Today I want to tell you about an absolutely terrific blogging plug-in that allows you to turn your blog or website into a multimedia experience simply by installing it. First, it has been incorrectly called a Wordpress plugin before, but the fact is that it can be installed on blogs that useBlogger, MoveableType, Typepad, as well as Drupal sites, self-hosted Wordpress blogs and many other platforms as well.
Anyway, I’m not just talking about adding photographs, video or Google maps. If you have not heard of Apture, get ready to be just a little bit overwhelmed by the new possibilities for your blog.
What if there was a way, when you write a post about any subject under the sun, for you to transform any word in your post into a link that is a further jumping off point to any one of over 50 authoritative content sources, like NPR, IMBD, Wikipedia, and the New York Times? Apture is a way to add background information to your post without having to research to get the data and find specific links. Maybe this blog post is already giving you the idea. This free blogging plug-in has been invaluable for me on sites that I have that have to do with Bali travel, people, or more technical subjects like web programming as well. It’s not that I’m too lazy to dig up facts to corroborate my point (well okay, maybe I am pretty lazy), but why duplicate effort if the New York Times has an excellent article on a museum or IMBD has extra facts about a movie I have reviewed? Apture gives you away to fill out the information or opinion that you are putting forth, extra information to complement what you’re writing about, so that subjects that are peripheral to your point but maybe still interesting to your readers can be easily covered.
One feature that I have to mention is how Apture lets you clip only the portion of a YouTube video that is relevant to your post, or that you care to show… very cool.
The only downside with Apture might be that you are tempted to overuse it. I suppose it’s possible that the substance of your post could be diluted by all the extra information you are linking to. But used sparingly, I think it really has to enhance your readers’ experience. I urge you to try the Apture plug-in: what a great blogging add-on it is.
