Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is coming. This is a good time to continue my Take 5 Series by focusing on five free tools and plugins for which I’m thankful, because they make life easier.

1. WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin

WordPress as a blogging and CMS platform updates often, some say too often. The latest upgrade fixed a few critical bugs and a security issue. The updates were minor, but the time to upgrade the software can be time-consuming. Alas, I’ve learned to rely upon my trusty plugin - WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Updating to WordPress 2.6.5 took 5 minutes instead of 30 minutes or more. This is one plugin to which I’ve donated in support of their efforts. Here’s why:

• The process of uploading to new versions of WordPress software are almost automatic.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin also backs up your WordPress files!
• It automatically puts your site into maintenance mode, downloads the latest version of WordPress, copies the files over to your server, makes the site live again, and then cleans up all your old files. Whallah!

2. All-in-One SEO Plugin

Every time I create a new post, I’m thankful for “out-of-the-box SEO” provided by the All-in-One SEO Plugin. WordPress is not search-engine-friendly by default. WordPress page names contain question marks without keywords. Each WordPress post shows on the home page, category and archive pages. Content that is shown in multiple places like this presents duplicate content issues, which is bad for search engines. Such issues are not a concern when you use this plugin.

Of course, All-in-One SEO plugin DOES NOT do keyword research for you, or write content that is keyword-rich or get incoming links for you. But it does “fix” the structure of WordPress so your site is “friendly” for the search engines to find your keywords and content. It’s a great plugin for those who are not technical. It’s also worth giving the developer a donation!

3. Notepad++

I use Notepad++ daily. This free software is great for taking more than notes. It’s a text editor that rocks for programmers as well. I often use it to jot down initial blog ideas during moments of inspiration. Because it’s a text editor, it’s a great place to “cut and paste” content to remove unwanted formatting code from Word or from a Web page. If you want clean HTML, you have it with Notepad++.

Open Notepad++ files are presented in a clean tabbed interface. I learned this week that you can right click on a tab to delete a file from your hard drive. Cool! It’s one of the highest rated text editors available. You can’t beat that for free!

Download Notepad ++ and try it for yourself. You’ll be thankful, too!

4. Picasa

Picasa from Google is another free tool I use often. I own Adobe Photoshop as well as Fireworks. They are super and not free. Why am I so thankful for this free photo editing software? Picasa indexes (catalogs) all your photos. You can preview them and batch edit. When I have a set of photos I want to quickly edit, Picasa is my choice tool. I open a library of images and quickly work through each image to brighten, sharpen and remove red-eye!

Their tagline says it well:

The easy way to find, edit, and share your photos

I don’t use their “share” feature when uploading to Yahoo!’s Flickr <cough>. This is one Google property for which I’m very thankful!

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Okay, #5…I’m now challenged. Since I sat down with a spirit of thankfulness about my free tools, I realized how thankful I am for many tools. If I think “FREE,” my choices are narrowed. hmmm… I’ll have to continue this approach with a separate post. Since I’m an information junkie, my final choice today relates to incoming streams of information – RSS. (No, I’m not going to talk about Twitter.)

5. Netvibes

Netvibes wins as one of my top five tools I use daily. I recently added Netvibes to my information quiver. It’s an RSS reader that absolutely rocks your socks off!

I’m almost “over” Google Reader, which feels like removing a once favorite food from your diet. The current  challenge is to clean out my Google Reader pantry, to determine which RSS feeds I don’t consume anymore, and throw them away. The sites I include as a regular part of my information diet are added to my Netvibes home page. I’m still learning the possible recipes for using Netvibes. I’d like to spend a day in the information kitchen and play with various RSS ingredients and options. It’s a tasty RSS reader for creating your own home page to digest news, blogs, delicious and more.

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Take 5 minutes to be thankful for the tools you use each day. This time of year is a good time to be thankful for tools, plugins and software and how technology has enhanced our lives. For Christmas, consider what tools you can “wrap and share” with your friends and family.

“Take 5 – Top 5 Take Aways” is a new series in which I share my key take aways from recent industry trends, news, tools about search, social media and online marketing. A series infers a regular schedule, so plan on Take 5 to be posted weekly. Which day? I’m not sure, yet.

Why 5? Take 5 is a spin off from “eat 5 fruits and vegetables each day.” It’s often hard to eat properly with busy schedules. It can also be challenging to keep up with rapid changes in search engines, social media and online marketing. However, most of us can digest five key points without feeling overly stuffed with too much information.

Take 5 as of 09.22.08:

Take 1: Productivity in Printing

PrintWhatYouLike is an online tool that lets you control what you print from a Web page. OK, printing is not green, but there are times when you need to print. Some websites do not offer a printable version, and when you choose File > Print, you end up with wasted paper that has printed all the ads, the footer, the graphics, etc. Save ink and paper! Try PrintWhatYouLike.com

Take 2: Shorten URL Tool

Cli.gs is a new shorten url service that quickly became my favorite tool.

1. Cligs shortens your URLs for easy pasting into Twitter, Facebook and places where you update your status or post information. Your URL looks like http://cli.gs/abc123 and will redirect to your Web page.
2. Get analytics about each Cligs link:
   • Number of times someone clicked your link (hits)
   • Referral information
   • Mentions of the link on Twitter and around the Web

TIP: Use Cligs to send links in emails to avoid long URLs wrapping onto multiple lines. (ahhhhh… Now you can track if recipients are really looking at the links you send them.)

Watch the video on Cligs blog.

Take 3: Social Media eBook

Getting Started with Social Media eBook available for free download at OrangeJack. Rob and Patricia Williams hit the ball out of the park with this simple yet informative eBook. Use it a guide and a checklist to get started with social media. There is a great sheet for keeping track of your passwords as well! Download the eBook.

Take 4: Images & Ideas with Flickr

“Where to find great ideas and arresting images (for free)” by Seth Godin lists a few tips for searching Flickr’s Creative Commons Commercial license photos and using Flickr as an idea generator.

I was super excited to find this cool brainstorming tool, FlickrStorm, from Seth’s article.

Take 5: SEO vs. SMO

“What are you optimizing for?” is an article targeted to SEOs. Michael Martinez says, “You cannot call yourself a search engine optimization specialist if you focus on social media optimization.” Here is another key take away I grasped:

SEO Theory is all about search engine optimization, and search engine optimization is not about social media optimization. Social media optimization is another form of Web marketing like pay-per-click optimization, like banner advertising, like newsletter distribution, etc.

People need to stop blurring their distinctions between social media and search media. Search media requires a set of very different rules and guidelines.

Thoughts provoked. Introspection required. Change needed? …still thinking about that. However, since I recently started consulting again and “providing SEO services,” the article paralleled my rebranding to  Conversational SEO to focus more on SEO-related content strategies and online marketing.

Every SEO needs to evaluate services. We must be open to change within the search and online marketing industry and adjust accordingly. What a super read! Thank you, Michael!