Happy Thanksgiving Everyone, Helpful Blogging Tools For You!
I thought for this Book Blogging 101, I would share the most helpful tools that I use for my blogging. This is what I’m Thankful for this Blogging Thanksgiving.
- WordPress- I switched from Blogger to a Self-hosted WordPress site and have not looked back. The large support forums, attractive interface and powerful tools are perfect for my growing blogs. The plugins and ease of use as far as the interface is worth the small amount I pay yearly to host parajunkee.com. My blog has only grown bigger and better and with the added advantages that WordPress gives me, it only makes it easier to expand.
- Favorite Plugins:
- JetPack – the options that are available with JetPack have replaced most of what Feedburner and other distribution type programs did for me before, so instead of having ten different sites that do this and this and this, JetPack does them all.
- Review Ratings (shortcodes & buttons) - instead of using a rating system based on images, I now use a plugin. I can also insert a list of same ratings at the end of my reviews with this plugin, which is very helpful. I am in search of a better option that will be able to categorize my reviews, but I have not found one that I’m ready to purchase yet. This one is free.
- Shortcodes Ultimate – Another FREE plugin that is a must-have. I can insert graphic looking buttons and image carousels easily with this powerful plugin.
- WordPress Editorial Calendar – How I worked within WordPress before this Plugin, I have no idea! This Editorial Calendar is amazing! Especially with multiple authors. We can view what is going up when with just a glance, along with drag and drop posts to different dates.
- Google Docs - From collaborating on ideas with other Bloggers, to setting up contest forms, Google Docs has been perfect for a variety of reasons during my Blogging career.
- Google Analytics - It started as a curiosity. How many people are visiting my site, now I use it all the time. I measure what works and doesn’t work. My hot days, my down days. Without analytics I would be clueless and the results always surprise me.
- Stock.xchng – I always need a nice image for my blog. This way I am not going broke or infringing on copyright by using one I found on the internet.
- LinkyTools - I am a member and use it all the time for my lists. The best $25 a year! Wish it was still free, but I do not fault him for charging, it is a great program.
- Twitter – The best way to market my blog post. I tweet and I watch my pageviews go up.
- Goodreads.com - Do I say more? I grab my synopsis, book covers and gather book recommendations all in one spot. I love this site.
- Facebook – My Facebook fan page is also another great way I promote my blog post, it is also another tool to start a conversation.
Reader Question of the Week:
“What happens after you have reviewed a book sent directly from the author? Do you send them the review? Do you just send the link on your blog? Do you even tell them? What if it’s a bad review? - Diana
You would email them the link. Or prior tell them the review is scheduled for date XXX on your blog. If it is a bad review it is still common courtesy to email them.
Book Blogging News:
Goodreads.com enters the Final Round of the 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards if you haven’t voted, now is the time.
Happy Thursday. Talk Less. Read More. Blog with Integrity.
Have a question? Fill out the form by clicking on the button to the left. This will go into a spreadsheet to be looked over at a later date and hopefully answered on this blog. This is completely anonymous, you do not have to leave your real name. Urls will not be included in your question unless it pertains to the question.
Rachel, whom you might know as Parajunkee, is the blog owner of parajunkee.com and the design blog parajunkee.net. Rachel has been blogging for close to four years, designing / web programming for over twelve, but her real love, reading, has been her favorite hobby since childhood. Rachel has won numerous awards for her writing, the blogs she has created and her design work.
Latest posts by Parajunkee (see all)
- Audiobook Review: The Program – May 21, 2013
- The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau – May 20, 2013
- Feature & Follow #149 – May 16, 2013
- Ten Tips for New Bloggers – May 16, 2013
- The Adventures of Evil Book Blogger Ep. 1 – May 15, 2013
- PJV News: Hot Books Releasing Today – May 14, 2013
- Breath by Jackie Morse Kessler – May 13, 2013
- Feature & Follow #148 – May 9, 2013
- Twitter Etiquette – May 9, 2013
- My Favorite Book is become a movie…an obsession story. – May 8, 2013
Great list! Most of these are beloved by me as well!
Yeah they kinda obvious.
As always, these 101 posts are always so helpful. I may have been blogging for almost a year now, but I am still just an infant never really having time to explore the medium or discover the tools available to me. My friend Terri is always telling me about this or that, but it goes right over my head. I will review this more thoroughly after the holiday. Thanks for your guidance.
Enjoy and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I’ve been seeing the review ratings shortcode around lately, and I’ve been very intrigued. Thanks for calling this out!
Oh and YES, WP editorial calendar is a MUST HAVE. I couldn’t get anything done without it. I now have stuff scheduled out until February.
I wish blogger had a wider variety of plugins. I found a few for windows live writer, but they weren’t working correctly. I was bummed. Eventually I’ll do the self hosted thing.
Thanks for awesome post.
So you have no more blogs with Blogger anymore?
Nope. Nothing active. I still design Blogger blogs. But the design site and this site are completely WP.
I’m thankful for you and these posts!! I love when people share their plugin lists because I always notice one group of friends use one list of plugins and then another group of friends use completely different plugins. You never really know what works best for you until you find and try. I’m definitely going to check out the ratings and shortcodes ultimate ones (I think one will help the other work easier
)
Thanks!!!
Yes! I think it is just personal preference. I’m glad you like these posts.
When you say:
“I am in search of a better option that will be able to categorize my reviews, but I have not found one that I’m ready to purchase yet.”
What do you mean exactly? Just curious because I do a bit of WordPress scripting and I’m always looking for new features I can make that would be helpful to people.
Oh thanks Ashley. I’m looking for the perfect rating system. The rating system I use, has a 1 – 5 scale – no halves. It also has a related ratings — that lists three of the rating you choose. So you would put in the 5 — and it would list three post that all have a rating of 5.
I would LOVE a rater that has a halves – 1 – 5 in the least and then the ability to input the ratings and moderate how many items to post –
Like – rating=5 posts=100 etc.
I know some templates that are geared for reviewers have similar features.
I wouldn’t think that would be too hard of a plugin. I haven’t searched that much — I have to go check code canyon, but if you come up with something awesome I would promote it. I have a lot of book reviewers on wordpress that would love something like this.
I think I could put something like that together.
Except I’m not sure that there are any HTML symbols for half stars. So I would probably have to use images.
I’m unsure how they do it — the closest I’ve found was a plugin called Xavin’s review rating. It hasn’t been updated in years.
Here’s what I’ve got so far: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83159025/rating-system.jpg
That box appears on post creation page and allows you to select a rating and input the number of related posts you want to show. Then you can use the shortcodes to display them. Alternatively (or additionally) you can call the functions directly in the theme files (for example if your rating is always at the bottom of the page, you can call the function after the_content() ).
I guess what I should do now is find a ton of different stars/rating systems and create an options page where you can select which one you want to use.
These are some really useful blog tools and any blogger must appreciate this. Reading your blog was fun. Thanks!