Social Marketing

Wordpress Plugin: PlugIM Votebox…

I’m super-stoked about this!

The WP-PlugIM Wordpress plugin is available, so anyone can drop it in their ‘plugins’ folder and have a shiny PlugIM votebox on their posts (see upper left of this post for what it looks like)….

You rock Michelle!

Been waiting to hear about this puppy. Don’t forget to plug FTR!

Thanks,

Jack

[...] the plugin from Michelle’s site here: http://blog.michellemacphearson.com/wordpress-plugin-plugim-votebox/ and be sure to give her a HUGE thank you!  Thanks Michelle! Share and Enjoy: These icons link [...]

Thank you Michelle! You saved me a bunch of time with this one. I posted a link to this post in the PlugIM blog and it’ll be in the next newsletter as well.

I just want to see PlugIM become “THE” IM news site.

Michelle,

FYI - not sure what happened but I tried to submit from my post today and instead it just voted - but with no submission page like you usually get.

Thought maybe someone beat me to the punch in like 30 seconds, but nope - it links to a plugim page with nothing but the main link to the site.

I still love this plugin! Just a heads up to make it perfect.

[...] The Wp-PlugIM plugin puts the votebox from PlugIM.com on your blog posts. [...]

Hi Michelle

I am still playing around with this on a test site

It would be good to have a version that allows you to position the button wherever you like with a function call.

Andy - Will do!

[quote comment="1256"]Michelle,

FYI - not sure what happened but I tried to submit from my post today and instead it just voted - but with no submission page like you usually get.

Thought maybe someone beat me to the punch in like 30 seconds, but nope - it links to a plugim page with nothing but the main link to the site.

I still love this plugin! Just a heads up to make it perfect.[/quote]

Jack/Michelle,

This is actually an issue with the widget itself and not the plugin. I’m working on it now.

Thanks Ryan - this community thing going on here; someone making a free plugin for someone else’s service, and THAT someone else working in the community to support users - all for free…

…this all just rocks. It is nothing like the old internet marketing days where everything cost something and no one would ever go our of their way to help people for free they way many people like you do today.

I love my “job” so much more now that I am a “Content Publisher” rather than an icky internet marketer!

Thanks again Michelle and Ryan!

The issue Jack found has been fixed, no more phantom story pages. What was happening was people would click submit but then not follow through the whole submission process so the story was only partially submitted.

Michelle,
While working on this issue I did notice one thing in the plugin that needs to be changed. I noticed some strange behavior with one post in particular on Jack’s site and it turns out it was because he put double quotes in the post title. There’s a very simple fix for this. In wp-plugim.php change line #24 from:

$title = $post->post_title;

to:

$title = urlencode($post->post_title);

That’s it. That way if a post title has single or double quotes in it, they’ll be encoded and won’t mess with the javascript that calls the widget code.

Let me know if you have any questions, and let me know if you see any other odd behavior with phantom posts.

There is another small problem…

I have plugged this story 3 times now

Andy,

Yes that’s because you aren’t logged in to your PlugIM account. That’s one of the side affects of allowing anonymous voters who don’t have accounts on PlugIM. There are some checks in place so it can’t be heinously abused (i.e. clicking plug repeatedly) but it’s impossible to limit a given user to one vote unless we force the voters to be logged in which is something we’re just not ready to do yet. At some point in the future we’ll have to make that change to prevent abuse.

In the mean time if you have any suggestions to help better limit anonymous voters to one vote, let me know, otherwise there’s a certain amount of honor system in place.

IP checking?

One solution might be longer cookies, and remembering the last 10 things someone plugged.

I must admit for social networking sites I love not having to log in, even though it is less secure.

Thanks Michelle! I spent over two hours trying to get the plugin from PlugIM to work on my blog and thought I was going crazy.
No matter what I did, it just wasn’t working. I was about to give up when I noticed a post about this plugin. It took me all of 60 seconds from download to activation. Whoopee! I am finally plugged in.

Since you programmed this wonderful plugin, would you be interested in being a contributor to a JV giveaway site for software?

[...] http://blog.michellemacphearson.com/wordpress-plugin-plugim-votebox/ [...]

Thanks Michelle for this nity plugin - Great!

Well, only a small problem here, it works great on Firefox, but it is not showing up on IE. Any advice?

Everyone - new version released to account for post titles w/ quotes, as per Ryan’s suggestion.

@ Ann - I’m guessing you’ve got IE configured to not show javascript.

@ Jack, and everyone - I wrote a big long comment response re: icky “internet marketers,” content publishing, the great spirit of sharing we’ve got going on, etc. Must not have hit “Submit,” ugghhh…

But I’ve got a lot to say in the department, will likely have a full post up about it shortly.

[quote comment="1307"]Well, only a small problem here, it works great on Firefox, but it is not showing up on IE. Any advice?[/quote]

Ann,

That’s very strange. And it’s not just your IE. I checked out your site using IE and couldn’t see the plugin either. The link was there, if I hovered my cursor over it I could see the link in the status bar, but I couldn’t see the image.

I looked at the code on your site, and compared what I was seeing in Firefox and IE and I have a guess, at least something for you to try. Try disabling the “ShareaSale.com” banner ad for ArticleLive. I noticed in IE and Firefox that banner displays differently so it may be affecting the PlugIM plugin. Let me know if that works.

I know it’s something specific to your site because I haven’t seen or heard of any issues with IE on any other sites running the plugin.

Thank you guys –>

@ Michelle - I checked, the IE configured is okay.

@ Ryan - I moved the banner, but it is still not showing up? as you said, the link is there when I hovered my cursor but just not show up, an empty space.

Thanks for the help.

[...] para que queden pegadas al principio de la página y entonces sean mostradas aleatoriamente.The Wp-PlugIM plugin pone el votebox de PlugIM.com en las entradas de tu [...]

Worked like a charm Michelle. It was installed in less than a minute. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Craig

[...] a collective effort to increase awareness of our community. Members are chipping in and writing WordPress plugins and creating buttons. Others are mentioning us in forums, bookmarking us on Del.icio.us, and [...]

[...] If you want it, go here and download it from Michelle MacPherson’s site: PlugIM Plugin [...]

Ann,

Did you ever figure out why it wasn’t displaying properly on your blog in IE?

Everyone else,

How’s the widget and plugin working for you? Have you noticed any issues? The plugin has been loaded on various webpages approximately 250,000 times so far this month and it seems to be handling the load just fine which is great.

I am still waiting for a version that will be easy to integrate with my theme, I have a spot reserved and some traffic to send.

A customizable version is on it’s way (it got lost in the never-ending to-do list, but thanks to Andy’s prodding has been resurrected).

Hi Dravis,

No, I didn’t figure it out and also don’t know the reason, so I have to un-plug it from time being

Very cool plugin, but have things changed? ZI just installed and tried to test it and am being forced to register…I’m asked some interesting info too, like why may I ask, do I have to input my AdSense ID?

Dennis

[...] soon as I created my account I downloaded the PlugIM Votebox plugin for Wordpress. Now, every post I publish will have a big fat zero and plugs just below Well, at least in the [...]

[quote comment="1607"]Very cool plugin, but have things changed? ZI just installed and tried to test it and am being forced to register…I’m asked some interesting info too, like why may I ask, do I have to input my AdSense ID?

Dennis[/quote]

Dennis,

If the vote box is showing zero votes, that means the story hasn’t been submitted to PlugIM yet. The person who originally submits the story does need to be registered with PlugIM as we don’t support anonymous story submissions. However, once the story has been submitted, anyone can vote for the story with or without a PlugIM account.

You are asked for your Adsense ID because PlugIM supports Adsense revenue sharing. If you supply your Adsense ID, then your Adsense ads are displayed 50% of the time any time anyone views one of the stories you’ve submitted. You are not required to supply this information if you’re not comfortable with it, it’s completely optional.

Ok, so it has nothing to do with the adsense on “my site”, just the adsense on my story on IMPLUG?

So its like a free 50% for me?

[quote comment="1611"]Ok, so it has nothing to do with the adsense on “my site”, just the adsense on my story on IMPLUG?

So its like a free 50% for me?[/quote]
Right, it doesn’t have anything to do with your site. PlugIM uses your Adsense ID to display Adsense ads on PlugIM.com so any clicks on those ads is Google money deposited directly into your Adsense account. You can track the number of impressions and clicks you get on PlugIM by using an Adsense channel as well. For more info about that, see this post: http://www.plugim.com/blog/2007/03/how-to-track-your-plugim-adsense-earnings/

Thanks!

I wish DIGG would have a plugin. For the life of me, I cant figure out which code to used to be able to digg individual blog posts, they all try to digg the whole page and I keep getting errors.

Great work here!

[quote comment="1610"][quote comment="1607"]Very cool plugin, but have things changed? ZI just installed and tried to test it and am being forced to register…I’m asked some interesting info too, like why may I ask, do I have to input my AdSense ID?

Dennis[/quote]

Dennis,

If the vote box is showing zero votes, that means the story hasn’t been submitted to PlugIM yet. The person who originally submits the story does need to be registered with PlugIM as we don’t support anonymous story submissions. However, once the story has been submitted, anyone can vote for the story with or without a PlugIM account.

You are asked for your Adsense ID because PlugIM supports Adsense revenue sharing. If you supply your Adsense ID, then your Adsense ads are displayed 50% of the time any time anyone views one of the stories you’ve submitted. You are not required to supply this information if you’re not comfortable with it, it’s completely optional.[/quote]

Is there any reason why I shouldn’t plug each new entry myself for the first one? This way people who dont want to register, won’t just back away.

Include your RSS in your profile and your posts will be picked up automatically.

You even get some backlinks from it unless you are using Feedburner’s clicktracking (I have switched that off because I was losing backlinks all over the place)

As for Digg
http://neothoughts.com/2007/04/27/firefox-extension-smart-digg-button/

Maybe something similar is possible for PlugIM though it is Firefox only.

Hi there,
wanting to know if there is a version of this plugin for Joomla, would be great!
Thanks in advance..

[quote comment="1614"]Is there any reason why I shouldn’t plug each new entry myself for the first one? This way people who dont want to register, won’t just back away.[/quote]
Dennis,
That’s fine, in fact many users do that either by submitting the stories themselves or by using the auto RSS feed poster like Andy mentioned. Posting the story automatically casts the first vote as well so then any of your readers will be able to plug any post without having a PlugIM account.

Andy,
I fixed the problem with the feedburner click tracking URLs. I did some research in the FeedBurner support forums and found out that when click tracking is enabled on a feed, they write the original URL to a new element in the RSS feed called “feedburner:origlink”. So I made a change to the PlugIM reader to check for this value and if it finds it, store that value in the database instead of the FeedBurner address. The end result is you won’t be able to track the clicks, but you’ll get your back link and we won’t have duplicate submission problems any more.

I just dont kow which feed to add as I seem to have 3…

http://www.dennisedell.com/feed/atom/

http://www.dennisedell.com/feed/ (rss 2.0)

http://www.dennisedell.com/feed/rss (rss 0.92)

Well 4 if you count my feedburner feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dennisedellcom

Use http://www.dennisedell.com/feed/

Hmm, but at the same time use the Feedburner Redirect Plugins.

Feedburner themselves have now taken over managing it and it is called Feedsmith
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/wordpress_quickstart

OK, almost there! LOL

I just downloaded the plugin, however it also comes with something called a .DS_store file.

Am I supposed to upload that too? None of the directions, as far as I can see, say anything about it.

Weird. There is only a readme.txt file and the wp-plugim.php file within the .zip folder. Perhaps there was a problem with the download and it was corrupted, creating this other file? Maybe delete what you’ve got and try re-downloading.

I know, that’s the way it usually is.

Ok, just downloaded the zip again, and again it came with 2 folders.

1 folder labeled __MACOSX, which has just a copy of that .DS_store file.

1 folder labeled feedburner_feedsmith_plugin_2.2, which contains another copy of the above file…a read me file… and the plugin itself.

Oddity number 2 is that the read me file is a 1page PDF, not a .txt file.

I’m a little nervous to install the plugin, whatcha think?

Ah, ok - we’re talking apples and oranges. Looks like you’re working with a Feedsmith plugin for Feedburner that was mentioned above. For help on that, I’d recommend the Feedburner forums - they’ve always been a helpful bunch.

Oh sorry for the confusion. Yes, I was responding to Andy’s post about this feedburner plugin.

The thing that gets me, there is no mention in ANY directions on this other file.

I’ll check the forums.

That is just addition mac os stuff - ignore it - harmless

All you need to upload is the php file

Wow, thanks Andy. I REALLY appreciate the help. I also did all stuff in my PLUGIM profile, just hope it works lol.

Very nice! How do I get my post text to wrap around it?

Jon

Hey Jon!

It normally wraps on it’s own.

But here on my current configuration, you can see I’ve got the Odiogo plug in next to the PlugIM plugin? It interferes with the wrap.

Looking at your site, I think the same thing may be happening with the rating plugin you’ve got displaying next to the PlugIM one.

The new version will be out this evening, assuming testing finishes smoothly (a few more things to check) and you’ll have more control over placement then as well.

Glad you like!

-M

Thanks Michelle! I had the same problem with a Digg plugin and never could get it to align with the text.

Love to hear more when the update is ready!

Jon

New version available - allows custom positioning of your votebox!

[...] Of Note ~ Plug IM Wordpress Plugin ~ Commenting Policy ~ Must-Have Plugins for Internet [...]

Do I need to deactivate or uninstall the other one first?

I should’ve mentioned that!

You do not need to uninstall/deactivate the old plugin. Just upload the new version and you’re all set. Check the “Read Me” for info on custom positioning details.

Thanks so much!

Thank you Michelle! It’s very special and do inform us as and when the new version is released

Cher, the new version has been out for a few days now! Download and enjoy!

Hi all. I wanted to let you know that we made some major improvements to the widget recently. We knocked the size of it down from 97.5 KB to just 4.4 KB! It doesn’t do the fancy fade in and fade out animation any more, mostly because that was just too expensive on bandwidth and loading times. But it’s still fully AJAX powered and updates right before your eyes on your own site without needing to travel to PlugIM to cast your votes. You should see a dramatic improvement in load times now though. No need to update your plugins. These changes were to the core source on PlugIM.

Hi Michelle,

What a great plugin!

Tim

Ryan the load time is vastly improved - thanks for the update!-

Tim - thank you! I’m glad you dig it.

[...] I have been waiting a little while to mention Michelle's PlugIM plugin [...]

[...] I have been waiting a little while to mention Michelle's PlugIM plugin [...]

I think I found a bug.

The votebox is working properly but qhen I make a search on my blog or (my blog is Linkrain), or when I open a category, the plugim vote box won’t show up. Just a text like this:

plugim_url = “http://www.linkrain.com/articles/big-websites-use-blended-adsense-ads-to-maximize-revenue/”;
plugim_title = “Big+websites+use+Blended+Adsense+ads+to+maximize+revenue”;

will show up instead of the vote box. Any suggestions?

I really like this plugin, especially the fact that you can choose the position.

One question though, is that on my own blog. I use relatively short snippets from each new post and display a lot of posts on my index page.

If I had my preference, I would only display the club box on the post page, and not on the index or category pages.

Any chance that’s an option coming soon?

Can that be edited in in the plug-in somehow? ( by someone smarter than me)

thanks again for this awesome contribution…

[...] Of Note ~ Plug IM Wordpress Plugin ~ Commenting Policy ~ Must-Have Plugins for Internet [...]

Linkrain - good catch! The plugin has been updated to v 1.0.3 and can be redownloaded for a fix!

Scott - Go to Options –> PlugIM Options in your Wordpress dashboard. Select “none” from the dropdown. Then use either “Method B” or “Method C” in the ReadMe file to display the votebox when and where you want it.

Hi Michelle

Cool and easy to use plugin and thanks! I should have used this earlier when Jack Humphries mentioned it but was slow on the uptake.

Harry

great plugin, but if this add one more Bury funtion, it will be Super Great ~~ hehe

I’ve been using this plugin with Semiologic Pro 4.2.9/Wordpress 2.1.1 with no problem at all. Today I updated to Semiologic Pro 4.3.2 which includes Wordpress 2.2.1 and I can’t get the PlugIM button to show up now.

I’ve reinstalled and activated the plugin and I’ve tried all the various positions in the options. I’ve also set the option to none and tried using the code to insert it manually but it’s still not showing up.

Is there a compatibility problem with the latest version of Wordpress? Or am I missing something somewhere?

Thanks. This is a great plugin so I’m hoping I’m just missing something in my configuration

John

@ Venson - A “Bury” feature would have to be added to the PlugIM site before it could be integrated with the plugin. I’m sure PlugIM welcomes user suggestions, maybe you should head on over there and let them know your thoughts.

@John - I upgraded my WP to 2.2.1 just now to see if the PlugIn still works - it does! So I’d assume the problem is a conflict with Semiologic, which unfortunately, I don’t use and as such, can’t test. Perhaps Denis can give you a hand.

[...] Today I have taken another and somewhat deeper look into PlugIM and the results can be seen on every post of my blog as I have implemented PulgIM WordPress Plugin. [...]

Michelle,

I just installed the plugin on my blog. Great job! This probably will make me more active in PlugIM community.

[...] Of Note ~ Plug IM Wordpress Plugin ~ Commenting Policy ~ Must-Have Plugins for Internet [...]

Hey folks - I’ve released another plugin similar to WP-PlugIM that works with the new Sphinn.com social news website. Sphinn.com is from Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land and it’s audience is search marketers with some SMO thrown in. If you write on those topics, it’s a good site to submit to.

The plugin/details can be found here:
http://blog.michellemacphearson.com/wordpress-plugin-sphinnit-button/

[...] Of Note ~ Plug IM Wordpress Plugin ~ Commenting Policy ~ Must-Have Plugins for Internet [...]

Just a follow up to my problem with this plugin after upgrading Semiologic Pro…

I’ve been playing around to try to find why it quit working and it seems to be the External Links plugin that comes with Semiologic Pro. When that plugin is disabled, the PlugIM plugin works fine again.

Just figured I’d post a follow up for anyone else who might run into the same issue.

John

Great stuff Michelle, I’ve been looking for this!

Hey Michelle, great pugin… It worked great simply uploaded it and activated it, came right up, I had the digg plugin on my post but it’s not really targeted, I heard about plugIM and that’s what we need for our industry, thanks.

Terrance Charles
http://www.terrancecharles.com/blog

Neither plugin works through the options box. I change the position and both go right back to the top left.

Ideas?

Hi Michelle,

Great job. Just about to install on my blog.

Chris

[...] Fortunately Wrodpress makes it easy with their plugins. The first plugin I have installed is called PlugIM and it gives the readers the opportunity to vote on individual posts. After the first initial vote [...]

Why am I getting the following above every post…

plugim_url = “http://www.freemarketingmembershipsites.com/2007/10/27/learn-how-you-can-have-unlimited-inventory-to-sell-on-ebay-and-more-free/”;
plugim_title = “Learn+how+you+can+have+Unlimited+Inventory+to+sell+on+eBay+and+more%2C+FREE…”;

The url and title change, but it is on every post.

Works perfectly.

I have currently disabled it, though, as it inteferes with images I have positioned to the top left of my posts.

Is there a way to insert the PlugIM Box to the left of the Title of each post, rather than in the main text?

I already commented last week, but can’t find it anywhere, so just in case something went wrong…

The plugin is great and works like it’s supposed to.

My one issue is that the votebox pushes my carefully-placed images out of the way to fit in place.

Is there a way of placing the votebox to the left of the post titles instead of in the text area, or is it just not possible to do that in Wordpress?

Hi Michelle,

cool plugin, thanks!

I’ll do a video and post on my blog for it..

Mattg

Thank you Michelle so much. Great for us ‘computer codes writing challenged”