Be Original

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!
5. 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.)
6. 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:

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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?
   
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 :).
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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

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"

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:

1. The contest she is running is right below the header, again with a catchy phrase. Everybody wants to earn money.
2. 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

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

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

1. 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.
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 
   

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

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:

1. Way One - Submitted by Person1(Link to his blog)
2. 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:

1. Backlinks
2. Technorati Rank
3. Traffic Traffic Traffic
   
4. New friends who can help you in Blogging
5. Loyal Readers interested in your niche, since they were attracted from an idea you gave in the first place.
6. 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?
  

1. Try not to post duplicate ways since it is most likely, it wont be added to the resource post.
2. You can add many ways as you want, each giving you one link.
3. Even if your comment is not selected, you will get a linkback from the post on "People supporting "Break The Line".
4. 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?

1. Spread the word. There isn't any chance that we can create 101 ways by ourselves, more the people participating, more popular you get.
2. 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

"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

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.