I decided to start free advertising project on my main blog page. It is called Free Icon Advertising. Let me explain this project a bit. I will be giving away free advertising spots in the size 16x16 px / per advertising spot to anybody who apply for it. AdIcon advertising is alternative advertising technique to all classic banners and 125x125 ads banners to which are people more and more resistant. AdIcon technique is special and can bring visitors attention because it is unusual so it can be more interesting for visitors. This advertising technique was developed by Alex Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage who was selling pixels on his website.

How to apply for 10 AdIcon spots?
I will welcome anybody who runs website or blog. I have no special requirements on websites contents, but adult content is forbidden. If you want to be added to my AdIcons, please send me your picture in 16x16 px size, advertising link and the title of your advertisement. I will check your link and if it has no adult content I will add it within few hours. You can learn more and apply for this project here. Read more...

Professionally looking header and footer sections of a blog are very important not just because overall good impression but also because of easy navigation of your visitors. I have seen many articles which were talking about how to customize header section and how to add horizontal navigation bar under header. But what if readers scroll down to the bottom of your page? Wouldn’t it be better to put navigation links into footer section so it will be easier to navigate through your blog also from the bottom?

I have seen this feature in many professional Wordpress blogs and I wanted it for my blogspot blog as well. Unfortunately I was unable to find any guide how to do it. But I don’t give up easily. Despite I know very less about html and css coding after few hours I find surprisingly simple way how to put navigation links into the center of the footer blogspot section.

*Please keep in mind I am not professional coder, so maybe my language will not be that clear.

Here is the guide how to add links into the footer section

This method require modification of the html source of your blogspot template, therefore before we start make sure you save your current blog template.

1. Saving current template - Log in to your blogspot blog. Click Layout and then Edit HTML. From here you can download your current blog template.



2. Cleaning your footer section – If you use customized template it will probably have also customized footer section. If we want to create simple and professional looking footer we have to get rid of all that unnecessary sections which can be implemented into the footer (for example I originally had 3 columns in my footer bordered by white lines).

So while we are in Edit Html, find the footer section of html code (click ctlr+f and write “footer” – without quotation marks, it will be in CSS section of your html source). Now you have to experiment a bit with this section, to get rid of all unnecessary parts. Your goal is to reach clean footer without anything (just clean image of your footer). So delete one part, click preview to see what happened, it can be time consuming from beginning but after some time you will be able to identify and delete all unnecessary parts. Don’t forget to save your template when you will be satisfied with the results.

Just for inspiration, this is how my footer section looked after I cleaned it up.



3. Add links into footer section – Now when we have nice and clean footer, it is time to add navigation links. Click Layout, now we are going to add text gadget into the bottom of your layout. Click on Add a Gadget and add Text gadget.



4. If you want to add following links HOME – ABOUT ME – CONTACT – RSS into your footer add the code below to the Text gadget (click on Edit Html option in Text gadget) Here is the code you have to add:



Now you have to change my links for yours, so find out in the code above links which point to my blog (http://www.onlinebusinesspeak.com) an replace them for your links which point to your home, about me, content and rss pages.
You can also add more links or change the name of current links.

That is it, please if you have any unclearness, don’t hesitate to ask them here or contact me through the email. I will be happy to help!
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Receiving comments on article might be the best reward which you can receive from your readers. It is a great satisfaction feeling to see that after all the effort which you put into writing, readers like what you are saying and leave comments. This way you can keep in touch with your readers and what is more important you can receive valuable feedback. Feedback is a great tool which can juice you up to improve yourself. Also it is a great source of new knowledge and ideas which can be used in further articles.

But probably the most important benefit of getting quality comments is rising of blog credibility. Credibility of blog is something like an internet reputation of blogger. It is the reason why would people listen to you and trust your opinions.

If you are just starting with blog you probably find it really difficult to persuade readers to write comments. And what is even worse, also readers who would like to comment could be discouraged just because they see nobody else commenting. So, how to break this “circle of silence”? In this article I would like to write about seven simple ways how to encourage your readers to comment more.

1. Let readers benefit from your DoFollow blog
All blogspot blogs are originally set as “nofollow”. That means Google spiders will not count links in comment section into PageRanks. This way Google wanted to discourage spammers to post spam comments. But many people think that this step discouraged also honest bloggers from posting more comments. DoFollow blogs allow Google spiders to count links in blog comment section into the Google PageRanks.
So remove nofollow tags and let people know that your blog is dofollow. Readers will be more willing to comment, because of backlinks they will receive through comments.

2. Ask readers questions
Asking questions is a good method how to involve your readers more into your articles. For example you can ask about their opinions on your topic.

3. Simplify the process of commenting
Some blogs don’t allow comments from non-registered readers. Although it can be useful in terms of getting more subscribers, at the same time it can discourage non-registered readers to comment. So try to make the commenting process as simple as possible.

4. "Subscribe to comments" option
This great plug-in is accessible only for Wordpress bloggers. It allows readers to subscribe to the comments through e-mails. So if new comment will be made subscribers will be notified about that, what can encourage them to return and comment more.

5. Recent comment widget
Another good tip might be recent comment widget. You can create one easily here. This widget display last comments on your front page.

6. Respond to comments
Respond to received comments. You will show that you care about what people are saying. Also some interesting debates can arise.

7. Fast approval of new comments
If you decide approving every comment before it is published to prevent spams, make sure you moderate them as fast as possible. People who comment might be discourage to comment again, if they will have to wait a long time.
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Traffic is the moving spirit of every successful website, it is the tool which actually makes website to "come alive". But how to take a piece of traffic pie when there are so many hungry bellies? People often believe that Google PageRank is one of the most powerful traffic drivers. I agree PR is a notable factor for higher traffic, but I consider it more like a prerequisite which should be fulfilled to increase a chance to get higher traffic. There are other more important traffic drivers.

Let me start with one short example:
I often compare the importance of PR for the traffic to the importance of university for getting a dream job. Many people graduate a university to get a dream job with high salary. But the academic title itself will not guarantee you your dream job. It is just one of many prerequisites which have to be fulfilled to get an opportunity to apply for the dream job. But there are many other applicants with academic titles who apply for the same job. If you want to get that job, you have to be better than the rest of applicants. With the PR it is the same there is a huge number of websites with the high PR in almost every niche, to get the traffic you have to be better then the rest of websites.

Does “better” stands for better PR?

No, I would say there are other factors which are much more important for website traffic. Actually I have seen many websites with PR 1-2 which have steamrolled (in terms of traffic) websites with PR 3 or 4. So what really makes that difference?

I think the key factors of high traffic (which are according to me more important than PR) are:

• wide well written content

• frequent updates

• well selected keywords

• appropriate usage of keywords in articles*

* Note: I focused on blogs I am not sure if these factors are that significant for common websites as well.

Why are these 4 factors more important than Google PR?

Wide well written content
People search for useful content and not for high PR. It looks like Google knows that, therefore there is no wonder to see many low PR blogs on the first search engine pages (SERPs). Blogs with wide contents will be probably indexed for many different keywords that mean more traffic also from different niches.

Frequent updates
Google prefers blogs with lot of new unique articles in front of rarely updated blogs (although they might have higher PR). As the result often updated blogs appear in SERPs much higher no matter what PR they have.

Well selected keywords
A blog might has high PR but if it is focused on wrong keywords (which are not often searched in search engines) there will be probably just small website traffic. On the other hand the possibility of getting traffic is much higher if you focus on keywords which are often searched, no matter the blog PR.

Appropriate usage of keywords in articles
It is important to use keywords in the beginning of articles. But don’t scarify reading impression by over usage of keywords. Also it is good to use keywords in the last paragraph of articles (I heard Google spiders sometimes crawl website from the bottom). If you use your keywords properly you will be indexed high in SERPs. And again, no matter what PR you have.

If you want a proof take a look at the picture below:



My blog is very new and has zero PR. Despite of that Google.com displayed my blog in the first SERP (note that there are 79,800,000 other results). And first SERP often means higher chance of getting traffic.
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First of all I would like to ask a question: Why would actually webmasters want to keep visitors longer on their websites? I think there can be many different answers based on blog owner’s intentions. If somebody runs blog to make money, the main intention to keep visitors on the website for longer time would probably be the higher chance to receive more clicks on ads.

If the person runs online business the answer is probably different: He would like to keep visitors longer online to persuade them to buy something. Many visitors leave very fast, but if they stay longer the probability they will purchase is higher. Therefore one of the prime concerns of every online business seller should be increasing of the time visitors spend on the website.

In this article I am not going to tell you 10-20 “guarantee” ways, how to keep your visitors online longer, because I personally did not try that many methods. Instead of that I will give you few techniques I have tried and which I believe can make the difference.

1. Keep your website clean and easy to navigate
The first impression is the most important. If visitors don’t like your website they will probably leave immediately. So make your website attractive. People like clean, simple but well designed websites. For example: white is a great background color I think, supplement it with other catchy color, add nice original and professional looking logo and you are on your way to impress.
Put your navigation bar at the top of your website, visitors will notice it immediately after they arrive. So it will be easy for them to navigate through your website.
No aggressive glary colors, no big pictures, no flashing ads on the front page are allowed (quality pictures of your products in appropriate sizes are of course fine).

2. Add related articles at the end of each post
If you get the attention of visitors and they will read your article, they are probably interested in your topic, so give them option to learn more about it. Placing links to related articles is a great way how to encourage visitors to read more and stay longer on your website. Through the articles you can show your good knowledge of the topic and your professionalism. People are more tend to buy when they believe you are the expert in the area. But your articles have to be good quality, otherwise you will make bad impression and people will probably leave very soon.

3. Enable links to open in new tabs
There might be a lot of reason why to place links to external websites in your articles. But the problem is, if visitors click these links they will be redirected to the external websites. Placing a short html code into external links can solve this problem because it allows opening these links in new browser tab. So you will not lose visitors.

Here is a simple guide how to add this code into links: (for Blogspot blogs)

• When you are writing an article you can choose between 2 options: Edit Html or Reach text. Choose Edit Html option.


• Inserted link in Edit Html option will look like this:



• To open this link in new browser tab you have to add following html code into link:



The new link will look like this:



Note: You can add also title to this link. If you look at the added part of html code there is title=" ". You can put the title between quotation marks. As a result when visitors place mouse over the link this title will appears.

4. Encourage visitors to subscribe to your website
Another great way how to keep visitors on your website is through their subscription. To encourage readers to subscribe to your website offer them freebies or allow them to download your e-book if they subscribe. Don't forget to place the subscribe button at the top of your website, so it will be noticeable easily.
You can contact your subscribers later with special offers and they might come back to you. But be careful don’t spam, you will loose your reputation of honest seller. One or two mails in a month are enough. Read more...

Link exchange is probably one of the most effective tools which can significantly improve your Google PageRank. But the way how Google evaluates backlinks today is much different from previous times. Reciprocal (or 2-way) links, which were very popular in the past, are currently almost worthless. If you not exchange link with high PR website than don’t even bother to build 2-way links.

Nowadays the only valuable links you can gain are one-way links. These links pointing to your website but you don’t link back. Google understand these links as a signal that your website is very valuable for other website owner and therefore the power of these links is substantial. But the problem with one-way links is how to get them? In this article I would like to point out three proven techniques of building one-way links.

1. Commenting on dofollow blog (for all bloggers)
Lets first talk about what are dofollow blogs. In the past when blogs were just starting there were many spammers who were trying to promote their questionable businesses by spamming blog comments with URL links. Google fought them back by implementing nofollow tags in comment areas. As a result Google spiders started to ignore links in comments, so they were not counted into PageRank.

Did this solution discourage spammers from publishing their spam comments? Unfortunately no, but what happened was that also honest bloggers who were posting useful comments were discouraged to comment because of nofollow tag. Therefore many bloggers decide to remove nofollow tag to juice honest bloggers up to comment again.

Before I tell you how to find dofollow blogs I would like to give you few useful tips:

• Read the whole article before you decide to comment
• Write useful comments. Try to contribute to the theme. Comments like “Hey, nice article.” Will be probably denied by blog owner.
• Try to correct all your grammar mistakes before publishing.
• Don’t post more URL links in your comment. Comment forms usually give you the option to publish one URL link along with your name. One URL is enough.

Now how to find dofollow blogs?
You can use dofollow website directories like dofollowblog or followlist where you can find many dofollow blogs.
You can also determine if the blog is do or no follow by installing Firefox add-on NoDoFollow. This useful add-on is a simple extension which highlights links in any webpage according to nofollow / dofollow tag. So you can see if the links in comments are do or no follow.

2. Submit articles to free articles directories (for intermediate bloggers)
If you are good writer, submitting articles for free directories is good way how to gain valuable one-way links from the websites with high PR and nice traffic as well. For this purpose I recommend directories like Ezine, Articlesbase or ArticleRich. All these directories have high PR and many readers. But before you decide to submit your article make sure you read FAQ section, to find how to submit articles and other useful information. You can also read few already submitted articles to see how the article should looks like.

3. Guest posts (for experienced bloggers)
Guest posts are articles you publish on other high PR blogs, at the end of articles you can add your short bio and URL link to your website. This is great way how to build one-way links. I admit this is quite laborious technique therefore I recommend it for more experienced bloggers. It is not enough to be a good writer, what is more you have to be able to persuade problogger that your article is worthy to be published. But if you manage to release excellent guest post, except of great and valuable one-way link, you will probably receive also nice traffic to your website and gain reputation among bloggers.
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