HeGeeks.com » Blogging

Do You Swear on Your Blog?

Marko — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:39:40 +0000

Do you ever drop an F-bomb on your blog? Sometimes it’s called for, sometimes it’s just inappropriate, and for some people it’s just a natural way to express themselves. It’s for you to decide how you want to express yourself. You will probably want to decide what type of audience you want to have before you decide to drop an F-bomb on your blog. Profanity may be funny but only to certain readers. I guess it’s how you use it.

As you have probably noticed, I don’t swear on my blog (I don’t remember doing it anyway). I want to keep my blog open to the widest audience I can. But then again, I don’t swear in real life either. I think if you’re writing some sort of a business blog, then you probably should be more careful. But for a personal blog I think it’s fine, if that’s how you want to express yourself. But you may find that you will lose some readership if you do.

Personally, to me it’s not the biggest turn off to read a blog that uses some swearing as long as it’s not done too often. Don’t get me wrong. I think swearing isn’t something that I like to hear, or see in this case, but the occasional one in context to make a point doesn’t bother me.

Do you swear on your blog? Does it bother you if others do it? I’m looking forward to see your opinions.

No related posts.

How to Restart an Old Blog

Marko — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:45:42 +0000

Over time you may have left one of your blogs to die. And after some months or even years later you have decided to start blogging again. I’ve done it too. As you may know I have started this blog over a year ago, then I stopped posting for various reasons a few months later. And this year I wanted to start blogging more actively again. I had to decide whether I should start completely fresh or use my old blog. There are a few questions you’ll face when restarting an old or dead blog and I’ll try to give you a few hints.

Keep the domain

If you’ll be blogging about the same topic, I suggest you use your old domain, because this will give you a few advantages. As domain ages, it will get better ranked in search engines. While this is not always the case, it still helps a little. Next advantage is back links. You most likely have some websites linking to your blog already, which will help ranking better in search engines. Another advantage is branding. People may remember your domain name.

You should keep the content

From the SEO point of view, I believe it’s better to keep the content. But some of your old articles may not be exactly what you want. I’ve faced a similar problem, some of the blog posts I really didn’t like, so I just deleted them, but I kept those that were more on topic.

Make sure you won’t loose your passion again

Usually people stop blogging, because they loose passion or don’t know where to find inspiration for more blog posts. Set yourself a comfortable blogging schedule and don’t push yourself too much.

Restarting a blog can be frustrating, but the excitement in doing it successfully and watching it grow can be thrilling.

Why Did You Start Blogging?

Marko — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:57:56 +0000

I’m on short with time today, so instead of making a long blog post, I’ll ask you a question. But let me first answer it myself.

Why did I start blogging? My very first blog (which does not exist anymore) was about making money, because I wanted to make money online. That was over 3 years ago. I thought it’d be as easy as putting some ads on the sidebar. Pathetic, I know. I learned the truth quickly and lost interest soon.

I started this blog, because I like to share my thoughts with people that have same interests and I like to write. And making a little money while doing this is nice too, even tho’ this is not primary goal of this blog.

Why did you start blogging? I’d be interested to hear your initial motivation to start a blog.

What it Takes to Start a Successful Blog

Marko — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:57:13 +0000

As a blogger your goal is to be successful – to increase the number of your readers, subscribers, amount of money you make and so on. It’s only natural. Many of us start blogging about something that is our passion and we want everyone else to be as excited about it as we are. It is surprising, however, that many people have no plans regarding what they want to achieve with their blog. Sometimes it is difficult to set exact goals, but I will share with you what I have learned so far and how you can use that knowledge when starting a new blog, or restarting an old one like I did with this blog in January.

I like to keep things short and simple. So here’s the list of 7 steps to start a successful blog.

Strategy

Ask yourself what do you want to do with your blog and what’s the right topic for you. The answer will give you a general direction. Set some measurable goals, for instance 1000 subscribers, 100 posts, 400 visitors a day – you get the idea. Don’t forget to set a deadline. Let’s say you want to achieve this by the end of the year, or whatever time frame suits you best.

Tactic

To achieve your goals you need a good tactic. Make your posts fit your niche. Learn what is going on in your niche and time posts accordingly. Learn when to post an article to achieve maximum impact. Timely published article on a hot topic can bring you a huge amount of exposure. Define how you will promote your blog. You can promote your blog using social media, by leaving comments on other blogs, submitting your blog to blog directories, by advertising or a mix of all.

Socialize

Join social media sites like Twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon and interact with people there. While you can use social media as a free promotion for your blog, you will also learn many things from other people. And most importantly, you will find new friends.

Persistency

You have set your strategy and tactic and you met new friends. Sometimes it can be hard to find time for blogging, but you have to be persistent, you need to regularly produce content, you’ll have to systemize your time for blogging. Not necessarily every day, but on a regular basis, be it 3 times a week or once a week, it doesn’t matter as long as you keep posting regularly.

Motivation

It will happen that you will run out of ideas for a new blog post. It happens even to the best bloggers. There are many ways to get inspiration for your next blog post. Blogging about things that you are passionate about and have knowledge and interest in it, will keep you motivated. So choosing a good niche for your blog is essential.

Design

Do not worry too much about design when you start a new blog. However, you want your blog to be functional and appealing to your readers. You can increase functionality of your blog by using useful plugins. Also make sure your blog is hosted on a reliable host. Before you launch your blog make sure everything is in order.

Flexibility

You have to be flexible to adjust to anything. Sometimes things will go wrong, sometimes you will get no traffic. Find the reason for it and adjust. If something is not working, try something else.

These are the 7 steps to start a successful blog. Keep in mind that’s just a minimum to get going. If you have anything to add, please do leave a comment.

How to Add Google Buzz Button to Your Blog

Marko — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:26:19 +0000

With all the hype about Google Buzz lately, I can’t get away without a post about it, can I? If you lived under a rock the last week, you might want to check what Google Buzz is here.

I personally don’t like Google Buzz (yet), but many people do, so I figured I’d make a post on how to install Google Buzz button on your blog. The installation is pretty simple, really.

Add Google Buzz to Wordpress blog

Wordpress users have it the easy way. Simply install one of the available plugins. Go to you Wordpress dashboard, in the menu select plugins, click add new and search for google buzz. Or download and install manually one of the below.

Google Buzz Button
Simple plugin, offers a little customization like changing the location and size of the button.
WP Google-buzz
Is pretty much the same as the above, but with more buttons to choose from.
WP-buzzer
Offers more customization than previous two, like where the button should appear (pages, posts, home page) and you can change its CSS.

Add Google Buzz to Blogger blog

I do not use Blogger, obviously, so I couldn’t test it, but the following should work. You’ll have to add some code to your template. I found this guide on how to add Google Buzz button to Blogger/Blogspot blog here.

Sign in to your blogger blog and go to
Dashboard -> Layout -> Edit HTML
Find the following code
and paste the following code below it according to button size.
- For large button:
- For compact button:

So what do you think about Google Buzz?

Do You DoFollow?

Marko — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:20:21 +0000

If you’re unfamiliar with dofollow, let me first clarify what dofollow and nofollow attributes are.

What is DoFollow?

Dofollow is simply an internet slang term given to web pages or sites that are not utilizing nofollow. Nofollow is a hyperlink inclusion that tells search engines not to pass on any credibility or influence to an outbound link. Incoming links to your blog with a nofollow attribute are not as good for the SEO of your blog as normal dofollow links and will not help increasing your Google Page Rank either.

Wordpress blogs by default have nofollow attribute added to links in the comments.

Why are Blog Comments NoFollow by Default?

Because Google said so. Well kind of. Here is the Official Google Blog post regarding comment spam from 2005, when they introduced nofollow. Basically they made this to prevent spammers to increase their search engine rankings.

Why go DoFollow?

Blogs that use dofollow attributes may attract more comments, because people like to build backlinks. And face it, every blogger wants comments on his blog. Don’t you? There is a downside of it, tho’. Dofollow blog will also attract more spammers trying to increase the number of backlinks to their blog.

If there are any other benefits for a blog owner to go dofollow please let me know in the comments.

How to make your Wordpress blog DoFollow?

If you’re using Wordpress, then it’s a matter of a few clicks. Simply install a Dofollow Plugin. In the menu Plugins, click on Add New, then search for dofollow, click Install.

My blog comments at the moment are not dofollow, because Disqus comment system has nofollow tags in comments, but everything has its trade offs, I guess.

I do, howerver, use a Top Commentators plugin which rewards top commenters with a dofollow link in the sidebar. And I have it set to reset once a year.

So – do you DoFollow? What are your thoughts about dofollow blogs?

Systemize Your Time for Blogging

Marko — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:32:26 +0000

My usual day currently consists of the typical 8-5 job, which gives me little time to spend with friends and family. My online life is becoming more time demanding and eats into my family time, but I see it as a means to break free from my work life. Since my online activities are requiring more time, I’ve had to get better organized about how I do things.

In this post I’ll point out a few tips on time management for bloggers. In my previous post, which I wrote a few weeks back, I spoke about finding time for blog writing. So, this post would be a follow up. There are just a few things I’d like to add.

Set Schedule for Blogging

Each person has a best time. You can discover yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then you need to manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.

Create weekly schedule and set blogging activities for each day. For instance, I have set Friday to be my roundup day, Saturday is generally free and so on, just to give you an idea.

Then set a daily schedule for blog writing, commenting, moderating and other activities. One hour is enough time to write new content, moderate comments and reply to comments. Any time left over within the hour is spent visiting other blogs, leaving comments and generally promoting the blog.

Having a schedule keeps me focused and it also prevents me from forgetting or neglecting certain activities. I must say that there’s a sense of relief in hot having to think about every activity every day.

How do you manage your blogging time?

Friday Mashup: Mobile Blogging, Mistakes to Avoid, Negative Comments and More

Marko — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:45 +0000

This post is a weekly roundup of my favorite bookmarks and blog articles that I read this week and I wanted to share with you.

I’ve also decided to become a bit more active on Delicious this year. You can always see my Delicious bookmarks here. Maybe you’ll find something you like.

And the following is a collection of my favorite articles I found while reading other blogs this week. I wasn’t very active this week due to a very bad cold that I caught, but nevertheless here are a few of my favorite articles.

Mobile Blogging – How to Make Your WordPress Blog Smartphone Ready by Kristi from kikolani.com
Review of a couple of plugins that make your Wordpress blog mobile friendly.
7 Productive Things To Do When You Can’t Blog by Ching Ya from wchingya.com
List of things to do to overcome downturns and pressuring moments when you can’t blog.
5 Mistakes To Avoid to Become a Successful Blogger by loveish from shoutmeloud.com
Learn what are those mistakes a blogger should avoid to become a successful blogger.
8 reasons why negative comments are good for your blog by Jean-Baptiste Jung from catswhoblog.com
How to handle negative feedback and why is it good for your blog.

6 Reasons Why Paid Hosting is Better Than Free Hosting for Your Blog

Marko — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:36:12 +0000

There are some nice free blog hosting services like Blogger, Wordpress.com and Tumblr and many more. They’re very easy for a beginner, but if you really want to create a brand presence for your blog, use Wordpress and host it on your own domain name and paid web hosting.

6 Reasons to Use Paid Blog Hosting

Control – With paid web host you have total control of you blog. With paid hosting account you have more control over the look of the blog, you can change themes and modify them, you can easily do backups and use numerous plugins. Paid hosting is usually also faster.
Branding – What looks more professional to you: yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.com? People just tend to think that you’re more serious, if you have your own domain. Using a relevant domain name also supports your brand. You can also have your own email address.
SEO – Wordpress is very SEO friendly and you can use many plugins that increase Search Engine Optimization. Some social bookmarking services don’t even allow free hosting sites to be added. You can also make adjustments to the URL code structure that may enhance your SEO.
Making money – Some free hosts don’t allow advertising, keep that in mind if you want to make money with your blog. Many affiliate programs will not accept you, if you don’t have your own domain either.
Selling rights – Owning your domain also gives you the right to sell it. If you have your blog hosted for free on blogger, then you cannot sell it should you want to.
Support – If you want to become a successful blogger, your blog will need to be up and running 24/7. A reliable web hosting company can provide 24/7 technical support and an uptime guarantee.

There are numerous paid hosting companies out there. Try googling for “web hosting” or “blog hosting”. Basic hosting packages start from as low as $5 a month. I’m hosting my blogs on Inmotion Hosting and I’m very satisfied.

What’s your view on paid vs. free hosted blog?

Friday Link Juice: Cool Blogging Tips

Marko — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:52:58 +0000

This is a list of my favorite blog posts this week. I may make this a weekly feature. This Friday it’s blogging tips.

Should You Blog About the Same Topics as Everyone Else in Your Niche? – Explanation of why blogging about the same subject as everyone else is OK.
10 Things You Should Always Do in a Blog Post – A list of really useful blogging tips.
How to Effectively Recycle Old Blog Posts – Why should you recycle old posts and how.
How Blog Commenting Has Made a Difference – See why commenting on other blogs is good.

Have a nice weekend!