Showing posts with label BLOGGING TIPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BLOGGING TIPS. Show all posts
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301 Redirect

301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It's not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. If you have to change file names or move pages around, it's the safest option. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently".

You can Test your redirection with Search Engine Friendly Redirect Checker

Below are a Couple of methods to implement URL Redirection


IIS Redirect

  • In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
  • Select the radio titled "a redirection to a URL".
  • Enter the redirection page
  • Check "The exact url entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
  • Click on 'Apply'

ColdFusion Redirect

<.cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved permanently">
<.cfheader name="Location" value="http://www.new-url.com">


PHP Redirect

Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );
?>


ASP Redirect

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location","http://www.new-url.com/"
%>


ASP .NET Redirect



JSP (Java) Redirect

<%
response.setStatus(301);
response.setHeader( "Location", "http://www.new-url.com/" );
response.setHeader( "Connection", "close" );
%>


CGI PERL Redirect

$q = new CGI;
print $q->redirect("http://www.new-url.com/");


Ruby on Rails Redirect

def old_action
headers["Status"] = "301 Moved Permanently"
redirect_to "http://www.new-url.com/"
end


Redirect Old domain to New domain (htaccess redirect)

Create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all your directories and pages of your old domain will get correctly redirected to your new domain.
The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed)

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Please REPLACE www.newdomain.com in the above code with your actual domain name.

In addition to the redirect I would suggest that you contact every backlinking site to modify their backlink to point to your new website.

Note* This .htaccess method of redirection works ONLY on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.


Redirect to www (htaccess redirect)

Create a .htaccess file with the below code, it will ensure that all requests coming in to domain.com will get redirected to www.domain.com
The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website (i.e the same directory where your index file is placed)

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Please REPLACE domain.com and www.newdomain.com with your actual domain name.

Note* This .htaccess method of redirection works ONLY on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled.


How to Redirect HTML

Please refer to section titled 'How to Redirect with htaccess', if your site is hosted on a Linux Server and 'IIS Redirect', if your site is hosted on a Windows Server.

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I. Introduction – What Is SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often considered the more technical part of Web marketing. This is true because SEO does help in the promotion of sites and at the same time it require
some technical knowledge – at least familiarity with basic HTML. SEO is sometimes also called SEO copyrighting because most of the techniques that are used to promote sites in search engines deal with text. Generally, SEO can be defined as the activity of optimizing Web pages or whole sites in order to make them more search engine-friendly, thus getting higher positions in search results.One of the basic truths in SEO is that even if you do all the things that are necessary to do, this does not automatically guarantee you top ratings but if you neglect basic rules, this certainly will not go unnoticed. Also, if you set realistic goals – i.e to get into the top 30 results in Google for a particular keyword, rather than be the number one for 10 keywords in 5 search engines, you will feel happier and more satisfied with your results.
Although SEO helps to increase the traffic to one's site, SEO is not advertising. Of course, you can be included in paid search results for given keywords but basically the idea behind the SEO techniques is to get top placement because your site is relevant to a particular search term, not because you pay.

SEO can be a 30-minute job or a permanent activity. Sometimes it is enough to do some generic SEO in order to get high in search engines – for instance, if you are a leader for rare keywords, then you do not have a lot to do in order to get decent placement. But in most cases, if you really want to be at the top, you need to pay special attention to SEO and devote significant amounts of time and effort to it. Even if you plan to do some basic SEO, it is essential that you understand how search engines work and which items are most important in SEO.

1. How Search Engines Work

The first basic truth you need to learn about SEO is that search engines are not humans. While this might be obvious for everybody, the differences between how humans and search engines view web pages aren't. Unlike humans, search engines are text-driven. Although technology advances rapidly, search engines are far from intelligent creatures that can feel the beauty of a cool design or enjoy the sounds and movement in movies. Instead, search engines crawl the Web, looking at particular site items (mainly text) to get an idea what a site is about. This brief explanation is not the most precise because as we will see next, search engines perform several activities in order to deliver search results – crawling, indexing, processing, calculating relevancy, and retrieving.

First, search engines crawl the Web to see what is there. This task is performed by e piece of software, called a crawler or a spider (or Googlebot, as is the case with Google). Spiders follow links from one page to another and index everything they find on their way. Having in mind the number of pages on the Web (over 20 billion), it is impossible for a spider to visit a site daily just to see if a new page has appeared or if an existing page has been modified. Sometimes crawlers will not visit your site for a month or two, so during this time your SEO efforts will not be rewarded. But there is nothing you can do about it, so just keep quiet.

What you can do is to check what a crawler sees from your site. As already mentioned, crawlers are not humans and they do not see images, Flash movies, JavaScript, frames, password-protected pages and directories, so if you have tons of these on your site, you'd better run the Spider Simulator below to see if these goodies are viewable by the spider. If they are not viewable, they will not be spidered, not indexed, not processed, etc. - in a word they will be non-existent for search engines.


Spider Simulator

Enter URL to Spider

After a page is crawled, the next step is to index its content. The indexed page is stored in a giant database, from where it can later be retrieved. Essentially, the process of indexing is identifying the words and expressions that best describe the page and assigning the page to particular keywords. For a human it will not be possible to process such amounts of information but generally search engines deal just fine with this task. Sometimes they might not get the meaning of a page right but if you help them by optimizing it, it will be easier for them to classify your pages correctly and for you – to get higher rankings.

When a search request comes, the search engine processes it – i.e. it compares the search string in the search request with the indexed pages in the database. Since it is likely that more than one pages (practically it is millions of pages) contains the search string, the search engine starts calculating the relevancy of each of the pages in its index to the search string.

There are various algorithms to calculate relevancy. Each of these algorithms has different relative weights for common factors like keyword density, links, or metatags. That is why different search engines give different search results pages for the same search string. What is more, it is a known fact that all major search engines, like Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc. periodically change their algorithms and if you want to keep at the top, you also need to adapt your pages to the latest changes. This is one reason (the other is your competitors) to devote permanent efforts to SEO, if you'd like to be at the top.

The last step in search engines' activity is retrieving the results. Basically, it is nothing more than simply displaying them in the browser – i.e. the endless pages of search results that are sorted from the most relevant to the least relevant sites.

2. Differences Between the Major Search Engines

Although the basic principle of operation of all search engines is the same, the minor differences between them lead to major changes in results relevancy. For different search engines different factors are important. There were times, when SEO experts joked that the algorithms of Yahoo! are intentionally made just the opposite of those of Google. While this might have a grain of truth, it is a matter a fact that the major search engines like different stuff and if you plan to conquer more than one of them, you need to optimize carefully.

There are many examples of the differences between search engines. For instance, for Yahoo! and MSN, on-page keyword factors are of primary importance, while for Google links are very, very important. Also, for Google sites are like wine – the older, the better, while Yahoo! generally has no expressed preference towards sites and domains with tradition (i.e. older ones). Thus you might need more time till your site gets mature to be admitted to the top in Google, than in Yahoo!.     

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Tips for creating a blog.There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.

1.) Stay on topic:Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme. Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won't care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.

2.) Stay informative:If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. If you are endorsing a product or voicing an opinion, be sure to check your facts; your reputation is at stake. If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post, making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.

3.) Old news is not news:While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many. Telling your audience that Martha Stewart was convicted and will be going to prison, after her sentence is completed will make people question the value of your columns.

4.) Adhere to a schedule:Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication.

5.) Clarity and simplicity:Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.

6.) Keyword-rich:If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than 10-12 words.

7.) Quantity matters:In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.

8.) Frequency:If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.

9.) Spell checking and proof-reading:It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from having to make embarrassing explanations. Remember that whatever you on the Internet can be found and archived. Think carefully about what you post before doing so.

10.) RSS:RSS will increase your blog's reach. It is important that you include your blog's content in an RSS feed to increase readership and distribution. Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates audiences grow.

Bloggers may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to regularly are generally interested in what you have to say.

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Yesterday my brief study into page view statistics revealed that the average blog reader views around 1.7 pages every time they visit a blog.

I finished the post by indicating that I’d post more on how to increase your blog’s page views.

Of course more page views may or may not be what you want from your blog. At least one commenter on the previous post noted that they are happy with a low page view count because it could mean people are leaving their blog by clicking on an advertisement and thereby earning them money. While there could be some truth in this observation and I’m not adverse to this happening on my blogs - I’m also interested in building blogs that people find interesting and useful and one of the many measures of this can be page views. Of course to get back to the money thing again - those of you running impression based ads will be interested in increased page views also.

Having said that - IF you’re interested in increasing the number of pages that your average reader reads, here are a few suggestions that might help:

1. Highlight Related Posts - one of the more common practices of bloggers to encourage readers to read multiple pages on their blogs is to to highlight related posts at the end of your article. You’ll notice that i presently have a list of 5 posts at the end of each individual page that suggests other posts that readers might find useful This list is generated by a WordPress PlugIn. Those of you using other blog platforms might find similar plugins for your own system or might like to manually suggest related articles at the end of your posts.

2. Interlink within Posts - a similar but perhaps more effective technique is to highlight relevant posts within the content of your posts. If you’re writing a post that mentions something similar to what you’ve written before simply link to your previous post from within your article. For example I’ve written about this technique previously in a post on increasing the longevity of key posts.

3. Highlight Key Posts and Categories in your Blog’s Hotspots - I’ve often mentioned that the hottest posts on this blog are those highlighted in my top three menus. Specifically it is those in the top left hand box at the top of this page that are always at the top of my most read post statistics. Depending upon the goals of your blog - you may wish to fill your blog’s hotspots with ads or affiliate programs - or you may want to highlight key posts that are central to your blog and which will hook readers into what your blog is about (thereby increasing page views). Highlighting your category pages is also another similarly useful technique to encourage your readers to find more posts on the same topic. To explicitly name what your category is can also be useful. ie rather than just having the category name at the end of the post - try something like ‘read more posts like this in our ((insert category name)) category’ or ‘filed under ((insert category name))’ etc.

4. Compilation Pages - Extending the previous idea about highlighting key posts you may wish to use posts in these positions that sneeze readers not just to one post on your blog but many. The best example of this on ProBlogger is my Top 20 Posts at ProBlogger post which is in my top left hand menu. This post, as the name suggests, suggests 20 posts on my blog that readers might like to read. I know that this is a post with immense power on this blog and that many first time readers use it to bounce into all corners of my blog. One or two new readers have fed back to me that this page and the pages that it linked to was the reason that they became hooked on ProBlogger. Every post they read added to the chances that they would become loyal readers.

5. Series - While you need to be a bit careful with writing series of posts over periods of time, they are a great way to keep readers coming back and once they are complete to have them surf through multiple pages on your blog. The most popular series on this blog is my Adsense for Bloggers series which leads readers through 8 posts. I know many readers progress through this series because I occasionally get a series of comments from a reader who is obviously progressing through it - 8 comments over 30 minutes or so as they comment on each post. Don’t just do a series for the sake of increasing page views of course - this can really frustrate readers but use them on longer posts or when you’re genuinely wanting to interact with a larger topic over time.

6. Excerpts on Front Pages - I know there are a segment of ProBlogger readers that detest seeing excerpts (extended entry feature) on blog front pages and are very cynical that it’s just a ploy to get more page views. While I personally like using excerpts on front pages it is not about page views for me (although I guess it is a side benefit of it). Personally using excerpts in this way is more about keeping my front page manageable and highlighting multiple posts on the front page. ie if a reader can come to my blog and see not only the last post but the title of the second and maybe even the third post then they are more likely to explore more than just the last thing you’ve written. I tend to only use the extended entry feature on longer articles and allow shorter ones of a paragraph or two go up on the main page - unless I either forget or see the post as an important one.

7. Excerpts in RSS - Once again there is always debate over this topic of full or partial RSS feeds. I know some bloggers main purpose in partial feeds is to get bloggers directly onto their blog - thereby increasing their impression/page view count. While this is certainly a benefit of partial feeds it is not my own reason for using them. Rather I use them for copyright protection and to stop people scraping my full content onto their site’s via RSS. Whatever reason you choose to use partial/excerpt feeds - you should also realize that doing so will cause some readers to unsubscribe to your blog completely. I know in going only with partial feeds that there are some other bloggers who refuse to visit my blog - this is a cost/benefit scenario that individual bloggers need to weigh up.

8. Enable links in RSS Feeds - Another way that I know a couple of bloggers use to get RSS readers to actually surf to their blogs is to enable the ability to post html/links in their RSS and then using links to previous posts in their blog, especially in the first paragraph or two of their posts. This is not a technique I’ve tried but I know of one blogger who swears by it and says it significantly impacted the number of visitors to his blog from RSS as well as the number of pages that they viewed.

9. Search Function - most blog blog platforms have the ability to use a search feature on your blog which enables users to search your blog for keywords. This feature obviously helps your readers to locate other posts on your site and as a result increases the potential for a multiple page view visit.

10. Build an Interactive Blog - one way to get readers coming back to your blog many times over a day is to have a blog that people want to interact with. I know some ProBlogger readers visit this site at least 10 times per day just so that they can engage in the conversation that happens in comments. Since I added the ’subscribe to comments’ feature on this blog I’ve noticed some readers coming even more than normal - this can only be increasing page view levels as people return throughout the day. I’ve written (some time ago now) a few ideas on interactive blogging here and here.

11. Quality Content -This should go without saying but needs to be reinforced. Obviously if you write quality content your readers will want more of the same. Useful, original and interesting content should leave your readers hungering for more. Work on the quality of your blog and you’ll find that things like traffic levels and the numbers of pages being read should look after themselves and be on the rise.

There are no doubt other techniques for increasing page views. I’ve heard bloggers who swear by writing loads of posts per day to encourage readers to come back numerous times per day as one such technique - but I’d love to hear your experiences in comments below.

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Follow the below Some steps and after that u will get your own Rapidshare (RS) premium Account.

1) Go To Alertpay.com

Sign up for Alertpay and choose "Personal account"

2) Enter Your Info

3) After Creating Alertpay/Paypal Account go to below site.


These are some good PTC Sites that pay u for surfing their ads by u.

4) Sign Up on above site and when U reach the minimum payout limit ask for Payout.

5) When U receive the Payment goto Rapidshare.com and Buy an Account with ur Alertpay Account .

And for making money u have to go to the above mentioned site to surf their ads and they will give u some money for that.

6)there is auto clicker who cliks automatically when you start it it means you have to do nothing for earning

the link to dowload Bux.to_Autoclicker.zip Mirror

Tips:

  • To get good money refer ur friends under ur link

and refer also on social network site (like orkut, hi5, Yuwie ) etc.

  • Please Visit sites at least 1 month to get good result

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To Hack the Beta Blogger Template............

  1. Create a Widget/Page Element. Sign in to Blogger Beta---->In Dashboard choose your blog and click on Layout------>This takes you to the Add and Arrange Page Elements page. Here click on Add Page Element. A new window appears which shows the choices for your page elements. The types of page elements you can make are shown in Widgets of Beta Blogger. Choose the type you want to make and click on it. This opens a new window where the new Page Element is shown ready to accept your data. Do not enter any data at present. Choose Save and the window closes after adding the Page Element to your blog.
  2. Now click on Edit Html tab at the top. This opens the Edit Html page where you put a checkmark in Expand Widget Templates checkbox. This expands the template html so as to show the code for all widgets. Beta Blogger blog is arranged in Sections called Header, Sidebar, Main and Footer. Each section can contain one or more Page Elements/widgets. The code for each section is enclosed in tags similar to : and . The above code is for the section - Header. If you want to add a page element to this section change the maxwidgets and showaddelement parameters to reflect the number of widgets you wish to add to the Header section. Save the Template.
  3. Go back to Page Elements tab and click and drag the Page Element created in Step 1 above to the Header section. Do similarly to place any other widgets you have created. Click on Save.
  4. Go back to Edit Html page and change the css to give a style to your widget/Page Element. Save template.
  5. In Page Elements tab click on Edit in the widget you have created. A new window opens where you add data to the widget. Save and enjoy your first widget.

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PayPal.com is the international service used for money transfer. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer. You may have seen the Donate buttons from Paypal on many blogs. These allow your blog visitors to express their satisfaction about your blog in a monetary way.




Here is how to add a paypal donate button to your blog :

1. Log in to your PayPal account.

2. Click Merchant Services.

3. Click Donations.

4. Complete the form with the details of your item and select the Donation button you wish to use. For assistance with this process, click More Resources in the upper right corner of this page.

5. In the Currency drop down box, select the type of currency you would like to receive your payments in.

6. If you need to specify additional details, click Add More Options and fill out the appropriate fields, otherwise click Create Button Now.

7. If you selected Add More Options, click Create Button Now.

8. Copy the HTML code into a text file in Notepad and save it. Click Done if you are finished creating buttons, or click on Create Another Button if you want to make additional buttons.

9. Login at Blogger.com.

10. Click on Layout link on Dashboard.

11. Click the Add page Element link in sidebar on the Page Elements subtab of Template tab.

12. Choose the Html/Javascript option in the popup window.

13. Paste the code from Paypal under the Contents window. Save.

14. Clear Cache and view Blog.



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YOU CAN UPLOAD ONLY IMAGES AND VIDEO FILES


Blogger at present allows only uploading of pictures and videos. All other files have to be uploaded to a free host like Photobucket or Googlepages and then linked to from there. You cannot link to any file on your computer without uploading it to Blogger or any other free or paid hosting.




DRAG AND DROP OF PICTURES BREAKS CODE


When pictures are uploaded to Blogger Posts they land up at the top of the post editor. After that to place them wherever you want in the post you can drag and drop them in Compose Mode. This sometimes breaks the picture code so better you should switch to Edit Html tab in Post Editor and select the whole code for the picture at the top and then do a Cut and Paste operation to wherever you want it in the post.




PICTURE CODE


The code generated when a picture is uploaded to Blogger is made up of two parts :

A. The code for the picture itself : and

B. The code for the enlarged copy it is linked to. This code for the link surrounds the code in A. above and looks like this :

CODE IN A


A simple method to extract the link of your picture is to upload your picture to a post and publish it. Then view that post in a browser. Click on the picture and a browser window will open with that picture in it. Copy the picture link from the address bar of that browser window.








DISPLAY PICTURES IN SIZE YOU WANT


When uploading pictures to Blogger they are resized according to the options you choose in the upload dialog : Small, Medium or Large. If you do not want your pictures to be resized upload them in the size you want to a freehost like Photobucket or Googlepages and copy their link. Then paste the link in code like this :



Then copy and paste the above code in Edit Html tab of Post Editor.





SIDE BY SIDE PICTURES


When a picture is uploaded to Blogger you can choose whether to put it on the left, right or center. If you want to put two pictures side-by-side then it is best to use a table with one row and two columns. Then you can put each picture in each cell of the table. For example :

FIRST CELLSECOND CELL


The code for the above table is :

FIRST CELLSECOND CELL


Copy and paste the code generated for your picture after uploading instead of the CAPS in the above code.





REARRANGING PICTURE POSITIONS


After uploading the pictures land up at the top of the post. To put them in different positions within the post follow these steps :

1. Login at Blogger.com and click +New Post link on Dashboard.

2. Blank Post Editor will open.

3. Upload photo and choose whether you want it to left or right.

4. After uploading finished click Done button.

5. Click on Edit Html tab of Post Editor.

6. Since Post editor was blank before uploading all the code you see now belongs to the picture.

7. Highlight all the code with mouse and right click it and select 'Cut'.

8. Paste it into a Notepad file and save. For a central aligned picture the code looks like this :




Notice the format of the code :



The image is displayed and is linked to the bigger size image.

9. Repeat for all images you wish to put in that post.

10. Type your post.

11. In your Notepad file select the code of the picture you want and copy it.

12. In Post Editor right click once where you want the picture and select
'Paste'.

13. Repeat for the other image codes and paste them where you want them to
appear.

14. Publish Post.





PICTURES WITHOUT FRAME


Blogger generates a frame round your picture. If you do not want a border round your picture insert this code within the picture code generated after uploading :

border-width:0px;

inside the tag. For example :


If you do not want a border round any blog post images go to Template----->Edit Html and scroll down to this code in the template :

.post img {
padding:4px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
}

Change 1px in the border line to 0px and save. You can change this code to make better frames for your pictures. See what increasing 1px to 10px does to your pictures. Change the padding from 4 px to more to increase the distance between the picture and the frame. For example :







ALT TAGS FOR PICTURES


To optimize your pictures for the search engines put alt tags in the code for the picture describing it. Search spiders cannot see images. They only read the alt text and then index the picture. These tags also describe the picture for visually challenged viewers.




PICTURE CAPTIONS


To put a caption under your image upload it to your post first. Switch to Edit Html tab of Post Editor. Select the whole image code at the top of the post and do a Edit---->Cut and then paste it between the code below :


PASTE IMAGE CODE HERE


Caption here


This will float the image to the right of the post and put a caption under it like this :




Icon For Blog Feeds













If you want to position it to left use "float:left;" in the code.




ANIMATED GIF PICTURES


To post animated gifs on blogs upload them to Photobucket.com and copy down their link. Then paste the link in code below :



Then paste the above modified code in Edit Html tab of Post Editor and publish.

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As shown in Blogger, Feedburner, Sitemaps and Submitting All Your Posts Blogger Feeds Google « phydeaux3 Blogger blogs generally do not need to add their sitemap to Google Webmasters as they are usually well crawled. Also a sitemap is included in the default robots.txt file in the blog root :

http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/robots.txt

Load the above URL in browser after putting in your blog name instead of MYBLOG and you will see :

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /search

Sitemap: http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated

The sitemap is shown in the last line.



Adding your sitemap as the feed from your blog faces another difficulty when your feed has been redirected. In this case login to Google Webmasters Dashboard and click on link under Sitemap. First you will have to add your site to Google Webmasters. In that case paste your blog URL in the Add site box and click the Add site button.


When adding sitemap choose the General web sitemap option and in the box paste this code :

atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=100

If your blog has more than 100 posts click Add a Sitemap link once more and paste this code :

atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=101&max-results=100

If your blog has more than 200 posts repeat above to add athird sitemap and paste this code :

atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=201&max-results=100

Save your sitemaps and visit the site again after some time to check that they have been verified as shown in picture below :





THE PREFERRED DOMAIN PROBLEM

Another problem may arise in adding a sitemap if you have chosen a preferred domain name for your site in Google webmasters Sitemaps Tools. For example you may have chosen :

http://www.MYBLOG.blogspot.com

instead of :

http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com

In such cases you will have to add the preferred domain as a new site to Google Webmasters Dashboard using the Add a Site box and then add a sitemap to the preferred domain.

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Feedburner is Google's company to publicize and monetize your blog feeds. The advantage of channeling your feeds through Feedburner is you get to modify your blog feed and count your feed subscribers. So as soon as you create a blog be sure to burn the blog feed.


After burning your feed at Feedburner click on the feed after logging in at Feedburner and then click on the Optimize tab at the top. To add Feedflare click on the Feedflare link in the sidebar.



Feedflare gives your subscribers easy ways to email, tag, share, and act on the posts you publish. FeedFlare places a simple footer at the bottom of each post, helping you to distribute, inform and create a community around your content. Check the boxes of the items you want to include and choose Blogger in the "Get the HTML code to put FeedFlare on your site" box.



In the popup box copy the code from the box in Step1. It will look like this :



Instead of 'NAME OF FEED' put in your actual feed name. Then login at Blogger.com and click on Layout link on Dashboard. Then click Edit Html subtab of Template tab. Put a check in Expand widgets template box at the top of the Template code box. Scroll down to this code :



Paste your feedburner Feedflare code immediately below the above line. Save Template.

Enjoy.

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Add Page Elements to Posts Column and Blog Header.

Blogger gives a method to add Page Elements to the sidebars of your blog. You have to login to Blogger.com and click on Layout link on Dashboard and then click on 'Add a Page Element' link at the top of the sidebar.


However, there is no method to add Page Elements to the posts column or the Header and the Footer of the blog. There is a workaround for this. Page Elements are represented in the new Blogger Layout templates by widget codes. For example your Blog Header Page Element widget code looks like this :



You can see this by login at Blogger.com and click on Layout link on Dashboard. Then click Edit Html subtab of Template tab. Scroll down in Template code box to see above code. This code is wrapped in the Header section code like this :





As you can see in the first line the number of maximum widgets in the header section is set to one. This makes it impossible for you to add new widgets in the header. Also Showaddelement is set to No.
To add more page elements in header change this code to :




Set the maxwidgets to the number of widgets you want to put in the header section plus one. This makes it easier to rearrange the widget order in the header. Also change showaddelement to Yes. This will add a "Add Page Element' link to the header on the Layouts page.

You can do the same with the Blog Posts section code :





Add a maxwidgets=x code and change showaddelement to yes. Save Template and click on Page Elements subtab of Template tab. You can now add any page Elements to the header and Blog posts. Do the same for the footer.

Enjoy!

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Spoilers are snippets of information which you may wish to hide from viewers. For example you are narrating a long tale about a murder and some viewers may wish to cut to the chase and find out who the real murderer is, while others would like to read the whole without having their enjoyment cut short suddenly by the revelation.
This is where you provide hidden text which is revealed with a click. To do this you need to make the following changes :

ADD JAVASCRIPT CODE

Copy and paste this Javascript code between and ]]> tags in your template on the Edit Html subtab of Template tab :



Save Template.

ADD CSS CODE

Then add the CSS code below :

.commenthidden {display:none;}

.commentshown {display:inline;}

just above the ]]> tag in the template and Save Template.

ADD CODE TO POST TEMPLATE

Add the following code to the post template in the Settings----->Formatting tab. Then the code will be available to you whenever you are creating a new post :



expand



PUT HIDDEN TEXT HERE

Give it an unique name where it says NAMEITHERE and change "expand" to what ever you like. Type the hidden text inside the div (thats before the ). Save Settings.
For example :
Nam nunc. Donec blandit porta lacus. To see full text click here --->Nam dui tortor,
mattis vitae, commodo ac, nonummy ac, urna. Nam ut risus eu justo consectetuer convallis. Aenean fringilla. Fusce rhoncus fermentum est. Aliquam et pede non augue vulputate sagittis. Praesent consequat ante at nunc.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Pellentesque lobortis, turpis ut facilisis convallis, nulla sem feugiat tellus, in tempus mauris urna non lacus. Duis pellentesque. Cras tempor iaculis lacus. In pharetra elementum purus.


Thanks to Categories blog for the code.

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Blogger does not have an inbuilt visitor tracking software. Hence bloggers are forced to install some other like Statcounter or Google Analytics.



You can prevent your visits being tracked by Statcounter by checking that option during the configuring code process before pasting it in your template. For Google Analytics the process is slightly more complicated..........



DYNAMIC IP ADDRESS


An IP address is a set of four numbers assigned to a computer by an Internet service provider (ISP) to be its permanent address on the Internet during the period of connection. To see your IP address right click your connection icon in the system tray at bottom right on your computer screen and choose Properties. If this set of four numbers that change every time you connect then you have a dynamic IP address which is a temporary one for the duration of that connection. If they remain the same it is a static IP address.

If your ISP is assigning a dynamic IP address to your computer when it connects to the Internet use the following method :


STEP 1 : MODIFY TEMPLATE


Login at Blogger.com and click on Layout link on Dashboard. Then click on Edit Html subtab of Template tab. In the template box scroll down to this code :



CHANGE ABOVE CODE TO :



SAVE TEMPLATE.



STEP 2 : ENABLE COOKIES


Enable cookies in all the browsers you are using to access your blog. In Firefox go to Tools----->Options----->Privacy----->Cookies----->Check the box to Accept Cookies from Sites------>OK.


In Internet Explorer go to Tools----->Internet Options---->Privacy----->Advanced---->Check the Accept boxes and click OK.



STEP 3 : CREATE FILTER


The last step is to create an Exclude filter in your Google Analytics account settings to remove data from visitors with this cookie. For this login to your Google Analytics page and click on Analytics Settings at top left. Then click on Filter Manager link at bottom right. Click + Add Filter in top frame of Filter Manager and set these settings :

Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude
Filter Field: User Defined
Filter Pattern: no_report
Case Sensitive: No

In Apply Filter to Website Profiles select the blog from your blogs in the left side box. Click Add to transfer it to right box.

Click Finish. Lastly visit your blog from your machine to set the cookie.




STATIC IP ADDRESS


If you are having a static IP address or wish to avoid traffic from a group of static IP addresses from being reported :

1. On Google Analytics Settings Page click on Filter Manager.

2. Create a filter by clicking on + Add Filter in top frame of Filter Manager.

3. Filter Type: Custom filter > Exclude all traffic from an IP address.

4. Enter the IP address in this format :

274\.362\.5\.5

If the address you wish to exclude is 274.362.5.5

5. If you want to enter a range of addresses use this tool.

6. Apply Filter to Website Profiles by selecting the blog from your blogs in the left side box. Click Add to transfer it to right box.

7. Click Finish.

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Statcounter is a free web tracker, highly configurable hit counter with real-time detailed web stats. Insert a simple piece of our code on your web page and you will be able to analyse and monitor all the visitors to your website in real-time!


This post describes how to modify the statcounter code so that it works in the New Blogger layouts templates.......

GET STATCOUNTER CODE


Go to the statcounter site. Register and click on Add New Project. Follow all the steps by adding your blog url until you come to "Do you use a web page editor?" Check Radio button No, I want the default install guide. Click Next button and you will get the code. Copy and paste this into a Notepad file.


MODIFYING STATCOUNTER CODE


Open the Notepad file containing the statcounter code. In the second part of the code there is a img src tag which looks like the code below :


cool hit counter


In the above code replace every occurrence of "&" with "& a m p ;" without the quotes and without the spaces.

Also at the end of the code add a space and a closing backward slash like this :

.....alt="cool hit counter" border="0" />

Save this code.


PASTING CODE IN BLOGGER LAYOUTS TEMPLATE


Copy all the code you have saved after modification. Login to Dashboard of Blogger and click on Layouts link next to the blog you want to add the code to. Then click on Edit Html subtab of Template tab. First backup template to PC using the Download Full Teplate link provided.

Scroll down in Edit Template text box till you come to the end. Paste the modified statcounter code just above the tag. save Template. Refresh Cache and View Blog.


See the extreme foot of this page for my working statcounter.

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To analyze web site traffic with Google Analytics you will.....

first have to add the Analytics code to your blog template. To do this go to Google Analytics and register with your Google account. It is free and has no limitations. On the Analytics Settings page click on '+ Add Website Profile' link in the top frame of the Website Profiles box. This takes you to the ' Create New Website Profile' page.

Paste the URL of your blog/site in the text box under ' Add a Profile for a new domain '. Select the timezone of your country and click on Finish. A new page opens where you are presented with the code to be pasted in your template. Right click in the text box and Select All and then left click in the shaded section and select Copy. Go to Edit Html under Template tab in your blog after logging in to Dashboard and clicking on your blog name. Scroll down in Edit Template text box and paste the code copied from Google Analytics at the very end of the template just before the tag. Save Template Changes. Republish.

Go back to Google Analytics main Settings page and you will find your site/blog listed. Click on the confirm link to confirm that you have added the code to your blog and Google Analytics will start receiving data.

To see the reports go to Google Analytics Settings page click the down arrow in the text box 'Click to select Website Profile' next to 'View Reports' in the orange bar running across the top of the page. Select the blog url for which you want to view reports. The default 'Executive Overview' page of Reports of your site opens. The page is divided into two main parts : A sidebar and a main column titled Executive Overview. Click the image alongside for a bigger view. The sidebar contains the Dashboards where youcan select the views you want to see, the All Reports section showing optimization for Marketing and for Content and lastlya Date Range section where you can select a date range for which to view reports.

The main column of Executive Overview is divided into four parts. The top left rectangle show Visits and Pageviews for the last week. The top right rectangle show how many visits were by New and how many by Returning visitors as a percentage of the total visits that week. The bottom left recangle shows a Geo Map Overlay showing the international distribution of your visitors that week. The bottom right shows the Visits by Source that week showing the sites your visitors came from.

Some other useful site counters can be found at :

www.statcounter.com
www,clustrmaps.com
http://sitemeter.sitetoolbox.com/
http://awstats.sourceforge.net/......Free

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The increasing resolution on Monitors worldwide has led to a greater demand for utilizing the total real estate available on the computer screen. Many bloggers do not like the empty white space on either sides and wish to add a third column.......

Many bloggers are reporting that 6% to 9% of their viewers are on 800 x 600 monitors. The latest stats. from here show that in July 2006 there were 17% users on 800 by 600 res. They would hence like to add a third column or one more sidebar to their template. Here I have done it for the Harbor template.


INCREASE BLOG WIDTH


The first thing to do is to increase the width of the blog using measures I have outlined in How to change width of Blog. This is a picture of the important divisions of the original Harbor Template. Click on image to enlarge it.


First backup the template as shown in How to Change Template. Then add this code in the CSS after the

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Many bloggers are confused how to start customizing the template. Everyone wants their blogsome practical aspects of hacking the template. Here are some tips on how to delineate the various parts of the template.........
I have already described the various parts of the template. The blog page is similarly divided into various divisions called :

1. Body - This is the whole of the page within your browser frame. In the diagram below it is the area within the thick red border. It contains everything on the page including the Blogger Navbar at the top.

2. Outer Wrapper - This is the container which contains all the sections within your blog. In the diagram it is the area within the pink border. This may be represented by another name in your template.



3. Header Wrapper - This is the top section and contains the Header. Inside it is the Title and Description of the blog. The orange and yellow borders in the above diagram delineate this region.

4. The Main Column - This contains the posts column and is usually the widest. It may have one or two sidebars alongside it. It is shown by the blue border. Inside it is the posts section. Notice that the date and the feeds ( Subscribe to Posts Atom) are not inside the posts.

5. The Sidebar/s - They are at the side of the posts column. Notice that the sidebar does not extend right to the foot. It extent is determined by the content within it.

6. The Footer - This corresponds to the header but lies at the foot of the page.

Normally all these sections appear contiguous unless they are in different colors or have borders. When you want to add a third column to customize the template you can easily get confused as to whether it has been added or not? The remedy is to add borders to all the sections so that they can be better visualized. You can remove the code for the borders after finishing the customization.
To add borders you will have to alter the CSS part of the template. So login to Dashboard and click on Layout. Then click on Edit Html subtab of Template tab. First backup Template by clicking on Download Full Template link. Then scroll down in Template box till you locate these codes :
For the body :

body {
background:$bgcolor;
border:#ff0000 15px solid;
margin:0;
color:$textcolor;
font:x-small Georgia Serif;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
text-align: center;
}

For the Header :

#header-wrapper {
width:660px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:5px solid #ffd400;
}
#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 5px solid #ffff00;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}

For the Outer, Main and Sidebar Wrappers :

#outer-wrapper {
border:#ffaad4 10px solid;
width: 660px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:left;
font: $bodyfont;
}

#main-wrapper {
border:#0000ff 4px solid;
width: 410px;
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

#sidebar-wrapper {
border:#00ff00 2px solid;
width: 220px;
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}

For the Footer :
#footer {
width:660px;
height:50px;
border:#7faaff 2px solid;
clear:both;
margin:0 auto;
padding-top:15px;
line-height: 1.6em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.1em;
text-align: center;
}

Then add the code line for the border as shown in red above. Preview and save Template. This is a very useful trick when you want to change the width of your blog as it shows you exactly where the blog is on the page.


Whenever you add a new sidebar section add a border line to it just like above. This will help you to "see it" on the web page. Always remember to refresh the cache after saving the template or you may end up looking at an old cached copy of the page.

CHANGE BACKGROUND COLOR OF YOUR COLUMNS

You can change the background color of any of the above sections of your blog. To do this add the following line within the code section for the element you wish to change the color of :
background:#000000;
The hexadecimal number '000000' stands for black color. For white color use 'ffffff'. For any other color use the free Color Picker utility from iconico.com
You can also add a picture/image in the background of any section. to look different from the rest but do not know the different sections of a web page and how they relate to the code. I have already posted on

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