Simple But Effective Steps in Improving Overall Blog Design

                                     

                  

Blogs today are large places where multiple topics can be stored, including its own display, which is also known as the blog’s particular design. There are a lot of things that have changed in the world of blogging over the past years that has made the activity easier to do. Good examples such as Blogspot and WordPress are excellent platforms where the themes already make designing blogs faster, but if you want a more personalized approach, there are some things that you should consider and keep in mind. A good way in order to start honing that perfect design is to take a series of steps, slowly but surely.

That is why if you are looking to edit the design of your website, there are some things that you will need to keep in mind in order to do so. Here are some techniques that you can use in improving overall blog design.

Select a More Appropriate Theme - Once you are using a blogging platform such as WordPress or Blogspot, then you can start using the hundreds of pre-made templates for blogs available. But instead of going for an old theme that has been used by other people many times, start investing a small amount of time on one that will be the best for your niche and will appear professional and organized.

Have a Banner Image Included - Zest up your blog by designing your own banner image which can be found on top of the page. Since it will be one of the first things that people will be seeing on your page, you would want to take advantage of giving them a good first impression which will be beneficial to your blog if you do. This will make them stay longer and will have a higher chance of being able to read your blog more clearly.

Customizing Themes - If you have chosen a pre-made theme within your blogging platform, it is possible to customize this easily and make it work better for you. In blogs such as WordPress and Blogspot, users can have the templates customized from the admin panel. This could include having things changed such as redesigning the sidebar or including widgets or gadgets which will monitor the progress of your blog. There are other changes that you can do as well such as limiting the amount of posts that will be shown in the home page or change if you want the public to see comments in your blog or not.

Be Sociable - One of the significant steps that you can take is to start integrating social media into your own personal or commercial blog. If you allow people to easily acquire content that is useful in your blog, then they will know that you are a useful resource and that they can refer your blog to others as well. Start placing your social media icons within your blogs whether you use it for your for own or money-making purpose as this will improve its performance as a whole.

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Blogging On The Go With WordPress For Android And iOS

Blogging on the go is made possible by smart devices, apps, wireless internet, and mobile broadband providers. Gone are the days when you needed to be stuck at home just so you could publish a post. Today, you can do it anywhere granted that you have resources. WordPress for Android and iOS is a free app that allows Android as well as iOS users to blog from wherever, whenever. If you want to publish a post on your WordPress blog, you can use this free app.

It can’t be more obvious that you can use the WordPress app to create and publish posts on your WordPress blog. Apart from these basic features, the app offers even more functionality to perform the following tasks:

 

1. Create new pages. Assign a title and add text for the new page.
2. Edit/delete pages. Edit the content of existing pages or delete pages altogether.
3. Edit/delete posts. Edit existing posts, add/delete tags, and assign categories.
4. Change the status of new and existing pages and posts. Choose “Publish” to publish a post, “Draft” to turn existing posts into drafts or save new ones, “Private” for publishing posts away from public eye, “Local Draft” to save posts locally on your device, and “Pending Review” to submit posts for approval by other blog owners.
5. Use text formatting styles. Highlight words in bold, italics, and underline. You can also add links to posts and add anchor text.
6. Upload media on posts and pages. You can use the app to upload media such as music and videos to both new and existing posts and pages.
7. Take photos and videos for uploading. Caught in a blog-worthy moment? You can capture photos and record videos straight from the WordPress app. The application has shortcuts for these two.
8. Access all posts and pages. Whether posts or pages are published, saved as drafts, or pending for review, you can view all of them in a list with the app.
9. Manage comments. Approve, reject, and delete comments. You can also place comments on the Spam box.
10. Read published posts and pages in mobile view. The app has a built-in browser that enables users to view WordPress blog in mobile format.
11. Read blogs you follow. Stay in touch with fellow bloggers and leave comments on their most recent posts.
12. View statistics. Find out how many page views you received today, in the past 7 days, 30 days, three months, year, and for all-time. See how your blog is performing in a glance.
13. Add personal blogs from multiple accounts. This is most beneficial for users who own more than one blog under different accounts. You can easily switch between blogs by choosing from the drop-down menu on the upper left corner.
    

You can get WordPress by Automattic, Inc. at the Google Play Store and Apple App Store for free. The app will only take 1.51MB of your device’s memory. WordPress for Android is compatible for Android 2.1 and higher. Meanwhile, the iOS app works for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad running iOS 

4.0 and higher.

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The Top Essential WordPress Plugins for Blogs and Sites

I have just listed down some of the top plugins that are essential in WordPress today. Starting out with your new blog in the platform can be quite confusing the first time you use it as there are many things that you should figure out first. Below is a list of plugins that I have come up with which I believe will be very helpful for people with blogs and websites in WordPress.

Akismet

Being used by millions, this plugin is one of the best ways that people can use to protect their own blogs from trackback and comment spam. Akismet will let users protect their site from spam even while they are sleeping. In oder to get started, one should activate the plugin, sign up to obtain an API key for Akismet and go to the configuration page save the API key. This is one of the most vital plugins to use for keeping spammers away.

WordPress Ping Optimizer

This plugin will save your blog in WordPress from being tagged as a ping spammer. This is important for people who may have made some typographical errors in their content and do this on a constant basis. The Ping Optimizer will keep the pingers away from blacklisting the website for edits.

Prettify

Google Code Prettify will allow users to have their codes displayed and look good with styling options that is being powered by Themekit. Dealing with Code Snippets can be a pain and this may be one of the most flexible plugins one can work with.

Widget and Icon Sharing - Simple Social

This will add a set of social sharing for icons and widgets within each post that has been published by the user. There are some which will come out to be snappier than this but it is going to help you load up your site for trackers. One example of this is SexyBookmarks.

W3 Cache

This is one of the most complete and highest rated performance plugin for WordPress. The plugin will dramatically improve the speed and experience of users within the website. People can add page, object, database and browser as well as content delivery network to their WordPress blog.

WordPress SEO

One of the first all-in-one solutions for SEO in WordPress, this plugin will include XML sitemaps, on page analysis of content and many more. It is important to have search engine optimization processes running in a website in order to maintain ranking for the blog or website.

A lot of people are going to benefit from the plugins that I have listed in this article. There is Aksimet which protects the website from spam which can be very annoying and frustrating to deal with. The Ping Optimizer gives your website a chance to avoid being blacklisted by people. And of course the SEO for WordPress which I believe is one of the most important aspects that people should focus on especially when building site rankings. Try these plugins today to get a feel of how they can benefit you and your website.

Comparison of Life Before Social Media and Today

How Social Media Is To People?

People living in this so called “information era” has already embraced the importance of social media to their daily lives. Who would never recognize Facebook or Twitter? Many for sure have browsed over and over again their favorite videos via content communities like that of YouTube or perhaps consulted the Wikipedia for some undefined words or phrases. Social Media this day has become more and more natural.

With all these technologies and more of it to come in the coming years, has anyone ever thought how life was when all these stuffs that we now usually do, did not exist? As for people who have seen the transition of simple living to a more edgy and convenient style that we are today, life before wasn’t that complicated.

What is Life Before Social Media

Before, students and professionals would buy magazines, encyclopedias or newspapers to get the latest news or have the freshest digest for a research project. Today, there are e-magazines that are free to browse and read, the latest news is way fresher than on print and encyclopedias are now turned to Wikipedia.

Before, being connected to someone distant from you would mean mailing letters and handling it to Mr. Postman or a telegram for a faster delivery of message. Today, communication is within reach with Facebook’s chat and video calls and emails.

Before, stardom means auditioning or being scouted from unlikely places. Today, the road to becoming a star is easier with just a minute or an hour upload of recorded singing, acting or dancing videos. Before, sharing pictures would mean sending it via mail to let other see it, today, picture sharing is just a single click away.

Before, expressing thoughts and feelings are sometimes hindered and are forever silenced. Today, anyone can put a shout-out in their status in Facebook, Twitter or any social networking sites.

Before, playing would mean getting outside your house and actually play. Today, playing may be done virtually like that in the World of Warcraft.

How Social Media Help People In Their Lives

The technological era has indeed changed the world for better. Social media has allowed anyone to reach audiences be it big or small. It has made almost everything accessible as it is free to use for the public. It doesn’t require special skills for one to use it; it just needs a little navigation and a bit of orientation for one to utilize it. Social media’s immediacy is only a matter of seconds or minutes. Social media may change, revise or even remove any contents that may be deemed inappropriate or outdated. Social media is an open arena where people get to freely express emotions, ideas, products, buy and sell goods and services.

While it is undeniably true that social media has brought distance closer, more convenience for our daily lives, more edgy and sophisticated. But if you were to choose, which way of living would you prefer? The simpler or the much convenient but complicated?

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3 Professional Tips on Social Media for Small Businesses

Are you new in social media marketing but would want to grow your small business by leaps and bounds? A few experts have shared their hottest social media tips which they personally prefer when they are doing their thing. 

Here are the pieces of advice from some of these experts which will help take your small business to the next level!

Showing Them You Are Real

Start using the social website Facebook in order to show your customers, clients and prospects that you are real. Although providing the occasional industry tip, link to a new blog or a new article piece, this is just so common nowadays that almost everyone else is doing it. Instead, why not show them how you are a real person by posting updates on interests that you are passionate about?

If you love to read, share quotes on something that will be insightful to readers. If you love cooking, post pictures of your latest masterpieces. Whichever you choose to show your passion to your followers, try to keep things interesting, different and humorous. It is also important to be original here.

Select One Social Network and Stick to It

Trying to be active on all of the social networks and putting in effort that is half-hearted will not give you the results that you are looking for. That is why it is recommended that you should let your small business pick a social network that will provide them with the highest amount of audience that they can give. Using tools such as the advertising platform of Facebook, LinkedIn’s search and Follower Wonk will let you assess this.

Lead Generate with Facebook

Many ways in order to grow your marketing list are available and one of these is by building an opt-in strategy through your Facebook page. Try to keep it simple by using iFrames in order to create your personalized welcome tab. This tab is where you can do the 2-step process which will be called a “reveal tab”.

The first step is to include a call to action which will encourage prospects to Like the page and become a fan. Once the person becomes a fan and has liked your page, you should offer them a valuable gift in exchange for their email and name. This model will help increase your fan base and will also grow your lead list as well.

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