Jack of All Blogs

Key Areas to Focus on to Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly

Gracielou — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:21:23 +0000

Blog owners who want to reach out to people who frequently use their mobile gadgets should seriously consider making their sites mobile-friendly. You need to do this as soon as possible if you don’t want to reduce the number of your regular readers. With a growing number of people now opting to use their mobile devices to browse the internet, this should be made a priority. If you want to be sure about this, you can use Google Analytics to check the number of people accessing your blog from a mobile device. When a keep same which SPF! blog to find out for yourself how it looks in a mobile gadget. Use Google’s How to Go Mo then go to the Mobile Meter page and enter your website address. An image will next appear showing how your blog will look in a mobile device. There are certain aspects of a blog that you need to modify in order to have it display better in a mobile gadget such as an iPad or smartphone. Text should be made shorter and the images have to be in the right size without requiring people to zoom in and out on your content all the time. When you are able to adjust them, you can be sure your readers will have a fast and easy access to your site. You have an option to build a separate website exclusively for mobile devices. This has its own advantages being easy to do, cost effective and requires no technical skill. But there are also downsides particularly as you will need to update two sites every time. Perhaps the best option is to use a mobile-optimized theme that instantly displays a mobile version of your blog when a person visits your site via a smartphone or tablet. Image via blogger

Essential Photo Tips for Your Blog

Gracielou — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:41:53 +0000

Blogs are in the millions on the web today. There’s stiff competition the reason why every publisher or blogger needs to find creative ways to stand out from the crowd. One effective method in driving traffic to your blog on a consistent manner is by using images on every post. Keep in mind it has to be in every post as much as possible. Isn’t it that a picture says a thousand words? That is always true and come to think of it, people love to see photos whether on newspapers, magazines and on the internet. Putting all text in a post can be straining to the eyes and boring. Some people find it lifeless. But try putting a beautiful photo in your post and you can be sure to attract visitors. Do this on a regular basis and you’ll also gain regular followers. In short, an image adds color to a post and is normally the first attraction on your blog post or your blog in general. People view it first rather than read the text right away. Do remember, however, that it’s not just about putting any photo you like there. It has to be something closely related to your writeup so readers will be encouraged to continue reading. It can serve as an introduction to your post or you can also include it within the body of your article. Photos in a blog post are also essential in search engine optimization and establishing your credibility. You can attract search engines to your blog by putting meta tags. These refer to the title, description and alt text ofo your image. Images are also indexed by search engines which means you can expect your blog to be included in the search results. This is not limited only to Google but as well as other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing. Photo via curbybet.net

How to Add Social Media Buttons on a Blog

Gracielou — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 13:42:31 +0000

A blog is one way of sharing useful information over the internet. For businesses, it is an effective way of updating consumers of new products and services, promotions, events and other activities. Companies can actually use it as an addition to their existing blog. It should be understood, though, that a blog should not be used as a standalone site all the time. It has to be linked to the main website and if possible, to a person or company’s social media accounts. In this way, people have more avenues by which to learn more about what you do as well as the products and services you offer. On the part of the publisher, this step can help you gain traffic to your website and eventually gain more customers. To link your blog to social media sites, there are simple steps that you can follow. They’re fairly easy to do as long as you know how to follow instructions and you have much patience. First things first. Choose only the social media buttons that you actively use. Avoid putting too many share buttons that can only confuse people. Using only the major social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn will be most ideal. The experts recommend three buttons only. What counts is you know where your target market frequently hang out. If you’re after a well organized set of buttons, you may use the Catchcall Service. This requires only a few lines of code so it should be easy to include it in your blog. The only issue with this is the lack of a strong call to action. Share This is another service that you can use. You can choose from including a small button, single button or large icons with vertical and horizontal counts. Some other options available are Sociofluid and Sociable which is a plugin on WordPress.

Why Retailers Need to Consider Starting a Blog

Gracielou — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:00:31 +0000

It’s true that having a web presence is very important these days for any business organization. This is one way of reaching out to a global market and providing existing and prospective clients with comprehensive information about your products and services.

But apart from the website, many companies including retailers are not fully aware of the significance of a blog. Often, they do not know the difference between a website and a blog.

There are several factors why retailers today need to seriously consider this tool.

Firstly, for search engine optimization or SEO purposes. Search engines index blogs more than websites particularly when their content is updated on a regular basis. This then is your opportunity to show on the top search results when internet users search for products and services. Make sure you utilize relevant keywords in your blog that you think people will use when looking for your business offerings.

A second factor is building your credibility as an expert. As a blog needs to be updated regularly, this is your opportunity to share valuable information on your business niche and gain the trust of internet users. When they see and feel that you know what you’re sharing, they will eventually turn to you for expert advice.

Thirdly, this online tool is free to use. There are different blog platforms available today and they’re fairly easy to use that a background on HTML is not even necessary.

Finally, you can use a blog to update clients and other internet users about your company’s current activities such as mergers and events, new products and other offerings. This is what Apple has been doing to get the word out about their latest happenings.

About the guest author:

Jenine is a business writer knowledgeable about the technologies businesses utilize today to achieve their goals. She agrees that sage retail is vital for retailers committed to succeed in what they do.

The Essence of a Blog Description

Gracielou — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:38:47 +0000

Many people ignore the importance of providing a description for their blogs. They miss out on getting on the top search results and being found by people looking for relevant information because of this. If you’re serious about sharing your knowledge and expertise on the internet and getting more web traffic, it’s time you take into account the so-called blog SEO strategy. This is about your blog being searched easily and getting a high ranking in search results. An ideal blog description uses keywords relevant to your passion or business. These are terms often used by people when searching for a specific topic or business. They may not necessarily be the popular keywords. There’s also a rule on the number of characters for a blog description. If you’re using the WordPress platform, for instance, the SEO description box recommends at least 160 characters. This is because most search engines normally just show 160 characters in the search results. For this purpose, your description can include keywords of your blog. If you’re posting articles, however, you may include the first sentences that are closely related to your title. Avoid using your article title because it won’t give you benefits at all. Keywords play a significant role in gaining a higher rank in search results. They should go hand in hand with your blog description. A tip here is to use the post categories in your blog as keywords. Remember that they have to be relevant to your blog’s main topic or your particular business industry. Don’t even use your country or state as a keyword if you’re not writing about it in your posts. To determine the keywords your readers frequently use when searching for your blog or posts, you can use Google Analytics. This tool is most useful in giving you information about posts that rank high on search results as well as the keywords visitors often use. So keep in mind that for every new post you create on your blog, always provide a relevant blog description to be indexed by search engines. Photo via szsolutions.com

How to Encourage Comments on Your Blog

Gracielou — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 06:40:56 +0000

Not many people who visit websites and blogs leave a comment all the time. Unless they can strongly relate to the topic being shared on the site, they won’t write any comment there. A research done by Jakob Nielsen found that 90 percent of blog readers will never comment on a post, nine percent will comment once in a while and one percent will leave a thoughtful response that adds value to the post. The majority are called consumers while those who comment from time to time are the contributors. So how then can you encourage people to post a comment on your blog? Apart from providing valuable and interesting information, what are other ways that you can do to invite people to share their views on what you’ve written? First of all, do make it easy for your readers to post their comments. Avoid the format that requires them to register because they won’t often do that. Asking a question at the end of your post is also an effective way. Compared to just stating your thoughts and making a conclusion, a question at the end normally prompts people to comment. Some effective questions are “What do you think?,” “Have you experienced the same?” or “Have any of these worked for you?” Do make it a point to reply to your readers’ comments. This encourages them to share their views more or provide useful tips as well. Just make sure that you’ve enabled your spam filter so you are able to moderate the messages and avoid unrelated or annoying comments. Finally, make everybody feel welcome. Avoid replying only to one or two people because this will make some of your readers feel unwelcome. Find the time to reply to all if you can.