Its long when Gadgets has been covered here, So this time Inforids.com brings to absolutely amazing remote controlled LED-based hard drive clock build by a Polish tinkerer. The way this hard drive is used with LEDs is very unique to show you the time. Check it out.
The work put to build this, is really appreciable. Nice work, Polish tinkerer.
Thousands of themes available not only for WordPress but also for blogger, heavy loaded with lots of features always taking the war of themes on & on.
Few days before, My friend Satish Gandham started working on a theme for wordpress which he aimed to load in seconds & to use minimum server resources. Today its almost complete with its most recent version 3.0.0
Swift The fastest loading, SEO optimized server friendly & FREE wordpress theme, from SwiftThemes.Com recently striked version 3.0.0 with lots of improvements over its previous release.
It is really very important to choose the right theme for your blog & for new wordpress users its like going for a tough job to sit on & search for the best among thousands, download them & try it on to see whether is good or not.
Swift theme is one that is developed keeping in mind the most of the needs of the wordpress users with excellent performing aspects already added to make it suitable for wordpress users.
So, Download it & just set your preferences with an ease of its very user friendly options page.
What is the first thing presented to anyone who visits a website while browsing on Internet? Right, Its your Website Design. Thats why Bloggers and webmasters are always keen and worried about their blog’s design. They tweak the templates, change the colors, adjust the css and positioning and take every possible means to ensure that the blogs looks good in the eyes of the readers.
The Better the blog design, it presents the better looks & impression to the readers. But at some point of time the design and the feel of the blog can be really disturbing if you are committing design mistakes.
If you are a beginner and have just started out , here are some useful design tips and suggestions to improve your blog’s design.
The first thing you do after you have started your blog is choose a theme. Choosing a right theme for your blog which not only suits the blogging category but also how you want to present it to readers, is one of the most important step in starting a blog. For this one needs to take time & then select the best which meets your demands both, look-wise & performance-wise.
If your blog is hosted on WordPress or Blogger there are Plenty of themes to choose from. Just Google around for WordPress themes or blogger templates and you can get hundreds of Free themes that you can use in your blog. But before choosing a theme keep in mind that it should be simple and clean.
Recommended Reading:
Starting A New Blog | The First Essential Steps every Blogger must Consider
It is must to mention here that the main notion behind blogging s to present the information & content to your reader with a nice, simple & friendly design. Do not use a theme with heavy graphics, eye catchy colors or Images. Sure they look ” fascinating ” but after some days they will start distracting your readers attention. If the reader is disturbed by your graphics or other design elements he wont stay in your blog to read your articles. Thus it is recommended to choose a clean and simple theme for your blog.
How many blogs you have seen use a dark background? Can you easily read the content or text on a Dark background? Reading articles on blogs having a dark background can be really difficult at times and is not recommended.
Using the opposite combination(White text in a Back Background) is sometimes suitable for Game Blogs & Photo Blogs where there is not enough text but lot of images.
Hence it is always advised to use White or a Light background and Dark or Black text for a content based blog. Users want to read your content and they do not visit your website to see the design skills you have. If you make things difficult for them they wont come back even the second time to read your articles.
This one is no brainier and should be followed at all costs. You should keep the content column the main focus in your blog. The content column should be wide enough ( e.g 600px ). If you have a two column template keep the content column to the left and the sidebar in the right.
Recommended Reading:
The 10 most important things bloggers need to know before writing a blog article
Also do keep in mind that the content should begin immediately after your templates header. So start the content section as early as possible so that the user need not need to scroll all the way down to read your posts.
You should Avoid distractions at all costs. The most disturbing and distracting affair in a Blog is advertisements and widgets. So keep the advertisements to a minimum and if possible do not use them within your content. Using advertisements embedded within content makes it hard to read your article all together and readers may feel disturbed. Result : they will stay away from your blog and go elsewhere.
If you are using advertisements in the content column, keep them above & below the the main content but not in between the content.
The same is true in case you are using too much of widgets in your sidebars. Using too many widgets will eventually slow down your blog and above all it takes the focus away from the main juice: your content. Use widgets sparingly and use them only when you need them, not because it adds one more functionality in your blog.
Many bloggers play with their fonts every now and then and they think it looks “cool”. Believe me nothing can be more irritating than using obtrusive font styles. Choose between the standard fonts like : Arial,Verdana,georgia etc. and the size of your font should be more than 12 px (at least). Using low font sizes to save space is a crazy idea. It creates a very bad impression to your first time visitors.
Use the font combination that can be grasped easily by the eyes & that are simple to understand. Standard fonts are best to act & with simple & clean blog design helps readers alotto easily get they are seeking for.
Nobody will be interested if they have to use a horizontal scroll bar to read your articles and posts.You should take utmost care while designing your blog template so that there aren’t any horizontal scroll bars.
The scroll bars may occur in different screen resolutions( e.g 800 X 600) which is unavoidable but in all other screen resolutions it is recommended to check and say No to scroll bars.
The first thing that comes to a readers mind about any blog is its logo. A good logo creates a solid brand and makes your blog remembered in your readers minds and hearts. So create your own blog logo and make it unique.
Don’t just use text to represent your blog’s name. Be some more creative in making your blog logo & can use images so that it can be remembered.
Similarly, you should also try to create a favicon for your blog. A favicon is seen in the browser address bar , in RSS feeds and its again a style element that brings clarity and brand value in your blog.
Favicon must be something that can be quickly related to the Blog. For Example, Inforids Logo & Favicon both consist of the same symbol * i * on the blue background.
You wouldn’t have a wall of text for a post, so why allow it in your sidebar? Be sure to break up your sidebar with images and ample padding. The sheer number of text links on some blogs is incredible.
Use your sidebar wisely & try to explore the power it can give to your blog.
Next ??Do you have more suggestions about blog design mistakes & more ideas to make better blog designs. Post them here by your comments.
Photoshop is one of the widely used tool today. Everyone finds use of Photoshop essentially from time to time & learning photoshop becomes important to make a better use of it. Whether you are a beginner or advanced user most of these tips will help you.
Weekly Video Grabber Section of Inforids.com presents this week a video that can help you learn 10 of keyboard shortcuts to speed up your Photoshop work flow. In a hurry? This 3 min video is yours. Enjoy.
Feel Free to give more shortcuts in Photoshop through your comments.
Writing a blog means writing about what you know and then making sure it is keyword analyzed. None of these tips cost me money, only time. If you’ve got the time, you can optimize your blog into a substantial income generating machine. The following tactics are what I do to give the search engines something to crawl about as well as to make money. Here are 20 Free SEO Tools that will increase your traffic, give you higher page rankings in the search engines and convert readers into customers.
1. ARTICLE MARKETING: There are hundreds of article directories that need articles on almost any subject you can think of. In addition, article writing is a great way to drive targeted, highly responsive traffic to your blog. I turn every blog post into a keyword dense, promotional information piece guaranteed to create traffic. Doing this will not only strengthen your search engine visibility, it has been known to increase sales. But, best of all, it’s absolutely free.
2. BACK-LINKS: These are links that link back to your blog. I make it a practice of reading at least 1-2 blogs a day that my peers create. When I read something I’m interested in, I comment on it then follow up on the comment with an email to the Blogger requesting a link exchange. The theory is, if a blog has enough relevant links linking back to it, your search engine page rank will increase, therefore causing more traffic sent your way, as well as it boosts credibility to your blog.
3. SIGNATURE ON EMAILS: I know this is old, but it works. Each time I send an email, I include my blog link under my name. Most email programs allow you to include signatures. Great promotional tool to use when you are forwarding those wacky emails to all your friends.
4. PUBLISH A NEWSLETTER: Your subscribers are loyal to you and will be more likely to buy the things you recommend to them because they trust you. Use your built in list to market your favorite products and services.
5. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING: DIGG, SPIN, SCOOP, DE.LICIO.US, TWITTER, DROPJACK, REDDIT, SIMPY, etc.
Social Bookmarking is becoming the new method for surfers to find information on the internet. Make your blog posts easy to find by submitting your posts to as many social bookmarking sites as you can and watch your traffic grow.
6. FORUMS: Answer questions in forums and discussion groups. Yahoo! Answers has a wonderful method to publicize your blog by allowing you to present your advice to people posing serious (and not so serious) questions on a variety of topics. They even allow you to include your link in your answer.
7. LINK REFERRAL: A traffic magnet that I use daily. I review other business websites, give honest opinions, and in turn I receive targeted traffic. Tip: Use your forum to post and respond to questions. This gives you an added bonus.
8. MY BLOGLOG: Kind of a social bookmarking-blog-traffic enhancer site. I just signed up yesterday and I received 20 visitors in the first 30 minutes. Join Inforids on MyBlogLog
9. SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION: Using Web CEO, I submit my site to all the major and minor search engines. There is a free version as well as a paid version. However, I find that the free version suits my professional needs.
10. BLOG OPTIMIZATION: Again, Web CEO comes in handy. I use it to correct errors that my eyes can not see. It is the program to use that will remedy the nuts and bolts of any website or blog.
11. KEYWORD DENSITY: Should be at least 3% in order for the search engines to crawl your site.
12. BLOG DESIGN: Having a clean site design that is uncluttered and easy to navigate doesn’t hurt. Don’t ‘crowd’ your site with an over abundance of advertising, the search engine spiders might consider your blog to be spam if you do.
13. CONSISTENT BLOG POSTING: The recommendation is to post at least 3-4 times per week. Personally, I post Monday – Friday, treating my blog like a job. It helps cure any procrastination urgings I might feel.
14. RELEVANT CONTENT: It is imperative that you create relevant content. Don’t mix a potpourri of information on a blog that is supposed to be about digital cameras. Resist that temptation to step outside of the box, instead contain your flow of information as it relates to your niche subject.
15. RELEVANT ADS: This is also true for the type of advertising you allow on your blog. Health and vitamin supplements don’t belong on a blog about video email software.
16. DEEP LINKING: Create strong internal links to other blog articles in other postings. The search engine spiders love this. It allows them and your readers to crawl around your blog longer and deeper.
17. RSS FEEDS: Use FeedBurner to help distribute your blog to the rest of the blog reading world. RSS Feeds are like hungry virtual Venus fly traps waiting for your information to satisfy its information craving. Use it to your advantage and create strong backlinks as well as free distribution of all your content.
18. USE KEYWORDS, TAGS AND LABELS: Tagging creates a point of reference for your reader as well as the search engines. Remember when we were children and we played the game of tag? Getting tagged then was bad; however having tags for your blog posting helps to categorize your work; it helps readers find what they are looking for.
19. BLOG POPULAR: Give your audience what they are looking for. There are times when I go to what’s popular on Yahoo! or I will just use Web CEO to tell me what all the search engines are showing as popular for the day and write an article or blog about that (I keep the topic relevant to my content though.)
20. COMMENTING: Yes, Comments are the great source of traffic to your blog. So, comment on high page rank blogs like mad, also pay some attention on your comment writing style & its relevancy to the topic.
Ok, these are just 20 Free SEO Link Building Tips (by LaTease Rikard). Let us know if you have more, put comments below, the list is always free to grow!
When it comes to analysis of your website performance & tracking visitors sources, numbers in which they arrived & their loyalty, bounce rate is an crucial aspect that cannot be neglected. But what is Bounce rate & how is it important? Understanding that is really important for webmasters.
Bounce rate is the percentage or amount of visitors who leave your website after arriving at the entry page. Entry page can be your website home page or any other page that is firstly visited by the visitor. These are visitors who ‘bounce away’ after arriving without viewing other pages on your website. You can easily find your website’s bounce rate by using statistics tools like Google Analytics.
Google Defines Bounce Rate as:
Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors.
A low bounce rate means that visitors are exploring your website in greater detail meaning that they are more engaged with your content. High bounce rates of over 60% require immediate attention.
Below find some tips to help you reduce your bounce rate and increase visitors’ loyalty.
Make titles exact & suitable as the covering content. Most times a wrong page headline can make your visitors quickly click the back button. Your headline should make visitors want to continue reading. Typically when you visit a website you begin by reading the headline. If the headline connects with you then you begin reading the contents of the page.
Adding a nice screen shot of your product or a photo will cause visitors to give a second look. Use a good caption below the picture to grab their attention and make them interested. Embedded videos are a great way to reduce bounce rate since it takes time to view a video. But these should be appropriate with the content.
Visitors tend to click the back button if the page takes long to load. Optimize your HTML code, remove unwanted images and optimize your images. Consider a new website design. Go for a simple, practical but decent looking design. Make use of cache plugins, if you are using WordPress.
Navigation facility on your website is the key to get lower bounce rates. Assume that your visitor knows nothing about your site. Assume that they want more information. Make navigation points easy to access, position links around content. There are many ways to orient your visitors and the most important principle is to make the links highly visible and relevant to the current page.
Test your website with a group of users. Ask them to enter your site from specific pages. Get feedback based on their experiences. This will give you ways to improve.
To best achieve this, you should regularly analyze and study your bounce rate. After collecting data, implement changes to your website and see if the bounce rate improves. Also, determine how it affects your goals. Finally, make changes if necessary.
If you’ve not paid any attention to your bounce rate before, try starting today. It might help you to dramatically improve your website.
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