Lijit Search – Get a Great Search Tool and Make Money, Too

Integrating an effective search tool into my new blog turned out to be much simpler than I expected. It is a good way to “hit at least THREE birds with one stone”, so to speak.

This tool can provide:

1. A way to generate passive income by sharing in advertising revenue
2. A great search tool that is very fast and effective
3. Site statistics about how readers are searching for content on your site

I noticed that Copyblogger.com was using a search tool called “Lijit” (available at www.lijit.com).  I tried out Copyblogger’s Lijit-based search tool and was impressed with the results and the look/feel of how it worked.

I decided to try it out.  Here are the simple steps to setting it up on your site:

• point your browser to www.lijit.com/signup/start
• enter the URL to your blog and click the “Get Lijit!” button
• after a few moments, the Lijit site prompts you to sign up for an account
• Once signed up, you can then configure your site to use Lijit
• I am using Wordpress, so what I did is add the Lijit plugin and then put in on my right sidebar.  Here’s how:
  • click on the Plugins menu (while you are logged into your Wordpress blog)
  • click on “Add New” to add a new plugin
  • enter “lijit” in the search box
  • click on the “install” link to install the “Lijit Search” widget
  • click on Appearance/Widgets
  • drag the “Lijit Search” widget to one of your sidebars
  • you should now see your new search box appear in your chosen sidebar
• Configuring how your search widget looks in Wordpress is very straightforward:
  • Click on Settings/Lijit
  • There you will see options to change the search type
  • Click on the “Lijit Profile” link to see more options
  • You will now see your profile page on lijit.com
  • Click on “Wijits”
  • The wijits page gives you control over how your search widget looks.  Try it out, it is very intuitive to use and you can immediately see how your choices effect the way the search box will appear.
  • Once your search looks the way you want, you can click “Save Wijit Settings” and you should immediately see the changes on your site

Here are the features I liked about Lijit and you probably will, too!

Features:

• Search overlay (it appears like a popup, but much better than the old undesirable popups!) that keeps customers on your site.  Try it – you will like it!
• Search your other content.  When readers search your site, they will see additional tabs that show matches in other content you may have.  You can set Lijit up to search a variety of your sites: Social Network (such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and My Space), Photos and Videos (such as flikr, You Tube, and Vimeo) and Bookmarking (such as digg, Delicious, and Stumble Upon).   I have not yet experimented with it, but it looks like a very powerful tool for a blog to have.
• Thumbnails of photos and videos can be configured to display in search results
• You have the option to share in the revenue from text ads.  Lijit earns money through the ads that display on your search results page.  They give you the option to share in some of that revenue.  Check out setting up an “Ad Wijit” under the Wijits tab in your lijit.com options screens.
• In the Lijit’s “Stats” tab, you can see a variety of interesting statistics about how people are arriving at your site and what they are searching on.

I have been very impressed so far with the Lijit tool.  Try it out for yourself, I think you will as pleased with the way it works!