How to Get Related Posts Widget Below Posts

  The power of suggestion may be the strongest way to make someone do something. It's like your friend asking you to visit a website or watch a video : you will do it 90 % of the time, right? Using that technique, we can encourage visitors on our blog to read even more posts! How? Using a simple recommendation widget of course! Putting it strategically below each post (where readers usually end up after reading the current post) can tell readers what to do next. In this case, putting numerous links with pictures of your other posts can influence readers to go and read your other posts! However, most people don't know how to code such widgets, so there are websites that can help you make these widgets for FREE! Here they are :

1) Outbrain

Outbrain is a simple widget that allows you to customize certain features of your widget before putting it on your blog. It is compatible with many platforms such as blogger, Drupal, Wordpress, Typepad and Squarespace. You can also get the Javascript code manually and install it to your blog/website. They allow you to insert certain features such as star ratings or like buttons. The design is also very modern and suitable for any blog layout. 


2) LinkWithin


LinkWithin is one of the most popular choices for this kind of widget for bloggers. However, I don't see why. It is easy to setup and all, but Outbrain has a much better design and no bugs as compared to LinkWithin, which shows even posts that you've deleted (yes, I had that before). Thus, I'm just going to put this here if you want to try it out.




Did you find any other sources and want to add them here? Comments below! Full credits will be given and your blog link will also be put here. 

What is Good Content?

  You can go Google any blog tip on how to get high traffic count, how to get many subscribers, how to get a money-generating blog or any other way to improve your blog's popularity, and there is always the part that says : write good content.

  Yeah, thanks a lot bloggers who wrote that without further explanation. We all know that, but what is good content? It's kind of abstract to explain it, but there are certain standards and guidelines that should be followed by every blogger. Here are some of the guidelines and standards set and should be followed to be considered as good quality content :




1) No plagiarism 
       
      This point should be pretty obvious. Copying some other bloggers' content is totally unacceptable, stupid and should never be done. This is just going to ruin your reputation and you will not be able to successfully apply for many affiliate or advertisement programs. Your blog will also never get quality traffic. (Mind you, google-ing images and putting them on your blog is counted plagiarism too!)


2) Add pictures


      Blog posts and photos are tied together just like mashed potatoes and gravy.  One without the other will taste really weird and not as perfect. Together, they're awesome! Always try to insert photos into blog posts (that are relevant, of course) to spice it up and make it more interesting. If it's going to be all words, not many people can actually bear to read the whole thing without any illustrations. Keep readers spirits up with great pictures!


3) Write with accurate grammar


      Writing with grammar or spelling mistakes once every few sentences is not going to make your blog look professional is it? Please write with understandable and accurate English with few or even no errors at all to make your blog easily understood by the readers. Another tip : Never put short forms of words on your blog, it can be very hard for readers to read your blog smoothly.


4) Have structured posts
  
       Structure is very important to let readers see the points in your blog posts easily. Elaboration can be added to help readers further understand the meaning of your posts. Some examples of structured posts are posts that are in point form or posts that are categorized.


5) Write from the heart and soul


       Writing what you really love can help you touch your readers and connect with them. This is what writing is all about. If you write something you are forced to write, and not something from the bottom of your heart, what are the chances that your product will be awesome? Writing is about the passion, not about the money.






Like to add something? Comment below!

Get Free and Beautiful Blogger Templates

Many people may complain that their blog designs are not satisfying enough to them. The option given to them is that they can go buy a domain, have full control over their blog design and do it themselves. However, most people won't want to fork out the money to buy and host a domain. So what is the other best alternative for bloggers (especially those who use Blogger, because their designs aren't very beautiful 
and cannot be fully edited to your every whim) to get free templates? Here is the solution:


Get FREE pre-designed templates from various websites
  There is no such thing as perfection, but people strive to achieve it anyway. Same goes for blog designing. There will never be a perfect blog design that suits everyone, so the best is to choose, well, the BEST! Thus, various FREE templates have been offered by designers to give you awesome designs with no cost at all. Here are some sites that I personally recommend as they have great layouts and templates that are easy to setup: 


1) Btemplates.com


      One of the most popular choices for free blogger templates has to be Btemplates.com. It is updated frequently (everyday) with new templates that look fabulous. Full instructions for setup are also given so that you can smoothly install your new template without any hassle. Highly recommended if you want a wide range of templates to choose from with the high design quality.


Rating : 4.7 out of 5




2) BloggerTemplatesFree.com


  Another alternative is BloggerTemplatesFree.com They have lesser blog templates for you to choose from, but the design quality is amazing, creative and really of top standards. The beautiful designs are largely suitable for life blogs, but there are also professional designs for the more serious and commercialized bloggers. The templates are also categorized very neatly to help you choose what you want. 


Rating : 4.6 out of 5


3) BloggerTemplatesBlog.com


BloggerTemplatesBlog.com has also gained popularity due to its simplicity in presenting blog templates and the great designs available there that are updated on a daily basis. The blog templates there bring out beauty by keeping things simple. Most have ad-spaces built in to make it easy to position ads. Templates are also categorized neatly based on both style and theme to help you choose the one you want easily rather than going through the whole album.


Rating : 4.6 out of 5




  These 3 websites have the most templates and the most beautifully designed ones, so I've compiled for your convenience. 


Until next post! 

How to Add Facebook Like Button Before Each Post

  Let's keep this short and simple. Facebook is AWESOME, everyone is using it, you want it to be connected to your blog. Alright! Let's get started! (A sample of it is like the one above this post)

Alternatives to Google AdSense

  Due to AdSense's strict rules for bloggers now, many bloggers who want to advertise with them are rejected. However,

Check Your Blog Load Time

  Waiting for blogs to load can be one of the most frustrating experiences of your life - especially when it takes SUPER LONG! This is actually the main reason why most readers

3 Things to Know Before You Start Blogging

  Yes, it's the typical day that you heard the wonders that blogging can do to your life and you want to give it a try. But before you start plunging into the blogosphere, let me give you some so-called 'guidelines' to tell you the do's and don'ts of blogging.

How to Remove Blogger Navbar

  Don't know what a navbar is? It's the small bar that appears above every Blogger's blog. 

  It is also noticeable in the page elements. However, you cannot move or remove the navbar using the normal way. You have to use CSS to edit it to make it become hidden. 

10 Reasons Why You Should Use ShareThis

  First, do you even know what ShareThis is? It is a website than can help you create a share widget for visitors to share your blog/website to their friends. An example of this can be found at the top of my blog's left sidebar. Now you understand what it is, let me tell you why you SHOULD get it in this simple blog tip:

Creating the "Read More" Button / Creating Post Summaries (For Blogspot/Blogger)

  To squeeze more posts into a page, yet using minimal space to make sure your visitors can see most of your posts in a glance, is very easy to do with the "jump break" function. In this blog tutorial, I will be showing you how to customize the "read more" button to make it more eye-catching, rather than the boring old text.  Let's move on to the steps : 

Buying a Domain vs Using a "Free" Domain

   The common question that arises into a blogger's head is whether forking out some money to buy a domain is the right thing, or using the so-called "free" domains (Wordpress, Blogger etc.). There are a few pros and cons of buying a domain and not buying one, and also different factors that affect your choice. So, it is very important that you know your needs and how buying a domain helps you, whether it's worth it spending the money and so on. Let's start with the main differences now : 
When you buy a domain...

Finding The Right Niche for Your Blog

  In respond to my post about niche blogging (check it out here), I'll share a bit on how I found my way into the topic I'm writing about now. Although it took me quite a while (over 4 months to be exact), I finally decided on what I should be writing about in my blog (*Phew*). So now, I'm going to help all of you so that you can decide much faster and easier! 




  Here are some of the steps I compiled to determine my topic:






1) Write down what comes to your mind in 30 seconds on a piece of paper

Website/Blog Header Designing Tips

  When you want to present your website to visitors, the simplest way is to use your blog header. Thus, it is very important that your website header can get the message across to your visitors easily.





Which is more attractive? 

  They say a picture is a thousand words. So what are you going to write on that picture? Here is what messages a good website's header should bring : 

How to Increase SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

  SEO is important when it comes to getting traffic for your blog. Basically, SEO is  like increasing your website's 'popularity' when people search a keyword related to your website. The higher your SEO is, the higher chances of people seeing your blog when they search a keyword in a search engine (Google, Digg, Bing, Yahoo Search etc.), thus grabs more attention from search engines to your blog.
But first, you have to submit your blog to search engines. For Google, you can add it at http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. Here are some of the steps I used:

When to Post/Publicize Blog Posts

  The title may seem unimportant of insignificant to you, but I think it is quite important. When should you post/publicize your blog posts? I got curious and did a survey on this at YouthSays, and here is what I found : 

Why You Shouldn't Get Auto-Generated Traffic

  Don't know what auto-generated traffic is? I'll tell you : it's like those
websites where they use credits systems to encourage you to visit other people's blogs/websites that are linked to them so that you can earn more credits and use them to get other people to visit you back. There was once a Nuffnanger (if you don't know what a Nuffnanger is, just take it as a blogger.) posted something about this great way to generate traffic to your blog for FREE!! 

4 Widgets A Blog Should Have

  Widgets have different functions for every blog. Some helps the blog writer, some interacts with the readers, some do NOTHING. Obviously, you would want widgets that help you, right? Here, I'm going to introduce a few widgets that I think are really useful to a blogger.





1) Sharebar

      A sharebar is a widget that allows readers to share your blog to different social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Email and so on. Using this sharebar allows your readers to help       you spread the word about your blog easily.

How to Make Readers Feel Comfortable Reading Your Blog

  I've come across blogs that really make me feel uncomfortable when reading it, and decided to stop reading the post. The thing is, there were so many things that irritates a reader in that blog (which I will not mention which). I'm sure sometimes you feel the same way too when reading some blogs, right? In this post, I'll share with you how to make readers feel comfortable when reading your blog! 


1) Don't put too many advertisements
      It's annoying when the whole page is cramped with adverts but you cannot find the real content. Readers tend to hate this as they came to your blog for the content, not for some stupid adverts to annoy them off your blog. Please place adverts moderately and make sure that readers can see your main content. That way, readers will tend to read your adverts along with your content!






2) Tiny fonts
     You know, not just old people have eyesight problems, even young people nowadays do. So please, please, please put your font BIG enough for people to read. I don't want to squint my eyes figuring out what word that is when reading a blog.






3) Too much BLARING colours
      It's understandable if you want to emphasize a part on your blog and you highlight it with colours. But a whole blog filled with blaring colours? I don't think that's good. You see, sometimes the colours from the background will outshine your content and makes it hard to read. 






4) Share a bit of your life
      I find myself smiling at the computer screen sometimes when blog writers share a touching, heart-warming or even an embarrassing moment in their life. This makes me feel somehow connected to the blog writer and naturally makes you comfortable and want to read more.


  That's about it. If you have anything you'd like to add please do in the comments section below. 

Christmas Special : How to Make Falling Snowflakes Effect for Blogger

  Read my last post on how to add snow scene to blogger yet? Then this post is a improved version! Not just dots now, but with newly improved SNOWFLAKE PICTURES!! Example: 

  Wouldn't you love that snowflake falling everywhere around your blog? Just go to your blogger's 'design' page, click on 'add a gadget', add a 'HTML/Javascript' gadget, then paste this code to the content: 


For this picture () use this:
<script src="https://sites.google.com/site/jscriptuploads/home/jscripts/snowflakesSUCCESS.js?attredirects=0&d=1"></script>


For this picture () use this : 


<script src="https://sites.google.com/site/jscriptuploads/home/jscripts/snowflakesSUCCESS4.js?attredirects=0&d=1"></script>




Will update more flakes under requests, just give me the picture! 

Oh, and by the way...

AND...

Credits to people who made this photo..

Your comments are much appreciated! Please leave them below!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT THIS YEAR!!

Christmas Special : Falling Snow Effect for Blogger

  Christmas is coming in 2 days! Naturally, you would want to spice up your blog a little for this upcoming day right? Well, the falling snow effect would be just the right thing for YOU!


 How it looks like: (I used gray snow for my template because white would be hard to see.)

  I spent quite a while researching how to do it, and I finally got it! But first, this is what you need: (If you're lazy to edit everything and just want the snow to be white, scroll to the bottom of this post for the easy tutorial)


1) A Javascript Editor, such as EditPlus! (Download it here! Very small only.. Don't care what is says about the free trial because it works after the trial anyway)


2) A place to upload your javascript files. (Such as Google sites. Click link and register to make a page, then click 'create a page', then click 'file cabinet'


3) Reading skills. (You won't get here without that right?)






  Got all of that? Then we're ready to start! 


1) Download the javascript file from 


https://sites.google.com/site/jscriptuploads/home/jscripts/snowstormzhiwei%27s.js?attredirects=0&d=1 


2) Open it using your Javascript Editor. Instructions on how to change the variables are in the file you downloaded. (P.S : For snow colour, you have to get the html code. Get codes for different types of colours here.)


3) Once you've edited to what you wanted, save and upload your file to your upload page. (Google Pages)


4) Copy the download link for your uploaded Javascript file.


5) Replace 'YOUR FILE DOWNLOAD LINK HERE' (below) with your download link and copy the whole code


<script src="YOUR FILE DOWNLOAD LINK HERE" type="text/javascript"></script>


6) Go to your blogger 'design' page and go to 'add a new gadget', 'HTML/JavaScript', then paste the code you copied into the empty space below the title. 
  
7) Save and view your blog. Satisfied? 
Leave you 'thank you's below at the comment box!


The Easier Way (White Snow)
Copy the following code:


<script src="https://sites.google.com/site/jscriptuploads/home/jscripts/snowstormzhiwei%27s.js?attredirects=0&d=1" type="text/javascript"></script>


Then go to blogger's 'design' page, 'Add a gadget', 'HTML/Javascript', and paste the code above into the empty space. Save and enjoy.


  CREDITS GIVEN TO SCHILLMANIA!!