Recent Comments Widget for Blogger

Hello mate! Are you interested in getting a recent comments widget for your Blogger powered blog? It will show a few recent comments on your sidebar / footer with some summary of the comments. This widget will be helpful for your audience to follow the conversation in your blog. Luckily, Blogger has recently created a featured widget of recent comments, so we can add it easily. Here are the steps:

1. Login to Blogger.com
2. Go to Dashboard >> Layout >> Page Elements
3. Click Add a Gadget
4. Click Featured (on the upper left of the pop up screen)
5. Choose Recent Comments widget.
6. Set the number of comments you want to appear, summary characters, etc.
7. Save, and done!

Visit your blog to see your new recent comments widget. Easy, right? Let me know if you need further assistance using the comments section. Adios fellas :D

10 Things That Drive Your Visitors Away

Do you want your visitors to stay on your website for a while and read your posts thoroughly? I bet you do. That is why you should know these 10 mistakes that drives your visitors away in less than two minutes. Avoid them and your visitors will enjoy their stay and come back again in future. Making your visitors annoyed quickly is never a good idea for a blog / website, you know. Especially when it's growing.

1. Using large or too many graphics: loads slow

Large and lots of graphics cost bandwidth and and make your site slow to load. If the load time is beyond your visitors' limit of acceptance, they will get impatience obviously. Thus resulting in their leaving at once, and that is not something you want. If a larger image is needed to describe your content, provide a link like "click here to view in larger size" or something. Therefore, the slow loading only occur when your visitor wish to see the larger image. Bigger size is not always better, dude.

2. Playing music automatically: irritating

Have you ever visited a website or blog that plays music automatically without your agreement? What do you feel? 9 of 10 people will get annoyed and quickly close the tab or window to silence it. If you have a plan to add sound effect or music to your site, don't do it, just don't. That's why they created Winamp, so that people can listen to music WHEN they want it. Don't force them to hear it from your site, that's bad.

3. Using bad formatting styles / template

Very simple: if your site is not friendly on the eyes, visitors will feel uncomfortable. It will drive them away fast, especially when the formats break into each other like crazy. Therefore, decide your format / template early and stick with it. There are a lot of free web templates out there that look tidy and good, don't say you can't afford them.

4. Using poor background color or image: text hard to read

Poor background color or image will make your text hard to read, and it is certainly annoying for your visitors. They will leave in half a minute. Improve your site's readability to make your visitors comfortable to stay. Light background is good with dark texts, and vice verse. Your target visitors are not super-men with their super vision, are they?

6. Writing too long posts: boring

No one likes someone who talks too much, and it also applies in blogging. Most internet surfers are modern type of people, and in this modern day, people have lots of things to do. Therefore, if you think people will have the time to read long babbling posts, you are wrong. Always make your articles comprehensive and don't extend them over and over. Yes, cut the crap. Super-duper long post is only good if titled "How to Sleep Quickly: Read This Post".

7. Using elements that blink, bounce, or scroll: distracting

Unless your website or blog is for kids, it is a bad idea to have these elements. They will distract your visitors from your message, reducing your communication effectiveness. Whatever you do, always limit or remove distracting elements from your site. Less is more my friend, less is more.

8. Using poor opening on the posts: negative first impression

Some people tend to open their post lamely, and that is totally bad for visitors. For example, if you are going to write a post about computer technology, don't open it by telling what activity you did yesterday, which has nothing to do with the topic. Some bloggers really do this in their extra long posts, and their annoyed visitors will just say "What the f*&% ?!" and leave at once. Don't do it, unless you are someone really-really famous.

9. Putting excessive advertising

Few ads will make your website looks more professional, but putting too many of them will distract your visitors from your content. It also has a big chance to irritate your visitors and drive them away quickly. You won't get more money from ads if they are annoying for your visitors. Don't look like you desperately wanting money, it's not too good for your brand.

10. Putting a registration page

Trust me folks, it will not make the visitors register. Instead, it will drive them away instantly. Time on site and bounce rate will show it, if you use some traffic analytic. If you really really want to ask people to register to your website, you better offer them something worthy registering. Otherwise, those who have registered may curse you because they feel deceived.

I came across a blog of a girl talking about her pony horse once. And guess what, registration was needed to leave comments. That's just stupid. Never ever do it if you blog about a pony horse, unless you're the daughter of Barrack Obama.

What kind of annoyance do you hate the most from a website (based on your experience)? Let's share on the comment box.

Privacy Policy

Hi folks. This blog has been running for seven months now, and it has got some subscribers right there. Therefore, I guess this is a good time to let you know about my privacy policy. Fellas, I want you to know that I respect your privacy and your personal information (email address) is safe with me. Here are a few more details about your email subscription here:

1. I do not share, rent, or sell your personal information / email address with any party.

2. I do not send spam. I only send FeedBurner newsletter (new contents) which you are subscribing.

3. You can unsubscribe at any time from my FeedBurner subscription program. The link to unsubscribe is provided on the footer of every newsletter you receive.

4. Google FeedBurner collects only your subscription information, not your personal identifiable information (PII).

5. I use Google Analytics to learn my traffic statistic. Its tracking cookies do not collect your personal identifiable information (PII).

6. If you are unsure about anything, you can use the contact page to send me a personal message of questions, comments, or complaints.

7. This privacy policy will be updated as soon as there is any change in this blog that involves your privacy.

There you go. I hope this policy will make you rest assured subscribing to my blog.

Zoomerang: Online Surveys for Web Marketing Professionals

One of the important points in a successful web marketing activity is to understand the dynamic condition of the online market. There are many techniques to accomplish this goal, for example by polling / surveys to research the market / customers. For example, what they want and what they get. It will be helpful in choosing critical business decisions to create stronger positive impact.

Online poll / surveys are common things in the realm of internet, which can range from a simple question up to bundles of forms. The medium includes simple poll tools, up to premium-sophisticated survey tools. Some companies are in this business of premium survey service, aiming to help the super-professionals in need.

One of these reliable online surveys companies is Zoomerang (http://www.zoomerang.com), which tagline is “Easiest way to ask, fastest way to know”. It provides a powerful, self-service alternative for conducting accurate and comprehensive online surveys with a minimum of cost and effort. It has been in business since 1999, and had served up to 70 of the Fortune 100 companies.

Zoomerang has a major proficiency in its panelists of unique and real survey respondents. Why? Because it always validates all of its correspondents, making sure that they are truly what and where they claimed to be. It also ensures that the correspondents cannot enter a survey twice using the latest sophisticated survey system. Thus, your survey’s confidence is better assured.

Zoomerang’s specialty is also in its unique combination of the right survey tool plus the ability to reach the right people, two critical values in constructing better top-tier business decisions for professionals. However, it also offers simpler survey tools that you can use for free. If you are interested in advanced surveys to enhance your business, feel free to visit the site for more details and information.

How To Create Tables In Blogger

As in any other publishing / blogging platforms, sometimes we need to create tales in Blogger. However, many users find that unexpected spaces are added inside the table. This problem is caused by the line change conversion setting. Turning it off will not solve the matter, as all of the post will be influenced and potentially causes bigger problems. Here is a simple trick to overcome the issue.

As common HTML programming, to create a table in Blogger, first we need to put these codes in “edit HTML” section:

<table>

<tr>
<td>Line 1 Col 1</td> <td>Line 1 Col 2</td> <td>Line 1 Col 3</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Line 2 Col 1</td> <td>Line 2 Col 3</td> <td>Line 2 Col 3</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Line 3 Col 1</td> <td>Line 3 Col 2</td> <td>Line 3 Col 3</td>
</tr>

</table>

Then, as the default setting of Blogger will add a <br/> to every “enter” key usage (line change), we need to remove every line change inside the table codes to avoid unexpected blank space additions. Therefore, the codes will appear as:

<table><tr><td>Line 1 Col 1</td><td>Line 1 Col 2</td><td>Line 1 Col 3</td></tr><tr><td>Line 2 Col 1</td><td>Line 2 Col 3</td><td>Line 2 Col 3</td></tr><tr><td>Line 3 Col 1</td><td>Line 3 Col 2</td><td>Line 3 Col 3</td></tr></table>

This codes look very complicated may be, therefore, it is more efficient to finish editing the codes in the spacious form (first box above) before we remove the line changes. You can also use third party HTML editing software like Dreamweaver or Notepad++ to help in editing the codes.

However, this adaptation is only to optimize the table with line change conversion. If you do not enable it, you do not need to apply the adaptation. This setting is accessible through Dashboard >> Setting >> Format.

As in any HTML table, you can also apply these codes to set the table further:

<table width=”400px” border=”1” cellspacing=”2” cellpadding=”2”>
or
<tr align=”center” bgcolor=”grey”>

You can search for another supported table codes using HTML editor softwares such as Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Do you find any difficulties in applying it? Feel free to share in the comments.

Need IT Skills? Check K Alliance

Hi there! I am sure that you are aware of the fact that website and internet stuff are closely related information technology (IT), and developing your own site requires a decent knowledge in that field. Especially when your site is not a blog in type, since maintaining a blog is much simpler than a website. That is why when you are to build big / major scale website, you need a good IT engineer (or engineers). It can be you yourself leading a team or engineers, or you can have someone else do it for you.

If you are a type of person who likes to do things on your own flavor and with your idealism, so be it. All you need is to learn IT knowledge and skills, don't have to be an expert though, but at least savvy. Like Bill Gates, he is a type of Jack of All Trades leading the Aces in developing Microsoft. The learning process of IT can be autodidact or with trainers. If you feel having a trainer is better, I suggest K Alliance (http://www.kalliance.com) , they can help you.

K Alliance offers computer based training (CBT) and online computer training videos for IT training, Certification Tracks, Desktop Application, Soft Skills, Online Mentoring, Custom Development, Enterprise Server Library, and free demo videos. Their featured customers are IBM, US Army, US Department of Homeland Security, Visa, GE, AT&T, etc.

K Alliance recently became a member of CompTIA's (Computing Technology Industry Association) network of specialized trainers that gain exclusive insight into requirements and guidelines for reach of their certifications. CompTIA offers educators and trainers specialized resources that can greatly improve service to their constituencies.

CompTIA members that have joined their Learning Alliance have met CompTIA's quality standards for delivering certification education and training, so IT students know that they receive a beneficial education that is worth their investment and that will help them enhance their IT skills and careers. Membership also conveys to students that courses and study materials are of top-notch quality that will help them successfully learn all they will need to pass the certification exam and become a certified professional within the IT industry.

This information of K Alliance’s CompTIA membership was officially announced on Reuters (April 29, 2009). There are many interesting points the press release, and I only mention a few here. If you are interested in IT stuff, feel free to check it out.

Reuters address: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS145422+29-Apr-2009+PRN20090429