Blogger Trick - Remove the Nav Bar

Blogger Nav Bar : Blogger has a default navigation bar.This navigation bar will not be present on most of the downloaded templates.If your blog shows a blogger navigation bar, you can remove it. To remove the blogger navigation bar,follow these steps.

1.Login to your blogger account
2.From your Dashboard opt for Layout
3.Now choose Edit Html
4.You will see your template code there.
5.In that template code find

]]></b:skin>

and replace it with

#navbar-iframe { display: none !important; } ]]></b:skin>

6.Now opt for SaveTemplate.

7.Affter saving the template take a look at your template and your blogger navigation bar must have disappeared.

Improve Your Google Rankings in One Easy Step

We're going to have to make a quick edit to your Blogger template which might intimidate some of you but it's very small and painless. All I ask you to do first is to backup your template just in case you make a boo boo. That makes it easy to revert back without much headache.

Step #1

In your Blogger dashboard, go to "Layout" => "Edit HTML".

Step #2

In the template code, do a search for this: <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>. It's usually in the first 5-10 lines of code in your template near the top.

Step #3

Replace that bit of code with the following code:
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'>
<title><data:blog.title/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>
</b:if>

Step #4

Save your template and go back to your blog. Click into any individual post and look at the page title.

All your blogger posts are now much better optimized to rank higher in Google. I'm not going to promise you a night and day difference but you've taken a step in the right direction. Now just go post unique high quality content so people searching Google will find your blog first!

Blogger Comment Problem Solution

if you comment link at the bottom of the post disappears, or the posts won't show...or anything major malfunction of any other part of that particular widget. Now...going back to the comment thing for a minute. If your comment link is not showing on your blog posts, check out these thress things first to make sure that all of your settings are correct: Post Options in post editor...the box at the bottom of the rectangle post box that you write in....click on 'Post Options' and make sure comments are allowed. Settings - Comment tab...on the Settings tab, go to comments and make sure they are set to "Show". Template - Page Elements - Blog post...and lastly go to your Layout(Template), go to Page Elements, then click on the edit box in the Blog Post element...hint:(it will be the biggest on on the page). When the Coonfigure box opens up, make sure comments are checked. Okay, after all that your @#%$# comment link is still not showing...LOL...chill! We can fix it. LOL...we're going to play in your template HTML...wheeee! Go to Template...Edit HTML...scroll down in the code until you find this piece of code (the black highlighted section): Okay, select it like I did and cut that puppy out of there. Save the piece in your mouse because you're gonna put it back in a few minutes. And remember where it was, so that you can pust it back in the exact same place...LOL! If your anal retentive like me...copy a whole section of the template...like say five lines before and after the section you're going to cut out and save it on a Notepad page ore WORD page...just so you can see the exact spot to put it back! Okay...I digress...cut that highlighted section out of the template and click save...it will be fine...go ahead...click! Now...this page pops up:" Warning Will Robinson, Warning...LOL...just kidding, I'm a Lost In Space addict! Anyhow...the page says...Egads, you're about to delete a widget!...LOL...never fear...click that Confirm and Save...with pride! Okay now that you've deleted the bad bugger, you're going to reset the widget by scrolling down the template to the spot where you deleted the piece of code that is still in your mouse...Remember up above I told you to remember where you took it out of...another thing that you could do to remember the spot, before you take the piece out hit your Enter key a few times before and after the section, LOL...it will leave a big hole in the template, that will be easy to find! Okay...mouse pointer in the empty spot...right click...paste....put that baby back and hit Save. TaDa!!!! You're all better now, the Blog widget has been reset!

Make a Mobile Friendly Version of your Blog with Google Reader

You blog design may be perfectly optimized for the desktop screen but there are lot of people out there who frequently check your website for new content using their mobile phones.

They are not interested in the sidebars, navigation areas and other design elements - all they want to see is a simple listing of your blog posts in reverse chronological order. If they like to read a post, they can click the title and a mobile friendly version of that page should open on the screen of their cell phone.

You may not be a geek or may have the time to create a mobile edition of your blog so here are two simple hacks to help you out - your blog content won't just look extremely readable on a mobile phone screen, it will also load very fast.

1. Google Reader - The Ten Second Solution

Google Reader can generate an excellent mobile view of your RSS feed without any effort. Just append your feed address to the following URL and your mobile blog is ready.

http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[feed_address]

And here's a live example - use your mobile phone to see the awesome page rendering

http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://feeds2.feedburner.com/tipsntrickstutor

Call this link "Mobile Site" and place it somewhere at the top of your blog design so mobile phone users will notice it instantly and switch to the mobile view.

2. The next solution is to create a free account at mofuse.com and they'll give a personal mobile website with a .mobi address - something like http://domain.mofuse.mobi/.

If you have self-hosted blog like on WordPress or Blogger Custom domains, you can easily setup the mobile edition of your site on a subdomain (e.g. m.domain.com) - it is short and your users can easily guess the URL since almost all popular sites now follow the m. convention.

WordPress users are lucky as there's a plugin that will automatically detect if the client is a mobile phone browser and it then renders a mobile friendly version of the blog to the visitor.

Tutorial: Create RSS Feeds for your Website

This tutorial shows how you can quickly make an RSS feed of any website without requring software or having to write a single line of XML code.

Among other benefits, adding an RSS feed to a regular website can help increase visibility and also boost site traffic because your web pages will now get indexed in blog search engines and online feed readers as well in addition to regular web search.

How to Make a RSS Feed from an existing Website

Let's say you run a website "IceCreamFlavors.com" that sells about a dozen different ice-cream flavors online. This site is small with about 15-20 pages in all.

You created this website in the web 1.0 era using Frontpage and HTML but now you desperately want to have an RSS feed for this website so that customers can automatically know when you launch a new flavor or when there's a new promotion running on the site.

Great idea but the only problem is that you are no geek and have absolutely no clue about RSS feeds. How do you then go about publishing XML web feeds for your site?

Generate RSS Feeds through Google Reader

Well, there's a very popular tool that help you do all this for free – it's called Google Reader. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: Login to your Google Reader account and drag n' drop the "note in reader" link from the web page into the bookmarks toolbar of your web browser. See screecast demo if this sound confusing.

Step 2: Manually open all the web pages of your Ice Cream site in the browser – you only to need to open pages that are to be included in the RSS feed so you can safely skip pages like "Contact Me", "Terms & Conditions", "Return Policy", etc.

Step 3: Now the real fun starts. For each page, select just the relevant content (i.e., text, images, embedded YouTube clips but no navigation areas) with your mouse and then press the "Note in Reader" button.

 

Step 4: A pop-up dialog will open in your browser as shown in the screenshot. Click "add tags" and assign some tag to this page (we use "website") for this example. Close the browser tab and repeat the same process for all other pages of your site – make sure you assign the same tag to each page.

Step 5: Go to Google Reader Settings => "Folders and Tags" and click that gray RSS icon next to the tag "website" to make it public. You'll then see a new link that says "view public page" – copy the URL of that page to the clipboard.

 

We are almost done now. Go to FeedBurner, paste the URL in that feed box, click Next and give your RSS feed some nice title and an address. You can subscribe to this new feed address in Bloglines or Google Reader to see if things are working as expected – they should.

Later, when you add new pages to your ice cream website, you can easily distribute them via the RSS feed by just repeating steps #3 and #4. You may also add the following line of code to your HTML web pages (inside the <HEAD> tag) so that visitors may auto-discover your RSS feed:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Ice Cream Flavors" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/icecream" />

Keep a Record Of All Things You Do On the Computer & the Web

There are so many things you do on the computer at the same time.

You watch videos on YouTube, reply to emails, write Word documents, upload photos, listen to MP3 music, play games, read blogs, chat with friends, search the web, share files and so much more.

So here are some free software programs / web tools that help you know exactly how you spend time in front of the computer – they record all computer activity including the websites you visit, the applications you run, etc.

Debut Video Capture – This is like an internal surveillance camera for your computer that runs in the background and can record a movie of everything you do on the desktop.

Unlike other screencasting software, Debut is light-weight and would therefore work just fine on even low-end machine.

Wakoopa – Available for Windows PC and Mac, Wakoopa will help you understand how you spend time with different software applications and games that are installed on the computer.

Since Wakoopa stores all your software logs online, it can track your application usage across multiple computers as well.

Thumbstrips – This is especially useful for Wilfers who surf the web using Firefox. ThumbStrips captures screenshot images of web pages that you visit inside Firefox.

It them put these images in an horizontal strip of images arrange in the order in which they were take. You can also think of ThumbStrips as a visual browser of your web history.

RescueTime – Available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems, RescueTime is an impressive software for tracking computer usage and other online activity.

Like Wakoopa, Rescue Time runs a small monitor in the background that periodically uploads your activity log on the web. Thus you can access the information from any computer that's connected to the web.

Rescue Time will show you the exact time you spend on different websites or with each software. Best of all, you may setup Goals and Email alerts to get more productive.

For example, you can set a goal that says "I want to spend less than 1 hour per day on Google Talk" – if you cross that limit, you'll get an email alert. Highly recommended.

Track Exactly How You Spend Time At The Computer

Internet and computers are addictive. In a survey, 65 percent of Americans said they spent more time with a computer than with their spouse.

So how do you exactly spend your time at the computer ? Are you doing something productive or just whiling away time that could otherwise be utilized for better things. What apps are you using most frequently ? What websites and blog consume most of your time ?

You will get answers to all these questions and more through RescueTime, a free tool for PC and Mac that's more like having Google Analytics for your computer.

RescueTime is a free tool that runs in the background and keeps a track of all your computer activities. Privacy experts may frown but all this data is uploaded every 30 minutes to the web and you can check your computer usage reports online from any computer. (see screenshot)

Since RescueTime is web+desktop solution, it can be used to track usage across computers (like home and work).

You can also selectively delete certain websites and software apps from your usage history. Or just add them to the ignore list and RescueTime would stop monitoring them.

Update: If you are worried about data that RescueTime is transferring from your computer to the web, check the log files available at the following location:

Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\RescueTime.com\logs\pending

Windows Vista:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\RescueTime.com\logs\pending

Find Out How Much Traffic a Website is Getting

Do you want to spy (or 'research') on your competitors to know how much traffic their sites are getting?

Now there are a bunch of traffic estimation services (like Alexa, Compete, Quantcast, etc.) from where you can obtain statistics (page views + unique visitors) of almost any website for free but is the data accurate? I did a rough comparison using actual data from Google Analytics data and here are the results:

1. Alexa - Alexa won't tell you the actual page views of a site but an estimate of the percentage of Internet users that may have visited your site during a given period. Now assuming that the number of Internet users did not changed drastically in the past 6 months or so, a site's reach as determined by Alexa can be proportional to the unique visitors.

Verdict: The Alexa chart pattern for my blog is fairly similar to Google Analytics which is actually very surprising.

2. Trends for Websites - Google Trends uses data from Google search, Google Analytics and other third-party market research services. Since Google search is the largest source of traffic to most websites (especially those in the tech domain), Trends for Website can give a fairly accurate estimate of site traffic.

Verdict: Google Trends estimation of "daily unique visitors" can get very close to actual numbers but the only problem is that Trends doesn't provide data for low-traffic websites.

3. StatBrain - This is the only service that claims to provide a count of daily visitors to any website. StatBrain does so using data from a number of external sources like Alexa Rank, backlinks in Google, location of web server, etc.

Verdict: StatBrain says that Digital Inspiration gets around 33k unique visitor per day which is definitely on the lower side but still not a very bad guess.

4. Compete - You can use Compete to estimate the total US traffic for nearly every site on the web. Compete uses data from ISPs, their own toolbar and other data source to calculate the unique visitors and hits (or pageviews) of a site.

Verdict: Very close to actual data but limited to visitors from US only so you won't get the true picture for an international website.

5. QuantCast - Like Compete, QuantCast too gives an estimate of hits and unique visitors along with visitor demographics.

Verdict: Data is not available for all websites and also less accurate than Compete (at least for Digital Inspiration) though the situation may be different for quantified sites.

6. Google Ad Planner - This is my favorite tool that is both accurate and comprehensive. You get to know the traffic of any website in a particular geographic region (or worldwide), average number of visits per visitor, total page views, unique visitors and the broad category of that site.

Here's how you can use Google Ad Planner to determine the traffic of any website:

1. Click the "Begin Research" tab in your Ad Planner dashboard.

2. Type the URLs of all websites that you want to research in the "Sites Visited" section of "Online Activity"

3. You'll see that all those sites now appear on the right side. Click the name of the site to view the traffic and demographic details of that site.

Add Language Translation Flags to your web site

What's you first reaction when you land on a website that's written in Russian, Chinese or Japanese ? Most of us would hunt for that English language translation flag and if that's missing, we will copy-paste the site address in Google Translate website to convert the site content to English.

Way too much effort. Now let's reverse the roles and say somebody from China or Japan visits your blog (written in English). The foreign visitor will have exactly the same problems that you faced when you were visiting that non-English website above.

Since more than 65% of web users speak a language other than English, it is essential that you provide language translation features in your blog so that you don't miss the non-English speaking traffic.

So when an Arabic visitor passes your English blog, he or she can just click the Arab flag to translate the website into his native language - That way you don't loose a visitor plus he could even subscribe if the content is good even if written in another language.

Here's a quick tutorial to add language translation to your blog. You can be any blogging platform including Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress that provides access to templates. The visitor will see nine country flags corresponding to German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian languages.

All you have to do is copy-paste the following lines of Javascript code anywhere in your blog template.

<form action="http://www.google.com/translate" >

<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
document.write ("<input name=u value="+location.href+" type=hidden>")
// -->
</script>

<input name="hl" value="en" type="hidden">

<input name="ie" value="UTF8" type="hidden">

<input name="langpair" value="" type="hidden">

<input name="langpair" value="en|fr" title="French" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539949_e76af75976.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|de" title="German" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539933_041ca1eda2.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|it" title="Italian" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539953_0384ccecf9.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|pt" title="Portuguese" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539966_0d09b410b5.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|es" title="Spanish" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539946_2fabed0dbf.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|ja" title="Japanese" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539955_925e6683c8.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|ko" title="Korean" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/13539958_3c3b482c95.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair" value="en|zh-CN" title="Chinese Simplified" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/img/43/1633/320/14324441_5ca5ce3423.jpg" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30">

<input name="langpair2" value="en|ar" title="Arabic" src= "http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3709/485/1600/arabic-flag.gif" onclick="this.form.langpair.value=this.value" height="20" type="image" width="30" />
</form>

Actually the above tutorial is an enhanced version of our previous Language Translation Tutorial.

The Twitter Toolset: 50+ Guides, Hacks, and Scripts

Twitter's popularity has soared within the social networking and blogging communities, even attracting high profile users like presidential candidates and journalists. Twitter lets users create profiles so that friends, family, fans or loyal readers have the ability to see updates on what they're up to via the web, email, or even their mobile phones. Twitter's mobility and easy-to-use interface are great features, but there are ways that users can make Twitter an even more useful and interactive tool. Here are more than 50 plug-ins, add-ons and other tools that can help you improve your Twitter experience. Browser Add-Ons Make integrating Twitter with your browser simple and easy with these fun browser add-ons for Firefox.

1. TwitBin: This Firefox extension allows you to send and receive messages via Twitter straight from your browser sidebar.
2. TwittyTunes: Users of FoxyTunes will find this to be a cool Firefox extension. It allows you to post your current playlists of music, videos or websites on Twitter with the click of a button, so you can easily share your selections with friends.
3. Shareaholic: Spread around the Internet gems you find using Shareaholic. It allows users to share links and webpages through Twitter using Firefox.
4. Twitter Search Plugin: Expand the functionality of your Firefox search box by adding Twitter. You'll be able to create tweets just by typing where you'd normally put your search query.
5. Tweetbar: Add Twitter to your Firefox sidebar with this easy-to-use and feature-filled plugin. Just type your tweet into the address bar and post away!
6. TwitterFox: Keep up on your friends' status with this Firefox extension. It will add a tiny icon that will notify you whenever someone on your friends list adds new content.
7. Lud.icro.us: Ludicrous is another great tool for posting updates to your Twitter directly from your search bar. Just don't forget to change it back when you want to search.
8. Power Twitter: This addon lives up to its name. It allows you to embed Flickr and YouTube on your Twitter page, see full addresses for tinyurls, and much more.
9. Twippera: Don't have Firefox? Try using this add-on that allows you to send and receive tweets through Opera.

Plug-Ins and Scripts Whether you want to send twitter updates from your instant messenger, or integrate your music, these tools can do it all.

10. Twitter Tools: This plugin for WordPress will allow you to fully integrate your blog and your Twitter account. You'll get archiving, posting and display tools to make Twitter an integral part of your blogging experience.
11. Twitter Badge: Let your blog readers in on your Twitter status with this WordPress badge plugin. Users will be able to see what you're posting to your Twitter account right from your blog sidebars.
12. TwitThis: TwitThis makes it easy for readers to spread the word about your blog. Simply attach the button to your posts or website and users can click on it to send the URL to their friends.
13. TwitterBox: Fans of Second Life will love this plugin which allows users to receive updates and messages from Twitter while in Second Life.
14. TikiTwit: Designed for Mac users, this plugin will allow you to automatically sync up your Twitter status with your iChat status.
15. Twessenger: Bring your Windows Messenger and Twitter together with this plugin. Your Messenger status will update whenever you change your Twitter status.
16. Twitter Updater: This plugin will automatically send a status update to your Twitter account anytime you make a change or add new posts to your WordPress blog.
17. Twit-Twoo: This simple plugin allows you to update your Twitter status right from your blog.
18. TwitterYM: This plugin integrates your Twitter and Yahoo Instant Messenger accounts, updating your status based on your latest Twitter.

Desktop Apps Add these applications to help you get the most out of your Twitter experience.

19. Twadget: Keep your Twitters close at hand with this widget for Windows Vista which hangs out in the sidebar so you can send and receive tweets.
20. What's Up?: This gadget allows you to see the latest updates to your friend's twitters right on your desktop.
21. Twitteroo: Send out tweets straight from your PC with Twitteroo. You'll also be able to send out shortened URLs, message other users, browse the Twitter homepage, and much more.
22. Twitteriffic: This tiny client for Mac users makes it possbile to easily publish and read tweets as well as view profiles and timelines.
23. Tweeter: This Java-based Twitter client has a fully customizable user interface to make your experience as personalized as possible.
24. Twinja: This desktop client for PC and Macs allows users to easily send messages, timelines, updates and even follow your favorite users.
25. TwitterPost: TwitterPost is a simple client that allows Twitter users to post new updates, integrate their iTunes into their Twitter and much more.
26. Twitterlicious: Take all the work out of updating Twitter with Twitterlicious. Change your status and easily send and receive messages with this Windows client.
27. TwitBox: This Twitter client for Windows is fully featured. View and submit tweets, see replies and direct messages, delete your own tweets, and manage multiple accounts from one easy window.
28. Triqqr: This slick tool for Windows allows you to publish and read tweets as well as check out other users profiles.

Mobile Don't miss out on your Twitter just because you're out of the house. Use these mobile programs to take it on the road.

29. Jargong: Jargong is more than just a mobile Twitter client, though it's great for publishing and reading tweets. You can also use it to browse and post on Flickr and user a number of social networking sites.
30. Twapper: Twapper is a mobile Twitter device that allows users to do just about anything Twitter-related on the go. It has special features for users that are 30 Boxes members, too.
31. Twit!: Windows Mobile users can spruce up their cells with this simple app, designed to help you avoid racking up those expensive SMS charges.
32. TinyTwitter: Bring your Twitter with you using this mobile program. Designed to work with any Java supported device, including BlackBerries, it allows you stay connected without being bothered every time a friend's update comes through.
33. Tweeter: This program goes by the same name as another, but is designed especially to work on cell phones and help you avoid text messages charges when Twittering away from home.
34. iTweet: Take your Twittering to your iPhone with this slick mobile app designed to work on Safari, offering features designed especially for mobile browsing.
35. WildSets: WildSets is a fully functional Twitter client with one important enhancement: it's made just for your phone, making it easy for you to take your Twitter addiction with you anywhere.
36. TreoTwit: This program is designed to make using Twitter easy from your Treo.
37. TwitterBerry: BlackBerries aren't just for work, you can also use TwitterBerry to keep your friends up to date with Twitter updates and messages as well.

Guides and How-To's Heard a lot about Twitter but not sure how to get started using it? Check out these guides to learn the basics.

38. Newbie's Guide to Twitter: Get in the know about Twitter with this extensive guide for newbies from WebWare.
39. Twitter Guide: This multi-part series will take you through everything you need to know about how and why to use Twitter.
40. Your Guide to Microblogging: Learn to embrace the trend of microblogging by using your Twitter account. Get all the details in this blog from PBS.
41. Twitteroid's Guide to Mastering Twitter: Don't just use Twitter, learn to master it. Find all the information you'll need in this guide from Twitteroid.
42. The 12-Minute Definitive Guide to Twitter: Even if you don't have a lot of time to spare, you can learn all about Twitter with this short and straight to the point guide to learning everything you ever wanted to know about the program.
43. Hacking Twitter for Fun and Profit: If you're not sure just what Twitter is useful for, then check out this article from Daily Wireless. It gives suggestions ranging from running a presidential campaign to keeping up with group projects.

Extras These are some additional tools to further fuel your Twitter addiction.

44. Twitter Weather: Find out what to wear in the morning or if you should bring your umbrella to work directly from your Twitter with this useful bot.
45. Twitter Vision: This web app shows a real-time visual display of the Twitter stream as users from all over the world create updates.
46. AutoTwit: If you know you're going to be away and won't be able to update your status, set up automatic updates through the AutoTwit program.
47. Friend or Follower: See who is your Twitter friend and who is just really interested in what you're doing with this easy-to-use Web application.
48. GeoTwitter: This simple web app uses Google Maps and information from Twitter to show where in the world the last posts on Twitter have been coming from.
49. TwitterFeed: Feed your blog directly into your Twitter account with this simple web-based tool.
50. TwitterBuzz: Twitter Buzz compiles a list of all the sites people are linking to on Twitter so you can keep on top of the biggest stories or coolest websites easily.
51. TwitterSearch: This tool allows you to search through all Twitter users and postings to find the information or person you're looking for.
52. TwitterMap: TwitterMap will show you what updates are being posted from a specific geographic area. Just enter your information and find out how many people are Twittering in your neighborhood.
53. Twitterverse: Keep up with everything that's being posted on Twitter with this site. Simply click on a keyword to view all posts that contain that word.
54. TwitterNotes: This helpful tool lets you share public or private notes via Twitter.