Archive for October, 2009
BlogSpot’s Html Backup
Anyone having a blog hosted on Blogspot should in my opinion back up the html code of their site. The reason for this is that most bloggers on Blogspot do not actually have any copy of their blog on their PC. That is why If something would happen to the html code of their blog, they would lose all of the customized changes they made, including customized sidebar. It also might happen that a blogger might by accident modify the code in such a way that the blog will not be displayed correctly. Fortunately, Blogspot provides a way to restore your blog’s template, but at the cost of all of the changes you made to the blog. If you would restore your blog this way, you would lose a lot of data including all of the links, scripts, widgets etc. Anyway, here is how you can backup your html code:
-Log in to your blog account the regular way and go to Template.
-Next go to Edit HTML. This should display the HTML code. Select all of the code with ctrl+a and copy with ctrl+c.
-Paste it to your favorite text editor with ctrl+v and save the file.
If anything happens to the code of your blog, simply replace it with the backup copy that you copied to the text editor. I recommend that you take advantage out of it and tell others about it, because losing the template of a site can be one of the most unfortunate things that can happen to a webmaster.
Use Of Custom Fields In WordPress
Posted by Kent in Blogs, Internet, Technology on October 24th, 2009
Custom fields are a feature in WordPress that you can use to automate some things when creating a post. This allows you to add content at the end of your post without having to write it/include it manually each time. Here are examples what you can do with the help of custom fields:
Gravatars
Posted by Kent in Blogs, Internet, Technology on October 23rd, 2009
Since comments are considered to be beneficial to a blog, then not surprisingly people are looking for ways to encourage others to leave comments. One way to do it is to use Gravatars. Gravatars are simply avatars that are created for every person who leaves a comment on your blog. Since WordPress 2.5 Gravatars are integrated into the default installation, it eliminates the need for any plug-ins. Before WordPress 2.5 webmasters had to actually install a plug-in to take advantage out of this useful feature. If you are wondering why they are called Gravatars let me tell you that it is an abbreviation from Globally Recognized Avatars. What is nice about them, is that each Gravatar is rated with an MPAA-style age recommendation, which allows webmasters some control. So, for example, if you do not want on your site any gravatars that feature nudity, you will be able to specify it. On the other hand, you also have the freedom to allow such gravatars if for some reason you want them on your blog. I imagine that blogs which have visitors from all demographics will want to block those gravatars that are more controversial. An important thing that I did not mention yet is that using gravatars can be a lot of fun!
Being a Famous Blogger
Most bloggers work hard, and hope that one day they will become famous and will be able to influence even more people. Bloggers want to share their thoughts and words of advice. It is easy to understand why people strive to be popular bloggers, after all the joy of blogging comes from the fact that people read your blog. On the other hand, those who wish to be famous might not really understand that it might not always be worth it. While it might sound shocking what I said, we need to understand what it means to have thousands of visitors everyday. Here are a few things that are impartial from being a famous blogger:
Removing Dates from Posts
Do you want to remove dates from your posts? There are advantages and disadvantages of such decision. I have seen a few bloggers doing this, and this made me wonder what effects will such decision have on their blog.
Advantages include:
1. Your articles will not seem outdated. This is only th case of the content of your article will not get outdated easily.
2. Your article is more likely to be linked by others, as people in general like to link to something new, and your article might look like it is quite new, even though it is not.
3. You might get more comments as your articles will seem to be less outdated. Some bloggers do everything they can to have more comments.
Here are some potential disadvantages:
1. Most readers might actually prefer to know when an article was released. Why make it a secret? Some argue that the true motivation behind removing dates is that a blogger does not want his readers to know that he does not update his blog on a regular basis.
2. Not including dates does not change the order of articles. Those posted earlier might still seem to be outdated, even though there will be no date on them. That is why removing dates on posts might be quite pointless.
3. The whole idea of removing date is quite new, and might not be accepted well in the blogosphere. After all, hiding the article date is quite deceitful, and such a decision is usually not made to benefit visitors themselves. Bloggers should always put visitors first.
I think that the biggest disadvantage is that not displaying dates along with posts will make many posts no longer useful. This is especially true in case of news posts, or those posts that were describing a situation that is likely to change. This includes the topics of politics, technology, and the Internet among others.
Types of Online Scams
In my opinion, avoiding scams or having the ability to recognize them might be as important as being able to recognize legitimate opportunities. Scams will either just waste your time, or time and money. I will try to give a few examples:
-Programs that will not require any payment or deposit, but will never pay you for their work even if you reach the minimum payout.
-Programs that will not require any payment or deposit, but will not pay you because you did not reach the minimum payout. The scam here is that the minimum payout is so high, that taking into account the pace in which you earn money, it could take you a year or more to accumulate such an amount of money. During this year you might stop being interested in earning money online, the company can stop existing, or it can have financial problems and will never pay you. It requires some experience and knowledge to spot such scams.
-Programs which require a purchase of an “attractive” product, which is supposed to make you money. It may be a pyramid scheme or something else. Into this category I would also include websites that charge a membership fee before you make any money. It might be called a business start-up kit. What all of those programs and websites have in common is that you are not going to earn any money because of them, but rather waste your time and money.
What are your thoughts on different type of scams? Which are the most dangerous?
Characteristics of a Successful Blogger
I encourage everyone to start their own blog, as I think it is a good idea. In this article, however, I would like to present you with some characteristics that will help you be a successful blogger:
StumbleUpon and Digg
Services like StumbleUpon or Digg exist so that users can easily find the most valuable content. Basically, the articles that are the most useful are getting digged or stumbled by users. The most popular ones are usually worth checking out.
There is a website which pays $1 for Stumbling or Digging other people’s articles. Some say that this is not a legitimate way to make money, while others ignore it and stumble other people’s posts and articles. There are also others which pay $2 other to dig/stumble their website/articles. I would prefer not to mention the website, as I do not totally agree with what they are doing. Anyway, it seems they earn $1 from each stumble or dig which goes through their system. I am not going to comment on whether it is an ethical thing to do, as I am going to leave it to the rest of the blogosphere. However, I wonder what impact it might have on sites like StumbleUpon. After all, sites like that are huge and it will be hard to have your articles rated very well, if they will not be interesting. That is why I do not think it that it will completely ruin Digg or StumbleUpon, but it might help those webmasters that are just starting out. In any case, I think it is a great idea to visit StumbleUpon and Digg from time to time, as they have a lot of useful content.
Nigerian Confidence Trick
Do you want to be rich? Most of us want to be rich, but even if we are rich according to the world’s standards, we still want more and more money. Many people are aware of this human nature, and some of them would do anything to cheat other people out of their money. This is basically how the Nigerian confidence trick scams emerged. Nigerian confidence trick is sometimes also called an advance fee fraud. Such scams are based on the fact that the target is persuaded to advance relatively small sums of money in the hope of realizing a much larger gain. There are even some movies which plot revolves around the Nigerian confidence trick. A good example would be the Hustle TV series where in various episodes greedy people are often tricked into investing small amount of money in hopes of realizing a much larger gain. Of course, anyone can be scammed this way, and this involves many innocent people. Do not be fooled by such scams, as it is easy to lose your hard earned money. Remember that there are a lot of scammers on the Internet, and you should be careful with whom you are doing business.
Comments and Your Blog
In the opinion of many bloggers comments are very valuable. While not every blog has to attract comments, it is generally beneficial for a blog to have a lot of them. Here are some ideas how to attract readers to leave comments:
1. In my opinion, the most important thing is to remove the “nofollow” attribute, which is by default automatically attached to your comments. Most blogs have the “nofollow” attribute attached to comments and trackbacks, which in practical terms means that search engines are told to ignore the links in your visitor comments. What a “dofollow” plugin does is that it removes the tag=”nofollow” in all the links that are left in the comments section. If this is done, search engines will not be told anymore to ignore the links because the “nofollow” tag will not be there. All of your commentators will benefit from it by having an increased Page Rank. That will be possible, because each comment they leave will help them to improve it by receiving a reciprocating link back to their site. I know many bloggers are using the Dofollow Semiologic plugin, which is compatible with the latest WordPress release.
2. If you indeed removed the “nofollow” attribute let your visitors know by uploading a “U Comment I Follow” or “Do Follow” images to your sidebar. You can find some of them by searching using Google.