(*This is an ongoing little mini diary of the process of redesigning my website. Posts will be added daily or almost daily until I have a beautiful and functional new website.)
I’ve heard about the power of the Elegant Themes plugins, Bloom (for powerful and pretty opt-in email forms) and Monarch (for social media sharing beyond compare.)
The thing is, I already have a Mailmunch plugin form that seems to be working pretty well. I also have some social media share buttons on important pages, Facebook like buttons on the bottom of each post, and would have social media share buttons in my sidebar if I could find a prettier way to do it.
First, I watched the Promo Video for Bloom since that was the one I thought I could do without. I’m definitely not easily swayed by people trying to sell me something, but the advantages piqued my interest. The opt-in forms are pretty and easy to customize. You can have more than one depending on where someone is on the website with different offers, and it gives you stats so you can track how well the various forms are doing. “ME WANT!” I thought to myself after watching it.
I’ve now also watched the Monarch Plugin Video. Rather than finish this post I’m off to set it up right now! (Really, it’s that BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL, especially for designers and the visual set. So many options!) There are so many ways to have the social media share buttons on the website and they have been specially designed to get you, the website owner as many shares as possible. You also get statistics and a dashboard to track your progress. That’s way more advanced than any social share plugins I’m currently using.
I actually installed both plugins yesterday. Today I aim to set them up and get them going. If you suddenly have an uncontrollable urge to share this blog post or sign up for my newsletter, you’ll now know why. (And if not, it means I must have gone to the beach instead…)
Best wishes!
Kristen
