Locate your Site Visitors using Clustrmaps


ClustrMaps.com brings a widget that shows the location of your site visitors on a tiny map that could be easily put on your blog. They provide the HTML that gives you a tiny map. The location of each visit is based on the IP address of the computer used.







When it loads, it increments a counter and shows the locations of all visitors to your page. Clicking on it zooms in to a big world map, and (optionally) lets you zoom in to the continents, as in the example below





[ Not the original size here ]



For the live demo of this widget in action please visit http://clustrmaps.com

CellSpin Adds Palm OS to List of Supported Mobile Operating Systems

Blogging itself is not a very old and established trend, but it looks much more mature in comparison with mobile blogging (so called moblogging). Yes, mobile blogging is spreading around, getting attention of the software developers. Cellspin Soft, Inc. provides a free, one-click GUI-based mobile application for capturing images, audio, video and text, and publishing them to a user’s favorite community site. This could be a blogging, social networking, and photo sharing or auction service. Among the supported sites are MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Blogger, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, Live Journal, Live Spaces and eBay.

Until recently, the software was available for the following mobile operating systems: Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 6.0, and Blackberry. As of yesterday, CellSpin added Palm OS to the list. Overall, the software is now available on more than 300 mobile phone models worldwide.

Bobby Gurvinder Singh, chief executive officer and co-founder of CellSpin, said "The affordable Palm Centro smartphone has become very popular, and now with CellSpin Palm OS application users can stay connected, blog and micro-blog on leading social networks with just one click. CellSpin is about combining Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 technologies and giving end-users a seamless and easy Internet 3.0 experience."

Company announced that more operating systems will be supported soon. I guess, its time to connect iPhone OS and Android…

Application is very user-friendly and limits the mobile phone operation need for this application by several clicks. Review the company video presentation at Demo 08 Conference in January 2008 (http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124662.html)


Additional Reading:

http://www.intomobile.com/2008/06/23/cellspin-brings-mobile-blogging-to-palm-os-audio-video-pictures-and-text-posting-with-ease.html

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/06/24/cellspin-adds-palm-its-mobile-blogging-platform

14 Ways to Promote your Blog Offline

Are you sure you are doing everything possible to promote your blog wherever you can? When I explored recent Darren Rowse offline blog promotion techniques, I realized that I do almost nothing for the offline promotion for my blog. I will list briefly the provided opportunities to let people know about your blog existence in the blogosphere:

1. Conferences and Conventions - if there is a conference that relates to the topic of your interests you can come, try to attend. Be proactive, make friends, and distribute promotional materials if available.

2. Business Cards - make the cards with interesting, attractive appearance and all contact information you want to share with potential readers.

3. Bookmarks - bookmarks use is similar to the business cards. The advantage of the bookmarks that they can be used for the practical bookmarking purposes as well, and are not easily lost.

4. Blogger Meetups - look for a local social network of bloggers in your area, and attend their events. With constant expansion of the virtual communication, face-to-face contacts between the blogging fans become even more valuable.

5. Stickers - make nice stickers as part of your blog promotion materials portfolio. Use them at all places where they can attract public attention (your office, car, bag, etc.) and distribute them between people, where they can substitute business cards.

6. Gifts - Everybody likes freebies. Prepare some inexpensive gifts with your logo, blog URL, and brief encouragement to visit you blog.

7. Media - If you have or can get contacts with any kind of public media, and you can get the journalists interesting in you and what you are doing - it is great! You can get a huge boost to your blog exposure.

8. Internet Cafes - Using Internet Café approaches can be different: make a deal with café owners on making your blog a starting page on their PCs, or place pack of your business cards near every computer, or distribute posted notes or pens (everybody needs them) with your printed data.

9. T-shirts - Wear T-shirts promoting your blog can largely reinforce your brand and credentials. Giving it away means spreading your advertising even more drastically.

10. Workshops and Teaching Opportunities - Attend and actively participate in any educational activities where you can spread a word about your wonderful blog.

11. Advertise - Online advertising is used by many established blogger. But why not going further, advertising your blog in the local newspapers, magazines, or newsletters.

12. Notice boards - Put you flyers or business cards in the permitted for advertising spots at public places.

13. Talk About It - If you conversation might be benefited from reference to your blog, do not hesitate and mention that, supporting your point of view or giving an interesting information on the topic of discussion.

14. Library - Visit local libraries, locate books on the topic of your interest, and place your business card inside. Let the interesting reader find it later.

Additional Reading:
http://www.scribefire.com/2008/05/27/offline-blog-promotion-techniques-part-1-of-3/

http://www.scribefire.com/2008/06/01/offline-blog-promotion-techniques-part-2-of-3/

http://www.scribefire.com/2008/06/10/offline-blog-promotion-techniques-part-2-of-3-2/

http://www.johnchow.com/offline-blog-promotion-ideas-its-all-about-branding/

Embed Documents in your Blog with DocsToc

An interesting announcement drew my attention today. File hosting service Docstoc (http://www.docstoc.com/) is released a nice alternative solution for sending large attachments to friends, family, and co-workers. A small application, called OneClick (http://www.docstoc.com/oneclick), installed on your computer enables a right-click contextual menu, allowing easily send a file located on your hard drive either publicly or securely to your online free storage. Once the file’s been transferred, you will get a link to the Docstoc-hosted document inserted into a new e-mail message that your recipient can open and read.

Sounds interesting already? When I checked the related site, I found that it provides an interesting solution for the blog owners as well for sharing documents in several popular formats (.doc, .pdf, .xls, .ppt) with the blog readers. Embedding the document in the blog or Web Site is easy as ABC. The entire process consists from five steps:

  1. Upload your document to Docstoc Web Site, or find a document already residing in your Docstoc account, or any other public accounts. You can even upload document anonymously, if you do not feel like register or login.
  2. Get to the page where the document is uploaded.
  3. Find the embed code on the right from the document display page and copy the code inside the box in full.
  4. Change the embedded object settings if needed (for example, box display box dimensions).
  5. Embed the code on your blog or Web Site.


Embed Documents in your Blog with DocsToc

Another Popular ShoutBox for Blogger

In one of our earlier posts, we had introduced you to ShoutBox from MyShoutBox.com. Recently, We've found another free and popular shoutbox for blogger. This one comes from ShoutMix.com



Here's a screenshot of the live demo on their homepage





The installation is hassle free, It only take 3 simple steps to get your own shoutbox


Bringing more traffic to your blog - June 6, 2008 - 5th Ed.





Welcome to the Fifth, June 6, 2008 edition of "Bringing more traffic to your blog" Blog Carnival. Some statistics: Submitted Articles - 122. Published Articles - 48. I want to thank all the authors contributing to the issue. Some articles were excluded from the review, since their topic of discussion did not match the main target of the carnival. I am sorry, that not all submissions were accepted, as some of the excluded articles carried a significant value.

Jocelyn @ A Pondering Heart presents Why Are You So Popular? posted at A Pondering Heart.

Raivyn presents What Are You Offering to Your Subscribers? posted at Idiot’s Guide to Blogging.

Woman Tribune presents ScratchBack: Because the PayPal Donation Button is Ugly posted at Woman Tribune.

Kurt Schmitt presents Article Marketing Success posted at Free Website Traffic Tips.

Giamatti presents Keep Creating fresh content posted at Backlink King.

BlogMeTheMoney presents Powering Up Your Blog With These 26 Power Lists/Rankings posted at Blog Me The Money.

Matthew Paulson presents 2 Tips for Free Website Marketing posted at American Entrepreneurship.

Craig Andrews presents Internet Business Techniques posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Marcus Hochstadt presents Why I Do Not Use FeedBurner posted at Marcus Hochstadt, saying, "It seems as if the majority of bloggers use FeedBurner to distribute and track the use of their RSS feeds. Marcus Hochstadt has his reasons for NOT using FeedBurner though."

Brian Terry presents How Inverse Paranoia Can Help You Build A Successful Website posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Raivyn presents 7 More Link Building Strategies posted at Idiot’s Guide to Blogging.

Terry Dean presents Art of Persuasion posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

George Tzenos presents Spread Your Word The Viral Way And Boost Your Traffic posted at Traffic2MyPage Blog.

James DeLelys presents WORDSBlog » MONEY ONLINE posted at Author James DeLelys.

Raivyn presents How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Through Word of Mouth Marketing posted at Idiot’s Guide to Blogging.

Ian Richardson presents EzyAs123 Article Directory Now Open posted at Make Everything EzyAs123, saying, "An Article on internet business"

George Tzenos presents Do You Generate Traffic from Social Bookmarking? posted at Traffic2MyPage Blog.

Shamelle presents 6 Things Simon Cowell (Of American Idol) Would Say About Your Blog! posted at Enhance Life.

Mert Erkal presents How I Quadrupled My Blog’s Traffic In 3 Months posted at www.searchforblogging.com.

Brian Terry presents Become A Genius Website Designer posted at Big Selling Website Design.

James Lee presents 9 Copywriting and Marketing “Aha’s”! posted at Online Business Freedom.

Praveen presents My Simple Trading System: Using Long Tail Keywords to Help Create Blog Posts and Articles that Attract Search Engine Traffic posted at My Simple Trading System.

Amanda Moore presents 6 Things That Will Make Me Leave Your Blog posted at VagabondetteVA, saying, "If your blog isn’t reader friendly, they won’t stick around - and they won’t come back."

Steve Faber presents - Free Blog Traffic - How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog posted at Home Based Business Success.

Kathleen Gage presents Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions: Get the most out of your blogging efforts! FREE report tells you how posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, "What used to be viewed by many as a passing fad has now become a necessary aspect of doing business on the Internet. Blogging has become a necessary aspect of any solid online marketing strategy. However, even though millions of people are blogging, the majority don’t know how to optimize their blogging efforts. Although some people view blogging as a novelty or a “someday I’ll get around to it” smart entrepreneurs understand they have to get into the game of blogging sooner than later. When done correctly, blogging can have an incredible impact on your market position."

Patrick Schwerdtfeger presents Effective Blogging Process posted at Tactical Execution, saying, "Most people blog ineffectively. This post offers readers a process they can follow each time they write a new post for their blogs."

Terry Dean presents Quality Website Traffic posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.

Jonathan Deamer presents The 10 secrets of writing reviews that will keep readers coming back posted at Jonathan Deamer.

Riggie Freyer presents "Do Follow" Links with High Pagerank & KeywordLuv Plug-in Bloglist posted at Internet Business for Beginners Internet Home Based Business.

Jane25 presents The ABC of Making Money At Home for Beginners posted at Work At Home Mom Home Job Resource.

Craig Andrews presents Internet Business Blog - Craig S Andrews posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

BlogMeTheMoney presents 10 Blog Traffic Tips posted at Blog Me The Money.

BlogMeTheMoney presents Does Time Or Day Matter For Publishing Content? posted at Blog Me The Money, saying, "Publishing on certain times of the day or certain days of the week can prove to be "break or bust" on how much your article is seen by others."

Don Morrison presents For Income Success Develop A Prime Online e-Book Marketing Company Model posted at dondmorrison.com, saying, "Download 300+ free, new, & original eBooks at http://dondmorrison.com"

Kathleen Gage presents I know I need to blog, but where do I find the time and fresh ideas? posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, "The more I delve into the Blogosphere, the more I realize how important blogging is to any solid Internet Marketing plan. Anyone who has been paying attention knows they need to get on the Blogosphere bandwagon sooner than later. I work with speakers, authors, coaches and consultants who are always on the lookout for effective ways to reach their market, gain visibility and establish credibility. One would be hard pressed to find something as easy and simple as blogging to achieve these outcomes. Blogging can be fun or it can be a tedious process. Most people start off with a bang and then the sparkle will quickly sizzle as they get caught up in other activities."

Technology Editor presents How to Send Emails that get Delivered and Read posted at Physician Entrepreneur.

George Tzenos presents Use Your Website Traffic Statistics To Improve Your Results posted at Traffic2MyPage Blog.

Kenton Newby presents First-Class Blogging: 12 Perfect Upgrades to Power Your Wordpress Site posted at KentonNewby.com.

Craig Andrews presents Article Writing Tips For Internet Business Traffic posted at Craig S. Andrews.com.

Social D presents Social Marketing Traffic Experiment Updated Results Video posted at Social Networking Bookmark Domination, saying, "Learn how to use social marketing to increase the traffic to your blog"

Margaret Mary presents Getting Listed in the Open Directory Project posted at The Earthly Paradise.

George Tzenos presents Review - Get Tons of Traffic with Google Ads Free.. is it a scam? posted at Traffic2MyPage Blog, saying, "I reveal the strategy for getting free PPC ads"

Jim Kaizen presents A Big List For Improving Article Marketing posted at The Kaizen Business.

Steve Oliphant presents Free Backlinks! Woo Hoo! posted at Steve Oliphant’s Musings.

Joseph presents self help personal development how to advice posted at Self Help and Personal Development.

Brian Terry presents The 3 Ages of Internet Marketing posted at Big Selling Website Design.

Cindy King presents Go Viral With Video Marketing - Special Sound And Motion Effects posted at Get International Clients.

Robert Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.

Fred Black presents Beyond SEO - The Tale of the Three Legged Dog posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of bringing more traffic to your blog using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

5 Blogging Traps You Need to Avoid

As a blogger, there are more than a few mistakes which can and will make you waste valuable time and resources, so that identifying them in order to be able to take action is simply a must.



Let’s not waste another second and start with:

1. Neglecting the Comments Section

The opportunity to interact with your readers is one of the most important things which makes blogging special in the first place. Never make the mistake of neglecting the community you can build around your blog through the comments section, or you will definitely end up regretting your attitude down the road.

2. Not Taking Feedback into Consideration

You will certainly receive your share of emails with suggestions on how to improve your blog, and not taking them into consideration would simply be a shame. After all, if a reader has taken the time to write you an email and share his or her two cents, listening to what that person has to say is the least you could do.

3. Taking Breaks From Blogging

You are obviously only human and will need to recharge your batteries every now and then, but that doesn’t mean that not publishing blog posts for several days in a row is the way to go. Take advantage of the timestamp feature, write a few blog posts before you leave and there you have it.

4. Seeing Blogging as a Chore

The “I’ll just write this post and get it over with” attitude is never recommended if you are serious about seeing long-term results. Pick a topic you are both passionate about and knowledgeable in, and make sure that your posts reflect the way you feel about blogging.

5. Not Respecting Your Readers

When interacting with readers, always be polite and helpful. Don’t look down upon a person simply because the question he or she has asked seems like something obvious. It may be obvious to you, but it may just represent something extremely important to a person who is just starting out. The same way, you should encourage the loyal members of your community to always be ready to help a fellow member out since, as I’ve previously stated, not taking advantage of the comments section would simply be a mistake.

source:

10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post

One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content.

In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere.

Make the next post you write your most popular post ever.

The following ten tips form my key advice for tackling this task. I used all of them when hitting the Digg front page for the first time. There’s no blueprint you can follow to write an incredibly popular post, but you won’t have a chance unless you try. I’m confident these tips will give you a good shot at success.

1. Time is more important than talent. Work on something for eight hours and you can bet it will be good. You don’t need to spend that long, however (though that’s how long it took me to craft the first post I wrote that hit the Digg front page). More time means you can refine, format and fill your post with plenty of value. Take the time to really craft your content. It will show in the finished product.

2. Use your best idea. A post will never become wildly popular unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically. What’s something your niche wants but hasn’t got yet? Can you assemble a whole lot of really awesome (targeted) resources in one place? The more your posts helps people, the better it will do.

3. Use formatting to your advantage. These days, social media is key when it comes to launching your posts into the stratosphere. Social media users are notoriously spoiled for choice, however. Use formatting to emphasize the best aspects of your post. Hone in on your funniest lines, your most profound bits of advice, your best resources. Make them stand out.

4. Brainstorm headlines. There are probably one or two bloggers who’ve completely mastered the art of writing headlines for social media (you’ll know who they are). The rest of us haven’t been blessed with such skills. When you see a great headline, chances are it’s option #12 of a dozen choices. Few of us can think of a great headline straight away. Spend ten minutes brainstorming and you’re bound to stumble across something that works. A weak headline will cripple your post’s chances of success. It’s essential that you put a lot of work into getting it right.

5. Invest plenty of value in your post. Ever bookmarked or voted for something without completely reading it? We’ve all done it. It’s because of the ‘Wow’ factor — the presence of enough promised value in one place gets the reader enthusiastic about the post straight away. Instead of 5 tips, why not share 50? Instead of 9 resources, why not 40 or more?

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If your post looks good, it will draw readers in. Take the time to add images, thumbnails and formatting to what you create. Make your post a visual feast. With so much web content presented in a bland way, your post is guaranteed to stand out.

8. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Readers will skip your waffly introduction. You can say the same in less words, particularly when you’re writing for an impatient reader: someone who wants to get straight into your tips/resources/opinions. Use your introduction to highlight why the reader should stick with your post. There’s a reason my post introductions mainly consist of: “In this post, I’m going to do this, this and that.” It’s what people really want to know: what am I getting in exchange for my attention?

9. Send messages with links. The best way to get a blogger to investigate your blog is by linking to them. We’ve got a natural desire to know what’s being said about us. If your post becomes really popular, each link inside it should send enough traffic outwards to be worth investigating. Be generous with your outbound links when writing your most popular post. It gives other bloggers an incentive to link to you, because it’s ultimately more promotion for them.

10. Utilize your network. If you want people to Digg, Stumble or Reddit your post, there’s no reason why you need to sit back with fingers crossed and hope it happens. Ask them. Your loyal readers like you. You entertain them, or teach them, or help them. If voting is a simple matter of clicking a link they’ll be more than happy to do so. Ask for votes in your post and email readers and social media influencers. In most cases you will need to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do most of the work for you.

Bonus tip:

11. Examine what worked before. Study your most popular posts so far. What’s common about them? Why did they work? What needs did they address? In creating your most popular post, it’s important to learn by example and build on what has worked for your blog in the past. Another good idea is to analyze the most popular posts on other blogs in your niche. Why did they work? What’s remarkable about them? You can transfer those qualities over into what you write.

source: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/use-these-10-tips-to-write-your-most-popular-post-ever/

7 Points to Consider Before Blogging for Money

Whenever I mention my blog people roll their eyes or smile in an “I don’t understand but okay” sort of way. When I mention the fact that I make money blogging, however, I suddenly have their attention.


The concept seems simple enough. I write about topics that I enjoy, people read it, and I make money off the advertising. To those of us who’ve been doing it for a while, it is simple. To the novice blogger who’s just getting into the business, however, it’s important to realize what you’re getting into.

If you’re new to blogging and interested in doing it for profit, here are a few things to keep in mind before committing yourself.

1. Blogging is easy. Blogging for profit is more difficult. I won’t go as far as to say it’s hard to draw a secondary income from blogging, but it’s definitely harder than most people think. It’s not just about producing content and slapping up some ads. Good writing, proper templating, ad placement, developing an audience… there are a lot of skills required to make a blog profitable, all of which you’ll need to learn.

2. Blog for the long haul or not at all. A huge majority of blogs fail in the first few months, falling into neglect and disuse. More to the point, few blogs see any profit during the first few months. Unless you can stick with it for at least a year, you’ll probably never see any return for your effort.

3. Pick a niche that you love and stick with it. General purpose or multi-topic blogs have difficulty developing a readership. Brainstorm the topics that you care about most, then pick one and blog about it exclusively.

4. Start with one blog. If you have a lot of items on your list of possible topics, don’t give in to the temptation to start a different blog for each one. By dividing your effort between several blogs, you increase the likelihood that all of them will fail. Put all of your effort into one blog to start. Once you get the hang of things, then you might consider branching out with additional blogs.

5. If you’re unsure, test drive. The fact is that many people don’t have the drive or stamina to blog for profit successfully. If you’re not sure, try a starter blog on a free service such as Blogger or Wordpress.com. Feel it out for a few weeks. If, by the end of this time, you’ve stuck with it and feel like blogging is right for you, go ahead and commit to the effort. This advice applies equally well to test driving new topics if you’re unsure what to write about.

6. Place ads wisely. Some people recommend not placing ads on a blog until it has matured somewhat. Others recommend putting them up right away. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Just be sure to place your ads tactfully so as not to overwhelm your readers. Put the user experience in the first place.

7. Enjoy yourself. This is the real key to successful blogging. If you pick a topic that you love and blog about it with passion for months and years on end, your blog will build a readership, generate income, and generally be a success. If, however, your blog becomes a chore to maintain, it will inevitably fail.

The main point I want to convey is that many people try to blog for profit and fail. If you approach the task with the right expectations and some proper planning, you will succeed.

Siource: http://myfirstwebhome.blogspot.com/2008/04/7-points-to-consider-before-blogging.html

Guard against viruses using Free Online Virus Scanners

Viruses are annoying little programs which mess up your computer. In past we've recommended using a resident anti-virus program to actively defend against virus attacks. We had also suggested trying out the google pack which includes Norton Security Scan and loads of other useful software



As a second line of defence, We advice you to periodically check your computer using Free online virus scanners. The following links takes you to the reputed antivirus company sites, which install a small piece of code in your browser(ActiveX/Java) to scan your computer.


Comments moderation with TypePad AntiSpam

Six Apart has launched a new free open source product into beta called TypePad AntiSpam. The basic spam filtering technology has been already used by the company since May 2007 as built-in feature of TypePad blogs. Now it is offered as a plug-in for other blogging platforms, such as Movable Type and WordPress, and any other platform which supports spam plugins.

TypePad AntiSpam beta is free for any type of use, personal and commercial, regardless of how large your site is and of how many comments you receive daily. In comparison, Akismet, the similar service for WordPress and other platforms, is free for personal use but starts at $5 a month for anyone making more than $500 a month off their blog.

The developed software adapts to the changing spam tactics. You can report any comment that is not welcome to your blog, and the TypePad AntiSpam engine learns from your spam definition, retaining quality comments and enhancing the automatic unwanted entries detection and filtering with every step.

Download the plug-in from the authors Web Site: http://antispam.typepad.com/info/get-started.html


Additional Reading:

http://www.sixapart.com/blog/2008/05/typepad-antispam-whats-good-fo.html

http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2008/05/a-better-way-to.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052902175.html

Glitter Text/Graphics for Blogs



[ Clipart from http://www.glitter-graphics.com ]



There are times when adding animation and glitter works well for your blog. Animated GIF's are a popular way to get the attention of your visitors. Many of us just like to add some blog things for fun, If you would like to dazzle your blog with glitters then head to http://www.glitter-graphics.com. While you are there, grab some avatars , cliparts and videos.

[ UPDATE: Just recently, as our visitors pointed out there seems some problem with the video service of this site ]




[ Video from http://www.glitter-graphics.com ]


The site also has a collection of MySpace, Friendsterand Xanga Layouts.



About copyrights of the graphics, the FAQ says:



"..All graphics are free for personal use: no strings (or pricetags, for that matter) attached towards us.."



So, using the graphics for your personal use on your blog is legal and permitted. Our tip is to use animation cautiously and wisely, think out beforehand which graphic would work out best for your blog and try to keep the animations to absolute minimum, too much blinking graphics will distract your visitors from real content.



[ Clipart from http://www.glitter-graphics.com ]

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