Blog Automation Made Easy With WP Robot
I have to say I love WP Robot. I have purchased a lot of blogging tools but this is the best one so far. In fact if I could go back I would save a lot of money and just purchase WP Robot and skip many of the other tools that I have purchased.
WP Robot is a WordPress plugin with an easy to use interface and it allows you to generate Amazon modules, with graphics, descriptions, and even customer reviews in the form of comments. I have been looking for a way to automate my Amazon posts and this is a perfect solution.
But, WP Robot doesn’t stop there, it also has an article module which will populate your site with fresh content automatically. Let’s say you would rather have a question and answer format, there is also a Yahoo Answers module.
Searchers love videos and Google loves You Tube, well WP Robot also has a You Tube module which will automatically populate your site with relevant videos. There are also modules for eBay and Clickbank. So, no matter what type of monetization you want to use or what type of content you need to generate WP Robot has got you covered.
As most of you know I develop web sites for fun and profit. I also sell sites. I have been looking for a way to automate some of the sites I sell. I am still a fan of hand written unique content, but having an auto generated news page with fresh content can really ad to a sites value.
Also having an easy way to get products and descriptions in your site makes earning money with niche sites just that much faster. So I was searching for a solution that I could install on the sites I sell. That is when I discovered Amazon Autoposter.
It is a a free version of the WP Robot Amazon module. Amazon Autoposter doesn’t have all of the functions that WP Robot has but it is a great free option, and it works really well. Since this is a free version I can also install it on the sites I sell. With this plugin you can generate Amazon listings on your site for free. It’s easy to use all you have to do is add your affiliate link and keyword and click on generate.
The author does put his own affiliate link in every 15th post. So eventually you would benefit from upgrading to the WP Robot Amazon Module. There is no extra link in the paid version and it will increase the functionality. As of this writing I believe the one module is around 35$ so if you do make consistent sells than it’s an easy investment. But you can wait until your site is profitable before investing the extra money.
There are several other purchase options for WP Robot, you can get all of the modules for 140$, or just pick and choose the ones you will need. So I would highly recommend WP Robot if you want to automate parts of your site.
As far as free tools on my sites I’m using Amazon Autoposter the free version of the WP Robot Amazon Module. To get extra news content I am using a great free plugin called MultiFeedSnap. In order to use MultiFeedSnap just install and activate the plugin. Then find a feed you would like to put on your site. Then within a post or on a page just enter [feedsnap]feedurl[/feedsnap] replacing the word feedurl with the url of the feed you want on your site.
These are both free and easy options for automating WordPress sites. And once it’s time to step it up a notch WP Robot is definitely worth a look.
Popularity: 57% [?]
Installing YARRP Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Having a related posts plugin helps with the SEO of your WordPress blog. My favorite related posts plugin is Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. So if you haven’t downloaded it already go ahead and do so. Then you can follow along as I install and configure the plugin.
Installing YARRP
Configuring YARRP
Popularity: 100% [?]
The Importance Of Keyword Research
When most people start out blogging they just set up a site on WordPress and then start writing. This can be a great way to establish an online presence and learn the ins and outs of writing online. But if you want to generate free organic traffic from the search engines you need to understand how to use keywords.
Keywords are words that searchers are actually using right now to find sites. When searchers type a word or phrase into Google, or Yahoo, or Bing, the search engines will give a list of results based on those words. Keywords refer to the single word or phrase used by searchers.
So if you want free search traffic the best plan is to find out what keywords searchers are looking for and then make sure that you will rank for those keywords. This is especially true in niche marketing. If you have a site about hamster cages you want to find out what words searchers are using that are related to hamster cages.
Once you have your list of keywords you need to use them in your posts and get relevant back links if possible. If you continue doing this you will eventually rank for those keywords and then you will get that valuable search traffic and a percentage of your traffic will click on your ads or affiliate link. If this is done often enough your site will make money.
Another great reason to do keyword research is to decide if it is worth going after a certain niche or not. With the proper research you can actually predict how much a possible niche is worth and how much competition there is. If you want to make money now you should probably go for some keywords with less competition while your site is gaining authority to go after the highly competitive words.
The concept of keyword research is easy to grasp but it takes skill and practice to do it well. There are many paid keyword research tools such as Market Samurai and Keyword Elite, which also come with videos that show you how to use the software.
There are also paid programs like Wordtracker and SEO Book which will teach you all about keyword research and charge you a large monthly fee. I have used all of these tools and services. The keyword research tools are good and they give you videos explaining how to use the tools, but if you don’t understand the basics of keyword research first you are not going to get very far.
If you go to the Wordtracker site they have a lot of articles and training that go along with their paid tool. It’s a useful tool and lots of Internet Marketers use it, but it is expensive and still a bit confusing for beginners. SEO Book is amazing and it could be a full time job just going through all of the information in there. But it is also very advanced and expensive. I would suggest checking out the free SEO Book posts and consider joining when you are ready to take things to the professional level and also when you have time to go over all of the information because there is a lot.
I have found the perfect program for people just starting out and those who are still trying to get a grasp on the basics of keyword research. It is called the Keyword Academy and it is by the very respected Court Tuttle and Mark Butler. These guys have successful IM businesses and are all around nice guys. They are honest and straight forward and will go out of their way to help members of their academy learn the concepts that will create success.
The Keyword Academy consists of videos which explain the basics, and a very active forum with lots of helpful people, they are also creating unique IM tools which are to numerous to mention. They also have webinars on specific subjects and Q & A webinars for different skill levels so everyone can get their questions answered. It’s a supportive community and sometimes it is nice to be a part of things since IM is basically a solitary business.
It is a membership site and there is a monthly fee. But you can join for the first month for only $1. You pay with PayPal which means that you control whether you are charged for the next month. So let’s say you join for $1 and watch the keyword research videos and learn a few concepts and don’t want to pay for another month. All you have to do is go into your own PayPal account and find the membership and cancel it. You don’t have to email anyone or explain anything. It is your money and your choice how you spend it. If you do want to continue on for another month the current monthly rate is $33 for premium membership.
I highly recommend getting a grasp on keyword research to make money online and have a successful site. If you are new to keyword research or have some gaps to fill in this program is definitely worth your while.
Popularity: 18% [?]
How To Add Images To The WP-Smooth Theme
One of the things that makes WP-Smooth so stunning is the images. In order to add an image to the featured articles of WP-Smooth you first need to resize the image to:
width: 650 px
height: 250 px
Then all you have to do is upload the image and the theme takes care of everything else. Don’t forget to view the video in full screen click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner.
Popularity: 42% [?]
Recommended Plugins For WP-Smooth
There are a couple of plugins supported by WP-Smooth that will help with the full functionalityof the theme. One is popularity contest which makes your most popular posts appear in the right sidebar under the tabbed navigation box. If you have trouble activating the plugin your hosting company may need to white list the permissions. I have been having this issue with HostGator since they have beefed up their security.
To get around it all I have to do is email them and give them the URL, and the WordPress user name and password, and ask them to white list the mod security rule. If they don’t understand what you are talking about you can always copy the permission denied message you get when you attempt to install or activate the plugin. This shouldn’t be an issue though. I usually send the email and it is taken care of within the hour.
The other recommended plugin is Get The Image By Justin Tadlock. With this plugin your thumbnails will automatically be populated without you having to mess with custom fields.
Popularity: 22% [?]
How To Set Up Featured Articles In WP-Smooth
In order to use the Featured Articles Section in WP-Smooth you need to set up a category called featured, you also need to make sure the category slug is called featured. Before this function will work you have to make sure your permalinks are modified. They can be set to anything other than the default setting and the featured category will work.
You can change your Permalinks under Settings, Permalinks. I usually set mine to custom /%postname%/.
After that just click on the featured category for any posts you want in the featured box. By default your six most recent featured posts will be displayed in this box. You can change this number on your WP-Smooth settings page.
If you want to know how to turn the auto scroll feature for the featured articles on or off see option 8 in this post; How To Install and Set Up WP-Smooth.
Popularity: 26% [?]
