Who needs a real job when you can make KILLER money by posting jokes all day? This case study just started last week, and already I’m having a good time.
Don’t even bother asking how much I’ve made yet, because the truth is I haven’t made a single penny off this site. That’s because I want it to become socially shared first, before I bother to litter it with advertisements. Mark Zuckerberg refused to put any advertising onto Facebook until many months after it became a viral success. I’m not saying that my site will become the next facebook, but wouldn’t that be nice 🙂
A Quick Note about Last Time
So if you haven’t read it yet, you really need to check out the first part of this series —> Using Humour and an Awesome Theme to make BIG Dollars Online <—-
Here’s a quick recap:
- I picked a Catchy Domain Name: http://lolphotoz.com/ (honestly I could’ve picked something cooler… I challenge you to come up with something cooler)
- I Set up WordPress and Installed the Megusta WordPress Theme. I looked through a bunch of different options, and this one looked the best out of the box. So far I’m very happy with my purchase.
- I then created a Facebook Fan Page that is integrated on my main site.
What I’m Talking About This Episode!!!
- The Social Sharing Plugins I’ve Tested so Far
- What Worked and What Didn’t
What Plugins I Tested
At this point, it’s all about building a social presence at Facebook and Twitter. So my plugins are going to be about making it easier for people to share and distribute my content to their friends and family.
Honestly, the Megusta Theme has made my life a hundred times easier, because many social features are already installed directly into the theme….
…
FOR EXAMPLE.
This Button is a Content Sharing Goldmine
Any time a user sees this button and has something they want to add, they can upload to your site in a few clicks. Megusta also allows you to create a widget for top authors. This encourages visitors to feel appreciated for contributing to your site. It’s entirely possible to eventually have ALL of your content user submitted.
The power of this is HUGE. Facebook, twitter, pinterest… all of these social media platforms have conditioned us to SHARE. Which is exactly what we want to take advantage of in this blog. Make your site trendy, and people will WANT to create content FOR YOU!
What I added to the Theme
- Facebook Page Feed Widget
- Free Social Slider
- Slick Social Share Buttons
- Share This
- Facebook Page Promoter
- Advanced Facebook Content Locker
- FeedWordpress
- PushPress
What Turned Out to Be a HUGE FAIL!!!
If you learn only ONE THING from this entire case study, it should be that a successful site is built through constant TESTING.
….
Always test first, then test again, and then test some more.
Without further ado, here are the failures.
—> ShareThis
I was actually surprised that this plugin didn’t add anything to the blog experience. It really just did not fit well with the MeGusta theme. The social buttons that are already included in MeGusta look way cooler, and are formatted way better. ShareThis is a great plugin that I use on this blog. But for a Picture theme site, it just didn’t look very good…
—-> Advanced Facebook Content Locker
I was really excited for this one. It’s actually a premium plugin that costs a few bucks to own. So I really did expect it to work out well. Unfortunately, it didn’t work well with the MaGusta theme. For some reason, there’s a conflict that prevents the “content locker” from working. Also, I can only use one pop up plugin, the Facebook Promoter or Facebook Content Locker. I would prefer to have the Facebook Promoter for now, as it’s a little more user friendly. I’m trying to be cool here!
—-> Feed WordPress
This plugin takes an RSS Feed from another blog and automatically posts content. In other words, this is an autoblogging plugin via RSS feeds. It’s probably good that you know this plugin exists if you plan on autoblogging, because it’s completely free. I wouldn’t recommend autoblogging for a site that relies on Google traffic. The Big G is pretty harsh against auto-syndicated sites. That being said, social traffic could care less whether it’s original content or not. Real people visiting joke sites just want to have a laugh. And if you syndicate from a bunch of popular sites, you can really leverage a lot of good content that’s already on the interwebz.
WARNING: This plugin does not work with MeGusta. I’m sure there are other auto-syndication plugins or scripts that can do an even better job than this plugin anyway. So this really isn’t a big deal. On top of that, I kind of what to start the site off by self selecting content. That way the jokes can be quality controlled.
What’s Working so Far…..
This plugin displays a streaming feed of the Latest Posts on Facebook Page. The feed includes images, so it’s incredibly user friendly to click and potentially LIKE the last few published facebook shares.
This is mainly used to promote your facebook fan page. The facebook tab on the side expands and displays another streaming feed of your latest posts. Right at the top is an option to click like to your facebook page. The more social sharing the better. I LIKE IT!
This one is a MUST install. If you visit LOL Photoz, it’s the floating bar on the far right. It looks cool, and it ADDS to the conversion rate of social sharing. It works well with the theme and is really a no brainer.
This is a plugin that I use on www.brendanmace.com. It’s the pop up that asks visitors to like your facebook page. Of course, many people really do not like pop ups. So you have to decide whether the annoyance of a pop up is worth the extra facebook likes you’ll receive. I think it’s a good plugin because you can enable it to only show ONCE in the settings. After a person either click LIKE or EXITS the pop up, they will not receive the message again for a set period of time.
—> PushPress
I’ll get into this later, but basically it’s a necessary plugin that compliments the Linksalpha.com membership that I’ve signed up for. I’ll cover this topic in much more detail later on.
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What to Expect Next Week!
Next Episode – I’m Going to talk about my Traffic strategy. Believe me, it’s going to be a lot more in depth than just “create good content.” I’m going to show you how to leverage the Power of Social Media through Joint Ventures and clever marketing tricks. This will include networking and making relationships that will hopefully take http://lolphotoz.com/ to new heights.
Side Note: if you use the plugins that worked in this episode of Viral Humour Blog, your joke blog should perform better. Let me know in the comments below whether you’ve found any other plugins worth testing and I’ll look into them for future episodes.
