Facebook Released: Facebook Username !

Are you on FaceBook? There’s new info from facebook, they have released the new feature called Facebook username.

Previously, when you give your Facebook profile to your friends, the address would be http://www.facebook.com/profil.php?id=123456789, so with the facebook username, the format would be http://www.facebook.com/yourrname.

If you are interested in changing the address of your profile, you have to change it from now so you can get the desired address because if the name you desire has been taken, the will not be available for you. Therefore, it would be the sooner the winner.

Come on, those of you who want to change the address of your Facebook, log in to http://www.facebook.com/username. After that, log in with your Facebook ID.

Enjoy your New Facebook ID and happy Facebooking :)

Insert blogs RSS Feeds on Facebook

When talking about Facebook, I am sure that you, and other internet users, will know it. This social networking site is so popular and becomes the favorite of millions of people. The bloggers can take the advantage of this fact to promote their blogs. How can it be? The answer is by placing your articles into facebook. You can do it by placing the blog feed address into facebook.

With the blog feed in facebook, your articles published will automatically published too in facebook as a note so if you have many friends on facebook, your friends will read your articles and they accidentally will go to your blog.

If you haven’t placed your blog feed to facebook can follow the steps below:

1. Login to your facebook account, point to Tab Settings on the menu bar, and then select Application Settings. On the page appears, click the application of Notes.
   
   
2. Find Notes Settings on up right, and then click Import a blog. On the page of Import an External Blog enter your blog feed address into the Web URL, example of my blog feed: http://greatsalesstrategy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default or http://greatsalesstrategy.blogspot.com/atom.xml and please give check a little box then click Start Importing button. On the page appears, click Confirm Import at the bottom of the page. For clearly see images below !
   
   
   
3. Done

How to register in most popular Search Engines

As we know that the main reasons to write in the blog is that they hope their writing could be read by others or blog visitors. More people or visitors will make us happy and proud, especially when they give some comments on our writing. For making the people come to our blog and then read our postings are not easy. We need high publication in order to increase the traffic.

We can use many ways to make our blogs famous and get many traffics, such as blog walking or visiting others blogs. Registering to various aggregator, and the most effective ways is through the search engine.
For new bloggers, they have a wrong assumption. They might think that after making blogs, their blogs will be detected by search engine or listed in all sorts of search engine automatically. The fact is not like that. Like a school, we absolutely have to register in that school so that our name is listed in a student list. Just as a search engine, to make our blog detected by search engine, we have to submit our blogs to some search engines.
There are many search engines here and recently, the most famous ones are Google, yahoo, and Msn. If we want our blog detected by them, we have to submit our URL blog to them.

Now, have you submitted your blogs to the search engines above? Or you still don’t know how to submit your blogs. Just follow the tutorials below.
Sign up in Google
To register in Google, please visit http://www.google.com/addurl/, and if you are in registering page, you must fill in available form;

• URL --> Fill in your URL blog
• Comments --> Fill in the related keywords to your blogs.
• Fill in the blank square with the verification code available.
• Click Add URL.
• Finished 
  

As soon as your submission to Google, it doesn’t mean that your blog would have an index in Google search engine. It will need about 3 until 4 weeks for new blog to be able to have an index. After 3 or 4 weeks, try to type your URL blog in Google search engine. If your blog still can not be detected, you will have to wait for a couple of week again. If it is not detected yet, you must submit your blog again as the steps above.
Or, you might not be patient and want your blog detected soon by Google search engine. Actually, it could happen only in 3 or 4 days. Would you like to know how? Just read my upcoming post in 1 or 2 days…ok.   
Register in yahoo
In order to register in yahoo, please visit this site https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit. Before registering here, make sure that you have yahoo account. Why you need yahoo account? Because to register here, you need to log in to your yahoo account. If you still don’t have any yahoo e-mail, click here to make one first. And if you have e yahoo account, you just need to log in with your username and password. As soon as you log in, you will see a column. Just fill in the column with your URL blog, then click Add URL and done.
If you want to add your feed address too, you can do it here. Remember, you only need to add atom.xml behind your URL blog in order to get feed address of your blog, example; this blog blog has feed address as follow; http://kolom-tutorial.blogspot.com/atom.xml.
Register in MSN:
 Please visit http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2 to register in Msn. Just fill in the verification code and your URL blog in the available square, then click submit and finished.




If you want more search engines and your URL blog can be detected by many search engines, you can use submitter site. Now, click the banner below


Your job is only adding your URL blog, and then writes your e-mail. Then click Submit Your Site.
If your blog wants to be more famous, try to do ping to various aggregators, just click the lick below:
Ping-O-Matic
You simply fill in the available form.
Now, has your blog been detected by Google? Try to add your URL address in search engine at the top of this blog!!!

Blogger Tools SEO Firefox Plugins

Anyone who has tried search engine optimization knows how important keyword research is. Well, good news everyone; keyword research just got a whole lot quicker and easier with Wordtracker's new, free Firefox extension - SEO Blogger.

With the click of a button you get a mini version of Wordtracker's keyword research tool right in your browser window. Now you can do your keyword research without leaving your blog post editing page!

You can download SEO Blogger here for free.

The following image is a screen grab of SEO Blogger being used within Firefox as I prepare to write a new blog post on the subject of 'social media':

Over the next few months, I will be writing a series of articles all about the benefits and practices of keyword research. We'll explore together how keyword research can help you beyond the normal confines of SEO and into the mind of your prospects.

But first I want to start by showing you how SEO Blogger makes it easy to perform keyword research and how it helps you to quickly optimize a page you are working on - all in a single browser window.

Grab SEO Blogger now

Your first job is to download SEO Blogger. Click the button below to be taken to the download site. You might see a notification telling you that Wordtracker wants to open a popup. You will need to agree to this to get the software.

Once installed you will see a small 'W' icon in your status bar at the bottom right of your Firefox window. See the following image:

Click the 'W' and SEO Blogger opens up in a sidebar within your Firefox browser.

Optimizing your blog post

What is your blog post about? My post in this example is about 'social media'. If I enter this phrase into the SEO Blogger pane I can see that 'social media' is searched 215 times, but also that there are the more specific phrases 'social media marketing', 'social media platform' and 'what is social media' that contain this phrase.

Enter seed keywords and phrases relevant to your article content to find the most sought-after phrases and specific variations. Ideally you would have a phrase that covers multiple searches, but you will do fine just to match what your prospects are searching for. Find other phrases that are related so that you can salt them through your article in the text and in things like alt-tags for images, and subheadings.

Save any keywords you're interested in by hitting the little "Add" links next to the phrases. This stores them in the bottom box just so you remember for later.

Now you have a list of phrases you can optimize your post for. Start with the most important phrase - this needs to go in your article's 'page title tag', on-page headline and description tag. If suitable, use some of the other suggested keywords in the body of your article, keeping the flow natural. Don't make the mistake of trying to force phrases in there.

Whilst you are writing, SEO Blogger will make a count of the number of times you use the keywords you have saved in the 'Your chosen keywords' list. These counts will be saved in the 'Used' column (see the image below):

Publish and promote

Once you are done, sit back, admire your handy work, and publish.

Actually, the job isn't done entirely. You will need to promote your blog post in social media, among your friends, on Twitter, and so on. In order to rank you will need to get links to this page using the same or similar phrases as the anchor text, and that means letting people know you have posted another great nugget of wisdom.

This is another good reason to have multiple variations, as exact matches can look unnatural to the search engines; so when linking from old posts, or getting links from outside, mix it up a bit.

Such on-page SEO as this is just a small part of keyword research, SEO and the wider job of creating an effective blog. So look out for a deeper exploration in future articles coming soon!

And we always recommend that on-page SEO takes place within a considered and planned SEO strategy.

Meanwhile, enjoy some 5 minute SEO with Wordtracker's SEO Blogger. Grab your free copy of SEO blogger here.

Increasing the blogger blog productivity

Many bloggers, especially those who aren’t able to blog as a full-time
blogger, find that scheduling the time to blog can be difficult. And
while often many people have to eke out a tiny bit of time here and
there in their schedule, such as forgoing coffee breaks or a favorite
television show in order to write, many bloggers can greatly benefit
from a blogging schedule.

And not just any blogging schedule
will do. This is actually setting aside specific times each week where
your priority is blogging, and resisting the temptation to use that
time for the unwashed dishes in the sink or the car that needs an oil
change. Here is how you can make a blogging schedule, and then make it
work for you.

Why?

When you have a regular blog schedule,
you can increase your productivity when you know you always have
specific time slots in your life that are set aside for nothing but
blogging. This will also help you avoid that stressful feeling of
“Arghhh, I haven’t blogged in two weeks!” With a schedule, you know you
will have that time each week for blogging, so you can avoid that
overwhelmed feeling that a much-loved but neglected blog can bring to
your life.

How?

The key to creating a blog schedule is
prioritizing your time and set aside specific chunks of time that are
exclusively to be used for blogging. Many bloggers try to set up a
blogging schedule but then allow other things to eat into the time. If
you set aside that hour for blogging, don’t do anything else but work
on your blog during that time.

Priorities

If you have the
time set aside for blogging, consider it like your actual work, and
that the time cannot be rescheduled for anything else. This means you
don’t schedule dentist appointments during this time or chat with your
partner over coffee in the kitchen. Hang a sign on your office door
with “do not disturb” and let everyone in the house know you mean it!

Remove online distractions

Shut
off your IM. Close your RSS reader. Stop tweeting or checking Facebook.
Stop the email auto-checking. Even shut your browser windows of all but
your blog page. If the distractions are too great, write in Word and
unplug your internet from your computer entirely.

On the go

Sometimes,
no matter how hard you try to avoid it, working at home is just too
distracting, even for the most devoted bloggers. So think about where
else you could work to lessen those eternal home distractions. It could
be something as simple as taking your laptop to a coffee shop (and not
connecting to WiFi!) that can increase your effectiveness for that
short period of time you have to blog. Believe me, coffee shops can
actually make you focus much more than you can at home when you have
telemarketers phoning, your dog barking at the neighbor’s dog,
unfinished chores and even the fridge as a distraction.

Follow up

Make
sure that once you set that schedule, you follow it. Consider it a
booked appointment and don’t go and book anything else into that same
time slot, whether it is doing a favor for a friend or using it to book
that dentist appointment. Consider it an unbreakable engagement you are
committed to. And if you do fill that time slot with something else,
don’t do it unless you have another space that week to move your
blogging to. Fall out of your schedule routine? Then get back on it,
and make sure you follow up on it if you did stray again.

Specific blogging

Do
you have multiple blogs? It can be good to set aside times for each
blog, so you don’t end up discovering that you have inadvertently
neglected to blog on one of them for a few weeks at a time. Or set up
times for specific types of posts. Maybe Monday you want to do a “how
to” post while Thursday you might schedule to do a “top ten” post that
you want to go viral. Even full-time bloggers can benefit from blogging
schedules when they are balancing a high post frequency blog or a
network of blogs.

Start now to think about where you can set
aside time where blogging will be the main priority. But the most
important thing to do when you make that blog schedule is to ensure you
follow it. Because a blog schedule that isn’t followed isn’t very
effective at all!

5 Tips to Find The Perfect Blog Templates

If you have been blogging on the default blog templates, or one of the first free templates you found, chances are good that your current template isn’t doing the job it should to enhance your blog. And unfortunately many blogs are using templates that actually detract from the user experience on your blog, whether due to a mismatch of template to blog theme or simply a theme that isn’t really presenting itself in the best possible way to your readers.

A good blog template will truly enhance what you present rather than detract from it, which a poorly chosen blog template can do. If you are one of those bloggers that put little time and effort into finding that perfect blog template for your blog, it is definitely time to find that killer blog template that is more suited to your style and content.

Where to find

Wordpress theme templates seem to be much more prevalent that themes for other blogging platforms, but no matter what type of platform you are using, do a search for “free Wordpress templates” changing it to match the platform you are using. There are so many people releasing templates today that you are sure to find something. If you have a particular theme in mind, add a couple keywords about that and see what turns up. The same goes for color. If you have your heart set on a purple template, throw the word purple into your keyword search.

Finding one that fits

If your blog is about white water rafting but the blog template you ended up choosing originally has a picture of a subway station in the header, it is a complete mismatch between design and content. So you want to make sure that what you present visually matches what the content of what people are reading.

Swap images

You might find that perfect template, but it is a mismatch like the subway station one. So instead, look to find an image that you could swap out for the subway picture. Maybe you have a picture from one of your white water rafting trips that would match perfectly or you can find one on Flickr under creative commons. So don’t completely eliminate templates simply because the header image isn’t quite what you have in mind.

Find a few

Sometimes that seemingly perfect template just doesn’t seem to do your blog justice once you actually upload it and install it. So as you find various templates, save them and upload them. Then you have a few different ones to try out and once, so you can easily compare then, check for any odd bugs, and pick the one you think compliments your blog the most. Don’t forget, you can always remove the ones you don’t ultimately end up with if you want, so download all those “maybe” templates too, it wouldn’t be the first time that a “maybe” template actually ends up being the perfect fit after it is tried out on the actual blog, instead of viewing a screenshot of it in action.

Still can’t find the perfect template?

Do what I do, and that is find a template that is “almost” and then go code diving and make the tweaks yourself. Often, you can change the code to make some of the changes yourself. Perhaps you want an ad block in the sidebar or a slightly larger or smaller design width. Or perhaps you just need to add your own custom logo to make it yours. You may discover tweaking it is easier than you realize, or you can call in a favor from a coding friend if the changes will take someone inexperienced just a short amount of time to do.

Many people don’t realize how important having a suitable template for a blog is, especially when the current one you have just seems completely inappropriate for the type of blog entries you are writing. If you are using a blog template, take the time to look closely at it and see if it really is a template that suits your blog, and if not, take the time to search for that perfect blog template that is clean, presentable and most importantly, goes with the theme of your blog.

Get The Best Of Downloads For Free

This week I learnt two things about blogging:

1. Getting your readers to DO something on your blog is a powerful thing.
2. Personal contact with readers makes a real impact

Last week i ran a quick and small competition on ProBlogger to promote the ProBlogger Book.

The competition was simple - leave a comment on the competition post that told me why you wanted the book in 250 words or less.

The
competition ran for 24 hours and at the end of that time there were 193
entries (more than I expected). The entries were so good that I felt
bad just giving one book away so selected three submissions to get a
copy of it.

At this point in running competitions I usually send
the prizes, make a quick post announcing the winners and then do
nothing else - but this time I decided to do something different.

I
felt bad that so many had missed out on the book after going to the
trouble of entering so on the spur of the moment I emailed each of the
190 entrants who didn't win. It took me a while to pull all their
emails into an email but I wanted them to know that I appreciated the
effort that they'd gone to.

The email thanked them for their
comment and told them that I was said that there couldn't be more
winners. I also pointed out that the book was on special at Amazon and
said that I hope they'd be able to get a copy at some point.

I
was a little hesitant to mention the book on sale as I didn't want it
to come off as a sales technique (the primary purpose of the email was
to thank them) but decided to do it on the spur of the moment.

I sent the email.

What happened next was surprising.

I started getting emails from the 190 that I'd sent my email out to. Over the next 24 hours I had 70 emails!

There were two main themes in the emails:

1.
They appreciated and were surprised by the personal contact - quite a
few readers emailed that they'd been taken aback by the follow up email.

2.
They'd bought the book - most of those who emailed said that they'd
just bought the book (or were about to). Whether they all did or not
I'm not sure but the book's ranking on Amazon leapt up that day by 600
spots - so something happened.

In the days since my competition I've noticed a third flow-on effect of my email.

3.
More Reader Interaction - a number of the people that I'd emailed had
never commented before on ProBlogger before the competition - they'd
been lurking but never active on the blog. However in the last few days
they've been commenting like crazy.

Take Home Lessons

I've been reflecting upon this experience over the last couple of days and two lessons have struck me.

1.
Getting your readers to DO something on your blog is a powerful thing -
this hit home on two levels. Firstly the act of getting readers to
write why they wanted the book to play a big part in them actually
buying it. I guess when you invest a few minutes into thinking about
why you want something and then go to the trouble of writing those
reasons up you 'sell' yourself on actually buying it. Secondly - the
act of making a first comment on a blog can often be enough to make a
lurking reader an active reader. I've noticed this before - people
often feel shy about commenting but once they take the step to do so
they open the flood gates.

2. Personal contact with readers
makes a real impact - this is something I've known for a long time but
have had to re-learn many times. It can be difficult to interact with
all of your blog's readers but when you do it can really impact them
and help them to become more loyal to your blog.

Money Makers

How Much Money Do I Make from Blogging?
I get asked how much money my blogging makes me on a regular basis. These days I don’t go into specifics about it - all I will say is that it continues to be well over six figures per year (but less than seven figures). What you’ll find below are my top income streams - ranked from highest earnings to lowest.
Keep in mind that this is a summary of all of my blogs (not just ProBlogger). It does not include any income that I earn from b5media where I’m paid a salary as VP Training.
I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

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

2. Chitika

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

3. Amazon Associates

This has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it - however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me (as I’ve shared previously). This quarter it overtook TLA as my third biggest earner - largely on the back of me directing traffic to Amazon from my product related sites - mainly digital cameras. While the commission on cameras is only 4% this adds up when those that you refer buy higher ticket items.

4. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

This includes ad sales of the 125 x 125 ads here at ProBlogger as well as a couple of private ad deals that I did with sponsors on my camera blog (including sponsorships with Canon, Kodak and Adobe). This area has jumped up since last time also as a result of the new design here at ProBlogger and our expanded sales team at b5 who now sell ProBlogger’s ads for me.

5. Text Link Ads

The income from TLA has dipped slightly over the last few months simply because I took the decision to stop selling them here at ProBlogger and most of my other blogs. This was because I wanted to focus more upon selling the 125 pixel ads instead and felt that the ads I was attracting were not as relevant to this site as they could have been. As it turns out this might have been a good move because it seems Google has been penalizing blogs that run them lately.

6. ProBlogger Job Boards

The job boards here at ProBlogger continue to grow each month in the number of advertisements that are being bought. This enabled me to invest most of the money that they’d earned a while back into getting a new back end for the boards and to redesign them. It hit me today that the boards are now bringing in around $1000 a month in revenue which is pretty nice considering that they are now so low maintenance to run! I’ve just given a development team a new brief to expand the job boards in the coming month so stay tuned for some new features coming soon which could see this revenue increase and more importantly for it to become an even more useful resource to readers.

7. Miscellaneous Affiliate Programs

I run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs - most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own. These include - - Digital Photography Secrets (a camera technique series), Pro Photo Secrets (a great photoshop product) , Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program, SEO Book (Aaron’s legendary resource). This area is set to continue to grow in the current quarter with me having had reasonable conversions from the promotion of the excellent Teaching Sells course.

8. Miscellaneous Advertising Programs

I also play with a number of other ad networks. Some I run as tests to see if I should review them here - and some are just advertising that run in the background on some of my smaller blogs. These include AuctionAds, Feedburner RSS ads, Vizu (a poll advertising system), Kontera and Bidvertiser. Together these don’t add up to major earnings for me - not because they are not good, but because I don’t use them heavily (a blog can only run so many ads on it).
I think that that covers most of it. Since last quarter I’ve also been experimenting with WidgetBucks as well as one other ad system that is still in a closed beta test. I’m certain that WidgetBucks will feature in next quarter’s list because I am getting good returns on that so far. In fact at it’s current earnings it’ll debut at at least number 4 on the list and perhaps even at number 3.

How Much do I Spend?

As mentioned last time - I don’t spend a lot of money in order to bring in my income. I do have some basic blogging costs (hosting etc) and play around with a limited amount of advertising (AdWords and StumbleUpon) but rely more heavily upon word of mouth and organic ways of drawing income into my blogs. I also have some costs in paying writers on a couple of blogs - but these don’t make up a massive part of the overall earnings each quarter.

How to upload files to your host using FTP

f you’ve recently moved to your first hosting package you may be struggling to get to grips with getting the files you want online. This guide should explain how you upload your blogging files and images online to the webspace you have with your hosting space. If you still have some questions at the end of this guide please let me know and I will clairfy and update this post accordingly

Step 1 – Choose your FTP Client

In this example I will be using Netfile however the steps I will be showing you are applicable to most FTP clients. The client you use really is a matter of preference. I personally prefer Netfile and it’s the one ive grown accustomed to however there are many other popular FTP programs like like Cute FTP and Smart FTP which are also pretty good. Download.com is the best place to search for FTP software.

Step 2 – Input your blogs hosting details

Most FTP clients work in the same way. They ask how to connect to the hosting space you have and then give you the option to save this information in a profile attached to the site so that you can connect to your website next time without having to input the connection details again.

Here is a summary of the information you need enter to connect. I red titles are the areas your info has to be 100% correct to connect to your host.

• Site Profile Name : This part allows you to name the connection. The name is irrelevant really and is just a way for you to remember what site/blog the connection is for – you could call it ‘My Blog’ or ‘Monkey Monkey Splash Splash’ – it really doesn’t matter…..although if you call it the latter you might want to seek medical help
• Address : This is where you tell the FTP client what server on the web you are trying to connect to. You do this by either putting in the main address of your blog or the ip address of your server (which you will have details of in the confirmation email sent to you by your hosting company). It doesn’t matter what you use as both refer to the same server on the internet.
• Port : You don’t need to worry about this at all as its always 21. You can see some basic info about this here.
• Initial Path : The initial path section allows you to connect directly to specific folders you want on your host. This can be incredibly handy if you have a lot of subdirectories as you can set up multiple profiles to connect to all the different areas of your site. For example, if I wanted to create a connection directly to the forums section of BloggingTips I would enter /public_html/forums/ in this section.
• Anonymous FTP Site : If you click this box then you will not have to input the username and password however, most hosting packages require you to connect securely so this will probably not be used that much.
• User Name & Password : When you purchase a hosting package you will get login details sent to you by email. 99% of the time the username and password you need to enter here is the same as the username and pass you need to access your hosting admin area (eg cpanel) however 5 or 6 years ago I had used a host for a few months which gave me different login details for accessing the hosting admin area and accesssing the ftp area so in the offchance your hosting company does give you different logins, this information can be found in the hosting information email sent to you after you purchase the hosting (if you still cant find this information contact your host).
• Description : This adds a description to the connection profile. I’ve personally never used this however some people might find a use for it.

Most FTP clients let you decide how you upload the files. You may upload using Auto, ASCII or Binary.

You should always set this to auto unless the installation instructions of a script say otherwise. ASCII files are simply text files and binary files are images however auto can tell the difference the majority of the time. There have been scripts I have installed the past that have to be uploaded in ASCII mode but in such a case the website always tells you such so leave this in auto unless requested to.

Step 3 – Connecting to the correct area

When you connect to your host you are not taken directly to the main folder of your blog which has all the files, you are taken to the folder directly above it. The top folder of your hosting area has various areas including stats, email account info and whatnot. The folder where you upload all the files to your live website is here too. With the majority of hosting websites this directory is callled public_html however it can be called anything. If public_html isn’t there then consult your host to determine where your main directory is stored (public_html is nearly always used with linux hosting, windows servers sometimes use something else like www).

The highest level of your hosting space not being where you upload your website files is something that causes a lot of problems for new webmasters. The most common error is uploading all files to this area or a random subfolder instead of under public_html.

Have a look at the screenshot below to see what I mean :

You will notice that there is a trash folder, temp folder, email folder as well as some other files. This should be the kinda thing you see if your host is using cpanel.

If you want to upload index.php then you need to upload the file to public_html/index.php for the file to be live on your blog/site. If you upload it to /index.php or /tmp/index.php then the file will not be displayed on the internet.

Remember the ‘Initial Path’ section in the connection details. If I had to enter /public_html/ for the BloggingTips connection then when I click connect I would be taken directly to the folder which has all the files for the blog and forums.

If you look back at the screen print you will see a folder called www. You can also upload files to this folder (nearly always!). The www folder simply redirects to the public_html folder – ie. you could upload your index.php file to the www folder but the relative path should still be something like /home/blogsite/public_html/index.php. This is simply because www is simply a shortcut.

In Summary, always make sure you upload to the correct file directory – this is nearly always public_html but check with your host if it isnt there.

Step 4 – Uploading your files

At this point you should now be at your main file directory so its just a matter of choosing the files you want to upload, right clicking on them and then choose upload. A lot of FTP’s work a little different and have your hard drive folders and your web space folders side by side in a vertical display with an upload and download button in the between. It really doesn’t matter how your FTP does this – all you need to do is click and upload.

Some FTP’s allow you to overwrite files automatically when you click upload. If your FTP lets you do this I encourage you to choose to manually check all uploads as it’s very easy to click on the wrong file for upload – this is when you appreciate the skip button!!

That’s it – You should now be able to upload the files you want to your hosting space!

About Unlimited Webspace & Bandwidth

Many web hosts offer unlimited features such as web space and bandwidth. Unfortunately, no such thing exists. Unlimited plans are marketed towards the lower end of the hosting market (i.e. newbies) who are unsure about how web hosting works.

The truth is, no web hosting service can offer unlimited bandwidth or webspace, least of all those who only charge a few dollars a month for hosting.

Hidden in their terms and conditions will be a fair usage policy of some sorts and if your blog does start getting heavy traffic, you will be asked to update to a more expensive package or your hosting will be switched off.

This is nothing against web hosting companies. I understand why they market in this way because many people have no idea of how hosting works. Hosting companies realise that the majority of people who purchase cheap hosting deals only require a little webspace and a low amount of bandwidth so most of them will not even realise that they do not have an unlimited amount of webspace.

This does not mean that a deal which promises unlimited features is not good value. What the host can offer is a reasonable amount of bandwidth and webspace which is more than sufficient for starting a blog.

Just be aware that you do not actually have an unlimited amount of webspace or bandwidth with your package. If you don’t believe me, try uploading some large video files for your users to your blog and see how long it takes for your host to contact you about you exceeding your bandwidth limits!!

Blog Hosting

Hosting your own blog is a step which most bloggers need to make at one point if they want their blog to be successful. This page lists some of the most widely used free Blog hosting bloggers today.

Blogabond.com – A site dedicated to travel blogs with map integration and more.

BlogCheese.com – A video blogging website.

BusyThumbs.com – A blog site specifically for your text messages and camera phone images.

Freevlog – Designed for video blogging and completely free.

Trippert.com – Create and share blogs of your travels.

Ufem.com – Blogging site specifically geared towards women. Offers multiple themes and Plugins.

Word Count Journal.com – A new blogging format that is also part challenge. Write one word on the first day, two words on the second day and so on, at the end of the year you’ll have written 66,795 words.

Xanco.com – Another moblogging site for you to share all your mobile communications with friends and family.

WordPress Powered

Blogetery.com – Offers multiple templates, anti-spam, free sub-domain and more.

BlogRox.com – Runs on WordPress and offers 50MB of free online space.

Blogsome.com – Based out of Ireland, this site uses the WordPress MU platform, large choice of themes.

Edublogs.com – WordPress powered blogging for educators.

WordPress.com – Not only can you install WordPress on your own sites, you can use the same software on their site and save yourself all of the technical work.

Various Platforms

Blog.com – Offers free blog hosting with unlimited bandwidth for their free package, more benefits for paid members.

Blog Ladder.com – All blog entries show up on the main ladder as well as inside your own blog.

Blogger.com – A great starting site to get a taste of blogging, very easy to use.

Blogr.com – Allows you to blog, host photos & videos, and podcasts.

BlogSpirit.com – European based blogging site, offers 30-day trial and subscription thereafter, but offers quite a bit of storage.

Blogster.com – Offers free image hosting in addition to free blogs.

BlogYx.com – Blogging site with extras such as chat boxes so you can interact with your readers.

Bloki.com – Lets you build a blog site and even open it up for collaboration.

Bravenet.com – Free blog hosting with RSS feeds and more.

ClearBlogs.com – Free blog hosting and offers templates, friends only posts, IP-Banning and more.

Etribes.com – Based in Europe, allows you to create all sorts of websites including a blog.

Multiply.com – Mixes blogging and social networking, with photo galleries and more.

Netcipia.com – Free blog and wiki for private or public display with 2GB of storage.

Open Diary.com – Offers unlimited storage and posts, low cost subscription rates for advanced features.

ShoutPost.com – A platform for creating blogs with a focus on generating traffic.

SoulCast.com – Have something you want to talk about, but want to say it anonymously? This may be the blogging site for you.

Squarespace.com – Lets you build your blog with numerous themes, also allows you to add other site features.

Terapad.com – Offers blogs as well as features such as an integrated store.

Tooum.com – Fully integrated blog and forum which allows for seamless discussion between the two.

Tumblr.com – A blog platform with a focus on allowing media-rich posts.

Weebly.com – Allows you to create a site and blog, free hosting and change designs on the fly.

Windows Live Spaces – Free blogging with your MSN account, only drawback is readers have to have an account also.

Vox.com – Part of the SixApart family of blogging sites, very much geared towards the personal journal types of blogs.

Xanga.com – Part social network, part blogging, all free.

Yahoo 360 – Part of your Yahoo account and features easy publishing.

Zoomshare.com – Free blog hosting with 250MB of free storage.

What is RSS?

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a useful tool for keeping updated on your favorite websites. RSS makes use of an XML code that constantly scans the content of a website for updates and then broadcasts those updates to all subscribers through a feed.

By using an RSS or news reader you can check all of your favourite websites and blogs in the one place. Your reader will show you the latest posts on the blog so you can see when new articles have been published. Some blogs only display an excerpt of the article however many blogs (including this one) allow you to read the article in full from your RSS reader.

When you come across a website you would like to add to your aggregator, you can do so in one of two ways. Most sites that offer an RSS feed have an “RSS” or “XML” button on their homepage that you can click on and it will instantly add that feed to your aggregator. Depending on your aggregator, you may instead need to copy and paste the URL of the feed into the program.

The video below is a good explanation to what RSS is.

Here is a list of some good online RSS Readers for you to consider.

• Google Reader
• NetVibes
• BlogLines
• NewsGator Online
• PageFlakes

What is a blog?

Whenever I tell someone what I do for a living they inevitably question how I make money through the internet as they believe that blogs are simply personal diaries. This is sometimes the case, however over the last few years blogging has evolved into something more and has become the most popular way of publishing content on the web for teenagers, adults, small businesses and large news sites too.

So what is a blog?

The word blog originated from the term web log, a term which was used for scripts which allowed users to publish data in reverse chronological order i.e. newest entries first, then second newest and so on. When blogging first became popular it was mostly used for personal diaries however over the last few years many large news websites have started publishing content using a blogging script.

This was no doubt in part to how easy it was to start a blog and maintain it. The first blogging scripts were quite limited however over the years the platform has evolved into a complete Content Management System (CMS). Thankfully, starting a blog is incredibly easy, even for those with little or no experience on the net (which is another reason why blogging became mainstream so quickly).

The video below was filmed by Common Craft. It is a few years old however it remains a great introduction to blogging for those who have never heard of the medium before. Enjoy !!

A Beginners Guide To Starting Your First Blog

You know what a blog is and you read blogs regularly so you have decided to start a blog; what next?

Well, there are a few things you need to decide before you start your first blog. The first thing you need to do is think about what you are looking for from your blog long term. It’s easy to get excited and rush into starting a blog however if you make a plan of action and decide what you want from your blog in the long run you, should enjoy blogging much more and find more success.

• Are you just looking for a place to publish your thoughts online?
• Would you like to make money from your blog in the future?
• Will the blog be used to promote yourself, a service or a product?

Another important thing you need to think about is your blogs topic. My advice to anyone who is thinking about starting their first blog is to choose a topic which they are passionate about. Choose a topic which you love discussing with others about and a topic which you read about regularly, be it from a book, magazine, blog or online forum.

It’s tempting to start blogging about a topic which apparently offers higher advertising commissions however you will quickly learn that writing for a topic you have no interest in is difficult, boring and….well pretty much a pain in the ass! Blogging shouldn’t be about that. If you pick the right topic then you will enjoy writing for your blog and this will show in your posts.

Hosted or Self Hosted

Before you start blogging you need to decide if you want to use a free hosting service or pay a little extra every month to host your own blog.

If you are just creating a small personal blog to post your thoughts on the web for friends and family then a free hosting service like Blogger or WordPress.com is more than sufficient for your needs. These services are perfect for beginners and require very little technical knowledge to get up and running.

However, if you are looking to develop your blog a little more and would like to monetise your blog (immediately or sometime in the future), then I strongly recommend hosting your blog yourself. Most popular blogging scripts like WordPress, Text Pattern and Life Type are free and you can purchase your own private hosting space for as little as $4.99 per month.

Hosted Blogging Solutions

Although there are many free blogging solutions available, most bloggers decide to go with either Blogger or WordPress.com.

Pros:

• No Cost. The majority of hosted blogging services are free.
• Incredibly easy to setup. No technical experience required.

Cons:

• Limited control over the blog compared to hosting yourself.
• The host may remove your blog at any time without prior consent (this is rare though it has happened).
• Some hosted services integrate their own ads into your blog in order to cover hosting costs.
• Some services (like WordPress.com) do not allow advertisements of any kind to be placed in your blog (unless you upgrade to their premium service). This means you cannot make any money from your blog.

Self Hosting

Pros:

• Complete control over your blog and it’s identity.
• Webspace and bandwidth. Hosted solutions only offer you a limited amount of webspace so once a blog reaches a certain level, the blog will probably have to be moved to a dedicated hosting solution. Self hosting allows you more space to store your files and much more bandwidth to help with your blogs traffic.

Cons:

• Monthly Costs start from around $5 a month and upwards.
• Requires a little technical knowledge. Some bloggers may struggle with basic tasks like uploading the blogging script and customising the blogs design.

Buying a Domain Name

A domain name is vital for building a successful blog. It is your blogs identity, it is how visitors easily find your blog and it plays a major role in what traffic you receive from search engines.

As I mentioned before, if you just need a blog for personal reasons (e.g. a blog to post about your 3 month holiday to friends and family), a domain isn’t necessary and the url that the free hosting solution will be sufficient.

For the majority of bloggers though, a domain name is essential. Many bloggers make the mistake of starting their first blog using a free hosting solution such as Blogger or WordPress but don’t register a domain for their blog until their blog is established. In my opinion this is a big mistake and I advise you all to register the domain for your blog before you create the blog itself.

Failing to do so can be counter productive for a few reasons. Firstly, by developing your blog on a free host without registering the domain means that there is a great risk of the domain being hijacked. The domain might actually have been registered before you created your blog so it’s important to purchase the domain before you do anything.

Secondly, search engine traffic is tied to the url of a site. When changing the domain of a blog you can use a 301 redirect to tell search engines that the blog has been moved however you can still lose traffic.

A domain costs on average $10 a year for a top level domain (e.g. .com, .net etc), which isn’t really too much of an expense considering how important. So I encourage you all to find the right domain for your blog before you even write your first post.

Are 125 x 125 pixel Ads Right for Your Blog?

Over the past 6 to 12 months the 125 x 125 pixel advertisement has emerged onto the blogging scene as a fairly common means of advertising.

I don’t know who did it first - but there are hundreds (if not thousands) of blogs using it. Some of the more prominent ones include TechCrunch, Read/WriteWeb, CopyBlogger and John Chow - but there are many hundreds others. In fact over at b5media we have them on all of our 250+ blogs.

Why 125 Pixel Ads Are Worth Considering

125 x 125 ads are an attractive option for bloggers and advertisers on numerous fronts:

• Bloggers tend to like them because they fit well into sidebars (either in a single vertical line or side by side)
• They give the option to sell multiple ad units in the space often reserved for one larger ad (four 125 x 125 ads fit nicely into either the position of a skyscraper or large rectangle ad). Generally selling 4 smaller smaller ads will bring in more than selling one larger one
• Many medium to smaller level advertisers like them because they are cheaper than a larger ad and they can have their ad appear on multiple blogs for the same price as a larger one on one blog.
• Increasingly affiliate programs are offering publishers 125 pixel ads - these can be run in unsold ad spots so that they can be monetized even when the full stock of ads are not sold.

Should you run 125 x 125 ads on your blog? Balancing the Arguement

There are some good reasons to experiment with 125 pixel ads - however it’s not all plain sailing.

There are a number of things to consider before moving to this format:

• They work better in some industries than others - in my limited experience of selling advertising I’ve found that each industry has it’s own preference when it comes to ad unit size. I was chatting to an advertising agency last week about them buying a banner ad on one of my blogs and when I suggested 125 pixel ads there was silence on the other end of the phone. The rep had never sold a 125 pixel ad - his industry dealt almost exclusively in large banners, skyscrapers and rectangle ads. 125 pixel ads tend to be something that tech, web 2.0 type advertisers prefer - perhaps it’s expanding to other industries - but many still operate in more traditional sizes.
• Mainstream advertisers are still catching up - similarly, I’ve found that even in the tech web 2.0 space, many larger advertisers prefer more traditional ad sizes and some are not set up to sell anything else.
• It takes more work to sell four ads than one - While selling four smaller ads can bring in more revenue than selling one larger one - there are more costs involved in selling four - particularly when you consider your own time in making the sale and administering the ad. This is of course if you can sell any ads at all. Selling one ad and having three empty spots can be quite disheartening.

How to Use 125 pixel Ads on Your Blog

A few pieces of advice for selling 125 pixel ads:

Have some filler ads in reserve - if you set aside four ad 125 ad units in your design then be prepared to have some unsold inventory for periods of time. There are a number of options here:

• you could run an affiliate program (if you can find one that fits with your niche)
• you could run an AdSense ad here (they offer 125 sized ads (although a text ad might look odd next to other image based ads)
• you could run a Chitika ad unit (again they might look odd)
• another option is to run an internal ad (an ad that points to different parts of your blog/site)
• you could run an ad swap here - arrange for another blogger in your niche to run their ad there in return for you running one on their blog (to swap traffic)

Prepare an ‘advertise here’ ad - another option for a filler ad is to prepare an ad that advertisers the opportunity to advertise in that position on your blog. Point this ad to an ‘Advertise page’ on your blog which has information on the benefits of advertising on your blog. It can also be worth to have another link or small ad near these ads that points to the same page for when all ads are sold out.

Look at who is advertising elsewhere in your niche - if you’re struggling to find advertisers for your blog a good idea is to keep track of who is advertising on other blogs and websites in your niche - particularly those advertising using 125 pixel ads. If they are willing to advertise on your competitors blogs then they are likely to consider yours too.

Positioning is Everything - on my old template here at ProBlogger I was forced to have my 125 pixel ads below the fold. I did this reluctantly because there was no other room for them and was keen to get them up in a more prominent position with the redesign (in fact it was one of the main reasons I did the redesign). Having them below the fold gave a poor conversion for advertisers which resulted in being able to charge less and struggling to get advertisers to renew their ads. Moving them up the page helped significantly.

Consider your Competing Ads and Affiliate Programs - one thing to carefully consider is how many other ads and affiliate programs to include on your blog. This is worth considering on three fronts:

1. Too many ad units on your blog can be detrimental on two fronts. Firstly it can crowd out the content and disillusion regular readers while putting off new visitors to your blog. Some blogs have so many ads that their content is pushed way down the page and effectively hidden.
2. Too many ads on a page dilutes the conversion that advertisers get. If an ad is one of four they have a much higher chance of being noticed and clicked on than if the ad is one of ten.
3. Some blogger miss out on being able to sell ads by running affiliate programs or AdSense on their blogs. The problem with running an affiliate program on a blog is that the program you are promoting via that program might decide that they don’t need to advertise on your blog. This might be a good thing if the affiliate program pays out more than the advertising would have - but it could also be costly. Running AdSense on a blog where you’re trying to sell ads directly can also hurt you because in some cases it’ll be much cheaper for the advertiser to advertise on your blog using AdSense. Remember AdSense takes a cut of what the advertiser pays - so you could potentially be losing out quite a bit. This all needs to be monitored and you need to do some analysis of which monetization technique is best for you.

Feature Advertisers - one way to add some value to those advertising on your blog using 125 pixel ad units (or any type of advertising) is to give them a little extra attention by periodically featuring advertisers on your blog in a post. Disclose what you’re doing so that readers know that you’re highlighting paying advertisers - but do it both to give your advertisers extra value (increasing the chances of them renewing their ad next month) and as a means of attracting new advertisers.

Have Your Say on 125 Pixel Ads

What do you think about 125 pixel ads? Do you run them on your blog? Why or Why not?

"Donate" Button HTML Code

The example code below shows the minimum information you need to create a Donate button (in this case, to make a $25.00 USD donation):

<form name="_xclick" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick">
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="Your Paypal Account">
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Your Name">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="amount" value="25.00">
<input type="image" src="http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
</form>

• PS: Edit what is in Bold characters!!

Pasting this code into your website would generate a button that looks like this:

Beginner Guides

Blogging Guides For Beginners

Welcome to the Blogging Tips Guides section. In this area our aim is to walk you through the basics of blogging and give you a basic understanding of the tools and skills which you will need to progress as a successful blogger.

• Getting Started : A Beginners Guide To Starting Your First Blog :
  • What is a blog?
  • What is RSS?

• Hosting
  • The Truth About Unlimited Webspace and Bandwidth
  • How to upload files via FTP
• Money Makers

Plugins

On this page you will find a list of all WordPress Plugins which BloggingTips has developed for it’s users. Each plugin has its own page which includes a description of the plugin, instructions on how to use the plugin and answers to commonly asked questions.

Please note that all of our plugins can be downloaded from the Official WordPress Plugin Directory.

---

BloggingTips WordPress Plugins

Twitter User is a simple plugin which adds an additional box to the author pages profile in which they can add their twitter username.

---

How to install a WordPress Plugin

Installing a WordPress Plugin is very easily. Here are some basic instructions on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

1. Download Twitter User in zip format from the WordPress Directory.
2. Install the plugin in your WordPress powered blog. There are two ways to do this :
   1. Upload the zip file directly to your blog at www.yourblogsdomain.com/wp-admin/plugin-install.php. If you prefer to use this method, please make sure you have your hosting username and password ftp details available. Please note, older versions of WordPress may not have the option to upload plugins directly through your blog admin area.
   2. Alternatively, you can upload the plugin to your blog using File Transfer Protocol. All you need to do is unzip the plugin and upload the plugin directly to www.yourblogsdomain.com/wp-content/plugins/.
3. Activate the plugin at www.yourblogsdomain.com/wp-admin/plugins.php

After you activated the plugin you may have to add some information to a settings area or add some code to your blogs theme before the plugin works but this depends on the plugin so make sure you always read the developers instructions.

Additional

• The Official WordPress Plugin Directory is without doubt the largest directory or WordPress Plugins on the web and the best place to start your search for the plugin you need to enhance your blog.
• All BloggingTips WordPress Plugins are developed by BloggingTips author and Sarah from Stuff By Sarah. Sarah has been working with WordPress for years and through her blog posts on BloggingTips and her own blog Stuff By Sarah she has helped thousands of bloggers develop, improve and understand their blogs backend structure.

Usful Links

New Ideas By Miss Amel: http://youfirst.ws

I’d love to share with you this great bread recipe that I practically know by heart! I bake it every 2 weeks, and is super healthy.

Nothing is healthier and tastes better than home made bread. This recipe is high in fiber, only 54 calories per serving and tastes absolutely fabulous!

Eat it for breakfast, lunch, or both with healthy toppings such as chicken, low-fat cheese with oven-baked red peppers or hard boiled egg with sprinkles of spring onions. Delish! read more...

Business & Economy Directory

OnToplist.com is a free human-edited blog directory where you submit the RSS feed of your blog. You can also set up your own micro-directory (blog ranking) and compile a list of your favorite blogs in one place. OnToplist is also a social network that allows you and other bloggers to get in touch and promote your blog by attracting more readers.

After registering, access your dashboard and go to the tab "Add New Blog". Here provide detailed info about your website such as: title, URL of your site, URL of your RSS feed, tags, etc.

BLOGbal

BLOGbal is a human edited web directory that helps your website content gain more visibility. All links submitted are listed in categories, free of charge. Having your links featured on the homepage of BLOGbal costs $4.99/year.

On the submission page type the title of your website, the URL and a brief description. Then add your name, email address and specify a category where your website link will be listed. Wait for your link to be approved.

OOBDOO

ooBdoo provides webmasters and content providers with an avenue to promote content through RSS. Free of charge, your RSS feeds are placed into the category that best suits your website topic to gain maximum exposure. All pages are regularly updated by polling RSS feeds for fresh content.

Without registration, just type your name, email address, website URL and a brief description to have OoBdoo index your feed. You must also specify if you want your website URL to be a follow / nofollow link and how often your content is updated. Then wait for your RSS feed to be approved.

Risky Business

Risk management isn’t just a buzz word, nor is it something only big
businesses need. Risk management should be part of every
organization’s ongoing business planning process.
Why? Because businesses are now exposed to many more risks
than in the past in the form of legal risk, technology risk and
economic risk, to name but a few. Understanding the potential
impact these perils have on your business is a necessity in today’s
business environment.
What do we mean by ‘risk’ here? Risk is the chance that an action
or event will adversely impact your business. Risk management is a
systematic process you put in place to help minimize the
consequences of any adverse event. It’s a way of identifying,
analyzing, monitoring and managing activities or occurrences that
have the potential to damage your operations.
It’s important to develop a concrete risk management process as
part of your business’s day-to-day operations. This usually starts with
your business plan. Most business plans contain a SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.
This identifies risk and is the first step in any risk management
framework. Once you have identified your risk you can develop a risk
profile, which outlines potential risks to which your business is
exposed. Businesses can’t completely eliminate risk – for example,
it’s impossible to completely avoid IT risk. But what you can do is
work out which risks you are prepared to expose your business to,
and what you can do if these dangers become reality.
This is why managers need to work out the risk tolerance zone or
the extent to which the business is prepared to be exposed to danger.
When you know your potential risks, you can start developing risk
minimization strategies. This might involve things like ensuring you
have strong firewalls in place to reduce the chance of your computers
being exposed to viruses and hackers.
It might also include ensuring you have the right insurance cover
if, for example, your business was destroyed by fire. A written action
plan including a timetable of activities that will help reduce risk is
usually part of a risk minimization strategy.
Developing a culture that encourages team members to report
potential business risks also goes a long way in helping to reduce risk.
Make sure you nominate someone to be the champion of the risk
management process and encourage other team members to go to
this person if they believe the company is at risk in any way. Also put
in place clear reporting frameworks so that your risk management
system is clearly documented.
Bogged down in the day-to-day, it’s easy for small business owners
to ignore risk management. But this is a false economy.
In reality, most businesses can’t afford NOT to have a risk
management strategy. For advice on assessing your real risk areas
and your exposure to damage and loss of earnings if things go
wrong, ask about our risk assessment and prevention services.