Spice Up Your Blog

Earn Extra AdSense Revenue And Build Links To Your Blog

2010-09-04T17:38:00.004+01:00

In this post i will share with you a way i have not only been building links to my blogs but i have been earning AdSense revenue in the process.When you read the posts in the S.E.O. or Blog Promotion category on Spice Up Your Blog one of the things you will see repeated time and again is the importance of Backlinks.But its not just our posts that repeat the importance of backlinks, no matter were you look for help in promoting your blog and moving your posts onto the first page in search engines the theme stays the same.

For search engines like Google a link to your blog is seen like a recommendation.When Google find a link to your blog on another website or blog they take this as that website or blog recommending your blog.This helps in many ways including helping to boost your blogs Page Rank, a higher page rank will result in Google placing more importance in your content thus placing your posts higher in search results.

You can keep track of the number of links there are to your blog by signing up to Google Webmaster Tools.Your job is to build as many links to not only your blogs homepage but also individual posts on your blog.If your blog is relatively new you should work extra hard, but even the most established blogs still work at building backlinks.There are many ways to start building links to your blog, remember if you provide quality content people will want to link to you and share your content.Bookmarks and Bookmarking websites are one of the most popular ways to get backlinks, sites like Digg, Reddit and others let you and your readers bookmark your posts thus creating a backlink.

Getting Paid To Bookmark

One of the ways i have been Bookmarking Posts from my blogs and building links is by using a site called Xomba.On Xomba you can create a Xomblurb which is the same as a Bookmark.You can create a Xomblurb for your posts and other content from the web in a similar way to Digg, but the sweet part is Xomba display AdSense on their site and give you half the earnings from clicks earned on your pages !

How To Start Bookmarking And Earning

Your first step is to set up a free account, simply Click Here To Go To Xomba in a new window.Follow the steps to open your account and submit your AdSense publisher ID.Once you have published your latest blog post you simply log into your Xomba account and choose the option to create a Xomblurb.You are required to add a short Title and Description as on other Bookmark sites, add the link to your post and publish.That's it you have created a Backlink to your blog, if someone lands on that page on Xomba and clicks an add you will get half the AdSense earnings...Easy...

Bookmarking The Bookmark

You may find the Bookmark you created on Xomba actually ranks higher in search results than the actual post on your blog.This is not a bad thing as it will bring extra visitors to your blog and of course you are earning from the ads on Xomba.So why not also promote your Xomblurb ? You can Bookmark the Xomblurb on other sites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook etc..

I have been creating a Xomblurb for all the posts on my Blogs as well as other interesting content i find.The result is 100's of links to my content and an increase in my AdSense earnings.

Xombites

One of the other options Xomba offers is a AdSense revenue share on full articles.While a Xomblurb is a short Bookmark a Xombite is a full article you can write on any subject.Many Bloggers feel restricted by their blogs and writing on only one subject, Xomba can be a great place to write on a range of subjects and make some money.Once you sign up your can check out how it all works.

Xomba Sign Up Page Here

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

There are other similar websites popping up and im currently checking out two revenue share bookmarking sites.If these sites turn out to be Genuine you will be the first to know.

Let us know your opinion on Xomba once you have signed up..

How Effective Is Your Blog In Search Results - Free Tool

2010-08-08T23:20:00.000+01:00

There are lots of tools available to check out almost every aspect of your blog.From page rank to links and much more you could easily waste hours playing around with different tools.One tool i recently came across however covers more topics than any other and can provide some really useful information.The site in question will provide you with everything from search performance to inbound links social links and more.

To get all the current stats for your blog follow this link to WebsiteGrader.Com.Once there simply enter your blogs URL.You can also compare your blog against rivals and enter your Email to be sent the results, these two are optional.

Remember building a successful blog takes time so don't be disappointed if the stats are not as good as you would have linked.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

You can work at improving your blogs S.E.O. performance by checking out some of our tips on the subject here - Search Engine Optimization Tips

Feedback

Share some of your stats with us and let us know what you learned !

How To Add Social Bookmark Buttons To The Top Of All Posts

2010-07-22T11:17:00.001+01:00

You have probably noticed most blogs now have social bookmarking options above as well as below their posts.Here on Spice Up Your Blog we have almost 20 different sets of social bookmarking gadgets for below your posts so i think its about time i covered how to add a social bookmarking gadget above the posts.By above the posts the position i am referring to is directly below the post title and before the first line of text.Of course you could add any bookmarking gadget above the posts but in general it will look out of place, you want the bookmarking gadget above the posts to be compact and just include the main options.The gadget we have for you in this post is perfect, it wont take up too much room at the top of your posts, it look great and includes buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Stumble Upon as well as a Email This Post option.

Preview And Demo

Below you can see an image preview of the Top Bookmarking Gadget.

To see how the gadget works you can view a live Demo / Sample here - Demo Of Top Bookmarking Gadget

How To Add The Top Bookmarking Gadget To Your Blog

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Design' > 'Edit Html' > Tick the 'Expand Widget Templates' box.

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Paste The Following Code Directly Above ]]></b:skin>

.social { border: dashed #ddd; border-width:1px 0 1px 0; margin: 10px auto 10px; display:block; padding: 3px 0 1px 0px; overflow: hidden; }
.social .social_button {float: left; display: inline; overflow: hidden; height:22px; }.social .si { float:left;padding-top:3px;}
.social .social_button.dg { margin: 0px 0 0 30px ; padding-top: 2px;}
.social .social_button.tm { margin: 0px 0 0 32px; padding-top: 4px;}
.social .social_button.fb { margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding-top:3px;}
.social .social_button.su { margin: 0px 0 0 35px; padding-top: 2px;}
.social .social_button.em { margin: 0 0 0 35px; padding-top: 3px;}
.social .social_button.em a{background:#eee url(http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/1989/emailj.gif) 3px 50% no-repeat; padding:2px 3px 2px 22px; font-size:10px; border:#ddd 1px solid; text-decoration:none; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px;}
.social .social_button.em a:hover {background:#ddd url(http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/1989/emailj.gif) 3px 50% no-repeat}
.social .social_button a img { border: 0; padding: 0; }
.social strong { font-size: 11px; float: left; margin:2px 0 0 0; color:#555;}
.clear{clear:both;}

Step 4. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

Step 5. Paste The Following Code Directly Below <div class='post-header-line-1'/>

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div class='social'>
<div class='social_button dg'>
<a class='DiggThisButton DiggCompact'/><script src='http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<div class='social_button tm'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
tweetmeme_style = "compact";
</script>
<script src='http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<div class='social_button fb'>
<a expr:share_url='data:post.url' name='fb_share' rel='nofollow' type='button_count'/>
<script src='http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<div class='social_button su'>
<script src='http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=1'/>
</div>
<div class='social_button em'>
<a expr:href='"mailto:?subject=Sharing:" + data:post.title + "&body=Hi ! I Saw This Cool Post And Thought Of You.Check It Out :%0A%0A" + data:post.url' target='_blank' title='Email This'>Email This</a>
</div>
</div>
<div class='clear'/>
</b:if>

Step 6. Save Your Template

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Once your template is saved the new bookmarking buttons should be added to the top of your posts.

You can find lots more Social Bookmarking information, tips and gadgets here - Spice Up Your Blog Social Bookmarking

Feedback

Drop A Comment Below To Let Us Know What You Think Or If You Need More Help !

How To Make A Professional Facebook Fan Page For Your Blog

2010-06-26T06:00:00.004+01:00

This is the third post in a row on using Facebook to promote your blog.This time we will look at Facebook fan pages, how to create them and how to spice them up.Anyone can create a Facebook fan page and it's absolutely free.All you need is a Facebook account.

Starting Out - Follow this link and go to Facebook Pages.Then click the 'Create A Page' button in the top right corner.Then Choose category Brand, product or organisation, and Sub category 'Website'.Give your page a name and click 'Create Official Page'.That's it your page is live and ready to get spiced.

Create A Landing Page - Creating a landing page is a great option to let people know what you are about instead of sending them directly to the wall.This is a good Video by Pat Flynn showing exactly how it's done..In the video he tells you you need to get the Static Fbml application so here is the link : Static Fbml on Facebook

You can also use static Fbml to create other Html pages for your Fan Page.Here is how the Spice Up Your Blog landing page looks :

You can check out the Spice Up Your Blog Fan Page Here

Auto Post Your Latest Blog Posts In Fan Page - You will want to update your fan page with your latest posts and you can have this done automatically.A great free service you can use is TwitterFeed, as the name suggests TwitterFeed also auto posts to Twitter.You can see how it's done in this post from last October - How To Automatically Share Your Latest Posts On Twitter and Facebook

Import Your Entire Blog Onto Facebook - You can have your entire blog and full posts available on Facebook.You can see how in this post : Import Full Blog Onto Facebook

Update - Create An Easy Url For Your Fan Page

Chelsea FC-True Blue asked in the comments "Can you tell how to create a separate facebook page for a website? Like www.facebook.com/yourwebsite" .

Great question, the answer is yes and heres how it's done.

First you can create more than one fan page (Im not sure exactly how many or if there is any limit).Once you have created your fan page it will have a long URL, the old Spice Up Your Blog fan page url was -

www.facebook.com/pages/Spice-Up-Your-Blog/248465525582

You now have the option to change it to something easier like i did by changing it to -

www.facebook.com/spiceupyourblog

To change the URL of your Facebook Fan Page (You can also change your profile URL) got to this page : http://www.facebook.com/username/
and follow the steps.

Once again great question Chelsea Fan i had never thought of creating a URL for my Fan page until now :D

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Inspiration - These are just a few easy steps you can take to make a professional Fan Page for your blog.Make sure to invite all your current friends to be members and keep your Fan Page updated.To get some inspiration why not check out the 30 most popular Fan Pages on Facebook, you can see who was most popular here : 30 Biggest Facebook Fan Pages

Have you a fan page for your blog ?

Have you any extra tips for creating a professional Fan Page ?

8 Awesome Facebook Gadgets For Your Blog

2010-06-24T14:45:00.013+01:00

In the last post we talked about using Facebook to promote your blog, and how having people share your blog on Facebook is like getting free advertising.I also told you how i have really been working at promoting my blogs on social network and social bookmarking sites, the results really did point to Facebook as the best option with the most potential traffic.I go more in dept in that post and it is recommended reading here's the link : How Facebook Can Turn Your Blog Into An Overnight Success

At the end of that post i promised to give you a few Facebook tips to help you get people sharing your content on Facebook, and to help you create a professional Facebook fan page for your blog.The next post will look at the Facebook fan page but today we will see the options available to get people sharing your blog with their Facebook friends.

Facebook Taking The Lead - Recently Facebook made it possable for Bloggers to add a simple Like Icon to their blog.This in my opinion was Facebook taking the lead in making it as easy as possible for people to share content.The Facebook Like Button just requires one click and the user does not need to go to their account or fill out an annoying Catcha (Word verification).So sharing a blog post, video or any link now takes less than a second.Remember the pop up window, choose an image, add a description and fill the catcha ?

In April just after Facebook released the Like Icon i showed you how to add the basic icon to your blog in this post : Add The New Facebook Like This Share Icon To Your Blog Posts.Since then Facebook Developers have come up with some awesome gadgets, from a box that displays the profile pictures of people who liked the post to a sidebar gadget that shows updates from your Facebook profile.Lets look at the gadgets currently available and how to add them to your blog.

8 Facebook Blog Gadgets

Like Button - The Basic Button

"..The Like button lets users share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click.."

Recommendations

"..The Recommendations plugin gives users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like..."

Facebook Login Button

"..The Login Button shows profile pictures of the user's friends who have already signed up for your site in addition to a login button.."

Facebook Comments

"..The Comments plugin lets users comment on any piece of content on your site.."

Facebook Activity Feed

"..The Activity Feed plugin shows users what their friends are doing on your site through likes and comments..."

Facebook Like Box

"..The Like Box enables users to like your Facebook Page and view its stream directly from your website.."

Facebook Face Pile

"..The Facepile plugin shows profile pictures of the user's friends who have already signed up for your site.."

Facebook Live Stream

"..The Live Stream plugin lets your users share activity and comments in real-time as they interact during a live event.."

How To Add These Gadgets To Your Blog - Your probably wondering were the code is for these gadgets.Well the code for all the gadgets is available on the Facebook developers page.Simply Follow this link and click on the gadget you wish to add to your blog to get the code : Facebook Developers Gadgets

Were To Put The Gadgets

Some of these gadgets will work fine in your sidebar, so just add a gadget, Choose Html/Javascript and paste in the code.However you should add on of the like gadgets or share gadgets at the top or bottom of each post to make it easier for people to use.

Steps To Add Gadgets To Your Blog

In your Dashboard click "Layout/Design" > "Edit Html" > Tick The "Expand Widget Templates" box

Below Post Title - To add the button directly below the post titles Find the following code in your blogs Html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<div class="post-header-line-1">

Now paste the facebook button code Directly Below / Under
<div class="post-header-line-1">

Above All Posts - To add the button at the top of the posts Find the following code in your blogs Html
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

</data:post.body>

Now paste the Facebook button code Directly Before / Above </data:post.body>

Below All Posts - To add the button directly below the posts Find the following code in your blogs Html :

(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

</data:post.body>

Now paste the Facebook code Directly Below / Under </data:post.body>

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

I would recommend checking out all the gadgets and seeing which works best for you.Some of these gadgets can be connected to a Facebook fan page, Have you created a Fan Page for your blog ? Well in the next post of this 3 part Series on Facebook we will look at how to create a face book fan page and more importantly how to Spice Up Your Face Book Fan Page.

Feedback

What gadgets did you try ?

Let us know which gadgets you like the best and how your using them on your blog.

How Facebook Can Turn Your Blog Into An Overnight Success

2010-06-23T16:15:00.003+01:00

Having your blog and blog posts shared on social networks and social bookmarking websites is kinda like getting free advertising.If the right people share your blog it can have a viral effect and could lead to lots of new visitors, members and subscribers.Think of a video one of your friends (We will call him John) added to their wall, you see it on your Facebook homepage and click the like icon below.Now all your friends also get to see the video on their homepage even though they are not friends with John.When one of them also clicks the like icon all their friends also get to see the video and they don't know John or you !.

This is a very realistic ripple effect that happens to thousands of blog posts, videos, links and pictures on Facebook every day.All you have to do is get the ball rolling and have a little luck.I'm afraid i cant help you with the luck but their are steps you can take to get the ball rolling.The first and most important thing you can do is make it as easy as possible for people to share your blog on Facebook.

Share The Love - I personally share a lot of content on Facebook and Twitter, We all like to share a funny article, Picture or video with friends.In fact i share the latest post from one of my favorite Funny Stuff blogs called Oddee every single day.It's possible that i have sent thousands of people to Oddee just by clicking a Like Button.I'm happy sharing funny content with my friends and Oddee are trilled to be getting the traffic.

Oddee like all the top blogs and websites make it as easy as possible for you to share their content.They have links to all the top networking and bookmarking sites at the top and bottom of every post.On the top Tech blog Mashable you can not scroll to any part of the page that does not contain a social icon of some description, they almost over do it (Note - Just had a quick look and the latest post on Mashable has been Tweeted 1339 times and shared on Facebook 258 times - guess it works).

I can say without any doubt that on not even one occasion have i gone looking for a button to share a post or link.In the same vein i never think half way through reading a post "I think i will share this on Twitter".Sharing a post, image or video is an off the cuff decision we make when presented with the options at the end.In fact, silly as it may seem, it's proven that when there is a message at the foot of a blog post with something like "Please Leave A Comment" more people tend to leave a comment.Yes we are like trained dogs when we browse the Internet.

Social Networking V's Social Bookmarking - I'm not a huge believer in the power of Bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumble Upon (Check out the article i wrote on infobarrel last January - Becoming Popular On StumbleUpon Is Like A Bad One Night Stand), but i do believe Facebook can have a huge impact.In fact i believe Facebook alone could turn a blog into a success overnight.The people that hang out on Digg, Stumble Upon, Reddit and the rest are experienced Internet users, how many people go online for the first time and open an account on Digg ? How many would even know what Digg or social bookmarking is all about ? But even your Gran has heard of Facebook.

So whats wrong with experienced Internet users ?

Well on the face of it nothing at all but new or casual Internet users offer much more.

Experienced users scan content and move on quickly they've seen it all before.

Experienced users are already subscribed to too many Rss Feeds and Newsletters so you gotta be special to entice them.

Experienced users have trained themselves to not even see AdSense and other ads (I recon it's a few years since i last clicked on an AdSense ad).

Experienced users are sceptics, before they even start they have the opinion most sites are garbage so you have to prove different and you don't have long.

The new or casual Internet user has no such preconceptions.They are open minded and looking to be informed.You have the chance to make a first impression and just a little effort could see you pick up a life long fan.And Facebook is full of millions of these new users just crying out for a blog they can visit to pass half an hour.Even if your blog is on a subject as obscure as multi colored socks you can be sure there are people with similar interests to be found on Facebook.

From Myspace To Facebook - Being a long time Blogger from the time when Myspace and Bebo controlled the budding social networking landscape i am still struggling to get on board the social bandwagon.Bands and girls on web cams (Not putting both in the same category) were the only people using Myspace to promote.Posting a link to your blog on the Myspace homepage was almost seen as spam, people still have to click a second link on a page warning them your blog could be a phishing website looking to steal their identity!

Spice up your blog however is a blog for experienced Internet users, not many new or casual Internet users keep a blog or would know how to.So i have been climbing the social bandwagon with some of my other blogs and the overwhelming evidence is Facebook has the most traffic to offer.On a Guitar based blog i write i was able to turn almost zero traffic from Facebook to Facebook actually providing 25% of total traffic in one month ! Stats that defiantly opened my eyes, also that blog gets similar visitor numbers as Spice Up Your Blog yet it earns 3 times more revenue.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Helping You Get On The Social Bandwagon - So that's my case for really targeting Facebook to promote your blog.In the next two posts i will show you steps you can take to get people sharing your content and also how to set up a professional looking Facebook fan page.

Have you had success using Facebook to promote your blog ?

Do you agree that Facebook is the best social network/bookmark site for getting visitors ?

Have you any tips for using social websites to promote blogs ?

Let us know.And Click The Like Icon Below ↓↓↓↓↓ :)

How Receiving Comments Helps Your Blog Rank Higher On Google

2010-06-10T11:55:00.018+01:00

We all like to get comments on our blog posts.It's one of the advantages of blogs over standard websites, people get to join in and connect with the author.But comments can do a lot more for your blog than just letting people share their opinion.In this post we will look at how comments can actually help your blog perform better in search engines like Google.

What do you think Google see when they crawl your blog ?

Most people think Google crawl the content of the latest posts and that's it.But in fact the Google Bot crawls everything, Absolutely Everything.On every page they scan Google pick up not only the main text content but also all the code that makes up the page.This of course includes the comment section of your blog, Google crawl every comment on your blog and this can really help how your blog is indexed and also how often posts are crawled.

Two Ways Comments Help Your Blog In Search

First - If Google crawl a post a few times and it has not changed or is not updated they may not return as often in the future.However if their are new comments on the post every time they return these comments will be seen as fresh content so Google will be back more often to check for new changes.

Second - Google love keywords and phrases, so if they find keywords and phrases in the comments it helps them index the post and can ultimately see your blog rank higher in search results.

What Do Google See When They Crawl Your Blog ?

If you go to any page on your blog and click 'View' in the top menu of your browser and then 'Source' Or 'View Source' you will get an idea of what Google see.Another option is to log into Google webmaster tools (If your not registered check it out here - Webmaster Tools) and in the dashboard click 'Fetch a bot'.When you fetch a bot you are sending the Google bot to your blog and within seconds they will return with their findings.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

So encourage people to comment on your blog and reply to as many comments as you can.We all like to see peoples opinions on our posts but now you know those opinions are also helping your blog perform better in search results.

Get Your Blog Listed On The Blogger Showcase

2010-05-27T13:35:00.002+01:00

Some time back i stumbled across a blog that had been specially set up to showcase the best blogs hosted on Blogger.I decided to submit Spice Up Your Blog as the process was simple and their was no strings attached.Having seen many attempts at similar ventures after submitting my blog i forgot about it and carried on with my business.

However it's been a few months since i submitted Spice and i have been surprised with the results.I'm not one of the bloggers who are constantly checking stats and traffic, let alone checking were the traffic comes from.But every time i do check my Analytics or Hitstats accounts i see a steady flow coming from The Blogger Showcase.

I love to see any attempt by fellow Bloggers to provide an outlet for people to showcase their work.People new to the game can quickly become disenchanted when it comes to getting their blog noticed and many quickly give up.So I'm happy to promote this great site and hopefully help The Blogger Showcase grow as well as help bloggers display their work.

The Blogger Showcase is for Blogger Powered blogs only and lists the latest blogs with screenshots on the homepage.You can also browse blogs by their category or the top rated blogs in each category.

Screenshot Of Blogger Showcase

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Here is the link to the site and once there you can use the 'Submit A Blog' link on the right under the header to have your blog listed : The Blogger Showcase

You can find Spice Up Your Blog listed here (Maybe add a review in the comments) : Spice Showcase Page

Browes through some of the blogs listed and you may find some new blogs to follow.Let me know what you think of the Showcase Site.As i said their are lots of similar sites but i think the as The Showcase is for Blogger only it is a great way to get exposure for your Blogger blog.

Should You Use Traffic Exchanges To Promote Your Blog ?

2010-05-05T11:05:00.007+01:00

I recently received an Email from a reader telling me they were using traffic exchanges to get new readers to their blog.In the Email they went on to say most of their traffic came from traffic exchanges so they felt it was quiet successful.Having previously been involved in affiliate marketing and having run a very successful blog on affiliate marketing I'm very familiar with traffic exchanges.

Traffic exchanges are one of the top forms of promotion for affiliate marketers so i have seen the pros and cons involved.In this post i will give you a brief outline of the pros and cons but before you even consider using a traffic exchange their is one major factor that you must recognise.If you use AdSense on your blog using traffic exchanges will get you banned, The use of any traffic exchange is strictly banned by AdSense.

What Are Traffic Exchanges ?

The idea behind a traffic exchange is quiet clever at first look.You open an account with a traffic exchange website like Traffic Swarm and submit the URL address of your blog with a short description.Now you click a Surf Websites button.Once you click the button you are brought to a website which you must stay on for 15 seconds, after the 15 seconds you click Surf Websites and go to another website for 15 seconds and so on...

Lets say for example you surf through 20 websites, then 20 other people who log on just like you did will go to your website for 15 seconds.This is all controlled by a credits system, when you visit another site you earn credits and when another user visits your site you loose credits.

Pros And Cons

I hope i got the idea of how it works across and it does look foolproof but like everything there is more than meets the eye.

*You can not use AdSense on your blog if you use traffic exchanges
*Most traffic exchange surfers open the traffic exchange in a new window so don't even look at the sites they are surfing
*You are not getting a target audience - Most of the traffic will not be interested in your blogs subject
*Premium members are given extreme preference - Premium members who pay a monthly fee get free credits and the best traffic with a longer timer
*The traffic is not real - The traffic you receive is only on your blog to get credits.The rate of return visitors will be almost zero with the time spent on your blog rarely passing the 15 seconds.
*As you can be sent to any website there is a danger of being sent to a website that could infect your computer.

As you can see i am totally against the use of traffic exchanges and not trying to hide it.I had some success with them when they were new and exciting but they have run their course.You will get traffic but it will be useless traffic and you will have to waste hours building credits, time that could be spent improving your blog or working on S.E.O. and other blog promotion methods.

What Are The Options

If you would like to check out some of the traffic exchange sites here are a few of the most popular.
(Note you can build credits from affiliate links - These are NOT affiliate links)

Traffic Swarm
Smiley Traffic
EasyHits4u

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

This was probably not the most fair post i have published as it's very one sided.But blogging is about opinions and in my opinion using traffic exchanges to promote your blog is an absolute waste of time.They can still have limited success for affiliate marketing but even that is diminishing.

Do you use traffic exchanges ?

Have you a different opinion on traffic exchanges ?

Do you want more info on the subject ?

Let Us Know...

Add The New Facebook Like This Share Icon To Your Blog Posts

2010-04-29T20:55:00.012+01:00

Facebook have just made a simple Like Button available for bloggers and webmasters.The Like Button or Icon will be a great help in the effort to get readers sharing your posts on Facebook.Social networks and social bookmarking sites are constantly coming up with ways to make it easier for people to share the content they find online with their friends.From Twitter to Digg and Facebook to Stumble Upon there are lots of buttons and icons available on blogs, news sites and other websites allowing you to share their stuff with others.

While this is great for users to let their friends know what they find interesting as a blogger it's one of the best ways to get your blog content shared and attract new readers.We covered this subject in more dept a while back in a post titled What is social bookmarking /How does it work / How can it help my blog ?.Facebook have just released a new option for people to easily share your blog and in this post i will show you how to be one of the first to make this option available to your readers.

The new button just made available from Facebook make sharing blogs as easy as possible and this is great news for us bloggers.With the New Facebook Like Button Just one click is required in the very same way as you would click like on a friends picture or comment your own Facebook homepage.Unlike other sharing options you don't get a pop up or have to go to the website you just click like or recommend and your done...Nice Ehh ?

New Facebook Like Button Demo

Below is a screenshot of the like button you will be adding to your blog and you can see a working example at the bottom of every post on this blog.

(Note - This is an image example to try out the real button go to the bottom of the post)

How to add the facebook buttons to your Blog

First up i will give you the code for the button and then we will look at were you can add the buttons in your blog posts.

Facebook Like Button Code :

<iframe allowTransparency='true' expr:src='"http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=" + data:post.url + "&layout=standard&show_faces=false&width=100&action=like&font=arial&colorscheme=light"' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' style='border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:40px;'/>

Were To Place The Button

In this post we will look at three places you can add the button

*Below the post title
*At the top of the post
*Below the entire post

First go to your blogs html by following these three steps - In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html' > Tick the 'Expand Widget Templates' box.

To add the button directly below the post titles Find the following code in your blogs Html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<div class='post-header-line-1'>

Now paste the facebook button code Directly Below / Under <div class='post-header-line-1'>

To add the button at the top of the posts Find the following code in your blogs Html
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<data:post.body/>

Now paste the Facebook button code Directly Before / Above <data:post.body/>

To add the button directly below the posts Find the following code in your blogs Html :

(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<data:post.body/>

Now paste the Facebook code Directly Below / Under <data:post.body/>

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Once you have the Facebook code pasted were you want the button to appear and your template saved go check out your new share option.

More From Facebook - Follow this link to check out our recent post bringing you 8 Great Facebook Icons and widgets for your blog !

This is a great new way to get people sharing your blog and to get more new readers, what do you think ?

If you need any extra help just ask...

How To Add A Free Toolbar To Your Blog

2010-04-24T17:00:00.002+01:00

Many bloggers have taken advantage of the extra options they can provide to readers by adding a toolbar to their blogs.You may have seen the toolbars in question on some of your favorite blogs and wondered how to add a toolbar to your blog or what are the advantages of using a toolbar, in this post we will look at were to get a toolbar and the options offered by the two big sites that offer free toolbars.

The two biggest free toolbar websites are The Meebo Toolbar and The Wibiya Toolbar and both offer options for sharing, chat, Stats, Rss and more.

Meebo Toolbar

The Meebo bar allows visitors to your blog to share posts on the major social bookmarking and networking websites.Visitors can also access their social networks and chat directly from the toolbar.Among the other features is an accurate analytics option to track how many hits your blog is receiving.You can see all the options and instructions for adding the Meebo bar to your blog on www.Bar.Meebo.Com

Wibiya Toolbar

The Wibiya toolbar probably offers more options than the Meebo toolbar however adding too many options may only confuse readers.Included in the options is a blog search, translate option, lots of facebook options including sharing and chat, live stats and much more including blog notifications.For more info and details on how to add the Wibiya toolbar to your blog check out www.Wibiya.Com

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Pros And Cons

Adding a toolbar to your blog is totally a matter of taste, both toolbars work well and wont slow page load time on your blog too much.Wibiya defiantly has more options and you can add or remove as many addons as you like.Check them both out and see if a toolbar can help your blog.

Opinions And Others

While their are other options such as the AddThis ShareBar i think these are the top two, but maybe you have found others if so let us know.

Will you be adding Meebo Or Wibiya to your blog ?

Add A Discription To Your Blogs Title In Search Results

2010-04-05T21:30:00.001+01:00

The way your blog appears in search results can have as big of an effect as how high your blog ranks in search results.Basically you can rank first in Google but if the way your blog title is displayed is not up to scratch people may click through to the site ranking second or third.In a previous we covered how to change the way your individual posts appear in Google and other search results by changing the title tags.This change made the post title appear ahead of the blog title, for more info on this i recommend you check out that post here : Improve How Blog Post Titles Appear In Search.That post covers making your blog post titles more search engine friendly, this post covers making your blogs homepage more search engine friendly.

So exactly what are we doing here ? We are adding a short description to your blogs title as it appears not only in search engines but also in the window and tabs on actual computers.Still confused ?

Lets look at how i have used the short description for this blog.The short description i choose is the following : "Improving Every Aspect Of Your Blogs Appearance And Performance" And here you can see were this comes into play.

Examples

Firstly it will appear at the top of each computer window and tab as shown below :

Much More importantly the description you add to the title of your blog will appear in search results for your blog.A catchy description can be the difference between people clicking on your blog or others in results.You can see the description for spice up your blog in the results below :

Adding a description like this to your blog couldn't be easier.First you will have to decide what you want the description to be this will obviously be dependant on the type of blog you keep.For example if your blog is on cooking you could use a tittle like "Easy To Follow Cooking And Baking Tips"..You get the idea..

Add a short description to your blog title

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. You will need to add the short description to the end of your blogs title tag.The title tag could appear in the code in two differ ant ways depending on the template you are using or previous changes you may have made.For standard templates this is were the description is added :

Standard And Unchanged Templates

Find this code in your blogs Html - It will be near the very top :

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Now add the short description were shown in red below (You should include this divider before the description as i have below | ):

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/> | ADD SHORT DESCRIPTION HERE </title>

Custom And Edited Templates

Find this code in your blogs Html - It will be near the very top :

<title><data:blog.title/></title>

Now add the short description were shown in red below (You should include this divider before the description as i have below | ):

<title><data:blog.title/> | ADD SHORT DESCRIPTION HERE </title>

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Once you have added the short description save your template and it will appear immediately in the top of windows and tabs.Within a few days once your blog is crawled by Google and other search engines the description will appear in search results.

This is an easy trick that will definitely help get more visitors to your blog, if you need more help just ask !

Put Easy To Copy Links Below Every Post On Your Blog

2010-03-22T22:40:00.006Z

In this post we will look at adding Easy Links below your blog posts.Easy links are links people can copy from below each post and use to link back to your blog.First lets look at the importance of getting links to your blog and making it easy for people to link to you.

Building back links to your blog is vital, in fact I'm sure regular readers are right now thinking "Here we go again hes like a broken record".But the fact remains if you want your blog to rank high is search engines especially Google, you need to get links from other blogs and websites to your blog.So this post is about making it as easy as possible for other people to link to your blog and more specifically your individual posts.

Below every post on this blog i have a section set aside for exactly that purpose.The section is titled "Write About Or Link To This Post On Your Blog - Easy Links" and their are two Easy Links for readers to link to the actual post or to the blogs homepage.These links can be easily copied and pasted by others onto their blog or website thus creating a backlink for Spice Up Your Blog.I obviously want to make it easy for people to link to this blog but also i think people may not think of linking to the blog until they see the easy links.In this case the easy links section is telling people two things - first it's OK to link to us (Some people don't know links are appreciated) and second we want you to link to us.

Screenshot Of Easy Link Section

I added this section below the posts some time back and it never crossed my mind to cover how it's done until a recent comment by Bollytadka asked me to share how i added them.The comment was on the Create a sub domain post.Great question Bollytadka and adding the easy backlinks is in itself quiet easy.

How To Add Easy Backlinks Below Your Blog Posts

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html' > Tick the 'Expand Widget Templates' box.

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs template :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to find the code - More Info)

<data:post.body/>

If <data:post.body/> is in your template html twice use the second one.

Step 3. Were the code needs to be placed - The code for the easy links needs to be placed Directly Below / Under <data:post.body/>.

Step 4. The code used to display the links - This is the code im using at the time of writing this post.If you would like your link section to be the same copy the code and place it in the area shown above :
(Note : This code is set to automatically display links to Your Posts and Homepage you do not need to change anything)

<b>Write About Or Link To This Post On Your Blog - Easy Links :</b><br/>
Link Directly To This Post :<br/>
<textarea cols='60' id='bloglinking' name='bloglinking' onclick='this.focus();this.select()' onfocus='this.select()' onmouseover='this.focus()' readonly='readonly' rows='1'><a href="<data:post.url/>"><data:post.title/></a></textarea><br/>
Link To The Homepage :<br/>
<textarea cols='60' id='bloglinking' name='bloglinking' onclick='this.focus();this.select()' onfocus='this.select()' onmouseover='this.focus()' readonly='readonly' rows='1'><a href="<data:blog.homepageUrl/>"><data:blog.title/></a></textarea>

Simply copy and paste all that code and place it were shown above then save your template.
I have highlighted in red the text and titles I'm using in case you want to change them.

Other Easy Links Options

By breaking up the code you could have a link to only the post or only the homepage :

This code will display a link to the post only :

<textarea cols='60' id='bloglinking' name='bloglinking' onclick='this.focus();this.select()' onfocus='this.select()' onmouseover='this.focus()' readonly='readonly' rows='1'><a href="<data:post.url/>"><data:post.title/></a></textarea>

This code will display a link to homepage only :

<textarea cols='60' id='bloglinking' name='bloglinking' onclick='this.focus();this.select()' onfocus='this.select()' onmouseover='this.focus()' readonly='readonly' rows='1'><a href="<data:blog.homepageUrl/>"><data:blog.title/></a></textarea>

You could use the link to homepage on your sidebars or footer area instead of below the posts.To do this you would add the code to a Html/Javascript gadget.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

It is an option to consider and thanks to Bollytadka for the question, if you would like to suggest a post or have any questions or suggestions feel free to ask in the comments or by using the Contact Me link in the menu bar.

A must see post on building backlinks to your blog is the post on Using Dofollow blogs to increase your Google Page Rank.

So do you think it's a good idea to make these options available and will you be adding them to your blog ?

How To Put Rss Feed Options Below All Your Blog Posts

2010-03-19T20:22:00.004Z

In a post from last month we looked at a few ways of spicing up you Rss feed options and in particular the Subscribe by Email option.That post showed you five different options and styles you could use instead of the default feedburner Email subscriptions form.If your not totally sure how Email subscriptions work you can check out this post on setting up Email subscriptions for your blog : Maximize Feedburner Email Subscriptions.

In this post i will show you how to offer readers the option to subscribe to your blog under every post.By placing the Rss options under every post in your blog you are sure to see the subscriber count raise.You can use the default Feedburner Email form or link below your posts but i would recommend going to the post i mentioned above and choseing from one of the - 5 Stylish Feedburner Email Subscription Forms.Adding the form below your posts couldnt be easier.

Put Feedburner Email Subscription Form Below All Posts

This tutorial will show you how to place the Email form code below the posts - to find out how to get the code needed check out the links above.

Step 1. In your Blogger Dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html' > Tick the 'Expand Widget Templates' box

Step 2. Find The Following Piece Of Code In Your Blogs Html :
(Click 'Ctrl and F' for a search bar to find the code - More Info)

<data:post.body/>

The <data:post.body/> code may be in your blogs html twice if so it the second one you want.

Step 3. Place the code for your Email subscription box Directly Below / Under <data:post.body/>

Once in place you can save your template and the rss subscriptions option will be below all your blog posts.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

You can further spice up the appearance of your Rss feed by checking out these 65 Awesome Rss feed images and Icons.

Further help is only a comment away.

How To Increase The Google Rank Of Your Blog Posts

2010-03-15T22:00:00.003Z

One of the factors that can come into play when Google and other search engines crawl you blog is the URLs used for your posts.The post URL is the address assigned to each post you publish.Having Keywords in the URL of your blog posts will make it easier for search engines to index you blog and can help your posts rank higher in search results.In this post i will show you a blogger trick to increase Google rank of your posts using your post URLs.

Blogger do not directly provide you with the option to pick the URL for each post.The URL for your blog posts is automatically generated using the date (month and year) and the title you gave the post.

Examples

Lets take for example a post i published last week, the title of the post was as follows :

"How To Add AdSense And Other Gadgets Beside Your Blogger Header"

This post will automatically have the URL something like this :

http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2010/03/how-to-add-adsense-and-other.html

As you can see there is only one keyword in this URL that google could use to index the post and that's "AdSense" the rest of the URL makes no sense and gives no extra information.I know the post title will have that information but the more ways you can tell Google what you posts are about the better.Having "how-to-add-adsense-and-other" in the URL is doing nothing to help increase Google rank.

Taking Control Of The Post URL

But it need not be like this, for the past few months i have been taking control over the URL generated for my blog posts.I have been making sure that the URL contains Keywords relating to the post and the URL even explains what the post is about.This can be key when you are looking to achieve what all bloggers are looking to do and increase Google rank.

How Can You Determine The URL Use For Your Posts?

If you look at the post from the example above the URL is not using

"how-to-add-adsnese-and-other"
it is using
"adsense-beside-header-blogger-blogs".

This is the full URL for that post :
(You can click the link to see the post in a new window)

http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2010/03/adsense-beside-header-blogger-blogs.html

This URL is actually now made up entirely of key words and it is an actual search term :

"AdSense beside header blogger blogs"

How to take control of the URLs used for your blog posts

The best way to explain the is by using the terms "Short Title" and "Long Title".

For every post i pick a short title and a long title, the short title will be used to create the URL and the long title will be the actual title you see for the post.

The long title for the post i mentioned above is this :

"How To Add AdSense And Other Gadgets Beside Your Blogger Header"

I then decide on a "short title" for the post, this is what i choose :

"AdSense beside header blogger blogs"

-Once i was ready to publish the post i gave it the short title and clicked publish.
-As soon as the post published i clicked 'Edit Post' and changed the title to the long title.

So the post was only using the short title for a few seconds but this was long enough for the URL to be generated and the URL generated was the URL i wanted full of keywords and search terms.

By doing this i am getting the best of everything - I'm getting the URL i wanted full of keywords and very search engine friendly and I'm also getting the title i wanted.

You can check any post on this blog from the past few months (I didn't use this trick from the start) and you will see the URL is totally different to the actual title.This trick has defiantly helped my blog posts get indexed better and rank higher on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

You cant go back and change the URLs you used in the past but i Highly recommend using this technique for all future posts.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Notes :

*Keep you short URL down to about 4-5 words any longer will be cropped.
*Make sure to have the long URL ready so you can edit the post and change the title quickly, you want the proper post title in place as quickly as passable.
*If you are using scheduled posts you obviously wont be there to make the quick change, maybe you could leave the short title in place until you are back to your computer.

This is a top tip for better S.E.O. on blogger, you can find lots more tips to help you blog rank higher on Search engines here.

Did you know the URL of your blog posts can help you blog perform better on search engines and increase Google rank ?

Are you going to start using this technique ?

Share your thoughts with us !

How To Generate A Sitemap And Submit To Yahoo

2010-02-27T21:55:00.004Z

With the popularity of Google many people don't consider the free search traffic available from Yahoo.In this post i will show you how to generate a sitemap and submit it to Yahoo.Yahoo site explorer is very similar to Google webmaster tools. Once signed up you can see detailed information of how Yahoo see your site on the web.

You can generate the same sitemap for Yahoo as for Google, as showed in a previous post i on How to submit 2 site maps to google.To generate and submit a site map to Yahoo you will need to first create a Yahoo account and verify your the owner of your blog, both will only take a few minutes.

Submit a sitemap to Yahoo

Step 1. Go to Yahoo.Com and create an account

Step 2. Once you have your Yahoo account details log into Yahoo Site Explorer

Step 3. You now must verify your ownership of your blog, there are two options for doing this.The easiest way is to copy the meta tag supplied and place it into your template.

The meta code goes directly below the <head> tag in your template.

Step 4. In your Blogger dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html'

Your will see <head> very near the top of your template Html paste the meta code below it.

Once the meta code is in place save your template and go back to Yahoo site explorer and click “Ready to Authenticate”.

Note : Unlike the Google and Techonrati verification code you must not remove the Yahoo meta code in place.

Step 5. Your blog is now verified click 'Manage Site' in your Yahoo dashboard then click 'Feeds' in the side menu.

Step 6. You will see the option to enter a feed/sitemap for your blog, you can enter the same 2 we entered for google.

You will see a section similar to the image below :

Copy this code and paste it into the area shown with the arrow above the click add feed :

atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500

Now repeat the step with this code and click 'Add Feed' :

feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

You have just generated a sitemap for Yahoo and it's submitted.It will take a day or so before Yahoo start crawling your sitemap but once they do you should see you blog rank higher and an increase in search traffic from Yahoo.

Do you get much Yahoo traffic to your blog ?

The Killer Blog Posts And Filler Blog Posts Format

2010-02-19T22:55:00.002Z

A few years ago i was writing a blog on affiliate marketing, at the time it was my main niche (subject you write on) and i used to do quiet well from it.All the posts i wrote would include a well placed referral link and i managed to build downlines for affiliate programmes through the blog.

This niche has became much more professional and at the time even though i was doing well i always felt it was in some way seedy and you were misleading the readers as most affiliate programmes promised a huge return on investments that was simply not achievable.

I eventually stopped blogging and quit almost all online activity but when i started back blogging last year some of the lessons i learned proved very valuable.

One of the lessons was not to try write 'The Best Post In The World' every day.I have said on this blog before that it's important to consistently update your blog and try to write a post every day and that remains true but the nature of the posts can vary.

Killer Blog Posts

A killer post is a common term among bloggers and referrs to not only your best work but to your most in dept and informative posts.Writing a post that covers every aspect of a given subject broken into sub categories and well presented would be classed as a killer post.

When i first start writing the affiliate blog i felt i had to write awesome life changing killer posts every day and it put me under extreme pressure.Every post genuinely took six to eight hours to write and i not only exhausted myself but also the topics i was writing about.After 50 posts each 1,500 words long you don't really have anything left to say.And there is also such a thing as too much information for readers, that's were filler posts come in.

Filler Blog Posts

While the term 'Killer Post' is common, i came up with the term filler posts for two reasons.First it rhymes with killer posts and makes a good title (Lets be honest) secondly we realise writing a Killer post everyday is not healthy for you or your blog so how do you fill the gaps between the killer posts.My solution was to write filler posts.While the name may sound like your filler posts should be quick unthoughtful posts they can actually be high quality just sharper and more to the point.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Killer Post Components - I set myself the target of one killer post a week usually around the 1000 words area, and the other posts would be more in the region of 250 to 300 words.The killer post would be published on the same day every week and i choose Thursdays because some guy with a clipboard said that was the best day for blog traffic.Every other day i published filler posts and i got into a great routine, i would also really work hard to promote the longer posts and they were like the blogs resume.

Filler Post Components - Typical filler posts would be reviews of products or programmes or comments on recent news connected to the niche. A very popular type of filler post was writing a 'mini series' of connected posts like '5 Ways To Success Part 1' then the next day Part 2 and so on.In a way your writing a killer post but breaking it up and keeping the readers attention.

This proved very successful for me and it rely helped that blog.The same format is harder to implement on Spice Up Your Blog because as a lot of the posts involve exact steps.But i do still work with the killer post and Filler post format were possible, and I'm sure you can too.

So whats your experience, do you try to write 'The Best Post In The World' every day ?

Also is this a Killer Post or a Filler Post ?

I would love to hear you thoughts...

The 5 Best Tips To Get A New Blog Indexed In Google Search Results

2010-02-09T23:25:00.009Z

One of the questions i am asked most here on Spice Up Your Blog is : "How do i get my blog in Google search results ?" or "Why has Google not indexed my blog ?" and recently i have looked into this a bit deeper.Most of the posts i write on S.E.O. (search engine optimization) are more targeted at blogs that have already been ranked and are looking to move up the Search ranks and get higher positions within Google, Yahoo and other search engines.

To answer the question "How to get a new blog ranked on Google?" i looked at the search engine tips and tricks we have covered and picked out the 5 best tips for new blogs, Blogs just starting out and wanting to get noticed.No matter what your blog is about it will eventually get indexed but everyone wants to be visable on Google quickly.

Before you try to get your blog indexed on Google you should try to have at least 4-5 posts published because you want to give the Google bot's or spiders something to crawl.

Here are the first 5 steps to take

1. Submit you blog to google - Step one is an easy one go direct to the source and tell Google you exist and want to be crawled.You can submit your blog to Google and Bing here :

Submit Your Blog To Google

Submit Your Blog To Bing

2. Ping you blog to Google blog search - Most new blogs find it easier to get indexed by Google blog search first and this helps speed up the process of being listed on Google web search.Once again go directly to the source and tell Google to come check you out :

Ping Your Blog To Google Blog Search

3. Build back links to your blog - Apart from good unique content Google respect nothing more than links to your blog.Getting links from other websites and blogs to your blog is an absolute key step in Getting noticed by Google.Of course if you have a new blog who is going to link to it ? There are steps you can take to build backlinks to your blog and the first step can be as easy as leaving a few well placed comments on blogs and websites :

Using Do-Follow blogs to build backlinks

4. Set up a webmaster tools account and submit a site map - Google Webmaster tools is a hub of information for your blog.It's easy to get started and your first task is to submit a sitemap for Google to crawl.

Set up a Google webmaster tools account and submit a sitemap for your blog

5. Submit your blog - Submit your blog to blog directory's, my favorite is Blog Catalog but there are lots more.Submit your blog and individual posts to Bookmarking sites, How to use Bookmarking Websites to help your blog.

These steps should speed up the process of getting your blog on Google, How many will you try ?

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Lets look at some more steps that deserve a mention.

More Steps To Rank Your Blog On Google

Ping your blog to feedburner and pingomatic - We looked at using the Google blog search ping you can also use other ping services.

Pingomatic

Feedburner ping

Link within your own blog - This is sometimes over looked and can be an awesome tactic when used properly.You have to look no further than this post to see how it's done because i just built 2 links in this top ten list alone the the entire post has 4 links to other posts on the blog! When you write a post try to leave a link to other posts on your blog, Google do index links within you blog.As i have done in this post try to make the links relevant and not off topic.I have well over 100 posts here so it's easier for me but you can utilise this more as your blog grows.

Leave A Link Were Possible - Were ever you can leave a link without spamming you should.On a serious note leaving spam links will ruin your reputation and your blogs reputation, its simply not wort it !

You can find lots more tips on getting the most from search engines here.

More help is only a comment away.

How To Add The Twitter Counter And Share This Bookmark Buttons To The Top Of Blog Posts

2010-02-08T20:50:00.005Z

The 'Tweet This' or 'ReTweet' Twitter counter button is the latest 'Must Have' feature on all Blogs.Only a year ago it was the 'Digg This' button that was displayed but they have almost all been replaced.Adding the Twitter Tweet This button to your blog is easy and in this post we will look at how to add it to the top of your blogger posts and the bottom of your blogger posts.

The button can be set to float on the left or right of your posts this allows it to be 'wrapped in text' and fit in nicely as you currently see on this blog.I have the button at the top and bottom of the posts just to make it easy for the readers.

You will notice i also have the 'Share This' button Placed above the Twitter button and i will show you how to add both the Twitter and Share This buttons or just the Twitter button.

The Share This Button opens up a selection of bookmarking options when you place your cursor over it.You can test both buttons above.

Here Is A Preview Of The Buttons :

Here's the steps to add the buttons

1. Get To Your Blogs Html

Click 'Layout' ► 'Edit Html' ► Tick The 'Expand Widget Templates' Box

2. Find The Area For The Button

In your blogs Html find the following code:
(Click 'Ctrl and F' for a search bar to help find the code - For more help on this click 'Extra Help' link at the top of the post)

<data:post.body/>

3. Select Your Button

Pick The Button You Want Added from the options Below then copy the code.

Twitter Only Button Code :

<div style='float:left; margin-right:10px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>';
</script>
<script src='http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js' type='text/javascript'> </script>
</div>

Twitter and Share This Code :

<div style='float:left; margin-right:10px;'>
<script src='http://w.sharethis.com/button/sharethis.js#publisher=bea50586-2b9f-448d-947a-01385f28e305&type=website&post_services=facebook%2Ctwitter%2Cdigg%2Cdelicious%2Cstumbleupon%2Cemail%2Cgoogle_bmarks%2Cmyspace%2Creddit%2Ctechnorati%2Cybuzz%2Clinkedin%2Cwindows_live%2Csms%2Cbebo%2Cblogger%2Cyahoo_bmarks%2Cmixx%2Cfriendfeed%2Cpropeller%2Cwordpress%2Cnewsvine%2Cxanga%2Ctypepad' type='text/javascript'/>
<br/><br/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>';
</script>
<script src='http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js' type='text/javascript'> </script>
</div>

4. Were To Place The Buttons

To place the button/buttons at the top of your posts paste the code Above : <data:post.body/>

To place the button/buttons at the bottom of your posts paste the code Below : <data:post.body/>

You can also Paste the code above and below And have the button/buttons at the top and bottom of your blogger posts.

Once you have the code added click save.

Move the Button/Buttons from the left to the right

The buttons above are set to be on the left of your posts but you can move them to the right.

In the code for your Button/Buttons change the first line of code like this :

From :

<div style='float:left; margin-right:10px;'>

To :

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>

Thats your Twitter and Share This buttons added !

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

You can use different buttons from Twitter like the compact Twitter button, you can find that button and other Twitter gadgets and widgets on the Twitter Goodies Page.

As always help is only a comment away, Have you added the buttons ?

How To Check Your Blog Stats - How Much Is Your Blog Worth ?

2010-02-07T21:15:00.005Z

Have you ever thought "How much is my Blog worth?"

All Bloggers and Webmasters cant help themselves and have to keep an eye on there blog or website Page Rank, Alexa Rank, Number of Back links and of course the hit counters to see how many visitors they are getting.The slightest decrease in any stats can cause a panic in any site owner.Now to cause even more panic there is a number of websites that put all that information together and magically calculate the worth or value of your website or blog.

This is a fun post but is also a great way to be introduced to a number of statistics that are used in calculating the importance of your blog in the eyes of search engines and other ranking systems.If your blog is new don't worry about the stats but it's good to know what you can look for in the future.

What are the stats used to calculate the value of a Blog or Website ?

These are some of the stats used

Page Rank (PR) - Page Rank is a used by Google to determine the importance of a website.Page Rank goes from one to ten with ten being the highest ranking.I covered Page Rank in a post about Using Do-Follow blogs and it's quiet complected.

Alexa Rank - Alexa uses it's toolbar to rank sites although i have seen information suggesting they also use other sources.The Alexa rank and the format they use to generate their stats can be controversial with some people dismissing the accuracy of the results.

Backlinks - Back links are links from other sites on the web to your blog.We also looked into the value of back links in dept in the Do-Follow post.

Daily Visitors - The amount of people that visit the site every day.You can keep track of the visitors to your blog with a 'Hit' or 'Stat' counter.I have 'Ten Free Hit Counters For Your Blog Here'.

Daily Page Views - The amount of page views generated by the visitors.If you get 100 visitors and they all look at 2 posts in your blog then you got 200 page views.This information would be available with the hit counters mentioned above.

The Other Stats

Daily Ad Revenue - Estimated money earned by the site every day.They look at the stats and figure out how much each site is earning.

How accurate are the results ?

I will give you the links to these websites and tell you the best site to use for checking your blogger blog below.

First to check how accurate they are i looked at the Value Of Google.com in three different sites and then checked the value of Spice Up Your Blog, here are the results :

1. My Website Worth

My Website Worth Value Google At : $46,040,000,000

2. u2ws

U2ws Value Google At : $1.99 Billion

3. Cubestat

Cubestat Value Google at : $2,190,000,000.00

The value seems to vary depending on the site you use.

Checking Blogger Sites

The best and most in dept site is 'Site Value Check' also they will generate a value for blogspot blogs.

How Much Is Spice Up Your Blog Worth ? :

I have used various domains for this blog and they are all still directed here.

The original Blogger domain : www.spiceyourblog.blogspot.com is worth : $1,390

I also use www.spiceyourblog.info and that's worth : $1,210

On Christmas eve 2009 (6 weeks ago) i connected the current Domain and the main address www.spiceupyourblog.com .

Lets see how that's going after 6 weeks :

Site Value Check

Site Value Check Value www.SpiceUpYourBlog.com At : $7,198

Not bad after a few weeks - How much is your blog worth ?

Here are the sites i used in this post - Some of these sites wont give a value for blogs still using the blogspot domain so i suggest using the top one 'Site value check' :

http://sitevaluecheck.com/

http://www.mywebsiteworth.com/

http://u2ws.com/

http://www.cubestat.com/

There are lots more sites but most want your Email so i did not include them you can find more with a search.

The Top Ten Websites By Value

According to My Website Worth This is the top ten websites online by value :

1. $ 46,040,000,000
google.com
2. $ 900,000,000
yahoo.com
3. $ 600,000,000
youtube.com
4. $ 450,000,000
facebook.com
5. $ 200,000,005
live.com
6. $ 166,666,671
msn.com
7. $ 142,857,146
wikipedia.org
8. $ 142,857,146
blogger.com
9. $ 111,111,114
baidu.com
10. $ 111,666,667
myspace.com

Google own 3 of the top ten !

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

All the websites in the top 10 were once only an idea and not worth a cent, and Blogger was once in serious financial trouble, a few years before Google Bought it.Who knows you could climb up that list.Check out some of these posts to Improve Your Blogs Rank.

Have you checked your blog or have you found a better site for checking value? Let us know

Improve Your Blogs Search Rank - 5 Questions Answered By Google Employee Matt Cutts

2010-02-05T21:21:00.003Z

Regular readers may remember a post in which we looked at an interview with Google Employee Matt Cutts.In that post i looked at the 5 tips Matt had to help your blog get crawled by Google, indexed by Google, and rank higher in Google search results.I added the tutorials needed to implement those tips on your blog in that post and if you missed it you can find it here : Getting Your Blog Ranked - With Google Employee Matt Cutts

Matt often does a Q&A were bloggers and webmasters post questions which Matt responds to in short videos.Some of these videos can be a great help when it comes to getting your Blogger blog ranked higher in Google search results.As the questions and answers in the Q&A are not specific to Blogger it can be hard to see exactly how you can use this information on your blog.

For that reason i have added 5 of the videos in this post and i will explain how you can use the answers to help your blog be more "Search Engine Friendly" and climb the rankings on Google search results.

At the bottom of this post i will give you the link to the official Google SE.O. Starter Pack a Free Ebook available in 40 languages.

Matt Cutts

You may be thinking who is Matt Cutts and why do i put so much faith into what he says.For me Matt knows what Bloggers and webmasters are looking for and always makes himself available to provide help.He knows how Google search works inside out and is willing to share his opinions.

Matt Cutts works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues.He is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and cracking down on link spam.Cutts also advises the public on how to get better website visibility in Google.
(Source: Wikipedia)

5 Videos To Help Your Blog In Search

Here are the videos and below each video i will explain what information you can use from the video to improve Your Blog Google Search Rank.

1. Should I Change My Titles And Description - This first video is on title and description and more specifically about meta title and description.

You can easily add a meta title and description to your Blogger Blog.

The snippet Matt mentions is the line of text that appears below your blog title in search engine results.

So currently the meta description i added for Spice Up Your Blog is this :

<meta content='Blogger help, tips, tricks and tools.Step by step tutorials to improve your Blog appearance and performance.' name='description'/>

And if you search for 'Spice Up Your Blog' on Google this is the snippet displayed :

So instead of Google crawling my blog and picking words or phrases they think should be used as the snippet i have took control and told them what i want used.

I choose that description because i believe it will be catchy and make more people click my blog in the results rather than others.

2. Should I Use Hyphens Or Underscores In My Titles - Matt answers a question on the use of underscores verses hyphens in your titles.

What are underscores and hyphens ?

This is a hyphen : -
This is an underscore: _

So if i wrote a post and wanted to break up the title how should i do that.
A perfect example was a post i recently wrote on Info Barrel .

This is the post i wrote :

"Making Money From Climate Change How Green Is The New Black"

I felt the title would make more of an impact if it was broken into two sections so i added a hyphen :

Making Money From Climate Change - How Green Is The New Block

I could have used an Underscore :

Making Money From Climate Change_How Green Is The New Block

What Matt tells use here is first using hyphens in our titles is fine, but try to use hyphens and not underscores.

3. What S.E.O. Agency Should I Use -This is a short video about the use of S.E.O. (Search engine optimisation) agency's.

A seo agency is basically an agency you pay to help improve your blogs Search ranking.I guess the reason for adding this video is because you see so many ads with titles like :

"Guaranteed Number 1 On Google"

You may see these and think about paying for the service but you need to be very careful.

Matt kind of dodges the question, as a Google employee he cant really promote a outside product but he does give some guidelines.

4. What is more important content or links - I added this video because it is something i covered recently.

In a recent post i covered How Do-Follow works, The post looked in dept at how back links help your blog get ranked on Google, how to get backlinks to your blog and the main topic was Do-Follow comment sections on blogs.

I showed how to make your blog Do-Follow and how to use comments on other Do-Follow blogs to increase your blogs google rank.

In that post and in every post i have on Search engine optimisation i always finish by saying yes use these tip to help your blogs S.E.O. but 'Content is king' and posting constant good unique content will do more for your blog than anything else and Matt agrees.

5. Why do Google crawl/index Blogs quicker than other sites - I'm sure a lot of new Bloggers will see this title and laugh.I know i get contacted a lot about blogs especially new blogs not being indexed, crawled or updated by Google.

You Will notice a part of the question refers to "Wordpress ping".

I have meaning to write a post on using a ping services to send your blogs to search engines, blog directory's and bookmark sites.

In fact the reason i hadn't covered it was i was trying to build a ping service into Spice Up Your Blog.There are plenty of Ping services available and you should use them every time you update your blog.

Matt mentions 'Feedburner Ping' in the video.Every time you write a new post or update your blog head over to the Feedburner ping service and send out a ping :

feedburner Ping Service

Another ping service i use is Pingomatic you can also get pingomatic to ping your updated blog :

Pingomatic Ping Service

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

I was originally going to add more videos in this post but i decided on quality ahead of quantity.As the questions Matt answers are not specific to Blogger i wanted to take the time to explain how you can use the answers to improve you blogger.

I will try to get another post on the subject soon and look at some more video Q&A sessions.

For now you can take a quick look at some other videos and help from Matt :

You can find Matt on his own Blog : www.mattcutts.com/blog/

And on Twitter : http://twitter.com/mattcutts

You Can look through the Google Webmaster Tools channel on Youtube

I have plenty more posts to Help Your Blog In Search Engines check them out.

And as promised here is the link to the Official Google S.E.O. Starter Pack Ebook

I think that about enough links to keep you busy for a while.

If you have any problems help is just a comment away.

Have you learned anything new from the videos ?

Put a multiple option save and share button under all your blog posts

2010-01-13T13:41:00.000Z

This addtoany save / share button has become extremely popular with bloggers.It is not too invasive on your blog style, takes up little room yet covers all the options you must make available to your blog readers to increase return visitors and provide social bookmarking options.

We all want visitors returning so no need to explain that one.If your unsure of the advantages of social bookmarking to your blog (and they can be staggering) i covered it in a previous post How Social Bookmarking Helps Your Blog .

Here is the button you will be adding under your posts
(Hover your cursor over the button to reveal all the options)

We will add the button under your blog posts in 4 easy steps

1. Click : 'Layout'-->'Edit html' for your blog
(Check the "Expand widget templates")

2.Find the following piece of code (use CTRL F to use search)

<data:post.body/>

3.Paste the code Directly Below <data:post.body/>

<a class="a2a_dd" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&linkurl=YOURBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM"><img src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" border="0" alt="Share/Bookmark"/></a><script type="text/javascript">a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl="YOURBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM";</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.addtoany.com/menu/page.js"></script>

Edit : You must make 2 changes

YOURBLOG.blogspot.com appears TWICE and must be replaced :

You must replace "YOURBLOG.blogspot.com" with your blog address.
Example : spiceyourblog.blogspot.com

If you use a custom domain no problem just replace YOURBLOG.blogspot.com with your custom URL.
Example : spiceupyourblog.com

4.Click save and your addtoany button is ready and waiting, What do you think ?

For more Social Bookmarking buttons and options check out these posts Social Bookmarking Posts

If you need more help drop a comment below !

6 Ways To Keep Your Blog Archive Alive, Getting Hits And Making Money

2010-01-08T23:55:00.006Z

As our blogs grow and we add more and more content we tend to drive ahead forgetting the trail of posts we have left behind us.Yes the Blog Archive, it can be a trip down memory lane looking back at the posts we lovingly created...But should you just let your blog archive lay down and die ?

Your archive can be kept alive and can justify it's existence by bringing visitors to your blog and keeping current visitors on your blog.If you advertise on your blog with AdSense or other advertisers and sponsers you archive can keep attracting traffic from search engines, and keep earning for years.This all sounds great, but your archive cannot survive by itself it needs you to provide life support.

So lets look at 6 ways we can keep our archives alive

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

1.The first is obvious but a big one simply keep your archive updated.

Obvious yet most bloggers fail to do it.When i say updated i mean a few things, once you have been blogging for a while you learn new tactics and tricks.You find the best way to present your blog posts for your readers, for S.E.O. and to look more professional.Go back through your archive and make sure your archived posts are up to standard.You don't need to do it all at once, a good way to organise this is to edit an old post every time you publish a new post.

Add some keywords relevant to your blog if they were not added when you first posted or maby change the title to something more catchy .I am currently working on a post showing the best way to pick a title and write the first paragraphs, the paragraphs search engines index the most so keep posted for that.

2. A full site map not the default.

Adding a sitemap to Google containing all my posts not just the default sitemap (The one most bloggers are using) which only contains your last 26 posts.Even if you don't have 26 posts yet set it up now.Here is how to add the sitemap: How To Submit A Sitemap Of Your Blog To Google

3. Related Posts.

Another obvious one that a lot of blogs have add already is a 'Related Posts' list.This is a list placed under your blog posts containing posts from your archive that are on the same topic.This will send people to your archive.
I have a related posts widget you can use : Related Posts Widget For Your Blog
You could get the LinkWithin recent posts with thumbnails : Click Here

4. Re-Share them and Re-tweet them.

We all tweet our latest post on Twitter and share them on Facebook, Digg and others why don't we give our archives some life by Re-Sharing them.When you happen to find yourself on an old post give it a tweet.

5. Link to them in your latest posts.

Once your blog has 20-30 posts you should start linking back.If your a regular reader here you will notice i always have a line similar to this somewhere in my posts
"I covered this in a recent post click here to see it " or " for more info click here" ..
Yes it's all very organised my friends.
Make sure the link is set to open in a new window and make sure the post your linking to is relevant to the one your writing.

6.Analyze the stats.

This does not have to be hard and you don't need to be an expert to do it.You can add a free 'Hit Counter' to your blog that will show you which posts from your archive are getting the most hits.Learn from this information, once you know which posts are most popular you can try to work out why and use that information to edit the older posts and of course it will help you when writing new posts.
Here is 10 free counters you can choose from : Free Hit Counters For Your Blog
You might also add the Feedjit widget :
Go to Feedjit and click 'Widgets' in the top menu for the Free widgets : Click Here

There are lots more things you can do but remember your archive represents you and if its not up to standard it will look like your not up to standard so fix it or delete it because you cant hide it !

Do you have any tips or a routine to keep your Archive Alive ? I would love to hear any suggestions.

Add The Floating Follow Me On Twitter Badge To Your Blog

2010-01-05T03:00:00.004Z

Twitter is a great way to connect with the readers of your blog and find people with similar interests who you can inform about your blog.First up if you have a blog and you don't have a Twitter account you are missing out, get one now.You can get more traffic to your blog from Twitter and it's actually good fun.

Click here set up your Twitter and we can continue...Ready ?

Twitter can be as almost effective as Followers and Rss feed at keeping people connected to your blog and updated when you publish new content.

When someone arrives on your blog you want to have the options for them to connect with you in prime positions.Your Rss feed link should be near the top of the page if you use followers this should have a prime position,similarly you should have a link to follow you on Twitter easily accessible.

The Follow on twitter badge we will be adding in this post is the one I'm currently using (I'm always changing this blog it may be different by the time you read this )

Here's a preview :

The image is fixed to the side of your blog and stays in position when the page is scrolled, when clicked it will open your Twitter Profile in a new window for the reader to follow you.

Lets add it to your blog

1.Click Layout-->Edit html for your blog
(Tick the 'Expand widget template' box.)

2.Find the following piece of code in the html:
(Click 'CTRL and F' for a search bar to find the code)

]]></b:skin>

3.Add the following piece of code Directly Above it :

#float_corner { position:fixed;_position:absolute;bottom:10px;left:3px;clip: inherit;_top:expression(document.documentElement.scrollTop+document.documentElement.clientHeight-this.clientHeight);_left:expression(document.documentElement.scrollLeft + document.documentElement.clientWidth - offsetWidth);}

Note:

This will position the image just up from the bottom left corner of the page.
You can change this just change the following attributes : bottom :left
Change them to make the image appear were you like :

top left
top right
bottom left
bottom right

You can also change 10px to move the image position up and down the page and 3px to move the image in and out from the side of the page.

4.Now find this code in your html :

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

</body>

5.And place this code Directly Above it :

<div id="float_corner"> <a href="ENTER YOUR TWITTER URL HERE"> <img src="http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad259/spiceupyourblog/follow-me-twitter11.png" border="0" /></a> </div>

You Must change the following attribute :

ENTER YOUR TWITTER URL HERE - Replace with the address of your twitter profile.

Example: http://www.twitter.com/spiceyourblog

Before we finish : If you need more help or have an opinion or suggestion Please leave a comment Below.This is a Do-Follow blog with link love enabled.

Once you have made these changes save your template and the image has been added.

You can make of find a different image and use that, if you need help with that let me know.

You can follow me on Twitter here: Follow @SpiceYourBlog

For more Twitter tips: Click here

Have you added the image ? Let us know and tell us your Twitter address so we can check you out.

The Top Ten Blogger Tips And Tricks Of 2009

2010-01-01T19:20:00.002Z

As we have entered 2010 it's time to reflect back to 2009 and some of the best and most beneficial tips and tricks for your blog.
It has been a great year for blogging for Blogger and personally for me and Spice up your blog.

So here's a list of the tips that got the most interest the most hits and some of my personal favorites.

Navbar

The blogger navbar has been the topic of much conversation over the last few years, we knew we were able to remove it but were we allowed by Blogger to remove it ?
The answer came in 2009 when a blogger employee said 'There is nothing in the blogger T.O.S. against removing the navbar'.
With that in mind we looked at two tricks for the blogger navbar :

How to remove the navbar

Change The Blogger Navbar To Hover Effect / Peek A Boo Effect

Search Engine Optimisation.

Improving our blogs search engine rank has always been in our thoughts.In 2009 i covered a few tips on making your blog 'search engine friendly' :

How to improve Your Blogs Google rank.Change how search engines see you Blog.

How To Improve Your Blogs Google Rank With Meta Tags & Description

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking was a big hit in 2009.Getting people to share and bookmark your blog could bring floods of traffic to your blog.
To go with the originals like Delicious digg Technorati and Stumble upon, Twitter tweeting and re-tweeting your blog and sharing on Facebook could prove vital in the quest to build a following.
So to make it easy for people to share your blog we looked at some Social Bookmarking widgets to add to your blog, these were the most popular :

How to add the Sharing is sexy social bookmark buttons to your blog

How To Easily Add 3D Social Bookmark Buttons To Your Blog Posts

Free Blogger Templates

The amount of custom templates for blogger went sky high in 2009.We saw more and more websites and blogs popping up offering you some amazing template styles.Not to be left behind i posted my favorite templates :

My Top Ten Elegant Artistic Style Free Blogger Templates

My Top Ten Magazine Style Free Blogger Templates

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Adsense

Some of my most popular posts this of 2009 were on working with Adsense and how to get your adsense ads into the prime areas of your blog.These were two of the most popular Adsense tips :

How To Place Adsense Ads Inside Your Blogger Header Section

How To Put Adsense Ads Inside Your Blog Posts

Believe me making a top ten was hard as there was so many tips to choose from so much so that the two tips that got the most hits were not in the list !

Popular By Hits

So i will cheat a bit and tell you the two tutorials that got the most hits and amazingly the first tip was only posted on 26th of November but almost 80% of the hits i got from search engines was for this tip :

How To Add A Snow Falling Effect To Your Blog

The second post with the most hits was a post we can learn from.I looked to add some space between posts on another blog so i got an image divider and placed it between the posts.Looked good so i added a tutorial on how to do it not thinking it get so many hits.But that's the thing with blogging you never know what will be a hit or a miss !

How to add an image divider between your blog posts

So that was the year that was i have really enjoyed the challenge of running Spice Up Your Blog and have learned a lot.Now I'm genuinely looking forward to 2010 and bringing you fresh and helpful tutorials tips and tricks for your blog.

Do you have a favorite tip or trick that helped your blog in 2009 ?

Thanks for your time and help, Have a save prosperous 2010.