Tag Cloud For Blogspot widget

Here is the code and setup information to use the Label Cloud in New Blogger. First you obviously have to have a blog on New Blogger,and you must have some posts labeled already. Make sure you backup your template before making any changes!
Demo

Follow this step....
===== Step 1 =====

Login to your Blogger account, Dashboard > Layout > Edit HTML > and check exapanded

===== Step 2 =====
find this code

]]></b:skin>

and place the code below BEFORE that.

/* Label Cloud Styles ----------------------------------------------- */ #labelCloud {text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;} #labelCloud .label-cloud li{display:inline;background-image:none !important;padding:0 5px;margin:0;vertical-align:baseline !important;border:0 !important;} #labelCloud ul{list-style-type:none;margin:0 auto;padding:0;} #labelCloud a img{border:0;display:inline;margin:0 0 0 3px;padding:0} #labelCloud a{text-decoration:none} #labelCloud a:hover{text-decoration:underline} #labelCloud li a{} #labelCloud .label-cloud {} #labelCloud .label-count {padding-left:0.2em;font-size:9px;color:#000} #labelCloud .label-cloud li:before{content:"" !important}

===== Step 3 =====
This next section is the configuration section for the Cloud. It also goes in the head of the template, but outside of the stylesheet part. Easiest thing to do again is to find the closing stylesheet tag
find this code again

]]></b:skin>

But this time place the code right AFTER that line, but BEFORE this code

</head>

Here it is.

<script type='text/javascript'> // Label Cloud User Variables var cloudMin = 1; var maxFontSize = 20; var maxColor = [0,0,255]; var minFontSize = 10; var minColor = [0,0,0]; var lcShowCount = false; </script>

===== Step 4 =====
Find this code

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'/> <b:includable id='main'> ................................................... </b:includable> </b:widget>

paste this code AFTER that

<b:widget id='Label2' locked='false' title='Label Cloud' type='Label'> <b:includable id='main'> <b:if cond='data:title'> <h2><data:title/></h2> </b:if> <div class='widget-content'> <div id='labelCloud'/> <script type='text/javascript'> // Don't change anything past this point ----------------- // Cloud function s() ripped from del.icio.us function s(a,b,i,x){ if(a>b){ var m=(a-b)/Math.log(x),v=a-Math.floor(Math.log(i)*m) } else{ var m=(b-a)/Math.log(x),v=Math.floor(Math.log(i)*m+a) } return v } var c=[]; var labelCount = new Array(); var ts = new Object; <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'> var theName = "<data:label.name/>"; ts[theName] = <data:label.count/>; </b:loop> for (t in ts){ if (!labelCount[ts[t]]){ labelCount[ts[t]] = new Array(ts[t]) } } var ta=cloudMin-1; tz = labelCount.length - cloudMin; lc2 = document.getElementById('labelCloud'); ul = document.createElement('ul'); ul.className = 'label-cloud'; // www.greatlistdirectory.com ---> submit URL to our directory for(var t in ts){ if(ts[t] < cloudMin){ continue; } for (var i=0;3 > i;i++) { c[i]=s(minColor[i],maxColor[i],ts[t]-ta,tz) } var fs = s(minFontSize,maxFontSize,ts[t]-ta,tz); li = document.createElement('li'); li.style.fontSize = fs+'px'; // www.e-howdowedo.com li.style.lineHeight = '1'; a = document.createElement('a'); a.title = ts[t]+' Posts in '+t; a.style.color = 'rgb('+c[0]+','+c[1]+','+c[2]+')'; a.href = '/search/label/'+encodeURIComponent(t); if (lcShowCount){ span = document.createElement('span'); span.innerHTML = '('+ts[t]+') '; span.className = 'label-count'; a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t)); li.appendChild(a); li.appendChild(span); } else { a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t)); li.appendChild(a); } ul.appendChild(li); abnk = document.createTextNode(' '); ul.appendChild(abnk); } lc2.appendChild(ul); </script> //www.hariesdesign.com <noscript> <ul> <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'> <li> <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'> <data:label.name/> <b:else/> <a expr:href='data:label.url'><data:label.name/></a> </b:if> (<data:label.count/>) </li> </b:loop> </ul> </noscript> <b:include name='quickedit'/> </div> </b:includable> </b:widget>

===== Step 5 =====
This setting you can use to limit the number of labels shown (for example if you have a lot of labels). Leave the setting at 1 to show ALL labels. If you enter in a higher number, then only labels that have at least that number of entries will appear in the cloud.

var cloudMin = 1;
var maxFontSize = 20;
var maxColor = [0,0,255];
var minFontSize = 10;
var minColor = [0,0,0];
var lcShowCount = false;

Mp3 Player Widget

This widget is like mp3's player made by flash If you are using Internet Explorer, you will probably need to click the player twice to make it play. (All other Web browsers will let you click once.) If you do not see the MP3 player, then you don't have the Flash player installed. (More than 90 percent of all Internet users do have it.)


or see in demo site

Just follow this step....

Step 1
Login to blogger > Layout > Edit HTML

Step 2
Find code below

<Head>

copy and then placed after

<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.greatlistdirectory.com/js/audio-player.js"></script>

Step 3
Now..go to the Layout > Page Elements
select Add a Page Element > HTML/JavaScript
placed this code to the box

<object id="audioplayer1" data="http://www.e-howdowedo.com/player/player.swf" width="290" height="24" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <param value="http://www.e-howdowedo.com/player/player.swf" name="movie"/> <param value="playerID=1&soundFile=http://hariesdesign.googlepages.com/intro_justin2.mp3" name="FlashVars"/> //Visit : hariesdesign.com <param value="high" name="quality"/> <param value="false" name="menu"/> <param value="transparent" name="wmode"/> </object>

You can change source code of file with other you like (.... soundFile=http://hariesdesign.googlepages.com/intro_justin2.mp3... )

Enjoy...!

Document title Scroller

This widget will Scroll your document's title into view.You can configure the scrolling to run just once or repeat. Demo site can viewed in here
Look at title above. Note that demo has been configured to scroll title once.

Step 1
Login on your Blogger account > Layout > Edit HTML
Find this code

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

Step 2
Paste this code after

<script> var repeat=0 //enter 0 to not repeat scrolling after 1 run, othersise, enter 1 var title=document.title var leng=title.length var start=1 //Visit : hariesdesign.com function titlemove() { titl=title.substring(start, leng) + title.substring(0, start) document.title=titl start++ if (start==leng+1) { start=0 if (repeat==0) return } setTimeout("titlemove()",140) } //Powered by : blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com //Visit : e-howdowedo.com - greatlistdirectory.com if (document.title) titlemove() </script>

If you want continous scroll, change 0 to 1 in that code
var repeat=0

Step 3
Save Templates

Recent Post Widget

As in the name 'Recent Post Widget',this widget shows the most recent post in your blog. It can be show 5 or more recent post. You can see in demo site here

Step 1

Sign in to your blogger dashboard > layout > Add a page element > html/javascript

Step 2

copy the below javascript code and paste it

/* ----------------------------------------------- Blogger Widget By:www.blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com other link : www.greatlistdirectory.com - www.e-howdowedo.com ----------------------------------------------- */ <script style="text/javascript" src="http://hariesdesign.googlepages.com/recentpost.txt"></script><script style="text/javascript">var numposts = 10;var showpostdate = true;var showpostsummary = true;var numchars = 20;var standardstyling = true;</script><script src="http://.......(your blog address).../feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentposts"></script>

Step 3

Replace the '.......(your blog address)...' with your blog name.
This widget shows 10 most recent comments by default.If you want to change this,simply replace the 'numposts = 10" with your desired number in the given Javascript code

Animated Tabs Menu

This widget can perform like this :






or you can see in exemple page, do you like it ?don't worry I'll explain how to create animated tabs menu on your blog

Step 1

Login on your Blogger account Dashboard > Manage layout > Edit HTML





and check Expand Widget Templates box








Step 2

Find this code

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

and add this code (after)

/* ----------------------------------------------- Blogger Widget By:www.blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com other link : www.greatlistdirectory.com - www.e-howdowedo.com ----------------------------------------------- */ <link href='http://hariesdesign.googlepages.com/menu.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>

It should be like this:









Step 3

Go to on Page Elements > Add Page Element

choose HTML/JavaScript model,





and add this code in box

<center><p><div class="animatedtabs"> <ul> <li><a href="http://(adress url content 1)" title="Home"><span>(Name content 1)</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://(adress url content 2)" title="Directory"><span>(Name content 2)</span></a></li> </ul></center>

Finish

How to make hyperlinks in the scrolling text.

This post explains you how to add Scrolling text ( also called as marquee ) with hyperlink to your blog sidebars,blog posts,etc. Another way to attract the visitors is adding some decoration to the site like scrolling text,etc.But,don't decorate it too much,particularly if your site contains too much text as it irritates and spoils the concentration of the reader.You can add scroll bars to tell your visitors what will be your next updates,popular posts,advertisements,etc.

Step 1

Login to your account Blogger, and then select Layout > Page Elements









Step 2

select "Add Page Element"







Step 3

Then you can select "HTML/JavaScript"










Step 4

paste this code on the box element :

<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="left" bgcolor="#99FFFF" onmouseover="this.stop()" onmouseout="this.start()" scrollamount="4"> <a href="url#1">LINK#1</a> <a href="url#2">LINK#2</a> <a href="url#3">LINK#3</a> </marquee>

You can change background colors (bgcolor="...."),Name of text ( LINK#...),and address (url#...)

example:

Blogs For Website Promotion

The internet has walked into our lives decades back. But the real power of the internet is increasingly seen today. The internet can do wonders for your brand, if you know how to go about it. In today's competitive business world, you have two choices: either get online with a powerful web site and build your brand name, or sit back and watch while you lose customers to competitors day by day. Obviously, you would choose the latter. There are many smart strategies for internet marketing and here is one of them. Blogging is a great way to popularise your company over the internet.

What is a blog?

Blog is a popular name used by everyone, to represent web log. Now a blog is a place where you can post your content and get feedback for that very content. Blogging was the realm of individuals before. But now blogging has expanded its reign into the corporate world as well. Businesses are increasingly going for corporate blogs to promote their business. Your company blog has content that you want to put. Your articles and advertisements, offers, anything could be put up. But mostly, a blog is used to interact with the people by giving them interesting articles and discussions to participate in. A blog works well when it encourages interaction. By encouraging interaction on your blog, you could attract many prospective customers.

What you can do?

Either hire expert consultants to do the job, or do it yourself if you have the time. Firstly, concentrate on your blog design. There are many standard blog domains you could go for, or create your own blog connected to your web page by a good link. Blog designers can give you great templates to choose from, or you can come up with customized designs. The blog design must attract people at he first glance! The page must have proper segments of archives and comments. Give the people all the hottest news related to your field. Start a healthy debate and watch the traffic grow! Constantly update and enrich your content.

What your blog can do for you?

If your blog is rich in content, then it can enhance your visitor to customer conversion rate. It can make your company popular through word-of-mouth by people who loved your articles. It tells the people that you are customer-friendly and open to feedback and new ideas. With hot keywords, your blog can show off your company to the right kind of target traffic.

So get smart with blogging and see how wonderfully it works for your company.

How New Bloggers Can Get Incoming Links

For a new blogger, boosting search-engine ranking and getting valuable incoming links can be a nasty catch-22.
It’s a bit like applying for your first credit card. You can’t get one until you have a credit history, but you can’t get a credit history until you have a card. You can face similar issues getting incoming links as a new blogger. Until you have a decent PageRank, no one wants to link to you. But you won’t get a good PageRank until people link to you.

It can seem so unfair, but there are a few ways to attract incoming links for new bloggers:

* Post on relevant forums that allow you to include your site’s URL in your signature. Don’t post a bunch of messages with blatant and obnoxious links to your site, but just let the signature serve as the link. Be sure the messages actually add to the conversation, or you risk being banned as a spammer.

* Post relevant comments on relevant blogs. The same etiquette applies, but many blogs show a comment contributor’s name as a link to their site. Granted, some may use a nofollow tag to prevent it from being counted as an incoming link. If you post comments on a wide variety of blogs, you will increase the chances of your site link being spidered by search engines.

* Link to blogs. If you want a blogger’s attention, link to his or her blog. Link to big blogs, and link to little blogs. Even if a new blogger may not have the power to give you a lot of search engine link juice, you never know how valuable the relationship will be (or what PageRank that blogger will have in a few months).

* Use social bookmarking. This is another area where you have to watch out for sites that tell Google to ignore links (such as Wikipedia), but it’s a great way to get on the radar. Submit with limits, though, or you could get your site banned. Also encourage your readers to submit your site on their own through buttons for social bookmarking sites.

Create Horizontal Tabs Menu

To create Horizontal Tabs Menu is not as simple as it's look, it's complicated. You have to design button, you have to create CSS and HTML code. Now I will show you how to create "Horizontal tabs menu" in blogger.

The first thing you have to di is create an image like this:









whiteleft.gif and whiteright.gif

1. Login to Blogger, chose "Lay out --> Template --> Edit HTML"
2. Don't forget to backup your template first.
3. Check the "Expand Widget Templates" checkbox.
4. Try to find this code

, if you found it then put the code below above it

/*credits : http://blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com , HariesDesign.com*/ #tabshori { float:left; width:100%; font-size:13px; border-bottom:1px solid #2763A5; line-height:normal; } #tabshori ul { margin:0; padding:10px 10px 0 50px; list-style:none; } #tabshori li { display:inline; margin:0; padding:0; } #tabshori a { float:left; background:url("http://hariesdesign.googlepages.com/whiteleft.gif") no-repeat left top; margin:0; padding:0 0 0 4px; text-decoration:none; } #tabshori a span { float:left; display:block; background:url("http://hariesdesign.googlepages.com/whiteright.gif") no-repeat right top; padding:5px 14px 4px 4px; color:#24618E; } /* Commented Backslash Hack hides rule from IE5-Mac \*/ #tabshori a span {float:none;} /* End IE5-Mac hack */ #tabshori a:hover { background-position:0% -42px; } #tabshori a:hover span { background-position:100% -42px; } }

you can change the bold text with other image, for example, if you want to chose my red menu image the code will be like this:

background:url("http://x3x.890m.com/menu/redleft.gif") no-repeat left top; background:url("http://x3x.890m.com/menu/redright.gif") no-repeat right top;

5. Then copy the code below

<div id="tabshori"> <ul> <!-- Change the links with your own links --> <li><a href="http://blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com"><span>Home</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com"><span>3 Column</span></a></li> <li><a href="http://blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com"><span>2 Column </span></a></li> <li><a href="http://blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com"><span>Blogging Tips</span></a></li> <li><a href="http:/blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com"><span>Seo Tips</span></a></li> </ul> </div >

change http://blogger-freetemplates.blogspot.com with your own link, and change the bold text with your own text.

6. Next step is to put the tabs menu into your blog, this more difficult because we have different templates. There are some methods to do this, Here is the methods:
Find the below code :

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='no'> <b:widget id='Header1' locked='true' title='your blog title (Header)' type='Header'/> </b:section>

Change with this code

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='2' showaddelement='yes'> <b:widget id='Header1' locked='false' title='your blog title (Header)' type='Header'/> </b:section>

Save your setting, the go to "Page Elements" and click "Add page Element " on the header area, chose "HTML/JavaScript" then put the number five code above into "content" box, then click "save" and preview your new blog

Adding Post Ratings to your Blogger

This blogger hack will add a star rating on your post. I think it's very cool when someone comes to your blog, they will impressed with your blog.

Here's the step by step instruction to add post ratings to your blog. If you want to add this widget instantly, you can try the one-click installation widget provide by outbrain.







STEP 1 Goto Template -> Edit HTML, tick the "Expand Widget Template"

STEP 2 Find this code

STEP 3
Copy the code below and paste it after that line above

<script language='JavaScript'> var OutbrainPermaLink='<data:post.url/>'; var OB_demoMode = false; var OB_Script = true;<script src='http://widgets.outbrain.com/OutbrainRater.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Setup and configuration for New Blogger Tag Cloud / Label Cloud

Here is the code and setup information to use the Label Cloud in New Blogger. First you obviously have to have a blog on New Blogger, and you MUST be using the layouts templates, (this isn't available for classic templates, or FTP published blogs ) and you must have some posts labeled already. (There needs to be at least ONE label with more than ONE entry or the scripts hit a bug - so have at least one label with more than one entry before starting).

Make sure you backup your template before making any changes!
Log into Blogger and go to your layouts section. On the 'Page Elements' setup page make sure you have a label widget already installed where you want it (it can be moved around later). Then go to the Edit HTML settings and leave the widgets NOT exapanded. It will make things easier to deal with.
Now the code comes in 3 parts. A section for the stylesheet, a configurations section,and then the actual widget itself.
The first part to put in is the stylesheet section. The following code needs to be copied and inserted into your stylesheet,Easiest thing to do is find the closing skin tag



and place the code right BEFORE that. Here it is, copy and paste without modification right now. I'll explain what can be tweaked later.

/* Label Cloud Styles ----------------------------------------------- */ #labelCloud {text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;} #labelCloud .label-cloud li{display:inline;background-image:none !important;padding:0 5px;margin:0;vertical-align:baseline !important;border:0 !important;} #labelCloud ul{list-style-type:none;margin:0 auto;padding:0;} #labelCloud a img{border:0;display:inline;margin:0 0 0 3px;padding:0} #labelCloud a{text-decoration:none} #labelCloud a:hover{text-decoration:underline} #labelCloud li a{} #labelCloud .label-cloud {} #labelCloud .label-count {padding-left:0.2em;font-size:9px;color:#000} #labelCloud .label-cloud li:before{content:"" !important}

This next section is the configuration section for the Cloud. It also goes in the head of the template, but outside of the stylesheet part. Easiest thing to do again is to find the closing stylesheet tag





But this time place the code right AFTER that line, but BEFORE the '/head' tag. Here it is.

<script type='text/javascript'> // Label Cloud User Variables var cloudMin = 1; var maxFontSize = 20; var maxColor = [0,0,255]; var minFontSize = 10; var minColor = [0,0,0]; var lcShowCount = false; </script>

All of these settings can be changed but I'll explain them in a moment. The defaults will work for now.
Now the widget itself. Scroll down and find the label widget in your sidebar. It should look something like this.



Copy the following code (from beginning widget tag to ending widget tag) and replace the line above with it.

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Label Cloud' type='Label'> <b:includable id='main'> <b:if cond='data:title'> <h2><data:title/></h2> </b:if> <div class='widget-content'> <div id='labelCloud'/> <script type='text/javascript'> // Don't change anything past this point ----------------- // Cloud function s() ripped from del.icio.us function s(a,b,i,x){ if(a>b){ var m=(a-b)/Math.log(x),v=a-Math.floor(Math.log(i)*m) } else{ var m=(b-a)/Math.log(x),v=Math.floor(Math.log(i)*m+a) } return v } var c=[]; var labelCount = new Array(); var ts = new Object; <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'> var theName = "<data:label.name/>"; ts[theName] = <data:label.count/>; </b:loop> for (t in ts){ if (!labelCount[ts[t]]){ labelCount[ts[t]] = new Array(ts[t]) } } var ta=cloudMin-1; tz = labelCount.length - cloudMin; lc2 = document.getElementById('labelCloud'); ul = document.createElement('ul'); ul.className = 'label-cloud'; for(var t in ts){ if(ts[t] < cloudMin){ continue; } for (var i=0;3 > i;i++) { c[i]=s(minColor[i],maxColor[i],ts[t]-ta,tz) } var fs = s(minFontSize,maxFontSize,ts[t]-ta,tz); li = document.createElement('li'); li.style.fontSize = fs+'px'; li.style.lineHeight = '1'; a = document.createElement('a'); a.title = ts[t]+' Posts in '+t; a.style.color = 'rgb('+c[0]+','+c[1]+','+c[2]+')'; a.href = '/search/label/'+encodeURIComponent(t); if (lcShowCount){ span = document.createElement('span'); span.innerHTML = '('+ts[t]+') '; span.className = 'label-count'; a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t)); li.appendChild(a); li.appendChild(span); } else { a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t)); li.appendChild(a); } ul.appendChild(li); abnk = document.createTextNode(' '); ul.appendChild(abnk); } lc2.appendChild(ul); </script> <noscript> <ul> <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'> <li> <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'> <data:label.name/> <b:else/> <a expr:href='data:label.url'><data:label.name/></a> </b:if> (<data:label.count/>) </li> </b:loop> </ul> </noscript> <b:include name='quickedit'/> </div> </div> </b:includable> </b:widget>

Now if all has gone well, and you have posts already labeled, then if you preview the blog you should see some form of the Cloud appearing. If it doesn't appear, then something went wrong. You should probably back out and try it again from the start.

Blogging Explained

Learn what Blogs are and How to Use Them

If you browse internet a lot, then you have probably stumbled upon a blog. Blogs or web logs are, simply stated, websites that allow authors to post their thoughts or news on the web about one or another subject. However, unlike a regular website, blog usually represents a personal opinion of the author about some kind of topic. What’s good about blog is that readers can submit their comments about the author’s post (if author allows that).

So if you have a web log you can connect to your target audience. You can find like minded people and make you blog even stickier than a website.

Another thing that differentiates a blog from a regular website is that blogs have archives, which allow you to look at the most recent post or jump to the very first post made few years ago. Some blogs are archived by day, some by week or month. Author chooses the archiving frequency depending on how much time he’s got to write content.

Why Blogs Have Become So Popular?

It seems that blogs have come to the daylight just a few years ago. But in reality, it’s nothing new. Webmasters were using blogs for many years. The buzz started recently, because a few internet marketers discovered that it’s a great way to make money with blogs and started telling and selling another “how to blog” product to the rest of the world.

Now, blogs have really started dominating the web. As some researches say, the popularity of blogs is going to increase in the next few years and even more people will start making blogs.

There are actually few reasons why blogs are so popular now. First of all, they are search engine friendly. As long as posts are made very often and regularly, search engines spider them and index them very often. Second of all, it’s very easy to set up a blog. Lots of folks who don’t have a website want to get one. But they face a major problem. They don’t know HTML and how to create a website. Blogs eliminate this problem entirely.

You can set up a blog and start publishing information literally within minutes. And you don’t need to know how to create websites or any programming language.

Blogs for Search Engine Optimization

You have probably heard people saying many times that blogs are fantastic for SEO purposes and you should start a blog immediately if you want to get rankings in search engines. Are they right? Well, yes and no.

As mentioned earlier, search engine bots revisit blogs quite often, almost everyday if the content is updated very frequently. It also doesn’t take much to build a content, which search engines like. All you need to do is make a post about a topic in your industry once in a while. And if you have a loyal community, then readers will post comments about your post so you build content quickly. It means that not only you have to build content yourself, but your community helps you do that too.

However, what concern SEO, blogs are nothing magical. You already know why search engines like blogs and rank them higher. If you update your website frequently, add original content, you’ll get lots of readers and search engines will love your site just like any blog or oven more. So for SEO purposes, you really don’t have to create a blog. But if you don’t have time or money to spend on site development, then a blog is a perfect alternative.

Monetizing on Blogs

Many internet marketers say that you should start a blog, because it’s a perfect way to make money. If you think that just by having a blog, you’ll be able to boost your income by 1000%, then you’re wrong. A blog won’t give you any new ways to make money, other than by having a website. All marketing options are the same as for website marketing. Ok, so let’s look at a couple of ways to make money with blogs:

* Offer Affiliate Ads – Just like with a website, you can start offering visitors various links or banners to your affiliate products or services. If you have a community that trusts you, you can really make some nice money.
* Contextual Advertising – The simplest way to monetize your blog is by having Adsense or any other similar program’s ads on your blog. You make money when people click on these ads.
* Sell Advertising Space – You can sell banners or text links on your blog. If your blog gets a lot of traffic, or you have a high pagerank, then this method might work great for you.

As you see, having a blog will not bring you any magical ways to make money. However, there’s one method that can bring you traffic that you can’t get by having a website. And that is blog directories. There are hundreds of blog directories (more being added every week). So if you have a blog, you can actually submit it to blog directories and see some increase in traffic quickly. That’s a nice thing about having a blog. If you submit your blog to at least 20 or 30 directories, then you can start getting traffic within days from a submission.

Summing Up

Blogs are very useful. They allow users to start publishing information online in a very convenient way. It’s easy to set up a blog. Search engines love them. The content builds pretty fast if you’re passionate about the subject. You also get additional sources of traffic. What can be bad about it? Well, nothing.

Blogs will not disappear from the surface, at least not within 2 or 5 years. Google already has a blog search engine. More search engines and directories are being built everyday. So starting a blog now can be a smart decision.

If you have a website building software and you know how to build websites, then for the sake of SEO you probably shouldn’t create a blog. However, otherwise a blog is a great and easy to use tool to get content and traffic.

Top 20 Tips for Beginner Bloggers

1 Choose a topic that you know, like, and are passionate about. This way you will never get bored and will keep your audience always interested and asking for more.

2 Pick a topic where there is not a lot of competition. If your topic is too common, try addressing it from a particular angle or focus on a specific niche. For example, there are many sites that talk about cars, but few that specialize in only one brand, and even fewer that focus on only one model. The key to be successful is to find a specific enough topic with a large enough audience.

3 Open a Blogger account. It is free and easy to use. That way, you won’t have to invest in costlier platforms like MovableType or TypePad before you have the chance of finding out if blogging is for you.

4 Use a minimalist template, preferably one with a white background. This format is easier to read and pleasant to the eye when you combine it with color pictures.

5 Use pictures to dress up your blog entries and give your blog a more professional appearance. You can find excellent pictures at a very low cost in istockphoto.com, or even free in Flickr (don’t forget to ask the owner of the picture for permission before you use it).

6 In one of your blog’s side columns, list six or seven links to authoritative sites related to your topic. When the search engine robots visit your blog, they will find these links and your blog will benefit by association.

7 Write in simple language, short paragraphs and using bullet points. These are essential guidelines for writing on the web, and will make your posts easier to read and understand.

8 Always link out to the sources you use to document your posts. This is not only good etiquette but also a way to promote your blog and get links: when the people you link to find out that they’ve been linked to, they will most likely link to your post from their site or blog.

9 Check your posts for spelling and grammatical errors. This will make your blog look more professional and will increase the probability of other people linking to it.

10 Use labels to categorize your posts and keep your blog neatly organized. Blogger recently modified its software to allow the use of labels.

11 Participate actively in forums and discussion groups related to your topic. Find what are the most common questions and provide the answers in your blog. Then, direct forum readers to your blog. Try to also direct forum readers to other resources, or answer without necessarily linking to your blog, sometimes. If not, you may be perceived as self serving and only interested in promoting your blog.

12 Use HitTail to research topics to write about. HitTail gives you a list of the search terms used by those who came to your blog through a search engine. This search term list will give you ideas for future blog posts.

13 Allow your blog readers to email your posts to other people. Also, give them the option to bookmark your posts using del.icio.us, furl, or any other social bookmarking service. You can go to AddThis to download a smart button that makes it easy to bookmark your posts. You can find instructions on how to add the button to Blogger here. The easier you make it to share your blog posts, the more relevant traffic your blog will get.

14 Use Technorati tags at the end of your blog posts. Technorati tags are a way of classifying your blog posts by topic and have them added to Technorati’s index (Technorati is the most important search engine for blogs). Use this automatic Technorati tag generator to avoid having to create the HTML code manually.

15 Syndicate your blog allowing your visitors to subscribe to your feeds through their favorite aggregator. This way, they will be automatically notified every time you update your blog. You can use this tool to generate attractive syndication buttons, which you can then place in a side column of your blog.

16 Post frequently. It is the only way to keep your audience interested and coming back. Two or three times a week is ideal. Once a week is the borderline minimum that I recommend to keep your audience engaged and maintain adequate visibility in the search engines.

17 Keep a large number of posts in the main page of your blog. Search engine robots usually won’t crawl and index all your blog pages, however they will visit your main page frequently. The more content you keep in your main page, the bigger the chance of it popping up in the search engine results pages.

18 Use Google Adsense to monetize your blog. Blogger lets you add Google Adsense easily and seamlessly in several locations within a page. The best locations are within the content, and on top of the page simulating a navigation bar.