Category: Blog

Complete Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Dummies
What do you know about search engine optimization or SEO in short? Do you really know what SEO really are and how it can affect you?

I talk about SEO, think about SEO, eat with SEO and bathe with SEO but I am no SEO expert. And if you are looking for a SEO guru, I am not your man. Why?!

Because I am not going to lie to you what I know about search engine optimization techniques and how you can use SEO for your own good. And, this is not a sales thread…not now, not in the future in my books.

If you’re reading this, then good as we are on the same page now. So let’s go with our first lesson (and my first SEO post here) on search engine optimization, shall we?

What is search engine optimization all about?

I am no SEO guru but at times, it is cool to call myself a Search Engine Optimization Ninja

The term search engine optimization or SEO is already a household name for many bloggers and webmasters today. Now let’s go with some simple language course on what SEO really means.

Search engines literally refers to Google, Yahoo and Bing to name a few.

Optimization means the process of improving or increasing the optimal result from a certain action.

With the above, I can simply conclude that search engine optimization is a process to improve your article, blog or website ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Make any sense? As I said below (on my profile), I am not a techie person. So, I will be explaining what SEO is all about in simple terms so that it is easily understandable to both beginners and professional bloggers.

Why search engine optimization is important? What’s so important about SEO?

I get this all the time and I even asked myself before in the past. Good search engine optimization techniques will actually improve the chances of you ranking well on result pages.

This means that the better your SEO methods are, the better chance search engines will see your website. Of course, the more your articles are featured on result pages, the better and more traffic you will get.

Here, we can conclude that good SEO techniques will increase your website ranking on search engines, boost traffic to your website and ultimately, increasing the chances of affiliate sales or making money through your website a reality.

How to SEO correctly? What are SEO best practices?

Using right SEO techniques will increase and improve website page rank

Regardless which website I visit, I keep seeing bloggers asking the same questions over and over again. Before you continue reading, take 1 minute off and think what you really know about SEO…don’t worry, I will wait.

‘¦

‘¦

‘¦

Welcome back and I really hope you didn’t take more than one minute though.

The biggest perception I ever seen in my life about SEO is many bloggers believe that SEO can be learned and mastered. Hint: Just Google and see how many SEO gurus you can find out there.

Perceptions on search engine optimizations:
- You can master SEO
- SEO is straightforward and easy to follow
- Learning SEO will help me for tomorrow, next week and the future
The real deal about search engine optimization are:
- SEO is a practise and guideline for bloggers
- Learn what SEO is and modify each search engine optimization techniques to gain the maximum advantage over others
- Understanding how search engine optimization works is more than just important
What are SEO best practices?

I am not going very detail in this as I will be creating separate topics on this. Yes, I want to go into detail and make sure you understand everything about SEO. And I do it for free.

1. Content is king but focus keyword is God

You hear me right. Good content will not bring you to the top spots of the search engines but focus keywords will.

Don’t get me wrong as I know how important content it. What I am trying to say is good search engine optimization or good SEO strategies are to use as very specific and focused keywords.

The biggest mistake here is bloggers tend to stuff hundreds keywords into one article. Don’t ever stuffed all those keywords you can think of into one article as you are going to give a hard time for search engine bots to figure out what your content is all about.

2. Understand how you want to rank your website

One of the best SEO practices is knowing how you want search engines to rank your blog. Pardon me for being so general. There are two ways search engine will rank your blog.

SEO strategy 1: Rank your blog with very specific keywords (between one to five keywords)

SEO strategy 2: Rank your blog with a bigger range of keywords (more than five keywords)

As for the record, both are equally good when it comes to finding the best SEO strategy. However, the paths of both these SEO best practices are very different.

SEO strategy 1 will lead to a better page rank or SERPs ranking within a shorter time frame. Here, your blog or website can even rank better even when you do not have an upper hand in domain age.

One the other hand. SEO strategy 2 will take a longer time to build a good SERPs ranking compared to the above. The SEO process here is long but what makes it worthwhile is it will also produce good domain authority for your website.

Never underestimate both of these SEO practices as they are be very lethal in the hands of a good blogger.

3. Choosing the right SEO tools in your SEO projects

Choosing the right SEO tools will either improve or break your website ranking

I bet you heard about others saying that they ranked their website faster and better without any SEO tools. This is particularly true and I am not denying the fact.

However, we are in the technology era for Christ sake! Do you think that you can compete fairly with other bloggers or websites without using any SEO tools?

I am also not denying that there are many premium SEO tools that worth your every buck. And for beginners, I do not recommend them (unless it has a trial period) as there are also many free SEO tools which can help you in your search engine optimization project 101.

One of the best SEO tools is Google Keyword Tool and you can find useful tips and tricks on how to use it, Killer SEO Tips Using Google Keyword Tool.

Of course, I will be writing more on this topic as well so stay tune.

*p/s One of the best way to stay tune is to subscribe to my newsletter (yes free for life as well) at the end of this post or on the box on the right sidebar.

What I’m trying to say here is if you want to compete in this SEO world, then you have to compete in the smart way. I am sure you will be amazed on how many free SEO tools there is which many bloggers do not use at all. Such a waste right?

Okay folks, give yourself a pat on the back (or a beer treat) as you have completed the first part of my SEO best practices.

Wait! Don’t click on the Close button yet!

Test your understanding on search engine optimization knowledge (after my post above):
- Do you understand what Search Engine Optimization really is right now?
- Are you practising the right SEO methods?
- Are you using the right SEO tools for your blogs and website?
Talk to me and share with me using the reply form.

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December 21, 2023
4 Fail Proof Ways To Successfully Create A Website From Scratch
Planning to start blogging and create a website? Thank God you came to the right spot! In this article, I am going to share with you how you can create a website from nothing to something with the help of the popular blogging platform, WordPress.

What is WordPress?

According to Wikipedia, WordPress is an open source CMS, often used as a blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL. Sounds complicated already? Don’t worry and as for now, let’s forget about PHP (what?) and MySQL (double what??).

Basically WordPress is a blogging platform and is one hell of a famous one indeed. Many bloggers including Darren Rowse from ProBlogger (who also wrote How To Earn A Six Digit Figures), Ana Hoffman from TrafficGenerationCafe and Kristi Hines from Kikolani to name a few. And yup, even I am using WordPress.

Hold on!

What makes me different from them? They are really famous bloggers and me? Just an average Joe trying to become a better blogger.

What you should know about creating a website?

Planning is an important when it comes to creating a website

1. Planning, planning and more planning

Well, you can start a website without much effort nowadays thanks to technology. However, please don’t jump straight into creating a website. If you want to create a website, then start planning right now.

Take a piece of paper and a pen of course…I’ll wait.

Now, let’s say you have both of that already. Start jotting down what you have in mind on what your website is going to be all about. What you are doing here is brainstorming.

What? Brainstorming?

Yes! Many bloggers, including me jump right into creating a website. This means like finding a name, hosting package and bam! Install WordPress. I will explain more after this.

Trust me, that is a wrong move. If you want to create a website and make it grow, start having plans. Work out your plans and think not only carefully but critically on how you want to build your website.

2. Finding a good website name

There are many debate in this topic until date. Some says getting Exact Match Domains (EMD) while others say it doesn’t matters anymore. Now, which side of the fence are you in?

Personally, having an Exact Match Domain (EMD) name would be a better choice. It adds a little (yes, very…very little) SEO advantage over to unique domain names. Don’t bother much about it since websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo doesn’t really bring any face value but yet, they are doing very well when it comes to popularity.

A good website name should also be easy to remember, short and as descriptive as possible to leave a great impression on readers. For the length of the domain, try make it less than 15 characters long.

Again, I am just giving suggestions and you can clearly see websites such as TrafficGenerationCafe has a whopping 21 characters but yet, they are doing very well on search engines.

You can start finding and register your domain names with these registrars:
3. Finding a good hosting package

The biggest question I ever asked myself is, ‘Is it worth getting a cheap hosting package?’ and the answer is no! Most hosting companies practice overselling and this means that they are loading their servers with ‘˜more than what they can take’.

Choosing the right web hosting company to host your website is extremely important

This leads to bigger issue in the future where these servers might be overworking and thus, making your websites offline unintentionally. Well, what you can expect when you are paying like $5 per month right?

There are hosting companies such as Media Temple, Synthesis and WP Engine which charges more than $20 per month but they guarantees excellent uptime and a round the clock support.

If you are a novice blogger or webmaster, you can always seek a lower and cheaper hosting package first before moving over to a bigger and more secure hosting company. At least, this will be easier on your pocket and wallet.

When it comes to choosing a web hosting company, I would highly recommend using HostGator as they offer 24/7 support over the phone, email and even live chat. Something that I can’t live without.

4. Create a website – Final stages

By now, you should have all the information needed to create a website. Maybe, you are even more proactive and had even purchased a domain. Good for you!

Simply point your domain to the right name servers and within minutes (some hosting companies take up to 48 hours) the website will be up.

This is where you should login to your own cPanel (some call it hosting homepage) and start installing WordPress. Installation of WordPress usually takes less than 10 minutes but I know one hosting company that takes an hour just to install WordPress.

Efficient? Go figure!

What are you waiting for?

I am going to leave it to you first at this time being. Remember to bookmark this topic and come back for more (which I will be adding more articles in the next few days). Remember that even though to create a website is easy, maintaining a website is tougher than what you think!

Like this article? Comment below to get free backlink and at the same time, take the opportunity to share with me your ideas!
December 21, 2023
8 Explosive Blogging Tips Other Clever Bloggers Won’t Share
This blog post could probably the 10th, 100th or 1,000th that you had read about blogging tips and starting a blog. I am going to tell you that this blog (and this website) is different from any other and here’s why.

Do you really think that most successful bloggers will share their secrets, tips and tricks with you? Take a moment to think about it and I will wait.

…

Moments of silent…

…

Welcome back! Guess you figured it out right? Oh wait! If not, don’t worry, let me tell you why instead. Sharing vital information, tips and tricks in blogging with the other bloggers would probably means:
1. More competitions
2. Lesser traffic
3. Less earnings
What are the top secret, high confidential and mind blowing blogging tips for bloggers?

Makes any sense? Glad it does! We are on the right track here.

So, what makes me (and this blog), tell you the REAL answers on blogging tips? I am tired of seeing bloggers and potential writers going into this industry with the hope of making money blogging but ended disappointed!

I can’t teach you all the blogging tips (and tricks) I know and learned but if you follow my writings here, you will probably figure out all my tricks in blogging and start making a decent living through your blogs or websites.

I am not saying that other bloggers are lying to you but the fact is that not many are telling you the whole truth about blogging and life of a blogger. So, hear me out at least (even though how much you disagree with but do tell me why using the comment form below).

And before that, I would like to share with you some slides which I recently created:

Here are 8 blogging tips all bloggers must know

Blogging takes time, devotion and persistent to be successful

1. Blogging is more than a job. It’s a lifestyle.

If you have decided to step into the blogging industry, then allow me to give you a warm welcome. Now, let’s get into business…serious business.

If you want to be successful in blogging, then you need to be mentally and physically prepared to spend time into this challenging industry. For those who read the blog articles I posted few days back, I said that Sunday is my time off from blogging. Reality is…yes but partially. I promised myself that I will wake up earlier than usual on Sundays and do some backlinks for at least 2 hours a day. Half day work? You can call that anytime, buddy.

What I am trying to say is that if you want to make money blogging, then prepare to devote your time and effort into it. Don’t devote everything you got but at least, give it a 60% of everything you have first for starters.

Blogging tips #1: Everyone want to be making money through blogging but not many want to contribute time into serious blogging. So, which side of the fence are you on?

2. The reality between free blog sites and self hosted domains

It is no secret that there are bloggers who make money through their blogs on Blogspot. Oh yes they do and even one of my blogs on Blogger that is making $10 a day just through Google Adsense.

Choose your blogging platform carefully when it comes to building a brand for your blog

You are here because you want to make money as a blogger right? How many bloggers out there who are extremely successful using their Blogspot account?

That’s what I am saying, yo!

Let’s see, Darren Rowse from ProBlogger, Jane from ProBloggingSuccess and Ana Hoffman from TrafficGenerationCafe doesn’t use these free blogging sites. Instead, they are using self hosted domains.

Basically, free blogging sites aren’t really free. Bloggers using these sites will be tied down not only to their terms and conditions but as well as the contents ownerships (for some sites).

On the other hand, self hosted domains allows bloggers to be the ‘˜King and Citizen’ of the site. This means that bloggers are free to do any changes they like and they wished for as long as they want to.

Blogging tips #2: Small time bloggers build blogs. Serious bloggers who want to make money blogging have their own identity, brand and of course, self hosted website.

3. Money is needed to start a blog…at least a little

Prepare to invest at least a little when it comes to blogging

C’mon guys! Do you really think that you can earn money without investing a single cent? You probably could and I ain’t joking. However, trust me when I say that without investing some money, you are going to close many doors of opportunities. Clear example is in point #2 (above).

I started blogging years back and I was stingy (even now). I didn’t want to spend a single cent on blogging! I realized that my earning capabilities are very well confined in a small, 4-walls bedroom.

What I mean was I knew I couldn’t compete with the big guns without the help of paid blogging tools. That’s the fact. Bloggers who says that they don’t use paid blogging tools are lying. Okay, maybe they are not lying but check on their page rank, traffic etc. You get the point.

There will be times where you think you need to get a better WordPress theme, SEO content optimization or maybe a premium comment plugin to name a few. That’s when you need to spend money into blogging.

Blogging tips #3: Serious bloggers invest into blogging to ensure they grow and beat the rest…even when their competitors are sleeping.

4. Successful bloggers don’t spend a lot of time on their blogs and websites

Want to build good traffic blogs? Brush up on your Public Relations skills!

Yup you hear me loud and clear (okay, you read what I wrote – my apologies). Most successful bloggers doesn’t spend their whole day on their blog. So, what are they doing? Being a couch potato or lazing in their jacuzzi pool?

The fact is that they are spending at least 50% of their daily effort writing for other blogs and doing internet marketing. Hear any bells ringing when I say guest posting?

Good guest posting will generate enough traffic boost back to their own blogs simply because the sites they are writing for are having good traffic of their own. Don’t forget that this is not a good way but is a great way to increase blog traffic.

Starting a blog doesn’t sound to be that easy at this point right?

Even Darren Rowse (and wrote an eBook about it as well) agreed when he posted this:

One of Darren’s most popular articles published on ProBlogger

Blogging tips #4: A good blogger plans and strategize. Good blogging strategy will not only drive traffic but also creating good readership.

5. Successful bloggers uses content optimization tools in their blogs

Onsite content optimization is important to rank well on search engines

I am not sure about you but I certainly realized this. Do you notice that famous bloggers and websites usually have excellent content?

Okay try this when you have the time.
1. Pick an article you liked which was written by your favorite blogger
2. Try to figure out what are the keywords which he or she is using or focusing
3. Count the density of the keyword(s)
Obviously, this is clear. Out of 10 blog posts I counted, 7 of them have a very good density of keywords and they are very precise. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I know once or twice could be okay but having like 7 to 8 articles out of 10 with the same ‘˜modus operandi’ aka M.O.? This is way too good to be called coincidence I would say.

I know there are a few bloggers who are really good and doing all this manually. However, a huge part of them doesn’t. Instead, they turn their heads into content optimization tools or blogging tools that helps them to enrich the article content.

Like it or not, many serious bloggers invested thousands if not hundreds on SEO tools to ensure their blogs and websites survive the cut.

Think maybe that your blog don’t need any SEO optimization? Here’s a free report that you can use to check on your blog’s SEO status.

If you are looking for content optimization techniques, I believe this article will keep you on the right track, The Best SEO Tool For Optimizing Your Website.

Blogging tips #5: Blogging industry is very competitive nowadays. Only those who are really serious in this business will actually grow and be successful.

6. The reality of monetizing a blog or website

I don’t mean to disappoint you but if you think Google Adsense can drive your earning like crazy, then you are wrong. Sorry.

Smaller blogs make money through Google Adsense. Bigger blogs make money through affiliate sales.

I believe I do not need to share with you which blogger is making money through affiliate sales and I certainly know quite a few bloggers who are making not three, not four but at least five digits of affiliate revenue monthly.

You see, I would consider this as the approach of making money blogging followed by different bloggers. Refer below to see on my earnings using one of the affiliate programs I joined:

An example of my affiliate earning using eBay Affiliate Program

From the image above, I could easily be earning more using affiliate sales compared to Google Adsense clicks. Makes sense? Go figure!

Blogging tips #6: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t focus making money with Google Adsense. Instead, focus making money blogging with Google Adsense and affiliate programs as well!

7. Traffic above earnings

Traffic is the source of any blog monetization methods. Boost traffic and blog earnings will follow

Why most bloggers fail and give up within the first 3 months of blogging? This is because most of them have the money sign on their forehead even before getting a stable traffic!

If you have plans on starting a blog to make money, then start thinking how to generate enough traffic first!

Traffic is the core factor which will affect your blog earning. The more traffic you are getting, the better chance of creating a money blog or at least, generating a nice and small income through blogging.

Blogging tip #7: Money blogs are generating money because of traffic and not the other way around.

8. Control the number of advertisement on your blog

Most bloggers does this same mistake over and over again. As a blogger, you want your blog to be content rich and not advertisement rich. If you have in starting a blog, then make sure you control the limits on advertisements on your blog.

The number of advertisements which Google Adsense allow is only 3 per page. This clearly shows that not only Google Adsense acknowledge the importance of the banners, they also value the importance of content quality.

Blogging tips #8: Too many advertisement and banners aren’t good for blogging business. Reduce them and see traffic grow within the next few weeks if not months!

Placing the right advertisement at the right location will increase click rates

Over to you

So, what do you think of these 8 blogging tips?

Like it or hate it?

Tell me all about it and if you have anything under your sleeves that you want to share. Who knows, you maybe be featured in my post as well!

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December 21, 2023
Explode, Skyrocket And Increase Website Traffic With Minimum Effort
I bet the title attracts you huh? Pretty sure the title makes you wonder on how I can increase website traffic without much effort right? Nope, this is not a prank and I am not in a business of BS-ing. Carry on reading below to know how you can build website traffic the right way.

I have always been a huge fan when it comes to increasing my website traffic. Personally, I am bored with those conventional methods to increase traffic. I wanted to be different and I wanted more web traffic.

It all happened recently where I decided to write on several reviews especially on blogging tools I used for my writings. You can find the article written here; Top 12 Killer (Must Have) Blogging Tools For Bloggers.

I realized that I could actually gained some exposure through that. Well, I am not talking about writing quality content or doing good backlinks to that article. In fact, I am talking about using social media to boost my website traffic.

Do you know what is the best way to increase web traffic?

Here’s a few facts about increasing website traffic:
- The more publicity you get on social media, the better chances search engines will rank the website
- The more people shares on that particular website or blog post, the better it will rank on search engine result pages
- It is always faster to spread the word with the help of others instead of going in as a lone ranger
Make sense with the above? Think hard if they don’t but I bet they do right?

Write good content even before thinking of increasing website traffic

This is basically the rule I practise, all the time. It doesn’t matter if you want to increase your web traffic or make your site popular, good content is a must.

This is the golden rule guys! Don’t break it.

Simple methods I always use in blogging is to ensure that I have the relevant information, expertise and experience before writing reviews on those blogging tools.

And here’s the juicy part…

How I increase website traffic with minimum (some) effort?

I used to work in a corporate company (in Sales and Operations team) in the past and one thing I learned was, ‘˜If you want something, then ask for it’. For me, this is absolutely relevant in this blogging industry. You may have composed a 1,500 words article that has great content, quality and very information. However, the article is going nowhere if it is not getting the right limelight to shine.

This blogging idea actually struck my mind when I was writing my last article. I realized that everytime I tweet and share an article, only (or at most) 50 of the 900 plus followers I have will actually click on that. In fact, I would consider myself lucky if I would even hit 50 clicks on that. That sucks right? Live with it and that’s what life really is.

Then I thought to myself that it would be absolutely great if I could get others to help me to spread the word. I am not talking of getting services at Fiverr to increase my count. Instead, I am talking about getting not only real people but important figures like the developers to help sharing them on social media.

As a small time blogger, I only have about 900 plus followers, However, look at those famous bloggers and developers. They have thousands of followers. Ask yourself something. Who will create a better ‘˜impact’ when it comes sharing information on social media? You or those developers?

The answer is very clear. They are important figures in the eyes of many compared to us. Things these important figures share will have a better chance of getting more exposure. I am talking about multiple times more exposure than what you can actually gain for Christ’s sake!

Josh from Thirsty Affiliates was more than happy to share my post on Twitter

*Josh, if you are reading this, thank you for that Tweet. Hope you have a good weekend mate!

Did I even mention that Josh is one of the leading guys from Thirsty Affiliates? You know, then guys who turns ugly URL to some beautiful ones? Check it out right here!

Preparation before submitting my articles and blog posts

I wrote several lengthy blog post and I rechecked for their contents. After publishing it for a day, I contacted a few developers and told them that I did a review on their product. Of course, I ended up asking them in a nice way to share it if they liked it. No string attached!

Out of 5 developers and companies I wrote about, 3 responded and they were more than pleased! Two of them told me that they will feature my article either on their websites or share them using social media. That was huge and I thanked them like crazy.

Another company replied by saying that it is not their company policy to do such. However, the management had agreed to offer me a lifetime long discounted rate for their products. In my blogging books, this is moderate huge but for my wallet, it is more than huge! Haha!

What I did when I received those emails from them? I head over to my stats IMMEDIATELY!

I looked at how many traffic I am going to get. Right after the first tweet, I got myself a nice boost of website traffic of 19 views. Not bad at all (I am not greedy yet)!

Stats results within 30 minutes of the first tweet

Traffic improves a little following the next hour

The rest is pretty self explanatory. I received pretty good traffic for that one specific post for the next couple of hours and am pretty sure in the next coming days.

Improve website traffic by thinking out of the box

You see, the above is just an example. This is not only specifically for reviews. Do you know that you can even quote a famous blogger or person and get them to share the post for you?

I am no god or guru when it comes to improving web traffic. However, through experience and many try-an-error methods, things seems to go on smoothly as what planned. At times, website traffic can explode without you expecting and that makes everything even more possible, if you know what I mean.

Now, over to you. Do you have anything in mind to share?

I bet you do and what are you waiting for? Use the form below and share with all of us what you think.

Like this article? Please help me to share using the red button below.
December 21, 2023
Top 12 Killer (Must Have) Blogging Tools For Bloggers
As a blogger, have you ever wonder what are good blogging tools you need? I bet you do and that’s why you are here right? Well, don’t worry about it as I was in the same boat as you in the past. It happens to all of us, especially when we are desperate to find great blogging tools to enrich our blogs and websites.

What are blogging tools that worth your time and effort?

Through my blogging experience, there are many blogging tools where we can use for blogging. And yes, most of these tools are free but there are some which are paid tools (or premium blogging tools as we call it). Without much delay, the below are the blogging tools that I am currently using in my daily blogging life and I do hope that these tools will work well for you as well.

What are the best blogging tools available?

Free blogging tools for bloggers

1. Google Drive

It is best to write draft and keep it for later revision before posting on your blog

Google Drive is one of the best free blogging tool I ever used. Before this, I was using the old school way which is using Microsoft Words and saving each file on my laptop. Why i love Google Drive so much is because I could easily compose an article or blog spot on it, save it and adjust later when I have the time. It is absolutely great since I can be blogging nearly every position on Earth as long as I have Internet connection.

Try Google Drive now!

2. Google Keywords Tool

Google Keyword Tool is a great way for bloggers to find quality keywords

People talk about Market Samurai, Micro Niche Finder and even SEMrush. Well, I use all of them three honestly but trust me when I tell you that nothing beats Google Keywords Tool. While the three are absolutely doing great in my blogging career, I cannot deny the fact that I uses Google Keywords Tool more than any of these three combined.

Just a few clicks, I am able to sort out keywords relevant to my writing and improve the content optimization of my blog. Do I need to remind you that it is free as well?

Nothing beats free stuff, huh? Check out Google Keywords Tool here.

3. Evernote

Bloggers can easily retrieve back blogging drafts kept in Evernote

I bet nearly 95% of bloggers in this world would have Evernote app in their smartphones, tablets and even laptops. Thought of a great idea or blogging inspiration? Why don’t use Evernote to jot notes down?

I travel and move a lot. Whenever I get an idea on a topic, I would just pop up Evernote and write that down. It doesn’t matter if I am not using those notes at the moment but I am pretty sure (and happened before) that I would use them one day in the future.

Give Evernote a try and sign up for free account now!

4. Dropbox

Share your articles, documents and images between devices thanks to Dropbox

I can’t deny the fact that Dropbox is playing a huge role in my blogging career. When it comes to saving pictures or photos to use for my blogging, I will definitely keep them in Dropbox. The ability to sync across devices makes Dropbox an even more worthwhile application for any bloggers or webmasters.

I am currently using the free one which 62 GB of space (thanks to my Note 2) and you can imagine where I am going from there. A must have for all bloggers. Period.

Get a free 2 GB Dropbox account for free and start sync data across devices and computer.

5. Yahoo smush.it

Yahoo smush.it will help to reduce image size and improve website loading speed

There is a WordPress plugin for smush.it but I am using the web one instead. Every photos or images uploaded can be compressed and optimized to reduce it size. And what’s the use of it?

The smaller the picture or image is, the faster it loads up. I am not sure about you but this is definitely one of the must have blogging tool for me.

*p/s Do note that at times, the Yahoo servers might be slow and thus, uploading images could be a little hassle thought.

See how Yahoo Smush.it works here.

6. WordPress SEO by Yoast

WordPress SEO offers free and unlimited use of SEO tools to boost website ranking and content optimization

I am pretty sure the term search engine optimization or SEO is no longer a stranger to all of you. In fact, there are many SEO companies or SEO agents which you can use to improve your blog’s SEO and ranking.

However, have you asked yourself if that is truly necessary?

WordPress SEO by yoast is a free WordPress plugin that offers great SEO functions for your blogs and websites. What it actually does is doing multiple analysis on your content and determine the SEO level through it.

Once an analysis is done, it will then give you suggestions which may help you boost your SEO score even further. Sounds good? Certainly is for me!

If you are looking for a free but GREAT SEO plugin for WordPress, I truly recommend this from the bottom of my heart. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Yoast’s official website.

7. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is a one of the best WordPress cache plugins of all time
- Google – 500 milliseconds of extra load time caused 20% fewer searches
- For Yahoo – 400 milliseconds of extra load time caused a 5-9% increase in the number of people who clicked ‘back’ before the page even loaded
- For Amazon – 100 milliseconds of extra load time resulted in a 1% drop in sales
Optimizing website to improve loading time is important. It optimizing your website is not inside your book, then you should do it right now. Nowadays, website that loads slower could easily affect their website ranking on search result pages.

W3 Total Cache is often named as the best WordPress cache plugin. I got to agree with this as my website loads a second faster (maybe more) when this plugin is activated. High recommended for bloggers who are interested to boost their website loading speed.

Check out W3 Total Cache on WordPress.org.

8. Flickr

Flickr enables bloggers to share photos and images without taking up server space

I am not sure how many of you uses Flickr but I can tell you that I use it pretty much. I am a previous imgur user until the free storage capacity blocks me from using it to the max. Okay, I can’t be spending all my earnings on blogging only right?

Run and controlled by Yahoo Inc, I am pretty sure my photos are in good hands. What makes the cut even further is the latest free ‘giveaway’ which is awarding all users 1TB of memory space which makes photo sharing for bloggers even juicier!

Try Flickr today for free!

Premium blogging tools

9. Scribe Content Optimization

Scribe is one of the best content optimization tools for bloggers

Let’s say you want to bring SEO to the next level. This is where I recommend you this ‘˜state-of-the-art’ content optimization tool by CopyBlogger, Scribe. I personally use Scribe for all my money blogs and it proves to be more than just a great investment.

Don’t get me wrong as I uses WordPress SEO by yoast as well. However, the final SEO analysis is done using Scribe and it will pinpoint on keywords or SEO opportunities which I might accidentally left out.

I am always worried of my SEO (even though I know I shouldn’t) for my money blogs. I want my blogs to rank well and get good organic traffic to them. With Scribe, I knew I am already half way there. You can read more the product here: Scribe Content Optimization.

Don’t forget to request for your free SEO report using this link!

10. Thirsty Affiliates

Say goodbye to ugly URL thanks to Thirsty Affiliates

Thirsty Affiliate is the latest plugin I bought for myself. Reading through my previous blogs and you will notice that I am a member of ShareASale (affiliate program). I always wonder how other bloggers share their affiliate links using so a nice URL.

A little Google-ing and I found out that most of them are using Thirsty Affiliate. Well, what this WordPress plugin do is changing the ugly url to something beautiful. Example as below:

Ugly URL: https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=185140&c=ib&aff=250804

Beautiful URL: https://www.reginaldchan.net/recommends/thirsty-affiliates/

See the difference? This doesn’t only protects my affiliate links but at the same time, making it very pleasant to the eyes. Not only that, it could even improve the chances of getting an affiliate sale right? You can have a look at what Thirsty Affiliate is offering by clicking this link: Thirsty Affiliate Website.

11. Hybrid Connect

Hybrid Connect is the latest OptinSkin alternative that provides great service, value and customer support

People say building a mailing list is important and I certainly cannot disagree with any further.

I read about Hybrid Connect on Adam Connell’s website, Blogging Wizard (you can find the link here). Adam, if you are reading this, thank you for your recommendation!

I am pretty sure most of you are aware of a plugin called OptinSkin. Well, Hybrid Connect works exactly like OptinSkin with more features packed in it. It offers the ability to put sign up box for mailing and newsletters nearly every inch of the blog.

What makes it better is the customer support. When I purchased Hybrid Connect, it wouldn’t work my Dynamik theme (due to my customizations) and they fixed it up. They didn’t stop there. Instead, they even offered me help when they noticed there was an issue with one of my codes.

I was more than just ‘wow-ed’. Thank you Hybrid Connect team!

Try out risk free Hybrid Connect with 30-days money back guarantee!

12. Dynamik Website Builder for Genesis Framework

Start building your own customized WordPress themes using Dynamik website builder

I am pretty sure you are well aware that if you want to attract your readers, you need to have more than just a normal blog theme. Good themes are hard to come by but thanks to Dynamik team, building a custom theme for WordPress is as easy as click the drop down buttons. Want to know more about Dynamik Website Builder?

You can also head over to their official website, Dynamik Theme and Genesis Framework for more information.

Over to you

I hope the blogging tools listed above will provide you more than just great experience in your blogging life. Have you used any of these tools? Share with me by replying the comment form below.

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December 21, 2023
Three Love Hate Factors Which Affect Website Load Time
As a blogger and webmaster, I am obsessed with it comes to speed up website load time. In fact, who doesn’t right? Do you know that websites that has good loading speed score well on search engine page results? Maybe I just took it to another level. Anyway, over the past few days, I managed to speed up my website with these three main components:
- Minify
- Gzip
- Combine CSS
Before you proceed reading the rest, ask yourself these questions:
1. Do you know what it takes to build a website that loads fast?
2. What is the importance of a fast loading site?
3. Are you doing enough in terms of optimizing your lovely website?
Not too techie to do website optimization? This article is going to blow your mind away. So, bookmark this page or share with your friends as I am sure you would need this somewhere down your blogging career.

As for the record, I am not interested to hire a SEO or a website developer for the matter. Therefore, Google was my closest ally that I could get without paying a fee. After some searching, I decided to use only two tools which are ySlow and GTmetrix to measure the speed of my website.

Note: ySlow is integrated in GTmetrix and therefore, you may use GTmetrix only.

What are the three things that affect website loading speed?

What did I do to reduce my website load time?

Before solving any problem, you need to know where the problem lies. According to GTmetrix, I am having serious load issues on several parts which are:
- Combine external CSS
- Avoid CSS @ import (there is no space between @ and import)
- Gzip compression
- Minify CSS
Just a side note: If you are very interested to know more about CSS, I would recommend you this: HTML and CSS – Design and Build Websites.

Honestly, having this four issues was already a big headache and I was affected with slow loading speed and super low score for ySlow.

Since search engines do not like slow websites, I was determined to spend the whole day even days to get this resolved, without the help of any paid services.

Yes, I was just that determined!

Something I got to add to all WordPress users

I am using WordPress and I always do. There are probably hundreds of WordPress themes out there and choosing the right one is more than just important.

The right WordPress themes are usually:
- Very clean in coding works
- Build in SEO features
- Ready to use out of the box
- Offer customization where the sky is your only limit
- Unlimited support when you face issues with your themes
It doesn’t matter if you are running a corporate, e-Commerce or a simply website…you need a good WordPress theme and I can only recommend you two which are the best premium WordPress theme I ever seen; Genesis Framework and child themes by StudioPress and Thesis themes by DIYthemes.

I am using Genesis Framework and it really help me to reduce my website load time. This is my website load speed after I did several website optimization and I do not use any Content Network Delivery.

Pingdom Tool is a great tool to measure website loading speed

Searching for free help as much as possible

I didn’t have what it takes to do it fast and I wasn’t sure if I can do it correctly. My first spot was getting help from my hosting provider. Of course, it wasn’t that much of a help really with the reply that I had a huge external scripts which was well over 50k bytes and many external script files.

Even though that wasn’t much of a help, I roughly knew something was wrong in the script. Just an assumption of course!

With the data provided by GTmetrix, I decided that I could Google and solve the problem (one by one).

Solving Avoid CSS @ import

Honestly, I had no idea what this was. I had a look at style.css and tried to find what was wrong. I saw the term @ import and I read what it was. It was actually importing fonts for every request to load my page. Head over to my Homepage and check the different fronts available on your screen. Yup, that’s it!

Just follow the below steps to solve the @ import issue.

Original:

@ import url(“style.css”)

Replace to:

<link rel=”style.css” href=”style.css” type=”text/css”>

See the style.css above? Change them according to the original URL for importing.

Sounds very easy right?

Minify CSS files to control your website load time

I Google-d around and found out about minifying CSS files. I was using W3 Total Cache and I thought it had done what it was suppose to be. However, there are some files which cache plugins are not able to minify.

I read a lot about minify and in short, minify means combining and merging codes to be small in side. The lesser and shorter the code is, the faster your website will load. Enough said.

I headed over to my Style.css (Appearance > Editor > Style.css). This is a risky procedure and thus, you could access style.css through your cPanel which is safer. In case of any mistake done, you could easily revert the changes.

There are many online minify tools that you can use for this matter. You can use anyone which you can find on Google or use this: CSS Drive

Copy down your the whole script or any part of the style.css that you want to minify. Then, paste the code in the box and press compress. New codes will be available once the screen refresh and paste it on your style.css (you should override the old setting). Refresh your website and see if it loads up correctly.

Reduce website load time by compressing external CSS files

If you had understand the concept behind the above action, you are going to understand this completely. What you did was minify just one CSS file. Now, choose as many related css files and then combine all into one.

Tip: You may skip this as not all css files can be merged together

How to enable Gzip compression on WordPress?

Enabling Gzip compression will help to speed up the website loading time and reducing the bandwidth required to load your site. To do so, head over to your .htaccess through your cPanel and paste the below code into the script.

<ifModule mod_gzip.c>
mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file .(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*
</ifModule>

Save the file and reboot. You should notice a faster loading time now for your website.

Was that I did to speed up my website loading time?

Nope, I did more than that. I even have W3 Total Cache plugin and Cloudflare working together to boost my website speed. Not only that, I even have a subdomain which perform as a cookie-free domain to serve static content to my main site.

If you want to follow my steps, you can click on the links above and they will bring you to complete, step by step guides in speeding up your website.

To ensure that you had done everything correctly, refer back to GTmetrix and check on the scorecard. You should probably see a huge improvement compared to the previous one.

My website scored a pretty nice score at the end of this whole process with loading speed of slightly below 2 seconds and scoring A’s for both Google Page Speed and ySlow.

Do you want to speed up your website effectively?

This whole process could take your about an hour to three max to finish it completely. Share with me your scorecard and if you have any other tips, do tell us as well using the form below.

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December 21, 2023