Diana Urban

Why WordPress’s Native Commenting System Beats Disqus or Livefyre

by Diana Urban on April 5, 2013

wordpress native commenting livefyre disqus

When choosing a commenting system for your blog, there are some fancy alternatives to WordPress’s native commenting system. When you look at some of the top blogs out there, the majority are using either Disqus or Livefyre. These boast features like social media login, related post syndication, or incorporating social media conversations into the comment stream. They promise real-time conversations, streamlined moderation functionality, and better spam filtering.

But the truth is that WordPress’s native commenting system just might be the best option. I have had both Disqus and Livefyre installed on this blog, each for a significant amount of time. The other day, I uninstalled Livefyre and decided to do away with these 3rd party commenting systems for good.

How to Promote your Facebook Page’s Like Gate Tab to Get More Likes

by Diana Urban on April 2, 2013

A like gate tab, otherwise known as a reveal tab or a fan gate tab, is a customized tab you can create for your Facebook page that shows content only to people who have liked your page. Everyone else will just see messaging encouraging them to like your page in exchange for whatever content you’re offering.

This is a great way to get more people to like your Facebook page. But this custom tab will only be successful if people are actually seeing it. Without promoting it correctly, it will be hidden on your Facebook page, and won’t entice anyone to do anything.

How to Reply To Individual Comments On Your Facebook Page

by Diana Urban on March 27, 2013

Facebook has launched a new feature on Facebook pages that allow you as a page admin, as well as your fans, to reply to individual comments on each of your posts. This allows for more of a threaded conversation, as are typically seen on blog comments and some forums.

This feature not only makes conversations easier to follow, but it should also increase engagement, since you can now reply to fans individually, thus encouraging them to continue the conversation with you since they’re getting individual attention. It also allows your fans to reply directly to each other. Previously, if too many comments happened since a particular comment you wanted to reply to, it was hard to indicate who exactly you were talking to, and this probably dissuaded people from replying at all.

How to Quickly Unsubscribe from Unwanted Emails (Without Being Mean)

by Diana Urban on March 25, 2013

We all have busy lives. And for those of us who work in tech (and even those that don’t), our jobs happen over email. We have a work email address, a personal email address, maybe even another less-important personal email address considered a “spam” email address. Our phones and tablets chime every time we get a new email. It can be quite overwhelming.

To cut down on clutter, you may want to unsubscribe from emails you no longer want to receive, or unsolicited emails you never signed up to receive. There are several right ways to unsubscribe from these emails, along with a couple wrong ways to go about it. This article is for two groups of people: those who are looking for the fastest way to unsubscribe from emails, and perhaps are feeling frustrated enough to send an angry reply instead. And it’s also for email marketers out there who need instructions they can send to those angry repliers.

What Are Backlinks? 9 Ways To Create Backlinks To Your Blog

by Diana Urban on March 19, 2013

Backlinks, also known as inbound links or incoming links, are links from other websites to your website. Getting more backlinks to your site is an off-page SEO strategy that will help you rise in the search engine rankings, as opposed to on-page SEO — things like editing your title tag, meta description, etc. so that Google knows what keywords to index your blog posts for.

When you optimize your on-page SEO elements, it helps Google understand what your blog post is all about. Google then indexes your post in its search engine with the keywords used on that post.

Learn How To Get More Blog Traffic and Subscribers [eBook Launch]

by Diana Urban on March 18, 2013

Today I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Stand Out Blogging, a new ebook that teaches readers how to create and optimize a blog that gets more traffic and subscribers. It’s the 2nd ebook in the Stand Out series, which also includes Stand Out on Facebook.

Stand Out Blogging is unique from other ebooks because it gives readers 20 tasks to complete within four weeks — that’s one task per business day. This prevents readers from getting overwhelmed, but ensures that they complete everything they need to within one month to be set up for success. It also includes templates and resources to help readers complete each task as quickly as possible. By the end of four weeks, readers will:

How to Appear in Your Fans’ Facebook News Feeds [EdgeRank Explained]

by Diana Urban on March 14, 2013

How to appear in Facebook News Feeds – EdgeRank Explained

When most people create a Facebook page, their immediate focus is on getting more likes. The more people who like your Facebook page, the more people will see the updates you publish to your Facebook page. Right?

Yes, that is right to some degree. More likes in general will lead to more post views. But not all of your fans will see all of your page updates. In fact, an average of only 10-15% of your fans will see any given update.

So why is this? This reason is EdgeRank, Facebook’s algorithm for determining how often a story will appear in your audience’s news feeds.

How to Create a Blog Post Title That Gets Serious Traffic [101 Ideas]

by Diana Urban on March 12, 2013

Brainstorming new blog post ideas is easier than you think it is. The problem is that most bloggers are so focused on creating an awesome blog post title, that they can’t think of a topic they actually want to write about. And staring at a blank screen is the hardest part of getting started.

Don’t get me wrong, creating an enticing post title is extremely important. In fact, it’s the most important part of any blog post, because without it, nobody will click the link in Google or on social media sites, it won’t get shared, and you won’t get traffic.

New Facebook News Feed: How To Optimize Your Facebook Page Content

by Diana Urban on March 11, 2013

This is an excerpt from the Stand Out on Facebook ebook, which has already been updated with information on how to optimize your Facebook page for Facebook’s updated news feed.

Last week, Facebook revealed its plans for a news feed redesign. The news feed is your Facebook homepage — the place where you see all of your friends’ and liked pages’ updates when you first log in. It’s where people who’ve liked your page will see the content you share to your Facebook page. Here are the main changes you’ll see once the redesign rolls out to your Facebook account: