Author Archive for Ia Lucero

Jul | 24 | 2007

Google OKs Underscores as Word Separators in URLs and More SEO Tips

Posted by Sophia as Blogging News, Linking, SEO Features, Tips Still wondering if you should use dashes or underscores in your permalinks? Worry no more; Google considers both as legitimate word separators. This was announced by Google geek Matt Cutts at WordCamp 2007 yesterday among several other pearls of SEO wisdom he dished out to the WordPress crowd.

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Jul | 17 | 2007

Tweaking your blog’s HTML? Avoid these horrible tags!

Posted by Sophia as Blog Tutorial, Design, Design Features, Opinion, Tips If you've been blogging for sometime now, you would have tinkered with HTML several times of already. In fact I've shown how you can use several HTML tags to make your posts more readable. The bad news is, HTML has a dark side: it has tags and attributes that are not very useful or meaningful (i.e., deprecated) but can still be used by the ignorant, especially since HTML is very easy to learn. But if it is not learned correctly, your blog might load more slowly or not work at all in other people's browsers. Warning: Do NOT try these at home!

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Jul | 05 | 2007

Use FeedBurner Stats PRO and MyBrand For Free!

Posted by Sophia as Blog Tutorial, Blog Tutorials News, Blogging Tools

Leading feed-pimping website FeedBurner is now offering its PRO services completely free. There is no catch. And people who have been signed up for PRO accounts will not be billed for June 2007 onwards. What do you get with a FeedBurner PRO account? Two things.

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Jun | 26 | 2007

Are Link Trains the Chain Letters of the Blogging Age?

Posted by Sophia as Linking, Opinion, Promotion, SEO Features You've probably seen several versions of a link train meme going around the blogosphere. Whether it's supposedly optimized for certain web applications (e.g. Alexa version 1 & version 2, Technorati, MyBlogLog, Bloglines) or requires some other qualifier (viraltags, your name in your domain name, tech sites only, feed URLs, Z-listers only!), this method of sharing the link juice has grown immensely popular. It's like a new class of memes have replaced all those generators and quizzes we love trying out. If you look more closely, link trains are more like chain letters---stripped of hexes and a set number of people to send them to. But are they also hoaxes? (Chain letters are nothing but empty threats, in case you haven't figured it out yet!)

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Jun | 20 | 2007

Protect Important Folders in your Blog

Posted by Sophia as Blog Tutorial, Blogging Tools, Tips Bill Hartzer's recent post reminds us to mask some of the more sensitive spots in your blog. Although this is only applicable to self-hosted blogs, I think everyone will benefit from this tip of keeping your blog secure. It's another one of those tasks we should do habitually but often forget. Here's how it works: we should not allow sensitive directories on our blogs to list their contents publicly. We do not want malicious visitors getting any hints on how they can compromise our websites. We should not let search engines list irrelevant folders in their results. Hartzer wrote specifically about denying other people access to one's WordPress plugins directory, but when you go through your site carefully, you'll notice several more directories you might want to protect:

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Jun | 18 | 2007

Make Every 13th of the Month Your Blog Backup Day

Posted by Sophia as Blogging Tools, Tips Here's a great campaign I bumped into: every 13th of the month is unofficially Blog Backup Day. How many times have we lost important information just because we never make it a point to (regularly) backup? Blogging is no exception. If you value your blog and have spend lots of hours writing new posts, customizing the template, and promoting it to other people---which you probably do, since you're here---you had better back up your blog as often as possible. What I like about Blog Backup Day is how it wants you to start the habit by setting a definite schedule and ...

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Jun | 08 | 2007

Are Your Blog Visitors Too Lazy To Comment? Try ClickComments

Posted by Sophia as Blogging Tools, Community Building Blogs are nothing without the communities surrounding them. Listing your blog in directories and other social sites, as well as linking and trackbacking to get noticed may be good and all, but without reader feedback in the form of comments, you're essentially talking to the wind. The good news is, it's not always your fault. A lot of people find the process of commenting cumbersome: having to register, leave sensitive information (such as one's email address), and come up with an original comment.

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Jun | 07 | 2007

MovableType 4 Beta Released and Goes Open Source!

Posted by Sophia as Blogging News, Blogging Tools, Software Features

SixApart has just announced the release of MovableType 4 Beta. Many have known MT as the definitive blogging software that has forever changed the way people blog. Beyond WordPress Those who are well-versed with the history of blogging will know that the boom did not start with WordPress. The first wave came with MovableType. Few blog software were as easy to customize, and this attracted a large following.

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Jun | 03 | 2007

reCAPTCHA: More than the Usual Anti-Spam Measure

Posted by Sophia as Blogging Tools, Spam It started with junk mail in real life, creeped into our virtual mailboxes, and has now invaded our blogs as comments and trackbacks. Blog spam is usually characterized by generic advertisements for silly stuff including but not limited to porn, warez, lotteries, pills, insurance, and real estate---often with a suspicious-looking URL. You start getting spammed when spambots find your blog. Unfortunately, that's the price you have to pay for being "popular." The good news is, many developers have thought of ways to combat comment spam. Perhaps the most famous right now is Akismet, which has the following Spam ...

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Jun | 01 | 2007

Make Your Blog Posts Readable

Posted by Sophia as Blog Tutorial, Tips, Writing Blog posts are different from paper-based readables in that they're relatively uncomfortable to read (especially the longer ones). Not every one of your visitors is likely to sit through everything you have to say. Statistically, people only skim the length of the page in order to decide whether the piece is useful to them or not. Also make sure they're still easy to read if your visitors have enough patience to take in every single word (so they won't have a headache after). The key idea here is to divide your paragraphs and sentences into easily digestible chunks. Second, HTML is your friend: I'll be mentioning several tags you can put to good use. Off we go:

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Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?

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Search Rank Drop and False Alarms

Happy Holidays!
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