~Got Questions? I’ve Got Answers For YOU!~

 Confused about a plugin?

Stumped over a setting?

Curious about a Facebook Page?

Need advice on branding?

Don’t know your widgets from your what’zits?

Whether you’re just getting started or well on your way to becoming a social media rockstar, don’t miss this chance to get your questions answered on a live Q&A webinar!

No gimmicks, no script, just live WordPress & Social Marketing question and answer time! 

Generally held first Wednesday of The Month! (Yes, that’s a #WordPressWednesday too!)

For December, webinar will be 2pm CST (GMT-6) Wednesday 02-01-12.
It will be recorded and emailed to you.

Register Me For The Webinar &
Cool News & Tips Too!

RSVP on Facebook! —> http://just-ask-kim.com/recommends/WPQandA/fb

Don’t forget to bring your questions! Share this with your friends…. they will thank you!

Kimberly

PS: Already a subscriber and have pressing questions but unable to attend? The reminder email you received has a link to a web form to fill out to submit your questions.  I will do my best to get them included in the session!

How do you get ROI on Facebook?
Let Mari Smith show you how
on this Free Webinar

Here’s great news on a Facebook event I’m excited about… because it comes from someone who knows her stuff!

If you’ve been trying to get social media to work for your business, you know that Mari Smith provides some of the best guidance there is for making sense of it all.

And as entrepreneurs and small businesses owners, we are all interested in getting better at Facebook marketing and relationship marketing in a big way.

So, I’m VERY excited to tell you what’s in store for you on Tuesday, January 31st. Mari’s going to be leading one of her informative webinars on Facebook Marketing for 2012 — and you’re invited!

(And she always records them so be sure to register even if you can’t attend!)

With all the recent changes over at Facebook, sometimes it’s tough to stay ahead and use the world’s largest social network to guarantee consistent visibility, engagement and growth for your business.

With all the big changes coming to Facebook this week, including the Timeline “mandatory” launch and Facebook’s potential IPO now is definitely the time to be in the know!

That’s why Mari’s offering this free webinar, to get you up to speed on Facebook Marketing right at the start of the year. It’s all about the best ways to develop a raving fanbase so that they REALLY connect with you and love to buy from you.

Click Here To Register

I recommend you register right away to save your seat on Mari’s first big Facebook event of 2012 before it fills up (because if her previous webinars are any indication, I really think the virtual seats on this one will be overflowing too!) I’ve already signed up, so let’s both start this year off with a big boost to our Facebook marketing for 2012!

Join Now!

I hope to see you on the webinar!

~ Kim ~
Simple Tech Tips For Marketing

PS: I’ll see you live at her webinar on Tuesday… and then again at my (free) WordPress & Social Marketing webinar on Wednesday!

Managing Affiliate Links &
Keyword Embedding
With Pretty Link Pro

Management of dozens of affiliate links can be a nightmare for any affiliate and a rather insane one for a blogger!

Between trouble remembering them, visitors stripping off the affiliate IDs, the links being scary, and having to always remember to embed them in our content… most of us wish that the links would just take care of themselves!

Now they can!

Just to recap….

In part 1 of this series, we looked at the trouble with affiliate links and why solutions are badly needed. I highlighted the need for three key elements: link organization, link cloaking and easy link embedding.

In part 2 of this series, we looked at some free WordPress plugins that can be a good jumping-off point for a new blogger. Unfortunately, none of these plugins independently delivered on all three goals.

Then, in part 3, I introduced you to Pretty Link Lite, a fantastic solution for any blogger with a number of attributes that make it useful. This plugin has great organization and offers redirects but no cloaking.

Now, I want to introduce you the a plugin that has been a gem in my toolbox.

Pretty Link Pro!

At the risk of sounding a little hypey… this plugin has been the backbone of my social media and affiliate marketing work for almost two years and has consistently been dependable.

This plugin makes me money!

The honest truth is that there are very few plugins that make me money. This plugin keeps track of my links, makes them memorable and consistently WORKS. (The other plugin I would put in this class is WPSubscribers.)

Pretty Link Pro is a premium upgrade to the free Pretty Link Lite that brings a ton of useful and powerful features that you’re going to love!

Let me take you behind the scenes of this plugin…

Pretty Link Pro Edition

The professional version of Pretty Link plugin brings many of the advanced management tools that a marketer needs to the table!

• Organize Links into Groups
• Automatically Replace Keywords In Your Post With Pretty Links
• Mask aka Cloak Links To Protect Your Affiliate Earnings
• Share a Pretty Link of your post, to your twitter account, automatically on Publish
• More & Improved Social Media Share Buttons on the Pretty Bar
• Configure the PrettyBar to mirror the look and feel of your website
• Setup Pretty Links as Tracking Pixels and track impressions
• Keep users on your site even when being redirected by using the PrettyBar which stays at the top of the page
• PLUS Everything else that Pretty Link Lite does including track clicks!

Plugin Flaws

Because I speak so highly of it, I often get asked where I might fault this plugin. The answer to that is two-fold.

First off, the sales page is weak! Seriously, go have a look! It’s alright, you can poke around but you won’t really understand what a work horse this little plugin is! So you’re going to have to trust me on this one.

Second, this plugin still does not YET have a good in-post editor menu to easily hard-code in your links. Other plugins in the class actually do a respectable job here but PLP is a bit behind.

Fortunately, I’ve been talking with Blair & Paul, the gents behind this plugin (you know I’m often actively involved in the plugins I depend on!) and there is some big upgrades for this plugin currently being coded now… including a solution for in-post work. I’m delighted!

Even without the in post editor box, this plugin is really great (and I just open the PLP link list in another browser tab to get what I need). PLP is still head and shoulders above the competition.

Plus, it’s built by guys who have done a lot for the WordPress GPL community and have a number of fully GPL free plugins they have given to the community to help everyone. These are the kinda folks I love to support and I know you do too.

Summary

If you do affiliate marketing, this plugin is best in its class. I personally couldn’t manage without it and I love the personalization it gives my links!

There’s not too many plugins that I “bet the house on” but this one I will!

PLUS! There’s a special deal going on right now (and only lasts a couple of days) where using coupon code 4FD88E95C3 will get you 20% off of the developer license for Pretty Link Pro! (You can also save 40% on Affiliate Royale Unlimited Edition, a great plugin by the same team, to create your very own affiliate program.)

Thoughts? Comments? Leave your questions below, I look forward to answering them! 

Go check out Pretty Link Pro! 

~ Kim ~ 
Simple Tech Tips For Marketing 

Beware These 
Dangerous Plugins!

When preparing to update WordPress… There are three types of plugins you need to really paid attention too:

Those that tell you they need updates (they’re the easy ones!) The answer is simple here, update them before you upgrade…..

Those premium plugins that are sneaky because they don’t always use the auto update feature.

Be sure you’ve heard from the creator that they are compatible. For example, Popup Dom was not compatible with WP 3.3 at release (but a patch was available soon after) and needed deactivated or the upgrade broke…

and lastly… those plugins that sit there and don’t tell you they need up update but it’s because their developer abandoned them more than a year ago and they’re silently preparing to blow shit up for you.

Plugins with “last updated” dates of 2010 and older are often very dangerous (And 2008 plugins are almost always about to break stuff for sure!)

A little time spent entering the names of your plugins into the WordPress repository -> https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ and checking the last updated (and compatible with what version) details on them will alert you to deactivate them and find alternatives (and prevent costly bills since they won’t then be around to break your site).

Another tip, which I advise in my tutorial on how to upgrade WordPress safely, is to be sure to deactivate (not delete, deactivation preserves settings) your theme and plugins before you upgrade. Then upgrade. Then reactivate your stuff bit by bit so if something blows up you’ll at least KNOW which piece (and your upgrade at least will have run successfully).

Do WordPress upgrades make you nervous? Or have you mastered theme successfully? What “gottchas” would you recommend novice WordPress bloggers pay attention too?

~ Kim ~
Simple Tech Tips for Marketing

Enjoy This Webinar

Are you a small business owner looking for some creative social media marketing ideas for your small business? Do you want to know how your peers are using social media?

Are you wondering how other small businesses are using Facebook, YouTube, blogging, Google+ and beyond to increase traffic and sales?

Please join consider joining Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner) on Tuesday, January 17th, in a live and FREE event called “9 Small Businesses Doing Social Media Right and What You Need to Know.” 

Michael will show you what smart small businesses are doing right with social media and what you need to know.

By attending this free online event you’ll discover innovative ways your peers are using social media (and leave with ton’s of ideas you can apply right now).

The free seats are limited to the first 1000 people (and the event takes place in just a few days).  Be sure to go here and secure your seat now before they’re gone.

Hope to see you there!

~ Kim ~

P.S. Remember, this is a free online event and it will be recorded–but you must register in advance by going here now.

Introducing Google Social Search!

CNN News Reports: “The largest change to Googles search results in History starts today”.

Today, Google made the merger I’d told you to watch for…

Google merged their default search results with G+ creating the much-discussed “social search”.

You can read more on Google’s Blog and on the CNN news story.

Who wins? Social influencers with name recognition leverating G+ and the +1 button. Who loses? The old school SEO’er. Exactly as predicted.

It is worth noting that those who don’t like these personalized results can now easily turn them off which is new and useful to us as well. However, by default they are on and are what the average searcher will see if they are logged in.

This is what Facebook COULD have done two years ago and trumped Google with but delayed and has lost a critical foothold.

What does this mean for you? It means that while SEO principles remain important… that social influence and market recognition in the social space is now a KEY SEO element.

If you took my advice to leverage the +1 button, Google+, pages, authorship and badges (wow, what a mouthful!) you are now going to begin reaping the rewards.

It means that more than ever you must establish yourself in your niche, in your market and set out to become a recognized personality!

Training courses such as this are one way to expand your knowledge of how to win this game. The students that took part in the 30 Day Challenge with me last month also learned a LOT about this type of social influence.

Regardless of how you do it this is the only kind of influence that is “future proof”. Tech will come and go, searches will come and go, social sites will come and go… but when you have influence and a strong community or “tribe” around you it will allow you to continue to thrive!

~ Kim ~
Simple Social Tech Tips For Marketing

PS: Be sure you read the post on Google’s Blog!

Get Your Podcasts
In PocketCasts

For smartphone users, subscribing to podcasts via PocketCasts is one of the simplest ways to find great shows! It also removes the need to sync the phone regularly.

In a prior post, I introduced you to Podcasts and explained why this is one of my favorite new medias.

Simply stated, podcasts are the equivalent of radio shows, produced in serial fashion, and available for listening through a “feed” that can be subscribed to using software.

The two most common ways to subscribe are via iTunes (which will sync to other Apple mobile devices) and via the PocketCast application for both iphone & android.

Subscribe to a PodCast via PocketCasts

1. First, you need to install PocketCasts on your android/iphone.

Installing the app is simple and you can find it in either phone types market or by visiting  http://pocketcasts.com/ and clicking on the appropriate tab.

It sounds like a version for Win7 mobile phones may be in the works but is not available yet.

2. Add a PodCast to PocketCasts! 

Once PocketCasts is installed, open the app and go to the “search” icon in the bottom navigation bar. This looks like a small magnifying glass.

Here you can either search for podcasts based on words or click the “import podcasts” link to either upload an OPML file or subscribe to a podcast by URL.

If you’ve already subscribed to a bunch of podcasts in iTunes, exporting that list as an OPML and and emailing the file to yourself so that you can open it on your mobile phone with pocketcasts is probably the fastest way to clone your subscriptions.

Usually though, you will find yourself either searching in the library (which searches the iTunes podcast library) for new shows or typing in the feed URL of a show you want to subscribe to on your phone.

Some feed URLs look like http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTechTipsforMarketing and others look like http://examle.com/podcast.xml The trick here is that they must already be a specially configured RSS feed URL and not a blogs regular feed though they look similar.

Summary

PocketCasts is a quick and easy way to subscribe, listen and enjoy podcasts on your mobile smartphone. It’s ease of use makes it desirable even for those with iPhones/iTunes syncing.

If you are on a limited data package, you will want to go into Settings (the gear icon) and click on “When New Episode”. Here you can tell the phone what action to take and the “download only on wifi” or “download only on wifi and power” are your best picks. I actually use “do nothing” here as I prefer to pick when it gets files.

If you find that you can listen faster than the speaker talks, adding on the supplemental Presto Player (a free download) can allow you to listen to Podcasts at 0.6x (slower), all the way up to 2x faster than usual. I listen to most podcasts at 1.2x and there are a few I listen to at 1.5x.

Be sure to subscribe to my new podcast Simple Tech Tips for Marketing!

Are you listening to podcasts? What is your favorite way to subscribe to them? What device do you prefer listening to them on? (desktop, laptop, mobile, etc). Have you checked out PocketCasts? Share your thoughts below!

~ Kim ~
Simple Tech Tips for Marketing

Related Posts:

* How to Subscribe to a Podcast in iTunes via Just-Ask-Kim.com
* Podcasts, My New Favorite Media via Just-Ask-Kim.com
* Podcasting: A Fun Tool For Personal And Business Use via Blondish.net
* The State of Podcasting [Data] via Hubspot
* From Screencast to Podcast via BasicBlogTips.com
* Hands on: five podcast apps that improve on iOS functionality via ArsTechnica.com
* Use Podcast Player To Play Your Favorite Podcasts In Chrome via MakeUseOf.com

Get Your Podcasts
On iTunes

For desktop/laptop users, subscribing to podcasts by iTunes is one of the simplest ways to find great shows!

In a prior post, I introduced you to Podcasts and explained why this is one of my favorite new medias.

Simply stated, podcasts are the equivalent of radio shows, produced in serial fashion, and available for listening through a “feed” that can be subscribed to using software.

The two most common ways to subscribe are via iTunes (which will sync to other Apple mobile devices) and via the PocketCast application for both iphone & android.

Two Methods to Subscribe to a PodCast via Itunes

1.  Click an iTunes-ready link to view the iTunes Page for the Podcast.

For example, you’ll find Simple Tech Tips for Marketing (mine) here. If you’re prompted to open iTunes click allow/okay, otherwise, click the “View in iTunes” button on the page.

Once you are viewing the podcast page in iTunes, simply click the subscribe button, and you’re good to go.

You will then see a “Podcasts” option appear under your Library listing in the left margin.  This is where you will visit to listen.

2. Copy-Paste A Podcast Feed URL into iTunes

In the main menu, select Advanced -> Subscribe To Podcasts… and paste in the feed URL of the Podcast you want to subscribe too.

Some feed URLs look like http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTechTipsforMarketing and others look like http://examle.com/podcast.xml The trick here is that they must already be a specially configured RSS feed URL and not a blogs regular feed though they look similar.

Summary

As you can see it’s super easy to subscribe to a podcast in iTunes. And iTunes makes it super-simple to sync these items to your iPhone/iPad for easy listening on your mobile if you don’t mind needing to sync.

You can find more tips for using iTunes with Podcasts on Apple’s page here.

To skip over the sync requirements, if I do not need the files on my desktop/laptop, I (and many others) prefer to subscribe using PocketCasts on our mobile (iphone/android) instead. I’ll cover PocketCasts in an upcoming post!

Be sure to subscribe to my new podcast  Simple Tech Tips for Marketing!

Are you listening to podcasts? What is your favorite way to subscribe to them? What device do you prefer listening to them on? (desktop, laptop, mobile, etc). Share your thoughts below!

~ Kim ~
Simple Tech Tips for Marketing

Related Posts:

* How to Subscribe to a Podcast in iTunes via Just-Ask-Kim.com
* Podcasts, My New Favorite Media via Just-Ask-Kim.com
* Podcasting: A Fun Tool For Personal And Business Use via Blondish.net
* The State of Podcasting [Data] via Hubspot
* From Screencast to Podcast via BasicBlogTips.com
* Hands on: five podcast apps that improve on iOS functionality via ArsTechnica.com
* Use Podcast Player To Play Your Favorite Podcasts In Chrome via MakeUseOf.com

Plugin Patching!

Did your PopUp Domination plugin blow stuff up when you upgraded WordPress? If you were using Version 2.0 it probably did!

Sometimes marketers find themselves in a emotional bind and try to go for a sale when its a bad idea…. Instead of taking care of a support issue they try to force an upsell…

That’s unfortunately what we’ve seen from Michael Dunlop’s team at PopUp Domination this week and it’s left many bloggers feeling stranded.

PD is a cool plugin. A lot of marketers love it. I don’t use it on my mainblog (I use WPSubscribers) but I do carry a developers license so I can use it on client sites I set up (one of the only things WPSubscribers does not offer).

If you run PopUp Domination 2.0 you know that it doesn’t work with WordPress version 3.3. Rather than patch 2.0 for you they’ve tried to pressure you into a premium upgrade.

One of my friends went so far as to contact support to see if there was a workaround and the best they could do was to advise her to purchase 3.0 at the retail price now.

Give me a break.

We can fix this… I’ll show you how!

I understand charging for upgrades… but not for serious bug fixes… and not in the first couple weeks that the prior paid-for-version goes out of being current. Six months perhaps, maybe… a month or less? Tacky.

Anyways, I digress…

It turns out its actually relatively easy to get PopUp Domination 2.0 working with WordPress 3.3 by making a simple tiny code change.

You don’t even have to log in via FTP but can access the plugin code by going to Dashboard -> Left Sidebar -> Plugins -> Editor (it’s in the popout menu). Once your in there, select the plugin from the drop-down in the upper right and then you will see the file list to pick from in the right margin.

Make PopUp Domination 2.0 Work With WordPress 3.3

The solution to fix it comes from Paul who shares that we simply need to first click on the file named popup-domination.php. That’s the file we’re going to edit to make PopUp Domination work with WordPress 3.3.

Then search for the line that reads:

wp_admin_css( 'theme-editor' );

here, add 2 // characters before it. You will make it look like this:

// wp_admin_css( 'theme-editor' );

This comments out the line – which tells WordPress to skip over (ignore) it.

Then click the “update file” button.

That’s all you need to do.

Be very careful while editing this file because even a minor typo can cause your blog to have issues and you to need to fix it from the hosting level. There are some other disclaimers shared in Paul’s post you may want to look at if you have a moment too.

So there ya go… now you’ve got Popup Domination v 2.0 working on WordPress 3.3!

Are you using PopUp Domination? What’s your favorite feature?

~ Kim ~
Simple Tech Tips For Marketing

Retrieve Your Subscriber Data
From Google Friend Connect!

Most bloggers don’t realize that the newsletter subscriber data from Google Friend Connect can be exported… though it’s not a pretty process!

With Google closing Friend Connect for those that are not on blogspot.com (yes, WordPress users, your Friend Connect widget is dead) it’s time to deal with preventing potential data loss.

Often, we want to take our existing subscribers and try to do SOMETHING with them… which isn’t going to happen if they just vanish into the blue with the closure of this project.

Log into http://www.google.com/friendconnect/ and go to the section for your site, and open it up and click on Community Data.

 Once you’re in Community Data, click on the “Export Community” tab and here you will find export options.

Looks great right? So what’s the problem?

The problem is that all the export options suck.

The best you can do, in Exporting the Google Friend Connect subscribers,  is to FIRST download the “all interest” CSV…. so that you have the names in a nice clear Excel sheet.  (You can delete the ID column)….  Then, export the XML file….

And then… open the XML file and start one by one copy-pasting the emails out and matching them up to the names in the excel spreadsheet (based on the names in the XML file that are simply in a poor layout).

This is “easy” but it is also tedious and time consuming if you have a lot of names in there.

Once you have the CSV rebuilt, you are are now ready to puzzle out WHAT to do with these names. Keep in mind that autoresponder companies that have good deliverability are NOT going to let you point-blank opt these people in (though they can be added and chose to confirm their subscription).

If the list is small, the best thing to do might be to send them a real email, touch base, mention what’s going on, and give them a link to an optin form.

Even in the event that you are using an AR service that lets you add them directly, your spam complaints and optouts are going to be high because these people rarely consider themselves “subscribers” to anything (and many have already forgotten you exist).

It is unfortunate that the newsletter feature seems to be fully disabled already or utilizing it to send the first message to these folks would be best.

Even in the event you can not opt them in at all anywhere else… at least you now have names and addresses and can easily send a real email and nurture a fragile relationship that would otherwise have been lost.

Please keep in mind that this will be a very fragile list and require some care to “warm up” and will be unlikely to handle regular contact well until you’ve had a chance to rebuild the relationship.

Well, it’s not pretty, but that’s how you export the newsletter subscribers out of your now defunct Google Friend Connect widget!

What do you think about the loss of this service? Has it impacted your blog?

~ Kim ~
Simple Tech Tips for Marketing