Highlight Your Posted Content with LinkWithin

LinkWithin is a plugin compatible with WordPress (self-hosted), Blogger, TypePad, and “other,” which likely means that you still need some type of hosting account to place the script on your page. In brief, it makes it easy to add related posts with thumbnails to your blog.

Please Note: I (and some other users) have been having problems downloading the plugin. While I was able to test it on another site, you have to use a unique code (which has the dark/light background setting and is unique for the site that you have used. Therefore, the generated images would have been displayed for the wrong site. More details about this are included in the review.

What the Plugin/Widget Does

Let’s say you want to increase the number of views of your previously posted content, but don’t want to have “related posts” per se, displayed on your blog. As you may know, visual content is often viewed more often and you see higher conversion rates when there is an image or graphic associated with it.  The plugin serves images from the images that you have placed in your content, based on the particular post that is being displayed.

Most plugins don’t really serve posts that are really similar, but more based on the tags that you used. So, some of your posts could be extremely recent, while more broad-reaching tags/categories may deliver less relevant “related” posts to your readers.

This plugin goes one step further by analyzing all your posts, not just the more recent ones. Much of the code and behind-the-scenes computations are held and served from their servers, so you will have to deal with downtime of images if they experience high load.

The Design and Implementation

To sign up and use the service, go to their site, insert your email (I don’t know why they need it, perhaps to update you for new versions or to prevent people from constantly downloading the plugin). Next, insert your blog link and platform, as well as whether you have a dark or light background, as the plugin either services light or dark text based on your design.

You will then be given a download link and instructions to insert the plugin/widget into your blog, depending on the platform that you have chosen.

After you have installed it according to the directions, go to your blog and you’ll find a number (usually three or four) of related posts under each individual post, as well as on the home page.

As per a comment on a ReadWriteWeb post, you can remove the related posts from the home page (WordPress only, I believe).

Find the code: if (!is_page()) { and change it to (is_single()) {. At this time, the entire area should appear as this:

function linkwithin_add_hook($content) {
if (is_single()) {

As previously stated, I had problems after the first blog I installed it on. I figure that it is due to how they manage the downloads and there was an error on their end. This is a drawback, as you won’t be able to use the plugin unless you install it from their site due to the unique code given to each blog.

All in all, the design is clean, displaying “You may also like these stories:” at the top, along with divided post images and titles. A link back to the site is placed below (and this is contained within the plugin editor, so it could possibly be removed – their terms don’t state that it has to remain intact). For most designs, it will fit in rather well, while others may find that they can implement their own version – this plugin just makes it extremely easy.

The Benefits

Beyond displaying recent posts for your readers, it can help improve the conversion rate if you are promoting products on your site, decreasing the bounce rate for most other blogs.

If you find that the traditional “related posts” plugin doesn’t do the job for you, this plugin is certainly worth trying out. It would likely be a more seamless process if you signed up for the service, but at this time, that isn’t an option.

No ads are displayed within the widget, but an “optional” setting may be available for people who want to “share revenue” in the future.

You can find the plugin at http://linkwithin.com.