Archive for March, 2012

Google Analytics In ListPipe

Monday, March 26th, 2012

We are pleased to announce that our ListPipe Control Panel now includes basic Google Analytics for each of our standard accounts.

It has been a long time coming, but we have completed phase 1 of this project, allowing each standard account to view basic analytics about their account including daily and accumulative visitation statistics for the last 30 days, pageviews, average time on the site and bounce rate.

We will certainly grow from this point, and are thrilled that we now have a method for users to measure basic performance on their site so they can track the effectiveness of various strategies and tactics for marketing their site. Users can watch the traffic and holding power of their site, and can measure content sharing and social media marketing  strategies to determine which work best for their business marketing audience.

Our analytics page includes a Legend, explaining each graph as well as suggestions for increasing traffic and basic performance.

To access your Google Analytics for your ListPipe account, simply login to your account home and click the new Analytics icon.

Currently, our analytics page will only show data for internally hosted accounts that are not mapped to an external domain (Domain Mapping). We can not currently show analytics for external accounts or for RelayPipe accounts. If you have your own site, you can incorporate Google Analytics without too much trouble by starting your own Google account and activating the Google Analytics feature. It only takes a few minutes and is free.

 

 

WordPress Plugin: ListPipe Content Generator

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Download our WordPress Plugin.

We get a lot of questions regarding our WordPress plugin. Mostly 'Where can I get it?', but there are a few other questions I would like to address in this quick post. For the record, the WordPress plugin is officially called the ListPipe Content Generator.

First, it is important to know that we recommend you install the plugin BEFORE you create your account.

The reason we want you to have the plugin installed and activated before you start your account is because we will attempt to push your initial content as part of the account creation process. If you do not have the plugin installed, the push will fail and you will not receive your first article(s).

This is not necessarily a huge problem; you will begin to receive content from our service within a week of installing and activating the plugin, but if you can get it done before you create your account you will receive content within the first hour.

Where Can I Get It?

There are three ways you can get the WordPress Plugin:

  1. The easiest place to get the plugin is within your own WordPress installation. Simply go to the 'Plugins' section of your WordPress Dashboard (on the left, about in the middle) and click 'Add New'. Perform a search for 'ListPipe Content Generator' to find the plugin, and then Install and Activate the plugin. Easy. Note that this only works for sites that have automation turned on, which most do.
  2. You can always download the ListPipe Content Generator plugin directly from WordPress.org, where our plugin resides and is made available to all WordPress users. To download from WordPress, go to: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/listpipe/ . Once you have downloaded the plugin, copy it to your Plugins folder in your site files (typically in root/wp-content/plugins - you will need an FTP client to do this) and then login to your WordPress site and visit your Plugins section to Activate the plugin.
  3. The ListPipe Content Generator plugin is available in your Account Home Toolbox (Control Panel). The problem with getting it from here is that it requires you to have an account, and we recommend that you install the plugin before you create your account. The reason we put it in the Toolbox is so that you have ready access to it if you should ever need it in the future when revising your site or for updates.

When Should I Install The WordPress Plugin?

As already addressed; we recommend installing and activating the plugin BEFORE you start your account.

The reason for this is that at the end of the sign up process we will attempt to deliver your first article. If the plugin is not installed and activated, we will not be able to deliver your initial content.

If you miss your initial content (we call it 'Startup Content'), you have two choices: You can simply install and activate the plugin and wait for your next week's content to arrive (should be there in the next week), or you can create a Support Ticket and ask that we push your Startup Content again.

Make sure that you have installed and activated the ListPipe Content Generator plugin on your site before you ask us to re-push your Startup Content.

What Does The Plugin Do?

The ListPipe Content Generator receives content from our service in a secure 'handshake' that lasts only a couple seconds.

The plugin basically acts as a 'catcher', just like a catcher in baseball; It simply waits for a pitch, and only responds when it is called. It doesn't initiate any of it's own processes; it only responds when called. It simply waits for our server to contact it and receives the new content in a secure 'handshake'.

During the secure 'handshake', our server communicates with your plugin and confirms your identity using a very secure and private random 'key'. The key is only good for a couple of seconds, and expires as soon as the transaction is complete. Once your identity is confirmed, our server delivers the content to your site with the permission of the plugin, and then the 'handshake' is closed. The plugin then simply waits for another call from our service. The plugin cannot receive a call from any other service because it uses a proprietary private key to establish the handshake.

Do I Have To Configure The Plugin?

No, You do not have to configure the plugin. There are no passwords to enter, and no settings to adjust; we do everything from within your account settings on our server. The plugin simply listens for a call, and uses your own URL to help us make a positive identification.

How Do I Remove The Plugin

If you should end the service with us, simply delete the plugin from your Plugins folder (typically in root/wp-content/plugins - you will need an FTP client to do this). That's all. You can also delete the plugin from within your WordPress Dashboard by going to Plugins and deactivating and then deleting the ListPipe Content Generator plugin. There is nothing more to do than this; deleting the plugin fully removes it from your system.

Why Did My Videos Stop Working?

Friday, March 9th, 2012

A Broken Video Window

We have received a few calls asking why videos seem to stop working.

For a few of our customers, the video portion of their content has been mysteriously replaced by a large black rectangle that won't display any video. The example to the right is what you might see on your site if your videos seem to have flown the coop.

If you have this issue, you might have noticed this after the content has been edited in some way, even though the video itself hasn't been modified. It might have occurred after you copied the content, and then re-pasted it exactly as it was with no modifications.

Why did your videos stop working?

The answer has to do with 'how' you edited or copied your content.

In your WordPress Editing Window you will notice two tabs on the top right corner of the editing window; one labeled 'Visual' and the other labeled 'HTML'.

Editing Window Showing Tabs At Upper Right

These are very important, and here is why; we publish your video content in an 'HTML wrapper', meaning that in your content you have a paragraph of HTML 'code' that includes instructions on where your browser can find the video file, and where to connect to a video player. This code is only available to you in the HTML tab, and is 'invisible' to you in the Visual tab.

When you move, copy or paste content from your site using the Visual Tab, you are copying a 'display only' version of the content, which does not include the HTML code for the video. If you paste the Visual content into another site, or onto another page, or in another applications such as a word processor, you are saving a copy of your content without the video code. When you paste it back, the video will be broken.

Video Code Example

While it seems you have not 'touched' the video portion of your site, in effect you have actually removed it by doing a copy and past.

The Solution

To solve this problem, make your edits in the HTML tab, or copy from the HTML tab to make sure you are getting all the video information. Small edits to your text can be safely performed in the Visual tab, however there are some cases where you may overwrite your video code without realizing it. For this reason we recommend editing in or copying from in the HTML tab, only.

A Functional Video Window

Editing in the HTML tab is really no different than editing in the Visual tab, but allows you to clearly see where the code elements are so you can avoid them or include them as you need to. Safely editing in the HTML tab will preserve your video and save you additional trouble.

NOTE: You should never have to make edits to the video code in any of your posts. Editing your video code (usually at the top of the post) is risky if you are unfamiliar with HTML, and can result in you losing access to the video in your post. Also, watch out for image code within your article, and avoid editing anything that has special characters or appears to be a code reference.

If you have missing videos on your site that you need help with, please create a new support ticket with a request for help with broken video.

Good luck!

 

Local Search Marketing Works

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

ListPipe specializes in local search marketing with Powerful Custom Content written just for you.

I ran across a couple of very interesting statistics that indicate local search is not only gaining ground, but is a valuable method for marketing your business online.

  • Over 80%* of local searches are done online
  • Over 50%** of local searches result in a purchase
  • Millions use local search everyday

*Google   **eMarketer - October, 2009