After rolling out most requested feature, Read more for blogger blogs, now yet another useful feature to create pages in blogger blogs which helps bloggers to place information about their blog, contacting details of author like that.Pages feature now available for bloggers in Blogger in Draft.After testing this feature by Blogger team, it will be rolled out to all users in Blogger platform.
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
The following are the big names in microblogging
Twitter
This is probably the most popular micro blogging services. It allows users to post their updates both via the internet and via cell phone with SMS .
Tumblr
Another interesting micro blogging website, it allows users to share videos, photos and web links, apart from text.
MySay
Instead of writing, you can speak out your mind using your mobile phone. This sound bite is recorded and can be shared with your "followers".
Moodmill
You rate your mood along a colour-coded scale and then compose a few words to accompany it.
I Rate my Day
This website requries you to rate the progress of your day on a scale from "worst" to "great".
Creating a section in blog header lets you add gadgets in your blog below and above your blog header.It is much more easy to create a section to add gadgets below and above your blog header.Follow the simple tutorials below and know how to create it.
Search for the code with id='header' in the code section of your blog without expanding widget templates.The block of code looks like this.
BEFORE
< id="'header-wrapper'">
< class="'header'" id="'header'" maxwidgets="'1' showaddelement='no'>
< id="'Header1'" locked="'true'" title="'Bloganol" type="'Header'/">
< /b:section>
< /div>
Now change showaddelement='no' to showaddelement='Yes' and maxwidgets='5' like below.Here maxwidgets='5' means you can add maximum 5 widgets in your header section. You can also increase or decrease the no. of widgets by simply replacing this no '5'.
AFTER
< id="'header-wrapper'">
< class="'header'" id="'header'" maxwidgets="'5' showaddelement='yes'>
< id="'Header1'" locked="'true'" title="'Bloganol" type="'Header'/">
< /b:section>
< /div>
Search for the code with id='header' in the code section of your blog without expanding widget templates.The block of code looks like this.
BEFORE
< id="'header-wrapper'">
< class="'header'" id="'header'" maxwidgets="'
< id="'Header1'" locked="'true'" title="'Bloganol" type="'Header'/">
< /b:section>
< /div>
AFTER
< id="'header-wrapper'">
< class="'header'" id="'header'" maxwidgets="'
< id="'Header1'" locked="'true'" title="'Bloganol" type="'Header'/">
< /b:section>
< /div>
When faced with the myriad Content options that users have when they surf the web, many bloggers feel enormous pressure to update their blogs on a daily, consistent basis. But is this truly a productive practice? Today we take a look at one theory.
Over at Markting Profs Daily Fix, Eric Kintz has a piece entitled "Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore" Kintz's piece is lucid and disarmingly well-reasoned. Step by step, he lays out why frequent posting is hurting the credibility of blogs and online content in general. I'm particularly impressed by his closing.
"If you want to be a top 50 Technorati blogger, you will most probably still need to post several times a day. But for the rest of us, we should think seriously about the added value of frequent blogging. Actually, according to Technorati, only 11% of all blogs update weekly or more. What will matter more and more is what you write and how you engage, not how often you write. As the blogosphere matures, the measure of success will shift from traffic to reader loyalty. As Seth Godin says in his post, "blogging with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that's a long way of saying "making every word count") will use attention more efficiently and ought to win."
"If you want to be a top 50 Technorati blogger, you will most probably still need to post several times a day. But for the rest of us, we should think seriously about the added value of frequent blogging. Actually, according to Technorati, only 11% of all blogs update weekly or more. What will matter more and more is what you write and how you engage, not how often you write. As the blogosphere matures, the measure of success will shift from traffic to reader loyalty. As Seth Godin says in his post, "blogging with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that's a long way of saying "making every word count") will use attention more efficiently and ought to win."
This idea seems obvious, but not very prevalent in today's blogosphere. I have seen mountains and mountains of blogs that have succumbed to the curse of the daily update and often the results are not pretty. It's far more important to spend time cultivating a community through insightful updates and commenting on friends' blogs than it is to pump out a half-hearted post every day. Simultaneously, though, you should try and let your readers know when they should expect an update, lest they lose interest. Blogging in this fashion (i.e. for yourself) is a delicate balancing act that takes time to get the hang of, but in the end it pays off.
Ultimately, Kintz's piece reminds us of what we already knew all along: Quality is more important than quantity. And if you don't have anything to say, don't say it.
Of course there is no single reason to have a blog, but here are a few reasons I came up with off the top of my head:
· To keep a diary.· To share interesting things with friends, family, others.
· Share professional knowledge and experiences.
Mostly people used blogs for all three purposes mentioned above at one point or another and have even maintained several blogs simultaneously for those purposes. Blogging is not specifically about making friends or making enemies and its not about pleasing people. Of course it's always a good practice to reach out and extend the conversation to others in your niche but not at the expense of your journalistic integrity.
Blogging is more about being open and being honest no matter what you write about, and writing passionately. If you do it right and help people, of course you will make them happy, and if you do it innocently, well, then... If you write a positive review you will probably win some friends, and if you write a negative one, you are bound to get some hate mail, but all of this comes with the territory. If your intention is just to please people then not only are you compromising your integrity but you are setting yourself up for failure because you can't please everyone all the time.
So why do you blog and what do you think it's all about?
One of the primary reasons you probably set up your blog is so you can establish yourself as an expert, in whatever area you’re knowledgeable. But you’re not the only one in the world, and every once in a while you may want to see what others in the industry are talking about as well.
There are a couple of different reasons you may seek out other experts in your field, such as inspiration, additional perspective, basic market research, or validation of a point you’ve already made on your blog. There are other times you may want to turn to the “general public” to see what they think of your area of interest, for many of the same reasons I just listed above.
But how do you go about this without compromising your own status as an expert? Simply asking a question can make you appear as though you need advice, instead of being the expert that’s capable of offering advice to others. But there are ways to reach out to others without appearing “out of the loop” regarding your area of expertise. I’ve listed a handful of ways below:
Create a Poll
This poll can ask a basic question, and offer up a few options for others to choose from. Another option for a poll is to let others write in their own answers, which will give you a great deal more feedback on your topic. There are several poll creation sites out there that let you put your poll in a widget format that can then be posted on your blog or any other site that supports HTML.
That means you can post your poll on various social networking sites, or ask others to post your poll on their sites or blogs as well. Some third party applications for poll creation are supported in a more integrated fashion on social networks, and sites like Facebook have native apps for creating polls and quizzes, which are then sent to your friends within that network. The wider you cast your net, the more perspective you’ll be able to gain from an array of people.
Ask Questions in your Blog Articles
If you include questions in your actual blog article, you’re easily able to request the opinions of others. On the one hand, you’ve already expressed your opinion, establishing your authority. But asking others to contribute their two cents as well makes you appear open and willing to consider the opinions of others.
It’s a win-win situation for you, as you get to spur ongoing discussion around your topic, while providing an engaging environment that you and your readers can learn from. In this case, I would also recommend integrating your outreach questions and statements throughout your article instead of merely placing a “closing” question at the end of your article. This is a more thoughtful approach that is also less templated.
Turn to the Twitterverse
Twitter is a great way to ask a lot of people for their input on a single question. But in asking a question on Twitter, you can easily come across as less than adequate. If you are in the process of establishing your authority through your blog, or you have already done so, posing such questions in a place as public as Twitter can put you in a compromising situation.
Reword your questions so that your followers know you are seeking additional insight, or would just like to hear from them for engagement purposes. You’ll be surprised by how many people are willing to help you out if you simply ask. Be sure to continuously engage these users, as they may be able to help you out the next time you need inspiration or insight from others.
Developing popular content is one thing, but how do you keep your blog as a whole in demand?
1. Publish less
You should be throwing far more ideas away than you actually publish. Edit your content ideas.If you’re serious about becoming someone with in-demand content take only the absolute best ideas.
2. When you do publish: analyze, learn and refine
Even following the art of holding back, not everything you throw at the wall is going to stick. Far more will fall flat. That’s okay because if you’re analyzing as you go, you’ll start to see patterns in the noise of your niche and know what will flood and what will fall flat.
3. Personality and character…they’re in demand
There was a trend for a while of people seeking more professionally-focused content from blogs. It is still around to a good degree, but future prediction is this trend is going to fall the other way. The fact is now that so many businesses and industries see the benefits of blogging, they’re putting tons of resources and time behind it. The content produced on their sites is clean, polished and professional. But what most lack is personality and character. That is an enduring trait of successful content-based sites and we will see a proper return to form in the coming years.
4. Take chances, experiment
Bearing you’re creating content in an ultra-competitive category, you need to come up with creative content plays which break the mold. If you want to grow at scale it’s not about playing it safe and creating cookie-cutter content, you need to take chances. After enough data you will start to find the formula that works for you. It’s a commitment and things aren’t going to happen immediately, but if you can persevere and have the freedom to test, the rewards will come.
5. Fresh thinking
Interpret your subject matter through a different lens, come at it from an unlikely angle and you position yourself to grow. The strategy here should be to approach from an angle that the current players either haven’t considered or simply cannot take as it counters their thesis. Overcrowded niches are that way for a reason: they are popular, and there is always demand for the viewpoints not presented.
6. Give away secrets
Larger players may not give away secrets anymore because, well, what reason do they have? Their new content may only be popular by virtue of the fact that their sites now have distribution (popularity breeds popularity). This is a huge opportunity to move the demand to your content by giving away secrets or less-obvious bits of information the larger players no longer want to share. This plays into one of the core strategies for creating demand in markets of infinite goods: providing value unattainable elsewhere.
7. Lead, don’t follow
We naturally look to leaders for guidance, and while you don’t always need to lead everywhere in your life, your blog should be a place you’re leading readers down a path.
8. Condition readers that your content will meet an expectation
And once in awhile break it. This is like a shot of adrenaline for loyal readers. Always meeting expectation is guaranteed to lull your audience into a trance. Doing something that breaks the mold once in awhile will shake things up and remind readers your usual material is in demand. Readers know you’ll return to form, they will stick around if you have delivered value for long enough (this strategy works well for established sites). Examples of this can be something like posting an image instead of text one day with no explanation, posting a one sentence post when you usually post 1,000 word articles, or simply taking a week off when you usually publish daily. When you return to form, people will have a renewed appreciate for what you do. If you execute this effectively, you can concurrently make a lasting statement.
9. Just be yourself
We form relationships with the people behind the content more than the content itself. Content is in essence a proxy to create a relationship between writer and reader. By being yourself, your personality is going to shine through in your writing and keep visitors coming back. If you’re working with a team, be careful not to create content which has had the personality scraped out of it by being a product of design by committee.
10. Evolve your thesis
Did your site thesis become irrelevant overnight? That’s an easy fix – evolve your thesis. Don’t even say it publicly, just do it and readers will naturally follow along and notice how you’ve kept with the times and stayed relevant. If what you are doing isn’t cutting edge it probably isn’t in demand.
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