Blogging

We know that everyone loves LOL Cat photos, heck iCanHazCheezburger has made a multi-million dollar business out of the practice. Yet the teams at  Magisto.com and PlayScience have found that parents would much rather share videos, photos, and stories about their children. According to the study parents are three times more likely to share videos of their kids (27 percent) than a pet (9 percent). 60 percent of parents responded to the survey by acknowledging that they shoot at least three videos of their children per month. 44 percent of those parents said they share at least three videos per month.  The study also found that 53 percent of parents shoot videos of their kids just so they can share them while 88 percent of parents will share the videos either way. So dogs and cats doing silly and stupid things is popular, but not quite as popular as happy parents who want to show off their kids. Here’s the infographic:

We regularly review sites that monetize, in part, with affiliate links. I’ve always said and will continue to say that affiliate links should be redirected through a redirect script, but when we tried to help a client by linking to a proper explanation and example script, we couldn’t find one. So, in true Yoast style, I wrote a script and decided to write this article that outlines exactly how and why to use it. Why should I cloak my affiliate links? If you search online for it, there are tons of reasons for people to redirect their affiliate links. The “historical” reason for cloaking affiliate links is hiding that you’re an affiliate for the search engines. Now I’m not one to think the search engines are stupid enough to be fooled by an easy script like the one I’m providing below, but there are more reasons. The funny thing is that it’s called cloaking affiliate links because of that history, but I digress. Let me give you the three reasons why I do it and why I think every affiliate should be cloaking their affiliate links: Ease of management You sometimes have to change your affiliate links. If you have to change them in more than one place, it’s bound to be a painful exercise, so you want to centralize management. Prevent leaking PageRank to advertisers While sometimes you might want to “hide” for a search engine that you’re an affiliate, for  me the reasoning is actually the other way around. Affiliate links are ads, and those should be nofollowed or otherwise prevented from leaking PageRank to the advertiser. Instead of nofollowing each and every link, which is painful and you’re bound to forget at some point, why not make sure search engines can’t follow the link at all? “Clean” links It might be obvious when you’re linking to Amazon that the link points to Amazon, but when I link to say, Genesis, using my affiliate link, the link would point to shareasale.com, which in turn would redirect to Genesis. So the URL of the link would be ugly and wouldn’t tell you where you’re going to. Instead, my “clean”, cloaked version of that affiliate link reads:http://yoast.com/out/genesis/That is a lot more telling about the destination isn’t it? I think it’s more user friendly. Cloaking affiliate links, the how to The basic process of cloaking affiliate links is simple: Create a folder from where you’ll serve your redirects, I use /out/. Block the /out/ folder in your domains robots.txt file by adding: Disallow: /out/ Use a script in your redirect folder to redirect to your affiliate URLs. Step 2 makes sure search engines won’t follow the redirects, but we’ll add some extra safety with our script. Step 3 could be as easy as writing each redirect in your redirect directory’s .htaccess file manually. I personally prefer something that’s a bit easier to manage, which is why I’m giving you a little redirect script I wrote below. As a bonus, this should be easier to get working on NGINX too. Affiliate link redirect script This script consists of three parts. The index.php file is the file that handles the actual redirects, it does a 302 redirect and sends an X-Robots-Tag header along, which makes sure the search engines that obey those headers aren’t allowed to index or follow the URL, should you forget the robots.txt exclusion. The redirects.txt file is a comma separated file with a very simple format: name,destination-url For instance: yoast,http://yoast.com It should always have the first line: default,http://example.com Where you can change example.com to your domain. This will make sure that people who try to redirect to non-existing redirects get redirected to your homepage. If you install these two files, the script will already work. With the above setup, going to /out/?id=yoast on your server would redirect you to http://yoast.com. Now I’m

From the moment Don Mattrick uttered the name of Xbox One, it was clear Microsoft was aiming for its next generation console to be an exercise of simplicity, harmony, and raw power. The aesthetics of the Xbox One appear to diverge in key ways from its predecessors. For one, the box is closer to a [...]Author informationMitra FaridianEditor and Co-AdministratorMitra Faridian first joined the site in 2011 under the handle “Persian Poetess.” Since then she has become one of Dragonblogger’s most active videographers. She is a regular on the Dragonblogger YouTube channel and has produced several high quality video game and product reviews. Her gaming and entertainment taste is very eclectic and she’s always open to a fun new virtual experience.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post Xbox One Press Conference Reveal appeared first on Dragon Blogger. Be the first to comment... Related Posts:ShopWiki Gives You Impressive Details About ProductsNext Generation Xbox to Have Never Before Seen Graphics Capability in Console SystemWill Xbox Kinect Work with Skype?End of CES 2013: Table PC’s, Android Gaming Devices, 4K TV’s and moreXbox 360 or PlayStation 3 Giveaway from DragonBlogger.com RSS Feed Powered by MaxBlogPress Bring My Blog Visitors Back

If you have been a member of ElegantThemes, then probably you know about that ElegantThemes has been kicking ass for 5 years in the WordPress themes market. I’ve been promoting and recommending ElegantThemes since Nick’s early...

How many times have you come across an email address with no name associated with it? If you’re an active user on the internet – which most of us are – you would have faced this situation often. It is annoying to have no idea who you’re dealing with, and it can sometimes even be essential to find the identity of the person behind that email address. Thanks to a number of options available online, it is not too difficult to do a “Reverse Email Search” to connect an email to a real person.[Image Source]What is Reverse Email Search?In a reverse email search, you look for publicly available information about someone, using only his or her email address. The email address could be of any kind – john123@gmail.com, contact@abccorp.com, or even something completely anonymous, like thisisme@some-email-service.com. As long as the person has used that email address at some online services like Facebook or on a public page, there is a good chance of a reverse email search being successful.Why You May Need to Do a Reverse Email Search on Someone?There could be many situations where you would like to identify the person behind an email. Here are a few examples:You saw the email address on an online ad and want to establish some credibility before doing business with the personA big business opportunity has come through an email and you would like to know more about the person behind it so that you’re better prepared for further discussions, without asking them who they are. Or your replies to them are bouncing back and you would like to find their phone number and give them a call.Someone has been sending a lot of spam to you and you would like to find out more about the offender and then send out a warningSomeone has sent you a malicious or threatening email and you would like to identify them before getting the police involvedHow to Go About It?A reverse email search is a little bit different from a regular search on Google. Of course, Google should still be the first place you should go to. But if that doesn’t yield anything, there are several other options that can be quite effective.Here’s a step-by-step guide to finding that mystery person behind the anonymous email address:Step 1: Your first port of call should be Google – the big daddy of search. People sometimes share their email address on a public webpage or in a blog comment. If it’s a corporate email address, it could be mentioned somewhere on the company website. Google would have indexed most of these pages. A simple search for the email should take you to that page, where you might get some information about the person.Step 2: If Google doesn’t yield anything meaningful, your next option is to try that huge database of people that we love to spend time on – Facebook. It is one of the few services that allow you to search users through their email address. With more than a billion registered users, there’s a pretty high probability the person you’re searching for is also on Facebook. But the question is, did they use the same email address to write to you and to register on Facebook. If they did, then you’re in luck. You will not only have their name, but possibly also their picture, their location, and lots of other information about them.Step 3: You can take the Facebook search a step further. Save the image of the person and do a reverse image search on Google Image Search or through the TinEye site. Both of these services allow you to upload an image and find other instances of the same or similar images on the web. This could lead you to other social profiles of the person, which could offer some additional information.Step 4: There are some dedicated people search engines out there – Pipl and Spokeo being the most popular. These services search the web, social profiles, and other public databases like the Whois information linked to domain names. Again, the catch is that the person should have used the same email address on these other places as the one you

This is a guest contribution by Charles Cuninghame, website copywriter and owner of Text-Centric. I’m sure we can all agree that proofreading is the least fun part of blogging. But while it may be tedious, it’s well worth the effort. Typos are not only embarrassing, they can also cost you money. In a widely reported study in 2011, British entrepreneur Charles Duncombe found a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half! If you don’t have a product, then you could be missing out a blog subscriber or repeat visitor! Here’s a tried and tested proofreading process that I’ve taught to many novice writers with great success. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to thoroughly proofread an average length blog post in 5-10 minutes. What you’ll need: A printer A red pen A highlighter pen Step 1: Set it aside Time permitting, set your blog post aside for a while before you proofread it. An hour is good, a day is better. The more time you put between the writing and proofreading, the more refreshed you’ll be and better able to spot any typos. Step 2: Print it out Research has shown that proofreading on-screen is not as effective as proofreading a printout. So do yourself a favour and print your post out. But run it through the spell checker first, to fix any obvious spelling mistakes. Step 3: Mark up your changes Get ready by minimising distractions. Proofreading requires your undivided attention. So turn off your phone, close your email and switch off the music. Read through your post marking up typos and rough spots with your red pen as you go. Force yourself to slow down and concentrate. Focus on each word and character as you read. Make your mark-ups obvious so you don’t overlook them at the corrections stage. Punctuation marks (commas, apostrophes, full-stops/periods, etc.) are particularly easy to miss. So it’s a good idea to circle the mark-up for extra emphasis. It’s also a good idea to put a cross in the margin next to a line that contains a correction. Step 4: Read out loud Once you’re been through your blog post once, read it aloud. Reading aloud helps in two ways. Firstly, your ears will often catch mistakes that your eyes miss. Reading aloud forces a higher level of concentration than silent reading. And secondly, reading out loud helps you to write conversationally. If your post sounds clunky when you speak it, you need to revise it until it sounds confidently conversational. Step 5: Double-check details There are some details that are particularly embarrassing or troublesome to get wrong. So you should double-check the following: The spelling of people’s names e.g. is it Janine or Jenean? Stuart or Stewart? Ditto brand names e.g. is it WordPress, WordPress or Word Press? Telephone numbers and email addresses Prices Click links to make sure they go where you want them to. Step 6: Make corrections Make all your corrections in one go, not as you find them. Be very careful as you make changes. You don’t want to add in errors at this stage. Be especially careful with any sections you’ve rewritten. If you’ve rewritten a significant portion of your post it’s best to print it out and proof it again. A common mistake is missing corrections you’ve marked up on your printout. So as you make each change mark it off your printout with your highlighter. When you’ve finished making changes, go over your printout to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Step 7: Final check As a final check, run the spell checker over your corrected post. Read it on-screen to make sure it looks OK. Break up any paragraphs that are longer than 5 lines. Now you’re good to hit the publish button! Charles Cuninghame is a website copywriter and the author of the Website Content Cheat-Sheet. For important documents he usually hires a proofreader. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 7 Steps to Proofreading Like a Pro

One of the most important responsibilities that you as a business owner see to it is to ensure that the status of your company stays intact. This is very imperative as it can either boost up or damage your business’ name. However, it is usually the latter that businesses should take precaution for it not to happen. How important is online reputation management? Online reputation management comes in when a business organization experiences some damaging publicity. They are the ones who will take action in making certain that negative commentaries are contained. Basically it is their job to come up with a plan that counteracts the current condition and pushes down the negative publicity. How to ensure that your business reputation stays intact? With the evolution of internet, communication is made easy. It is because of this that once you post your products and /or services online many individuals would automatically recognized it; provided that you are using the right tools to make it happen. What makes it more interesting is that whatever you post online will forever stay online. Hence, you must be very careful with what you say on the internet. To avoid facing unnecessary problems caused by negative publicity, here are some tips for you to ensure that this does not happen. Be mindful with what you say online The internet has a very distinct memory. Unlike people wherein they sometimes forget what they say, the internet does not do the same. Whatever comments or pictures or videos you post online stays there indefinitely. It does not forget nor can it be deleted. Therefore, you have to learn to be careful with whatever you do online. One minor mistake and it can do great damage to your business’ reputation. Never argue online If you encounter customers saying negative remarks against your product, do not argue with them. The right action you should take is to apologize and ask them what you can do to make it better. Remember, you cannot please everybody. Out of 10 customers that you have, 7 might agree with you while the rest do not. Hence, you must learn to control yourself not to lash out to these types of customers. Part of being a reputed company is providing good customer service. How can you give them these good services if you do not know how to placate irate customers? Immediately address all complaints and/or queries of your clients To ensure that your customers are always satisfied with your services, answering their complaints and/or queries within 24 hours is a good plan of action. Be polite and courteous to them even if you think that your clients are asking questions with obvious answers. Be cool and never lose your temper. Once you lose your temper you tend to say hurtful words or opinions that might insult your customers. Although expressing oneself is okay, do it with tactfulness. Create a strategic plan One of the best ways to avoid negative publicity is to create a strategic plan. Included in that plan are guidelines on what to say or how to act in the event that such incident does occur. You must always stay ahead of the game so that you will not be taken aback once problems like this arise. If possible, create different scenarios and make an action plan for each scenario. In the event that one of the scenarios you have created indeed shall happen you will know exactly what to do. A path to a successful online business By following the tips mentioned above, you won’t ever have to undergo problems in dealing irate customers and negative publicity. As much as you hate other people saying negative comments about your business you cannot prevent them from doing so as it is also their right to express themselves. The reason why these guidelines are mentioned is for you to be aware on what you should do and how you should react in the event that you might experience it in the future. This is just one of the many circumstances that you would be facing in your quest to make your business a success. Therefore, take

Sponsored Giveaways is a platform that allows bloggers to earn money by hosting giveaways or sweepstakes on their sites, I did a full review of sponsored giveaways before showcasing what they can do for both bloggers and advertisers and I wanted to touch base on a new feature that was just recently rolled out called [...]Author informationJustin GerminoOwner at DragonBlogger.comWorking in the IT Industry for over 13 years and specializing in web based technologies. Dragon Blogger has unique insights and opinions to how the internet and web technology works. An Avid movie fan, video game fan and fan of trying anything and everything new.TwitterFacebookGoogle+LinkedInThe post Sponsored Giveaways Now with Referral Program appeared first on Dragon Blogger. Be the first to comment... Related Posts:SponsoredTweets Referral ProgramShould You Pay for Sponsored Tweets Pro Account?SponsoredTweets Used by Both Bloggers and CelebritiesDragonBlogger Earnings Update from SponsoredTweetsCan You Earn Money with Sponsored Giveaways? RSS Feed Powered by MaxBlogPress Bring My Blog Visitors Back

Social media is becoming an increasingly large aspect of SEO and online marketing, and whether you like it or not, as an online marketer, you may well have to juggle various different social accounts in order to maximise your ROI and indeed make your website successful. (Don’t believe me? This infographic sums it up pretty well). But managing all of those different accounts can be a big headache, and anything that makes your life harder will ultimately make you less effective. That’s why you need to read this post, because it is full of helpful tips (on how to manage multiple social media accounts) to make your life nice and simple. Shall we get started then? 1: Chrome If you have multiple accounts on the same platform, either because you have a separate personal and business Twitter profile or maybe you manage multiple Facebook accounts, it can all get rather messy. In particular, you have to log out and log back in for each account that you want to manage. Chrome has a wonderful feature that lets you set up different profiles on the same browser. You can easily switch between profiles by clicking a button in the top left corner and each user profile has its own bookmarks, history and cookies. This means that you can have a personal profile and a business profile and you can remain logged in to all of your various accounts in parallel. To use your business Twitter profile, simply launch your business chrome profile! Get Chrome here if you don’t use it yet 2: Buffer Buffer is a simple little app that lets you queue up your Twitter and Facebook updates in 2 clicks. It comes with a free browser extension (for various browsers, so you’ll certainly find one for your current browser) so you can right click on any page and queue it up to be tweeted or published whenever you next have a free spot (you set a schedule and it follows it). If you like the idea of using Chrome to manage multiple social media accounts, Buffer integrates very well in this setup. You can set up a Buffer account for each of your Chrome profiles so that you are always logged in and whenever you see something interesting, just Buffer it! It makes keeping your Twitter stream full much easier, as well as avoid you flooding your followers’ streams when you stumble upon a bunch of links you want to tweet. Instead of tweeting them one after the other, you can use Buffer. Learn more about Buffer here 3: Cyfe Cyfe is a marketing dashboard. Full disclosure: this is who I work for, but check them out anyway! This platform lets you create your own dashboard full of widgets that show you, at a glance, how your social accounts are performing. You can access widgets showing your SERP rankings, Analytics data, Twitter and Facebook performance and even your own custom widgets, so it saves you checking each of your accounts separately. You can set it as your home page and get a quick-glance report each time you open up your browser. Learn more about Cyfe here 4: The Old Reader One of the hardest aspects of managing a healthy social media account can be thinking of things to Tweet about. If you only ever share your own content, people will lose interest, so it is helpful to use an aggregator to find good content. I personally find  ‘The Old Reader” to work pretty well. You can set up a different account for each of your Chrome profiles. All you need to do is browse the latest posts, pick a couple of interesting ones and add them to your Buffer queue, then get on with the rest of your day. Find the Old Reader here 5: Gmail/Thunderbird This may or may not be a helpful tool set for you, it really depends on your workflow and how much you use your social accounts, but for me it is essential. If you have many social media accounts you will need many email addresses, which you can set up using Gmail. Next, you can hook your emails up to Thunderbird (or Outlook if you prefer) so that you can manage all of your emails without having to log in to each account separatel

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