Seth Godin advocates using cookies to distinguish between new and returning visitors to your site:
One opportunity that’s underused is the idea of using cookies to treat returning visitors differently than newbies. It’s more work at first, but it can offer two experiences to two different sorts of people. (Source: In the Middle, Starting)
I built this WordPress plugin to implement Seth Godin’s idea. For WordPress users it reduces the “work at first” to almost nothing. Installation is simple:
- Download the WWSGD WordPress plugin and unzip it.
- Copy the
what-would-seth_godin-do
folder to your WordPress plugins folder. - Activate the plugin in the Plugins panel.
- Customize settings in the Settings panel.
By default, new visitors to your blog will see a small box above each post containing the words “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!” After 5 visits the message disappears. You can customize this message, its lifespan, and its location. Your visitor must have cookies enabled.
New visitors will appreciate some context and background information about your site. This is your chance to offer them a special welcome and invite them to become permanent subscribers!
DOWNLOAD the What Would Seth Godin Do WordPress plugin
I can be reached at richard AT richardkmiller DOT com. I appreciate comments and suggestions.
FOR OTHER PLATFORMS:
(I have not tested these.)
375 replies on “WordPress plugin: What Would Seth Godin Do”
The plugin is not performing properly for me and I wish to see if this is due to my error or did something went wrong in updating the plugin.
I use thesis 1.85, disabled all the other plugins I had on the blog, but still, I have the frame appear only on the home page, and not on posts.
I see the same effect on your blog as well – on the inner posts it won’t show (and they are the posts visitors are coming to from the search engines)
I have tried playing with before and after post options, posts and pages etc – nothing seems to be helping…
Anyone else has this issue?
Thanks for a quick response.
Dany
I’ve been testing the plugin and really like it! Version 2.0 is not being indexed… is there any way to make turn that off, or modify the code so it IS being indexed?
“”
Anyone else had a non-appearing message?
Thanks,
Luke
Then added some css to style the div. Works like a treat and I can now style it as I wish! Thanks. 😉
Do you think it is conflicting with other plugins?
how can I used it with WordPress 3.3? It doesn´t work on my blog. Happy New Year.
Pedro
Fatal error: Call to undefined function esc_textarea() in /home/ryan/public_html/wp-content/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/what_would_seth_godin_do.php on line 81
thoughts?
Since you have been before you might want to subscribe to my mailing list so we can keep in touch. Thanks for visiting!
I looked for it in the html editor but could not determine where to add the missing “here”? Please advise, thanks, Lawrey
Anyway to get this feature on selected pages only? Its appearing all over my site and I had to remove it. I’d like it only to appear on certain pages. Also, if I decide to use it again I need to change the URL for the feed. Can you tell me how to do this? Right now it says home then /feed and I use Feedburner.
Thanks!
I addressed the previous post to the last person who commented. Sorry about that!
I’m validating my code at validator.w3.org and am getting this warning:
Line 509, Column 20: character “<" is the first character of a delimiter but occurred as data
if ( count <= 5 ) {
That code is in the following WWSGD-related lines:
else {
count = parseInt(jQuery.cookie('wwsgd_visits'), 10) + 1;
}
jQuery.cookie('wwsgd_visits', count, { expires: 365, path: "/" });
if ( count <= 5 ) {
jQuery(".wwsgd").show();
}
—
Is there a coding change that needs to be made? If so, where would I make the edit?
Thanks, Ed
Thanks in advance for your help.
Strangely the plugin doesn’t work, even after I logged out of admin and even when I put the in my template. When I view the source, it appears the code was hidden with css:
My custom message etc
Any idea what’s happening here? Thanks.
http://sites.google.com/site/finddavidmiller/
Can you offer any more help on this?
My question:
is the “sethgodin” plug in available in Italian?
Thanks.
Dan
I goofed! I tried to alter your php file and now I cann fix it nor no matter how many times I delete and add the plugin bck, WP (or the plugin?? not sure) still says there is an error. Can you please help and tell me how to totally clear this error and get a fresh install of the plugin?
Here is the error message (sorry I did not include this at first):
br />
Fatal error: Call to undefined function esc_textarea() in /home/tina2010/public_html/wp-content/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/what_would_seth_godin_do.php on line 81
And I have deleted it via the admin panel and ftp and still get the same thing.
Any help is appreciated! I was trying to style it if possible too.
Thanks,
Tina
I just recently upgraded to the latest WP version and I really would like to use your plugin but it isn’t showing up on my existing blog posts. I have a bunch of plug-ins installed but I do not see any of them interfering with yours.
Can you have a look and see what the problem is? I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling it but to no avail, and I’ve used the most recent version of WWSGD.
Thank you!
I see you’re pretty good about responding to people here, which is pretty incredible given how popular this plugin is.
I’m having trouble implementing it on my site (http://utahcommonvalues.org). It’s properly installed, as far as I can tell, but I can’t get the message to appear.
Here are some details:
– I have Super Cache, and I’ve tried it with and with out caching activated.
– I’ve tried on a few computers.
– I’ve tried putting it before, after, and only where I have the code inserted, but none of the options work for me.
If you have any suggestions for me, I’d be quite grateful!
I just installed the plugin and it isn’t showing up on any posts. Does it generally have problems with Genesis?
thanks a million (in advance) ~ H
Here is a post I found with some suggestions to try: http://netprofitstoday.com/blog/plugin-messes-up-google-listings/
I am trying copying the first part of my post text and throwing it into the description in All in One Seo Pack- this is a bit of a pain, but it should override the WWSGD text.
jen
jen
Yes, plusshe.com (before posts) as well as http://www.thewriteprompts.com (after posts).
Thank you,
Moe
I also did the updates and checks on the plusshe blog too and it is still not working.
It is so weird. They were working fine for the longest time.
My next thought would be something in the theme but they are different themes for each blog so that seems unlikely.
Today I loaded the Rafflecopter to a blog post at Plusshe.com and ta da, the WWSGD plug in is working again. I checked http://www.thewriteprompts.com blog and it is still not working over there. Sooo weird.
Anyway, thought I’d give you an update.
Moe
love the plugin but it seems that the text from the widget has overriden my meta-description. so when i go to post a link to my site on FB for example, the description next to my thumbnail is the text from the WWSGD widget. NOT GOOD. this is confusing for people! i tried a number of things, and then eventually just deactivated the widget entirely. i also emptied my cache and history, but this same WWSGD text STILL shows up any time i try to post a link to my site anywhere. HELP! this is causing massive problems. someone said i’d need to go into the source code to figure out where the problem was, but i’m not sure where to look. i have a wordpress.org site. any help would be extremely appreciated, as i DO want to use this widget eventually ~ harmoniously…! thanks.
I’ve just started putting a web blog together and added your plugin but mine also isn’t working? Just wanted to let you know.
I also have the same problem like Dustin. It does not work any more. You need any further information of me???
I came across a post of yours in the Warrior Forum today when I was looking for some WordPress information. I got here by following one of the links in that post (actually I created a PDF of that post since it seems that one of your other posts has gone MIA on the warrior forum. I PMd Chris for a copy of the PDF in hopes that he still has it. You give some fabulous tips for using WordPress as a “squeeze machine”. I have had several visitors to my site, but only one left a comment and no one has signed up to my list. I am going to take the approach you suggested – leave a comment and get your free copy of .
Any tips would be much appreciated!
Perhaps in your next release, you can add some instructions to the ReadMe file.
In the settings area, I have it so the message locations is placed only where I use the template tag.
The Show Message on Pages? On Posts and Pages
Posts/Pages to Exclude and then I include the numbers.
It’s not working.
Am I doing something wrong that is not obvious to an amateur?
Thanks,
Erin
Any ideas?
Thanks! Great plugin.
-j
Finished your move to Boulder yet?
😉
First, I noticed that two people had problems with WP Super Cache activated. Are there issues for sites using Super Cache, or have they been resolved?
Secondly, can you code it so that it cancels further new visitor messages when a new visitor clicks on the RSS feed link in the plugin display box? That way when readers take the action that you want them to take, they are no longer asked to do so. The limit of how many times the box is shown should only be applied to those that have not yet signed up. I think it is a nuisance to readers that do sign up, to still see the new visitor message perhaps 3 times again.
I think this plugin is extremely useful; I have installed it, and I thank you for developing it. A few tweaks here and there as time allows, and it can be great 🙂
John
Why don’t you think about showing a thank you message for visitor coming back for at least 5 times.
I also added the ability for the user to “hide” the intro message before the number of repetitions expire. You can see this at work in the default message. Right now, when you set the plugin to check the cookie on the browser, the Message to Return Visitors doesn’t work so I’ve commented that out for now. I don’t use it on my installations. I have this live right now on gothamschools.org. Note that I had to add the jquery.cookie.js file to the plugin.
Let me know if you want all of this in a different form. Maybe I’ll write up a short blog post about it on my blog.
I’m going to add a couple more things and then release this as WWSGD 2.0. I’ll include a shoutout to you in the release notes. Thanks again for the code.
Chris
I have the same query as @Henning. Is there a way to make this plugin compatible with super-cache?
Thanks,
Chris
This is probably a newby question, but how do you add a hyperlink in the feed?
The code on install is
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!”,
Was just hoping you could give an example on how to add a link to another page in place of the rss feed.
Cheers,
I’ve installed your plugin on my blog and now I am wondering if the caching plugin I use does interfere with WWSGD ? At least the box does not disappear after 5 visits of the page. It seems like the cached results depend on the users who went there in the first place: either the WWSGD box is cached or not depending on there status of being newbies or returning visitors. DO you have any idea to work around this issue?
Henning
Great plugin, I’m finding that for some reason it is displaying the text of my message properly to new and returning visitors on all my posts.
However, on the *first* post of my homepage (my homepage has the first 10 posts, shortened with “continue” button) it has the text of my WWSGD plugin as part of the excerpt.
I did some searching, and saw some people are having the same problem on the WordPress support forums but I can’t find a response.
Do I just have the settings wrong somehow? Thanks!
Still looks a little weird in the excerpt on the homepage, the only real fear is that it may affect clickthrough.
Perhaps a quicker feature to implement might be an option to turn it off on the homepage or in excerpts.
Anyway thanks for the response. It is still a highly useful plugin.
“This page contains the following errors:
error on line 3 at column 486: Extra content at the end of the document
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.”
I have installed your plugin sucessfully so….do you have any ide what I have done wrong and where I can do changes?