Archive for February, 2007

Why not to open new browser windows

Feb 28, 2007 | 3 responses | 550 Views

When creating a link you can insert the attribute to make that link open in a new browser window. I must confess that I used to do that mistake when I started blogging. The logic was quite simple: “I will add the target attribute so that when users click on external links they will not leave my website but rather have a new window opened”.

The flaw behind this reasoning comes from the fact that opening unrequested browser windows will only upset the reader. You should leave the decision about where to open the link entirely to the end user. Also, do not worry about sending visitors to another websites, there is a reason why most browsers come with a huge “Back” button!

Update: If you are not convinced about this, read here, here, here and here.

How to check your site load time

Feb 28, 2007 | 4 responses | 483 Views

Everyone knows how annoying it can be having to deal with websites that take forever to load. There are recent researches, in fact, confirming that 75% of the Internet users do not return to sites that take longer than four seconds to load.

In order to check the load time of your site you can use an online tool called “Website Speed Test”. It allows you to enter up to 10 websites, and the results display the size of the website, the total loading time and the average speed per KB.

How to increase your blog traffic with TrafficSwarm

Feb 27, 2007 | No response | 406 Views

TrafficSwarm requires you to just enter some basic information about the site(s) that you want to promote - a Category, the URL, a Title, and a Description.

This information is used to generate targeted links to your site, which are then displayed throughout the TrafficSwarm network - including our incredibly popular “Start Page” system, the TrafficSwarm search engine, etc.

Credits are the backbone of the TrafficSwarm system. Users earn credits in a variety of ways but the majority are earned simply for browsing to other member pages. Each credit then results in the user’s link(s) being displayed throughout the network in a variety of ways, which generates traffic to the users’ site.

It is extremely simple to sign up and you can start generating 100s of hits more per day!!

Sign up here

How to make Wordpress upgrades easier

Feb 27, 2007 | No response | 500 Views

I’ve been a busy bee these last few days. With the launch of WordPress 2.1 I’ve been busy on my test server testing upgrade scenarios. With that I’ve also been pondering on changing the look of Blog Bullet.

There a numerous steps that you must take when you change your WordPress theme to make it work right and with minimum downtime. I’ve listed my Top 6 steps to smoothly move from one theme to the next.

  1. First things first! Make a backup of your entire wordpress site and your database! Something will always go wrong when you don’t have a backup. Changing a theme shouldn’t mess anything up, but this is just in case.
  2. Test the theme in multiple browsers. download and install Firefox and opera. Make sure that it looks right in all major browsers. sometime some items may appear differently as a result of new css code.
  3. Don’t forget the sidebar. A lot of us modify the sidebar to include custom code, adsense ads, links and so on. Make sure you copy all the code from the current theme and bring it over to the new sidebar. If you’re using a widgets based theme, then you’re pretty much ok to go on without copying code over.
  4. Stat Tracking. If you’re using tracking code like analytics or sitemeter, don’t forget to add the code to your theme.
  5. Make sure your RSS feeds work. I had an issue on one of my older blogs after we switched our themes. We had noticed that our feedburner stats dropped. this was due to the fact that the theme had hard-coded some RSS feed code.
  6. Let the world know! You have a new theme on your site, let them know that you changed it and give them an opportunity to leave feedback.

I will be making the changes to the site soon, I believe the update of wordpress will happen on Sunday and the theme will change within a month.

These tips are from my own upgrade experience.

Wordpress Themes

Feb 27, 2007 | 2 responses | 1946 Views

Here is a list of Wordpress sites that offer free themes!! Enjoy!

List of Sites To Ping

Feb 27, 2007 | 9 responses | 1033 Views

Ping services allow you to automatically notify blog directories and search engines that your blog has been updated. The bigger your ping list the higher the chances of receiving traffic from those sources, so check out the list below and include it on your blog (Wordpress users can modify their ping list on the Control Panel, then Options, then Writing).

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

Wallpapers

Feb 26, 2007 | No response | 531 Views

This is just a plug for my nature wallpaper website so be sure to check it out and switch things up on your desktop.

Nature Wallpapers

Subscribe to RSS

Feb 26, 2007 | No response | 458 Views

If you are a blogger then it is important to stay up to date with how to improve your site and generate more traffic. Get the latest blogging tips and tricks by subscribing to our rss feed to the right! Very simple to do and a variety of different ways to view the feed!

Titles are everything

Feb 26, 2007 | No response | 426 Views

After slaving away on your latest blog post pause before you hit that ‘publish’ button and consider your title. What does it convey to your potential reader? Titles can be the difference between having your post read or ignored. Of course there are No Rules that will guarantee your post to get noticed, but you might want to consider some of the following.

Simplify - Studies show that blog readers prefer straightforward, short and simple titles to cute or cryptic ones.

Communicate - In a word or three tell your reader what the post is about in your title. Most people will not take the time to read something unless they know what it is about first.

Key Words - Try to incorporate words in your title that are likely to be searched for by readers in search engines. Get into their shoes — what search term would you use if you were wanting information on this topic? If you’re writing about Britney Spears - put her in your title and you’ll increase its ranking in the engines.

Grab Attention - A good title draws your readers into your post. Your post is likely to be one of many on the same topic. Your title is an opportunity to distinguish it from others like it. Imagine yourself searching for articles on a search engine or news aggregator — what would make you click your link? Intrigue your reader, draw them into your post, make them want to read more!

Of course Titles are NOT Everything you still need to post something worthwhile under them. But a title is not just the start of your post, it is an invitation for people to engage with your ideas. Put some effort into developing it and you’ll find people take that all important step into your virtual space.

30 Traffic Generating Tips for your Blog

Feb 24, 2007 | 3 responses | 1326 Views

1. Sridhar Katakam
Keep track of blogs and leave comments on them. A good way to keep the conversation going is to install a MyBlogLog widget and visit the blog of people visiting your site.

2. Ian Delaney
Nothing creates long-term traffic more than value. Consider writing posts with resources or explaining how things work. Useful things get linked to and they get onto del.icio.us, which is far better long-term than a digg front page.

3. Scott Townsend
Inform search engines and aggregators like Technorati (using the ping functionality) when your blog is updated, this should ensure maximum traffic coming from those sources.

4. Kyle
Simplify. Pay attention to complex issues in your field of work. It may be a big long publication that is hard to wade through or a concept that is hard to grasp. Reference it and make a shorter “for dummies” version with your own lessons learned and relevant tips. When doing this, I have been surprised to find that the simplified post will appear before the more complex version in search results. Perhaps this is why it results in increased traffic; people looking for more help or clarification on the subject will land on your blog.

5. Grant Gerver
Try to be polemic. I write obsessively about all-things political from the left-wing perspective in the form of humorous, sarcastic one-liners.

6. Daniel
A simple tip that will probably boost your page views: install a translator plugin. I decided to use a paid plugin for this, but if I am not wrong there are some free ones as well. The translation is not very good, as you can imagine, but it helps to attract readers that are not fluent in English.

7. Rory
Submit articles to blog carnivals (http://blogcarnival.com) that are related to your niche. Your article almost always gets posted, and it must generate a handful of visitors, at least.

8. Ramen Junkie
Newsgroups. I always see a spike when I post a review to a newsgroup.

9. Eric Atkins
Create a new design for your website. Not only will it be more attractive to your regular readers, but you can submit it to some CSS gallery showcase sites that feature great designs. This will give you exposure on those sites while generating a lot of traffic and backlinks from those types of sites.

10. Megan Taylor
Participate in conversations on related blogs. Start conversations on your own blog. Don’t just post about a story and leave it at that, engage your audience, ask questions and call to action.

11. Guido
Comment on blogs, write useful content and make good friends on forums.

12. Brian Auer
You must be active to generate traffic. I post comments on other blogs that are related to mine, and I post my site link in my signature at the forums. Spread the word about your blog and it will certainly attract readers.

13. Shankar Ganesh
Just browse around MyBlogLog.com and you will surely get visitors to your blog. Also try to join as many communities as possible that are related to your topic.

14. Andrew Timberlake
A great tip for generating traffic is off-line by including your url in all your off-line liturature from business cards, letterheads, pamphlets, adverts through in-store signage if applicable. I even have our website on my vehicle.

15. Cory OBrien
Read lots of other blogs. Leave trackbacks. Make sure your blog is optimized for search engines. Leverage social bookmarking sites like digg (both for new ideas and for traffic).

16. Jester
Leave comments on other blogs. If you’re already reading them, it takes
just a couple of seconds to leave a message agreeing or disagreeing
with the author, you get to leave a link to your site, and you will almost
ALWAYS get traffic from your comments.

17. Goerge Manty
Post 3-5 times a day. Use ping services like pingomatic or set up wordpress to ping some of the ping services. Engage your readers. Put up polls, ask them questions, give them quizes, free tools, etc. Make them want to come back and tell their friends about you.

18. Engtech
Community. It’s one word but it is the most important one when it comes to blogging. The only “blog metric” that makes sense is the vibrant community of readers it has. Building a community around your blog will bring you increased traffic, but how do you start? The boilerplate response to building traffic is always “SEO, social networking sites, and commenting on blogs” but it can be simplified to “be part of a community”. The easiest way to seed your blog is with an already existing community. But the only way to do that is to be part of the community yourself.

19. Chris
Squidoo Lenses are a good way to generate traffic. By using a lense,
you can generate your own custom “community” of webpages, including some
of the more popular pages in your “neighborhood.” Including your own
webpage in such a list is a good way of generating traffic.

20. Splork
I’ve had good success writing articles and submitting them to EzineArticles. Articles that have been written from well-researched keyword phrases and accepted by EzineArticles tend to rank very high in Google for that search term. Placing anchor text in the footer of those articles so the reader can visit my relevant website has always increased my site traffic.

21. Jen Gordon
I came upon some unexpected traffic when my blog popped up on some css design portals like www.cssmania.com and www.webcreme.com. If you can put some time into the concept behind and design for your blog, I’d recommend submitting your site to a design portal not only for
additional traffic but to build an additional community around your site.

22. Kat
I’ve recently gotten involved with several “MySpace-like” community sites that focus on my target audience. I share my thoughts in their forums, post intros to my real blog on their system blog and I’ve even created a group for my specific niche. It’s been very, very successful for me.

23. Inspirationbit
Well, obviously everyone knows that social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, etc. bring lots of traffic. But I’m now submitting some of my articles to blogg-buzz.com (a digg like site for bloggers), and I always get not a bad traffic from there.

24. Mark Alves
Participate in Yahoo Answers and LinkedIn Answers where you can demonstrate your expertise, get associated with relevant keywords and put your URL out there.

25. Tillerman
Be the first to write a post about the ‘Top Ten Blogs’ in your niche. The post will rank highly in any general search for blogs in your niche and other bloggers in your niche write about the post and link to it.

26. Nick
Participating in forums is a great way to get loyal readers. Either link baiting people in your signature or posting great advice and tips will give you high quality traffic, which will result in return visitors.

27. Brandon Wood
A simple trick I’ve used to increase traffic to my blog is participate in group writing projects. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now.

28. Alan Thomas
Don’t forget your archives. I just posted a roundup of all interviews I did over the past seven months. One of them generated a new link and a big traffic spike from a group of users that look like they will be loyal readers now.

29. KWiz
Write something controversial. I don’t think it’s good to write something controversial just for the purpose of getting traffic necessarily (especially if it’s only for that purpose and you’re being disingenuous), but it works.

30. Dennis Coughlin
Find the best blogs on your niche and contact the authors. Introduce yourself and send a link of your blog. This might help them to discover your blog, read it and possibly link to it.

Source: here

Page 1 of 3123»