Cool Christmas Snow Effect For Blogger

Got this post from the usual one, enjoy blogger people ;) 

Over the last few years I have tried to help you get your blogs into the Christmas spirit with some neat Christmas themed gadgets.The most popular and simple of these have been the Snow Fall effects we have published.Some code added to your blog can transform the look of your site as over the Christmas period visitors are greeted with snow falling gently down the page.

This year is no different as I have a new Christmas snow effect but this time it's a snow storm with the direction of the snow fall dictated by your cursor movements.Check out the demo below then you can add it to your blog using our one click Blogger button.

Add The Snow Storm Effect To Your Blog

Simply click the add to blogger button below, 
on the next page select your blog and click add widget.

That's it you now have a neat seasonal look on your blog.
Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

Source: [Link] 

10 Writing Tips of Famous Authors You Can Use

With nearly a hundred literary masterpieces between them, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, and C.S. Lewis could be considered experts on the writing process. Fortunately for those who chose to take up the career in their wake, these famous authors left behind valuable tips and tricks to make the process easier.

While the blog’s conception was decades after their time, their knowledge is still applicable to the trade. Check out these 10 writing tips of the famous authors. See how relevant they are to your blog today.

Kurt Vonnegut

Our first five tips come from Kurt Vonnegut. He instructed writers on how to establish a convincing and effective writing style. A paraphrase of his remarkable thoughts is as follows:

1. If your thoughts are scrambled any which way, your readers will think you don’t care about them.

2. Keep it simple. William Shakespeare used extremely simple sentences to convey extremely profound topics. For example, consider the famous line, “To be or not to be?” from Hamlet; the longest word is three letters long! Even the Bible opens with a simple, straight forward proclamation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

3. No matter how wonderful a sentence is, 
if it doesn’t add new and useful information it should be removed.

4. Say what you mean. If I ignored the rules of punctuation, invented words, and strung it all together any way I chose, no one would understand me.

5. Write on a topic that you are passionate about and which you feel others should care about too. It is your passion, not your eloquent language skills, which will be most compelling.

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10 Writing Tips All Bloggers Must Adhere To

Look, there are a lot of people out there that are going to tell you how to write. Some will give your ideas on topics, some will give your ideas on how to create title, and some will just tell you to use proper grammar. While all those things are important, I grant you, what are most important in blog writing are two things: passion and consistency. Unlike any other type of writing, with blog writing you get an audience based not only on WHAT you write but on HOW OFTEN you write it. No one will follow a blog that is only updated every few months. With that in mind, here are some writing tips for you:

Write often – You have to keep up with blog readers. They demand a certain level of post updates. It is just a fact of blogging. You cannot abandon your blog and expect it to survive. You cannot take a hiatus and expect to come back to the same number of readers. You have to write often enough to keep up with your readers. On some blogs that means once or twice a week, but for some blogs they require daily or even more frequent updates.

Write regularly – You can’t just toss up four or five posts on one day and call it a week. It will not work. You must, must, MUST write on a consistent basis. That may mean that you post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, or every Tuesday and Thursday, or every day but Sunday. Whatever your method is, if it works then stick with it. If it does not work than change it up. But whatever you do keep it regular.

Write short – No one wants to read a novel on your blog. If you like to write long meandering posts and people seem to like them than great. Just break them up for me, will you? A bunch of shorter posts is better than one long post that is all over the place. You can even separate it is not part one, part two and so one so that people can easily follow along. This is a great method for making the most out of your how to posts as well, as they have to keep reading to find the next direction.

Write clearly – All the writing and posting in the world is not going to cut it if your writing is junk. You have to be clear. Some things that can mess you up are jargon that readers might be unfamiliar with, undefined acronyms, and just a lack of good writing skills. If you are not a native speaker please, please, please have someone who is look over your work before you post it. There are some things that are just hard to translate. I know you have a lot to share, but be careful that you do not scare away readers with your lack of clarity.

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28 Tips To Write Reader-Friendly Blog Posts

Yeah! I know there have been a lot of ReBlog posts lately, but these contents are really good and worth the share. Hope you enjoy them and spread the love with your friends <3

When you write a blog post, who do you write it for? Is it for the search engines, potential advertisers or other bloggers in your network? No, it’s the reader for whom you write. So no matter how SEO-friendly or Ad-friendly your content may appear, if it doesn’t have reader appeal then you don’t get anywhere.

1) Grab attention with the right title; your title must achieve this within a few seconds, convincing your reader to stay on and read the post.

2) Begin with a convincing introduction; include your post’s objective and what your readers can gain from it.

3) Keep them short and informative; make sure they’re to the point, saving the reader time while helping them gain knowledge.

4) Use images to describe your post’s content; images make your post attractive, presentable and help you gain valuable extra seconds of readership.

5) Include Image Alt tags and proper image captions so that your reader can understand image relevance and connection to your article.

6) Reduce the number of links in your post; links interrupt content and distract readers. You want to retain readers on your post page, not lose them to others.

7) Break up text flow using headers and sub-headers; this helps the reader to digest bits of information at a time, instead of being overwhelmed by one long post.

8) Be sure to offer something unique in terms of content; let your readers see that you’ve done your research, and that you know what you’re talking about.

9) Stick to current information; readers are not interested in stale news or events. References should pertain to the current year as well.

10) Don’t overdo the keywords; use keywords strategically and with respect to your reader’s intelligence. Random strewing of keywords will only disgust your reader.

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3 Reasons Why Many Bloggers Get Frustrated

... and what to do against it 

One reason why I have started to research and write about blogging tips is that I really don't like it when good blogs are taken offline just because the blogger became frustrated. So what are the causes for blogger frustration and what can you do against it?

Too few visitors

I know how it feels when you log in to your Google Analytics after a day of promoting your blog and... your visitor count is even lower than usual. Many great bloggers put a lot of work into their blogs and get frustrated if all their hard work leads to no results.

My tip: Don't give up. I know exactly how it feels when you do so much for something but you only get very little in return. I have learned over and over again that most of the online success happens over time - that could mean anything from 6 months to a few years if you can not spend lots of money on advertising. You may just be one or two work-intensive months away from the readership you want to achieve.

Too few comments

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17 Very Interesting Blog Post Ideas

After you have written a few hundred blog posts, you start to come up empty on ideas. In fact, your ideas seem to be the same ones over and over again. Why not spice things up? Here are some new, fresh ideas for your next blog post:

1) At Home – Did you know that rubber bands last longer when you refrigerate them? Things for around the house get a lot of traffic. That is because everyone needs help keeping their home clean and in order. Use that to bring new readers to your blog.

2) How-Tos – Did you know that peanuts are one of the ingredients that make up dynamite? Giving people instructions on how to fix, build, or create something is a great way to provide useful information and really gain readers. A simple how-to guide can bring you tons of new traffic and it lasts forever!

3) Money – Did you know that there are 293 ways to make change for one dollar? Money is big on everyone’s list. Making money, saving money, and even spending money are great topics for your next blog post. You have to do it too, so why not share your tips and secrets to success?

4) Writing – Did you know that on average your left hand will do 56% of the typing? Writing for a blog, for work, for fun, or for profit is a huge market. If you can help people to write better, write clearer, or be more profitable with their writing then you will get a lot of new followers to your blog. After all, who is going to be hanging around blogs the most? Writers of blogs!

5) Law – Did you know that sharks are the only fish that can blink with both eyes? Legal issues trouble everyone and those shark lawyers are usually not much help. If you have experience with a legal issue or just a story you can tell you might be able to help someone else out of a jam. You have to be careful not to give legal advice unless you are qualified, but you can always tell your legal stores that you have experienced.

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10 Excellent Productivity Tools for Bloggers

Multiple browsers with twenty tabs or more open on each one. A word-processing app, numerous folders, image editing software and desktop notifications crowd your monitor(s). A mug of bitter coffee, Post-it notes and illegible scribbles layer the desk. Sound familiar? This is the life of a blogger – connected 24/7, streams of bits and bytes dancing at your fingertips, and an overwhelming feeling that there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done. We're quickly approaching information overload, but for those of us that earn a living online we can't afford to tear ourselves away from the light fantastic for too long. We need to minimize the noise and increase the quality of our output. That's why I've put together this list of productivity tools that will help you to focus, plan and succeed. Enjoy!

1. e.ggtimer - http://e.ggtimer.com/ - Eggtimer is a super-simple yet really helpful online tool for blocking out time to work on tasks. All it does is display a countdown timer in a browser window, but by pledging to work for a specific amount of time you can really make progress on any tasks you have to do, and when the time is up a nice, loud alert sounds so you don't have to constantly monitor it. Try the Pomodoro-Technique timer to work for extended periods of time with incremental breaks.

2. 42 Goals - http://42goals.com – 42 Goals is an online goal-setting app that can be as simple or as deep as you want it to be. You can use it as a simple daily planner, or use it to track your productivity over a longer period of time, giving you stats that allow you to find regular patterns and improve your work flow – a necessity for busy bloggers trying to break into the big time!

3. Rescue Time - http://www.rescuetime.com/ - Rescue Time is a productivity tool that monitors your day-to-day activity on your computer, providing you with detailed stats as to how you're using your time and also giving you the ability to 'lock' certain software and services for specific periods, allowing you to forcibly block out distractions at times when you absolutely need to finish a project (yet are tempted to check out Facebook for the twentieth time...).

4. Work Plus - http://www.workpl.us/ - Work Plus is a really interesting tool that can particularly benefit bloggers and freelancers. No matter how enjoyable it is to wear pyjamas all day long, we all know that working from the comfort of our own home is not always the most conducive environment for completing tasks. Enter Work Plus, an iOS app that helps you to discover new work-spaces in your area, like cafes with free wi-fi or shared work-spaces that allow you to bring the dog in! Add in time-tracking and workspace ratings and you've got a real winner.

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8 Things To Consider Before Publishing A Blog Post

Many people rush to publish posts, only to realize later that they used the wrong keywords, forgot to proofread or included broken links. Therefore, before pressing the ‘publish’ button, the following are some of the things you need to consider.

1. Cohesiveness
Though this might seem as common sense, many people go ahead to publish posts without reading through. It is only when you read through the post that you will know if the arguments are convincing, if the sentences and paragraphs are in the proper order and if the whole post generally makes sense. After reading your post once and confirming that it makes sense, you should read it again to proofread it. Look out for spelling and grammar mistakes.


2. Completeness
If you are hoping to drive a lot of traffic to your blog, you must ensure that your post is complete. When you read through the post, you will be able to determine if it requires more explanations or sections. For instance, you might have written a post focused on the importance of blog networks. Which are some of the popular blog networks? How can one join? These are some of the aspects which would be of interest to prospective readers.


3. Keywords
To attract as much traffic as possible to your blog, you need to ensure that your post contains the most popular keywords in your niche. For example, you could be writing something about business mobile apps. For such a post, you could consider using either ‘business mobile apps’ or ‘mobile applications for business’ as keywords. After using a keyword tool, you might find out that each month, 5,000 people search for ‘business mobile apps’ while 40,000 search for ‘mobile applications for business’. In this case, it would make sense to go with the latter term.


4. Title
The most vital element of your post is the title. People will not read through your post unless the title generates interest. You could grab the attention of readers by making a strange statement such as ‘Blogging Lessons from Batman’. Alternatively, you could offer something valuable e.g. ’20 Tips to Become an Affiliate Champion’.

In addition, make sure your title contains the main keywords. This is very important for search engine optimization.

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Top 14 Grammatical Offenses Of Bloggers

Another ReBlog post soon cause it really worth the share ...

Last Month 52,689 blog posts were analyzed for grammatical errors and punctuation errors. It was accomplished through the use of a web crawler, automated software that can visit websites to gather information. Search engines frequently use web crawlers to collect information about what is available on public web pages.

 

When you're writing for the web, some grammar rules don't apply.But there are some that should be followed. Ones that could detract from your credibility. And cause people not to subscribe or link to your blog. It may sound silly, but some people will harshly judge you on your grammar and overall writing ability.

Top Grammatical Offenses

Proper capitalization

Correct capitalization is extremely important. Demonstrating basic writing ability shows that you are educated and pay attention to detail. Ignoring capitalization comes across as sloppy or lazy. Correct capitalization helps others to clearly understand you.

'go help uncle chase off the horse'

'Go help Uncle Chase off the horse'

Mixing up the past and present tenses

If you’re not careful, you run the risk of confusing the reader. So pay close attention to how you're using past and present tenses. The verb tense tells the reader of your sentences when the action is taking place - in the past, the present or the future. Be consistent on verb tense, unless it's appropriate to make a switch to a different tense.

'I go to the store and I bought milk'

Not using commas correctly

Commas can drastically change the meaning of a sentence. They can also make sentences easier to read, because they allow for slight pauses between ideas. Use them sparingly and only when necessary. If there's more than one comma in a sentence, your sentences are too long. Long sentences are the quickest way to confuse and bore readers.

'Don’t use commas, which are not necessary'

There / Their

'She was jealous of their new car.'

'It's too hot to go there.'

Your / You’re

'Your pancakes are ready.'

'You're being difficult.'

It’s / Its

'It's been good to know you.'

'Its color is deep blue.'

Other Grammatical Offenses

These ones are a bit more exotic. Only some people will hold it against you when you mess them up. But you probably shouldn't. Grammar isn't rocket science, just a basic life skill. You should know these things.

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15 Things You Do To Your Blog ...

.... Without Knowing They Are Harmful

The benefits of blogging in today’s digital age almost go without saying. From better rankings on search engines, more value to website visitors and a forum to speak you and your brands voice, blogs have taken the online world by storm and lent a way for businesses and people to engage better and more with others. Still, in spite of the increasing popularity, many bloggers still make crucial mistakes that hurt the quality of their blog and may end up harming their own image unintentionally.

Here are 15 ways you may be harming your blog without realizing it.

1. Too much info in the header – When a person arrives at your blog, they do not want to be hit with information they are most likely not searching for, such as your mailing address or website which they already found. Instead, keep the header simple and inviting to keep your readers on the page for longer.

2. Keep taglines simple – It is not a bad idea to put a tagline to give new visitors a quick reference about what they can expect to see on your blog. However, making these taglines too lengthy can confuse them and make the blog seem so specific they may assume it is not for them and leave. Keep taglines simple to give your blog a wider range of topics.

3. Adding legalize to your logo – Your logo is the wrong place to include ‘Inc.’, ‘LLC’ or any other legal contraction. Instead, put this on the footer of your blog and leave it out of your logo. This will not only make you look more professional but it will also make your logo less busy and your blog less overwhelming.

4. Change from advice to promotion – So many blogs are created to offer advice, opinions or simply news items then switch to start promoting paying advertisers. If you have taken a switch to promoting specific affiliate products, your readers can see right through your efforts. While your intentions may be good, your readers will feel more like your posts are created in an effort to sell something instead of as a forum to post useful nuggets of information.

5. No photos – The digital world has become one that demands visual excitement at every turn. Give your blog an easy way to be pinned on Pinterest and keep the page entertaining to look at with images. This will break up the wordiness and appeal more to web readers.

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A Lightweight Pop Up Survey For All Blogs

A reblog post for blogging ...

Something I have been seeing a lot on blogs and websites is the pop up survey from Qualaroo.It's actually a neat way to run a survey on your blog, it sits in the corner of the page big enough to grab the attention of the reader but not so big as to block content.It also has a close option so if readers are not interested they can get rid of it.

The default survey is set to ask readers how they found your site but there are a number of set surveys and you can create your own with any questions you want. You then have an account dashboard you access to view the stats and results.I added a version to this test blog on blogger so you can see it in action. The survey can be easily added to Blogger, Wordpress (self hosted only), Tumblr and TypePad blogs.

Add The Survey To Your Blog

First you need to set up your survey and get the code here is a link to Qualaroo to do just that. Once you have the code Qualaroo check this link to instal it in blogger;

Add To Blogger

Source: [Link]. 

How to Make a Blog Fast and Faster

I believe this is one of the things every blogger wants for their blog ...

Make Blog Faster

Who doesn't want their blog become light, surely all of bloggers want it because our visitors can browse our blog easier. Based on my experience, there are some tricks to make blog fast.

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Solving Blog Redirecting to Another Site Issue

Many of you might have noticed that my blog was almost gone in the last month. It used to redirect to another site full of links which is obviously a spammy one. 

At first I thought it was hacked, then I started to look for the reason. I considered the URL and the template for the blog. I changed the sub domain with made me lose my ranking but nothing happened, the problem was still there. Later, I tried looking for the any tag in the template page. There for my surprise I realized that I can't edit it cause that page redirects to that spammy site as well. 

I was frustrated but I just knew I have to get this back anyhow. I googled about this problem and turned out it's a hijack not hacking. There is difference between these two since as far as I tell the first one can be fix and you are mostly the reason behind it while the second one is gone for sure like bye-by!

So what is hijaking?! 

It's more like what happened to my blog, that the URL is right there, the dashboard, login and everything but the main page can't be displayed and goes to another site. Most of the time a page full of links just to get traffic by spamming. 

There are many ways that a blog can be hijacked and sometimes it's us to help these things happen. YES! US! Lacking knowledge in such stuff is the main reason. 

Here are the some of them: 

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Five Systematic Strategies for Writing Great Blog Posts

Writing high quality blog posts demands a subtle blending of intuition and style. With a finger on the pulse of all that is trending, the greatest blog writers are also great blog readers. They research each site they want to write for and develop a sense of the audience’s expectations. They also have a strategy in place for fulfilling all the blog posts in the most appealing way possible – styling the text and maintaining clean code that is simultaneously easy for search engines to crawl and index, and pleasant for readers to enjoy.

Here are five systematic strategies you can use to make your blog posts more engaging and easy to read. They can also save you time once you form a habit of practicing them in order.

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Animated Sassy Social Bookmark Gadget

I know there have been many ReBlog posts lately but all of them are worth the share, they are very inspiring and that's what I look for in this blog and here's another How-to-do with tips for social media shares on blogs.

I know how much you all like social bookmarking gadgets and widgets especially unique gadgets that can catch the eye of readers and get them bookmarking your blog. Today I have a very cool social bookmarking gadget with a stylish animated effect. With the Sassy bookmarks gadget a basic share button is placed in the corner of your blog, then on hover 6 icons for the main social bookmarking websites appear in a semicircle. The buttons that appear are for Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Email. Below we have a live demo then check out the tutorial to add the Sassy Bookmarks to Blogger.

Add The Animated Sassy Bookmarking Gadget To Your Blog
Remember Always Back Up Your Template Before You Make Changes

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6 Common Do’s and Don’ts For Blogs

Consider this a friendly reminder or a refresher course for your blog. There are a few common do’s and don’ts to reflect on before you blog your next entry.

Do use images: Photos, graphs, logos use them all. Always use an image of some sort for each blog entry. Having an image will add to your blog post, entertain and give your readers something to look at. You want to break up the word with an image pertaining to the post. You can use personal photos, online photos and images but be sure you credit when credit is due.

Don’t write too much: Keep it short and sweet. Nothing bores a reader faster than too many words. A decent blog post that keeps readers engaged should run anywhere from 300-600 words. Anything longer and just considers your next read a snooze fest.

Don’t forget the comments: Some bloggers forget to respond to readers’ comments and questions. Even if the comment is just to say, they enjoyed your words, say thank you! Think of your readers as customers and address all questions and suggestions quickly and positively.

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Why You Should Blog

Blogging has more than a purpose. 

* For those who want to spread education. 
* Business mind and company talk. 
* Sharing personal posts. 
* A blog for the whole family and the news that goes around. 
* Blogging just for its sake. 

Wither way, you always say your own opinion and thoughts in it. It's your words, it's you who are presenting to the world. A blog is more than a place where you get comments and earn a little bit extra cash. It's showing the world that you are here and you have a voice to show up with. 

Blog is My Story  

No matter what reason you are up to behind your blog, there's always a word of personal opinion. The unique point of view for you. Even if everybody taking a turn in it you can always tell how it would have been if they followed your way. The place where you write  your story with questions and answers. 

My blog is a logo of my experiences, posts I liked, sharings, tips and tricks I learnt, community posts from other blogs, pictures and all the stuff that shows me and who I am. 

Why Blog!?

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An Awesome Heart Bookmarking Gadget

As you guys already know I use Addthis sharing on social media tool. I also shared a reblog post of another sharing gadget with jQuery which you can find from here [link]. I found another interesting sharing post which you will definitely like, it's new, creative and totally awesome. Give your blog a touch of style B)

 

In this post I want to show you a cool new way to have visitors sharing your blog posts. Share This has always been my Bookmark tool of choice and recently they added a cool new interactive Bookmarking gadget. The gadget in question is a love heart with the share this logo and on hover the heart splits to reveal a selection of bookmarking buttons. It looks awesome and the slide effect is very cool while still being practical. When the heart opens it reveals icons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Email and the Share This Icon Offers hundreds more bookmarking choices. I think this gadget fixed in the corner of the page on your blog will grab the attention of visitors and generate lots more shares. So below is a tutorial showing you just how to do that, first check out the live demo.

Add The Split Heart Bookmarking Gadget Top Your Blog

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Auto Publish Your Blog Posts

When running a blog it is an important element to keep it up to date like posting twice or more per week as mentioned in the Tips for Writing Good Blog post. You can write you topics in advance and get to your dashboard to post them on time. Though this is a good way, you can also try the auto-publishing feature in blogger that allows your posts be published according to a certain date you fix. This way you get more time to do  other stuff then coming here every time for posting your blog. 

 

 Auto-publishing blog post is known as scheduled posts in blogger and it's as simple as: 

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Cool Shareaholic jQuery Slide Bookmarking Gadget

As you guys know I use Addthis widget in my blog for sharing on social media. But I know this really wonderful tool of sharing that like pops up when you point at them. Today, I have a ReBlog post for how to get that sharing button in your blog. 

Add The jQuery Slide Bookmarking Gadget To Your Blog

 Remember Always Back Up Your Template Before You Make Changes. 

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