Turn Your WordPress Website into an iPhone App

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Brian

I only write about a few online services that are really impressive. This is quite an amazing service. If you like to control every little thing you can when creating a website or coding a program this may not be for you. However read on if you want a fast and affordable way to create an iPhone App with your website content.

Instant iPhone Application
create an iphone app with your website If you want to have an iPhone application instantly with the content from your website you have to give WiziApp a try, their site is here at WiziApp.com. Take a look at the image to the right.

The application is easily customizable. You simply pick an application name, customize the menu bar and also include advertisements to potentially generate revenue. This will create an iPhone application that everyone can find in the App Store and download.

How does it Work?
There are three simple steps:

(1) Download the WordPress Plugin – This step is free, you download and install the WordPress plugin. You then get to view what the iPhone app with your content would look like.
(2) Create Your App – There is a step by step wizard that walks you through the various decisions to customize your app. Consider this a plug and play application, as you make the decisions by answering the wizards questions you see your app changing to reflect those changes in real time.
(3) Publish to Appstore – You just give your app a description and they publish it to the App Store for you.

What from my WebSite is in the App?
All of your content can be delivered. The basics are your pages, posts, comments, categories, tags and links. They take it one step further and also include images, audio files and videos. All of the content is published in real time. In other words once it hits your website as a new post it will appear in the application itself instantly. You do not have to do anything, this is all taken care of for you by WiziApp. Also if you have ever had an application push information to you, you know how valuable this can be. I have a CNBC app that tells me when there are new hot stories with a pop up on my iPhone. The WiziApp can do this for you as well and you can push information to your audience.

Statistics
I love statistics and analytics to understand how various things are working and making decisions with the information. WiziApp provides information on your application. You can see daily App store stat updates as well as visits and downloads. All this information is provided for in your website control panel just like site stats.

They Update for You
If the Applications need updating due to a new iPhone operating system or change, WiziApps makes that change for you.

Make Money with Your Application
You can choose to have advertisements included in the application. You can keep the application ad-free or you can include them. Advertisements are implemented by allowing you to use your own AdMob account. This is nice for a couple of reasons. First, the WiziApp company does not take any of the revenue you generate, in other words they do not have their hand in your pocket. Second, you continue your one to one relationship with AdMob and receive your payments from them directly as you normally would.

Cost?
This service is not free. There is a setup fee and a monthly fee. Setups range from $200 to $500 and monthly costs range from $20 to $50. Now contrast that with what you would have to pay someone to create a custom application for you and then make modifications if an update is needed. This is a quick and comparatively inexpensive way to have an iPhone application for your site.

Visit WiziApp
Here is the WiziApp.com link again.

WordPress Plugin for Ads in Email

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Brian

If you have your WordPress site setup to send out emails you can monetize them now. Andy Bailey, the creator of ComLUV (CommentLuv) has also created a new WordPress plugin to add messages to the bottom of every message sent. This is a great plugin to assure you add value to each and every message being sent. Use it for cross promotion of your own site, other sites you may have, to remind people of your Facebook page or Twitter account, and many other ideas.

Video of WP Mail Ads

You can learn more about the WP Mail Ads plugin here and purchase it if you like: http://ql2.me/1/wpmailads/

Entrepreneur from Idea to Success

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Brian

CommentLuv is a comment tool for your website to help grow your audience and more. I have written about it many time as I am a big fan and use it myself. The creator is Andy Bailey. He has created a site where you can learn more about how it was created and to obtain the next version of the tool when it is available. See the CommentLuv site here.

There are videos posted and more coming. You can watch the videos that walk you through his story of creating the CommentLuv plugin and now an entire community. It all blossomed from his desire to not have to maintain a blog roll. He taught himself to program, learned to create WordPress plugins and the rest is history. All while managing his Chinese food restaurant. His story is inspiring, and from my interaction with him I have to say he’s a humble, hardworking, great guy, and his humor makes the videos very interesting.

The videos are very interesting and for those looking for motivation while working on their own ideas you will find Andy’s story inspiring.

Comment Love Plugin Video

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Brian

Using the Comment Luv plugin helps increase comments on your site. When a comment is left a link is added along with the comment to the commentors last blog post. Therefore the commentor is encouraged to leave comments on others sites which use the Comment Luv plugin as they will receive a link to their site. This is a nice reward for their post and encourages comments on your site and additional web traffic. Of course you can still moderate the comment and if their comments are not relevant you do not have to accept them.

Here is an excellent video of the latest version 2.9 of the plugin.

Get the new plugin here : CommentLuv.com

Find the entire Comment Luv community here : ComLuv.com

BIG Blogging Contest

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Brian

Last year we talked about the Blog Contest organized by the ComLUV Network. This year it is better than ever. The organizers are the ComLUV Network, FamousBloggers, iBlogZone, and MyBlogGuest for the contest. There are many sponsors that have donated and support the contest (disclaimer, we are one of them). You can win cash prizes and they, as of the writing of this post, just over $4,000 in prizes. The contest is to write an article about “Traffic Generation” and submit it.

How to Enter the Contest
To enter the contest read about the contest, the rules, and how to enter here at The Big blogging contest of 2011. You may already be creating articles and content, why not give this contest a shot, it also helps market your own site. And the ComLuv plugin and community are excellent. Take a look.

Increase Your Blog Traffic and Engagement with CommentLuv

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Brian

I have been using the ComLuv plugin for WordPress on my site and love it, no pun intended. You may think at first glance that it is a comment plugin to replace another plugin you already use but that is not the case. CommentLuv, as it is called, does not displace your current commenting system. It merely enhances it.

What is CommentLuv and How Does it Work?
First you install the plugin on your own blog, see below. Then you become a member, registration is free, and include your blog in their system. Become a member here. Now when you leave a comment on a blog that also has CommentLuv enabled you will obtain a link back to your website. Typically when you leave a comment on someones website you either cannot leave a link back to your site or the link is tied to your user name. You more than likely would like a return link so others will find your blog as well. Enter CommentLuv.

comment luv choose post

When you leave a comment you will then see a drop down list of the most recent posts from your website.

You can choose which one you would like to have a link back to.

Therefore when someone reads your comment they see the title of your article, that you choose, and it is hyper-linked back to your site. This is much better than the default commenting system that either strips links or links them from your name. It is also a good system for webmasters because the individual leaving the link has to first register at CommentLuv and can only choose one of their most recent blog posts as opposed to linking to some other site. It is a win-win plugin. There are over 190,000 downloads to date.

Install CommentLuv
Here is a link to the CommentLuv new version of the plugin for WordPress 2.92 and above get CommentLuv 2.80b here. For versions up to WordPress 2.92 see the WordPress.org CommentLuv page here.

CommentLuv Author
The CommentLuv author is an extremely nice individual that works very hard to keep his plugin community happy. I have found Andy Bailey to be very humble and gracious. You can follow the latest CommentLuv information on twitter here @commentluv. Give the plugin a try.

WordPress Comment System Intense Debate

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Brian

intense_debate_logo
Blog Post Comments
I have long searched for a commenting system for my site. There are a couple popular commenting systems that I will not mention by name but have been around for a while. None of them seem to fit what I was looking for. Then I came across a system by intense debate. Not only does it have a nice clean, neat interface on the blog itself, but the feature list is quite impressive. The creators seem to have thought about the needs of the users of the system as well as the administrator. It was very simple to install and basically set itself up. As a disclaimer I need to say I do not know anyone at this company nor did they ask me to try their product, I merely ran across it and gave it a try.

I seem to have a disease when it comes to new plug-ins for WordPress or new software. Ever since the days of downloading shareware via modem and a BBS trying everything under the sun, installing so much that I constantly had to reinstall my operating system, I have no problem trying something new.

intense_debate_wordpress_sync Comment Syncing
One of the first things to note, as a feature, is that your comments are uploaded into their system. However, not to worry, as there is always a sync between their system and yours in case you ever want to deinstall. That of course was the first hurdle I had to come over because I was not sure if I was going to keep it. By merely installing the sync feature they calmed my fears and I gave it a try. Brilliant customer acquisition feature on their part.

Comment Threading
I personally enjoy the comments and the dialogue around each post. However sometimes when you have 10, 20 or 100 comments it becomes difficult to follow the conversation. This is probably due to the fact that there are actually many conversations within the comments. While people reply to others comments, some people choose to post new questions or comments. This system allows for comment threading so that you or others can reply to one particular comment. Instead of the reply being added to the bottom of the list it is indented along with the comment it replied to.

User Profiles
Here is something I did not think about, and that is the relationship between the various commenters on your site. Most of those who maintain a blog think of themselves as the one individual that everyone is having a conversation with. A one to many relationship. However intense debate has implemented commenter profiles so the readers can learn about one another. Therefore you have a many to many relationship as readers can learn about each other and comment to each other. While users have always been able to comment to each other, this allows them to know more about one another.

Login

No one, myself included, wants to create a new ID or account at every blog they read and comment on. There is the ability for you to login via Facebook, Twitter, or open ID. Now your users can login and comment on your site with an ID they actually created elsewhere and do not have to create a unique one for your site. This helps because now everyone has an instant profile and the comments among users becomes more likely.

Admin Features
There are many administrative features, if you are the site owner, to make your life much easier. One that I think is excellent is the reply-by-email. Therefore you can respond to and moderate comments via email without having to log into the site.

There are many other administrative features, take a look at what they have the offer and try out the system by posting comments to this post if you like.

Conclusion
There are many reasons to give the system a try, I suggest you take a look at intense debate and what they have to offer. I am very glad to consider my search for a worthy commenting system to be done. Whenever you use a service or a product that you do not think is just right, it is always in the back of your mind, however I am glad to put this one to bed.

WordPress Forums Plugin

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Brian

If you are looking for a simple to install, easy to use, forum for wordpress – here is one. It is called Simple Press put out by Yellow Swordfish.

Take a look at the plugin page, it has an impressive list of features. The download page is here.

Useful Link to Me Textbox WordPress Plugin

Posted on October 7, 2008 by Brian

I found a great new plugin from Technet News, see the article about Top WordPress SEO Tips for Top 10 Rankings, where I found a great article which discussed the Link to Me Textbox WordPress Plugin.

The page for the Link Me Textbox has a link to download it and instructions to install it. At the bottom of this article you can see it in action, the box with code to easily link to the article. This greatly assists those that would like to link to you. If they cut and paste it already has the title of your article and link, instead of leaving the title (anchor text) up to those that link. It is not that a person linking to you would make a mistake linking, it is just better to have consistent anchor tags.

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