Configuring Your Wordpress Plugins
Configuring your plugins is not too tough, but can be confusing when you first see all the options. I am going to show you what I do to configure my plugins for niche sites ~ whether they are small or large. This is the way I do it, it works for me, and I’m sure there’s other ways for it to be done. Just remember, obsessing about your plugin configuration is not going to make you any money. So get them configured and then we’ll be moving on to content creation which IS a money making activity. 
All in one SEO pack.
Let’s get started with this one, since it yells in big red box whenever you open the page. You can click the link that says go to the admin page in the big red box at the top of your page.
plugin status: click enable
Scroll down to the “home title” box. This is where you’re going to put the title you want to show up in your header and in the blue stripe at the top of the page. You may have already filled in the title of your blog in your general settings area. This will override anything you’ve put in that space.
Use keywords that will encompass all the posts you will be making ~ like you did in the url.
For the mountain bike site I will be using: Used mountain bikes for sale (this covers three keywords ~ used mountain bikes and mountain bikes for sale, as well as used mountain bikes for sale)
Home description.
This is like the tagline and you have probably already figured this out as well. You can copy paste what you already have here. Whatever you put here will override what’s in your general settings as well. Use keywords, but make sure it’s descriptive of what your site is about, not just a list of keywords. Remember, this is a RESOURCE for people.
Never let SEO take over the readability of your site. Because while it’s important for the search engines to love you, if the people they send to your site get turned off by you’re content being written just for search engines they won’t buy.
ex. mountain bike site: Buy used mountain bikes and find great deals on mountain bikes for sale
Home keywords:
These do not show up on your site. They are what is known as “meta tags” in the html code of your site. There is some contraversy about how much meta tags are used by the search engines, but it does you no harm to fill them in and it gives you one more possible way to let Google know what your site is about. You want to pick your best 5 to 8 keywords to put in here. When I say best I mean, highest search volume. Separate each keyword with a comma.
ex: cannondale mountain bike, giant mountain bike, gt mountain bike, kona bikes, specialized mountain bike, trek mountain bike
The rest:
I leave at the default settings.
Click update options.
To configure the next plugin look for the settings category in your sidebar. If it’s not already open click the word so it will show you all the options. If you looked around after you installed your plugins you may have noticed this is where you can change and configure the plugins that need it.
Simple Link Cloaker
While this is next on my list, we won’t be using this one until we write some content, so we’ll review it when we need it. It simply allows you to put your affiliate link in one spot, but then you can choose a link to make that forward to. This way all of the affiliate links on your site don’t look like affiliate links they look like regular links from your site. Don’t worry I’ll show you exactly how to do it when we need it.
Tweetmeme
This is the next plugin on my list. This plugin will allow your readers to share posts from your site with their followers on twitter. Whether or not you have a twitter account doesn’t matter. If you do it’s nice, but if you don’t it’s ok too.
So click tweetmeme in the settings section and let’s configure this one.
Positioning:
Where do you want the button to show up? I think it’s nice at the beginning of the post ~ but it’s also nice to have at teh bottom of the post so when people finish reading and they like it the button is right there for them to click. There is an option for both to have it at the top and the bottom, which is also a possibility.
If you are using only excerpts of posts on your front page I definitely would use one or the other. It looks crazy with both on exerpts. But what I suggest is you try them all, one at a time, check out your blog and see what it looks like. See if you like the way it looks.
Choose one right now, just tick the box in front of what you want.
Type: I leave the normal size widget.
Display: I untick show on pages ~ I don’t really want people tweeting my privacy policy and my about page etc. Depending on the site you are building you may want to leave the widget on the pages ~ but for a niche blog I would take it off.
** If you are doing a 1 or 2 page niche site I would not use this plugin at all. Since we are going to have lots of pages of content I think it’s a good plugin, but I wouldn’t use it on a really small site. **
Source: when someone clicks the button it will give an automatic post for them to tweet. If you fill in your twitter username here it will give you a retweet which is good, and helps you keep track of who’s tweeting your site.
If you have a twitter username ~ a go ahead and fill in your username in the space available. If you don’t have a twitter username you can still use the plugin, it will just say tweetmeme instead of you when people tweet your post, which is fine.
Save changes. Click the save button at the bottom.
Related Posts:
You may get a message to move some templates around in your files. Don’t worry about it. That piece allows you to create custom templates and is not necessary. If it doesn’t find the templates where they’re supposed to be it just turns that piece off. It’s not necessary so don’t worry about it.
The Pool.
This is where the plugin chooses content to show. I leave this in the default settings.
Relatedness.
Since this is a niche blog your posts are likely to be pretty related. I leave the relatedness options as the default. However, if I see I have no related posts showing up after I have 5 or 10 posts written I will come back in and change the match threshold number to 3 and see if that gets posts to show up. It usually does.
Display options:
I leave them default. I personally like up to 5 related posts, but if you would like fewer, or more change the numbers around and see what it looks like.
Display options for rss:
I leave these as default as well. It’s nice for some related posts to show up when people subscribe to your feed, it can help get people back to your site.
Update options:
Click the button and you’ve configured this plugin
XML Sitemap:
This plugin will create and submit a map of your site to the search engines. It will update your sitemap as you put more and more posts on your site.
While this plugin looks complicated I leave all the default settings and just click the create sitemap button.
It usually only takes a second or two for the sitemap to be created and the search engines to be notified. Once you get the message that your sitemap was created that’s it for this plugin.
Akismet:
Akismet comes installed on your blog, all you have to do is activate it. Akismet is a fantastic plugin that will manage 99.9% of your spam for you automatically. It really is a fantastic plugin.
To activate akistmet you’re going to need an API key. Let’s get your key.
Go to wordpress.com (go ahead click the link ~ it will open in a new window).
This is wordpress.com ~ it is totally different than what you’ve just installed on you blog. Wordpress.com is yet another free blogging platform, much like blogger ~ however, they are NOT very friendly to people trying to make money online. They are the master of the API key so you’ll have to have an account.
If you have an account here, just log in. If you don’t you’ll need to sign up for one. You can create just a username or user account (something like that) that will just create an account here (and an API key) but won’t create a blog for you. This option is fine.
You will have to create a username, and a password. Then you’ll have to go to your email and click the confirmation link. Once you’ve done that you should be able to log in.
Once you’ve logged in you want to go to the account link and hover over it. You will see a bunch of options when you do that. Choose edit profile.
When taken to your profile page your API key will be the first thing on the page. Copy it so you can paste it where it needs to go.
Go back to your niche blog dashboard and click on the plugins category.
Akismet should be the first one on the list. Go ahead and tick the activate link. When you do that you will see a message at the top of your screen that says you have to enter your API key to activate. Click the link where it says “enter your wordpress API key” and that will take you to a space to paste it.
Go ahead and paste your API key in. I also click the box to delete spam after 30 days, that way I don’t have to worry about it. Then click update options to save. Once you do that your akismet plugin will be operational and you’ll be good to go.
That’s it for configuring plugins. If you have any questions make sure you ask in the comment section. I’ll do my best to answer them.
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You’ve done it again Jackie! Thank you so much for this. I’m amazed at how clear you explain things. Keep up the great work!
Carey
Hello Jackie,
It has been a while since I have been here. I started you Christmas Cash back in late September. I worked diligently on my daily plan until mid october. Unfortunately, I wasn’t getting sales and had to find a job.
I just checked my Amazon stats since I haven’t in a while. I have made $240.00 in just December so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It really does work folks! I am back to setting up campaigns. Had I continued this whole time can you imagine what my commission would be? This is just with about 15 lenses (some finished and backlinked and some not).
It will be hard with a full time job, but I am going to dedicate as much time as I can from here on out.
Thanks so much Jackie!! Just wanted to let everyone know how great you are and if you stick with it IT WILL HAPPEN!!!!
Lisa
Follow me @Lisa_Hayslett on Twitter!
OMG Lisa
THAT IS AMAZING!!!!! YAY for you.
That’s what I try to explain to people, sometimes it takes some time. When I say time I mean more than a day or two. Sometimes it takes a month for a site to kick and sometimes even longer, but it does work. Congrats, and thank you thank you for sharing your story. 
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WOW! Lisa that is awesome. I too know that feeling of putting lenses online and nothing…then happened to see money in my amazon account. It really puts a boost into keeping you going ahead. Keep it up and the best to you.
Tammy
Wanted to mention that it is because of Jackie and from learning and following her action steps that I have that extra money coming into my account.
Thank You Jackie!
Hi Jackie,
Great info, as always. I’m a ‘try, fail, try again and eventually get it’ type, but with your info, I know I’ll get it.
Btw, do you have any idea what has happened to PotPieGirl?
Hey Bea,
my guess is she’s busy with her first grandbaby ~ and Christmas.
But I do not know for a fact, I haven’t spoken to her recently.
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Hey Jackie,
Great post on the how to’s for plugins but I am wondering about the akismet plugin that you mentioned we were going to configure.
Thanks
Chad
Good question Bea, I noticed PPG websites are down so I am sure she is trying to get that dealt with as well!
By the way, Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
You know Chad ~ I realized about halfway through the day I’d forgotten Akismet. I guess I’ve gotten spoiled with Hanna in preschool.
Seems I can’t focus on anything with her and my husband home. 
I’ll add that in to this post soon.
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Thanks Jackie,
I am going through the opposite right now, Alexis is off running around with Mom for the next two weeks, my wife is a teacher and on Christmas vacation, so I have not had this much time on my hands since the summer!
Problem is that I have renovations to get done and my online stuff, still never enough time.
I added the Akismet directions in so you can get that set up now too.
Is there really ever enough time?!?
I guess it’s a matter of priorities ~ I have a bathroom upstairs that’s been under construction for literally 10 years.
Maybe someday. At least the toilet works up there now ~ would have been wonderful if it had worked back when I was pregnant, but noooo… 
Merry Christmas.
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Not that I’m recommending you leave your remodel undone for 10 years. No… not at all. Not many people are as patient about that kind of stuff.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Thanks Jackie, Akismet is done now! Your right on two things, never enough time and yes you are much more patient about that kind of stuff. I know I certainly am not.
We have been in our house for 4 1/2 years and I have rebuilt our entire sundeck, completely renovated our main bathroom, added a shower and tiled the downstairs bathroom, and installed crown moldings and baseboards throughout the entire house. Nope I am not patient at all
Thanks again for updating the post and looking forward to the next post!
Where were you when I first installed all-in-one many moons ago; it took me like a month. LOL
FYI – Google and apparently Yahoo have (finally) unequivocally stated meta tags are now completely useless for ranking…not used even a little bit anymore…of course if you can do it quickly, it might still might be worth a little something to the smaller engines.
Christmas cash??
Thanks so much, great post with useful information.
The Squidoo Christmas Cash blueprint ~ it shows you how to target shoppers with product related lenses ~ it’s the opt in box in the sidebar. While it’s called Christmas cash it will work all year round.
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I posted this on your facebook discussion page but want to post it here too for those who don’t go to facebook and may need some encouragement:
Hey Jackie!!!! This is too funny but I followed your Christmas Blueprint and set up several lenses before Christmas (one was a lens you made for me) and I was depressed that I never made a sale. Soooo I went into my account just to look again because I’m bored today (January 30) and found that I made 4 sales AFTER Christmas. One was made after I simply changed the Christmas design on my lens to a more seasonal one. I have made many lenses before finding your Christmas Blueprint and never made sales on any of those lenses and now following your plan I’ve made four within the last 3 weeks.
Thank you so much for all your help. It all works it just may take a little longer than expected…but the only thing that matters is that it works!!!
I’ll say it again….I’m so glad I found you!
Michele
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woo hoo Michele!! Yay. I’m so glad for you. Just keep creating new lenses, and build on the success you’ve started seeing!
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Hi Jackie,
Anyway you can do a post on uploading a theme via FTP? I found a theme I like better than the one I have now, downloaded it, then tried to upload it to wp, but in says install failed. I read above where you can FTP it, just not sure how to do that. I have filezilla for another site, just want to make sure I don’t mess it up.
No hurry, enjoy the holidays, I will keep moving along with the theme I already have.
Feliz Navidad,
Carole
Yep, that’s my plan for the next post.
I have a bunch of things that don’t work with the super cool uploader in wordpress.
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Hey, thanks for this article! Appreciate your hard work! Keeping a watchful eye on these excellent articles and maybe adding them to my own blog. Cheers
Dear Jackie, thanks for this very usefull stuff. Btw you have a great blog! Regards, strass
Hi Craig ~ why on earth would you put my original work on your blog? Please don’t do that ~ that’s not so cool.
Strass, hey and welcome. Glad you’re finding value.
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That’s a real good tutorial and very well written and you have touched some important aspects on what you must do while setting up your own wordpress blog. I love it..
I am sure many wordpress users will be finding this useful
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Jackie,
I am so looking forward to your tutorial on using the Simple link cloaker plug in. I just spent my most frustrating day so far just getting the plug ins installed on my blogs. I started at 9 this morning nice and fresh, and finally got it done at 8 PM. I literally worked on it all day, and then could not figure out how to get the link cloaker to work. It was one of those days when you say, why am I doing this? I do know why, and mostly I love it and have a blast.
I uploaded all the plug ins you recommended but the link cloaker would not go on my blogs for some reason. I just kept getting error messages. I tried uploading it using my ftp program directly to my web host and that did not work either even after I unzipped it. I could not figure it out. I was so frustrated yet I hung in there and then finally, I got it to go up onto my site. Who knows?
I know I need to cloak my links and somehow this one has thrown me for a loop. I have also tried other ways to do it and it just baffles me how.
I really appreciate your wonderful step by step help on how to do these things that are so new and foreign when you are just starting out.
I love your new step by step content. It is really helpful.
Thank You
Debbie,
sorry you had trouble getting it installed, that’s always a pain. I did a run down of how to work with it in this post yesterday: http://internetmarketingformommies.com/7-ways-to-make-your-site-less-like-a-salesman/
If you need a more thorough explanation let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
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Jackie, thanks for the clear instructions. I have a blog with dateless-sniper and a battled a bit to get the related posts working but it is working now. I do not really know about dateless-sniper, it has some cool features but I find I have a lot of problems with it. Especially images gives you a hard time and for someone that does not really know HTML it can be a battle.
The other plugins presented no problem as easy as pie!
Follow me @magriet on Twitter!
Good deal ~ there’s no reason not to try out a few different themes. While I loved dateless sniper for my adsense sites I like something a little more attractive for my niche blogs. But again ~ personal preference. Congrats on getting them all set up!
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Jackie, I am simply posting to warn others not to make the STUPID mistake I made with the plugins. Somewhere you will find a comment where I said my Squidoo lenses where locked and I did not know why.
Well I worked it out. I put the related posts plugin on my blog. What I forgot about was that I had the RSS of this blog on those lenses. I had it set to show 5 entries and everything there is. The related posts plugin I left at the default of showing 3 in the RSS. So, now you can guess it, that resulted in 15LINKS showing for one site!
I cannot believe I was so STUPID, it never crossed my mind to think about that.
So, just in case there is someone else that is as slow as I am, I thought I will just post a warning.
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Oh yeah ~ it’s best to use the 100 character option in the RSS module. that way they will have to click over to your blog to see the rest of the content.
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Jackie, I know this post does not belong here, but I do not know where it does.
I’m trying to reply to a post that Michelle made that I received in my inbox, the link brought me here. All I want to say is that it is important for us who are not so terribly good at marketing to draw the others attention to the fact that even if you are not terribly good, if we follow your plan religiously the sales do come.
I think it is very important to realize that if you work at it you will improve and you will start making money. I’m living proof, I have been battling on the net since 2007 and only now, following your instructions have I started getting sales from Amazon. So, this should encourage all the others that battle as I do that if they simply keep to your methods sales will come.
I have excepted the fact that I will never be one of those “gurus” but am glad that there is a simple formula I can follow through with and make sales.
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With the threaded comments sometimes you will have to scroll through the comments to find the place where they left the comment.
I agree with your thought though. It is really important to keep taking action.
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Jackie,
Have you had any experience inserting an Amazon carousel widget/plug-in into a Wordpress 2.9 sidebar? I’ve done quite a bit of research and there seems to be some conflict between widgets and plug-ins in terms of wrestling for position in the sidebars?
I’m not so sure that I fully understand the difference between Wordpress plug-ins and widgets. Some of the plug-ins that I installed, as per your tutorial, are displayed under widgets but there is no indication that they are in the sidebar. Dragging a widget into a sidebar, replaces what’s already there. I presume the problem could be with my theme?
Thanks.
When you pull new widgets over to your sidebar it will take away the “default” stuff from the sidebar (what was there out of the box when you installed the theme). You can pull those things back into the sidebar by just pulling in the widgets you want ~ categories, recent posts etc.
Re. the carousel ~ you need to put it in a text widget. So pull a text widget over and then open it and stick your code in there. Save it. You can drag/drop it into whatever order you want the widgets to show up in your sidebar.
***** Go to a new tab and open your site and see if it looks the way you want it ***
If not go back to the tab you have the widgets open in and make adjustments. Then go back to the other tab and hit refresh to see if you like the changes.
I don’t know what is up with WP but it’s been deleting all changes in the widget area if I click the back button so now I just do it in two tabs/windows.
Hope that helps.
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Hi Jackie!
Concerning the Simple Link Cloaker…I know you said you’d get into this after we started creating content for our niche blogs – however I couldn’t find this blog post talking about how it works. Can you direct me? I’d really like to start using this.
Thanks again!
Julie
Follow me @floorance on Twitter!
Thanks Jackie, you’re a star! It all works like a charm. I can’t believe that it’s so simple – after spending hours on Google!
I have read all the articles. Very useful information was written. Thanks
Thanks Jackie for every detail and informative guide for me read and apply.
Thanks for your good work and sure there will abundance for you
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