There are two signature plugin feeds for WordPress that are tremendously helpful. One is for your blog posts and the other is for your RSS feeds. Either one works fine, and you can use both plugins together because your RSS feed subscribers don’t need to visit your blog to read your blog posts. You’ll see why in a minute.

AddSig For WordPress
AddSig from DagonDesign is useful and allows you to add a signature to all of your blog posts without any hassle at all. The drawback to this plugin is you need to install it when you first start using your blog. If you’ve been manually putting your blog signature in all of your posts then you add the AddSig plugin later, you’ll have two signatures at the bottom of all the posts you put your manual signature into. It will look stupid and you’ll have to go in and delete your manual signature. If you start using AddSig and then stop using it later, all of those posts that had your signature put in them will no longer have it. So you either need to use it and stick with it or not use it at all. If you do use it, it’s a great way to brand yourself using your signature.

sig2feed For WordPress
sig2feed by Smackfoo is an even better tool, in my opinion. This plugin allows you to add a signature at the bottom of all of your RSS feeds. The drawback is, in order to use it, you have set WordPress on full feed display rather than summary. If you set it for summary then the signature won’t be seen by your RSS subscribers.

So why would you want to use it then? Because you can use it as an advertising tool to make special offers that go out only to RSS feed subscribers. On your blog somewhere, advertise that your RSS feed subscribers gain the added benefit of reading full blog posts in their feed without having to visit your blog. Many people will sign up for the feed for that reason. If you sell advertising in your RSS feed then you put that advertising in your signature as a text link and Google won’t ding you for that but your subscribers can see it. Be careful though that you don’t overdo this; you’ll lose subscribers.

Also, you can make special offers to your RSS feed subscribers. If you sell things on your blog then you can make special offers that only go out to your feed subscribers. Advertise that on your blog somewhere by letting them know that they’ll get discounts, coupons, and special offers by signing up for your feed. They’ll do it and you place those special offers in your signature.

When it comes to marketing your blog, there is more than one way to skin a tiger. And just in case you’re wondering, no I don’t play with tigers. They play too rough.

Nevertheless, blog marketing is something that every blogger should give some consideration to. There are different methods for marketing your blog and almost all of them can be done at no charge. Here are the most popular ways to go about blog marketing:

• SEO
• Directories
• Trackbacking
• Leaving comments on other blogs
• Social bookmarking
• Article marketing
• Guest blogging

Guest blogging is actually gaining a foothold these days. It’s becoming very popular. But one method of blog marketing that is often overlooked is social bookmarking. Many blog marketers will bookmark their entire blog and totally forget about bookmarking each blog post. I think social bookmarking each blog post is a good idea. In some cases, you can get a hundred new visitors to your blog just by bookmarking one post. Of course, I wouldn’t expect that with every post, but if you bookmark 10 posts and get a hundred new visitors on one then you’ve done well. Don’t forget about social bookmarking.

When it comes to marketing your blog there are a ton of places online where you can do that. Blog directories are a great source of traffic and almost all of them are free. Here is a list of blog directories that you can list your blog at for greater exposure:

• Blog Hub
• Blog Explosion
• Blog Catalog
• Bloggernity
• Blog Listing
• Blog Flux
• Best of the Web
• Blog Top List
• Blog Rankings
• Blogarama
• Blog Hop
• LS Blogs
• Technorati
• iBlogBusiness
• Total Blog Directory

That’s a long list of blog directories, I know, but it’s not even all of them. There are plenty more. Some of these charge for listing your blog. Weigh that carefully to ensure it is worth the effort. BOTW (Best of the Web) charges a fee for a listing, but it’s a great source of traffic. Not all directories are so great, though.

Other blog directories require a link back to them in exchange for your listing. Blog Catalog, for instance, does this and gives you a choice on the size of the icons. I don’t recommend the huge banner that shows all your latest visitors. It looks cool for a personal blog, but it really doesn’t look right on a business blog. If you do link to blog that require a link back, use the small icon that simply lists the name of the blog without all of the extra fluff.

No matter how you do it, though, blog marketing isn’t complete without at least a half a dozen blog directory listings.

I just received an e-mail with the subject line: “Kindle A New Flame With A Bigger Penis.” All jokes, aside, I’m pretty sure what the intended keyword was in that limp effort to attract my click. If you guessed “penis” then you’ve got the wrong thing on your mind. And if you said “flame” then shame on you (I hate to snuff out your fire, but …).

No, I’m reasonably sure that the primary keyword in that subject line is “kindle.” It could just have well been a blog post title, but it wasn’t.

I think “kindle” was the keyword for two reasons: First, its placement right at the beginning of the subject line makes it the most prominent word in the line. Secondly, the Kindle from Amazon is a very hot item right now. It’s just been released within the last six weeks and all the hype in e-books is all about the Kindle. I’m guessing that it was a very popular Christmas gift this year.

Spammers know that using keywords is important. They do their research. But they haven’t done quite enough research to figure out that trying to trick people into clicking your links by using irrelevant keywords isn’t going to get you any more business. Just because “kindle” is a popular keyword today doesn’t mean you can attract buyers for your widget by using the word in your titles as a double entendre. People are smarter than that.

Evidence shows that straightforward titles are better for getting people to read. As soon as they find out that your “kindle” isn’t the kind of kindle they had in mind, they’re off to set other bonfires. So, yes, put keywords in your blog post titles and use them in your blog posts, but don’t be tricky about it. And if it seems like I’ve broken my own rule in this post, just remember one thing: Just like some fires are meant never to be kindled, some rules are sometimes meant to be broken.

When it comes to blog metrics, there is more than one solution. For most bloggers, all you really need is Google Analytics. But there are two ways to put the code into your blog template so that you can use Google Analytics and measure your stats. The first way is to use the Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

The Google Analytics plugin is the easy way. The upside to doing it this way is all you have to do is install the plugin, activate it, and insert your Google Analytics code. When you want to see your stats for your blog you just log in to your Google Analytics account the way you normally would and you can see all the usual stats.

The second way to use Google Analytics is slightly more complex. You do need to understand a little bit about modifying your templates and it’s a little dangerous because if you do it wrong then you can break your template. Still, the upside is that you don’t have to mess with a plugin and your code is cleaner as a result. It’s cleaner and will reduce your code-to-text content because each WordPress plugin comes complete with massive code. If you use the template modification method then the only additional code you have is the Google Analytics code itself.

To insert your Google Analytics into your WordPress template, follow this guide:

• Open up your FTP client and go to your templates folder
• Find the template that you are using for your blog and open that folder
• Transfer the php file for your index file into a folder on your hard drive so you can work with it
• Open the index.php file on your hard drive
• Somewhere between the body tags, preferably near the top of your page, insert your Google Analytics code
• Save the file to your hard drive and transfer it back to your blog template folder

There. Fairly simple. But be sure you place your Google Analytics code in the right place or it won’t work properly.