How to add a ''Recommended Post Slide'' in Blogger / Blogspot

Everyone to want to drive the traffic .Every blogger and webmaster wants to keep the visitor glued on the website for a maximum time. BloggerPlugins recently introduced a very interesting way to keep the visitors on your blog. They introduced a plugin, a notificatio

n plugin, that appears on the blog and recommend your blog users to read another related article. The best thing about this plugin is, its really simple and eye-catching.

Earlier, the idea was developed by Mary Lou, later bloggerplugins made a

number of modifications in the plugin in order to let the plugin work more properly. Here is how the recommended article notification will appear li

ke;

How to Add this Widget?

Its really easy to use this plugin on your blog. Simply click on the picture below and it will add the widget in your desired blog.

Bloggers Threaded Comment System Open - New BlogSpot Feature

Blogger Introducing new things day by day one of the best Threaded system is open you can see below in picture given .. display ..Blogger has introduced "Threaded comment system" recently which allows blog readers to make replies of existing comments. This makes blog

ger's current comment system a two level commenting system. This works just like DISQUS, Intense debate or Facebook comment form for blogspot. Blogger realized the requirement of this great feature and launched the Threaded comment system recently. Here is how you can enable threaded comment system on your blog.

Earlier bloggers use to add a custom reply button in blogger that helped users to reply comments of others but now Blogger has officially added this feature. Its a two level commenting system which means you can’t reply to comments which are added as a reply.

How to Enable Thread Comment System in Blogger ?

Blogger's this new feature has already been enabled on all of blogspot blogs by default however there are certain requirements for this threaded comment system to work properly in your blogspot design.

1- First, you need to enable comments feature and it must be in embedded mode. You can just go and apply these settings from Settings > Post and comments section.

2- Your comment feed settings must be set as "Full Feed". You can change/confirm this setting by going to Settings > Other

Its a good move by Blogger however there is still a need of more refine like nested commenting system with more levels to Reply. Hopefully Blogger will improve this updated comment system to meet the latest user requirements.

Starting Your Blog:For Choosing the Domain Name & Hosting

With the increasing density of the personal blogs and the online businesses, number of people who know these basics have increased.

But still there is huge crowd out there who have the writing skills, talent and passion to go online but don’t know how to start their own blog.

Not restricting it to the personal level only, this tutorial is for all those people out there who will be able to start their own blog from scratch, after this tutorial, hopefully.

Since this is a complete tutorial for newbie’s so each and every aspect will be covered or at least it will be tried to.

Following is the checklist to start your blog from scratch:

Getting Domain Name
Getting Hosting
Making Up the Server
Introduction to WordPress
Dashing the T’s and Dotting the I’s
Getting Domain Name:

First of all, let’s have a look at what actually a domain name is. Domain name is just like the name of a house, not the address, as you need to visit some place you need name as well as the address and it must be unique.

A domain name can be regarded as the name of the house or building whereas the Internet Protocol (IP) Address  is just like the address of a place.

Domain names are merely unique words ending with specific letters. Be it a region focused name, like for Pakistan we use .pk domains or it is internationally accepted famous names, known as Top Level Domains (TLDs) with .com as most common, it is always unique.

For instance, ProPakistani.Com is a domain, so is ProPakistani.PK.

You need to buy a domain from domain registrars, such as godaddy.com or name.com. When you purchase a domain, you are provided with a domain management panel from where you can change the settings of your domain as where to point it. (we will tell you later about what pointing a domain means) For instance, you can point your domain to the hosting account where your website files are located.

Most people think this is the central part and you really need to find something different. Yes you should, but I read somewhere online, all good domain names and girls are already taken.

And as per my own experience and observation, it is not the domain name that matters but the content. Yes you can disagree with me by arguing the fact that search engines drive you traffic from keywords and good keywords in domain name can drive you handsome traffic but what to do with that traffic when the content is not up to the mark.

So get a good and attractive domain name that is just easy to remember and confusion-less. For example, avoid using characters like 0 (zero) in place O and Z in place of S.

In a single line, good domain name should be something like you do not need to spell it to someone else while passing verbally.

Still there are very famous domains out there which utterly contradict the point I gave above and common example is flickr which is surely derived from flicker without e.

Get the fact that almost 90% (rough estimate) domain names that are ruling the cyber world at the moment do not make any sense, but it took time for them to get settled, and as I said earlier, it is not the name, it is the content that matters.

Surely the next question is where to buy the domain and which is reliable. As you can google, there are many registrars out there but following should be preferred.

NameCheap (Recommended)
GoDaddy
Enom
TUCows
So once you have chosen the name and registrar, next part is how to pay. Since the absence of paypal is already being discussed very much and it really effects but still we have another solution. Simply get the UBL Wiz Card for online shopping and you are ready to go. Complete procedure on how to shop from UBL WIZ and Teen Internet card has already been discussed in detail.

Approximate price of a TLD is $10 which is approximately 860 PKR. So keep on calculating how much you really need to start a blog. Note that these are yearly based charges and you have to pay them again after one year of domain subscription for it’s renewal.

Getting Hosting:

So now you have registered a domain name and are ready to go with the next part, infact the most important one, choosing the hosting provider.

Choosing a web host is actually getting some space to put your things online. Hosting accounts are different in types, shared hosting, VPS, dedicated server, cloud hosting, etc depending upon the resources.

Whatever the type is, it’s purpose is the same, to provide you with the resources for your data that will be available online. Once you get a hosting account, you can park your domain here and by accessing that domain name, you can access your data.

As in our case, we are going to start a blog, all your blog data will go here, for instance if you are going to start a wordpress blog, your blog files, including all images, theme files, function files and your blog databases will be kept here.

Now it depends whether you are going to attract the huge amount of traffic like making a news, technology, telecom etc blog or it will be just a personal blog with fewer number of visitors.

In both the cases i would recommend to get a VPS or Dedicated server, depending upon your needs, rather than the shared hosting. Low end VPS are now available at very affordable price so better opt for the territory of your own and be the king than to share with someone else.

There was a time when these hostings were used to be very costly but competition among companies results in benefit of the customer.

You can simply google  about companies providing cheap VPS solutions, also you can visit WebHostingTalk.com’s Section for hosting offers as per your budget. Or visit www.LowEndBox.com to find low end cheap VPS solutions.

Keep in mind that at start, a VPS with 512MB Ram, 5-10GB space and 200GB+ bandwidth will be enough for you (forget about CPU share at this moment).

Average price for a low-end VPS is $5 per month which is approximately 500PKR per month. I preffer finding a good yearly deal that will bring handsome discount for you and will also be hassle free as you do not need to worry every month about paying for the server dues.

For analysis and comprehensive guide on how to choose the host meeting your requirement, simply go though the detailed guide, How to choose best web host for you.

So uptil now, we have spent almost 1350 rupees (Rs. 850 for domain and Rs. 500 for web hosting).

Once you are done, now it’s time to get a little break since you have already worked alot in choosing the domain name and web host provider.

Note: This is first of many tutorials relating to WordPress and Hosting issues.

WordPress and Joomla and Drupal [Preview]

The best WordPress, Joomla and Drupal [Preview]Three most popular content management systems are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Following are the key features of these three CMS in brief:


WordPress:


WordPress is in fact most popular and easy to use blogging CMS. It offers a wide variety of themes both free and paid. Even a novice can handle it and use and customize it effectively for both publishing and updating content online.

First released in May 2003 by Matt Mullenweg, its version 3.0 has been downloaded over 32.5 million times.

WordPress has many interesting features including a plug-in architecture and a template system.

WordPress is being used by over 13% of the 1,000,000 biggest websites. In 2009, WordPress won the best open source CMS award.

Joomla:


Joomla literally meaning “Total” or “altogether” is another open source CMS for publishing content online. It has features like page caching, RSS feeds, news flashes and support for language internationalization.

Joomla is written in PHP and uses object oriented programming (OOP) techniques.

Though its stable release came in March 2011, it has been in the market since 2007. More than 21 million downloads of Joomla reported between March 2007 and Feb 2011. There are over 6000 free and commercial plug-ins available from the Joomla extension directory.

Joomla is ideal for fantastic looking website designs.

Drupal:


Drupal, a CMS released in Jan 2001 offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers; however no skills are required for basic website installation and administration.

Drupal presentation layer allows designers to create highly usable, interactive experiences that engage users and increase traffic. Drupal themes offer a wide variety and support rich customization. Major Drupal sites include whitehouse.gov and data.gov.uk.

Majority of people in blogging world in Pakistan may not know much about the Joomla and Drupal as WordPress is dominant CMS as it offers almost every thing for bloggers and it is as easy to use and customize.

While Joomla is making a name for itself in recent months with its greater advertising campaign but it will certainly take some time before it can replace the WordPress as no.1 CMS.

Why we should to Secure a Web Server

Let’s start with the loggers, and why securing web server is important to them. Normally blogger are of the view that why the hell should I spend the money or energy to this so-called security; while I have no sensitive data on my blog, neither I am in serious conflict with anyone? And even if some looser gets into my blog, I will simply change my server and will restore with the backup that I take on daily basis. So not a bid deal at all.

Well, I am afraid, but it is not exactly the same! Let’s peek into those incentives that a blogger offers to a website hacker. First thing that comes in is the show off, and probably it is the most enjoyable target for hackers. Normally, it is observed that blogs are not that secure when compared to corporate websites, hence they are easy to get in.

So hackers, especially the beginners start their to careers with hacking blog sites.

It is matter of fact that hackers don’t attack blogs for fun only, there can be financial aspect with hacking a blog as well, such as many hackers attack blogs to gain its data for instance, names, emails, IPs and latter on they re-sell it (for hefty value).

Another very dangerous thing can be, what if a hacker comes in and change your google ad sense code and changes it to his/her code, even in that case, a blogger can be in deep trouble.

Small Sized Companies

Now let’s consider a small sized company, and possible damages a hacker can do by hacking its website. For example, if this small sized company is selling some online products, meaning that there are very good chances that its clients’ information is stored on web server. This information may contain sensitive data such as credit card and other similar details.

Email boxes of such small companies are not normally not secure as well, which can reveal secret information, such as tender information, ongoing projects, upcoming products and similar to attackers, which can be your rival as well.

Large Corporation Websites

Now let’s talk about big corporations’ webistes, which can be the worst hit of any such attack. Obviously, more finances involved means more damage.

I opt not to disclose all possible treats for corporate websites (as they can be used for ill means), but its matter of fact that large companies MUST spend some time and resources in securing their web servers. For example, telecom companies, financial institutes, real estate firms and others have plenty of information saved on the back-end (in databases, or in hidden pages) to be secured.

The thing which bothers me most is that people don’t think of these security matters at all, and they are living their lives with open threats and eyes shut.

My Server is not Secure, Okay what to do then?

What can be done here is to get people hired to do security audit of you web servers. There are companies and individuals, and they don’t cost must, they make your web servers very secure up to a point where you and your customers can feel safe.

In Pakistan we have some companies that provide such web server security auditing services, but let me tell you that security is a very huge area and there are very few firms or individuals which cover every aspect of it. Additionally, I want to confess that in Pakistan, yes we lack security professionals.

We have three main domains in security auditing which are,

Network level: Network level means internal audit of your system and its service. This is very big area like here we have to cover whole network and need to audit every node, client, every port means everything.
Web level: Web level means web application level auditing and testing and this includes web server, web application and technology like wordpress, joomla, or any other inhouse application.
Wireless Testing: This is new level of testing, which includes wireless connection, wireless devices like cameras, VIOP phones, computers, networking devices and bluetooth devices as well.
So, look around and check out if your web servers are secure enough or not. Large corporations may consider big companies; however, bloggers and small sized companies with low budgets can go for freelance security auditors as well.

Drop your comments below, or contact me using contact us form on this website for any additional information you require!

Makes Yours Blog in 2 Language With 1 Click

Some time ago I wanted to have two languages on my blog - one for my natives, one international. WordPress have a solution called WPML but it's paid solution. Second thing, I have blogger running so long I don't want to transfer.

I've found simple solution!


This method changes main/home/base adress/domain and leads to same URL on other adress/domain. It's also simple installed, just one HTML/JS widget :)

What you should do before:
1. Create two blogs in two different languages.
2. Go to Settings->Search options and make a link to your own site in "page not found code" just in case :) it can look like:
There is nothing in this link, please continue on <a href="http://olesku.pl">Olesku.pl</a>.
Put your adress instead of mine ;)

---
Now in both of them in Layout, create a widget "HTML/Javascript" and paste this code:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
document.write ("<a href=" + window.location.protocol + "//" + "theotherlanguageadress.com" + window.location.pathname + ">the other language name</a>");
</script>

Put adress of the second-language-blog in theotherlanguageadress.com and name of language used in another blog in the other language name.

---
Writing new post:
1. go to blog of first language, click New Post
2. put some title
3. put the text, images etc
4. put labels etc.

5. copy all info from points 2,3,4 to New Post in other language
6. publish posts

7. now you can edit post, change titles to the proper ones in both languages, change text in second language post etc
8. don't translate labels!!!

Procedure for new pages is exactly same :)

---
What you need to know:


You must have all links exact same in both languages. That's why you have to publish posts and pages with exact titles (you can edit later, but URL of post will be created at first time). Also that's the reason to have all labels exact same for all languages.

What works? Changing language while reading post, when looking for label, on archive pages.

What is not working? Every URL containing question mark (?) doesn't work. For example links to comments are not working; also changing language while looking for older posts is not -> search works by '?' sign so URLs are being shortened to everything before "?" sign. It's not so important, because most visitors will change language at first; also they probably won't be interested in comments in other language.

How to Make the Blog Sticky With Images, Content And Aesthetics

How People make the Blog Sticky With Images Heres Are The Soulution.The stickiness of yours blog is one of the most important to measures of its success. You may be able to drives a large no. of visitors to yours blog, but unless the visitors stick around and engage with your blog closely, and return repeatedly, you may not find sustainable success in the highly volatile and mercurial world of blogging.

Creative Use of Images :

Many of the bloggers commit the cardinal mistake of over-emphasizing on the quality of written content while ignoring the importance of images in the process. Images help to arouse the curiosity of a new visitor, and get him or her drawn into your blog’s great content. An average blog visitor’s attention span is very limited because the choices for readers are too many out there in the free world of blogging.

Therefore, unless you makes  the creative use of images you may end up with a blog that appears drab, unexciting, and visually unappealing. Many visitors to such a blog may make a quick exit without waiting to check the quality of its content, if the design and appearance of the blog does not appear inviting, refreshing, and somewhat rewarding.

Images are easily obtained through sites like iStockPhoto, Jupiter Images or Shutterpoint. Tools like Zemanta can also help bloggers find images that fall under GPL and Creative Commons licensing .

Encourage RSS Subscriptions :


Is a highly competitive world of blogging, it has becomes very important to include an RSS feed and invite the readers to subscribe to the blog. This will help to create a loyal blog readership because the blog posts will drop directly into the subscriber’s mailbox. RSS feed is one of the biggest reasons of the success of prominent blogs around the world.

Tools like a RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 are built right in to WordPress and Blogger so you can get a feed set up rather easily for your readers.

Smart Blog Design :

Bloggers who are keen to enhance the stickiness of their blogs for the long haul cannot afford to ignore blog design. New visitors tend to judge a blog within the first few seconds of their visit. If they find the blog confusing, cluttered, or difficult to navigate, a majority of them will not wait to stick around to read too much of the content even of the content that was read was marvellously written. If the placement of ads takes precedence over the placement of content, it can be put off many visitors and kill the stickiness of a potentially impressive blog (see Myspace ).

Clear Blog Branding :

Your maximum effort should be  invested in  the creating a great homepage that draws visitors into the blog. A new visitor should be able to know exactly what the blog is all about almost at the first glance itself. Blog design, title, headlines, taglines, logo, and navigational elements should all work to communicate effectively about the blog’s content.

Compelling Content :

The backbone of any stickies blog, ultimately is the quality of its content. A blog that makes the outstanding promises at the outset and delivers little in terms of content is likely to fizzle out soon. The content must be relevant and sharply focused to the tastes and preferences of the target audience.

Furthermore, it is more critical that the content must be updated regularly. Each time the blog should have something new and exciting to offer to the readers. In a fast-paced world of blogging, the blogger cannot afford to take it easy or become complacent about dishing out and providing new content consistently.

While any one of these techniques can help to keep your readers engaged longer on your site, a combination of them will help keep your readers focused on what your sites has to say to them and will develop a much stronger community around your blog.