I am of the impression that a lot of the best things from the Internet is built out of a vast chasm of unsatisfactory services that exist — or used to exist online. For me, Anthony’s vision of building Squarespace out of frustration of finding “the” blogging platform fuels whatever magic they’re doing behind closed doors.
[Read more…] about If you’re going to opt for a paid blogging platform, Squarespace is top of mind
When I first started to dabble in Internet marketing it became clear pretty early on that it was all about links, so the next thing I had to figure out was where to get them which lead me to the article directories. The concept couldn’t be any easier, you write an article put your links in it and submit it to one of the directories. With a little more research I started to come across the term “bum marketing” which in truth was a little off putting at the time. Since then I have learned a lot and realized a lot about article submission and now when I see the term bum marketing it brings a smile to my face because if the person really knew the potential of article marketing they wouldn’t refer to it that way, so I can only conclude that they either don’t know how to use it properly or they just overlooked this tactic in favor of a more glamorous method. [Read more…] about Why Do They Call It Bum Marketing?
The road to fitness can be lonely. If you’re overweight and self-aware enough to do something about it, that makes you incredibly brave, but you still probably don’t want to advertise your mission from the rooftops (at least not until you’ve gone down a couple jeans sizes). Coworkers, friends, and family can be less than supportive when you’re trying to achieve something that they’re too lazy to attempt themselves. And if you stumble, it’s never fun being humiliated in front of your peers.
However, accountability can be a powerful motivator. The right cheerleaders can get you out of bed at 6am for that much-needed kickboxing workout. Admitting your daily calorie count to a crowd makes that Big Mac combo a lot less appetizing. And when you succeed at your weight loss goals – which you will eventually – it’s so much more fulfilling to share the victory with others. [Read more…] about 4 Ways to Blog Yourself Fit
Running a popular blog contest is a powerful weapon to kick your tired old blog into overdrive. Not only will you attract a ton of new visitors – who hopefully become subscribers – but you will likely have a lot of fun. Blog contests have graced the blogosphere for years, ever since blogs became the buzzword of the 21st century.
Savvy bloggers run several contests throughout a calendar year because it always revs up their readership, hence paying them a healthy ROI on their time and in some instances on their money.
The following success tips will make your next blog contest a raving success – one that the blogosphere will remember for months to come.
When picking a prize for the winner(s) of your contest you should look at your industry first. What is it that really gets people’s hearts all warm and fuzzy? If you are a web designer holding a contest for fellow designers and wanna be professionals you could organize things like free content from freelance writers for the next five projects (saving them money they would otherwise have to pay), free software to simplify their lives, free tutoring to help fellow professionals reach the next milestones, etc.
If all else fails and you can’t think of something useful, consider offering a popular gadget; think iPhone, iPad, and Android tablets or a smartphone, or if the budget can stretch that far a trip always goes down well. However, this is likely too expensive an option for most
bloggers. [Read more…] about Boost Your Blog Awareness With These 6 Tips for Successful Blog Contests
Some time ago, Jonathan wrote about a blogging pitfall: the failure to back up your blog. He made a very strong case for taking the time and effort to regularly back up your blog. Along the same lines, I share with you a very useful back up tool: BackupBuddy.
In a nutshell, BackupBuddy is more than a backup tool. In addition to backing up, it also offers restore and migration options. The service has been around for a while now, but the recent addition of the ability to back up to Amazon’s S3 data center service makes this an even more viable option because you can store your files off site. In the event that your hard drive or server crashes, your files will be safe in another location – S3. You still have the option to back up all your blog’s data – including media and themes – locally and via FTP, but this additional option does offer more advantages. More so, you can schedule your back ups in advance in case you have memory issues and do not remember to back up regularly!
As for the restore option, you can easily do this within minutes. You do not have to worry about having your site down for hours on end and losing out on potential revenue. If you find yourself facing the need to migrate, you can work on development in one server and then launch on a different server – within minutes as well.
If you want to know more about what BackupBuddy can do for you and how to use it, watch the videos below.
BackupBuddy Overview from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.
This is how you back up your WordPress blog without breaking a sweat.
How to Backup WordPress from WebDesign.com on Vimeo.
Whether you fancy web design, application development, server administration, or just managing your blogs, you are a web hosting geek. If you were not, you would not be reading this. Fortunately, if you happen to have a phone running the Android mobile operating system, we have found ten Android apps, in no particular order, to make designing, development, and server management a bit easier.
Contrary to some reports, FTP is not dead. This little app will give you just what you need to upload or download files from your server. AndFTP supports all major protocols, including SFTP, SCP, and FTPS for secure file transfers.
Because choosing just the right color can mean the difference between failure and getting paid, every web designer needs an app like this. Magic Color Picker uses both palette and slider selection and supports RGB, HSV, HSL, and YUV color models. [Read more…] about 10 Android Apps for Web Hosting Geeks
SEO & Social Media – It’s not a competition but a partnership
It used to be that SEO was the holy grail of Internet Marketing and the online world was ablaze with the opportunity and success of optimizing your website for the Search Engines to gain visibility, traffic, leads and sales.
Then, all of a sudden the social web exploded with Facebook, Twitter and Social Bookmarking where everyone could chat about your product or service, write a review and share it with their ‘friends’. [Read more…] about SEO vs. Social Media – Which Wins?
This is a guest blog by Loren Baker, the SVP of Online PR at BlueGlass Interactive, a full service online marketing agency, and is a professional blogger & creator of Search Engine Journal, an AdAge Top 10 ranked marketing blog.
One of the most important things you will do as a blogger is create content. The more content you have, the more opportunities you have to be seen by the search engines and by your readers. That will give you a base flow of traffic. The more base traffic you have, the more likely it is that you will get links to your site. The more links you have, the better you will rank on the search engines. Starting and maintaining this continuous cycle is one of the most effective ways that you can improve your site’s success. Whether you are an established blogger, or planning a new blog, generating ideas for that content can be pretty difficult, however. There are some great free tools that will help you come up with things to say. [Read more…] about Best Tools for Brainstorming Content Ideas