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Blogging Networks : Top 5 Pros and Cons

2007-05-08T15:30:00.000+05:30

The previous post of this miniseries was: What are Blogging networks and which ones are the best?

While doing my research on blog networks, I searched for posts dealing with the advantages and disadvantages. To my surprise there were very few on this subject. I tried to contact the networks through there emails but they haven't replied as yet. So, I went to some forums, dug up some discussions and got some ideas. To protect there anonymity, I wont mention the names but they were pretty useful.

This post will try to weigh the pros and cons of joining a blog network. I have also made it a part of the Top 5 writing project on Problogger, for better exposure. Here it goes:

Advantages of Blogging Network

Shared Expenses

The funds required for a blog design, domain name, hosting etc are substantial. The blog networks take care of these expenses for you.

Assistance and Feedback

Ranging from the technical stuff like latest blog hosting version to help for creating content, a blogging network will help you with everything. It will help you to notice a glitch on your blog or a way to improve the user friendliness. If you don't want to handle the technical stuff, they will do it for you and you have to create only the content.

Makes you noticeable in blogosphere

Organizations pay more attention to bigger organizations. Whether it be sources, press access, freebies, review units or whatever.

Money

Some blog networks pay you to blog which keeps you motivated. Indirectly, the increased traffic and exposure a network brings to your blog can be converted to money through Adsense and similar networks.

Motivation and Friends

This is an intangible benefit which brings a sense of team or a group in your blogging. The people of your network have similar goals and want you at the top. They will motivate you from time to time and wouldn't let you slack as far as posting or quality is concerned.

Cons of a Blogging Network

Loss of individuality

Believe it or not, people start calling you a member of the blog. Example: "Oh, that blog, yeah it is a XXX network blog, so it is good."

Sharing the good times and money

If you want a blog network to pick you up through your bad times, it naturally will pick up a share of your good times. The ad space is another think that you will have to sacrifice for the support.

Things might not work out

The blog networks have a lot of power in there hands. Suppose, you join a network and for one reason or the other, things don't work out. After leaving the group, there is always a possibility(however small) of hard feelings or even worst, revenge of some kind.

You Become one of them

For me being generalized as a part of the group is the worst thing. When you join a network you have to follow some of their procedures as a part of the group. Whatever you do you will always be a part of the group. Wherever your blog goes, the network name will reach first.

You have a Boss!!

You are the boss of your own blog. You write whatever you want, whichever way you want to. After you join a blog network, you are responsible to someone else for your blog. However good a network might be, you will still have somebody above you questioning you and your blog.

Post Roundup - April'07

2007-05-07T20:26:00.000+05:30

The month of April has been quite good for me and my blog. My blog is just a couple of months old and my homepage got a Google page rank of 4.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support and suggestions you have provided. I will be glad if you can criticize my blog which will give me the opportunity to improve.

I would like to thank my Bmom Liz who has helped me a lot. She has always given me hopes and ideas whenever I was down. Thanks, thanks and Thanks.

Here are some of the best posts in April.

The Be Original Project

This has been by far the best post I have written, atleast my readers tend to think so. It has more than 25+ backlinks already, still counting.

101 Ways to Create Original Blog posts:

This is the source post created from the Be Original Project. 40 ways to create your own original posts have been collected. The goal is to reach 101, you can contribute to the same r just sit back and apply these rules to make great posts.

MBL Series:

This series had a coupe of posts namely:

5 Ways to set up your Blog posting schedule:

10 Ways to make your Blog Interactive:

Blogging Networks - Miniseries Part I

2007-05-04T19:09:00.000+05:30

I have been hearing a lot about blogging networks since I have started blogging. Recently, I Googled each aspect of it and thought it is quite a powerful medium and is potentially the best way to give you motivation, tools ad readers for your blog.

In this miniseries I plan to discuss each aspect of blogging networks. This is a tentative breakup of this series:

What is a blogging network?
A list of blogging networks out there
Advantages of a blogging network.
Disadvantages of a blogging network.
How to be a part of blogging networks?

What is a Blogging Network?

A blogging network is a group of bloggers working to achieve a common goal with there combined efforts.

Basically put, a blogging network is a community of bloggers that are loosely connected by theme, by ownership, by language or by any other factors.
Some networks actively organize topics, paying bloggers for providing fresh content. Others are groups of professional writers who band together for promotional purposes

If you are an active blogger and reader in the blogosphere, a blogging network gives you the opportunity to make friends for life who share the same motivation and goals as you do. The pros and cons of a network will be dealt in details later in the series. This is just an introduction.

List of Blogging Networks

Here is a list of blogging networks compiled by The Blog Herald. (list of blogging networks in alphabetical order)

Blogo
Italian langauge blog network

Blogpire Productions

Breaking News Blog Network

b5media

CommunicaGroup
Italian language blogging network

Corante

Creative Weblogging

Daily Pixel
Canadian blog network

Dutch Cowboys
Dutch blog network

Duct Tape Marketing
line ball on meeting the guidelines, but each writer has a seperate sub-domain and heading so it fits….just.

Gawker Media

Goblog Media
Our first Indonesian language blog on the list

iFroggy

Ist network

Mink Media
UK blog network

Mazoo
Our first entry to the list of a Russian language blogging network

Metroblogging

Most Valuable Network

NinerNiner

The Podcast Network

SBNation

Seeking Alpha
Investing and financial blogs

Shiny Media
UK Blog Network

Social Media Group

Space42
German language blog network

Spreeblick
German language blog network

Weblog Empire

Weblogs Inc.,
The No.1 blog network from Jason Calacanis

Weblogssl
Spanish Language blog network

Writers Write

How to blog when you are disturbed

2007-05-03T19:56:00.000+05:30

Recently, I have experienced immense mental trauma due to some personal anxieties. It is extremely difficult to concentrate and blog in such situations. If blogging is more than a hobby to you, you will certainly face the same situation, if you haven't faced it already.

Unfortunately, readers of a blog don't forgive the bloggers for inconsistency, whatever the reason might be. They will probably unsubscribe from your feed and will never come back. So, I decided to blog about the things that might help us blog through these tough times.

How to blog when depressed?

Motivation from idols

This is something I did all this time. I have always found that the top bloggers that inspire me, have a tremendous posting frequency irrespective of the day. Have a look at the statistics on the left.

I am certain that these people go through bad phases as much as we do. But still they never give up blogging. I really admire the professionalism they bring to the table.

I asked my Bmom Liz about this. As usual, she helped me out. This is what she told me to do:

When I'm down I try get away from my computer, I go looking for things that we're made by people -- trees and sky and the lake and I look and I reflect until I don't have any words. I let the space fill me up until I can breathe again.
When I can breathe, then I think about what I will write
That's how I wrote this.

Motivation from with in

You will only get to half the post and again crawl back into depression, if you aren't self motivated. You must force yourself to think why you started blogging in the first place. For me it is the traffic and readers' comments that keeps me going.

Know what is at stake?

To cope up with the situation you will need to be a little strict with yourself, think about what you will lose if you dint write the post. Some of the things at stake are reputation, reader count, money count, blog credibility etc.

How will it be good?

Show yourself the brighter side, the result, if you do make the post. This is another psychology which will give you a positive frame of mind, to make the post. Also, you will be able to put in a 100% since you will be thinking about the good which will come out.

Watch a cartoon/anime

This is a personal tip which will be different for each one of us. Basically, you need to watch something that takes you to another world. I get a similar experience when I read Harry Potter in one sitting.

Taste the money

Everybody is motivated by money. Some more some less. It works wonders for me. I go to a forum, people generally show off there earnings when they have had a good day. This invokes a competitive feel and shows you that it is possible for you to get there.

Credibility is Blogging Money!!

If you don't care about any of the points above. This is the point you just cant ignore. The years or months of hard work that you have put in your blog can all go to waste in a single day.

The wealth you have earned is not Google Pagerank or Adsense Dollars, but it is the role you have assumed in the blogosphere. If you want credibility you have to work through the tough times, without losing readers.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

101 Ways to Create Original Blog Posts - Part 4

2007-05-02T19:35:00.000+05:30

Read the 101 Ways to Create original blog posts:

Tips 1-10
Tips 11-20
Tips 21-30
Thanks to all of you for your valuable contributions and you can still contribute to this project after reading the rules.

101 Ways to Create Original blog posts Part 4:

31. I try to queue my posts which helps me create shorter, more frequent posts. If I know I'm only going to have one free night to play on the computer, I'll queue up several posts to publish in the future. My sister once told me ... By Michelle

32.I like sharing my projects. I think that just in itself promotes some originality in my posts. And certainly running in a pretty cool circle of bloggers provides me.. By Michelle

33. I have a cat named Atticus. He alone, is foder for many, many posts. When I first began my blog, he was usually my topic. He's funny, furry, likes to climb trees, and... By Michelle

34.Meditate daily.

As I shared in My Daily Habits for Success, I meditate daily. Among other things, I have found it to be very helpful for “tuning in” to my Higher Self, especially for... By Raymond.

35 .Ask my Higher Self.

Before an article (and after meditating), I try to use the power of a “beginner’s mind,” clear my thinking, and ... By Raymond.

36. Invoke an Emotional Response - This approach takes practice, and quite frankly, it takes emotion to pull it off well. To elicit an emotional response for a reader ... By Wendy

37. Reel ‘Em in Right Away - You must give the reader a reason to continue reading within the first paragraph or two (at the most). There is too much ... By Wendy

38. Industry Happenings-My job provides me with an exclusive view into the happenings of the scrapbook industry-when something tugs at me I share it... By Wendysmedley

39. Connections-I like to highlight other people and their accomplishments.
By Wendysmedley

40.I often write about current projects - whether that’s personal scrapbooking projects, magazine articles recently assigned/finished/published, or projects for my scrapbook marketing clients. By Angie.

Blogging Tools-Box #01

2007-04-24T15:44:00.000+05:30

As a blogger you need many tools. The best way to find them is by surfing. Most of us dont have time to do that. I am particularly lucky, as I get to know of the new tools through many social sites I am a part of.

So, I decided that it would be too selfish to keep these to myself. I would update you with the new finds possibly each week. Here are some of the tools:

Blogging Tools-Box #01

User Interface Engineering:

Make your site user friendly with great tools and quality articles. This is one of the best articles I found: 5-Second Tests: Measuring Your Site's Content Pages

Avoid Grammatical Errors

If you want to make it big, you must improve the way you write. We all keep learning grammar all our lives, still noone is perfect. Here are 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

Make your own great Graphic Buttons using Gimp

Here is a sample button which you can make using this quick and easy GIMP tutorial.

HTML Code Tutorial

If you have launched a new website or a blog, you must be looking forward to customizing your webspace. For this, a basic knowledge of HTML tags is a must. This site also provides a quick taglist of all the HTML tags you will ever need.

Talkr- allows you to listen to text-only blogs on your iPod.

They give you a free podcast of your blog. With the audio blogs on a high, you may want to consider providing an audio feed of your blog. Just a few clicks on a user friendly, intutive site is all you need.

101 Ways to Create Original Blog Posts - Part 3

2007-04-21T22:30:00.000+05:30

Read the 101 Ways to Create original blog posts:

Tips 1-10
Tips 11-20
Tips 31-40
Thanks to all of you for your valuable contributions and you can still contribute to this project after reading the rules.

101 Ways to create original blog posts Part 3:

Tips 21-30:

21. Talk about my kids. By Kim

22. Offer recipes for home beauty treatments or yummy eats. By Kim

23. Post photos, and the details of them. By Angela

24. Post scrap pages and the details and products used on them. By Angela

25. Hobbies -- for me this means gardening, reading, travel, photography, pets or cooking.
By Debbie

26. My tool - I keep a MS Word document that lists the days of the week for a month. I try to sketch in my blog post topics for the week so I have... By Debbie

27. I share my puny perspective on Hollyweird. I know you guys love reading about the blow-up dummies they use in crowd scenes!! By ZeeLV

28. I talk about whatever I've done over the weekend. This forces me to either have a pretty fun weekend, or have a really shitty one--so that I can tell you all about it. For instance... By ZeeLV

29. I share kid-related stories. It gives the reader a better feel for who my kids are and how I interact with them on a daily basis. By Gina

30. I share cute craft ideas to hopefully inspire other Moms (and Dads!) to be more hands-on with their little ones. By Gina

Become a Hot Member at MyBlogLog

2007-04-21T20:47:00.000+05:30

The following guest post was submitted by Kuanyin. Read her blog at Blog-Blond.

Do you use MyBlogLog? It is an absolute must to establish relations in blogosphere. It gives huge traffic too. If you have been a member, its possible that you have gone through the "hot members" profiles and missed many others.

Kuanyin, is currently a hot member and she shares with us ways to reach the top and become a hot member. Here it goes:

Be Audacious

Click on other bloggers as your contacts even if you don't know them. Some people view social networking in a fearful light. They see someone collecting contacts like a squirrel & stashing 'nuts' for a long winter.

However, I have a pragmatic approach: the more fishing poles you have in the water, the more fish you're likely to catch, i.e. the more visitors which will likely visit your blog and hopefully will become regular subscribers and readers. This is the reason I am audacious. I want blog readers! My Blog Log is a great fishing hole.

Take advantage of your daily maximum 15 communities and 15 contacts on MyBlog Log.

I wish I had done this from the get-go, but I didn't grok at that time what a VALUABLE resource MyBlogLog is. I finally paid attention to the visitors coming from MyBlogLog and now make time daily for MyBlogLog browsing and networking. MBL management always cuts me off just as my appetite is aroused. Drats! Management needs to raise the maximum for hungry hunters/fishers like myself.

Keep hot on the trail of other hot members at MyBlogLog

These hot members may be connected with someone you need to know. They may have been around the watering hole/block more than you, so you can learn something from them. Don't let yourself get caught up in comments and replies when you're fishing. Do that later.

A catchy avatar on MyBlogLog is an important tool

My avatar happens to be me, and it seems to be working. Avatars whet my curiosity. Who are the REAL people behind the fake Paris Hilton or the giant breasts (you KNOW who I'm talking about!) avatars? You may want to know as I do.

Make your avatar appealing, even if you aren't particularly photogenic. This is your blog business card in a matter of speaking, so take time choosing one that will attract attention and invite others to check you out.

Carve a niche for yourself among the most popular MyBlogLog categories

'Blogging tips' is a popular category, and there are lots of excellent blogs who offer blogging tips. Blog-Blond is a humor blog with blogging tips--a rare bird. I attempt to use my quirky and *weird* humor with my*Blog-Blond* persona in replies to others on MBL to spark curiosity and sell my humor blog concept.

How I made a Hot MBL community in a week

2007-04-19T13:50:00.000+05:30

MBL is MyBlogLog.

It is probably the biggest community with regular activity which has the potential to bring thousands of daily visits to your blog. Once you create a community for your site it is all about getting it popular. My hits went up from 125 odd a day to as high as 422 for 5 days.

The best place for a community in MBL is the "Hot Communities" section. It features six communities and drives enormous traffic to them. I was able to make it to the esteemed list a week after I started my community. The answer to how I made to hot communities in a week can be answered in a few steps:

Know MBL in and out

It is just like life, before starting anything you should know it in and out. You will learn things as you go along but it is important not to miss any opportunities. There is a huge collection of how to's on MBL, just google for "MyBlogLog" or "MBL" and read everything you find. I did it for 5 days. The best thing I learnt about MBL while reading is:
People on MBL need blogging tips, adult blogs, money making tips and colorful pictures(in that order).
So if your blog is one amongst the above you should definitely tap MBL for traffic.

Keep Clicking

This might be unethical for some but this is what it takes. Go to the new member's area in MBL and open profiles in new tabs. You dont even need to look at them (if you dont want to), since you leave a trail in the Recent Visitors. The person will think that you did visit his homepage. Most of the time people do comeback to check your profile. This drives traffic to your page and possibly to your community. Also, click the "Who's reading What?" and "New Neighbors...". The more profiles you click, the more visits you get.

Catchy Avatar

This is what I believe is very important. Recently, MBL decided to ban animated gifs so that is out of picture. I chose an avatar of the girl from "My Sassy Girl" and everybody seems to love her (I knew it). Following are some of the options:

Beautiful girls pics
Targeted avatars- eg. If you visit anime communities use an anime character
Adult Pics - Personally, I hate this one but it seems to work for many. Be careful it will offend many people too.
Child Photos- Cute baby pics or something that will count as "cute" to the ladies.

There are infinite avatars available online, just google it.

Make Friends

Everywhere, friends help you out. I made a couple of friends who helped me out. They had been on MBL for long time and they helped me out. They even provided link to my community on there communities which gave a boost.

Publicize your community

Post a link to the community on your own blog and make a catchy icon (see my right sidebar). Make it visible and people might join.

Join My Community, Get a Link

Yes, you might even try this. Get people to join your community and get them a free linkback in return. Its upto you how long you want to run it. It is to give you the initial 50 members, so that people dont see a barren community when they go to your community page.

Use the 15 Community and Friend joins

In MBL you can join max 15 communities and make 15 friends a day. I tried to utilise this to the fullest. Whenever you add a contact or join a community leave some interesting message which will bring them to there page and they will join. Dont leave a "I joint yours, please join mine" kind of a message. People dont read it and they wont come to your page.

This is almost everything I can tyhink about right now. If you have any queries, feel free to contact me. In the next article I will show you how to convert this page traffic to your blog traffic.

How can you boost your blog's credibility?

2007-04-17T14:27:00.000+05:30

Whenever you are trying to build an online business, it is of prime importance to earn the trust of your readers. Whether you are trying to sell a product online or trying to build a loyal readership for your blog, you must yearn for an image that your readers trust.

Stanford University has compiled a list of 10 guidelines for building website credibility. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included more than 4,500 people.

If you are serious about your blog you should read each point in detail and try to apply them to your blog. Make it a checklist which you go through every once in a while.

The detailed report: Stanford Guidelines for Website Credibility

The main points, if you want to skim through them (unrecommended) are as follows:

Always cite references: The user should be easily able to crosscheck the information you have provided.
Post a physical address, mail, photo: Whatever level of personalization you choose, your readers should be able to see a physical existence behind your blog.
Cite Credentials: If you have won any blogging awards make sure to show them. Traffic graph, feed subscriptions, number of comments, blog position in technorati are some of the many ways you can instill faith.
Contacting you should be easy: Emails, phone numbers, or physical addresses will help.
Visual Design: The appearance of the site holds a lot of importance when people judge a blog. It should look professional, or better stated; The visual should match the concept of your blog.
User Friendliness: Don't just cram up every hack or new technology you find. The blog should be easy to use and fit several criteria for being user friendly viz loading time, browser compatibility, color scheme, font size etc.
Update regularly
Separate Ads and your content: If possible, avoid ads completely. But, many people would like to put ads on there blogs. In that case, you should clearly differentiate between your content and the ads.
Avoid errors: Typographical errors, misquoted statistics, incorrect English should be avoided at all costs.

This is just a short list. I have seen people going to extremes to assure users of there credibility. All these rules might not be applicable to your blog, but most of them are easy to apply. Have you used any such measures on your own blog?

101 Ways to create original Blog posts - Part 2

2007-04-16T22:15:00.000+05:30

Read the 101 Ways to Create original blog posts:
Tips 1-10
Tips 21-30
Tips31-40
Thanks to all of you for your valuable contributions and you can still contribute to this project after reading the rules.
101 Ways to create original blog posts Part 1:
Tips 11-20:

11. Networking: Sometimes suggestions for topics to address or products to review come to me from friends, companies or readers who send me information on things they think might be interesting to me and to Scrapbook Update's audience. By Nancy

12. Development: I try to make sure that I follow a story as it changes from what I initially wrote, and report new updates. This happens especially with news stories such as the closure of PaperKuts Magazine, or the sale of the Primedia Enthusiast publications. Once the initial pieces were written the follow-ups were natural to write. By Nancy

13. I keep a notepad handy to jot blogging ideas down. I often get the best ideas when I'm not near my desk and writing them down helps me remember them. So the notebook travels with me. It makes a great reference for those days you just can't think of anything to write about or when you are planning your posts. By Susan

14. Plan out my weekly posts. Yes, I know it sounds a bit obsessive/compulsive but it works. Often I'm trying to fit blogging into an already tight schedule so knowing what I want to write about makes it much easier.......By Susan

15. Random stuff that happens throughout my day. Just things I experience, both weird and mundane. By Latharia

16. Issues that have been floating around in my head for a while. Mostly existential stuff, some of it prompted after reading a book or visiting a website.By Latharia

17. Discuss my daily life. You just can't get more original than that one - lol! One of the things I enjoy about reading other blogs is the small "peek" you get into what daily life is like for someone else... By Katie

18. Post Layouts. Um, I do call myself "Katie the Scrapbook Lady" so I think my readers probably like to see some scrapbooking in action! When I share my creations I am (hopefully) putting ideas out there for others to enjoy and use.....By Katie

19. When something really pisses me off ................I blog about it. By Simplystated

20. When I have a question and need general advice..............................I blog.By Simplystated

Article Submissions and SEO

2007-04-15T18:48:00.000+05:30

Since, I have started blogging, I have been told the importance of writing articles time and time again. Recently, I had a conversation regarding the same on a SEO forum. Finally, I have decided to start writing articles which I hope you will read.
I will be checking the potential advantages which article writing has. If you have already tried it out you are welcome to share you experiences. Here are the "told" potential advantages of article writing, which I will try to confirm in next few days:

Choice of anchor text in inbound links: The inbound links from the articles (through your resource box) are very important for SEO. The added advantage is that you can choose your own anchor text. PS: If you don't know these technical words, just read this: Article Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box
Deep Links: After a certain amount of time some your older posts are lost without incoming links; nobody will read them. Articles help you to link to these deep pages and keep the site alive. This is again very important for you site to feature high in the search engines.
Many incoming links: There are many people who use articles as building blocks for there blogs. If your article is good enough there is a pretty good chance that people will take it and write about it, giving links to you in the process.
Give a boost to rank: It is very important that you give sufficient time to write each article and put in enough keywords in it, which are relevant to your blog. A well written article can get you on the front page of Google, with a boost in traffic and possible Page Rank.
Huge Traffic: Perhaps this is the major attraction for me. At the moment, I am just not getting enough readers. Articles can bring people to your blog, if they find it useful they might subscribe to it.

Here are the top five article submission sites:

Articlesfactory

Ezinearticles

Articlewheel

Goarticles

Featured-articles

I also found a list of more than 500 article submission sites, which I am going to use. You can download the text file here: 500 Article Submission sites for SEO

Do make it a point to try it out. Article writing might be the thing which can bring you the much wanted readers. IF you do give it a try feel free to ask any queries or share any experiences.

Keep Blogging!

Add a blogger sitemap to Google

2007-04-14T16:52:00.000+05:30

I was always told to add a sitemap to Google for better indexing and possibly my blog would be more Search engine optimized. The problem with my blog is, it is on blogger, and I dont have access to my site folder. Hence, I was unable to upload a sitemap to google. But, recently I got to know a way.

Every blogger blog has already got a sitemap. The sitemap to your blogger blog is :

http://Yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Where, you should replace Youblog with your blog's name. For example, my sitemap location is:

http://bestblogbasket.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Finally, go to the Google Webmaster page and read the instructions to upload the sitemap. Done.

Keep Blogging!

101 Ways to create original Blog posts - Part 1

2007-04-13T17:23:00.000+05:30

It has been a week since the "Be Original" project has been started. Thanks to all of you for your valuable contributions and you can still contribute to this project after reading the rules.
As I had promised, I will now make a super resource post which will help bloggers and readers alike. It will have a staggering 101 ways to create original posts from some of the best minds in the blogosphere. Hopefully, we all can create more original content till the project comes to an end.

101 Ways to create original blog posts Part 1:
Tips 1-10:

Write about what I love. This is probably the most important step. If you write about something you’re not very interested in, it will show. If you write about something you passionately care about, that you read about on a daily basis, that inspires you to write, it will shine through. And more often than not, it will be original, because the original part is the passion in your writing, not necessarily the information. By Leo.
Put myself into every post. It’s incredibly difficult to come up with an original idea, as so many great thinkers have come before us. Most thoughts have been thought before. But there has never been a “me” before, and if I put my thoughts, experiences, hopes, fears and deepest desires into my writing, it will be different, at least a little, from other writing. By Leo.
Google Alerts. This the best resource for keeping abreast of what's going on in one's industry. The down side is the flood of information I get, but I'm pretty good at scanning and picking the one thing that jumps out at me. I keep a running list of blog ideas and blog posts as inspiration. By Patsie and Denise
Questions and Answers: As blog and marketing consultants, we get a lot of questions from clients and others about how to do stuff. I could simply reply by email, and I usually do. But then I will often use the Q and A as a blog post. I'm a big fan of repurposing content. By Patsie and Denise
Selectively read other blogs- I used to have a huge list of scrapblogs I subscribed to via Bloglines, but this became difficult to maintain, so now I have chosen a few choice blogs - the ones which give me the news as soon as it’s announced. These are normally by industry leaders (not necessarily celebratory scrappers either) and digital store owners / designers, or about the blogging industry itself. I subscribe to several newsfeeds, with simple search tags such as “scrapbooking” or “digital scrapbooking”. Many of these can be delivered to my normal inbox as they are found, others can be subscribed through a blog reader (mine is bloglines). By Michelle
Selectively read forums and communities dealing with the topic of interest. For me, this is normally digital scrapbooking communities at the moment, and you never know what thread started by someone will pique my interest, and what one may not. By Michelle.
Listen to original music and get inspired ( I love Jimi Hendrix, Eminem, Green Day, Mozart ...). By Steli Efti
Be bold ( say what you wanna say the way you want to say it - it´s your blog). By Steli Efti
Interaction with the Real World: I write a lot about tools I use in my real life. If I use software, buy a piece of equipment, discover a new site or read something useful in a magazine, I post about it. If I find it useful or interesting then chances are that someone else will too. So I share. Nothing more original than good old real life (as opposed to the surreal feeling I get while reading dozens of blogs one after the other in my news reader. Know what I mean?). By Kim.
Things I Want to Say to My Friends: Given that some of my very good friends can barely browse the web without getting help (really!) I post about things I would tell my friends if only they were HighTech friends. I find this helps my posts to have that friendly voice I want to have. While this may not actually help me come up with ideas, it does help me present them better. By Kim.

Tips 11-20
Tips 21-30
Tips 31-40

Section Targeting : Control the Adsense Ads displayed on your blog

2007-04-12T11:46:00.000+05:30

If your site or blog contains posts on various topics, the Ads displayed by Adsense are sometimes vague and useless. The problem is, Adsense by itself ignores page content as such and focuses what the overall blog is all about. But, Adsense supports section targeting which allows you to specify what sections you want your Ads to be focused on.
If you are unaware of what section targeting actually is, here is the definition from Google:

Section targeting allows you to suggest sections of your text and HTML content that you'd like us to emphasize or downplay when matching ads to your site's content. By providing us with your suggestions, you can assist us in improving your ad targeting. We recommend that only those familiar with HTML attempt to implement section targeting. Read more on Inside Adsense Blog.

Here is how to apply it:
The working is pretty simple. You can mark as many sections of your post as "Ad relevant" as you want.

Step 1: Type your post as you normally would.

Step 2: Use these tags to highlight whatever you want to emphasize:

Your Whole post

De emphasized Text for ads.

< !-- google_ad_section_start -->
Text highlighted for ads.
< !-- google_ad_section_end -->

De emphasized Text for ads.

De emphasized Text for ads.

< !-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->
Ignored Text for ads
< !-- google_ad_section_end -->

End of your post

Step 3: Just publish the post you normally would. Note that it might take 2-3 weeks for your relevant ads to show up, as specified by Google.

I have started targeting my ads starting today. You should try it out since people say that they have increased there payouts drastically using this technique. Let me know if you face any problem applying this to your blog, I will be happy to help y

Digg!" height="17" width="91">

How to hack: Add tabs to your blogger posts

2007-04-10T18:14:00.000+05:30

See this post for the final effect, which basically looks like this:

The advantages:

You can keep your post length short and still add a lot of content to your posts.
The tabs are loaded along with the original article and it wont take anytime (zero time) for the user to switch between any of the pages.
Can be applied in 5 mins.

Request: Please dont remove my sitename from the hack.Here is how to do it:

Step 1: Go to the Template-->Edit Html---> Click download full template to take a backup of your original template in case anything goes wrong.
Step 2: Add this code just before the /head> section of your template:

Step 3: Go to Settings--->Formatting-->Post Template and enter the following:

<div id="cyclelinks"></div>
<p class="dropcontent">
Content 1 here.
</p>
<p class="dropcontent">
Content 2 here.
</p>
<p class="dropcontent">
Content 3 here.
</p>
<div id="cyclelinks2" align="right"></div>

Never touch the div tags. The code is self explanatory. The Content 1,2 and 3 are displayed in Pages 1,2 and 3 respectively.

Step 4: Save the template and you are done. Whenever you create a new post you will see the above layout.Just put the contents accordingly. If you dont want any pages in a post, simply delete all the above code from the new post.

Step 5: Changing the color of tabs:

Download the js file from: http://mp3mohit1.googlepages.com/tabbed.js and open it in your HTML editor. Find and change the following lines accordingly

var showrecords=1 //specify number of contents to show per tab
var tabhighlightcolor="white" //specify tab color when selected
var taboriginalcolor="lightgrey" //specify default tab color. Should echo your CSS file definition.

After you are satisfied with the changes, save the file and upload it to your location choice. Remember to change the link in Step 2 accordingly.

If you have any doubts, I would be more than happy to help you out. Just drop a comment below or use the contact me form to send a mail to me. I will appreciate it if you dont remove the link to my site, since it is harmless to me and valuable to me.

Source

How to : Grasp your reader's attention

2007-04-08T21:05:00.000+05:30

"Eyetracking visualizations show that users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe."
Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F's top bar.
Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second ...
Read More on the F shaped findings

I think this can help us all in writing content which can be read better by the user. Here is a list of what I learnt to do from this study:

Content on left: Always set your template so that the widgets and other things are on the right column and the main content is on the left side.
Show popular posts: As you can see I have placed the popular posts right on the top right, the first horizontal bar which people read.
Use lists with meaningful bolds: More often than not, the reader is likely to scan through your page at amazing speeds. Make it a point to make your content scannable by writing in lists. Also, the title in bolds should be enough to get the gist of the post.
Use Images and Videos on the right: The right vertical is mostly ignored by the readers according to this study. So, I think the images and videos which capture the attention of the user should be used on the right instead of the boring no image texts.
Use Taglines on header: This is like the first impression thing when you meet somebody. Its the most prominent part of the "F" and should be used intelligently. Use keywords, dashes or commas, anything which gets the message across. Choose words which state the purpose of your site the best. You might offend some people who love there language by using dashes, but it will be benificial to most. Here is an example:

Our solutions are:
Scaleable and Robust
Modular and Integrated
Efficient and Cost-effective

Learn to write effective headlines, titles: The attention span of a reader is less than a teenager. You get just 50-60 characters to convince people to read your article. It is even worse on a search engine when your post is listed amongst 1000 other posts. Its better to note to use the below as a checklist whenever you write a headline.

Clearly explain what the article (or email) is about in terms that relate to the user.
No puns, no "cute" or "clever" headlines.
No teasers that try to entice people to click to find out what the story is about
Skip leading articles like "the" and "a" in email subjects and page titles
Make the first word an important, information-carrying one.
Do not make all page titles start with the same word: they will be hard to differentiate when scanning a list.

I believe this study only strengthens what we all already knew. The good thing is it has given us another chance to get our basics in line and start writing better content. After all, we can force nobody to read what we write.

Be Original

2007-04-06T12:47:00.000+05:30

Being humans(and bloggers), we always relish anything that is original and has a new scent to it. Seeing the vast size of blogsosphere, it is very easy to believe that no original data can be created . Strictly speaking, that is not always true. I have ways to create original content and I believe, you have many ways too.
With that in mind, I have decided to start a project that will benefit all of the bloggers who participate, as well all of the readers of those blogs.

I am calling it "Be Original" and here is how it works:

In a new blog post, list and write about 5 to 10 methods you use to create original posts. It has to be a method you use regularly. These should be the best, quickest and easiest to apply methods.
At the start of your post, tell your audience (briefly or at length) what you are doing with the "Be Original" Project and put a link and/or a trackback to this post, for the purpose of giving them the full rules and for me to compile the master list of all participants that I’ll link to in a future post.
Be sure to also put a link/trackback to the blogger who tagged you for "Be Original" in order to let your readers follow the conversation around and to spread the link love.
Sharing your "Be Original" methods with your own audience, will also share them with the blogger who tagged you and the bloggers you tagged, as well as their whole audience!
Pick as many bloggers as you want and “tag” them to take part in the fun. You will be helping their exposure by linking to their site from your blog, and they will return the favor by having a link to your site in their initial post. After all, that is how a meme works (a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another.)
As Aaron says "Sit back and watch the[Be Original] and the crossover audiences start rolling it!"

Once I feel that all methods have been listed, I will tally all of the habits that were listed by the bloggers who participated and put those habits in the "101 Ways to Create Original Posts", categorized by popularity. It will have a master list of links to all of the bloggers who participated.

Here is a note to the "A list bloggers":
Please play along if you get tagged. It is quite possible that you have the best ideas in the business (making you the A-List). So, why not help all bloggers and readers by creating the original content which we all relish.

My "Be Original" methods:

Build up and improvise on existing posts: I try to add value to what people have discovered. Example: Suppose , today somebody discovers magnets (assuming it hasn't been discovered before). The point is you have to use that magnet and improvise. So, one can help blind people find there keys with this magnet.Sounds better than a stray magnet . Just attach the magnet at the end of the cane for blind people (ignore practical constraints for now).
Use Your Experience/ Life Stories: This is something which each and everybody of us is capable of. We have lived lives in different ways and have had strange and rare and unique experiences. Use Them, all the time. Whenever you read a piece of news, blog post or anything, try to think if you have experienced something related or analogous to it.
What makes you think?: We think all the time, even about the simplest and most mundane things. Sometimes, I get a great idea by thinking over things which we easily ignore, like; Why did blogging start?; Why is Apple(the company) called Apple?
I am a News Junkie:I read a lot of news. It is a great way to create original content. I am amongst the first few to discover it, so I can get the scoop. Also, it gives me a chance to demonstrate my potential , if I am able to build upon it.Such post has a huge potential to be linked and commented on.
Use the product: This works well for me when I am reviewing a product. It gives me a thorough knowledge of the product. Also, almost all the time you find something that others haven't found. Then, I compare or merge it with similar products I have used.
Participate in forums, blogs: I am a part of many forums and try to participate in discussions which interest me. Almost always, a new idea pops up whenever you are discussing something. Keep note, and you get new posts :).
Use comments on your blog:Another place where you can find great ideas to find a new posts, is in comments of your own blog. Your readers are your best friends, and you get ideas from them. Participate in the comments and use the discussion as a building stone.
Untouchable Content : Tackling all of the content that many other publishers find difficult or uncomfortable. A controversial or difficult to write content is overlooked, that is a challenge and a great opportunity to create a new post and possibly a scoop.
Start Campaigns:Just like I started this one. It keeps everybody on there toes. It is a little difficult to start a campaign because often they end up being overlooked. So, start a campaign for something you are passionate about, and which interests your readers.
Lists: I write lists all the time (__ Ways to __). They work. Easy to skim through in a glance and easier to digest. Don't copy the points from others, try to come up with an original list and it might do wonders.

These are the 10 methods which came to mind. There might be many more methods which I might be using, but these are the ones I use most often.

You can join in on the fun too. If you don't have a blog, you are welcome to leave your methods in the comments section.

I TAG

This is the first list and I decided to tag all of my favorite bloggers and people who are active readers on my blog. If I missed you, I apologize, but you are more than welcome to get in on the project, the fun, and the master list that I will put together. Don’t forget to link or track back this post so that I can tally up the results and add you to the master list.

Steli Efti: The Supercool Blog
Liz Strauss - Successful and Outstanding Bloggers
Alex Shalman: Practical Personal Devlopment
Aaron Potts - Today is That Day
Gleb Reys - Personal Development Ideas
Divya Uttam - Blogging to Fame
Lyman Reed - Creating a Better Life
Shauna & Ophelia - Breathing Prosperity
Patsi Krakoff & Denise Wakeman - Build a Better Blog
Travis Wright - Cultivate Greatness
Chris Garrett - Chris Garrett on New Media
Leo - Zen Habits
Brian Clark - CopyBlogger
Priya Shah - Marketing Slave
Darren Rowse - ProBlogger
Drew McLellan - Drew’s Marketing Minute
Patricia - A Better You Blog
Ben Casnocha - Ben Casnocha: The Blog
Joe Vitale - Beyond Marketing
Brian Kim - Invest in Yourself and Make it Happen
Steven Aitchison - Change Your Thoughts
Kathy Sierra - Creating Passionate Users
Scott Lee - Dirty Mechanism
Edward Mills - Evolving Times
Scott Ginsberg - Hello My Name is Blog
Guy Kawasaki - How to Change the World
Henrik Edberg - The Positivity Blog
Sania Wyatt - Inspiring and Helping Others Achieve Happiness…
Steve Pavlina - Personal Development for Smart People
Tony D. Clark - Success from the Nest
Ilker Yoldas - The Thinking Blog
Steve - The Fast Lane
Gretchen Rubin - The Happiness Project
Raymond Salas - Zenchill Power Tools Blog
Murtaza Baloch -
Ann
Hummie - Hummie's World
Ashish Mohta - Technospot Blogs
Maki - Make Money With Dosh Dosh
Merlin - 43 Folders
Essential Keystrokes
Nipul Pravin - Googlr
Daniel- Daily Blogging Tips
Broc- Existential Ventures
Tegas.i.Prasojo - My Daily Thoughts

Borrow daily traffic from Images.Google.com

2007-04-05T20:33:00.001+05:30

We all work hard to get readers to our blog, especially the ones who are genuinely interested and are more likely to come back. What can be better than getting around 100 unique visitors daily who belong to the niche you write in? This tip will tell you how to get 30-100 uniques per day from Google Image search.
Here is how the tip goes:
Step 1: Suppose your site is related to Firefox. Go to images.google.com and type Firefox in the search box.
Step 2: Now, choose the image which is most appropriate to your blog and search. Right Click on that and choose "Copy Link Address". See the below image for clarifications:
The link you would get would something be like:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://iconpacks.mozdev.org....26sa%3DN
It would be a link from the Google Page and not the original site link.

Step 3: Use this image link to post the image in a forum or your blog or wherever you want the traffic to be. Its done.

Step 4 (optional): Use your country's Google search for targeted results. Example: If you are in India use images.google.in instead of images.google.com

The visits from this might fluctuate between 30-100 uniques but they are steady.

A Caution: I don't know if it is a white hat or Black Hat SEO technique, so please use your discretion. Also, let me know if it is Black Hat :)

Source

Six Things to Learn from "Kumiko"

2007-04-05T14:54:00.000+05:30

Recently, while adding AdSense ads to my blog I ended up at a blog "Kumiko's Cash Quest". I couldn't decide why, but somehow it was a very striking blog and I couldn't leave the page. As I read more of it I wished to have a blog like her. I learnt a lot of things which I think are worth sharing:

Give a catchy and explanatory punch line:

"Three Figures Blogging....With Extra Pink"... That somehow is a perfect title for a girl writing about making money online. It tells you that she is aspiring to earn money online, which is why I was at her blog in the first place.

Make it Personal:

You must have read this a lot of times, but this point cant be stressed enough. There is a picture of her right on top. It feels like I am knocking on her door and she is there to welcome me. A weblog is after all a personal experience, shared with others.

Promote Yourself:

All of use love to be advertised, why not do it on our own blog first? She does that beautifully. In the above pic two things are noteworthy:

The contest she is running is right below the header, again with a catchy phrase. Everybody wants to earn money.
Her top posts are right on the top too. You want to show your strengths to your new visitors and not your weakness.

Flaunt the Figures:

As I told you, her blog is all about making money online. Another thing that catches your attention is the amount of money she makes, which is on the top of the page too. You think, if she makes money, she can definitely help me out. Although, all of us don't blog to make money, but most of us do; which is what she is banking on.

Create a theme for readers:

She has replaced the boring "comments" with "comments of love". With the pink color and girly pics and all, I believe it fits in a theme. On my blog the theme is Basket of Blogs, to apply this, for example, I might replace "bookmark this" with "Take the basket". Also, I could add images of basket with different blogs in it, I am still thinking after I visited her site.

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING:

The content is the king, it always boils down to this. She couldn't have been so famous if she wrote why her cat died, or why she was having a bad hair day. She knows what she is doing, she follows what she advises you to do. Her biggest strength is the number of links she has in the blogging community, Though the number of outgoing links are a few, the incoming links are numerous.
Hope she helps us grow along with her. With the page rank revision going on, I bet her site would have a PR of atleast 5 if not more. Right now, she is offering $30 to predict her PR correctly, go here and participate if you wish.

101 ways to create your original posts

2007-04-03T18:55:00.000+05:30

This is the resource post for the Break The Line Project.

Here we go, 101 ways to create your original posts:

Build up and improvise on existing posts: This is easier said than done. You don't need to come up with a post from scratch. That would be great if you can do it, but its practically impossible. You need to add value to what people have discovered. Example: Suppose , today somebody discovers magnets (assuming it hasn't been discovered before). The point is you have to use that magnet and improvise. So, one can help blind people find there keys with this magnet.Sounds better than a stray magnet . Just attach the magnet at the end of the cane for blind people (ignore practical constraints for now). Contributed by Basketer.
Use Your Experience/ Life Stories: This is something which each and everybody of us is capable of. We have lived lives in different ways and have had strange and rare and unique experiences. Use Them, all the time. Whenever you read a piece of news, blog post or anything, try to think if you have experienced something related or analogous to it. If it is a software or a book, give a review after you use it. Again, the personal touch is very important. Some people have reservations sharing their personal lives but again, you are blogging and not writing a diary entry. Contributed by Basketer
Be Yourself and Use your strengths: It seems to come easy for me. I have so many interests and hobbies and I just share what I enjoy.I just be myself. I do not try to be someone I am not --just to get traffic.
I think about what things I am interested in and when I find new things of interest, I share them, whether it be on the topics of television, genealogy, or scrapbooking. Those who enjoy the same interests as me hopefully will return.
I also enjoy writing my tutorials and teach others about digital scrapbooking. All of my tutorials are original. I try to find inspiration to share with my readers to utilize on their pages. Contributed by Hummie
Streams of conciousness are often the most interesting reads:"Say you're listening to a song that has really moved you in some way.
Don't be afraid to use that... there's nothing wrong with including lyrics to songs on your page (especially when properly credited)... but then, add more. Explain why you felt they should be included. Not everyone is going to view those words in the same way. Talk about how it relates to your life." The gest is to express what you are thinking, that might be a difficult thing to explain, but it is definitely an interesting read. Contributed by Ann.
Ask questions to yourself:"Often times more important than having answers is asking the right questions. If you are trying to come up with an original post here are some questions you could ask yourself, I am sure they will spark good ideas:
1. every one in my niche is writing about A, B and C. Why?
2. other blogs in my niche usually write posts in this or that format. what if I write something that is the complete opposite?
3. can I simplify or summarize things that others in my niche are writing?"Contributed by Daniel.

You can get your idea and link into this post. Participate in the project and help us get this resource together. Read the instructions and description here.

Break The line project

2007-04-03T15:35:00.000+05:30

We have been taught to stand in line, but that was to discipline us. Unfortunately, that's what most of the bloggers are doing. They walk in a line like a pack of ants and are afraid to think out of the box or get out of the line. Especially, people starting their new blogs or sites are afraid of writing original posts ( some don't have them). They just copy content or at best, modify it in their own language. This makes the concept of blogging useless.
The "Break The Line" Project is an attempt to rectify this serious problem. The resource post (101 ways to create your original posts) will be created by everyone here and will benefit everybody. It will provide ways which can be used by people to come up with original blog posts. You can contribute to this project and gain form it while helping others.
Here are the details:

MOTIVATION:

To create a "101 ways to create your original posts" resource with everybody's (including me and you) help.

HOW DO YOU PARTICIPATE?

That's the beautiful part. All you have to do is drop a comment here stating the way you think can be helpful for generating original ideas. Look at some collected ideas: 101 ways to create your original posts. I and the active readers will discuss and add the suitable ways into the resource post.
Here is what an accepted comment will look like:

101 ways to create your original posts:

Way One - Submitted by Person1(Link to his blog)
Way Two- Submitted by Person 2 (Link to Person 2's Blog)

..
..
..
..
..
101.

You can also elaborate on the suggested idea at your own blog and link it back to the comment or the resource post ( if accepted).

WHAT DO YOU GET?

Apart from the recognition in the Blogging community, you grow along with the project(HOW?), with the following benefits:

Backlinks
Technorati Rank
Traffic Traffic Traffic
New friends who can help you in Blogging
Loyal Readers interested in your niche, since they were attracted from an idea you gave in the first place.
Of Course, I will be giving you many backlinks through the Best-Blog-Basket.

Please, read How Do you Grow With The project? to get more and more of the above six things.

ANY RULES?

Try not to post duplicate ways since it is most likely, it wont be added to the resource post.
You can add many ways as you want, each giving you one link.
Even if your comment is not selected, you will get a linkback from the post on "People supporting "Break The Line".
After every 10 ways collected from the project, I will post them in a separate post, making it easier for navigation, giving you additional backlinks. You can do the same, interlinking is the best way to boost your Technorati Rank.

How can you support it?

Spread the word. There isn't any chance that we can create 101 ways by ourselves, more the people participating, more popular you get.
Here is an icon you can use. Feel free to modify or create your icons. Do inform us if you think your icon is better. :)

Keep Blogging!

Download One Piece 302 : Subbed and encoded

2007-04-02T15:59:00.000+05:30

"Download one piece 302. one piece 302 English download. one piece 302."
If these look like your recent searches on Google you have come to the right place. I was going through the same agony for a lot of time now, I even read the manga to pass my time. Then, I convinced my friend and batch mate Saurabh Singhvi to get it today itself. It will be there in a couple of hours, fully subbed and encoded by nandebayo.

I have been clicking this download link for a while, go ahead and wait, or click away. Do tell me when its up.

Download One Piece 302 link

Found this useful? Digg it here.

Miniseries: Ways to speed up your blog- Part II

2007-04-01T16:50:00.000+05:30

Miniseries- PartII
Also See: Part I
In the first part we had discussed how to reduce the image size on your blog/site page. This part gives you:
7 more ways to speed up your blog:

1. Optimize your HTML Code:
Your site should not have any unwanted and benign HTML tags. This only increases the loading time. After writing each blog post, check if it has any unwanted tags; these generally creep in when you edit a post after it has been published.

2.Effective Table designing:
" Design using nested tables instead of using cell merges and splits. Use separate tables where ever possible. Not designing for 100% height is better as if you use just one outer table, the web page is displayed only after the table is loaded fully. If many outer tables are present [you can have different tables for the header, content, footer, etc.] the page displays the content of each table as soon as its elements are loaded."

3.Optimize Heavy Files ( Scripts, Flash)
Use editors like fireworks and flash there are options to reduce the file size, use them. As mentioned in Part I, check out Yahoo and Google, their pages load up in mere seconds.

4. Use Basic and Simple Templates:
The more complicated the design of your template, the more time it takes to load. If you have to use a 3-column-Template go for the minima White ones available for download everywhere. Of course, if your site needs good graphics, you cant apply this one.

5. Break your content into pages:
Don't make a page too long, with the page length, the size goes up drastically. Also, no one likes to scroll to the bottom of the page. Divide your site into many pages, but see to it that there aren't too many links a person has to click to read a single article. Divide your blog into different sections. For the same reason this blog shows just one post on the front page.

6.Use text links, avoid graphic buttons:
Try to make use of HTML as much as possible. Use CSS Styles for text links to make them as attractive as buttons. Read this CSS Styles tutorial.

7. Don't add graphic Ads:
Use text link Ads instead of Graphic Ads, this saves some precious space and doesn't matter much. Use the above tutorial to make different cool text links.

I hope you can utilize some of these ways to speed up your blog. I have seen many people making these mistakes, I myself made these mistakes and learnt from it, please keep them in mind while you design/redesign your next site. I do believe these make a lot of difference in how many readers visit your site.
What do you think? Do these things really matter, or is it a waste of time?

Find this post useful? Digg it Here.

How 2 add quality to your new weblog

2007-03-31T16:47:00.000+05:30

I spent the day looking for great blog articles on stumble. I have actually found many articles to help you in getting Dugg, improving your grammar, graphic banners and many others. It is a comprehensive list to add value and quality to your blog.

How to Write the Right Title for Digg:

If you want to add traffic to your blog through Digg, this article provides you with the best 25 words to be used on Dugg ( along with the stats). So the next time you're launching a service, or a stroke of literary genius strikes you, don't forget to keep the above-mentioned words in mind (as long as they are applicable).

Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb:

A quick read and very informative. Confused between its,it's;their,there;affect,effect? Have a look at this article and prevent yourself from looking dumb.

Graphics Tutorials (Photoshop etc.)

"We are building up a database of webmaster articles and tutorials about Photoshop tips, tricks and art using Photoshop 7 and CS tools, and more resources about how to build up a site from hosting, to editing and publishing it. We are correctly adding free web tools on: �how to check google pagerank�, �how to track visitors�, �free templates� and more coming."

21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch:

This is a hugely popular article, so you might have read it. It deals with the 21 tips to prevent your blog from being a flop. It is pretty difficult in the blogosphere, it wont hurt to use these handy and easy to apply tips. I renovated the About on my blog thanks to this article.

300+ free Directories to get linkbacks:

A comprehensive list of directories; get your blog listed and get new readers. The directories are arranged according to their PR. A little tiresome, to submit your site, but it might pay off.
I also stumbled across a couple of great cartoons, check them out:

Have an interesting and useful tool you want to share or blog about? Why not participate in the Blog A Tool Contest and get some prizes?

If you have similar articles to share, please do, and let us all learn together.

Keep Blogging.

About Best-Blog-Basket

2007-03-31T15:34:00.000+05:30

Welcome to Best-Blog-Basket, a blog that strives to provide you many personal blogs at one place.
My name is Mohit Singhania. I am a fifth year student at IIT Bombay. I am an aspiring professional blogger and have started my own group blog: Best-Blog-Basket.

In Jan 2007 I brought a copy of the digit magazine which had a booklet "Fast Track To Blogging". I didn't know anything about blogs that time. But, by the time I had finished that book, I was sure I wanted to be a professional Blogger.
The very next day I started planning for the blog. It did take me some time to get my team together but we are on our way now. Since that day, I have continuously read about how to make my blog bigger. The Best-Blog-Basket now covers a variety of topics ( which I plan to expand further):

Cricket-Zone:

I am a die hard cricket fan. Being an Indian, this is my religion. This blog gives you the cricket happenings, discusses the latest debates on players, organises contests etc. The aim is to discuss Cricket with my readers all the time.

Blogger-Resource-Basket:

As I told you, I have read about blogs ever since I started my blog. This helps me to be informed of all the hacks, tips and resources on blogs. Using this advantage I try to provide my readers with tips and tools to help their blog grow. I organise contests to get new ideas from my readers all the time.

Anime-Manga:

My friend Aditya Karandikar ( aka Grandizer), is crazy about Anime and Manga. I picked up this hobby a few months ago. This blog is for the avid Anime and Manga audience. We give away download of latest episodes too. Discussions and news are the bloodline of this blog. Aditya is planning to release his own comics on the blog soon.

Windows and Freeware:

Again, this is all my first hand experience. Since 5 years I have experimented with a lot of softwares and windows applications. This blog is all about solving the common error a Windows user faces, softwares to make his life easy. I hate piracy. There are many freewares to replace the paid softwares and I want the readers to use them. I provide a thorough review of each of these.

In the first few weeks, I wasnt getting any traffic. But that went away. Now, I am getting some healthy traffic. To keep bringing my readers quality content, I have converted blogging from a hobby to a daily 6-7 hrs job.
This blog is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium.

If you would like to be involved in the Best-Blog-Basket or know more about it, feel free to contact me.
Please stay in touch with the Best-Blog-Basket by the kind of subscription you want ( see the sidebars on this page, RSS and mail subscriptions). If you’ve found this blog helpful to you in your blogging needs, I simply ask that you consider adding us to your blogroll or blog side bar to let others know about us. Spread the word so we can all learn and share together.
I hope you enjoy the Best-Blog-Basket.

Blog A Tool Contest

2007-03-31T12:11:00.000+05:30

Its time for a blogging contest @ B-B-B (Best-Blog-Basket). It is pretty similar to other contests. You have to blog about a blogging tool. The prizes will help you increase traffic for your blog and your technorati rank; best of all your relations in the blogging community. Please read all of the instructions before submitting your entries. Only new posts will be accepted. Posts written before today's date will not be eligible for this contest. Thanks for your understanding.
The full list of submissions are posted here.

Topic:

As we keep blogging, we think of new things which can be done to improve our blog. Everyone strives to get the best graphics, best content, newest setups and what not. In your pursuit as a blogger, I am sure you must have come across many tools which would have helped you in your blogging endeavour.
The contest is pretty simple. All you have to do is: Write about one tool, which you think has made your blogging life a heaven. It might be any tool: online or offline, hardware or software; it might even be a book. All that is required is, it should have helped you and it should be helpful to the readers.
Possible examples of tools: Newsgator, any cool widget, a new plugin (like stumble), a book, a forum,a template, a site, a software, a new mouse etc. You might add anything you think is appropriate(above mentioned criteria) and blog about it.

The Prizes:

Let the best tool win! I will decide which tool is the best based on: how helpful it is;if you have mentioned its best use in your blog or not etc.

All participants get 2 linkbacks from my blog.
10 top entries get a chance to write guest blog entries on my blog. (They should obviously be sensible and not full of meaningless links, but they can contain links back to your blog when relevant.)
Two entries get the ad space on my blog header for 15 full days.
Two other entries will receive:

A review from my blog along with the backlink.
An honest and thorough feedback about their blog from me ( I assure you I will prepare my feedback after many visits). I will explain its relevance: I will tell you the viewpoint of a new reader be it on your graphics, content, site layout. I will be a part of the experimentation you do on your blog for 10 days, if you want.

How to participate?

Step1: Write the blogging tool post.

You must state your tool clearly and its use(s). You can add anything else you want.
If you don't have a blog where you can write a post you can mail me your entries at: mp3mohit1@gmail.com
If you don't want too much hustle, you can add your post in the comments, but you will lose the two backlinks you could have got. I assure you, it wont affect my decision.
You can write it in your first language. I encourage that.
Please consider putting a link back to this post on your post so that your readers know you’re participating. You don’t have to do this - but it’d be appreciated to help grow the discussion/contest.

Step 2: Inform me about the post:

Drop in a mail .
Make sure to include your name, title of the post, URL of the post you have written.
Deadline: 3 Weeks from today, 15 Th April 2007

Step 3: The links you get:

One in the total list of submissions for viewing all the entries.
In a daily post on the entries received on a daily basis.
Selected entries get more links.

Step 4: Link Link Link

You can post your own winners list by surfing through the contest entries. This will help you get to know new blogs and establish new connections in the blogging community.
The amount of interlinking potential amongst the contestants is huge and its upto you to make the best out of it.

Step 5: The chosen entries will be announced on the 16Th April.

Blogger Launches New "Add Page Element(s)"

2007-03-30T19:10:00.000+05:30

Blogger keeps getting better and better. Surprisingly, when I tried to enter a new page element( In your Blogger Dashboard: Click Layout-->Add a Page Element) on my blog today, I found this:

These are really cool additions and open up ample opportunities to add fresh content to your blog.

Newsreel

As the picture says it allows you to add news from the Google news. An even better feature can be seen in the below picture:
Yes, you can add the search terms for which you want the displays. Also, what you cant see in this preview is that the news is in flash format and takes a single line (very less blog page space) for any number of news you want. The search as expected from Google is lightning quick.

Video Bar

How cool is that? Miniature videos right on your blog with minimal loading time and for whichever topic you need. Here is the snapshot of the setup:The black screens are the videos and I have blackened it for no legal issues et al. This will help you provide your own videos or any other Google, Youtube videos to your readers.

I will use this feature for sure on my blog and give you a thorough review in a couple of days, so keep reading. Here is what I think at first look:

It cant be used by three column templates since the width is too much.
It is very light and increases your blog load time by just 2-2.5 seconds.
Even a monkey could set it up.
It still needs better integration with youtube and if possible news and videos from other sites.

If you find anything new about these features, which most probably, I ha vent mentioned, do mention them. Its a great gift to Bloggers. Thanks Google.

Stumble: Happy , very Happy anime song

2007-03-30T18:30:00.000+05:30

LeekSpin

I dont know what I like about it so much? It has been driving me crazy, its just the photograph of a character spinning something and singing some song in what language I dont know, but its so so cool. I have spun for 20 minutes on a strech and the person living next door closed it :( . Please check it out and do tell me if its really that addictive ? How long did you spin? Like it? Stumbled it?

Acknowledgment

2007-03-30T12:03:00.000+05:30

I have launched a Predict To Win: Cricket Contest recently,I am trying to get more and more people participate in it; to make it more exciting. Some of the blogs have helped me out in this endeavor. I am sorry to the readers, who feel this is shameless promotion, but even if I started a good contest, I had to publicize it. Who knows maybe you came through one of the below blogs :).Below is the list of blogs:

Existential Ventures:This is a blog run by Eric, I have gotten pretty close to him recently. We are participating in the Million Dollar Race he is organising. Looking forward to that.
Blogger Lounge: I have learnt a lot from this blog. This blog even taught me about backlinking, when it comes to rapid traffic, this blog is the King.
Esofthub's web finds:"100 SEO Factors that affect Google Page Rank", these are the kind of topics this blog discusses. I cant explain it better than that, because that is perfect.
Ja Kel Daily Dot Com: "Turning Page Views Into Profits","Top 10 Methods to Find New Readers". He always tries to help you make money.
Blogging Sports Network:By Far the best review post for this contest. He has a blog related to cricket. The categories on the blog are: Auto Racing, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Golf, Other Sports. The blog is all about sports and is a must stop for sport fanatics.
Your Blog.

Please help me promote this competetion. You will definitely get your name in the above or a similar post. Just do the following:

Participate in the contest

Give a brief description of the competetion to help you blog readers participate too. Looking forward to your co-operation.

If you have done any of these drop me a mail(see page footer) or a comment to this post.

full metal alchemist

2007-03-29T18:21:00.000+05:30

I have posted a few posts about naruto...just to change the flavour a bit...i am starting this post about FMA

Those who don't know...full metal alchemist is based in an alternate world (a parallel universe) where alchemy and not the laws of physics, rule. Alchemy states that you can create any object if the composition of the object and the raw materials are available...for example if you have hydrogen and oxygen, you can create water...if you have steel, you can create a sword...but you cannot put life into anything you make and human transformations are absolutely forbidden.

those who try to create human beings from the raw materials are absolute sinners and this process creates what is called a homunculus (there are seven, one for each sin: lust,greed,envy,sloth,gluttony,wrath,pride)

the story revolves around edward elric and his brother...but let's leave that for another post

Blogging Schedule @B-B-B

2007-03-29T16:26:00.000+05:30

Freeware Windows: Twice a week( Days:Wed,Sun)
Blogger-Resource-Basket: Alternate Days ( Days: Sun,Tue,Thur,Sat)
Windows: Thrice a week (Days: Sat,Tue, Fri)
Cricket-Zone: Atleast (Days: Mon,Wed,Fri)

5 ways to set up your blog posting schedule

2007-03-29T16:14:00.000+05:30

All humans love consistency and routine in everything they do. Its no different for your blog readers. They love it when you stick to a definite number of posts a week, even better; if you ave fixed days on which you post. They can be very strict if you break this, and might leave you forever. I learned this the hard way a little time ago. Here are a few ways to do that:

Fix number of posts: Don't write posts whenever you like; atleast don't publish them. If you are in a mood to write you can save your posts for publishing them on the fixed day. Restrict yourself to a fixed number of posts a week or month or a day, whichever you like, just fix the number.
Fix days you post on: If you cant write daily, fix the week days you publish posts on. Try to space it evenly in the week, and not just the weekends.
Assign days to topics: If you write on various topics, make it a point to assign one or two topics to days of the week.
Fix a time of the day: This might be pushing it a bit too far for some; but, it really pays off if you have done your analysis (what time do maximum readers come, which time zone do they belong to etc.). Preferably, you should post a couple of hours before the readers rush in. Again, save the posts, and publish them at the right time.
Whatever you decide, stick to it. Never mind, if the results don't show up, eventually they will. Just keep blogging at a definite pace and time.

In the light of this post here is the tentative blogging schedule on B-B-B.

Miniseries: Ways to speed up your blog

2007-03-28T18:07:00.000+05:30

Miniseries- PartI
Also see- Part II
6 Ways to speed up your Blog:

Whenever we redesign our sites we tend to add more graphics which means more loading times. The site loading time is very important factor, generally ignored by new designers . If your site takes more than 20s (which is quite high by itself), most of the readers will leave your site before it loads. Google Search Homepage is the ideal example and should be taken as an inspiration. Here I discuss ____ ways to optimize your loading time.
First of all lets check how much is your blog loading time. Here is the best tool according to me:

Web Page Speed Analysis

It gives you separate times for all your files like HTML, IMG, Scripts(external). Just type the URL of your blog and click go. Here are the load times of some of the sites I visit:

On a typical 56 K data connection:

Google.com- 2.74 secs
Yahoo.com- 1.86 secs
Problogger.net- 64.32 secs
Best Blog Basket- 32 secs (76 secs before I wrote this article)

So, typical loading times for a blog might be more than a normal side but you should consider 20 secs as an aim for yourself. So here I go, ___ ways to speed up your blog:

Reduce Number of Images: As far as possible, use minimum number of images and try to change the background colors for your site instead. Here is how you can change the background color of a widget:

Here is a sample code for pullquote widget I have.

2. Reduce Image dimensions: There is a limit to how many images you can remove, after that you should consider resizing images to acceptable size. This helps to reduce image size considerably. Use the freeware Irfanview.

3.Reduce color depth of images: The image on the right shows how to reduce the color depth in an image to reduce its size. If your image is 256 click on Custom and select 128 and so on. This is really helpful if you need to reduce the size of images on your page.

4. Change image quality : This is a little trade off. If your needs can be satisfied by a low quality image you can lower the image quality. This may be done by choosing File, Save As, and Options from the menu. Decreasing the Save Quality of your picture will reduce its size.

5. Change file type: I found that a JPEG format has the least size ( compared to .GIF or .BMP extension) while storing your image. This gives you considerable size reduction without lowering the quality of images.

6. Changing image HTML tags: This is a simple tweak while adding images to your header or other widgets on your sidebar. While giving the html tag you should specify the image width and height, this way the browser knows the size, and can load other files on your page while the image is being loaded. Source for tip six:
Speed Up Your Site: Use the height and width tags

These are the tweaks useful to reduce image loading times. I will discuss other concepts in the rest of this series.

10 quick ways to make your blog interactive

2007-03-27T15:42:00.000+05:30

Whenever you are having a conversation, you want the other person showing interest in what you are talking about. A blog is a conversation with your readers, so your readers shouldn't think of it as a one way conversation; where only you speak. To keep readers interested; to give them a personal attachment with your blog, here I present 10 quick ways to interact with your blog readers:

Comments: This is the most basic and important followup after each of your posts. Your readers express their views on what you have said. You need to take their views into account and respond to that on a regular basis. Don't be narrow minded, let the conversation evolve in your comments. Liz@Succesful Blog is great at doing that, check out her blog.
Shoutbox:People are always in a hurry. They always are. Sometimes, its too much work to click and add a comment. Add a simple shoutbox and pace up the process of getting your readers' views. It can be a great place for new blog ideas, new friends. It helps a lot in building your loyal readership. Get a shoutbox now. Use Shoutmix, its very easy to configure and is very stable to use.
Forums: This again helps you to keep your readers coming back. ..Its very easy to configure and get a forum. It will give you new readers from the other forums that site has built. It gives better shape to discussions as compared to a shoutbox (different available sections and threads). There is a great Freeweb widget, to get a forum on your blog. It is a little tough to configure, took me 15 minutes. But it is worth it.
MyBlogLog: It is important to know your readers, and set your next content accordingly. It also helps you to build your own community of readers and its easier to announce new things to your readers that way. There are a couple of very useful widgets provided by MBL. One helps you to keep track of who visited your site recently (profile,blog they operate etc.).The other one keeps track of your most popular posts. Both of them help you to get closer to your readers. Go, join my community or if you dont want to, join MBL.
Recent Comments Widget: It shows the recent comments on your blog; helps other to know what is being discussed on this blog and who is saying what. Again, helps to build a blog.
Contests: Contests is always seen as greyhat SEO because many (almost 90%), don't use them as they ought to be used, atleast I think so. The essence of contests is to get out creative thoughts from your readers, on any topic you want. Not only it helps them participate actively, it also helps you to know who is good at what. If you want to see an example, participate in my One piece humor contest.
Open Comments Night:I got this idea from Liz's Tues. Open Comments.Its a really great idea to help your readers speak up. Every week she chooses a new topic and everybody is invited to comment whatever they want about the topic. It gets a little fussy with all people speaking, you can integrate it into the forum on your blog. Stories are told and experiences are shared, as a result you get very close to your readers.
Join forums:This is a little tiresome, but it helps you to know the people interested in the topic of your blog. Join forums related to your blog with high traffic and you will get to know a lot of people who are interested and are potentially loyal readers to our blogs. Mostly, you increase your blog traffic, but you might get to know some highly talented people and become friends. I met flanflinger on a cricket forum, and he is a regular reader now. He has even considered writing guest blog entries for me and since he is a high profile guy, I am sure it will get me more readers.
Read your readers' blogs: Get into a habit of reading and commenting on blogs authored by your regular visitors. This keeps them interested and helps you to make new bonds.
Backlink blogs: Whenever you blog about something you have read somewhere, make it a point to backlink to it. Don't copy paste their ideas, add your own inputs to it. These backlinks show up on the original blog and if that person likes your article, he might become a regular visitor. If you don't know much about backlinks, read this article on Backlinks.

These are just some of the ways, I am sure my readers know many more innovative ways. Please share your ideas with us in the comments. Always remember that your blog readers are your guests and should be treated appropriately.

One piece 302 RAW download

2007-03-27T12:06:00.000+05:30

Okay, the raw is out there now. The english viewers (like me) will have to wait a bit longer. There werent many casualities in the earthquake too. So, I guess everything is going good now :). So whosoever is with me on the Luffy Vs Lucci, do cheere for him. If you dont want to cheer him up with me, choose your own space and support. :P A bit too excited I guess

Here, are a couple of links you could try:

Enjoy.

Humor Contest: One piece

2007-03-26T19:07:00.000+05:30

Luffy, one of the best comic anime. Here is a clipping from one of the chapters:
(you will have to click it to read).

Now here is the contest description:

What do you get?

Irrespective of whether you win or not you get a link back to your blog.
One winner gets the blogspace ad for free (2 days).

What do you have to do?

Tweak the dialogues and make it more humorous, anything is allowed(except obscenity).
Add it to the comments to this post and I will pick one every two days. Every participant will be backlinked from this post.

What are you waiting for, its fun and it will help your blog prosper.

PS: If you backlink to this post, my backlink would be more valuable to your blog (more links a blog has, more weightage its links have in SEO).

Backlinks

2007-03-25T19:31:00.000+05:30

I cant stress the importance of backlinks enough. They have given me a number of readers, and now my blog has around 80 UV on an average, and I even had 120 once. Actually, there is no stage when you should stop linking back. They improve your relations in the blog community and provide readers an oppurtunity to find your blog.
I wont write about it myself, because there is no need to. I learnt their use from "The Importance of Backlinks" on Bloggerlounge.
Here is an excerpt from the article:

Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website or blog. The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of a blog. They are important for SEO because some search engines..(more)

Hope you learnt a great deal from that. Its one of the most important things, so make it a point to read that.
PS: Are you interested in backlinks from this blog? Tell me about a good article you wrote. Write a guest blog with a link to your own blog.

One piece 302 Delayed

2007-03-25T19:10:00.000+05:30

Now available One Piece 302 @ Best-Blog-Basket:
Download One Piece 302 : Subbed and encoded

Earthquake in Japan - One Piece 302 RAW probably delayed

"There was a fairly major earthquake just off the west coast of Japan during the broadcast of 302. At least 1 person was killed and 50 injured. Most of the last few minutes of 302 was lost because of earthquake news coverage, so if we get a RAW today, it will most likely be incomplete (fortunately it is at the end of the episode rather than the beginning). The good news is that One Piece is broadcast on different days in different parts of Japan, so we should get a complete RAW eventually. In the meantime we should focus on the casualties of teh quake rather than complaining about a delayed RAW. For those of you who just can't wait for the full episode to come out, I will let you know if I find a partial RAW."

:((. This is really bad; I was looking forward to it, so so much. But, I guess we shouldnt be too selfish and wait patiently. There are more important things to look at right now.

Luffy Vs Lucci : One Piece 302

2007-03-25T18:18:00.000+05:30

Gear Two...Gear Three...
These words are all I have thought after watching the latest 301 anime. The last few episodes have really been godlike. With Zoro showing us the six hand, three face monster; Chopper showed us the beast form (after he ate 3 rumble balls). Nami(beating the secretary girl) and Sanji(The Hunter?) have done well too. Even Sogeking, whom I always hated for being a loser, stepped up and finally behaved as a sniper.
But, Oh how, How, Luffy has been outstanding. The new gear funda is awesome and it rocks. I am still waiting to see the third gear, and see him kick the hell out of Lucci. Lucci himself is quite cool though, I would have loved him to be a straw hat pirate :P.
The next episode One piece 302 is going to be Luffy Vs Lucci. I am afraid that these people will torture us more and next episode wont give it away. Don't you feel the anxiety?

I feel jealous of all you manga readers. But, please don't spoil the fun.

A blog review

2007-03-24T18:46:00.000+05:30

There are a lot of good blogs on how to make money online? While browsing I stumbled upon a blog which truly belongs to that league. Ja Kel Daily posts all about how to make money on the web. The best thing about his blog is the consistency he blogs with. Keep it going Ja Kel, I hope you make money all the time.

Just Keep Blogging!

Today's Tips for new bloggers #2

2007-03-24T14:25:00.000+05:30

Netvibes

A great great application for all bloggers. Delicious can bring together your bookmarks, mail clients can gather mails, feed readers gather feeds, video or picture search gives pictures, NetVibes incorporates them all :), very smartly and elegantly indeed. You can keep notes of the posts you want to make, contests you want to start on your blog. Their are many other features which can be added to your tabbed pages, provided by many other sites. Here, have a look at my pages and if you want them to be yours, take My Netvibes Page here.

3-D effect with photoshop:

Want to create these pictures:

This is pretty neat and simple. These images have been created by people applying this trick for the first time. You can also use GIMP. I am working on 3D buttons myself for the competitions I will be launching shortly. Hope you find it useful.

How Google ranks Blogs

Hasn't SEO and thus Google been the centre of your interest since you started your blogs. They provide you with all the tools to setup your blog and drive traffic to your site. If you want to know how to be Google's favorites this is just right. I don't agree with some of the points like post frequency being a negative factor, but you cant always be right.

"Positive Factors:
Popularity of the blog (RSS subscriptions)
Implied popularity (how many clicks search results get)
Inclusion in blogrolls
Inclusion in “high quality” blogrolls
Tagging of posts (also from users)
References to the blog by sources other than blogs
Pagerank

Negative Factors:
Predictable frequency of posts (short bursts of posts might indicate spam)
Content of the blog does not match content of the feed
Content includes spam keywords
Duplicated content
Posts have all the same size
Link distribution of the blog
Posts primarily link to one page or site"

Add picture link to blogger header and remove head tag:

If you designed a graphics header for your blog recently and were facing the problem of cluttering at the top of your blog, read this tips which even monkeys can apply (no offense, I did apply it :)). See my blogger header for a demo. Just a couple of steps and you would be done. You can also add GIF images which are dynamic. Also, your title header is still there for the search engines, so don't worry about the SEO.

Keep Blogging!

Today's Tips for new bloggers

2007-03-22T18:07:00.000+05:30

I learn new things as a blogger everyday. In this basket I provide tips for new bloggers like me, as I try out new things regularly.

Link Referral

If you are a new blogger looking for more traffic, this might do the trick. After registring you get points to review or visit a site which is converted into daily traffic. The best part is your site being displayed at the top of this site which has over 90000 members. If you login regularly your site will be in top half and if you write good reviews, you can get ranking boost. You can also get traffic through your referrals. I found it pretty useful. Please join linkreferral through my referral. Also, the search engine traffic increases, because the search engine crwals the link referral site and your site is listed there.

Blog Explosion

Its similar to link referral, but doesnt have many members and you will find yourself visiting a familiar blog again and again, sometimes. It has some games which can help you earn points=visits. Their is no harm in joining, if you have the time. You can join Blogexplosion here.

MyBlogLog

If you havent joined it, join now! The best blogging community I have found till now. It gives traffic instantly, as you visit new blogs and make friends. You leave your trail on others blogs when you visit their blog. Almost all the time they visit back. Also, its a great way to know your readers. Join it, its the best.

Labpixies

I found this cool site today. It adds crosswords,news,games, clock,calculator and many other widgets to your blog in a single click. The look of the widgets is especially cool. See my sidebar for the block game widget. Its best for bloggers who have issues with Javascript. Its important that you entertain your readers while they are visitng.

Gain ranks by linking to other blogs

Its not always the inbound links that get you ranked highr on Search Engines.

"I’m no SEO expert but all I can really say on this is that some SEOs that I know and respect argue good cases for this and that when I’ve launched blogs it is something that I’ve always done. I don’t know how much of an impact that it has had on those sites - but they do tend to do well in search engines."

Remember to use highly searched words whenever you link to something. Read the complete article "Do Outbound Links Matter for SEO".

Avoid Blogging Burnout

Every now and then you keep publishing quality content. When you see no increase in your traffic, you lose interest and motivation. Its pretty easy to start doubting your skills when you dont see any results for your efforts. I was going through a damp patch yesterday when I came about a handy article which helps you aviod the negativity. Here are tips to aviod blogging burnout.

I will leave you with a note which helps me persist with my cause.

Tyler: Keep writing. Build up a body of work and the traffic will come. I know it’s hard to be patient but in a years time when you have a large body of writing under your belt, and the experience to go with it you’ll thank yourself.

Keep blogging. I love the idea :The best way to make yourself successful is to help others be successful. So help me in the cause.

Get a linkback to your blog

2007-03-21T21:43:00.000+05:30

Fair or unfair? You must be knowing about White and Black SEO if you have your own blog. While surfing, I stumbled upon a blog of John Chow, a guy who got to rank 3 from 158 odd in just four days(for the phrase "make money online"). I certainly think its just grey Hat SEO. In short, I had to write a review of his blog but I just couldnt find enough of that on his site which should be the case with a number three ranked blog.
I am noone to judge whats fair and whats not. DO you think it is kind of a trickery, and is bad for the blog readers. His review, from a newspaper might look like:

John Chow dot Com is a blog that helps you make money online. He is offering to link to your blog if you review his blog.

Try Google Adsense Beta referral

2007-03-21T13:21:00.000+05:30

Google has launched the “Adsense referrals beta program”. It is like the associate programs which are available for advertising but not exactly. Here is the announcement made:

You may already be using AdSense referrals to direct your users to Google products like Google Pack or Google AdWords. Now, you can expand the earning potential of your website even further by directing users to products and services from our base of AdWords advertisers.

See this picture from Technospot which essentially shows how this Adsense referrals beta program works:

Whats new?

You can choose the ads you want to display by selecting the keywords.

Advantages:

Their might be a higher payout for this program since the user is clicking the item which he wants to. This way he wont close the browser window before looking at what the content of the Ad is.

How does it work?

See the picture above and go to the link mentioned later in this article. In three easy steps the program can be summed as:

Step 1 of 3: Select the products and keywords you want to refer.
Step 2 of 3: Customize your ad unit.
Step 3 of 3: Copy and paste the code to your pages.

The working is pretty similar and familiar if you have been using the Google Adsense referrals.

How do I get one?

It is a beta. The invitation mails are sent to some people. You can also try to apply by going to the following link:

Referrals Beta Start-Up Guide

The number of trials are limited so rush to the link if you want to try it.

How is it?

I got it today itself.

From the first look, it is like an associate program that gives you control over what ads or products you want to refer to unlike the previous version which just had Firefoz and some Google products.
It is from Google. I love Google. So, I guess its best to have an advantage of moving early and gaining some valuable experience. Go get it is what I say.
Google must have thought about the following things so you need not worry, I guess: Money the advertisers are willing topay, what action(s) are expected from the site readers.

Give it a try and if you have any problems, feel free to drop ina comment. Also, I would like you to share your experience with this product, making it useful for others.

Apology to the readers

2007-03-20T21:01:00.000+05:30

I have been redesigning the blog interface to make it more user friendly and pleasant. Also, things like power cut and LAN ban in IIT Bombay haven't been a help. I apologise for the lack of posts today. As soon as(hopefully tomorrow), I am done, I will get back to finding useful content for the readers.

Thanks for the support

Basketer.

Naruto plot speculation 2

2007-03-20T17:01:00.000+05:30

This is the second post of the naruto plot speculations series
SPOILER ALERT

At the beginning of the quest to recover gaara after he was kidnapped, ero-sennin (jiraiya) warns naruto against using a certain jutsu...it isn't anything related to the nine-tails form obviously because naruto has no control over his slipping into the nine-tails and it isn't the rasenshuriken which comes later...just wondering what it is...maybe naruto has the potential to be the next "yellow flash" like the fourth

RSS Tools for your blog - Part 2

2007-03-18T18:50:00.000+05:30

Also, read the first part of this mini series.

In the first part of this mini series I had described how to publish and validate the feed of your blog. In this section I will discuss feed readers and how to use these data to generate autodata for your blogs.

(3) Feed Readers
If you want to generate quality content for your blogs you must get into a habbit of reading others' blogs. The best way to do that on the fly is to subscribe to many blogs' feeds. This is where the feedreaders come into picture. These provide you with a search option to find new feeds ; if you have a feed its really easy to subscribe to that field in these readers. Newsgator and Google Reader are the most popular ones. You can also use offline readers like FeedDemon.

(4) Generating data from your RSS
You can generate HTML/JavaScript to add widgets to your blog using the feeds of others or even your own feeds. The data will be updated automatically so you dont need to do any work for the data being generated. In blogger, their is an option to do this automatically( Go to Templates-->Edit Layout--> use a feed-->enter feed URL). If you are using other platforms use your feedburner accounts to convert it to html.(see feedburner instructions in part 1)
Some useful feeds for this purpose can be:

Del.icio.us feed: If you have your bookmarks or material which you want to share on delicious; its pretty easy to generate a feed for it. See this page for more details. Now this feed can generate data for you :).
Google Reader feed: By selecting share in google reader for some of the subscribed feed items, you can get a feed from Google. This can be used as the same way above. The Google feed has some problem with certain services. If you have faced a similar problem, do write back.

Look at the Blogger Tips-Hacks-Resources Basket for more tips

Label feeds in blogger

2007-03-15T16:27:00.000+05:30

This blog has many dimensions and to provide users an opportunity to subscribe by feeds to a particular categories, I was looking for feeds for my labels. After a bit of googling I found this article. It is precisely what you need if you want separate feeds for your labels on Blogger. This feature wasn't present in the old blogger but now its pretty simple to use.
Just go to any feedburner and use the URL below:

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/LABEL

Just change the things in Block letters.
YOURBLOG is your blog name and the label is the label you wish to burn the feed for.

Done.

Indeed a Simple, quick and easy feed for you labels :).

RSS Tools for your blog

2007-03-15T15:06:00.000+05:30

Also read Part 2 of this mini series

With News/Rss/Atom Aggregators people go through hundreds of feed in a day. Your feed needs to stand out to be read. I review the essential feed tools to make your feeds stand out
All blogs today have more feed subscriptions than site visitors. I will break up this Rss-tools mini series in three posts. First part is for the new feed users. The other parts are for a little advanced use but are pretty simple themselves.
If you are really new to feeds, go to this page to know what an RSS/Atom feed actually is. Here are the topics I will cover in this mini series:

Publishing/buring your RSS (or any other feed)
Validate your RSS
Feed Readers
Generating data for your blog/site from RSS
Converting feeds
Merging two or more RSS

Now then, I will start the first part for beginners to feeds. This will cover the first two points.

(1) Publishing/burning your RSS

FeedBurner is the tool you are looking for. All the features to set up, publicize, monetize and optimize your RSS are pretty siple to use and are complete. The essential features include an option for your readers to subscribe to your blog through email, standardizing your feed and making your feed pretty. Their is an option to add advertisements to your feeds too. The issues you might have about giving your feed to other sites are discussed by Darren full in this article "Are you letting Feedburner hold you hostage?."

(2) Validate your feed

Sometimes you might face problems using your feed with certain sites. Here are a couple of online free tools to tell you your feed type (RSS or Atom, which version?) and they even tell you whats wrong with your feed if their is a problem.

I will cover the next two points in the next feed.
Disclaimer-I myself am pretty new to feeds. I believe I can learn something from you about feeds. Feel free to comment on the tools and add a few if you like.

Look at the Blogger Tips-Hacks-Resources Basket for more tips

Live-e-Basket Introduction

2007-03-13T13:30:00.000+05:30

TIPS-RESOURCE-HACKS-BASKET
I have recently set up my blog. As you might have noticed I have applied a lot of hacks which I found on the net. The tips and hacks have been very well explained by many people. One thing I found missing was a documentation of these things. As a result, I had to spend a lot of time searching for what I wanted.

Don't worry, I have decided to document all the articles I found useful in this basket. The list of acknowledgments can be seen at the bottom of this page. This basket ( in next post) will be Live like other baskets on this blog, which means it will be updated daily. So, make sure you check back to keep your blog fresh.

To view my views and explanations on some of these scroll down in this section (provided you came through by clicking the tabs as suggested).

?? Can't see the basket :( Go Here

Acknowledgments:
(These are the best resources, updated regularly...
14/3/07
-Known Issues For the New Bloggers
-Blogger Tips and Tricks
13/03/07
-BlogU
-Hackosphere
-ProBlogger
-BeautifulBeta
-Hoctro's Place

Tips-Hacks-Resources-Basket

2007-03-11T21:20:00.000+05:30

Subscribe to Blogger-e-Basket

Contact Form

2006-04-06T16:35:00.000+05:30

Contact me:

Post Sitemap

2003-04-10T19:05:00.000+05:30

If you see a badge above, you may be on IE, in that case click it to launch the navigator. Sorry for the trouble

Best-Blog-Basket

Blogging Networks : Top 5 Pros and Cons

Advantages of Blogging Network

Shared Expenses

Assistance and Feedback

Makes you noticeable in blogosphere

Money

Motivation and Friends

Cons of a Blogging Network

Loss of individuality

Sharing the good times and money

Things might not work out

You Become one of them

You have a Boss!!

Post Roundup - April'07

Blogging Networks - Miniseries Part I

What is a Blogging Network?

List of Blogging Networks

How to blog when you are disturbed

How to blog when depressed?

Motivation from idols

Motivation from with in

Know what is at stake?

How will it be good?

Watch a cartoon/anime

Taste the money

Credibility is Blogging Money!!

101 Ways to Create Original Blog Posts - Part 4

101 Ways to Create Original blog posts Part 4:

Blogging Tools-Box #01

Blogging Tools-Box #01

101 Ways to Create Original Blog Posts - Part 3

101 Ways to create original blog posts Part 3:

Become a Hot Member at MyBlogLog

Be Audacious

Take advantage of your daily maximum 15 communities and 15 contacts on MyBlog Log.

Keep hot on the trail of other hot members at MyBlogLog

A catchy avatar on MyBlogLog is an important tool

Carve a niche for yourself among the most popular MyBlogLog categories

How I made a Hot MBL community in a week

Know MBL in and out

Keep Clicking

Catchy Avatar

Make Friends

Publicize your community

Join My Community, Get a Link

Use the 15 Community and Friend joins

How can you boost your blog's credibility?

101 Ways to create original Blog posts - Part 2

Article Submissions and SEO

Add a blogger sitemap to Google

101 Ways to create original Blog posts - Part 1

Section Targeting : Control the Adsense Ads displayed on your blog

How to hack: Add tabs to your blogger posts

How to : Grasp your reader's attention

Be Original

Borrow daily traffic from Images.Google.com

Six Things to Learn from "Kumiko"

101 ways to create your original posts

Break The line project

Download One Piece 302 : Subbed and encoded

Miniseries: Ways to speed up your blog- Part II

How 2 add quality to your new weblog

How to Write the Right Title for Digg:

Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb:

21 Surefire Tips for a Successful Blog Launch:

About Best-Blog-Basket

Blog A Tool Contest

Blogger Launches New "Add Page Element(s)"

Stumble: Happy , very Happy anime song

Acknowledgment

full metal alchemist

Blogging Schedule @B-B-B

5 ways to set up your blog posting schedule

Miniseries: Ways to speed up your blog

10 quick ways to make your blog interactive

One piece 302 RAW download

Humor Contest: One piece

Backlinks

One piece 302 Delayed