best links in the world to pick up.
You can automate the process using something like Bookmarking Demon (not an affiliate link – none of those here) or you can even pay someone on Digitalpoint to submit to hundreds of sites manually.
To utilise this tactic in a more ethical manner, simply sign-up on a few sites you really want to use and bookmark your favourite links from around the web. Just don’t forget to link to your own site as well.

Add Links to Your Forum Signatures

Unlike blogs where you get nofollow links for contributing to the discussion, most forums allow you to have a (followed) link in your signature, every time you make a post. If you’re already active on some communities online, see if you can put a link in your signature.
I really don’t recommend you sign up on lots of sites just to get links, but if there are sites that you’re really interested in and want to participate, then link back to your site. Note that if you have 10,000 posts on a forum already and add a link there, that’s not going to be anywhere near as powerful as 10,000 links where each is from a different site.
It’s far better to have links from different domains, rather than lots from the same source.

Utilise Free Content Sites

Another link source that I don’t really love but I see doing well for a lot of sites is utilising free content sites like Squidoo, Gather and Hubpages. These sites basically allow you to sign-up, write about whatever you please, and link to yourself however you want.
Hubpages is very unpoliced and they’ll basically allow anything to stay on their site, but Squidoo (owned by Seth Godin) recently removed thousands of spammy pages from their site and are constantly policing them.
If you are going to use sites like this, at least take the time to to create a good resource for users, rather than just throwing links to all of your sites in there. Not only will that make your link more valuable (more relelvant and on a page with lots of content) but its better for these communities.

Use Article Directories

A much better source of links if you want to receive them in return for your content is using article directories. There are a lot of awful, highly spammed directories out there, but there are definitely a few worth looking for.
My favourites include Ezine articles, Article Dashboard and Go Articles. Ezine and a number of other sites review articles manually first so you’re not going to be able to spam them (which you shouldn’t want to, anyway). However, if you write good content, or pay someone else to, then you can get a great link in return.
Ezine is definitely the most trusted and you’ll actually find the page you write the article on can rank quite well, quite quickly. Once you’ve inserted your article content, you’re given the opportunity to fill in an Author Box and you can put your links in there.

Collaborate with Influencers

Some of the most popular posts on PluginID were the ones where I collaborated with other influences in the personal development niche. Examples include the Face-Off series that I ran and times where I would ask the same question to multiple people.
If your idea is unique and interesting, you’ll find that the people involved are often happy to share the piece via social media sites and even link to it from their own blogs.

Interview Someone Important

Similar to the last idea, interviewing someone in your industry or someone high profile is likely to get you a lot of attention. There are two ways to gain links via this method.
First of all, you can interview people who you hope will link back to the interview from their own sites. Or, you can utilise your connections (or hustle, hard) and interview someone the average person couldn’t get to answer their questions.
I personally tried to interview Eckhart Tolle (an author who has been featured on Oprah and sold millions of books) but didn’t get very far. If I had managed to land the interview though, I know a lot of people would have linked to it naturally.

Design a Unique, Beautiful Site

There are many ways to have a good looking website. I personally like to buy templates from the likes of Theme Forest and customise them heavily (like I did with ViperChill). You could also hire a designer like Reese to create something custom that looks amazing.
Once you have a beautiful site in place, there are literally thousands of link opportunities. “Where?” I hear you ask. “CSS and design directories”, is my answer. There are tons of sites which showcase beautiful designs and offer a link to the site so people can view the real thing, rather than a screenshot or thumbnail.
Many of these have a lot of authority in Google so if you want to find some, here’s a good place to start.

Create a Great Resource

There are a number of personal development bloggers giving sitewide (links from every page) links to PluginID because I created an amazing resource. That resource was a list of top blogs in my industry, but yours doesn’t have to be the same.
Can you create a free eBook that answers a need? What about a resource on 101 ways to do ‘X’? How about a list of other sites which offer great advice on a popular topic? Think about something that you know your readers would want but would take a lot of work for you to put together.
That’s the resource you should be creating.

What Not To Do

Now that we’ve covered some of my favourite ways to get links to a site, I quickly want to run through some things you shouldn’t be doing. While search engines generally reward sites with a lot of links by giving them high rankings, there’s also a few things they don’t like.
Remember: search engines want to show the best results to their users. If you’re manipulating link counts heavily and don’t really deserve to rank for your phrase, then they don’t want you to.
Here are a few things to watch out for:

• Building Links too Fast – Build links very quickly is usually unnatural. There may be times where write a post that gets hundreds of links overnight and that’s not going to penalise you, but just be careful about building too many links for your site as a whole. I’m not a search engine, so I can’t give exact numbers, but if you think you might be going a bit over the top, then you probably are.
• Using Spammy Resources – Not all links are created equal. It would be far more powerful for ViperChill to have a homepage link from Problogger than it would be to have a link from Hubpages or an automated link farm. You can’t control who links to you, but just be careful where you focus your link building time.
• Taking Part in Link Exchanges – If you want to add sites to your blogroll or resources page then add them, but don’t just do it because people are linking to you. Link exchanges worked well about 2 years ago, but are a very dated technique that search engines are well aware of.
• Building Links Around One Phrase – You might have a phrase that you want to rank for and the best way to do that is to get links with that phrase as an anchor text, but only having links with that phrase is very unnatural. Most links help your rankings in general, so don’t be afraid to get links for different phrases or even your domain as a whole, like http://www.viperchill.com

Tips Trik Blog: Mendapatkan Disetujui Dengan Google AdSense

Tips Trik Blog: Mendapatkan Disetujui Dengan Google AdSense

WikiLeaks Christmas Shocker – The Santa Claus Documents

Reported By Mike Rosolio

Even while facing criminal charges in both the United States and Europe, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is threatening Democratic interests around the globe. As heinous as his releases of an Al Qaeda Target List and names of CIA Agents abroad were, his latest proclamation is all the more upsetting. WikiLeaks is pledging to release, on December 25th Eastern Standard Time, multiple documents “shedding truthful and damaging light” on Christmas as we know it.

The Xmas Files, as WikiLeaks has dubbed them, contain classified information about the operations of Santa Nicholas Claus and his operations at the North Pole. While we do not condone the release of these documents, we hope your curiosity will be satiated by this carefully chosen sample.

1.    The Naughty List. Through their clandestine Elven infiltrators, WikiLeaks has obtained a portion of Mr. Claus’s Official 2010 Naughty And Nice List. While seeing such names as Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, and even Mr. Assange himself on the more sinister side of the ledger, the classified files on every human being are also included in graphic detail.

Considerably darkening the matter was the alleged method of information retrieval by the North Pole syndicate. There are evidently over two million informants on the Claus payroll worldwide, including ex CIA, KGB, East German Stasi and regular people with pocket-sized recording devices worldwide.  Mr. Assange claims his documents came from a disgruntled Claus informant who was sold out at Heathrow Airport trying to move these documents to Greenland, the territory nearest Santa’s homestead.

The following is a portion of the list in the possession of WikiLeaks.



2.    The Location of the Pole. Many have ignored their fleeting suspicions as to why Santa Claus’s laboratory is located at the North Pole. For years it was assumed that the 365 days of winter created a constant Christmas Wonderland, a magical place where it’s The Most Wonderful Time All Year. But eye-opening documents held by WikiLeaks show another factor: it’s technically international space.

Evidently, Mr. Claus gets way more from his North Pole location than just powder-white snow. Since it is not part of any national body, he doesn’t pay a dime in federal income or property tax. He is also not subject to the rulings by the United Nations, Geneva Conventions, or Amnesty International, refusing to provide a decent living wage or sanitary living conditions for his teeming masses of elf workers. While Santa lives in gaudy Saddam-like palaces that feature year-round Christmas lights and mechanical polar bears, the elves live forty to a room in wooden barracks with only the bare minimum of steam heating to keep them from freezing to death. After all, elves are traditionally temperate woodland creatures.
The following is an electric bill stolen by one of WikiLeaks’ informants.


3.    The Chimney Truth. Also indicting Kris Kringle is hard evidence regarding his infiltration of every home on Christmas morning. The story goes that Santa, despite his size and the volume of the gifts, slithers down the chimney to deliver presents to the good little boys and girls of the world. The truth is shocking and terrible.

Turns out, Christmas delivery does not begin on December 24th, but on September 8th, in which Mr. Claus orders the illegal phone tapping of every phone in the world. His team of surveillance elves, one of which is the likely source of this information, take detailed and highly unethical notes regarding entryways into each and every domicile. Using a slush fund from illegal arms sales, they bribe the ADT, Brinks, and Sloman’s Shield companies for their residential security alarm codes. And while the entering of your home is often through the chimney, Santa sits on the roof eating biscuits while his elves, who are not even given health benefits or hazard pay, are forced to schlep the gifts from the sleigh to the tree. Any elf caught slacking or not bringing the cookies and milk to the roof for their master is subject to vicious medieval torture and potential execution.
Here's the signed confession by Boris the Elf.


4.    The Plans. While it made total sense back in the days of the hobby horse and the paper doll, the idea that Santa Claus’s factory is capable of providing iPads, Xboxes, and flat panel televisions to the youth of America seems unfathomable. How could they actually deliver the same product provided by Apple, Microsoft, or LG? The answer is devastating to the North Pole corporation.

Mrs. Claus, the lovely better-half to Santa, personally overseas a network of international industrial spies who hack into corporate mainframes and steal plans for some of the most wished-after products on the globe. They then return the plans to the North Pole where kidnapped German engineers are blackmailed into building them to the exact specifications. They are also forced to wear demeaning elf costumes to maintain the sanctity of the myth. Not only does this operation owe over $70 trillion in copyright infringement fines, they are also responsible for the murder of two Sony of Japan factory security guards who, “picked the wrong time to wake up from their nap.”

The following is a translation of a recording from the Sony of Japan robbery. Please note this is not suitable for children.

Here's the English translation below.
Mrs. Claus: We need the plans to the Playstation 3 and the BluRay player.
Conspirator #1: The Playstation 3 is a BluRay player.
Mrs. Claus: I’ll ask you not to talk back to me.
Conspirator #2: Madame Claus. I was able to copy all of Sony’s plans for their new line of mp3 players. What shall I do with the originals.
Mrs. Claus: Burn them. That’s an order.
(unknown sounds)
Mrs. Claus: Look, get him!
Security Guard: No, please! I won’t tell anyone anything.
Mrs. Claus: We’ll be sure about that. Take his tongue.
Security Guard: No! No! (inaudible)

5.    The Bold Faced Red Nosed Lie. Nearly as iconic as Santa himself is the story of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, whose legendary lightbulb on the tip of his snout guides the magic sleigh through the Christmas night air. If only the reality was so playful and childlike.

WikiLeaks has evidence to prove that the name, “Red Nosed Reindeer” was actually a moniker given by Rudolph’s enemies. Rudy, as he is known on the streets of the North Pole, has killed over 200 elves at the command of Santa Claus. The wonderful deer is actually the implement by which Santa tortures and maims his unruly staffmembers. WikiLeaks has promised a video in which an elf, who knocked over a plastic snowman perched on a lawn, is gored like a weak bullfighter by the vicious Rudy as Donner and Blitzen callously take bets on how long the elf can crawl away before succumbing to his injuries. All of this took place under the watchful eye of Kringle, a man whose jolly nature is more challenged by the leak.
Smuggled Screen Grab from North Pole Security Surveillance Video.

This is a transcribed voicemail recording from the Headquarters of Amnesty International in London, UK.

Recording: Thank you for calling Amnesty International. If you know your party’s extension you may dial it now, or wait for the tone to leave a brief message. Thanks!

Caller: Listen, I need to talk fast. He’ll kill me if he finds out. The reindeer. He’s using the reindeer to kill everyone. Blood, so much blood everywhere. The snow runs red with it. Oh my god, no! No, Rudy, no! You bastard! You son of a bitch! You’ll go down in history, you bastard!

-end-

6.    The Worst Lie. Perhaps the most shocking and horrible claim made by the WikiLeaks site is the insidious insinuation that Santa Claus, including his North Pole factory, reindeer, and legion of slave elves, does not exist. Mr. Assange claims that every single present delivered by Santa is actually delivered by your parents. Not only that, but those cookies and milk are not consumed by Kringle as a peace offering, but by your father as he watches The Daily Show.

While the WikiLeaks site has concrete proof of the rest of this content, this final lie is one I simply cannot believe. After all, the packages are signed ‘Santa’ for a reason, aren’t they?

Email correspondence between Julian Assange and Christine Assange.