Last week we made our website widget available as a WordPress plugin. Since then it’s been downloaded over 500 times by bloggers from all over the world and our servers are having a tough time keeping up with the steadily growing load. In light of these good tidings I thought chatting with Mike Darnell, who’s responsible for the widget, was a good idea…
Dana:
Michael, Mikey, Mike! Hows it hanging bro!?
Mike:
It’s been an interesting week… but I sure as hell ain’t complaining!
Dana:
Good to hear. So what’s up with our new WorldPress plugin? How did this come about?
Mike:
It’s a funny story:
I was visiting my friend David Abitbol (founder of Jewlicious), to interview him about our widget and hear ideas he might have for improving it. David is a long time supporter of our efforts, the first person to install our site widget AND one of the savviest web people I know.
David had moved into his new apartment only a few hours earlier, and his stuff was jumbled in boxes all over the place but despite having spent the morning lugging crates and the fact he had no home to speak of yet, David was happy to share his insights with me and spent hours giving us a thorough review.
His parting shot, as I was getting ready to leave, was:
“Dude offer it as a WordPress plugin. Bloggers are always on the lookout for cool stuff to add to their blogs”.
When I got back to our offices I shared David’s ideas with our founder and CTO Tal Muskal. Tal decided to handle this personally as an under-the-radar “commando” project. A couple of days later the plugin was ready. The rest is history…
Dana:
Cool story!
Now remind me, what does the plugin actually do?
Mike:
The plugin identifies the topics you write about in your posts and enriches your blog with Tweets, Facebook connectivity & cool content from popular online sources.
Dana:
What are the advantages this holds for bloggers?
Mike:
We believe bloggers will see an increase in their time-on-site and a decrease in their bounce rates. The plugin has a “social” aspect to it as well – the” Friends” tab gives readers the opportunity to personalize their reading experience and see how the blog’s topics relate to their circle of friends. As far as I know our plugin is the only widget out there that enables this type of personalized reading experience.
Dana:
Why do you think bloggers stand to gain the advantages you mentioned?
Mike:
Easy – by letting readers browse all the related content they need on top of the blog’s pages their incentive to browse away is reduced. Simply put: Why go somewhere else when you have everything you need where you are?
Dana:
How does one install the plugin?
Mike:
It’s as simple as adding any WorldPress plugin:
- Go to “Add New” in your plugin menu on the main menu of your WordPress dashboard.
- In the search box enter “headup”. We’re the only plugin that comes up. Click the “Install” button on the far right.
- Activate your plugin.
- You’re done!
It will take about an hour before our signature dotted orange highlights appear on your blog.
Our URL in the WordPress plugin directory is: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/headup-bloggers-widget
Dana:
Anything else you’d care to add?
Mike:
I’m personally available for any support needed both on twitter @headup and via email – miked[at]semantinet[dot]com.
Don’t be shy… : )
Image credit: Titanas
