As a lot of you know, I am currently in the process of arranging my first blog contest. The contest is called “Rookie Blogger of the Year” and my reader’s votes will determine the winner. I have been spending the last couple of days evaluating different polling options for WordPress Blogs and trying to decide which one will work best for me.
The first choice that I had to make was if I wanted to add a plugin or if I wanted to use another web hosted poll.
Here is what I looked at:
Plugins:
Soda Head Polls – I have never heard of this plugin before I did my research. I tested this out on one of my personal blogs and thought it was really cool. This plugin allows you to fully customize the look and feel of your poll. You can add different skins and design a unique look. The design elements seems to be the best feature and help to differentiate this plugin from the others. I found it difficult to use and I was not to impressed with the admin capabilities.
WP- Polls – I have heard of this before as I have seen it in action on several other blogs recently. I also tested this on my other blog and although the design features were not as robust as Soda Head, I found the admin section to be so easy to use. I also felt that the voting integrity was better with this plugin. I was confident that it would do a better job of eliminating voter fraud.
Democracy – I looked at this briefly, there was so much negative comments associated with this plugin that I did not even bother taking it for a test drive.
In addition to plugins, I also looked at several alternative polling methods:
PollDaddy.com – I have used PollDaddy in the past and I was impressed, it is so simple to use and you can create a poll in a matter of seconds.
Hiburrito – I also looked in WOP, which stands for World Online Poll. I wanted to check this out as I see the site owner Asswass on a lot of blogs that I visit and wanted to see what it was all about. A WOP is very cool as you can easily create a poll and insert it in your blog. I also like the video and picture poll options. I will definitely be back and use this site in the future, but I did not feel it was right for this project.
I ultimately chose the WP-Polls plugin as it offered the several things that I wanted most. Which is the ability to add images and links easily through the admin feature. As well as ensuring voting integrity.
Do you think I made the right decision?
What is your favorite option for adding a poll to your blog?
Don’t forget to stop by later in the week and vote for your favorite up and coming blogger. Voting begins on October 15th.
Well, dang, you should have polled your audience!
I have used Poll Daddy on my site for adding wp-poll dropped the code into a text widget now wordpress activated on my blog.
I never trust polls because people tend to either ignore it or choose something randomly. Best answers are generally though blog comments. You can ask people what they think about a specific topic.
-Kai
I guess polls might prevent someone from commenting who would otherwise post an insightful comment. Personally I always use WP- Polls since I started out with it and it works. i always create a poll and run it for 1-2 weeks and then i write a poll about the result. it is too good
Hello, I enjoy the tutorials you post, I’m a newbie blogger so I dont know much but I’m willing to improve. Somebody said to me you could use surveymoneky to add a poll have you used it?
Thanks
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You can also purchase your own domain through them and they help you transfer your posts to your new domain!!! I cant say enough about it!!
.-= Free Logo Design´s last blog ..Website- vital for your brand =-.
Where is the best place to have a blog and why? Eg. LJ, Blogger, WordPress, Myspace, Vox, Facebook… I could list a thousand sites but I want your opinion.
you need to add a poll widget. you can use this site
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/polldadd…
to generate the widget code you will need. Then goto your widgets and paste the code into a text box. update your widgets and you’re all set.
.-= Free Logo Design´s last blog ..Website- vital for your brand =-.
Nice thanx for the plugin , it works great.
The bad news is that right now, WordPress.com doesn’t support polls. Even polls that you could embed in your site usually involve code (such as Javascript) that WordPress.com doesn’t allow.
.-= Free Logo Design´s last blog ..Website- vital for your brand =-.
Thanks for suggesting nice wordpress plug. I would be helpful for newbie like me. I have book marked this page for future ref.
As i am a beginner in wordpress so i did not used this poll plugin but now i will definitely use it.
Thanks for the detailed info Dan. I wasn’t quite aware of few of the plugins you have mentioned in the post. Need to check them out!
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I like WP Polls too, it seems to have some nice features and be pretty stable.
However, are you sure you cannot enter HTML as “poll answers” (I haven’t tried), cause then you could add both the image AND the link to the answers, so people can click on the thumbnails in the right sidebar?
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..A Missing Dot Crashed Swedish Domains For Up To 24 Hours =-.
Hey bro hope everything has been great. If it’s the decision you made than it seems like you made the best decision for you, which makes it right.
I also use the WP-Polls plugin
.-= Extreme John@ Blogging and Business CEO´s last blog ..NFL Week 6 Predictions =-.
really i would love to add polls cause it will involve readers and make them read a post, i really like this.
Hi Dan. I would really love to help, but I am not familiar with any of these polling systems except for the “WOP” of HiBurrito. Hesham of New Media Bloggers (FBC100) has used the WP Poll Plugin in his recent contest and can certainly give you some insights of his recent experience with the plugin. Maybe you should contact him.
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Note that I want actual poll to appear in my blog, rather than providing a link to the poll which forwards it to some polling website.
Hi,How to add a poll to wordpress blog hosted for free on wordpress.com website..? what do you think?
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I haven’t used the poll plugin yet, but this is something that wordpress has to incorporate in to wordpress. This would save people time, instead of them choosing which is good to use.
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Actually this is boomerblogger but I got such a kick out of the star treatment given me by Hiburrito that I have been commenting using this gravatar – when the subject is polls. I will have to check out the WP poll as a plugin but I have been using WOPS for polls and find them easy to use and Alfredo awesome to work with.
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looking really a great plug in . i will give it a try. wonderful to know
I like to add polls as it gets your reader involved and actually makes them read the post so they know what to vote on.
By the way, I just noticed your top commentator plugin at the bottom says “For the month of August”. Just a short notice.
.-= Stefan´s last blog ..Todoist Saves My Day =-.
Personally I always use WP- Polls since I started out with it and it works.
When it comes to polls I think they are a great method to base a post on. Create a poll and run it for 1-2 weeks and then write a poll about the result. Since your visitors answered the poll they will most certainly have something to add to your post.
.-= Stefan´s last blog ..Todoist Saves My Day =-.
I use Polldaddy. It’s really simple and works well. I’m going to take a look at the others.
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