Online Money Xtreme

How Do I Increase My Alexa Ranking?

2009-03-08T19:20:00.001-07:00

After AdOnion’s Guaranteed SEO started there were many inquiries about our SEO program and one questions that have been asked quite a few times were would SEO help with my Alexa Ranking.

First we have to understand how Alexa’s ranking works, your Alexa Ranking this is taken straight out of Alexa’s website: “Alexa’s traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site’s ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.” Source: Alexa.com

As you can see that Alexa Ranking is measured by the reach and pageviews therefore, in the long run once your SEO improved your Alexa Ranking will automatically improved. SEO helps you to improve your rankings on search engines as many of you already know and probably do it yourself, when you are doing research on the Internet most of the time your first destinations are search engines. A user generally reviews no more then 2 pages of search results therefore it is important to get listed on the first page of the search results in order to be viewed by users. Once your optimization is done you will ranked on the first page and generally will get a massive amount of traffic on a daily basis to your website, as Alexa’s ranking is measured by reach and pageviews your Alexa ranking will definitely improved.

In addition to SEO, another approach is to advertise online on a CPM basis using full page popunders. The reason is that when you advertise via full page popunders the users have already landed on your home page and if they find it interesting they will click on other links on your website to find out more. By starting a full page popunder campaign you are basically increasing your website’s reach and with interested users learning more about your website they are generally providing you with high pageviews.

Scroll Bar for Blog Post Body

2009-02-19T21:10:00.001-08:00

Adding Scrollbar to Blog Post body
once you are logged into Blogger account, go to Template -> Edit HTML and scroll to this code. Add the portion shown in red:-

Step 1 : Open your Blogger Account and Edit Html Under Layouts Tab;

Set 2 : Search for .post ( by browser Search) and Put the Red Portion in Curly Bracket. { }

.post {
height:200px;
overflow:auto;

}

This will give you scrollbars to every post:-

Scrollbars within Blog Post
Sometimes, you may not want to have the scrollbars to all the [...]

This will give you scrollbars to every post:-

Scrollbars within Blog Post

This setting, scrollbars will automatically appear according to your need:-

Sometimes, you may not want to have the scrollbars to all the blog posts, but only for several paragraphs within a post. Assuming you are writing an article and you wish to enclose some long text within a scrollbox, you have to first define a class within the stylesheet.

For example, we can insert in the stylesheet this code to specify the maximum height and width of the scrollbox. Once the text overflows

Step 1 : Open your Blogger Account and Edit Html Under Layouts Tab;

Set 2 : Search for </b:link> by Browser search place the below code before it.

.scrollbox {

height:100px;

width:400px;

overflow:auto;

}

Step 3: Save the template.

Next, when you are writing a post, switch from the “Compose” mode to the “Edit HTML” mode and put the below code where your want to appear scrolling bar.

<div class=”scrollbox”>TEXT TO BE INCLUDED IN THE SCROLLBOX.</div>

You can continue typing the post by switching back to the “Compose” mode.

After you are done, when you publish your post, you will see that only the part of the text comprised with the tags will be in a scrollbox, like this:-

Adding Background Image to Post Titles

2009-02-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

Dcloud Of Dcblog brought this fantastic thing to us.By this we can put a Image Just behing the Post Title like on his blog.It’s Very Simple,the only thing is that you need to have a superb image to put on their.

You will have to just check hard for the codes to implement as different blogger have different type of coding.

To locate the code which controls the post titles go to your Layout Tab (located in your Customize window) and click the Edit HTML sub tab. The code you are searching for is “.post h6″ (it can be something else also,So try searching) which looks like this

Now to get the background image in there you have to add the code “background: url()” like this:

.post h6
{
font-size:22px;
color:#000000;
font-weight:normal;
border-top:1px dotted #000000;
padding:4px 0 0 0;
width:599px;
no-repeat;
background: url(http://www.yourserver.com/yourimage.gif) no-repeat;
}

Now Check your blog the image might be partially visible only so add the height attribute(equivalent to the height of the image).

Now Checkout your blog,now you have to add/change the padding codes as you thinkl according to your blog to properly align the title within the image.

Add an Image Beside Post Title

2009-02-16T22:38:00.001-08:00

Don’t you want your blog look beauty? Maybe you can add several accessories. One of them is adding a small image beside post title, for example : please take a look the image below :

How to adding a small image at the post title? here is the steps.

Step #1
You must have a small image image, for example like this :

Step #2
Upload your small image to image hosting. For example : you can upload your image to blogger, Yahoo geocities, Google pages, or another free image hosting. If you has been uploading your image, please get the image code. for example : I'm has been upload an image to Blogger and the image code is :

http://bp1.blogger.com/_c-XFk4OciTE/R9tFIn8-17I/AAAAAAAAAag/WZAbe5f7GaE/s400/mypencil.jpg

So that the picture can appear at your blog, you must create the code like this :

<img src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_c-XFk4OciTE/R9tFIn8-17I/AAAAAAAAAag/WZAbe5f7GaE/s400/mypencil.jpg"/>

And the image will appear like this :

Step #3
Add the image code to your template code. Here are the steps to add image code to your blog.

Or, do you still using old (classic) template? Never mind, bellow is the steps adding image code to classic template :

Login to blogger with your ID.
At the dashboard page, click Template.
Click Edit HTML.
Back up your template code (important!).
Find this code :
<BlogItemTitle$>
Replace your image code beside above code :
<img src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_c-XFk4OciTE/R9tFIn8-17I/AAAAAAAAAag/WZAbe5f7GaE/s400/mypencil.jpg"/>   <BlogItemTitle$>
Click Save Settings button.
Done. Now your every post title will appear with your small image.

This is for new blogger template (beta template) :

Login to Blogger with your ID.
At the dashboard page, click Layout.
Click Edit HTML.
Back Up your template code (important!).
Please mark the little box beside Expand Widget Template. Wait for a moment
Go to your template code, and find the code like this :
<a expr:href='data:post.url'><data:post.title/></a>
Add your image code like this :
<a expr:href='data:post.url'> <img src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_c-XFk4OciTE/R9tFIn8-17I/AAAAAAAAAag/WZAbe5f7GaE/s400/mypencil.jpg"/>   <data:post.title/></a>
Click SAVE TEMPLATE button.
Done. Now your every post title will appear with your small image.

All right brothers, see you at my next tutorial.

15 Best Image Search Engines to Find Photos

2009-02-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

What to find a great photo or perfect celebrity picture? This list of best image search engines will help you find interesting photos in the easiest way possible. You will learn about hidden preferences, unique features that will make you searches images like a professional and actually find the best images possible. Check them out… and see their test results on Aishwarya Rai.

Imagery

Imagery is my favorite image search engine due to the intuitive interface. This has a cool tabbed search interface to browse your searched images. Just keep searching new image terms, which keep compiling in new tabs, click to load full size image at the bottom or in new window. Loads 20-100 images at a time in ajax-y fashion. Best for research and keep collecting all your search images easily. You can tweak preferences to select JPG, GIF or PNG, sort by size, sort by black and white, grayscale or color and of course get safe for work images too. Test

Google Images Search

Google Image Search is probably the most common image search engine you might have used. Gives you thousands of image results very fast. But a limitation is you need to click to the image source page to see the full size image (Power it up with Google Image Ripper to get no more thumbnails and load full size images directly). You can sort images by JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG, sort by b&W or color, with an option for extra large images. You can also search news content and faces too! (Face test). Improve Google Image Search results using the Google Image Labeler. Use more filters to stop that NSFW image with moderate filtering or strict filtering. Test.

Yahoo! Image Search

Yahoo Image Search will find photos and clicking on images will take you to the source page with a framed interface, with an option to mail to a friend. You can opt for color and b&w by quick links. Select photo size with a wallpaper mode too which gives you images on all usual desktop sizes (Test wallpapers). It gives related searches too at the bottom of results. Its also powers the AlltheWeb search engine. Test.

Ask Images

Ask Images Search will search your desired images and suggest ways to expand or narrow your search for better results. A unique preference is finding buddy icons (Test). It will suggest related information from Wikipedia, videos from Youtube, news, profiles and more. Test.

MSN Live Image Search

MSN Live Image Search searches through all images of your choice. One cool option is to search “Showing only images of your desktop size” to find that ideal wallpaper even if you do not know your display settings. Another cool feature is you can drag images from the search results to a scratchpad and create a photo collection. Find related results. You can adjust a slider to see smaller thumbnails and fit in more photos. Test

AltaVista Image Search

AltaVista Image Search has similar search results, with an option to select graphics and buttons / banners too. You can also quickly sort by a huge range of prefixed desktop sizes and very useful to find wallpapers for your desktop (Test 1024×768 wallpapers). Clicking on “more info” below those images will take you a list of all webpages that host that same image. Test

Picsearch

PicSearch claims to index 2 billion images on the web. All images are output-ed as thumbnails and click through to a framed page with the original source. Selecting the preferences you can select only animations only. You can also sort images by various image sizes based by pixels (Test <50px). And they are family friendly images by default, which cannot be changed. Test. It also powers Ditto.

Exalead Image Search Engine

Exalead will let you change the background to black or white. Then you can customize it to find few prefixed size desktop wallpapers. It can also search faces. You can again choose color or B&W and image sizes. You can click on options to view direct image links with no frames. Or click the image to browse the images and their source sites in frames. Test.

Pixsy

Pixsy will let you search and extract images from popular free image hosting services Webshots, Photobucket, Sevenload, SuperiorPics, ViewImages etc. Switch the media type to Images in the drop down options. Clicking the image will take you to the framed page, where you can browse images, and see source page. You can email or save to ‘My Pixsy’ too. Test.

Visoo

Visoo uses the power of its Visual Content Analysis to provide highly accurate information on the visual content contained within digital images, information that cannot be obtained from any other online source. With Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, it recognizes text in graphics and images and can even analyze colored type or transparent text on any background. You can also check the People option for face recognition and select no banners.

Netvue

Netvue is another cool image search tool. The images are organized as a slideshow, you can regulate the slide show speed and even turn it off. Browse thumbnail images to a central window, with links to original full size image source. Test

Flickr

Flickr Images - Its the top image sharing community on the web sharing their best photos with you. Many unique photos can be found, many personally photographed and with copyrights reserved. You can browse in detailed or thumbnail view. Another option is to sort by View: Most relevant or Most recent or Most interesting (test) as judged by the community. Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, which means you can use their content with some rights reserved. Test.

Webshots

Webshots is another huge photo sharing community where people upload their choicest photos and share them. Lookout for copyright issues in these photo album collections. They have a desktop software to have fun with your wallpapers and screensavers. Test.

Photobucket

Photobucket is a huge resource of great images. It is a free online image hosting service that gives webmasters a free alternative to host large images, saving their server bandwidth. Most images might not have a copyright notice, so beware before reusing. Test.

Getty Images

Getty Images Search - They are famous for those unique stock photos you find on magazines, newspapers and corporate new blogs worldwide. Browse through their huge collection and find unique images not indexed by other search engines. In the multiple options, select only Editorial Images (All Editorial, All time). You can also sort by Horizontal or Vertical. Register to get price quote. Test.

Corbis

Corbis is another popular huge database that provides stock Images. You can search through Rights Managed, Royalty-Free images. You can search by Photography and Illustrations too. But you need to register with Corbis - to license the best images available, view and download large images with no watermarks, use personalized lightboxes to store and share your favorite images and license and download images online. Free stock photos can also be found at Clipart.com, FreeFoto, Stock.xchng

Warning on Usage - Image search engines help you find the best photos and images online, but that does not make them yours to crop, edit and photoshop. Many of these images you find are copyrighted and for personal use. Some photos are shared with limited creative commons licenses and some rights reserved. Enjoy them but lookout for the copyright notices and if you are allowed to reuse them.

Run Custom Code On Selective Blogger Posts

2009-02-09T23:46:00.000-08:00

Often we want to display ads on selective posts. By default, once the ad code has been added to blogger template, it appears on every single blog post. Suppose, we do not want to show ads on About, Contact and Archive pages. Or we want that posts having more than 10 comments should get image banner ads instead of text ads. Suppose you have a multi author blog, and you want that every author runs its own ad code on the post written by them. Or you may want that posts with tag 'Software' display no ad or only display only image ad. How to do all this? Well, here is the solution.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display Author's Own Ad Code On His Post

Suppose, there is a multi-author blogger blog owned by Alex, Peter and Melinda. They all have Adsense accounts and want to display their own ad code on the posts written by them. How to achieve this? Let's see...
The following code will run each author's own ad code on the post written by them. In this example, the ad will appear at the end of post body. If you want to display the ad just below the post title shift the if...else section above the <data:post.body/> line.

<data:post.body/>
<b:if cond='data:post.author == "Alex"'>
/* Put Alex's Adsense Code or Custom HTML/JavaScript here */
<b:else/>
<b:if cond='data:post.author == "Peter"'>
/* Put Peter's Adsense Code or Custom HTML/JavaScript here */
<b:else/>
/* Put Melinda's Adsense Code or Custom HTML/JavaScript here */
</b:if>
</b:if>

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run Custom Code On Selective Posts

Let's take one more example. Suppose, we decide not to show any ad on About, Contact and Archive pages. Or we may decide to run some custom code instead of Adsense ad on these pages. To achieve this, our template code must identify the correct page while reader is opening it in the browser. How to achieve this? Let's see...
Every post in blogger has a unique post ID associated with it. This post ID is generated when the post is published. Drafts do not have any post ID associated with them. First open your post in blogger editor, in our example, it's Contact page. Now see the URL in your browser's address bar. You will find the post ID at the end of the URL, as shown in the image below.

Copy this code in notepad and close the post. Now add the following code in your template.

Note: Replace xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with your post ID

<data:post.body/>
<b:if cond='data:post.id == "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"'>
/* Put Custom HTML/Javascript Code here */
<b:else/>
/* Put Regular Adsense Code here or leave it blank to show no ad */
</b:if>

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Run Custom Code on the Basis of Comments

Here is one more possibility. Let's say, a blogger may want to run custom code on posts having no comments or having more than 5 comments. On the other hand, he may want that posts having comments between 1 to 5 display regular Adsense ads. How to achieve this? Let's see...

Possibilities and combination's can be infinite. I just took an example to explain the trick.

<data:post.body/>
<b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 0'>
/* Put Custom HTML/Javascript Code here */
<b:else/>
<b:if cond='data:post.numComments > 5'>
/* Put Custom HTML/Javascript Code here */
<b:else/>
/* Put Regular Adsense Code here or leave it blank to show no ad */
</b:if>
</b:if>

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run Add On Custom Code Based On Post Tags (Categories)

Here is one more example. Suppose, you want to run custom code on all those posts having 'Software' tag (Category) associated with them, in addtion to your regular Adsense code. How to achieve this? Let's see...

Note: Replace Software with your Tag (Category)

<data:post.body/>
<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<b:if cond='data:label.name == "Software"'>
/* Put Custom HTML/Javascript Code here */
<b:else/>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'/>
</b:loop>
</b:if>
/* Put Regular Adsense Code here or leave it blank to show no ad */

NOTE: You can shift these codes to appropriate place in the template according to your needs.

10 Things Bloggers must Check Before Publishing a Post

2009-02-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Many a times, after hitting the ‘publish’ button, I realized what I missed out or what additional things could have been done to attract more visitors. Later on, I realized the need of a checklist that I should make use of before hitting the ‘publish’ button. I discovered that the checklist really helped me out, as such I wanted to write about it, to help budding bloggers and other Co-authors of this blog.

Catchy Headline:
To attract maximum people to read an article, an article must have a good, simple and a catchy headline.
Opening Contents:
You must avoid writing off-the-topic and bogus things on the opening lines of your post, specially in the first paragraph. If you do so, many readers will go away from your blog ultimately affecting your blog and its credibility.
Spell Check:
This is another important aspect, every blogger must practice. If yuo mkae scuh splleing erorrs, agian it mya aeffect yuor bolg. You can imagine how annoying spelling errors are, from the preceding line. So, you must never forget to run spell check before you feel, your post is ready to be published.
Grammatical Errors:
Again, by this point your readers will judge you and your writing skills which ultimately would affect your earnings and revenue. So, after you complete writing the whole article, read it back atleast once to find any grammatical errors.
Bullets & Text Formatting:
Readers usually tend to read the whole articles in brief, as such highlighting important things and making use of bullets should really help.
Images:
There’s a famous saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” and I too feel the same. If you make use of a related image, it will further add stars to your article. Also, do never forget to rename the image relating to the contents of your blog as it is good for SEO.
Alignments:
To make your post look decent and give an appealing look, I strongly feel, you should never publish your post leaving the whole text unaligned. For aligning the article you should prefer ‘Justify’ option. Also, if any images are used you must align them with proper margins and wrapping.
Back-Links:
On the bottom of every post, you must add links of various things your wrote about in the whole article. For example if I am writing an article about ‘Opening a new Gmail account’ then on the bottom of post I should link to related pages like Gmail | Registration | About
Sources, Credentials and Related Articles
Never forget to add links and give credits to those blogs or websites where you basically saw the articles you are writing about. By this your readers may not blame you, upto some extent, if the information you blogged about is false. Also adding up related articles on the bottom of every post is another tactic many pro blogger follow. This way, you can keep your readers stuck to your blog ultimately resulting in increase of your revenue and profits.
Categories and Tags:
Not to mention, this is the most important thing you must look. This will help your blog reader to browser your blog posts category wise and would also be helpful for locating similar articles.

Limitation of Blogger ( Blogspot) Blogs

2009-02-09T01:20:00.000-08:00

There are usage limits imposed by every free service, including Blogger.com. Often, the limits are necessary for design purposes (e.g., how much space to cater for each form field), logistics (e.g., server space and speed) and financial considerations. Most of the answers on the amount of storage space, limitations on posts, etc. are found in Blogger Help. However, since we still receive queries on that, we thought we shall add a few more items to that list for the benefit of the new Bloggers. These limits apply to one Google account, and if you find yourself exceeding these limits, one solution would be to register for an additional Google account to enjoy the services.

1. Number of Blogs

There is no limit on the number of Blogger Blogs you can create with your Google account. If you are creating Google sites using Google Page Creator, you are allowed to have a maximum of 5 different sites.

2. Blog Address

This is the name inserted between http:// and .blogspot.com. The limit is 37 characters.

3. Blog Title

The Title can go up to 90 characters.

4. Blog Description

The Blog Description can have a maximum of 500 characters.

5. Profile

When you are at “Edit User Profile” page, you can add information about yourself under “About Me” and this has a maximum of 1,200 characters. For other fields like “Interests”, “Favorite Movies” and so on, each has a limit of 2,000 characters.

6. Number of Team Members

You can have as many team members, contributors or administrators as you would like. Add the authors under Settings -> Permissions.

7. Number of Posts

There is no limit to the number of Posts you can have in each Blog. All the posts (whether published or saved as drafts) will be in the Blogger account unless they are deleted. With or without the Archives Page Element in your Blog, the posts are still stored.

8. Size of Posts

There is no limit to the size of each post but as we shall see, there is a limit to the page size. Because of that, if you are posting the entire contents of your book, try to split it into chapters and have each chapter under a new post. Otherwise, you may find your very long post not displayed once it hits the page size limit.

9. Size of Pages

Each page has a size limit of 1MB. This is a rather large size and if your posts are short, you can display a few hundred posts on the main page. At the moment, under Settings -> Formatting, you can show up to 999 posts on a page. Should you encounter a 006 error message, you can set a smaller number of posts so that the page size limit will not be exceeded. As mentioned earlier, if your one post already exceeds the 1MB limit, there is little you can do except to split that article into separate posts.

10. Size of Pictures

As we had mentioned in Manage Blogger Image Storage Space, pictures and graphics that are uploaded onto our free Blogger Blogs are now stored in Picasa Web Albums and it assigns each Google account a storage capacity of 1GB. Since this stores the pictures of all our blogs under the one Google account, we would have to pay Google should we need more storage space. The alternative would be to create new blogs under different Google accounts. (Note that in Google Pages, the total size of pages and uploaded files cannot exceed 100MB.)

11. Size of Videos

Recently, Blogger introduced a new feature which allows you to upload videos in your posts. The upload is done through Google Video and there is no limit to the number of videos you can upload, nor is there a limit on the size or length of each video.

As Google also owns YouTube, you may like to know that there is a 100MB file size limit and a maximum 10-minute length limit for YouTube videos. Should Google Video merge with YouTube one day, their rules on usage may be aligned.

12. Amount of Bandwidth

While some service providers place a daily or monthly cap on the amount of data that can be transferred from their sites, Blogger does not appear to impose such bandwidth limits. There is no problem to you having a million visitors a day to your Blog. What you should be mindful of is the limit imposed by external providers. For example, if the Blog's background images are uploaded onto free image hosts, once the bandwidth limit imposed by these hosts is exceeded, the background images will not be loaded and visitors will see many empty spaces in your layout.

13. Number of Comments

There is no limit to the number of comments to the posts. They are saved in your account even if you choose to “Hide Comments” under the Settings -> Comments tab.

14. Number of AdSense Ads

Since you can insert Google AdSense Ads through the Blogger “Add a Page Element” function, for the sake of completeness, we should also state the current limits stipulated in AdSense rules. Each Blog page can display a maximum of:-

three AdSense for Content Ad units;
two AdSense for search boxes;
three Link units;
three Product Referral units

This means that even if you have configured AdSense Ads to appear after every post, on a page where there are ten posts, AdSense for Content Ads will automatically be shown in only three of them.

No AdSense Ads Below Blog Title or Post Title

2009-02-07T22:12:00.000-08:00

By referring to Google AdSense placement heat map, we put Google AdSense ads above blog content (below post title) for better performance. But Google AdSense team does not quite agree with the ads placement.

QuickOnlineTips received an email from Google AdSense support pointing out the issue on their site.

In fact, Google Adsense Blog published 2 guidelines earlier and one of them is “ads shouldn’t be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.”

I didn’t take much attention to the guideline because I thought mine is different than the example. My AdSense ads was separated by categories and date. But it seems AdSense team think the different.

AdSense team advised QuickOnlineTips that:

“publishers may not label the Google ads with text other than ’sponsored links’ or ‘advertisements’.”

As a result, QuickOnlineTips now put a “ADVERTISEMENT” word above the AdSense ads.

I also made the change to add “advertisement” image above my AdSense ads, although I haven’t received any email from Google AdSense about matter.

I know many AdSense publishers used put AdSense ads below post title (it’s really a heat spot!), so make the required changes before too late!

Rank Higher with Customized Permalinks

2009-02-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

How to Rank Higher in Google - Creating Customized Permalinks in Blogger

What are Permalinks?

Permalinks tell a lot about the page it points to. One can read out the article name in the status bar of the browser when hovering over the permalink (by the way, permalinks are the permanent links to every post page which usually contains the title of the post). Search engines use permalinks to categorize the posts. Browsers use permalinks to navigate to remote pages.

How are they created …

Permalinks are generated automatically by your Blogging platform based on the Title of the post.

… in Blogger?

Unfortunately, Blogger users are left with no option, but to accept the permalink automatically awarded to them. There is no option to customize permalinks. Blogger just takes the first few characters of the title (somewhere between 35 and 40) and makes a permalink which might be incomplete at times. For a post with the title, “The Advantages and Disadvantages of using a customized permalink every time”, the permalink will be something like http://onlinemoneyxtreme.blogspot.com/2008/10/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of/

What should I do?

Luckily we have come up with an idea to customize the permalink. The method is called “Publish and Republish method”. This is illustrated using the above example (”The advantages and disadvantages of using a customized permalink every time”)

Since Blogger permits only 35 to 40 characters in its permalink, find a short title for the post. For instance, ‘Analysis of Customized Permalinks’ can be a short title for the same post.
Publish the post with this short title. Now the permalink will read http://themelib.com/2008/10/analysis-of-customized-permalinks/
Blogger does not change its permalink even if we change the title of the post in future. We exploit this limitation of Blogger here. Edit the post (Manage posts -> Edit) and change the title to ‘The Advantages and Disadvantages of using a customized permalink every time’. Now the permalink will remain same, but the post title will read the new way.

Conclusion

This trick is useful when you decide to use stylish titles. It can also be used to remove the unnecessary details from the permalink and project the necessary ones. A concise permalink is one tip for SEO (Search engine optimization).

Add Yahoo Buzz button to your blog Post

2009-02-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

As I said in the previous post, Yahoo Buzz can be your excellent traffic-maker if your story is interesting and get to Yahoo! homepage. The First Step to get it is to put a Yahoo! Buzz button to your blog so that people can vote your entry up. Adding a Yahoo! Buzz button is not too complicated if you follow my steps below

Step 1. Choose your favorite button from Yahoo! Buzz that fitted well with your site design (large button with vote count -Square Button - is highly recommended), then click “Get Code”.

Step 2. If you have selected the Square Button the code will be like this

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://d.yimg.com/ds/badge2.js" badgetype="square">ARTICLEURL</script>

Step 3. Replace the ARTICLEURL with <data:post.url/>. After replaced, your code will look like this

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://d.yimg.com/ds/badge2.js" badgetype="square"><data:post.url/></script>

Step 4. Now go to your Blogger account

Step 5. Go to Layout -> Edit HTML

Step 6. The best place to display Yahoo! Buzz button is under the Post Title and on the right. Because of the variation of blogger templates on the web, I recommend you put Yahoo! Buzz code above the tag <data:post.body/>. We will add style to the button to make it float to the right. Yeah, more beautiful

Your template code will look something like this

<div style='float:right;padding:5px;'><script badgetype='square' src='http://d.yimg.com/ds/badge2.js' type='text/javascript'><data:post.url/></script></div> <data:post.body/>

Of course, if you want it float to the left, it is fine. Change the code float:right; to float:left;

Step 7. Save your template, see your work and start buzzing up your posts. Hey, do not try to spam their page or you will be banned

If you have any issues in adding the Buzz button to your blog, feel free to leave a comment here

P/s: I’ve created a demo page for you in 2 minutes. You can see it in action now. Feel free to test it.

Yahoo! Buzz is open for everybody

2009-02-02T21:25:00.001-08:00

It’s been about six months since Yahoo Buzz launched and now Yahoo has decided to “open-up” Buzz. The Yahoo Buzz is similar to Digg, in which users can vote popular Internet news stories up and down.

When a story got so much buzz, it will be reached the Yahoo! homepage! This is good news for publishers because those who have already experienced a “Yahoo! Buzz Effect” have talked about the surge in traffic they experienced once Yahoo placed an article on their homepage.

* Salon got so excited when they had 1 million unique visitors a day, the most ever to the 12 year old site.

* US Magazine was linked from Yahoo on February 27, and had the second highest traffic day ever. 32% of visits that day came from the Yahoo home page.

* Huffington Post reported 800,000 unique visitors from a Yahoo-linked story

* Smoking Gun, Portfolio.com, Dallas Morning News and Imaginova all reported significant traffic increases after links from the Yahoo home page.

* Sugar, Inc. sites have had nearly 1.8 million unique visitors sent from five different Buzz stories on the Yahoo home page

Content that people can Buzz up! include stories, photos, and video. You just have to look for sites that include the Buzz Up button or submit the stories here once it goes live in a few hours.

AJAX Labels Reloaded

2009-01-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

The AJAX Labels is back with more features! I was planning to release this with my new template, but the template design is slipping beyond schedule.
Note: If you want to integrate AJAX Labels with Phydeaux3's Label Clouds, read this post and come back here.
Some of the new features are:

Built-in navigation system.
More user customizability. (You don't even need to know coding for that!)
Support for Unicode Categories in IE.
More user-friendly installation. (Code to be copied/modified in template is reduced)

The installation of this hack afresh would be easy. But upgrading from my previous version is a bit knotty. Anyway, I will explain both. If you get stuck, feel free to comment and I'll be there to help. FRESH INSTALLATION Click here for Up gradation instructions. If you already have AJAX Labels installed, you can directly jump to up gradation instructions. Like the first version, this one too needs the Prototype JS framework. You can either store it in a location of your preference, or use the location that I've given below. First of all, back up your template. It is always a good idea to back up your template, so that you can revert if you mess things up. 1. Click Page Layout->Edit HTML. Check the box saying "Expand Widget Templates" Look for the </head> tag in your template. Insert the following code just above that.

<style type='text/css'>                
#indicator {position:fixed;z-index:1000;padding:15px 0;top:40%;background-color:#FFFFFF;border:1px solid #AAAAAA;width:176px;left:50%;margin-left:-88px;text-align:center;}                 
#search-result {border:1px solid #AAAAAA;padding:10px;padding-bottom:30px;font-size:85%;}                 
.search-result-meta {background:#EFEFEF;padding:2px;}                 
.search-result-meta img {border-width:0;vertical-align:text-bottom;}                 
.search-title {font-size:1em;padding-bottom:3px;font-weight:bold;text-align:left;text-decoration:underline;}                 
.search-cat {display:block;padding:3px;font-size:1em;margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:5px;border-bottom:1px solid #C0C0C0;font-weight:bold;}                 
.search-close {color:silver;float:right;border:1px solid #F5F5F5;margin-top:10px;cursor:pointer;}                 
.search-result-nav {font-size:1.4em;font-weight:bold;padding:5px 0pt;text-align:center;}                 
</style>                 
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://bloggerhacked.googlepages.com/prototype.js' />                 
<script type='text/javascript'>                 
//<![CDATA[                 
// User customisable parameters                 
// ----------------------------                 
// maxresults - Number of results to show per page                 
// navFlag - Set Navigation ON or OFF. Give 1 for ON and 0 for OFF.                 
// feedLabel - Text to show for the label feed link.                 
// catLabel - Label for categories.                 
// closeLabel - Label for Close button. You can use hypertext also.                 
var maxresults = 5;                 
var navFlag = 1; //ON by default                 
var feedLabel = "Subscribe to";                 
var catLabel = "Sorted into:";                 
var closeLabel = "Click to close";                 
//]]>                 
</script>                 
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://bloggerhacked.googlepages.com/ajaxlabels.js' />

Note: You can avoid the prototype script addition line if you already have added the prototype.js script to your template (It is quite likely, if you have added some hack to your blog). If you don't understand what I'm saying, never mind. Now the customization part. See the snippets in red above. Those are the stuff which you can customise. Just above that I have written comments on what each represent. To customize them, you just need to modify them to the appropriate value. For example, if you want to change the close button text from "Click to close" to, say, "[X]", then simply change "Click to close" in the red area to "[X]". Navigation Feature: The navigation feature allows pagination of the results. So you can view all the results in several pages. maxresults and navFlag together determine how it is shown. navFlag is the parameter saying whether you want this feature or not. The number of results shown per page will be decided by maxresults. The number of pages will be calculated automatically. Eg: Lets say, you have 13 posts with a particular label in your blog. Case 1: maxresults=5 and navFlag=1 You will have 3 pages (peekaboo blocks) with 5 results each. There will be a navbar which will let you go to any of those 3 pages. Case 2: maxresults=5 and navFlag=0 You will have a single page with 5 recently updated posts with the particular label. You won't be able to view other results Case 3: maxresults=20 and navFlag=1 You will have a single page with 13 results (Because 13 is less than 20). If you know CSS, you can modify the look of your result block as well. 2. Locate the following code in your template:

<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>                
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a>

Replace it with this:

<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'> 

<a href='#sres' expr:onclick='"javascript:getCat(\"" + data:label.name + "\",null)"' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a>

3. Optional:If you have the labels widget in your template.

Locate the following code in your template:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'>
<data:label.name/>
<b:else/>
<a href='data:label.url'><data:label.name/></a>
</b:if>

Replace it with this:

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'>
<data:label.name/>
<b:else/>
<a href='#sres' expr:onclick='"javascript:getCat

(\"" + data:label.name + "\",null)"' ><data:label.name/></a>
</b:if>

4. Click on the button below.

<div id="indicator" style="display:none"><img alt="Indicator" src="http://bloggerhacked.googlepages.com/indicator.gif" /> Loading...</div><div id="search-result" style="display:none"><a name="sres"></a><div class="search-close" onclick="javascript:Element.hide('search-result')"><span id="preserve28e29bc50e8543bdbc285c3b47ad246c" class="wlWriterPreserve"><script type="text/javascript">document.write(closeLabel);</script></span></div><div id="show-result"></div><div class="search-close" onclick="javascript:Element.hide('search-result')"><span id="preservee463285a218e49dfabc9efcfc5e8ae87" class="wlWriterPreserve"><script type="text/javascript">document.write(closeLabel);</script></span></div></div>This will take you to an Add Widget Screen. Select your blog and click on Add widget. 5. Save your template. That was a breeze, wasn't it? UPGRADATION Caution! If you are installing AJAX Labels for the first time, don't proceed any further. You are already finished with your installation. This section is only for upgrading from the previous version. 1. Back up your template first. (Be pessimistic in these matters ;) ) 2. Go to Edit HTML. Look for my previous installation of Javascript. It is very easy to find. It is enclosed within  and  Delete that entire portion. 3. Now check Step 1 of the FRESH INSTALLATION section. Follow that step and come back here. 4. Search for the following snippet in your template. '"javascript:getCat(\"" + data:label.name + "\")"' There will be two places where this occurs. Replace both places with this '"javascript:getCat(\"" + data:label.name + "\",null)"' 5. Save your template and go to page layout screen and delete the HTML/Javascript widget you had created when you installed the previous version. 6. Go to step 4 of FRESH INSTALLATION section. Follow that step and come back here. 7. Save your template and you are done. There! That was not very difficult. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Tsung-Kai Chen - For his several comments and the bugs he found in the previous version. Bahram - For the heads up on the Unicode Category issue in IE. Update 1: The code had minor syntax errors (due to wrong copy paste)because of which the hack was not working. Problem is fixed now. Reinstalling the hack will make it work. Update 2: Drat! Another silly mistake. The Close button was not working. I've fixed this. Just delete the widget and add it again (Step 4) . You don't have to redo any other steps. Update 3: Arrgh!! Another bug. I have made the corrections. You will have to redo Steps 2, 3 and 4. This will remove support for the rel-tag microformat. I will release an update if I find a way to work around that.

Javascript Redirect Traffic from Blogspot to WordPress Site

2009-01-30T11:53:00.001-08:00

Ok. So you’ve had a blogspot blog for a little while and you’ve decided you want a WordPress site. How do you redirect traffic from the old site to the new site and lose as little traffic as possible in the process.

First. Use the import feature available in WordPress. From your Daskboard, look for Tools > Import

Second. Add some javascript code to your blogger template. Update the vars blogTitle and wordPressUrl to match your blogspot blog.

<script> var blogTitle = 'Flexing My Kerkness'; var wordPressUrl = 'http://kerkness.ca';

if( document.title == blogTitle ){
window.location = wordPressUrl;
} else {
var newUrl = str_replace( document.title, blogTitle+’: ‘, ” );
window.location = wordPressUrl + ‘/?s=’ + newUrl;
}
function str_replace(haystack, needle, replacement) {
var temp = haystack.split(needle);
return temp.join(replacement);
}
</script>

Basically what this script does is redirects from your blogger site to your new domain while conducting a search based on the title of page being requested.

For example. If you had a post called “How to change outboard motor oil” on blogger. When you try and access the blogspot url for that post you will be directed to the new wordpress domain and you will search for posts matching “How to change outboard motor oil”. If that post was imported into word press and you haven’t changed the title. Users will be shown a link to the post on your new site. Also they may find any new or relevant content you’ve posted since making the change to WordPress.

Show Limited Number of Labels in Widget.

2009-01-29T11:04:00.000-08:00

As you write more and more posts you will keep adding labels to them to categorize your posts. You can add more than one label to any single post. Labels are useful as they serve as keywords channelling traffic to your posts through search engines like Technorati.

However the list of labels in your blog can get to be very long stretching your sidebar until y

our blog post looks like a flag on top of a long sidebar. To prevent this you can modify the code of your Labels widget to show only the topmost labels in your blog..............

LIMIT LABEL NUMBER

To limit the number of labels shown in your Labels sidebar widget login at Blogger.com and click 'Layout' link on Dashboard. The Page Elements subtab of Template tab will open. If you do not have a Labels widget in the sidebar Add a Labels Page Element to it.

After the Labels widget is added click on Edit Html subtab of Template tab. This will open the Template code box on the Edit Html subtab. Click the Expand Widgets Template checkbox on top of the Template code box to put a check mark in it. The Template code box will show the expanded widgets templates.

Scroll down in the Template code box to locate the code for the Labels widget. This will look like this :

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
  <b:if cond='data:title'>
    <h2><data:title/></h2>
  </b:if>
  <div class='widget-content'>
    <ul>
    <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
      <li>
        <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'>
          <span expr:dir='data:blog.languageDirection'>
            <data:label.name/>
          </span>
        <b:else/>
          <a expr:dir='data:blog.languageDirection' expr:href='data:label.url'>
            <data:label.name/>
          </a>
        </b:if>
        <span dir='ltr'>(<data:label.count/>)</span>
      </li>
    </b:loop>
    </ul>

    <b:include name='quickedit'/>
  </div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

REPLACE THE WHOLE ABOVE CODE WITH THE CODE BELOW :

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'> 
<b:if cond='data:title'>
    <h2><data:title/></h2>
  </b:if>
    <ul>
      <script type='text/javascript'>
        var labelnum = 0;
        <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
        if (<data:label.count/> &gt; 2) {
           document.write(&quot;<li><a expr:href='data:label.url +  "?max-results=100"' 
rel='nofollow'><span><data:label.name/></span></a>(<data:label.count/>)</li>&quot;);
        }
        </b:loop>
      </script>
    </ul>
 <b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

The code above will only show labels with more than two posts. To increase number of labels increase the number two in this code :

if (<data:label.count/> &gt; 2) {

Multi-Pinging Tools Compared.

2009-01-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Everytime you make a post to your blog or update it you have to ping the search engines

to notify them of the changes you have made. I have dealt with this in an earlier post : Pinging Simplified. There are some sites which can ping multiple engines for you in one click. Here I have compared several such tools......

There are several sites where you can submit your blog url and click the Ping button to notify the search engines and directories of new content. These are :

1. Autopinger.com
2. Pingoat.com
3. Pingomatic.com
4. Blogflux Pinger.
5. Feedburner Pingshot.
6. Feedping.com

Except for Feedburner just go to the respective site and paste your blog url and click on the Ping button after publishing a new post. For feedburner login to your account click on your blogname (You should have claimed your blog first as shown in Feedburner and Blog feeds.) and click on Publicize tab at top. Then click on Pingshot in the sidebar. Choose the services you wish to ping and click Save. Now these services are automatically pinged on publishing a new post.

Add Widget to provide Button-Link to your Blog.

2009-01-24T10:19:00.001-08:00

You can now add a widget to your blog with a button which when clicked adds a button link to your blog from the reader's blog. This is done automatically without the reader having to type in even a line of code.....

First create a button by going to http://cooltext.com/Buttons and create a button for your blog. Then upload this button picture to a freehost like Googlepages and copy down the url of the picture. Let us call it : URL OF YOUR BUTTON PICTURE.

To do this go to Layout from the Dashboard after logging in to your account. In the Page Elements section click on Add Page Element link in the sidebar. In the new pop up window which opens choose Html/Javascript option. In the content section paste the following code :

<form action="http://beta.blogger.com/add-widget" method="POST">

<input value="FAVOURITE" name="widget.title" type="hidden"/>

<textarea style="display:none;" name="widget.content">

</textarea>
<input
value="http://buzz.blogger.com" name="infoUrl" type="hidden"/>

<input
value="http://www.blogger.com/img/icon_logo32.gif" name="logoUrl" type="hidden"/>

<input value="LINK TO THIS SITE" name="go" type="submit"/>
</form>
<p>Click above button to get a button link to this blog</p>

In the middle code replace the Capital letters with the appropriate values. Add all the above code in blue including the code in the middle picture. Click on picture to enlarge it. Then save the widget.

View blog. You will see below button in your sidebar:

When a reader clicks on this button he is taken to a page where he has to select his blog where he wants to add the link to your blog as shown below :

Here the reader can change the Title and edit the content if he/she wants. On clicking Add Page Element the link is added to the Page Elements tab in the sidebar of his blog. He/She can then rearrange its location in the blog by drag and drop method.

Using this method I have added it to my blog in the right sidebar at the bottom.

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes

2008-12-30T00:57:00.001-08:00

Summary:
Blogs are often too internally focused and ignore key usability issues, making it hard for new readers to understand the site and trust the author.

Weblogs are a form of website. The thousands of normal website usability guidelines therefore apply to them, as do this year's top ten design mistakes. But weblogs are also a special genre of website; they have unique characteristics and thus distinct usability problems.

One of a weblog's great benefits is that it essentially frees you from "Web design." You write a paragraph, click a button, and it's posted on the Internet. No need for visual design, page design, interaction design, information architecture, or any programming or server maintenance.

Blogs make having a simple website much easier, and as a result, the number of people who write for the Web has exploded. This is a striking confirmation of the importance of ease of use.

Weblogs' second benefit is that they're a Web-native content genre: they rely on links, and short postings prevail. You don't have to write a full article or conduct original research or reporting. You can simply find something interesting on another site and link to it, possibly with commentary or additional examples. Obviously, this is much easier than running a conventional site, and again indicates the benefits of lowering the barriers to computer use.

As a third benefit, blogs are part of an ecosystem (often called the Blogosphere) that serves as a positive feedback loop: Whatever good postings exist are promoted through links from other sites. More reader/writers see this good stuff, and the very best then get linked to even more. As a result, link frequency follows a Zipf distribution, with disproportionally more links to the best postings.

Some weblogs are really just private diaries intended only for a handful of family members and close friends. Usability guidelines generally don't apply to such sites, because the readers' prior knowledge and motivation are incomparably greater than those of third-party users. When you want to reach new readers who aren't your mother, however, usability becomes important.

Also, while readers of your intranet weblog might know you, usability is important because your readers are on company time. (As an example, see IBM's use of intranet blogs — among the ten best intranets of 2006.)

Usability Issues

To reach new readers and respect your existing readers' time constraints, test your weblog against the following usability problems.

1. No Author Biographies

Unless you're a business blog, you probably don't need a full-fledged "about us" section the way a corporate site does. That said, the basic rationale for "about us" translates directly into the need for an "about me" page on a weblog: users want to know who they're dealing with.

It's a simple matter of trust. Anonymous writings have less credence than something that's signed. And, unless a person's extraordinarily famous, it's not enough to simply say that Joe Blogger writes the content. Readers want to know more about Joe. Does he have any credentials or experience in the field he's commenting on? (Even if you don't have formal credentials, readers will trust you more if you're honest about that fact, set forth your informal experience, and explain the reason for your enthusiasm.)

2. No Author Photo

Even weblogs that provide author bios often omit the author photo. A photo is important for two reasons:

It offers a more personable impression of the author. You enhance your credibility by the simple fact that you're not trying to hide. Also, users relate more easily to somebody they've seen.
It connects the virtual and physical worlds. People who've met you before will recognize your photo, and people who've read your site will recognize you when you meet in person (say, at a conference — or the company cafeteria if you're an intranet blogger).

A huge percentage of the human brain is dedicated to remembering and recognizing faces. For many, faces work better than names. I learned this lesson myself in 1987 when I included my photo in a HyperCard stack I authored that was widely disseminated on Mac-oriented BBSs. Over the next two years, countless people came up to me and said, "I liked your stack," having recognized me from the photo.

Also, if you run a professional blog and expect to be quoted in the press, you should follow the recommendations for using the Web for PR and include a selection of high-resolution photos that photo editors can download.

3. Nondescript Posting Titles

Sadly, even though weblogs are native to the Web, authors rarely follow the guidelines for writing for the Web in terms of making content scannable. This applies to a posting's body text, but it's even more important with headlines. Users must be able to grasp the gist of an article by reading its headline. Avoid cute or humorous headlines that make no sense out of context.

Your posting's title is microcontent and you should treat it as a writing project in its own right. On a value-per-word basis, headline writing is the most important writing you do.

Descriptive headlines are especially important for representing your weblog in search engines, newsfeeds (RSS), and other external environments. In those contexts, users often see only the headline and use it to determine whether to click into the full posting. Even if users see a short abstract along with the headline (as with most search engines), user testing shows that people often read only the headline. In fact, people often read only the first three or four words of a headline when scanning a list of possible places to go. Sample bad headlines:

What Is It That You Want?
Hey, kids! Comics!
Victims Abandoned

Sample good headlines:

Pictures from Die Hunns and Black Halos show
Office Depot Pays United States $4.75 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations
(too long, but even if you only read the first few words, you have an idea of what it's about)
Ice cream trucks as church marketing

This last headline works on a church-related blog. If you're writing an ice cream industry blog, start the headline with the word "church" because it's the information-carrying word within a context of all ice cream, all the time.

In browsing weblog headline listings to extract these examples, I noticed several headlines in ALL CAPS. That's always bad. Reading speed is reduced by 10% and users are put off by the appearance of shouting.

4. Links Don't Say Where They Go

Many weblog authors seem to think it's cool to write link anchors like: "some people think" or "there's more here and here." Remember one of the basics of the Web: Life is too short to click on an unknown. Tell people where they're going and what they'll find at the other end of the link.

Generally, you should provide predictive information in either the anchor text itself or the immediately surrounding words. You can also use link titles for supplementary information that doesn't fit with your content. (To see a link title in action, mouse over the "link titles" link.)

A related mistake in this category is to use insider shorthand, such as using first names when you reference other writers or weblogs. Unless you're writing only for your friends, don't alienate new visitors by appearing to be part of a closed clique. The Web is not high school.

5. Classic Hits are Buried

Hopefully, you'll write some pieces with lasting value for readers outside your fan base. Don't relegate such classics to the archives, where people can only find something if they know you posted it, say, in May 2003.

Highlight a few evergreens in your navigation system and link directly to them. For example, my own list of almost 300 Alertbox columns starts by saying, "Read these first: Usability 101 and Top Ten Mistakes of Web Design."

Also, remember to link to your past pieces in newer postings. Don't assume that readers have been with you from the beginning; give them background and context in case they want to read more about your ideas.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation

A timeline is rarely the best information architecture, yet it's the default way to navigate weblogs. Most weblog software provides a way to categorize postings so users can easily get a list of all postings on a certain topic. Do use categorization, but avoid the common mistake of tagging a posting with almost all of your categories. Be selective. Decide on a few places where a posting most belongs.

Categories must be sufficiently detailed to lead users to a thoroughly winnowed list of postings. At the same time, they shouldn't be so detailed that users face a category menu that's overly long and difficult to scan. Ten to twenty categories are appropriate for structuring many topics.

On the main page for each category, highlight that category's evergreens as well as a time line of its most recent postings.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency

Establishing and meeting user expectations is one of the fundamental principles of Web usability. For a weblog, users must be able to anticipate when and how often updates will occur.

For most weblogs, daily updates are probably best, but weekly or even monthly updates might work as well, depending on your topic. In either case, pick a publication schedule and stick to it. If you usually post daily but sometimes let months go by without new content, you'll lose many of your loyal — and thus most valuable — readers.

Certainly, you shouldn't post when you have nothing to say. Polluting cyberspace with excess information is a sin. To ensure regular publishing, hold back some ideas and post them when you hit a dry spell.

8. Mixing Topics

If you publish on many different topics, you're less likely to attract a loyal audience of high-value users. Busy people might visit a blog to read an entry about a topic that interests them. They're unlikely to return, however, if their target topic appears only sporadically among a massive range of postings on other topics. The only people who read everything are those with too much time on their hands (a low-value demographic).

The more focused your content, the more focused your readers. That, again, makes you more influential within your niche. Specialized sites rule the Web, so aim tightly. This is especially important if you're in the business-to-business (B2B) sector.

If you have the urge to speak out on, say, both American foreign policy and the business strategy of Internet telephony, establish two blogs. You can always interlink them when appropriate.

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss

Whenever you post anything to the Internet — whether on a weblog, in a discussion group, or even in an email — think about how it will look to a hiring manager in ten years. Once stuff's out, it's archived, cached, and indexed in many services that you might never be aware of.

Years from now, someone might consider hiring you for a plum job and take the precaution of 'nooping you first. (Just taking a stab at what's next after Google. Rest assured: there will be some super-snooper service that'll dredge up anything about you that's ever been bitified.) What will they find in terms of naïvely puerile "analysis" or offendingly nasty flames published under your name?

Think twice before posting. If you don't want your future boss to read it, don't post.

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naïve beginner who shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Letting somebody else own your name means that they own your destiny on the Internet. They can degrade the service quality as much as they want. They can increase the price as much as they want. They can add atop your content as many pop-ups, blinking banners, or other user-repelling advertising techniques as they want. They can promote your competitor's offers on your pages. Yes, you can walk, but at the cost of your loyal readers, links you've attracted from other sites, and your search engine ranking.

The longer you stay at someone else's domain name, the higher the cost of going independent. Yes, it's tempting to start a new weblog on one of the services that offer free accounts. It's easy, it's quick, and it's obviously cheap. But it only costs $8 per year to get your personal domain name and own your own future. As soon as you realize you're serious about blogging, move it away from a domain name that's controlled by somebody else. The longer you delay, the more pain you'll feel when you finally make the move.

Free Web Hosting Without Ads

2008-11-26T15:55:00.001-08:00

If we have a/some blogs, webhosting is important to support our blog running. web hosting is use for put our files such as images, sound, script, videos and many more. We can use use paid hosting or free hosting, but I suggested you to use 000webhost as your web hosting. 000webhost is a free web hosting service with full feature and no force ads. 000webhost is an amazing web hosting service. It's free web hosting that gives many features such as:

- 250 MB Disk Space
- 100 GB Data Transfer
- cPanel Control Panel
- Fantastico De Luxe 1-Click Auto installer
- Website Builder Software
- PHP Scripts Auto installer
- MySQL Databases
- Curl, GD2 library, ImageMagick, Zend
- and much more features are enabled

But to make your web hosting running well you must follow their rule.
Here is the most important rules:

1. No adult content or any kind.
2. No warez / hacking / phishing sites
3. No mass mailers / spammers (account will be automatically suspended if you will try to send mass mail), so if your software supports such feature, disable it right now.
4. We do not allow any public image or file hosting server scripts to be run.
5. Chat, proxy, or file download scripts are not allowed.
6. Paid-to-surf, auto-surm, buxto, and any other similar scripts are banned
7. We do not allow online gaming scripts such as ogame, mafia, etc..
8. Nulled software such as ip.board or vbulletin is not allowed to be hosted
9. Account cannot be used only to store files.

What are you waiting for, just SIGN UP HERE

Add Widget for Blogger To Add Others To You.

2008-11-26T15:51:00.001-08:00

The Layouts feature of Blogger opens up all sorts of new possibilities for people to customize their blogs in interesting ways. And even better, you can design new widgets or modules for others to add to their own blogs.

Here's the general concept: First, design your widget. Then, on your website, create a form that sends its results to me through comment. In that form you include the content of the widget you've created, and maybe some other optional information. When someone clicks the "submit" button on your form, they'll be taken to Blogger where they can add your widget into their blog's layout.

Let's look at a simple example to start with. The following code provides the user with a single button, labeled "Add Me." Clicking that will let me add a widget to your layout that links to the Online Money Xtreme.

<input type="hidden" name="widget.title"

value="Online Money Xtreme"/>

<input type="hidden" name="widget.content"

value="<a href='http://onlinemoneyxtreme.blogger.com/' >Tip and Trick for Blogger</a>"/>

<input type="hidden" name="widget.template"

value="<data:content/>" />

<input type="hidden" name="Online Money Xtreme"

value="http://onlinemoneyxtreme.blogger.com"/>

<input type="hidden" name="Online Money Xtreme"

value="http://www.blogger.com/img/add/add2blogger_lg.gif"/>

</form>

You'll notice we used hidden input fields here, because we don't want the user to change any of the information; I want everyone to get the same widget. You could have easily used other kinds of form fields if, for instance, you wanted the user to enter a title for the widget themselves. It's the name attributes of the form fields that are important, rather than the type attributes.

The important parts of the form are the following:

form action="http://www.blogger.com/add-widget" - (Required) Your form must submit its information to this URL in order for it to be handled properly by Blogger. We recommend using the POST method to submit, but GET also works, if you don't have too much data in your widget.
widget.title - (Optional) The title you specify will display in the user's Page Elements tab when they edit their layout. It will also be shown as part of the default widget template. The title can be up to 100 characters long, and may contain well-formed HTML.
widget.content - (Required) This is the actual content of your widget, which will be displayed on the user's blog. It can include almost any well-formed code that you want, except for <html> and <body> tags. Note, however, that you will need to escape the code, as in the example above (e.g. <a> becomes <a>).
widget.template - (Optional) This should follow the widget tag guidelines. You can also use any of the globally available data tags. If no template is specified, it uses <data:title/> <data:content/> as a default.
infoURL - (Optional) You can use this to specify a page on your site that describes your widget or gives other information about it. It will be used as a "more info" link on the setup page people see when adding your widget.
logoURL - (Optional) You can add an image URL here, and the image will be displayed next to the "more info" link. It should be thumbnail sized (i.e. less than 100x100 pixels).

Note.

1. You can change the red URL and Text with your URL and Text.

2. You can change the orange text with your LOGO (100x100).

Get Paid From Bloggerwave

2008-11-24T13:34:00.001-08:00

Bloggerwave is one of PPP (Pay Per Post) Program. It's like sponsoredreviews, buyblogreview and other PPP program. They provide some jobs to be reviewed by bloger. It's such as writing an article about a website or company and then we post it in our blog. To be approved to Bloggerwave is easier than other PPP programs. No PR needed or any others criteria. So I thing this is a good PPP program

How to Create Vertical Menu ?

2008-11-24T13:23:00.001-08:00

We have learned how to create horizontal menu before. Now we will try to make a vertical menu. We will make a vertical menu like the image. Ok let's do it

1. Login to blogger then choose "Layout-->Edit HTML"

2. Put the script below before this code ]]></b:skin> or put it in CSS code area.

.glossymenu, .glossymenu li ul{
list-style-type: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
width: 185px; /*WIDTH OF MAIN MENU ITEMS*/
border: 1px solid black;
}
.glossymenu li{
position: relative;
}
.glossymenu li a{
background: white url('http://blog.superinhost.com/vertical/blue1.gif') repeat-x bottom left;
font: bold 12px Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: white;
display: block;
width: auto;
padding: 5px 0;
padding-left: 10px;
text-decoration: none;
}
.glossymenu li ul{
position: absolute;
width: 190px;
left: 0;
top: 0;
display: none;
}
.glossymenu li ul li{
float: left;
}
.glossymenu li ul a{
width: 180px;
}
.glossymenu li a:visited, .glossymenu li a:active{
color: white;
}
.glossymenu li a:hover{
background-image: url('http://blog.superinhost.com/vertical/blue2.gif');
}

* html .glossymenu li { float: left; height: 1%; }
* html .glossymenu li a { height: 1%; }

You can change the menu color, look at the red text (blue1.gif and blue2.gif). Change it with some color menu below. For example, if you want to choose red color, then the code would be like this :

.glossymenu li a{
background: white url('http://blog.superinhost.com/vertical/red.gif') repeat-x bottom left;

Then.

.glossymenu li a:hover{
background-image: url('http://blog.superinhost.com/vertical/red.gif');

Vertical Menu Color :

	blue1.gif blue2.gif
	black1.gif black2.gif
	green1.gif green2.gif
	pink1.gif pink2.gif
	red1.gif red2.gif

3. Save your template.
4. Then go to "Page Elements" menu
5. choose "Add a Gadget -->HTML/JavaScript" the insert the code below.

<ul id="verticalmenu" class="glossymenu">
<li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="Bikini Tube'>Bikini Tube'>http://bikinitube.blogspot.com">Bikini Tube</a></li>
<li><a href="Celebrites Proe'>Celebrites Proe'>http://celebritiespro.blogspot.com">Celebrites Pro</a></li>
<li><a href=http://onlinemoneyxtreme.blogspot.com >Free Template</a></li>
</ul>

Note :
- The red code is the links.
- The Blue code is anchor text.
- If you want to add menu, just copy the blink code and paste it.
6. Then click "Save"

Free Unlimited File Hosting Service

2008-11-24T12:31:00.001-08:00

If we have a web/blog especially about downloading like mp3, video, ebook etc, it’s need a webhost to put these files, and usually we like a free webhosting rather than paying. But there are some problems/limitations if we chose a free file hosting like :Bingung Cari Tempat Hosting Gratis Dan Unlimited?

- Limited capacity/storage.
- No store big files bigger than 5 MB (Usually).
- traffic limitation (base on time)
- etc.

Now I have a solution to solve the problems. Try to use ziddu. ziddu is one of the free unlimited file hosting service. What will you get from ziddu? here is :

- Unlimited storage, (you can upload your files as much as possible).
- maximum file size to uploaded is 200 MB (it’s big enough)
- No hourly traffic limitation.
- Get paid every time others download your files.
For the last point, is it true that we will get paid every time others download files?
Yes, it’s 100% true. You will get paid $0.001 per unique download. Cash will be transferred via PayPal.

If you interesting SIGN UP HERE

How to Backup your Blogs ?

2008-11-24T12:12:00.001-08:00

Back up blog? is it important?

Yes it's very important. Because we can't guarantee that our blog will exist forever. Lately, many blogers lost their blogs because of unpredicted fault . Few months ago I lost all of my blog (it'a about 10 blogs), but now I got some of them back. Since then I know how important to back up our blog. It's really frustating when your hard work suddenly lost.

There is a free service website that allow us to back up our blog. It's name is blogbackuponline. They give us a space for 5 MB. Althought it's small but I think it's enough for us to backup our blog. If our avarage posted arcticle is 1000 character, meaning it can backup until 5000 title. It's for free version. They also provide more features for premium account. Just go to blogbackuponline and back up your blog there.

How to Create Tab View in Blogger Blog

2008-11-24T00:52:00.001-08:00

Tab View is very usefull box. We can fill it with many contain. It will save our blogs area. (See Image Below)

Here is Tutorial how to create a tab view:

1. Login to blogger, go to "Layout --> Edit HTML"
2. Then find this code ]]></b:skin>
3. Insert the below code before ]]></b:skin> or in CSS tag.

div.TabView div.Tabs
{
height: 24px;
overflow: hidden;
}
div.TabView div.Tabs a
{
float: left;
display: block;
width: 90px; /* Width top main menu */
text-align: center;
height: 24px; /* Height top main menu */
padding-top: 3px;
vertical-align: middle;
border: 1px solid #000; /* Top Main menu border color */
border-bottom-width: 0;
text-decoration: none;
font-family: "Times New Roman", Serif; /* Top main menu font */
font-weight: 900;
color: #000; /* Top main menu font color */
}
div.TabView div.Tabs a:hover, div.TabView div.Tabs a.Active
{
background-color: #FF9900; /* Top main menu background color */
}
div.TabView div.Pages
{
clear: both;
border: 1px solid #6E6E6E; /* Content Border color */
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #FF9900; /* Content background color */
}
div.TabView div.Pages div.Page
{
height: 100%;
padding: 0px;
overflow: hidden;
}
div.TabView div.Pages div.Page div.Pad
{
padding: 3px 5px;
}

4. You can change the code according to the red text explanation.
5. The next step is put the code below before </head>

6. Then "save" it.
7. Go to "Page Elements" menu
8. Chose "Add Page Element" --> "HTML/Javascript" in place where you want to put this tab.
9. Insert this code :

<form action="tabview.html" method="get">
<div class="TabView" id="TabView">
<div class="Tabs" style="width: 350px;">
<a>Tab 1</a>
<a>Tab 2</a>
<a>Tab 3</a>
</div>
<div class="Pages" style="width: 350px; height: 250px;">

<div class="Page">
<div class="Pad">
Tab 1.1 <br />
Tab 1.2 <br />
Tab 1.3 <br />
</div>
</div>

<div class="Page">
<div class="Pad">
Tab 2.1 <br />
Tab 2.2 <br />
Tab 2.3 <br />
</div>
</div>

<div class="Page">
<div class="Pad">
Tab 3.1 <br />
Tab 3.2 <br />
Tab 3.3 <br />
</div>
</div>

</div>
</div>
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
tabview_initialize('TabView');
</script>

Note :
- The number or the blue text(350px) Is size of the tabview.
- The green code is the main menu text
- The red code is the content of tabview. you can fill it with links, banner, widget, comment or anything.
- To add more menu, see on the blink code. Add the code under it.
Good luck every body.

Auto Smile Icons Make Blog More Expressive

2008-11-20T14:38:00.001-08:00

In this episode I will explain to you "how to make your blog more expressive with smile icon" without copy an image and put to your blog, but with only little code and then it will be smile icon image automatically. For example, if you type this code :) it will atomatically change to this image , this code :p will be like this and etc. Do you interest? if no, go from my blog

Here's the trick:

These are the following steps to do this.

1. Login to blogger then chose "layout --> Edit HTML"
2. Find this code ]]></b:skin>, if you found it then put the code below under it.

<script src='http://kendhin.890m.com/smile/smile.js' type='text/javascript'/>

3. Save your editing.

* Before you type the code you have to press "space" first"

Here is the code to show smile icon

:) -->
:( -->
:p -->
:D -->
:$ -->
;) -->
:@ -->
:# -->
:k -->
:x -->
:o -->
:O -->
:L -->
:r -->
:s -->
:y -->
:~ -->
:v -->
:f -->
:d -->
:c -->
:z -->

How to Create Search Engine in Blogger

2008-11-20T14:26:00.001-08:00

Now I will show how to create "Search Engine" in your blogger. This Search Engine is use to find article in your blog, not to find article at all website in the world. It's very easy, just follow the trick below you will have search engine in your blog. Here's the step:

These are the following steps to do this.

1. Login to Blogger, Go to "Layout --> Page Elements". Click "Add a page elements" then chose "HTML/Java Script".
2. Put the code below into "Content" Box

Change yourblogname with your blog's name. The number "30" is width of your search engine, you can change it for appropriate to your layout.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Comment Box under blogger Posts

2008-11-20T11:10:00.001-08:00

Now, blogger(BlogSpot) have developed their comment box. Last time ago, if we want to post a comment there should be only a link under our posting, and we have to click the link send a comment, it's not interesting. But now we can find a comment box under our post exactly. It's original from blogger, it's not like haloscan or intense debate. But it's truly from blogger/BlogSpot. You can see it under this post.

Here is the trick to create comment box under your post.

1. Login to http://draft.blogger.com
2. Go to Setting-->Comments. then change "Comment Form Placement" to be "Embedded below post" (look at the image below)

3. Then "Save Setting"
Try to see your blog and click on your title post. if there is a embedded comment box below your post just stop this step here. But if there is no comments box, just follow the next steps here.

4. Go to "Layout-->Edit HTML" and back up your templates by
5. Check the "Expand widget templates" box.
6. Find this code :

7. Then replace it with this code :

8. Save your Template.

Enjoy the Widget.

How to Hide Navbar (Navigation Bar)

2008-11-20T10:31:00.001-08:00

Navbar (Navigation Bar) is facility of blogger.com. But many blogger want to hide this navbar because it will make their blog layout look better without a box (navbar) above it. The Question "is this break TOS (Term Of Service) of blogger.com?" I don't know, but so far is good, there are many blogger hide their navbar but no reaction from blogger.com. So? do you want to hide Your blog navbar? if you want here's the trick to hide blogger navbar:

1. Login to Blogger then click "Layout --> Edit HTML".
2. Copy the code below and insert into your <head> tag.

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

3. for example put like this

-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name: xxx
Designer: xxx
URL: http://trick-blog.blogspot.com
Date: January 2008
----------------------------------------------- */

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

/* Variable definitions
====================

4. Save your setting, and open your blog, You will have no navbar in your blog page

CONGRATULATION!!!!!

How to install/uninstall the preview tool of AdSense?

2008-11-20T10:22:00.001-08:00

The preview tool is available in all active AdSense languages. Installing the tool is easy, and only takes a few minutes. To install it, you'll need to add a registry file to your Windows system, by following the instructions below.

By installing and/or using the AdSense Preview Tool, you agree to abide by the Google Toolbar Terms of Use (which can be found at http://toolbar.google.com/terms) as if such terms applied to the AdSense Preview Tool and Google's advertising services. Notwithstanding the Terms of Use, you agree to use the AdSense Preview Tool solely to manage your AdSense account or as part of a good faith evaluation of the AdSense program to help you determine whether to enroll as an AdSense publisher. You may not use the AdSense Preview Tool in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair any Google services.

To install:

Right-click the link below and select Save Target As... Save the registry file (.reg) to your desktop.

AdSense Preview Tool

Double-click the file from your desktop. A confirmation window will appear - click Yes to continue. The registry update will self-install.
Restart Internet Explorer by closing all open IE windows.

That's it! Clicking the right mouse button from any webpage will open your context menu - select Google AdSense Preview Tool from the menu to launch the preview tool. Please do not click from within the ad format itself, or relevant ads will not appear within the preview tool.

To uninstall:

Right-click the link below and select Save Target As... Save the registry file (.reg) to your desktop
AdSense Preview Tool Uninstaller
Double-click the file from your desktop. A confirmation window will appear - click Yes to continue. All preview tool files will be deleted from your system.
Restart Internet Explorer by closing all open IE windows.
You can delete the downloaded .reg file from your desktop.

If you'd prefer to manually uninstall the preview tool from your system, it's as simple as deleting the preview tool entry from your registry:

From your Start menu, select Run...
Type regedit into the text field and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.
Browse to the following folder: \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt\
Within the MenuExt folder, right-click the Google AdSense Preview Tool folder and select Delete . Click Yes to confirm.

Close the Registry Editor and restart Internet Explorer by closing all open browser windows.

Highlight Author Comment in Blogspot Blog

2008-11-20T09:55:00.001-08:00

This trick is to give a Highlight Author Comment . This will make the blog's owner comments looks different from the visitors comments. It's very usefull and interesting blogger hack tips. You can see the example in my blog. Here is what to do to make a "Highlight Author Comment" effect in Blogspot.

1. Login to blogger, then choose "Layout --> Edit HTML". Don't forget to backup your template first.

2. Check the "Expand Widget Templates" box.

3. Copy this script and put it before ]]></b:skin> or copy to your CSS area.

.comment-body-author {
background: #E6E6E6; /* Background color*/
color: #000; /* Text color*/
border-top: 1px dotted #223344;border-bottom: 1px dotted #223344;border-left: 1px dotted #223344;border-right: 1px dotted #223344;
margin:0;
padding:0 0 0 20px; /* Posotion*/
}

4. Then find this code:

5. The red color text is the code that you have to add to your script. The position must be right.

6. And then save your template.

* You have to login into your blogger account before to give comments.

Show Related Posts of Blogger Blog

2008-11-20T00:23:00.001-08:00

The advantage of showing related article to your post is it will help your readers find more information related to the topics. This is base on label or category. This is usually put to the end of the article. After your visitors finish read your article, they will find some links that related to the post base on label or category.

Here's the tutorial to create "related article to your blogspot blog":

These are following steps to do this.

1. Login to Blogger
2. Go to "Layout-->Edit HTML"
3. Click on "Expand Widgets Template" checkbox.
4. Then download THIS SCRIPT from HERE.
5. Open it then copy the scripts.
6. Paste the script after this code : <data:post.body/>. If you have "Read more widget" you will find two codes. Put it under the first code.
7. Save your template.
Good Luck...

How I Place Adsense Code in Blogger Post

2008-11-18T14:30:00.001-08:00

There is trick to add Google AdSense and other advertising network such as AdBrite ad unit right beside and inside within Blogger post content, so that the ad block will appear wrapped and floated inline to the top left or top right next to the blog text. If you do not like this layout and dislike the prominent location the ads are displayed, there are other places within blog post to put the ad code.


Middle Placement	Right Placement	Left Placement

Here we start. How we can play this.

Step 1. Login to blogger then go to "Edit HTML"

Step 2. Then search for

]]></b:skin>

and paste the below code just before this.

Box 1

/* AdSense*/

/* Made by Souras ( http://www.onlinemoneyxterme.blogspot.com) */

.adsense_left {
    float:left;
    padding-top: 20px;
    padding-right: 25px;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
    padding-left: 0;
}

.adsense_right {
    float:left;
    padding-top: 20px;
    padding-right: 25px;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
    padding-left: 0;
}

.adsense_middle {
    float:left;
    padding-top: 20px;
    padding-right: 25px;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
    padding-left: 0;
}

Step 3. Then put ad codes in between the below code

Box 2

Here is your ad code

</div>

Here is your ad code

</div>

Here is your ad code

</div>

If you don’t want any thing around the code just use the below code with the same procedure.

In this Step 1 and 2 are same as above

Box 3

.topadsense {
    display: block;
    position: absolute;
    top: 35px;
    right: 10px;
}

and Step 3 also same.

Box 4

Here is your ad code

</div>

How to Show Recent Comments in Blogger

2008-11-18T13:40:00.001-08:00

It's very usefull to Show Recent Comments on main blog page. We can know who have given comments on aur articles without open it one by one. At this time I will show you how to show recent comments on our main page blog. It's very easy

Step 1. Login to blogger then go to "Layout"
Step 2. Then copy this code :

- The 8 number is the sum of comments that will show up.
- Change trick-blog.blogspot.com with your blog's name.

3. You can show it in page elements. Just click on "add page elements --> HTML/Javascript" Then insert the script in it and save.

How to Create Search Engine in Blogger

2008-11-18T12:31:00.001-08:00

1. Login to Blogger, Go to "Layout --> Page Elements". Click "Add a page elements" then chose "HTML/Java Script".

2. Put the code below into "Content" Box and Save

Change yourblogname with your blog's name. The number "30" is width of your search engine, you can change it for appropriate to your layout.

Star Rating Widget for Blogger Blogs Posts

2008-11-18T12:12:00.001-08:00

I will show you how to install Post Rating widget to your blog.The Simple steps given below will install this beautiful widget easily.Below is the screen shot of this widget

How to implement it on blogger/blogspot?

here are the steps;

1. Go to your template editor under your dashboard. Tick the “Expand Widget Template”

2. Find this code

<data:post.body/>

3. Put the codes below right after that line above (or download it here),



<script language='JavaScript'>
var OutbrainPermaLink='<data:post.url/>';
var OB_demoMode = false;
var OB_Script = true;
</script>
<script src='http://widgets.outbrain.com/OutbrainRater.js' type='text/javascript'/>

4. Save your template, and done!

Please be creative. you can move the code as long it still inside the include=’post’ under the blog widget.

If you have problem installing this widget then just log on to - Outbrain.com

Adsense Pin at 10 $ instead of 50 $

2008-11-18T11:32:00.001-08:00

31 January, 2008

Today i was searching the adsense blog and i was shocked that google has decreased the minimum amount for getting adsense pin at 10 $.

Its very helpful for adsense user now and as they get the PIN at 10 $ which was 50 $ till yesterday.

Below is the original Post Posted in Adsense Blog :-

Pinning it down (to $10)

As part of our efforts to make sure that the AdSense account details publishers provide are valid and correct, we do a couple types of validation that you may be aware of: the Personal Identification Number (PIN) program and, in some locations, phone number verification.

One or both of these verification methods is required in order to ensure the security and accuracy of your information so you can receive payments from AdSense.

In the past, our system would ask you to verify your information when your earnings reached $50. However, we've recently changed the threshold to $10. This lowered amount means many of you may see a PIN arrive in your mailbox soon, as well as a prompt in your account to verify your phone number. For more information about these holds, visit the links in the 'Required Actions' box on your Payment History page.

(Psst: If your all-time earnings are between $10 and $50, this might be a good time to learn all about PINs so you'll know what to expect. Or, if you prefer surprises, you can remain blissfully ignorant till a PIN mailer pops up in your mailbox. Just be sure you don't pitch it in the trash!)

How Invalid Adsence Clicks Detect by Google

2008-11-18T11:28:00.001-08:00

Fooling Google Adsense is like you make a donkey yourself

Thinking to cheat AdSense? Stop that. It will never bring you anywhere. You might pull it off with smaller ads network, but definitely not with Google. Here are some detection methods they might use. At the very least, they have the resources to do so.

IP Address
If the AdSense click is originated from the same IP Address as the one used for accessing your AdSense account, your account is flagged.

Cookies
Most home users do not use static IP Address for Internet connection. In most cases just disconnect and reconnect will give you a new IP Address. But don’t forget, Google has set cookies on your computer.

Other Google Services
Thinking that you are safe just because you do not access your AdSense account? Think again. This time, consider these: GMail, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Toolbar, Google Talk, Google Sitemap, Google Desktop, Blogger, and so on, and so on. With the wide range of services they provide, Google can trace the originator of most (or probably almost all) clicks.

Click Pattern 1
Oh, why this computer / IP address / person is so trigger-click-happy on this particular website but never click on the ads on other sites?

Click Pattern 2
And why is it that people accessing these sites direct (type-in URL or from bookmark) tend to be very active ad-clickers compared with those referred from search engine or other sites?

Click Pattern 3
And why the ad-clickers like to hit and run, compared with non ad-clickers that surf a few pages before leaving?

Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
Your CTR may range from 0.5% to 10%, but if it exceeds a certain point (probably around 10%), you are flagged.

Geo-Location
Used Urchin (Google Analytics) before? Then you should know that Google can trace traffics origin down to the small town. Different IP doesn’t mean much. Unless you site is really targetted to one small geo-point, a high number of clicks from nearby location will get you banned quickly.

Hardware address?
MAC address of the LAN card, modem, and router works almost like a fingerprint. I’m not sure if Google can track this, but probably they do. They have rocket scientist, remember?

Advertisers conversion rate
Ad click is one thing. But does it bring value to the advertisers? If none of the clicks on your site translate to conversion to the advertiser, you are in trouble. First the Smart-Pricing hits, then your AdSense account disabled.

Search Engine Ranking
Your website is not indexed on any search engine, not linked by any prominent website, but get consistently high traffic? That sounds like something is in play. Regardless of whether it is an adware-embedded software, spam, trojan clickbot, or intentionally installed click-exchange network, it doesn’t sound right.

Webpage design
How about the “click here” or “support us”? Google has the best search engine in the world. Is it really that hard to find those words?

Combo
Each of these detection methods might seem rather weak. But combine them together, and not many click-fraud can pass-through these filters. Even the smartest clickbot will have a hard time. In short, it is almost impossible to cheat AdSense in the long term. Instead of spending time, money, and effort trying to outsmart Google, try these tips to improve your AdSense earning.

Disclaimer : I’m not working for Google nor in anyway know anyone inside Google. Google might or might not use these methods to detect click-fraud. I’d believe that they have much better detection mechanism.

Guide for Google AdSense Publishers

2008-11-18T11:22:00.001-08:00

If you are a regular visitor to my site, you might have noticed some changes in the style. Well, I drew most of the inspiration from the picture above also known as the "heat map".

This “heat map” illustrates ideal ad placements on a sample page layout. Google folk have published an elaborate Optimization Tips page for Google Adsense publishers.

Looking at my recent adsense statistics, I must admit that the above illustration is fairly nice. The colors fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). All other things being equal, ad placements above the fold tend to perform better than those below the fold. Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page.

Google has done an impressive presentation to woo new Adsense Publishers.

Adsense for Content remains my primary source of revenue from this blog. I do not use "Adsense for Search" as Googlebot doesn't index my site too well. Yahoo! spiders do a better job, atleast in my case.

Show Adsense ads in individual post

2008-11-18T11:04:00.001-08:00

First of all you should know how to show adsense ads in between the posts.
For that You will have to follow the steps below :

Step 1: Sign in to your adsense account and get the adense code.
Now, you have to parse the code using online parser. Paste your adsense code here and you will get the parsed code.

Step 2 : Sign in to your blogger account and from Template panel go to Edit-HTML. Expand HTML and then put your adsense code in the following format.
Example is given here :

For Wordpress users : I will prefer a plugin “Shylock Adsense” using which you can have adsense ads of different sizes, type on selected posts. You can fully customize your ads’ looks, it’s placement and much more.

Precautions for Google AdSense before testing on your website

2008-11-18T10:53:00.001-08:00

If you are testing your new website layout, you might be reloading your website pages again-n-again. And if these pages contain Google Ads, each time your reload your page, you make a request to Google Ads Server for a new set of ads.

Certainly Google is unaware that you are testing your website and it might even penalize your account for "click-fraud" since the IP requesting ads remains same. And if in the worst-case scenario, you might accidently click on your own ads. And these extra "ad impressions" will also chance your CTR data.

One simple way to avoid this serious problem is to remove the Adsense code altogether from your page before testing. But this may not be the best solution as your Google Ads are an important part of your layout. So here are a few simple but effective workarounds:

1. Instead of using Adsense code, add a static graphic (jpg image) with the same dimesions as your adsense code. (Google itself provides static images of various ad formats.)

2. Modify the value of google_ad_client to something like "pub-googleIamTesting"

3. Add another line to Google Adsense code google_adtest = "on"; Don't forget the semicolon.

4. Though there is no official comment, it is safer to remove the google_ad_channel variable.

Or contact Google Adsense Team with your query. Google folks are very quick to respond.

Google AdSense policies require that websites displaying Google ads be active and not under construction. When your site is complete and active, you may add the AdSense
ad code.

A - Z Tricks and Tips for Layout Optimization and Highest CTR

2008-11-18T10:43:00.001-08:00

Google Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to attract advertisers from across the globe to your blog. Just submit your blog to Google for approval. If Google likes what it sees, it will place contextual ads linking to products likely to appeal to the readers. Each time a reader clicks a link, the advertiser pays Google a small fee, and Google splits that with you.

The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense ? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more money (profit) from Google adsense program.

a. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.

b. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.

c. Don't ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don't label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements.".

d. Don't click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions.

e. Don't place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.

f. Don't start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates" website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don't waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

g. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

h. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.

i. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600 wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

j. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better. Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.

k. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.

l. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format (336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.

n. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting user attention.

o. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.

p. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)

q. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1 AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral button).

r. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That's the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or &ltb> tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).

s. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won't lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target="google_window" to your form tag.

t. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.

u. Don't syndicate full content. If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.

v. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense Clicks with Analytics

w. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads

x. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

y. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.

z. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by email.

Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats. Even Google doesn't offer the best advise always. For instance, in the visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.

What is Google Adsense and how to get a Adsense account fast.

2008-11-18T10:38:00.001-08:00

Google Adsense is one of the easiest way to allow webmasters to make money from content websites. You just need to add some simple javascript codes on the web pages, and then when visitors click the ads, you make money. No need to sell and think yourself, Google does all thinking for you. Very easy, right?

Google Adsense is really a gold mine. People are creating niche websites just to display the ads and make easy money everyday - automatically. There are so many success stories about people earning thousands of dollars a month from Adsense!

If you don’t have an Adsense account yet, you should get one and start profiting from it!
However, not all who applied for an Adsense account gets approved. You need to show your content websites to Google first to get approved.

Then how if you don’t have a content website? No need to worry, here is a secret method to get approved - fast and easily - just read on...

Google has its own blogging service - Blogger.com ( http://www.blogger.com/ ). You can start a blog on Blogger.com with any topics you like - and it is completely free. Once your blog is created, post two or more related articles on it. Wait for a day and then you can apply your blog for an adsense account using this link:

https://www.google.com/adsense

Wow, your Adsense account will get approved in 5 days.
Happy Earning from Adsense!

Page Navigation Hack for Blogger (Blogspot)

2008-11-17T13:00:00.001-08:00

Most of the people think that page navigation hack is only for who blogs at Wordpress. But here is the hack for those who use blogger and want to add page navigation to their blog. This hack will show page number instead of text link older posts, as shown in following screenshot

You can see live demo here.

Now this involves two things - adding some CSS code and javascript code to your template. All steps are explained below.

Steps:

Log in to your blogger account and navigate to Layout section. Now go to the Edit HTML tab.
Search for line

]]></b:skin>
Add CSS in this file above that line.
Now search for this code or related in your template (no need to expand widgets)

<b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='yes'>
<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'/></b:section>

Now add javascript codes in this file just after code: </b:section>
Thats’s it. Save changes and you go!

Mods:

In javascript codes in this file, find line…

var pageCount =5;

The digit in red represents number of posts to be shown in single page. Change the digit to show as many pages you want.

var displayPageNum = 3;

Here the digit in red represents number of pages to be listed. Change the digit to list as many pages you want.

That’s it now we have added Page Navigation menu hack to our blog successfully

Your Comments are appreciated.. :-)

How to Start?

2008-11-16T12:12:00.000-08:00

Are you the person that who like to earn money through online?

We hope that you searched more website regarding this, may be you didn’t get perfect method, but now you are in right place to find some perfect online jobs.

We help you to earn by doing simple jobs by sitting at home using a computer and having Internet access connectivity is called as “Work at Home” jobs.

There are so many ways in online to earn money, but here we like to introduce some of them that who are perfect in this method.

Below, the benefits that we mentioned in this method earnings.

No investments.

No selling required.

No MLM.

you can earn handsome of money by working for yourself.

No Office, No Boss, No Dress Code.

Choose your `own timings.

What is Play Per Click ?

2008-11-16T10:44:00.001-08:00

Pay per click (PPC) is an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website. Advertisers bid on keywords they predict their target market will use as search terms when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, or views a page with relevant content, the advertiser's ad may be shown. These ads are called a "Sponsored link" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to or above the "natural" or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster/blogger chooses on a content page.
Pay per click ads may also appear on content network websites. In this case, ad networks such as Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network attempt to provide ads that are relevant to the content of the page where they appear, and no search function is involved.
While many companies exist in this space, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the largest network operators as of 2007. Minimum prices per click, often referred to as Costs Per Click (CPC), vary depending on the search engine, with some as low at $0.01. Very popular search terms can cost much more on popular engines. Arguably this advertising model may be open to abuse through click fraud, although Google and other search engines have implemented automated systems to guard against this.

Pay Per Click

2008-11-16T10:43:00.001-08:00

Online Jobs-pay per click

Pay-per-click advertising can add a valuable tool to your business campaign. With the right attitude and strategy, your PPC advertising can be a great success, yielding more visitors to your site and converting them into clients. However, without proper planning, your PPC advertising can become a floundering waste of time and money! Following some simple PPC advertising tips can help you maximize the profits you receive from your PPC advertising ads.

First of all, as in any online business campaign, you must carefully consider what keywords you are using to describe your product. A great way to distinguish yourself from your competition is to select unique keywords. Sometimes, your best tool is a good thesaurus.
For example, if you provide pet products, but only dog and cat products, a good way to stand out from the large retail chains is to use very specific keywords, such as "canine products", "dog products", "dog shampoo", or "dog toys". Using "pet products" would result in your campaign falling to the bottom of the advertisement list, since there are thousands of other sites with "pet products" in their PPC keywords.

When designing your ads, make it very clear what specific product you provide. It's OK to include the name of your business; however, when you also focus your ads around your product, your customers won't click unnecessarily on your ad just to find out what you provide. These unnecessary clicks result in wasted clicks where your customers won't become clients because your product isn't what they are looking for. A good way to maximize the efficiency of your ads is to put the actual keyword you use to describe your product on your advertisement, not just your business name.

Once you have your PPC ads launched, don't become lazy and forget to track which ads are working, and which are not. It's quite easy to track the visitor to client rate in most PPC provider programs. Simply figure out what percentage of your visitors are becoming customers for each advertisement. When you have an especially successful PPC ad, note how you have the ad designed. Note which colors, words, and setup you are using graphically with the advertisement. Also note the keywords you used and apply those same keywords throughout your page and in future PPC ads.

Some businesses prefer to pull their PPC ads after a successful run, and create new ads under the impression that they must continually refresh their advertisements. If you have a PPC ad that is still successful, there's nothing wrong with continuing your campaign with the same ad! Also, you can add other PPC providers with the same ad to expose your product to new audiences in new sites. If you find that a certain ad style is giving you the greatest success, use this style in the future in new ways.

Most importantly, don't forget to pay your PPC providers service! PPC works as long as you pay, unlike the more common SEO techniques that are often successful as well. With a solid PPC game plan you can extend your sites reach into new consumer dimensions and expand your internet campaign.

Affiliate Marketing

2008-11-16T10:34:00.001-08:00

Start earning large amounts of commission now by joining one of the many Affiliate programs listed in the clixGalore affiliate network.

Using the 'Instant Website Builder' tool, located in your clixGalore Member Home area, you can easily and instanly generate promotional web pages containing our Merchant's products. You may use these pages to promote and earn commission for product sales generated for our Merchants. clixGalore is one of the larger affiliate networks with over 4500+ Affiliate programs for you to join.

Affiliate networks and affiliate programs are increasingly used by merchants for affiliate marketing and product / website promotion. These merchants seek affiliates to promote their products / services and in return will pay you high commissions. Join our affiliate network and choose from the many affiliate programs that will pay you high commissions for displaying advertisements on your website, in newsletters and emails.

You may choose from the many graphic, text, Macromedia 'flash' or custom html advertisements available. Find out more about using the clixGalore affiliate tutor. Why not also earn commission for life by simply referring affiliates to join clixGalore. Join now and see immediate income results!

Online Surveys

2008-11-16T10:28:00.001-08:00

Earn Extra Income and Get Paid for Surveys Online

Yes, you can earn extra income just by filling in surveys. Find out more about how you can get paid for surveys through this article.

Answering online surveys is an excellent way to earn secondary income nowadays. More and more companies have realized the usefulness of the Internet to get rapid feedback on their products and services through online surveys. You too, can get paid for surveys, and it is relatively easy to get started now.

As in many work at home jobs, the main drawback with online surveys is that it is filled with scams of all forms. This is the main reason why people do not believe that they can actually get paid for surveys. Scams surrounding work at home jobs do exist, but so do paid survey sites which pay real money. If you choose wisely, sign up with the best, and have the right strategy, it is not impossible for you to eventually earn hundreds to even thousands of dollars a month just by filling in surveys.

There are two types of online survey sites: those that charge registration fees, and those that don't. Many people insist that filling out surveys is something that you get paid for, so you should not spend any single cent for it. However, you will realize that a large majority of sites charge certain registration fees before you get paid for surveys that will be sent to you. Nothing comes for free anymore these days, and this applies to the services offered by these online survey providers.

You can always feel free to sign up with free paid survey sites. However, the drawback that comes with being risk-free is that these sites usually pay less, and most of them do not pay you in cash but in the form of free products, raffle entries, services, and so on. On the other hand, with paid providers, you usually get paid for surveys in the form of cash, with amounts ranging from a dollar to up to $40, depending on the complexity of the survey.

You should also note that all survey providers vary greatly from one another. There are those that are trustworthy, give you enough surveys to keep you busy, pay well and on time, while there are those which do not have as much offers or provide low pay. In order to succeed with online surveys, you need to choose your survey provider very well. It is not enough that you settle with the fact that you get paid for surveys, you should aim to earn more and get more value for your time.

Most providers now also offer focus and discussion groups that you can qualify for. This way, you do not only get paid for giving your opinions, you can also earn from participating in one of these projects. These focus groups are the highest paying of all surveys, and some offer hundreds of dollars for a three-hour assignment where you express your opinions on certain products.

You will be amazed to know how companies are willing to pay much to know what you think. You can take advantage of this opportunity now and get paid for surveys. Yes, it's all that simple.

What is Opt in e-mail ?

2008-11-15T13:06:00.001-08:00

Opt in e-mail is a term used when someone is given the option to receive "bulk" e-mail, that is, e-mail that is sent to many people at the same time. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. Obtaining permission before sending e-mail is critical because without it, the e-mail is Unsolicited Bulk Email, better known as spam.

There are several common forms of opt-in e-mail:

Unconfirmed opt-in
A new subscriber first gives his/her address to the list software (for instance, on a Web page), but no steps are taken to make sure that this address actually belongs to the person. This can cause e-mail from the mailing list to be considered spam because simple typos of the email address can cause the email to be sent to someone else. Malicious subscriptions are also possible, as are subscriptions that are due to spammers forging email addresses that are sent to the e-mail address used to subscribe to the mailing list.

Confirmed opt-in (COI)
A new subscriber asks to be subscribed to the mailing list, but unlike unconfirmed opt-in, a confirmation e-mail is sent to verify it was really them. Many believe the person must not be added to the mailing list unless an explicit step is taken, such as clicking a special web link or sending back a reply e-mail. This ensures that no person can subscribe someone else out of malice or error. Mail system administrators and non-spam mailing list operators refer to this as confirmed subscription or closed-loop opt-in.

Some marketers call closed loop opt-in "double opt-in."

The term double opt-in was coined by marketers in the late 90s to differentiate it from what they call single opt-in, where a new subscriber to an e-mail list gets a confirmation e-mail telling them they will begin to receive e-mails if they take no action. This is compared to double opt-in where the new subscriber must respond to the confirmation e-mail to be added to the list.

Some marketers contend that double opt-in is like asking for permission twice and that it constitutes unnecessary interference with someone who has already said they want to hear from the marketer.

The term double opt-in has also been co-opted by spammers, diluting its value.

Opt-out
Instead of giving people the option to be put in the list, they are automatically put in and have the option to be taken out.

E-mail Authentication
E-mail authentication is a technique for validating that a person claiming to possess a particular email address actually does so. This is normally done by sending an email containing a token to the address, and requiring that the party being authenticated supply that token before the authentication proceeds. The email containing the token is usually worded so as to explain the situation to the recipient and discourage them from supplying the nonce (often via visiting a URL) unless they in fact were attempting to authenticate.

For example, suppose that one party, Alice, operates a website on which visitors can make accounts to participate or gain access to content. Another party, Bob, comes to that website and makes an account. Bob supplies an email address at which he can be contacted, but Alice does not yet know that Bob is being truthful (consciously or not) about the address. Alice sends a token to Bob's email address for an authentication request, asking Bob to click on a particular URL if and only if the recipient of the mail was making an account on Alice's website. Bob receives the mail and clicks the URL, demonstrating to Alice that he controls the email address he claimed to have. If instead a hostile party, Chuck, were to visit Alice's website attempting to masquerade as Bob, he would be unable to register for an account because the confirmation would be sent to Bob's email address, which Chuck does not control.

This degree of email authentication is considered by many anti-spam advocates to be the minimum degree necessary for any opt-in email advertising or other ongoing email communication.

What is Click Through Rate ?

2008-11-15T12:52:00.001-08:00

Click-through rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.

Banner ad click-through rates have fallen over time, often measuring significantly less than 1 percent. By selecting an appropriate advertising site with high affinity (e.g. a movie magazine for a movie advertisement), the same banner can achieve a substantially higher click-through rate. Personalized ads, unusual formats, and more obtrusive ads typically have higher click-through rates than standard banner ads.

CTR is most commonly defined as number of clicks divided by number of impressions and generally not in terms of number of persons who clicked. This is an important difference because if one person clicks 10 times on the same advertisement instead of once then the CTR would increase in the earlier definition but would stay the same in term of later definition.

What is Bounce message ?

2008-11-15T12:51:00.001-08:00

A bounce message, or Delivery Status Notification (DSN) message, aka Non-Delivery Report/Receipt (NDR), Non-Delivery Notification (NDN), or simply a bounce is an automated electronic mail message from a mail system informing the sender of another message about a delivery problem. The original message is said to have bounced.

What is Autoresponder ?

2008-11-15T12:50:00.001-08:00

An autoresponder is a computer program that automatically answers e-mail sent to it. They can be very simple or quite complex.

The first autoresponders were created within mail transfer agents that found they could not deliver an e-mail to a given address. These create bounce messages such as "your e-mail could not be delivered because..." type responses. Today's autoresponders need to be careful to not generate e-mail backscatter, which can result in the autoresponses being considered E-mail spam.

Autoresponders are often used as e-mail marketing tools, to immediately provide information to their prospective customers and then follow-up with them at preset time intervals.

Such follow-up autoresponders can be divided into two categories:
* Outsourced ASP model — these autoresponders operate on the provider's infrastructure and are usually configurable via a web-based control panel. The customer pays a monthly usage fee. This is easiest to implement for the end-user.

* Server-side — enables users to install the autoresponder system on their own server. This requires technical skills.

Autoresponders are also incorporated into electronic mailing list software, to confirm subscriptions, unsubscriptions, posts, and other list activities.

What is Spam?

2008-11-15T12:49:00.001-08:00

Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions.
Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. Because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. The costs, such as lost productivity and fraud, are borne by the public and by Internet service providers, which have been forced to add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in many jurisdictions

Loyalty business model

2008-11-15T12:48:00.001-08:00

The loyalty business model is a business model used in strategic management in which company resources are employed so as to increase the loyalty of customers and other stakeholders in the expectation that corporate objectives will be met or surpassed. A typical example of this type of model is: quality of product or service leads to customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty, which leads to profitability.

Contents

* 1 The service quality model
* 2 Expanded models
* 3 Data collection
* 4 Loyalty and Egoism
* 5 See also
* 6 References

The service quality model
A model by Kay Storbacka, Tore Strandvik, and Christian Gronroos (1994), the service quality model, is more detailed than the basic loyalty business model but arrives at the same conclusion. In it, customer satisfaction is first based on a recent experience of the product or service. This assessment depends on prior expectations of overall quality compared to the actual performance received. If the recent experience exceeds prior expectations, customer satisfaction is likely to be high. Customer satisfaction can also be high even with mediocre performance quality if the customer's expectations are low, or if the performance provides value (that is, it is priced low to reflect the mediocre quality). Likewise, a customer can be dissatisfied with the service encounter and still perceive the overall quality to be good. This occurs when a quality service is priced very high and the transaction provides little value.

This model then looks at the strength of the business relationship; it proposes that this strength is determined by the level of satisfaction with recent experience, overall perceptions of quality, customer commitment to the relationship, and bonds between the parties. Customers are said to have a "zone of tolerance" corresponding to a range of service quality between "barely adequate" and "exceptional." A single disappointing experience may not significantly reduce the strength of the business relationship if the customer's overall perception of quality remains high, if switching costs are high, if there are few satisfactory alternatives, if they are committed to the relationship, and if there are bonds keeping them in the relationship. The existence of these bonds acts as an exit barrier. There are several types of bonds, including: legal bonds (contracts), technological bonds (shared technology), economic bonds (dependence), knowledge bonds, social bonds, cultural or ethnic bonds, ideological bonds, psychological bonds, geographical bonds, time bonds, and planning bonds.

This model then examines the link between relationship strength and customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is determined by three factors: relationship strength, perceived alternatives and critical episodes. The relationship can terminate if: 1) the customer moves away from the company's service area, 2) the customer no longer has a need for the company's products or services, 3) more suitable alternative providers become available, 4) the relationship strength has weakened, or 5) the company handles a critical episode poorly, 5) unexplainable change of price of the service provided.

The final link in the model is the effect of customer loyalty on profitability. The fundamental assumption of all the loyalty models is that keeping existing customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. It is claimed by Reichheld and Sasser (1990) that a 5% improvement in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability between 25% and 85% (in terms of net present value) depending upon the industry. However, Carrol and Reichheld (1992) dispute these calculations, claiming that they result from faulty cross-sectional analysis.

According to Buchanan and Gilles (1990), the increased profitability associated with customer retention efforts occurs because:

* The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship: the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost.

* Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs (or as a percentage of revenue).

* Long term customers tend to be less inclined to switch and also tend to be less price sensitive. This can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume.

* Long term customers may initiate free word of mouth promotions and referrals.

* Long term customers are more likely to purchase ancillary products and high-margin supplemental products.

* Long term customers tend to be satisfied with their relationship with the company and are less likely to switch to competitors, making market entry or competitors' market share gains difficult.

* Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service because they are familiar with the processes involved, require less "education," and are consistent in their order placement.

* Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees' jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into higher customer satisfaction in a virtuous circle.

For this final link to hold, the relationship must be profitable. Striving to maintain the loyalty of unprofitable customers is not a viable business model. That is why it is important for marketers to assess the profitability of each of its clients (or types of clients), and terminate those relationships that are not profitable. In order to do this, each customer's "relationship costs" are compared to their "relationship revenue." A useful calculation for this is the patronage concentration ratio. This calculation is hindered by the difficulty in allocating costs to individual relationships and the ambiguity regarding relationship cost drivers.

Expanded models
Schlesinger and Heskett (1991) added employee loyalty to the basic customer loyalty model. They developed the concepts of "cycle of success" and "cycle of failure". In the cycle of success, an investment in your employees’ ability to provide superior service to customers can be seen as a virtuous circle. Effort spent in selecting and training employees and creating a corporate culture in which they are empowered can lead to increased employee satisfaction and employee competence. This will likely result in superior service delivery and customer satisfaction. This in turn will create customer loyalty, improved sales levels, and higher profit margins. Some of these profits can be reinvested in employee development thereby initiating another iteration of a virtuous cycle.

Fredrick Reichheld (1996) expanded the loyalty business model beyond customers and employees. He looked at the benefits of obtaining the loyalty of suppliers, employees, bankers, customers, distributors, shareholders, and the board of directors.

Data collection
Typically, loyalty data is being collected by multi-item measurement scales administered in questionnaires. However, other approaches sometimes seem more viable if managers want to know the extent of loyalty for an entire data warehouse. This approach is described in Buckinx, Verstraeten & Van den Poel (2006).

Another approach to building customer loyalty through data is described in Scoring points, a book about the Tesco clubcard. This was produced by a company called [Dunnhumby] who gathered the data on household purchases on an opt-in permission basis. Once they had this data they then allowed households to accumulate loyalty points which could be used for subsequent purchases. They subsequently added to the value of customer loyalty by sending out targeted offers from grocery producers to the people whose behavior said they had a use for the offer. The data gathered in this way allowed customer loyalty to be assessed on both an individual and an aggregate basis.

Whilst less common than the questionnaires, loyalty card data is more complete and does not suffer from the arbitrational misreporting bias that is common to most forms of market research. It has been credited with the phenomenal success of the Tesco chain as well as with significant improvements by several other large retailers.

Loyalty and Egoism
The loyalty business model assumes the philosophical validity of pursuit of self-interest. However, much work in ethics assumes the validity of altruism (seeking the best interest of others). "Clearing Up the Egoist Difficulty with Loyalty" (Stieb 2006), attempts to show that when interests are shared there becomes no difference between seeking one's interest and that of others. This is also called the "Aristotelian" model based on Aristotle's related analysis of friendship in his Nicomachean Ethics.

Electronic Mail or E-Mail

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E-mail, short for electronic mail and often abbreviated to e-mail, email or simply mail, is a store and forward method of composing, sending, receiving and storing messages over electronic communication systems. The term "e-mail" (as a noun or verb) applies both to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to X.400 systems, and to intranet systems allowing users within one organization to e-mail each other. Intranets may use the Internet protocols or X.400 protocols for internal e-mail service supporting workgroup collaboration. E-mail is often used to deliver bulk unsolicited messages, or "spam", but filter programs exist which can automatically delete some or most of these, depending on the situation.

Origin
E-mail predates the inception of the Internet, and was in fact a crucial tool in creating the Internet. MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961.[38] It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094 from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS.

E-mail was quickly extended to become network e-mail, allowing users to pass messages between different computers by at least 1966 (it is possible the SAGE system had something similar some time before).

The ARPANET computer network made a large contribution to the development of e-mail. There is one report that indicates experimental inter-system e-mail transfers on it shortly after its creation in 1969. Ray Tomlinson initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the names of the user and their machine in 1971. The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity of e-mail, and it became the killer app of the ARPANET.

Direct Marketing

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Direct marketing is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing or advertising. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media. This involves unsolicited commercial communication (spam, junk mail, etc.) with consumers or businesses. The second characteristic is that it is focused on driving purchases that can be attributed to a specific "call-to-action." This aspect of direct marketing involves an emphasis on tractable, measurable positive (but not negative) responses from consumers (known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.

If the advert in the medium asks the prospect to take a specific action, for instance call a free phone number or visit a website, then the effort is considered to be direct response advertising.

Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Benefits and drawbacks
* 3 Channels
   o 3.1 Direct Marketing v Mainstream Marketing
   o 3.2 Direct mail
   o 3.3 Telemarketing
   o 3.4 Email Marketing
   o 3.5 Broadcast faxing
   o 3.6 Couponing
   o 3.7 Direct response television marketing
   o 3.8 Direct selling
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

History

The term direct marketing is believed to have been first used in 1961 in a speech by Lester Wunderman, who pioneered direct marketing techniques with brands such as American Express and Columbia Records.[citation needed] The term junk mail, referring to unsolicited commercial ads delivered via post office or directly deposited in consumers' mail boxes, can be traced back to 1954. The term spam, meaning "unsolicited commercial email", can be traced back to March 31, 1993, although in its first few months it merely referred to inadvertently posting a message so many times on UseNet that the repetitions effectively drowned out the normal flow of conversation.

Although Wunderman may have been the first to use the term direct marketing, the practice of mail order selling (direct marketing via mail) essentially began in the U.S. upon invention of the typewriter in 1867.[citation needed]

The first mail-order catalog was produced by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872.[citation needed] The Direct Mail Advertising Association, predecessor of the present-day Direct Marketing Association, was first established in 1917.[citation needed] Third class bulk mail postage rates were established in 1928.[citation needed]

Direct marketing's history in Europe can be traced to the 15th century. Upon Gutenberg's invention of movable type, the first trade catalogs from printer-publishers appeared sometime around 1450.[citation needed]

Benefits and drawbacks

Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers, because in many cases its positive effect (but not negative results) can be measured directly. For example, if a marketer sends out one million solicitations by mail, and ten thousand customers can be tracked as having responded to the promotion, the marketer can say with some confidence that the campaign led directly to the responses. The number of recipients who are offended by the junk mail/spam, however, is not easily measured. By contrast, measurement of other media must often be indirect, since there is no direct response from a consumer. Measurement of results, a fundamental element in successful direct marketing, is explored in greater detail elsewhere in this article. Yet since the start of the Internet-age the challenges of Chief Marketing Executives (CMOs) are tracking direct marketing responses and measuring results.[citation needed]

While many marketers like this form of marketing, some direct marketing efforts using particular media have been criticized for generating unwanted solicitations. For example, direct mail that is irrelevant to the recipient is considered junk mail, and unwanted email messages are considered spam. Consumers are demanding an end to direct marketing,[citation needed] which some advertising agencies are able to provide by using variable data printing and targeted mailing lists.

Channels

Direct marketers also use media such as door hangers, package inserts, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, email, internet banner ads, pay-per-click ads, billboards, transit ads. And according to Ad Age, "In 2005, U.S. agencies generated more revenue from marketing services than from traditional advertising and media."[citation needed]

Direct Marketing v Mainstream Marketing

Why Marketers need to be Different to be Direct By Clint Bratton, Director Plus Marketing, Sydney Australia.

Marketers are under intense pressure to drive sales results from marketing activity. To deliver the result, marketers are turning to direct marketing, a variation on their core trade. But do the skills of traditional marketers translate into Direct Marketing success? I believe the answer is a resounding no. What’s more, the discipline of Direct Marketing is, unfortunately, suffering at the hands of the uneducated. The reason lies behind a formulaic approach to targeting and segmentation, frequency of message and a failure to explore the creative boundaries and personalization that only direct marketing can offer.

TARGETING & SEGMENTATION

Introductory marketing teaches us to make several assumptions and generalizations on the market. Top on that list, it is vital for a brand to narrow its target audience down to a set of demographic qualities based on age, sex, income etc. Even a brand like Coca-Cola, which has near universal appeal, targets their product toward youth. Beyond the target market there will be a number of market segments, again defined by geo-demographic characteristics. In traditional marketing, defining a market and its segments will build a picture of an audience which impacts on both the creative employed and the media buying strategy.

Do these methods of targeting and segmentation translate into Direct Marketing? In fact, they’re surprisingly unimportant. What’s important is that communications are relevant and are therefore based on real customer knowledge rather than generalizations. A unique creative approach for each customer tends to be cost-prohibitive and unrealistic (yes, in some niche business-to-business exercises it may be feasible). Some broad segmentation should be applied to drive the bulk of the creative outcome. These segments must work alongside copy change-outs to complete the communication. But this is a secondary concern.

Even the act of segmentation is different in Direct Marketing because it is developed from hard customer information rather than market research. To segment a database, data-mining techniques that account for combinations of every possible information variable are used (including transactional data), rather than a broad geo-demographic profile. But the segmentation is just the beginning, the driver for the message platform and tone & manner.

PERSONALISATION & RELEVANCE

Direct Marketing talks to individuals, not markets. This is where traditional targeting methods fail when they’re bolted on to Direct Marketing. Instead of broad segmentation it is critical we appreciate that each customer is unique. So we must utilize every piece of information to make the message more relevant and effective.

For a start, it is proven that simple personalization (such as prominent placement of name and address), will significantly increase response rates. Using transactional data and linking your message with a customer’s known behavior is more powerful again – it shows you understand the customer and that you’re adapting your product or service offering for their needs.

Building a tailored approach makes for multiple copy versions within a single segment execution. But the additional effort and expense is worthwhile for its immediate impact and response, as well as the long-term benefit to the brand.

Using the available data to better personalize and add relevance to the communication should be a key distinction in personalized marketing efforts versus mass market communications. It will also make for better targeting as there will be situations where a relevant link cannot be made and some customer groups may be eliminated from the distribution. It makes the customer feel like you’re delivering them a service. While all direct communications make a noise, those that communicate service are the messages people absorb. They make the recipient feel like more than just another customer. The communication has considered the individual and they feel privileged to receive your message. Just as important, the restricted and more responsive audience will result in decreased costs, improved ROI and protection of the brand.

ADVERTISING VERSUS CUSTOMER SERVICE

Customer service is what finally differentiates direct communications from Traditional Advertising. In direct, the media is the property of the recipient so it’s important there’s something in it for them. An ‘ad in an envelope’ (or worse still, an ad in an email or text message) becomes an annoyance. If you address something specifically to an individual, they expect that communication is about them rather than some irrelevant chest-thumping about your product or brand. Far too often the traditional marketer’s view of integration is to put a stamp on their ad. Or thoughtlessly email or SMS the body copy to all their customers.
This hurts the entire Direct Marketing medium because consumers become tired of irrelevant messages intruding into their private space.

The best customer service messages hit customers at the right time in their relationship. By contrast, traditional advertisers bring a ‘campaign mentality’ to Direct Marketing. Following this thinking, all customers receive communications at the same time. The truth is relevance is more easily created with triggered messages driven by customer behavior. Reputable direct marketers are acutely aware of this and explore database activities that promote a new product or service while also delivering a service message to customers.

Electronic communications that are activity driven are particularly useful for time-sensitive service messages. It can actually add to customer convenience to receive email or text messages. And for the marketer the business opportunities are endless. Imagine if your insurance company could text message you in advance of a localized flood warning, or if your bank could email you to advise your credit card was approaching its credit limit. Customers are thankful for these communications; they provide a tangible benefit for engaging and opting to receive electronic communications.

Nothing compares to direct for delivering this information. Particularly in an electronic format because they are both directed to an individual and are time-critical. These newly formed channels supplement the existing communications mix and exist for the customer’s benefit. They are not simply substitutes for traditional messages in an effort to save marketing costs with no thought for what the customer would prefer.

CREATIVE EXECUTIONS The creative boundaries within Direct Marketing are yet to be reached and the majority of executions fail to explore the possibilities of the medium. This is a hangover from the frequency principle employed in traditional advertising and the false notion that direct executions are about the brand first and the message second.

With Direct Marketing the customer owns the message and will actively choose whether they take it in. The execution needs to immediately show the recipient that it’s a completely new message and to this end, the communication should be clearly distinct from previous contact. The message should retain consistency to the degree that it is obvious who it’s from, but the message must scream above the corporate branding. A template approach is often employed, meaning that visually the messages blur together with a degree of sameness rather than being received with impact. But designers are not Direct Marketers.

No other medium offers the creative freedom of direct mail. Yet most direct mail fails to engage the senses and is lost in a sea of white window DL envelopes. Customers receive mail from a number of places and to engage an audience the execution needs to stand apart. Mail offers unparalleled flexibility in terms of format - there are practically no size or shape constraints. Perhaps it’s because Traditional Advertisers and designers are used to fitting into standards dictated by a medium (press, billboard, TV) that they treat direct mail the same way. They see an A4 letter and a DLE insert as a starting canvas whereas the reality is an open book.

Creative freedom also suffers where marketers are guilty of trying to get their message to as many people as possible rather than improve the targeting. We all know Pareto’s Law or the 80/20 rule, yet too often the entire database is treated as equal. By focusing on just the top customers or prospects and delivering a stronger, non-standard creative execution the message can be made more compelling and results magnified. A smaller, targeted audience will result in more to spend on those that count. An improved per-unit budget allows things to be done differently, ensuring the communication is not just read but also remembered and acted on.

CONCLUSION Direct Marketing is not simply about creating awareness, it’s about delivering results, creating new customers and selling more to them. As shareholders and CEO’s demand a return on investment, it’s understandable that marketers are turning to Direct Marketing for answers. It’s here that they need to pause and note that Direct Marketing is a unique craft and counter-intuitive to Traditional Advertising thought processes. Until they rethink, the credibility of Direct Marketing will suffer through poor executions.

The potential of Direct Marketing is clear. Despite traditional thinking leading to sub-optimal planning and executions, many businesses have still generated positive returns from their Direct Marketing. But they have merely scratched the surface of what can be achieved. With the right assistance there remains potential to unlock increased returns and improve long-term customer satisfaction.

To make Direct Marketing work, marketers need to grasp the unique complexities of the media. The explosive growth and competition for the customer’s time will challenge marketers, demanding stronger executions to break through the clutter. All businesses looking to maximize a return from marketing should elicit the help of a true Direct Marketing specialist. Do this and these businesses will not only improve their success, they may profit where they had previously failed. Direct Marketing does work… in the right hands.

Direct mail

The most common form of direct marketing is direct mail,[citation needed] commonly called junk mail, send paper mail to all postal customers in an area or all customers on a list.
Typical junk mail.
Typical junk mail.

Any medium that can be used to deliver a communication to a customer can be employed in direct marketing. Probably the most commonly used medium for direct marketing is junk mail, in which marketing communications are sent to customers using the postal service. The term direct mail is used in the direct marketing industry to refer to junk mail, which may also be referred to as ad mail and may involve bulk mail.

Junk mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, free trial CDs, pre-approved credit card applications, and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by mail or to homes and businesses, or delivered to consumers' mailboxes by delivery services other than the Post Office. Bulk mailings are a particularly popular method of promotion for businesses operating in the financial services, home computer, and travel and tourism industries.

In many developed countries, direct mail represents such a significant amount of the total volume of mail that special rate classes have been established. In the United States and United Kingdom, for example, there are bulk mail rates that enable marketers to send mail at rates that are substantially lower than regular first-class rates. In order to qualify for these rates, marketers must format and sort the mail in particular ways - which reduces the handling (and therefore costs) required by the postal service.

Advertisers often refine direct mail practices into targeted mailing, in which mail is sent out following database analysis to select recipients considered most likely to respond positively. For example a person who has demonstrated an interest in golf may receive direct mail for golf related products or perhaps for goods and services that are appropriate for golfers. This use of database analysis is a type of database marketing. The United States Postal Service calls this form of mail "advertising mail" (ad mail for short).

Telemarketing

The second most common form of direct marketing is telemarketing,{[fact}} in which marketers contact consumers by phone. The unpopularity of cold call telemarketing (in which the consumer does not expect or invite the sales call) has led some US states and the US federal government to create "no-call lists" and legislation including heavy fines. Marketers call telephone numbers. This process may be outsourced to specialist call centers. The agents sit at computerized work-stations and try to sell the products of the clients.

In the US, a national do-not-call list went into effect on October 1, 2003. Under the law, it is illegal for telemarketers to call anyone who has registered themselves on the list. After the list had operated for one year, over 62 million people had signed up. telemarketing industry opposed the creation of the list, but most telemarketers have complied with the law and refrained from calling people who are on the list.[citation needed]

Canada has passed legislation to create a similar Do Not Call List. In other countries it is voluntary, such as the New Zealand Name Removal Service.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing may have passed telemarketing in frequency at this point,[citation needed] and is a third type of direct marketing. A major concern is spam.

Broadcast faxing
A fourth type of direct marketing, broadcast faxing, is now less common than the other forms.[citation needed] This is partly due to laws in the United States and elsewhere which make it illegal.[citation needed]

Couponing
Couponing is used in print media to elicit a response from the reader. An example is a coupon which the reader cuts out and presents to a super-store check-out counter to avail of a discount. Coupons in newspapers and magazines cannot be considered direct marketing, since the marketer incurs the cost of supporting a third-party medium (the newspaper or magazine); direct marketing aims to circumvent that balance, paring the costs down to solely delivering their unsolicited sales message to the consumer, without supporting the newspaper that the consumer seeks and welcomes.

Direct response television marketing
A related form of marketing is infomercials. They are typically called direct response marketing rather than direct marketing because they try to achieve a direct response via broadcast on a third party's medium, but viewers respond directly via telephone or internet.
TV-response marketing--i.e. infomercials--can be considered a form of direct marketing, since responses are in the form of calls to telephone numbers given on-air. This both allows marketers to reasonably conclude that the calls are due to a particular campaign, and allows the marketers to obtain customers' phone numbers as targets for telemarketing. Under the Federal Do-Not-Call List rules in the US, if the caller buys anything, the marketer would be exempt from Do-Not-Call List restrictions for a period of time due to having a prior business relationship with the caller. Major players are firms like QVC, Thane Direct, and Interwood Marketing Group then cross-sell, and up-sell to these respondents.

Direct selling
Direct selling is the sale of products by face-to-face contact with the customer, either by having salespeople approach potential customers in person, through indirect means such as Tupperware parties.

E-mail open rate

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The email open rate is a measure primarily used by marketers as an indication of how many people "view" or "open" the commercial electronic mail they send out. One of the earliest metrics applied in email marketing, its continued use is controversial due to conflicting views on its usefulness.

Open rates are typically measured using an HTML IMG tag embedded in outgoing emails, calling for a small, transparent tracking image. When the client or browser used to display the email requests that image, then an "open" is recorded for that email by the image's host server.

The open rate for an email sent to multiple recipients is then most often calculated as the total number of "opened" emails, expressed as a percentage of the total number of emails sent or -- more usually -- delivered. The number delivered is itself measured as the number of emails sent out minus the number of bounces generated by those emails.

This method leads to problems with interpretation, since the request for the tracking image gives no indication of whether the email's recipient actually viewed or read the email or its contents.

In addition, many webmail services and email clients block images by default, or the recipient may elect to receive text-only versions of an email. In both cases, no image call can ever be made, further reducing the accuracy of the open rate measure.

As a result, open rates are broadly rejected as an absolute measure of a commercial email's performance. However, many marketers use open rates as a relative measure, for example to compare the performances of emails sent to similar recipient groups, but at different times or with different subject headers.

Email marketing Introduction

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Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

* Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.

* Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.

* Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.

* Emails that are being sent on the Internet (Email did and does exist outside the Internet, Network Email, FIDO etc.)

Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $400 million on email marketing in 2006.
Contents
* 1 Advantages
* 2 Disadvantages
* 3 CAN-SPAM compliance
* 4 Opt-in email advertising
* 5 Terms
* 6 See also
* 7 References

Advantages

Email marketing (on the Internet) is popular with companies because:

* The advantage of a mailing list is clearly the ability to distribute information to a wide range of specific, potential customers at a relatively low cost.

* Compared to other media investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive.

* An exact Return on investment can be tracked ("track to basket") and has proven to be high when done properly. Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective online marketing tactic.

* It is instant, as opposed to a mailed advertisement, an email arrives in a few seconds or minutes.

* It lets the advertiser "push" the message to its audience, as opposed to a website that waits for customers to come in.

* It is easy to track. An advertiser can track users via web bugs, bounce messages, un-subscribes, read-receipts, click-through, etc. These can be used to measure open rates, positive or negative responses, correlate sales with marketing.

* Advertisers generate repeat business affordably and automatically

* Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them

* Over half of Internet users check or send email on a typical day.

* Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other messages to be automatically delivered.

* Specific types of interaction with messages can trigger other events such as updating the profile of the recipient to indicate a specific interest category.

* Green - email marketing is paper-free

Disadvantages

Many companies use email marketing to communicate with existing customers, but many other companies send unsolicited bulk email, also known as spam.

Internet system administrators have always considered themselves responsible for dealing with "abuse of the net", but not "abuse on the net". That is, they will act quite vigorously against spam, but will leave issues like libel or trademark infringement to the courts. Most administrators passionately hate spam, which they define as any unsolicited email.

Draconian measures — such as taking down a corporate website with or without warning — are an entirely normal response to spamming. Typically, the "Terms of Service" in Internet companies' contracts allow this, so the spammer has no recourse.

Illicit email marketing antedates legitimate email marketing, since on the early Internet (see Arpanet) it was not permitted to use the medium for commercial purposes. As a result, marketers attempting to establish themselves as legitimate businesses in email marketing have had an uphill battle, hampered also by criminal spam operations billing themselves as legitimate.

It is frequently difficult for observers to distinguish between legitimate and spam email marketing. First off, spammers attempt to represent themselves as legitimate operators, obfuscating the issue. Second, direct-marketing political groups such as the U.S. Direct Marketing Association (DMA) have pressured legislatures to legalize activities which many Internet operators consider to be spamming, such as the sending of "opt-out" unsolicited commercial email. Third, the sheer volume of spam email has led some users to mistake legitimate commercial email (for instance, a mailing list to which the user subscribed) for spam — especially when the two have a similar appearance, as when messages include HTML and flashy graphics.

Due to the volume of spam email on the Internet, spam filters are essential to most users. Some marketers report that legitimate commercial emails frequently get caught by filters, and hidden; however, it is somewhat less common for email users to complain that spam filters block legitimate mail.

Companies considering an email marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States' CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy. Even if a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is likely to be listed in blacklists such as SPEWS.

CAN-SPAM compliance

Because the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 authorizes a USD 11,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient, many commercial email marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software that helps ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist which do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act's regulation of commercial email, services typically: require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses which may not have given valid permission.

In addition to satisfying legal requirements, service providers stepped in to help customers to set up and manage their own email marketing campaigns. The services provide email templates, automatically handle subscriptions and removals, and generate statistics on how many messages were received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.

Opt-in email advertising

Opt-in email advertising or permission marketing is a method of advertising via electronic mail whereby the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. It is one of several ways developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of email marketing.
Email has become a very popular mode of communication across the world. It has also become extremely popular to advertise through. Some of the many advantages of advertising through email are the direct contact with the consumer and is “inexpensive, flexible, and simple to implement” (Fairhead, 2003). There are also disadvantages attached to email advertising such as, alienating the consumer because of overload to messages or the advertisement getting deleted without getting read.

Permission email marketing may evolve into a technology that uses a handshake protocol between sender and receiver (Fairhaed, 2003). This system is intended to eventually result in a high degree of satisfaction between consumers and marketers. If opt-in email advertising is used, the material that is emailed to consumers will be “anticipated.” It is assumed that the consumer wants to receive it, which makes it unlike unsolicited advertisements sent to the consumer (often referred to as spam). Ideally, opt-in email advertisements will be more personal and relevant to the consumer than untargeted advertisements.

A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to a firm’s customers. Newsletters like this are a way to let customers know about upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive this newsletter.

With a foundation of opted-in contact information stored in a database, marketers can automatically send out promotional materials. The marketers can also segment their promotions to specific market segments.

Terms

There are number of terms used in email marketing, marketers in this space have to be familiar with, to name a few: auto-responder, bounce message, click-through rate, double opt-in or opt-in, open rate and spam for example.

Email Marketing

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Email Marketing is a meaningful and highly responsive way to reach Internet users. It is a great way to access your most targeted and receptive audience members. Your customers and future prospects can receive newsletters and up-to-date information. Email Marketing offers many opportunities to generate leads and increase sales. You can effectively reach hundreds of thousands of responsive consumers each week through email newsletters and dispatches. Advertising your products and services will help you reach a responsive audience expressly interested in receiving it.

By using Email Marketing, it allows you to build a regular, ongoing dialogue with your best clients and prospects. Constant contacts are key factors when trying to build a client database. Those who wish to do business with you will most appreciate the regular communication.

Email Marketing is about relationship building, and it is a long-term relationship. Even for consumer-oriented retailers, customers are profitable when they are long-term so your marketing efforts need to be oriented that way. Your success as a company is determined by your relationships, and how well you keep them.

For More Information on Email Marketing Click Here

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It’s true; it has never been so easy to start a business. Think about it, in the past you were confined mostly to brick and mortar businesses. You would need retail premises or warehousing. Now you don’t need any of these. You don’t need experience. Everything you need to know is out there on the World Wide Web. Get yourself a notepad, put the coffee pot on and hit the search engines. Be methodical, visit message boards, user groups and article directories. Subscribe to ezines. (Online magazines). Ask lots of Questions.

2: Low cost.
This has to be one of the cheapest ways to start your own business. You’ve got a PC and an Internet connection, what more do you need? Web hosting? You can even get this for free! You may need to upgrade at a later stage, which will cost you money, but even then it won’t be really expensive. A web site? Maybe, it depends what type of business you start. But again you can do it yourself with Microsoft Frontpage, or similar software. Even free web hosting may come with a Wizard to help you build a site. Content for your Web page? Again it depends what sort of business you want but this could even be found for free. As above, hit the search engines!

3: Work from home.
Didn’t you always dream of working from home? No more daily commute, sitting in traffic wondering where you’re life is going. More time for yourself and your family. You can wear what you like, work when you like. If you want to get up at 5 am, and work while it’s quiet, go ahead. A word of caution! You must be disciplined when working from home. If you got a space to call an office, then use it. Tell you family and friends not to disturb you except in emergencies. (Running out of ice cream is not an emergency).

4: No Staff.
Can you imagine running a store without staff? Or a repair shop, or almost any ordinary business. In most cases it can’t be done. If you need three staff, ones on vacation and another calls in sick, you’ve got a real headache. But working from home you shouldn’t have these problems. If you need help with some tasks, like copy writing, or web page design, You can hire people’s services online at sites like elance.com

5: Part Time.
Not only can you work from home but you can work part time. It is possible to run a very successful online business in just a few hours a week. Maybe in the early stages of creating your business, you’ll burn the midnight oil. But with so many repetitive tasks being done by software packages, e.g.; autoresponders, once you’re set up you may need to do little more than regular maintenance. Or create new products.

6: A portable business.
One of the great things about your online business is that being run from a computer means it can be run from a computer anywhere. If you’ve got a laptop, you can work in the garden, or from bed. As long as you can get an Internet connection, you can go on vacation and still do some work.

7: No stock or Shipping.
If you choose a business selling information products; such as ebooks. They can be downloaded by your customer, which means you don’t have to carry stock, or deal with packing and shipping. If you want to sell a physical product, search the internet for drop shippers. These are companies who carry the stock and do the shipping for you. There are drop shippers carrying an amazing variety of goods.

8: 24/7 Income.
This has to be one of the best things about your online business. You don’t have to pull down the shutters at 6.00pm or any time at all for that matter. If you’ve set things up with lots of automation built in your web site can be pulling visitors night and day. And from around the world. You can earn money while you’re sleeping.

9: More fun than work.
It’s a good idea to base your business around an interest or hobby, something you’re intimately involved with and knowledgeable about. Whether it is Koi carp, computer games or wedding planning, if you are passionate about it, you won’t feel like you’re working. You will want to get up in the morning, and get on with it. No more Monday morning blues.

10: Control your own destiny.
There is nothing quite like taking charge of your own life. You may only start part time, but when you’re successful in your business, that extra income can be a real boost, and not just in spending power but in your self esteem. Maybe you like your job, but a little extra money every month will give you freedom from worrying about bills and the pleasure of spending more on your family. A few treats now and again can work wonders for your morale. If you hate your job, then looking forward to getting home to work on your own business, sure helps you get through the day. And looking forward to the day you quit, spurs you on to be successful.
I hope I’ve given you something positive to think about. If you’re inspired to start an online business, but still worried about the nuts and bolts of it, remember, the World Wide Web, is full of free advice. There are thousands of ebooks available, thousands of articles, thousands of products to help you, much of it low cost or free.
Start today.

Work Form Home

2008-11-15T12:14:00.001-08:00

How to plan for work at home jobs?

Every day people around the world commute to a job that they don’t like. Jobs they hate, jobs that don’t pay enough, or jobs that you just hate your co-workers. Working at home may be a solution to your problem. The number of world-wide home-based businesses generating an income last year reached 13.8 million; 9.7 million were generating the primary income of their households. Work at home is less stressful and cheaper.

All you need is a computer and internet connection, you can find all kinds of work at home programs, or home businesses that you can start and make the same income instantly or even more than you were working at the job you had to commute to. When working at home, you control how long and hard you want to work. You set your own hours, and you can go on vacation when you want. When starting a home based business, you need to make sure that you are going to stay with it.

If you don’t have the funds to start a home based business, you can get a business loan from your bank or keep the job that you have. That way, you can use a few dollars to get your business off the ground. There are many honest work at home jobs on the net and you have to watch out for them which suits you perfectly. You can easily find the most legitimate home jobs through internet. They list all legitimate companies on the net that can be trusted without scams. You can also do a search on many search engines and look for a home business that might fit you. There is freedom into working at home on the net.

You can work just about anywhere in the world and make money online. As long as you have a laptop with internet access, then you are ready to make money anywhere you go. You don’t have to quit your day job, you can do both and earn more money by working two jobs. Your work at home job can be a part time income until you start earning what you made at your day job. There is money to be made at home online. Find the right one and you can even earn six figures or even more. There are many people in the world who work at home online and earn seven figures. Finding work at home is easy and can be accomplished by anyone. Make sure that when you work at home, it is in the most comfortable place working at home in the world.

How can you make money with your blogs or sites

2008-11-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reflecting this week about the amazing diversity of opportunities that are opening up for bloggers to make money from blogging.

I’ve long advised that bloggers seeking to make money from blogging spread their interests across multiple revenue streams so as not to put all their eggs in one basket.
The wonderful thing is that this is becoming easier and easier to do 2005 has seen many options opening up. I thought I’d take a look at some of the methods that bloggers are currently using to make money through blogs.

1.Adsence
Despite not using it here at ProBlogger any more I continue to use AdSense with real effect on my other blogs. While I do use AdSense Referrals and their search feature it is their normal ads that work best for me. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design).

2.WidgetBucks

There are three ways to make money from WidgetBucks: PPC, or Pay-Per-Click ads. Each time a user from the U.S. or Canada clicks on a WidgetBucks ad widget on your site, you get paid. CPM, or Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions. When a user from outside the U.S. and Canada views one of your pages that contains a CPM ad from one of WidgetBucks' ad partners, you earn revenue.

Referrals. When you refer a new WidgetBucks user, you will receive a 5 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer. You'll receive this 5 percent for the full 12 months after the new member joins.

3.Chitika
Last time I did this sort of summary Chitika ranked #1. This time around it has been overtaken by AdSense - not because Chitika slipped in how much it earned but because AdSense went up and because I also replaced a few Chitika ad units with WidgetBucks ones. Chitika offers a range of ad units that I experiment with. I find their eMiniMalls work best and that Related Product Units are also good. Their Shoplincs product isn’t performing as well as it once did for me - mainly because I’ve been promoting it less and have driven less traffic to it. Over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars!