I’ve known Digg for a while but never think about to join it till now. So what is Digg? What can you do with it? I am curious about that so I searched the Internet for answers. The lists below are the things I’ve found so far:
- According to Digg’s own definition: it is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, it surfaces the best stuff as voted on by its users.
- Digg is a social news website and everybody can join freely.
- Digg’s contents and links are submitted by its own users.
- When a Digg’s user submits his/her content, it will go into the “Upcoming” stories section.
- Other people will read the new coming content. If they like it, they will “Digg” it.
- If your story receives enough Diggs, it will be promoted to the “Popular” section and will be listed on the front page on Digg’s site.
- A Digg’s user can also use the “Bury” button to filter out bad links, off-topic content and duplicate entries.
- Other thing a Digg’s user can do is to discuss the story in the comment section.
It is all for now. If you find some interesting things that are related to Digg, feel free to comment them here.
Categories: Blogging Tools · Social Networking
Tagged: Digg, Diggs, social network, Social Networks
I know a lot of the times I run into the problem of changing my website’s look and feel; especially changing colors in my CSS file. In order to find the matched colors, I need to search the Internet for a color wheel, but you don’t have to do that. For your convenience, I’ve found some useful color wheels that can even convert hex codes to decimal RBG or vice versa. I am sure you are going to love them:
- Color Wheel – Generate HTML code from the online color wheel char. Also makes it easy for you to convert RBG-Hex color.
- Color Blender - Allows you to blend two colors into a set of other colors in between.
- Color Codes Converter – Converts RGB to HEX and HEX to RGB.
- Color Schemer – Generates a set of different colors that you can match to your own.
- Copy Sense – A couple of design and color utilities here will assist you to achieve your fulfillments.
- DHTML Goodies Color Schemer – This useful tool allows you to find matching colors for your website.
- Infohound Color Schemer – This simple tool helps you to experiment with various color schemes.
- The Man in Blue Technicolor – This is a very useful tool that provides all combination of colors for a website.
I am sure there are more free color wheels out there online. If you know some of the good ones that I’ve missed, please leave your comments here. Any other comments are welcome too.
Categories: Blogging Tools
Tagged: Color Wheel, Color Wheels
Lately when I checked my self-hosted server, I found those http status codes such as 200, 301, 302, 304, 403, 404, 500, and 503. Do you know what they mean? Every webmaster should learn about them because knowing what they mean can help you fix some errors from your blog/website.
I found a Google page listed very helpful details of each code and its description. It provided guidance for me to know what I should pay attention to. Hope you can be benefited from it too:
1xx (Provisional response)
Status codes that indicate a provisional response and require the requestor to take action to continue.
| Code |
Description |
| 100 (Continue) |
The requestor should continue with the request. The server returns this code to indicate that it has received the first part of a request and is waiting for the rest. |
| 101 (Switching protocols) |
The requestor has asked the server to switch protocols and the server is acknowledging that it will do so. |
2xx (Successful)
Status codes that indicate that the server successfully processed the request.
| Code |
Description |
| 200 (Successful) |
The server successfully processed the request. Generally, this means that the server provided the requested page. If you see this status for your robots.txt file, it means that Googlebot retrieved it successfully. |
| 201 (Created) |
The request was successful and the server created a new resource. |
| 202 (Accepted) |
The server has accepted the request, but hasn’t yet processed it. |
| 203 (Non-authoritative information) |
The server successfully processed the request, but is returning information that may be from another source. |
| 204 (No content) |
The server successfully processed the request, but isn’t returning any content. |
| 205 (Reset content) |
The server successfully proccessed the request, but isn’t returning any content. Unlike a 204 response, this response requires that the requestor reset the document view (for instance, clear a form for new input). |
| 206 (Partial content) |
The server successfully processed a partial GET request. |
3xx (Redirected)
Further action is needed to fulfill the request. Often, these status codes are used for redirection. Google recommends that you use fewer than five redirects for each request. You can use Webmaster Tools to see if Googlebot is having trouble crawling your redirected pages. The Web crawl page under Diagnostics lists URLs that Googlebot was unable to crawl due to redirect errors.
| Code |
Description |
| 300 (Multiple choices) |
The server has several actions available based on the request. The server may choose an action based on the requestor (user agent) or the server may present a list so the requestor can choose an action. |
| 301 (Moved permanently) |
The requested page has been permanently moved to a new location. When the server returns this response (as a response to a GET or HEAD request), it automatically forwards the requestor to the new location. You should use this code to let Googlebot know that a page or site has permanently moved to a new location. |
| 302 (Moved temporarily) |
The server is currently responding to the request with a page from a different location, but the requestor should continue to use the original location for future requests. This code is similar to a 301 in that for a GET or HEAD request, it automatically forwards the requestor to a different location, but you shouldn’t use it to tell the Googlebot that a page or site has moved because Googlebot will continue to crawl and index the original location. |
| 303 (See other location) |
The server returns this code when the requestor should make a separate GET request to a different location to retrieve the response. For all requests other than a HEAD request, the server automatically forwards to the other location. |
| 304 (Not modified) |
The requested page hasn’t been modified since the last request. When the server returns this response, it doesn’t return the contents of the page.You should configure your server to return this response (called the If-Modified-Since HTTP header) when a page hasn’t changed since the last time the requestor asked for it. This saves you bandwidth and overhead because your server can tell Googlebot that a page hasn’t changed since the last time it was crawled. |
| 305 (Use proxy) |
The requestor can only access the requested page using a proxy. When the server returns this response, it also indicates the proxy that the requestor should use. |
| 307 (Temporary redirect) |
The server is currently responding to the request with a page from a different location, but the requestor should continue to use the original location for future requests. This code is similar to a 301 in that for a GET or HEAD request, it automatically forwards the requestor to a different location, but you shouldn’t use it to tell the Googlebot that a page or site has moved because Googlebot will continue to crawl and index the original location. |
4xx (Request error)
These status codes indicate that there was likely an error in the request which prevented the server from being able to process it.
| Code |
Description |
| 400 (Bad request) |
The server didn’t understand the syntax of the request. |
| 401 (Not authorized) |
The request requires authentication. The server might return this response for a page behind a login. |
| 403 (Forbidden) |
The server is refusing the request. If you see that Googlebot received this status code when trying to crawl valid pages of your site (you can see this on the Web crawl page under Diagnostics in Google Webmaster Tools), it’s possible that your server or host is blocking Googlebot’s access. |
| 404 (Not found) |
The server can’t find the requested page. For instance, the server often returns this code if the request is for a page that doesn’t exist on the server.If you don’t have a robots.txt file on your site and see this status on the robots.txt page of the Diagnostic tab in Google Webmaster Tools, this is the correct status. However, if you do have a robots.txt file and you see this status, then your robots.txt file may be named incorrectly or in the wrong location. (It should be at the top-level of the domain and named robots.txt.)If you see this status for URLs that Googlebot tried to crawl (on the HTTP errors page of the Diagnostic tab), then Googlebot likely followed an invalid link from another page (either an old link or a mistyped one). |
| 405 (Method not allowed) |
The method specified in the request is not allowed. |
| 406 (Not acceptable) |
The requested page can’t respond with the content characteristics requested. |
| 407 (Proxy authentication required) |
This status code is similar 401 (Not authorized); but specifies that the requestor has to authenticate using a proxy. When the server returns this response, it also indicates the proxy that the requestor should use. |
| 408 (Request timeout) |
The server timed out waiting for the request. |
| 409 (Conflict) |
The server encountered a conflict fulfilling the request. The server must include information about the conflict in the response. The server might return this code in response to a PUT request that conflicts with an earlier request, along with a list of differences between the requests. |
| 410 (Gone) |
The server returns this response when the requested resource has been permanently removed. It is similar to a 404 (Not found) code, but is sometimes used in the place of a 404 for resources that used to exist but no longer do. If the resource has permanently moved, you should use a 301 to specify the resource’s new location. |
| 411 (Length required) |
The server won’t accept the request without a valid Content-Length header field. |
| 412 (Precondition failed) |
The server doesn’t meet one of the preconditions that the requestor put on the request. |
| 413 (Request entity too large) |
The server can’t process the request because it is too large for the server to handle. |
| 414 (Requested URI is too long) |
The requested URI (typically, a URL) is too long for the server to process. |
| 415 (Unsupported media type) |
The request is in a format not support by the requested page. |
| 416 (Requested range not satisfiable) |
The server returns this status code if the request is for a range not available for the page. |
| 417 (Expectation failed) |
The server can’t meet the requirements of the Expect request-header field. |
5xx (Server error)
These status codes indicate that the server had an internal error when trying to process the request. These errors tend to be with the server itself, not with the request.
| Code |
Description |
| 500 (Internal server error) |
The server encountered an error and can’t fulfill the request. |
| 501 (Not implemented) |
The server doesn’t have the functionality to fulfill the request. For instance, the server might return this code when it doesn’t recognize the request method. |
| 502 (Bad gateway) |
The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and received an invalid response from the upstream server. |
| 503 (Service unavailable) |
The server is currently unavailable (because it is overloaded or down for maintenance). Generally, this is a temporary state. |
| 504 (Gateway timeout) |
The server was acting as a gateway or proxy and didn’t receive a timely request from the upstream server. |
| 505 (HTTP version not supported) |
The server doesn’t support the HTTP protocol version used in the request |
Source from HTTP Status Code – Help Master Center.
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tagged: HTTP status codes
If you are searching an answer of how to add a sitemap to your blog/website, then this post is for you. Here I’ll talk about how to create a HTML sitemap so don’t confuse it with XML sitemap. See the difference from this post: What is The Difference Between HTML Sitemap and XML Sitemap?
- Next follow the instructions in one of the Free sitemap generators to generate a HTML sitemap for your blog/website.
- Then log in to your blog/website admin area and create a new page for it.
- Every time when you create a new post you’ll need to update your sitemap. I just simply add my new post to my existing sitemap.
That is it. Some people like to place their sitemap in footer. That is because they believe that search engines will last crawl the sitemap before it exits the blog/website. I don’t know it is true or not but it is up to you to take the action.
Categories: Blogging Tips · Blogging Tools · How To · SEO
Tagged: Add new tag, generate HTML, generators, HTML Sitemap, HTML XML, XML Sitemap
Why do you need ping services? There are many answers for that question. First, it may be that you want everybody know about your newly posted article(s). Second, by using ping services your blog/website might be indexing right away from search engines. Thus it may in term increase your web traffic. If you use self-hosted WordPress blog, then you may follow the steps below to implement ping services.
For the WordPress.com bloggers, your blog has already built in with ping service Ping-O-Matic as your default ping service. If you want to manually ping your blog using ping services other than those offered in Ping-O-Matic, then you may find pingmyblog.com useful. It allows you to selectively choose your choices of ping services to submit.
The above list of ping services is working as of this post is being written. However, if you find any of them is no longer working, please inform me. I’ll appreciate that.
Related articles
WordPress Ping List
WordPress Compressed Ping List
Categories: Blogging Tools · WordPress · WordPress Tips · WordPress.com · WordPress.com Tips
Tagged: ping, ping blogs
A simple and powerful way to help your customers to recognize your company is using logos. It also brings personal touches to your website. If you like to design your own logo like me, then you may find this post useful. I searched the Internet and found some Free and useful online logo design tools and listed them below for your convenience. You can choose one or two to design your own logo the way you like. So feel free to browse and have fun with them.
Alternatively you can use Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 to create your own logo for your website. If you use Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, then go to Home tab, in the Slides group, you need to click Layout and then Blank. But if you use Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, go to Format menu, then click on Slide Layout. If I missed your favorite one/good one out there, please let me know.
Categories: Blogging Tools
Tagged: logo, logo generators
I have talked about How to Add Google Sitemap to WordPress.com Blog and Submit Your WordPress.com Blog to Yahoo a while ago. Lately I have tried to submit my WordPress.com blog to MicroSoft Network (MSN) but it failed to read the page that I’ve created. So this post is mainly for self-hosting blog/website only. If you want to continue, I will show you how you can submit you self-hosting blog/website to MSN. Submitting your blog/website to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN can help them index your blog/website efficiently. Thus increasing the visibility of you blog/website to your visitors. Before you want to continue you need to sign up an account with MSN.
- Sign up Webmaster Center Live Search here and it is Free
- Next log in to that account, click on Add a site button to add your blog/website.
- Fill in the information in the empty fields. See the screenshot below:
Click Submit button to submit your blog/website to it.
- It will generate a piece of code that you can add to your blog/website <HEAD> section. See below:
Once you have done that, click on OK button to proceed and that is it. If you want to add more blogs/websites, then you just have to repeat the above steps.
- Click on each web address that you’ve just submitted, MSN Webmaster Tools will show you how many pages are being indexed in Summary. Results for page not found (404) are shown under Crawl Issues. Backlinks will show you who are linking to your blog/website. Outbound Links will show you web pages your blog/website are linking to. See also Keywords and Sitemaps below:
- Now you can observe how your blog/website does by log in your account regularly.
If you know any other tips that are related to this post, please share them here with us.
Categories: Blogging Tips · How To
Tagged: MSN, MSN Webmaster Tools, submit your blog/website to MSN
A robots.txt file is a simple text file that is used to tell the search engines (robots) of what should not be visited and indexed. However, you can not tell search engines of what to do. A robots.txt should be placed in your root directory of your web server. Each website should only have one robots.txt file. The main purpose of having a robots.txt is to save your bandwidth from your web server, to give you a very basic of protection, to clean up your logs, and to prevent spams and penalties related to duplicated contents.
If you want the search engines to visit and index your site, then you need to use the following instructions to tell them to do so or some people just leave it blank:
|
User-Agent: * //Here “*” means all robots
Disallow: |
If you do not want the search engines to visit and index your site at all, then you have to use the following instructions to tell them not to do so:
|
User-Agent: * //Here “*” means all robots
Disallow: / |
Can you see the difference here, the slash after Disallow: makes the opposite meaning.
If you only want the search engines not to visit and index certain pages, then you have to list those pages for them not to do so. See an example below:
|
User-agent: *
Disallow: /administrator/
Disallow: /cache/
Disallow: /editor/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /media/
Disallow: /about/ |
Please also note that for the entire website, you may want to use a robots.txt to control it. However, for a single web page, you may want to use a robots meta tag to limit it being visited and indexed; and for a single link, you may consider using “no follow” attribute to prevent search engines to index that link.
Everybody can access your robots.txt file by typing http://yoursitename.com/robots.txt; so you should not list your secret directories in your robots.txt file because some ill-behaved people use some robots to target your robots.txt file for harvesting this kinds of information.
Robots.txt Checker is an useful tool that you can use to check whether your robots.txt is validated or not.
Related articles
Using The Robots Meta Tag
Preventing Comment Spams
Categories: How To · WordPress SEO
Tagged: no follow, robots meta tag, robots.txt
On August 18, 2008, someone referred this blog to StumbleUpon and one of the links was viewed 200 times the same day. I was shocked and could not believe that it’d be true. So I tried to find out what StumpleUpon is. According to Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia:
StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation system which uses peer and social-networking principles.
Web pages are presented when the user clicks the “Stumble!” button on the browser’s toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user’s ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate, or choose not to rate, any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles “channel-surfing” the Web. There is also one-click blogging built in as well.
In May 2007, StumbleUpon was acquired by eBay – a web company in which people buy and sell goods and service worldwide.
Update: I’ve just signed up an account with StumbleUpon and my url is http://onlinejourney.stumbleupon.com. So far I am pretty interested in learning it and I am wondering how it can drive more traffic to my site.
Related articles
Beginners Guide to StumbleUpon
Is Stumbleupon traffic worth getting?
Categories: Social Networking
Tagged: social network, Social Networks, StumbleUpon
or 
in your images folder on your server. Then put the following codes in your header of your website (mostly an index.php file or a header.php file):
Stumble It!
