Wordpress

Goodbye DISQUS, Hello WordPress

Old Friends So it wasn’t that long ago I mentioned I was moving my comments system to DISQUS.

The fact that the system was being used on more blogs, and also had social media integration with its Reactions feature that pulled stats from anywhere else your blog was being discussed, seemed pretty cool.

Yet, lately, DISQUS seems to have had some continued issues.

One is that the Reactions (the comments from Twitter, Digg, etc, that show up as trackbacks) seem to be stop-start as to whether they show or not. Another issue (and far more serious) is that DISQUS doesn’t seem to be set up for commenting when viewing a blog on a mobile or smartphone.

At first, I thought it may just be me, but then Ari Herzog pointed it out as well. Considering that more people use their smartphones for browsing now, this is a bit of an issue.

So, time to swap back to the good old WordPress standard comments option. I can also switch CommentLuv back on, which for community is one of the best WordPress plug-ins ever (CommentLuv shows your last blog post and is great for finding new bloggers).

I will say this for DISQUS – their customer support is usually pretty top-notch. If they can get the mobile aspect sorted, and also stabilize the features like Reactions (which means stopping the unrelated porn links that can appear), I’d be more than happy to try again.

In the meantime, I kinda like the new stripped down approach. How about you?

photo credit: David Reece

Woopra 1.3.1 Beta Launches

Last month I wrote about how to make your blog work for you, and part of that was by measuring your blog’s success through analytics.

Woopra was one of the tools I mentioned (and it’s one I use on this blog), for the way it offers a host of great and incredibly useful information. Yesterday the company released the beta version of Woopra 1.3.1 and man does it rock (I even used the phrase “Holy monkeys!” at the time).

There are two versions of Woopra – a desktop client version and a WordPress plugin that allows you to see your reports through your WordPress dashboard. Both share similar features, although obviously the desktop version has a few more (a little like the differences between Seesmic Desktop and Seesmic Web for Twitter).

So, what are the funky new features?

Woopra 1.3.1 Desktop Client

The immediate difference when you open the updated version is the graphical overhaul. This may not sound like much, but now the information is dissected into easy-to-use blocks that offers a clear visual stream. When you start looking at this information, that’s where the fun begins.

One of the biggest improvements is in the Woopra Segmentation feature. This breaks your analytics down into the most minute details. You can track traffic on a certain page, keyword, what site it came from, how a social media campaign using the likes of Twitter and Facebook is doing, and much more.

Knowing where your traffic is coming from lets you tailor your blog or website for the most important people – the visitors. One of the first things I noticed, for example, is that a lot of people go from a post to my About page – so it may be that I need to boost that with some more info.

For businesses, this function obviously allows you to see if a sales landing page is doing its job. Did you guide them to “the sweet spot”? Did they click past your pop-up message or get annoyed by it and close their browsing? Using this information helps you improve the functionality of your site.

Some of the other new or improved features include:

Log-in control that lets you open just the information you need.
Woopra Live Map that supports multiple monitor use.
Unique Mac OS X feature to track visitors via Dock Badge.
Custom visitor data to set up custom tags, events, visitors and more.
Live chat to have a conversation with anyone currently on your blog or site (instant feedback possibilities).

These features and others (webmaster tools for Alexa info and Google page rank, and open API for third-party add-ons for example) make the desktop client version of Woopra 1.3.1 an incredibly robust and intensive package. So how does the WordPress plugin compare?

Woopra 1.3.1 WordPress Plugin

While it doesn’t share some of the more in-depth features of its desktop brother, the Woopra WordPress plugin is still an impressive piece of kit. After you upload the plugin and activate it, a new option appears in your dashboard section. Once you’ve configured the settings, you have access to the likes of:

Live visitor tracking and web stats.
Real-time analytics as they happen.
Multi-blog or website cross functionality.
Real-time notifications of tagged visitor or event.
Chat function.

While it’s not as deep as the desktop client, for any blogger that just wants to know a bit more about where their audience is coming from the WordPress plugin offers a better overview than the standard WordPress analytics.

Woopra also has a web-based analytics option, so if you’re not at your desktop you can log-in to Woopra and access your information from your members area.

If there’s any downside to Woopra, it’s that it doesn’t offer historical data – so you can only monitor information from after you install the Woopra code or plugin on your site. It’d be nice to hook up with Google Analytics or similar to gauge your complete info – maybe next update?

While Woopra is in beta, using the service is free to any blogs or sites with less than 10,000 daily page views. There will be a premium version available when Woopra officially launches, though they’ll continue to offer a free version as well.

photo credit: adria.richards

Social Media is a Language of Its Own

This is a guest post from my wife Jacki. I thought it’d be interesting to get the views of someone who has no real interest in social media and let them explain why. And one thing I love about Jacki is her no-nonsense approach to everything. To learn more or connect with Jacki, please visit her blog Just Kickin’ It.

I was recently asked my views on social media and all the glorious tools therein. Truthfully, my mind went blank. I couldn’t tell you the difference between Twitter and Stumbleupon.

I understand Google as a search engine, so when someone says ?She found me on Google? ? well, that makes sense. But what the heck does ?She sent me a tweet? mean?

This is a hypothetical question, don?t answer it ? I don?t care and will likely forget what it means anyways. If I need to find something I Google it. If I?ve read something I liked and am able to comment I will, if not, well my opinion doesn?t mean a whole lot anyways. I?m not overly devastated if I don?t get to share it.

I recently started a new blog. I still don?t fully understand what that even means. What I do is I write a virtual journal, I rant about the latest current affairs, I discuss in great detail all of the things that irritate me and what the world could do to improve. Mostly it?s social etiquette and common sense.

When I?m bored and feeling creative, I might tell a story or two, involving a little bit of research on my part. I assume since it?s on the Web, anyone can read it. Great, go for it. I just learned what it meant to ?tag?, something which makes sense, but I still don?t know how to do it. So if you can?t find me, well I guess that?s my fault too.

For this I use Blogger. I tried to post a couple of pictures on my recent blog and what a pain that was. I think I?ll stick to journal format from now on in. It?s a personal blog, not professional. It doesn?t have any business purpose, so I?m not trying to draw in any clientele.

My other blog, I run with a couple of other ladies. This is a virtual book club. It?s a bit different than the regular book clubs but it suits its purpose. We use WordPress for this. I can honestly say that after playing with it a bit, it?s far more user-friendly than Blogger. And I?ve mastered the art of adding pictures. I think that deserves a pat on the back right there.

Facebook is a given. But someone listed a bunch of other nonsense:

Twitter
Stumbleupon
Digg
Friendfeed
LinkedIn
Delicious
Reddit
Google Alerts
Google Reader
Monitter
Technorati

What is all of this? It?s a foreign language to me. If you want me to read something, send me a link. I really couldn?t care less what you use to spread the word, or what format you put things in. I?m glad it works for you, really I am. But are all these things really necessary?

Take Stumbleupon for example. There was probably about a month where my husband went nuts with sending me a bunch of things he stumbled upon. One day I watched him send out an email. He had to cut here, paste there, click a few buttons and voila! Seems simple, right? Why the heck couldn?t he just paste the link in a normal email and send that out? Why go through Stumbleupon at all?

And Twitter? This one I can?t get over because it?s all the new rage amongst Social Media Experts and PR Gurus. I guess I don?t understand the Internet world, and what is the point of learning it when it changes on a daily basis?

I use Blogger, WordPress and Facebook. But really, if I want to write something and share it, is there any difference if I use Microsoft Word or Notepad? Couldn?t I just use that and send it off to whomever I want to read it?

If I want it to go public, then using some domain might be an idea, but does it really matter one way or the other what the heck I put it in? Can you tell the difference between Blogger and WordPress, as a reader? Maybe one is more appealing to the eye than the other but it?s more of the same.

So go on and speak your language. But in plain English, you could just tell me, ?Here? read?.

Thanks for listening.