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How linkable is your blog?
Monday, February 11, 2008
Philipp Lenssen, who is well known for his 'Google Blogoscoped' site, has developed a nifty little tool at howlinkable.com. Developed as a result of many hours reading blogs and working out what turned him on or off, this 30-second quiz can definitely help you decide how to improve your blog. Once you have answered the questions, you'll receive hints and tips on how to improve the linkability, and therefore likely traffic to your blog.
Labels: blogging
Free Wordpress theme generator
Thursday, October 25, 2007
As a web designer, I know how to code in XHTML, CSS and dabble from time to time in PHP and MySQL. That's great for standalone sites, but when it comes to blog and CMS platforms, I haven't got a clue.
Wordpress is currently my platform of choice for a personal project (more on that to come later) but I was struggling with how to learn 'the loop' and coding bits in the timeframe I've got. Roll on the Wordpress Theme Generator...
You can choose the number of columns, menu layout, colour schemes, choose from a wide range of backgrounds or go for a plain colour, insert a tag cloud, choose how to display archives etc...you're spoilt for choice really.
If you're looking at Wordpress and don't have the time/energy/budget, this is certainly worth a look.
Review: MyBlogLog and its marketing potential
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
I've finally joined MyBlogLog after reading a few reviews and ideas on how it can your blog.
I went to the signup page and as MyBlogLog is now a Yahoo! service, you do need a Yahoo! account. Unfortunately, the one I used to have had expired so I set up a new one which did take an extra few minutes.
Then, the screen takes you back to MyBlogLog and you fill in some brief details there including choosing your username. Once logged on, my first stop was to change my image from the default grey square to something slightly more user friendly.
Then, I decided to put the code on this blog. Great...so where was the link to do this? Well, as it turns out, after a bit of confused head scratching, you have to go to a random page in the menu (see, I can't remember what it is, it was that little help!) to add your blog. A link from the initial screen saying "add your blog here" would have been far more helpful.
Inserting the tracking code into your blog is very simple and the interface for filtering different I.P. addresses etc...is a great idea. However, it does say that everyone has the 'pro' version for the first 3 days after which, unless you pay to continue, your account is downgraded to the free version, so I'll have to update the blog should this feature change.
There's widgets that I can add to my blog - top links and recent readers. These are customisable and again, straightforward to add should I wish - just a line of JavaScript, rather than chunky wedge of code.
So what can you do with the code? The most obvious thing for me is to tailor the content of my blog to what readers want. Each google search that ends in a visit to your blog shows what search term was used - great for seeing what draws people in. Obviously if I see a demand for something, I'll add more posts on that topic.
I will update this post as more becomes apparent, but first impressions are that MyBlogLog could be a useful tool for any blogger wanting to dig a little deeper into their reader community.
Labels: blogging
move blogger blog to another account
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
If you want to move your Blogger blog between accounts (and it doesn't matter whether you host on blogspot or on your own domain), there is a slightly convoluted, but effective way to do it:
Let's pretend, first of all, that your accounts are called BloggerUno and BloggerDos. In the BloggerUno account you have two blogs, and you have one blog called "I Love Blogger" at BloggerDos. The following steps will show you how to move the single blog in BloggerDos to be with the others at BloggerUno.
To read the rest, see "How do I move a blog between accounts?" at Blogger Help.
UPDATE - this thread has now disappeared, but after a bit of digging I found the following blogs which explain the process:
Labels: blogging
Blogger Classic Template Labels Hack
Friday, December 29, 2006
I've spent quite a while (and am taking a short break from) labelling all my posts in the new Blogger. However, I use my own template (classic blogger style) and can't make use of the widgets that new blogs can in layout mode.
As it is, someone can click on one of the labels at the bottom of a post and see all other related posts, but what if someone wanted to see a list of them?
A bit of lateral thinking later and here's your answer (many thanks to JavaScript Kit for their dropdown menu code):
<form name="labellist">
<select name="labels" onchange="go()">
<option value="path/to/your/blog/labels/here">label name</option>
etc...
</select>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- function go(){
location=
document.labellist.labels.
options[document.labellist.labels.selectedIndex].value
}
//-->
</script>
<input name="labelgo" value="Go" onclick="go()" type="button">
</form>
<noscript>
<p>
<a href="/blog/labels/adsense.htm">label name</a><br /> etc...
</p>
</noscript>
Just paste this code into your template where you want the labels to go. You do need to know a few things first though - where your labels are kept (should be a subfolder of your blog folder), and the names of all your labels so you can list them.
This method works whether your blog visitor has javascript enabled or not - if they do, they'll see the dropdown box and select from there. If javascript has been disabled, they'll see a list of all your labels.
Labels: blogging, programming
Pay Per Post - money making on your blog!
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Pay Per Post is a new blog marketing technique that works for both bloggers and advertisers. If you have a website, the best way to get known is to get links back to your site - the more organic (natural) a link the better. For advertisers, rather than pay to have your text links on sites where your site is listed in a links section, Pay Per Post allows your site to be mentioned as part of a blog post (see the 'blog marketing' link above).
And for bloggers, Pay Per Post is an easy platform to make some money - signup for the program by entering a few details about yourself and your blog, and once approved, look through the opportunities to see what you want to blog about. Specifications are straightforward with a minimum word count, whether the tone of the post should be positive, negative or neutral, how much you'll be paid, the links and/or images you need to include etc...the Pay Per Post website programmers have done well in producing a site that takes you through step by step so even Internet beginners will manage. Payment is by PayPal once your post has been approved and left for a 30 day minimum.
There are some rules - paid for posts cannot be successive and your blog must be at least 90 days old with 20 pre-existing posts. This helps keep the quality of blogs for potential advertisers. Conversely, you don't have to take any opportunity that you feel is unsuitable for your blog, which keeps the quality of your blog at the standard you set.
Why you should listen to Matt Cutts
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Anyone that owns a website and is responsible for the content should check Matt Cutt's blog occasionally.
He's also known as 'Google Guy' and regularly posts really useful information on how to stay on the right side of Google.
As someone who works within the GooglePlex, he really knows what he's talking about so you are wise to take note.
A good summary on some of his earlier posts can be found at SEO EggHead.
Pearls of wisdom include:
- Use dashes rather than underscores in URLs
- Don't use hidden, or nearly-hidden text
- Use user-friendly URLs
- Use the nofollow tag
More google info can also be found at their webmaster central blog.
Labels: blogging, searchengines, seo
Blogger Beta - first impressions
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
After a couple of weeks of not blogging due to other commitments, I logged into my Blogger Dashboard to see an invitation to upgrade to Blogger Beta.
Firstly, I had to agree to upgrade, with dire warnings that I couldn't go back to the old Blogger. With the 'nothing ventured nothing gained' attitude, I started the process. Firstly, I had to confirm my Blogger login details followed by my Google account details (you can setup a Google account here if you don't already have one). The ubiquitous agreement to the latest terms and conditions followed then the screen told me that my blog was being converted and that I'd receive an e-mail when it was completed.
Simple and straightforward so far...I logged back into my Blogger account to see a new dashboard - this showed a list of my blogs, complete with last post date for each (same as the old) but also the total number of posts, any comments that need moderating * and a list of common tasks.
A quick flick through all the functions showed not much change, but I suspect that's because all my blogs are published on my own server, rather than on Blogger itself.
The best feature so far for me is labels - you can add labels to each post, then visitors to your blog can click on the label to see all other posts labelled in a similar way.
My biggest gripe so far is that the posting word verification has reared it's ugly head. This means that to make any post, you have to complete the verification box. Normally, this is because you publish on Blogger and they think your blog might be spam. It may be that they are checking all blogs for quality purposes but after 100 posts on my own server, I'm slightly irritated and bemused. To remove this, you need to create a new post, scroll down the word verification section and click on the orange question mark. This takes you to a form to submit to Blogger for them to verify your site isn't spam.
* One other surprise was the comments needing moderating - after I removed the ability to comment on my blog, I never saw any comments again (good), but that meant that some comments were left in no man's land - neither visible or able to be moderated. Logging in, I did see that there are comments that needed approving or rejecting.
Overall though, not much seems to have changed. Perhaps if I create a new blog, I'll see more of the new features.
Labels: blogging
Why I turned blog comments off
Thursday, October 05, 2006
I was recently asked why I people couldn't leave comments on my blog posts, and why if they wanted to get in touch, they had to use my contact form.
The reason for this is that there are plenty of unscrupulous programs out there that people use to 'comment spam'. This means that they fill in a few details and a link to their own site or blog, choose a keyword and press 'go'. The program then goes and finds all blogs that it can with that keyword and leaves a comment.
It sounds nice in theory but has several drawbacks:
1) It can leave comments on completely unrelated sites - if you had a blog about a serious medical condition but mentioned web design in one single post, would you really want several hundred comments saying "hey nice site about web design. check out my site etc..", no? I didn't think so.
2) A lot of people can't even use the software properly so you get comments left that make even less sense.
3) I DO NOT WANT Viagra, Cialis or any other medication, anatomy-extending device or anything else you could possibly spam me about, thank you.
And most importantly:
4) Most blog programs now automatically insert the rel=nofollow tag into any links in comments. This means the links have absolutely no value in the search engine's eyes - they will not index or follow the link and therefore you have not gained a backlink. The only way this link is useful is if someone follows it and visits your site. My guess is that 99% of link spam doesn't get followed.
To summarise - if you would like to comment on anything in my blog, please get in touch via the contact form. Whilst this doesn't allow comments to be viewed publically, it does mean that I control the quality of the blog.
How to Use Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Techniques
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Following on from my post yesterday on social bookmarking, tagging and pinging, I came across this excellent article which explains the concepts in context:
How to Use Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Techniques (To Boost Your Site's Ranking, Traffic and Sales)
If you're just heard the phrase 'Tag and Ping' and scratching your head in puzzlement - this article may be worth your time. Not that Tag and Ping is some magic marketing formula that will deliver untold riches. It won't.
It is just one more marketing tool professional online marketers are using to give their site or sites a competitive edge over their competition. It will help put your site on the Internet map and if done right, Tag and Ping will deliver plenty of very
targeted traffic to your sales pages. It will boost your rankings and increase your sales.
Tag and Ping is one of those simple, yet relatively unknown marketing techniques savvy Internet Marketers have been using and trying to keep quiet for years. To truly understand how Tag and Ping works, you will have to know some basic background information on keywords, blogging, tags, and how all these can work in sync to deliver traffic, links and sales to your site.
What are Blogs?
Most web users will know a blog is an online journal where bloggers post their daily or hourly entries (their opinions, views, info, links) on any subject that interests them. The most popular blogging systems are Blogger.com (owned by Google), Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves), LiveJournal, and many professional marketers use the free WordPress software which they can host on their own websites.
Each blog has its own RSS feed - RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication although its original acronym stood for Rich Site Summary. These RSS feeds broadcasts the information in the blog posts to all concerned parties - those who have subscribed and use an RSS reader or aggregator. Or more commonly, subscribers use the FireFox browser, Google Desktop, or MyYahoo to access their favorite RSS feeds. The next version of Windows will have RSS embedded into its operating system.
What are Tags?
Tags are really another name for keywords. Most surfers will know keywords are the exact words Internet users type into search engines to find what they're looking on the world wide web. Tags work in the same way and are a form of social bookmarking, a way of classifying and accessing all that content in all those countless blogs.
Many major blogging directories such as Technorati use tags to serve up the information to its patrons. One simple technique to create a tag in Technocrati:
<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Laptops" rel="tag">Laptops</a>
Or if your blogging software supports categories; this will be recognized by Technorati as a tag.
What The Heck Is A Ping?
A ping is a simple way to notify the different search engines to let them know that your blog has been updated. You call up or ping your blog post.
You bookmark or place an entry in any one of the countless blogging sites such as Technorati, Furl, del.icio.us, Blinklist, Flickr --- you go to these sites and click your blog or tag to inform them you have updated your blog. Many blogging systems will automatically ping your blog updates.
Or you can do this manually, for example Technorati's ping form is here http://www.technorati.com/ping
Simple Way to Ping
If this is still confusing to you, one simple way to ping your tags/blogs is to use a site like: http://pingomatic.com/ and it will automatically ping your blog in many of the most popular blogging services.
Enter The Online Professional Marketers and It All Hits the Fan
Of course, online marketers have long discovered that the whole blogging system - blogs, rss, tags, pinging - is an excellent marketing vehicle. One great marketing system delivering targeted traffic to their products and services.
It really is a corruption or commercialization of blogging and this surely wasn't the idea the original designers of blogs had in mind. But the whole blogging system is so lucrative, many professional marketers (the author is pleading the fifth!) are using blogging systems like WordPress to create mainly marketing sites that may have little resemblance to a real blog. It just uses the backbone structure of blogs, RSS, Tags to give their sites a slight competitive edge in a very competitive world.
As we saw with the 'comment spam' there is a great likelihood that Tag and Ping will be misused and further antagonize the blogging purists. So if you are going to use Tag and Ping make sure you're creating valuable, usable content - then most sites will want to link to your site anyway. Content is still king no matter what tricks the professional marketers want to use. Always will be!
Using a Simple Tag and Ping Marketing Technique With Technorati
To explain further the whole idea of Tag and Ping. Lets just walk through a marketing system you can quickly create using Technorati - one of the most popular blogging services.
First, sign your blog up with Technorati. This is quite a simple procedure. Just upload a photo, doesn't have to be of you - your site's logo will do. Register your profile with your 20 or so tags relating to your blog. Make sure these are keywords you're marketing with your blog. Then you have to place the Technorati code on your blog for a link back.
Next, you must understand that Technorati creates a landing page for each tag in their system. This page is made up of four parts:
* Flickr Photos
* Recent blog posts tagged with that keyword or phrase
* Who's Blogging About sidebar which links to any profiles of blogs that those same keywords or phrase in their profile
* Links from Furl for the same tag
So to take full advantage and to use this marketing technique you have to sign up with both Flickr and Furl. Your aim is to get your links in all four spots on this Technorati landing page for your tag or keyword.
When signing up for Flickr, many marketers use their site's name for their Flickr username - just use a dash instead of a dot in your site's url. You can use a photo of the product they're promoting to get a link from Flickr in the top spot on the Technorati landing page. Pick your tags and description for the product.
Set up a Furl account and download the Toolbar - bookmark a few sites to get the hang of how its done.
Now You're Really To Put Everything Together To Tag and Ping
1.) You can start with the Flickr photos at top of the Technorati page.
Just post a photo or cover image into your Flickr account, making sure you tag it and use a catchy headline in your description. Link it to your landing or affiliate page url.
<a href="http://www.marketingtoolguide.com">Don't buy another
marketing tool until your check out this site.</a>
2.) Next, make the first of your blog posts on your particular subject or product to your blog, making sure you tag it with your keywords and then ping Technorati. Make all your posts good content, reviews, product information or free downloads. Your entry will appear on the top of the list for that tag shortly in Technorati.
3.) Furl your blog post and your landing/affiliate page with your tags to make sure your entry/post is listed the bottom section of the Technorati page for your tag.
To work this system, add another blog post every few hours, Tag and Ping, plus Furl your posts. For better results you can sign up for countless other social bookmarking sites and bookmark your pages. Here are just a few good ones: del.icio.us, blinklist, moreover, icerocket, weblogs...
Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl
This is just one Tag and Ping method - professional marketers have countless systems and sites working many variations on this relatively new marketing technique. But the information given above should get you started on your own Tag and Ping marketing system.
Remember, blogging and RSS are the wave of the future, make sure you're geared up to take advantage of all they have to offer. You must have at least one blog on your site. Use WordPress if you can - Blogger will do in a pinch!
Just make sure you're using some Ping and Tag marketing techniques to harvest all those links, traffic and sales for your site. This is one marketing technique you should now be using. Just remember to Flickr, Blog, Tag, Ping, Furl - Rinse and Repeat!
About the author
The author operates numerous sites on the web, his first was a general Internet Marketing site http://www.bizwaremagic.com. And his latest site is Marketing Tool Guide where you can find all the latest helpful and effective marketing tools, including Free Internet Marketing manuals. Internet Marketing Tools can be found at: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com. Copyright © 2006 Titus Hoskins.
Labels: blogging, internet, seo
Experimenting with Windows Live
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
I'm not always a big fan of Windows software, but after reading a post on Digital Inspiration about Windows Live Writer, I thought I'd give it a go.
At the moment, I'm writing this from the comfort of my desktop, without having to be connected to the Internet. Setting up was easy - once downloaded, just enter your Blogger or other blogging details and Live Writer sorts it all out.
Different views allow you to see how your post will look before publishing, and you can save as many draft posts as you like. The interface seems simple enough, and for the technophiles you can see your HTML whilst the technophobes can stick to the 'What you see is what you get' interface.
Multiple blogs can be added, which is a bonus. The only drawback that I can see is that you can't schedule posts - a feature that is also currently missing in Blogger, but is in WordPress.
Further exploration shows that you can set up your services to be pinged when you've posted.
If anyone knows where to get plugins, which sound like a good idea, please let me know!
So you want a blog?
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
If you've decided to start a blog, there a loads of different options to choose from. For beginners, Blogger is probably a good start but if you are a more advanced user, it does have it's disadvantages.
For a comprehensive breakdown of different blogging packages, see http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm.
Labels: blogging
Which blogs do I regularly read?
Thursday, May 11, 2006
If you are looking for easy to understand information in the technology, software and Internet world, then look no further than Digital Inspiration.
For the more technically minded, who want to see the inner workings of Google (well, almost...) see Matt Cutt's blog. He's a senior engineer at Google and knows what he's talking about.
For PPC advertising news and advice, see JenSense.
Meanwhile, Ask Kalena provides plenty of useful advice for newcomers and the more experienced alike.
Other blogs of note - SEO Scoop, SEO Chat and SEOmoz.
Labels: blogging
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