If you are attempting to create a successful blog for personal or business reasons, you should know that looks do count. Many bloggers make the mistake of thinking that looks are not as important as content, since readers are essentially reading your blog for the words, not the way it looks. This is true to some degree. The fact is however that people will not take your words seriously if your blog looks less than attractive. To have a successful blog you have to have it all. You must have interesting content as well as a great look. If you want to update the look of your blog, consider these areas of importance.
Easy To Scan
The way your blog reads on a page is an extremely important part of your blog’s look. You should always remember to keep your blog posts short and to the point. If you are treating your blog as a personal diary, your posts may be a little longer than normal. But, if you are trying to get more traffic to your blog, then you really want to focus the attention with short posts that offer the main point easily. Most blog readers will only scan your posts, not read them word for word. So keep this in mind when you are writing. The shorter the post, the more likely they are to read the entire thing. If your blog is easy to scan because the posts are short and the breaks are clear, you will have a great looking blog.
Professional Edge
When designing or redesigning your blog, try to make it as professional looking as possible. Even if the blog is not for a business, the more professional it looks, the more seriously people will take it. Not everyone knows a lot about programming, so you may need to research a bit. If you have the extra funds, you might even want to get a professional to program it for you. No matter what you have to do, just keep a level of professionalism in your mind throughout the designing process.
Friendly Colors
Most people don’t think twice about what colors they choose for their blog. The facts are that some colors come across better on the web than others. Blue and black are easy to see, so they are always great choices to use. Sea-green, beige, or purple are also great soothing colors to use for a blog. You should stay away from using colors like pink, yellow, or any neon varieties. They are extremely hard on the eyes when reading them online and can deter people from reading your blog. Keep these color tips in mind when you design your blog to get the best results available.
Appropriate Graphics
It has been noted that the use of pictures on your blog is a great way to boost traffic. Blogs that offer pictures that correlate with their content are fantastic. Readers love to connect with the content further through pictures. With most blogging software offering ways to easily add pictures, it should not be a problem for most publishers to add them right into the blog. If you do have trouble, consider checking the “help” area in your blogging software for more information. The information there should provide you with step by step instructions to help you get on your way.
Successful Layout
Most people who design blogs and websites will tell you that the layout does matter as well. The way a blog looks to the reader in important in terms of layout. The layout should be clear and defined. If the reader is confused by the layout, they will likely not stick around to explore. They will most likely go right on to the next blog available. If you are letting a professional design your blog, you will likely not need to worry much about the layout. However, if you are doing it yourself, take a look at other successful sites to get ideas about what works and what doesn’t. Look at your site like a reader would to get the best advice you can. Lastly, simply test different layouts on your friends and family to see which ones they find the most suitable for your blog.
Get A Large Array Of Graphic Templates To Help Increase Your Conversions Right Now!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Link Spam: What it is and how to protect your site
"Link Spam" is a growing threat to the Internet as a whole. One
of the most powerful concepts introduced by the Internet is a
non-geographic, interest-bound system of communities. The blogs,
guestbooks, forums, and wikis that you frequent are all
locations where you can contribute to and learn from a body of
knowledge previously unavailable. Unfortunately, the same
openness of these communities leaves them vulnerable for the
growing threat of link spam.
Link spam is a growing method used by "black hat" search engine
optimizers to improve their search engine rankings by acquiring
huge quantities of links back to their sites. Using automated
programs to cycle through long lists of blogs, wikis, forums,
etc. these programs automatically post to these locations with
links back to their sites in the content. Below, I address a few
of these types of spam, and the best available solution.
Blog Spam: Blog spam is perhaps the most notorious and common
method of link spam today. There are, however, multiple types of
blog spam to deal with, although there is a common denominator.
The two most common types of blog spam are comment spam and
trackback spam. Comment spam is perhaps the most obvious type of
spam. Comment spam occurs when unmoderated comments are posted
to a blog entry with dubious links included. Comment spam can
easily be automated, even through logins and, sometimes,
CAPTCHAs. Trackback Spam is a little more complicated.
Trackbacks are a method of content amalgamation - letting
authors know of other interesting information on the web
relating to their article. By automating a trackback request, a
black hat search engine optimizer can get your blog to post a
link back to the black hatter's website
Forum Spam: Forum spam has two methods as well. The most common
is forum post spam. In forum post spam, users post large numbers
of comments in an automated fashion with links either included
in the content or in the footer. Unless the forum is closely
moderated, these types of posts get published and indexed by the
search engines, improving the rankings of the blackhatters site.
Profile Spam is another new form of forum spam. In profile spam,
the blackhatter needs only to create a login for the forum, with
the link listed in the profile, for them to acquire the backlink
they want. By automating this procedure, they can acquire links
off of your site without ever posting at all to the forum.
Guestbook Spam: Guestbook spam is the oldest trick in the book.
Useless entries like "I like your site, here is mine: link",
fill up defenseless guestbooks across the web. While the search
engines have done a decent job to stop counting guestbook spam,
it is still prevalent and going strong. Like the other types of
spam listed above, there is a common thread that makes them easy
to capture and remove.
Wiki Spam: Wiki spam is the newest kid on the block. Wikis allow
almost anyone to edit the content of a page. If a crafty black
hatter can hide the link into a wiki page (especially those that
allow for HTML and CSS), their job is done. Automating this
procedure is particularly easy as well, as most wikis do not
require a login and, even worse, accessing each edit page
requires a simple url change. Furthermore, many wikis allow for
page creation on-the-fly without moderation. This is an
incredibly easy way to get a lot of links onto your Wiki without
your permission.
There is hope though. The common thread between all link spam is
just that - links. If a link spammer cannot acquire a lot of
links, they have failed. Thus, the solution is an internet-wide
throttle on user-submitted link acquisition. Sounds complicated
eh? Well, it is not. LinkSleeve: http://www.linksleeve.org, a
free, XML-RPC based system already works with a large number of
the most popular systems out there to prevent link spam.
Furthermore, because it is platform independent and uses the
XML-RPC standard, it can be integrated into almost any software,
period. There is even an integration with Blogger to prevent
Blogger Spam. LinkSleeve is a community wide approach to
fighting Link Spam, and because of its ubiquitous availability,
it is most capable of addressing the issue on an internet wide
level.
More free articles from http://www.articlesroom.com
of the most powerful concepts introduced by the Internet is a
non-geographic, interest-bound system of communities. The blogs,
guestbooks, forums, and wikis that you frequent are all
locations where you can contribute to and learn from a body of
knowledge previously unavailable. Unfortunately, the same
openness of these communities leaves them vulnerable for the
growing threat of link spam.
Link spam is a growing method used by "black hat" search engine
optimizers to improve their search engine rankings by acquiring
huge quantities of links back to their sites. Using automated
programs to cycle through long lists of blogs, wikis, forums,
etc. these programs automatically post to these locations with
links back to their sites in the content. Below, I address a few
of these types of spam, and the best available solution.
Blog Spam: Blog spam is perhaps the most notorious and common
method of link spam today. There are, however, multiple types of
blog spam to deal with, although there is a common denominator.
The two most common types of blog spam are comment spam and
trackback spam. Comment spam is perhaps the most obvious type of
spam. Comment spam occurs when unmoderated comments are posted
to a blog entry with dubious links included. Comment spam can
easily be automated, even through logins and, sometimes,
CAPTCHAs. Trackback Spam is a little more complicated.
Trackbacks are a method of content amalgamation - letting
authors know of other interesting information on the web
relating to their article. By automating a trackback request, a
black hat search engine optimizer can get your blog to post a
link back to the black hatter's website
Forum Spam: Forum spam has two methods as well. The most common
is forum post spam. In forum post spam, users post large numbers
of comments in an automated fashion with links either included
in the content or in the footer. Unless the forum is closely
moderated, these types of posts get published and indexed by the
search engines, improving the rankings of the blackhatters site.
Profile Spam is another new form of forum spam. In profile spam,
the blackhatter needs only to create a login for the forum, with
the link listed in the profile, for them to acquire the backlink
they want. By automating this procedure, they can acquire links
off of your site without ever posting at all to the forum.
Guestbook Spam: Guestbook spam is the oldest trick in the book.
Useless entries like "I like your site, here is mine: link",
fill up defenseless guestbooks across the web. While the search
engines have done a decent job to stop counting guestbook spam,
it is still prevalent and going strong. Like the other types of
spam listed above, there is a common thread that makes them easy
to capture and remove.
Wiki Spam: Wiki spam is the newest kid on the block. Wikis allow
almost anyone to edit the content of a page. If a crafty black
hatter can hide the link into a wiki page (especially those that
allow for HTML and CSS), their job is done. Automating this
procedure is particularly easy as well, as most wikis do not
require a login and, even worse, accessing each edit page
requires a simple url change. Furthermore, many wikis allow for
page creation on-the-fly without moderation. This is an
incredibly easy way to get a lot of links onto your Wiki without
your permission.
There is hope though. The common thread between all link spam is
just that - links. If a link spammer cannot acquire a lot of
links, they have failed. Thus, the solution is an internet-wide
throttle on user-submitted link acquisition. Sounds complicated
eh? Well, it is not. LinkSleeve: http://www.linksleeve.org, a
free, XML-RPC based system already works with a large number of
the most popular systems out there to prevent link spam.
Furthermore, because it is platform independent and uses the
XML-RPC standard, it can be integrated into almost any software,
period. There is even an integration with Blogger to prevent
Blogger Spam. LinkSleeve is a community wide approach to
fighting Link Spam, and because of its ubiquitous availability,
it is most capable of addressing the issue on an internet wide
level.
More free articles from http://www.articlesroom.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)