PROBLEM -  Making a neat horizontal bar with all the social-sharing buttons inline.

Well, I am not a coding expert. But, somehow I wrote a code which is simple and easy. So, I thought I would share the code here on my blog.

I scratched my head for a lot of time over this problem. But, later I came to know that I was not really looking at the problem. Okay, now first let me give you the code.

<div> 

<!-- tweet button -->  
<div style="float:left;">
<a href="http://twitter.com/share" data-count="horizontal">Tweet</a>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"> </script>
</div>
 <!-- tweet button --> 

<!-- facebook like button-->
<div style="float:left;">
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href&amp;send=false&amp; layout=button_count&amp;width=450&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp; colorscheme=light&amp;font&amp;height=21" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:60px; height:21px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>
</div>
<!-- facebook like button--> 

<!-- Google +1 button -->  
<div style="float:left;">
<!-- Place this tag where you want the +1 button to render -->  
<g:plusone size="medium" annotation="inline" width="60"></g:plusone> 

<!-- Place this render call where appropriate -->  
<script type="text/javascript">   (function() {     var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;     po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);   })();  </script>
</div>
<!-- Google +1 button -->
</div>

One another thing-  This is the code I wrote. It is very simple and easy. But, still this code didn’t work in the beginning. Notice the highlighted part of the code above. By default, the Plus one button width will be450px or something, which makes it not possible to keep them inline. That’s why it didn’t work. But, after sometime I found the problem and fixed it. I am just giving a heads up so that you don’t do the same problem.

Also, the code I wrote is only for three buttons, but you can extend it. Just add the code of the button in between the following tags.

<div style="float:left;">
Paste the code for the button here
</div>

That’s all. You can see my code in action at the beginning of this post. Please don’t hesitate to comment if you have any problems or suggestions.

Today in this blog post, I will introduce a tool that will help you to create extension for your blog, which in turn will help your content to be easily discovered. Extension Factory is a tool that helps you to easily create extension of your blog, or rather any blog you want – all you need to do is enter the required blog URL.

It is easy to create an extension of your blog. Go to Extension Factory page. Enter the URL of the blog and click “Create your Extension”. Then, you get a code, copy and add it in your website. Or, if you want to test the extension first, you can also do it by click on “Test Extension” button. If you are a wordpress user, then there is a plugin that does the same job. You might have noticed that on my blog.

The tool basically takes the RSS feed URL of a blog and creates an extension using that feed. The tool supports Firefox, Chrome, Safari and IE. It creates a simple dialog box interface containing feeds of your blog posts. Whenever a new post is updated on your blog, the extension shows a notification (See picture below).

The extension has an option to bookmark posts too. Also, if a blog has more than one feed, you can select only the feeds you want, from the “Options” tab.

If you want anymore information about this tool, visit their FAQ here.

Don’t you think getting feeds of your favorite blog right on your browser would be great? So, IMHO this a simple yet good tool. What do you think about this tool? Would you use it for your blog? Or how would you use it? Drop in your comments below.

While writing FIFA posts, most blogs (especially Indian) I have read, have used the keyword Football (including me).  However, I recently did a adwords keyword search using the keyword tool regarding this. I found that the keyword “soccer” had more Estimated Avg.CPC, than the keyword “football”.

Well, the reason why we (Indians) use “football” more often than “soccer” is that “football” is used all over the world, while “Soccer” is American. As, in most parts of world, “football” is in practice, we tend to use “football”.

If you take a look at the image below, the keyword “football” has an average CPC of around 0.99 USD, while “soccer” has an average CPC of 1.13 USD. The difference is pretty much noticeable.

Another thing is, while doing the keyword research, the location was set to United States. Since most bloggers, as far as I know, target American traffic, it’s better to use “soccer” keyword in your posts than “football” keyword.

But, till now we just looked at the average CPC. But, if you see the the search volume for the keyword “football” is more than the search volume for “soccer”. It’s almost less than half the “football” volume. So, it’s better to use both the keywords simultaneously. Like, “football” in the title and excerpt, while “soccer” in the middle of the posts. What do you think?

This post is not written by an expert. These are just my views and there may be many mistakes in my analysis. I expect you to hit me with questions or tell me what’s right and what’s wrong. We can strike a discussion together. Thanks for reading!

SEO-Browser.com is a tool that helps you to check how search engines sees a particular website/blog. This is helpful for the bloggers to analyze and optimize their website with ease. To use this tool, you need to enter your blog URL and you are done.

There are two modes for analyzing your website. Simple mode and Advanced mode. Simple mode just shows you how a page is viewed by a search engine. Whereas in advanced mode, it helps you to analyze many internal aspects of a website/blog like metadata, external and internal links, CSS sheet, duplicate content and so on… These are the aspects which are very important to note while optimizing your website for search engine.

Overall, SEO-Browser is very helpful for website optimization. What do you think about this tool? Do you think it will really help in optimizing blogs? Share your thoughts through comments below. Every comment you make is of great value to me.

SEO I Did To This Post

SEO Title: Know How Search Engines See Your Blog/Website

“Blog/Website” again as in the previous post , you need to use double keywords in your title. This helps you to rank higher. Actually, “know” here is a noise, however it would not be nice to submit a title which contains only keywords. So I added that word. BTW, I have a doubt here. If you are reading this line, please be kind to answer my small doubt:

“What’s wrong in adding only keywords in the title instead of sentences?”

SEO Excerpt: Here is a tool that helps you to look at your blog/website in a way search engines look. This gives you a deeper understanding of SEO and make your blog more SEO-Friendly!

Some important keywords: “blog/website”, “SEO”, “SEO-Friendly”

SEO tags: seo for blogs, tool to seo, how search engine looks a website,

Apture is an addon that helps you to reduce the bounce rate of your blog. This addon helps you to insert multimedia to your blog posts and in turn makes your readers dig deeper through your articles. Apture is compatible for almost all common blogging platforms such as Blogger, WordPress, Typepad etc.

Links you usually offer directs the readers to a new page and hence many readers are hesitant to click on those links. Apture is different here. If you link to a Wikipedia article using Apture, it’s pretty easy for readers to reach it. When the pointer hovers on the link, a pop-up appears enabling users to read the article there itself.

I am using this addon right now and this is how it will show up when you hover the mouse here. With this addon, you can also link to your previous related articles as I have done in the link above.

Apture helps you to find reference articles, when you are writing articles that need information right from your editor. It uses Wikipedia and other trusted sources. The sites that you can access through Apture are Flickr, Wikipedia, Google Books, Yahoo! Youtube and many more.

It also helps you to add relevant images or videos to the links. Overall, the link you provide through Apture will be a compact encyclopedia for the readers. It also helps you to embed the document itself into your blog post and hence making it more convenient for the readers. This is how an embedded link looks.

You can also check out how Apture would work on your blog or website here.

Don’t you think this addon is amazing? Share your thoughts about this addon through comments! If you liked this post, then don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed for more such amazing articles.

SEO I Did To This Post:

SEO Title: Blogger/Wordpress Addon For Reducing Bounce Rate Of Blogs

There are certain important things to note here. I have used “Blogger/Wordpress addon”. This adds more keyword relevancy to the title. The googler is pretty much likely to search for any of the two keywords, “WordPress” or Blogger”. Another important thing to note here is, I have used “Blogger” first and then “WordPress”, this is because there is less competition for the keyword “Blogger” than “WordPress”. The more nearer the keyword will be from the starting of the title the more better it is.

SEO Excerpt: A perfect addon for reducing bounce rate of wordpress or blogger blogs.Add links from various sources and make visitors to dig through your site content for a long time.

Nothing much to explain here. Usual things. Write keyword-oriented excerpts in order to rank higher.

SEO Tags:reduce bounce rate of blogger blogs, reduce bounce rate of wordpress blogs, bounce rate reduction, addon for reducing bounce rate.

All possible search terms that a googler could search for.

To enable, this feature in MS Word, you need to first setup your account in the MS Word. The following tutorial could help you doing so.

1. Click on the Office button on the top left corner of MS word. Go to “Publish” option and select “Blog”.
2. In the new window open, create new blog account. This image tutorial will guide you through the installation.

   

3. While setting up the account, click on “Picture Options”. Select my own server and enter the URL of where you upload the pictures. For example, http://www.techmonk.com/wp-admin/uploads.php. If you are using FTP server, then give the corresponding URL. In the “Source URL” enter your blog URL.
4. If you are setting up an Blogger account then you can simply select the blog provider option or set up any other server online like Flickr or Photobucket wherein you can upload your pictures.

Note: If you are using WordPress.org (Self-hosted) then you need to enable XML – RPC. (Remote Publishing Client). To do so, go to “Settings- Writing”. Check the Enable Remote Publishing option.

Advantages Of Blogging From MS Word

There are many advantages when you are blogging from MS Word.

1. It has more formatting options. So you can choose among variety of fonts.
2. You feel at home when you use MS Word.
3. You can use font sizes with greater flexibility.
4. You can insert chart, clip-art, wrod art and so on.

Disadvantages Of Blogging From MS Word

1. You cannot SEO your articles like in WordPress or in WLW.
2. You cannot create tags and categories for Blogger account. However, if you are using wordpress you can create categories.

SEO I Did To This Article:

This is a new practice that I am adopting in my blogging. This section of the blog will contain all the SEO I make to a article as it would be helpful to my readers. I discuss the importance of the SEO below every post from now on as much as I know. Suggestions about SEO and the article are welcome by means of comments or mails. Will continue it depending on how people react to this.

Post Title: How To Post Articles To Your Blog Using Microsoft Word.

Here the post title is same as the one I have entered into the Platinum SEO pack. This is because people search like “How to post articles from MS Word” and as Google gives more importance to the title I have entered the same.

More about Platinum SEO pack. (A must have wordpress SEo plug-in.)

Post Excerpt: Here is a simple tutorial that helps you to blog from MS Word. If you are searching for an alternative for WLW, then you can use Microsoft Word as your blog writer.

This the post excerpt that the search engines see. If you look at the post excerpt on my blog homepage, it is different. The important point in this post excerpt is the keywords. “Blog from MS Word”, “Alternative for WLW”, “Microsoft as your Blog Writer”. People are likely to search these keywords. and if they do so, this would help me to rank high in the search position.

Also note that the excerpt just contains 165 characters. Most search engines just take 160 characters of the excerpt. So being brief in your explanations with keywords will help you to rank higher.

Note: Google gives second position to the Excerpts after Post Titles.

Keywords: blog from MS word, blog from Microsoft Word, alternative for WLW, alternative for Windows Live Writer

These tell search engine to invoke our links when a query like the above ones are entered. People are likely to search using the following keywords.

Image Optimization: I am still a novice in image optimization and still learning it. Any suggestions on optimizing images are welcome.

An important note: Here, we are in no way fooling the Search Engines as many might think. This is just making our post much related to the search queries.

Why Do People Read Reviews In Blogs?

This is an important question to be answered before continuing the talk on writing a review. Even though there are lots of application reviewing sites on web such as Softpedia, FileHippo, Tucows and so on, people read reviews on blogs for many reasons. I have listed them here:

1) People trust reviews made on blogs as bloggers check them before reviewing it. However, not every blogger does this. So beware, readers!

2) It is neatly explained on blogs rather than other sites that I mentioned above. So, readers can get an insight of what that application actually is, and whether they are in need of it or not.

3) Bloggers give a detailed tutorial of how to use an application, thus making the work of a reader easier.

These are some of the reasons why people wish to read reviews on blog. But, what I have seen on many blogs is that they just write review in a short paragraph and end the post. If that is the matter, then readers would prefer on sites like Softpedia only as they update faster than you.

Tips To Write Review On a Application

So, with above points in mind, we need to write such a post, so that it will be helpful to readers in all ways. Here are some points that you need to take care before writing a review post.

1) NEVER WRITE A POST WITHOUT TRYING THE APPLICATION. This is the most important point that has to be kept in mind before writing a review post. Remember, if you write a post on an application that doesn’t work or contains viruses, then you may get lot of teachers to teach you how to write a blogpost. More than that, if a software contains a virus you will be the cause for hacked PCs of your readers.

2) As far as you can, explain the features of the applcation through images. You can check this post of mine, I had written recently for better understanding.

3) Add a special section in your post called THE STRIKING FEATURE to emphasize on the exact usefulness of the application.

4) If there are any complications in using the applications, give a simple tutorial below the review of how to use it.

My Usual Practice Of Writing Reviews On Applications

I usually, at the beginning, explain briefly about what the application is all about. Then, I list all the places and situations where this application can be used. After this I move on with features through complete image tutorial. I mark the important features in the images so that readers can can understand them easily. Later, if I feel there is a real striking feature then I create a separate section, if otherwise I add it in the features section only. At the end I conclude with encouraging the users to test the application and discuss there experience.

Features List: Bullets Or Paragraphs

It is often a common discussion about how to write the features section. I would say, it all depends on the app. If there are so many features that needs lot of explanation, then it is better to write them in paragraphs. If the features do not require much explanation then bullets would do.

For example, if you are writing the review of Google Wave, there are many features that you have to explain to readers like Tweeting from Wave, Sharing a Wave and so on. These features require explanation as to how it is useful and how to use it. So, it would be better to write paragraphs to explain its features.

However, if you are reviewing a simple application like Notepad + +, it would be enough if you write a list of features as shown below:

• WYSIWYG Editor
• Multi-Viewing
• Multi-documents…… and so on.

However, these are completely my point of view and there is no compulsion that you have to accept it.

So, what do you think of my practice of writing reviews? Did you find this post useful? Please share your opinions through comments below.

BTW, What exactly is readability?

Readability of a post, in a layman’s language, is how well can a post or an article be understood by others. However, if you go deeper you will find that readability of an article is calculated based on different factors in an article. Flesch-Kincaid Readability is a method of finding out the percentage of readability of a paragraph.

According to the Flesch-Kincaid Readability formula mentioned in the Wikipedia, scores of the articles are calculated. Here is a table that will tell you the range of scores you must try to achieve depending on your audience.

90-100: Very Easy
80-89: Easy
70-79: Fairly Easy
60-69: Standard
50-59: Fairly Difficult
30-49: Difficult
0-29: Very Confusing

As the topic under discussion here is blogging, it would be ideal to get a score of readability between 60-70, as most blog readers are neither professionals in English nor too weak.

Now after defining, the score you want your posts to have, it is time to concentrate on achieving it.

How To Test The Readability Of A Post?

This important question is worth answering here. After knowing so much about the need of maintaining readability of a post, there is a need to implement them in your writings.

Coming to the tool, MS word is itself a best tool for checking the readability of a post. It actually tests the Flesch-Kincaid Readability I had discussed. Here is a brief tutorial to enable that option:

• Go to MS Word 2007, Click on the review tab.
• Click the Spelling & Grammar option.
• Click on the Options in the opened dialog box.
• Check the Readability statistics option.

After this, you would be getting the readability statistics in the percentage. Try to maintain the percentage between 60 and 70 as I had said above.

Tips To Increase The Readability

• Try to keep your sentences brief and easily readable to others.
• Do not combine too many sentences and make it a single sentence. At the maximum, combine two sentences with all the required punctuations at the correct places.
• Use the punctuation marks at the proper places, so that they are easy to read for your readers.
• Try to avoid as many miss-spells as possible.
• Use blog writers such as Windows Live Writer and Word, so that it would be easy to do spell check etc.

For a blogger to become famous, he must write posts which are needed for people and also not written by anyone. By my experience of about 5 months of blogging, I have come to know that most people quit their search for a single page. Thus it becomes important to track your position in the Google search query.

Take for example, this post, “Add Bing Search In Opera 10“. I get lot of traffic for this post. This is because of two reasons. One is that people search for such things and the second reason is that it stands at a good position on Google search query. (You can check the position here). Thus, I hope you got the idea of positions in Google Queries.

Here is a tool that helps you to find where you stand on the search engine query for keywords you enter. Just enter the keywords for which you want to know the position of your blog. Here is a small example:

Here, I have entered the keywords for the post I had said earlier and I get my position at No.4. Thus, it’s important for you to check out where you stand on the search engine. Try out this software here. And don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you like the post.

There are many ad codes out there which are not compatible for blogger as it has only XML compatibility. Many java-scripts are very hard to embed in blogger and many end up in getting errors editing it.

Now, here is a online tool that helps you to convert ad codes compatible for blogger. This is called Blogger Adsense Code Converter. It is a service that gives you the blogger compatible script of any ad code. You may also note that you can convert any ad code like Chitika, Adsense, Adbrite etc. This is hosted on eblogtemplates, a site for very good blogger and wordpress templates.

You can check out this service here. If you liked this post get subscribed here for more of posts like this.