My Internet Stuff

Free sitemap generators are over the place on the Internet. You can utilize them to generate a HTML sitemap for your blog/website just like the one I have on my navigation bar of this blog. Pay attention here that I am not talking about a XML sitemap which is mostly used to submit to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines. If you want to know the difference between them, then check this article out here: What is The Difference Between HTML Sitemap and XML Sitemap? It is a good practice to have a HTML sitemap for your blog/website because you don’t want your visitors to get lost while they are visiting your site. So it is very important to have one. I searched the Internet and gathered some useful Free sitemap generators below. So make sure you check all of them out; and they are Free for use online.

• XML-Sitemaps.com - This tool allows you to create both XML sitemap as well as HTML sitemap. Besides it generates Text sitemap and ROR sitemap at the same time. Free for maximum 500 pages indexing.

• Google Sitemap Generator - This online tool generates XML sitemap and HTML sitemap as well. It includes a very handy wildcard exclusion feature too; able to check errors. Free unlimited use. Some people find it very, very useful.

• Google Sitemap Generator and Editor - This Free online tool allows you to generate and edit Google Sitemaps, HTML and Text sitemaps. I use it quite often. It builds in an ability to check your broken links too.

• HTML Sitemap Generator - This online tool is very easy to use. Just type in your url; enter the information I want to exclude in the ignore areas. It will create a simple HTML sitemap for you.

If you know any sitemap generators that can generate both XML and HTML sitemaps online, let me know in the comment section.

Why do we need a contact form on our blog/website? The main reason is to cut down the email spammings. You’ll be glad if you set up one for your blog/website since it hides your email in it. So do you want to find out which contact form is good for your blog/website? I searched the web and provided a list below. Check them out; find out which one is good for your blog/website. If a blog/website have multiple blogging authors, then some of the contact forms will allow you to set up to only send an email to a specific author.

• Contact Form ][ - a WordPress Plugin - Contact Form ][ is Ryan Duff's original contact form. It is a WordPress plugin, that offers a simple drop-in contact form in any new/existing post/page.
  

• PXS Mail Form WordPress Plugin - This plugin has updated email contact from plugin built off of Ryan Duff’s excellent wp-contact form plugin. PXS includes additional checks over the original ...

• Enhanced WordPress contact form plugin - Another improved comtact form based on Ryan Duff's Contact Form ][. Now it adds: referring page on your site; if the original referer is a search engine, the keywords used in the query; the original referrer; spam protection ...

• cformsII - contact form - cforms is a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features from attachments to multi form management, you can even have multiple forms on the same page!

• contact form 7 - Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible. Supports multiple contact forms. You can customize form and mail contents with simple markup. AJAX submitting with jQuery Form Plugin. Spam filtering with Akismet. Bot prevention with CAPTCHA.

• Secure Form Mailer Plugin For WordPress - This is the WordPress plugin version of the secure PHP form mailer script. This plugin has a wide range of features including: support for multiple instances, an easy to use dynamic form generation system (any number of fields, in any order), multiple...

• SCF2 Contact Form - WordPress contact form plugin that lets you read and reply to emails while logged in WordPress and sends emails to multiple users.

• ^{editor's pick} Secure and accessible PHP contact form for WordPress - This plugin lets you add a contact form to a WordPress page or a template. It is secure & accesible contact form for WordPress + multi-user version.

• Enquiry/Contact Form - This plugin is designed to be an easily customisable and extendable method of creating an enquiry form for a rental property website (or any website that allows users to enquire about date periods), or even just a standard contact form.

Which one do you use? If it is not listing above, let me know in the comment section.

Update: For a WordPress.com blog, you have options to put a contact form in your post or page. For details of how to implement it, just check out this post: Contact Forms. See my contact form in Contact page that I've just created. Enjoy blogging!

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There are so many Free Favicon Generators out there on the Internet. I used some of them to generate my favicons. Then I replaced all of my blogs and website’s default ones with them except for this blog (can’t do anything about it since it is WordPress.com blog). While I was searching around to generate my favicons for my blogs and website, I found countless of them on the Internet and listed them below for your reference (if you are interested in replacing your favicon one day). To be honest with you, I don’t know which one is better. I just found them and listed here. You may have to try them out if you are interested; but I can tell you which ones I have used to generate mine:

• FavIcon Generator - Use this online tool to easily create a favorites icon (favicon) for your site. Capable of generating desktop icons as well.

• favicongenerator - Create free favicon.ico page icons with Favicon Generator, instantly make custom Favicons for your website.

• FavIcon from Pics - Free and easy to use online tool that can create favicon (.ico) images for browser address bars, favorites and tabs, from pictures, logos and other graphics.

• favicon.cc - favicon.cc is a tool to create or download favicon.ico icons, that get displayed in the address bar of every browser.

• freefavicon - Generate a free favicon for your website from an image.

• ^{editor’s pick} Favicon Editor - Make your own favicon with this online editor.

• 256 Pixels.com - 256 Pixels - a daily favicon design challenge.

• ajaxload.info - Ajaxload - Ajax loading gif generator

• ^{editor’s pick} Favicon Generator - Favicons generated here contain text instead of images in order to be descriptive, but are colored to be nice looking.

• Buddy Icon from Pics - Buddy Icon from Pics.

• CoverIcon - Convert ICO to PNG or PNG to ICO with this little web application.

• Favicon Generator - Web script lab, Free and easy to use online tool that can create a favorites icon (favicon.ico) images for browser address bars, favorites and tabs, from pictures, logos and other graphics.

• Favicon Generator and Gallery - Create favicon.ico files to customize the marketing logo in Internet Explorer’s favorites/bookmarks using our free online tool.

• ^{editor’s pick} Favicon Icon Drawing Program Online Free - Draw your own favicon or icon online for free using this entirely, web-based, non-Java icon gnerator.

• GraphicsGuru - Free and easy to use online Favicon Generator tool that can create Firefox-compatiable favicon .ico images.

• Generate It - Free online favicon generator. A favicon is a small, 16×16 image that is shown inside the browser’s location bar and bookmark menu when your site is called up.

• Favicon Generator Tool -A web-based favicon generator that can create custom favicon icons for your website.

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A lot of bloggers like to have their images hosted in a third party server. Why? There are many reasons; maybe they don’t like the bandwidth they’ve got from their own server; maybe they don’t like the limitations offered by their own server; or maybe they like to save the bandwidth from their own server. Whatever the reason is, it leads us to the conclusion that we want to host our images Free on the third party server. There are plenty of them out there on the Internet. I’ve searched the web, found a handful of them, and listed them below with a table for your reference:

Do you like some of the Free online image servers listed above? Will you consider to try some of them? Or did I miss your favorite one out there?

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There are two types of sitemaps in general; namely HTML (Hyper Text Makeup Language) sitemap and XML (EXtensible Makeup Language) sitemap. Do you want to know the difference between them? If you do, then read on…

What is HTML Sitemap?

HTML sitemap is used to list all hyperlinks of different sections and pages of your blog/website. These hyperlinks are normally listed hierarchically and they may provide description for each link. It is no doubt that adding a HTML sitemap to your blog/website will help your visitors navigate and find information easily. So HTML sitemap is primarily created for humans. Although a HTML sitemap is created for your visitors, indexing bot such as Googlebot might have a better chance to crawl your first-time-missed links again since all the files are well put together in your sitemap page. Check this blog’s sitemap to get a general idea of how a HTML sitemap looks like. You can create your own HTML sitemap from HTML Sitemap Generator here.

What is XML Sitemap?

XML sitemap lists URLs (world wide web addresses) for your blog/website in a special format. See the table below for a XML Sitemap with one single URL:

It allows webmasters to inform search engines about URLs in your blog/website for easy indexing. XML sitemap is created for search engines but not for humans. Submitting a XML sitemap to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN will not only help your blog/website being indexing quickly and efficiently but also increase your blog/website’s visibilities in search engines as well. For a full version WordPress blog, you can use Google XML Sitemaps plugin to do the trick for you.

Do you have anything to say about this topic? Or any questions?

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Have you ever thought about to add a signature to you blog post? Adding a signature to each post of you blog will no doubt bring your personal touch to your readers. It is an identity of representing you online. Moreover it brings an uniqueness to your blog as well. I was inspired by Lorelle VanFossen’s signature on her blog.

For WordPress.com Blog

I think it is fun to have your own signature for your blog just like you sign your signature in each email. It also serves a purpose: that is something uniquely reflects your personality. I like to do things differently because we are all unique in many ways. So if you are like me, then go ahead to create your unique signature using your desired program. Make sure you save your signature and copy and paste it at the bottom of each post. I use My Live Signature program to create mine here. What do you think?

For WordPress Blog (WordPress.org Blog)

If you have a WordPress blog, you can just download LiveSig v0.4 plugin here to your PC (personal computer). LiveSig: WordPress Plug provides step-by-step instructions of how to install it. Basically you just need to unzip LiveSigv0.4 file that you’ve just downloaded, then upload it to the folder public_html/wordpress-content/plugins/ using any FTP. Then login to your WordPress Dashboard, and click on Plugins/LiveSig v0.4 to activate it. Finally click on Settings/LiveSig/LiveSig Options. Make sure you select an appropriate user, enter the corresponding MyLiveSignature code and hit Save button to save it. It is Free to obtain MyLiveSignature code, but you need to register in that site to get it. For a small amount of money, you can get animated signature code there too. Have fun bloggging!

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If you don’t know what a trackback service is, you may find out from this post. A trackback service is a mechanism that allows two blogs to communicate each other. Suppose you find an useful article and it is related to what you like to say, so you decide to write about it and link to this article in your post. If both blogs support a trackback service, then you may see your post’s permalink as well as excerpts showing up on the other blogger’s comment section. See the screenshot below:

This is fun since I am always curious of who links back to my blog. It is one way that I can track what post(s) of mine the other bloggers are interested in. Getting a trackback service can help you boost your blog/website traffic too. So it is important that your blog supports a trackback service.

Some blog softwares supporting automatic pinkback service are WordPress, Movable Type, Typo and Community Server. However, Google Blogger still doesn’t support a trackback service yet. Instead it provides a backlink service from Google Blog Search. You may find out how to get a third party trackback service for your Blogger from this article: Get a Trackback Service for Your New Blogger. Learn How?. As for WordPress.com/WordPress.org blog, go to WordPress Dashboard, click on Settings/Discussions/; make sure you click to tick Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.) to enable it. See the screenshot below:

Click to enlarge the picture

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Adding a favicon to your blog/website is one way to express yourself. It tells people a little bit about your blog/website too. Professional blogs/websites will never leave it out. If you don’t know what a favicon is, it is a 16×16 pixels or 32×32 pixels image (icon) that is displaced in your browser’s address bar. Check the screenshot below:

I just added a favicon to my WordPress blog. Now it is your turn to add yours. If you don’t know how, the following steps could be useful:

1. First you need to have your image ready in your PC (personal computer).
2. Second visit FavIcon from Pics and follow its instructions there to create a favicon.ico image file.
3. Third download favicon.ico image file to your PC and unzip the file.
4. Next upload the unzipped favicon.ico image to public_html/wp-content/themes/your-theme-name/. Make sure you change your-theme-name to be your real theme name.
5. Next login to your WordPress Admin Dashboard; click on Design/Theme Editor/Header (header.php).
6. Then insert <link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”<?php bloginfo(’template_directory’); ?>/favicon.ico” /> in your header.php file; more specifically between <head></head>.
7. Finally save your header.php file.

If you use Internet Explorer as your browser, then holding Ctrl and hit R at the same time to reload your blog/website. If you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser, then holding Ctrl and hit F5 at the same time to refresh your blog/website. You should be able to see a favicon which is next to your URL now. However, some people’s favicon may not be shown immediately.

Update: This is for full version WordPress blog only. If you have a WordPress.com blog, this will not apply to you since you don’t have access to all the files.

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I searched around the Internet and found some very useful Plugins most WordPress bloggers like to use. These Plugins are for full version WordPress (WordPress.org) blogs. That means if you have WordPress.com blog, then you can’t use them. As you know Plugins extend WordPress to do almost everything for your blog/website. Check out the following articles to see what Plugins other bloggers have suggested:

• 10 WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Be Using - This article’s author, Kyle Eslick, has listed 10 WordPress Plugins that every blogger should be using. Reviews were provided for each plugin.

• The Top Ten WordPress Plugins - The author has picked the top ten WordPress Plugins out of hundreds. Those WordPress Plugins will make your blogging life easier.

• WordPress Plugins Every Blogger Should Be Using - A collection of the most popular WordPress Plugins such as find related posts, ultimate tag warrior, the best adsense Plugins, and more…

• 25 WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have - Wow! A list of 25 WordPress Plugins for your blog or website? What a collection! Read through to see which Plugins you might be interested.

• 15 WordPress Plugins That a Professional Blog Should Install - A well prepared list of 15 WordPress Plugins that every professional blog/site should install. Pickup some useful ones there, will you?

• 10 Must-Have WordPress Plugins - One of the biggest advantages to use WordPress software is that it provides bloggers countless of Plugins that you can use to extend your blog software.

• Top 10 WordPress Plugins - The wonderful thing about WordPress Plugins is that it allows you to add so much functionalities to your blog/website. Leap to the site to see what WordPress Plugins the author has rounded up for you.

• ^new TOP 30 WordPress Plugins in Blogosphere - The author of this article made an analytical review of the top 30 most used WordPress Plugins in Blogosphere. It was based on Lists of favorite WordPress plugins, made by Lorelle a year ago. Lorelle found 48 lists out of 280 plugins that were recommended by other bloggers to their readers.

After I’ve read the above articles, I am amazed WordPress Plugins can do so much for our blog/website. Maybe you have already had installed some of them. So what are your favorite Plugins you are using now? or what Plugins do you want to recommend to your readers?

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post, How to Add Google Sitemap to WordPress.com Blog?, which showed you how you can submit your blog’s feed to Google Webmaster Tools account. Now you might wonder how you can get your WordPress.com blog verified by Google too. It seems it is impossible to do that because we don’t have controls of our files; but hope is always there. The article, Get your WordPress.com Blog Google Verified, will guide you the way of how to do that. Still I want to show you the way I got my WordPress.com blog verified here:

• Go to Google Webmaster Tools account. If you don’t have one, get a Free one here.

• Once you got one; sign in with it.

• If this is the first time you sign in, then type your blog’s/website’s URL (the address for your blog/website) in the text field and click on Add Site.

• Under Verified? click on Verify button

• A new window is shown; saying Verification Status: NOT VERIFIED.

• In the drop-down list; choose Upload a HTML File.

• More information will be shown here. Here you have two choices to submit your blog/website:

1. I’ve created a file named google2ae4cd3d07afcb8a.html.

(google2ae4cd3d07afcb8a.html is given by Google. You’ll get your own)

2. I’ve uploaded the file to http://yoursitename.wordpress.com/ and can view http://yoursitename.wordpress.com/google2ae4cd3d07afcb8a.html in my browser.

(Make sure you replace yoursitename with your own domain name.)

• Since you know we don’t have controls of our files; so we’ll go for the choice 1.

• Go to your WordPress.com Dashboard, click on Write/Page to create a new page named http://yoursitename.wordpress.com/google2ae4cd3d07afcb8a.html. This page can be empty. Make sure your change yoursitename to be your own domain name. (Keep it private once Google has verified your blog/website)

• Go back to your Google Webmaster Tools account and click on Verify button.

Now wait for Google to update your status. Google Webmaster Tools will inform you once your blog/website are being verified. After you’ve succeeded, you will enjoy reports about your pages’ visibility on Google.