Jun | 23 | 2008

How Is Your Blog Template?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design and Themes, Templates When you first set your blog up, how much thought did you put on your blog template? If it was your first time blogging, you might have spent some time trying to decide on which template to use. You probably started with a free blogging template and realized early on that the template choices were limited. Then again, you didn’t really have much of a choice, did you? So now that your blog is up and running and you have built up your readership a bit, have you been having thoughts on how to improve your blog template? ...

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May | 26 | 2008

Adding Interest to your Blog: Images and Multi-media Content

Posted by Guru as Images, Tips Though I rarely add images in my posts here and have lots of pure text entries, it is actually advisable to occasionally add other elements to your blog posts to keep it more interesting. Remember you do not want one time readers only but want to get people to keep on returning. Making sure that your blog is pleasing to the eye (and never ending long lines of text is definitely NOT pleasing to the eye) is one way to make the blog more interesting and worth checking out regularly. So what are the things you should insert in your post ...

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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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Feb | 22 | 2008

Blog Usability: Page Title

Posted by Guru as Design, Tips One of the most important aspects of blog usability is the choice of page titles. The blog name usually appears as the page title (Note that when I mention page title this means the text that appears on the tab). This is good practice since it will make it easy for your readers easier to find the tab that contains your blog in case they shift to another tab to browse other sites. However, in case your blog name is not that descriptive or somewhat cryptic what you should do is add a phrase to describe the contents of your ...

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Feb | 21 | 2008

Blog Usability: An Introduction

Posted by Guru as Design Blogs have a very basic design with the blog title/header, tagline, content, and sidebar(s). Despite the fact that most blogs basically make use of the same elements the difference between the feel of various blogs is very noticeable. Many blogs with just the most basic of elements use very straightforward navigation but end up really boring and offers no real choice when it comes to looking for more specific information. Some blogs are littered with too many ads and obviously exist mainly to generate profit. On the other hand, there are blogs that really do stand out in terms of ...

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Jan | 09 | 2008

Improving Your Blog in 2008

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Tips, Writing The New Year is about resolutions, isn’t it? Have you made yours yet? Well, at least those pertaining to your blog. One thing that can be said about the blogosphere is that it is constantly changing. Your blog may be good, but it can always be better. There is always room for improvement! If you have not taken the time to think over your “blogging resolutions” for the year, why not join me in going over some very simple yet effective ways to improve your blog. As Jaren said in his post, “start the ...

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Dec | 27 | 2007

Start the Year With a Simple Blog Design

Posted by Jaren as Design and Themes, Opinion, Tips It's the start of the new year and maybe it's time for a change in your blog theme. In my opinion, starting this year of blogging with a new theme, can definitely work wonders to your blog. Now is the time to do away with the clutter and start simplifying your blog. By removing some of your ads, doing away with some of the badges, plugins you have. The more simple your blog looks like the better. When I look a blogs that have too much clutter (full of widgets, graphics, buttons, ads) I immediately get turned off even if ...

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Dec | 18 | 2007

How Easy Is It To Read Your Blog?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design and Themes, Tips One of the reasons people frequent blogs is that they find blogs easy to read. If your blog reads like a white paper or an article in a professional journal, the chances are that you might have fewer readers than you could actually have. Have you checked your blog lately? How easy of a read is it? Ask yourself, is your blog easy to read? Here are some tips on how to make it easier for your readers to read your blog. Is it visually pleasing? Take a look at your blog from another person’s point of view. ...

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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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Software and Widgets

Wordpress Plug-ins

If you blog using Wordpress and can’t do something that you want done like adding Sphere-related content at the end of your blog posts you might be surprised to find out that there are already plug-ins available that make it happen.
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I’m helping out my friends from the UA&P - IShareHappiness Blog Team.
Whenever you feel pessimistic, angry, troubled, frustrated, and depressed – what have you – you need someone to talk to. Someone who could help you be more optimistic and help make you feel that there is hope. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to someone [...]
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Monetization

Making Money Through Consumer Generated Ads

As I mentioned in my previous post today I will be suggesting some ways you can still profit by joining programs such as Pay Per Post and yet ensure that your readers don’t get turned off.
In my opinion the only way to really do this is by making sure that your blog entries stay [...]
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Building your blog brand step by step

Building your blog’s brand does not need to be difficult. However, when it comes to branding you should always remember to exert effort to be consistent with the image you wish to portray or you’ll end up with confused, turned-off, and/or skeptical readers. Branding inconsistencies will make it obvious that the image you’re putting up [...]
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