Few days ago, I came across a really nice post that explained to me how I could add a related posts hack to my blog. The related posts hack is a really nice and useful hack that lists a bunch of links to your other posts after each post. As you can see, there is a list of links to my other posts below this post that are related to blogging. In this post, I will show you how to modify you blog HTML code to enable the hack!

Different types of related posts hacks

Wordpress some really nice extra features and plugins and one of them is the related posts plugin. However, there is nothing like it at Blogger. But bloggers have found different ways to fix the problem. There are several different types of related posts hack that you can add to your blog. One of the most commone ones is the hack that lists the related posts by categorizing thema according to the labels. However, it looks really mess. The second way is the one that I am currently using on this blog. The hack considers your labels for the post and then list related posts links without categorizing them.

How to add related posts hacks

Before we begin to play around with the related posts hack, I would suggest that you save your template.

1. Go to your blog's HTML code and paste the code listed below just above <"/html> (delete the space after <) and then save your template.
   
   
   <style><br /><br />#related-posts {<br />float : left;<br />width : 540px;<br />margin-top:20px;<br />margin-left : 5px;<br />margin-bottom:20px;<br />font : 11px Verdana;<br />margin-bottom:10px;<br />}<br />#related-posts .widget {<br />list-style-type : none;<br />margin : 5px 0 5px 0;<br />padding : 0;<br />}<br />#related-posts .widget h2, #related-posts h2 {<br />color : #940f04;<br />font-size : 20px;<br />font-weight : normal;<br />margin : 5px 7px 0;<br />padding : 0 0 5px;<br />}<br />#related-posts a {<br />color : #054474;<br />font-size : 11px;<br />text-decoration : none;<br />}<br />#related-posts a:hover {<br />color : #054474;<br />text-decoration : none;<br />}<br />#related-posts ul {<br />border : medium none;<br />margin : 10px;<br />padding : 0;<br />}<br />#related-posts ul li {<br />display : block;<br />background : url("http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm297/zozuglogger/weed-bullet.gif") no-repeat 0 0;<br />margin : 0;<br />padding-top : 0;<br />padding-right : 0;<br />padding-bottom : 1px;<br />padding-left : 16px;<br />margin-bottom : 5px;<br />line-height : 2em;<br />border-bottom:1px dotted #cccccc;<br />}<br /><br /></style><br /><script src="'http://technotrixdebajyoti.googlepages.com/RelatedPostsByRealtrix.co.cc.js'" type="'text/javascript'/">


2. Then Expand Widget Template and paste the code listed below just below <"p><"data:post.body/><"/p>. (Delete the space after <)
   
   

<span style=" color: rgb(0, 102, 102);"><b:if cond="'data:blog.pageType"><br /><div id="related-posts"><br /><span><b>Related Posts : </b></span><span style="color:'#FFFFFF';"><b:loop values="'data:post.labels'" var="'label'"><data:label.name/><b:if cond="'data:label.isLast">,</b:if><b:if cond="'data:blog.pageType"></span><span style=" color: rgb(0, 102, 102);"><br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 102);"><script src="'" alt="json-in-script&callback=" results="5" type="'text/javascript'/"></b:if></b:loop></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 102);"> </span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 102); "><br /><script type="'text/javascript'"> removeRelatedDuplicates(); printRelatedLabels();</span><span style=" color: rgb(0, 102, 102);"><br /></span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 102); "></script><br /></div></b:if></span></span>

That's it! Save your template and you are done!

Benefits of using related posts hack

This great hack has several benefits.

1. Drive traffic to your inner pages - your visitors will now be able to find more content on your blog easily after reading your posts. This will also help you drive traffic to your old posts.
2. Internal linking - It is very important to add links to your old posts in your news posts to improve your ranking (PageRank). However, it can be a painful task to add links every time you write a new post. With this hack, you won't have to worry about that!
3. Professional look - This hack gives your blog a professional and clean look by making navigation easier for your readers.

I hope you liked this post and the hack. It's a very easy hack and I am sure all of you can benefit from it. However, remember that it does not work perfectly with some templates. But it works fine with the most!

Posted by Dan at SEO for Blogging.
If you liked this post, then please subscribe to my RSS Feed or subscribe via email. Thanks.

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Some useful links:
Our position on California's No on 8 campaign - Google Blog
Google Toolbar 5 now available for Firefox 5 - Google Blog
Is it right to search your own site? - Inside Adsense
New in lab: right-side Labels and Chat - Gmail Blog

Read the rest of this entry >>

Many bloggers do not know that there are other blogging platforms such as TypePad and Live Journal besides Blogger and WordPress. However, it is true that Blogger and WordPress are the two most commonly used blogging platforms currently. Most bloggers start with either Blogger or WordPress after hearing about them from someone else and then stick with that blogging platform.

However, Blogger and WordPress are two very different types of blogging platform. Different people find different platform suitable for their needs. For example, I personally find Blogger easier to use while others do not. Some find it extremely difficult to choose which one they should stick with. Should they go with WordPress or Blogger? Below I have highlighted some essential features and advantages that I think will help newbies decide which blogging platform they should start their blog with.


Blogger
Blogger is an old company that was acquired by Google few years ago. The fact that it is owned by the most popular search engine definitely assures professionalism and quality service.

Features/Advantages

1. Free blog
2. Unlimited storage
3. No need to have posts reviewed before publishing
4. Compatible with other Google services such as Picassa, YouTube etc.
5. Use your GMail account to publish blogs
6. Less restrictions on content creation and selling reviews and links
7. Very easy to use
8. Easy integration of Google Adsense

WordPress
I am no expert when it comes to WordPress. I have tried to use it several times but every time, I have found it too difficult for daily use. Nonetheless, this blogging platform is used by several webmasters to create professional blogs. Several famous blogs use WordPress.

Features/Advantages

1. Free Blog
2. Several attractive themes available
3. Great Plug-ins available such as the popular SEO plug-in
4. Clean, professional look
5. Hosts files on your own server

These are some essential features and advantages that I think every blogger should know before deciding which platform to use. Of course, both platforms have disadvantages as well. For example, WordPress doesn't allow bloggers to sell links and paid reviews and Blogger comes with very few built-in plug-ins.

My Opinion
I have been using Blogger for more than seven months and I have been told several times to shift to WordPress but I find Blogger so much simpler and easier to use than WordPress. While WordPress may be more flexible, I prefer to stick with simplicity for the time being. If you are a new blogger who doesn't know much about blogging then you should go with Blogger. Once you gain some experience, you can choose which platform to go with.

Remember, there are other blogging platforms as well which might be more useful to you than Blogger and WordPress. So do check them out if you don't like Blogger and WordPress.

Your Opinion
Now that you have heard my opinion, it is time to share your opinion with me and my readers. Which do you prefer - Blogger or WordPress? Why?

Image Source
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Some Useful Links
Ad perfect - Google Blog
Follow your favorite blogs - Google Blog
Quality, not quantity - Inside AdSense
New in labs: Reply add-ons
New in labs: 3 experiments with labels
Read the rest of this entry >>

One of the best things about Blogger is that you can easily use Adsense with it. This is certainly not the case with WordPress. With easy set up, you can enable some Adsense ads on your blog and earn some money from them. However, with the old blogger you could only display text ads. There was no option to enable image ads from Adsense in Blogger.

A lot of webmasters did not like this because sometimes image ads are preferred more than the regular text ads. According to many, image ads are more attractive and get more clicks and thus are more profitable for webmasters.


Few days ago, Blogger had a little makeover and I am sure all of you probably noticed it. All the buttons look different, you can now hide your inactive blogs and only display the ones that you presently use. But a very important change is the ability to add image Adsense ads to your blog directly through blogger.

Before when I wanted to use image ads on my blog, I had to go to my Adsense account and get a unique code for an image ad but now I can directly do it through Blogger. Go to your Blogger dashboard, click on layout and then click on Add A Gadget. After that choose Adsense and then you can see on top that you can choose either Text and Image ads or Text Only ads.

I think this is a great update by Blogger since Image ads can be really beneficially sometimes. They can grab readers' attention within seconds. Blogger's new update will let you enable and update your image ads directly without logging into your Adsense account.

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Useful Links:
At a loss of words? - Google Blog
Election seasons in high gear - Google Blog
Bring the political process to life in your classroom - Google Blog
I feel the need...the need for feeds - Inside Adsense
See what Obama, McCain and leading political pundits are reading - Gmail Blog
Read the rest of this entry >>

Learning SEO and blogging is not something you can learn overnight or in few days. You have to keep learning it because the information keeps updating. And the best way to stay up to date is to read some blogs regularly on the topic. I read several other blogs such as Problogger and learn stuff from them all the time. Reading only one blog will do you no good. You need to read articles with different points of views.


One of the blogs that I regularly used to read was JackBook. I will be completely honest with you. I was a great fan of JackBook blog until recently. I used to visit it every other day and read all the posts by Jack because all the posts were of top quality and also interesting. I have learned so much about blogging from Jack and have discovered some really great blogger templates.


But lately, I have been noticing that Jack has been posting some irrelevant posts. A few of such posts is not a big concern but when the entire homepage is filled with such posts, things seem to be going in the wrong direction. Today (Aug 20) when I visited the blog, I saw links to 15 latest posts and not a single one of them was on topic and related to blogging in any way. There were posts on Warcraft, Olympics 2008, Playboy, television series etc.

JackBook was doing great till July but in August, the value of the posts has decreased incredibly. The funny thing is that Jack has published the most posts (61 posts) in August (and there are still 11 more days to go!). I think the downfall started when Jack came up with the subdomain idea for blogs. As most of you know, Jack has his own blog service now like blogger and wordpress. You can have your blog as XXXX.jackbook.com. However, I don't think many readers like the idea and simply ignored it.

JackBook's old look was not too attractive but it was still good enough. However, the latest brown layout is simply horrible and has Google Adsense ads all over the place. The banners are not placed in the right place and the blog looks like a disaster.

Finally, Jackbook has lost both comments and PageRank. Most of the recent posts have not gotten more than one comment while the old posts used to be flodded with comments. Looks like the readers don't like the new posts very much. Furthermore, as far as I can remember, JackBook used to have PageRank 6 but now it has PageRank 0. I wonder why that is. Could it be because Jack sells (dofollow) links and writes paid reviews?

Overall, I would just like to say that Jack is a great blogger and I am sure he has taught some great blogging tips to several bloggers. But suddenly, everything seems to be disappearing. He is losing his quality. I wish he would just be like the old Jack so that we could read some great new quality posts by him.

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Useful Links:
Bring the political process to life in your classroom - Google Blog
I feel the need...the need for feeds - Inside Adsense
See what Obama, McCain and leading political pundits are reading - Gmail Blog

Read the rest of this entry >>

Hmmm...so you have seen people boast about getting tons of traffic from forums but have never understood how that was possible. You have even tried using forums but that didn't really help much. So how come others manage to get so much traffic to their blogs while you get nothing? The secret lies in your activities at forums and I am here to explain you what you need to do to get the most traffic from forums! Keep reading!

What are Forums?
For those who do not know, forums are places where you can have organized discussions about a variety of topics. However, most forums have a certain niche and thus, you can't talk about anything and everything. Furthermore, forums have categories to keep all the topics organized. Thus, you have to be careful where you start new threads (topics) or else you will get punished by the moderators.

Alright, now that we have the background info out of the way, lets get to some serious stuff. In order to get traffic from forums, you need to learn how to properly utilize forums. Here are some tips to do that.


1. Add a Signature
First of all, you need to place a link to your blog before anything else. If you don't place a link in your signature then no one is going to know where to find your blog. Signatures are the best place to out your links. Forums usually have a limit on how many links you can put but most allow around 4 links per user.

2. Keep Your Signature Attractive
Forums have lots and lots of posts by thousands of members and each post has a signature. Members are not going to click on links on each signature. You have to make your signature attractive so that it quickly grabs everyone's attention and stands out from the rest. However, don't use too many bright colors or smiles or else you will seem too desperate.

3. Stay Active
Once you have your signature set up, you need to make sure that others see it and that will only happen if you stay active. Go out there and post replies to threads. If someone replies to your previous comment then don't just ignore it, keep the discussion going. The more your signature appears in front of other members, the greater the chances that they will visit your blog.

4. Build Good Reputation
Most members will visit those links that you placed in your signature if you have a good reputation in the community/forum. Don't get in trouble with others for no reason. Respect everyone's views and try to post useful comments. This will help you make some friends and get traffic at the same time.

5. Start Useful Threads
It is highly important that you START some great useful threads that will attract members. You can also post the articles that you have written on your blog to show others the type of stuff you write on your blog. If the members like your articles, then they will visit your blog as well. Also, forums have a built-in reputation system. If someone likes your post then they will increase your reputation. And other members love to checkout blogs of members with good reputation.

6. Give Other Reputation
If you like someone else's thread/post, then don't just sit back and give them some reputation. This is a great way to say thank you for the work that they have put in. They will be notified of your act and they might even visit your profile and check out your links.

These were some of my tips to get the best traffic out of forums. Remember that in order to get regular traffic, it is important that you do not spam and send other members private messages asking them to visit your blog. These types of actions will only get you banned. Stay clean and active!

I am mostly on webmaster forums. Here are some of them:

• Digital Point Forums
• Webcosmo Forums
• V7N Forums

Let me know if you liked this post and have benefited from it.

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Hot News from Google:
Tip: Customize your web clips - Gmail Blog
Reinventing the wheel - Google Blog
New enhancements on the Google content network - Google Blog
Defining invalid clicks and click fraud - Adsense Blog
Keeping up with the Summer Games - Google Blog Read the rest of this entry >>

I have seen several debates on forums about buying a domain name. Several people seem to think that for bloggers to be successful, they need to have their own domain name first. Having a blog on free web hosting service or blogging service like Blogger and Wordpress is looked down upon by many and thus makes it intricate for quality bloggers to succeed. But is it really that important to have your own domain name? Does it really matter if my blog has its own domain name?

The idea for this post came from a thread started at WebCosmo Forums. As you can see from the replies, a lot of people seem to think that having your own blog domain is a good idea if you are a serious blogger.

Here are some of the advantages of having a domain name:

1. Helps brand your blog
2. Shows that you are a serious blogger
3. Easier to remember

Lets tackle each advantage separately.


Branding
Sure, branding is very important these days but does having a free domain name is show poor branding? I agree that just having a proper domain name without any sub-domain is really great but I have seen several blogs with sub-domain names that get lots of great traffic because of good branding. Maybe I am sounding a bit crazy but I really don't think that branding heavily depends on having an own domain name.

Serious Blogger
A lot of people believe that having your own domain name shows that you are a serious blogger and you are passionate about what you do. That's completely ridiculous. There are thousands of blogs on the internet with trashy content. Just because a blogger decides to stay with a sub-domain name does not mean that he (let just say he is a guy) is not serious and does not write good articles. Don't judge a book by its cover and don't judge a blog by its domain name. The only thing that you should worry about is the content. Of course, other things like layout matter but content is the king!

Easy to remember
I don't really think that remember a domain name is a big problem nowadays when we have so many bookmarking services available. But still having a nice domain name that is easy to remember is very important. But www.seoforblogging.blogspot.com is just as easy to remember, in my opinion, than www.seoforblogging.com. Blogger's providews the subdomain "blogspot" which is extremely popular and thus is easy to remember for others.

Overall, yes it is true that having own domain name is important because it adds to your image. But I would just like to say that it is not a must for bloggers and domain name is definitely not more important than the content. So do not judge bloggers and their blogs by domain names. In my opinion, it's OK to start a blog with a sub-domain name and develop it. When you are satisfied and think that you would like to work more on the blog then you should go ahead and get a domain name.

Please remember that this is just my opinion and I would love to hear what you guys think about this issue. Is it a must to have own domain name for bloggers?

Image Source
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Hot News from Google:
Defining invalid clicks and click fraud - Adsense Blog
Keeping up with the Summer Games - Google Blog Read the rest of this entry >>

Most famous bloggers seems to have some sort of RSS feed and email subscription service available for their readers these days. Even the less famous blogs have it. But having RSS feed is really that important? Should you have it even if your blog just started and barely has any traffic currently? What are some main benefits of having RSS Feed and email subscription service? All these questions will be answered but lets first start with some background information.

What is RSS Feed?
RSS actually stands for Really Simple Syndication and RSS feed is simply a file that contains all the latest updated information that is formatted in such a specific way so that it can be read by feed readers and agregators. RSS is the most popular feed format followed by Atom.

What is email subscription service?
A lot of sites such as FeedBurner provide email subscription service to webmasters so that they can deliver their posts directly to readers' inbox. Basically, you are taking the latest feed and emailing it to your readers.


What are the benefits?
RSS Feed allows readers to display your content on self customized pages such as iGoogle, My Yahoo! and even on Vista's sidebar. Enabling this increases the chances of getting more traffic. Imagine having your latest posts displayed on other sites and pages. It may not guarentee your great results but it is definitely worth it because it takes only seconds to set up.

Email Subscription Service is even better since your are delivering your posts directly to your readers' inbox. Every time you will publish a post, they will be notified and thus you will get some permanent traffic. You can also add a small widget to show off the number of people that have subscribed to your mailing service. If you have a lot of people, then it will definitely add to your reputation.

So should you have it if your blog/website just started? The answer is yes! The earlier you get started with it, the better it is for you and your readers. Remember, you do not want to lose a single visitor that wants to subscribe to your service. So the earlier you set up everything, the better it is for you.

Furthermore, you can also use RSS feed on forums to display your latest posts to other members. Most forums display RSS feed nowadays. Using RSS feed on forums can get you some relevant traffic that you may have not gotten otherwise.

How do you get started?
Probably the most famous feed service online is Feedburner. It provides you with so many different options and really makes it easy for you to setup your own feed even if you have no experience. I use this service on all of my blogs and really recommend it to all of you.

I hope this post helped you understand the importance of having RSS feed and an email subscription service. If you would like to read more posts like this then please subscribe to my feed. Thanks.

Image Source
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Some Useful Links:
Google in your language - Google Blog
You are not spam - Blogger Buzz
Search quality, continued - Google Blog
More Transparency in Customized Search Results - Google Blog
A picture isn't always worth a thousand words - Inside Adsense Read the rest of this entry >>

There are tons of blogs online but in my opinion, 80% of those blogs have incredibly hideous looks. Most newbie bloggers have no idea about what template to select for their special blog. They only select the template that they think looks the best for their blog. But it is important to remember that what you like is not necessarily what others like and you ALWAYS have to consider your readers' choices to at least some extent.

You may think that a blog's layout has nothing to do with its success. You may have even noticed some popular blogs with terrible designs. But the truth is that layout is extremely important since it determines whether a visitor will even being to read your post in first place. If you still do not understand then think from a visitor's point of view. Imagine coming to a blog with a very unappealing design. Everything is cluttered and it is difficult to navigate the page. This is your first impression of the blog. Will you continue and read the posts? The answer is NO!

I present you with some major steps to follow before selecting a template for your blog:

1. Go with simplicity
2. Make sure it suits your blog's content
3. Is there enough space?
4. Do you like it?
   

Simplicity
Attractive designs do not have to be highly complicated. They can be very simple and still be visually appealing. Take a look at Google's Official Blog. It is one of the simplest blog ever and yet it is one of the most popular blog. The page is all white space and black text. Nothing is cluttered and everything is neatly organized for easy navigation. I am not saying that all blogs have to be as simple as Google's blog but it is always safe to stick with simplicity.

Matching Blog Content
Recently I have been seeing some blogs with weird templates that do not even suit the blog's content. A lot of bloggers have been using the iPhone Template for their blogs. There is nothing wrong with using this template but at least do not use it if your blog has nothing to with iPhone or technology. Choosing such a template will only misguide your readers.

The Space Issue
No one likes cluttered blogs. Before choosing a template, you always want to be sure that you have enough space available to put all the widgets and ads. Spending some little time thinking whether your widgets will be able to fit or not beforehand can save you a lot of precious time. later on. Will you need a two column template or a three column template? Is there space to put your adsense ads so that they look visually appealing and not out of place? These are some main points to consider regarding how much space a template provides you with.

You Must Like It
I know that before I mentioned that just because you like it does not mean that your readers will like it as well. I am still going to stick with what I said but I also want to mention that there is nothing worse than writing on a blog that you do not find interesting. If you don't like the design, then you won't give your blog your 100% and that will cause your blog to fall. Definitely go with what you like but at the same time do not foget to consider whether your readers will find it interesting or not. At the end, it is YOUR blog that we are talking about.

These were some of my tips for choosing the most suitable template for your blog. There are some other factors as well that you must keep in mind such as the color combination, overall look etc but we will skip those for now and save them for later.

Image Source
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Some useful links:
We Knew The Web Was Big - Google Blog
Knol Is Open to Everyone - Google Blog
Updates and Fixes for July 18th - Blogger Buzz
Easy as 1-2-3 - Adsense Blog
Powerset joins Live Search - Live Search
The Latest Cool SearchMonkey Apps - Yahoo Search Blog
Read the rest of this entry >>