Most Useful WordPress Plug-In Widgets for Business Blogs

WordPress is the most powerful blogging platform, at least amongst free options. Once you get the basics of this program, blogging can be a breeze. The best thing about WordPress is the almost unlimited amount of add-ons (a.k.a. plug-ins and widgets).  WordPress plug-ins can be extremely useful when it comes to everything from choosing keywords for your blog posts to tying Twitter, Facebook and PPC advertising into your blog.

The problem? There are so many plug-ins that it can be difficult to find worthwhile ones.  Here are some of the Best WordPress Plug-Ins that are useful if you are blogging for profit or blogging to increase the  online presence of your blog.

1.  For any blogger, the All-in-One SEO Pack is a great way to increase your blog’s visibility for search engines like Yahoo!, Google and MSN Search. It can help you optimize the keywords for your post and also create search-engine friendly titles. You can create an alternative title and description without changing the title that actually appears on your blog.

2.  Feedburner FeedSmith is a great program for controlling your RSS feeds. RSS is nowa very important part of blogging. FeedSmith redirects all the different feeds that your blog has to FeedBurner. This makes it easier to track the number of RSS subscribers that your blog has and to control your feeds completely.

3.  The Constant Contact Widget makes it easy for people to sign up for email newsletters, sales emails etc, right on your blog. Constant Contact is an important tool for e- commerce sites and also for anyone who is retailing a product or service online. This widget makes newsletter and mail list sign up on your blog a breeze.

4.  If you want to sell a product directly on your site, the WP e-Commerce plug-in is a good tool to start with. This a shopping cart especially designed for blogs. It can allow readers to make purchases and payments without leaving the site.  Obviously, this is not a muscular e-Commerce solution for heavy-weight online retailers, but it can be hugely useful to bloggers who want to sell a few products on their blog to generate income.

5.  Social media is a powerful force when it comes to marketing your blog posts by word-of-mouth. The Wickett Twitter Widget can add your Twitter account to your blog sidebar.  Tweets will scroll down your sidebar. There are several good tools for placing on your blog posts to make it easier for people to tweet about your writing. The Tweet This and TweetMeme buttons both allow users to easily create a tweet that notifies their followers about your blog post. Twitter Updater allows you to automatically notify your Twitter followers of a new or edited post on your blog.

6.  Readers can similarly notify their Facebook friends about your post easily if you place the Add to Facebook plug-in on your blog. This plug-in displays an icon on the bottom of the page that allows users to share the post with their friends with a single click.

7.  Gigya is another powerful social media tool. It authenticates users and allows them to sign in before making comments of sharing your posts with their social media friends.  Gigya automatically synchronizes with the WordPress user management system on your blog. This can help you control who comments and shares your work and can help you manage your blog’s image as well as cut down on unwanted spam.

8.  Thank Me Later is a business oriented plug-in that automatically sends an email to someone who signs in and leaves a comment on your blog. This is a great way to keep in touch with potential clients, employees or customers. The message is customizable, so it
doesn’t have to seem like spam.

I hope you make good use of these WordPress plug-ins to make your bussiness blog function better and to make less work for you!

Nicole Rodgers has been blogging about online marketing for 3 years. She focuses on ways companies can use a heat map for their site and how enterprise social networking can help businesses grow.

Update:
There is a hot new WordPress plugin coming soon! Cathy Stucker is giving away a free copy at her book marketing site, SellingBooks. Learn how you can enter and win by visiting Cathy’s CommentLuv Premium giveaway page.

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