Ok, just a quick hit today. I’m going to try to start showcasing some of the free stuff I use. A lot of it will be free WordPress plugins, free WordPress themes, and other tools and sites that I really use myself.

Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about a plugin I’ve been using for about 6 months or so now called Link Juice Keeper. Basically this plugin will automatically 301 redirect any non-existant pages on your site to your home page. It’s super simple to set up, and literally starts working once you activate it.

So why is this useful? Well there are actually a couple reasons. Probably the main thing I like it for is using it with expired domains. I generally only try to pick expired domains that have a diverse link profile – at least a handful of real contextual links. Most of the time, in this case, the links pointing back to the expired domain point to a variety of different pages within the site. That means, if you do noting, and put up a brand new site, you will have a ton of nice links pointing to a 404 page… What a waste. Now, many people will use the wayback machine or cached pages in google and recreate the old pages on the site. In some cases this is worth the time, and in other cases, it isn’t. Personally, I’ve found that this works great, and is the fastest way possible to avoid having a ton of links pointing to 404 pages.

Also, another good use for this tool, would be if you were converting an existing site to WordPress. Generally, if you’ve got any kind of non-Wordpress site, it’s going to be hard to keep the exact same URL structure for every page in the site. This is a quick way to avoid a ton of 404′s from search results and keep your traffic level stable as you transition to a new site. Now this probably isn’t as useful for this application, but it would be a lot better than manually setting up 301 redirects for a large amount of pages.

So overall, this is a plugin I use quite a bit. You can add it to your WordPress via the admin if you search for Link Juice Keeper, or click on the link above to visit the plugin page and download it.

Popularity: 8% [?]

It’s been quite a while since I last reviewed a plugin here, but I’ve found this particular plugin quite interesting. I got an email last week about a new FREE WP plugin called Lockpress, had a chance to check it out, and thought I would help spread the word.

Basically, this plugin allows you to password protect certain posts on your site via the normal WP login functionality. So let’s say you had a tutorial, or series of video tutorials, or something, and you wanted to charge people to see it – you could simply install Lockpress, create a group of posts within the plugin, and password protect them so that your visitors would have to charge a subscription fee to be able to view them.

Another common example would be with an eBook download – simply password protect the download page for your eBook, and you’ve got a super simple, free solution to charge for electronic products! This will allow you to avoid using 3rd party solutions, and outside of regular PayPal fees, you’ll keep 100% of the profits.

Now these are just a couple examples, but there are literally endless options with this plugin.

Obviously, there are other membership plugins out there, but what I especially like about Lockpress, which prompted me to write this review, is the fact that its so lightweight and easy to use. Setting up a membership site, or charging for electronic products can be a real pain, and this is a great solution to get you started without having to take a week figuring out how to set it up…. And did I mention it’s free?

Click Here to download Lockpress, see screenshots and download a full user’s manual.

Popularity: 22% [?]