Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

Guys, I’m in love with a plugin. Zemanta. You feel like an idiot saying it out loud because it’s a weird name, I understand, but, if you are a blogger, you are going to LOVE this little app/plugin.

See, I say app/plugin because it’s both a WordPress Plugin AND a browser plugin for all the major browsers. (Which one do you want? Well, they work just about identically. The only real advantage to the browser plugin is that one installation on your browser gives Zemanta functionality to all your blogs. Of course, on the flip side, if you use a ton of browsers but only have one blog, then maybe the plugin is more your speed. But they are identical in function.)

In short, Zemanta slides in its own little sidebar next to your post composition window and, as you type, combs what you are writing for keywords. It then uses those words to recommend things you may want to add to your post. Things like:

  • Images which it considerately moves to your server, credits back to the source AND links back to the original source
  • Related Articles (see below) which it pulls from all blogs but favors your own blogs and blogs you pre-set as “sources”
  • In text Links. Notice how the word Zemanta was a link to their website up there (ditto the word WordPress)? I didn’t have to do that manually. It  recommended linking that word to its corresponding website and I just agreed. It’ll do this for every keyword it identifies in your blog post which can be a huge time saver and you can individually chose which ones it adds or just opt to add them all. Add your Amazon Associate’s ID and it’ll make relevant in text referral links automatically!

Not sure what to blog about? They have you covered there as well. Open an empty blog post and ask for inspiration and Zemanta will give you images and links relevant to things you normally write about to help get your creative juices flowing.

Not seeing the sort of recommendations that you think would best fit your post? Refine their results with your own keywords and their suggestions will change based on your input.

As you can probably tell, I LOVE this app. I’m one of those people who realizes that I probably should put an image on every post but I don’t always remember or feel like making the effort. Now it’s a matter of a single click and it not only adds an image but is 100% netiquette friendly about how it does it.

No matter where you blog, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

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