Entries categorized as ‘Blogging Tips’
Looking for free tips of how to promote your website/blog? Over the years I’ve learned tips all over the place from Internet on how to promote a website/blog. I think it is better listing them here so whoever stumbles on My Internet Stuff site will find them useful here:
- Write informative articles about your niche so people will link to you. This is call link-bait.
- Submit different version of those informative articles to major article directories. If people like your article, they will post it in their sites. So you’ll get one-way link even for Free.
- Join forums that are related to your niche. Set up your profile there so your signature link will point back to your website/blog.
- Sign up social bookmarking sites and post your links there. Although most of them don’t provide do-follow links, still you’ll get traffic from them.
- Find relevant websites/blogs to comment on. If allowed, leave your link there to point back to your website/blog. Most website/blog owners don’t mind that as long as what you said is natural and relevant to his/her site.
- Sign up for Google Alert with the keywords of your niche. That is how you can find relevant websites/blogs to comment on.
- Become an expert of answering questions in Yahoo Answers. If necessary, you can provide helpful links back to your website/blog.
- Participate in Google Group and Yahoo Group and have your signature link pointed back to your website/blog.
- Make sure every website/blog of yours has 404 search friendly page. This will help your potential customers to find related articles.
- Build an opt-in form of collecting potential customers in your niche. As some experts said, “Money is in the LIST”.
- Provide RSS or any other social bookmarklets to allow your visitors to react with.
- Submit your website/blog to directories of your niche. Moreover, you can even submit your RSS feed to RSS directories.
- Sign up for Squidoo and Hubpages, write about your niche, and have links pointed back to your website/blog.
- Use robots.txt file to control certain files if you don’t want your website/blog to end up with duplicated contents.
- When you create your articles, make sure you have your keywords written within the title. Good headlines will attract more potential customers.
- Create a sitemap and submit it to Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
- Exchange your link with the relevant websites/blogs. Overall it will help you in a long run.
- Nowadays video marketing is a very popular way of promoting your website/blog.
- Sign up a Free account in Craigslist.org, and post your website/blog within your ads. Make sure you don’t spam.
- Provide Google Translate for your foreign visitors so you can keep them informed. Although Google Translate is not 100% accurate, it is better than nothing.
I am sure there are more ways of promoting your website/blog than the above list. Maybe you’ll tell me more in the comment section? Do you like the list above? How helpful is it to your website/blog? Feel free to voice your opinion here.
Categories: Blogging Tips · Google Service · How To · Yahoo! Service
Tagged: promote a blog, promote a website
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
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
As a blogger, how often should he/she write? This topic has already been discussed all over the Internet from other bloggers. I almost wanted to drop it. However, I was inspired by Darren Rowse’s How Often Should a Blogger Post? and Lorelle VanFossen’s How Often Should You Publish Your Blog Posts to go on and gave my thoughts about it.
Now to answer that question: I think there should not be a guideline for this. It should all depend on a blogger’s perspective. If you have something meaningful to say, then you should write it down. Otherwise just relax because no one forces you to write. Don’t just produce boring information because you are scheduled to do so. It’ll only waste your energy and time. As a reader, I only like to read the topics that interest me. Well, I think it is the case for everybody else too. An article has to be short, direct to the points otherwise I’ll lose my patience to it.
As a blogger, I think we should always keep our readers in mind while writing an article. Ask yourself: What kind of information I want to convey to my readers: Is it to persuade them? Is it to inform them? or is it to educate them? Put that in mind, you’ll have a clear purpose to write. Develop a tone for your readers too while you are writing: funny, serious, or etc. Ask these questions when you produce a post:
- Will my readers be interested in what I write?
- What would be a good length for my readers to read?
- How often should I post for them?
- Do I deliver the messages to them?
To me quality weighs a lot more than quantity. I also believe the saying: Content is king! What’s your thoughts about this topic?
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tagged: Blogging Freqency
As a new blogger, it is not easy to keep up the routine writings. You may get stuck sometimes and may not know what to write about for your blogs; especially for those who write daily. Where can you get ideas to write about? The following sites list profound information of how you may generate ideas to write about for your blogs:
- Battling Bloggers Block – Darren has written 25 blogging tips which is a great resource for bloggers. Some of the blogging tips I’ve never even thought of. Hope you can get some of the inspirations out for your blog.
- 10 Web Tools to Help Generate Blog Content Ideas – Rand has provided 10 useful web tools that will inspire you to generate content ideas. Some tools you’ve probably already known are Google group, Technorati, Craigslist, Del.icio.us, and more …
- 10 Killer Post Ideas – Christ has talked about 10 killer post ideas in his article. I have already used some of them. It is really interesting stuff and most importantly helpful for generating ideas for your blog.
There may be more and more good resources on the Internet. I’ll continue searching and add updates to this post in the future.
Update: I added a new resourceful site above to my collection. As you can see it is marked as new.
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tagged: Blogger Tips, Ideas, resources
I was always confused tags and categories. I thought they are the same things. Searching the Internet for an answer and I found out that they are not quite the same. So knowing the difference between them can help you build a better structure for your blog or website; and it can even help you optimize your blog/website for search engine purpose.
What is tag or tagging? – Tag or tagging is usually a single word and typically listed alphabetically. It is like a keyword. People can find your blog/site or other people’s blog/site through tag or tagging. Tag or Tagging can be a category; but not vice versa. See some general ideas about tag or tagging from Technorati Tags.
What is category? – Category is something you create to navigate your own site. It will help your visitors to find your related posts easily. Category is searched locally in your own site while tag or tagging can be used to search your own site or other people’s sites. Category can be more than one word. See my categories on my right side bar.
Tag or Tagging can help optimizing your blog or website for search engines while category can’t. I also learned that it is good practice to use both tags and categories for your blog/website. If you pay attention, you will notice that I use both tags and categories on this blog.
Feel free to leave your feedback if you have anything to say about this topic.
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Categories: Blogging Tips
Tagged: Categories, Categories vs. Tags, Tags
Yesterday when I searched the topic – Interested In How to Change Your Header Images?, I found out that someone stole my partial article (the beginning part). My site showed up on the first page at Google 19 hours’ ago; and the perpetrator’s site showed up below mine at Google 18 hours’ ago. That means I published my article one hour ahead of his/hers.
I could not believe that his/her words showed up exactly the same at Google like mine. I checked his/her site. He/She did not quote my article at all and did not refer to it either. Instead he/she stated “Interested In How to Change Your Header Images? Written by on April 21st, 2008 in WordPress xxxxxxx.” I am not happy about it at all. I searched the Internet for a guidance. Lorelle’s What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content showed up at Google search. I got some ideas of how to handle this situation. However, the perpetrator’s site did not provide an email address, his/her About page was not set up either, and his/her contact led to a 404 not found page. So I have no choice but to leave a response in his/her site. Here is the statement I wrote there:
Do you know that stealing content is illegal? Did you see Copyright on the bottom of my site? How can you do that? How can you take someone’s hard work and paste here and claim that you wrote it? You should always ask whether you can cite it or refer to it. Maybe the author won’t say “No” to you. I tried to contact you but your contact doesn’t work. I need you to correct this immediately. As long as you don’t claim that you wrote it then I have no problem with it. It is very unprofessional to do such thing. Imaging how you feel if I copy and paste your information on my site and claim that I wrote it. I hope I won’t see the second time any more. You may want to read more from this site: http://lorelle.wordpresss.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/
Today I checked the topic – Interested In How to Change Your Header Images? again. His/Her site moved to the second page; but it is still there. I found out that search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and etc. can do something about it. Read the article Content Thieves you’ll find out what to do. Hopefully people have the same problem like me will learn something from this post.
Categories: Blogging Tips
Tagged: Content Thieves, Copyright
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!
