Blair Williams

Everything is an Experiment

Blair Williams

Pretty Link Pro Officially Launched

Pretty Link Pro Officially Launched

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prettylink_no_bg2When I put the pre-launch version of Pretty Link Pro (PLP) out on the market at the end of July, I really didn't know what to expect. Well, let's just say the past month has been a wild ride. 🙂 Scores of people downloaded PLP and I released a ton of fixes and new features. Seriously, look at how much has been added to PLP (above and beyond its already impressive feature set) in just the first month:

  1. Automatic Tweeting of scheduled & XML-RPC posts
  2. The Pretty Link Bookmarklet (for creating pretty links outside of your WordPress admin)
  3. Bulk Editing / Bulk Deletion UI enhancements for the Pretty Link Management page
  4. Public Link creation widget and shortcode (for site owners who want to allow their users to create pretty links using the website's url)
  5. The Quick Add Dashboard Widget
  6. Alternate URL configuration (you can use a shorter version of your url)
  7. Short URL auto-discovery for Posts & Pages
  8. Randomized Keyword Replacements when using replacement thresholds
  9. Slug & message customization for automatic post tweeting
  10. URL Aliases for counting tweets that go to your blog post but are different from your pretty link
  11. Many more smaller fixes & refinements …

Roadmap

Pretty Link Pro has rapidly become a solid and feature rich link management platform that many websites owners are relying on more and more every day — and it's only going to get better! Here's a small roadmap of some of the upcoming features will be available exclusively to Pretty Link Pro users in the coming months:

  1. PrettyBar enhancements — I've had many requests for ways to make the Pretty Bar more customizable, more interactive and more helpful. Here are just some of the enhancements I have planned:
    1. 100% control of the HTML & CSS without having to modify files every time you upgrade PLP
    2. Tweet badge which can be optionally integrated into the PrettyBar (you'll be able to get a tweet count on any link you create that uses the prettybar)
    3. Ability to modify or remove the Pretty Link Attribution link on the PrettyBar (PLP users are starting to manually replace the standard link I have there with their affiliate links — which I think is a fantastic idea so I'm making it easier to do so)
  2. UI enhancements — there are a myriad of enhancements to the UI that are in the works right now. These enhancements will make creating and managing your links sooo much easier
  3. Better website analytics compatibility
  4. Group specific link defaults — you'll be able to override the global link creation defaults depending on what group a link is placed in.
  5. Firefox Pretty Link Pro Sidebar Widget — this will be a *huge* enhancement — since Pretty Link is getting more hooks into twitter and other social media platforms, you'll be able to do many of the tasks you'd normally perform within your wordpress admin right from Firefox!
  6. Many other smaller — but awesome features 🙂

And remember that even if you purchase PLP today, you'll receive all of these future updates absolutely free!

Affiliate Program

Also, don't forget that when you purchase Pretty Link Pro, you'll automatically be enrolled in the Pretty Link Pro Affiliate Program … So you'll get a 50% commission for every person that purchases PLP using your affiliate link (which you'll get when you purchase)! This is great if you have an affiliate marketing presence, have clients that need Pretty Link Pro or just have friends that need it.

I'm pumped about all the activity that's been going on surrounding Pretty Link Pro and the cool features I'm working on right now. Seriously, between the fact that this the best link management software in the world, you'll get lifetime updates, there's a 100% money back guarantee on it and there's a generous affiliate program along with it — why don't you just get Pretty Link Pro today, start using it to build your brand and make some money while your at it? Sounds like a no brainer to me. 🙂

Randomized Keyword Replacements and Bookmarklet Updates

Randomized Keyword Replacements and Bookmarklet Updates

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I just pushed another release today that I think clears up many issues that users were having plus I got 2 major improvements in.

  1. The first is with the keyword replacement algorithm in Pretty Link Pro. When keyword replacements were turned on and a threshold was set of say, 3 keyword replacements per page, my algorithm was just replacing the first 3 keywords it saw. In this release I altered the algorithm so instead of replacing the first 3, it will now replace them in a more distributed randomized order. This feature request was from one of my users that noted some other apps that were doing this. I dove into the code and luckily my existing algorithm was such that it only took me about an hour to modify.
  2. So, remember how I released the Pretty Link Bookmarklet yesterday? Well, I was immediately flooded for 2 additional features to be added to it. The first was that the title of the URL should be used as the name of the Pretty Link and the second was that people wanted a way to post this link to some of the social networks. In the 1.4.12 release today these features are available.

Here are some screenshots of these features:

Some users have been happy but some others have been a bit bothered that I'm pushing so many updates lately, well don't worry too much … I'm just ramping up for the Official Launch of Pretty Link Pro on September 1. So get ready for some awesome new features to get rolled out next week — I'm working on some really cool stuff for the free & pro users alike!

Create Short URLs on the fly with the Pretty Link Bookmarklet

Create Short URLs on the fly with the Pretty Link Bookmarklet

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bookmarkletThe Pretty Link Bookmarklet is finally available! My #1 request from users for a while has been to make it easy to create Pretty Links outside of the WordPress admin — and now you can.

If you aren't familiar with what a bookmarklet is, it's basically a button that you can add to your browser's toolbar that will do some action–in this case it's creating Pretty Links. Bookmarklets are great because they are very simple, javascript based buttons that work in practically every browser.

The Pretty Link Bookmarklet is available starting in Pretty Link version 1.4.11. Here's how you'll go about installing it in your browser once you have version 1.4.11 or greater installed in WordPress:

  1. When inside your WordPress admin, click the menu item: “Pretty Link” -> “Tools”
  2. You'll see a link named “Get PrettyLink” under the Bookmarklet section … you'll want to drag that link to your Browser's bookmark bar

That's all you have to do to install it. Now let's look at how you'd use the Pretty Link bookmarklet:

  1. When you're browsing the web and you find a page that you'd like to create a Pretty Link for, just click “Get PrettyLink” in your toolbar while on that page.
  2. Pretty Link will automatically create the link for you and redirect you to a page where you can copy your newly created Pretty Link.

Here are a few screenshots of the bookmarklet in action (in Safari — but the same steps go for FireFox, IE, etc):

I'm currently working on some other ways to easily create Pretty Links soon — so it's only going to get easier to manage your entire link portfolio from Pretty Link!

New Pretty Link Pro Features Added

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Over the last couple of weeks I've seen a great response to my new Pretty Link Pro plugin. I've been pleased with the success and I've been having a lot of fun interacting with my pro users.

Well, I'd like to announce some new features that I've rolled out in Pretty Link Pro this week:

  1. Bulk Actions – Pro users can now delete and edit multiple Pretty Links at once.
  2. Alternate Pretty Link URL – would you love to use Pretty Links in your twitter stream but your domain name is just too long? Well, now in Pretty Link Pro you can use a different domain name that you own for your pretty links on your blog.
  3. Public Pretty Link Creation – Now with Pretty Link Pro you can roll out your own link shrinking service! You can now put a form on your blog in a sidebar widget or by using a WordPress shortcode in any Page or Post. Users have been requesting this one for a while and I'm excited that its finally here.

I'll be working on some additional features over the next few weeks to prepare for the Pretty Link Pro official launch on September 1. I've got some really cool stuff planned.

Pretty Link Pro is now Available!

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Wow … it's been a hard couple of months … I've been working feverishly to get Pretty Link Pro ready to push out there and it's finally ready for people to download! You may want to go to the Pretty Link Pro website and check it out–it's the best link management, tracking, sharing and automating platform available. Here's a breakdown of some of the awesome features that this upgrade to Pretty Link has to offer:

  • Replace keywords throughout your blog with Pretty Links
  • Replace URLs throughout your blog with Pretty Links
  • Rotate up to 5 URLs from one Pretty Link
  • Split Test these URL rotations for a Pretty Link
  • Setup Conversion Reports
  • Import / Export Pretty Links
  • Automatically create Pretty Links for each Post / Page
  • Automatically Tweet each Post / Page when it is Published
  • Display a Tweet Badge on Pages and / or Posts that contains the number of tweets that this page has received
  • Display a Re-Tweet button on every Page and / or Post that incorporates your twitter handle & Pretty Link into the Re-Tweet

Along with these features, I'm providing:

  • Premium Support (Premium Support Forum will be launching in August for now it's via email/twitter)
  • 30 day money back guarantee
  • Lifetime updates on all the sites you own

Pretty Link Pro will revolutionize how you approach your business by allowing you to automate repetitive tasks, optimize your site with testing, see the results of your campaigns immediately, virally spread your links and by being able to replicate your sites — including all your links within minutes! I'm really excited about this release — please go check it out at http://prettylinkpro.com.

Pretty Link Pro is in Pre-Launch — I'll officially launch it and start promoting it more on September 1, 2009. This means that people purchasing it from now until then will be able to get it with a $50 discount … so now is the time to consider making a purchase. You can get it at a discount and be on track to receive all the cool new updates to Pretty Link Pro in the coming months!