Do you want more visitors and readers for your blog? Do you wish your blog visitors would share your posts with their friends and followers? Would you like to accomplish all this without adding more to your workload? Would it make your day if I told you there is a simple way to make this all happen?
There is. You can use plugins to draw more attention to your blog posts, to share your posts more easily throughout your network and to make it easier for your readers to share your posts with their networks.
Here are a few of my favorite WordPress plugins and add-ons for post sharing and increased interaction.
Tweet Old Post
Tweet Old Post is my favorite blog-sharing plugin. Using Tweet Old Post you can choose to share any or all of your blog posts on a periodic basis. It randomly picks and tweets old posts at an interval specified by you. There are many available customizations. You can choose to tweet or exclude specific categories or specific posts. You can also select specific date ranges. It takes less than five minutes to set up and I have seen a definite increase in visits to older posts since I have installed it.
Networked Blogs
Networked Blogs is not actually a plug in, but a Facebook app. Networked blogs can publish your blog posts to your Facebook feed as well as tweeting it. You can also place a Networked Blogs widget on your page which will allow readers to have your blog posts automatically published in their news feeds. It does require a little more effort to set up than some of the other options, but once you are set up, it’s an automated process, allowing you to set it and forget it.
Jetpack Sharing
The Sharing plugin is one of the components of Jetpack, WordPress’ collection of blog enhancements recently made available to WordPress.org users.
This plugin allows you to include the sharing options of your choice automatically with every post. It enables your readers to share to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn, as well as a few other sites. You can also add other custom sites of your choice. Using a Sharing plug in allows your readers to share your posts with a single click. It really doesn’t get much easier than that.
Shareholic is another simple sharing plugin with many options that is easy to use and very popular. Doing a quick search on wordpress.org’s plugin page will bring up dozens of choices so you can customize your site in any way you want. Just make sure that the option you choose will be simple for your readers to use. Getting too fancy or complicated defeats the purpose and will lead to less sharing, not more. This is true of any sharing option.
These are just a few of the tools you can use to attract more readers to your blog.
Do you have a favorite sharing plugin? Do you have a plugin you’d like to know more about. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
And if you found this post interesting or helpful, please use the buttons below to share it with your network.
I love wordpress, both .org and .com. I don’t self host anymore since I stopped working, but some the churches that I help do self host.
Sally K Witt, Social recently posted..Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site – Pennsylvania
I’ve not tried Jetpack for sharing yet. Do you like it better than Shareaholic, Marie?
Helena recently posted..Practice Makes Perfect: 10 Things My Father Taught Me About Being My Best Self
I actually do like a bit better, Helena. I was having a few issues with Shareholic on one of my sites. The jetpack sharing plugin seems to be a bit less resource intensive.
I’ll definitely check these Jetpack.I’ll install the tweet old post.Thanks for your tips.I learned new from you.
Laura recently posted..Toothache through London
Geez thanks for this very amazing blog you have here.
Carol recently posted..Murano glass
Thanks for the great resources Marie. I had not heard of Jetpack before but will definitely check it out. I love new plugins and apps. I also like to have a Buffer button on my blog. A lot of people use Buffer these days, so it gives them a quick and easy sharing option.
Jennifer recently posted..5 Tools to Focus Your Business and Double Your Profits
See, I’m learning from you already, Marie! I’ve installed the Networked Blogs widget into my blog sidebar, but saw nothing in the process about the ‘widget’ being put on my FB page to put my blog posts in my ‘contacts’ feeds. did I miss something?
BUT… I just saw some of my blog posts listed below as I was ready to ‘post comment’.
Terri L Maurer recently posted..Finding your ideal customers
The widget actually goes on your blog, Terri. Once networked blogs has verified you it doesn’t have to stay there, but if you have it up, it’s another easy way for readers to follow you–and to get your posts in their Facebook newsfeed.
As for the blog posts listed below your comments. Those appear courtesy of CommentLuv, another great plugin that benefits your blog commenters by providing a link to your most recent post. If you look at the comments, you’ll see that at the end of each comment, we can see what that commenter most recently posted on their blog, giving both an inbound link for them AND an opportunity to entice us to go visit and read.
Thanks for the tips I will also be installing the Tweet old post as well.
Elaine Shannon recently posted..Go Easy on Me I am Still Growing
I am definitely going to try Tweet Old Post – that will come in handy!
Can you tell me more about how to get started with Networked Blogs? I registered my blog at the facebook app. Now do I just look for other blogs to follow?
Nisha recently posted..25 Ways To Instantly Boost Your Mood
Did you install the widget to verify your blog? That definitely speeds up the process. Then you just look for blogs to follow and you can invite people to follow yours as well.
Thanks to you I just installed the Tweet Old Post plugin yesterday! Thanks Marie
I am learning so much!
Anita recently posted..7 Ways to Accept Yourself for Who You Are
GREAT post & THANKS Marie.
I had not heard of Tweet old post either.
Dale Anne Potter recently posted..Re-Inventing
Yes, I love networked blogs! Anything we can do to automate that helps spread our content, I’m all for it!
Martha Giffen recently posted..How To Step Out, Step Up, and Not Get Stepped ON!
I never heard of Tweet old Post, but that is something I do regularly – so it would be great to have a plugin to do it for me!
Susan Critelli recently posted..They Gave Us Six Months
it’s definitely made my life easier, Susan. Not having to go in and manually choose posts and set up tweets is such a time saver.