Related Posts Widget for Blogger / Blogspot

Money blog by: toybox Saturday, October 15, 2011 Labels: , 0 comments

Now here is wonderful hack for displaying links to related posts beneath each of your blog posts. The related articles are chosen from other posts in that same category/label/tag. With this hack many of your readers will remain on your site for longer periods of time when they see related posts of interest.

Preview of Related Posts Links:


Updates:

If your related posts have not been showing up lately: See How to Fix!

How to Add Related Posts Widget to Your Blog?

  1. Go to Layout >Edit HTML in your Blogger Dashboard.
  2. Back up your existing Template before making any changes!
  3. Make sure to check the "Expand Widget Templates" box.
  4. Search for the </head> tag.
  5. Add the following code just before the </head> tag.
    6. <style> #related-posts { float : left; width : 540px; margin-top:20px; margin-left : 5px; margin-bottom:20px; font : 11px Verdana; margin-bottom:10px; } #related-posts .widget { list-style-type : none; margin : 5px 0 5px 0; padding : 0; } #related-posts .widget h2, #related-posts h2 { font-size : 20px; font-weight : normal; margin : 5px 7px 0; padding : 0 0 5px; } #related-posts a { text-decoration : none; } #related-posts a:hover { text-decoration : none; } #related-posts ul { border : medium none; margin : 10px; padding : 0; } #related-posts ul li { display : block; background : url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHTDGtjOBjVyY8QDiV_zFHNSFviUmLUd-LP8K5FW4UMjP6jTO7QXLgTDx_r5vUI_dpOAI0OR7r-otm-7SGimjuFOLhFhXHl7gfS9206vf_acfdSV0gCm61uKC9t9rBvTAU3NFQtbbo4Gs/") no-repeat 0 0; margin : 0; padding-top : 0; padding-right : 0; padding-bottom : 1px; padding-left : 21px; margin-bottom : 5px; line-height : 2em; border-bottom:1px dotted #cccccc; } </style> <script src='http://theblogtemplates.com/scripts/Related_posts_hack.js' type='text/javascript'/>
  6. Now search for <data:post.body/>. In some of the templates this code may look like this
    <div class='post-body>
    or
    <data:post.body/>
  7. Add the following code just beneath the code you just searched for.
    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
    <div id="related-posts">
    <font face='Arial' size='3'><b>Related Posts : </b></font><font color='#FFFFFF'><b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'><data:label.name/><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != &quot;true&quot;'>,</b:if><b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
    <script expr:src='&quot;/feeds/posts/default/-/&quot; + data:label.name + &quot;?alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=related_results_labels&amp;max-results=5&quot;' type='text/javascript'/></b:if></b:loop> </font>
    <script type='text/javascript'> removeRelatedDuplicates(); printRelatedLabels();
    </script>
    </div></b:if>
  8. Now Save your Template and you're done!

Customization

  • In order to change the number of maximum related posts being displayed for each label, search for the code below (within the code given in step 7) and change the number "5" to any desired number.
    • max-results=5

If you have any questions on implementing this hack into your own blog, shoot me a comment and I'll be glad to help!
Make sure to check out our other great Blogger Hacks as well:
Recent Posts Hack with Thumbnails; Recent Comments Hack; Sleek Search Bar

Special thanks to Real Trix! Read More!

Google PR Update

Money blog by: toybox Wednesday, August 31, 2011 Labels: 1 comment

A common question posed to me by many newbie bloggers is that “When does Google PR update happen?”
Google PR Update
While many have accepted the fact that Google Pagerank hardly matters, it’s natural for new bloggers to be curious to get their first Google pagerank. Long back Google PR revealed the reputation of a blog or website, the website traffic, how well the website or blog ranks and many other factors. Advertisers even considered it as an important metric before advertising on any blog. Many advertisers still value Google PR while many just ignore it. So do you still value PR? Actually I like a high PR, but I don’t work hard towards getting it as I know what matters is traffic and not ranks. Well the question here is Google PR Update! When does Google PR Update happen?
Well to be frank, there is no specific time for Google PR update. Usually Google updates page rank every 2-3 months, but there isn’t any fixed time for Google PR Update to occur. Why? In the past what I have noticed is that Google didn’t update site PR for over 6 months. And in the last two months, they have updated Google pagerank more than 3 times! So, the fact is that Google doesn’t follow a pattern and they update page rank when necessary or when they change their algorithm.

There is no specific time gap between each pagerank update. I hope Google PR Update puzzle is now solved. We will try our best to report the next Google PR update here and hopefully try finding a pattern, else PR updates have no specific pattern.
Read More!

Hack your Blog traffic

Money blog by: toybox Friday, August 26, 2011 Labels: , 0 comments
Today, im going to share with you a very simple and easy to do title hack for blogger or even non blogger websites. This will help to increase your over all blog traffic especially through search engines.

I have used this on my other blog and noticed higher traffic from search engines after a week.

What this does is that it will swap your blog title with your post title so the traffic that comes from search engines will get exactly what they are looking for when they enter your page. Happy Traffic means Happier Revenue.

Let me start with the tutorial:
  1. In Blogger go to: Go to Layout then EditHtml
  2. Search(Ctrl + F) for the following tag: <title><data:blog.pagetitle/></title>
  3. Simply replace the following tag with:

    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageName == &quot;&quot;'>
    <title><data:blog.title/></title>
    <b:else/>
    <title><data:blog.pageName/> - <data:blog.title/></title>
    </b:if>
  4. Now, save what you have done and view your post. Your Blog title which appears on the top of your browser will be different depending on which post you enter followed by your blog title, your blog title alone will remain in your main page.

Summary:

Easy to do.

Improves Traffic. Read More!

Effective Blog Promotion Techniques

Money blog by: toybox Saturday, August 20, 2011 Labels: , 0 comments

Whether it’s your personal or business blog, without proper promotion it will mostly not become a successful blog. The ultimate aim of every blogger is to get maximum possible targeted traffic. There are many strategies for blog promotion depending on your blog niche and targeted audience. You cannot apply all strategies for all types of blogs, but here are six effective strategies that can be used to promote all types of blogs.

1. Submit to Blog Directories and Content Aggregators


Blog directory submission is a one time effort, get a list of top blog directories and submit your blog. Many of these blog directories will require you to add your RSS URL too with which they will extract and display your latest blog post to their readers.
On part of content aggregators, some require a manual update each time when you publish new content while others can provide you with an automated solution. For instance if you’re using WordPress, add the following in the “Writing” option under the “Settings” tab:
* rcp.pingomatic.com
* blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
* api.feedster.com/ping
Now, all these services will be automatically updated when there’s a new post on your blog!

2. Increase RSS Subscribers

Feed or RSS subscribers are your loyal visitors because they frequently read your content. You must have more and more RSS subscribers and to have a big number you’ll need to put the RSS subscription button on your blog where it can be noticed easily by your visitors. Top right corner in the sidebar and the end of an interesting post are the best places to put the RSS subscription form and turn visitors into loyal readers!

3. Develop Social Circles

Being active on social networks is very helpful to increase the outreach of your blog. Content you share with your friends is visible to friends of friends and if they like and share, it goes viral! For best results be active on:
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Google +
* Friendfeed

4. Use Blog link in Email Signature

It looks professional on one hand and attracts the mail receiver on the other. Use it in bold and just below your credentials. If you’re using Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail, you can track your visitors who came by clicking the link in your email, but if you’re using other email clients, it might not be tracked.

5. Comment on Other Relevant Blogs & Forums

It’s a fact that when you appreciate someone’s effort or disagree to a point with valid arguments, they do look back, who actually you are. So why not to make it a promotional technique and find all relevant blogs in your niche, check out their content where you can share your opinion easily and drop a comment or two? While posting a comment do not forget to add your blog’s link so that the rest of the visitors on that page can also land on your blog through that link!
Same technique goes for forums where you can grab people’s attention by having your blog URL in your forum signature.

6. Optimize for Search Engines

This is the most important technique to get long-term and massive targeted traffic. At first, do keyword research using Google Keyword tool and write on topics that are highly searched. Use those keywords appropriately in your blog post title and content. Make sure that the keyword density in your blog posts is not less than 3% and overall content is well written and not just adjusted with high search volume keywords. Your blog post must also be categorized and tagged well, i.e. under relevant categories and tabs. This SEO technique proven to bring you good traffic from the search engines!
So, there you are. 6 pretty basic but highly effective blog promotion techniques which you can use to promote your blog. Of course, there are other techniques too but we do not have the space here to cover them all in one article. However, I am sure you have some great blog promotion techniques which you can share with the rest of us. Do post your thoughts and techniques below.
Read More!

Ways to Speed Up Your Site

Money blog by: toybox Wednesday, August 17, 2011 Labels: , 0 comments

The load time of websites is one of the most important factors affecting its usability; most Internet users will just skip a site altogether if it fails to load within a couple of seconds. Below you will find the summary of the “Speed Up Your Site” series. Those are simple yet effective ways to make sure that your website is running fast. You can click on each point to read the article with comments from the readers.
  1. Optimize Images: always use the “Save for the web” feature included on image editing software. Images represent the heavier load on virtually any website so make sure you are optimizing them. Alternatively you can also turn to an online image optimizer.
  2. Image Formats: apart from optimizing images it is important that you choose the right format. JPEG format is suitable for photographs or true-color images. The GIF format should be used with flat-color images like logos or buttons. PNG works very similar to GIF but it supports more colors.
  3. Optimize Your CSS: most websites are designed with CSS nowadays. Make sure to aggregate and clean your CSS. CleanCSS is an online tool that will merge similar selectors, remove useless properties and remove the whitespace from your code.
  4. Use a Slash on Your Links: when a user opens a link on the form “http://www.domain.com/about” the server will need to figure what kind of file or page is contained on that address. If you include a slash (/) at the end of the link the server will already know that this is a directory page, reducing the load time of the site.
  5. Use the Height and Width Tags: many people forget to add the Height and Width tags on image codes. Those tags will make sure that the browser knows the size of the image before loading it. The result is that it will reserve a spot for the images while loading the rest of the page, speeding up the whole process.
  6. Reduce the HTTP Requests: when opening a web page every object (images, scripts and the line) will require a round trip to the server. This latency can add several seconds to the load time of your site. Make sure to reduce the number of objects and to combine CSS files and scripts together.
Read More!