A WordPress question and answer plugin or a WordPress Q&A theme can add another powerful dimension to your WP site. It’s a fantastic way to incorporate additional content to your website and build authority in the search engines. What’s more, the content is all generated for free by your users. User generated content is a driving force behind many large question and answer sites like Quora and Yahoo! Answers. These website tools can be used to gather feedback from your site’s visitors, permit users to vote on popular issues, build a community around a topic, and much more. Whether you’d like to merely add a question and answer plugin to your existing WP site or use a Q&A theme to build a standalone Quora-like site, there are several options available to you. In the review list below, we’ve identified some free and premium question and answer themes for you. For additional WP resources, see our premium WordPress plugins directory. Read more »

A well developed WordPress ad plugin will not only help you quickly incorporate Google AdSense and banner ads into your WP blog but it can make managing your site’s ad inventory much easier. Some of the desirable features for WordPress ad plugins include things like performance statistics, the ability to rotate ads, revenue sharing, click tracking, impression counting, the ability to integrate third party ads, and automated expiration dates for banner ads. If used correctly, ad manager plugins can help you identify the most effective strategies for dramatically improving ad revenue on your WP site. In this review list we’ve identified some of the best premium WordPress ad plugins as well as several free WP advertising plugins. Keep in mind that premium WordPress plugins tend to offer better support and more frequent updates which may or may not be important depending on your specific needs. Read more »

Both free and premium WordPress rating plugins are frequently used to rate and review blog posts, compare products and services, and vote up/down visitor comments. Many of these ratings plugins for WordPress act as powerful tools to help improve your site’s search engine rankings, assist you in further engaging your readers, and gather important research data about any particular item or topic. Below is a review list of some of the best WordPress rating plugins currently available for commercial and free use. To find out about more great resources for your WP blog, see our directory of premium WordPress plugins. Read more »

A WordPress ecommerce theme can be easily added to your default WP installation to transform your regular blog into a well oiled online ecommerce store. E-commerce themes for WordPress come in all shapes and sizes. Whether you need to sell physical products or digital products from your WP storefront, there’s a theme that can do that. There are several free WP store themes available if you’re just getting started and need to save a few dollars. The downside of using a free WordPress theme is that they’re not well supported or updated and you may not want to take the risk of something breaking and then losing customers. A great alternative is a premium WordPress ecommerce theme that includes quality support and frequent updates. Read more »

WordPress comment plugins allow you to completely customize the design and functionality of the default WP comment section of your blog. While commenting systems like IntenseDebate, Echo, and Disqus offer lots of nice features, a common complaint is that they slow WP page loads and most comment plugins aren’t compatible with them. To help you trick-out your commenting section, we’ve put together a quick review list below of some of the best WordPress commenting plugins currently available. We will continue to update this list as other terrific comment plugins for WordPress are discovered. For other great WP plugins that can improve your WordPress blog, take a look at our directory of premium WordPress plugins. Read more »

WordPress slideshow plugins can be very powerful tools for both publishers and designers. If used correctly, a slideshow plugin for WordPress can effectively highlight featured posts and images within your WP blog to capture the reader’s attention. The WP plugin repository is overflowing with slide show plugins but many of them either aren’t well supported or they are poorly developed. We’ve sifted through an incredible amount of those to select our favorites. Below you’ll find a list of free and premium WordPress slide show plugins that are both well supported and frequently updated. We plan to keep adding to this list as new ones are launched. After reviewing those below you should stop by to see our premium WordPress plugins directory which contains other kickass WP plugins that can help you juice-up your blog. Read more »

Groupon, the pioneer of daily deal sites, offered its first nationwide deal yesterday and according to the Chicago Tribune, they sold 445,000 deals for its client, Gap. The $25 voucher worth up to $50 in Gap apparel became available at about 6:30 AM PST and ended at around midnight. The Gap deal offering was so popular it even crashed Groupon’s servers for a short while. Groupon normally takes 50% of all deal sales which means that they earned an estimated $5,562,500. Clearly it was a very successful day for Groupon. Unfortunately the jury is still out as to whether or not Gap came away from this deal as a winner. By our calculations they stand to lose at least $8 million unless they can convince their new customers to keep coming back. Read more »

A WordPress directory plugin or a WordPress directory theme can help you either integrate a simple link directory for WordPress or create a stand alone business directory website, respectively. Whether you’d like to establish a professional directory service using a premium WordPress directory theme, or you just want to add a directory plugin for WordPress to merely feature your favorite links, there are several WP plugins and themes that can help. The free directory plugins for WordPress offer many features but many are plagued with infrequently updates and a lack of support. In contrast, both commercial WP directory themes and premium WordPress directory plugins are usually well supported and they offer frequent updates. Below we’ve compiled a review list of some of the best WordPress directory plugins and the top WordPress directory themes that are now available for free or paid use. If you’re in need of other great tools for your WP website, see our comprehensive list of premium WordPress plugins. Read more »

Groupon’s command of the daily deal sites market is impressive to say the least. Since launching in November of 2008, it has expanded to serve 22 countries and hundreds of cities with a total of 11 million subscribers worldwide. Despite its commanding lead on other group buying competitors, the percentage of traffic from organic search is very little. According to Compete, nearly all of Groupon’s traffic comes from email and social marketing (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) referrals. Clearly Groupon’s brand is a very powerful and trusted source for attracting local merchants and deal crazed consumers. If Groupon’s brand or its product (i.e. deal vouchers) was diluted in any way, the effects could therefore be devastating. Read more »

New group buying sites are launching nearly everyday to quench the ferocious appetite of local group coupon crazed consumers that can’t resist the huge discounts offered by daily deal websites. Social buying is particularly attractive to online businesses and publishers because it helps them tap into local markets and expand their customer base. Despite the incredible growth rates of large collective buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, the majority of cities throughout the U.S. remain unclaimed. As more competitors enter the group buying coupon market, the need for daily deal marketplaces where consumers can buy and sell discount vouchers increases as well. Below we have compiled a review list of group coupon marketplaces that have already sprouted up to address the growing demand for buying and selling Groupons. Read more »