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10 Tips to Give Your Blog a Boost

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:50:00 +0000

When it comes to blogs most of them fall into the blah category. They are not good or bad, just boring. If you do not want your blog to be blah to readers then you have to make your blog stand out. But how do you do that? Well, here are ten tips to give your blog a boost without having to invest a lot of time or money:
1. Find your focus – The first thing you should always have in mind is your blog’s focus. What is your main niche topic? You want your topic to be specific so that you can get in the readers you want without alienating anyone with off topic posts. This means no mix and match sites. What you do not want to do is have a site about cats and flowers or technology and babies. If you can merge the topics then all the better, like plants for cat lovers or technology to keep babies safe, but if you jump from topic to topic you are going to lose readers who are not interested in both, which will be a lot.
2. Know who your readers are – After you find out what your topic is you can focus in on who your readers are. Finding out who you are targeting with your blog is easy. There are many programs online that can help you to do that. Once you figure out who they are you can more effectively target them with your writing and blog layout. For example teens would probably like a layout that has lots of images and music and bright colors. However retired people would probably like a blog that was laid out in a familiar way like a newspaper.
3. Make a good first impression – Think about your blog’s layout. What does it say about your blog right off the bat? Does your blog look boring or exciting? Entertaining or same old same old? Make your blog have a great first impression on your readers by investing your time in redecorating. Make your blog have a great layout and look that will draw readers in.
4. Have great content – Content is king. After you draw readers in your need to be able to keep them. In fact, having great content can be a draw in itself. Search engines love great content because keywords are used naturally. However when you are writing your content make sure you know what your readers want. Since you have done your research to find out who your readers are, do a little more to find out what they are searching for and then center your content around those key words and phrases. If you do it naturally and well, you should get lots of traffic organically to your blog without any further effort.
5. Keep it short – One thing that many bloggers do not think about is that great content does not have to mean long content. You can often write great posts in only a few hundred words. Anywhere from five hundred to a couple of thousand is the best. Any shorter than five hundred and search engines do not pick it up. Any longer than a couple of thousand words and readers get bored and leave. There are always exceptions to this, but in general that is the way it works. Keeping your posts short allow you to keep your blog updated frequently without having to invest too much time.
6. Update a lot – Speaking of updating, one of the biggest things you can do to boost your blog’s traffic and the amount of readers that end up at your blog site is to post frequently. Keeping your blog updated means that you pop to the top of search engine lists and reader newsfeeds. This constant exposure will help your blog to stay in reader’s minds and will also help your rankings on search engines to improve greatly. Everyone wants the latest news, so updating your blog every day is a great way to give it a boost.
7. Break it up – In your efforts to update a lot and keep your content short you should learn the art of breaking things up. Long posts can be broken into post series with parts one, two, three and so on. You can also make list posts by giving points and each point is a different post. If you prefer to write longer posts you can keep readers interested by using bullet points or number or you can break it up into sections with sub headers. This allows readers to scan a long blog post and read only the points that apply to them. Most readers do not sit there and read long posts, but rather they prefer to scan and go. Use this to your advantage and make your posts easy for readers to grasp quickly and easily.
8. Add images – Giving your blog a boost means more than just text however. When you give your blog a new look do not forget to add images. Images and multimedia like graphs, infographics and videos work well in blogs to add a bit of color and make readers interested in your text content. Images also work to draw in more traffic through image searches. If you get great images and name them correctly you can get many new readers in just from image searches. Images also get reader’s attention and make them stop to read. The more interesting, colorful, or funny your images are the better off you will be. You can get free images from sites like FreeDigitalPhotos.net or use open source images like the ones from Flicker. You can also create your own videos with web cams or screen caps or import one from YouTube.
9. Make your blog easy to use – Once you have the content in place the next part is to make your blog as easy to use as possible. If you make your blog hard to get around in readers will leave no matter how great your content is. That is why it is important that your links work, your pages are easy to get to and ads do not distract from your blog. Many blogger use ads in an effort to get money off their blog but the ads themselves keep readers out. Be careful about ad placement and make sure the ads do not cover up, block or distract from your blog’s content.
10. Become a part of the community – Last but not least you should get your blog involved in the community. That can mean your real life local community, your national community, your blogging community, or the community of Earth as a whole. You can offer your products or services to disaster relief agencies, give other blogs ad space or references on your blog, comment on news worth accounts and offer your two cents, or even donate money to charities in your area. These efforts can get you links on very good sites and even bring in new readers who read your comments and come to check you out. By becoming part of the community you also build relationships that can open the doors to opportunities to build your blog and help it grow in new ways you would not have thought of alone.
These are just a few of the ways that you can help your blog to get a boost. There are many avenues to increasing your blog’s traffic and usability. From adding images to making your blog more user friendly to even becoming a part of the greater good; take a look at your blog and see what you can do to improve it.
Author Bio:
Ken Myers is the founder of www.LonghornLeads.com & has learned over the years the importance of focusing on what the customer is looking for and literally serving it to them. He doesn’t try to create a need, instead he tries to satisfy the existing demand for information on products and services.

30 Best & Well-Liked Money Management Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:48:00 +0000

Many of us are not good with handling in our finance. No matter how hard we try to follow the budget, but by the end of the month we hardly have any clue so as to where all the money has gone. This badly affects our long term financial goals. One easy way to deal with this persistent problem is to make use of money management websites which keeps a close track on each and every transaction made by us and helps us to deal with our finance in a much better way.
The online apps help in drawing the monthly budget on your behalf, when you have provided it with some basic information. Thereafter, it keeps a close on eye on all the transactions made by you through cards and checks and though sometimes you would genuinely feel that the apps is being too bossy, but you will happy to see the excess funds in your account at the end of the month. These apps will be specially useful for those who dream of establishing their own company in the long run. The best part is these apps can be accessed from your mobile phone or tablets as well. So you can access your account on the go and keep yourself constantly updated.
You are going to find many money management apps on the web but we have collected the thirty best and most user friendly among them in this write up. Take the aid of these efficient tools to make your life better and more prosperous.
1. Bill guard

2. Kapitall
3. Lending tree

4. Bill shrink

5. Budget pulse
6. Clear check book
7. Credit karma
8. Fuel start
9. Invoice dude

10. Learn vest
11. Manilla
12. Generation x finance
13. Manageme
14. Mint

15. Money management
16. Money smart
17. Money strands

18. Money trackin

19. Mvelopes
20. Onavo
21. Smarty pig
22. Scrobbld
23. Quicken
24. Pocket smith

25. Ready for zero
26. Recurly
27. Roninapp

28. Simply bill
29. Team box
30. Zefty

Author Bio - Felix Diaconu is a logo designer and regular guest blogger at DesignCrowd

Ideas For The Burnt Out Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:34:00 +0000

We all get burnt out. Blogging day in and day out will do that to you. Sometimes I just sit in front of my computer, staring at the white screen and wondering what in the world I will be able to blog on today. However when every day becomes a struggle like that, you know, you are really burnt out. How do you get over it? Well, here are some tips that I hope will help you:
1. Take a break – I know it goes against the grain for many bloggers, but sometimes the idea is a simple on. You just need a break. A vacation. A few days off from blogging. Putting your blog on hiatus is a drastic step, but it is also sometimes a necessary one. No one wants to read a blog updated by a cranky burnt out blogger. Instead let the land lie fallow for a while and take a complete brain break. If you can do not even set your fingers to typing an email during this time. Just let your brain rest and recuperate and hopefully you will be able to come back to your blog ready to get back at it once again.
2. Use guest posts – When you are really burnt out but still want to keep your blog alive a guest post exchange is a good idea. You hopefully have friends out in the blogosphere that will be willing to write a post for your site in exchange for a link to their site. This benefits you both. You get the content you need and they get to expand their audience. You can specify exactly what you want them to write so that there will be no issues or you can let them have free reign. It is all up to you, but guest posting is a great way to get content without having to write it yourself.
3. Use images –Another great way to blog without having to think a whole lot is to use images. You can make an image the whole center of a blog post or series of blog posts. All you have to do is add a caption or two and you are done. How easy is that? Not only is this easy, but readers love images. People are usually very visual and a great image is, as they say, worth a thousand words.

4. Go multimedia –If a standard picture is not your thing then you can also think about going the multimedia route. Videos, music, or even infographics all work well to communicate a message to your blog readers without having to type. Maybe you have great ideas but just can’t seem to get them down on paper. Well, why not record a video of yourself instead? Not only is it easy to do, as most laptops have an included web camera and microphone, but readers also love the personal touch this adds to a blog. You can also use free videos from YouTube and free music from many sources around the net. Infographics take a little more time to create and a designer’s touch, but if you are artistic and want to really show an idea visually they are a great idea. Readers and social media love them too, so that is a big plus!
5. Get creative –Speaking of social media, you may want to get creative in how you blog. Include things that are popular on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Recipes usually do well as long as you include a tasty looking image or two. You can also have fun with celebrities and blockbuster movies which always do well on social media. Get creative with your blog’s niche topic and think outside the box. There is a lot you can connect to your current blog topic while still remaining true to your roots.
6. Change your subject –Speaking of your blog’s niche topic, if you are bored with it why not change it up? Many times a blogger is afraid to change their blog’s topic for fear of losing their current readers. While that is a true fear, it can be overcome if you change it up gradually. You can either connect the current topic with the new one, like writing about safe cars for kids when you change over from blogging about cars to blogging about kids, or you can intersperse the new ideas with the old ones. Like having one car blog post and then one kid blog post. That way your readers will not get too shocked and take off, but you will also start to build your new reader base on your new blog topic.
7. Keep it short –Another way to keep readers and get over your burn out is to make your blog posts short. Keep your posts short and sweet for both your reader’s sake and your sake. No one wants to read or write pages and pages of text. Instead have your ideas broken into manageable sizes. You should also break your posts into small paragraphs to make it easier on readers to scan them. Using headers is a good idea too.
8. Make lists – Lists are a great way to keep track of what you are writing and readers also love them. I think readers love them because a list gives you a sense of how long a post will be before you start reading. A post of five is short while a post of forty five is long. Anyway, lists are great to write with because you can treat each point as its own little post. That makes it easy to accomplish things even when you are tired and burnt out. Plus you do not have to worry about forgetting what your point was!
9. Find a new place –If you are just not getting into the whole blogging thing anymore then why not go for a change of scenery? It could be where you are writing and not what you are writing that is burning you out. Trying to write somewhere that is chaotic and noisy can be very draining. However writing someplace boring and uninspiring can be a drag too. Search for a new place to write. Somewhere out of the way but still open and inspiring is best. Maybe somewhere with a view of beauty or the outdoors.
10. Get more sleep - Sometimes burn out is due to exhaustion. I know that when I do not get enough sleep I find it very hard to be inspired in my blogging. There are many ways to solve this. You could not only adjust your sleep schedule during the night but you could also take a nap during the day. Even twenty minutes of sleep in the afternoon can perk you back up and get your brain running again. If you can, try to get to bed earlier. You cannot often change what time you need to get up, but you can change what time you get to sleep. You should also get as much ready the night before as you can so you do not have as much to do in the mornings when you are not quite awake yet. Pick out your clothes, find your shoes, and get your keys and your medication out. Have everything ready to go so you can get up and get going without a hassle.

These are just a few ideas that burnt out bloggers can use to keep blogging despite themselves. It is important to keep your blog alive even when you are down, so try your best to come up with alternative ideas and whatever you do, keep updating! A few days off is okay, but a month or two off is a dead blog.

Author Bio
Sara is an active nanny as well as an active freelance writer. She is a frequent contributor of NannyPro.
Learn more about her at NannyPro-Blog.

How to Make Your Content Perform Again and Again

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 18:16:00 +0000

This is one of the best posts by Lindaw Foreshaw, that will take your attention to your own posts giving them a makeover and bring back all the traffic that those posts truly deserve.

If you’ve been in the blogging world for more than a nanosecond, you’ll no doubt have heard that content is some sort of royalty. You may even have come across Seth Godin’s message that content marketing is the only kind of marketing left. Does that mean you should be furiously tapping away at your keyboard writing new content until repetitive strain injury brings you to a complete standstill? Not necessarily. There are several things you can be doing to maximize the performance of your existing content.

1. Past Posts
A good headline/catchy title is a must when you want to get visitors clicking on your latest content, but what happens when that latest content becomes yesterday’s news - when those catchy titles aren’t visible on your home page anymore? Any blogger worth their salt will be able to tell which of their legacy posts are still driving heaps of traffic, so why not dig out that info from whatever analytical program you’re using and build on the popularity of your most visited past posts? Optimizing the titles of your past posts for SEO (as opposed to user clicks) can result in huge spikes of traffic to your site. While you’re checking your stats you might notice a few blog posts that have been particularly popular with your visitors. Could it be time for a bit of a makeover where the nuts and bolts of the text is concerned?

2. Speed it up
Taken a look at your bounce rate lately? The good old days when a site had to load within the golden two seconds are well and truly behind us. These days if your site takes more than a blink of an eye to load up and be ready to go your visitors will be someone else’s visitors fairly sharpish. It means that you should be placing great importance on getting your site to load extremely quickly. This can be as simple as optimizing images, but there are plenty of other things to consider. The best practices for web page optimization provided by the Yahoo Developer Network is a great place to start if you want to speed up the pace at which your site loads.

3. Waste Not, Want Not
Think that blog post was, well um, just a blog post? Think again. There are tons of ways in which you can repurpose your existing content. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time you need to feed your Facebook fans or throw some juicy titbit out to your followers on Twitter. Want something quick and easy to send out to your subscriber list? How about that past post you just spent ten minutes revamping? If you’ve spent time blogging about a solution to a particular problem, make sure your sales team all know about it, so they can impart that info to their leads. It could just help them close that sale.

While there’s no getting away from the fact that adding fresh content to your blog on a regular basis is an absolute must - if writer’s block strikes, you’re in need of a quick fix, or your fingers start to bleed, take some time to look at how your existing content can work for you the second time round.

Linda Forshaw is a graduate from Lancaster University in the UK. A contributor to DegreeJungle, she is a full time writer and blogger specializing in education, social media, and entrepreneurship. Contact her on Twitter @seelindaplay

Blogging for Moms

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:03:00 +0000

There used to be a thought that all, or most, bloggers are men. In fact, that is not true. There are literally millions of bloggers out there who are not only women, but moms. Mothers are some of the most prolific bloggers because a lot of them either work from home, have taken maternity leave, or are stay at home moms. They have the time and energy necessary to blog every day, like successful bloggers should. Sometimes, though, even mommies run out of things to write about. With that in mind, I wanted to share a few ideas for blog post topics. Whether you are blogging for moms or you are a mommy blogger, these tips and topics can equally apply.
Children
Well, duh, kids are going to be the first thing that moms blog about and want to read about. But what about kids? What do they want to know? What do you want to write about? Here are some ideas:

1. Real Life Stories – A lot of mommy bloggers start out by writing their own life stories. Their birth experiences, their children’s habits, their day to day lives full of adventure, boredom, and cleaning. Real life stories are so popular because everyone is unique. We can all learn from each other and grow together as we experience the same big issues in our own individual ways. There is just something compelling about true stories that make them excellent for blog posts.

2. Health Issues – Health is always a big thing with moms. From colds and allergies to autism and Down Syndrome, moms love to talk and read about health issues, how they can be treated, what to expect, and what they can do to help their children. Even things like immunizations and check-ups make for great blog posts.

3. Sleep –One thing that moms everywhere do not get enough of is sleep! Kids universally seem to have issues with going to sleep on time, getting up on time, and getting enough sleep. New parents especially seem to have trouble with adjusting to a baby’s sleep schedule.

4. Food –Feeding your child is just as important to their heath as getting them to the doctor. Moms want to make sure their children have the proper nutrition and balanced meals to help them grow into string, healthy adults. From lunch and snack ideas to dinner recipes and ways to cut sugar from dessert, food is a huge blog post market.

5. Childcare – Taking care of children is the number one priority for moms. Some stay at home, some have partners who do, some choose daycare or preschool, some have kids already in school, and some have nannies. Talking about what childcare is safest, most cost efficient and best for their child can be a touchy subject, but makes for great blog posts.

6. Learning –Teaching kids their ABCs and 123s is something that all parents want to hear about. The basic learning that children do before they get in school or during summer break makes for great blog post fodder. Even money skills, listening skills and reading can be covered in this extensive arena.

7. School – Education is a big part of children’s lives, and moms want to know they are getting the best schooling they can. From teachers to homework recess to math class, blog topics about education can cover a wide array of subjects. Some moms are even homeschool teachers themselves and need resources and ideas for their classes.

8. Fun –It is all fun and games here, with crafts, art projects, learning fun, building and much more. You can tell moms how to create mess free crafts, how to build their own tree houses, how to make a fort out of blankets, twenty five uses for cardboard boxes, and more. Whatever you did as a child or you do with your children for fun is open to write about.

9. Sports –Kid’s sports can get a little competitive, but they do provide a great learning experience. From volleyball and soccer to lacrosse and basketball, kids are in a wide variety of sports and competitions. Help moms to know what is best, what is safest, what teaches kids lessons in teamwork, and where to get supplies on the cheap.

10. Stages – From infant to toddler, kid to teen, moms need to know what to expect. Chores and learning, coordination and health all depend on the child’s level or growth and development. The stages of childhood are very important to moms and make for a great time-line based blog post or post series.

Time
Speaking of time, we all know that there is never enough of it. This is especially true for moms. Helping a mom to use her time better and get more done is a great idea for blog posts. Here are some things you could write about:

1. Organization – Staying or getting organized is the number one time saver for anyone. In an office or at home, you can waste a lot of time searching for things if you do not stay organized. Help moms out by offering tips on how to separate items, how to decorate for maximum organizational space, what to organize first, and more. Even children can be taught to keep their toys, games, and books picked up and put away if the organizational system is easy for them to understand, saving mom a lot of time.

2. Strategy – There always needs to be thinking going on when you are trying to keep a lot of things going at the same time. Saving time, for instance, driving kids to and from activities can be as simple as agreeing to carpool home with a neighbor or schedule events so that they take place at the same time and close to each other. A lot of a mom’s day is spent in the car, so make the drive count.

3. Saying No – Sometimes time management is as easy as telling someone no. Moms seem to have a hard time setting up firm boundaries, with their kids and with others. Help moms know it is okay to say no when you do not have time, when you feel overwhelmed, or even if you just do not want to do it. That does not make you bad or selfish, it makes you sane!

4. Personal Time – Setting aside me time is hard for moms. Their children always seem to need them, their spouses need attention, the house is dirty and the pets are hungry. Setting aside some personal time is often pushed away and forgotten, but it is very important that moms get some time for themselves or they will get burnt out. Five minute relaxation tips, short getaways, and mini vacation ideas make for great blog posts.

5. Preparation – Always be prepared might be the Boy Scout’s motto, but it works for moms too. The more you can get done ahead of time, the less stress you will be when the big event occurs. From making school lunches the night before to freezing meals for healthy weekend eating options, being prepared is a great time saver and a subject for many blog posts.

Some other things you can also talk about are saving money, diet, and recipes for feeding your family. Healthy, affordable meal ideas are always big and do well as blog posts. With the harsh economy and having to stretch everything, saving money is also a popular topic. Diet and fitness is also a big one, since moms want to stay healthy and able to take care of their families. Think about what you would want to read, what you use every day, and what tricks you have learned to come up with more great, creative blog posts that moms will love!

About the Author:

This guest post is contributed by Debra Johnson, blogger and editor of Liveinnanny.com. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: - jdebra84 @ gmail.com
Image Credits: Free Digital Photos

Tips on How to Get your Blog Noticed…and Read!

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:32:00 +0000

Blogging is a brilliant idea to get your business or services noticed on the World Wide Web. But there are millions of blogs on the internet and still you feel an urge to create a blog for yourself as you know that this is a good step for you and your business. Blogs, if created perfectly, can drive a lot of traffic towards your website and in no time you will be regarded as an expert in your field. Blogging is also a great tool to interact with your customers and potential clients. The real challenge is to get your blog noticed by the readers in the swarm of millions of similar blogs. If you follow the following tips meticulously then we are sure that in a very short time you can get your blog noticed and read.

1) Write good headlines
Writing compelling headlines is a must for any blog. Almost 80% of the readers will only read the headlines while the remaining 20% will go through the entire story. So here lies the power of the headline of your blog. This alone can make or break the prospect of your blog. The headline must grab the attention of the reader and it should actually hard sell the entire article. Such is the power of headlines!
2) Share your blog
Share your blog post on every conceivable social media network that you can think of. If you are not promoting your post then nobody else will do it for you. The blog must be very easy to share. You can make use of the Digg - Digg floating sidebar as it helps people to share blog posts easily and quickly.

3) Comment on others' blogs
The simplest way to get your blog noticed is by commenting on the blogs of others. Everyday you must be reading certain number of blogs but do you actually leave a comment on any of those? You must leave comments on others' blogs so that if people click on your name they are automatically navigated to your own blog. It is very easy and you can start right away. Once you start leaving comments on others' bogs, you will find that the viewership of your blog also increases steadily. NOTE: While commenting on blogs, it is highly important to keep in mind the fine line of difference between promoting your blog by adding valuable content to the other blog and NOT SPAMMING it.
4) Add photos
Photos bring your blog to life and even help to personalize it and make it more interesting. But it does not mean that you will add a photo to each and every post. Only add photos to those blogs which the readers will appreciate it.
5) Fill the Meta Data & Tags
The Meta description and the title must be filled up so that your blog is easily found by the search engines. You should never skip this step as the tags are very important. These tags act as keywords for the blog posts and people will easily find your blog with the help of these 'keywords'. If you are using WordPress then we recommend that you use SEO Ultimate plugin as this has been rated as the best SEO plugin in the market.
Getting your blog noticed and read is not a Herculean task. Just follow these easy steps and very soon you will be a successful blogger.

About The Author: Margaret is a writer, illustrator & blogger. She loves writing and traveling. Blogging is her passion. These days she is working with Seo Company and developing Wordpress plugin to increase user interaction.

FeedBurner Showing 0 (Zero) Subscribers Count

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:49:00 +0000

A hot topic being discussed in the Blogosphere is the about the recent issue at Google's FeedBurner. As reported by the FeedBurner Blog it is a temporary issue and they are working to fix it. So don't worry if your feed-count is being shown as '0' for the last 2-3 days. The professionals have already got their thinking hats on!

UPDATE [25th Sep, 2012]: The problem has been fixed. The stats are back and the subscribers count is showing up too.

How To (And Why You Should) Disable Infolinks Search Ads

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 16:40:00 +0000

Years back, websites like Infolinks and Kontera gained popularity due to their innovative non-obstructive in-text ads, which do not shift the focus of your readers from the main content to adverts. As every innovative idea cannot win, depending on the difference in the commission and payout rate while some websites retained and added more publishers & advertisers, some others lost too. By my first hand experience, I found Infolinks as the best In-Text advertiser.
But recently, Infolinks introduced another (well not so innovative product) (a Search based Widget) and enabled it automatically for all the publishers. The idea is good (although reminds me of Chitika). But unlike Chitika, the placement of this new widget is highly obstructive for most screen resolutions, especially if you are viewing the site on laptops.

By using this widget, you may see a little increase in the click-through rate, but it will certainly upset many of your first time visitors by hindering a clear view of your blog or article. And thus reducing the chances of converting your first time readers to permanent readers.

Here's how you can disable them... As this widget is enabled automatically, you need to log in to your Infolinks account to disable it.
Once you log in, go to the Customize page. Then go to Search Widget, by selecting the appropriate link from the sidebar. And finally un-tick the the option "Turn on Search Widget ads for ***.com" for any or all your websites. And finally Save the settings.

A Quick Tip: Avoid Crashing of Firefox 15 by KIS 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:44:00 +0000

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 has been released into the market. And almost at the same time Firefox launched its latest stable version 15.0
As of now, although no major conflicts have been reported by users on online forums, but a glitch is crashing browsers for some users as soon as they enable the Kaspersky plug-ins for Firefox.

Reason:
Firefox remembers the last page/tab opened by you. So if the last page that remained in the browser was the permission page generated by Kaspersky Internet Security, then the browser closes itself (may be it is trying to restart the browser).

Fix:
The moment Firefox opens and before it closes again automatically(within a second), hit "CTRL+N". That will open a new tab and it will remain in the memory of Fireox from now on. And you can work normally.

Creating fresh content and SEO best practices for Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:56:00 +0000

Creativity and uniqueness in ideas is required in many industries and businesses including SEO. But the ideas are not there for always. Those SEO's and small business owners which create and optimize content for a website will find that getting quality and unique perspective of the content is getting tougher by the day. Google rewards high quality and unique content and therefore the blogger should focus more on creating quality content and not on creating a back link profile which is full of article submissions and directory links.

Many companies have limited creative resources and those companies which operate in the niche markets are particularly more prone to this scarcity. We can take the example of a company making desk calendars. A blogger can write a limited number of articles about the product and can target a limited number of blogs for that important link. A blogger therefore needs to search for new ways for making his/her content more effective.

Websites
A blogger can incorporate new ideas and angles to the content and get extensive link building. Websites like link bait generator are useful for those small businesses that do not employ in-house staff for creating content. You can enter the keyword and the website will give you generic title.

Use of numbers
You can get more traffic for your article and make it more effective by using numbers in the headline. The content marketing institute says that the posts with numbers generate more traffic and click-through. The numbers of click throughs are increased by about 20% if the list is an odd-number list.

Obscure topics
Writing on obscure topics can be difficult but these are topics which generate the maximum traffic and attention and are also more linked to.

Brainstorming
The brainstorming sessions can be very useful on generating new ideas. Experts having different expertise can give different opinions on the subject, which will give new perspectives to the content. The PR and marketing staff and the in house SEO's can discuss among themselves and generate new ideas. They should be educated on SEO and also embrace it fully to be more effective.

Look around for examples
You can look around your place and get some examples about what can be included in the content. The everyday office supplies, the business pens etc. can be some great ideas for inclusion. You should try to see the stationery things in a stereotypical manner and should try to target the educational, workplace and business blogs through them. It might be better not to specifically emphasize on the product throughout the content. You can give the product a passing mention. This way the post will not get commercial in its approach and will get access and reach to more blogs as well.

Keeping track of current affairs
It is very beneficial to keep track of the present and ongoing activities in current affairs. They are of interest to all and therefore should be included in the content to gain more traffic. For example, many SEO's will be trying to incorporate the 2012 sports activities in their content so that they can feature more prominently in the searches.

Freshness of page
An old content which exists on web simply to increase page views but is not helpful in any other sphere might not be good for web. A page which adds new content to it or answers new queries of users is likely to remain fresh for a long period of time. Links from fresh sites can also enhance traffic. Sometimes, the older and authoritative results are also found to be better. These are the great contents whose effectiveness, use and quality are not affected by time.
The blogger should judge the content honestly and see whether it provides the most relevant information to the query or not. He/she should not be too dismissive of ideas and build links with an open mind. A trial and error approach might be required and you would be required to try the ideas first to see whether they work or not.

About the author: Diana Maria is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology, health and parenting. Beside this she is fond of games and gadgets. She also likes reading various articles on gizmowatch.com & bornrich.com

Image credits: Dipity.com

4 Reasons to Promote Your Blog on Facebook and Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:01:00 +0000

This may come as a surprise but a lot of people hesitate when it comes to blog promotion on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes it’s because they don’t want certain people to know about their blog, other times it’s because they don’t want to look like they’re spamming up their friends and followers feeds, and sometimes it just comes down to the fact that they don’t know how or even realize that they should be doing so. However not using Facebook and Twitter for your blog promotion is a massive mistake. Here are four reasons you need to use Facebook and Twitter for marketing your blog:
1. More exposure: It’s pretty simple really. You post your latest blog posts on Facebook and Twitter and more people are going to click on the link to read them. You can’t leave all of it to chance and people finding you through search engines because, unless you’re a mastermind with keywords and SEO, increased traffic just isn’t going to happen as quickly as when you’re promoting on these two sites.
2. New connections: Having a social media site to promote your blog gives you the opportunity to form new connections with readers and bloggers alike. You are able to interact with them in a way that your blog on its own doesn’t afford, which deepens the relationship and gives you a more loyal audience. Both of these are vital to the success of your blog.

3. Better search engine indexing: Tweeting out links to your new posts or sharing the links on Facebook means that your posts are in more places around the web. The more places there are linking to your posts, the more likely it is that the major search engines like Google or Yahoo are going to index your posts. Better indexing means more people finding your blog through searches. More people finding your blog equal more traffic. It’s an all-around win.
4. Both offer unique audiences: It’s unlikely that you have the exact same audience on both your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so promoting your blog in both places means that it will reach more people. Because Twitter allows you to include hashtags, you are going to reach a broader audience that extends past people that are already following you. And because people can share posts they like on Facebook it opens up the door for new people finding your blog all the time. Facebook and Twitter are two of the biggest social media websites available. Not taking advantage of them for promoting your blog is just passing up a free opportunity to reach more people. So use it! You’re only hurting your blog by not.
Author Bio:
This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service providers in my area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com

Photoblogging - How To Start A Photo Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Photo blogging is a different kind of blogging, which is primarily focussed on pictures and not on text or articles. The pictures are usually accompanied with a caption or a brief description and rest is left for the viewers’ imagination. Unlike the usual blogging, in photo blogging you don't have to think much before posting a new post. But that said, it doesn't mean the authors of the photo blogs are not talented or it's a matter of seconds or minutes to publish a new post. Their talent and creativity is all visible in the pictures taken by them. Photographers see the same things that we do, but with a different angle and that is how the pictures are presented.
Nowadays, the content of the photo blogs is not limited to the pictures taken by the cameras. You can see a number of digital pictures on Internet, created by either modifying the pictures taken by cameras or creating them from scratch in photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop (shareware) or Paint.Net (freeware).

Photographers can blog and display their pictures either as a hobby or a profession. People show case their work on these blogs, either giving away the pictures for free or copyrighting their work and selling them online.
The pictures are usually presented as thumbnails with watermarks and the actual full size image is made available for download after a successful payment, either directly by email or using sites like DepositPhotos. You can also check out DepositPhotos' official blog for the latest trends in photography and photo blogging.
To start a photo blog, you should either be a good photographer or you should have a good professional camera. In short, if you get more than 10 likes for the pictures uploaded by you on Facebook, then you are already in a position to start a photo blog.

Where to blog...
You can either create a blog of our own, on any of the blogging platforms like Blogger or Wordpress, or you can create an account at websites like Flickr. Personally I would suggest you to host and display your images on your own blog, as that will give more credibility to your work. But at the same time you should also use sites like Deposit Photos to sell the pictures, this will give more exposure to your collection.

Promote your work...
Use the potential of social networking to publicize your work across the Net. Post links to your work in sites like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg etc. But remember there's a difference in promoting and spamming, and in the long run spamming will do more bad than good for your blog and business.

Be creative...
As applicable to any work, creativity and novelty is the key to get successful in any niche. Do a proper research before buying a camera, play with its settings, try post modifications in different picture editing software. And bring in the best content for your viewers.

And protect what you want to sell...
"If it's online, then no one can guarantee its protection" - this is applicable to almost anything available online. But that doesn't mean you can leave your hard earned work open to thieves and data pirates. Use different techniques to keep pictures safe from getting copied.
If you are planning to sell pictures on your blog, then display only thumbnails along with watermarks. Also do have a "License" or "Terms of Use" page on your blog, clearly mentioning the copyright terms and conditions.

A suggestion...
At times do publish some good quality pictures with a "free to use" license. This will get you more viewers and regular visitors. And these visitors will sooner or later become your clients or will get you more clients.

For more ideas and inspiration head over to this list of 50 Inspiring Photoblogs on SmashingMagazine.

4 Tips for Organizing And Uncluttering your Blog Archive

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:40:00 +0000

A guest post contributed by George Baker, who regularly writes for SparesNextDay.co.uk

A well organized blog has a tone of respectability as well as being easy for your followers to search through for their favorite articles. Unfortunately, many bloggers let their blog devolve into a mess of discombobulated pieces. In the name of creating order out of the chaos that is far too many blogs, here are my top 10 tips for organizing your blog archive.

1. Use Pages on Your Blog

The most important thing that you can do to improve the fluidity of your blog experience is to add pages. Pages make it much easier to find what people are looking for. Pages don't get lost in the infinite black hole that is an archive; instead, you can put them anywhere you want on your homepage and, actually, on every page within your blog. This means that pages are always vying for attention and will, as a result, get that attention.

2. Use Pages on Your Blog Well

Just having pages doesn't mean that your blog is automatically well organized. It takes work and the intelligent, calculated use of pages. Don't have too many pages and make sure that the information entombed in your pages remains relevant, easy to navigate, and aids, rather than hinders, the organizational process. What this means is that your pages should closely cluster blog posts from related topics.

Think of pages as a tent that you invite a party to discuss a relevant topic; the party is a bunch of like-minded people getting together to make points around a topic or two, but if you invite too many people with opinions that are way out there or have nothing to do with your topic, then the party quickly degenerates into a bunch of arguing back and forth or, worse, inane statements and meaninglessness. You must have vital connections and a vital discourse withing the page. Therefore, group your pages precisely and according to definable topics.

3. Group Posts According to Categories

Pages are nothing without categories. Categories and sub-categories are how you define what a post is about. The most important thing with categories is to find, with each and every blog post, just what it is about and label it accurately. Otherwise, there is not only misdirection but a cornucopia of information. Contrary to popular belief, more information is not automatically better information. Better organized information is better information.

Don't categorize every single blog post independent of all your other blog posts. Find common ground and cut down on excess categories. By cutting down on over-categorizing, you can simplify not only your life (because you are the one who has to fit blog posts into categories) but your blog reader's lives. This is because it makes finding what they are looking for a breeze. Nothing deters curious readers than having to pick their way through an endless, dark labyrinth without so much as a map. Categories are the map. Give your readers a readable and understandable map, with a good legend and a clear key. They aren't looking for bewilderment and chaos; they are looking for a blog! Give them a blog. Otherwise, it is highly likely that they will no longer be your reader.

4. Legitimize your Blog with Linked Sources

Far too much of blogging is nothing more than opinion and pure fluff. The surefire way to counter this is to include your sources. If you have been writing about the economy, throw in a link to an online Wall Street Journal article that talks about either what you have been talking about or something similar. If you get some information from another website, link to that website. If you liked an idea from another blog, don't try to pass it off as your own; link to that blog and build a virtual friendship.

Also, by including links to authoritative and interesting articles outside of your blog, you broaden the minds of your readers by giving them another view on whatever topic you were writing about. Sincere and intelligent readers will treasure the additional information and meaning that you have made possible. Plus, this helps to improve the collective consciousness of our planet. What can be more important than that?

Image credits: activerain.com

Help out with all the vacuum cleaner bags at work is what George is trained to do, as he mainly deals Numatic vacuum bags.

Check & Download DDA 2011 (DDA 2010 HOUSING SCHEME) Draw Result Now

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:06:00 +0000

Off Topic Alert: This post is not about blogging.

Download the complete list of DDA 2010 Housing Scheme Successful Applicants
[2.2 MB PDF File]

The draw was conducted on 18th April, 2011 at the Sector-62 office of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).

Right now the servers of DDA are unable to take the load of curious applicants trying to check their results.
So, if you want to check the status of your applications, then download the complete list of successful applicants right now from this link:

List of DDA 2010 Housing Scheme Successful Applicants
[2.2 MB PDF File]

Wishing You Best Of Luck :)

Three Quick Tips for Attracting Traffic to Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:43:00 +0000

A guest post contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who regularly writes for OnlineUniversities.com

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been the hot topic in all areas of the blogosphere for years now. Now that creating and maintaining a blog has become fairly simple, bloggers and wannabe bloggers are all about getting readers and creating traffic. While there are dozens and dozens of tips and tricks to mastering SEO available on the web, these three tips are simple and often overlooked.

One of the most important aspects of optimizing your blog is learning to link intelligently. This is an area that people have significant trouble with (and for good reason). Linking in a way that appears both natural and unobtrusive can be tricky. When you link out in your blog posts, you should always be aware of how the links are related to the content you provide. Not everything that you discuss in you blog will warrant a link. You must determine where it is appropriate to use convention to link and where a little more creativity is necessary. The biggest deterrent in a blog is over-linking, however it is also important to realize that under-linking can have very dire consequences as well. If you mention Wikipedia in a blog post, it is obviously not necessary to link to Wikipedia in general because everyone on the internet knows what it is. However, if you mention a specific page from Wikipedia it is not only good that you link to that page, in fact it is necessary.

Another great tip for optimizing your blog is launching your blog posts without comments enabled initially. Unfortunately, many readers will base what they read on how many other people have read it. We've all done it. You click on a post that has an interesting looking title, scan the page, see that there are no comments, and decide that it's not worth reading. Obviously, this doesn’t always happen, but there is something kind of sad about a blog with 0 comments on every single post. The site looks dead and unpopular. The simple solution turn off the commenting option. This way no one can see that there are 0 comments on your blog. After you submit a post, pay close attention to the number of RSS subscribers you have and the number of unique visitors you have each day. Once your RSS subscribers tops 100 or you get more than 300 unique visits a day open up the comments. Using this technique keeps particularly tech-savvy visitors from judging your blog based on popularity.

Finally, many bloggers underestimate the value of guest bloggers for their site. Having already established bloggers write content for your site will help attract their readers to your page and will strengthen your SEO. Of course, it is important that you choose your guest posts and guest posters carefully. The guest posts that you choose should be relevant to your blog's interests and aims. However, it may also be useful to support guest posts that counter something that you have discussed previously. This way you are catering to all spectrums of the general audience and you demonstrate that you are open to discussion. Fostering varied discussion in your blog can be important to generating more interest in it. Another important thing to look for in guest blogs is links or direct references to other posts from your page. If a guest blogger discusses other blog posts you have written, it will encourage readers to read more of your work and it establishes that that guest writer is familiar with your blog.

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who regularly writes for online universities. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com

Image credits: sdnn.com

Cloud Computing - for The NOT SO Technical Netizens

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:30:00 +0000

For the last several months, I have been using and suggesting my readers to use OpenDrive to host their files online, which also allows them to hotlink their files; An important requirement if you want to host and embed MP3 players in to your blogs.
While using this service I got a chance to use their cloud computing based OpenDrive Desktop too. Here, in this article, I am not going to tell you the technical basics of Cloud Computing, viz. IaaS, PaaS, SaaS etc. but just the basics - how can a person with a PC and an Internet connection get the benefits of it. Before I explain "how to use OD-Desktop", have a look on the basics...

So, what exactly is Cloud Computing?
In cloud computing all your data is stored in clouds (okay, it's not actually "clouds", but these are "servers" installed in several countries across the world). The data is updated in real-time when you update the files on your PC (provided you have an active Internet connection). And finally, you can access these up-to-date files from anywhere & anytime.

I already have a back up on an external HDD, Why should I again upload this data to other servers?
You might be having your data on your external HDD, but that data is usually old and doesn't always get updated when you edit your present files. Moreover you do not carry this hard-disk always with you and neither can it be accessed by mobile devices (mobile phones).

I have stored all my important files on other file-hosting sites, like Rapidshare, 4shared, ADrive etc. Isn't that enough?

Sure, you have your files stored on various online sites. But again, the files uploaded here on these sites may not the be latest versions of your edited files.
You might want to have access to your latest résumé (CV) or a copy of your internet browser's bookmarks etc., everywhere you go. So, for these types of files, every time you edit them, you will have to log in and re-upload the new files yourself at these file-hosting sites.

Now using cloud computing, whenever you create or edit a file on your PC/Laptop, these files are automatically added/updated in the cloud (the distant server) too (provided you have an active Internet connection). So now, you can download these new/edited files from any computer/mobile device, using a login-ID and password, of course.

To start using Cloud Computing for your dynamic files, first of all you need (1) a cloud - a company that provides a server to you where you can store a copy of your files and (2) a software (again provided by the same company) to regularly send the new & updated files to their server.
So, I would suggest you to register at OpenDrive and use their software OpenDrive-Desktop.

Once registered, download their OpenDrive-Desktop and install it on your PC.
It will be displayed in your "My Computer" area, as an additional drive. Within this drive, you can create folders and sub-folders in the same way as you do it in your PC and store files in them. Whenever you add or edit files in this drive (or in any folder within the drive), the files will be updated in your OpenDrive account too. So, next time while using a different PC/Laptop or a mobile phone, you can log-in at OpenDrive.com to access your latest up-to-date files. Moreover you have an option at OD to make the files "private" or "public" - to share selected files with your friends or colleagues.

5 New Official Dynamic Blogger Templates

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 17:36:00 +0000

Today Blogger has introduced five new dynamic blogger templates. Using the latest web-technologies, including AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3, these templates deliver a host of benefits to you and your readers:

* New layouts: different views suited to different types of blogs
* Infinite scrolling: (like Twitter/Facebook wall) read more posts without having to reload or click to a second page
* Speed: download images as you view them, not all at once in advance
* Interactivity: there are now more ways to experience and engage with blog content

And the best part is, you don't lose your current template, to use these new dynamic templates.
For example, right now you can view BloggerStop in all these five templates:

1. BloggerStop - Flipcard
2. BloggerStop - Mosaic
3. BloggerStop - Sidebar
4. BloggerStop - Snapshot
5. BloggerStop - Timeslide

To view your own blog in any of these templates, simply type your blog-address and add "/view" to it.
For example,

http://www.MY_BLOG.blogpost.com/view/

In case dynamic templates are not already active/enabled for your blog, then do it yourself from
Blogger Dashboard -> Settings -> Formatting -> Enable Dynamic Views and select the option "Yes".

Temporarily, to make any of these templates as default, for all your visitors...

<head>

And immediately BELOW/AFTER it, paste this code:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://YOUR_BLOG.blogspot.com/view/snapshot/" />

Similarly instead of "snapshot", you may use other templates too.

Give your feedback to Blogger Team from this page:
Feedback - Blogger Dynamic Templates

All Hail to Blogger

10 Things Every Blogging Office Needs

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:14:00 +0000

A guest post by James Adams, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

Being a professional blogger isn’t as simple as waking up one morning and stating, “I am a blogger, look out world!” Like any other discipline or endeavour, being a successful blogger means that you have to take the job seriously. That means working with dedication, planning and forethought. Having the right tools is an essential part of being a blogger, as you need the right tools in order to get the job done.

1. Computer or Laptop: There is no doubt one of the key tools of the modern journalist and the pro blogger is the computer. After all, the computer has become the informational link to the world. Blogging is all about information and staying current with what is happening in the world around us. This means that your computer is an essential tool in your blogging toolkit. While it is not necessary to have a top of the line gaming computer, you should have one that can get the job done or you will lose hours and hours on productivity. Making sure that you have a quality anti-virus program and firewall might be savvy addition as well.

2. Top-Notch Monitor: A reasonably large high quality monitor is an essential tool not just for bloggers, but also for anyone spending a lot of time at the computer. Eyestrain can greatly impair your productivity and make working nothing short of unpleasant. Spending a little extra money for a quality monitor is a savvy move.

3. Broadband Access: It should come as no surprise that access to a broadband connection is essential for blogging. While some people do still use dial-up Internet, you will experience major setbacks if you don’t have access to a fast connection. If you are using a laptop computer, be sure that you have a 3G dongle device for your mobile broadband access.

4. The Smartphone: A good smartphone is an absolute essential for the blogger. This is particularly true if you have one with a good deal of functionality and apps. A smartphone can function something like a modern Swiss army knife and may include GPS, recording capability, note taking capability, as well as essential features such as a camera and video capability. Also a smartphone allows you to connect to the Internet whenever you like from virtually wherever you like. This can prove invaluable for any number of important reasons. Of course, your trusted smartphone also functions as a phone too! All of these factors combine to make the smartphone a simply essential tool.

5. The Notebook or Notepad: Sure a notebook or notepad might be a bit “old school,” but you never have to worry about the battery on your notepad running out! This makes the time honoured, battled tested notepad something of a practical real world essential. It is something that you should not be without for quickly jotting down ideas on good old-fashioned paper.

6. Pens, Pens and More Pens: Pens are always a must for the blogger. Not all note taking is digital... at least not yet.

6. A Good Desk: Having a good desk might seem like a no-brainer, but if you are going to be spending hours upon hours writing, you need to keep the importance of a good desk in mind. A good desk will also help keep you organised and enhance your productivity.

7. The Chair: A comfortable chair, one that you can spend hours in, is probably even more important than having a good desk. After all, back problems will quickly end your workday.

9. A Bookcase: You never know when you might want to include a reference to a book in your blogging endeavours. A bookcase is important for staying organised. Don’t skip this inexpensive item that is essential for keeping books in order.

10. A Quality Keyboard: Lots of blogging means lots of typing. This makes an investment in a comfortable keyboard a must. Don’t just assume that the keyboard you received with your computer is adequate.

Image credits: Ben's Biz Blog

James works at Office Kitten, a UK based supplier of envelopes for businesses and other office stationery.

Add A TweetQuote To Your Blogger Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:10:00 +0000

In HTML/CSS, when you quote a piece of text from other websites/web pages, then it is usually done through customized quote boxes, called as blockquotes. You can read, add and customize these blockquotes in your blog from this tutorial:
Customize Blockquote In Your BlogSpot Blog

Now, in this tutorial you will be able to add a sub-type of blockquotes: Tweetquote, to your blog.
Many tweets go viral on Twitter and many a times, we do find tweets worth sharing with our readers on our blogs. So, here is a creative & professional way to (re)publish tweets on your blogs:
@BillGates congratulating Warren Buffett, for being awarded with National Medal of Fredom:

Congratulations to my dear friend Warren Buffett on National Medal of Freedom - http://bit.ly/eN9rh1

-@BillGates

There are just two steps to follow, in this tutorial:

STEP #1
Log in to Blogger, go to Design -> Edit HTML and find this code:

</head>

And immediately ABOVE/BEFORE it, paste this code:

<style type="text/css">
blockquote.tweetquote {
border-top: 1px solid #FFF;
border-left: 1px solid #FFF;
border-right: 1px solid #46A8B8;
border-bottom: 1px solid #46A8B8;
background: #D1D0C6 url(http://files.main.bloggerstop.net/uploads/3/0/2/5/3025338/twitterquote1.jpg);
background-position:top left;
background-repeat:repeat-y;
margin: 0 20px;
padding: 10px 20px 10px 45px;
font-size: 0.9em;
}
</style>

You may use a different background image in your blog by editing the code highlighted in BLUE color in the above code. And SAVE the template.

STEP #2
Now, while publishing a post on your blog, whenever you want to quote a tweet, do it in this way:

<blockquote class="tweetquote">PASTE THE TWEET HERE</blockquote>
-<a href="http://LINK_TO_TWEET">@TWIT_ID</a>

NOTE: Remember the code highlighted in RED, that has to be used everytime you want to quote a tweet.
Your tweet can be of any length (you may use tweets from twitlonger too, as the background cloud pattern will keep on repeating itself). That's it...Publish the post.

Image credits: OneHalfKiller

How to Choose Brilliant Images for Your Blog Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 04:40:00 +0000

A guest post by James Adams, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

An image - worth thousand words!

We are living in a world that rewards instant gratification; people do not want to take the time to read a book, if the movie is available. In other words, "a picture is worth a thousand words." It should not be difficult to see why illustrations are important when keeping readers interested in your blog posts. Pictures can help readers to follow your writing more easily, breaking up the text so that it doesn't look like one long, tedious piece of work.
Here are some tips on how to choose the best images for your blog posts:

(#1.) Relevance - blog posts are generally there to persuade readers to show interest in a certain topic, product, or service. Adding pictures to help illustrate those concepts can only help, but don't go overboard. Shy away from adding pictures for the sake of adding pictures. Make sure that you are putting up illustrations that are going to add to the relevance of your text, not take away from it. It is easy to add too much, so try to keep it straight forward and to the point, just like the text.

(#2.) Copyrights - always remember that not all images are available for your use. There are copyrights for images that are on the internet as well as copyrights for images that are in print. If you want to avoid any problems that you might encounter with copyrighted materials, use your own images. Go looking for images that give relevance to your post and take the pictures yourself. If that doesn't seem like a viable option for you, there are public image sites that you can locate off of any search engine. Most search engines will provide you with an image option; type in the object or term that you are looking for and browse through the hundreds of images that are available to use without objection. If you find an image on another blog or site that you would like to use, remember to be courteous. It is polite to send a short email or contact the owner of the site asking for permission to use the image.

(#3.) Editing - it is important to do minor (and sometimes major) editing on your images before just sticking them up on your blog. It is more than aggravating to have to wait an eternity for a page to load because the file is too large. In fact, in this "instant gratification" world, no one waits for a page to load for very long without just moving along. If you have a file to add that is of larger size, put a thumbnail up on the page. If users want to wait to view the full photo, they have that option. If not, it doesn't create problems when loading. When finalising photos or images for your blog post, keep clarity in mind. A clean and crisp image gets the point across a lot better than an unclear one. Photoshop is a great tool to use before putting pictures up on your blog; you can add or subtract from an image as needed, and sometimes it is needed.

(#4.) Avoid - there are some things that you should try and avoid when choosing images for your blog post. For instance, animations are great and can potentially add just the right ingredient to your post, but it is important to think about internet connections. Some people don't have the fastest connections, and you don't want to alienate parts of your audience. It is also a good idea to stay away from background images; they can slow the process of loading your page down to snail pace. Account for those readers who may want to print your post without the background attached.

(#5.) Include - there are images that are better to use than others and should be highly considered. You want to make sure that you are using unique illustrations. If people have seen the image a thousand times, it loses its weight. People associate certain objects with a product or service and you want your readers to associate illustrations with your work. Include pictures that capture the essence of what you are trying to relay to your readers, it doesn't have to be completely literal. Capitalise on reader satisfaction by using photos that mean something to them; use pictures of people, kids, animals. Everyone likes to laugh, so adding a humorous image is a tool that will keep readers returning to your page. This is your chance to shine, to set yourself apart from similar blogs or from those that are selling the same product or service. Images can very easily turn into a mascot for a particular product, site or service. Mascots can be very beneficial to a business and finding a good one starts with searching through images that are relevant to your end goals.

Image credits: The Thinking Blog

James Adams normally reviews consumables for Canon printers at the UK's biggest online supplier of printer cartridges, Cartridge Save.

PCNames - Instant Domain Availability Checking Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:10:00 +0000

Purchasing domains these days is definitely more than just having an online presence. It is in fact, no less than the real estate business. Just as a piece of land or a house you can purchase and sell IP numbers (domain names) online. Be the first one to guess the value of a domain name, register it and you will be sitting on a gold mine a few months/years later.
But nowadays, to purchase a domain you have to check not only at the domain registrars but also at various domain sellers and re-sellers (in case the domain of your choice has already been registered by someone else) - making the whole work a lot more tedious for you. But luckily, now PCNames is there to make the process simple and easy.

The FAQ section of PCNames has got all the basic information about Domain names (right from "what a domain name is?" to "what is domain squatting?" etc.). Moreover they also provide some extremely useful Tips for both the newbie & experienced domain buyers (and sellers).

Any domain name search at PCNames shows the results for various different TLDs highlighted in Green (Available), Red (Not Available) and Blue (Registered but Available for Sale). All your recent domain-searches are shown in a tabular form and from that list you can buy the domain(s) of your choice from any of the listed domain registrars (GoDaddy, Yahoo or Network Solutions (NS is NOT recommended by me)). Once you click on any of the registrars you will be redirected to their website, where you can complete the transaction.

If you are an experienced domain reseller, then you may also try their Bulk Domain checking tool and if you are new to this, then try their Domain Generator tool for some quick (but limited) suggestions.

Christmas Decoration Tools For Blogs - A Round Up

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 08:03:00 +0000

It's Christmas time again and I am sure you want to decorate your blog just the way, you decorate your Christmas tree. So, here's a round up of all the Xmas special tutorials already published on BloggerStop that will help you to add different Xmas add-ons to your blog.

1. How to add Christmas stars, balls and snowflake icons to your blog;

Decorate Your Blog With These Awesome Xmas-Icons

2. How to add Christmas Carols to your blogspot/blogger blog

First of all, download the carols in MP3 format from these sites:
(i) Christmas carols
(ii) Christmas songs
And of course, you can search Google for more Christmas songs.

Then, follow this tutorial to add these carols to your blog:

Add An MP3 Music Player To Your BlogSpot Blog

3. How to add falling snowflakes to your blog

It has already started snowing around the world. So bring that snow to your blog too;

Add Falling Snowflakes / Flowers / Leaves to Your Blog

4. Bring back the child in you and your visitors...

Embed/Add Christmas Games To Your Blog

Traffic Exchange Widgets - Wahoha vs MGID vs 2Leep vs ZapArena...

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:12:00 +0000

The Good...

A few years back, there were only a few social networking sites (Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Delicious etc.) which used to circulate the content across the Internet. But there are a number of limitations to these sites;
Firstly, none of these websites guarantee any minimum amount of traffic to you. Secondly, visitors coming from these sites are mostly the registered members of these sites (although the number of members in these sites is very large but definitely limited). And finally, in almost all these networks only a dozen or so popular websites get maximum benefits (read traffic). Nowadays you can expect significant traffic from these sites only if you have a breaking news or something really bizarre.

The Better...

So the next option to make your content viral is to use "manual" traffic exchange sites/widgets like LinkWithin, BlogExplosion and EntreCard etc. where you have to manually visit other blogs, and in exchange other members of those sites visit your blog.

Again, even this system cannot promise traffic forever;
First of all, you have to visit other blogs, whether you are interested in doing so or not - a complete waste of time and sooner or later you will lose interest in doing that regularly. Secondly, the traffic coming from these sites is mostly non-targeted and they usually leave the website from the landing page itself, raising the blog bounce rate. And of course, this type of traffic exchange is also completely limited to the number of registered members.

The Best...

Recently, you would have noticed many blogs (including BloggerStop.Net) with a new type traffic exchange widget. This is how these widgets work:
These widgets show different content from various blogs/websites on your site (you can place the widget anywhere on the blog - at BloggerStop, it is there right below this post). The links are shown in the form of small windows with some text (titles). See the example below this post (widget from MGID).

If you send 100 visitors to other blogs via this widget, then in return, your posts will be shown on other blogs in a similar way and you will receive anywhere between 250-400 visits (150-300%).

Now, if you are ready to add this kind of widget to your blog, then you will find a number of websites (from MGID, Wahoha, 2Leep, ZapArena etc.) offering exactly the same service with similar claims of around 150-300% traffic. But to make your job easier, I have already tried all of them and selected the best one for you.

The two main criteria of selection were:

1. The overall design of the widget and the title & picture selection (unique for each post submitted from the blog). A "Perfectly Cropped" image is the most important part of this whole system. As you know that 'a picture speaks a thousand words', so your picture has to be the most attractive one among others to receive maximum clicks.

2. The stats shown by by these traffic exchange sites must match with our records (Google analytics or StatCounter etc.), but unfortunately it wasn't the case in almost all of them.

The widget I have selected for BloggerStop and which I suggest to my readers is the one from MGID.

Here are the some of the reasons for selecting MGID over others:

1. According to Alexa MGID is ranked one of the US top 500 most visited websites with more than 17 million unique visitors per month;

2. MGID has more than 3000 US partner sites. And they divide their partners/publishers posts into 30 different categories, so that their visitors come from similar websites/blogs.

3. MGID collaborates only with family-friendly, safe for work sites (no gratuitous or inappropriate adult content);

4. Recently their system was updated & optimized & the exchange ratio for most of their partners (publishers) has substantially increased. Therefore most of the publishers are now getting 200%-500% visitors back;

5. Their partners, who also use other similar services, have reported that their widgets are much more clickable. This means that their partners receive even more traffic in return.

6. Many of their partners receive from 5 to 15 page views per user; that's called quality traffic;

7. MGID's proprietary system filters provide a unique click ratio of close to 90%. This provides you with only the best traffic;

8. MGID works with blogs, media corporations, networks, and magazines etc. (e.g. AOL, Break Media);

9. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Moscow, Kiev, and Shanghai, their highly experienced team can provide exceptional customer service 24/7.

So, join MGID, grab your widget code and paste it below your posts (recommended) or in the sidebar. Wait for a day or two, your posts will be visible across hundreds and thousands of blogs and you enjoy the traffic.

Image credits: PromotedProfits

10 Tips For Optimizing Your Blog For Printing

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:03:00 +0000

A guest post by James Adams, editor and contributor to the CreativeCloud blog.

With a few simple steps you can optimize your blog for printing, add printable vouchers, and save your blog viewers a lot of ink and paper. In less than 10 minutes, you can improve the professional look and functionality of your blog and convince visitors to comeback, whether it is to buy from you or to simply visit again seeking more information. You can make your blog look great on the screen and on the printed page. Blog plugins allow you to increase readability by choosing which elements from your blog are included on the printed page.

Plugins to Optimize Your Blog for Printing

Quick Online Tips and HP suggest using plugins designed to make your blog printer-friendly. A few popular plugins that omit unnecessary information from the printout are: PrintWhatYouLike, PrintFriendly, Cleanprint and HP Smart Web Printing. VoucherPress adds functionality to your blog to print custom business content for your consumer.

1) PrintWhatYouLike (WordPress version 1.5 or higher)

PrintWhatYouLike is a free plugin that will automatically format your WordPress blog for printing and allows users to save the blog in a .pdf format. You can also sign up for a free account and customize how you would like your blog to print.

2) PrintFriendly (WordPress version 1.5 or higher)

PrintFriendly adds a "printer friendly" and a ".pdf" button to your blog so that users can use to create a printer-friendly version and save paper and ink by customizing which areas of the blog are included in the printout. It is free.

3) Cleanprint (WordPress version 2.0.2 to 3.0.1)

Cleanprint is another free plugin that allows the user to customize which areas of the blog are printed. This plugin is unique, however, because it allows the blog to be printed in a professional "magazine-like" format with logos and headers intact, but optimized for a printed format of the blog. One drawback is that it is only compatible with selected WordPress themes.

4) VoucherPress (WordPress version 2.8 to 3.0.1)

The VoucherPress is a free plugin allows you to create and print customizable certificates and vouchers and to collect visitor e-mail addresses for your database. It can be customized to contain unique offer numbers for tracking and the user can set expiration dates for each offer once a particular number of visitors have downloaded a certificate or voucher from your blog.

5) HP Smart Web Printing (Blogger and Drupal compatible)

HP Smart Web Printing is an Internet Explorer plugin that converts your blog into a .pdf format where users can choose which areas of the blog are included on the page.

Printer-Friendly Blog Design Tips

Your blog may look organized when you view it on the web, but have you ever tried to print out pages from your blog? Most blog themes have been designed and optimized for viewing online, but when visitors want to print pages to read later, they end up with an unreadable mess. With a few simple modifications to your blog design, you can create an eye-pleasing format that is readable online and in print.

1) Add a CSS style sheet

Marketing Tech Blog and WordPress for Style recommend adding a print.css style sheet to your blog. You can choose which areas to display and change the text formatting and the margins of the page. The style sheet code will need to be added to the header of each page of your blog.

2) Change the margins

The Search Written usability blog suggests changing the margins of the page within the print version of your blog to maximize printable area and save paper and printer ink for your blog readers.

3) List the URL for links

It is also helpful to set your print version up to print out the URL for links on your blog entries since you can't "click" on the page once it is printed! You can also list the URL as a footer in the printed version if you don't want the URL to interfere with the text readability of your print out.

4) "Un-float" tables

Going to Print recommends "un-floating" tables in your HTML for printed versions of your blog, this prevents blog areas from printing across two different pages.

5) Set the page background to white and table backgrounds to transparent

Another great tip from Going to Print is to set all background colors to "white" and all table backgrounds to "transparent" in the print version of the blog to save ink and increase text legibility.

Conclusion

It is easy to make your blog printer-friendly with a few easy modifications to your design and the use of clever plugins that make your blog look professional and optimize the visitor's experience when printing your blog pages so that they will want to return again and again.

James Adams works at Cartridge Save where he writes reviews of newest Lexmark supplies. When he has time, James enjoys writing about advertising, design and tech.

3 Unconventional Offline Marketing Techniques for Your Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Divya Sai) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:40:00 +0000

A guest post by Alvina Lopez, who writes on the topics of accredited online schools.

We've read all that we can, about how to drive more traffic to our blogs. We know everything there is, to know about SEO and writing guest blogs and 'dofollow' links and so on. After a while, though, some of that stuff, as helpful as it is, can get a little old and we find ourselves wanting to have a little fun with how we market our blogs.

That's where unconventional offline marketing comes in. While you'll still want to devote a vast majority of your resources to the standard methods of attracting traffic to your blog, you should also consider having fun with some different approaches to offline promotion. Of course, be sure that these methods won't turn people off to your brand. It's all about balancing the marketing with how it affects your readers.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you try to attract new readers to your blog. Feel free to take these and adjust them however you can to suit your content and niche. And remember: have fun!

Undercover Marketing

This technique requires that you subtly place advertisements for your blog in places that many readers might not expect to see an advertisement. Consider your niche carefully when you do this, as you'll want to try to target the audience that would best fit your content. If your blog is about personal finance, then consider printing cheap bookmarks and hiding them in books in the financial section of local book stores. If your blog is about food or drinks, you could print stickers and stick them on the backs of products in grocery stores so that people will see them after they've purchased them. You can also enlist your friends to help you spread these subtle advertisements in other cities.

Gimmick Marketing

This might be a little more expensive and risky, but it can't hurt to try a one-time advertising gimmick and hope it generates some attention. Again, think carefully about how you want to represent your brand. For example, remember Battlecam.com? That's the site that paid a man to paint the domain on his chest and streak an Obama rally. You don't have to be as crazy as that to get good buzz; something as silly as hiring a guy in a bear suit to stand in Times Square with a sign could be enough to get a bit of new traffic.

Crowd Marketing

Have you ever walked the strip in Las Vegas? If so, you might have been surprised to suddenly find yourself holding a card for one of the many clubs or casinos in the area. Most likely, someone held it out and you took it without even thinking. You'd be surprised at what people will take when they're hurrying through a crowd. If there are any crowded areas like this nearby, you can print up a bunch of cheap business cards and simply hand them out to people. When you do so, make sure to thrust it into their hand so they don't have an option to turn you down. The simple human connection could be enough to get them to remember your url.

By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Alvina Lopez, who writes on the topics of accredited online schools. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com