Naming Images and The Difference between Alt Text VS Title Text

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A picture speaks a thousand words. 

Yes, in a sense this is true when it comes to expressing emotion and detail from the human perspective. When you put an image in your post, it becomes that more enticing to the typical reader and it can 'speak' to you in a way that maybe words can't describe. But even if this is how artists see it, I have to point out that this means absolutely squat to your computer.

Now why is this relevant or even important? Well, unless you have been living in a cave for the last turn of the century, you will know that machines are taking over the planet. Even the internet is largely governed by Search Engines, which is mainly a system that follows a certain set of algorithms. A 'thousand words worth' image would simply be just one image to a machine.

So what would this mean to the typical blogger? Well, this is saying that unless you want your picture to be just like any other unnamed picture in the internet, you have to well, name it-- with words, so that a computer could understand. Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing rely on words to bring out their search results. 

SAVED IMAGE 

There are a variety of ways to make sure you image is SEO friendly, where Search Engines can accurately read what your image is all about. For one thing, something as simple as naming an image right when you save it in your computer can help Search Engines find it once you upload it to your site. The keywords will still be available underneath it if you check out the html.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/dGB2lcwSAik/UPoZHSJHrHI/AAAAAAAAAvg/2ec90wZB2Aw/s1600/question-mark-with-shadow.jpg

Instead of using underscore and space, use a hyphen in separating the words for the save image file name, seeing as spaces will come out as %20, while words with _ will be read as one long word. 


Alt Text VS Title Text

Zeitgeist Google Moments of 2012

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I was just telling my brother that 2013 is here but I don't feel all that different. I mean, what's to keep this day as becoming just like any other day?

That's when for some bizarre reason, I was lead to this Zeitgeist page of Google, recounting some of the most electrifying moments of 2012. And man was it something. The man landing in a parachute from space? No words.


So now well I still feel the same, but yeah, I dunno... I feel a bit different about today too. Maybe it's the feeling of being hopeful?

Yep, 2013 is going to be another epic year, I can feel it.

Most Visited Wikipedia Pages by Industry (2012)

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Another year has come to pass... but as we say goodbye to 2012, aren't you simply curious as to what things people considered important this year? To answer that, let us look at the most looked into source of information in the internet today, namely Wikipedia. 

Fortunately for us, Johan Gunnarsson's Wikitrends project identifies Wikipedia articles with the biggest uptrend in page views each day, and he was able to come up with with a list of the 100 most viewed articles on Wikipedia during 2012 [via Metafilter]. Just below I have segregated them according to some popular industries so we can easily see this year's winners!

MUSIC:
4. One Direction
17. Whitney Houston
21. Gangnam Style
23. Nicki Minaj 

25. Justin Bieber
26. Adele (singer)
31. Eminem
38. Rihanna
48. Lana Del Rey
58. Selena Gomez
60. Carly Rae Jepsen
63. Madonna (entertainer)
71. Michael Jackson
72. Taylor Swift
76. Lady Gaga
 90. Lil Wayne
93. Tupac Shakur
94. Katy Perry

When it comes to music, it's not really that surprising. At the top spot is One Direction at #4, and yeah they're sort of a worldwide phenomenon nowadays. Whitney Houston comes 2nd and is likely there due to the fact that a lot of people have been reminiscing since her death (Feb 11, 2012). On the other hand, I'm kind of surprised that Taylor Swift is so low on the list considering considering she did top Billboard 200, I mean, she's even  a few notches beneath Selena Gomez! Then definitely there's Carly Rae Jepsen-- who hasn't had Call Me Maybe stuck in their heads at one point in 2012? Finally, I have to mention Gangnam Style, and congratulations to more than 1B hits in Youtube!

Add Page Element Blogger Bug

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For some reason I cannot "Add Page Element" for all my Blogger Blogs... whether it's for installing Disqus, Lyvewire, LinkWithin, Outbrain, Nrelate, and I suppose for everything that requires for this window to show up. It simply just won't move on from this page even if I click "Add Widget".

I am assuming it's a Blogger problem seeing as I can't see how all these Add Ons would have problems all at the same time. I really hope Blogger can fix this soon so I can go on updating my blog widgets, and let's face it, it's driving me crazy.

Anyone who've had the same dilema? How were you able to fix it? Do share!

7 Things about Online Marketing I learned playing World of Warcraft

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1. You start as a Newbie. 
In World of Warcraft, you would probably start off with a loin cloth and a small dagger, as you would first be equipped  on the web with a customizable page. You actually have a choice of characters with different abilities, just as you will have to pick your starting host. You can choose to have your own domain, or get a free platform like  the two must popular ones: Blogger or Wordpress. How easy it is to get to the top  can actually depend on what character/platform you choose and which one works for you best. Each has its own set of pros and cons.

There will always be the beginner character (like Blogger in platform version) that is very easy to use, but might not be very appealing to long time players. Experts in any game would of course want to have a lot more skills and combos, so more features on the platform would be nice. It might be harder to get it started, but once you master it, you just might be able to create an insanely powerful character/ a highly appealing self-hosted website.

The beginning is always the hardest, but once you get through that you are on your way to a rewarding gaming/ blogging experience.

2. You Compete.
Once you enter the World (of Warcraft/ SEO); you will immediately have millions of other people in the playing field also with the goal of reachingthe top. In this case, everyone is aiming for a Page Rank 10, but only a handful of players would be able to achieve getting top gear.

To beat the most badass boss in dungeons, you have to skill up, gear up, and learn all types of strategies to beat everyone else at it. That is why it is important to remain up to date. You have to enhance your site/avatar with the latest content/gear or whatever to increase traffic/levels. And as with any game, the higher your level, the harder it is to get to the next Page Rank.

3. You Coordinate and Gain Comrades.
In WoW, you obviously cannot survive alone and one time or another you will have to group into parties or join a Guild. This can basically be likened to the Community you have to build in the World Wide Web. You have to interact (by commenting, joining forums, bookmarking articles, reviewing sites, etc.) so that you can help each other grow to that next level or page rank.

In the game, you work together as comrades to fight bosses, while in real life(?)/SEO; you help each other gain traffic so that everyone can reach the next level. A good way to help a comrade in arms at blogging is to include that person’s site in your blogroll or link to that person’s page, where both can benefit if the sites are from the same niche as they will be able to exchange traffic. One must remember though that Google practically cancel out Reciprocal Links, so that will only have use if you can lead traffic to each others sites and not gain more links.

In any case, the comrades you gain along the journey are like your links, you can click on them or contact them if you have some questions or when you need help, and they can return with backlinks to help you out. Having contacts is good as if you don’t have a lot of those you then have to pay for any kind of advertisement on another site. Naturally, the more useful (have high authority- like a guild master) links you gain, the easier it is to get tothe top.

4. You need to level up and get better gear to OWN. 

What is Commentluv?

Tweet Commentluv is basically an add on as a way for bloggers to reward their commenters. What it does is to place the title of a recent blog posts of their commenter under a comment. This can be especially useful in gaining more comments.

What platforms can Commentluv be installed in?
I believe that it can be directly installed anywhere except blogger at the moment. It has a direct download for a wordpress plug-in. For blogger users, they can get the add on that is included when you download Intense Debate.

What is "Bad juju just happend"?
If the feeds are good, your comment should reflect the title of your recent blog post even before submitting. This statement will come out of there instead if it cannot locate a blog post from the site you linked or you switch URLs too much and the system is confused. If you encounter this problem, give it a minute. You should have a blog post for commentluv to work.

What is Keywordluv?
This is an added feature also made by the same developers where you can opt to have your commenters link their site next to their unlinked name. This might help you get to know your commenters a bit more if most of them are promotional products. Although this add on can be a venue for a lot of advertisement links in your blog, as it brags that one can use keywords when commenting at that site.

What is Top Commenters?
This is also a way to increase commenting participation by showcasing on your side bar those that have been commenting the most. This can mean extra backlinks from the homepage and every page of the site, which is very favorable for the commenter.

What is the bad side?
Installing these add ons will encourage spam comments just to get links. In any case, you can have these moderated or filtered by Akismet that is included when you download Intense Debate which you can toggle off manually.

If they want more comments, why are some blogs with commentluv installed No Follow?
I guess I don't get why there are those that use commentluv but are No Follow. It doesn't make sense as they will still get spam comments with commntluv installed anyhow. On the other hand, maybe they just want to reward legitimate commenters with a little something but also hope thatt they would not attract too much spam. Mind you this is not too much of a reward though as that linked site in the comment has no link juice when it is no follow even if there are double links, one for your name, and the other for your recent post.

Switching from Blogger to Intense Debate Blog Comment Form

Tweet One thing I don't understand (well there's a lot of things I don't understand, but for now let's just talk about this one thing) is why Blogger continues to keep its crappy comment form. Seriously, is there even someone who really likes it, or are they just forced to use it by default?

Top 6 things that ticks me when commenting on Blogger:
1. There's no box for visitors to leave an e-mail.
2. No avatars except for Blogger profiles. 
3. You have to choose from a drop down box, then input data from a pop-up.
4. Sometimes you are brought to a different screen/ there's a popup window for commenting.
5. Most of the time in Blogger blogs you need to log in to comment (for registered users/ Google, LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, AIM, or OpenID).
6. Not integrated with popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
~ How about you, what don't you like about Blogger comment forms?

So anyways, I have made a blogger blog and made the next logical step-- research for an appropriate blog commenting platform. Now there are actually 3 comment forms that came into consideration, namely the three most popular ones: Intense Debate, Lyvefire, and Disqus. For the purposes of Blogging Stage though, I have decided to install Intense Debate.

Top 10 Reasons on why to choose Intense Debate as a Blog Commenting Platform:

I see Intense Debate as relatively dumb proof for the typical commenter. Everything is laid out very simply. You either log in (I usually use Facebook and Twitter) or place your Name/Email/Website then submit comment-- it's as simple as that! Remember this commenting platform came from the developers of WordPress, so I can see why they opted for something as simple as their own comment form. Hey, maybe they made this to get more mileage with their brand in Blogger blogs, I don't know about you but I think it's working.

7 Ways for people to remember your site

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1. Make a catchy but easy to remember title. The key word here would be 'easy to remember'. 

2. Title on top of the page should be the same as your URL, so people won’t be confused when they search for it.

Some people might like your article, copy the URL, then paste and save it somewhere. After some time that person might look for the title from the URLs he has saved and no longer find it because the title is different.  He will thus no longer be able to go back to the article, and ultimately your site.

3. Select a nice theme; this can make all the difference when it comes to remembering your site. If you keep on changing your theme then people might even not remember it and think that it is  a new site.

4. Have RSS, Facebook, Twitter, or Google + icons for people to subscribe on. That way when a new posts comes up, they will be reminded of your site.

 5. Make their trip memorable. Make sure you have good content so that they will remember you and keep coming back. Make a good first impression, else they won’t return.

6. Don't flood your site with ads. They will remember you alright, remember you enough not to go back. Don't fill it with too much widgets either, put just what you really use.

7. Reply to their comments. This will make them feel special and make them keep coming back for the interaction.
Image by Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

21 Blog Posting Tips to Always Keep in Mind

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1. Give your Recent Post a Chance to Shine
Don’t post one after another all on the same day, as the other posts would immediately be superseded by the new ones! There's this tendency for readers to read only what's latest, which means that the post you have before that will no longer have the spotlight. What you should do instead is post one, and then go head and thoroughly promote that for today!

 2. Post on a Regular Basis
This is so people will know when to expect a particular topic to come from your blog. You have probably heard of “Wordless Wednesdays” or "Tuesday Treat” and that is exactly the strategy they are using. This gives readers something to look forward to and they will know when to visit your site.

3. Write about a Particular Niche
If you have enough material to write about a single topic, then only blog about that. If you have another topic then make another blog. Because chances are people will not like every single topic you like to write about, so by having several blogs, you give them a chance to choose the feeds they receive. They would also feel that you are more knowledgeable about a particular niche this way. But of course, if you don’t have enough to write about on a regular basis, then you can always merge ideas.

 4. Use Pictures
This will be able to catch your reader’s attention. A lot of your readers are visual and a captivating image will lure them in.

5. Use a Catchy Title
In most cases, readers will not plunge directly into reading you post, they will first read the title and if they find it interesting THEN they will read the whole thing. So make sure your title is engaging enough and accurate.

6. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Short & Simple)
If you can write a 2 sentence paragraph instead of a 10 sentence one, then why not do just that? Viewers might get discouraged from reading the post if they see that it is very long. Don’t go around and around and around. Don’t waste your time and others.

 7. Don’t Rinse & Repeat 
 If you have loyal subscribers, they will be sure to notice if you have already tackled a particular topic before and merely presented it in a new way. Make sure that your ideas are always fresh so your readers will keep coming back. It is also not cool to copy someone else’s work. Continue to create your own.

 8. Don’t Rant
Frankly no one cares about your terrible day. (Unless you have a rant blog.) You wouldn’t want to have masochistic subscribers who don’t genuinely sympathize either. People in general like to read about positive things, so keep it light to keep them interested. If you keep on ranting in every blog post then chances are people will get tired and unsubscribe.

 9. Believe in what you write
There are those that write about stuff that they don’t even like just because it is a popular search query, but believe it or not, people will know if you are really interested in what you are writing. Also, in most cases, if you don’t like the topic then you don’t know much about it either. So stick to those you know and are passionate about.

10. Be Nice
This goes for posting and commenting. No one wants to get slammed or flamed. If you want to have people keep coming back then you better treat them with respect. Don’t be a racist or

Lay off to Keep Your Page Clean

Tweet 1. Lay off putting super specific tags when you apply labels on your site. This will just result to a cluttered looking sidebar and viewers would also have a difficult time finding the right topic they want seeing as there are so many.

Another negative side-effect would be that each link would be worth less SEO-wise. You see, the more links coming out of a page, the less these links are worth. Let's say you want to do inlinking (linking to other pages of your own website) so some authority coming from your main page can be passed on to the other specific pages, this won't be worth as much if you have thousands of other links coming out from that page.

This can easily be resolved by checking/ ticking off unnecessary or duplicate labels.Remember to use labels wisely and not just put any topic that comes to mind.

2. Lay off putting too much ads. It won't be effective as you will be overpowering your content and no one would want to go there anymore, let alone click on your ads. Too much would also not look very nice for the aesthetics of your website.

You will also look shady to the the typical passerby who might come by your site. No one likes a site where they feel that you are just there to sell them something. First and foremost you have to capture them with good content, and from then there will have a higher chance  of them coming back to eventually click your ads even if there is just a few.

 3. Lay off using too many widgets. Only use those that are most useful and important. Having a lot will effectively slow down your page, and we know for a fact that page load speed is factored into Page Rank.

4. Lay off putting too many posts in a page. The number of posts that you should have in a page will highly depend on what kind of site or blog you have. But 7-12 can be a good number so that you won't effectively slow down your reader's PC too much whenever they load a page. The longer it takes for them to open your site, the higher the chances that they will just leave without even seeing what you have to offer. On the other hand, if they are a regular reader, chances are they won't be reading all of your posts anyhow.

Name that Blog Right!

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Some might say, what's in a name? They'll say what's important is that you have content and provide something of value to people who would be reading your blog. Well yes that's true, in the long run it's actually the content that would make people keep coming back. But I'm here to argue how something as simple as your blog name can actually make or break your blog.

YOUR NAME IS YOUR BRAND
A rose by any name would smell as sweet. Well yeah, but who would want to go to a site named VirusXX or PwntTurd? Those examples might seem extreme, but you get the picture.

Like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover, so why would you want a crappy cover? You can't just name your site just because it sounds cool to you, you have to have one that the general public won't generally be repulsed by, so they would be more encouraged to check out your site. So try to make sure your name won't be offensive to your target market.

You might get the idea from Technorati Top 100 Blogs. Here you can see top blogs, and one thing they have in common is that they don't have crappy names.  

NAME RETENTION
When someone visits your site for the first time, chances are they won't be subscribing. They'd just read a few posts and move on to the next blog. But what if after a month or so they decided they wanted to read more of your posts, but wait, what's the name of your blog again?

Time Blogging You Can’t Get Back

Tweet One of the reasons I am so fascinated by Prince of Persia: The Sands if Time is because of the idea of time travel.

“Releasing the sand, turns back time. Only the holder of the dagger is aware of what’s happened."

 Imagine what you could do with that power; you won’t miss a party for work ever again! (Of course you will be the only one who’ll remember this, but that’s beside the point.) Also, you will never have to suffer (for long anyways), about any sort of humiliation. Just release the sand and tada~, feel free to rinse and repeat!

This can be pretty cool to use in real life; but imagine if you can apply that to blogging! Be first with every press release, take back a scandalous comment, unban yourself from a forum; and on a larger scale, steal Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. before they were even created! You might remember how that guy who went back in time in ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ went ahead and invented the popular search engine ‘Lougle’.

Nice thought isn’t it? Well, you are free to keep on dreaming because that will never happen. (Theoretically, according to Stephen Hawking, you can travel forward in time, not backwards.)

So what you want to do is make the best out of every moment; as that is time you can never get back.