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How to Increase Your Page Rank
As a new webmaster of a new site (blog) there are several things you must do. First, and most importantly you must consistently update the site with fresh useful content.
Are you a page rank zero? Why? If you’re new I know you’ve asked me or other established sites how to increase your page rank.
Ten Simple Trust Building Techniques
Want to build trust with ten simple trust building techniques?
OK, that was a silly question. Of course you do.
Trust is generally an exercise in creating a site environment in which readers respond well to and are willing to pass along your site details to others. To present a case that visitor find beneficial and trustworthy you need to follow some simple common sense techniques..
WARNING: It’s Over in Seconds
It seems that just about everyone has some type of website these days. People have different objectives such as services, content-driven, entertainment, personal, selling products and much more. Regardless what your website is designed to carry out the primary objective is get users coming and to continue revisiting.
PHP Redirect for Affiliate Ads
There are number of reasons that you should be using PHP redirects for your affiliate ads. Redirects are nothing new really and bloggers have been using this method to mask their affiliate URLs for some time now.
Why exactly would a blogger want to hide an affiliate ad anyway? Just a few reasons; maintain site integrity, load speed, prevent search engine penalization, keep code clean from complex affiliate javascript, domain consistency, maintain affiliates one sub-directory, and insure that your site receives credit for the given resource.
Blog Rush Train Are You on It?
Certainly a lot of hype at the moment over the new Blog Rush widget and many bloggers seem to be in agreement that they are willing to give it a shot.
Since its launch on the 15th a great deal of real blogrush buss has been radiating from this new service that helps bloggers find new readers.
Are Gifts To Bloggers Right?
It seems that there has been an interesting debate for quite some time on whether bloggers should accept gifts from vendors.
Many mainstream companies, even Microsoft have been working closely with their PR agencies in a rather aggressive attempt to target the blogosphere in order to get coverage for their up and coming products.
Adding Some Vanilla to Ja Kel Daily
UPDATE: New Vanilla Forum Is Live, Signup and post your discussion! Just click sign in upper right in the header and then click Apply for membership. Once you’re approved you can start posting your discussions.
Justified Text vs Jagged Right Margin
Most all printed text in media books, magazines, newspapers and magazines are justified. During the process of the new site redesign we decided to set text to be justified. In general I do not have a preference when reading, over justified text or a jagged right margin.
The decision for Ja Kel Daily was made after analyzing the over all look of the site and determining from our opinion mostly that the over all look is better for the site. What do you think?
There have been many debatable arguments made in support of both justified text and keeping with the jagged right margin. Supporters of justified text will tell you that it looks professional but the jaggetors will quickly let you know that it comes at the expense of readability.
My overall observation of the blogosphere is that most everyone is using jagged right margins. Is it time to make a change and go with the mainstream look or are you having trouble reading this article because I’ve justified it?
View Commentators as Party Guests
A personal blog is your controlled equality, so you are truly free to prohibit whomever you like that rubs you the wrong way from commenting on your site.
The problem is that going all commando on a rogue commentator that may annoy you or disagree with you is its not exactly in the spirit of the freedom of speech on the internet.
Some of the best blogs out there allow a certain amount of controversy and if you are going to write and publish to the net then you should accept the fact that responses are not going to be 100% in view of what you say.
This is merely common sense and something that writers have known for years. However it does not mean you have to put up with foul mouth commentators on your site that may ruin the overall atmosphere you are trying to provide for your readers.
When taking action you have to give the benefit of doubt and view your commentators as party guests. Suggestion, if one of these rogue commentators is in fact making an uncomfortable blog environment for the other readers it’s time for a firm warning informing them that the next offense will result in a permanent ban from the site.
Setting guidelines as of what constitutes a ban from the site from the beginning is an excellent method and is completely your call. Just figure out what type of atmosphere you want to maintain on your site and then set your guidelines.
What Makes a Great Site?
Build it and they will come, yeah right! I‘m not sure exactly who came up with this quote but it could not be further from the truth when it comes to websites and blogs.
When reading this blog what is it you are looking for? Is it content, graphics, the story, content style, entertainment or combination of things? I’ve listed 20 tips below that potentially make up a great blog site.
20 Tips What Makes a Great Site?
- Original, credible, valuable, timeless content
- Share what you learn
- Let visitors no who you are
- Custom site design
- Be responsive / interaction
- Optimize graphics
- Optimize HTML
- Easy to read format
- Well organized
- Fast loading
- Try and stay focused
- Collect email addresses
- Simple navigation
- Consistency
- Right use of colors
- Choose background wisely
- Good headlines
- Creative links and linking
- Ad optimization and strategy
- Fresh consistent content
The 20 tips above just plain common sense and more than likely listed on over million or more sites out there for you to read. Overall my impression of the net is sites either got what it takes or they don’t.
Which leads me back to my question what exactly does it take to make a great site? Not simple or easy – something (original) viral global that spreads by word of mouth like crazy. What makes a site viral?
Unfortunately I’m still looking for the viral answer.
Turn Reader Questions into Content
A great way to connect with readers and get more ideas for your next post is to open the site floor for questions. Since I’ve only addressed a limited number of questions that readers my have today I’d like to encourage you to comment and ask questions.
In the beginning stages of starting my personal blog to present I’ve received emails and comments from readers asking questions on; general, opinionated, technical and many other topics for which I’d written about or had not.
Turning reader questions into content is simple and straight forward.
- What are your questions post?
- Answer questions in comments
- Turn the question into a post
- Create a questions folder for inspiration
Ok, time for some Q & A. Questions must stay general in nature relevant for everyone to blogging and not personalized to suit your site. Note – I will not be able to answer every question received but will do my best to answer all questions that I feel I can honestly give good advice on. Readers are also welcome to answer commented questions.
The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker. I had to crop it for the post and cut off the quote at the bottom. “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
The same goes for questions “On the internet, nobody knows you’re puzzled” unless you ask.
McDonalds Pays Better Than Blogging
Is blogging really a good method of making money? This may surprise you but the answer is no and in fact I recommend taking a minimum wage job at McDonalds over blogging if you are in need of steady income now.
Yes it’s true that some bloggers are making a killing blogging but that percent is far below 1%. My wife and I have been blogging for around 18 months now and only the last 6 months of income have been worth reporting since the start.
Six month earnings $7705.30 for Ja Kel Daily which works out to an estimate of $16.00 per hour on a basis of a 20 hour work week (two people 10 hours each) not bad for extra spending money but not a good wage for two people by far!
Make Money Blogging: Direct Methods & Indirect Methods
Anyone can make money blogging it just takes persistence, motivation, patience and most important of all you must be willing to work for free for a long time before a pay off. Of course there is always the lucky factor and if not keep working hard towards your blogging goals.
Get Two Months Free PR5 Text Links!
Limited time offer three months for the price of one month! Just 5 featured links available and this offer will only be available for the next two weeks ending 3 October 2007 Save $80 Now! Check out site stats here.
Text-Link Rules
Text links are located site wide on the right sidebar under blogtips, the top section section “Featured Links”. Only 5 links are available. Pricing is currently$40 for a 3 month link (25 Characters with Spaces). Three month term; therefore either party may terminate the agreement at the end of the three month term unless both parties have entered an agreement for a longer term.
Act now and reserve your PR5 link now before the next PageRank update occurs!
Adobe Photoshop Picture Title Layers
Every since seeing this done on several other blogs I’ve been searching the net for hours for instructions on how to make an image like the one above.
Today I was fortunate enough to work with a guy that happens to be really experienced with Adobe Photoshop and he was able to show me in 5 minutes how to make an image title with the transparency title strip.
Title Layer Steps:
- Adobe Photoshop Software
- Select Marquee From Tools
- Highlight the bottom section
- Click Layer Top Tool Bar
- Select New Layer From Drop Down
- Click Edit Top Tool Bar
- Click Fill From Drop Down
- Choose Color (black) In The Menu
- Click Windows Top Tool Bar
- Select Layers From Drop Down
- Double Click Your Layer
- From The Menu Set Opacity At 60% or So (depends picture color)
- Select Type Tool
- Click On Transparency Area
- Now Type What You Want To Say
- Save The File As .png
- Finished
That’s it now you can add all the article header pictures you like but of course you need Adobe Photoshop. I use Adobe Photoshop 7.0 in case you’re wondering and flickr for pictures.