Weekly Web Tools

Today we see a wordpress plugin that entices your visitors to leave a comment (for some sort of free item) and then once they comment, they are asked to share on social media) THEN they get their free gift. This shows google that you have an ACTIVE website, and your visitors drive traffic via referrals. Here is the video Social Bribe Wordpress Plugin This plugin helps you get referrals and comments on your website Check out Social Bribe Website (http://jvz5.com/c/59893/65759) Vocaroo Free Audio Commenting Tool Vocaroo.com is a way for you to receive feedback via audio from your website (or for you to leave a message via email that then your visitor can click on to listen). The key if you record a message is to "Save it" but instead of sending link they provide, send the link to the mp3 and your visitor won't get bombarded with the ads.  

I found two themes that could be good for those looking to replace Thesis. One is Dynamik (ttp://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=398208&u=74276&m=29819&urllink=&afftrack=)and the other is Weaver. Dynamik is a child theme for Genesis that is UBER flexible. It boast over 800 NO OCDE features that you can implement. You will see in this video while that sounds a bit too flexible, they have it laid out pretty cool is its still intuitive. The final price of this would be $80 for Dynamik (ttp://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=398208&u=74276&m=29819&urllink=&afftrack=), and $59 for Genesis (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/genesis). Dynamik Website Builder for Geneisis Weaver II Wordpress Theme This is a free Wordpress theme with a option for more advanced features for $49. You can really customize everything and the different options are layed out so you can figure out exactly what your edits will do. You can find the free version by installing a new theme and choosing to search for Weaver II. The pro version is at http://pro.weavertheme.com/ (http://pro.weavertheme.com/) http://youtu.be/CRs5fwOF9O4

Today we hear about a free wordpress plugin that allows you to make great contact forms (and more). If you need to convert a non wordpress to a wordpress site, we have a tool that will convert the website to a wordpress theme with just a few clicks. Champion Forms Free Wordpress Plugin This is a great looking plugin that creates great looking forms. It's a nice alternative to Gravity Forms. * One-Click Installation via Wordpress Plugin. No Muss. No Fuss. * Form Header and Body Colors - Can be Changed to Match Your Site * Resizable – Add New Fields Easily * One Template, Build Multiple Forms – Use One Template for Different Form Structures * One Style. Different Form Layouts – Use One Style for Different Form Layouts * Widget Tool – Allows Use of Forms in Side Bars * Email Templates Included . Header height is restricted to 160px. Theme Matcher Turns Your Website Into a Theme If you have a website and you are ready to move to Wordpress, this tool allows you to look at a website and it will convert it to a Wordpress theme. The service costs $47 and comes with two revisions. Watch the video below you to see how this works.

(http://www.easyazon.com/images/300x250_easyazon.gif)Today I talk about a plugin I own that helps making Amazon.com affiliate links. If you watch the video below you will see where 1. It can take some time to search for the right product 2. Make the affiliate link 3. Add that to your website. Now I realize that its copy an paste, so its not like digging a ditch, but it can be time consuming. It forces you to leave your site, and lose your focus. I've been using the older version of this software and this year I made over $1500 affiliate commissions - and that's without using the new features.  Here are some cool new features. 1. The ability to extend your affiliate cooky by 89 days. 2. The ability to add pop ups from text links (which can add to clicks) 3. The ability to add just image links, just text links, etc. and call outs. These also have tons of options so you can make the type of links you want. Capitalize On Your Global Audience You will see in the video below that its super easy to capitalize on the global audience you might have by signing up for the amazon affiliate in different countries (I've been ignoring this option, but now that I see how easy it is to use I will definitely be adding this to my efforts. One Price For Unlimited Sites You can purchase this plugin (with some cool ebooks and video lessons) for $47. They also have great support. I know being a previous users they gave step by step directions on how to upgrade. I highly recommend it. Check out the video.

Want to turn your website into a greeting card? I've got an inexpensive plugin that can help. I also talk about a great service for sending greeting cards. Your Website as a Christmas Card (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/wp_echristmas-300x153.jpg)eCard and it has a lot of interesting features such as * GoogleFonts support for your text * 10 sound files included * 16 backgrounds included * Handy panel of settings * Preview in admin control panel * Ability to write your own greeting text * Ability to edit styles of text * Ability to set a text position (in the settings and in preview mode) * Ability to insert a link at the page or to open the eCard automatically * Ability of the eCard to be displayed in fullscreen mode You do have to upload this Wordpress plugin via ftp because of the large amount of music files. It's $14 (http://codecanyon.net/item/wp-christmas-ecard/6084422?ref=jammindave) I Love SendOutCards.com But What Are They REALLY Selling? I found a GREAT service that allows you to send quality greeting cards (with our without a gift) for next to NOTHING. I was AMAZED at how easy it was. Then I saw time and time again how I could make money with Soundoutcards.com (https://www.sendoutcards.com/86382/) I was thinking to myself that apparently have an affiliate program. I thought COOL cause I REALLY loved their service. It was super easy, super affordable. WOW. I accidentally purchased some credit for more cards thinking I had to be a customer to be an affiliate. When I was in my account I couldn't find a link to refer friends anywhere (there are links all over the website about money making opportunities). I got on the chat and found out the whole "make money with sendoutcards.com is a scam" if you compare it to your typical affiliate program. I have changed the name of the tech support person (who did try very hard, but they are shackled by poor policies). Chat session started at 19:06:56 Please be patient while you are being connected with an operator ... You are now chatting with Jughead Jughead:Welcome to SendOutCards! How may I help you today? David:Jughead, I just sent my first card, and signed up for the "Pay as you go" plan for being a referral. I'm assuming I get some sort of link to pass on to potential clients, but I can't seem to find it. Am I on the right track? Jughead:That is a great question. You did not sign up as a distributor so you will not get your own link to refer others to but if you would like to, you can provide them your sponsor's link which would be www.sendoutcards.com/theirID#. David:Awesome. Thanks I think thats all I need. have a great night. so in my case it shows my Id as rxxxxxx so it would be www.sendoutcards.com/rxxxxxx ? I see that is my username... Jughead:No, it would be your sponsor's ID number which is xxxxxx. You are not a distributor so you do not have your own personal retail site to refer others to. You would have to become a Marketing Distributor for $395 to get that website of your own. David:so to make money at this you need to spend $395? or at least $50? Jughead:Yes. Your account is just a customer account which is a user of the system. To be a distributor of the system and to earn money with SendOutCards you would need to join as a distributor. David:OK. is it possible to get a refund for the amount I just deposited in for future cards, and put that towards a $50 indie distributor? Jughead:We can't do that unfortunately. The points are non refundable. You can upgrade your account for $50 at any time but the points would not be applied towards that. David:so I've given you $31, and if I want to make money with this system I need to spend an additional $50 (not 19). For the record, I'm becoming very upset, and feel I was misled. Jughead:The $31 you paid was for points to send out cards. To become a distributor you have to purchase the Distributor package.

(http://www.shareasale.com/image/49496/300x250_QuoteRoller2.jpg)Quote Roller is really cool web based proposal system that is going to save you time and money (and your sanity). I really love tools that allow you to get in the head of your future customers (see the episode about Co-Video (http://weeklywebtools.com/podcast/covideo-video-email-lets-you-strike-while-the-iron-is-hot)). Quote Roller (http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/quoteroller) make assembling quotes a snap. You have a super easy to use templates, and you can customize them with a few mouse clicks. The proposal is web based. This means you can embed video in your proposal. How cool is that? How POWERFUL is that? Wait it gets better. Because its web based, you get can get analytics from your proposal. What does that mean? It means you can see how long your potential customer has spent going over your proposal, which means you now know one of two things. Either you know their hot button(s), or the part they are confused on. Either way you are going to appear super helpful as you are ready to answer their questions, or you going to now how to push their hot buttons until they are screaming for you to pass over a pen. That's where things get even cooler. You can have them sign the proposal, and then pay for (and it ties in with you paypal account). The best thing is plans start as low a $9.99 and only get as high as $24.99 for all the bells and whistles. You can try it free fore for 14 days by going to quoteroller.com (http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/quoteroller) Clarity.fm Works! I had my first consulting call on Clarity.fm it was pretty cool. The person submitted a time, I sent back times when I was actually available. It sent me emails and text messages when things were confirmed as well as reminders right before the call. I got off the phone and checked my account and the money was being process (with clarity taking their percentage) and it was all good. Clarity is becoming a resource for experts, as I see they now have a question and answer section where you can flex you expert muscles to showcase why people should call you. If you're interested in checking it out use the code er227 and get $20 off your first call.  

Q2W3 Fixed Widget This is a cool plugin that places a check mark in your widgets that when checked makes them float. It's called Q2W3 Fixed Widget. The beauty of this is its free, and you can apply to this multiple widgets WP Theme Detector This site is super cool, just enter a URL and it shows you what theme (and plugins) they are using on their site. Check out more great wordpress information go to wpr.fm (http://wpr.fm)

If you're tired of updating your website while you cross your fingers and hope that your website doesn't break, then you may want to check out this cool tool that makes it super easy to run Wordpress Locally on your PC or Mac. The Web Tool is call WP Simulator (http://jvz3.com/c/59893/37619) (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/wpsimulator1-265x300.jpg)Here are just some of the features: ☆ Build WordPress Sites on your PC/MAC with/without a Web Connection ☆ Fix Broken Sites & Work on Live Sites Off-line ☆ Test Plugins & Themes Without Uploading to a Live Host ☆ Solve Plugin Clashes & Bugs Off-Line ☆ Clean up/Ditch Dirty Themes Before You Use! ☆ Create WordPress Sites & Content Without Web Lag ☆ Make as Many Mistakes as You Like Without Consequence ☆ Back up Your Development Work in Minutes not Hours ☆ Test Your Live Site Backups  

(http://rumbletalk.postaffiliatepro.com/accounts/default1/banners/11110001.jpg)Today on episode 220 I'm playing with a group chat system to help community members interact LIVE. The system is called Rumble Talk and it's $16 a month (cheaper if I buy a year in advance). Here are the best features: 1. Super easy to install and customize without knowing a bit of code. You click, copy and paste and you're gone. 2. Easily sharable as the system generates a QR code for your chat room that people can scan and share. 3. HTML5 means it works on all devices 4. Integrates into Facebook Fan Pages 5. You can choose to save a history of the chats and see what people are talking about (and export and post to your website). 6. Add your own "blacklisted" words 7. Create moderators with a few clicks. 8. Create a link to the chat room that you can share via email and twitter. 9. Free 3 day trial with the only restriction being you can only have 4 people in the chat. 10. If you have the skills you can do further customizations using CSS. Check it out at rumbletalk.com (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/rumbletalk) I see on their blog that they give you tips on using CSS and more. I've only used it for a week and I'm already getting idea for future episodes of my School of Podcasting podcast from what people are asking in the chat. You can see that in action at www.schoolofpodcasting.com/chat (http://www.schoolofpodcasting.com/chat)

Today I review two wordpress themes that are sports related, but could easily be tweaked to be a great network site. Both themes are (basically) $40. The LeaguePress (http://weeklywebtools.com/leaguepress)theme can be as low as $9. Here are some features: The both are responsive and have built in advertising spots. They both have multiple menus and built in social media links (although Game day has a much better setup for this). LeaguePress (http://weeklywebtools.com/leaguepress)has 15 built in home page layouts. Game Play ( http://weeklywebtools.com/gameday) has a drag and drop interface that allows you to build a custom home page. LeaguePress (http://weeklywebtools.com/leaguepress) has 9 color schemes. Game Play ( http://weeklywebtools.com/gameday) has Unlimited color picker for : Primary theme color, secondary accent color, primary link color and widget header color. Lost In Features? Take a Look at the Finished Product (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sport_themes.jpg) What I liked about the Game day theme is it seems a bit customizable (please note I do not own either of these and have only watched video demos). The very cool looking scoreboard on game day is optional. This means you could turn it off. As a Non Sports Theme I've been asked at times, "Why didn't you set up a website for your very own podcast "network." For the record, I have a website for each show and didn't want to additional maintenance. I could see taking a project with different subjects and making each subject a "League"  where each league would have a link at the top of the page. Each league would also have a section on the front page. I was really impressed with the look of Game Day, and while I realize that League Press could be a much smaller hit to the wallet, I think I would go with Game Day. Check out the Game Day Demo Website (http://themeforest.net/item/gameday-wordpress-sports-media-theme/full_screen_preview/3777874?ref=jammindave) Check out League Press Demo Site. (http://jvz2.com/c/59893/65329)

(http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/bad-ass-box-288x300.png)I just watched the video for WP Bad Ass (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/badass)Countdown and went to youtube to see if I could get a video. There are a bunch of "Don't buy this plugin" videos. None of these videos had a bad thing to say about the software. Not a single word. All the negativity was about the marketing and that they might be a bit of over hype. So let's state what the plugin does. 1. You set a date 2. A timer counts down 3. As time counts down, the price counts up. You pick by what increment (a penny, a nickle, etc) and how fast (a second, a minute, a day) 4. You have complete control of the timer look, and the price's appearance. Currently you can get this plugin for around $8. MORE INFORMATION (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/badass) What's the Flack About? More and more developers are using their plugins as a lead in to other items. In other words, when you buy this product get ready for an upsell. Here is a thought: just say no. That's right. Take the value of the low priced plugin and go back to your website and use it. Was that so hard? Musicians have raised the price of t-shirts to make up for the fact that music sales are down (thanks to everyone sharing it for free). It's the price of doing business. Musicians want to eat just like you. With people starting to think of plugins like "apps" for their phone the price is dropping. That's good, but developers have to eat too so they have upsells. Nobody is bleeding, or dying from an upsell. Get the plugin at www.weeklywebtools.com/badass (http://www.weeklywebtools.com/badass) jQuery Pin It Button For Images This free plugin will have a pinterest button hover over an image when you put your mouse over any image on your website. Pretty cool. Mentioned in this Podcast John Overall at wppro.ca (http://www.wppro.ca) - Wordpress Expert  

Inexpensive Custom Facebook Apps ClickAppy (http://weeklywebtools.com/clickappy) is an inexpensive way to add custom facebook apps to your facebook pages. The best part is you can start at $2.99 a month for a whole suite of facebook apps. You can have contests, a professional looking "About Us" page (complete with contact form), and all the widgets are customizble to match your facebook look. You can view the widgets and see a live demo at their st clickappy.com (http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-2535497-11491045) Whitelist Wordpress Comments Plugin We all know that if you leave your website open to comments, you will get over run with spam. Even if you have plugins to battle spam, things can get bad quickly. What happens is you end up having to approve comments from people that you've recently approved. These may be visitors to your site  and are now coming back on a regular basis. The discussion could happen without your interaction if only there was a way to let WordPress publish comments from people who had previously been approved.... Now there is The plugin is call Comment Whitelist, and once installed there is a box in your discussion settings where you can enter the emails of the visitors you want "white listed."  

(http://www.shareasale.com/image/43147/banner5.gif)Ultimatum Theme Sounds Confusing I am doing something different today. Usually I talk about tools I like, today I'm telling you about a tool that everyone I know says they didn't like. It's called Ultimatum. I really liked it when I first saw it. I went over and used their demo, and was amazed at all the functions. I was also amazed at the lack of documentation. I sent an email, but received no reply. I asked a few people and the same response came, "It looks cool, but I could never get it to do what I wanted." I did find a course at Udemy (https://www.udemy.com/build-design-edit-custom-wordpress-css3-themes-with-dreamweaver/?affcode=E0EedlxWRHYAQBx3TA==)that has a section on using the theme. Their website stats they have documentation, but with that much versatility in the theme - there could be a large learning curve. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCo9dZkgo90 Video Seo by Yoast (http://www.shareasale.com/image/45746/Square_Yoast_VideoSEO_125x125.png)Why do you want video on your site? It’s really simple: video results rank more easily and have a far higher click-through-rate from search results because they stand out in the search results. We’ve been using it here at Yoast for over a year now and the results have been amazing with keywords for several terms jumping from page 5 to position 2 just because we added a video. Now of course, we can’t give any guarantees, but we know it’s worked for us, it should work for you too! If you are using the Wordpress SEO plugin from Yoast (free) this plugin makes sure you videos show up in the search engine results. It's only $69 for a single site (http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=521328&u=74276&m=45746&urllink=&afftrack=) Purchase Video SEO by Yoast (http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=521328&u=74276&m=45746&urllink=&afftrack=)

Today we have a tool for video that allows you to add action items, optin forms on both youtube video and self hosed videos. While viewbix (which is what I'm using) works on vimeo and youtube, and other players work on amazon S3, the covert player allows you to add optin options and action items to both, and best of all there are no monthly fees. Watch the video below, or go to covertplayer.com to see a live demo. (http://weeklywebtools.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/cpwso8.png)

Pulse Notify Facebook Notification Plugin for Wordpress Pulse Notify plugin for Wordpress is an interesting tool that allows you to make very cool "facebook-like" buttons that connects anyone who clicks on them to your facebook page, your email list, and gives you the ability to send notifications to their facebook account (c'mon you know you look at them when they show up). Right now the plugin is going for $27, and I'm truly thinking of testing this one out. It seems super simple to setup, and I can see the power of notifying people on facebook and having them click any link you send. Check it out at pulsenotify.com (http://weeklywebtools.com/pulsenotify) Go Meet Now - Quit Paying Too Much For Web Meetings (http://www.shareasale.com/image/30693/300-250A_00.jpg)I think I've used every meeting program on the planet, but I had never heard of Go Meet Now. Plans start at $12.95 a month and only $1 a month for each additional person. If I used this plan and set it up for 25 people it would be $35. Meanwhile Gotomeeting, and Webex are charging $49 a month. Go Meet Now has the same feature set and has the ability to adjust your spending each month (or even a few days). Why pay for seats you'll never use. This sounds like a pretty impressive tool and you can test drive it for 30 days. You can even take it for a test drive (20 minute limit). They also have a guarantee that your audience will be able to attend or you receive a refund.