Blog contest and 5 useful WordPress plugins
Its been a long time since I did any updates on my blog and installed any new plugins and since I am seriously back to blogging now, I thought its time to upgrade my wordpress installation to the latest 2.9 version.
I will be posting monthly or bi-monthly blog update posts depending on the activity that takes place on my blog, I will be noting down Feed subscribers, traffic and blog revenue and any other updates such as plugin installations.
RSS Feed Subscribers
I added the feedburner chicklet today, and as you can see I only have 3 RSS subscriber, lol, on my defense, I haven’t been a constant blogger for along time, and I never really focused on promoting my blog or encouraging readers to subscribe to it, but all of that is going to change! why? well one part of it is that I plan to be way more active on my blog, secondly i am going to start a blog contest!
The blog Contest
The contest is very simple, signup to my RSS feeds and get a chance to win one of the following:
- $50 prize sent to your paypal account.
- Any template if your choosing from ThemeForest.
- 6 months free shared hosting account on any of their plans from my good friends at MellowHost.
- 3 Link placement on any of the u4media blogs for 2 months, free!
More prizes might be added if I get any friends to sponsor it, if anyone is interested, shoot me an email.
Note: The contest will be running for 2 weeks. You need to leave a comment on this post to be entered and contacted if you won.
Blog Updates and plugins
As I mentioned above, I just upgraded my blog to the latest wordpress version, its always best to update your blog right when a new version is out, simply because a new version is released either because there was an exploit that was found and fixed or there was a new feature or enhancement that was added, in either case you should install the latest version right away.
In other updates I added Mybloglog to the sidebar, I’ve been along time member at Mybloglog and I’ve had their widget on my old theme, but I didn’t add it again when I switched themes.
I also installed a number of very useful plugins that I would like to share with you:
1- TweetMeme
You may have noticed that retweet button added to each post, this very useful since it allows your readers to quickly retweet your content, its always a good idea to make it easier for people to share your content, you can download the Tweetmeme plugin here.
2- Comment Relish
This was a plugin recommended by PluginId, what it does is send an email to people who comment on your blog for the 1st time, usually thanking them for commenting and encouraging them to signup to your blog, feeds or email newsletter, you can download comment relish here.
While making sure of the download page I came across a blog post on Siteguide that gives 3 reasons against using comment relish, while blogs such as Problogger recommend this plugin, each side has a good view on things but I still think its a very good plugin especially if you keep the email it sends simple, not annoying and not too needy.
3- Add to any
Just as the Tweetmeme button is a good idea, these share/save buttons you see at the end of each post is a great idea as well, it makes sharing your posts and content much easier for your readers, which is always beneficial for you. The plugin allows users to share your content on more than 50 social bookmarking/networking websites, you can download the Add to any plugin here.
4- Enhanced WordPress contact form
As you can guess from the name, this plugin adds a nice contact form for your blog, its installation is extremely easy, it literally took me 3 minutes to install it and update my contacts page, you can download the plugin here
5- My Top Commentators
This plugin is only viewable in the admin side, where it displays the top commentors on your blog, very useful to find out who they are, you can view them based on a number of time frames, today, last 7 days, this month, this year etc. installing it is also very easy. You can download Commentators here.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:40 am
i m in subscribe.
December 31st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I have subscribed to the Rss feeds. Glad to know that you are ‘seriously back to blogging’ . Hope to read some more awesome posts written by you.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Thanks Bharani, I am definitely back to blogging and you can look fwd. for more posts real soon.
December 31st, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Excellent! I subscribed to your RSS feed through Google Reader. Look forward to all the great posts to come!
January 1st, 2010 at 2:45 am
Hi, I’ve subscribed to this blog. Hope to see more informative things being posted and really looking forward to more great posts….
January 1st, 2010 at 9:52 am
- Subscribed RSS feed
- Blogged (http://contestitalia.co.cc/contest/vinci-35-e-e-altri-premi/)
January 1st, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Hi,
Have subscribed to your blog RSS feeds! Thanks.
January 1st, 2010 at 11:55 pm
subscribed by mail, thanks…
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:28 am
Hi, just subscribed to you feed burner. Also read some posts, nice blog you have. I would like to share one more plugin ALL IN ONE SEO which is works great in SEO but looks you now a good about SEO you must have installed it or its alternatives. Also thanks for sharing your plugins, I am going to add them in my blog.
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:38 am
Subscribed to your RSS feed through Pageflakes
January 2nd, 2010 at 12:41 am
I have also subscribed to your feed by email.My email address is the same by which I commented
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:46 am
Subscribed to you. with the email id given in the comment. Let me know if I win.
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:54 am
wow a contest, nice
i’m joining. i subscribed to your feeds via email. i used the same email i used in commenting.
on the other hand, thanks for sharing those plugins. i’ll check them out
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:09 am
Hello is subscribed to your feeds: thecontestgeek[at]gmail.com
blog: http://www.thecontestgeek.com/2010/01/02/blog-contest-and-5-useful-wordpress-plugins/
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:09 am
[...] Contest Name: Blog contest and 5 useful WordPress plugins Contest URL: http://www.sohaibthiab.com/2009/12/blog-contest-and-5-useful-wordpress-plugins/ [...]
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:47 pm
[...] there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Sohaib Thiab has a simple blog contest. Just subscribe to his RSS feed and comment with your contact [...]
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Great contest! I subscribed to your RSS via email. I used the one I wrote in the email field here. I also blogged about it.
January 2nd, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Hi! I subscribed to your RSS updates via email. My email address is crookmusic0821[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Just subscribed with akira_world07[at]yahoo.com
Count me in…!!!
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:52 pm
hi. i have already subscribed to your posts via Google Reader. more power!
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:39 am
subscribed already! nice contest!
January 3rd, 2010 at 1:38 am
subscribed with the email address karanits2003[at]gmail[dot]com
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:59 am
I subscribe to you now!
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:09 am
done subscribing! email : ceiipot@yahoo.com
nice blog anyway.. and tnx for the plugin..
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:21 am
Happy New Year! I am joining this contest. I subscribed via email using liezl_7m5(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
THanks!
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 am
i Have subscribed to feed By Email : Lucifer12 [@] Ymail.com
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:24 pm
I have subscribing and ready for this contest
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
subscribed, email address tomrat2212@yahoo.com
thx
January 3rd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
subcribed using rosa@rosamuth.com
blog about the contest http://istarblog.com/2010/01/blog-contest-and-5-useful-wordpress-plugins/
January 4th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Visiting you again my friend. Hopefully I’ll win!
January 6th, 2010 at 3:59 am
Hi
I have subscribed. Count me in for the contest.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:07 am
hi!! I subscribed to your blog!! Welcome back to blogging
January 6th, 2010 at 5:29 am
subscribed using kennethmanalad@gmail.com
January 7th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
subscribed using heartymhaye16@yahoo.com
January 7th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Thanks allot everyone, and good luck with the contest
January 8th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
You can count me in.
January 8th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
[...] Contest url: Sohaib Thiab [...]
January 9th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Subscribed with benmaxime@gmail.com
Thanks so much!
January 10th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Subscribed with spreadthatcontest[at]gmail[dot]com
Blogged at http://randomblogcontest.blogspot.com/2010/01/win-50-from-sohaibthiab.html
Thanks!
January 11th, 2010 at 3:17 am
[...] Contest URL: Win $50 at Sohaib Thiab’s Blog Contest [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 3:17 am
Subscribed using iheartcontest[at]gmail[dot]com.
Blogged at http://www.i-heart-contest.com/2010/01/win-50-at-sohaib-thiabs-blog-contest
Good luck to all!
January 12th, 2010 at 4:38 am
Hi!
I subcribe
I blogged it here http://kasai-mysimplelife.blogspot.com/2010/01/50-and-more-at-sohaib-thiab-blog.html
you can alsoreach me here mommykayth@yahoo.com
January 12th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Just subscribed using the same email address I used in this post… hoping to win!
January 13th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
hey,
why isn’t the commenting system working on other posts?? I tried commenting on your other posts but the page just refreshes and the comment does not get registered. (i’ve already subsribed to the rss feeds.)
BTW, when will you be be announcing the winners?
January 16th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I have subscribed using the same mail id we commented..hope to win
January 18th, 2010 at 12:09 am
No winner yet?
August 12th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
[...] Updating the blogs at U4Media Posted on 02 January 2010 Written by Sohaib Filed under Business, Projects 0 Responses to this post Since I finished updating my blog 2 days ago and already had all the files downloaded and the process laid out, I thought I should go ahead and update the blogs under U4media, I spent around 2 hours this morning doing so, which was mainly upgrading all of them to the latest WordPress installations and installing a few needed plugins that I mentioned in my previous post. [...]
August 12th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
[...] currently have 36 feed subscribers, I had only 3 readers when I started my RSS blog competition 5 days ago, I believe that jumping to 2000 readers is a bit high but I certainly think it is [...]
August 12th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
[...] 2010 Written by Sohaib Filed under Personal, Projects 5 Responses to this post Ok, so the blog contest is over and its time to announce the winners of the 4 prizes, but before I do that, lets the effect [...]