Category: Archive

6 No Brainer Reasons Why AWeber Is The Best Email Marketing Service
You probably have heard me saying this a few times now, “You need a mailing list even if you are a blogger” and I will repeat if I got to.

A mailing list is extremely important especially when you are trying to build an audience and creating not only website traffic but a very sustainable one instead.

A good mailing list is important for both novice and professional bloggers as it will help to:
- Increase the number of return visitors
- Keep loyal readers updated with important updates and information
- As a medium to communicate with your loyal followers
- And probably a dozen more
We all know how hard it is to build a great mailing list and there is obviously no reasons why you need to make the process even harder. Setting up multiple signup forms and email autoresponders could indeed be a very tedious job. Therefore, choosing the right email marketing solution is a must!

Still not convinced? Take a look at these slides on the importance of a mailing list.

By now, you should have probably hear about AWeber from either your friends or on the net. Some call AWeber the best email marketing solutions and honestly, I really think so!

In this blog post, I will be sharing with you some reasons why I rather use AWeber compared to any other email marketing solutions out there.

Before that, let’s see what AWeber really is, shall we?

*p/s There’s also a video at the bottom of this post to show you how AWeber really works.

What are the features AWeber are offering?

AWeber is an email marketing software and autoresponder tool that is easy to configure and use.

What makes AWeber so popular is the fact that it is highly affordable and with the price tag of $16.17 per month, you might think that I am out of my mind.

At least, I would definitely have something under my sleeves right?

When you signup for AWeber (click here to signup for $1 for the first month as trial plus a 30 days money back guarantee), you are not only paying for their services but as well as the rich email marketing features.

And, I believe ‘rich’ could be a very understatement of the day!

Here are a complete list of what AWeber is offering to all its members:
1. Ability to create custom professional email newsletters within minutes
2. Multiple ready-made signup forms available to use instantly
3. Segmenting subscribers to different categories for easier management
4. Automatically deliver sequence messages to new subscribers according to date and time of your choice (autoresponder)
5. Over 600 beautiful HTML email templates to create great looking emails
6. Ability to perform split testing in anyway possible (title, names, colour, Call-To-Action etc)
7. RSS to email ability – Automatically create emails from your newest blog posts
8. Email analytics to track on number of clicks, opens and delete
9. Easy to integrate to popular WordPress mailing list plugins such as OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect
10. Extremely high email delivery rate thanks to the Anti-Spam policy
11. 24/7 customer support through phone and email
12. A wide variety of free training and guides for bloggers to build more subscribers
13. Free access to live webinars for mailing list building strategies
I got to admit this; When I first saw the features, I was like “Okay, this sounds like the right email marketing solution for me” but I wasn’t sure if I should get it.

The price tag of $16.17 per month does sounds a little pricey for me (I bet you are thinking of that right now too!).

So, what really makes me use AWeber?

1. The $1 deal for the first month trial and a 30-days money back guarantee is a no-brainer for me

Yup, you hear me right. The $1 deal is too good for me to say no to. Go ask around and many bloggers will tell you that they are using AWeber for their email marketing.

I am sure that if I wouldn’t like it, I could just hit the refund button. Furthermore, it’s just $1 right?

If that $1 doesn’t convince you, here are a list of famous using Aweber email services:
- Neil Patel
- Glenn Allsopp
- Kristi Hines
- Ileane Smith
- Adam Connell
Now, tell me if you are convinced enough to try on AWeber right now 🙂

2. AWeber email marketing tool comes with autoresponder ability

If you have no idea what autoresponder means, I would be delighted to share with you.

Autoresponder is a feature where you can set a sequence to send emails (within a specific time frame) for every ‘trigger value’.

For example, you can set the autoresponder to send a welcome email to all new subscribers after one day of signing up for your newsletter.

Isn’t this cool? Basically, you don’t have to type a new welcome email numerous times every time a person signs up. And, you don’t even have to copy and paste the scripts as well.

Here’s a video of the autoresponder feature on AWeber:

Try AWeber’s Autoresponders for $1

3. Professional signup forms and templates

Creating a professional mailing list form is easy with AWeber. All you need to do is:
- Choose a template or design as the base of your email
- Choose the colours, fonts and even words to make your signup form more ‘lively’
- Select any redirection such as to a thank you page or back to the current page
- Copy the codes and place them on your blog
You can easily produce beautiful email templates with the help of AWeber

4. Easy integration with nearly all WordPress mailing list plugins

I don’t call myself a ‘techie’ and thus, I love to have things simple and straight forward. This is where I rather use AWeber as my email marketing provider since it is extremely easy to use.

Upon completing a custom design, you can choose to either:
- Install the codes personally
- Send to your web designer to do it for you
- Or asking AWeber to host the form for you
For example, I am using Hybrid Connect and I could easily integrate AWeber codes with it and build my followers close to immediately.

As for the record, I tried both FeedBurner and MailChimp email marketing solutions before using AWeber and to be very honest with you, I felt that AWeber is the best email marketing tool especially when it is so easy to integrate it.

Well, at least for me!

5. Detailed analysis for your newsletters and followers

With the simple but detailed dashboard, AWeber users are able to easily analysis their email strategy to increase click and open rates.

For those analytics lovers out there, this is probably the best feature AWeber can ever offer. On the dashboard, you are able to see simple yet complete report at one glance.

This means that you are able to see the number of new subscribers, scheduled broadcasts and even broadcast history on email clicks and opens.

Not only that, AWeber offers a very indepth information on the report tab which I will show you in a video shortly below.

6. RSS to email

Simple RSS to Email by AWeber Communications

Honestly, I am not a fan of automated stuffs and recently, my buddy Gilbert asked me why I didn’t use this godly feature.

I told him that I rather have something ‘not automated’ for my mailing list but that question really struck my mind.

Since Neil Patel (I am a huge fan of his) is also using the RSS to email service provided by this lovely mailing list tool, I see no reasons why I shouldn’t right?

Truthfully, I haven’t REALLY use this feature much but this is one feature that will save you a lot of time.

Imagine that you want to keep your blog followers updated on your new post and creating a new newsletter could be very time consuming. With AWeber RSS to email feature, you are basically putting technology on good use!

To think about it, having a tool to that automates email notifications to your readers at any time of your choice is indeed indispensable.

Why should you REALLY use AWeber for your mailing list building?

Now, I know how tired it is to read such a long blog post right? So, here’s another video which I had done personally explaining what AWeber is and how it can actually save you more money (plus improving your sign up rates).

Basically, I will be showing you around:
- What AWeber autoresponder is all about
- How the dashboard looks like
- How to create a broadcast on AWeber
- How to setup simple but beautiful signup forms
- AWeber analytics as well
Back to you

What do you think of this blog post? I hope you enjoyed reading this article and watching the video as much as I do. So, tell me. What is your favorite email marketing tool?

It doesn’t really matter if you have one right now as you can easily signup for AWeber for only $1 with a full 30-days money back guarantee right now!

All you need to do is to click right here: Try AWeber today for only $1 or 100% money back guarantee!
January 20, 2024
The Truth Behind Google Panda Update On Small Sites (Hummingbird)

Some of you might not have realized this but Google Panda Update on Small Sites (Hummingbird) took placed approximately on 21st August 2013. Yes, it happened and I’m not joking.

This basically went live right after Matt Cutts gave a quick shout on Twitter as seen below:

According to my sources, this particular Google Panda Update (Hummingbird) was reported not a few but from all of the major SEO blogs in the world. However, there was no comment given by Google on the matter.

Latest update by Google on 26th September 2013 on the update as below:

Google announced the Hummingbird update. We believe this update maybe associated with what we’re calling the Panda Small Sites update.

Q: How big a change is Hummingbird? Singhal (a Google engineer) says it’s as big as the change to the last algorithm, known as Caffeine. It happened about a month ago (late August).

Q: How specifically is Hummingbird better: Singhal says it’s essentially to better answer the much more complex queries people are making. It impacts all kinds of queries, but far more effective on long, complex questions that we’re getting many more of now.

Q: Examples? Hard to be specific, but essentially, with more complex queries, the algorithm can better understand concepts vs. words as well as relationships between concepts.

Q: How is this different in nature from Caffeine? This is clearly more focused on ranking sites better for relevance, while Caffeine was more focused on better indexing and crawling of sites.

Hummingbird gave us an opportunity to rethink how we can reuse all these new services to improve search results.

Before we discuss further, I want to take the opportunity to share with all of you one of the best SEO tools I could not leave without … Fruition.

What is Fruition?

Introducing Fruition – freemium SEO / analytic tool for bloggers

Fruition is a tool used by several bloggers (including me) to check on our blogs’ analytics. Basically, this is a great tool if you are a SEO enthusiast or running an SEO agency.

For a normal blogger, you might find this tool rather useless (seriously speaking).

What Fruition does is that it offers you the ability to check on Google Updates or any penalty slapped by Google.

Fruition data or chart is pretty straight forward with accurate data and colours. It calculates the probability of a Google update towards your blog by measuring on the data (especially traffic) collected from Google Analytics.

Basically, the data collected are then compared with the ‘before and after’ stats from the date of the update.

Obviously, you could do this manually but I would rather have a SEO program or tool to that for me. Fruition doesn’t only collect data from your Google Analytics but as well as comparing the data with other big SEO websites to verify on the information.

One of Fruition’s stats sorted out by date

What I love most is the colour schemes provided by Fruition.

Green – positive impact

Yellow – no impact

Orange – high likelihood of negative impact

Red – negative impact

This means that for every news release, you are (indirectly) bound to understand how Google works if you do your ‘homework’. I will explain more on this in a moment time.

*Looking for Fruition link? Free link is given at the bottom of the page 🙂

Want to learn more about Google Analytics? I highly recommend taking some time reading Advanced Web Metrics by Brian Clifton.

My blog stats using Fruition

Fruition stats showing a huge chance of Google Update impact

As you can see above, my blog has a 99.4% chance of being affected by the ‘mini’ Google Update.

Now, let’s have a look at my Google Analytics for the stats.

Green is the date where Google update happened. Red was the impact towards my blog

Google Panda Update on small sites was said to happened somewhere close to 21st August 2013 and therefore, I will take 7 days in advance as the starting point for some blog traffic comparison.

Search engine traffic before the Google Update was around 136 hits per day on average.

Right after the update, traffic from search engines were slowly reducing and everything started to fall right after 23rd August 2013. Yup, my search engine traffic reduced closed to 50% of what I am usually getting.

So the biggest question was, “Did Google Panda Update on small sites really took place?”

Honestly, we had no idea (I wish I had though) but it certainly looks ‘happening’ to my blog.

What did I do (wrong) to get ‘hit’ by Google Panda Update?

I did thought about this and to be exact, it took me 72 hours to finish my ‘small research’.

Basically, I did nothing wrong (no black hat SEO if that’s what you are wondering at the back of your head) and of course, if I am not doing anything wrong, why would I be ‘penalized’ right?

I would blame this on my approach. Yes, my blogging approach.

When I started this blog, I was determined to rank fast using white hat SEO. I did my homework on the types of keywords to use on each article and even calculated the keyword density of specific keywords on my blog (to name a few).

By now, you can call me a SEO freak and I wouldn’t mind.

There are also a few more white hat SEO techniques I used to rank well on search engine result pages (which I can’t disclose for obvious reasons).

The results? Ranking 242 keywords to be exact on search engines and about 15 of my articles are on the first page of Google.

Important disclaimer: I am not boosting but I am just sharing my experience (plus stupidity).

Imagine 90 days blogging and ranking 242 keywords on page one of Google (SERP’s). What do you think?

…

…

…

Yup … It does look so obvious that I am using some black hat SEO technique right?!

That’s what I am talking about. I was ranking my keywords too fast on search engines using white hat SEO.

Ouch!

Black hat SEO … is so not my type

Did I really use black hat SEO to rank my keywords?

I know this sounds funny but that’s the fact. I really didn’t use any (yes the big word ‘ANY’) black hat SEO techniques at all. And, I didn’t manipulate the search results too.

However, the results for me to be able to rank so many articles on first page Google does sounds very illegal I would say!

At times, I would simply blame myself for being over ‘enthusiastic’ when it comes to search engine optimization.

What did I learned from this Google Panda Update on small sites (hummingbird)?

I am a strong believer that it is easy to rank on search engines as long as the plan is right. Now, rushing to rank so many keywords on first page of Google is definitely a crazy thing to do (honestly speaking).

When it comes to SEO and overcoming any Panda Update, it is best to leave it as natural as possible. You can’t really beat Google and every updates done by Google is to ‘compliment’ the previous updates.

Search engine optimization is indeed, very simple as I had previously wrote. All you need to do is to ensure that those backlinks you are getting … are coming from natural sources (no paid links etc).

Another thing I learned from this Google Update (hummingbird) is that big daddy Google is focusing on very minor and petty stuffs like blog’s domain age and the numbers of articles able to rank well on Google.

Does this article makes any sense to you?

Using the comment form below, tell me if this article makes absolutely logic to you. For me, it is a lesson well learned.

It was fun being able to rank pretty good on search engines but again, it come with a huge sacrifice too!

For those are interested to try on Fruition, here’s the link for it. All you need to do is to link up to your Google Analytics and the stats will start rolling in.

Of course, I am off to ‘lick my wounds’ but guys, tell me what you think below 🙂

January 20, 2024
All You Ever Need To Know About The NoFollow Rule And How It Affects SEO
If you are ‘involved’ in the blogging industry, you would know what is rel=”nofollow” or as I call it, the NoFollow rule.

In this article, allow me to explain to you what NoFollow is and how it works out. Most importantly, I will share with you how NoFollow rule could affect your search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and planning.

Let’s see what is NoFollow tag all about in this 3 minutes plus video.

And for the record, Darrell Cherry had also asked me this question on Google+ recently.

This question was the main reason why I decided to write this blog post

What is rel=”nofollow” or NoFollow rule?

This is what Google Webmaster Tools say about rel=”nofollow”:

“Nofollow” provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines “Don’t follow links on this page” or “Don’t follow this specific link.”

I believe there is no other explanation that could be any clearer than that.

Does the above make any sense to you?

Related article: Top 8 Link Building Techniques That Work For Search Engines

How do I activate the rel=”nofollow” or the NoFollow rule?

Basically, you can place the NoFollow code on any links or URL’s to tell Google not to crawl, transfer Page Rank (PR) or anchor text to those links.

This means that you are still linking out but are avoiding any Google penalization as you had ‘informed’ the bots not to crawl that link.

In order for you to practice the NoFollow rule, all you need to do is to add rel=”nofollow” to the URL snippet as below:

<a href=”www.www.reginaldchan.net” rel=”nofollow”>Blogging Tips For Beginners</a>

Trust me … it couldn’t be any easier than that!

If NoFollow is used properly, you are able to avoid any Google penalization

Why is rel=”nofollow” important for bloggers?

NoFollow rule works in many ways for bloggers and webmasters. With all the hype and hundreds of guest posting requests nowadays, bloggers (especially you) really need to make sure that you don’t share any unrelated links on your blog.

By using the NoFollow tag, you are able to control the types of links shared and determine only links which are worthy are getting a piece of your Page Rank ‘juice’.

In other words, you wouldn’t want to ‘promote’ a blog post or article that has no or low value which could put you in hot soup. This is to ensure that you don’t get penalized by Google for breaching its terms and conditions.

This brings us to the next part of the discussion which is …

What are Google’s policies and some specific examples of NoFollow usage?

Google policies are rather general but here are two of the very distinctive factors which you should consider using rel=”nofollow” on your blog posts:
- Untrusted content
- Paid links
Factor #1: Untrusted content

I uses NoFollow tag especially on untrusted content. For example, I know Google has no problem with my blog when I link URL’s to popular sites such as Wikipedia, Amazon or eBay.

However, what happens if I am linking out to too many ‘new blogs on the block’?

Google and other search engines might consider my site as linking out too much and my blog could easily be penalized.

Now, let’s take an instance for easier understanding.

Do you see more credibility for linking a blog site which is 1 year old or a site which is just a mere 1 month old?

Obviously, an older domain age site would be more credible compared to a brand new one.

In this case, webmasters and blog admins who accept guest postings could also use the NoFollow tag especially when they are accepting guest posts from various bloggers. Once these bloggers have proof their worth, you could easily remove the NoFollow tag and allow them to get some link back.

Moreover, sharing is caring right?

Recommended read: Master the industry secrets with this SEO Black Book.

Factor #2: Paid links

Oh c’mon … it is a no brainer to link out to paid links.

So, what are paid links?

Paid links are links which are displayed on blog posts or articles with the ‘help’ of money instead of relevancy and therefore, it is indirectly, breaching certain part of Google policies.

Basically, this means that the blog is sharing links just for the sake of getting a backlink from your site.

What I am trying to say is that you could still place paid links on your site and that’s entirely up to you. However, what you can do is to place a NoFollow tag to avoid any issues with any search engines.

Thinking back, it makes no sense to get a paid link from you right? Some food for thoughts, guys?

*If you like graphics, I had found a great infographic on Danny Sullivan’s post on Search Engine Land and great design work by Killer Infographics.

Are you using the godly but yet dangerous NoFollow rule on your blog?

I uses NoFollow on most links which don’t portray good quality articles or are too new. At times, I might be very harsh but again, it is for the good for the blog and myself.

So, how about you? Share with me your experience using the comment form below 🙂
January 20, 2024
[Contest] Win 1 of 5 Blog Engage Standard Accounts
I got to admit it. This is my first contest organized here at ReginaldChan.net and thus, do accept my apologies for any wrong doing etc.

To start off my first contest with a bang, I think this is a no brainer to work along with Brian Belfitt from Blog Engage.

Brian, if you are reading this, thank you for your kind assistance and support.

Yes the contest is open to EVERYONE and it is absolutely free.

What will you win from this contest?

Joining this contest will entitle you to win one out of five Blog Engage Standard account.

So, what’s so great about Blog Engage Standard account? You will get:
1. An account worth £19.99
2. Submission of URLs to more than 1,000 active members of Blog Engage
3. Adsense Revenue Program (all URL’s shared are integrated with your Adsense ads)
4. Joining various groups to enhance your traffic and authority building
5. Community blog of PR 6 (even more guest posts, backlinks etc)
6. Free SEO Marketing eBook written by Brian Belfitt (founder of Blog Engage)
7. 3,000 worth of Just ReTweet points to your account
Do I have to remind you that Blog Engage is a great place to build backlinks, SEO ranknig and even creating more blog traffic for your website?

The requirements to join the Blog Engage contest

To win this juicy Blog Engage account, all you got to do are to follow this easy steps:
1. Become a fan for Blog Engage on Facebook
2. Follow Blog Engage on Twitter
3. Like Blog Engage on Facebook
4. Become a fan for Blogging Moments
5. Follow me on Twitter
6. Like Blogging Moments on Facebook
7. Share it on Twitter to further boost your chance of earning
*Make sure you perform all the 7 steps to entitle for the draw.

Yes. It only take 7 steps to join this ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ contest. Don’t wait any further!

Update: The Blog Engage contest is over and here are your winners:
1. Navid Moazzez
2. Gilbert Samuel
3. Sampath Sam
4. Srikanth Sri
5. Gautam Kumar
On behalf of Blog Engage and this blog, I would like to take the opportunity to thank for my readers and followers who had joined the fun.

Want more contest like this? More coming soon and stay tune!

*p/s You may also signup for my newsletter to get the notifications on such events too 🙂
January 20, 2024
3 Dead Simple Ways To Add Twitter Cards To WordPress Powered Blogs
Twitter Cards were announced by Twitter back in June 2012 and many people (including me) ditched the idea. It didn’t got popular until recently where everyone was searching for the best setting for Twitter Cards.

Twitter card allows site owners to enhance the expanded tweets just like what Twitter created for their site. It works just like OpenGraph tags that give site owners the chance to determine what their posts and pages will look like when shared on Facebook.

Now, does that make any sense to you? When I first read about these cards, I was like “what the hell is that?”.

To give you an idea on what they are all about, I have prepared a quick (and short) slideshow for you below.

I thought it wasn’t important for social engagement but I was terribly wrong.

Let’s use some images to show you the differences, shall we?

This is what normal tweet looks like without any Twitter Cards:

Do you agree that this tweet looks very plain?

And this is what you see when you had enabled at least one Twitter Cards on your site:

Does this tweet looks cooler with Twitter Card enabled?

Tell me, which attracts you more in terms of clicking and reading? I bet the second one do.

Related material: This free tool helps me to manage all my social media accounts under one roof.

What are the advantages using Twitter Cards?

Twitter Cards doesn’t help you in SEO if that’s what you are wondering. Of course, if you want to do some SEO, you should read this; What is SEO in 521 seconds (bonus video included).

Yes you are right and I didn’t type wrongly; Enabling Twitter Cards on your blog will not give you any ranking or SEO advantages.

Basically, they only help you to make your tweets look better and more tempting to click.

Personally, I noticed an increase of blog traffic coming from Twitter since I implemented this method.

The below are the types of cards available to choose from. It doesn’t matter which card you choose and therefore, just go with the most basic which is Summary Card.
There are 7 card types that can be attached to Tweets, each of which has a beautiful consumption experience built for Twitter’s web and mobile clients:
1. Summary Card: Default card, including a title, description, thumbnail, and Twitter account attribution.
2. Summary Card with Large Image: Similar to a Summary Card, but offers the ability to prominently feature an image.
3. Photo Card: A Tweet sized photo card.
4. Gallery Card: A Tweet card geared toward highlighting a collection of photos.
5. App Card: A Tweet card for providing a profile of an application.
6. Player Card: A Tweet sized video/audio/media player card.
7. Product Card: A Tweet card to better represent product content.
How to add Twitter Cards to WordPress powered blogs?

There are three methods you can add Twitter Cards to your blog and here’s how:

Method 1 – Using WordPress SEO by Yoast

If you are using this WordPress plugin, then you are in luck. This is by far, the easiest way to enable Twitter Cards on your blog.

All you need to do is to head over to Social Tab > Twitter.

Enabled the box ‘Add Twitter card meta data’ and for the site Twitter username, use your @handler name. Press save and you are all done.

Just like the image below.

Yoast SEO had integrated with Twitter Cards features

Important note:

For those who are running a multi author site, it is best to ensure that all your guest bloggers have their Twitter usernames updated on your site. If not, you will be getting credit for their write up instead 🙂

Method 2 – Placing Twitter Cards code on your <head> section

This method is also easy especially when you are using customized themes like Genesis Framework (as you can see on this site).

Locate your <head> section and place this code below:

<meta name=”twitter:card” content=”summary”>

<meta name=”twitter:site” content=”@reginald_chan”>

<meta name=”twitter:creator” content=”@reginald_chan”>

All you need to do is to change @reginald_chan to your Twitter handler username.

3. Hard coding Twitter Cards yourself

This is common especially when your theme doesn’t support much customization.

No fuss and this is rather easy as long as you follow the steps.

Locate your header.php file and paste the following code before closing the head tag:

<?php
#twitter cards hack
if(is_single() || is_page()) {
$twitter_url = get_permalink();
$twitter_title = get_the_title();
$twitter_desc = get_the_excerpt();
$twitter_thumbs = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID), full );
$twitter_thumb = $twitter_thumbs[0];
if(!$twitter_thumb) {
$twitter_thumb = ‘http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/8eb9ee80d39f13cbbad56da88ef3a6ee?rating=PG&size=75’;
}
$twitter_name = str_replace(‘@’, ”, get_the_author_meta(‘twitter’));
?>
<meta name=”twitter:card” value=”summary” />
<meta name=”twitter:url” value=”<?php echo $twitter_url; ?>” />
<meta name=”twitter:title” value=”<?php echo $twitter_title; ?>” />
<meta name=”twitter:description” value=”<?php echo $twitter_desc; ?>” />
<meta name=”twitter:image” value=”<?php echo $twitter_thumb; ?>” />
<meta name=”twitter:site” value=”@reginald_chan” />
<?
if($twitter_name) {
?>
<meta name=”twitter:creator” value=”@<?php echo $twitter_name; ?>” />
<?
}
}
?>

Again, just change @reginald_chan to your Twitter handler and that should do the trick.

I got to admit that after reading back method 3, it does sound a little complicated and therefore, I would recommend using the first two methods.

The last step …

Just because you had done the above, it doesn’t mean that Twitter Cards will show up on your tweets automatically. Quote from Twitter:

We’re in the process of bringing this new content preview experience to users on Twitter. And over the coming weeks we want to generate content previews for more sites from around the web. To participate in the program, you should (a) read the documentation below, (b) determine whether you wish to support Twitter cards, and then (c) apply to participate.

Therefore, it is a no-brainer that you need to apply first. I had applied and it didn’t took me more than 10 minutes to get approved. Here’s how you could apply for Twitter Cards:

1. Setup your Twitter Cards using Twitter Preview Tool. <– Do this after you had place the codes (refer method 1 to 3)

Fill up the detailed needed and once done, click on the blue button

2. Next, validate your card as seen on the image below:

The last step is to validate your Twitter Cards settings and it will automatically apply for you

Additional notes:
1. You are not needed to submit the photo card URL or player card. Well, you could if you wished for but I kept mine simple.
2. If the validation goes through, your application will automatically be submitted for you.
Over to you

Yup, that’s it. You have integrated Twitter Cards to your blogs or websites. Are you using Twitter Cards already or you are just trying to get it done?

Tell me what you think using the comment form and if you like this article, feel free to sign up for my newsletter.

Like the article or find it useful? I could appreciate it if you could share for me on Google+ using the red shiny button below 🙂
January 6, 2024
Best Mailing List Plugin – Optinskin vs Hybrid Connect
Update: Hybrid Connect has been renamed to Thrive Leads for branding purposes. Read more about it here.

How many of you heard about this saying “the money is in the list”? It doesn’t matter if you are running a small blog or a huge Fortune 500 company; You need a mail list.

The process of building a good mailing list is extremely hard and the word ‘extremely’ could easily be an understatement. Regardless how hard it is, you still need to start building one.

There are so many benefits a mailing list can offer and there is no better way to explain other than showing you some lovely slides below.

WordPress is home to over 20,000 useful plugins and when it comes to finding the best mailing list plugin, there could only be two choices which are OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect.

Both of these are used by both novice and professional bloggers because they are not just normal plugins … They are REALLY top notch and either one of them are eligible to be named as the best mailing list plugin.

I am lucky (and stupid) to have bought both plugins and I know how hard it is when it comes to deciding which plugin would give you a better ROI and improving your signup rates all together.

Therefore, I hope this review will help you decide which will be the ultimate mailing list plugin that you will use on your blog.

Of course, if you are using any one of these, hit the Reply button below and tell me what you think.

This comparison is done by dividing both of these fine mailing list plugins into several categories for judging:
1. Features
2. Placement and integrating autoresponders
3. Split testing ability
4. Look and feel
5. Price
Introduction to OptinSkin plugin

OptinSkin is created by Glen Allsopp and Graeme Boy. The plugin was developed to fulfill their own need to split-test opt-in forms quickly and easily, anywhere on a blog, to maximise conversions and make more money.

Hold on a second … did I just mentioned “Glen Allsopp”? The Glen Allsopp? Founder of ViperChill?

Yes, I certainly did!

Introduction to OptinSkin alternative – Hybrid Connect plugin

Hybrid Connect is created by Shane Melaugh and it is said to be the most advance mailing list building plugin for WordPress.

Ok, so who is Shane? If you do not know who he is, you better do … right now!

He is a renowned expert especially when it comes to marketing, traffic generation and online sales.

Note: It does sounds fun when you have two of the finest experts produced world class WordPress plugins just for us right? Yes, I felt very honored for that.

So, can Hybrid Connect stand up to it’s viral, OptinSkin … or … Can OptinSkin beat the newcomer who has nothing to lose?

OptinSkin vs Hybrid Connect

Who will be crowned the best mailing list plugin for WordPress?

Comparison #1: Features
OptinSkin features:
1. Split testing ability (A/B testing)
2. 20 awesome designs
3. Fade in optin form feature
4. Customizable colors and fonts
5. Impressions will only counts if the optin form is visible to the reader
6. Custom HTML and CSS codes
7. Multiple locations for optin form placements
8. Build in social media buttons on optin forms
9. Able to work with all autoresponders
A partial look at OptinSkin settings and features
Hybrid Connect features:
1. Split testing ability (A/B testing)
2. Over 40 awesome designs
3. Squeeze pages, lightboxes and slide in features
4. Customizable colors and fonts
5. Very detailed stats counter
6. Changes can be done easily to any optin forms without codes
7. Multiple locations for optin form placements
8. Users can select Facebook integration and even add on webinar option on optin forms
9. Able to work with all autoresponders
This is what Hybrid Connect looks like on its dashboard

Advantages of OptinSkin:
- Fade in features and build in social media sharing buttons which is absolutely great when it comes to increasing your social engagement level.
- Option to stick the optin form to the top is a great feature for those who do not want to use a floating widget or plugin
- Stats counter per impression which is great for obvious reasons.
- Create custom optin forms using CSS.
Hybrid Connect has also several advantages which are:
- More than 40 ready-made design templates compared to OptinSkin which has only 20 designs.
- Squeeze pages, lightboxes and slide ins which are extremely valuable when it comes to increasing the conversion rate for mailing list building
- Facebook integration where it makes sign up easier and faster.
- Integration Webinar account with optin form offers a great advantage
My verdict: Both the mailing list plugins are equal. OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect offer users huge variety of choices and are packed with rich features to help you build your subscriber’s list. Therefore, this would actually boils down to your personal preference and needs. Due to rich features, both of these plugins are given full points for that.

Score: OptinSkin (10/10) – Hybrid Connect (10/10)

Winner: Draw

Comparison #2 – Placement and integrating autoresponders

Setting up an optin form using OptinSkin is extremely easy and integrating with any autoresponder is really a brief. No codes needed and all you need to do is to link both of them together.

For the record, I did not believe it was THAT easy and I decided to try it out (signing up using my secondary email) and it works! Amazing right?

OptinSkin placement settings

OptinSkin offers easy optin form placement such as:
- After post
- Before post
- Below first paragraph
- Floated right of second paragraph
- Custom locations
- Below selected paragraph number
- Pop up after selected number of pixels
Hybrid Connect offers many features such as shortcode, widget areas, lightboxes, slide ins and squeeze pages

Setting up Hybrid Connect is also easy. All you need to do is to select the type of template or skin, change the words that appear, add in the your autoresponder codes and you are basically done. Just like OptinSkin, you can change anything from layout to font colours.

When it comes to optin form placements, Hybrid Connect does exactly what OptinSkin is offering with a little twist; The ability to add squeeze pages, lightboxes and slide ins.

Note: OptinSkin wins if you love simplicity and speed of setting up an optin form but Hybrid Connect is given that extra 1 point due to the extra features it has.

Score: OptinSkin (8/10) – Hybrid Connect (9/10)

Winner: Hybrid Connect

Comparison #3 – Split testing features

Ask any Internet Marketer and they will tell you that split testing is a must. So, if you are not doing any split testing, you are missing something out … BIG TIME!

Both OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect offers split testing features but what makes them so different?

This is Optinskin split testing stats counter

OptinSkin:

To enable split testing, you need to place two or more optin forms on the same location and enable the split testing option. Results will be shown is a very simple layout which allows you to compare the results in one glance as seen above.

This is a great tool that shows which optin form is giving you the best conversion rate and when it comes to building a mailing list, this is extremely valuable.

Hybrid Connect split testing stats are more complete and organized compared to OptinSkin

Hybrid Connect:

This plugin works in a very unique way compared to OptinSkin. You need to create an optin form first and then, enable the split test feature.

Hold on … doesn’t that sounds the same?

The starting part is the same (duh) but here’s where everything goes differently. You can start and stop the split testing features with just a click of a button as seen on the image above.

Compared to OptinSkin, everything is started automatically as soon as you create it.

It does sounds easy compared to OptinSkin but here’s the down side of Hybrid Connect; Stopping the split testing means that you need to choose a winner. Selecting the winner and the less productivity form will automatically be deleted.

In terms of automation, Hybrid Connect certainly does a great job but the fact that it couldn’t save a copy of the less performing optin form is a rather disappointing feature for me.

Due of this, I would rather go for more ‘manual’ and give an extra credit to Glenn’s mailing list plugin, OptinSkin.

Score: OptinSkin (9/10) – Hybrid Connect (8/10)

Winner: OptinSkin

Comparison #4 – Look and feel

Generally, both the plugins are offering super dupper (stunning) skins which are absolutely great. Allow me to share some indepth review in terms of their themes and skins provided.

What I love about OptinSkin are:
1. OptinSkin themes or skins are very lightweight which helps in website loading speed
2. The skins looks professional and clean (I am a huge fan of simple things in life)
3. Built in skins are awesome which doesn’t need any additional configuration or customization
OptinSkin offers quick and easy autoresponder setup without any codes needed (plus integrates well with many autoresponders)

What I love about Hybrid Connect are:
1. Hybrid Connects offer a huge variety of themes to choose from (more than 40 for Christ’s sake)
2. There are themes which fit well for every location on the blog page
3. Built in themes can easily be customized from the types of button used to the font colour
You can integrate Hybrid Connect with autoresponders by copy-pasting the right codes

So, what I didn’t like about OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect? Do they really have their downsides?

For me, everything good thing has their bad part and thus, a review is not complete without any downsides and here goes.

Disadvantages of OptinSkin:
- Mobile view or mobile responsive doesn’t always work well and at times, it might look distorted (happens to larger optin forms only)
- Doing a new optin form would require some CSS knowledge
Disadvantages of Hybrid Connect:
- This mailing list plugin has the chance to break (not working properly) especially when there’s an update such as WordPress 3.6, Genesis 2.0 and HTML5. As much as this is very common for WordPress plugins, I have high expectations for premium plugins to push an update immediately after any new releases or updates.
- Hybrid Connect codes could be affected by minification (done by plugin cache) and website themes which could distort the layout.
Score: OptinSkin (9/10) – Hybrid Connect (9/10)

Winner: Draw

Comparison #5 – Price

This comparison could probably weigh the most especially pricing is always an issue for all of us.

OptinSkin currently selling at $67 for unlimited usage while Hybrid Connect has three different options; Single site usage at $49, multi site usage at $67 and professional package at $147 (after 25% discount).

Now there are two ways you can see this:
1. OptinSkin is a better deal since one price for unlimited usage
2. Hybrid Connect would be a better deal if you are running just one website only
Personally, I would choose OptinSkin since the one price for unlimited usage is an extremely good deal in my books.

Besides that, OptinSkin is offering a full 60 days money back guarantee compared to Hybrid Connect which offers only 30 days money back guarantee.

Therefore, OptinSkin plugin gets the one point for the last comparison done.

Score: OptinSkin (10/10) – Hybrid Connect (9/10)

Winner: OptinSkin

The best mailing list plugin for WordPress – My take

Let’s see how both OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect score in this comparisons, shall we?

Features – Draw

Placement and integration with autoresponders – Hybrid Connect

Split testing ability – OptinSkin

Look and feel – Draw

Price – OptinSkin

When it comes to points, OptinSkin scored extra one point compared to Hybrid Connect in my review and yes, this is a pretty darn close battle I would say!

Personally, both OptinSkin and Hybrid Connect are great mailing list plugins which you won’t go wrong with.

However, getting OptinSkin could be actually much easier on your wallet since it is a all-in-one package regardless for single or multiple sites.

Furthermore, I really love easy setting up (and a plugin that doesn’t affect my website load speed) which made me choosing OptinSkin over Hybrid Connect.

So, how about you? Do you have any experience with any of these plugins?

Wait! Hold on a second!

Not using any of them or still deciding? You can check both the plugins out using the links below:

OptinSkin – Must-try and probably the best mailing list plugin for bloggers

Want to give some love to Shane’s plugin instead? Click here –> Hybrid Connect – The most advance mailing list plugin for WordPress
January 5, 2024