Designing a blog and publishing it

Web hosting services

2008-08-26T04:58:00.000-07:00

I recently migrated my main blog to a private server. The idea is to have more control over the overall structure of the blog: from its code to its coordination with other internet services. I also migrated from blogger to Wordpress, because it is much more flexible in term of page layout and one can build a Wordpress blog like a website with the advantage of dynamic content, e.g. new posts, Widgets and so forth. I, of course, had to buy my own domain name and have it hosted "somewhere"! Wordpress offers a nice tutorial on how to make the migration happen.

The thing that made me wait for long regarding the migration to a more powerful blog platform is the hosting server. With blogger and other blog providers, we are hosted by the blog provider. It means the blog provider hosts all pages content and pictures we upload. When one migrates to a personal server to host a blog, one needs to pay every month for the service and needs to build a blog from "scratch". Services like blogger and wordpress actually facilitates that by a LOT by providing "kits" to install on the server, so it makes the all thing very easy at the end.

There are a few web hosting out there and web hosting rating compiles a web hosting directory with info on web hosting providers with their web hosting plans, promotional and discount coupons. Customers can comment and discuss the pros and cons of their server providers, you can look at the web hosting tutorials to understand the web master needs: for instance, for just a blog with a small number of visitors, all of these hosts are actually great, but for e-commerce sites or even just a blog with a large number of visitors, you need to look into these web hosting services in greater detail.

Also web hosting awards are a good way to know which feature is being awarded and know the pros and cons of each. Some providers have a terrible user interface design while they have a higher functionality for programming the all site. If you are not an engineer, this type of web hosting service might not be the way to go, however if you are a software engineer you might need these functionalities.

So in sum, I am very glad I moved research blog onto my private server. Good luck with the migration!

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

A fun tool to visualize pagerank

2008-07-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

I just discovered this fun tool that allows to visualize a site pagerank. It shows you the Google ranking from all the links mapped onto the site. Pretty funny even if now pagerank becomes meaningless since Google manually ban websites for using third party ads.

Online tool ->here<-

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Auto Social

2008-06-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

This plugin enables you to have your posts submitted automatically to social bookmarking sites like delicio.us. Pretty awesome! Download it ->here<-

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

To increase traffic, use technorati tags

2008-06-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Either you tag manually your posts in technorati or you use this wordpress plugin called SimpleTags.

In sum, you download the newest version of SimpleTags, you get the .php file and drop it in your plugin folder. Then everything put in between tags, e.g. [tag]everything, everything[/tag] will become automatically technorati tags. Useful isn't it?

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Check the uniqueness of your content!

2008-04-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

The free Copyscape service makes it easy to find copies of your content on the Web. Simply type in the address of your web page, and Copyscape does the rest. Copyscape finds sites that have copied your content without permission, as well as those that have quoted you.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

All about pagerank

2008-04-14T23:43:00.000-07:00

My favorite tool to get SEO stats

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

No follow tag for making Google happy

2008-04-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

I recently came across intense and surprising posts about friends-bloggers who got banned by Google for monetizing their site. Their electronic death is a disaster for them. Bloggers write digitally, they exist electronically, but their online creative efforts are real. I think Google should be more careful before shutting down a site. The ones who create a site are real, they are not computer algorithms, so a single algorithm should not be entitled to kill a human's joy! Anyhow, this made me think a little. Google search engine became pretty powerful.

Rumors say that selling/buying links ads (except the Google ads) ruins the natural ecosystem of the blogosphere and that Google penalizes users for doing so (by killing their internet existence). We all know advertisers only care for traffic and trend, but for some reason it indirectly increases their ranking as well and Google fights radically against this. As a blogger-publisher, Google does not warn you and just remove you from their index search as well as decrease drastically your pagerank up to zero. Because it has a almost-monopole on the internet, this resorts pretty much in the blogger's electronic death. Surprisingly, I think Google does not measure the impact this can have on bloggers who actually care for their blog.

I kind of see the point of Google's need for better quality on the blogosphere. However should radical methods like electronic death be tolerated?

A quick fix and "solution" is to use 'no-follow' tags. By doing so, the links that you are being paid for showing on your site do not generate an artificial pagerank for these ad-site. Only advertisers who use your site for pageranking would withdraw from selling you links, so it is an ok solution considering pagerank.

How to add a no-follow tag on Wordpress blogs?
I found the explanation here.

In sum, open the file:
/wp-admin/edit-link-form.php
BACK UP YOUR FILE.

1. Open the edit-link-form.php file
2. On around line 28, find the part that says:
if ('identity' == $class && in_array('me', $rels) ) echo ' checked="checked"';
3. Leave this code alone.
4. Just above the code, add:
if ('seo' == $class && strpos($link_rel, 'nofollow') === false) echo ' checked="checked"';
5. Scroll down and find the line which says:

6. Just underneath this line of code, find the opening table:

7. Add the following code just underneath this opening table tag.

8. Save the file.

Now, when you go into the admin section and go to Blogroll / Add Link, you’ll now find a checkbox that looks like this:

All you need to do is to click on the “nofollow” checkbox when adding or editing your Blogroll links and your links will then become nofollowed!

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

WordPress plugin: distinguish between new and returning visitors to your site

2008-04-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

A plugin to distinguish between returning visitors and newbies for wordpress.
Instructions ->here-<

In sum:

1. Download the WWSGD WordPress plugin and unzip it.
2. Copy what_would_seth_godin_do.php to your WordPress plugins folder.
3. Activate the plugin on the Plugin Management page.
4. Customize settings on the Options page.

By default, new visitors to your blog will see a small box above each post containing the words “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!” After 3 visits the message disappears. You can customize this message, its lifespan, and its location.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

How Google index your web site and blog

2008-03-24T17:05:00.000-07:00

Knowing and using the Google Webmaster Tools are key if you want your site to be properly indexed and obtain a good Pagerank. You add your site and verify ownership. After that you are invited to share your sitemap. For Blogspot users, the sitemap can be generated through the feed of the blog. For hosted blog, you can generate a sitemap for your site.

For more info on how to be indexed by Google, see my previous post on how to be indexed by search engines.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Javascript

2008-02-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Excellent examples and codes of Javascript!

The pattern tester

2008-02-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

Here

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

IP address

2008-02-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

You can chose to show the IP address of your visitors

More info

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Design police

2008-02-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

Nice button templates for stolen design!

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Online form

2008-02-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Fun with online forms – customized input elements

Ever wanted to match the look of your HTML forms with the rest of your website? This article demonstrates how to apply customized backgrounds to HTML forms, while preserving structurally clean markup and accessibility.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Javascript for image manipulation

2008-02-05T04:40:00.000-08:00

A javascript that enables you to add a cover flow effect to any image on your web page. You can add reflection, tilt angles and also borders to your images.
Code

Neat widgets for bloggers

2008-02-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

mp3 player Widget

MyFlashFetish lets you create music playlists and cool widgets for your blogs, profiles & more for free.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Increase traffic

2008-02-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

"Join Blogburst: Blogburst is a type of “blog network”, which syndicates content across American newspaper’s websites, such as USA Today and Reuters. That’s right, you could get a post syndicated on Reuters. (...) Highly ranked inbound links + traffic + bragging rights to your mom that your post got featured in a newspaper. Not too shabby. Also on the upside, they have a new revenue sharing scheme. The bad: read their terms of service carefully — you give up certain rights when they republish your content, and the revenue sharing works on the top100 publishers only." Via Problogger.

Also join blog communities and catalogs! I wrote a post on it with a list of the communities I prefer.

This list offers more than needed to understand how to market your site!

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

How to be indexed by search engines

2008-02-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

We all know content makes a blog popular. However, everyday I find amazing web sites still completely unknown. To be "discovered" one need to be "indexed". Over time, your blog will be known slowly but surely. If you want to make things a bit faster, you can join communities, be referenced in major online catalogs, and promote your site (a minimum).

Here are tools that I find necessary to use:
The famous Ping-o-Matic pings search engines when you update your blog.

Install Alexa toolbar on firefox. It is a web information service that has authority in the calculation of the value of your web site. Basically each time someone visits your site, Alexa re-calculate the ranking of your site based on a combination of views, unique views, and location of visitors. It is basic as many services rank blogs, however Alexa is the authority in the domain, such as technorati is for the blog links.

The most important point of this Alexa thing is that only if the person visiting your site has the Alexa toolbar installed, will the visit be credited onto your blog. This is a very controversial idea to force people install a toolbar to be "referenced", however if you want to appear higher in Alexa ranking, you will need this toolbar and hope that the community that visits your blog does as well...

Technorati is one of the most powerful blog ranking community. It has many widgets you can add to your blog.

"To include the Authority Widget on your blog site, use the code snippet below, replacing {URL} with your blog URL. Note: when you first install this widget on your blog, it will take us a few minutes to build a custom widget with your blog's authority, but then after that we'll keep it up to date for you."

Each time someone links back to your web site, your authority increases by one. The limitation are that 1- blogs linking back to your web site need to be indexed by technorati (Technorati does not index automatically all the blogs) 2- links need to be less than 180 days old 3- links need to come from unique blogs (two links from the same blog will count as one).

You can also ask your blog readers to "fav this blog on technorati". You can find the fav buttons here

So if you like my blog :

You can also join the online communities and calatogs for web site that I particularly like!
See the list I made on the subject.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Submit your best articles to online communities

2008-02-02T14:29:00.001-08:00

The famous one: Digg
Another big one: Reddit
Check also: Plime
and
Sphinn

Each of them is specific for the content likely to be noticed. So it depends on the kind of articles you like to write!

If you create DIY articles, an awesome community to share them with: Instructables

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Animated gifs

2008-02-02T01:40:00.000-08:00

Animated gifs by Stormy Angel

Peachie's small toys

Random pixel generator

Animated gifs at Evelyn's place.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Blog button maker

2008-02-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

Generate your own buttons/badge here.

The best typography and free fonts web sites

2008-02-01T23:45:00.001-08:00

Superbe selection of free fonts: ->Here<-

Here

Better fonts: 10,000 free fonts

Nerfect

Also the fun house of free fonts!

My favorite free fonts resources!

Exceptional looking site that offers free fonts.

Download fonts here.

Pixel fonts on Pixilate.

A must-look-at font collection.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

The best free icons sets

2008-02-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

Here

At Nice Bunny

“Mini” is a set of 144 GIF icons available for free use for any purpose
More icons here

Top 50 Supercool Free Icon Sets

Screenshot from the symbol serie building

I love pictograms. IIT Bombay offers graphic icons for signage systems to be used for your design works in .eps format: Hospitals, Railway/Bus stations and Public building environments. Enjoy! Via Architectradure

Also the ultimate top 25 icons list

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Site statistics

2008-02-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Google analytics is a must have.

Feedburner tracks usage and allows RSS feed management. A must have as well!

There is also site meter that I used at the start.

Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Embed video

2008-02-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

To create a pop up window with your video into a post:
Embedthevideo

All you need to know about embedding videos.

A simple way to do this:

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Free vectors

2008-02-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

As a designer its always handy to have a collection of pre-made vector objects available to use in your designs, whether its illustrator files or photoshop shapes - here we have dugg out the very best for you. On tutorialblog

Free vector graphics on Web design blog.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Color palette

2008-02-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

Color Blender

ColourLovers

500+ named colours with RGB and HEX values. Awesome site.

Color scheme generator

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Free patterns for your blog background and style

2008-02-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

Evelyns-place's patterns

Pootato

Squidfingers

Citrusmoon

Colour lovers' patterns

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Blog communities

2008-02-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

These are blog communities I used for meeting bloggers and sharing interests. It is a great way to make my first blog known in a very specific way: it is presented to the readers that will be interested in the blog's topics.

-> My blog log
-> Blog Catalog
-> Technorati
-> Blogorama
Stumbleupon

Also join catalogs that will rank your blog. You install a script in your template that will send data directly to the catalog.

One that I like is the free catalog Izea Ranks

You can also read:
Search engine optimization tips : 101 Tips to Improve Your Web Presence.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Money maker for blogs

2008-02-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

Linkworth allows you to sell ads on your site, or ads + description, reviews, keywords, etc... It welcomes sites and blog at any stage of development. So just apply for free and try it! You setup the price of your link, but if you are unsure of the value of your link, Linkworth has a tool for you to check the value of your links. Be sure to add the category "sponsors" to your links.

Also TNX.net, making money by selling links as well.

I recently discovered that you can make money by uploading pictures onto your web site, forums, blogs, share them with friends. The service hosts your pictures, pictures that will appear small on your forum/blog/website. For each clic on the picture that you get, you are paid. Usually it is around 4500 clics for 1$ or $0.22 per 1000 pic views, which goes very fast especially for image intensive web sites, forums, or blogs.

"Shareapic is a free service that allows its users to upload and host images on our servers. What makes us different from the rest? Shareapic has a unique revenue sharing model that compensates users for directing their friends and family to see their hosted images. When a member hosts a gallery, they can then show this gallery to others. Each time this is done, the member is paid."

I selected two services that I like because the ads around the big picture are not intrusive: ShareAPic and Imagefly. I tried and use both but I prefer ShareAPic as I found that recently the ads on ImageFly were "music/sound based"!

A useful guide with general content!

CSS tips

2008-02-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

CSS tips with web design tutorials

The Definitive Guide to Semantic Web Markup for Blogs

CSS tips for really beginners

Comprehensive CSS2 reference.

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers

Free templates for blogger 2 and wordpress

2008-02-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

Createblog

Bloggertemplates

Blogskins

All Things Cupcake - Adorable wordpress and blogger 2 templates

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Posted by Cati at A source for bloggers