Recently, The Blog Tyrant did a guest post here on Daily Blog Tips titled Why I Will Never Use AdSense On A Blog Again. He explained how using AdSense can cause you to lose readers.

Daniel commented on the post saying:

AdSense is still a very efficient method on some niches/types of sites, so I wouldn’t exclude it forehand or forever.

I agree with Daniel here. While AdSense is not a a good choice for some blogs, it can be extremely useful for most of the blogs out there. In fact, it is the main revenue source for 45% of DBT readers.

In this post, I will discuss how AdSense can be best revenue source for blogs.

Why AdSense Is Better

1. Less Time: Implementing AdSense on a blog does not take more than 5 minutes. You need to paste the code into the sidebar widget or an appropriate plugin and Google will handle the rest. Affiliate Marketing, in contrast, can take several hours per post and Email Marketing requires extra effort.
2. Low Traffic Requirements: AdSense does not need loads of traffic. Small amount of traffic(around 5K visitors per month) can easily make you $10-20 per month. Affiliate Marketing and most of other monetization methods, however, need much more traffic.
3. No Buying Involved: Other monetization methods require people to buy products. Now, chances of someone clicking an ad are much higher than buying a product because he is not spending money. This makes generating revenue easier as opposed to methods requiring sales.
4. Targeted And “Safe” Ads: AdSense is better than other ad networks because the ads are targeted according to content and reader and there are almost no “unsafe” ads like other networks.

How To Maximize AdSense Revenue Without Losing Readers

One great point that The Blog tyrant made was that you lose readers because of AdSense. He said:

I was losing money. Each Adsense click of between 10 cents and $5 represented a loss to my blog.

That is one thing to consider when using AdSense. Most of the visitors who click ads do not come back and you lose them. But this does not mean that you should go and remove all the ads from your blog.

The key is to target right people.

Let’s take a break from all these stuff. Can you please do one small thing for me?

Follow following steps:

1. Open a new tab.
2. Open Google Analytics or the tracking software you use.
3. Go to “Search Engines” under traffic sources.
4. Compare the bounce rate with other traffic sources.

Search Engine visitors have higher bounce rate, right?

This is because search engine visitors come for quick info and leave as soon as they find it. No subscriptions, no purchases!

Just remember the forum you visited when you needed tech help last time. Did you visit it again?

No?

The same goes with majority of search engine visitors when they visit your blog.

All this exercise was just to show that you can show AdSense to search engine visitors.

Search Engine visitors also tend to click ads more often(how do you think Google makes so much with ads in search results?) than regular readers.

Now, they are not subscribing and are bouncing anyway, what is the use of trying to retain them?

It is a win win strategy to shows ads to search engine visitors.

Another good strategy is to show Adsense on older posts. Most of the regular readers check newer posts only and showing ads on older posts won’t hurt. In fact, Daniel himself shows ads on older posts.

You can use following WordPress Plugins to show AdSense ads only to search engine/old traffic:

1. Who Sees Ads: Who Sees Ads is the most powerful advertising plugin for WordPress. It lets you choose variety of conditions about when to display. And interface is simple drag and drop. Just give a name to ad block, drag rules, paste code and then add the template tag to your theme. The only drawback is that it does not automatically add ads inside content. But with all the features offered, you can’t complain!
2. Ads For Old Posts: Ads For Old Posts is a simple plugin that will let you display ads only on posts older than x days. Just paste the code, choose alignment and you are done.

I have used both plugins and they are very good and work well with WordPress 3.0.2(latest version as of writing this post).

Using the above methods, you can get best of both worlds. You can generate good revenue and at the same time, get readers.

Over To You

1. How has AdSense worked for you?
2. Have you considered displaying ads to search engine visitors only?
3. Do you have any other advice for fellow bloggers using AdSense?

The post How AdSense Can Be Best Revenue Source For Blogs appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Yesterday I was listening to a talk show in the radio, and one guy was talking about Facebook Messages, their new email/messaging system. At one point the show host said something like this:

Let’s hope this new system will solve the spam problem. I believe that over 90% of the email messages people receive right now are spam, right?

And the “tech expert” went like this:

Oh yeah spam is a big problem, and yes filtering through all the spam we receive is one of the biggest challenges right now.

When I heard that I thought to myself: “You gotta be kidding!”.

I agree with the person with the fact that 90% of the email messages flowing around are spam, but filtering them is not a challenge anymore, as Gmail and other clients solved it years ago.

I am not sure about you, but I get almost zero spam on my inbox. If I was to count I guess it would come to 3 or 4 spam messages making it to my inbox every month, which I consider to be a negligible problem (especially because I receive around 3,000 emails per month, so the percentage of spam messages over the total would be 0.1%).

And I don’t use any fancy tactics or software (e.g., spamarrest). I just use a Gmail account, and sometimes I even use my email around the web (e.g., to sign-up for online services, newsletters and the like).

So I don’t get why people complain so much about spam. As long as you use Gmail or another decent client your inbox should be pretty clean. But hey, that is my opinion, and want to hear from you guys. That is why I created a poll, and you can also leave a comment below to expand your thoughts.

Remark: Keep in mind that the definition of spam is an unsolicited message. If you receive messages from services and newsletters you subscribed to (e.g., YouTube, an online store or the marketer who wanted your email address to show you a video), that is not spam. Sure those messages can be equally annoying, but they are not spam technically, so please don’t consider those when answering the poll.

The post Poll: Do You Have Email Spam Problems? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Commenting on other blogs, specially those that are on the same niche, is a very efficient method to promote your site and receive new visitors. Some bloggers, however, are used to leave their blog names on the NAME field of comment forms, arguably losing some credibility.

I confess that when I started blogging I used to do that as well, after all I thought that no one would be interested in clicking on “Daniel” while if I left the name of my blog more people would be tempted to click on it.

The problem with that logic is that many readers might think that you are just spamming the comment section. Some of them will certainly click the comment with the blog name, but overall it might hurt your reputation.

Secondly the whole blog phenomenon exploded because it enabled people to establish relationships and to interact with other bloggers. Comments are trackbacks are supposed to generate conversations, and conversations must be personal if they are to be valuable.

Bear in mind that there are some exceptions for that rule. If your blog is named after yourself (e.g. ajaydsouza.com) or if you are speaking on behalf of a blog entity you could possibly leave the blog name and not your personal name. Also, if you really want to leave your blog name consider placing it under brackets after your personal name.

The post Avoid leaving your blog name on comments appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I am glad to finally release the “Make Money Blogging” ebook. I started writing it around two months ago, and the content is completely unique. Some of the concepts had been covered in this blog before, but it is the first time that I have put them together in a structured and logical way. I am sure you guys will get some valuable information from it.

My Story with Blogs

I created my first blog back in 2005, when I was 21 and about to graduate. Initially it was just a hobby, a place where I would share my ideas online. After some months, however, the traffic started picking up, and I realized that the Internet had a huge potential.

In 2006 I started trying to make money with the blog. During the first month experimenting with ads I made $15 or so. Not much, but definitely enough to get me excited. After all I was just working an hour or so per day on the blog. That same year I quit my job and started working full time on the Internet.

I launched several other blogs along the way (including this one, DailyWritingTips.com, DailyBits.com, TechCult.com and some smaller ones), and today I am already making six figures annually. All that money can be traced back to my blogs. Some of it directly, via advertising and affiliate marketing deals, and some indirectly, via online projects that were launched thanks to the blogs.

The “Make Money Blogging” eBook

In this eBook I am sharing the core principles that I learned along these years and that you need to keep in mind if you want to make money blogging. There are 54 pages, divided in 5 main chapters: Content, Design & Usability, Networking, Promotion and Monetization. Here are some of the stuff covered:

• The three mistakes that bloggers make when choosing a niche.
• The three characteristics of good content.
• Why your content strategy should have one cornerstone.
• The two factors that create magnetic headlines (and how to apply them).
• A deadly mistake that bloggers make when designing their blogs.
• Practical tips that you can use to network efficiently.
• A promotional strategy that most people forget to use.
• The two requirements for making money with Google AdSense.
• The best trick available to make money with CPM deals.

Sign-up to My Newsletter and Get Immediate Access

After signing-up to my email newsletter you’ll immediately be able to download your copy of the ebook. On top of that you’ll also receive my exclusive tips and tricks to optimize your blog (stuff that is not published anywhere else), insider’s information about my upcoming projects and so on. The newsletter is completely free and you can unsubscribe anytime as well.

Testimonials

Here is what people who downloaded the ebook said about it:

A must read. Simply beats all the other readings on the same topic. (ACZafra.com)

I am a fan of Daniel’s simple way of writing. He is among the few who make it possible to understand what he is trying to say. (88blogger.com)

Not only is the ebook free, but it’s from someone who’s been making a good amount of money from blogging as well. (ZacJohnson.com)

In his book Daniel is very real and direct with what is required to be successful at making money with a blog. (Frusketing.com)

Over the past year I have probably read over 100 eBooks teaching you how to make money online, but Daniel Scocco’s latest eBook has got to be one of the best so far. (RajaieTalks.com)

Much like his newsletter, the ebook doesn’t contain any fluff. You get the meat directly, so it is time saving and valuable. (TechnoTip.org)

Daniel provides simple yet effective techniques on how to start, grow, monetize and leverage your blog to become an authority in your niche. (IgorHelpsYouSucceed.com)

If you are thinking of starting your own blog or have just started it, I would recommend that you download and read the free eBook. (ZParacha.com)

This eBook is the best guide for the bloggers, because Daniel covered all the topics that are required in your blogging journey. (Technogati.com)

The post Make Money Blogging Free eBook appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever heard the saying “never change a winning team”? What about “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? The concept is pretty much the same, and it applies to many fields and endeavors. A couple of months ago I found it also applies to SEO….

I had a mini website that was receiving a lot of traffic from search engines. When I dug into analytics to analyze the numbers I found that one single page was attracting the bulk of the traffic, as it was ranking in the third position of Google for a popular search term.

I figured that people visiting other pages of that site would be interested in that page too, so I created a section below each page with related links. The goal was to improve the navigation and increase the page views per visitor ratio within the site, and not to increase my search rankings. In fact I didn’t use optimized anchor texts or anything to artificially inflate my rankings.

Yet a couple of weeks later that page moved from the third position to the third page in the search results for the same search term…. and it stayed there ever since.

Could it have been a coincidence? Sure. But there is a chance that the changes I applied to the internal linking structure of the site triggered some red flag with Google, despite being legitimate changes.

I also heard many stories from website owners who re-designed their websites, moving links and sections around, and then found that their rankings had vanished overnight.

Obviously this is not a rule carved in stone. Many times similar tweaks could have a positive effect on search rankings and traffic. The point I wanted to make is that you should perform structural changes on your websites with care, especially if there is a big risk involved (e.g., if you already get a lot of organic traffic).

The post If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It, Especially In SEO! appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

A landing page is basically a point of entrance to your website (don’t forget to make it fast!). It is where visitors will “land.” As you can guess, the landing page is very important, as if you fail to engage those new visitors you might lose them forever. If you have an efficient landing page, on the other hand, you will capture the interest of those visitors and possibly turn them into loyal visitors, subscribers or customers.

A website can have several landing pages. For instance, it can create one landing page for each marketing campaign it runs. For most websites, however, the homepage is usually the most important landing page, as that is where most of the visitors end up.

Sometimes it’s easier to show things than to explain them, so below you’ll find 5 examples of websites that have a great landing page structure on their homepage.

Slack

Slack’s landing page is not just well-designed but also engaging. It provides a clear explanation of what the product is and its benefits. The use of animation and illustrations makes it visually appealing, and it’s packed with different CTAs to suit various user needs, from learning more to immediately starting with the product.

FreshBooks

In my opinion Freshbooks does an even better job at focusing the landing page on converting the first time visitor into a potential customer: instead of displaying just a button, it displays the whole signup form right there. The visitor just needs to put his name, email address and click on the ‘Try it Free for 30 Days’ button.

Motors.co.uk

This British website helps people find used and new cars. To serve this purpose it brings on top of the homepage a search form you can use to nail down the model you are looking for. In fact it presents two search forms, the ‘Find it Fast’ for those who are in a hurry, and ‘Smart Search’ for those who want to be more specific.

Dropbox

Dropbox’s landing page is a fantastic example of simplicity and clarity. The clear messaging, clean design, and straightforward CTA make it easy for visitors to understand what Dropbox is for and how to get started.

CrazyEgg.com

This is a good example of a minimalist yet efficient landing page.  They provides heat map technology to help website owners track user behavior. The landing page design is clean and straightforward, with clear messaging and a compelling call to action. The visitor is presented with two things: a form to input his website URL, and a list of companies already using the service. In other words, you pretty much don’t have an option other than to start testing the service. Quite clever.

Here is a table summary. Each category (Design, User Experience, Clarity of Message, Call-to-Action Effectiveness) was scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best possible score. Here’s what each category represents:

1. Design: This factor takes into account the overall aesthetic of the landing page, including the layout, color scheme, typography, imagery, and any other visual elements. A score of 5 indicates an exceptionally well-designed, visually appealing landing page.

2. User Experience: This factor assesses the ease of navigation and user-friendliness of the landing page. A high score indicates that the landing page is intuitive and easy to navigate, without any confusing or frustrating elements that might prevent a user from understanding how to interact with the page.

3. Clarity of Message: This score evaluates how clearly the purpose and value of the product or service is communicated on the landing page. A landing page with a clear, concise, and compelling message about the value of the product or service would score highly in this category.

4. Call-to-Action Effectiveness: This factor assesses the visibility, clarity, and persuasiveness of the call to action (CTA) on the landing page. A high score suggests that the CTA is highly visible, compelling, and effectively encourages the user to take the desired action.

The post 5 Websites with Great Landing Pages appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Daniel’s note: This is a guest post by Nathan Rice. My personal opinions are slightly different from his when it comes to Twitter followers vs. RSS subscribers (because I think the latter are more important for a blogger or web publisher), but I am always open to different perspectives and points of view. I am also curious to know which one you guys value more, so make sure to drop a comment after you read the article.

You may be aware that Twitter is the newest phenomenon in the blogoshpere. Big name bloggers have been jumping on the Twitter bandwagon for months, and many have effectively leveraged the micro-blogging service to increase readership, while at the same time using it to develop new relationships. The great thing about Twitter is that is helps you develop that two-way relationship that RSS lacks.

Having that Feedburner chicklet increase by a few hundred readers definitely feels good. The more subscribers you have, the more influence you have as a blogger. But I would assert that a new Twitter follower is far more valuable than a new RSS subscriber. Here’s why:

1. Twitter followers see your broadcasts

Although some people will tell you that using Twitter as a broadcasting service is wrong, but I disagree. Many people PREFER their friends let them know of a new blog post via Twitter. I may not always have my feed reader open, but I keep Twitterific in the corner of my monitor all day. When someone announces a new blog post on Twitter, I will very often click and read it.

2. Twitter followers can become your friends

The thing that Twitter offers that an RSS reader can’t is the ability to respond. Sure, there is always the comment section, but you’re far more likely to get a response from a blog author on Twitter than in their comments. Twitter is conversational, and thus Twitter users like to use the tool to converse.

3. Twitter friends can become your fans

Friendship means trust, and people who trust you are far more likely to become fans. Ultimately, fans are what you want.

The way a blogger gets to be influential, and thus make money, is by figuring out a way to get people to use their influence (no matter how small) to promote you. People who like you enough to do this are valuable, and Twitter is the perfect tool to cultivate these fans.

4. Twitter followers are usually testing you

I give my blog readers three options when they visit my blog.

1. Subscribe to my RSS feed
2. Subscribe via Email
3. Follow me on Twitter

The reason I added that third option is because I suspected many people were coming to my blog, enjoying my content, but couldn’t justify adding another blog to their list of daily reads. For these people, I needed to give them an option that let them gradually get to know me. If they enjoyed conversing with me, or reading my tweets, then they are likely to click a “New Blog Post” broadcast when I tweet them, as well.

And since I use Woopra Analytics, I am able to watch the instant results of tweeting a new blog post to these followers. It’s amazing to see the “Live” number shoot up instantaneously.

5. Twitter followers can become RSS subscribers too

During the time since I added the third “Follow me on Twitter” option, I’ve seen my RSS subscriber numbers almost double. I certainly can’t give credit to Twitter for all of them (I worked my tail off in October to increase subscribers), I can say that I do believe Twitter helped tremendously as a part of my overall subscription and traffic increase strategy.

In the cases where Twitter followers and RSS subscribers overlap, consider yourself lucky. You’ve just made a new friend, and a new subscriber.
–
Nathan Rice (@nathanrice on twitter) is a front-end web developer for iThemes.com, and blogs about everything WordPress at his blog, NathanRice.net. He is also the founder of ElevateThemes.com where he releases premium-quality WordPress themes for free under the GPL.

The post Twitter Followers vs. RSS Subscribers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

The dictum that two heads are better than one can apply to many things, including blogging.

I collaborate with my brother on five websites, which makes me uniquely qualified to explain the benefits of online collaboration.

Here are 5 reasons collaborating with a partner can help you beat out the competition.

1. More variety in your writing. Single-authored blogs with the exception of guest posts will always be based on the standpoint of one author. Having a partner that writes posts with you ensures that your blog will always be filled with variety and fresh ideas.

2. Proof each other’s posts. Spelling and grammar mistakes occur in even the most popular blogs. Having a partner ensures you always have someone to proof your writing. Your partner can also let you know when your writing isn’t clear and flowing as well as it should be.

3. Make a good product amazing. If I show my partner a “final product”, he can take a look and give me a few additional ideas and tweaks that can make what I’ve written even more powerful. This process has helped my brother and I make humor pieces go from funny to downright hilarious (at least to us).

4. Combine your skill set to create new websites that kick-ass. The most recent site I’ve launched with my brother is a funny online comic called the Spicy Tornado. I draw the comics and my brother colors them in. By sharing the duty of creating each comic neither of us becomes overwhelmed by it. Combining our unique skill set in the creation of each comic makes for a finished product of the highest quality.

5. Significantly increase your capacity to promote. Without promotion your site won’t go anywhere no matter how quality it is. By doubling your capacity to promote your chances of gaining momentum multiply. For example, your partner can maintain your site while you do a guest post campaign. Also, you now have two twitter accounts instead of just one and double the connections with people who can link to you and promote you.

The down side of collaborating with online ventures

The two greatest downsides are that you must split profits and find someone you can trust completely.

It goes without question that collaborating is not for everyone and involves risks.

I’d argue, however, that considering the sheer competition out there, the upside of collaborating with a partner with online ventures overwhelms the downside.

What’s your take on collaborating with online ventures?

The post 5 Reasons Online Collaborations Can Help You Beat Out The Competition appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

There is one WordPress feature that was introduced that always made me curious: the image alignment feature of the “Add media” editor. Why? Because it never worked!

I knew that I was probably doing something wrong, but since I didn’t have time to find it out, I just kept choosing “none” as the alignment, and then I would manually insert the right, left or center alignment attribute on the image tag.

Then last week when I was submitting one of my themes for the WordPress Themes Directory I got a message saying that WordPress themes were required to have the following code on their stylesheet:

img.centered {
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}

img.alignright {
padding: 4px;
margin: 0 0 2px 7px;
display: inline;
}

img.alignleft {
padding: 4px;
margin: 0 7px 2px 0;
display: inline;
}

.alignright {
float: right;
}

.alignleft {
float: left;
}
Duh! That is why the alignment feature was not working on my blogs, I never added that code! Now if you faced this problem in the past, now you know how to solve it.

The post Now I See Why the WordPress Image Align Feature Was Not Working appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever considered joining a blog network? Well, then you will probably like this edition of the Bloggers Face-Off. Those bloggers created two of the biggest blog networks on the Internet.

Jeremy Wright is the founder of b5media, a very successful network that includes some flagship blogs like Problogger.net and Copyblogger. Nandini Maheshwari, on the other hand, is the mind behind the Instablogs community, a blog network that is growing very fast. Enjoy!

	Jeremy Wright	Nandini Maheshwari
1. How long have you been blogging?	4 glorious, heartbreaking, wonderful, fun-filled, tear-jerking years 😉	1.5 years
2. How many blogs does your network have?	We’re at about 200 now, give or take	133 blogs and growing
3. What is the main advantage of joining a blog network?	It takes most of the stress of blogging away (design issues, software updates, finding advertisers, etc)	Great community, traffic, exposure, higher revenue potential, and technical expertise
4. How much money does the average blogger on the network make?	With our new pay system, most of our bloggers will earn 150-250$/month doing 4-5 hours work a week	Instablogs, being a large community, it varies a lot from person to person
5. What is your favorite social bookmarking site?	To be honest, I don’t use any social bookmarking sites	Stumble Upon
6. What is the main revenue source for the network?	Banner advertising through premier partners, without question	Private Ad sales
7. Do you think AdSense units make a blog look unprofessional?	It depends. But even the “most professional” AdSense unit will rarely pay as a low-end inventory banner (50c-1$)	Yes, if you overdo them
8. Does the network invest money into promotion?	We invest back into our bloggers. We have 2 people full time (Shai and Darren) training other bloggers	So far, we have not spent any money but in coming days, we are planning few ad campaigns for our upcoming community features
9. How many RSS feeds do you read daily?	Probably 40-50. But I spend a lot of time on TechMeme	200+
10. If you could give one advice for a novice blogger, what would it be?	Find your passion and never lose it. No matter what anyone says, if you’re having fun and expressing yourself, that’s what matters	Go read Problogger.net. However seriously, best advice would be to have patience, be consistent, and network with fellow bloggers in early days
11. If you could read only one blog, which one would you pick?	No question, it’s Savage Chickens	My own (http://www.bornrich.org)
12. What is the secret of your success, expressed in one word?	Community	Passion

The post Bloggers Face-Off: Jeremy Wright vs. Nandini Maheshwari appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Using punctuation correctly is important regardless of your occupation. If you are a blogger that is even more important; most readers consider the quality of writing determinant for the success of a blog.

The wikiHow website has an comprehensive article titled “How to Use English Punctuation Correctly” outlining the basics of punctuation usage. Below you will find a summary of the article.

1. The colon (:) is used to introduce lists and it appears after nouns.

Example: The Easter basket contained three things: an egg, a chocolate rabbit, and a candy.

Incorrect example: The Easter basket contained: an egg, a chocolate rabbit, and a candy.

2. The semicolon (;) is used to separate two related but independent clauses.

Example: People continue to worry about the future; our failure to conserve resources has put the world at risk.

3. The hyphen (-) is used when adding a prefix to words, when creating compound words or when writing numbers as words.

Example: Laura is his ex-girlfriend.

Example: There are fifty-two playing cards in a deck.

4. The dash (–) is used to make a brief interruption on a sentence, an additional statement or a dramatic qualification.

Example: An introductory clause is a brief phrase that comes–yes, you guessed it–at the beginning of a sentence.

5. The parentheses (()) is used to clarify or to add a personal statement. Its usage is similar to the dash, but it denotes a stronger “side notion”.

Example: Steve Case (AOL’s former CEO) resigned from the Time-Warner board of directors in 2005.

6. The double quotation mark (“) is used to enclose direct quotations from a person or from another text. Notice that commas or periods go inside the quotation marks.

Example: “I can’t wait to see him perform!” John exclaimed.

7. The single quotation mark (‘) is used to indicate possession, to contract verbs and to denote a quotation within a quotation.

Example: Ali said, “Anna told me, ‘I wasn’t sure if you wanted to come!'”

8. The comma (,) is used to indicate a break or pause within a sentence, to denote a series or to separate adjectives.

Example: The powerful, resonating sound caught our attention.

The post How to Use Punctuation Correctly appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I have always been a fan of Darren Rowse’s group writing projects (I was very lucky to be among the winners of the last edition, in fact). The only problem I have ever encountered there is that some of the participants are exclusively interested in getting a backlink from Problogger. They do not interact with the other people or link to posts from other blogs.

In order to solve this problem I will try to create a monthly Blog Project here at Daily Blog Tips with two simple rules:

1. Send me your tip about the current topic (the first one will be “Traffic Generation Tips”). You can use the contact form or post a comment below.

2. After I publish the list of participants and their tips you write a post with a link to everyone that participated in the project.

The aim of this project is to share useful tips, spread the link love and give everyone the possibility to discover new blogs. If 10 people participate you will receive 10 tips, link to 10 people and get 10 backlinks in exchange (sounds good, right?).

As I mentioned before the first topic is “Traffic Generation Tips”, so share what has worked to increase your traffic over the past. You can send your tips until Sunday, February 3rd.

The post Blog Project: Traffic Generation Tips appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you are a blogger, website owner or online worker, you probably need to contact people via email all the time. On some occasions you will also be the one starting the conversation and looking for a reply. For example, you might want to offer a guest article for a particular blog, or you might want to propose a business partnership to someone. Unless you craft your email messages smartly, though, there are good chances that the other person won’t even read them. Spam filters are the first obstacle, but even if your message goes though the other person might just delete it.

The subject line is probably the most important part of your message, and in this post I wanted to cover six mistakes that I see people making:

1. Creating one word subject lines

Have you ever received an email with the subject line “Hi”? If you have, you know how annoying it is. One word subject lines are terrible because they fail to communicate what the email is about, where it is coming from and the like (more on that later). Additionally, they might also reveal laziness or carelessness from the sender’s part, which might lead the receiver to ignore the email.

2. Making requests

People want to receive, not to give. If your subject line makes a request right away, the receiver will be less likely to open it. Examples include link exchange requests, voting requests and so on. A better approach to get the conversation going is to start by offering something.

3. Using spammy keywords

Using spammy keywords in your subject line is a no-no. Even if you get lucky and the spam filter does not block your message, there are good chances that the receiver will tag your message as spam as soon as he reads the subject line. Here is a short list of words to give you an idea of what should be avoided:

• free
• money
• win
• degree
• gift
• deal
• sign-up
• survey

4. Begging for attention

Using “Please Read This” as your subject line will not help convincing the receiver to open your email. Quite the opposite. The same is true for using words like “urgent,” “important” and similar.

5. Making it sound too good to be true

Real business or joint venture opportunities usually come from people you already have a relationship with. If you are going to email someone for the first time, therefore, avoiding using these terms, else you might be seen as a scammer.

6. Making it look like an automated message

If your subject like looks like an automated message from a website or online service, well, people will assume it indeed is. Just take a look at the automated messages you receive and avoid crafting your subject lines in the same fashion. One example is the “Invitation to…” subject line. Usually those come from social networks, and people tend to ignore them.

By now you might be asking yourself: “OK I understand the mistakes I need to avoid, but how should I craft a good subject line then?” In my opinion a good email subject line should have two elements: a relevancy hook (i.e., a keyword that will assure the receiver that the email message is indeed for him, like his name or the name of his website) and a brief description of the content of the email (because even if the receiver knows your message is a legitimate one, he might not read it immediately or at all unless he knows what it is about).

The post 6 Mistakes to Avoid on Email Subject Lines appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Creating backups of your blog is like drinking water. You know you should do it at regular intervals, but often times other activities get in the middle and you just forget about it.

The possible consequences of not backing up your blog, however, are much more serious than missing the middle-morning water glass. Should your server crash for some reason, or your websibe get hacked, you will lose valuable data.

Personally, I try to backup all my websites weekly (but I am lazy, so if you have time you can even do it daily!). Below you will find a quick checklist for backing up your blog.

1. Use an FTP client to download all the site files (the WordPress folder)
2. Log into phpMyAdmin and select your WordPress database
3. Click on “Export” and make sure that all the WordPress tables are there
4. On the “Structure” section tick “Add Drop Tables,” “Add AUTO_INCREMENT,” and “Enclose table and field names with backquotes”
5. On the “Data” section leave all the boxes unticked
6. Tick “Save as file” and download the database (you can use compression if your database is big)

If you don’t have access to phpMyAdmin, you can use the WordPress Database Backup plugin.

The post Backup Your Blog Regularly appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Bloggers and website owners are always looking to get advertisers and sponsors on board. Selling your ads directly, in fact, is one of the most profitable monetization strategies.

How to do that efficiently, though?

Instead of answering it ourselves, we decided to ask the CEOs and marketing managers of some online companies. Who better than the people actually spending the money to give us advice on that topic, after all?

Here is the a list of the participants:

• Patrick Gavin from Text Link Ads (Ad Network)
• Dmitry Buterin from Wild Apricot (Social Software)
• Fraser Kelton from AdaptiveBlue (Widgets and Software)
• Cory Miller from iThemes (Premium Themes)
• Zac Johnson from ZacJohnson.com (Affiliate Marketing)

1. How much does your company spend monthly in online advertising? How is that number changing over the time?

Patrick: Sorry I can’t put an exact figure for you but safe to say tens of thousands of dollars. It has stayed relatively stable over time as we try to just buy in places where it converts well and use a portion of the budget to rotate in and out new test sites.

Dmitry: Sorry, can not disclose. Quite a bit.

Fraser: Anywhere from $0 – $2,000. It fluctuates on a month-to-month basis as we experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

Niz: Our company spends around $2500 monthly in online advertising. This keeps on changing with time, depending upon the number of clients and work we are able to pull off. If we are overwhelmed with work, we usually drop on the costs of our PPC campaigns.

Cory: iThemes spends less than $2000 a month currently. That number will depend on how well we develop a community and client base.

Frank: I can’t give you the number but it does vary over time. We are always testing out new advertising methods. Starting up new ones and closing off ones that no longer perform.

Zac: While most projects are on auto-pilot with search and viral marketing, ad costs can vary monthly form $500-$10,000 a month depending on what I’m focusing on.

David: Our company spends around $1,000 a month in advertising costs, because we focus most of our efforts on word of mouth.

2. How is that amount divided into PPC, direct banners, single event sponsorships and other formats?

Patrick: Roughly 50% PPC and 50% banners.

Dmitry: PPC — 50%. Direct banners — the rest.

Fraser: It’s split between PPC and 125×125 banners. We’re exploring a few sponsorship ideas.

Niz: Around $1000-$1500 are direct banners on popular websites/blogs, and the remaining is PPC. We also sometimes take few sponsored reviews now and then.

Cory: Right now, it’s just direct banners. We’ll be starting PPC soon.

Frank: We do some PPC and mostly banners/sponsorship. PPC in the web hosting world is very competitive.

Zac: I prefer to promote web sites and direct campaigns through PPC, while setting up banners, articles and contest sponsorships for blogs.

David: We spend very little in PPC and direct banners, but we really like blog contests. If I had to put some numbers, I’d say 20% PPC, 10% banners, and 70% word of mouth such as blog contest sponsorships.

3. Do you mind getting approached directly by site owners? If yes why? If no, what information should be included to capture your attention?

Patrick: I definitely don’t mind. The biggest issue is at times the opportunities that come direct in general are of the small nature which can be difficult to manage many such deals direct at once.

Dmitry: No. Ability to test-drive the offering. The number of visitors/hits etc. is pretty meaningless per se — it’s a question of a match with audience. If I can do a 1 or 2 weeks test drive and see my clicks and sign-ups then I can know what it is worth to me.

Fraser: It depends on the format of the email. If the email from the site owner is clearly a template then it’s rarely well received. I’m okay receiving direct email if the blogger has spent a few moments to tailor the email towards our company and needs. Share as much information/stats as possible in the original email: traffic, price, options, etc. as well as why the audience of the site makes sense for our product/service.

Niz: No, we don’t mind anyone contacting us directly. You should explain to us, how you can help us in popularizing our name, so that people start talking about us. Tell us why the price you are charging is worth our money. And, even better if there is a special offer, like free for the first month or a couple of weeks or something like that.

Cory: Yes and no. No, I don’t mind if the site has good deals compared with traffic and target audience. But yes, I mind it when it’s obvious they’ve seen an ad on another competing site and email to solicit with nothing really to offer. I have noticed though that because we’ve advertised on a number of blogs, we’re getting more advertising “calls” now.

Frank: We don’t mind getting contact at all as long as the content is relevant.

Zac: When being contacted by a web site, trying to pursued me to by advertising on their site, it should never be a copy/paste email that’s sent to many other blogs and should also offer a discount or special deal, as its an un-requested offer. I much prefer to advertise with site owners I currently already know or blogs I’m already a reader of.

David: Not at all. We, and our clients, are always looking for unique advertising opportunities that aren’t publicly displayed. Clear information on terms, like pricing and length, and readership numbers would capture my attention, especially if its a good value or could have a very positive return on investment.

4. How important is the design of a blog to an advertiser? What aspects are good and which turn you down?

Patrick: I think it is very important to portray a professional design as it gives the advertiser confidence in the quality of the property. Another important factor is where on the page the ads will appear.

Dmitry: Not very important, as long as it works for readers.

Fraser: Somewhat important, but not critical. If the design obscures the ad units then obviously it’s a negative thing. We’ve experienced some of our best results from poorly designed sites because the audience of the site was targeted for our product.

Niz: As an advertiser, we must be able to get a lot of click-throughs and exposure to our ads. If the publisher uses something like “Recommendations” instead of “Sponsors”, that is an extra positive point for us. The blog should be neat (and not messy). Also, your blog shouldn’t compromise on your actual readers’ experience, as only then it can reach a large number of people, which was the first reason we thought of advertising on your blog. There are a lot of paid premium wordpress themes available in the market which are ideal for the purpose.

Cory: Very important. If the ad is buried behind the design, then it’s not an attractive offer. As a publisher, you have to offer value to your advertisers, or they won’t continue advertising. For us, that translates into exposure and clicks. In the first five seconds I’m on a site I can tell if an ad on that site offers us value — in exposure and clicks.

Frank: The blog design is really not important to us. Content that is relative to hosting is much more important.

Zac: I would not want to advertise on a blog where the advertisements are lost or hidden. Ultimately though, it comes down to the blog user quality.

David: For us, design is particularly important. We liked to be associated with websites and brands that care about their image as well. A custom designed website and logo are a big plus and one major negative is excessively flashy advertisements.

5. What other factors do you look for when selecting the websites where you will buy advertising?

Patrick: Where the ads will appear. How many other advertisers will appear. Who are those other advertisers. Will a sponsored post thanking sponsors be included to ensure reach of rss readers.

Dmitry: Audience matching our target niche.

Fraser: Without a doubt the best results have occurred when the ad was on a blog with an audience that was a perfect fit for our product. The readership/traffic can be substantially lower than other sites, but because the fit is ideal the results are great. RSS subscriptions are important only as a proxy for overall traffic, but not a valuable metric on its own. How active the community is (# of comments) is more important than feed subscriptions but is not a stat that’s often cited.

Niz: The following questions pop up in our heads when we buy advertising: Will it help us getting our name out there, building our brand, people start noticing us and hopefully start talking about us? Is it related to our theme? Will the visitors on the website be interested in what we have to offer? Is the website popular enough for our purpose? Will it offer any advantage(s) from SEO point of view? Is the guy/girl behind the website friendly and helpful enough to get started as an advertiser on his/her website? Is all of the above worth the money? Will I be able to pull off a decent ROI?

Cory: Target audience and cost. I’ve already mentioned exposure and the potential for clicks (traffic), but one of the first things I look for when advertising is the target audience that a blog offers. I believe you need to offer a niche audience to advertisers. It’ll make your job easier and more likely to sell out your ad inventory if you cater to a specific group of people.

Frank: I’m going to sound like a broken record but relevant content is most important. When we advertise on blogs it would make no sense to be on a political blog (as an example). Blogs about blogging, design blogs, webmaster blogs are example of places where we do advertise.

Zac: The most important factor to selecting a blog to advertise on, is choosing a blog with relevant content and that can provide readers whom my blog and relate with. Second is ad pricing. Without a balance between the two, most ad campaigns won’t succeed.

David: Some of the factors we look at when selecting a website where we will buy advertising are (in no particular order): traffic and readership numbers, content, reader demographics, number of RSS subscribers, price and length of advertising, advertisement size and placement, main source of traffic, pagerank.

6. How do you track results? Do you think reporting is an important side of the equation?

Patrick: Yes we do and it is important. Obviously it is difficult to measure brand awareness created but measuring traffic and more importantly publisher and advertiser sign ups is key.

Dmitry: This is the biggest part of the equation! We use Google Analytics. Knowing how the blog audience changes over time is very important to baseline the data. Ability to rotate different creatives is very attractive and important.

Fraser: We track click-throughs, and then have set-up goals within google analytics so that we can track what the conversion rate is. reporting is a critical side of the equation. we’ve discovered that some low-traffic, highly-targeted sites have yielded better results than other high-traffic sites. figuring out cost / conversion is the important result to track because you can normalize a number of advertising channels (cpc, display ads, sponsorship, etc) and compare apples-to-apples.

Niz: We track the “referrer” of our each sale/lead on our website through PHP. It is very important to know where your sales/leads come from so that you can plan ahead.

Cory: Currently, click-thrus…. Reporting is very important to me. I want to see that people are arriving on our site and being exposed to our products. (Ultimately, we’d love them to become customers. But right now, we’re more focused on brand awareness.)

Frank: Tracking clicks is extremely important. On some blogs we can’t track things at all. Other blogs use tracking system and yet other let us use our own system. Our system (of course) works best for us as it tracks all the way through conversion.

Zac: Google Analytics, RSS and blog reader emails/comments are my favorite ways to track results. Nothing beats getting actual user feedback from new readers.

David: We track results via lead conversions using Google Analytics and Google Adwords. However, we also track results by number of visitors, how long they stayed, if other people wrote about our website, etc. There’s a lot more to “results” than direct leads and a lot of companies don’t realize that yet.

7. If you could give one advice for a blogger aiming to get more sponsors and advertisers, what would it be?

Patrick: It would go without saying to increase readership is the biggest factor but in addition it would be to package in value ads like a sponsor post and possibly multiple ad unit runs on the same page to ensure the advertiser is getting seen by the visitors.

Dmitry: Be responsive and proactive in talking to advertisers. E.g. sometimes we need to change a creative — it’s important to get quick turnaround on that.

Fraser: Sell and be responsive. it blows me away that a blogger looking for sponsors or advertisers is not responsive. I’ll send emails inquiring about advertising or asking for stats and far too often I’ll get an email with too little information or, even worse, a response a week or two later. in many cases it feels like you expect us – the advertiser – to work hard to place our ad on your site, which is the completely the wrong way to approach the situation.

Niz: Ask the price which is absolutely worth it, accompanied with some special offer. Additionally, read the above answers carefully and see what we want from you and try to provide us with those things.

Cory: The one piece of advice I was give bloggers is … provide value to your advertisers and build a relationship with them. Go above and beyond to court clients. Offer incentives, bonuses. And just be responsive to their inquiries. I’ve had a couple of advertisers just point me back to their advertising information page. Then others have checked in periodically to ask how things are going, or even do posts about their new advertisers. Those kinds of publishers will most likely get more of our ad budget.

Frank: Target the right advertisers and price things properly for your web site. Don’t try to run too many ads either. Most sites need to start out small (number of advertisers and price) and then as your site / reputation increases so can your pricing.

Zac: Provide quality content and aim to please the advertiser. It’s much easier to keep one advertiser in the long run, then having to try and find a new one each month. Cater to your advertisers by making them deals, pointing them out in various posts and rewarding them with quality traffic.

David: Have a clear advertising page. Make sure it includes current readership numbers, RSS subscribes, what’s included in the advertisement, what payment is accepted, if their are openings, reader demographics, how to contact you for more information, and testimonials from current advertisers.

Key Takeaways

1. Flexible budget. Apparently the advertisers have a flexible budget, which might increase or decrease month over month, depending on their requirements and on the available opportunities.

2. 50% PPC, 50% banners. Most advertisers reported a quite balanced division between PPC and banner advertising, which should indicate a favorable scenario for websites selling banner space directly. Other advertising methods such as event sponsorships and sponsored reviews are also considered.

3. No canned emails, please. Advertisers do not mind getting approached directly, but if they notice that you just used the same template to dozens of companies they might skip it.

4. Be clear. Additionally, if you are going to contact a potential advertisers directly, make sure to include all the necessary information (e.g., price, traffic, type of audience) and possibly to include a special offer or deal (e.g., free trial period) to entice the advertisers.

5. Design is important, but not critical. Some companies might prefer stylish websites, but most of them are just concerned with the position of the ads. As long as they are in a visible position, where they will get both exposure and clicks, the companies are fine.

6. Relevant audience is vital. The most important factor for advertisers is by far the relevance of the audience and of the content. Keep this in mind the next time you decide to contact an advertisers that is not related to your niche.

7. Other factors. Other factors that advertisers might take into consideration include the price, traffic, number of RSS subscribers, and activity of the community (comments).

8. Offer additional features: The ability to rotate creatives is important to some advertisers. Secondly, writing a “thank you” post that will reach your RSS subscribers might also be a plus in their view.

9. Tracking the results. Most advertisers are concerned with click-through rates mainly. Google Analytics is a popular tool for that purpose.

10. Be responsive! The biggest turn off for advertisers is when the website or blog owner is not responsive. Answer to their queries promptly, provide sufficient details, and make sure that they are getting value out of the deal. It is about building relationships and win-win situations, after all.

The post Group Interview: What Do Online Advertisers Look For in a Website? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

The WordPress engine is pretty efficient out of the box, but once you start loading plugins the performance and responsiveness of your site might go downhill. On top of that the consumption of resources might become too big, possibly leading to a suspension of your hosting account (especially if you use shared hosting).

Over the years I played with and tweaked my WordPress plugins trying to achieve a good performance level, and below you’ll find the tips I learned along the way:

1. Use a Cache Plugin

Serving cached versions of your pages is one of the most efficient ways to speed up your site and to reduce the CPU and memory consumption on your server. Also, if you are not using the W3TC plugin yet I highly recommend you switch to it, as it works much more efficiently than the other plugins available.

2. Remove All Unnecessary Plugins

Unless your site absolutely relies on a plugin to work I would recommend removing it. Sure, you might need to lose a functionality or two, but in the long run this will keep your site running fast and securely. Keep in mind that it’s possible to hard code what some plugins do, as well. For example, instead of using a plugin to generate a list of “Popular Posts” on your sidebar you could create the list yourself with raw HTML. Instead of using a contact form plugin you could simply write a paragraph on your “Contact” page including your email address there. So on and so forth.

3. Pay Special Attention to Post-Level Plugins

On most WordPress sites and blogs, the bulk of the traffic goes to the posts. The homepage, the category and archive pages receive around 20% of the overall traffic, if that, while the posts receive 80%.

This means that plugins that act at post-level will consume most of your resources. Examples include plugins to change SEO aspects of your posts (e.g., All in One SEO Pack), plugins to display related posts and so on. As a result you should put an extra effort to either remove or optimize those plugins (more on that below).

4. Consider Substituting All In One SEO Pack

The All in One SEO Pack plugin is certainly one of the best SEO plugins around, but it’s also pretty intensive on the resources of your server. For small sites this won’t be a problem, but once your traffic starts growing you might start to feel it.

A good alternative is called Greg’s High Performance SEO. According to the author All in One SEO Pack outputs 2000 lines of code per page load/view, while Greg’s plugin output only 700 lines.

In my opinion the main benefit of those SEO plugins is the ability to customize the title tag. If that is the most important factor for you as well you can be even more extreme and use no plugin at all. Instead use the piece of code below to create optimized title tags for your posts:

<title><?php if (is_home () ) { bloginfo(‘name’); }
elseif ( is_category() ) { single_cat_title(); echo ' - ' ; bloginfo(‘name’); }
elseif (is_single() ) { single_post_title();}
elseif (is_page() ) { single_post_title();}
else { wp_title(‘’,true); } ?></title>

5. Consider Substituting YARPP

Along with All In One SEO Pack there’s another plugin that is very popular and yet very resource intensive: YARPP (Yet Another Relate Posts Plugin).

One alternative you can consider is the Efficient Related Posts plugin. The main difference is that the database of related posts is updated only when a post is created/updated, while other plugins tend to build the list on the fly, whenever a post is loaded.

6. Optimize Your Database Tables

As with any dynamic content management system, great part of the work your WordPress site does is related to getting, storing, removing and updating information on its database. That’s why optimizing your database tables can affect your site’s performance.

A nice plugin you can use for this purpose is WP-Optimize. It will remove your post revisions, clean your comments (e.g., spam and deleted ones), run optimization queries and so on.

The post 6 Tips to Speed Up and Optimize Your WordPress Plugins appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you are writing a “top notch” article for your blog, it would be a good idea to publish it on the most trafficked day of the week. This will maximize the number of potential readers, also increasing your chances of receiving backlinks and appearing on social bookmarking sites.

But what is the most trafficked day of the Internet? Getting an accurate answer for this questions is quite difficult, specially if we consider the large variations that might appear from country to country and during different seasons of the year.

That being said there are some studies around the web, and most of them agree that Monday and Tuesday are the most trafficked days of the Internet, followed closely by Wednesday. Below you will find the numbers provided by OneStat in 2004 (apparently that is the most recent report):

A good rule of thumb, therefore, is to publish your popular posts early in the week. Bear in mind that your blog readership might behave differently, so check your statistics and adapt this strategy accordingly.

The post Leveraging Weekly Internet Traffic appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

There are several lists of web design mistakes around the Internet. Most of them, however, are the “Most common” or “Top 10 mistakes.” Every time I crossed one of those lists I would think to myself: “Come on, there must be more than 10 mistakes…”. Then I decided to write down all the web design mistakes that would come into my head; within half an hour I had over thirty of them listed. Afterwards I did some research around the web and the list grew to 43 points.

The next step was to write a short description for each one, and the result is the collection of mistakes that you will find below. Some of the points are common sense, others are quite polemic. Most of them apply to any website though, whether we talk about a business entity or a blog. Enjoy!

1. The user must know what the site is about in seconds: attention is one the most valuable currencies on the Internet. If a visitor can not figure what your site is about in a couple of seconds, he will probably just go somewhere else. Your site must communicate why I should spend my time there, and FAST!

2. Make the content scannable: this is the Internet, not a book, so forget large blocks of text. Probably I will be visiting your site while I work on other stuff so make sure that I can scan through the entire content. Bullet points, headers, subheaders, lists. Anything that will help the reader filter what he is looking for.

3. Do not use fancy fonts that are unreadable: sure there are some fonts that will give a sophisticated look to your website. But are they readable? If your main objective is to deliver a message and get the visitors reading your stuff, then you should make the process comfortable for them.

4. Do not use tiny fonts: the previous point applies here, you want to make sure that readers are comfortable reading your content. My Firefox does have a zooming feature, but if I need to use on your website it will probably be the last time I visit it.

5. Do not open new browser windows: I used to do that on my first websites. The logic was simple, if I open new browser windows for external links the user will never leave my site. WRONG! Let the user control where he wants the links to open. There is a reason why browsers have a huge “Back” button. Do not worry about sending the visitor to another website, he will get back if he wants to (even porn sites are starting to get conscious regarding this point lately…).

6. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: the user should be in control of his browser. If you resize it you will risk to mess things up on his side, and what is worse you might lose your credibility in front of him.

7. Do not require a registration unless it is necessary: lets put this straight, when I browse around the Internet I want to get information, not the other way around. Do not force me to register up and leave my email address and other details unless it is absolutely necessary (i.e. unless what you offer is so good that I will bear with the registration).

8. Never subscribe the visitor for something without his consent: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters when he registers up on your site. Sending unsolicited emails around is not the best way to make friends.

9. Do not overuse Flash: apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages.

10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.

11. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control, let him push the “Play” button as opposed to jamming the music on his face right after he enters the website.

12. Do not clutter your website with badges: first of all, badges of networks and communities make a site look very unprofessional. Even if we are talking about awards and recognition badges you should place them on the “About Us” page.

13. Do not use a homepage that just launches the “real” website: the smaller the number of steps required for the user to access your content, the better.

14. Make sure to include contact details: there is nothing worse than a website that has no contact details. This is not bad only for the visitors, but also for yourself. You might lose important feedback along the way.

15. Do not break the “Back” button: this is a very basic principle of usability. Do not break the “Back” button under any circumstance. Opening new browser windows will break it, for instance, and some Javascript links might also break them.

16. Do not use blinking text: unless your visitors are coming straight from 1996, that is.

17. Avoid complex URL structures: a simple, keyword-based URL structure will not only improve your search engine rankings, but it will also make it easier for the reader to identify the content of your pages before visiting them.

18. Use CSS over HTML tables: HTML tables were used to create page layouts. With the advent of CSS, however, there is no reason to stick to them. CSS is faster, more reliable and it offers many more features.

19. Make sure users can search the whole website: there is a reason why search engines revolutionized the Internet. You probably guessed it, because they make it very easy to find the information we are looking for. Do not neglect this on your site.

20. Avoid “drop down” menus: the user should be able to see all the navigation options straight way. Using “drop down” menus might confuse things and hide the information the reader was actually looking for.

21. Use text navigation: text navigation is not only faster but it is also more reliable. Some users, for instance, browse the Internet with images turned off.

22. If you are linking to PDF files disclose it: ever clicked on a link only to see your browser freezing while Acrobat Reader launches to open that (unrequested) PDF file? That is pretty annoying so make sure to explicit links pointing to PDF files so that users can handle them properly.

23. Do not confuse the visitor with many versions: avoid confusing the visitor with too many versions of your website. What bandwidth do I prefer? 56Kbps? 128Kbps? Flash or HTML? Man, just give me the content!

24. Do not blend advertising inside the content: blending advertising like Adsense units inside your content might increase your click-through rate on the short term. Over the long run, however, this will reduce your readership base. An annoyed visitor is a lost visitor.

25. Use a simple navigation structure: sometimes less is more. This rule usually applies to people and choices. Make sure that your website has a single, clear navigation structure. The last thing you want is to confuse the reader regarding where he should go to find the information he is looking for.

26. Avoid “intros”: do not force the user to watch or read something before he can access to the real content. This is plain annoying, and he will stay only if what you have to offer is really unique.

27. Do not use FrontPage: this point extends to other cheap HTML editors. While they appear to make web design easier, the output will be a poorly crafted code, incompatible with different browsers and with several bugs.

28. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way. Like it or not, you will need to make your website compatible with the most used browsers on the market, else you will lose readers over the long term.

29. Make sure to include anchor text on links: I confess I used to do that mistake until some time ago. It is easier to tell people to “click here”. But this is not efficient. Make sure to include a relevant anchor text on your links. It will ensure that the reader knows where he is going to if he clicks the link, and it will also create SEO benefits for the external site where the link is pointing.

30. Do not cloak links: apart from having a clear anchor text, the user must also be able to see where the link is pointing on the status bar of his browser. If you cloak your links (either because they are affiliate ones or due to other reasons) your site will lose credibility.

31. Make links visible: the visitor should be able to recognize what is clickable and what is not, easily. Make sure that your links have a contrasting color (the standard blue color is the optimal most of the times). Possibly also make them underlined.

32. Do not underline or color normal text: do not underline normal text unless absolutely necessary. Just as users need to recognize links easily, they should not get the idea that something is clickable when in reality it is not.

33. Make clicked links change color: this point is very important for the usability of your website. Clicked links that change color help the user to locate himself more easily around your site, making sure that he will not end up visiting the same pages unintentionally.

34. Do not use animated GIFs: unless you have advertising banners that require animation, avoid animated GIFs. They make a site look unprofessional and detract the attention from the content.

35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users.

36. Do not use harsh colors: if the user is getting a headache after visiting your site for 10 consecutive minutes, you probably should pick a better color scheme. Design the color palette around your objectives (i.e. deliver a mood, let the user focus on the content, etc.).

37. Do not use pop ups: this point refers to pop ups of any kind. Even user requested pop ups are a bad idea given the increasing amount of pop blockers out there.

38. Avoid JavaScript links: those links execute a small JavaScript when the user clicks on them. Stay away from them since they often create problems for the user.

39. Include functional links on your footer: people are used to scrolling down to the footer of a website if they are not finding a specific information. At the very least you want to include a link to the Homepage and possibly a link to the “Contact Us” page.

40. Avoid long pages: guess what, if the user needs to scroll down forever in order to read your content he will probably just skip it altogether. If that is the case with your website make it shorter and improve the navigation structure.

41. No horizontal scrolling: while some vertical scrolling is tolerable, the same can not be said about horizontal scrolling. The most used screen resolution nowadays is 1024 x 768 pixels, so make sure that your website fits inside it.

42. No spelling or grammatical mistakes: this is not a web design mistake, but it is one of the most important factors affecting the overall quality of a website. Make sure that your links and texts do not contain spelling or grammatical mistakes.

43. If you use CAPTCHA make sure the letters are readable: several sites use CAPTCHA filters as a method of reducing spam on comments or on registration forms. There is just one problem with it, most of the times the user needs to call his whole family to decipher the letters.

44. Incorrect use of background images. For example:

• Poor contrast with text.
• Overwhelming visuals that distract from the main content.
• Non-responsive images that don’t adapt to different devices.
• Low-quality or pixelated images.
• Slow loading times due to large or unoptimized images.
• Clashing background with foreground content.
• Lack of accessibility with no alt text for screen readers.
• Conflicting colors with the overall design.
• Poor placement of content over busy areas.
• Inconsistent with the website’s branding.
• Excessively long scroll length due to lengthy background images.

The post 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Most bloggers love their RSS readers. Not only that, but they also love to gain new RSS readers. It is such a joy when you wake up one day and see that your Feedburner count jumped by 200 or 300, right?

Is there anything you can do about it? Any way to efficiently attract more RSS subscribers?

Sure there is. Many people wrote about this topic in the past, but I wanted to give my take on the issue too. I wrote those 50 ideas as they were coming to my head, as briefly as possible. Enjoy.

1. Have a big RSS icon. People are lazy. You need to keep that fact always in mind. If you use a little RSS icon, visitors might have a problem finding it. Most of those will just give up after a couple of seconds, so make sure the RSS icon is big and easily recognizable.

2. Display the RSS icon above the fold. Apart from using a big RSS icon, you must make sure that you display it above the fold. That is where most blogs have one, and that is where people are used to look for when they want to subscribe, so go with the flow.

3. Display the RSS icon on every page of your blog. When I started blogging I did this mistake. Only my homepage used to have an RSS icon…. As soon as I added it to every single page on the blog, the number of subscribers jumped.

4. Use words. Depending on your audience, just using an RSS icon might not be effective. If they aren’t tech-savvy, they might not know what that little orange thing is. In those cases, you can write a small message explaining that subscribing will allow them to keep updated with your posts and so on.

5. Write a post asking for people to subscribe. Ever heard the saying “Ask and thou shalt receive”? This principle works on most areas of our lives. Blogging is no exception. If you want people to subscribe to your feed, ask them to! Write a post about it, give them some reasons and you will see how they respond.

6. Use the FeedSmith plugin. Unless you hand code a lot of redirects on your blog, readers will still be able to subscribe to different RSS feeds provided by WordPress. This plugin will make sure that all your subscribers will be forwarded to the Feedburner feed, so that you can track them and control how your feed is formatted.

7. Offer email subscriptions. Like it or not, only a small percentage of the Internet users know about or use RSS feeds. Studies confirm that this number is below 10% around the world. Why would you want to miss the other 90% of the pie? If you use Feedburner, you just need to go on the “Publicize” tab to activate your email subscriptions.

8. Use an email subscription form. For most bloggers, an email subscription form will convert better than a simple “Subscribe via email” link. That is because Internet users are used to seeing those forms around, and typing their email address there is quite intuitive. The top of your sidebar is a good spot to place one.

9. Encourage readers to subscribe at the bottom of every post. Apart from having an RSS icon and email subscription form above the fold, it is also important to place them below each single post. Why? Because right after people finish reading your articles, they will look for something to do next, and subscribing to your blog is a good option. Additionally, if the article they just read was really good, they will be on the right mindset to subscribe and receive more of your articles in the future.

10. As few steps as possible. People are lazy (I know I mentioned it before, but it is worth re-emphasizing). The fewer the steps required for them to subscribe to your blog, the better. If you can reduce the number of clicks required, therefore, do it!

11. Use icons to offer subscription on the most popular RSS readers. One practical thing that you can do to reduce the number of steps required to subscribe to your feed is to use RSS reader specific icons (e.g., “Add to Google Reader” or “Subscribe on Bloglines”). Just analyze the most common RSS readers among your subscribers and add those icons to the sidebar.

12. Have clear focus on your blog. If you write about 10 different topics, it will be hard to convince people to subscribe to your blog. They might like your articles about technology, but they would hate to receive the house cleaning ones…. Having a clear focus is one of the most efficient ways to attract subscribers.

13. Publish new posts frequently and consistently. By frequently I mean publishing many posts per week or even per day, and by consistently I mean sticking with that frequency religiously. Those two factors will communicate to the visitors that your blog is active, and that subscribing to the RSS feed might be the best way to stay updated with it indeed.

14. Don’t exaggerate. While writing many posts per week or per day is usually a good thing, there is a limit to it. Many people mention that if a certain blog starts overwhelming them with dozens of new posts a day, they will just unsubscribe. The exceptions to this rule are the blogs on fast paced niches like gadget news.

15. Write valuable content. People will only subscribe to your RSS feed if there is some value that they can derive from it. This value might come from different different factors depending on your audience: it may come from the breaking news that you offer, from the deep analysis that you write, or from the funny things you say and so on, but it must be there.

16. Write unique content. You content might be valuable, but if people can find it elsewhere, they will have no reason to subscribe to your RSS feed. For example, suppose you copy all posts from a popular blog on your niche, say Lifehacker. You content would still be valuable, but it would not be unique, and most people would end up subscribing to the original source.

17. Don’t ramble or go off topic. If your blog has a clear focus as we suggested before, readers will subscribe to it for a very specific reason. If you then start writing about off topic stuff, it will annoy a great part of them. Just consider that a bad or unrelated post is worse than no post at all, since it might make some of your readers actually unsubscribe.

18. Use your RSS feed link when commenting on other blogs. Many bloggers have the habit of commenting on other people’s blogs. Some do it simply to join the conversation. Others because they want to promote their own blogs and generate some traffic. Either way, you can leave your RSS feed link instead of the website one to encourage people to subscribe to your feed (if you use Feedburner, they will be able to see your content anyway).

19. Run a contest. Contests are very popular on the blogosphere. If you have a somewhat popular blog, in fact, it is not difficult to raise some prizes and create one. By making subscribing to your RSS feed a requirement to participate, you could quickly boost the number of subscribers that you have. If you want to control who is going to take this action, use the email subscription method.

20. Offer random prizes to your subscribers. If you are not a fan of contests and competitions, you could always entice people to subscribe to your RSS feed by giving away random prizes. For example, if some company approaches you to donate some free copies of its product, you could in turn donate it to your subscribers

21. Write guest posts. Guest posts represent a very efficient technique for generating both brand awareness and traffic. If you guest blog on a popular blog on your same niche, there is also a good chance that a good percentage of that incoming traffic will end up subscribing to your feed.

22. Welcome the new readers. Whenever you manage to land a guest post on a really popular blog, or when you get mentioned on a larger website or mainstream site, it could be a good idea to write a specific post to welcome those readers. Use that post to describe your blog briefly, to talk a bit about yourself, and to encourage them to subscribe.

23. Go popular on social bookmarking sites. Some people say that the quality of the traffic coming from social bookmarking sites (e.g., Digg and StumbleUpon) is very low. This is true to some extent, because those visitors will rarely click on anything on your page (including on the subscribe link). Because of the sheer amount of traffic that you can get on those sites, however, even a really small conversion rate could easily mean 200 or 300 new subscribers in a matter of 24 hours.

24. Explain to your readers what is RSS. As we mentioned before, it is estimated that less than 10% of the popular know about or use RSS feeds. Can you do anything about this? Sure you can! Write a post teaching your readers what RSS is, why it is good, and how they can start using it. It works particularly well on blogs that have a non tech-savvy audience.

25. Have a special “Subscribe” page with all the info and links there. Apart from writing a specific post teaching your readers about RSS, you can also create a special “Subscribe” page on your blog where you explain briefly how to use RSS feeds, and place all the subscription links, badges, and email forms. You could then link to that page from the sidebar, with a link that would say “Subscription Options” or “How to subscribe.”

26. Create a landing page on your blog to convert visitors in subscribers. If you are going to purchase some banners or other type of advertising, it is highly recommended that you create a landing page to receive those visitors on the best way possible. Use that page to describe your blog, to highlight your best content, and to ask them to subscribe. When doing guest blogging, you could use this page as the byline link as well.

27. Send traffic to that page using PPC. Pay-per-Click advertising, like Google AdWords, is one of the cheapest ways to send targeted traffic to your site. Depending on the quality score that you get (this is calculated from the AdWords side) you could start getting visitors for as low as $0.01 each. That is, with $100, you could send up to 10,000 visitors to your landing page. With a 1% conversion rate this would mean 100 new subscribers.

28. Write an ebook and ask people to subscribe in order to download it. Whether you like them or not, eBooks are a part of the Internet. Many people write them, many others download and read them. If the content and the promotion are well structured, you have thousands of people wanting to read yours. What if you then require people to subscribe first before they can download it? That would bring a heck lot of new subscribers.

29. Launch an email newsletter with Aweber. An email newsletter can be used to complement the content on most blogs. You send a weekly email to those subscribers with your insider views of your niche, with some extra tips, tools and so on. If you then choose Aweber for your newsletter, you can use the “Blog Broadcast” feature to turn those newsletter subscribers into RSS readers too (they will receive a weekly summary from your feed).

30. Offer a full feed. If your goal is to have as many subscribers as possible, then offering a full RSS feed is the only way to go. Many people get annoyed by partial feeds, and even if that does not discourage them from subscribing at first, it might make them unsubscribe shortly after.

31. Clutter your website with ads. This point is a funny/weird addition to the list, and I don’t recommend anyone doing it. I didn’t invent this though, and I saw some people in the past talking about it. The idea is simple: if you clutter your website with many flashy and intrusive ads, but offer top quality content anyway, some people might get an urge to subscribe to your RSS feed just to avoid the clutter on the website….

32. Don’t clutter your RSS feed with ads. Just as too many ads on your site can scare visitors away, too many ads or badges or links on your RSS feed can make people unsubscribe. Keep the RSS feed as clean as possible. That is what people expect to have when they subscribe to an XML file, after all.

33. Use social proof. Ever entered into a restaurant because the place was packed with people, or didn’t enter one because it was empty? That is social proof in action. If you have a good number of RSS subscribers already (I would say over 500), you could display it on your site using the Feedburner feed count widget. This might motivate people to give your RSS feed a shot.

34. Offer breaking news. RSS feeds are one of the most efficient ways to keep up with sites that are frequently updated with information that you care about. If you manage to break some news, or to offer frequent updates on popular topics (like stock market alerts), people would have a stronger motivation to subscribe.

35. Mention that subscribing to your blog is free. It might sound strange, but many people actually get confused with the “Subscribe” terminology. I received dozens of emails over the past year from people that wanted to know if there was any cost associated with subscribing to my RSS feeds! To avoid any confusion, it could be worth mentioning that subscribing to your blog is free, so instead of “Subscribe to my RSS feed” you could use “Receive our updates for free.”

36. Use pop-ups to encourage subscription to your newsletter. Darren managed to increase his conversion rate by more than 700% using pop-ups. Sure, they are intrusive, but they work like nothing else. If you already have an established and loyal following, perhaps using this technique wouldn’t hurt your traffic. We also did a recent poll on the topic.

37. Use an animated RSS feed icon to draw attention. Animated ads get a much higher click-through rate, exactly because they move around and draw people’s attention. You can use the same technique with your RSS feed icon, and make it an animated GIF to call the attention of the visitors.

38. Use feed directories. Don’t expect to receive hundreds of new subscribers by using this technique, but every small bit helps right? Some people use feed directories to find new RSS feeds and content to subscribe to, so if you have some free time you could submit yours on those sites. Here is a list with almost 20 feed directories.

39. Email first time commentators encouraging them to subscribe. Sending a personal email to your first time commentators is a kind gesture, and many will thank you for that. You could use this opportunity to remind them that they can stay updated with your blog via the RSS feed. There is also plugin called Comment Relish that can automate this process, although it becomes less personal.

40. Make sure the feed auto-discovery feature is working. Most modern browsers have an auto-discovery feature that tried to identify if the website you are visiting has a valid RSS feed. If they do, the browser will present a small RSS icon on the right side of the address bar. So make sure that your can see that icon while visiting your blog, and click on it to see if the right RSS feed will pop. On WordPress you can edit this part on the header.php file.

41. Offer a comments feed. If you have an active community of readers who often engage in discussions on the comments section of your blog, you could consider offering a comments RSS feed.

42. Offer category feeds. If you have many categories on your blog, you could offer an RSS feed for each of them individually. This would enable visitors that are interested only in specific topics to subscribe to them and not to the whole blog. At the same time this granularity could increase the overall number of RSS subscribers you have.

43. Run periodic checks on your feeds. It is not rare to find blogs around the web with a broken RSS feed. Click on your own feed once in a while to make sure that the link is working, that the feed is working, and that it is a valid XML document.

44. Recover unverified email subscribers. You will notice that good percentage of your email subscribers will never confirm their subscription. Some are lazy, some just don’t understand the process. This percentage can go as high as 30%, so you could end up losing many would-be subscribers there. Fortunately you can email those unverified subscribers and remind them about the problem. It works for some.

45. Leverage an existing blog or audience. If you already have a popular blog, newsletter, forum, twitter account and so on, you could leverage that presence to get new subscribers. People that already follow you in some place will have a higher chance of subscribing to you new blog, especially if they like your work or person.

46. Use cross feed promotion. Find some related blogs that have a similar RSS subscriber base, and propose to the blogger to use a cross feed promotion deal. That is, you promote his blog on your feed footer, and he promotes your blog on his feed footer.

47. Use testimonials on your “Subscribe” page. You probably have seen how most product sales pages on the web use testimonials, right? That is because a personal recommendation from a third party goes a long way into convincing a prospect. If that is the case, why not use testimonials to convince people to subscribe to your RSS feed?

48. Get friends to recommend your site and RSS feed on their blog. Even stronger than having a testimonial on your “Subscribe” page is to have someone recommend you on his own blog or website. Many of his readers will pay attention to the message and head over to your blog to check what the fuzz is about.

49. Do something funny or weird while asking for people to subscribe. People love blogs with a sense of humor. If you can make them laugh, you have took them half way into subscribing. Some months ago I published the Huge RSS Icon Experiment, and gained 300 new subscribers in 3 days.

50. Start a long series so people subscribe to keep update with it. Long and structured series of posts are not only traffic magnets, but also RSS readers magnets. If a casual visitor discovers that you are publishing a long series about a topic he is interested on, he will think about subscribing in order to not miss the future posts of the series.

So, if you came this far reading the post, you should already be convinced that you need to grab my RSS feed, right?!

The post 50 Simple Ways to Gain RSS Subscribers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

The load time of websites is one of the most important factors affecting its usability; most Internet users will just skip a site altogether if it fails to load within a couple of seconds. Below you will find the summary of the “Speed Up Your Site” series. Those are simple yet effective ways to make sure that your website is running fast. You can click on each point to read the article with comments from the readers.

1. Optimize Images: always use the “Save for the web” feature included on image editing software. Images represent the heavier load on virtually any website so make sure you are optimizing them. Alternatively you can also turn to an online image optimizer.
2. Image Formats: apart from optimizing images it is important that you choose the right format. JPEG format is suitable for photographs or true-color images. The GIF format should be used with flat-color images like logos or buttons. PNG works very similar to GIF but it supports more colors.
3. Optimize Your CSS: most websites are designed with CSS nowadays. Make sure to aggregate and clean your CSS. CleanCSS is an online tool that will merge similar selectors, remove useless properties and remove the whitespace from your code.
4. Use a Slash on Your Links: when a user opens a link on the form “http://www.domain.com/about” the server will need to figure what kind of file or page is contained on that address. If you include a slash (/) at the end of the link the server will already know that this is a directory page, reducing the load time of the site.
5. Use the Height and Width Tags: many people forget to add the Height and Width tags on image codes. Those tags will make sure that the browser knows the size of the image before loading it. The result is that it will reserve a spot for the images while loading the rest of the page, speeding up the whole process.
6. Reduce the HTTP Requests: when opening a web page every object (images, scripts and the line) will require a round trip to the server. This latency can add several seconds to the load time of your site. Make sure to reduce the number of objects and to combine CSS files and scripts together.

The post 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Stephen Covey is one of my favorite authors. In the book “First Things First” he describes a story that one of his associates experienced on a seminar. In the middle of the lecture the presenter pulled out a wide-mouth jar and placed it on the table, aside to some fist-sized rocks.

After filling the jar to the top with rocks he asked, “Is the jar full?”

People could see that no more rocks would fit, so they replied, “Yes!”

“Not so fast,” he cautioned. He then got some gravel from under the table and added it to the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asked, “Is the jar full?”

This time the students replied “Probably not.”

The presenter then reached a bucket of sand below the table, and dumped it on the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. Once again he asked “Is the jar full?”

“No!”, the students shouted.

Finally, he grabbed a pitcher of water and filled the jar completely, asking to the public what they could learn from that illustration.

One of the participants answered, “If you work at it, you can always fit more into your life.”

“No,” said the presenter. “The point is, if you don’t put the big rocks in first. . . would you ever have gotten any of them in?”

This little story can be applied to all apects of your life, including blogging. Blogging is composed of many activities, like promoting your blog, participating in online forums, writing quality articles, networking with other bloggers, reading RSS feeds, exchanging emails and so on.

The question then becomes: out of all these activities, what are the big rocks? More importantly, are you making sure that they are going first into the jar?

The post Put the Big Rocks First appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Bloggers and webmasters know that every single visitor helps to build up traffic, right? If that is the case, you should make sure that Google is correctly indexing your images, and that people searching for related image terms will have a chance to visit your blog.

Here is a quick check that you can perform to find that out. Just head to Google, and click on the “Images” link on the top left corner. That will take you to the Image Search. Now you just need to type on the search bar “site:yourdomain.com“. This query will filter only the results coming from your site.

If your images are getting indexed correctly by Google you should be able to see a whole bunch of them on the search results.

If, on the other hand, your images are not getting indexed by Google you will just see a “Your search did not match any documents” message.

The most common cause for this problem is a flawed robots.txt file (read “Create a robots.txt file” for an introduction to it).

For example, I used to have a “Disallow: /wp-content/” line on my robots.txt file, with the purpose of blocking some internal WordPress files from search bots. It worked, but as a result it also blocked all my images that were located in /wp-content/uploads/. The solution was simple: I just added the following line after that one: “Allow: /wp-content/uploads/”.

So if your images are not getting indexed, check your robots.txt file to make sure it is not blocking the access to them.

There are other causes that might make Google not list your images on its search results, including a low Pagerank, non relevant tags, poor permalink structure, bad image attributes and so on. If you are sure that your images are accessible to search bots, therefore, it could be a good idea to work on their tags and attributes. Here are two articles that you guide you through the steps required:

• 19 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Site Using Google Images
• Using Google Image Search to Drive Traffic to Your Site

Even if your images are already indexed, the tips and tricks described in those articles will help you to maximize the incoming traffic from image searches.

The post Check if Your Images Appear on Google Image Search appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Today I was reading through my RSS feeds and I came across a very interesting post from Matt Cutts. Basically he was describing 3 (plus a bonus) tips to secure your WordPress install. I was already using two of them, but the first one was new to me, and looks like it is the most effective one as well.

1. Secure the /wp-admin/ directory

You probably know that most of your WordPress sensitive information is stored in the /wp-admin/ folder. Right out of the box, WordPress leaves that folder open, so people can access these files if they know what they are doing.

Matt suggests to place a .htaccess file inside the /wp-admin/ folder to block the access to all IP addresses, except yours. Here is the code you need to put in the .htaccess file:

AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Example Access Control"
AuthType Basic
<LIMIT GET>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from xx.xx.xx.xx
allow from xx.xx.xxx.xx
</LIMIT>

2. Hide your plugins

Many WordPress plugins come with bugs and vulnerabilities that can be exploited to damage your website. The last thing you want, therefore, is other people being able to know what plugins you are using.

If you visit the folder /wp-content/plugins/ on most blogs, however, you will be able to see all the plugins that are being used. In order to hide that list you just need to create an empty index.html file and drop it there.

3. Keep up with patches and updates

Most bloggers probably carry out this tip already. Just keep your WordPress updated and you should be fine. Matt suggests subscribing to the WordPress Development Blog.

The final bonus tip was just to delete the meta tag that reveals your WordPress version on the header of your site.

Do you know any other security tips that WordPress users should apply?

Update: Browsing on the Internet I also came across a WordPress plugin called Login LockDown. Basically it will track down login attempts to your site, and if there are too many of them coming from the same IP address on a short period of time the plugin will disable the login function for that IP range. Useful to avoid people trying to brute force your password.

The post 3 Must Apply Security Tips for WordPress appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you haven’t heard yet, Digg is for sale. And they haven’t just raised a for sale sign, they actually hired a private investment firm to shop around seeing if anyone is interested.

Much of the discussion on the Internet right now is about the price tag: $300 million. Some say it’s too much, others say it’s fair. Honestly I don’t think that is the most important point. The question that strikes me is: why would Kevin Rose and his crew want to sell Digg in the first place?

People sell companies mostly for two reasons: they need the money to invest in some other project, or they think the ship is sinking and want to cash in before it’s too late. Digg recently sealed a wealthy contract with Microsoft, and sister company Revision3 is growing quite well, which leads me to think that the second option might be the right one.

Not that Digg will sink overnight. They are far too big for that to happen. The Titanic of social bookmarking sites, if you will. But I think that some holes are starting to appear in the hull, and that is usually the best time to sell, when only the captain is aware of the incoming water.

Check out Digg’s Alexa graph covering the past three years. Looks like 2007 was not a good year for them:

Right, you might ask, but what are these holes? Well, there are four main ones.

1. Is it really democratic?
The Digg system was a very clever idea. Let the users determine what is good and what is not. Let them submit their own news and stories. Let the wisdom of the crowd rule.

The reality, however, is quite different. SEOMoz confirmed sometime ago that the Top 100 Digg users control 56% of the material that goes in the front page. Considering that Digg has over one million users, that is not a democratic picture at all.

2. Censorship
As the site grew in popularity many people decided to use it as a marketing tool. Spammers and scammers included.

In theory the users themselves with a couple of passive editors could solve this problem. That is how Wikipedia handles it after all. But Digg went one step further and started banning sites, sometimes not even publicly with the so called “auto-bury” list.

The result was chaotic because a myriad of legitimate sites got hit on the way. Want an example? Copyblogger is among the Top 30 most popular blogs on the Internet, with over 27,000 RSS readers. Recently it got included on the auto-bury list, meaning that its stories can no longer make it to Digg’s front page.

If you want more information about this practice, ForeverGeek covered the problem extensively in the past.

3. Low quality traffic
Sure, Digg can drive sheer amounts of traffic to any website getting featured on its front page. But is the traffic valuable? Many people argue that is it not.

What does low quality traffic means? It means that visitors won’t click ads, won’t visit any page on your site beyond the initial one, won’t subscribe to your RSS feed and so on.

Personally I don’t think that this is always the case, but depending on the niche of your website the points do apply.

4. Lack of focus
When Digg was created it was heavily focused on technology. It might appear as a limitation for some people, but the users loved it. They were all tech-savvy individuals, and Digg worked as a user driven version of Slashdot. It was a very successful formula.

Over the time more and more sections were added. Politics, entertainment, health, images, videos… you name it. As you can imagine the quantity of low quality and not relevant material being submitted increased exponentially.

They tried to grasp the world, not quite successfully.

Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, I have been a Digg user since 2005, I like it and still visit the site daily. I just think that the whole system has several flaws right now, and instead of trying to fix them the owners are jumping out of the boat. They want to cash in while the site is still riding the wave, especially because the wave might not get any bigger.

When Kevin Rosy made it to the front page of BusinessWeek last year people started to speculate that he could want to sell it for $60 million. He declined these rumors, starting that the site still had a lot to growth, that they had many plans for it and a bright future to come.

Well, looks like Kevin changed his mind, for some reason. Else how could we explain this sudden resolution to sell Digg?

Update: Tamar has an interesting article explaining why no one should buy Digg.

The post Kevin Rose Jumping Out of The Digg Boat? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Would your blog benefit from removing the dates of the posts? That is the question I asked on the post “Should We Remove the Timestamp?”. The feedback from the readers was divided. Some people believe that the timestamp is necessary, while others think that removing the date from posts could have advantages, like increasing the number comments and linkbacks for the older content .

It is probably a subjective matter. Removing the date will work for some blogs, and not for others. Regardless of that choice, a lot of people are not comfortable with editing the WordPress theme files to remove the timestamp. Secondly, the raw editing of such files do not provide flexibility. You can either keep the dates on all the posts or removed them all, there is no in between.

With that problem in mind Stephen decided to code a plugin, called Date Exclusion.

Date Exclusion Plugin

This WordPress plugin gives the user complete control over where and when the timestamp will be displayed. You can exclude them from all posts by default or only on posts older than a few weeks or months. You can also exclude or include dates on a post-by-post level through WordPress’ custom field feature.

Installation

1. Download and unzip the plugin file
2. Upload the date-exclusion.php file to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
3. Log into your WordPress control panel, click the “Plugins” tab, and click “Activate” next to the Date Exclusion plugin

Configuration

In order to configure the plugin for your needs you will have to open the plugin file (date-exclusion.php). You can do this on the Plugin Editor inside the WordPress control panel.

To exclude date information from all posts by default, set $exclude_date on line 30 equal to ‘yes’. This can be overridden on a post-by-post basis by setting “exclude_date” as a custom field with a value of “no”.

To set a default period of time for every post after which date information should no longer be displayed, set $date_expires on line 33 to the number of days to wait (e.g., 14 for two weeks). This can be overridden on a post-by-post basis by setting “date_expires” as a custom field with a different value (or 0 to deactivate).

To exclude date information from a specific post, set “exclude_date” as a custom field with a value of “yes”.

To make the date of a specific post no longer display after a certain period of time, set “date_expires” as a custom field with a value equal to the number of days you want the date to display.

Version History

Still on the initial release (1.0). Please leave a comment if you encounter any difficulties.

The post Date Exclusion WordPress Plugin appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

As you probably know, Darren Rowse from Problogger run a challenge last month titled “31 Days to Build a Better Blog.” Here is how he described it:

The idea is simple. By the end of this challenge you’ll have learned 31 aspects of blogging and put them into practice. It is designed not only to fill your head with knowledge ABOUT blogging, but also to give you some concrete things to actually DO something with the knowledge.

Basically each day you had a teaching and a task. The teaching would give you the concepts and theory, and the task would force you to take action on what you had just learned. Over 13,000 people participated in the challenge, and the feedback that Darren got was very good. So good, in fact, that he decided to create a workbook out of it.

He sent me a copy of it via email, and it is packed with information. There are 94 pages of pure content, with all the 31 tasks, teachings, images and links to useful posts and tools. Here is a screenshot of one of the tasks:

The workbook costs $19.95. Check out Darren’s post about the workbook for more info, or purchase it on this direct link.

The post Don’t Miss This One: “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” Workbook appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

A couple of weeks ago I came across an interesting tool to measure the loading speed of your website. The tool was created by Pingdom, and it basically loads your website, tracking the time at each stage of the process. It’s called Pingdom Website Speed Test.

Once the test completes you’ll with a score (varies from 0 to 100), the number of requests performed (i.e., how many elements were loaded), the total load time and the total size of your page.

Here’s how DailyBlogTips scored:

On top of that you’ll also get access to a detailed break-down of all the elements that were loaded while opening your website, and the respective time that it took to load each of them. This information is quite valid to help you optimize your load time.

There are other tools that produce a similar report, but most work as browser extensions, so you need to install them forehand. As a web tool that you can use right away this is one of the best I’ve found, so check it out.

The post Tool to Measure the Speed of Your Website appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

This post is part of the Blog Writing Project Tutorials. There are $300 in cash prizes, so make sure to participate if you have not done so yet!

Despite what some people might think, the Internet is no big book. This means one thing: if you write in large, monotonous blocks of text, people will just ignore you and your message.

Internet users are natural multi-taskers. It is very likely that they will browse your site while editing a document in Word, chatting with some friends via instant messaging software and so on. As a result, they need to be able to filter and scan specific information on your site easily; else they will just go somewhere else.

Whether you are a blogger, Internet marketer or copywriter, therefore, making your content scannable is essential. Below you will find six steps to accomplish that.

1. Use an appropriate line length

If your visitors need to move their eyes and neck to follow the words across your lines, they are probably too long. There are many studies on this topic, and most of them confirm that an ideal line should have between 400 and 600 pixels. You are aiming for 12-16 words per line, so it also depends on the font and spacing used.

2. Break the text into many paragraphs

A friend of mine once said, “when you try to process an unbroken block of text, it’s like trying to eat a whole apple pie in one gulp.” Use paragraphs abundantly if you are writing for an online audience. Apart from improving the flow of the text, it will also add some pleasant white space around your copy.

3. Use headers and subheaders

Headers and sub-headers can greatly improve the user experience. It will help the readers to get an idea of what the content is about before they actually read it, and it will also enable the reader to move back and forth between your ideas easily.

4. Lists and bullet points, please!

You can’t go wrong with breaking down your content into ordered lists and bullet points. Readers will understand your message much more clearly if it’s separated into single elements. Secondly, lists also make very catchy headlines, since people will know exactly what they can expect from the content.

5. Use bold and italics typefaces

Proper usage of the bold and italics typefaces can greatly improve the clarity of your content. Use the bold attribute on words that need to be highlighted or that are delivering important messages. Italicize the title of books, publications, movies and so on.

6. Images are your friends

Apart from grabbing the attention from the readers, images can also help you to structure your content more efficiently. You can use them to divide different segments of the text, or to complement specific parts and elements.

The post How to Write Scannable Content: A 6-Step Approach appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

If you are not familiar with the term, whois privacy is a service offered by most domain name registrars that protects your information as a domain registrant from people performing a “whois” on your domains.

Here is a screenshot of a domain using that service (it is actually one of my domains, and I am about to remove the privacy from it):

And here is one of a domain without the whois privacy:

As you can see the one with whois privacy does not reveal the information about the registrant. Instead it displays the name and contact information of DomainsByProxy, which is one of the companies offering these privacy services (you also have WhoisGuard, WhoisProtect and so on).

Until some years ago many people would recommend you to use a whois privacy service. It would protect your contact information, after all, and given the privacy issues on the web this could only be a good thing.

Well, I believe this advice is no longer valid. If you are planning to make money with your blogs or websites, or if you want to build an online business, you should not use a whois privacy service on your domains. Why? Because these days using such a service will actually reduce your credibility.

Spammers and scammers use whois privacy on all their domains, but they have a reason to do so. If you are building a legitimate website or business, why would you want or need to hide your contact information?

And I have heard many stories from experts on different segments that back up this theory. For instance, last week I heard an email marketer saying that whois privacy on the domain that is sending newsletter emails is a bad sign, and it is one of the factors that spam control organizations take into consideration.

Another day I read an article about safe online shopping, and one of the points used to verify the credibility of an online store was to check the whois information for the domain. If it was protected, the article stated, you should get suspicious. So on and so forth.

If you are creating a website as a hobby and prefer to keep your contact information private, then using a whois privacy service is fine. If you are building an online business, however, I would not recommend trying to hide your contact information.

Finally, if your reasoning for using the privacy protection is the fear of getting spam on that email address, well, the solution is as simple as creating a unique address to be used just for domain registrations (and if you are worried about your security register a business name and make it the owner of your domains).

The post Time to Stop Using Whois Privacy? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I strongly believe that behind every successful person there is a huge amount of hard work, and that is why I am always interested in learning how long and how hard other entrepreneurs work (maybe to confirm that I am not the only one crazy out there….).

Thinking about this issue I decided to run a group interview, asking some of the most successful people I know how hard they work. Below you’ll find an introduction with the interviewees, and then straight to the questions.

Darren Rowse: The original Problogger, Darren has created a web publishing empire over the past few years, and has been included in the “Top 25 Web Celebrities” list by Forbes in 2007.

Rand Fishkin: Rand is the CEO and co-founder of SEOMoz, a leader in the field of search engine optimization. In 2009 he was named among the “30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30” by BusinessWeek.

Aaron Wall: One of the most respected SEOs around the world, Aaron is the founder of SEO Book, a leading SEO resource and training program.

Neil Patel: By the age of 21 Neil had already co-founded three Internet companies. He blogs at Quicksprout, where he also offers a course for aspiring web entrepreneurs, called Quicksprout PRO.

Chris Pearson: One of the most talented web designers around, Chris is the creator of the hugely popular Thesis Theme for WordPress, which is used by over 20,000 webmasters.

Shawn Collins: Shawn is an authority inside the affiliate marketing industry, and he is also co-founder of the Affiliate Summit, the most successful affiliate conference around.

Yaro Starak: Yaro is a very successful online entrepreneur from Australia. Combining all his ventures he makes a 7-figure income yearly. You’ll find his blog at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.

Dan Schawbel: Dan is the leading expert in personal branding around the world. He founded the Personal Branding Blog, and his articles are syndicated by Reuters, Forbes and Fox Business.

Jonathan Volk: A super affiliate who generates millions in sales promoting affiliate offers every year. At JonathanVolk.com you’ll find his tips on affiliate marketing, making money online, advertising and so on.

Chris Garrett: Chris is a successful blogging and Internet marketing consultant. He blogs at Chrisg.com, and he is also the co-author of the Problogger book, an Amazon best-seller.

Collis Ta’eed: Collis is the founder of Envato, one of the largest blog networks on the Internet. Combined his blogs generate over 20 million page views per month.

Trent Hamm: Trent is the owner of The Simple Dollar. With over 80,000 RSS subscribers, the blog is a must read for anyone interested in personal finance.

1. How many days do you work per week week?

Darren Rowse: 7 – but on the weekends its for only an hour or two.

Rand Fishkin: 5 full days plus mornings and nights on the weekend.

Aaron Wall: 6.5 to 7… mostly 7.

Neil Patel: I work 7 days a week.

Chris Pearson: Some weeks every day, and other weeks only a couple of days.

Shawn Collins: 7, but lighter on the weekend.

Yaro Stark: 7 days per week.

Jonathan Volk: 6 days, plus a couple of hours on Sunday.

Dan Schawbel: 7 days per week.

Chris Garrett: 7 days per week.

Collis Ta’eed: 5, but often times I work on weekends as well.

Trent Hamm: I work at least a little every day of the week, so 7.

2. How many hours do you work, in total, every week?

Darren Rowse: From 60 to 65.

Rand Fishkin: Between 65 and 70, but some weeks as low as 55.

Aaron Wall: 90+ hours typically, and often 100.

Neil Patel: I work anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week.

Chris Pearson: I’ve definitely pulled my share of 80+ hour weeks, but to balance things out, I’ve also pulled my share of 20 hour weeks, too. As an average, I probably work 30—50 hours per week.

Shawn Collins: Around 60 hours per week.

Yaro Stark: In terms of productive output I probably do about 10-20 hours
a week, but there’s plenty more time spent in front of the computer.

Jonathan Volk: Around 60 hours per week.

Dan Schawbel: I work approximately 110 hours per week depending if I’m traveling or not.

Chris Garrett: As many as it takes. So up to 90 hours on some weeks, and only 50 on others.

Collis Ta’eed: 40 to 60 hours usually.

Trent Hamm: 40 to 45 hours.

3. Do you have a fixed work routine? Hoes does it look like?

Darren Rowse: Most mornings I usually spend a couple of hours in a local cafe working. This is often writing time. Mid morning to lunch time usually has more of an admin/networking function. Afternoons are often more about email, commenting in forums, networking. Evenings are about finalizing posts for the next day, writing newsletters etc.

Rand Fishkin: Not at all fixed – very inconsistent based on travel, meetings, phone calls, engagements, etc.

Aaron Wall: Not really…I try to do something until I feel I am getting tired of it or losing efficiency (or am done with it), and then I will either take a break or do another task.

Neil Patel: I don’t have a fix routine. Most of my days are spent meeting with other entrepreneurs and answering emails.

Chris Pearson: Generally speaking, I like to knock out “near zero sum” tasks like email, Twitter DM responses, and accounting first thing in the morning. In theory, this leaves me with the rest of the day to focus my attention on problems that I actually care about.

Shawn Collins: I do on the weekdays – I help get my kids off to school (4 kids in 3 schools) and then get to my desk around 8:30 am. I work through 6:00 pm and then stop to hang out with the family and have dinner. After the kids go to sleep, I work another hour or so – sometimes I work more after my wife goes to sleep.

Yaro Stark: Not fixed no, but loosely made up of some work on the computer when I wake up, usually around 9-10am and I do most of my solid writing at cafes, so about 2-3 hours every second or third day during the afternoons or evenings.

Jonathan Volk: Normally I work on routine stuff in the morning such as responding to emails, updating stats, checking profits, etc. By the time I am done with this, I normally break for lunch. After lunch I begin working on developing new projects and marketing campaigns.

Dan Schawbel: I don’t have a fixed work routine at all. I make a top ten list of things I need to get done each week and then commit to it.

Chris Garrett: No, one of the reasons I went to work for myself was to have freedom. There are things that I do to be productive, and stuff I have to do every day, but I do not have a fixed routine.

Collis Ta’eed: I certainly do, every day I begin by traversing my email in an attempt to keep my inbox down to zero (something I’ve only ever achieved twice!) Then I usually update my to-do list and check my calendar. And then of course it’s “real” work time!

Trent Hamm: On weekdays, I have a fixed routine. I usually block out several
hour-long chunks throughout the day for various tasks, blocking out
all interruptions.

4. How many times per year do you take vacations, and how long are they?

Darren Rowse: We try to do a combination of different types of vacations as a family. We would typically have 3-4 weekends away (often we’d do it over 3-4 days) each year. We usually would also take a week over our summer or autumn and 10-14 days in our Spring. I also tend to travel to the US for conferences twice a year (two weeks) which isn’t a vacation but it’s a break from the normal routine.

Rand Fishkin: When I travel for work to interesting locations, I’ll often spend the weekend or an extra day there with my wife when possible, but I haven’t had a serious, true vacation since my wedding in September 2008.

Aaron Wall: Roughly 0 🙂 . Need to work on that, and we will hire some folks soon to help out on that front.

Neil Patel: I don’t take vacations.

Chris Pearson: I prefer short trips to big vacations. My favorites are 3—4 day jaunts where I can either relax in an epic setting or else conquer something physically–like snowboarding, scuba diving, hiking, or launching myself off a rope swing into a freshwater lake!

Shawn Collins: I take long weekends here and there, but always bring my computer. I think the last time I took a week-long vacation was in 2002, and I was on my computer during that week. I can’t relax if I’m not caught up.

Yaro Stark: I don’t really have vacations. If I travel, I do my writing and other work wherever I am. There really is no solid line between holidays and work time for me, it’s all the same.

Jonathan Volk: I take a few vacations per year usually. I go to help out at my church’s youth camp each year for a week. I also am trying to take 2 vacations per year with my wife.

Dan Schawbel: Everyday is vacation when you’re doing what you love 😉

Chris Garrett: We try to get away somewhere as much as possible, even if it is just a short trip to the mainland. I work hard and can not always get as much family time as I would like, so it’s important for us.

Collis Ta’eed: I like to vary it up, sometimes a few little ones and sometimes one big vacation. My favorite type of vacation is to go away for a week to somewhere very peaceful in the countryside and then write lots.

Trent Hamm: 4 or so times a year, usually for a week at a time.

5. How many hours per day do you spend on email?

Darren Rowse: 1-2 – although it’s a bit scattered through the day into 15 minute blocks.

Rand Fishkin: 3-4, sometimes more. I do lots of “work” inside email that’s not what I’d consider just classic communication (product/project reviews, scope documents, etc).

Aaron Wall: Roughly 1.5 to 2 hours. Need to work on that, and we will hire some folks soon to help out on that front.

Neil Patel: I spend at least 2 hours a day on email.

Chris Pearson: I spend about 20 minutes a day on email, and 0 minutes if I’m lucky.

Shawn Collins: No way to really calculate it – I check email every waking hour and constantly clear it out as much as I can.

Yaro Stark: I review my email and respond to really urgent things for about an hour a day, then every two weeks or so I’ll do a proper batch process and clear the inbox entirely.

Jonathan Volk: 2-3 hours per day. I spend the most amount of time on email in the morning and then leave outlook open during the entire work day. I get a lot of proposals, joint venture requests, and questions from people who have subscribed to my affiliate marketing guide and I like to try to at least reply to everyone.

Dan Schawbel: 2 hours

Chris Garrett: I am trying to kick the habit, but at worst I could be checking email all day and right into the night. Not healthy!

Collis Ta’eed: I spend the majority of my time with email open, though sometimes I’m doing the task that the email is about (like filling in this interview!) So I would say about 5 hours a day.

Trent Hamm: 1 to 2 hours per day.

6. When you are not working, what are you doing?

Darren Rowse: Sleeping, being a dad, reading novels, playing with my cameras, watching sport (either going live to the football or TV).

Rand Fishkin: I like cooking, having friends over for dinner, traveling (www.everywhereist.com) and sight-seeing and meeting other entrepreneurs and search folks around the world 🙂 .

Aaron Wall: I like hanging out with my wonderful wife and our shih tzu. And video games are fun, as is reading books.

Neil Patel: I am having fun with friends when I am not working.

Chris Pearson: Over the last few years, I’ve established a pattern of learning and exploring new things when I’m not working. These range from cycling to reading books about neuroscience and economics. That is, when I’m not playing Modern Warfare 2 or Rock Band on my XBOX 360 🙂 .

Shawn Collins: Hanging out with my family and friends, exercising, going to baseball games.

Yaro Stark: I like sport – like tennis and skating. I also socialize and eat out with friends a lot. We head to the beach sometimes, see movies, travel locally around Australia, attend events in my industry, the usual.

Jonathan Volk: I enjoying hanging out with friends, playing wii or PS3 with my wife (She is awesome at modern warfare 2 haha), going to church, drumming, and finally flying my RC airplanes and helicopters.

Dan Schawbel: Going out and enjoying the nightlife here in Boston, MA.

Chris Garrett: Like many bloggers I read a *lot*, and there are a few TV programs I really enjoy, but really when I am not working it’s all family time. We like to eat out, go shopping, take the dog on long walks, and take snaps with my camera (we live quite near Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood fame, which is one of our favorite walks).

Collis Ta’eed: It’s embarrassing to say, but I’m usually thinking about work 🙂 Although I do really love movies as well as I can switch off when I’m watching a good movie. My current favorite is the movie “Kick-Ass” which really lived up to its name!

Trent Hamm: Mostly spending time with my family – a wife, a four year old son, a two year old daughter, and a newborn son.

The post Interview: 12 Top Online Entrepreneurs Share How Hard They Work appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Yesterday we had a guest post talking about the importance of having a low bounce rate. In the past I had also written about this topic, with the posts What Is Bounce Rate? and What Is High, Normal And Low Bounce Rates?.

Apart from talking about the definition and explaining how one can lower his bounce rate, though, I figured it would be interesting to actually compare your own bounce rate to that of other bloggers, so that you can analyze their sites and understand what you/them might be doing right and wrong.

That is the purpose of this post. I invite you all to write a comment below sharing your own bounce rate. Feel free to explain why it’s high/low, and what strategies you used to lower it in the past.

Depending on the amount/type of answers I might compile the best ones into a post, with practical tips for those who want to lower their own bounce rates.

The post Ask The Reader: What Is Your Bounce Rate? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever wondered how big the internet really is? Here’s an awe-inspiring fact: As of 2024, we’re talking about over 4.9 billion internet users worldwide. Isn’t it exciting? That’s where “internet statistics” come into play, revealing a fascinating world within the digital realm. Whether you’re a digital marketer, a researcher, a curious netizen, or a business owner looking to expand your digital footprint, understanding internet usage statistics is an essential part of your toolkit.

A Journey Through Time

In the early ’90s, the internet was a novelty, used by a relatively small number of people. Fast-forward to today, and it’s hard to imagine a world without the web. From a modest beginning with a mere 600 websites in 1993, we’ve now reached an astonishing 1.8 billion websites globally.

But the expansion of the internet didn’t just stop at the number of websites. We’ve seen a shift in how people access and consume information online. In the early 2000s, desktops ruled the internet world. Now, we’re in the era of mobile, where more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices.

The scope of the internet has also expanded significantly. We’ve transitioned from basic email communication and information searching to a world where e-commerce, social media, online learning, telecommuting, streaming entertainment, and more are commonplace. All these developments have been captured in internet usage statistics, painting a vibrant picture of our online lives.

The Essentials

Now that you’ve seen how valuable these statistics can be, where do you find this rich trove of data? There are numerous online sources providing internet usage statistics, but they’re not all created equal. Let’s break down the essential features to look for when seeking your perfect statistical match.

Delving Deeper into the Criteria for Choosing the Best Websites for Internet Statistics

When you’re exploring internet usage statistics, remember you’re embarking on a quest for quality information. Having a clear understanding of what sets apart an outstanding resource from an average one will ensure you find a site that delivers in spades. Let’s further dissect the essential features of top-tier websites for internet statistics.

The Importance of Reliability

In the realm of statistics, credibility is king. Reliable data lays the foundation for effective decision-making, whether you’re crafting a marketing strategy or researching market trends. In contrast, unreliable data can lead to misguided conclusions and potentially costly mistakes.

When judging a website’s reliability, consider the source of its data. Credible websites should clearly state their data sources, which should ideally include respected research institutions, government agencies, or established industry organizations. If a website isn’t transparent about where its data comes from, treat its statistics with a healthy dose of skepticism.

The Need for Breadth and Depth of Data

Quality data isn’t just about being correct—it also needs to tell a complete story. A top-tier website for internet statistics should offer both breadth and depth of data.

Breadth refers to the range of topics covered. Does the website only provide statistics on internet users worldwide, or does it also delve into specific areas like mobile usage, social media trends, and e-commerce growth? A broad scope ensures you have a comprehensive understanding of the digital landscape.

Depth, on the other hand, refers to the level of detail in the data. It’s not enough to know how many people use the internet globally. You’ll also want to know who these people are (their demographics), how they access the internet (device types), and what they do online (activities).

Update Frequency

The digital world is anything but static. With technological advances and changing consumer behaviors, internet trends can shift dramatically in a short period. That’s why the frequency of data updates is a critical factor in choosing a statistics website.

Look for sites that update their statistics regularly—at least annually, but preferably quarterly or even monthly. This will ensure that you have access to the most recent data, allowing you to spot current trends and stay ahead of the curve.

User Interface

Lastly, consider the user experience. Navigating the website should be straightforward, and interpreting the data should be simple. The best websites for internet statistics present their data in a clear, easy-to-understand format, with visual aids like charts and graphs that bring the numbers to life. They may also offer features like search functionality, filters, or categories to help you quickly find the data you need.

Remember, the goal is to gain valuable insights from these statistics. If you’re struggling to navigate the website or interpret the data, it will only hinder your understanding of the trends and patterns in internet usage. A superior user interface can make your exploration of internet statistics both fruitful and enjoyable.

The Top Websites for Internet Usage Statistics:

The landscape of internet usage is constantly changing, and staying informed about these trends is crucial. Let’s dive into a detailed comparison of some top websites for internet usage statistics. We will also explore how to use these resources effectively, understand the impact of these statistics, and uncover key differences among the platforms.

1. Pew Internet Project

Pew Internet Project remains one of the most trusted sources for internet statistics. They provide comprehensive reports, infographics, presentations, trends, and surveys on a range of topics like social networking and the digital divide.

How to Use: Navigate the “Topics” section for a specific area of interest or use the search function for specific statistics.

Impact: Pew’s data is essential for sectors like marketing and policy-making to understand the changing landscape of internet usage and adapt strategies accordingly.

2. w3counter Global Web Stats

w3counter provides analytics data from over 28,000 websites to present global internet statistics. These reports offer a detailed view of popular web browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions, and countries.

How to Use: Refer to the monthly “Global Web Stats” reports for current internet trends.

Impact: IT departments and web developers can leverage these insights to enhance website compatibility and user experience.

3. w3schools Browser Stats

w3schools’ reports provide market share evolution for different browsers, operating systems, and screen resolutions over time.

How to Use: Navigate to the “Browser Statistics” page for a comprehensive overview.

Impact: This data is invaluable to web developers and digital marketers for optimizing website performance across different platforms.

4. Internet World Stats

Internet World Stats offers detailed global internet usage and penetration rates, offering insights into the total number of internet users and regional differences.

How to Use: Explore the website’s region-specific data to understand geographical usage differences.

Impact: Useful for businesses looking to expand internationally or tailor online content to specific regions.

5. Nielsen Net Ratings

Nielsen provides reliable traffic estimations for large websites and also shares details about the top web companies and search providers.

How to Use: Check out their free reports and subscribe to their monthly newsletter for the latest trends.

Impact: These statistics can guide digital marketers in understanding the top industry players and their tactics.

6. Hitwise Data Center

Hitwise provides competitive intelligence, sharing data about the top search engines, websites per industry, and search terms.

How to Use: Access their “Data Center” section for a variety of internet data.

Impact: Insights from Hitwise can guide SEO strategies and help businesses understand their competition.

7. Point Topic

Point Topic specializes in broadband and IPTV statistics, providing comprehensive reports and maps on global internet access.

How to Use: Utilize the “Free Data” section for an overview of broadband statistics.

Impact: Telecommunications companies can use this data to assess market trends and investment opportunities.

8. Internet Growth Statistics

This website offers a broad overview of internet growth and usage trends over time.

How to Use: Explore their “Internet Growth Statistics” for a historical perspective on internet trends.

Impact: These statistics provide useful context for researchers and policy-makers in understanding the evolution of internet usage.

9. Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief

Verisign’s quarterly reports provide data on the domain name industry, including growth rates, market share, and distribution by TLD.

How to Use: Refer to their “Domain Name Industry Brief” for updates on domain trends.

Impact: Web hosting companies and domain registrars can leverage these insights for their market strategies.

While each of these websites provides a wealth of internet statistics, their utility will depend on your specific needs. By understanding their strengths and key offerings, you can choose the resource that best suits your requirements, helping you stay on top of the dynamic world of internet usage.

Here is a quick table comparing different sources.

In the digital age, access to accurate and timely Internet statistics is not just a requirement for web developers and data scientists, but also for business owners, digital marketers, and even curious individuals seeking to understand the digital world a little better. Each of the websites listed in this article brings its own unique strengths and focus areas to the table, making them all invaluable tools in their own right.

Whether you’re trying to understand browser usage patterns through w3schools Browser Stats, exploring global internet trends with Internet World Stats, or studying domain name trends with Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, there’s a source for every data need.

Remember, the relevance and utility of each platform depend on the specific data requirements of your project. Hence, understanding the strengths and limitations of each site, as outlined in this article, is key to maximizing the value of the information they provide.

By carefully considering these factors and the nature of your statistical needs, you’ll be able to make informed decisions, build effective strategies, and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Please note: As with any source of information, it’s important to critically evaluate the source and consider the methodology used to collect and present the data. By doing so, you’ll ensure the data you’re using is not just interesting, but reliable and valid for your purposes.

Lastly, remember that while these sources provide a wealth of data and insights, they are just tools. The interpretation, application, and the resulting decisions you make from the data are, ultimately, what truly matters.

In the digital age, access to accurate and timely Internet statistics is not just a requirement for web developers and data scientists, but also for business owners, digital marketers, and even curious individuals seeking to understand the digital world a little better. Each of the websites listed in this article brings its own unique strengths and focus areas to the table, making them all invaluable tools in their own right.

Whether you’re trying to understand browser usage patterns through w3schools Browser Stats, exploring global internet trends with Internet World Stats, or studying domain name trends with Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, there’s a source for every data need.

Remember, the relevance and utility of each platform depend on the specific data requirements of your project. Hence, understanding the strengths and limitations of each site, as outlined in this article, is key to maximizing the value of the information they provide.

By carefully considering these factors and the nature of your statistical needs, you’ll be able to make informed decisions, build effective strategies, and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Please note: As with any source of information, it’s important to critically evaluate the source and consider the methodology used to collect and present the data. By doing so, you’ll ensure the data you’re using is not just interesting, but reliable and valid for your purposes.

Lastly, remember that while these sources provide a wealth of data and insights, they are just tools. The interpretation, application, and the resulting decisions you make from the data are, ultimately, what truly matters.

The post Best Websites for Internet Usage Statistics in 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

It is time to cover another niche on our Top 25 series – this time I cover top celebrity blogs. Celebrity blogs are among the most popular on the Internet. People just love gossip. As a result, they tend to receive a lot of traffic, and to be very profitable. Mainly because these blogs are full of scandalous romances, latest scoops, rumors, exclusive insights and all the juicy details that make the lives of stars so intriguing to many.

If you’re wondering, “How much do these blogs actually make?” Well, it’s a bit tricky to get exact numbers because, let’s face it, who wants to reveal their earnings to the world? But, according to some folks at Digiday, popular celeb gossip sites can rake in a whopping $10,000 to $500,000 per month just from ads! Of course, this depends on a bunch of stuff like how many people visit the site, how engaged the readers are, and how well the ads are doing.

Business Insider also did some digging and found out that celebrity blogs with a big fan base and lots of engagement can pull in yearly revenues from $1 million to $10 million. This cash flow comes from a mix of ad partnerships, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing. TMZ, the big daddy of celeb blogs. The New York Times did a feature on them and revealed that TMZ pulls in an estimated $15 million to $20 million a year from their online platform. This includes money from ads, syndication deals, and exclusive content partnerships.

Here is a list of the top 25 as of 2024.

1. TMZ: TMZ is one of the most popular celebrity gossip sites with an estimated 30 million visits per month. It’s known for breaking celebrity news and has a wide range of content, including videos and exclusive interviews. TMZ updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It has a reputation for accuracy and often breaks news stories before other outlets.
2. Perez Hilton: Perez Hilton receives around 2.5 million visits per month. The site covers celebrity news and gossip, and is known for its unique and often humorous commentary. Perez Hilton updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It has a reputation for its unique take on celebrity news, though it has been involved in controversies in the past.
3. E! Online: E! Online is a well-known entertainment news site with about 26 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and TV shows. E! Online updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its reliable information and wide range of entertainment news.
4. People: People is a popular celebrity news and lifestyle magazine with an online presence that gets around 60 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, human-interest stories, and lifestyle content. People updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its reliable information and human-interest stories.
5. Vanity Fair: Vanity Fair is a popular culture, fashion, and politics magazine with an online presence that gets around 11 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and politics. Vanity Fair updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its in-depth articles and high-quality journalism.
6. BuzzFeed Celeb: BuzzFeed Celeb is a section of BuzzFeed that focuses on celebrity news and gossip. It gets around 160 million visits per month. BuzzFeed Celeb updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its fun and often humorous take on celebrity news.
7. Hollywood Life: Hollywood Life is a celebrity news and lifestyle site that gets around 7 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and beauty. Hollywood Life updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of lifestyle content in addition to celebrity news.
8. Us Weekly: Us Weekly is a popular celebrity news magazine with an online presence that gets around 20 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Us Weekly updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its reliable information and wide range of celebrity news.
9. Just Jared: Just Jared is a popular celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Just Jared updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity photos.
10. The Shade Room: The Shade Room is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 16 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. The Shade Room updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its focus on African American celebrities.
11. Page Six: Page Six is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 11 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Page Six updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its focus on New York City celebrities.
12. PopSugar: PopSugar is a popular lifestyle and entertainment site that gets around 13 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. PopSugar updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of lifestyle content in addition to celebrity news.
13. Radar Online: Radar Online is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 7 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. Radar Online updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity news stories.
14. Celebuzz: Celebuzz is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Celebuzz updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.
15. Dlisted: Dlisted is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and humor. Dlisted updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its humorous and often sarcastic take on celebrity news.
16. Jezebel: Jezebel is a popular culture and lifestyle site that gets around 8 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Jezebel updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its feminist perspective on popular culture.
17. The Hollywood Gossip: The Hollywood Gossip is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. The Hollywood Gossip updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity news stories.
18. Celebrity Insider: Celebrity Insider is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Celebrity Insider updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.
19. The Blast: The Blast is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. The Blast updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its exclusive celebrity news stories.
20. Cele|bitchy: Cele|bitchy is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 2 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Cele|bitchy updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its humorous and often sarcastic take on celebrity news.
21. Lainey Gossip: Lainey Gossip is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Lainey Gossip updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its in-depth analysis of celebrity news.
22. Gossip Cop: Gossip Cop is a celebrity news and gossip site that gets around 1 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, scandals, and exclusives. Gossip Cop updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its fact-checking of celebrity news stories.
23. OK! Magazine: OK! Magazine is a popular celebrity news magazine with an online presence that gets around 3 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. OK! Magazine updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.
24. Life & Style: Life & Style is a popular celebrity news and lifestyle magazine with an online presence that gets around 3 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. Life & Style updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its lifestyle content in addition to celebrity news.
25. In Touch Weekly: In Touch Weekly is a popular celebrity news magazine with an online presence that gets around 3 million visits per month. It covers a wide range of topics, including celebrity news, fashion, and lifestyle. In Touch Weekly updates multiple times a day, has a mobile-friendly interface, and allows comments on its posts. It is known for its wide range of celebrity news content.

Other Notable Celebrities / Blogs

• Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle blog Goop, is a one-stop-shop for everything from health and wellness tips to fashion advice. With its sleek design and high-quality content, it’s no wonder Goop has become a go-to source for lifestyle inspiration.
• Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James Blog – Her blog is a celebration of Southern charm and style. From delicious recipes to style tips, this blog is a must-follow for anyone who loves all things Southern.
• Miley Cyrus actually uses YouTube
• Katy Perry – has a blog page she uses to communicate with her fans
• Vanessa Hudgens has a personal blog that’s quite fun to read
• Zooey Deschanel blogs a lot about positivity and shares a whole bunch of cute stuff
• Beyoncé Beyonce loves to share photos & videos on her personal site
• Kourtney Kardashian likes to blog and share tips to her mom followers on her blog.
• Lady Gaga likes to share her latest news on her blog
• Nicole Richie shares personal photos, videos and tips on her blog part of her website.
• JAY-Z likes to curate a lifestyle blog
• Lauren Conrad talks about fashion tips and loves to give design advice on her website
• Hayley Williams kept her fans up to date on Paramore’s blog to. Now she’s most active on Instagram
• Aziz Ansari is hilarious in his writing and updates his fans frequently on his site
• Joseph Gordon is also a Tumblr user. He shares many creative projects he worked on
• Whitney Port loves about fashion gives style tips on her site as well
• Pete Wentz, share his thoughts and tips on his blog
• Billy Corgan shares the latest news about the Smashing Pumpkins and his other projects on the blog
• Matthew Gray Gubler has a famous blog at matthewgraygubler.com
• Wil Wheaton from star trek became yet another internet sensation

FAQs

What is a celebrity blog?

A celebrity blog is a website or online platform that focuses on providing news, updates, gossip, and insights about celebrities. It typically covers the latest happenings, events, rumors, and scandals related to famous individuals in the entertainment industry.

Are all celebrity blogs trustworthy / reliable?

The reliability of celebrity blogs can vary significantly. While some blogs strive to provide accurate information and fact-check their content, others may prioritize sensationalism and rely on unverified sources. It’s important to critically evaluate the credibility of the blog, consider multiple sources, and be cautious of potentially misleading or false information.

Are celebrity blogs ethical?

Ethics in celebrity blogging can be subjective and dependent on individual perspectives. Some blogs prioritize respecting celebrities’ privacy, providing accurate information, and avoiding harmful content. However, others may engage in invasive practices, paparazzi stalking, or publishing unverified rumors. It’s essential for bloggers to maintain a balance between entertainment value and responsible journalism.

Are celebrity blogs legal?

In general, celebrity blogs are legal as long as they adhere to the laws and regulations governing content creation and publication. However, blogs that engage in defamatory, malicious, or invasive practices may face legal consequences. It’s crucial for bloggers to respect privacy rights and avoid spreading false information that can harm someone’s reputation.

Can I interact with celebrities on their blogs?

Yes for some, many celebrity blogs allow for comments or have social media links where you can interact. However, remember to always be respectful and considerate in your interactions.

How do celebrity blogs gather their information?

Celebrity blogs obtain information from various sources, including news agencies, interviews, press releases, paparazzi photographs, social media posts, and insider tips. Some bloggers may have connections within the industry or rely on anonymous sources, which can impact the accuracy and reliability of the information presented.

Original Comparison from 2011

Google Pagerank (0 to 10): the actual Pagerank was used on the algorithm.

Alexa Rank (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on the Alexa Rank (i.e., 150k and up, 150k-100k, 100k-75k, 75k-50k) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10). To get an idea of Alexa Rank, now in 2016 celebrity trivia website Taddlr reportedly averages 1 million monthly visitors with an 80k Alexa Rank.

Bloglines Subscribers (0 to 10): Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., 1-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-200) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Technorati Authority (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-100, 100-200, 200-400,400-600) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

#1	Perez Hilton	7	10	10	10	37
#2	TMZ	8	10	8	10	36
#3	ValleyWag	7	8	10	10	35
#4	The Superficial	7	9	9	9	34
#5	Defamer	7	7	9	8	31
#6	Gawker	7	9	5	10	31
#7	WWTDD	6	9	8	7	30
#8	Egotastic	6	10	7	7	30
#9	Jezebel	7	7	7	9	30
#10	Go Fug Yourself	7	7	10	6	30
#11	Pink is the new blog	7	6	9	7	29
#12	Celebrity Babies	4	7	10	8	29
#13	PopSugar	7	8	5	8	28
#14	Dlisted	6	9	4	9	28
#15	I am Not Obsessed	6	7	4	7	24
#16	Celebitchy	5	8	5	7	23
#27	CityRag	6	7	4	5	22
#18	Jossip	4	5	7	6	22
#19	PopCrunch	4	8	2	7	21
#20	HollyScoop	6	6	2	7	21
#21	Dotspotter	7	7	1	5	20
#22	Celebrity Gossip	5	7	1	7	20
#23	Hollywood Rag	6	6	1	6	19
#24	The Bosh	6	6	3	4	19
#25	Splash News	6	5	1	6	18

The post Top 25 Celebrity Blogs – Rank, Revenue & Traffic Stats for 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Should we create a bloggers union? This idea was floating on my head, so I decided to share with everyone.

Sometime ago there were already rumors on the Internet that some bloggers on the U.S. wanted to create such a union. Their purpose, however, was completely different from what I have in mind.

Basically they wanted to unionize the blogger profession, just like you have the dentists or writers union. Their main concern was health care and similar issues.

Now while this could be a good idea, I think that we need something more practical on the Web. That is, a union focused on helping and protecting bloggers with several problems, including:

1. Copyright infringement and content scraping
2. Online scams
3. Legal threats from companies and third parties

The union would be able to provide help for bloggers with similar problems in different ways. First of all it could have a fund, based on donations of members and other volunteers, to help bloggers facing legal issues.

Secondly, it would also provide advice on those issues. Ideally we would have some attorneys aboard, counseling the members on what action to take on the different situations,

Finally, the members itself could help each other to solve potential problems by blogging about them. Suppose one day the union grows to 2,000 members. If one of the members gets scammed by an online company, he would forward the problem to the union, and upon verification that the problem is real, we could ask all the 2,000 members to write a post outing that company.

I am not sure about you, but if I were an online company, I would think twice before messing around with such large group of bloggers. Combined we could reach millions of people on a matter of days, and probably hurt the reputation of some small businesses for good.

Obviously all matters would need to be taken seriously and not lightly. Each problem would need to be evaluated by a board before actions were to be taken.

Still I think it could work. Right now small bloggers are just too isolated to be able to fight for their rights. You see pretty every day a case where someone is getting scammed, someone else is getting threatened by a company just because he expressed his opinions and so on.

Should we get together, I am sure people would think twice before messing up.

What do you think about the idea? Would you be interested in joining? Any suggestions on how it could work?

I have created a private mailing list on Google to discuss the idea (the mailing itself come evolve to become the union). If you want to join just use the contact form and let me know in what email I should send you an invite.

Update: The union would work for all bloggers, regardless of their location or in what language they blog.

Update 2: Looks like many people are misunderstanding my idea. When I used the word “union” it was not on the strict sense of the term. This has nothing to do with getting people to pay money or anything like traditional unions. Perhaps it is more a kind of association or simply a group.

The post The Bloggers Union (or Association) appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Last year I started experimenting with online video. I focused mostly on screencasts, doing some blog reviews and how-to videos. I liked to work with video, and found that it has many benefits. After some time I also realized that it carries some drawbacks, though. Below you will find what I learned from it.

PROS

1. Video sets you apart from the crowd. Most people are able to setup a blog and start writing text posts. Current blogging and publishing platforms make it a no-brainer even for 5-year old children. Video, on the other hand, requires a special setup (e.g., a video camera, screen capturing and editing software). Using video can therefore set your blog or site apart from the crowd.

2. Video appeals to a different audience. There is a great number of online users that prefer to watch videos over reading text content. YouTube’s popularity is no coincidence. Adding video to your site could widen your potential audience and bring new visitors aboard.

3. Video enables you to show rather than tell. Demonstrating things and explaining some concepts can be easier with video. Sites that have a good amount of how-to articles and tutorials could therefore benefit from the format.

4. Video can be more personal. Video will bring out your voice and possibly your face. Needless to say that this is a much stronger way to interact with your visitors. Secondly, if you want to develop your personal brand, video could help with that.

5. Video reaches different online channels. Given the immense popularity of online video sites, YouTube above them all, video could be used to tap into different marketing channels and new traffic generation opportunities.

CONS

1. Video requires more preparation. Casual videos can be shot on the spot. If you want to produce something more professional, however, you will need to work on the setup, script and related activities. In other words, you will need to work even before you start shooting the video.

2. Video takes time to edit and upload. Apart from preparing the video before you shoot it, you will also need to dedicate a good amount of time to the editing and uploading processes. Choosing the right format, video platform and player are also areas that will need attention.

3. Video is not optimal for search engines. Google and other search engines are evolving fast regarding how they index videos. That being said, text is still king if you want to optimize your site for organic traffic. One solution for this is to offer video transcripts, but this will require some extra work on your side.

4. Video is not suitable for all topics. Depending on the topic or type of content that you want to create, video might not be suitable at all. Lists of resources, extensive articles and detailed researches, for example, are better presented in textual format.

5. Not everyone likes video. While there are many Internet users that swear by online video, there are just as many that can’t stand it. Those are mostly people that don’t have too much time to surf the web, and who prefer to access the information in textual format, because it allows them to scan through the content, and filter only the bit of information that they need.

Overall I think it is worth a try though. Video is certainly going to be a huge part of the web in the coming years, and the sooner you get used to it, the better.

What about you, have you experimented with producing online video? What did you learn from it?

The post The Pros and Cons of Using Video in Your Site or Blog appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I was browsing through my RSS reader today and came across an interesting post from Brian Clark, titled Since When Are Blogs Not Social Media?. Here is a quote from it:

I’ve noticed a strange trend lately.

For some reason, people seem to be equating social media with social networking.

At the same time, they seem to be treating blogging as something other than social media.

I found his post interesting because that trend is something I have been noticing myself. It looks like for many people social media is the collection of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

Well, it is much more than that.

Social media are the various forms of user generated content and the collection of websites and applications that enables people to interact and share information online.

Complicated? Well here is a list of things that are part of the social media:

• online forums (e.g., DigitalPoint)
• blogs (e.g., WordPress)
• social networking sites (e.g., Facebook)
• social bookmarking sites (e.g., Reddit)
• video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube)
• photo sharing sites (e.g. Flickr)
• streaming sites (e.g., Ustream)
• user reviews (e.g., Amazon)
• crowdsourcing (e.g., Wikipedia)
• content aggregators (e.g., FriendFeed)

As you can see, social media is much wider than what some people think. It is also much older. We could say that the first Usenet (a form of distributed discussion system) developed in 1980 was already social media.

The post What Is Social Media? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

I must admit that I tend to forget some of these myself, so hopefully this post will also serve as a checklist to go through once in a while. What about you, do you forget them?

1. Proofread. If you browse around the blogosphere you will notice that the vast majority of the bloggers do not proofread. Confusions with its and it’s, your and you’re, and their and they’re are very common. So the next time you finish writing a post or article, remember to proofread it. If it is a guest article or a linkbait piece, proofread it one more time. Check out the article 8 Proofreading Tips And Techniques for tips on this topic.

2. Backup. Over the past year I had around five friends coming to me on MSN and asking: “Hey Daniel, my blog crashed, and I had no backups, any tips on how to solve it?” Trust me, you really don’t want to find yourself in that position. Backup regularly if you do it manually. The best option, however, would be to get a script or your hosting provider to do automatic daily backups. Read Backup Your Blog Regularly to find more instructions on how to backup a WordPress blog.

3. Link to older posts. Linking to older posts can increase your traffic and search engine rankings. Additionally, it can also give more information for the readers that want to go deeper into certain subjects. If you have been blogging for months already you probably have a vast and rich archive, so use it. Read more about this on 10 Easy Ways to Improve Internal Linking on Your Blog.

4. Answer to comments. When you started blogging I am pretty sure that you got excited with the first few comments that arrived. You would even take the time to answer to each of them individually. That approach helps to create loyal readers and to build a community around them. Even if your blog is much more popular now, do not neglect the comments. At the very minimum you want to answer the people that post direct questions to you.

5. Answer to emails. Depending on the size of your audience it might become cumbersome to answer to all emails, but you should try nonetheless. Create a standard letter to common questions that you get asked. Answer to them in batches. Do whatever it takes, but try to be responsive to people that want to interact with you. It might be the difference between an upset visitor and a faithful reader. If you have a hard time dealing with your email, check these 10 tips to manage it more efficiently.

6. Approve comments. If you use comment moderation (and you should unless you get very low volumes of spam) you should approve pending comments on a regular basis. There is nothing worse than taking the time to leave a meaningful comment on a blog and not being able to see it published within a couple of hours. Not to mention when your comment doesn’t get published at all.

7. Check the spam folder. This point is valid both for your blog comments and for your emails. Some legitimate comments and emails might slip to the spam folder. This is not your fault, but it is not fault of the sender either, so check these folders once in a while to make sure people are not getting ignored.

8. Upgrade WordPress. Common sense, yet many bloggers are reluctant to upgrade their WordPress software. Some people deliberately choose to use older versions. That could be possible if you know what you are doing (i.e. if you know to patch the security holes). If that is not your case, though, just stick with the latest version. Here is a guide to update WordPress.

9. Update WordPress plugins. Not all plugins are compatible with all WordPress versions. Some require special functions or features that are found only on a particular version, and they might end up messing up your blog. Some of them also come with bugs and security problems, which get fixed by the author on consecutive versions.

10. Network. Ask ten bloggers what is the secret of their success, and I am sure that at least half of them will mention their network of contacts and friends. Sometimes who you know is more important than what you know. Keep that in mind and try to network with people as often as possible. As a blogger you have numerous way to do it.

Is there anything else that we tend to forget but shouldn’t?

The post 10 Things That Bloggers Tend to Forget, But Shouldn’t! appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Most people are able to design a website in Photoshop, but very few can transform the PSD file into a functional WordPress theme. In fact there are many online companies that make a good living by providing such design-to-code services. Besides that, you can convert PSD file to WordPress theme. You can find freelancers on Upwork or Fiverr to help convert your PSD file.

Well, there is a new project that is aiming to revolutionize that segment. Called Divine Project, those guy are basically creating a software that will transform PSD files into WordPress themes automatically and for free.

I haven’t tested it yet, but if they hold true to the promises it will be a pretty neat tool.

The software is currently in beta mode, and only available to the Windows platform. If you will or have already played with it, let us know how it worked out.

The post Free PSD to WordPress Software appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

You probably know that top domain names sell for big bucks, right? But exactly how much money are we talking about, and what are those top domains? Well, I just came across a list that has over 50 of the most expensive domains ever sold.

Here are some of the top ones from Wikipedia:

Business.com – Sold for $7,500,000 in 1999 (Remember: This was pretty much a “business” sale with a developed name)

Diamonds.com – Sold for $7,500,000

Shop.com – Sold for $3,500,000 in 2001

The post Most Expensive Domain Names Ever appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

A big thank you for all the 71 participants. There were some very interesting tutorials among the submissions (one of them is even reporting a “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded” error; I guess the article was very popular…).

Participants have until next Thursday (January 31) to post a list with their favorite tutorials, and the winners will be declared on the following day.

Now to the list with all the tutorials. Browse around them, subscribe to the blogs you will discover, and have fun!

Blogging

• Google Analytics for n00bs – Using statistics by Viraj.
• How To Run A Fantabulous Blog Contest by Vijay.
• How to make a Killer Blog by Honeytech.
• Backup guide for bloggers by Mehmet.
• Tutorial: How to print blog articles the smart way by Jacob.
• A complete guide: How to make your post attractive using images by Vijay
• 5+1 Ways of promoting your Blog/Site/Brand name in your college by Ashfame.
• 8 Effective Ways to Increase RSS Readership by Tejvan.
• How to Feature Your Best Posts in Your Sidebar by Matt.
• Effective Linking With Your Old Post in 10 Steps by Dexter.
• How To Launch a Blog Successfully? by Mr. Gee.
• How to incorporate Google Custom Search engine with Adsense into your WordPress blog by Zaheer.
• How to Install WordPress (Chinese) by Young
• How to Add More Sidebar Text Widgets by Lori.
• How to Write Scannable Content: A 6-Step Approach by Daniel.
• Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight by Joel.
• Absolute Guide to Losing Readers by Ronald.

Health & Lifestyle

• How To Stop Worrying by Dee.

Make Money Online

• How to list an eBay auction for maximum profit by Mike Panic.
• How to go from $0 to $7000 per month and back to $0 again by Patrick.
• How To Make Money Online By Exploiting Your Grandma (An Easy 7 Step Program) by Sucker.
• How I made $1,000+ from Dead Blogspot Blogs with SedoParking! by Jacky

Other Topics

• How to Take Someone Down that is MUCH Bigger than You by Max.
• Fussy’s Handy Ways To Ruin Your Marriage by Mrs. Fussypants.
• Shopping at Adambeauty.com – simple tutorial by Paris.
• How to Write a Memoir to Remember by Nancy.
• How To Write A Letter of Complaint to Your Bank by Pettinger
• How to buy Wedding Invitations Online by Rhonda.
• Questions on Economics You’ve Always Wanted to Ask by Tejvan
• WFMW: Jon Udell’s Library Lookup by Melanie.
• Tutorial: How to Write a Business Letter by Chrissy.
• How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints by Levi.
• Possessive vs. Plural: Getting it Right by Corner Scribe.
• Tutorial on Forward Motion Application with Transcription and Video by Rewsnat.
• How to do your Due Diligence when purchasing land on eBay by Carol.
• Drain and Flush Your Water Heater To Extend Its Life by Chester.

SEO & Web Development

• Optimize your Blog Post for Google – Tips that you might not have heard by Shankar.
• How do you make a scroll box for HTML code? by Melanie.

Technology & Software

• How to connect your Laptop/PC/Computer to your TV by Aseem.
• Ghid de instalare Windows XP (Romanian) by Napster.
• How to extract and open .daa files for free by Sumesh.
• A tutorial on mastering Digital Photography in minutes! by Praval
• How to Remove CD/DVD Scratches Using a Toothpaste by Rhodilee.
• How to RSS like a Rockstar… (Part 1) by Lucy.
• How to Play Downloaded Videos on Your iPod, Xbox 360, or DVD Player by Engtech.
• Como criar sua pandoras battery para o psp (Portuguese) by Leandro.
• How To Assemble And Build A PC by JohnTP.

The post Blog Writing Project: 71 Tutorials for Your Delight appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Imagine the internet as one big thriving city.

Now, similar to how a great location can elevate a store, a perfect domain holds the key to your website’s success, acting as the foundation for your online presence.

Finding the best domain names is not an easy task, though. As I’ve mentioned, their value lies in the “location” – a combination of memorability, relevance, and simplicity.

The domain name acts as the gateway to your digital presence. It has a huge impact on your brand’s reputation, search rankings, and ability to gain recognition in the vast online world.

The question is, how do you secure your desired domain name?

Lucky for you, my good fellas, I am here to unravel the seven secrets to uncovering the perfect domain name for your business.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to set the stage for a successful online journey.

What Is a Domain Name?

Before we dig deeper into the world of domain name generators, we need to make one thing perfectly clear.

What is a domain name?

I’m glad you asked.

A domain name is a strong website address representing a company name or brand.

The availability is checked using a domain name generator to find suitable options. For instance, can include country code TLDs like “.uk” for specific regions. When selecting a domain, factors like search volume and relevance are considered.

Additionally, domain names can be used to set up custom email addresses and create a professional online presence for businesses, individuals, and organizations.

They are truly valuable assets, so securing a meaningful and relevant domain name is crucial for establishing an online presence, attracting visitors, and building a successful website.

The 7 Characteristics of the Best Domain Names

As I already hinted, choosing the perfect domain name is a pivotal step in establishing a strong online presence.

And as promised, here are the seven essential characteristics that the best domain names possess.

These seven tips guarantee memorable, relevant, and effective domain names that will attract visitors.

Take notes!

1. They Are Short and Concise

Right off the bat, good domain names are short. It is not a coincidence that all the three-letter and four-letter .com domains are already gone and that the five-letter ones are going fast as well.

Although there is no set number of characters that you should aim for, just remember:

The shorter, the better.

Aim for fewer than 10 characters, and never surpass 20 – that’s a red flag right there!

By choosing a unique domain that aligns with your brand and optimizing for search ranking, you can significantly impact your web presence and attract more visitors.

Examples of short and concise domain names:

• Zoom.com
• Slack.com
• Apple.com
• Nike.com
• Hulu.com

2. They Are Easy to Spell and Memorable

When it comes to selecting a domain name for an existing business, there are no absolute rules, but certain principles can significantly enhance its impact. Memorable and easy-to-spell domains are key to attracting and retaining customers and your loyal visitors.

A domain that customers can effortlessly recall and type into their browsers improves the overall user experience.

Additionally, web hosts often recommend short, straightforward domains to enhance brand recognition and ease of access.

This makes it a valuable investment for any business seeking to strengthen its online presence. If you’re in that category, what are you waiting for?

Memorable domain name examples:

• ZenZone.com
• CatchyCafe.com
• BrightBloom.com

3. They Are Relevant To the Website’s Content

The importance of having a domain name that is relevant to a website’s content or purpose cannot be emphasized enough. When users come across a domain that aligns with what they are searching for, it creates an instant connection and trust.

Moreover, domain names that incorporate keywords related to the website’s niche can significantly impact search engine visibility, making it easier for potential visitors to find the site.

This relevance also contributes to a website’s overall brand identity and market positioning – which is crucial if you want to grow online.

Domain registrars and hosting providers offer tools to check domain name availability and generate domain name ideas, allowing businesses to find brandable domain names that perfectly represent their offerings.

Examples of good brandable domain names that are relevant to the website’s content:

• EcoLivingEssentials.com – an eco-friendly blog
• StyleHiveBoutique.com – for shopping
• CulinaryQuests.com – for cooking recipes

4. They have a .com extension

Having a brand name with the .com extension is vital due to its universal appeal and credibility. The choice of a domain name extension can significantly impact a brand’s visibility and discoverability.

It’s a known fact – when users search for a desired domain name, they often default to .com as it’s the most recognizable domain extension worldwide.

Owning the .com version enhances brand trust and memorability, and it prevents competitors from benefiting from potential customer confusion.

Most hosting providers and domain registrars actually prioritize .com domains, which ensures easy accessibility and seamless setup for businesses.

When users conduct a Google search, websites with the .com extension tend to rank higher, as search engines often perceive them as more authoritative and relevant.

Examples of famous .com extension websites:

• Facebook.com
• Amazon.com
• YouTube.com
• Instagram.com
• Twitter.com
• Hulu.com

5. They Are Unique and Brandable

The significance of brandable and unique domain names is my next point, and your next note.

Distinctive domain names are crucial as they provide a gateway for businesses and individuals to establish a lasting online presence – which is the Holy Grail, right?

Well, unlike generic or commonplace domain names, which are buried in a sea of existing brand names, a brandable domain name pops, leaving a lasting impression on potential visitors.

When embarking on a domain name search, though, businesses must focus on crafting a web address that aligns with their brand identity and resonates with their target audience.

It can’t be just something that they came up with out of the blue.

It has to be unique and relevant to the website’s content (which was my previous point).

Web hosting companies often offer domain registration services, guiding users to select suitable names for their websites. While some may be tempted by free domain name offers, investing in a brandable and unique domain name is always considered a wise(r) decision.

Sometimes they will not be descriptive, but they can be equally efficient.

Brandable domain names make your visitors associate the name with your website and its content. (Notice that brandable domains can be descriptive at the same time, but that is not always the case.)

Examples of unique brandable domain names:

• Google.com
• Yahoo.com
• eBay.com

6. They Don’t Contain Hyphens or Numbers

Having a domain name without hyphens or numbers is significant for several reasons.

Firstly, it enhances the domain’s professionalism and memorability.

Again, a well-known fact – users tend to find hyphens and numbers confusing and are more likely to forget or mistype them.

This can be a deal breaker as it can lead to lost website traffic and potential customers.

Secondly, a hyphenated domain can raise concerns about its authenticity, as it may look like a spammy or low-quality site. An uncluttered domain name, on the other hand, improves search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

An effective domain should be easy to remember and reflect the blog’s theme or business purpose!

Here’s a free tip:

Prioritize keyword research to include a few keywords that resonate with your target audience.

And last but not least, opting for a hyphen-free, number-free domain name can positively impact your chosen domain’s reputation, history, and success with your hosting provider.

Examples of domain names that don’t contain hyphens or numbers:

• Reddit.com
• LinkedIn.com
• Wikipedia.com

7. They Are Scalable and Adaptable

An adaptable and scalable domain name is essential for long-term success in the whirlwind online landscape.

When starting with a new domain, it’s crucial to consider its potential for growth and expansion.

An adaptable domain name allows businesses to diversify their offerings without the constraints of a narrow-focused name. Likewise, scalability ensures that the domain can handle increased traffic and content without hampering user experience or search engine rankings.

These two seem to go hand-in-hand.

Furthermore, being open to multiple domain extensions enables businesses to secure variations of their brand name, protecting their online identity and preventing confusion.

A clean domain history is valuable, avoiding potential penalties or associations with past unsavory activities.

A SEO friendly domain name, free of excessive hyphens or unrelated keywords, improves search engine rankings and boosts visibility.

Examples of adaptable domain names:

• Apple.com
• Netflix.com
• Microsoft.com

3 Most Common Errors With Domain Registrars

It’s not all rainbows and sunshine over here, either. Although the path to creating a top level domain seems smooth, there’s still a chance that something might go downhill in the process.

With that in mind, here are the top three issues with domain registrars:

Inaccurate Contact Information

Incorrect contact information during domain registration can spell trouble for website owners. When the provided details are inaccurate or outdated, it can lead to serious consequences on your end.

Domain registrars rely on accurate contact information to communicate with domain owners regarding renewal notices, important updates, or potential issues.

If this vital information is flawed in any way, domain owners might miss crucial notifications, risking domain expiration and potential loss of ownership.

Moreover, some domain registrars employ privacy protection, which replaces the domain owner’s contact information with generic details. While this ensures privacy, if not updated promptly, it may lead to communication lapses.

Therefore, it is essential to provide accurate and up-to-date contact information during domain registration.

This will help you a, avoid doubled letters, and ensure targeted keywords are associated with the website’s niche for better visibility and search engine rankings.

Failure To Renew Domains

Failure to renew a great domain before its expiration date can lead to unfortunate consequences, and frankly, it’s the last thing you want.

Once a domain expires, it becomes available for others to register, losing the name’s availability, and your right to ownership. To avoid this, utilizing a free tool or setting up reminders can help track domain expiration dates and ensure timely renewal.

In this case, immediate action is essential to maintain ownership and preserve the hard work invested in establishing the website.

Hidden Fees

Hidden fees in domain registrars can catch domain owners off guard, leading to unexpected expenses. And if you’re not flexible with your budget, this might be a huge problem.

While some registrars advertise low initial prices, additional charges might emerge during the registration or renewal process. These fees can include anything from privacy protection, domain transfer fees, to premium domain charges.

To avoid financial surprises like this, domain owners should carefully review the registrar’s terms and conditions before registering. Utilizing a free tool for a trademark search can also prevent trademark infringement issues.

Transparency in pricing and understanding the full cost involved are crucial to making informed decisions and managing domain expenses effectively.

Summing Up: 7 Characteristics For a Good Domain Name

To sum everything up, selecting the perfect domain name is a critical step in establishing a strong online presence. By considering the following seven characteristics, businesses can rest assured knowing that they’ve done everything for their web address.

Before I sign off, let’s go over the key takeaways one more time.

A domain name that reflects the business name or blog domain creates a clear connection with the content or purpose of the website. That’s why choosing a catchy and unique domain name enhances its memorability. Moreover, a simple domain name is easy to type and avoids confusing elements like hyphens or numbers.

Likewise, a brandable domain name distinguishes a business from competitors and fosters brand recognition. Incorporating relevant keywords also improves the domain’s visibility in search engines.

Partnering with the best domain registrar ensures excellent customer support, and being cautious of existing words within the domain name helps prevent potential trademark conflicts.

Incorporating these characteristics ensures a good domain name that aligns with a business’s goals, strengthens its online presence, and, finally, paves the way for digital success.

Good luck with your top-level domain name!

The post The 7 Characteristics of a Good Domain Name appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Fed up with crafting tutorials that fall flat?

Tired of battling disengagement and baffled readers?

You’re not alone.

How to write a tutorial that truly educate and entertain is a challenge many writers face. The importance of clear communication and engaging content is more critical than ever.

Imagine pouring hours into tutorial writing, only to be met with blank stares and bewildered criticism. The gap between your knowledge and your readers’ understanding can be disheartening.

But fear not!

In this article, we unveil 11 transformative tips on how to write a tutorial that truly resonates with your audience. From structuring to storytelling, we’ll guide you toward crafting tutorials that inspire, educate, and leave a lasting impact.

Get ready to discover techniques that will help you create outstanding tutorials from start to finish.

Why a Well-Written Tutorial Matters

Writing tutorials that provide value-packed content is crucial for attracting and retaining readers.

One of the best ways to create such content is to write an informative tutorial or guide on a subject that is sorely lacking. Such tutorials can bring a host of advantages to you as the creator.

By presenting a well-researched tutorial, you establish yourself as an authority in your field. As your tutorial gains traction and is shared, your reputation grows, earning you admiration and acknowledgment from your peers and readers alike.

Furthermore, a great tutorial that’s formatted correctly can attract numerous incoming links from other websites. As your guide becomes a go-to resource, others are more likely to reference and link to it, bolstering both your website’s credibility and its visibility in search engine rankings.

Such a tutorial has the potential to act as a magnet for web traffic. Unlike regular blog posts that often experience a rapid drop in traffic, tutorials have the ability to consistently attract visitors over time, providing sustained exposure.

It is not a stretch to say that a good tutorial can bring in as much traffic (or more) compared to 20 well-written posts.

For example, Caroline MiddleBrook’s Twitter Guide or this Flickr Guide. Both are great examples of well-written tutorials that greatly enhanced the popularity of the author by providing tremendous value to its readers.

Tip 1: Understand Your Audience’s Needs

Creating tutorials that truly connect with your audience hinges on a fundamental principle: understanding their needs. Your tutorial’s effectiveness depends on aligning its content with your readers’ knowledge level and specific requirements.

So, before you dive into writing your tutorial, take time to grasp your audience’s background, interests, goals, and motivation by answering the following fundamental questions:

Are they beginners seeking a basic understanding or experts looking for advanced insights?

What challenges do they aim to conquer through your tutorial?

What style, tone, format, and length do they gravitate toward?

By meticulously addressing these queries, you set the stage for a tutorial that is not only relevant but also compelling for your audience. This informed approach empowers you to choose the right topic, define clear objectives, structure the content logically, employ suitable language, and furnish relatable examples.

Equally significant is steering clear of common pitfalls that can undermine your tutorial’s effectiveness:

• Right-Size the Topic: Avoid the trap of encompassing too much or too little. For instance, a tutorial catering to beginner Photoshop users should focus on essential functions, not every nuanced feature.
• Assumption Adjustment: Accurately gauge your audience’s familiarity. If you’re writing for Python intermediates, ensure explanations are accessible, and not laden with jargon.
• Tone Matters: Your tone should mirror your readers’ expectations. Connect with teenagers learning guitar using an engaging, non-formal style.

Tip 2: Structure is Key

The second tip for writing a good tutorial is to create a clear and logical structure for your content. Writing tutorials in list format make them more visually appealing and increase their readability.

Some tutorials can get quite large, so developing an organized structure can help your user navigate around the different sections. You can also use a Table of Contents plugin to help you write tutorials.

Breaking your tutorial into multiple pages is another approach to bolster coherence. This ensures each section remains manageable, contributing to an enhanced learning experience. Since some users prefer that all their content is on one page, it can be a good idea to provide both single-page and multi-page options.

Furthermore, incorporating descriptive headings and subheadings aids in maintaining a logical flow, aiding readers in swiftly accessing the information they seek.

Remember, a well-structured tutorial not only enhances comprehension but also fosters a positive user experience, driving engagement and knowledge retention.

Tip 3: Use Relevant Visuals

Harnessing the power of visuals can be a game-changer. Images, screen shots, and diagrams are invaluable tools that amplify comprehension, especially when writing technical tutorials.

It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Integrating screenshots and edited images can work wonders in illustrating your instructions effectively. These visuals bridge the gap between text and action, ensuring readers grasp concepts swiftly.

The strategic placement of visuals can elevate your tutorial’s impact. By offering clear visual cues, you guide readers through intricate steps, making the difference between a tutorial that shines and one that falls short.

Tip 4: Keep It Interactive

Make your tutorial a dynamic experience by incorporating interaction. Integrate quizzes, checkpoints, and hands-on activities to keep your readers engaged and motivated.

These interactive elements offer multiple advantages:

• Strengthen Learning: Encourage readers to answer questions, perform tasks, and apply skills. This aids in reviewing and solidifying tutorial concepts. Feedback and support help correct errors and enhance performance.
• Fuel Interest: Inject challenges, rewards, and enjoyable aspects into your tutorial. This fosters reader enjoyment, curiosity, and creativity, promoting exploration and experimentation.
• Enhance Retention: Engage readers through their senses, emotions, and actions. This boosts memory and application, facilitating the transfer of learning to real-world situations.

To create an interactive tutorial:

• Utilize quizzes with varied question types (multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, and matching) and difficulty levels. Offer immediate feedback, explanations, and rewards.
• Implement checkpoints for progress monitoring. Include self-assessment, peer review, or instructor feedback.
• Incorporate hands-on activities like exercises, projects, and simulations. Provide clear instructions and guidance on how to do the activities, such as steps, examples, tips, warnings, etc.

Tip 5: Provide Real-world Applications

Link your tutorial to real-life situations for better understanding. Helpful and practical examples are key—they show how to apply what’s learned. Talking about something is one thing, doing it is another.

Choose straightforward cases that make your points clear. Examples bridge the gap between theory and action, helping readers truly get it.

Use multiple examples for different situations, if possible. Also, including source files, when relevant, adds more value.

Remember, real-world applications empower readers to not only grasp theoretical concepts but also implement them with confidence

Tips 6-11: Quick-fire Recommendations

In this section, I will list a few things to keep in mind if you want to improve your tutorial. These tips are based on some common best practices, searches, and principles of writing tutorials.

Conciseness

In the world of tutorial writing, brevity is your ally. The art of delivering succinct information wields the power to enhance clarity and understanding.

To write concisely, you should use simple and familiar words, active voice, positive statements, specific and concrete words, short and simple sentences, and most importantly, you should eliminate unnecessary fluff and verbosity.

Readers appreciate tutorials that respect their time and deliver insights without unnecessary embellishments.

Regular Updates

A tutorial, much like the digital landscape it resides in, is subject to constant evolution. Regular updates are the lifeline that sustains its relevance and utility.

As technology advances, concepts evolve, and new insights emerge, keeping your tutorial up to date ensures its continued value. To keep it fresh, you should monitor the changes, developments, or trends in your topic or field, update your tutorial accordingly, and notify your reader about the changes.

Readers seek information that’s current and applicable, and by providing fresh content, you demonstrate your commitment to their learning journey.

Error-Checking

In the pursuit of tutorial excellence, accuracy reigns supreme. A meticulous process of error-checking safeguards your content from inaccuracies and misunderstandings.

Whether it’s verifying facts, reviewing code snippets, or double-checking instructions, the effort invested in error-checking guarantees a seamless learning experience

It is also a good idea to have some other people do the same. The odds are good that they will find stuff you forgot to mention. In addition, they can provide feedback on parts where you failed to explain certain things clearly or parts where more information could have been offered.

Step-by-Step Approach

Navigating the intricate landscape of tutorial creation, whether in written or video tutorials, is akin to guiding readers on a journey. A step-by-step approach serves as the compass that ensures a seamless progression.

Each step should be built upon the previous one, creating a logical and intuitive flow. Also, it’s always better to have two simple steps than one step that is longer and more complicated.

What makes a good tutorial video in English is clear and concise explanations, step-by-step demonstrations, and engaging visual aids. Remember, you’re trying to make it easier on the reader, not harder.

Feedback Collection

The path to tutorial mastery is an ever-evolving one shaped by continuous improvement. Embracing feedback is the catalyst for this evolution. Constructive critique, whether from readers, peers, or experts, provides invaluable insights.

It highlights areas of strength and areas that warrant refinement.

To get feedback from your readers, ask for their thoughts at the end of your tutorial or after each section. When you get their opinion and thoughts about your tutorial or even just writing skills, reply politely and in a helpful way.

Promote Sharing

A tutorial’s impact isn’t limited to its immediate readership. Promoting and sharing broadens its reach and influence.

Encourage readers to share your tutorial on their networks, inviting others to benefit from your insights.

Social media, forums, and online communities serve as avenues to amplify your tutorial’s exposure. So consider providing social media buttons or links at the end of the tutorial.

Incorporating these swift yet potent recommendations fortifies your tutorial’s foundation, propelling it toward becoming a valuable, effective, and enduring educational asset.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

While crafting tutorials, steering clear of common missteps is paramount for delivering an effective learning experience. Here are key pitfalls to sidestep and strategies to ensure your tutorial’s success:

• Neglecting Clarity: Overly complex explanations can bewilder readers. Prioritize simplicity and concise language to foster easy comprehension.
• Skipping Steps: Assuming prior knowledge can alienate beginners. Break the content into detailed steps, ensuring a smooth progression even for beginners.
• Disregarding Visuals: Sparse or irrelevant visuals hinder understanding. Thoughtfully integrate images, and diagrams, and provide code snippets if you’re writing a technical tutorial to enhance clarity.
• Neglecting Structure: A haphazard flow confuses readers. Organize your tutorial logically, providing clear guidance throughout.
• Ignoring Interactivity: Passive learning lacks engagement. Incorporate quizzes, activities, and challenges to keep readers actively involved.
• Neglecting Real-world Context: Disconnecting from practical scenarios undermines relevance. Incorporate relatable examples to illustrate theoretical concepts in more detail.
• Overlooking Feedback: Ignoring reader input hampers improvement. Embrace constructive criticism to refine your tutorial over time.
• Omitting Updates: Stale content loses value. Regularly update your tutorial to reflect the latest insights and trends.

By avoiding these mistakes, you pave the way for a tutorial that enlightens, empowers, and leaves a lasting impact on your readers’ learning journey.

Conclusion

There you go – the 11 essential tips for writing well-crafted tutorials.

From audience awareness to interactive engagement, you’ve explored the pillars of impactful tutorials. Clarity, structure, and visuals form your toolkit, while feedback and updates drive continuous improvement.

As you embark on this tutorial-writing adventure, remember the impact you wield.

Your tutorials can unlock horizons, impart skills, and ignite learning in countless minds. Armed with these insights, you’re poised to shape the future of education—one tutorial at a time.

So, go forth, write purposefully, and witness your tutorials drive knowledge worldwide.

The post Writing Tutorials – 11 Essential Tips to Crafting the Ultimate Tutorial appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Blogs emerged on the Internet as personal diaries where people would publish online their daily activities and personal experiences. As the phenomenon evolved, though, bloggers started to focus on niches, providing services or useful information for readers, blurring the line between blogs and traditional websites.

Nowadays very specialized blogs like TechCrunch or PerezHilton compete directly with mainstream media, and the people behind those ventures arrive to earn tens of thousands of dollars monthly.

Despite those success stories, however, making money through a blog is not a simple task and it will probably take just as much hard work as any other project, be it online or offline.

Below you will find a check list to evaluate whether you have the requisites to become a professional blogger or not. Bear in mind that most of those points can be developed, therefore the list should also work as an action plan to improve your blogging career.

1. Time: the first point on the check list is time, without plenty of it you will find it hard to build a successful blog that generates a good monthly income. Time is important not only for writing content but also for interacting with other bloggers, gathering information, keeping updated and so on. There are bloggers out there managing to generate money despite blogging only for a couple of hours daily (i.e. John Chow), but that is the exception rather than the rule, and most of the times those bloggers already had a lot of online expertise to begin with. If you are planning to earn a full-time income from your blog there is no reason to assume that you will not need to dedicate full-time to its development.

2. Expertise on a topic: apart from having plenty of time to blog you will also need something to blog about, and you must have some expertise around the chosen topic otherwise the blog will not be credible. Do not get me wrong here, you probably will not need a PhD in Physics to blog about “alternative energy sources”, for instance, but you must have a minimum background and you must also be updated with the latest developments on that field.

3. Passion for the topic: even if you know a certain subject inside out you will still need to write about it in a persuasive and engaging way. In simple words, if you are expecting to make money through your writing you better write some damn interesting things! People can feel whether you love what you are writing about or not, and if you do they will be more likely to become loyal readers.

4. Writing skills: are you able to write without grammatical mistakes? Do you have facility to communicate concepts and ideas through words? Those are some questions that you need to answer if you are planning to make a living out of your blog. Some bloggers might get away without outstanding writing skills, but only if the content is really compelling. Do not worry if you are not a Shakespearesque writer, though, as your wiring skills will probably improve naturally along the way.

5. Technical Knowledge: like it or not blogs are based on content management software, which in turn is backed by databases, located on web servers and so on. Hosted blogging solutions (i.e. Blogger or WordPress.com) probably eliminate the need for such technical knowledge, but those platforms do not offer advanced features and they are not completely customizable. If you are planning to create a professional blog you will want to have your own domain name and run it on some paid hosting service, meaning that you will need a basic knowledge of PHP, DNS servers, MySQL (mainly for backup and server transfer issues), scripts, plugins and so on.

6. Blogging Knowledge: apart from the technical knowledge to keep your blog up and running you will also need to understand how the blogosphere is structured and how you can leverage certain features to improve the visibility of your own blog. You will probably need to learn how to use trackbacks, ping services, blog carnivals, social bookmarking sites and the like. Secondly you also want to have a basic knowledge about search engine optimization. Some successful blogs get as much as 50% of their incoming traffic from search engines, so make sure your blog is optimized right from the beginning.

7. Web Design Skills: design plays a very important role on the credibility and success of blogs. Content is surely king but an appealing design will make readers remember your site, it will make it stand out from the crowd. Someone willing to invest money in his blog right from the start could probably outsource this part, but that is not the case with most bloggers. Make sure you study some HTML, CSS and website accessibility.

8. Business/Marketing Knowledge: if your blog is supposed to generate a full-time income you will need to treat it as a business entity. Every successful venture, be it personally or professionally, is based on carefully crafted strategies. Make sure you have goals and action plans for your blog. This will help you to focus your energy and time on important activities. Secondly you also need a basic understanding of marketing and how certain techniques can be used to promote your blog across the Internet.

9. Creativity and Innovative Ideas: are you able to think out of the box? Do you have creative ideas that other people might find interesting? Most professional bloggers were also innovators on their niche. Real value is not created by doing things better but rather by doing things differently. Creativity and innovative ideas will help you to write quality posts, to discover new ways to promote your blog and to find new monetization opportunities.

10. Network of contacts: you know what they say: “It is not about what you know but who you know”. Having a network of online contacts might make the difference between a money making website and a small blog that attracts a hand full of visitors. Contacts include bloggers on your niche, bloggers on complementary niches, web designers, web developers, advertisers and the like. One of the secrets to success is to pursue win-win situations, remember that.

The post 10 Requisites for Professional Bloggers appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Ever scratched your head and asked, “what is a blog,” and why it shows up all the time in your Google searches? Well, you’re in luck! We’re about to jump into the cool world of blogs, SEO, and how they work with Google. No more wondering, no more guessing. We’re going to figure out exactly what is a blog and why Google seems to love them so much.

So, What is a Blog?

You know, lots of folks have read a blog or heard about them. But when you ask, “What’s a blog?” you’ll get a mix of answers. Is it like an online diary? A place where companies share updates? Or a website where experts chat about special topics? Truth is, blogs can be all these things, and even more.

Here’s the cool part. As the Internet keeps changing, blogs do too. They started pretty simple, but now, they’re a big deal for sharing and finding information online.

Let’s throw in a fun twist. Picture this: you’ve just set up an awesome online store in the busiest part of the digital world. You’ve got cool stuff to sell, your website looks slick, but there’s a problem – your store is invisible. Bummer, right? But, what if you had a magic keyword that could not only make your store visible, but also make it super attractive to anyone passing by online? That, my friends, is the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When done right, SEO can take your online store from being a ghost on Google’s back pages to a superstar on the first page. Now, tell me, who wouldn’t want that?

How Blogs Started and How They’ve Changed

To get a good idea of what a blog is, let’s go back to the late 1990s. The Internet was new and full of possibilities. This is when blogs started. They were online diaries where people could write about their lives and share their thoughts.

Now, blogs have changed a lot. They’re not just online diaries anymore. Businesses use them to share updates and promote their products. Experts write blogs to share their knowledge. News websites use blogs to share different kinds of stories.

Blogs have changed from being simple websites for personal stories to complex websites that encourage conversation and share lots of different kinds of information. They’re a big part of how we use the Internet today.

The Importance of SEO in Blogging

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” and it’s a vital tool to help your blog stand out on the internet. SEO is like a spotlight that makes your blog easier to find in the vast world of the internet. It helps search engines like Google find your blog when people are looking for the kind of information you’re sharing.

SEO and Keywords

The first part of SEO is using keywords, the words or phrases people type into search engines. If you’re writing a blog about dogs, for instance, you might include keywords like “best dog food,” “dog training tips,” or “how to groom a dog.”

Linking Strategy

Another part of SEO is linking. You can create links between your blog and other websites or different pages on your own blog. These links help search engines understand what your blog is about and how it connects to other relevant information.

User Engagement

The last piece of the SEO puzzle is user engagement. The more your readers interact with your blog—by reading posts, leaving comments, or sharing your content—the better your blog will do in search results.

To wrap up, SEO is a crucial part of blogging. It makes your blog easier to find and can help boost your visibility on search engines. But remember, the goal isn’t just to rank high on search results—it’s to provide valuable, engaging content to your readers.

Misconceptions About Blogs

Even though blogs are everywhere, some people still get them wrong. Some people think blogs are only online diaries. But while many blogs are personal, they can also be so much more.

Today, businesses use blogs to share updates with their customers and promote new products. News websites use blogs to share stories in a more casual way. Blogs can be about any topic you can think of. This shows how blogs are not all the same—they’re diverse and versatile.

Blogs Today: What Are They?

So, let’s go back to our main question: “What is a blog?” In 2024, a blog is a flexible website where people, businesses, and organizations can share ideas, news, and stories. It’s a tool for making connections, getting people involved, and building communities. Blogs can be personal or professional, promotional or educational, and so much more.

Basically, a blog is like the Internet itself: it’s diverse, dynamic, and always changing. It shows how powerful it is when people connect and communicate. Blogs bring together people from all over the world. As long as the Internet keeps growing, blogs will too, always changing to keep up with new trends. So let’s celebrate blogs, which have changed how we connect, talk, and find information online.

From Online Diaries to Powerful Websites

When blogs first started, they were like online diaries. People would write about their day, their thoughts, and their experiences, and then post it on the internet for everyone to see. This was a big deal because it meant anyone with a computer could share their story with the world.

But as time went on, blogs started to change. Businesses saw that they could use blogs to talk directly to their customers. They could post updates, show off new products, or just share what was going on behind the scenes.

Newspapers and other news websites started to use blogs too. They would post more casual stories or share their opinions.

Even regular people started to use blogs in new ways. They would write about things they were experts in. For example, someone who loves to cook might start a blog to share their recipes. Someone who knows a lot about computers might write reviews of the latest tech gadgets.

Blogs Aren’t Just One Thing

Some people think that all blogs have to be about certain topics or written in a certain way. But that’s not true. One of the best things about blogs is that they can be about anything and take many forms.

Let’s say someone wants to start a website where they answer questions. They could make a forum where people post their questions and other people answer them. They could make a regular website and just post all the questions and answers on one page. They could make a wiki, which is a kind of website where anyone can edit the pages.

Or they could make a blog. Each post could be a question and an answer. Readers could leave comments to talk about the answers. This shows that blogs can be used for lots of different things, not just the stuff people usually think of.

Blogs Today

In 2024, blogs are still a really important part of the internet. People use them to share ideas, businesses use them to talk to their customers, and anyone can use them to learn something new. Blogs have changed a lot to keep up with new trends and technologies, but they still have the same main goal: to help people communicate and share ideas.

As the internet keeps changing, blogs will change too. But no matter what, blogs will always be a key part of the internet. Whether it’s a personal diary, a business update, or a how-to guide, blogs let people share their thoughts with the world.

So, a blog in 2024 is a powerful tool that can be used for many different things. It helps connect people, businesses, and ideas. And as long as there are stories to tell and ideas to share, blogs will always be around.

How Does a Blog Work?

If we think about a blog like a car, we’ve been looking at the outside so far – what it looks like, what it does. But now, let’s lift up the hood and check out the engine. What makes a blog work?

A blog is a type of website, kind of like how a pickup truck is a type of vehicle. And just like cars and trucks have different features, so do websites. Here are some features that make blogs special:

1. Posts go up in order: Just like your Instagram feed, blogs show the newest post first. So, if you’re reading a blog, you’ll always see the latest news right at the top.
2. Regular updates: Blogs aren’t like books where the author writes everything at once. Instead, they keep adding new posts, keeping the content fresh.
3. Comments are welcome: Blogs usually allow readers to leave comments. This lets the readers and the blog author chat, share ideas, and ask questions.
4. Easy to share: Other blog authors can interact using trackbacks and pingbacks, which are fancy ways of saying they can link to each other’s posts.
5. Follow the feed: Blogs usually have RSS feeds, which let readers subscribe and get updates whenever a new post goes up.

Remember, all these features together make a blog a blog. It’s like how a car needs an engine, wheels, and seats to be a car. One feature by itself isn’t enough.

The Different Types of Blogs

Just like there are all kinds of cars – sports cars, family vans, off-roaders – there are all kinds of blogs. Let’s check out some of them.

1. Personal Blogs: This is the original type of blog, like an online diary where people share their thoughts and experiences.
2. Business Blogs: Many companies use blogs to connect with their customers. They can share news, promote products, or just talk about what they do.
3. Professional Blogs: Some people have a lot of knowledge about a specific topic, like cooking, coding, or carpentry. They can use a blog to share their expertise.
4. News and Media Blogs: News outlets use blogs to share news in a more informal way, sometimes letting their readers comment or even write guest posts.
5. Educational Blogs: Teachers and learners alike can use blogs to share information and resources. They’re like virtual classrooms!
6. Community Blogs: These blogs bring together people who share a common interest or experience, like video game fans or new parents.

Just like no two people are the same, no two blogs are the same. Each one is unique, and that’s what makes them so great. So, the next time someone asks you, “What is a blog?”, you’ll be able to tell them it’s not just an online diary, but a powerful tool that comes in many shapes and sizes.

What’s Your Definition of a Blog?

Alright, folks! It’s your turn. We’ve talked a lot about what a blog is, but now we want to know what YOU think. We’ve all come across different kinds of blogs, right? Some are funny, some are serious. Some are about hobbies, and others are about work or study stuff. So, you might have your own unique view on what a blog really is.

Here’s a challenge for you. Can you come up with your own definition of a blog? You’ve heard mine. You’ve read about the history and evolution, how blogs are used today, and even about their technical aspects. But what do YOU think a blog is? What features do you think are most important?

And let’s take this challenge up a notch. Let’s also talk about the future. You know how the Internet is always changing, and things get outdated fast, right? Well, how do you see blogs evolving in the future? How important do you think they will be? Will they change in big ways, or will they stay more or less the same?

Remember, there are no wrong answers here. Your opinion matters because, guess what, you’re a part of this internet world too! Just like how blogs have evolved from being personal diaries to so much more, your ideas could shape what the future holds for them.

So, go ahead and jot down your thoughts in the comments section below. Share your definition of a blog and tell us what you think the future looks like for blogs. This is your chance to join the conversation and shape the narrative about this crucial part of the internet. So don’t be shy, let’s hear what you’ve got to say!

The post What Is A Blog? Unraveling the Mysteries of Digital Storytelling in 2024 appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Are you letting your killer posts languish in your archives, sandwiched between January and March? How many great posts have you published in months gone by that new visitors will never see?

Readers come to your blog for its content, so it’s important to show them straight away what you have to offer.

Your recent posts will hopefully go some way towards doing this, but to rely on them alone is to short-change the long-term effort you’ve put into building your blog. This post contains 9 blog hacks you can use to show new (and regular) visitors the best that your blog has to offer.

1. Introduce highlighted content. This could be a list of reader favorites, popular posts, most commented posts, and so on. Most bloggers handle this with a ‘Popular Posts’ widget. This is one of the most important elements of your sidebar, as it shows new visitors straight away why your site is worth exploring.

2. Take control of your highlighted content. Though most bloggers handle ‘Popular Posts’ with a plug-in there are plenty of benefits to doing it manually. You can choose which posts you want to highlight, and mix up new and old content. If you’ve got a guest-post at another blog, or if one of your posts makes it big on social media, you can tailor your ‘Popular Posts’ to suit the incoming audience.

3. Make your highlighted content unmissable. Your list of killer posts is probably more useful and interesting to new visitors than anything else in your sidebar. The perfect place for it is right under your feed button, towards the top of your sidebar. If you want to be more inventive with your placement you can, but keep it above the fold.

4. Use images to draw attention to your best posts. Images are eye-contact magnets. Rather than displaying your best posts as text links, why not create images for them? The strategy I use on my own blog is to make a medium-sized button from the image I included with the post, and add the headline as text over the image. It’s something a lot of readers seem to enjoy interacting with, and it adds some more visual interest to the blog.

5. Regularly change your highlighted content. Don’t forget about regular readers when highlighting content. If your list is static then visitors will engage with it once and forget about it, thinking they’ve seen everything it has to offer.

If you regularly change your highlighted posts you give new and old visitors a reason to engage with the content you’ve highlighted. One advantage to using images to highlight your content, as suggested above, is that it’s immediately clear when you’ve added or subtracted an item from the list.

6. Give readers somewhere to go when they’ve finished reading. Many bloggers use a ‘related posts’ plug-in, and while I do like this plug-in, I suspect that it suffers somewhat from being outside the content of the post. Firstly, feed readers miss it. Secondly, readers turn down their attention levels once they’ve finished an article. One way to best ensure readers explore your related content is to recommend it at the end of your article. For example:

Interested in this topic? You might enjoy another article I’ve written called …

Adding the suggestion to your article will catch readers while they’re still in ‘reading mode’ and devoting maximum attention to your words. However, I’d suggest using this only when you’ve written something else directly related to the topic. If your recommendation is spot-on, readers are likely to listen to other recommendations you make in future.

7. Weave targeted internal links into your posts as you write. This can be done badly, or it can be done well. A good guide is to make sure your links are highly relevant to the keywords you’re making a hyperlink. Linking a specific match (for example, linking the words ‘writing with clarity’ to an article you’ve written on the same topic) will be appreciated by your readers. Linking vague terms (like ‘blogging’, or ‘making money’), however, is not good usability because it’s simply too unclear where the link will lead.

8. Mix up posts linking out with posts linking in. A great way to draw readers deeper into your blog is to highlight great content in dedicated posts. You could highlight a selection of the best posts last month, or the most popular posts on a specific topic. You might highlight posts from this time last-year, as Lifehacker does, or list some undiscovered gems from the early days of your blog.

9. Give readers a birds-eye view of your blog. Your archives present the perfect opportunity to allow readers to view your blog from a top-down perspective, with everything it has to offer on one page. The SRG-Clean Archives plug-in presents all your post headlines under sub-headings for each month, and displays the comment count besides each. This allows readers to browse through your headlines and explore those they’re interested in.

The post 9 Blog Hacks to Help Show Readers Your Best Stuff appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Most WordPress users had this experience at least once. You find a cool plugin around the web, rush to upload it to your server, activate it, and then when you check the blog to see if its working, bang! The blog crashes and you can’t even load the homepage….

Obviously this is not WordPress’ fault. The crash usually comes from bad code that was used in the plugin itself, or from a conflict that is coming from another plugin already installed on the blog.

Either way it is a frustrating experience, and here is what you can do to get out of it.

1. Try to de-activate the plugin

The first thing you should try is to de-activate the plugin. Simply try to login into the admin area. If that is working, go the list of plugins and de-active the one you just installed.

2. Rename the plugin via FTP

Many times the crash will affect the WordPress admin area as well, so you won’t be able to de-activate it. In those situations you should try to rename the plugin file or folder via FTP.

3. Delete the plugin via FTP

If simply renaming the plugin was not enough, try to delete it completely. This will try to stop your WordPress install from loading the buggy code.

4. De-activate all the plugins via PHPMyAdmin

Some plugins will alter tables in your WordPress database when you activate them. As a result your blog might keep crashing even after you delete the plugins via FTP.

If that is the case, you will need to log into cPanel, and open the PHPMyAdmin interface. Then select the WordPress database, and browse inside the “wp-options” table. Look for the “active_plugins” column, and edit it. Inside the “options_value” field you will find something like this:

a:31:{i:0;s:13:"AddMySite.php";i:1;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";
i:2;s:23:"all_in_one_seo_pack.php";i:3;s:16:"authenticate.php";
i:4;s:28:"breadcrumb-navigation-xt.php";i:5;s:18:
"codeautoescape.php";i:6;s:37:

These lines represent the active plugins in your blog (you can read more on this issue here). Delete them all and save. This should automatically de-activate every plugin. Now check if your blog is live again, and if the admin area is working. They should be.

The post A Plugin Broke Your WordPress Blog? Here Is What To Do appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Unless your blog is a secondary part of an existing website you should always install WordPress on the root directory. When I created my first blog I used an automatic WordPress installation that my web hosting company offered, but the standard installation was done on “www.domain.com/blog.

I was not sure how this would affect the blog therefore I decided to leave things as they were. A couple of months later when I started studying SEO I realized that this was a bad move. My blog could be accessed either through “www.domain.com” or “www.domain.com/blog”, meaning that the Homepage was duplicated. At the time, I didn’t know how to do proper 301 redirect. This is my contribution to the “Blogging Mistakes” project. We already have 21 people participating, if you have not submitted your entry make sure you do so. The deadline is the midnight of Sunday. I am looking forward to reading your blogging mistakes!

Understanding the WordPress File System

Firstly, it’s important to get to grips with the overall structure of WordPress. Just like how your computer has a file system that organizes and stores your data, WordPress has its own system too. At its core, WordPress uses a simple yet effective file system. When you install WordPress, it creates a set of files and directories on your server. Think of it like moving into a new house and organizing all your stuff in specific rooms for easy access. That’s essentially what WordPress does – it organizes its files in a similar manner.

Understanding this file system is crucial when you install WordPress. It not only helps you navigate and manage your site more effectively but also aids in troubleshooting. It’s like understanding the blueprint of a house – if something goes wrong, you know exactly where to look!

A Peek into the WordPress File Structure

Now, let’s unzip the WordPress installation file and see what’s inside. The main WordPress folders you’ll find are:

1. wp-admin: This is where all the magic happens! The wp-admin directory contains files for the WordPress administrative back end, basically everything that makes your WordPress dashboard function.
2. wp-content: Ever wondered where your themes, plugins, and media uploads reside? Yep, you guessed it! The wp-content directory is the one-stop destination for all these elements. It’s the most frequently accessed folder when you install WordPress because it houses your website’s personal touches.Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a WordPress newbie, familiarizing yourself with the WordPress file system will make your life easier. Let’s take a scenario: you need to install a custom theme. To do this, you’ll need to upload your theme to the wp-content/themes directory. Without understanding the file structure, this could seem like finding a needle in a haystack!Now, imagine you’re facing some unexpected issues after installing a plugin. The first place to check? The wp-content/plugins directory! Knowing where everything is stored allows you to diagnose and rectify issues with greater ease and speed.
3. wp-includes: This directory is like the engine room of the WordPress ship. It contains files that your site needs to function properly, like files for database operations, core functionalities, etc.

Then there are a handful of PHP files, like wp-config.php, which holds vital information about your site’s database, and .htaccess, which allows you to override certain server configuration settings.

Comparing WordPress to Other CMS

Diving into the world of Content Management Systems (CMS), one cannot overlook the giant in the room: WordPress. However, it’s not the only player in the game. Let’s compare WordPress to other popular CMS platforms and see how they stack up.

WordPress vs Joomla

Starting with Joomla, another open-source CMS platform, there are some key differences to note. While WordPress shines in its user-friendliness and massive theme and plugin directories, Joomla offers more advanced user management features. If you need to manage multiple user permissions and have some technical skills, Joomla could be an interesting choice. However, WordPress, with its widespread community support and ease of use, often comes out on top for many users.

WordPress vs Drupal

Drupal, another contender in the open-source CMS arena, is known for its robust security and scalability. It’s a preferred choice for large, complex websites that require custom data organization. However, Drupal requires a higher learning curve compared to WordPress. So, while WordPress might not offer the advanced security features of Drupal out-of-the-box, its simplicity and flexibility make it a go-to for a wide range of website projects.

WordPress vs Wix

Shifting gears to a hosted platform, Wix is a popular choice for users looking for drag-and-drop website builders. It’s easy to use, no doubt, but its customization options can’t compete with WordPress. Also, with WordPress, you truly own your website, while with Wix, you’re essentially “renting” your web space. If you value ownership and extensive customization options, WordPress still wins the race.

WordPress vs Squarespace

Squarespace, another hosted platform, is known for its visually stunning templates, making it a favorite among creatives. However, Squarespace falls short when it comes to the level of flexibility and control offered by WordPress. With WordPress, you’re not tied down to a specific hosting provider and have the freedom to customize your site endlessly.

WordPress vs Blogger

Blogger, powered by Google, is a free blogging platform that’s been around for a while. It’s simple to use, but it’s limited in terms of design and functionality. WordPress, on the other hand, offers the versatility to create anything from a personal blog to a full-fledged eCommerce store.

While each CMS has its strengths, WordPress stands out due to its balance of user-friendliness, flexibility, and control. Regardless of your technical skill level, WordPress provides the tools and resources to create a website that meets your unique needs.

Remember, choosing a CMS should be based on your specific needs, skills, and long-term plans. WordPress is an all-rounder that has proven itself over the years, but the others have their niches where they excel. Make an informed decision, and you’ll have a strong foundation to build your website on.

Here is a quick comparison

Installing and Reinstalling WordPress

Are you ready to install WordPress? Let’s get started!

Delving into the practical aspect of WordPress management, let’s navigate through the process of how to install WordPress in the root directory. This is a common scenario that users come across, so if you’ve been wondering about this, you’re not alone.

Prepping for Installation

Before installing WordPress, ensure that your hosting environment meets the WordPress requirements, which include a MySQL database and PHP support. Typically, most hosting providers are equipped to handle WordPress installations. You’ll also need a domain name pointed towards your hosting account.

Installing in the root directory makes sense for a single website, while a subdirectory only makes sense if you’re running multiple sites from one domain.

Let’s break down the steps to install WordPress in the root directory. Here we go!

• Step 1: Download WordPress
  Head over to WordPress.org and download the latest version of WordPress. The downloaded file will be a .zip file.
• Step 2: Extract the WordPress .zip File
  Once the download is complete, you’ll need to extract the zip file. This should reveal a folder named ‘WordPress’ containing all the WordPress core files.
• Step 3: Connect to Your Hosting Account
  You’ll need to connect to your hosting account using an FTP client like FileZilla. You’ll need your FTP login credentials, which your hosting provider can provide.
• Step 4: Navigate to the Root Directory
  In your FTP client, navigate to the root directory of your site. The root directory is usually named ‘public_html’, but it could be different depending on your hosting provider.
• Step 5: Upload WordPress Files to the Root Directory
  Here’s the crux of the process. Take all the files you extracted from the WordPress zip file and upload them into your root directory.
• Step 6: Create a MySQL Database
  While the files are being uploaded, you can create a MySQL database for your WordPress site. Your hosting provider should offer a database creation tool like phpMyAdmin in your hosting control panel.
• Step 7: Run the WordPress Installation Script
  Once the files have been uploaded and your database is ready, open a new browser window and navigate to your domain name. You should be greeted by the WordPress installation script. Follow the prompts, input your database information, and proceed with the installation.
• Step 8: Complete the WordPress Installation
  As you finalize the installation, you’ll be asked to provide details like your site’s title, your desired username and password, and an email address. Fill these in, hit ‘Install WordPress’, and voila, you’ve successfully installed WordPress in the root directory!

Now that we’ve gone through the steps, it’s evident that installing WordPress in the root directory is not as intimidating as it might initially seem. With a bit of patience and some attention to detail, you’ll have your WordPress site up and running in no time. Remember, every great WordPress site starts with this fundamental process!

If you ever find yourself needing to reinstall WordPress – don’t panic! Whether it’s a tricky bug or a complete site overhaul, reinstallation can be done relatively painlessly. BlueHost, SiteGround and Hostinger have useful guides on how to do this.

Troubleshooting Common WordPress Issues

A dive into WordPress management would be incomplete without addressing some of the common directory issues that can emerge. Like any robust platform, WordPress has its quirks, and occasional issues with directories are part of the package. However, the beauty of WordPress lies in its solutions-oriented approach, and there are clear fixes to these problems.

WordPress Issue #1: .htaccess File Errors

The .htaccess file in your WordPress installation can sometimes be the culprit behind issues with permalinks and 404 errors. If you’re facing trouble with your URLs or are encountering frequent 404 errors, it’s wise to take a peek at the .htaccess file.

The simple fix here is to reset the permalinks in your WordPress dashboard. Go to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Permalinks’ and simply click ‘Save Changes’ without making any modifications. This action forces WordPress to generate a new .htaccess file, potentially resolving any issues.

WordPress Issue #2: WordPress Asking for FTP Credentials

Sometimes, when trying to install a theme or plugin, WordPress might prompt you for FTP credentials. This is typically due to WordPress not having the correct permissions to write to the wp-content directory.

To fix this, you may need to change the directory permissions. Using an FTP client, navigate to the wp-content directory and adjust the permissions to make it writable. You should consult with your hosting provider or a knowledgeable developer before changing permissions, as incorrect settings can pose security risks.

WordPress Issue #3: Unable to Create Directory

This error pops up when WordPress cannot upload images or create new folders within the wp-content/uploads directory. This issue is also usually tied to incorrect directory permissions.

You can rectify this by changing the permissions for the wp-content/uploads directory, similar to the solution for the previous issue. Again, always exercise caution and seek expert advice when adjusting directory permissions.

WordPress Issue #4: ‘Stylesheet is Missing’ Error

This problem occurs when WordPress cannot locate the style.css file in your theme’s directory, causing the theme to malfunction. This issue commonly happens when a theme has been incorrectly installed or uploaded.

To solve this, ensure that you’re uploading the correct .zip file for your theme, which should directly contain the style.css file. Sometimes, the downloaded theme package might contain additional folders or files, and the actual theme might be nested within. Always check the theme’s documentation for proper installation instructions.

Navigating WordPress directory issues may seem daunting, but as we’ve seen, they’re typically manageable with a bit of knowledge and patience. The vast WordPress community is always there to help, with numerous resources and tutorials available to guide you through any challenges you encounter. Remember, troubleshooting is a natural part of the WordPress journey and a valuable learning experience in managing your site.

Absolutely! Let’s add this to the list.

WordPress Issue #5: Error Establishing a Database Connection

This is a common issue in WordPress that arises when WordPress is unable to connect to the database. This error could be due to several reasons, such as incorrect database credentials in your wp-config.php file, a corrupted database, or issues with your hosting server.

To troubleshoot this, start by checking your wp-config.php file, which is located in your WordPress root directory. This file contains your database login information, so make sure that the database name, username, password, and host are all correct.

If the wp-config.php file looks correct, the issue might be a corrupted database. You can check this by navigating to yourdomain.com/wp-admin. If you see a different error saying the database needs repair, then you can use WordPress’s built-in database repair feature. Add the following line to your wp-config.php file: define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);. Then, visit yourdomain.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php and follow the instructions for repairing and optimizing your database. Remember to remove the line from your wp-config.php file once you’re done.

If neither of these solutions work, it’s time to contact your hosting provider. There might be an issue on their end, or they might be able to help identify the problem.

With this addition, you can see that WordPress directory and database issues are numerous, but the solutions are within reach. It’s all about understanding the problem and knowing where to look for answers. And remember, the WordPress community and your hosting provider are invaluable resources when you’re troubleshooting issues.

Here is a quick summary of common WordPress problems, along with their potential causes and solutions. If you have more to suggest, then please add them in the comments section below.

Always remember that for each problem encountered with WordPress, there are efficient and effective solutions readily available. The key is in understanding the issue and the possible causes, then applying the appropriate fix.

You’re now equipped with a wealth of knowledge about the WordPress root directory, from understanding its purpose to learning how to navigate it. You’re all set to install WordPress and begin your journey in managing your own website. Good luck!

The post Always Install WordPress on The Root Directory – A Guide to Understanding and Managing WP appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

Finally we are at here. I must confess that when I decided on the date, I had no clue that it would clash with International Workers Day (you can see that I have been working from my home for a long time already…). I am not sure if this will help or hinder the project, but regardless its RSS Day today to let’s get the word out!

If you are reading this and have no clue what this RSS thing is all about, just head to RSSDay.org and you will find a succinct explanation over there. Here is a small quotation:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format used to deliver information from websites and pages that get updated regularly. An RSS document (which is called feed) contains either a summary or the full content from a website.

The main benefit of RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite websites without having to visit them. Once you subscribe to a particular RSS feed, you will automatically receive updates from the website that publishes the feed, whenever they release new content. The video below illustrates the process.

If you have a blog or website, help us spread the word by writing about RSS (mention it is the RSS Awareness day, teach your readers about the format, write a poem, anything will do!) or wear one of the banners found at http://rssday.org/spread/.

That “Spread the word!” page was also submitted to Digg, so hopefully diggers will give us a hand to let as many people as possible know about the event.

Finally, a big thank you for everyone who already helped and for those that will do today.

The post Today – RSS Awareness Day! appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

As you probably know we’ll try to hold one blog writing project every month now, and it is time to launch the January one.

Inspired by the popularity of the article “11 Essential Tips to Writing the Ultimate Tutorial“, the topic of this project will be “Tutorials.”

In order to participate you just need to write a tutorial on your blog. Any subject and format is welcomed. You could instruct people on how to change a car’s wheel quickly, create a Photoshop effects tutorial, a step-by-step guide to cook the perfect pie, a blueprint to achieve the number one position in Google and so on.

Sounds cool, but what can I gain out of it?

Blog writing projects represent a very efficient way to network with fellow bloggers and to gain more traffic and RSS subscribers. After all it should motivate you to write that longer and more structured post that you have been postponing for a while.

Secondly, there is also a cash prize of $300 that will be assigned to the three most popular tutorials participating ($100 each).

I am in! What are the rules?

• Write a tutorial as described above (only one entry per blog).
• Use the Contact form and send me the URL of the post, the title and your name.
• Once I publish the final list of participants, you will browse around them and post a list of your favorite entries (it can be a Top 3, Top 5, Top 10 or anything else).
• Points will be assigned to the entries mentioned on these “favorites” lists (1 point per mention, regardless of the position), and the authors of the 3 entries receiving more points will win $100 each.

This format incentives people to read browse around all the participating blogs. It is also meritocratic since the participants themselves get to vote on the entries and to decide the winners of the cash prize.

The deadline for submissions is the midnight of next Sunday, January 27. Have fun and good luck to everyone!

The post Blog Writing Project: Tutorials appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.

This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. If you want to ask a question just send it via the contact form.

Destination Infinity asks:

There are two ways to approach writing an article about a particular topic — One is to write a long article covering all the sub-topics in a single page. Another is to write shorter articles about each sub-topic, and publish them on different days. Which approach do you think is better?

The first one, hands down.

In fact this is an issue I faced on one of my websites recently. I hired a new editor to take care of the content, and he asked me if it would be fine to break long posts into smaller ones, and publish them as “Part 1”, “Part 2”, “Part 3” and so on. My answer was that publishing the long post in one piece was preferred.

Why is that?

Because one big post will bring much more traffic than two or three smaller ones, both in the short and in the long term.

When you publish a long post covering all the nuances of a particular topic you are basically offering a complete solution to someone’s problem, a one-stop shop. As a consequence people reading that post will be much more likely to share it on social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Digg), and this will increase your traffic on the short term.

Additionally bloggers and webmasters coming across that long and structured post will be more likely to link to it, increasing the search rankings of that post for related keywords. Over the long term, therefore, the post will keep getting traffic from Google and other search engines.

Breaking a post down into smaller parts and publishing it sequentially has some benefits too. For example, it’s a nice way to create loyalty among your readers, as they will develop the habit of visiting your website more frequently. Most of the times, though, the benefits of publishing the post in a single piece weight more.

Finally, keep in mind you can do both things as well. Suppose you have one post listing the top 20 websites for learning how to play the guitar online. You could start a series and write one small post with a single website every week, and once all the 20 post have been published you could publish a big one summarizing the series and including all the 20 websites. Using this technique will make your big post lose some buzz (as most of your readers will have seen that content already) but it’s a good compromise to get the best of the two approaches.

Thoughts?

The post One Big Post, Or Several Smaller Ones? appeared first on DailyBlogTips.com.