google wave in blogger?Image based tutorial

I do not know if many people use it but we'll see how to insert a wave on a blog as a widget so that any visitor can use it. Tell them that this wave will only be visible and may be used by visitors using Firefox or Chrome.

How to embed  Google wave in blogger as widget?Image based tutorial

Step[1]Create a wave in your wave client by clicking on new wave button.

Click Image to enlarge

Step[2]You will be asked to add any email address to a wave

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Displaying total number of posts and comments to blogger

Many old bloggers display their total posts and comments just to show how popular their blog is. You can too add this widget to your blog. The widget looks like this:



To add this widget follow these simple steps:

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Add Flash Files to your blogger

Adding flash to blogger or adding .swf files to blogger.
Flash files having .swf extensions can be added to blog posts,if you have got the embed code for the same..The best example is the youtube embed code!!IF u want to add flash to the blogger tile.In that case you will have to edit your template and add the flash embed code there..

See a sample of what can be done below, doesn't this look cool!
Read on to see how it's all done.
Now see What i have doen Above.
In my one of the previous articles i showed you how to add music files to blogger.
Adding flash is somewhat similar to it.
The code i have used for above flash file is:

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Adding animated GIFs to blogger

One of the main annoying limitations of blogger is that it does not allow to post animated gifs to the post. The good news is that the Picasa Web Albums , Google service where you stored the images posted on Blogger supports animated images in GIF format.

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Change color and size of default tag cloud in blogger

It is known that we can use a gadget option "Labels" to Blogger, to show our tags in a cloud . It so happens that yesterday I received two emails on the same subject: how to change the design of the cloud once added to the blog, so we'll see in this post how.

Once you add a gadget in the sidebar, a tag cloud will have a default layout that fits, more or less to the rest of the sidebar.

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How to Embed Ad Code Anywhere in Your Blogger Template

Have you ever tried to insert javascript ad code directly into your Blogger Template and it just wouldn’t work? Ok, everyone in the room can put their hands down now. This has always been a huge problem for blog authors using Google Blogger looking to monetize their site since almost all ad code contains javascript.
So why is this so darn difficult to do? The problem in the past was that Blogger users wanted more control over where and how frequently their block of ad code (usually AdSense) appeared. The Blogger Team listened to their customers and created an easy to use feature that allows you to setup AdSense in your individual posts with a simple checkbox selection.

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Ad Stripe at Top with blink in blogger blog

Stript add,how to make this stript to add functionality in blogger like navbar is showed at top in bloggers.You must have seen these stripe adds in many bloggers nowadays,as i when started blogging used to see that stripe add in johnchow blog and he use to sell that add for hundreds of dollars.This add will be shown at top of every page and is fixed add as we scroll it remains at same place.(See in 99blogger.com)

Now i will tell you how to make this stripe ad to work in blogger, as it was designed as an wordpress plugin to be get used in wordpress blogs,but was based on javascipts,so it can be used by bloggers too as it we can use javascripts in bloggers becuse bloggers support javascrits.

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Add A Reply Option To Blogger Comments

One of the options the default blogger comments lack is the option to reply to an individual comment.In fact it was one of the reasons i changed from blogger comments to Disqus comments.I have however come across a cool blogger hack that will enable comment replies for blogger.

Update - We have since aded an Updated version of this with a selection of Reply Buttons and styles.Check it out here - Add Reply Button To Blogger Comments.

With a small piece of code your comments will include a reply option.This cool tutorial was originally posted on thisischen.com.

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5 Best Blogspot Blogger Hacks

Well I started blogging around three years ago using blogger and it turned out to be quite interesting experience. In my view, the best way to improve your blog is to see what other are doing?

So I started observing some very nicely formatted blogs and noticed what kind of hacks and modification they use for successful blogging and tried to implement them in my own template. Voila! After hours of research and browsing, I have made a list of all hacks which are must have for a professional blog.

Back up first

It is important to backup your Blogger template (especially before attempting any template customizations). Download a copy of your template to your computer, which you can access in the future if you need to restore your theme (or your entire blog).

For Blogger XML based templates (Layouts):

Go to Layout > Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard, then click on the link near the top of the page which says “Download Full Template”. This will save a copy of your full template as an XML file to your computer.

Now lets go for some best Blogger hacks…

Expandable post hack…

This hacks gives your blog a professional look by shrinking your full post to few lines and displaying a read more or continue reading link. In many ways this hack is unique. It increases your page impressions and it also helps your blog to load quickly by just loading summaries instead of full posts. This hack has many variations. Many bloggers have modified it in their own way. Let’s see some good variations…

Variation 1

Ramani on hackosphere was one of first who promoted this hack. In this version of hack, it uses insertion of codes around various location of your template. This hack is good for people who use a simple template with many hacks.

One drawback is: your have to edit each of your earlier post and insert codes between them to apply this hack uniformly.

The problem with this is if you use other hacks it may get disturbed which may result in the read more link disappearing or sometimes appearing after post.Codes for this hack are linked below

Install this hack

Variation 2

I used Ramani’s hacks for quite a time which required editing around the <post:data.body/> section. It created some problems for me so I found this variation.

Amanda on bloggerbuster offers a better version of this hack. This is better in many ways. You can use (install) it easily and after installing you don’t have to add separate code between and at end of posts. This automatically shrinks your post and adds read more link. Have a look at codes you need to add…

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<div class='excerpt post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>
<b:else/>
<div class='post-body entry-content'>
<data:post.body/>
<div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats -->
</div>
</b:if>

This is the best hack for expandable post summaries and it is also hassle free.

Install this hack

Paged navigation hack

This is really a simple and useful widget. It adds a paged navigation at the end of your posts. Nice way to increase your page impression and it also give option to reader to visit more of your posts in random order.

Thanks to Rias he managed to make this hack as an widget so you can add it to your blog without any hassles. This is so perfect that no variation is needed for this one. Still if you want one, you can check this one posted on Devils Workshop by Arjun.

Install this hack

Related post hack

This is very useful and productive hack. It adds a list of related posts after your post content. This is the best way to make your visitor spend more time on your blog without annoying them at all. It also increases impressions and earnings. Also as a visitor spend more time on your blog, he is more likely to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Variation 1

Rias again offers a way to do this but his method is quite complex but offers flexibility. You can try it but it involves lot of editing. Good for bloggers who are comfortable with codes!

Install this hack

Variation 2

This is more comfortable way to install this hack on your blogger template. In this version, you need to put a section of code around <post.data:body/> section and its done!

Its a very easy to use and credit goes to Jackbook for this version of hack.

Install this hack

Social bookmarking

Social bookmarking services are a great way to drive more visitor to your blog and find many potential readers. Services like Digg, Stumble upon, Technorati has helped many bloggers succeed. There are methods which allows you put a set of icons that link to popular social bookmarking services.

Variation 1

Well this hack is designed by Annesh and Beautiful beta. This hack is simple to use.

Just a two step process and you can add a set of booking icons that will appears at the end of your each post. You can add/remove social bookmarking icons that as per your choice.

Install this hack

Variation 2 (Added by Editor)

Rahul created this hack when he was on Blogger. This supports around 30 top social boomarking services and also provide option to add all of them once or one-by-one.

Install this hack

AdSense after each post

Using AdSense after each post is best way to increase your AdSense revenue. It helps in getting more clicks on ads. I used Rahul’s method to do it.

This is good for people who do not use expandable post hack. The problem is, ad appears on home page as well the post pages. Look at screen shot below…

If you are using expandable post hack then it doesn’t look good to show ads on homepage. You can avoid this by adding two lines of code around codes provided in Rahul’s post…

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
"Modified Google AdSense Ad Code"
</b:if>

The above lines add a condition which prevent this hack frrom working on homepage, label(category) or archive pages. Look at following screenshot for some help…

That’s All! If you have any really good hack, please share via comments!

Thanks for reading…

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Replace Home and Posts Links by images

Navigation Links in Blogger are visible as text links usually at the bottom of each page. It is always good to have images as links for navigation, simple text links usually do not attract attention but image links accentuate the navigation links.
This hack will show that just by uploading the images and replacing some code in your template, your image navigation links will be up and running.

The new navigation links will look like this:

 

 

 

You can have images other than these for home and post links(newer and older).

Here is a simple hack to replace text in navigation links to images:

1. Go to Layout->Edit Html
2. Download Full Template (This is to backup your template)
3. Check the Expand Widget Templates

Older Posts

Search for this code

<data:olderPageTitle/> (For Older Posts)

it will look something like this

<a class=’blog-pager-older-link’ expr:href=’data:olderPageUrl’ expr:id=’data:widget.instanceId + &quot;_blog-pager-older-link&quot;’ expr:title=’data:olderPageTitle’><data:olderPageTitle/></a>

Now replace this code with the code below

<img src=’http://bloggertipspro.googlepages.com/older-posts.png’ style=’border:none; background:#FFFFFF;’/>

Newer Posts

search for this code

<data:newerPageTitle/> (For Newer Posts)

Replace it by the code below

<img src=’http://bloggertipspro.googlepages.com/newer-posts.png’ style=’border:none; background:#FFFFFF;’/>

Home Page

For home page you have to replace the codes twice.

Search for this code

<data:homeMsg/> (For Home Page)

Replace it by the code below

<img src=’http://bloggertipspro.googlepages.com/home.png’ style=’border:none; background:#FFFFFF;’/>

You can replace the images by just replacing the http://bloggertipspro.googlepages.com/home.png with your own image link location

4. Save the Template

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25 Ways to Use the Web to Find Content

This post originally appeared over at blog resource centre, For Bloggers By Bloggers. I wanted to share it here as I thought you might find it useful, as well as share some of the free resources we offer over at FBBB. Feel free to pop on over and check the rest of For Bloggers By Bloggers out, and subscribe if you like what you find.

As a blogger, you know that sometimes the hardest thing to do is come up with content for your blog. Finding ideas for your blog (especially if you want to post regularly) can often lead to you not blogging at all, because you start hitting the wall when it comes to what to blog about. So I thought it might be useful to offer up 25 ways to use the web to find content for your blog. Here they are.

Blog Comments

1. Using a plug-in like CommentLuv allows your commenter to share their most recent post. I’ve seen blog titles that have intrigued me and clicked through to read, and given me an idea for a post of my own. We use CommentLuv on For Bloggers By Bloggers.

2. If you see a comment that really resonates and offers a great viewpoint, ask the poster if they’d like to guest for you and expand on the original comment.

3. Similar to above, if you see a comment you disagree with, expand your own view into a post and offer reasons why your viewpoint is different.

Other Blogs

4. As #1 points out, CommentLuv is great for sharing the most recent post of a blogger, but not every blog uses it. So click through the URL of someone’s comment and see what they’re writing about, to see if you can gather ideas from there.

5. Blogrolls. While some have called blogrolls out of date, many bloggers still use them to share what they’re reading. Visit the blogs of those your favourite blogger reads, and see what ideas you can get from them.

6. A lot of bloggers have category lists for Top 10 Tips and popular posts in their navigation menu. Have a look and see what’s there, and use them to build your own content from.

7. Speaking of popular posts, if a blogger has their most popular posts on display in their sidebar, click on a couple to read and see what made them popular. Then see how you can take inspiration from them.

Social Bookmarks

8. Delicious is a great resource for finding blog content. Just type your topic into the Delicious search bar and you’ll find a ton of results from people that have saved articles or blog posts about your chosen topic.

9. Stumbleupon is a cool browser add-on that lets you browse websites at random. You can land on some great content that will give you your own ideas for your blog.

10. While not as popular as it used to be, Digg still has some great shared posts and news on its site. Look at the most popular and see what take you can offer.

11. BizSugar is becoming more popular, as it concentrates on small business news. If your blog is in this niche, you can get some great ideas from here.

12. A mix of social bookmarking and community, Blog Engage is similar to Digg and BizSugar with its voting system, but it focuses a lot on just bloggers and is a great starting point for ideas.

Blog Resources

13. One of my favourite blog communities is Scribnia. You can find authors and bloggers based on niches, and this can really help you target content to get inspiration from.

14. Alltop offers a great collection of blogs in a veritable feast of topics – if you can’t find something to write about there, then I’m stuck!

15. Still viewed by many as the Blogger’s Bible, Technorati has more than 133 million blogs registered with them. Use the categories or top topics to find content you can get ideas from.

16. Google Blog Search offers up a huge resource of blogs on every topic under the sun. Much like Alltop and Technorati, use the topic search to find your interests.

17. Another resource from Google is their Trends platform. If you’re quick off the mark, you can write a blog post about a trending topic, optimize it for SEO, and (hopefully) be found by those looking at the trends for that moment.

18. Junta 42 offers some great tips on content marketing – check out their articles for ways to get ideas for your own blog.

Social Networks

19. If you’re on Twitter, one of the best ways to find content for your blog is to jump into the weekly #blogchat discussion. Great bloggers, great topics – what more do you need?

20. Sticking with Twitter, have a look at what’s trending at any time on that platform then see if you can get a post out about it (just don’t go all spammy with your hashtags when your post is ready). Trendsmap is a great resource for global trends.

21. And yet again with Twitter, Twitter Search is great for finding out what people are saying regarding the stuff you blog about – type in a keyword, and see if any conversations inspire you to expand on them in a blog post.

22. On Facebook there’s a great app called Networked Blogs, that shares content from Facebook users with blogs, and the Networked Blogs directory. You can get a widget with different blogs in it, and use this to build some ideas for your own content.

23. LinkedIn Groups are perfect for finding blog content. Look at the questions being asked on there and write a blog post as your answer.

24. Seen by many as a place for file and document sharing, Slideshare has great presentations that are just chock full of ideas for you to take away and build several blog posts from.

25. YouTube is more than just a video upload site – think about grabbing a tips video, for example, embedding it into a blog post and then riffing on what else could have been added to the video to make it a better resource.

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Best 15+ Blogger Hacks Of All Time

There are many people who consider that Blogger is a much stable platform than WordPress, that’s why many people are using Blogger as a blog solution. My opinion is that both are great platforms but I do prefer self hosted WordPress because is fully customizable and also you can do whatever you want.

This list will help you to transform your Blogger blog in that type of blog that you like.

1. Remove the Blogger Top Bar

This is probably one of the most annoying thing that Blogger has. This hack will help you to remove the Blogger bar forever.

2. Add a Tag Cloud (Label Cloud)

This is one important hack that will help you to create a label cloud. Is working like every wordpress tag cloud. This hack was created by phydeaux3.

3. How to Hide/Remove Label Count in Blogger Blogs
When you have a new blog is pretty embarrassing to let people know that you have just few posts. This hack will help you to hide this.

4. Random Header Background Image

Changes the background image of your blog header. It will automatically display a different background image for your header.

5. Image Caption

Add caption footer to images in posts.

6. Tabs

Add customized dynamic tabs with content. Add posts or comments or even tag cloud using this cool hack.

7. Recent Comments Widget

Blogger has not officially introduced the plugin for recent comments. This will help you to display latest comments on posts. Is actually exactly like the Recent Comment plugin for WordPress.

8. Emoticons

Converts the specific symbols for emoticons in graphic emoticons.

9. Social Bookmarking Links

Add special list in the footer or in the top of your posts. This will help you and your visitors to automatically submit articles to social websites and share them with friends.

10. Ajax Menu

Adds a cool AJAX menu for labels which has pretty cool effects.

11. Read More Option

Adds the read me text on the first page and posts only a preview of the actual post.

12. Random Posts Widget

A widget that helps you to display random articles.

13. Expandable post summaries for professional blog design

This is another version of read more hack.

14. Replace Date with a cool new calendar type layout in blogger

This hack will help you to replace the old fashion date with a new cool graphical one.

15. Drop Down Labels

Build a cool DHTML menu for your labels.

16. SexyShare Bookmarks

This is actually a hack created as a clone of the WordPress plugin SexyBookmarks. You can see how it works here at the end of the post.

17. Replace Home and Post Links with images

Use images instead of numerical and symbol system.

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Hover Effect Thumbnails Only Related Posts

Back in December i published a post showing you a great Related Posts with thumbnails gadget.That gadget displayed a selected number of related posts generated using labels, the posts are displayed using a thumbnail with the title of the post below.That post has been one of the most popular on Spice Up Your Blog over the last few months and today i have another Related Posts With Thumbnails Gadget but with a very cool feature.

I found this gadget in a template published on Templates Blog BestBloggerTemplates.Net and knew it would be popular.This Related Posts gadget does not display the title of the post below the Thumbnail but rather has a Hover Effect to display the post title.So below your posts will be just the thumbnails but when you hover your cursor over them the thumbnail is replaced by the title.

Hmmm not easy to explain in text so take a look at the screenshots and live demo below.


Screenshot - Normal :



Screenshot Hover - You can see the title displayed when the cursor is hovered :



Live Demo - I'm using this gadget on  Social Icon Site (Scroll To End Of Any Post)

Add Related Posts Gadget To Your Blog

Step 1. In your Blogger dashboard click Design > Edit Html > Tick the Expand Widget templates box.







Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code -)

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Copy and paste the following code Directly Above / Before ]]></b:skin>

<!--start related posts css Info : http://www.99blogger.com-->

ul#related-posts{
font-family:"Droid Sans",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:10px;
list-style: none;
margin: 20px 0;
padding: 0;
text-transform: none;
}
ul#related-posts li{
float: left;
height: auto;
margin:0 5px;
padding: 2px 1px 2px;
list-style-type:none;
}
*html ul.rp#related-posts li{
margin:0 13px;
}
ul#related-posts li a {
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15);
border: 2px solid #FFFFFF;
display: block;
height: 72px;
position: relative;
width: 72px;
}
ul#related-posts li a {
color: #474C51;
text-decoration: none;
text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}
ul#related-posts li .overlay {
height: 66px;
line-height: 16px;
padding:6px 0 0 6px;
position: absolute;
width: 66px;
z-index: 10;
}
ul#related-posts li .overlay {
}
ul#related-posts li a:hover .overlay {
background: #fff;
display: block !important;
opacity:0.9;
}
ul#related-posts li img {
bottom: 0;
padding:0px !important;
}
ul#related-posts li a:hover {
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25);
}

<!--end related posts css.Info : http://www.99blogger.com-->

Step 4. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code -)

<div class='post-footer'>

Step 5. Copy and paste the following code Directly Below / Under <div class='post-footer'>

<!--start related posts code Info : http://www.99blogger.com-->

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>

<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var defaultnoimage=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXYH4VSSPiRfBD4HMJh_9Y9J1yQfhHJD1yX1bhqbMzW4L3HLRsFqbCFfwdwJe8W7M_v6vqp2ZtlnYB1rNQamIxVZ_E62aK6rH37nVDabb-RZFLdITLqnR0Q0R_gLywYzblOZEYeYn2lhk/s1600/no-image.gif&quot;;
var maxresults=6;
</script>
<script src='http://spiceupyourblogextras.googlecode.com/files/hover-related-posts.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<b:if cond='data:label.isLast != &quot;true&quot;'>
</b:if>
<script expr:src='&quot;/feeds/posts/default/-/&quot; + data:label.name + &quot;?alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=related_results_labels_thumbs&amp;max-results=6&quot;' type='text/javascript'/>
</b:loop>

<script type='text/javascript'>
removeRelatedDuplicates_thumbs();
printRelatedLabels_thumbs(&quot;<data:post.url/>&quot;);
</script>

</b:if>

<div style='clear:both'/>
<br/><br/>
<a href='http://www.99blogger.com'><img alt='Best Blogger Tips' src='http://3.bp.bloodspot.com/_rKG-ziTSNUQ/TQ5eV0U0EiI/AAAAAAAACik/xo2eFaDbfrE/s1600/best+blogger+tips.png'/></a>
<!--end related posts code Info : http://www.99blogger.com--->

Optional Changes

-You can change the title above the gadget from Related Posts (In Blue Above).

-You can change the number of posts displayed from 6 (In Red Above)

-The Gadget is set to only display on the post pages, if you want it displayd on the home page also remove the code highlighted in Green above.

Step 6. Save your template.

Check out more of our Blog Gadgets and Featured Posts.

That's your Hover Effect Related Posts With Thumbnails, i would like to give credit to BloggerPlugins for the original script and BloggerzBible created the template in which i found the gadget along with making some changes to the original.

Drop Your Comments, Views And Questions Below.

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6 Ways To Stay Focused on blog

 



 

In November, guest blogger Alvia Lopez talked about warding off and curing blogger's block (check out the post here: Tips To Fight Blogger Block). Sometimes, though, blogger's block isn't about vision, audience, or the need to reinvent your blog. In fact, most days, it's just about distractions.

Arguably, this isn't blogger's block at all but just that: distractions. These include kids, roommates, the phone that won't stop ringing, and the cat that keeps meowing at you for the expensive wet food instead of that dried nonsense you scoop out of a bag. Your friend assumes that because you doing some work from home, you won't mind working until 5 AM and spending the afternoon helping him deal with his infestation problem instead of working.You sleep in the next day until noon but figure, what's another three hours? and end up getting absolutely nothing accomplished for your blog the entire week.

Still, whether it's distractions or blogger's block, it's important to have as many things working for rather than against you when working from the comfort of your own home.

The key to successfully working at home? Don't get too comfortable. It's easy to imagine yourself working from the couch in pajamas and pink bunny slippers, but it doesn't work this way. When you work from the couch in your pajamas in front of the TV, you spend hours watching Gordon Ramsey screaming at people instead of blogging, you spill your coffee and waste time looking for your household cleaners instead of writing advertisements, and you fall asleep at 3 o' clock in your post-lunch funk.

Prep yourself for productivity and success by pretending that you work a real job from a real office.

6 Ways To Stay Focused

1. Take a shower, brush your teeth, and wear deodorant. You wouldn't go to the office smelling like a subway, would you? Feeling clean is refreshing and will make you feel less like falling asleep on the job.

2. Wear clothes that you could imagine wearing to lunch with an old friend to a nice café. You don't need to wear heels or cufflinks—just something that's comfortable when you sit up but not so comfortable that it makes you want to lie down.

3. Work at a desk. If you don't have one, get one, and don't work at the kitchen table. That's for eating; a desk is for working. Find a desk and a chair with lumbar support on Craigslist or a used furniture store. If you don't work from an office with a desk, how are you supposed to pretend that you're doing important things that are getting you a paycheck?

4. Don't accept calls from friends or relatives unless it's during your lunch hour or after your designated work hours. You wouldn't accept them if you were working from behind a desk under your boss's nose.

5. Take fifteen minute breaks after two hours of work. Don't spend them at your desk; take the dog for a walk, do some yoga, or clean the kitchen. Doing something on your feet will refresh you from the eye strain and sitting of desktop work.

6. Keep a tally of what you've accomplished by day's end. Before leaving your desk for the day, write down your goals for the next day. Writing down a to-do list will remind you that you have to wake up when the alarm goes off the next morning instead of hitting snooze thirty times.

Post Your Comments, Views And Questions Below.

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Know How to Create a Blogging Community

When we blog, we must try to create a thriving blogging community. In other words, it's important that we can access a network of like-minded bloggers who can help us if we need help and vice versa. In this case, blogging then becomes more than simply writing and publishing on our own blogs; instead, it becomes an activity that allows you and other bloggers to join together into a community of voices. Once this happens, you can really see how powerful blogging truly is.

But how do you create this thriving community? Follow these tips to see if you get any ideas.

Reach Out To Professional Bloggers

One way that we can help create a thriving blogging community is to reach out to those bloggers who are more established, who have taken the time to work themselves into positions of influence. If you can make a strong connection with them, then you might be able to leverage that connection into a strong network of bloggers who can begin to join together to support one another via their blogs. Established bloggers should help younger bloggers; it is essential to the health of the community.

Respond to Commenters

Another way to make others feel as though they are part of a blogging community is to respond to them directly in the comments section of your blog. This will make your blog into an open place of discussion, and it will give you a good reputation as someone who fosters and respects that discussion. Then, when you go to other blogs, people will remember your name because you responded to them openly and let them speak their minds.

Write Posts in Reaction to Others

If you read a really interesting post at another blog that you like, then you should consider writing a post in direct response to that post. This will help create a connection between your blog and that other blog, which will further strengthen your blogging community. The other blogger will hopefully see that you've written a response and engage you in conversation, either in the comments section or at his or her own blog, thus further extending the conversation.

Create a Local Blogger Meet-Up

You can also foster community among bloggers by organizing a local meet and greet in real life. This might at first be a little weird, since many of us are so used to interacting online, but it could be a great way to talk about things other than blogging. There's something nice about seeing others in real life who have committed so much to building a blogging community. It can rejuvenate a community.

Share Link Love

Finally, as a blogger who is interested in building a blogging community, you should do your best to share link love as much as possible, especially with those bloggers whom you respect. Sharing link love will help search engines track your blogs and it will also show readers that you have a larger blog network that is an important part of the community.

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6 Tips To Heart-Stopping Post Titles

 

Don’t judge a book by its cover is such a trite adage.  While there’s merit to it, most people—especially in the blogosphere—don’t heed it.  An ugly blog with scrunched up images and missing links aren’t going to get awards.  Similarly, readers who come across boring blog post titles will say, “Meh,” and go back to Facebook.  Like it or not, your post title is your book cover, and unless it’s made of gold, your post will go unread, unappreciated, unloved.Make sure your posts get the love they deserve by giving it an appropriate title.

6 Tips To Heart-Stopping Post Titles

1. Be friends with your thesaurus.  Instead of writing “5 Great Ways to Blahblahblah,” look up words that convey more urgency, thrill, and drama.  For example, instead of great, use awesome, striking, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, etc.

2. Note that some words are just inherently more eye-catching than others.  Many comedians agree that some words (or even some letters) are funnier than others.  For example, Dave Barry in his book Dave Barry Talks Back takes one phrase (“Richard Nixon wearing a necktie”) and then makes it funnier: “Richard Nixon wearing a neck weasel.”  In another example, the word brouhaha is funnier than uproar.  Canoodle is funnier than hug.  Smithereens is funnier than pieces. You get the point.

3. Keep it short and simple, unless long, complex, and tongue-in-cheek is the angle you’re going for; this does have its place, but that place is probably not your particular blog post title.  Needlessly complicated titles indicate similarly complicated blog posts and are a sign to readers: this post was written by a) an amateur blogger or b) a self-indulgent blogger.

4. Take risks.  Dare to tell readers that this single post will change their blogging habits forever.  Dare to tell them that the following 5 points are the only things they need to know about solar energy.  Dare to tell them what to do: “Stay Productive While Working from Home!”

5. Use lists, numbers, and bullet points in your post, and use numbers in your post title.  Instead of “Ways to Make Your Blog Not Suck, “ readers will instinctively gravitate to something more substantial: “7 Ways to Make Your Blog Not Suck.”  Moreover, numbers are promising: they promise a certain number of things, and readers love certainty. 
Besides, most readers like to open a blog post, read the key points, and go on about their day.  Few people in the blogosphere are interested in a novel at that particular point in time.  Lists of some sort break up long, boring text and draw in the eye.  Even if readers don’t read the rest of the blog, they’ll at least read the list.

6. Keep it honest.  Don’t promise something to the reader in the title and fail to deliver it in the post.  Are the tips really that awesome, or have you merely regurgitated what another, more hard-working blogger wrote two months ago?  Are there really 7 ways to make your blog not suck, or are there more

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Important Tips For Using Labels On Your Blog

 

Every time you write a post on your blog you have the option to add some Labels to that post.While most Bloggers don't give much thought to the labels they use and some don't add any labels at all they can be very beneficial to your blog in a number of ways, but only if used correctly.Using labels in the correct manner can help your blogs performance in Search, leading to more traffic and labels can be a great way for visitors to navigate your blog keeping them browsing through your archive.So by simply following a few rules and putting some thought into the labels you select you can get more traffic to your blog and increased page views from that traffic.

Lets look at some of the mistakes i see made all the time.

Using Long Labels - Your labels should be short using the minimum number of words possible.Examples i have seen such as "Going To The Shop" Should Be simply "Shopping" then that label can be added to a more wide range of future posts.


Non Specific Labels - Above we changed "Going To The Shop" to "Shopping" and not only did this make it shorter it also made it more specific.A label i seen on a Great art blog recently was "Stuff I Drew This Week" ...Hmmm... Would "Latest" Or "Latest Work" Or "Latest Drawings" not work better ?.

Too Many Labels - A huge percentage of Bloggers are guilty of this, basically thinking More is Better.Are you one of those that think if i add Tons of labels to every post it will help ? I know i was when i started Blogging in the dark old days.In fact lots of labels are just messy and of no benefit whatsoever.

No Labels - Yes from one extreme to another while some people think they should keep adding labels until they are told to stop others just don't bother or don't understand.Labels are important and as i said when used properly can be a great benefit to your blog.

So how should you use your labels ? - A great example of how helpful Labels can be and how it works is my Blogger Templates Site called BestBloggerTemplates.Net.On BestBloggerTemplates.Net i have hundreds of Templates in lots of different styles.While some visitors like to browse through all the templates most have a specific type of template in mind.To accommodate this i have broke all the templates into Categories simply using Labels.

Here are some examples -  I add the label Two-Column to any template with Two Columns, Left-Sidebar to any template with a left sidebar, Black to any Black colored templates, Simple to all the plain and simple templates, Magazine to templates with a Magazine layout, Featured-Slider to templates that have a Featured Posts Slider added.In all i use 63 different labels on the template site and every time i publish a new template i pick 5-6 labels from that 63.

BestBloggerTemplates.Net Labels

Now if you visit BestBloggerTemplates.Net looking for a template that would be good to display your Photographs you can click on the label 'Photography' and be presented with a list of templates.

So lets quickly step away from Templates and look at some other examples, On a cookery blog you can use labels like Breakfast, Dinner, Supper and Snacks for people looking to cook a specific meal.Use Italian, Chinese, American to find recipes by country.If your latest recipe was a Hot Curry Dish you would add Chinese and Dinner and all future Chinese Recipes and Dinner recipes will be categorized with it.

By now you should be seeing how specific labels can help visitors navigate your blog.You can also see how a label such as "Going To The Shop" would be of no help.


So how can the use of proper labels help your blog in search ? - There are a number of ways not least the labels pages.When you click on a label and are presented with a list of posts using that label the list of posts are on a 'Label Page'.This page of course has it's own URL and so is another page of your blog.Another page for readers to view and increase page views but also another page for Search Engines to crawl.Each label page will be crawled and indexed by Google and the other main search engines and in some cases a popular label page can rank quiet high in search results.

Linking To Labels - Do you Bookmark or build links to your blog posts ? As i often mention here on Spice Up Your Blog you should be Building Links to your content.Building links to your Labels Pages is also a great idea.This can be a unique way for people to Land On and Discover your blog and of course the search engines will follow the links you create to those pages.


Formatting - You may have noticed when i gave examples of the Labels from BestBloggerTemplates.net the labels with two words were separated by a Hyphen or Dash.Why ? Well it's really a personal thing and i use it on all my blogs.By using the Hyphen you are making the URL much tidier as a space between the words will be automatically filled up.

With Hyphen : http://www.99blogger.com/search/label/Social-Media


Without Hyphen : http://www.99blogger.com/search/label/Social%20Media

I do hope this post helps you understand just how beneficial the labels you use on your blog can be when used correctly.If your labels are a mess or you just didn't use them get to work on it straight away and you will soon see the benefits.
Add Your Comments, Views And Questions Below.

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Blogging For Fun Vs Blogging For Money

If you ask a blogger if he or she blogs for fun or money, it’s likely you won’t get a proper answer. This is because, other than the professional bloggers who are out promoting products or services, most people blog for fun hoping to earn money in the process. Why do you blog? For fun or money?

BLOGGING FOR FUN

Before you blog, decide if you want to blog just for fun and not to make money. In this case, you don’t have to care for anyone’s opinion; just write what feels right to you and post your random thoughts. Keep it humorous and people will read your blogs. You can even write on controversial topics if you like; just know that you might get hate comments along with your fan mail.

If you have the rare talent of being able to make people laugh, start a funny blog and gain a good fan following. You can then use your blog to place Ads and make money. There are many ways that you can apply to convert your fun blog into a profitable blog.

Note that if you manage your blog well, you can always earn money off of it. So even if your initial intent is to start a fun blog, stay away from controversial topics. Earn a steady fan following by posting good and healthy content.

Unless you are a professional blogger who uses all the latest blogging tricks to generate revenue, try blogging just for fun. If your blog helps you earn money, it’s great. If not, just enjoy your blogging experience.

PROFESSIONAL BLOGGING

If you are blogging for money and not just for fun, your strategy and agenda must be totally different. You need to put in a great deal of thought into the reason behind your blog, and what you plan on achieving from it. Determine how much you want to earn in a year and manipulate your blog to earn this revenue for you.

Use all possible basic and advanced methods to attract traffic to your blog. You can do this by posting intelligent articles on different topics and asking for people’s opinion. You can also allow space for promotions for product and service websites on your blog.

You can upload blog posts in other similar blog sites and get your back links that way. You can use keyword optimization, and upload keyword-rich content on profitable niches and get paid by advertisers. One such profitable niche is medifast discounts and nutrisystem coupons; people are constantly scouring the web for articles and information on medifast discounts and nutrisystem coupons. As a professional blogger, did you know you could help promote other people’s businesses for money as well?

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Top 3 Contact Form WordPress Plugins

If you’re using mailto:your-mail-box links, it is not a wise move because your email will be scanned by spammer viruses. Contact form is one of the most effective anti-harvesting method from spammers. The contact form provides a textarea for the message, and an input for the sender’s e-mail address. The server-side script that processes the posted form data, is then responsible for sending the actual message, which means that the e-mail address of the recipient is never exposed.
If you’re using wordpress, you’re in luck. There’re many different wordpress plugins you can use to create a contact form to reduce spam. I’m including some of the most common ones below:

WP-ContactForm Akismet Edition

The basic purpose of WP-ContactForm Askimet Edition is to make it easy to have a “Contact Me” form on your WordPress blog. Additionally, if you have Akismet installed, all messages will be checked for “spaminess” before being sent to you, effectively keeping the spammers out of your face. The reason why I listed it here because I like the idea of this plugin as combining with Askimet. With this plugin you don’t need any annoying image verification codes or checks to see if the user is “human” or not. If anyone attempts to spam you, it will likely never reach your e-mail box. Only one note for you, this plugin is not currently compatible with WordPress 2.5. He said that he was going to update it but there’s no update since April 22, 2007

WordPress-Ready Contact Form

WordPress-Ready Contact Form is an easy-to-install contact form with many accessibility, usability, and security features. If you use some of the more popular WordPress Themes such as Green Marinee, Connections, Ocadia, … contact form themes have been provided to get you up-and-running faster than ever. I’ve just noticed that Brian Gardner, owner of Revolution Themes is using this one.

CForms II

Cforms II is a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder wordpress plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features from attachments to multi form management, you can even have multiple forms on the same page! I personally use CForms II on my blog (you can see it live on my contact page) because I love its features. The only thing I do not like this plugin is its size (900KB+) then I do not update it regularly! Anyways I highly recommend this plugin for building your contact form.
Main features of cForm II plugin

• Customizable fields with optional checkboxes, radio buttons, …
• Several fancy “styles”, change the look of your form with a single click
• Create multiple contact forms and display them on however many pages you want.
• Tell-a-friend form support.
• Backup and restore custom forms to other sites.
• Visitor verification questions, along with CAPTCHA support

That’s about it. Hopefully you find my post interesting and if you have any other great plugins for me then I’d like to see them. Do not forget to subscribe to our feed to stay up to date with all of our free themes and tutorials!

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Contact Forms for Blogger

Naturally, blogs include a method of getting in contact with the owner or editor/writer of the site – through comments. However, this isn’t the best method for contacting the owner, especially if you need to give personal details or something that can’t be shared with the entire community.
Some blogs don’t even contain a contact form – they rely solely on comments, but this isn’t an ideal situation should a user encounter a problem with your site (copyright, display issues, and so on). Therefore, it is essential to place some type of contact form on your blog.
Previously, we’ve covered Top 3 Contact Form Plugins for WordPress, but through use of Blogger and other systems, there have been few solutions to adding a contact form seamlessly without having to code the form into a new blog post. The best solution for resolving this problem is using a solution that creates contact forms using HTML or using an off-site solution that gives you some of the same functionality.

Kontactr

Kontactr provides a simple, easy way to create contact forms. All you have to do is use their three-step process to create your very own contact form for your website. They even claim that it’ll take “no more than 10 seconds to sign up.” The service requires that you sign up for an account but this is likely due to the need to add your email address.
When you create the account, you will be able to embed links in your website or blog, which presents a more attractive way for your readers to contact you than through a direct mailto link.

Free Contact Form

This form allows you to implement a fully accessible, spam-free form on your website. It is more than just a contact form, as you can use it for other purposes.
While there is a professional version, you can still use the free version, although it lacks some of the main features of the professional version.

Mailjol.net Contact Form

This site provides a solution that allows you to create various forms. However, I noticed that the styling isn’t the most ideal of all solutions, but is desirable if you want a more contact-like rather than survey-like version.
A number of the key features include: No Ads, Unlimited Questions, Easy Form Creator, Spam Protection, and more.

Wufoo

The Wufoo site presents a clear message: to make forms easy, fast, and fun. You can create contact forms, online surveys, and more with their tool, which doesn’t involve editing or viewing a single line of code. They have several payment options, starting with a free solution (one user, three forms, three reports, and ten fields, up to a hundred entries per month) through an account that allows unlimited forms and reports.
All in all, this service stood out the most for me, not for what is included in the free package, but what you can do with what is at your disposal. Just take a look at their Examples Page.

• Graceful Degradation
• W3C Valid XHTML and CSS
• 508 Accessibility Compliant
• Can be Personalized and Branded with Themes
• Customized Confirmation Messages
• Redirect to Web Page on Confirmation
• Confirmation Email Receipt to user
• … plus hundreds of additional features

Free Contact Forms

A simple, effective solution for creating a brief contact form for your website.

WRASAP

Despite the rather ridiculous acronym for a simple tool, this “Will Reply As Soon As Possible” contact form does one thing – allows you to place a contact form on your website or blog. It sends you an email message with each new comment, and integrates a CAPTCHA-driven spam filter. Essentially, it’s just a customizable webpage with a contact form.

Response-O-Matic

Ideal for people who want an effective solution, this site offers the ability to create a contact form without the need to learn HTML. Simply tell the wizard what you want to see in your form, then copy and paste the code into your website – it’s truly that easy.
The free account is limited but should suit most users.

Odio Works – Custom Feedback Form

A simple and easy-to-use contact form for placing on nearly any site.
If you want to customize your form or implement a more advanced solution, check out Web Resources Depot’s post with 16 Free AJAX Contact Forms.

Conclusion

If you choose to search elsewhere for contact form plugins or scripts, please be aware that some have more advanced spam protection, better options, and ways to customize the form template to your liking. Not every solution is easy to use nor compatible with every blog platform.
If you have any other work-arounds for placing contact forms in non-WordPress blogs, please let me know through the comments

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