Do you have time-sensitive content on your blog that needs to be removed or added on certain dates? You don’t need to do this manually! Just as you can automate so many other processes in WordPress, you can automate post updates too.

You need the Before and After WordPress plugin. This is a very simple solution. All you have are two main types of tags. One will show text (and other content) up until a certain date, after which it will be automatically removed from the live post. The other tag will hide text (and other content) up until a certain date, after which it will automatically be displayed on the live post.

The syntax does not appear to allow for specific times, but you can designate specific dates. For instance, if you to show a product announcement on September 15, 2012 but not before that, you would use this syntax:

<AFTER 2012-09-15>We are proud to announce the availability of Product XYZ.</AFTER>

The Before and After WordPress plugin works in both posts and pages. Get more information on the developer’s site, though it is in Dutch. The download button can be accessed on that page too (it’s the “down” arrow at the end of the post).

There’s something to be said about integration across platforms. That’s why while it is important to have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and through your blog, it’s by connecting these profiles together that you can gain the greatest possible value.

You may have already seen a few blogs where the conventional comment system has been replaced with Facebook comments. This allows visitors to the site to post comments using their Facebook profiles and this content can be easily integrated between the two. However, this content may not be visible to Google.

The way around this is to use a WordPress plugin like Crawlable Facebook Comments. This will let Google crawl and index your Facebook comments, giving you another leg up when people are looking for certain topics and information through the popular search engine.

This plugin will retrieve the comments, including information about authors and dates, and make them visible in your source code. Otherwise, these Facebook comments would be “hidden” in an iframe that Google may not see. Crawlable Facebook Comments overcomes that shortcoming. Find it as a free download through the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Last week, I wrote about a WordPress plugin called Social Metrics that allowed you to track the statistics related to social media when it came to the performance of your website or blog. This week, we extend the stat tracking with Feed Stats for WordPress, which has been reworked since the prior version stopped receiving support.

The idea behind this WordPress plugin is that it is able to provide you with all of the information regarding your RSS feed without you having to make a separate visit to your Feedburner account. You’re more likely to check your stats when you don’t have to go somewhere else to do it, which is the same reason why there are plugins for other services like Google Analytics.

With Feed Stats for WordPress, you can gain access to such statistics as the number of subscribers, number of hits, your reach, item clickthroughs and item views. All of this information can be found through the main WordPress dashboard section of your blog’s administration panel.

As usual, you can find Feed Stats for WordPress through the official Plugin Directory on WordPress.org. Screenshots and a handy FAQ are there as well.

Any site owner will tell you about the importance of tracking your site’s performance. By and large, people have come to rely on Google Analytics for this purpose, as well as other services for tracking affiliate marketing, advertising campaigns and so forth. Another option you may want to add to the mix is Social Metrics.

This WordPress plugin effectively works as a “social media analytics tool” for your blog. Using it, you can keep track of how your site (and its various pages) are performing on popular social networking websites and services. Currently, the plugin supports such networks as Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, StumbleUpon, Digg, LinkedIn, and the recently launched Google +1.

While in the administrative panel for Social Metrics, you can see exactly how many times each individual post or page has been “shared” across these networks. This is quite different from the public display option offered by other WordPress plugins. This is particularly useful for newer or growing sites, as you may not want to show these metrics publicly to your readers. You can also filter the results based on categories and month.

Find out more information about Social Metrics on Riyaz.net, including a useful FAQ and installation guide. You can then go to the WordPress Plugin Directory to find the free download link.

As you may have noticed, Google recently rolled out a new product called Google +1 (or Google Plus One, if you prefer). In essence, it works the same way as a Facebook like button on a website or even like a “tweet” button. When you click on the +1, that webpage gets a bump in search rankings as viewed by your friends.

In some ways, this sounds like Google Buzz too, though Buzz hasn’t exactly had the kind of impact that Google was trying to get. Even so, Google +1 could prove to be a useful tool for all the webmasters and bloggers in the audience. Whatever way you can get more traffic and get higher in search rankings, the better.

You could simply install the code that is provided to you by Google, but an easier way to integrate Google +1 on your site is to use the google Plus One Button WordPress plugin. It gives you many options for sizes and styles, as well as where to put the button on your pages and posts.

As with most other plugins, this one can also be found in the official WordPress Plugin Directory. Some useful information about Google+1 itself (and a screenshot of this plugin) can be found at DragonBlogger.com, though he has no direct association with either the new Google product or the new plugin.

One of the reasons why you may have decided to start a WordPress blog is that you want to make money blogging. Creating some great original content is going to be your best strategy, but you also want to optimize how you display your ads.

One WordPress plugin that you may consider implementing is Adsense Float. It is designed to work with Google Adsense, but you could just as easily replace the code with any other advertising network. The developer claims that it increased his ad revenue “more than 10 times.”

In short, the plugin creates a “floating” ad on your site. When someone scrolls further down the page, the ad still remains in the same spot. This greatly increases ad visibility, which could also be why the developer experienced significant increases in click-thru rate and overall revenue. If the ad is obstructing site content, the visitor can click the red X to close the ad.

The best way to understand this plugin is to see it in action. You can see it on Ahsan.pk, which is the site of Adsense Float’s developer. You can also download the plugin from that page.