If you run a self-hosted blog through WordPress, you’ve probably seen mentions of Jetpack knocking around on your Dashboard or even in blogging forums. Jetpack is a multifaceted plug in that gives you significantly greater control over your blog content, statistics, subscriptions, activity monitoring, and a wide host of other features. Previously, these tools were only available to blogs hosted directly on WordPress.com. Jetpack broke the mold, bringing these premium features to self-hosted users for the grand total of free. Here’s why you should definitely consider adding the Jetpack plugin to your self-hosted WordPress blog.
Better Content
Articles are the building blocks to a truly excellent blog. The bulk of a blogger’s time is used in creating the perfect content strategy. Jetpack features like Stats, Spelling and Grammar, and Photon can really hone the quality and overall aesthetic of your content. Stats can give you a firm grasp of your blog’s traffic analytics, allowing you to see exactly which blog posts receive the most attention. This tool is instrumental in establishing your SEO keyword and linking strategies, since you can also view search engine terms and referrers as well. This tool helps you understand the ebb and flow of your readership, so that you continually create blog posts that cater to the needs of your audience demographics.
Jetpack’s Spelling and Grammar integration can give you another layer of security against pesky misspellings, grammatical errors, and other text issues. Preventing these issues from slipping through the cracks can definitely boost your credibility as a blogger. Finally, the Photon content delivery network helps you recover the bandwidth that you’ve been spending on image content. Instead of using your host’s bandwidth, your blog images will be served up by WordPress.com for free.
Usher in Comments
Engagement is the golden word in our current world of blogging and social. This metric includes shares, likes, and comments. Comments add an entirely new dimension to your blog – instead of just speaking to an audience, you’ve created a dialogue. For example, you might be considering Laguna Beach properties and blogging about your real estate search. Your audience can provide you with valuable feedback and tips in the form of comments. Once you get enough loyal users commenting, then you’ve built a community.
So how to you encourage comments? Well, activate Jetpack Comments and watch your comment sign-in process become a whole lot easier. This plugin feature lets readers sign in with their Twitter or Facebook accounts, so that they don’t have to manually fill out the name, email, and website fields repeatedly. Also, your readers get the opportunity to promote their own social media accounts by engaging with these accounts.
Enhanced Sharing Options
One of the coolest things about Jetpack is how it changes your ability to share content. Have you ever struggled with clunky subscription widgets? Well, the Subscriptions feature makes this a streamlined process, sending out an official WordPress email update to your readers whenever you post a new article. The Sharing feature lets you pick and choose where your readers can share your post with a single click: Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, and Google Plus are just a few of the options. And it’s no surprise that Facebook and Twitter rank as the top tools in blog post sharing, according to statistics published by eMarketer.
So what are you waiting for? If you haven’t tried out the free Jetpack plug in features, you could be missing out on some major content improvement, comment enhancing, and sharing opportunities. Get started with these valuable tools by searching for Jetpack on your Plugin page.
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