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Running out of Ideas for your Blog?
Running out of Ideas for your Blog?
Funny thing happened to me today, I ran out of ideas. Well, I guess that’s normal especially if you’re stressed and can’t focus. I tried reading blogs which I usually follow to get an idea and back track all my post and still, I just can’t start with anything. That’s when I decided to research how we can generate ideas when our brains can no longer work out a topic to write. I love this subject basically because I also learn in the process.
- Google your way to find an interesting idea to write about. This is probably the best generating idea you could use but could be very time consuming. You could also lose your way in the process having so many ideas getting in your head. My advice, write down ideas you get from gooling. This way you can always look at your list when you ran out of ideas.
- Write a review, it could be a book, movie, product or service review. People will be coming in out if you have a section of this in your blog. Personally I visit blogs whenever I wanted to know something about a product or a service I want to purchase. I find it more credible than generic reviews. Blog comments are from real people with real concerns, review site most of the time only produces reviews that are biased.
- Provide information on how to’s, especially with regards to money making opportunity. There are various blogs that concentrate on this niche and they do have lot of readers, including me. Also provide resources for a particular subject, this way you don’t sound like you only promote yourself and that you’re the “know-it-all” guy. Try to build trust and learn that the best thing you could do on the web is share your knowledge.
- Look at the trend and write something about it. If you really can’t generate ideas perhaps this will help, maybe not unique but attack it in a different way.
- Ask your readers what they want, if they want a tutorial on something, then do it, provided you really know it. Stay focus on what your good at and don’t give out assumption.
If this won’t work still, you probably need a rest, like I do now. Maybe a little rest will freshen-up your mind and wake up with new ideas again. But if you can’t go to bed and rest, talk to a friend that could lend a hand. And if still your head just can’t start producing idea, then why not be open for a guest post. I’ve visited some sites who accept guest post, it’s a new twist to your blog. You can use it if someone from your reader would like to know something about a subject you’re not in the position to talk about, or you could interview a person perhaps and post the script on your blog.
There are lot ways we just have to we just needed to be reminded once in a while. I hope this helps, this may or may not work with you, but if you have other ways of “generating ideas” perhaps you could share it with our readers.
7 Best Firefox Add-ons for Everybody
Firefox Add-ons are not just for developers or techie guys out there, it’s for everybody’s use. I myself use several firefox add-ons not on this premise. I actually perform different task from design, to writing and even engaged in SEO activities.
What is a Firefox Add-on, according to Wikipedia, “Add-ons are installable enhancements to the Mozilla Foundation’s projects (and compatible variants such as Portable Firefox). Add-ons allow the user to add or augment application features, use themes to his or her liking, and handle new types of content.”
To simplify, it’s an additional application to enhance a certain feature of Mozilla. I used to ignore this stuff thinking that it can do nothing for me. I only needed to use the web, that’s all, no more no less. But then when a friend of mine recommended Firebug, that’s when I started to love Firefox and literally browse all the add-ons on a specific, category that I think could be of help. The notion of add-ons for web developers and designers ONLY was cleared out.
Here are the 7 of my best Firefox add-ons I’m using right now, these are in random categories, and would typically be beneficial to everybody who uses the net.
- Firebug. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a web developer/designer but this could really come in handy especially if you want to customize a website template. It was referred to me before for the purpose of knowing exactly where a particular file in Joomla and other CMS needs to be accessed to be able to customize the template. If you only need to change the background color, fonts an image etc, why pay when you can do it on your own. It’s very simple firefox add-ons that have a lot of use, more so if you are a web developer. You can actually debug and edit live on your site.
- Colorzilla. Since I design banner sometimes, colorzilla helped me pick colors on the web that is to my liking. I don’t have to guess what color was used. I only needed to click a button and point it on the color I like to pick. Simple as that.
- Screengrab. One of my favorite. Very useful if you’re one of those who usually grabs a picture on web. No need for a screen capture and paste in on an image editor. You can copy the whole screen or only a portion of the screen and immediately save it on your pc.
- Read-it-later. If you ‘re one of the person who simply browse the web for a nice read or a good buys, then you must really have it. You don’t have to bookmark everything that interests you, if you only need this temporarily then “read-it-later” will help you with that.
- Highlighter. I don’t know with you guys but from time to time, I really needed to use this add-on. It allows me to highlight something so I could get back to it while browsing another site. It’s also useful when I’m reading something and need to take a break.
- SEOpen. If you are a website owner, this could come in handy. Nowadays you don’t necessarily need to have your own business to own a site. It displays your ranking on Google Pagerank, inbound links, keyword density and a lot more. Really helpful if you want to gain insight of your site’s ranking. It would also help you analyze the things you need to do to compete on the first page of Google. You can even check your competitor backlinks.There are so many tools on the web for free if you don’t have the budget to pay for an SEO, this may be helpful to get you started. Study and analyze your competitor based on the backlinks is one of the ways to help you with your SEO plan.
- Lastly, this I use a lot, AddThis . Lately, I’ve been sharing links to my network in Facebook, Twitter etc. I also use this as an email service to share something on the web. This helps you get rid of going from one page to another just to share something to your friends.
Normally, this should be 10 but then, I don’t want to share something I don’t use personally. But if your already sharing an add-on and find it really usefully for everybody , feel free to share the no. 8, 9 and 10 or even more.
How to Plan your Link Building Activities Effectively
There are various ways to build links as mentioned on my previous blog but then again building links is not as easy as 1,2,3. To be able to really build effective links, it entails careful planning, yes, perhaps this is just a link referring back to your site but this could be hard to maintain. Another, you could be penalized by google without you knowing it, possibly you could also be considered as a “Spomments” , a blog related term meaning spam commenter. If that happens, good luck, though there are thousands of blogs, forums or what have you, it will be hard to retain the same ranking or at least get a link back to your site. Blog commenting is not only the way to build links, you may say, or there are numerous activities like directory and article submission, but take note they can also mark your submission as a spam, like I do with the directory I’m maintaining personally. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to scare the hell out of you, I just wanted to help the same way every blogger does to its readers.
So how do we build links the right way, first let’s create a plan, this enable us to manage our links easily, avoid duplication, getting banned from a particular site as well as help manage our resources. Let’s admit it, building links is time consuming and could be a little expensive if you hire someone to build links for you. This is a good move though since this will allow you to concentrate on your core business but we could avoid spending too much money on this if we can manage it well or hire the right SEO person or team to do it for you.
What we need to include in our link building plan? Let’s start with your goal, everybody knows that a goal should be S.M.A.R.T (Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound). This should also be in line with your company’s goal. If you’re targeting specific sales for the month, this should coincide with your internet marketing strategy and traditional marketing efforts if you have one. From here, let’s set our budget, how much money are you willing to invest on this campaign. You also have to identify your target market, clearly state which niche you belong to. This is a critical part because this is going to be your reference in building links. Remember it’s important that you build links depending on your niche, relevancy to your site is very important. If you’re a web design company, submit directories on the relevant category, if you want to do blog commenting, comment on related sites, usually blogs related to web/graphics design and development or if you also offer SEO then also include that in your list of blogs to submit/comment to.
So now you have already distinguished your goal, working budget and target market. Next on the list for building links the right way is the activities you need to embark to. The best way to explain this is using this simple table below, you can create your own depending on the reports you need but make sure you have a means to monitor each activities on a regular basis.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all our blog readers and posters. We had a great year 2009. Looking forward to an even better year in 2010. Hopefully we will reach new heights this year. We pleasantly noticed Google was kind to us in the last few days of 2009.. hopefully it will be kinder in 2010 not just to us but to all our clients as well. Happy New Year’s Web development and a Very Happy New Year’s Search Engine Optimization to everybody!
Scamming SEO Companies
There are scammers everywhere when it comes to the field of business and scammers won’t let the SEO services get away. Yes, there are also SEO companies who are nothing but scammers. Unfortunately, they still get to be successful in luring innocent people into their bait. Here are a few tips that you should know to avoid being one of the victims of SEO scammers.
Impossible Promises
Come on, we should get real here. There’s no way that a certain SEO company could give you a number one rank on Google in a matter of days. SEO is a continuous step-by-step process which helps your site to get up higher one at a time. Don’t fall for promises saying that they could get your site to page one of a search engine even if you’re beyond page ten. Keep in mind that SEO is not something that could be rushed. To be successful, patience is needed. It’s better to pay for a service that requires you to wait for a while but is sure to give you results than to pay for a service that promises fast results then leaving you with nothing.
Using Email for Marketing
If it’s a reliable SEO company that you want, you won’t find them in your e-mail’s Inbox or Spam folder. The best thing that you could do is to search for them in search engines. Companies with high page ranks are most probably trustworthy companies. Because if they offer SEO services then they should also be able to get their own sites have a higher page rank. Never fall for those who would email you saying “Your site is not listed in search engines” then would start offering services to get your site listed and even give you a high page rank.
Get Famous in Thousands of Search Engines
Sure this will really be pleasing to the ears of someone who wants their site to be as popular as they want. But thousands of search engines are just useless if you would think of it. The ones you should be concerned of are the big players such as Yahoo, Google, Bing, etc. Fraud SEO companies will just spread your site everywhere and that would do no good to you. It will just send minimal or worse, no traffic at all to your site and worse than that, your site could get penalized for spamming the web.
Research
Always look at the company’s background. Search for satisfied clients. Review their history and note any suspicious acts and information. Be vigilant. It’s better to be extra careful than be a victim of scammers. You will surely lose money if you rush into things without doing your research.
Being a victim of a scammer can always be avoided. Make sure you take all of these things into consideration when choosing the company for SEO services. Because when it’s too late, it’s impossible to get your money back and your site will be left to rot. These scammers are fast and smart. The key is to outsmart them by being careful.
SEO Friendly Web Design
Designs of a website can really entice people. Most web designers also think that their skills could be measured by the looks of the website they created. They think that a good looking website will be enough to attract visitors. But what if you’re in the marketing field? A good looking website will surely not be enough to attract people to visit your site.
Since people would tend to use search engines to look for what they need or want, a web designer should design the website wherein the search engine can recognize the site easily. So showing off of skills by creating a site full of graphics is a big no-no. Remember that search engines don’t have eyes like humans to see those graphics jammed in your site. Your site would not be recognized for what it is about in that way.
The job of search engines is to give relevant results for visitors as to what they’re looking for. Therefore, your site should have a theme beginning with your META tags, your page content and the H1 tag that contains the on-page title.
Web designers should avoid putting in a lot of code into your design. If the client’s field is marketing then the web designer should forget about bragging on his skills in design and focus on content instead. Excessive amounts of codes will hinder the search engines in getting to the content because as mentioned above, search engines don’t recognize graphics so no matter how beautiful the site is, it’s useless if it has a crappy content.
Again, an all image or all Flash site will not help you on your way up in search engines. Because as mentioned above, search engines give consideration into content so if there are way too many unnecessary codes then you won’t end up successful in getting your site indexed.
All in all, a good web designer is not just about having excellent artistic skills. He should know the technique of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) combined with building up a web site. If you’re looking for someone to design your site make sure that your designer knows SEO. This would be truly beneficial for those who are into marketing and would like their web site to look good and at the same time have a high page rank.
You can also tell you web designer about what you want be done specifically with your site. It is better to discuss things with your designer so that he could tell you which ones are possible and which ones are not. This way you would also be aware of the advantage and disadvantage of a certain design and what would be its effect on your web site’s ranking.
So do not settle for a web designer with good designing skills. Look for the one who can design your site nicely and give you a high page rank in search engines at the same time. If your web designer knows nothing of how SEO is incorporated in web design then look for another one.
Tips For Novice Web Designers
Web designing has improved through the years since the internet came to existence. We can notice the changes of how a website designed and created a decade ago would differ from the one designed and created today. Before, most web designs are built in pure HTML and looked simple and plain. But during these days, website design is more attractive and catchy and has clearly gone up at a much higher level. Animations can already be incorporated in web design. But sadly, sometimes, web designers tend to overdo the designing wherein too much animations are included causing a certain web site to load at a slower rate. So here are 5 things that a web designer should avoid when it comes to designing their website.
1. Don’t be obsessed with Flash
Every web designer would like to show off how much they know about Flash and brag about it to everyone with their designs and projects. But as mentioned above, the use of too much Flash animation in a web site is not good. Why? Because again, it will surely slow down the loading of a web site and that is not what the visitors would want to experience upon visiting your web site.
2. Don’t play with ads
Instead of hiding the ads, it’s better to just allot a space for ads to be posted. It’s not really cool to have slide out ads and pop up ads. It’s actually a waste of time and effort on the part of a web designer because visitors are usually annoyed with pop-up and slide out ads. They won’t even bother taking a look at the ad and just close it right away or in most cases, they already have a pop-up ad blocker so your effort for creating those kinds of ads is just not worth it. Just keep the appearance of ads simple by putting up a banner for it.
3. Don’t clutter around
A good web designer can also be judged on how good he is by how organized his web site is. Remember that visitors would always want a web site that is easy to navigate through. They don’t want to look at their monitor screens with their foreheads wrinkled and wondering where they could find what they are looking for.
4. Don’t abuse glassy, reflective effects
This was made famous by the company of Apple. But if it’s too famous and widely used by web designers then people will tend to get sick with it and you might even get negative comments about it. If you really want to use that kind of effect on your design, use it creatively and don’t scatter it all over your web site.
5. Don’t name your Web 2.0 company in a weird manner
Be smart instead of using names that either lack a vowel or have excessive use of vowels. Web designers don’t have to go with this trend and stick to using names that are as smart as their web designs.
A Graphics Artist Way to Save on Gifts this Holiday Season
Share something different this Christmas – share your talent. As an artist you could create your own designs to boast and make your family, friends of even bosses proud of your creation. They say that time is the best thing you could give to someone, and devoting some time creating something different will without a doubt be appreciated.
Here are few ideas to help you get started:
- Enhance an old picture of your parents and turn into something really different, change the scene perhaps or write a thing or two that will surely melt their hearts.
- Create your own Christmas or postcards powered by your creativity. Make it as unique as possible.
- If you have an extra bucks, design something you could print on:
- Aprons
- Bags
- Hats
- Mouse Pads
- Mugs
- Pillow Cases
- T-shirts
- Create a Calendar or a notepad
- Just in case you have more time, compile photos, songs, or even recipes and create a unique packaging.
- Some graphic artist are web designers as well, why not create a unique space on the web for families and friends.
There are various ways to save on gifts this holiday season, in fact, anyone who knows how to tinker with photoshop, gimp or any design software could create his/her unique presence for the coming Christmas. It’s about gift-giving, anything will do as long it comes from the heart, so why not spend time and create a personalized gift that will surely leave an impression.
The good thing about this is that, you don’t only share your talent but you market them as well.
Happy Holidays!!!
Link Wheel Building – Will it Wheel for You?
Yes, definitely, link wheels are an excellent way to generate more traffic to your site. Some may not be familiar with it since people tend to focus on what’s talked about with regards to link building. We always hear the same old approach of getting back links, and jump start right with it without proper planning.
I am not saying that this don’t work, of course it does, blog commenting works provided that you post comments on relevant site, else it will not give any PR boost to your site. Directory submission is an excellent way to establish your site. Article marketing is another way to build back links. What I am actually saying is a strategy or an approach you could implement to build links.
First let me define what is a link wheel, basically, it is a set of links interconnected with one another and pointing towards your main website. Link wheel building therefore is creating interlinked pages pointing in one direction.
This is Web 2.0 properties comes in handy, such as Squidoo and Hubpages. The idea here is to create unique article for each high PR site. This article then has an anchor text pointing back to one of the pages created.
For example your site offers website design, web development and search engine optimization (SEO) services. You then build article pertaining to website design like “How to Create SEO Website Design Friendly”, create an anchor text, your strong keyword that you want to rank and submit it to Ezine or other high PR article directories (the resource box is the great place to place your anchor text). Next create another hub or lens on Squidoo or whichever you choose pertaining to SEO, with another anchor text pointing to the article you just created and another to the main website. The same will step will follow until you have created 6 spoke, preferably unique article – every spoke has two links, one pointing to the main website and the other pointing to the other sites you have created.
If you try to visualize the basic steps on link wheel building, it’s actually like a wheel in motion. When done properly, it could generate huge traffic to your site. It may be time consuming preparing articles and creating accounts but it’s a proven and tested way to boost your chances on appearing on Search Engine Result Page (SeRP).
How to Create SEO Website Design Friendly
A website should be eye catching to attract visitors. It should also be very search engine friendly. What matters aside from being user friendly is that it’s searchable on the web, otherwise, your website is useless.
How do we create an SEO friendly web design?
If you use flash on the entire website, you will have to put double the work to make it search engine firendly. Search Engine (SE’s) ignores Flash, therefore, you will also need a non-flash version of your website. If you really need to use flash, make sure that you have an alternative textual description that can be understood by SE spiders. Otherwise, you can also use web 2.0 technology to put your content first before your flash designs.
When using images, be sure to fill-in “name” and “alt” tags. The graphical image itself cannot be seen by SE spider, it is through this tags that SE spider interpret your website. Use relevant description only and do not try to deceive SE spider.
Avoid using frames, SE spiders have no way to interpret content on a frame.
Use CSS navigation and style sheets, doing so makes your navigational menu crawl-able and indexable by SE spider. Using Javascript and Flash do not have the same result – it is unseen by SE spiders. So if you have javascript or flash on your site, you also need to have simple texts of the same message you put in Javascript or flash.
Though it’s not a requirement to use CSS stylesheets, it will help your site to load faster.
Conduct a Keyword Research to use on your meta tags and contents but also avoid keyword stuffing, suggested keyword density is 3-5%. For the title tag, characters should be at lest 70 and 150 for the description. Have at least 5-8 important keywords listed in your keyword tag.
Also, use keyword researched on your anchor text, H1, H2 and H3 as much as possible. This will help you rank in Search Engine Result Page (SeRP).
Create SEO friendly URL, incorporate your keyword related to your web page. Use dashes to separate words.
Structure your site up to 3 levels deep; Google only sees three-levels deep.
Provide useful content and make sure to have at least 250 words each web page since some SE spiders requires at least 250 to analyze your site. Make it a point as well that content on your site coincide with keywords used, else, SE spider will find it of little value.
Lastly, provide a site map.
Having an optimized site works well with your SEO campaign, the second step now depends on you.
If you like this article you may want to read 10 Tips on Search Engine Optimization