designerbooster » Blogging

Top 10 Free Online Blogging Platforms

designerbooster — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:37:15 +0000

A blog is a great way to express your thoughts, create a web presence for your company and provide content to Internet users. If you’re planning to create a blog, but don’t wish to get into the hassles of hosting, developing and deploying it yourself, consider creating a blog at any of the free blogging platforms mentioned below. Such services offer a plethora of features and generally come with both free as well as paid plans. Let’s look at the top 10 most popular online blog-publishing services.

1. WordPress.com

WordPress.com is perhaps the most feature-rich blogging service out there. It uses the popular open source web software WordPress, and offers many features in its free version — traffic stats, anti-spam filters, SEO, gorgeous themes and more. If you choose to use WordPress.com, you’ll be in good company, as many popular blogs — including CNN’s Political Ticker, People Magazine’s Style Watch and Flickr — are on this platform. If you need more than what the free version offers, you can opt for their premium features that include custom domains, upgraded web hosting resources and more. Whether you’re an expert blogger or a beginner, this ultimate blogging platform is a safe bet.

2. Blog.com

Blog.com is another popular WordPress-powered blogging platform. Just like other services, it has its own share of pros and cons. For a start, it offers many beautiful premium themes in its free accounts, as well as advanced plugins that one can expect only on a self-hosted blog. However, on the downside, the free service displays more ads as compared to WordPress.com. (But you can opt for paid upgrades to remove the advertisements.) The free storage space offered on Blog.com is 2GB in the basic plan, which is less compared to 3GB that WordPress.com gives its users.

3. Blogger

Google Blogger is a well-known blogging service that offers many features to its users. For example, Blogger comes with a Template Designer user interface that lets you tweak your blog’s appearance as much as you want. (However, the templates provided are, in my opinion, no match compared to WordPress themes.) When it comes to ease of use, most beginners prefer Blogger as it offers a no-nonsense interface for administering your blog and top-notch integration with their Google account. Another great thing about Blogger is that it offers certain great features for free that you normally need to pay for in other blog-publishing services, most noteworthy being the ability to set up custom domains without paying a cent.

4. TypePad Micro

TypePad Micro is another free blog-publishing service. The interface is easy to use, and you can import/export content from many other blogging platforms. However, in terms of add-ons and themes offered, TypePad Micro won’t satisfy even the most basic blogger. The cheapest paid plan begins at $ 8.95 per month and comes with additional themes, custom domain mapping, as well as technical support. In an age where almost all blogging services are offering numerous features in their free versions, TypePad Micro seems to be lagging behind.

5. Jux

Jux is an innovative service that lets you easily share content online. Conventionally speaking, it’s not a blogging service like the ones previously mentioned, however, it has a lot of the same functionalities. Rather, Jux lets you create your own microblogging site for sharing your content. By default, Jux templates don’t have the native sidebars and other widgets that are common to most blogs. Instead, Jux provides a clean (and beautiful) approach to blogging. Simply create an account, and then start sharing your content. While Jux does seem amazing and has excellent support for mobile devices, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. For instance, if you’re planning to create a more conventional blog, opting for WordPress might be a better option. On the other hand, if you’re leaning more towards visual content, such as photos and artwork, Jux may just amaze you with its features.

6. Tumblr

Tumblr is a popular and feature-packed microblogging platform. It comes with many outstanding and interesting features such as audio blogging (for sharing your music, for example), free custom domains, hundreds of amazing blogging themes and more. Furthermore, you can sync your Tumblr account with Facebook and/or Twitter so that you can update your social media feeds in a single location. Yet another awesome feature is the ability to create community-powered group blogs. Tumblr also offers support for many third-party apps such as Google Analytics and Feedburner.

7. Posterous Spaces

Posterous Spaces is an excellent online blog-publishing service that is similar to Tumblr. Posterous Spaces has excellent privacy and viewing features so that you can easily control who can see what on your Posterous Spaces site. It’s designed to allow its users to post content quickly and as hassle-free as possible, so it has loads of features included to facilitate this, such as free mobile apps for iOS and Android smartphones so you can update your blog on the go and a simple, well-designed user interface. Using Posterous Spaces means you’ll be in good company; popular tech startups like MailChimp, TweetDeck and Airbnb leverage Posterous as their company blog.

8. Blogetery

Blogetery is a WordPress-powered online blogging service that offers a modest set of features. Free accounts get nearly 140 themes, custom domain mapping and roughly 40 plugins to choose from. On Blogetery, ads are displayed on all free blogs, but if you wish to upgrade, you can opt for the paid plan that will cost you $ 3.50 per month and will give you additional themes, plugins, email support, 5GB of additional storage space, the ability to remove ads, etc.

9. Weebly

Weebly offers more than just blogging — it’s a fully featured website builder! Weebly’s blog manager features a drag-and-drop interface, support for image galleries, slideshows, video/audio, maps, etc. Additionally, you can opt for their Designer Platform that lets you build websites for your client, thereby effectively using Weebly as a content management system.

10. LiveJournal

LiveJournal (often abbreviated as LJ) offers blogging with a touch of social networking to it. You can participate in polls, create networks and interact with other LJ users alongside your blog. With that said, the features, compared to other similar blogging services, are nothing to brag about. Their collection of template is decent, and plugins/extensions are pretty basic in nature.

Other Online Blogging Platforms

Here are other blogging platforms that didn’t make our top 10 list that you still may wish to check out:

Conclusion

There are numerous blogging services out there, and choosing a specific one is more of a matter of personal taste and needs. For the security and success of your blog, I recommend sticking to online blogging services that are well known and reputable. Six Revisions

What Should You Do Before Launching a (Successful) Blog

designerbooster — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:38:27 +0000

In the past few years, the Internet has developed more and more, encompassing new online presences everyday; this can make one think about this amazing trend and when it will present a lower growth ratio. It is practically impossible to state exactly how many websites are being created each year but a Mashable article lets us know that, each day, 150000 new URLs are created. In 2008, Google stated that more than 1 trillion websites were indexed hence the figures are simply amazing; just to form an idea, in 1992 there were less than 15000 URLs. The last five years are considered a real boom because of the new online stars: the blogs. Initially these were created for fun or to make certain feelings public, but nowadays there is nothing not to be mentioned at least on a dozen of blogs. I do not believe that there could be a piece of information available that hasn’t been mentioned in the entire blogosphere. The huge number of blogs and the easiness of creating one conducted to the wrong mentality that anyone may be a blogger and quite probably, after a year or two the respective website could bring a profit formed from many zeroes. In spite of these, the creation, the maintenance, and the monetization of a blog aren’t really that simple and solid knowledge is mandatory. Many people interested in the web have attempted to launch a blog and expected that in few months they will become a star but this didn’t happen; much more, only a very limited number of tries were successful and even a smaller category have managed to obtain a good income from blogging activities. Statistics offer various percentages of the heavy traffic blogs but the common item is the reduced number of these; without any doubt, a blog is more than handling a post in WordPress and publishing it, in fact there is a huge endeavor before launching it. The decisions made before any post is online are capital, many bloggers have simply ignored these, and the result wasn’t gratifying. This post represents a complete strategy of what should be done before launching a blog, each checkpoint having a clear explanation, therefore the lecture will be enjoyable and the learning process will be easier and logical. As everything in this world, the post isn’t perfect and any reader is welcomed to correct or to share his opinions with us, the more comments, the more interesting the post will be.

1. Choose a topic + a domain + target public

It’s very simple to say that tomorrow you will launch a blog but the work to practically do it is incomparable to anything you might have done before. The first decision made by a new blogger is to establish very clearly the topic/topics debated on the blog. This choice is capital, it determines the future of the blog and the categories of people to visit it. Some people choose general subjects, which isn’t wrong, but they must be aware that these are very debated by more experienced bloggers and the blogger must come with something new and original to attract visitors; thus, the volume of work is bigger than selecting a more targeted topic. Selecting the topic just because it has the potential to attract Internet users is another mistake, the blogger must know very well about what he writes, the more experience he has in the chosen domain, the bigger his chance of the blog being visited. Nobody will waste minutes reading something which isn’t interesting or useful. An entity that may reveal which is the subject of a blog and people care about, is the domain name; an irrelevant one that has nothing in common with the issues presented has slight chances of attracting other people. Choosing the best domain name is a very large matter that is the subject of a book but the most important tips are:

the domain name must be relevant to the issues presented;
it shouldn’t be very long;
it should be easy to memorize.

Each new blog must be created to inform and delight the visitors but people surfing on web have very different hobbies and necessities hence it is recommended to select only a category of people to write for. In this manner, a community is created around the blog and they are transformed into a trustworthy source of constant traffic. The conclusion is clear, before you start writing the first posts, it is mandatory to imagine the profile of the reader and write for him, not for you or the search engines.

2. Select a reliable hosting company

There is nothing more annoying for a blogger than to manage attracting visitors but the host not to have the same high standards. The problem of hosting shouldn’t be very difficult because the offer is various and the stringent competition guarantees the existence on the market of only the best providers. The cost of hosting is also important but the spending isn’t very high, a reliable firm with an adequate plan is the best byname to solve this matter.

3. Carefully study the potential competitors

Blogging supposes a living competition between bloggers and here the old principle from Sun Tzu may be applied – “to conquer your enemies, it is mandatory to know them very well”. A new blogger willing to really gain money from blogging and to turn into a web star must know all the competitors, their strong or weak points but also the harsh competition shouldn’t be transformed into enmity. Being competitors doesn’t mean that you should hate any other blogger or disregard his activity, take the example of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and their long relationship. Studying carefully the competitors is advantageous because it allows an easier and complete determination of the quality of the posts, the specific structure, or the strong points of each one and without these it is hard to write something original or something that isn’t fully covered in the blogosphere. Engaging in discussions with other bloggers is also beneficial for both sides: each person has at least one original idea and by exchanging these, the community will benefit with richer and more useful blogs. The friendship with other blog owners or writers may be the binder that has put the basis of a future collaboration or a reciprocal advertising of the posts.

4. The design of the blog – Try to be the best

Even if the content is the one that interests a visitor, the design is still very important and it may be an attraction for random surfers. The beauty of a design is important but it must be also functional and accessible. A layout that doesn’t help the readers and makes the lecture a hell surely will scare away all the visitors and the final result will be a disaster. The layout may be obtained from three parts, each one having its own set of advantages and disadvantages :

Buy a theme from various online markets and customize it; the price is very advantageous, the problem of time is satisfactory but there is a great chance of already existing websites built upon the same theme, hence originality won’t be your strongest point.
Create a layout and make a website but this requires the respective blogger to be skilled in HTML and CSS. This option is free, you are the creator of the blog, the time spent depends only on your own forces and the money invested is zero.
Hire a designer who is talented and ready to be hired, this solution guarantees that the layout will be original but at the same time the payment should require a fair amount of money.

In conclusion, no matter which solution is taken, there are advantages and disadvantages but what is really important is the quality of the design.

5. Pay attention to SEO- hire a SEO specialist or try yourself, anyway do not neglect this!

Any blog success is strictly determined by the number of visitors, the more, the better. The best blogs truly offer quality posts and useful advice but there is a little trick that makes the difference: “the friendship” with the search engines. A blog that is liked by the crawlers of the search engines will appear on the first positions and this means a higher chance of being visited. Any responsible blogger pays attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) because it is the key of heavy traffic which means money, so now it is clearer, SEO is money! On the other hand, writing only for SEO purposes is quickly penalized by humans and all the endeavors are in vain.

6. Establish the strategy of the blog: number of posts/week, their format, the usual length, the style adopted

From now the real work of blogger starts, writing and analyzing the result of one’s work. One of the most important feature of the blogs is the consistency, usually the posts must have a similar topic, a specific structure etc. Another important blog feature is the following of a clear schedule, if you consider the best solution to post only Monday, Wednesday and Friday do it, but keep this program or else the incoherence will be penalized by visitors. I recommend making a good reserve of posts before starting to put the first article online, nobody knows what could happen if you weren’t available to maintain the blog for some days. Word Press is making possible to schedule the publication of the posts in advance hence you can take a nice trip and the blog is running with no delay. There is no strict formula but from my experience added up with some conclusions of my debates with other bloggers, it is better to have the posts for a week assured or more simply, you are writing today the post to be published next week. It’s great to respect a posting schedule and to have a good reserve of posts and many bloggers are doing it but they forget a more important issue, the visitors aren’t coming just because you publish a post, they want quality and the same style that is liked by them. In this way, I give you another pretty cool tip: the same as the developers are keeping separately the files that improve the look of a website, the so named CSS external sheet, a blogger must establish a complete draft containing all the necessary details to write a post. It’s capital to maintain the same style, some surely won’t like it but 100% there are people who will enjoy your kind of exposing. Don’t get it wrong, a very clear delimited style doesn’t mean that it blocks the evolution, it’s only necessary to look professional.

7. Propose clear and realistic checkpoints according to a marketing strategy

Some people are more optimistic and they will be always content with their work on the blog while others will be always sad because they don’t get the traffic desired, some even believe that “the planet is sinking”. In order to have an objective opinion about the future evolution of the blog, a wise person will setup some realistic targets and carefully keep these. In fact, these must be a part of a more complex marketing strategy which is capital for any blog (some people, including me, have the tendency to use very radical terms as capital, vital or important and sometimes maybe they overestimate the real situation but here capital is really capital). I want to believe that the quality is by far, the most important, but as I gain more and more experience, I see the marketing even more important. What do you think: is marketing more important than the quality of the posts? Anyway, there is enough to understand that marketing and branding are important only by randomly reading some posts of the most important bloggers. The conclusion is simple: before launching a blog that must be visited and be appreciated by people as a reference entity in blogosphere a concrete marketing strategy is mandatory. This must include realistic goals and deadlines, the evolution must be efficiently controlled, and the wish to improve it is the fuel of success.

8. Promote its launch, create a Facebook page, and ask for opinions

The days until the first post is published are very few and the excitement is high. Another mandatory step is the creating of a Twitter and Facebook account, the power of social media is high and neglecting it is almost a blogger sin. An imperceptible sign of professionalism is the customization of these accounts, the more and interesting they are, the better. Facebook pages are created for everyone and everything, it’s impossible not to get bored by, but an original one has bigger chances of being liked by people. Twitter customization consists mostly in having a cool background and an interesting bio, the Internet is full of amazing examples of well done graphical realization, inspire and create something special for you. The customization is in vain if the accounts aren’t active and professionally maintained. Social networks do not refer only to Facebook and Twitter, the most targeted ones are very important and from these a lot of traffic may come, therefore don’t stop only to the most used ones. Don’t be afraid to promote these pages, step by step a community is forming and the first members must be your close friends, even the pages of Justin Bieber or Britney Spears start from “0 likes.”

9. Think twice before publishing the first post; are you sure about your intentions

I may be accused of inserting unnecessary steps in this list, I must apologize to the ones that believe this but once again I emphasize the difference between pleasure and business. A blog just for the owner and his friends is a thing; a blog to be monetized is a completely different job where hard work and consistency are the pillars of the development. My personal advice is not to quit launching the blog but don’t expect for miracles to happen and immediate opportunities to gain money. I have just launched a blog and all my friends asked my how much money I gain…when they found out that some months are necessary until the first hundred of dollars would be in my account they accused me of making bad affairs. This is my message and I hope to understand what I advised you.

10. Prepare yourself for a huge volume of work and difficult moments

There come another negative aspect, the blogging activities are time consuming and very few of them manage to obtain a balanced report between personal life and work (not me!). The family, the relatives and close friends must be aware that the respective blog isn’t only a passion that take you from the daily life and keep in front of the computer. A quality blog is pretty like a brick and mortar business, you invest money, work, and time and expect profit; obviously, a healthy affair can’t produce huge profits instantly. In the end, I want to run away this pessimistic final and encourage you to try blogging, nobody was born blogger and all of us make mistakes. The most important bloggers aren’t necessarily the most talented designers or the smartest people, they are keeping up the work even the results weren’t from the start very satisfactory. Take their example and don’t look back! instantShift

The Importance of Link Building

designerbooster — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:37:02 +0000

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to your website to promote popularity and other benefits throughout the online world. Link building is one of the core tasks of SEO. It not only helps promote popularity among users, but also contributes to the website’s ranking in search engines. Therefore, you need to work on link building in order to reap the benefits both from users and the search engine point of view. The importance of link building is evident in the following example: “When A says that A is good, not everyone will believe it, but when one hundred other people say that A is good, it definitely adds value.” You know that your site has quality content, but if you are the only one who says so, it will not add as much value as when many other sites say the same.

Link building both within and outside websites is vital. Internal link building is important because it builds a linking system around the pages in your website, which allows search engines to crawl each and every page that exists in your website. This also helps users follow your pages according to their requirements. Along with internal link building, external link building has its own value as it makes your site more popular, which again helps you rank better in the search engine’s search. A back link from another site counts as a vote for your site, and search engines value each vote. However, links from any site will not serve this purpose. You need to gain back links from popular and relevant websites. A good link makes your site popular, but a bad link might ruin this popularity as well. One has to be very careful in the process of link building. The search engine understands what your website is all about and determines whether the linked sites are relevant to your site or not. Many sites accept links from porn sites in order to reap faster benefits, but such links will hamper the site’s reputation, which may also lead to a penalization of the particular site. Such shortcuts in link building may lead to adverse results. Therefore, it is critical to work on the link-building process. The importance of link building has already been discussed. Links help your blog spread among people, thereby gaining popularity. In order to make your blog big, you need to gain a large number of website links; for this, link building serves at its best. Links will help more users land on your blog. The search engine will also recognize the quality of your blog. Link building comes naturally with time, but that takes a much longer time. Natural links are those connected by people when they genuinely like your content, although this does not happen very often. Therefore, you have to work on link building yourself for more benefits. You have to start early in order to get your blog off to a strong start. The most important thing required to gain links is to have quality content and tools on your site. One major task that needs to be completed before working on link building is a competitors’ analysis. You have to recognize your competitors and research their process of link building. Check through the number of links coming into your competitors’ sites and list the websites serving those links. Go after sites that have linked to your competitors. Do not follow their ways; find out better ways to do it. Not every website might be worthy but making a list will definitely give you an idea for your link-building process. This research on link building through your competitors’ site can be done with the help of online tools; the most popular such tool is the “Yahoo! site explorer.” Just enter the URL of your competitor’s website and all its links will be provided instantly by the site explorer. Thus, this tool provides great help in researching the back links of your competitors. In addition, determine how your competitors managed to get all their links and try to understand their strategies in link building. This will help you in your link-building process for your site. To start with link buildings, you can utilize your contacts, asking them to share your site in social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn as well as providing a back link from their own sites to your site. Different strategies for link building are discussed below.

Asking for a link
Running newsletters
Using website widgets
Engaging in social bookmarking
Submitting to a directory
Blogging and article submission
Creating a complementary site

Asking for a Link

Asking for a link is the easiest approach to link building, and many websites do it during the very initial stages. This can be done by including a “link to us” or “tell a friend” option on your home page. Such options let your users link to your website easily whenever they like your content or any information provided by your site. In addition, many CMS software products include prebuilt forms for handling such simple tasks. When you are providing quality information on your site, people tend to share that information; linking is the best way to do so. In such cases, this process works perfectly as it lets people share your site very easily. Thus, making a segment on your website for asking for a link can be your first step in link building. Offering quality content and tools welcomes this sort of natural link building.

Running Newsletters

Running daily or weekly newsletters can be useful for link building. You can advertise your new products and the quality information available on your website. You can also remind your users about your updates; if they like them, they will forward the newsletters to their friends. This will help your site spread among people more easily.

Using Website Widgets

Creating website widgets are one of the most popular ways of handling link building. Many sites use these to reap the benefits. Creating widgets that can be used by other sites will be a real help in building links. Website widgets are units that can be used by other sites as well. Any information that can add unique value to other sites can be turned into a widget. Examples of popular widgets can be found on sites like widgetbox, and glittertools. Custom websites widgets can be created too in order to serve this purpose. You can create custom widgets using simple html pages or with the use of RSS feeds, java applets, and flash. Many websites create calculators, convertors, clocks, and other such widgets that can be used by other sites (e.g., wolframalpha widgets). Such widgets are usable by other sites with the condition that the host site is present as a link in the widget; it helps to make your link visible enough. You can share your widgets in many different ways. You can either use your site or use a third party—or both. You can give a simple html code for the users. Copying and pasting the given code makes the widget visible on their respective sites. By doing so, a site will be using your widget for their user benefits and also let your link be present there. Website widgets work for the link-building process, and many sites are experiencing its benefits.

Engaging in Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is the idea of adding bookmarks and articles across different social bookmarking sites in the web. It is one of the ways to share and spread your site, opening your site to a wider audience and thus gaining popularity. Utilizing social bookmarking is very simple and beneficial. Social bookmarking sites ask you to register there and install a web browser tool bar thereafter. This makes adding book marks easier. Bookmarking sites store data through links from different sites, highlighting popular and recent links. These sites are frequently visited by users; therefore, the chances of your site spreading among users will be much higher. Thus, social bookmarking is one of the effective ways of link building. In terms of SEO, your goal is achieved as it is one of the best ways to promote your website or blog. Social bookmarking not just makes you popular among users, but its value is counted by search engines as well. Search engines frequently crawl popular bookmarking sites and also index pages having bookmarked content. Therefore, adding a bookmark will definitely work as a plus point for your SEO work. Some of the most popular social bookmarking sites are:

Each site has a different way of working, but the idea behind all of them is same. After installation, the site offers you a bookmark icon on your site. Through that icon, every user can add a bookmark whenever they like an article or any information. Important links will carry more value. You can keep a track of your bookmarked URLS. Every site will have different interfaces to keep a track of links. You can see the results of your bookmarks through the use of such interfaces. However it is very important that you don’t overdo this work in social bookmarking. Too many bookmarking icons on your pages will neither look good nor serve any benefit. Therefore, it is important that you select only the important and best ones for your purposes. You can also use just one icon, like “share this” or “add this,” with the ability of posting it to any bookmarking sites you want. This will help you avoid too many icons appearing on your pages while still reaping the benefits.

Submitting to a Directory

Another popular way of link building is directory submission, which is a popular approach with good results to websites over time. Before submitting to directories, you need to make sure of the quality of your page title and description of the pages to which you are going to submit as only properly optimized pages will add value to your work. Make a list of the popular and good directories. This can be easily done by carefully surfing the Internet. Also make sure that the directories to which you are submitting don’t have a “no-follow” condition. Your idea behind directory submission is to let the juice pass; whenever there is a no-follow link, you cannot avail any profit out of that link as it will restrict the juice from flowing. Therefore, make list of directories without the no-follow attribute. many free online tools can help you check whether a no-follow attribute exists. While making the list of directories there are certain points that need to understood :

1) No-follow: Check the link attribute of the sites. Avoid sites with no-follow rules and make use of only sites that have do-follow attribute and can pass the link juice.
2) Page rank: Check the page rank of the sites. The higher the page rank, the more value is added. Go for sites having a high page rank. You can also make use of sites having a medium level of page rank.
3) Quality check: Check through the quality of content available in the sites. Choose only the sites that match your content both concept wise and quality wise.

Make a list of good directories based on these points. Start with the top directories in the initial stages. Many top-level directories exist on the Internet. Google maintains its own directory. Here are few top level directories :

In addition, many other directories are available that promote link building. Some of these sites are free, some are paid, and some are provided along with a reciprocated link. You can chose any of such sites according to your requirements. There is no rule saying to how many directories you can submit your site to; therefore, you can submit to an endless number of directories until you achieve your goal. You can make a search query to identify the relevant directories for your site. Here are few sites where you can submit your pages and site :

Directory sites vary from each other. While some sites allow you to add your pages separately, others accept only the home page. Also, these sites have a limit of accepting submissions from you. Despite of all these conditions, directory submission does carry a lot of value in terms of link building, making it a necessity for any blog owner.

Blogging and Article Submission

Another way of link building is blogging and article submission. You can write articles, blogs, or forums and publish them with one or more links pointing to your website. There are many article and blogging sites where you can submit good quality content along with links. Here are few of the popular article sites :

You can write quality articles in these sites to make your site popular. Every such site has different submission guidelines. Go through all the submission guidelines of the article site before submitting articles on the site. Also check whether the sites allow “do follow” links. Submit to sites only with “do follow” attribute. While some sites allow you to add an unlimited number of links, a few restrict you to one or two. Understand all the guidelines and make the appropriate choice for the best results. In addition, you can blog to promote your website through links. Blogs and forums are valuable in the process of link building. Three of the most popular blogging sites are:

While working on article and blog submission, you have to make sure of keywords you want to highlight. Use only relevant keywords; otherwise, your work might look as spam, which might also lead to penalization. Therefore, use relevant keywords in the articles and blogs published. You have to pay special attention to keyword selection because only good keywords will lead you to success in link building.

Creating a Complementary Site

One of the less frequently but still useful ways of link building is creating a complementary site to your website. Such a site will help you in cross linking and promote your website well along with hosting quality content itself. Thus, creating a complementary site can be useful in the process of link building. Such techniques promote link building. Natural links are the best approach to link building, but it is so important in SEO that you need to make it happen before it naturally happens. The idea behind creating a professional blog or a website is to spread it to the maximum number of people, which is possible only through proper link building. You have to make your site present everywhere on the web so that users cannot ignore your site. Once you get users, your content quality should be strong enough to make the users stick to your site. Also link building allows the search engine to know your site better and more thoroughly. However, in terms of link building, the search engine evaluates links based on certain factors, which are discussed below briefly.

Relevance

It is critical that you exchange links only with sites that are relevant to your site. For example, if your blog speaks about education, you should not welcome a link from a website selling shoes. You need to maintain links only from relevant sites; otherwise, it may lead to adverse effects as the search engines recognize that the subject of your site and the subject of the linked sites. Therefore, maintain relevancy while link building through sites.

Authority domain

In terms of link building, not all links count equally. Different links have different value based on the authority domain of the sites at times. Sites with government and popular authority domains (e.g.,.org, .gov, .edu) are counted with high value. Thus, links coming from such sites are of great importance. On the other hand, sites with .com, .co, and .net have a lesser value. Therefore, it is important to try to get more links from sites with a high value, without ignoring the lesser valued ones. These two factors hold great importance in terms of link building. In addition to these two factors, you have to give proper heed to keywords, anchor text, quality, and such other things in the process of link building. Using all the mentioned techniques, you can work on the process of link building for you blog. However, it is very important that you don’t overdo this work. These are just techniques that will help you reach more people and gain more popularity, but the real work remains with the quality of your website or blog as “good and compelling content is the only best way for link building”. Therefore, create it and maintain it throughout your site.

instantShift

21 Inspiring Blog Designs

designerbooster — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:38:59 +0000

It could be said that with all the themes available to design a blog it’s getting harder to find new and authentic blog designs. In one way this is good because more people have the opportunity to easily get a nice looking blog up and running. However, this makes it ever so important to do something special with your blog design – to set it apart from the crowd, and let people know it’t not just a theme. After a long time without showcasing Blog Designs – the last post on this topic was back in Jul, 2010 – we decided to gather a fresh batch of blogs to show you, and I have to admit that finding these was a bit challenging. Nevertheless, here are some excellent examples of how designers are approaching blogs, journals, or what’s sometimes called a news section. From minimal designs to colorful ones, you will find several different approaches to the old web design companion, the blog.

Jux Blog

Blog Viljami Salminen

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If Design Blogs Were Hollywood Celebrities – Who Would They Be?

designerbooster — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 08:41:55 +0000

Creating a blog is easy. But to build and sustain an online platform with a reputable image and devoted fan following is extremely difficult. I myself have endured various hardships and difficulties while establishing and directing GraphicDesignBlog.orgto where it is now. This is because you don’t just have to create a web blog. You have to erect a platform that is personable, credible and reliable.In the human world, we have celebrities who are distinct and unique because of their star qualities and attributes. Similarly in the design blogosphere, we have some successful blogs that outshine others because of their rich content, attractive appearance and user-friendly interface. Today, I thought of comparing such famous design blogs with celebrities that match the personality types of famous Hollywood celebrities. But before we proceed, please keep in mind that this exercise is just for fun and should not be taken seriously. Have a look at these crazy celebrity resemblances which I have made up with famous design blogs. Once again, let me remind you…its all just for fun, so my design blogger fellows don’t take it to heart

1. ‘Smashing Magazine‘ is like ‘Miley Cyrus’:

Smashing Magazine is a popular design blog for designers and developers. They can be compared to Miley Cyrus…Glamorous, Multi-talented and Famous. Just like teenage sensation is a singer cum actress, Smashing Magazine has an all-round approach as it covers everything related to design on their blog. Oh…and both of them have authored a book as well.

2. ‘Web Designer Depot:‘ is like ‘Tom Hanks’:

Web Designer Depot is a well-settled blog and has massive volume of followers on its blog. They have cemented such a strong foothold on the blogosphere that almost everything they publish becomes an instant hit. Reminds me of the award-winning actor Tom Hanks, who turns almost every movie he works into a blockbuster hit.

3. ‘Little Box of Ideas‘ is like ‘Angelina Jolie’:

LBOI is a well-known design blog run by graphic designer Sneh Roy. Her online presence and brave designing reminds me of Angelina Jolie, renowned for her roles in action movies. To me, Sneh Roy is the blogosphere version of Angelina Jolie. Bold, Dashing and Persistent.

4. ‘Just Creative Design‘ is like ‘Brad Pitt ’:

Just Creative Design is another eminent design blog run by graphic and logo designer Jacob Cass. To me, Just Creative Design is the Brad Pitt of design world. The first reason, I’m sure most girls would agree to, is the good looks and dashing personality of Jacob Cass. . Secondly, just like Brad Pitt works in few but successful movies, Just Creative Design is updated steadily but productively.

5. ‘UnderConsideration‘ is like ‘Oprah Winfrey ’:

Underconsideration is our Oprah Winfrey of the design world. The popular talk show host was well known for her TV-show that held discussions on self-improvement and promoting self-help ideas. Similarly, Underconsideration is has sections like “Brand New” and “Speak Up” where they discuss about various brands and give their opinions and pointers on design-related issues.

Graphic Design Blog - An Ultimate Resource for Graphic Designers

Create A Personal Blog Theme Design

designerbooster — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:37:12 +0000

How to create a personal blog theme design in photoshop

It has been a while since I’ve published a photoshop tutorial for creating a web layout. Today we’re going to create a personal blog website design in photoshop. If you’re a beginner do not worry just check out some of my past tutorials on how to create a website design.

Download Demo

Things you will need: camera lens RSS Icon twitter icon

Open photoshop and created a new document 960px(width) x 1200(height). Now that we have our 960px wide website we will need to add title=”How to create a personal blog theme in photoshop ” to both sides of our layout so we can have some room to see our background. Press CTRL + ALT + C to bring up Canvas size(MAC: CMD + ALT + C). Then select the left arrow and change the width from 960px to 1160px. Press ok and do the same for the right side except change 1160px to 1360px. Since we now have our guide lines setup we can now start designing our website. Select the paint bucket tool and set the background color to #212121. Double click on the background layer or right click>>blending options>>Pattern. Select one of the patterns used from pattern download. Now we will create our header section. In our header section of the website there will be a logo, social icons and of course a menu nav. Select the rectangle tool and create a rectangle box across the top of the design. Double click on the background layer or right click>>blending options>>gradient overlay. The left color of the graident is #6aa29c. The right color of the gradient is #8fcac4. Select the type tool, font: Arial, Bold, 72px and write out the name of your website. Next double click on the background layer or right click>>blending options>>gradient overlay. The left color of the gradient is #f7f7f7. The right color of the gradient is #d2dbda. Then select the stroke option and add a 1px stroke to your logo. Make the stroke color #7cb5b0; Now add in the lens icon that you’ve downloaded at the beginning of this tutorial. Once you have the lens icon in photoshop drag it over the O in Disfusion. Now select the type tool again font: Arial, 12px color: #232323 then type out “Bringing creativity to community blogger theme!” or create your own tagline. Since our logo is now created we can create our social network buttons. Select the ellipse tool and create a circle(Color: #212121) about the size of a quarter. Next to the circle select the type tool font: Arial, size: 12px, color: #212121, and create a verbiage for your social link. I used “Subscribe to Rss Feed” for my rss icon.repeat this step for the next social icon also. Remember the two social icons that you’ve downloaded at the beginning of this tutorial. You are going to need them for this step. Drag in your twitter and rss icon into photoshop. Then add the appropriate icon for your two social links. After you have your icons in place,double click on the icon layer>>blending options, color overlay and set the color to #dbdbdb. Repeat the last step for the other social icon. Select the rectangle tool and create a rectangle box across your design layout. Add the box to the bottom of the blue header. Now double click on the layer>>blending options>>gradient overlay. The left color of the graident is #212121. The right color of the gradient is #161616. Select the type tool font: Arial, size: 14px, color:#c0c1c5 and create your menu navigation links. After you have your menu nav links created select the rounded rectangle tool and create a rounded rectangle around a menu item. After you have your rounded rectangle create double click on the layer>>blending options>>gradient overlay. The left color of the gradient is #000000. The right color of the gradient is #242424. Then add a 1px stroke, color: #161616; Select the rectangle tool, background color #212121 and create a rectangle box to contain all of our content. Now lets create our blog posts. Select the type tool font: Georgia, Size: 26px, color:#fff; and create a heading for your blog post (No more then 2 lines). Now lets add a image thumbnail for our post. Add a stroke of 3px inside color: #0f0f0f so it look as if a border is around it. Then select the type tool font: Georgia, Size: 14px, color:#fff; and create a excerpt of small description of your post. Repeat this step for the next blog post. Select the rounded rectangle tool, color: #8fcac4 and create a medium size rectangle. Now select the type tool font: Georgia, size: 18px, color: #212121 and create the categories text inside of the rectangle box. Then create a rounded box color:#0f0f0f, for the widget area in our left sidebar. Now create a list of categories. Below each categories add dotted lines color: #fefefe to divide each widget/block item. Repeat this step for the next two widget/block area. Now we will create our advertising area which will hold our 125x 125px ads. Select the rectangle tool, color: #0f0f0f, and create a background for our ads. Make sure each ad background has 5px all around making it seem as if the ad image has a padding of 5px applied to it. Remember when we created our widget areas, well we will need to do the same for this area so that we can display our Flickr photo feed.Select the rounded rectangle tool, color: #8fcac4 and create a medium size rectangle. Now select the type tool font: Georgia, size: 18px, color: #212121 and create the Flickr photos text inside of the rectangle box. Then create a rounded box color:#0f0f0f, for the widget area in our right sidebar. Create 6 Flickr images 75px x 75px. For the final step of this tutorial we will create our footer divider and text. For our footer divider create a 1px line color: #1d1d1d. Now create another 1px line color:#323232 and add it to the bottom of the first line. Now select the type tool font: Georgia, size: 14 and create your copyright info. For the “back to top” link I just capitalize the text and changed the color from #fff to #8fcac4; You now have completed the design for this tutorial. In the up and coming tutorials we will take this design and code it using html & css(3). After we have coded it to html and css we will then turn it into a working WordPress theme and also a working drupal theme. If you’re interested in learning how something like this can be done subscribe to our rss feed to stay updated. View the tutorial

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A Beginner’s Guide To Web Advertisements For Bloggers

designerbooster — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:36:58 +0000

Advertisements on almost every website (blogs to be precise, as the line between a website and a blog is diminishing quickly) look visually familiar to me although some people believe they don’t belong on websites at all. The subject of today’s discussion will be the art of marketing and how we seem to take the same for granted. Remember, you must be selflessly selfish while giving away ad spots on your website. Otherwise, your client will give away the money during the first deal but might not renew the same due to negative results.

Why Advertise?

Let me start with the very basic question. This question is applicable to both sides – the publisher and the advertiser. In the case of the latter, advertising is important to promote a service or a product. While in the case of a publisher the debate can really go on forever. Some of the genuine (and important) reasons for a publisher’s inclination towards advertising will be:

Money, for starters. You know the quality-content-comes-at-a-price thing? Content will be the king but even the kings need coins to survive. No doubt why a publisher will give away ad spots on his website. Who hates the inflow of money? Really, who?
Secondly, advertisements on a webpage help the reader dig deep into the depths of the internet and discover rich content. Henceforth, if you are good at heart and are willing to let your readers leave your website in return for some cents then you surely are helping the reader and the advertiser. Just make sure that you are displaying some really genuine ads otherwise your readers might be a bit pissed off.
Thirdly, precious advertisers help in building the image of a publisher. This can be an amazing add-on if you get lucky. Imagine IBM advertising on your website. A “sponsored by IBM” logo next to your logo can shake a lot of A-listers off their positions in no time. A quick example:

I am from India and some time back I stumbled upon a website YourStory. Basically, they were talking about all sorts of startups in India. The simple blog template and (I admit) no overly flashy stuff made me think that they weren’t the big guns in this industry. I moved on. It was after few days when I again stumbled upon this website and this is when I tried to dig into YourStory. To my surprise, they were the online partners for CNBC TV-18′s Young Turks initiative. It was shocking. TV 18 happens to be the God of media industry in India. They own a share of everything (TV channels, newspapers, magazines, web portals etc.) which stands on the top of media niche in India. And, they were using YourStory to promote their Young Turks initiative? I instantly subscribed to the feeds of YourStory. Now, I am a regular reader of YourStory.

Anyways, all that I want is you to understand that you should know why you are advertising before you take the next step – your target clients.

Who to Advertise?

Now that you know why advertising is important and why you want to get into the world of online advertisements, it is time that you churn out unwanted clouds so that you can see your target clients very clearly. To be precise, there are two basic types of targets where you should focus your energy:

Readers - True! Readers happen to be the most important reason for your website’s success. If any section of your website is a turn off for them then it might spread like a plague between your readers. It’s the same case with adverts that show up on your website. The adverts should be helpful and they must target the readers. Otherwise, they will prove to be a turn off for your readers and your advertisers will not get the response that they had hoped for. A usual voting or feedback post can prove very helpful to gauge such scenarios.
Advertisers - Now, these guys are your bread and butter so you better take them seriously. Imagine an organization wanting to advertise on your website but finds no “Advertise With Us” page on your website. If they are patient enough then they will dig into your website’s contact page and drop you an email. Otherwise, they might start looking for other easier options. Also, it will be a good idea to give advertisers a single point of contact so that they aren’t caught up in between the communication gap. It will help nobody.

How to Advertise (using obvious ways)?

Hmmph! So, you are ready to roll? I guess now you will be looking for some feasible options to open up ad slots on your website and earn quick bucks. I won’t be focusing on the usual ad spots although I want to go through them real quick:

Ad spots (square or rectangular) on the side bar are one of the most common ad spots available today on almost every possible blog.
Below heading (and above post content) ad spot is another place which can garner high amounts of attention.
In header (next to logo) ad spot is something that has been prevailing since long ago and it does attract a lot of attention due to its prime positions.

Just like these three ad spots there are a few other obvious positions where one can open up advertisements on a blog. But, we are here to discuss something new so let us do the same.

How to advertise (the out-of-the-box ideas)?

Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement – Jakob Neilsen

That one line above teaches a lot. It is a sort-of warning to advertisers and publishers. Overly flashy ad spots might have few competitors nibbling around (and doing good) in few websites. A friend of mine long back sent me a text message which talked about two contrasting lines that had changed his life:

…but I love you.
I love you but …

Don’t get me wrong, please. The conventional methods of online advertising still rock and they still help most of the blogs out there to keep kicking the profit margins, they are here to stay. But …

So, what are some out-of-box ways to advertise products on your website without killing the user experience:

Conduct Interviews - Sounds simple but they can be very effective. We know (from our very own personal experience) that readers tend to ignore anything that looks like an advert. In such a case why not publish ads? Won’t that push that ad-based content right into the feed of your reader just like any other informative post. Hey, I didn’t mean paid posts. Really. Once an advertiser becomes a regular in your blog you can end up conducting an interview with them so as to understand their business and help them connect with your readers. As a precautionary measure, you can add “nofollow” to the outgoing links so that it does not look like a paid post.
Let product owners write informative posts - This can be another area where you can expand your advertising horizons. Remember, these must not be paid posts otherwise Google will penalize you badly. Rather, you will have to make sure that these posts are in sync with your niche and they do not look like infomercials. It will be your discretion and later on your audience will decide if your decision was a success or a failure.
Appreciate your clients in a different way - Some time back Honda mowed the name of their fan on their headquarter’s lawn. A recognition of such kind which attracts attention for your clients will surely strengthen the relationship between you and your client.

Nail it, studs!

You got to touch your reader if you want to attract their attention. We have the attention span of a small rodent. The same applies to our readers. Remember Google’s ads during the 2010 Super Bowl? Google waited for the 2010 Super Bowl to roll and they simply nailed it with riveting spots like Justin Beiber, Dear Sophie, It Gets Better and Lady Gaga. All the videos have more than a million views and all of them have one thing in common – they touch your soul!

The Showcase

Ready to push ads on your blogs? Ready to make money? Ready to network? Below list of amazing ad-networks should come in handy for you. P.S. – I am NOT including Google AdSense as it happens to be the default ad-network for all of us.

AdTegrity

Advertising

Burst Media

Buy Sell Ads

Casale Media

CPX Interactive

Double Click

Say Media

Tribal Fusion

Value Click Media

1stwebdesigner - Graphic and Web Design Blog

5 Tips for Overcoming Blogging Plateaus

designerbooster — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:25:25 +0000

Anyone who has maintained a blog for even a few months or more knows that there are frustrating times in the life of a blogger where growth seems to come to a complete standstill. The nature of blogging involves adding new content to the site and continually picking up new readers through that content. However, there are times when common measurements like visitors, pageviews, subscribers, and even income are extremely difficult to improve upon. These blogging plateaus typically lead to frustration. In this post we’ll look at some things that you can do when you’re on one of those plateaus to help make that push and get things moving forward again.

1. Focus on Actions Instead of Results

A lot of bloggers incorporate goals into their daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly routines. Goals can be highly effective because most bloggers are working on their own, and there’s no boss or anyone else to keep them motivated. In this type of situation, goals can help by encouraging the blogger despite that lack of accountability to others. Typical goals for a blogger might include:

Draw X,000 visitors in a month
Attract X,000 search engine visitors in a month
Make $ X,000 in a month

While these goals can serve as motivation they don’t show you what you need to do in order to achieve them. If you’ve hit a plateau one of the best things you can do is forget about statistics and results and focus instead on actions. Actions will be more relevant to you in this situation because if you set up good action goals they can show you exactly what you need to do in order to get better results, removing the mystery of where to focus your efforts. For example, here is a set of action goals that you could use:

Create a list of 100 possible post topics, and then chose the top 10 ideas.
Write and publish 2 news posts each week.
Write guest posts for 2 different blogs in the niche.
Introduce yourself to 10 other bloggers in the niche.
Submit 1 post per week to 5 different social media sites.

While it may be things like number of visitors and number of subscribers that you are having trouble improving, by focusing on these specific actions you’re likely to improve your blog, which will result in better numbers that help to get you off of that plateau.

2. Maintain Consistent Effort

The typical reaction of a blogger when hitting a plateau is discouragement and a loss of interest, and the effort winds up decreasing, which of course leads to poor results. However, if you are able to maintain a consistent effort and just keep pushing forward, you are likely to break out of that plateau before too long. Plateaus happen, as do peaks and valleys, and every long-term blogger will have to deal with them at some point. Try not to let slow or stalled growth to take away your focus and effort. If you set strong action goals and you maintain a consistent effort, things will improve.

3. Spend Extra Time Brainstorming Post Ideas

The best way to break out of a plateau is to publish a post that resonates with your readers, and winds up being shared through blog links and social media. These posts often wind up attracting more search engine traffic in the long-term because of the links, and the viral nature also leads to more subscribers and followers. Unfortunately, creating a great post is easier said than done. From my experience, one of the best ways to maximize the impact of your posts is to spend time brainstorming post ideas. This is helpful for coming up with creative ideas and allows you to do something unique with your blog, which is when you really have a chance to break out of that slump. If post topic brainstorming is not a normal part of your process, be sure to make time for it when you’ve hit a plateau. At this time you may want to take a detailed look at your blog’s statistics and determine what types or posts tend to work best, and which ones have the least impact. Obviously, this can be useful knowledge for deciding on post topics to pursue now. There are any number of different ways that you can go about brainstorming, but essentially you just want to come up with a big list of post ideas. They don’t all have to be good ideas that would turn into successful posts, just write things down that are challenges faced by your readers, strengths you have that you could share with others, trends in the industry or niche, predictions, controversial topics, etc. Don’t judge your ideas immediately, just write them down and try to keep building on them. Eventually you’ll have a sizeable list and you can then read back through the ideas and see which ones you think might have the most potential.

4. Look for Opportunities Away from Your Blog

While it may seem like working on other things wouldn’t help your blog to grow in the short-term, that actually might not be the case. For example, you could contact the editor of a popular blog in your industry to see if they accept guest post submissions. If they do, you could possibly get a post with your author bio published on a major blog that shares your target audience. The link from this guest post can lead to click-through traffic, name recognition, and eventually improved search engine rankings. Other opportunities, especially in the design industry, could include creating a resource to be distributed for free at another blog. Many designers create resources like icons, vectors, and brushes and then allow other bloggers to give them away for free in exchange for a mention and a link. Depending on the blog(s) that release your resources, it could provide a spark that gets your own blog moving in the right direction. Still there are plenty more opportunities. You could participate in an interview to be published at another blog, collaborate with another blogger on some type of group project, be more active on Twitter and Facebook, and the list could go on. While these things will not directly impact the results of your own blog, they are all capable of sending traffic and increasing exposure in ways that you couldn’t do simply by focusing on your blog. One caveat, this shouldn’t come at the expense of working on your own blog, but rather in addition to working on your own blog.

5. Increase Your Networking Efforts

One thing that all successful bloggers have in common is that they are surrounded by a strong network. Does the network make the blogger successful or does the successful blogger have an easier time building a strong network? The answer is a combination of both, and if you focus on establishing a strong network of your own you will be one step closer to achieving the success that you want. A strong network won’t make up for a lack of quality content on your blog, so be sure to continue to focus on content, but also set aside some time for getting to know other bloggers and influential people in your niche. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook make it possible to communicate with influential people, but in order to build a deeper connection you will probably need to move beyond just using social media. Don’t be afraid to fill out a contact form or email someone that you would like to get to know. Sometimes you may want to simply introduce yourself and what you are working on, and other times you may want to try to find a way to help the other person or have something to offer them in order to catch your attention. Bloggers who run popular sites typically get flooded with email, so a simple introduction may not always catch their attention, but if you have some way to help them you’ll likely have more success. For this reason I think guest posting is a great way to network with influential people. Most bloggers and editors are always looking for quality content, and if you can help them out by providing a post (or several) that interest their readers they will appreciate you and you’ll have a better opportunity to network with them. By building up a strong network you will increase your opportunities for getting links, having your content shared through social media, and you’ll also have valuable contacts that you can reach out to when you have questions or need some advice.

What’s Your Experience?

If you have faced blogging plateaus in the past, what did you do to get past them and get back to growth? Vandelay Design Blog