Feb | 28 | 2010

Bullets in Blogging

Posted by Jimmy as Tips, Writing In case you haven't noticed, I like using bullets. Bullets are very useful for blogging because: *It makes your content easy to scan - The average internet surfer (which of course includes blog readers) have very short attention spans. This makes it very important to present your posts in a manner that would allow them to scan and take in as much information as they can by simply scanning your post. If what they see at a glance interests them then they will take the time to read the post in detail. If they aren't too interested they go to the ...

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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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Feb | 11 | 2010

Blogger Photo: Posting Guidelines

Posted by Jimmy as Tips In my last post I gave cases when you should NOT post a profile pic in your about page. Today I'll be giving some advice on choosing your profile photo for your About Page. As I have mentioned before, your About Page is your chance to make a good impression to new readers interested in knowing more about you and your blog. With that in mind you should choose a profile picture that represents you well. This means that the picture should: Be REAL - No stock photos please of some handsome or pretty stranger. You know how some blogs use such ...

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Feb | 08 | 2010

Blogger Photo: When NOT to post

Posted by Jimmy as Tips I have said several times that an About Page is important for every blog. Your About Page gives new readers an easy way to check what your blog is supposed to be about, who the blogger(s) is/are behind the blog, and figure out the blog's trustworthiness. In short, the About Page is your introduction; your chance to make a good impression. When deciding on the contents of an About Page I'm pretty sure that almost all bloggers put much effort on the text portion - the information to be shared, the wording, the tone, and the length. However, when it comes ...

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Jan | 25 | 2010

Why You Are Losing Ground in Search Results Pages

Posted by Jimmy as Marketing and Search Optimization, Spam, Tips As promised in my post Reasons for Sudden Plunge in Blog Traffic I will be discussing the possible reasons for a sudden drop in search rank. I already wrote about this in the past but concentrated on FALSE ALARMS. However, what do you do when you find out that your search rank has indeed dropped? Just like finding out the reason for a decrease in traffic, the first thing you need to do is find out WHY. Major reasons could be: 1. spam - If you are a splog then you have most likely been discovered. However, if your blog ...

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Jan | 12 | 2010

Reasons for Gradual Decline in Blog Traffic

Posted by Jimmy as Tips On my last post I gave several reasons that could explain a sudden plunge your blog’s incoming traffic including: *problems with your stats tracker; *technical difficulties with your blog; *holidays/special events; and *a sudden drop in search rank (or even removal from search index). What I will be discussing today though could explain why your blog has been experiencing a slow and steady decline in traffic. In my opinion a steady decline in traffic is harder to reverse and more deadly than an abrupt plunge (unless the plunge has been lingered for some time). The reason for this is, as you can see from ...

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Jan | 02 | 2010

Reasons for Sudden Plunge in Blog Traffic

Posted by Jimmy as Tips What do/will you do if your blog traffic noticeably decreases? What SHOULD you do if it does? When I first experienced this problem I found that my first response was emotional: I got frustrated and discouraged. There’s nothing wrong with that unless you let it get to you and end up quitting. I can’t tell you not to feel discouraged but what I can help you with is to be prepared to take proper steps to address the issue. After giving yourself a few minutes to wallow, the next step is to check whether you are experiencing a sudden drop in traffic ...

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Dec | 21 | 2009

Resizing Images: Tips and Tools

Posted by Jimmy as Blogging Tools, Tips When adding images to your blog posts make sure that you have resized them to a size that is not only aesthetically appealing but also SEO friendly. Resizing images is not a hard task, however, when resizing images simply recalculating the ratio may not be a good idea especially if the new image size is a lot larger than the original one. The reason for this is that the image gets pixelized and you end up with a grainy image that just isn't nice to look at. If you want to resize images beyond changing the dimensions here are some ...

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Dec | 19 | 2009

Reeling People in and Keeping Them

Posted by Jimmy as Tips Early this month Darren Rowse of Problogger gave several (seven to be exact) suggestions on what to as your readers to get them to be more involved in your blog. I too find that asking questions can indeed be rewarding because it does encourage even the “lurkers” to come out and participate even if just once in a while. The good thing with getting people to participate is that once a person leaves a comment the chances of that person commenting again increases and you can also bet that they'll be checking your blog out more often to see ...

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Nov | 26 | 2009

Opinionated Blogger = Successful Blogger?

Posted by Jimmy as Tips, Writing One of the most important things to realize if you want to be a successful blogger is that you need to have a mind of your own, know your take on things, and be willing to let the world know what it is you think. If you are a blogger that only keeps on rehashing other people’s opinions you’ll end up having a blog that feels more like a newsfeed than a blog. In that case what’s the use of that blog? Your readers might as well just subscribe to a news feed and get the facts there. After all ...

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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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Search Rank Drop and False Alarms

Happy Holidays!
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