Feb | 22 | 2010

Focusing on the Sidebar: Show me the Money!

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Monetization Last time I mentioned how the sidebar contributes to the blog in terms of aesthetics and usability (navigation), one thing I failed to mention though is that the sidebar can also be very important in terms of monetization. Obviously you can use the sidebar to insert all kinds of ads - from Adsense to the direct sponsor's banners. If you do choose to use your sidebar as a venue for blog monetization though I urge you to keep to the following guidelines: Think appropriate - Make sure you only put up ads that are appropriate for your readers. Obviously if your ...

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Feb | 18 | 2010

Focusing on the Sidebar

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Tips One of the most important aspects of blog usability is the sidebar. The sidebar is important because it contributes to your blog in two major ways - navigation and aesthetics. When choosing the type of sidebar to go with you have to make sure you always factor in both. Aesthetics - The sidebar should always complement your blog's over all graphical design. You want the colors to blend in, the proportions to work, and the format such that it will enhance your blog's overall look without taking the reader's attention away from the most important thing - your posts. What this ...

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Sep | 30 | 2009

The Importance of About Pages

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Tips How much effort did you put in to make your About Page? Did you even make one? The About Page is probably one of the most neglected pages there is, especially when it comes to the blogosphere. This is a big mistake because About Pages can be really useful. Some of the benefits of having a good About Page include: Searchability – If you are out to build your online reputation an About Page is another page where people can get to know more about you. It's another page crawled by search engines that will hopefully climb the rankings to be included ...

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Jul | 29 | 2009

Quick Tips For A Beautiful Blog

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Images While I like focusing more on content, I cannot deny the value of having an aesthetically appealing blog. Here are some quick tips to create a beautiful blog in terms of the visual aspect. Forget the clutter There are countless widgets and buttons out there. It seems to me that everyday, you can find a new one that you like and that you want to put in your blog. While widgets and buttons are cool and useful, beware of using too many of them in your blog. Doing so will only increase the clutter and take away from ...

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Apr | 10 | 2009

How To Make A Sticky Blog

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Tips Sticky blog? I am sure you pretty much know what a sticky blog is, but just in case you are not entirely sure, let’s take a moment to describe one. Let us say that you enjoy a sudden surge of visitors due to one reason or another. Certainly, you would be ecstatic the entire day. But what about the day after? And the next? Would those people still be visiting your blog? That is the idea of a sticky blog – you get to entice people to keep coming back for more. ...

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Feb | 09 | 2009

Gain That Edge For Your Blog

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Tips, Writing There are thousands upon hundred thousands of blogs on the Internet today. How can you be sure that your blog will be noticed by readers out there? Actually, this fact can go both ways. On the one hand, from the reader’s point of view, it might be like the proverbial needle in the haystack – how do you find one blog amidst the plethora of blogs? On the other hand, from your point of view, you can take advantage by gaining an edge over other blogs and attracting people to your blog. But how do ...

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Jan | 18 | 2009

What First Impression Does Your Blog Give Off?

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Images, Opinion, Tips First impressions last, or so they say. To be fair, first impressions do not always stand the test of time. There are times when first impressions are false and perceptions change through time. But then again, when talking about your blog and new readers, would you take the risk of not converting a first time visitor to a returning one merely because of a so so first impression? I thought not. So, have you taken a look at your blog lately? I mean really LOOK – from an outsider’s point of view. What impression does ...

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Mar | 14 | 2008

Give Your Blog A Haircut

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Linking, Tips We all need one from time to time – how often depends on you. I have this friend who keeps his head almost totally shave so he has to have one every week. Personally, I prefer to get a hair cut every month or so. Same thing with blogs – take a look at your blog. Try to see it from the eyes of an outsider. This could be hard but try it nonetheless. If you can’t be objective, have someone else look at it and give you their honest opinion. Does your ...

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Feb | 27 | 2008

Blog Usability: Navigation Elements

Posted by Guru as Design, Tips As I promised in my previous post I will be listing down ways you can make it easier for readers to look for the information they need in your blog. The truth is that this is all you need to do is give readers several options to navigate through your blog. This is very easy nowadays since most blog tools (Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) automatically generate the code for you. All you need to do is drag and drop and of course specify some fields. Some of the most common and useful ways to help your readers find the information they ...

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Feb | 26 | 2008

Blog Usability: Looking for Information

Posted by Guru as Design One of the great things about blogs is that they are updated really frequently, at least when compared to static websites. Because of the constant influx of new posts you can be sure that a blog generates lots of information. This is a good thing but just like papers that keep on piling up in your desk it can become almost impossible for people other than the writer to look for the specific information needed without specific instructions on where to look. With blogs the site structure is pretty simple since everything is organised chronologically. However this structure is virtually useless ...

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Design and Themes

Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?

Last night I checked my personal blog’s code hoping I can proudly display the W3C Validated Button. Since I use Blogger and do not really do anything to clean up the code (beyond adding Alt-tags to the images I embed) I wasn’t surprised at all to find that my blog contained lots of errors – [...]
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Wordpress Plug-ins

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Review: Logical Media

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Search Rank Drop and False Alarms

Happy Holidays!
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