Chapter 3. Sharing Content

Now that you have your blog loaded chock-full of juicy content, it's time to help your readers share it. Just one amazing post, the right reader, and the tools to re-tweet, post to Facebook, or share on StumbleUpon, can turn your blog into an overnight sensation.

In this chapter, we'll cover:

  • How to let Twitter users share your blog posts
  • How to let Facebook users share your blog posts
  • Tracking downloadable content
  • Using Google to host your blog's RSS feeds
  • Creating and sending e-mail newsletters

TweetMeme

By Alex King (http://alexking.org/)

  • Why it's awesome: Allows Twitter users to quickly share your blog post, and it tracks how often they do it
  • Why it was picked: Super simple to install; no Twitter account is needed
TweetMeme
TweetMeme

The TweetMeme button is the fastest way to allow your readers to quickly share your blog posts to Twitter with a single click. In addition to offering this awesome sharing tool, you can also sign up for TweetMeme's analytic services to track the effectiveness of each of your posts.

Setting up TweetMeme

You can access TweetMeme's settings from the Top Level Navigation and then TweetMeme | Settings. The following is a list of the most important settings to focus on and what they do.

  • Display: Choose this if you want to display the TweetMeme button on pages, on the home page, and within your feed
  • Position: TweetMeme allows you to display the TweetMeme button in various positions around your blog posts—before, after, both before and after, shortcode, or manually
  • Type: TweetMeme offers two types of buttons—normal and compact. By default, the normal button is displayed
  • Source: Supply your Twitter username here, if you have one
  • URL Shortener: Often, WordPress blog post URLs are rather lengthy and can eat up to many of the 140 characters Twitter allows. It recommends using Bit.ly for your URL shortening—Bit.ly has proven to be a resilient company that won't be disappearing any time soon.
  • TweetMeme API App ID & TweetMeme API App Key: TweetMeme offers detailed analytics when people re-tweet your blog posts. This service is not free, but they do offer a free trial to get your hands dirty. To leverage TweetMeme analytics, you will need to create an account at http://my.tweetmeme.com, after which you will be able to find your API App ID and API App key from http://my.tweetmeme.com/profile.
上一章目录下一章