Intense Debate blog comment system launches public beta

Category: Beta Software, Blog    |    5,230 views    |    88 Comments  |   

And the race for complete and total dominance of the blog comment marketplace is on. OK, not really, but Disqus isn’t the only blog commenting system launching today. After spending a few months in private beta, Intense Debate is launching an open beta this morning.

Both Intense Debate and Disqus offer web publishers an advanced comment system with support for threaded comments and the ability to track users’ comments. Both services also offer integration options with popular blog platforms like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, and Moveable Type.

As a reader/commenter, you can subscribe to comments via email or RSS. And both services let you create a profile allowing you to see all the conversations you’re currently participating in from one user-friendly screen.

Intense Debate is doing more than emerging from private beta today. The service has also added a few new features which set it apart from Disqus:

 

Navigation makes a website presentable!

Category: Tips and Tricks    |    1,236 views    |    Add a Comment  |   

Frankly speaking web surfers are impatient peoples who will leave your site if navigation structure is not neatly defined. Once they go, will not return to your site ever. So a clean and neat navigation is very much essential for the success of the site. Being a user a clean and understandable navigation makes a lot of difference to your site.So in the process of website design and development, get your basics right. Get the creative team working for you and have the similar navigation style through out the site. Your web development company will have to understand your requirements and your target audience. What kind of services or products you are offering to your customers, accordingly site’s navigation structure will have to be maintained through out the site.

So the points which your website development company should take care of are:

Make sure that your navigation structure is clearly visible and linked to all the pages. Make your anchor text relevant with your pages.

Don’t make such links which users can’t understand. Such as if you are creating a map and linking the country or city through it, most of the times user wont understand that. So be clear in your approach so that user can understand that they have to click the city to get information.

“Three click rules” Always try to follow to keep all your pages just 3 clicks away. Avoid deep linking. A user won’t go 3 pages down under to get the information.

These are some simple recommendation to keep your navigation structure clean and healthy. Try and tested method to make your site more accessible. Try it now to see the difference.

 

Custom domain for New Blogger (formerly Blogger Beta)

Category: Blog, Google    |    1,405 views    |    Add a Comment  |   

Custom domain is a fairly new feature available recently for bloggers using the New Blogger platform. Most bloggers using Google Blogger do not have their own domain. Instead, they have a sub-domain in the form of http://yourblog.blogspot.com.

Some people are not too happy to use a sub-domain for their blog, as the sub-domain does not belong to them, but to Blogger. Some also have the opinion that it is less prestigious to use a sub-domain, rather like using your home for a business office which then therefore command less respect. If you are of that opinion, this is where custom domain comes in. You can register a domain for your blog and Blogger can host it free for you. And not only is it free, you do not have to bother with the hassle of using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to publish your post. And you can use the new features available for New Blogger like Layout, drag and drop, Label list, etc.

Some bloggers are still not satisfied with just having their own domain, and want to host the blog on their own with a third party web host in addition to having their own domain. In this case, in addition to having pay for the annual renewal fee for the domain registration, you will have to pay monthly or yearly hosting fees. Depending on which web host you choose, you may also have to bother with limited bandwidth, etc. If your blog attracts high traffic, you may have to pay more for more bandwidth, etc.

If you are using your blog for business purposes, it is probably good to have your own domain for your blog. You will then have to register a suitable domain name. Now getting a suitable domain name may not be easy as many domain names have already be taken up and the one you want may not be available. This is where www.buydomains.com comes in. You can search for suitable and available domain name using their search box or their Advanced Search Tool.

If the searches don’t turn up anything, you can use their new New Domain Alert to alert you of new available domain names.

Now you can also make a business of blogs that you start. You can register good domain names which you think may be of great value to someone, but who may happen to be late on the scene. You can then put up your domain name for sale at Sell Your Domains.

If rather than just parking the domain names, you start blogging and build up a good PageRank for the blogs. A domain name with a good PageRank can probably fetch higher prices. A PageRank of 5 is not too difficult to get if you put some work into it. Your blog will then fetch a good price

In addition, if you join the Google AdSense and place contextual text and/or image ads., Google search boxes or Google referral text or buttons on your blogs and get it up to earning a decent income, your blog can fetch even higher prices as there are people looking for ready made revenue generating blogs and are willing to pay for them. If you want to go that route, I can help you. Just comment in any of my blogs or email me. And when you are ready, just put the blog/s up for sale at Sell Your Domains.

 

Searching for section of codes in template

Category: Blog, Google    |    1,212 views    |    Add a Comment  |   

Various posts have been published about editing the template to achieve various objectives or hacks such as Expandable Post Summary for New Blogger, etc. To implement such hacks, you have to go into the template itself rather than using the Page Elements in the LAYOUT, a method much more user friendly for those who are not comfortable with HTML, etc. Also, you will be required to search through long lines of codes in the template. Bloggers often have problems searching for the particular section of the codes.

Use Find function in task bar (ctrl+F)

One way you can easily find the code is to highlight a part of the code, for example, if you are looking for this block of codes:

<b:include data=’post’ name=’postQuickEdit’/>
</span>
</p>

perhaps you can highlight

quickedit pencil

click ctrl+F and a “Find” box will appear at the left bottom corner of the task bar, type or paste what you find into the “Find” box, and the phrase quickedit pencil will be located for you as shown in the screenshot below (click on screenshot if you want to see an enlarged and clearer version of the screenshot):

use FIND function ctrl+F to search for some text or code

Acually, the screenshot above is not searching for something in the template, but just an example I use while preparing this post and as you can see, it can also be used to locate words or phrases in the post editor, not just the template editor. I the above example, I used “quickEdit” to illustrate. If that section is not what you are seeking, just keep on clicking “Next” until you find what you are looking for.

 

Drive More Traffic Through “Wordtracker”

Category: Tips and Tricks    |    1,323 views    |    Add a Comment  |   

Looking to drive more traffic to your blog? Try writing about what people are searching for. WordTracker has a free tool to help you choose your subject wisely based on search engine searches, it super easy to use just enter a starting keyword to generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.

Check it outPeople use different words when they search for your products online. Use these ‘keywords’ in your website copy and people will find your site when they search.

No matter what business you are in, Wordtracker will tell you the words people use when they search - and how popular each word is.

With a Wordtracker subscription, you will be able to:

  • Optimize your website content by using the most popular keywords for your product and services
  • Generate thousands of relevant keywords to improve your organic and PPC search campaigns
  • Research online markets, find niche opportunities and exploit them before your competitors

In short, your search engine ranking will soar, you’ll get more visits to your website and more people will buy your products.

Overview: Wordtracker offers a database of 340 million search queries from which you can query to build keyword lists for use in search engine optimization and pay per click advertising.
  • Database of 340 million real search engine queries compiled from top metacrawlers.
  • Simple, exact/precise, compressed, comprehensive, misspelling, lateral, and thesaurus search.
  • Returns singular, plural, uppercase, lowercase, and capitalized versions of a search query.
  • Returns a list of similar keywords that bear any relation to your search query.
  • Displays the search count for each keyword.
  • Shopping basket to store your keywords.
  • Competition search finds keywords that have few competing web pages in major search engines.
  • Set up to 7 projects, where you can add, swap, and delete keywords.
  • Allows you to export or email the saved keywords.
  • Top 1,000 long and short term search reports.
  • Benefits:
  • Find out what your target audience are searching for when searching for your businesses, products or services.
  • Find out what keywords to target when optimizing your web pages.
  • Find out what keywords to target when advertising in pay per click search engines.
  • Find search terms that have few competing web pages in major search engines, which should make it easier to get top rankings for.
  • Spot trends, before your competitors do.
  • Review: Wordtracker was the first and still is the best keyword research tool available.

    It offers a massive 340 million keyword database from which you can find out what your target audience are entering into search engines and how many times each keyword has been entered.

    This is invaluable insight to help you target your customers in your search engine optimization efforts and pay per click search engine advertising. I probably wouldn’t be able to come up with 95% of the keywords that Wordtracker comes up with.

    Competition search is a neat feature. It helps you find keywords that have few competing web pages in major search engines. And the fewer pages you have to compete with, the easier it should be to get top rankings.

    Wordtracker even offers a mispelling search to help you find misspelled keywords. Sprinkle these into a web page to ensure your page comes up in search results.

    I use Wordtracker virtually every day. It’s like my oracle. I never write a Google or Overture ad, or optimize a web page, without checking with Wordtracker first to see which keywords I should be targeting. Wordtracker tells me exactly what my customers are entering into search engines.

    If I had to give up all of my search engine software tools, Wordtracker would be the last one I would give up. It doesn’t come cheap, but I think it’s priceless. Would I recommend it? You bet!

    Accolades:
  • “Wordtracker is an essential investment, a must have resource for any search engine marketing professional.” - Danny Sullivan, Editor, Search Engine Watch.
  • “Wordtracker has no equal in the industry to my knowledge.” - Brent Winter, President, First Place Software.
  • “I wanted to say how invaluable your resource is for researching proper placement on the web. Your service has now saved me and my staff thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.” - Lee Erickson, Activemarketplace.
  • Format: Online subscription service.
    Require: Internet connection.
    Free Trial: Yes
    Costs:
  • 1 Week - £14.00 / ~$27.00
  • 1 Month - £28.00 / ~$55.00
  • 1 Year - £140.00 / ~$275.00
  •