Image via CrunchBase, source unknown Kaalga is a Firefox extension which integrates a very useful feature into your Wordpress blog editor. It basically highlights some particular words or phrases while you are writing your posts and suggests some possible links. Actually Wordpress is not the only supported platform but it works well with Blogger, TypePad and LiveJournal too.
Usage is very easy: use the combination "shift + right click" (shif+ctrl+click on a Mac touchpad) when your mouse is over the underlined words and a window with some suggested links pops up. The image below shows how it looks like:
Behind the scenes Kalgaa uses a semantic analysis engine called OpenCalais and shows the relevant results through Yahoo search.
A similar feature is provided by Zemanta too, a great plugin I use to insert links, tags and images to my blog posts very easily. Unlike Zemanta, one of the cool features of Kaalga is that it lets you insert your domain as the preferred source for links, making it very easy to insert links to posts which belong to your blog. The popup window then shows you your domain's links first (with a red "L" which stands for "local") then other links on the web.
My opinion? A big thumb up for this extension, definitely a must-have for any blogger and it is what I was always looking for. The funny thing? I had to insert the link to Kaalga.com manually 
Sometimes I'm surprised on how a blog post can become suddenly successful while others, even if potentially more interesting, stay buried in the archive of my blog.
One example for all is my recent post about Apple iPhone vs Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. In a couple of days, it received more than 3000 uniques views mainly coming from Google Search. Other similar posts, where I tried to compare two or more hot mobile phones, ended up performing similarly.
That being said, how to make a blog post successful and bring many visitors to it? And, secondly, how to make it so successful that it remains on top of your list of blog posts in terms of unique visits? Here are three simple tips.
1) Choose the title carefully. If you choose your title very close to the one you guess people will use while searching on Google, it's bingo time. For example, I verified that the format "X vs Y" for hot products of the moment is definitely a winning choice. My post "Apple iPhone vs Nokia N95" has been the daily most read post for many months and it's still in the daily top 10. Moreover, make sure you have the latest plugins to manage SEO installed. In my Wordpress installation I use "All in One Seo Plugin" and it's working very well, in particular for the so called "title tags".
2) Spread the word everywhere. Make sure that any social netowork you are subscribed to is notified as soon as your post is published. Make sure an automatic Tweet is posted as well as your Facebook status, for instance. Many people come to my blog by just clicking on the URL shown in my FB status. Sometimes this leads to a massive burst of visits but doesn't make your blog sticky. If you care about a certain post more than others, update your status on social networks like Twitter, Linkedin and Plaxo with a link to your post and every hour make sure to update your status with the same message… I can assure it brings an interesting amount of visits (taking for granted you have many contacts in those networks…).
3) Engage people who leave comments to your post. Starting a discussion about your post is always a very good way to keep the visitors' attention very high. In addition, try to involve people sending emails to a couple of key bloggers trying to make them refer to your post in their own blog posts.
Bonus - 4) Blog about something hot. In times when people are searching for specific information on Google (new hot products announcements etc.), make sure you blogged about that (if it fits with your blog subjects and guidelines, of course). It can quickly become a popular post and you couldn't ever imagine it could happen.
A couple of days ago I blogged about Qwitter, a service which informs you when someone quit following you on Twitter.
In the last week I received five emails, where Qwitter informed me about people no more following me.
You know what? All of them started "following" me just not long ago, maybe "waiting" for me to follow them back. Since this hasn't happened, they unfollowed me. The point is that their only aim was to increse their followers' number, without really caring of my tweets. Their only aim was to catch my attention and to make me follow them back.
Unfortunately, as stated many times, I follow people I really care about. If you follow me but I don't think I can be interested in what you write on twitter (with all my respect, of course) I will never follow you back. At the same time, if I follow you it's because: 1) we know each other personally (well, in that case I would appreciate if you follow me as well) - 2) I care about your thoughts and I don't care if you follow me back.
It's great how Qwitter gives me a confirmation about this bad behavior by "marketing-only" twitter accounts. Here is an example for all, Mr iphone reviews unfollowed me after just a couple of days he started (on October 21st) following me, "much interested" in my thoughts and opinions: