Make images not clickable enlarge

Sometimes I get funny requests, but more than a few times I have been asked this question - how to make images clickable. This is something I don't like to do, to use Blogger's post editor COMPOSE mode as I prefer to work in the post editor EDIT HTML mode for very good reasons and hope all you bloggers who are not familiar with that to start learning. It is not difficult and if you read the posts

Social bookmark buttons at bottom of posts (detailed)

Adding social bookmark at the bottom of every post seems to be a favorite request. Fortunately, AddThis has made it very easy. You can see an example of this at the bottom of every post of Natural Remedies.To get your own buttons, just go to AddThis social bookmark, click on GET YOUR BUTTON and that will take you to a page as shown in screen shot below:select the type of button you want, chose

Blogging Tip: Four Free Ways to Bring Traffic to your Blog

There are probably people out there who want to read your blog--maybe thousands of them.  How do I know this?  Think about it—at any given moment, there are millions of people online.   Chances are, some of them are interested in what you have to say (or write, or post).  I’m assuming, of course, that you are posting high quality content. 

But what if you have no advertising budget for your blog?  No problem!  Here are some free methods you can use to get more traffic to your blog.   

1. Social Networks:

Most of you are members of social networking sites (such as myspace, facebook, friendster, etc).  If not, you should be.  This is one of the easiest ways to get your core group of readers started.    Just announce your blog or post your updates in shout-outs, bulletins, etc.  Those in your network already have some kind of connection to you (even if they are just “chat mates”), so many will take the time to read your blog.

2. Blog Directories

If you look down on the right side of this blog, you’ll see all of the blog directories I’ve registered with (such as blogcatalog.com).

Blog directories help you in a couple of ways. Your blog will get hits from those searching the directory (especially from other members of the directory).  In addition, adding your link to a directory helps improves your blog’s ranking in search engines (SEO).

Most directories only require a reciprocal link or banner.  The registration takes a few minutes, but it is a worthwhile investment of your time.  Once you get registered and put the banner on your blog, the work is over.  The directory does the rest—most of them will list your recent posts in the directory.


3. Forums/Message Boards

There are multiple online forums for every imaginable topic.  Find a few that are related to your blog’s topic and join.  Many forums allow you to put your blog address in your “signature.”  Many allow you to post links, especially if you post an article that is related to the discussion.  Just be sure to follow the forum’s rules and do not flood it with irrelevant links. 

4. Entrecard

Entrecard is a banner exchange program I’ve mentioned in a previous article. 

Entrecard Review

Some of you may have noticed the little Entrecard widget that I’ve added to my blog (the “blog of the day” space over on the right). I’ve noticed these widgets on other blogs for quite some time, but only recently have I started using it.

What do I think? Well, I’m still using it, so I’m obviously satisfied with the results so far. Let me explain what Entrecard is and how it works. I’ll also give you my evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of using it.

Entrecard is basically a banner exchange service. You earn and use credits which are used to buy banner ads on other user’s blogs.

Now, here are the pros and cons of Entrecard:

PROS:


Increased Traffic
This service quickly brings new traffic to your site, which is a major advantage for new bloggers. The traffic comes in three ways:

1. Through advertising your website on other blogs.
2. Through the “drop” system—when another user visits your site and clicks the widget, that user earns one credit and gives you a credit.
3. Through the Entrecard website. Users find your website while browsing places to advertise.


Networking
I’ve found several new blogs/bloggers through Entrecard. I’ve particularly enjoyed finding Christian and Filipino bloggers. This works mutually—other bloggers have found my website.

It’s Free
Once you sign up, Entrecard gives you 250 credits to get going. You can earn more credits by advertising your blog and by dropping/receiving drops. You can also buy credits if you want (through paypal), but it isn’t necessary.

Access to Statistics
You can access fairly detailed information regarding the traffic/hits you are receiving from the system.

CONS:

Time Consuming
You don’t need money to use Entrecard, but you’ll need time. You can earn 300 credits a day through dropping, but I’ve never come close to that—I just don’t have the time (or motivation) to visit that many blogs. I’d rather spend my time on high quality content. 

The Pricing System
The cost of advertising on a blog depends entirely on the number of ads already in that blog’s queue. The more popular the blog, the more expensive and the longer you have to wait to advertise there. It isn’t a complicated system, but there’s one problem—you don’t really know how many hits a particular blog receives. This makes it difficult to know how valuable a blog really is in terms of potential traffic (you can learn after you have advertised, but the credits have been spent by then).  

Conclusion:
If you are willing to invest the time, Entrecard is a good way to increase traffic and network with other bloggers.

Short Introduction to inline CSS

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets and is used for controlling the presentation (fonts, colors and layout) of documents written in Markup Languages like HTML, XHTML and XML such as blogs. CSS can be written in a separate document called from the template, written in the template itself or written within this post itself (inline CSS). For example, the HTML tag for a paragraph is

. Now

Blogger Tip: Making Money Online

As I've mentioned before, there is no guarantee your blog will make money.  Having said that, there’s certainly no harm in trying.  After all—we bloggers often put a great deal of time and effort into our posts.

When you think about it, online advertising is very exciting.  Having a blog is kind of like having a lottery ticket—if your blog somehow becomes a success, the earning potential is virtually limitless. 

As with SEO, there are thousands of websites completely dedicated to making money online.  I’m not trying to compete with those sites—I simply want to provide some very basic information. 

Here are the two most common forms of online advertising:

Basic Text/Image Ads

Most advertisers pay cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM).  This is the most common form of online advertising/money making.

Google Adsense is the reigning champion of online advertising.  You simply sign up, configure the ad, copy/paste it into your blog, and you’re all set.  Their ads usually match the content of your blog, which greatly increases the likelihood of clicks (and profit).  Based on my (limited) research, this is how most bloggers make most of their money.

I also use blogbank, which specializes in ads for Filipinos.  Blogbank pays CPM. 


Referrals/Commission/Affiliate Programs

Other advertisers pay when visitors do something, like buying a product or signing up for a service.  Amazon affiliates would be one example—if someone clicks one of my book links (recommended reading) and buys the book, I would get a commission.

If you want to advertise on your blog, go for it!   It probably will not bother your readers, since they see ads on most of the websites they visit.  Just keep this in mind—advertisements are a lot like piercings: a few are OK, but if you overdo it . . .

Screen shots for Dummies using MS Paint

Screen Shots are very useful tools for illustrating instructions. It can also be invaluable when requesting for help as it helps one to explain one's problems. Here are some useful instructions and tips and tricks regarding screen shots.Tools for making screen shots are photo editors like Irfanview (free and very useful), MS Paint which can be found under ACCESSOEIES in all computers

Blogging Tip: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Simple steps to more traffic from search engines.

Just in case you are a novice, I'll explain Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in simple terms: 

Part of your traffic will come from search engines such as google.  Search Engine Optimization means designing your website so that: 1) search engines easily “find” your website 2) your website is highly ranked when certain terms are searched.

Let me clarify a few things before I get into my SEO tips:

*SEO does not seem to be an exact science—multiple factors influence your search engine ranking.  

*There are thousands of other websites where you can get more detailed SEO advice.  My list isn’t exhaustive--I just want to give a few simple, easy-to-follow steps.  To be honest, I've found many SEO articles to be too long, technical, and hard to understand.  That's why I'm writing my own. 

*High Quality Content is still the most important factor to a successful blog.  SEO can help people find your website, but content keeps them there.

OK, here are a few SEO techniques that I use here on my blog. 

1. Carefully choose the title of your articles/posts.

The title of your post, especially the first few words, becomes the permalink—the url address of that specific post.  To see how this works, simply point your mouse at the title of this blog article.  You’ll see this article's address at the bottom of your browser.

The title/permalink seems to be one of the most important factors in SEO.  Look up “romantic martyr,” for example, and my article ranks #1 on google (article from KuyaKevin.com).  The title of my article is one of the reasons it is ranked so highly.

Be sure to give your post/article a title which is catchy and has keywords that accurately reflects post’s content. 

2. Name your pictures (image files).

This, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked aspects of SEO.  Digital cameras give your images a generic file name.    Many bloggers simply post such images without renaming them.  The image’s name, however, can help people find your website (from google image search).  I get regular visits from those searching for  “faces of meth” pictures. 

Warning: do not give your pictures misleading names for the sake of SEO.  You will not keep visitors this way, and it may get you blocked from the search engine. 

3.  Consider the name/description of your blog.

If you already know what you plan to write about (your theme), give your blog a name and description that relate to the content. 

4.  Create backlinks.

Backlinks are simply links to your website posted on other sites.  The more there are, the higher your website will rank.  You can create backlinks by trading links with other bloggers, mentioning your blog when you comment on other blogs, etc. 

There you have it—SEO in four simple steps!

Blogger Tip: Balance Quality and Quantity

I’ve already mentioned the importance of high quality content.  But  there is also something to be said for posting frequently:

*Imagine a blog with 100,000 posts.  It would probably get thousands of hits from search engines due to the sheer number of posts.

*The best blogs are updated fairly frequently—at least once or twice a week (some at least once or twice a day).  Readers get bored if you rarely update.

I want to write quality posts, but I also need to update regularly.  Here’s how I handle this dilemma:

"Hamburger" vs. "Steak" Posts

Some posts simply require more thought than others.
 
My relationship (for women; for men) and devotional articles are “steak” posts.  Such articles/posts are very carefully researched, prayed over, and edited.  I think about them for days (or weeks) before finally publishing them online.  These posts are the most important, most read, and deserve the most attention.

Other posts are “hamburger” posts.  I don’t care if my movie reviews look like something you’d read in the New York Times.  Mentioning some research or another website doesn’t take much time. 

Likewise, you may find some topics/posts that interest your readers but don’t require a great deal of work.  Pictures, announcements, quotes, and random thoughts may give you some “burger” content for your blog.  Nothing wrong with burgers, just don’t forget the steak. 

Diversifying

I’ve mentioned that it is good to have a few major themes for a blog.  Having said that, you may want to experiment with other subjects that interest you.

Take fitness, for example.  Weight training/bodybuilding is something I’ve studied for years.  I wouldn’t want to create a separate blog/website for it, but I occasionally make posts about it here.  Some readers find my blog when they look for fitness information.

Note: A few months after writing this, I indeed decided to create my own fitness blog. 

Maybe these tips will help you keep fresh content on your blog.

Add pencil quick edit icon post

Blogger has added quick edit icon to the bottom of the post which is only visible when you are logged into your Blogger or Google account. This is a great convenience. However, if you are using some third party template and not the standard template provided by Blogger, this very convenient pencil quick edit icon may be missing. There have been a number of bloggers who have asked how to

Free Favicon generator and host

The icon (tiny photo of mine) in the address bar (in front of the URL) at the top of this browser is called a faviconIf you want to have a Favicon for your blog, refer to Favicon generator and host

Blogger for Dummies now 4 column

A few years ago, there were still almost 20% of visitors to this blog using the small 800x600px screen resolution and so this blog used a 3 column template designed for the 800x600 pixels screen resolution. However, large screens have become more popular and more common now and the latest statistics from statcounter visitor counter is given below:The statistics showed that the percentage of small

Blogger for Dummies multilingual

Blogger for Dummies has been redesigned to become 4 column. I now thus have more room to add widgets and a Google Translate widget has been placed at the top of the leftmost sidebar. If you want this blog to be translated into your language, just click the down arrow of Google Translator and chose your language. If I counted correctly, you can translate into 18 languages including standard and

Blogger and his guitar

I received an email which made me think back about my school days. 40 years ago, I wanted to learn to play the guitar. I had a cheap acoustic guitar and did manage to strum along some oldies like "I started a joke", "Proud Mary", etc. However, I was no expert. After getting that email, I dug out a guitar from my storeroom (photo below):It is a Yamaha FG-400A acoustic guitar. Makes this blogger's

Use active link when commenting

Not infrequently, one gets a commentator who leaves an inactive long URL when leaving a comment in a blog. Now if that URL happens to be a long one, one will get an unsightly long unbroken line like in the screen shot below:Depending on the situation, this unnecessary problem may be just a problem of aesthetic where the long URL juts beyond the boundary of the main column into the sidebar either

Advice for Beginner Bloggers: Be Patient

Successful blogging is kind of like building a skyscraper--it takes time to do it right:

*It takes time to build an audience of faithful readers.

*It takes time to develop a collection of high quality posts.

*It takes time to improve your writing skills. 

*It takes time for word to spread about your blog (by word of mouth, links, etc).

There are exceptions—blogs that become popular overnight.  Even in these cases, such blog authors will have to keep posting in order to keep their readers interested.  Otherwise, they might turn into “one hit wonders” (borrowing a reference from the musical world).  They may fade away as soon as they appear.

Do some research—you’ll find that most of the top blogs have been around for at least two or three years. 

Be patient!  Good blogs take time to build.

Advice for Beginners Bloggers: Tip#3 Content

What attracts loyal readers? High quality content.

What brings repeat visits to blogs? High quality content.

What separates good blogs from wasted bandwidth? High quality content.

What causes your blog to get recommended to others? You guessed it--high quality content.

Quality Content is the key to a successful blog.

Maybe you think your writing isn’t good enough to be considered “quality.” Good writing is important, but there are several different types of blog posts: pictures, videos, links, news, etc. Whatever direction you take, aim for quality.

Here are a few suggestions to improve the quality of your posts:

Check out other successful blogs. This will give you new ideas for design, content, etc. You can see what other bloggers are writing about. You’ll also be able to see if your posts are original. You might decide to publicly respond to another website/blogger, as I’ve done before.

Research. You can find a wealth of information online—do some research before you write. Become an “expert” at your chosen subject/theme. I have 11 books listed in the “recommended reading” section of Basta LoveLife. I read all of these books after moving to the Philippines—I read them in order to be a better minister to my students. I can think of at least three more relationship books that I’ve read in 2008.

Use word processors. Write your article in Microsoft Word (or a similar program) before posting. Word programs will catch some of the spelling/grammatical problems (but it won’t catch everything—don’t rely completely on the software). Save it, re-read it, and edit it. Sometimes it takes days (or weeks) before I decide an article is ready for posting. This step also keeps you from losing your writing if your browser crashes.

Practice your writing skills. The more you write, the more you’ll improve. Don’t wait until your writing is perfect—it will never happen. I make mistakes all of the time—it is part of learning.

Quote other blogs, books, magazines, etc. As long as it is relevant to your blog’s theme, your readers will appreciate learning about these sources of information. Be sure to give credit!

Watch the comments/feedback. Readers will let you know which posts they particularly enjoyed.

Write down your ideas. I keep my blog ideas on a “sticky note” software here on my computer. Some ideas get abandoned, others get developed, and some are put on hold.

Advice for Beginner Bloggers (part 2)

Tip #2 Post with Passion; Develop Major Themes

I originally planned to write these as two separate steps, but they kind of go together.

Here goes:

I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do when I first started this blog. At first I was writing about some of the political issues happening in my religious denomination back in the States (yawn). Those posts were deleted. My first post (that I didn’t delete) was a movie review.

I eventually focused on two major themes: relationship advice (for men, for women) and devotionals. Once I chose these themes, the writing just flowed. It isn’t hard for me to find inspiration to write—I already care about these subjects. Over two years (and a book) later, I’m still writing regularly.

It’s OK if you only want to write about your day-to-day life (after all, this is just a hobby). People you know personally may be interested in anything that comes to your mind. Just remember that the masses probably won’t care to read about what you had for breakfast.

If you want a broader audience, write about subjects that will appeal to those outside your immediate circle of friends. Relatively few of my readers know me personally. They read my blog because of the subject matter. In the same way, I tend to read blogs related to subjects I’m interested in (Christian issues, technology, etc). The Internet’s reach is vast—chances are you’ll find readers who share similar interests/passions.

Hopefully you can develop a few major themes. Some of the most visited blogs, in fact, are focused on one major subject (technology, making money, etc). It may take some trial and error, but try to find some general direction for your writing.

Write about things you care about, choose a general direction, and you’ll be one step closer to attracting a loyal reader base.

Ordered list HTML

If you want to display an ordered list like for example:this is line 1this is line 2this is line 3the HTML to display them is given below:

1. this is line 1
2. this is line 2
3. this is line 3

Advice for Beginner Bloggers

Tip #1: Don’t Quit Your Day Job


Can you make money through a blog/website? Yes. Can you make a lot of money? Yes. Consider, for example, the story of Ashley Qualls. This teenager’s eight dollar website (whateverlife.com) turned her into a millionaire. Such success is theoretically possible for anyone, which makes the Internet a very exciting medium. Post something online and it could be read/visited millions of times, making you rich and famous (or infamous, as the case may be).

But this is the exception, not the rule. I think there’s some naivety regarding the amount of money a new website/blog will make. Maybe some people believe all they have to do is start a blog, post an ad code, and wait for the big checks to come.


Sorry, but it usually doesn’t happen this way.


Web advertisers generally pay pennies per click (“cost per click” CPC) or pennies per thousand impressions (“cost per thousand” CPM). You’ll need significant traffic to make money from CPC or CPM advertisements. There are other ways to make money (affiliate programs, etc), but all of them require traffic, and lots of it.

You’re probably not going to start out with this kind of revenue-producing traffic.

Take my first blog, for example. I started out with some major advantages. I had hundreds of students’ email addresses, which gave me an instant reader base. Since then I’ve subscribe hundreds more. I’ve been able to promote my blog through radio. I even advertise my blog online.

The result: KuyaKevin.com is now getting 500-1000 hits a day (this includes hits that I get through online advertising). And it still doesn’t make a profit. Advertising revenues do help me offset my advertising costs, but that’s about it.

My blog may never make a profit, and that’s fine with me. Why, then, do I blog? Two reasons: 1. I love to write 2. It is a way to minister to others.

That’s enough for me.

Here’s my point: consider blogging a hobby, not a guaranteed source of income. If it becomes profitable, great! It may help supplement your income, and you might even become a professional blogger. If not, you are expressing yourself and having a great time doing it (enjoyment is supposed to be the point of a hobby, right?).

Blogger: Beyond the Basics (Book)

Press Release, May 2008Go Beyond the Basics of Blogger with New BookBlogger: Beyond the Basics is a new book from Packt, which will take users beyond the basics of Blogger. Written by Lee Jordan, this book will help users to take full advantage of the rich and powerful features of Blogger to transform their blog into a fresh and state-of-the-art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. Blogger

Hack blinking text CSS javascript

Now generally, if you want to display blinking text, you would have to add something to your blog CSS (Cascading Style Script) and use Javascript. Further, this will only work with the Internet Explorer web browser. Now you can display any blinking text without tampering with the blog CSS or template and the blinking effect will be displayed in any browser. I have tested it at testing blinking

Cannot find blog with search engine?

A frequent complaint of new bloggers is that they cannot find their blog when searching for their blog with search engines. First, your blog need to be indexed by search engines. To check if your blog or website is indexed by a search engine, type:site:URL of blog or websitefor example, type this:site:http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.cominto the search box and press the key ENTER. If you get

Venture capital for blogging startup

I have intention to start my own Internet business - Blogger Dough which will be related to blogging. However, I need the service of an Australian IT firm and that will cost money. With regard to this respect, it is possible to seek Venture Capital. I had a look at that website and it looks interesting and may be what I am seeking as it is a website via which small startup business can post

Abandoned or neglected blog URL - is it available?

This request frequently crops up. A blogger wants a certain Blogger blog URL but it cannot get it because someone had already registered and either the blog is abandoned or neglected or didn't publish even a single post yet. Blogger wants to know if it is available. Unfortunately, the answer is no. The URL is reserved in case the person who registered it decided to do something about it later.

Beginner HTML tutorial - hyperlink

Active Hyperlink HTML and attributesOne more example for this HTML tutorial. Now we will learn hyperlink. First I will show how to make a hyperlink to a blog (or any other web page) without learning HTML, then I will explain the HTML tag for hyperlink so you can type it yourself without depending on the link icon , then how you can add some attributes to make it more useful. How to get the URL of

Dummies Guide to HTML Part 1

HTML is easyFirst, rest be assured that learning enough HTML (HyperText Markup Language, but don't let this bombastic name frighten you please) to be able to control the appearance of your blog and the properties or attributes of various things in your blog is not difficult. Just to reassure you, you can actually add HTML to your blog without knowing HTML at all. First, in the post editor, don't

Duplicate content search engines penalty redirect

You don't have to understand HTML to be able to use it. Example code for image

Many beginning bloggers have problems with the uploading of images in Blogger. This is because Blogger always upload the image to the top of the post irrespective of where the position of the mouse cursor is. Now if you use the COMPOSE mode, you will have to use the clumsy process of drag and drop to get the image to where you want it to be. I find this very cumbersome especially if you have to

How get URL own blog methods

Every blog has its own URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or an address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet. You can get the URL of your own blog either from the Dashboard. Look for the link "VIEW BLOG", left-click on it and select "Copy link location" (note: different browser will have slightly different wordings):The other way is to left click on VIEW BLOG in the POST EDITOR, or

Backup classic template for the XML New Blogger template

Before you convert your Blogger blog with classic template to use the New Blogger XML template, it will be good to copy the classic template template into a Notepad file and save it, say, in a folder named backup template followed by the name of the blog if you have more than one blog. Note that this classic backup template cannot be used directly as a backup for a New Blogger XML template. What

Super Custom Template Blogger Buster

Amanda of Bloggerbuster has made what she calls the Super Custom Blogger template. She called it Super Custom because she has made it one of her most customizable template where many things including fonts, colors, etc., can be changed from the Dashboard.You can see a demonstration blog using this Super Custom Blogger template at Guide to Denmark. Although it is highly customizable, I did not do

Reset widget Page Element comment signature etc.

Please refer to Symptoms of problems. Trouble shooting tips. Instruction to reset widgets and Page Elements if your blog is missing comments link, author signature, etc. even though settings are set to enable comments, etc.Please provide feedback as to whether that trouble shooting tips work.Symptoms of problems. Trouble shooting tips. Instruction to reset widgets and Page Elements.

Apologies to bloggers who left comments still not getting responses - Examination June 14

1000 apologies to bloggers who left comments still not getting responses. Peter Chen sitting for examination on June 14. Will work on comments on and after June 14.

Peter Chen is back: Responding to backlog of Comments now

Hi all, sorry for the delay in approving your comments and responding to them. I am back from medical leave. Nothing serious, just warded for observation because of low blood sodium level. It was a long stay - almost 2 weeks. But it was a much needed rest. Now I have some 121 comments to go through in 3 blogs and more in blogs using different Blogger account:For those whose comments are in those

Promotional Products PDF book eBook

You may have read about my disappointment at not being accepted as an author for Blogger for Dummies (Wiley Publications) but was not selected because I troubled the publisher with too many emails. Perhaps that "failure" is a blessing in disguise as I now have a more holistic dream or goal, and it all started with agreeing to help my sister-in-law, Kok Lee Wah, with a blog to help her recruit

Embed Youtube video in blog post

Most videos uploaded to Youtube allows embedding as a script is normally provided on the left of the video. See screen shot below:Follow the red error from the text with yellow background. Click inside the box containing the Youtube video script for embedding {this may not be necessary, but if the whole of the script in not highlighted (blue), or if you want to be doubly sure that you have got

Peter Chen on Medical Leave

Dear all,Peter Chen (Blog Star) is currently on medical leave and is unable to approve and respond to your comment and email messages. He will get back to you as soon as he is able to. Your patience is much appreciated.Mi Ghent(Peter's daughter)

Free games: Some love it, some don't so.....

Well, I never like Free Games. In fact, you can say I hate it. I hate it when I see my son playing games when he should be studying. I hate it when I see youngsters whiling their time late in the morning in cyber cafe when they should be in bed.You may share my feelings, but who are we to decide what other likes. If they love Pokemon Shoot, are we to tell them no, The Idiot Test 2 (probably a

Late responses: Apologies and reasons

There are a number of comments still not approved and responded to yet. I apologize to those kept waiting and just wish to let them know I was asked to be admitted to hospital Wednesday and had no access to the Internet. I am out now. I am fine with just a small problem that will probably be resolved soon. I need to finish some tasks with datelines first and I will then turn my attention to those

How to make photo not clickable

This is a rare question as most have problems where they found their photos not clickable and want to know why plus the solution. One reason put forth is when you upload your photos in the Blogger post editor COMPOSE and then drag-drop them to shift them around (something which I hate to do), the photos may become unclickable. However I myself have not tried it myself as I hate to use the COMPOSE

BLOGHOUSE: Malaysian bloggers headquarter

Bloggers, political situation and press freedom in MalaysiaBloggers in Malaysia are a special breed. They have been accorded all kind of names like "monkey bloggers", "female lying bloggers" and "goblok". According to Wikipedia Indonesia, "Goblok adalah sebuah kata yang artinya Bodoh atau Tolol" which translated to plain English is "Goblok is a word meaning stupid or asinine, balmy, dimwitted,

Adwords for Bloggers on a Budget

Last month I began advertising this blog through Google adwords. I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned.

This article is primarily for those considering using adwords for the first time. I’m especially interested in helping those (like me) with a limited budget.

A few things to keep in mind:

*Your blog needs to be worth reading.
*Don’t count on recovering the advertising money through adsense. You need massive traffic (thousands of hits a day) to earn any significant revenue from adsenses.
*Be patient. It takes time to create traffic and build up your blog reading “audience.” Adwords can help, but it won’t happen overnight.

CPM vs. CPC

CPM—cost per thousand. You pay per thousand impressions, regardless of the number of actual clicks.

CPC—cost per click. You pay only for the number of clicks.

Never, never, never use CPM! This was my biggest mistake when I first started advertising. A few cents per thousand may sound cheap, but it will quickly exhaust your budget with little to show for it. Why?

Major websites do millions of page impressions—CPM works to their advantage, not yours.

Most of your impressions will not result in clicks. You will probably not even get a 1% click through rate. Think of how many ads you completely ignore every day. CPM is fine for big businesses with big money, but not for you.

You should be able to get your cost-per-click down to 5 cents or less (I’m usually able to get it down to 3 cents). This will require a little patience, because it takes the system a while to “find” places where your ads work.

Keyword vs Placement

You’ll have the option of advertising by keyword or placement. I would not recommend starting a keyword account. The major websites/businesses are also bidding on keywords, so it tends to be expensive.

I would recommend choosing other parameters for your advertising. Adwords allows you to choose certain topics or website for your ads. You can also choose to limit your ad to specific locations. Chances are you can find places that will run your ad for just a few cents per click.

Designing Ads

Text ads should be your primary strategy. They are cheaper to run than image ads, so they are usually more cost effective. Your text ad should be something that gets attention. Some of my ads, for example, have the same title as my blog articles (such as The Male Sex drive and Three Stupid Words that Women Say). These tend to get more clicks.

It usually requires a slightly higher bid to get image ads to run. You can use photoshop or mybannermaker.com to design an ad.

So, are you ready to start? If you decide to use Adwords, please click one of my banners in the right column.

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Blog Types: medical - cancer

Every now and then, we get bloggers asking what is a blog and what kind of blogs can we create. Well, the answer to the first is very straight forward. Blog is an amalgamation of 2 words Web Log and the B came from the last alphabet of b and log of course came from log which can be another word for a journal or diary. That was how blog and blogging. It is an online diary or journal where you

Add space to blog post, but not with space bar

When you prepare a post with Blogger, you can only add a single space using the space bar. Even if you press the space bar 1000 times, two words will only be separated by a single space. If you need to create more than that, you will have to use what is know as non-breaking space. Now I am going to create a wide space between "begin" and "end" in the example below:begin               endIf you

Cannot sign into Blogger. What to do

Very common problem. Either blogger have forgotten the username (email address) or cannot remember password. How to get Blogger username or passwordAll you need to do is to go to www.blogger.com/start,don't fill in any of the fields (boxes), just click on "Sign in". The next page, you will seeAt the bottom, you see "forgot your password?". Click on that and the next page will revealIf you forgot

Export Blogger posts to Wordpress

I would hate to see you go, but if you must leave Blogger for Wordpress and want to export your Blogger blog posts to your new Wordpress blog, refer toNew Wordpress import from BloggerHowever, note the following:

Get more visitors: Update frequently

Update blog regularly to get more traffic (visitors)Search engines love websites which are updated frequently. Here is one of the main reason blogs are popular with search engines. By its nature, blogs frequently have new posts. By updating frequently, the likelihood of your blog getting hits from search engines are higher. Neglect your blog and the reverse is true. I just read one Internet

Get back blog accidentally deleted,

How to get back a blog which had been accidentally deletedThis is another problem because the "Save Settings" in Settings > Basic (default)are so close to each other and it is understandable why sometimes careless bloggers accidentally click on the wrong button.Some reassurance about deleted blogsPreviously, when a blog is deleted, the blog URL is released to others to grab. In the past this

Clicking on image does not enlarge image: Why and how

This is a frequent question. Why is it when I click on an image (photo, screen shot, etc.), it does not enlarge and how do I make it enlarge?I was told that if you upload a photo or image in the Blogger post editor window COMPOSE mode, and you drag and drop the photo or image, it will result in exactly the above problem. I myself practically never use the COMPOSE mode, always the EDIT HTML mode

SEO (search engine optimization) for blogs

What is SEO (search engine optimization)?Search engine optimization (SEO) is what one do to try to increase the traffic (visitors) to a blog or website. It can be on site SEO (done in the blog or website with proper use if keywords, placement of keywords (many says it is best to put the more important keywords near the beginning and end of a post or page), incorporating keywords in the blog or

Bloggers need home IT support

I don't know about you, but my field is science, not IT. I have no formal training in IT and whatever I learned about HTML, XHTML, CSS, skills needed by a webmaster (bloggers are by default webmasters as they are response for how their blog are displayed and found by surfers on the Web). Further, I have 4 computers in my home which are networked together for Internet access. Beyond that, I have

Protection for bloggers and surfers

I have read of many cases of blogs being hijacked, hacked into, and all kind of very unpleasant stuff. If your blog get hijacked, not only you may not have access to your blog, you may find it being redirected to porn or sexually explicit websites which can be really embarrassing especially if you have given the blog URL to relatives, friends, colleagues, business associates, etc. Further, as a

Searching for blogs by topics or subjects

I have previously published Technorati blog search engine and blog ranking website but a more comprehensive post need to be published. We will discuss the possibilities one by one:Blogger Profile's Interests and FavoritesYou can add your interests and favorites in various fields when editing your Blogger Profile (if you don't know how to do this, you will have to commend and ask for help). The

Update: Why use plain narrow template for my blog

I have previously explained why my main blogs are so plain (no graphics) and narrow with "wasted blank space" on both sides if viewed with large screen at Why I use this plain (Minima) template for my main blogs (click BACK button to get back to this page) where I pointed (linked) to a big news website (BBC news) which will have large "wasted blank space" on the right side. Today, while examining

Why I use this plain template for this blog

Choices of templates are very personal, as different people have different preferences and requirements. Some like very fanciful ones with lots of colors and graphics, some like plain ones like this blog. Some cannot stand the blank "wasted" space of this blog if you are viewing this blog with a wide or big screen and prefer templates which display the blog across the whole screen with no blank

Unable to find post? Possible reasons and solutions

We get frequent questions who are keen to have their blogs found by search engines. They say they search for their blog by searching for their own name or the topic of the blog or post, but failed to find any. Before your blog or posts can be found by search engines, they must be indexed first, and that may take some time. So the first thing to do is to find out if your blog had been indexed.

Green Bloggercon 2008, United States of America

Bloggers conferences, forums, exhibitionsUnfortunately for us non-US residents, most of the bloggers related events are held in the United States of America. My first blog was an Environmental blog: Enviroman Says and if it is practical, I would love to go for this event:

Green Bloggercon 2008
May 16th Chicago, Illinois

It will be a conference for green bloggers, by green bloggers. Not only

Spell check for Blogger: How to overcome current problem with Blogger built-in spell check problems

The spell check built-in the toolbar of the Blogger post editor is broken (not working). Blogger is aware of the problem and is working on the problem and hopefully will get it licked soon. In the meantime, you will have to use other ways:Spell check with Google toolbar in Internet ExplorerI used to very much prefer using the spell check with the Google toolbar in FireFox. However, ever since

Moderating comments from Dashboard plus problems

Advantages of moderating comments via email notificationI have set comments in almost all my blogs for moderation via email notification. This means each time a visitor makes a comment, I get an email with the full message and I can approve or reject a comment from there. Moderating comments via email notification has many advantages over moderating via the Dashboard. The first big one I would

Earn with blogs

Why people blogBlogs are created for various reasons. Some are created as a result of an itchy mouth like http://my-first-grandchild.blogspot.com/(My first grandchild)which resulted from a simple question when my daughter gave me the CD containing the nuchal scan of her unborn baby, my first grandchild: "Why don't you put it on the Web?". She retorted: "Why don't YOU do it?".Some created blogs to

Increase traffic and enhance reputation via SezWho?

I have been informed that BlogCatalog, a social network for bloggers which claims a membership of over 100,000 bloggers together with SezWho will be providing a system for comment tracking and ranking platform for bloggers. This sounds like good news for me who post comments extensively and most are what I believe to be good, helpful comments based on comments left by grateful bloggers. It will

Essential tools for bloggers

Depending on the topic you blog on, the tools you need will vary. One thing you just cannot do without - a computer.

Computer for bloggersWhat kind of computer will also vary depending on your preferences and habits. For me, I do very heavy multi-tasking. Now when I look at my task bar, I see 3 browsers (that is few because it is not infrequent I have 6 browsers) opened with multiple tabs, 2

How to get back lost "blogroll" or Link List after upgrading from old classic template to New Blogger template

Before I even start discussing topic in title, my advice is save a copy of your old classic template before you do anything like upgrading to New Blogger template. Yes, I know, Blogger said they will save a copy for you, but in order to get that old classic template after upgrading, you have to revert to old classic template from your now New Blogger template, which means if you do not follow the

Bloggers, digital cameras and pixels

Why bloggers need digital camerasI don't know about you, but I blog on all kinds of topics from A to Z. I have travel blogs, and for these kind of blogs, a digital camera is essential. Even "political" blogs like Blog for Positive Changes which one may think should be mostly text only content may need photos as you can see from the number of photos in this post - Long March for Justice and Rally

Peter's Consultation for promoting website selling beauty products using private blog

I had a request from someone to for help to promote her website which sells beauty products and offered good rewards if I do well. So what did I do? I set up a private blog Peter's Consultation where I will be posting secret tips and tricks gained from experience through long hours and hard work. Can't afford to make those secret tips and tricks public you know, for after all, someone has offered

Transferring content from one blog to another

Some blogger has asked how to transfer content from one blog to another. For Google Blogger blogs, there is no way to do this automatically. First, you must make a decision. Are you prepared for extra work? That is, are you willing to edit your old post so that it is different from your earlier posts? Reason for this is, many says search engine penalize duplicate content (controversial). I try to

Label counts for old classic Blogger template

A blogger wanted to know if one will see the number of posts for a certain label when one uses an old classic Blogger template. The only way I can answer is to test it out myself, which was done with a demonstration blog at Eye Care Guide, a blog which uses a classic template. You will see the labels at the bottom left of the posts. To make it clearer, I will put a screenshot below:The labels are