How to earn online?

How to earn online?

Introduction Work from home, make money from your Website, join affiliate programs, summer jobs, seasonal jobs, get paid to take online surveys, get paid by reading email, get paid by surfing the Web, money making tutorials, earn revenue by placing ads on your Website, advertisement programs, get a fee to refer customers, receive commission for offering custom builds, etc.

Contents

Micropayments e-Commerce Services Virtual Cash Services e-Commerce Tools Freelance & Work from Home Publish it yourself Get paid to write articles Earn money by selling things Job Sites Job Search Engines Earn Money with your Website Earn Money through Affiliate Programs Money Earning Tutorials & Resources Get Paid to take Online Surveys Read Mails or Surf the Web Various

Micropayments

FlattrReceive micropayments for things you publish online. TipTheWebA non-profit organization which lets you receive tips / micropayments for Web content.

e-Commerce Services

AMS Avangate Barclaycard Business BiBit BIC Publication Portal Buckaroo CCNow ChronoPay ClickBank Digital River

Docdata Payments E-Junkie e-onlinedata EC Suite FastSpring Globalcollect Google Checkout iPortis.com Kagi MultiPay

Northstar Ogone PayPal Plimus PSIGate RegNow / Digital River RegSoft / Digital River SWREG / Digital River Twyp WorldPay

Virtual Cash Services

PayPal Online payment system using the 'virtual cash' principle. Transactions are instantaneous and are not delayed by slow bank-to-bank communications. PayPal now also accepts credit card payments. E-goldE-gold is an electronic currency and online payment system based on real gold. All the 'virtual' gold is 100% backed by real gold in physical storage. E-gold enables people to spend specified weights of gold to other e-gold accounts. Only the ownership changes - the gold in the treasury grade vault stays put. WebMoneyOnline virtual cash system based in Russia.

e-Commerce Tools

osCommerceFreeware open-source e-commerce solution to create your own online shop. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, license fees, or limitations involved.

Freelance & Work from Home

AbleStable.comDirectory providing a very broad listing of creative professionals, from artists to web designers, programmers, illustrators and music composers.
Associated Content Pays individuals to write about the community they live in. Payment is made per submission and one doesn't necessarily need to be a writer. Once you are registered as a "Content Producer" you can immediately start submitting content via their online system. Both non-exclusive (you retain the copyright) and exclusive (copyright bought by Associated Content) submissions are accepted. EditFast EditFast provides a free service to skilled proofreaders, editors and writers. If you are selected for a project by a client or by the Edit Fast administration you will be notified and that project will be directed to you. Free Business Services A collection of free and non free business services on the Web, such as: online payment services, cheque / check printing services, import / export companies, Websites and programs related to mortgages and real-estate, day trading companies and online stock brokers, business-to-business portals. Freelance Jobs ListLarge listing of freelance jobs organized by category. HomeWorking.com This site is for anyone wanting to work at home and anyone already working at home. You will find lots to get you started, help you find work at home and avoid scams. Telework Association TCA is Europe's largest organization dedicated to the promotion of teleworking. Over 2,000 people and organizations have joined them since they started in 1993. The TCA believes that teleworking can benefit people by increasing the quality of life and improving access to work. WorldLancer Outsourcing AcademyJob listings and jobs online for a variety of projects. "Buyers" can post job listings for free. Freelancers can find jobs online and get paid for their work.

Publish it yourself

Lulu.com Free service which enables you to publish, print and sell books, calendars, music, etc. on demand. There are no startup fees (nor investment fees), because each book is printed individually (after it is ordered by one of your customers). Smashwords A free service that helps you publish, promote, distribute and sell your work as a multi-format ebook. You receive 85% of the net sales from your titles. createspace Free online tools by Amazon.com to publish your own books (printed or eBook), music (CD or mp3) film/video (DVD or downloadable video). TuneCore For a flat fee of around $ 45 TuneCore will put your music on Amazon, iTunes and eMusic. You will remain the owner of the copyrights and TuneCore does not receive any royalties (just the flat fee). Bibliocore For a flat fee they will add your eBook to Apples iBookstore. You will remain the owner of the copyrights and Bibliocore does not receive any royalties (just the flat fee). Fultus The Fultus print-on-demand program prints one copy of your book at a time as sales come in. Fultus requires a minimum setup fee for a printable book of $449 and $299 for an ebook. For that fee, you get an ISBN/Bar Code, five free copies, worldwide distribution, bookstore return and more.

Get paid to write articles

Blogsvertise Earn money by talking about certain products and services in your blogs and journals and by placing links. Textbroker" Earn money by writing. You do not need to be a professional writer to participate, although proper spelling and grammar are required."

Earn money by selling things

eBay Online auction and shopping Website: sell or buy just about anything. Etsy Online craft fair: buy and sell all things handmade, vintage, and supplies. This can also include art, photography, clothing, jewelry, toys. Vintage items need to be 20 years or older.

Job Sites

A BetterJobSearch.com Free resources for anybody seeking for a Job: employer list, employment resources, resume services, job search tips and more. BackdoorJobs.com Adventure jobs, outdoor jobs, summer jobs, internships, work abroad, seasonal jobs, apprenticeships, offbeat careers, etc. Beyond.com Online recruiting company: search for jobs, add your resume, etc.

Job Search Engines

Indeed.com Free search engine for jobs - USA only.

Earn Money with your Website

 BidVertiser Place the Bid Vertiser text ads on your website and make money online by getting paid for every click. Earn money through Custom Builds A 'custom build' of a program is a special edition you can offer for download on your site, and which has your affiliate information built into it. This means that when the user clicks 'register' or 'purchase' in that edition of the program, he/she will go directly to the order page using your unique affiliate ID, making sure you receive the commission for the sale this user generates Google Adsense Earn money while displaying advertisements on your Website. When visitors click on these ads, Google pays you. Along with targeted advertising for your content pages, you can add a Google search box to your site and show targeted ads on search results pages. MIVA Website
Monetization Customized solutions to monetize website traffic, such as: pay-per-click advertising, add a Web search engine to your site and earn revenue from every click, earn revenue from users leaving your site. RevenuePilot.com You receive 60% of what advertisers pay RevenuePilot per click. A variety of linking methods is available, including text links, banners, search boxes, javascript feed, dynamic banners, etc.

Earn Money through Affiliate Programs

 123inkjets.com Store selling Inkjet cartridges, photo paper, cables, toner and other printer-related goods. Earn 27% commission on each sale you generate through a banner or text link on your site. Affiliate Tips.com Affiliate directory, reviews on affiliate programs, helpful articles and affiliate marketing tools. AffiliateSeeking.com Well organized directory of affiliate programs, organized by category. AllPosters.com Sell posters on your Website, earn 25% commission on each poster you sell. Amazon.com Amazon.com is an online store specialized in selling books, CDs, DVDs and Videos. When a visitor of your site purchases an item from Amazon.com through a link on your site, you will receive a fee of between 5% and 15% of the purchase price. Become a TreePad Affiliate and earn money! As a TreePad affiliate you can earn 25% commissions on any sales you make!
Grateful to all TreePad users, who have been TreePad's best advertisers, we are now happy to offer you this excellent possibility of earning money. Sign up is free and open to anyone interested. Clickbank Promote and sell your own products or promote other products and receive a commission on each sale which you generate. clixGalore Build your own affiliate program and boost your sales, leads and website traffic by promoting and building your own large 'pay for performance' sales team. Commission junction Over 1000 advertisement programs to choose from. Real-time tracking, reporting and analysis of impressions, get paid monthly by check, etc. eBay Online auction house. Earn $5 for each new client who signs up with eBay, earn $0.05 for each bidder at eBay. Also: eBay affiliate University for improving your performance. Limitation: US based affiliates only at this time. iDonovan.com Online recruiting company. Pays $ 20-30 USD for each referred sale. iPowerWeb Webhosting company. Receive $65 (Tier 1) and $5 (Tier 2) in commission for every new customer LunarPages Webhosting Webhosting company. Earn $52.00 for each new customer (Tier 1) and $ 5 (tear 2). PayDotCom.com Promote products and earn commissions as a PayDotCom affiliate. PayPal-related.

Money Earning Tutorials & Resources

Homepage Made Easy's Guide to Affiliate marketing What's Affiliate Marketing? How do you turn your traffic into profit? Pay-per-Click vs. Pay-for-Performance? Pay-per-Click: the need for huge traffic? Pay-for-Performance Drives Results? How do large affiliate networks function? How / when do you get paid? Why is there a minimum amount policy? What if my revenue is below the minimum amount? How do you get a sponsor? A bit on rights & duties - How free are you? The right sponsor(s) for Your Web Site - a Hot tip! Enhance your homepage and make money! How to create a page that is: easy to make, beautiful, interesting, and profitable!
E.g. add images and content royalty free to your pages and make money with them! Introduction to Earning Money on the WebEarn Money Opportunities, Affiliate Marketing - Info + Tips, Search for one or more Sponsors for Your Web Site, Guide to Find the right Sponsors for Your Web Site, Tips for Beginning Webmasters, have a Business or Commercial Web Site? Here's an Excellent Opportunity for You, other Profitable and/or Advantageous Opportunities Available to You on our Web Site. Free Marketing Zone Free marketing resources for Webmasters and online entepreneurs. Free articles, free sales letters, free web-scripts, free promotion tools, etc. How to make money from your Website Resource for affiliate program managers aspiring to develop a best of breed affiliate program: articles, news, gossip, tutorials, case studies, reviews, interviews, press clippings, consulting services, etc. Aff helper Tutorial on advertisement and promotion related to making money through affiliate programs; also has a directory of affiliate programs,

Get Paid to take Online Surveys

American Consumer Opinion Get paid for sharing your opinions and ideas in online surveys. Win money in monthly drawings just for being a member. Win money in drawings when you fill out a a short questionnaire. Earn cash each time you complete a survey (a longer questionnaire). GlobalTestMarket.com Earn cash by filling out surveys and referring friends. goZing surveys In return for participating in online and/or telephone surveys, you receive Amazon.com gift certificates or PayPal cash. I-SpeakUp.com $50 for filling out 25-minute surveys, $150 for participating in focus group panels for 30 to 60 minutes, earn free trips, free diners, get freebies given to you with each survey completed. Online-Paid-Surveys.net A free site where users can share experiences and learn about online paid survey opportunities. The site includes a user blog, polls, a user review section, and editorial reviews on legitimate paid market research opportunities. Opinion Outpost Opinion Outpost is an online community where people like you can come to share their opinions by participating in survey research. In return for your valued opinion, you can earn opinion points which can be exchanged for cash and prizes. SurveySavvy.com Earn cash by filling out surveys and referring friends. YellowSurveys.com Over 500 survey companies offering paid surveys in cash and prizes.

Read Mails or Surf the Web

Hits 4 Pay Get paid to read emails, click on banners and refer friends. E-Mail Paus U Get paid to read email and for visiting Websites.

Various

 DanHatesSpam.com Dan earns a living by suing spammers (and by receiving settlements fees). You can learn more about the tactics which he uses on his Website. GetPaidToTry Earn money by trying out products and services.

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21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

A considerable portion of my consulting time has recently revolved around the optimization of corporate blogs (or the addition of blogs to revamped sites). As usual, I find a pattern emerging in the strategies that need attention and the pitfalls that must be avoided. So, rather than charging $400 an hour to give advice on the subject, I thought it would be valuable to share many of the most common pieces of advice here on the blog (business part of Rand fights with open source Rand, but loses, as usual).

1. Choose the Right Blog Software (or Custom Build)
   The right blog CMS makes a big difference. If you want to set yourself apart, I recommend creating a custom blog solution - one that can be completely customized to your users. In most cases, WordPress, Blogger, MovableType or Typepad will suffice, but building from scratch allows you to be very creative with functionality and formatting. The best CMS is something that's easy for the writer(s) to use and brings together the features that allow the blog to flourish. Think about how you want comments, archiving, sub-pages, categorization, multiple feeds and user accounts to operate in order to narrow down your choices. OpenSourceCMS is a very good tool to help you select a software if you go that route.
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2. Host Your Blog Directly on Your Domain
   Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make. A blog on your domain can attract links, attention, publicity, trust and search rankings - by keeping the blog on a separate domain, you shoot yourself in the foot. From worst to best, your options are - Hosted (on a solution like Blogspot or Wordpress), on a unique domain (at least you can 301 it in the future), on a subdomain (these can be treated as unique from the primary domain by the engines) and as a sub-section of the primary domain (in a subfolder or page - this is the best solution).
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3. Write Title Tags with Two Audiences in Mind
   First and foremost, you're writing a title tag for the people who will visit your site or have a subscription to your feed. Title tags that are short, snappy, on-topic and catchy are imperative. You also want to think about search engines when you title your posts, since the engines can help to drive traffic to your blog. A great way to do this is to write the post and the title first, then run a few searches at Overture, WordTracker & KeywordDiscovery to see if there is a phrasing or ordering that can better help you to target "searched for" terms.
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4. Participate at Related Forums & Blogs
   Whatever industry or niche you're in, there are bloggers, forums and an online community that's already active. Depending on the specificity of your focus, you may need to think one or two levels broader than your own content to find a large community, but with the size of the participatory web today, even the highly specialized content areas receive attention. A great way to find out who these people are is to use Technorati to conduct searches, then sort by number of links (authority). Del.icio.us tags are also very useful in this process, as are straight searches at the engines (Ask.com's blog search in particular is of very good quality).
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5. Tag Your Content
   Technorati is the first place that you should be tagging posts. I actually recommend having the tags right on your page, pointing to the Technorati searches that you're targeting. There are other good places to ping - del.icio.us and Flickr being the two most obvious (the only other one is Blogmarks, which is much smaller). Tagging content can also be valuable to help give you a "bump" towards getting traffic from big sites like Reddit, Digg & StumbleUpon (which requires that you download the toolbar, but trust me - it's worth it). You DO NOT want to submit every post to these sites, but that one out of twenty (see tactic #18) is worth your while.
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6. Launch Without Comments (and Add Them Later)
   There's something sad about a blog with 0 comments on every post. It feels dead, empty and unpopular. Luckily, there's an easy solution - don't offer the ability to post comments on the blog and no one will know that you only get 20 uniques a day. Once you're upwards of 100 RSS subscribers and/or 750 unique visitors per day, you can open up the comments and see light activity. Comments are often how tech-savvy new visitors judge the popularity of a site (and thus, its worth), so play to your strengths and keep your obscurity private.
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7. Don't Jump on the Bandwagon
   Some memes are worthy of being talked about by every blogger in the space, but most aren't. Just because there's huge news in your industry or niche DOES NOT mean you need to be covering it, or even mentioning it (though it can be valuable to link to it as an aside, just to integrate a shared experience into your unique content). Many of the best blogs online DO talk about the big trends - this is because they're already popular, established and are counted on to be a source of news for the community. If you're launching a new blog, you need to show people in your space that you can offer something unique, different and valuable - not just the same story from your point of view. This is less important in spaces where there are very few bloggers and little online coverage and much more in spaces that are overwhelmed with blogs (like search, or anything else tech-related).
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8. Link Intelligently
   When you link out in your blog posts, use convention where applicable and creativity when warranted, but be aware of how the links you serve are part of the content you provide. Not every issue you discuss or site you mention needs a link, but there's a fine line between overlinking and underlinking. The best advice I can give is to think of the post from the standpoint of a relatively uninformed reader. If you mention Wikipedia, everyone is familiar and no link is required. If you mention a specific page at Wikipedia, a link is necessary and important. Also, be aware that quoting other bloggers or online sources (or even discussing their ideas) without linking to them is considered bad etiquette and can earn you scorn that could cost you links from those sources in the future. It's almost always better to be over-generous with links than under-generous. And link condoms? Only use them when you're linking to something you find truly distasteful or have serious apprehension about.
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9. Invite Guest Bloggers
   Asking a well known personality in your niche to contribute a short blog on their subject of expertise is a great way to grow the value and reach of your blog. You not only flatter the person by acknowledging their celebrity, you nearly guarantee yourself a link or at least an association with a brand that can earn you readers. Just be sure that you really are getting a quality post from someone that's as close to universally popular and admired as possible (unless you want to start playing the drama linkbait game, which I personally abhor). If you're already somewhat popular, it can often be valuable to look outside your space and bring in guest authors who have a very unique angle or subject matter to help spice up your focus. One note about guest bloggers - make sure they agree to have their work edited by you before it's posted. A disagreement on this subject after the fact can have negative ramifications.
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10. Eschew Advertising (Until You're Popular)
    I hate AdSense on blogs. Usually, I ignore it, but I also cast a sharp eye towards the quality of the posts and professionalism of the content when I see AdSense. That's not to say that contextual advertising can't work well in some blogs, but it needs to be well integrated into the design and layout to help defer criticism. Don't get me wrong - it's unfair to judge a blog by its cover (or, in this case, its ads), but spend a lot of time surfing blogs and you'll have the same impression - low quality blogs run AdSense and many high quality ones don't. I always recommend that whether personal or professional, you wait until your blog has achieved a level of success before you start advertising. Ads, whether they're sponsorships, banners, contextual or other, tend to have a direct, negative impact on the number of readers who subscribe, add to favorites and link - you definitely don't want that limitation while you're still trying to get established.
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11. Go Beyond Text in Your Posts
    Blogs that contain nothing but line after line of text are more difficult to read and less consistently interesting than those that offer images, interactive elements, the occasional multimedia content and some clever charts & graphs. Even if you're having a tough time with non-text content, think about how you can format the text using blockquotes, indentation, bullet points, etc. to create a more visually appealing and digestible block of content.
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12. Cover Topics that Need Attention
    In every niche, there are certain topics and questions that are frequently asked or pondered, but rarely have definitive answers. While this recommendation applies to nearly every content-based site, it's particularly easy to leverage with a blog. If everyone in the online Nascar forums is wondering about the components and cost of an average Nascar vehicle - give it to them. If the online stock trading industry is rife with questions about the best performing stocks after a terrorist threat, your path is clear. Spend the time and effort to research, document and deliver and you're virtually guaranteed link-worthy content that will attract new visitors and subscribers.
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13. Pay Attention to Your Analytics
    Visitor tracking software can tell you which posts your audience likes best, which ones don't get viewed and how the search engines are delivering traffic. Use these clues to react and improve your strategies. Feedburner is great for RSS and I'm a personal fan of Indextools. Consider adding action tracking to your blog, so you can see what sources of traffic are bringing the best quality visitors (in terms of time spent on the site, # of page views, etc). I particularly like having the "register" link tagged for analytics so I can see what percentage of visitors from each source is interested enough to want to leave a comment or create an account.
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14. Use a Human Voice
    Charisma is a valuable quality, both online and off. Through a blog, it's most often judged by the voice you present to your users. People like empathy, compassion, authority and honesty. Keep these in the forefront of your mind when writing and you'll be in a good position to succeed. It's also critical that you maintain a level of humility in your blogging and stick to your roots. When users start to feel that a blog is taking itself too seriously or losing the characteristics that made it unique, they start to seek new places for content. We've certainly made mistakes (even recently) that have cost us some fans - be cautious to control not only what you say, but how you say it. Lastly - if there's a hot button issue that has you posting emotionally, temper it by letting the post sit in draft mode for an hour or two, re-reading it and considering any revisions. With the advent of feeds, once you publish, there's no going back.
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15. Archive Effectively
    The best archives are carefully organized into subjects and date ranges. For search traffic (particularly long tail terms), it can be best to offer the full content of every post in a category on the archive pages, but from a usability standpoint, just linking to each post is far better (possibly with a very short snippet). Balance these two issues and make the decision based on your goals. A last note on archiving - pagination in blogging can be harmful to search traffic, rather than beneficial (as you provide constantly changing, duplicate content pages). Pagination is great for users who scroll to the bottom and want to see more, though, so consider putting a "noindex" in the meta tag or in the robots.txt file to keep spiders where they belong - in the well-organized archive system.
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16. Implement Smart URLs
    The best URL structure for blogs is, in my opinion, as short as possible while still containing enough information to make an educated guess about the content you'll find on the page. I don't like the 10 hyphen, lengthy blog titles that are the byproduct of many CMS plugins, but they are certainly better than any dynamic parameters in the URL. Yes - I know I'm not walking the talk here, and hopefully it's something we can fix in the near future. To those who say that one dynamic parameter in the URL doesn't hurt, I'd take issue - just re-writing a ?ID=450 to /450 has improved search traffic considerably on several blogs we've worked with.
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17. Reveal as Much as Possible
    The blogosphere is in love with the idea of an open source world on the web. Sharing vast stores of what might ordinarily be considered private information is the rule, rather than the exception. If you can offer content that's usually private - trade secrets, pricing, contract issues, and even the occasional harmless rumor, your blog can benefit. Make a decision about what's off-limits and how far you can go and then push right up to that limit in order to see the best possible effects. Your community will reward you with links and traffic.
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18. Only One Post in Twenty Can Be Linkbait
    Not every post is worthy of making it to the top of Digg, Del.icio.us/popular or even a mention at some other blogs in your space. Trying to over-market every post you write will result in pushback and ultimately lead to negative opinions about your efforts. The less popular your blog is, the harder it will be to build excitement around a post, but the process of linkbait has always been trial and error - build, test, refine and re-build. Keep creating great ideas and bolstering them with lots of solid, everyday content and you'll eventually be big enough to where one out of every 20-40 posts really does become linkbait.
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19. Make Effective Use of High Traffic Days
    If you do have linkbait, whether by design or by accident, make sure to capitalize. When you hit the front page of Digg, Reddit, Boing Boing, or, on a smaller scale, attract a couple hundred visitors from a bigger blog or site in your space, you need to put your best foot forward. Make sure to follow up on a high traffic time period with 2-3 high quality posts that show off your skills as a writer, your depth of understanding and let visitors know that this is content they should be sticking around to see more of. Nothing kills the potential linkbait "bump" faster than a blog whose content doesn't update for 48 hours after they've received a huge influx of visitors.
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20. Create Expectations and Fulfill Them
    When you're writing for your audience, your content focus, post timing and areas of interest will all become associated with your personal style. If you vary widely from that style, you risk alienating folks who've come to know you and rely on you for specific data. Thus, if you build a blog around the idea of being an analytical expert in your field, don't ignore the latest release of industry figures only to chat about an emotional issue - deliver what your readers expect of you and crunch the numbers. This applies equally well to post frequency - if your blog regularly churns out 2 posts a day, having two weeks with only 4 posts is going to have an adverse impact on traffic. That's not to say you can't take a vacation, but you need to schedule it wisely and be prepared to lose RSS subscribers and regulars. It's not fair, but it's the truth. We lose visitors every time I attend an SES conference and drop to one post every two days (note - guest bloggers and time-release posts can help here, too).
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21. Build a Brand
    Possibly one of the most important aspects of all in blogging is brand-building. As Zefrank noted, to be a great brand, you need to be a brand that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member. Exclusivity, insider jokes, emails with regulars, the occasional cat post and references to your previous experiences can be off putting for new readers, but they're solid gold for keeping your loyal base feeling good about their brand experience with you. Be careful to stick to your brand - once you have a definition that people like and are comfortable with, it's very hard to break that mold without severe repercussions. If you're building a new blog, or building a low-traffic one, I highly recommend writing down the goals of your brand and the attributes of its identity to help remind you as you write.

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New Blogger 3 column Sweet Dreams template

Amanda of BloggerBuster have created a number of New Blogger templates. However, please note that the templates uses many images hosted by Amanda, and when you download her templates, included also will be the images. This is like implying that you should upload those images to the web yourself, get the URL's and substitute them in the relevant parts of the templates. This may be because she don't want you to increase the bandwidth load from her site. In any case, it is probably wise for you to upload the images yourself as then these images will be controlled by you and not Amanda. If Amanda remove the images from the web or her site goes offline, the images in your blog will disappear.

Amanda's templates have some features very much different from the other templates including a Lable (category or tag) List in the form of a Label Cloud, animated or fixed gif images, widgets to add a mp3 music player plus a mp3 music file, search box, etc.

However, I have noticed that after downloading her templates, some don't include the images (Blues) and some have some missing images. However, this is no problem as I will show you how to get the images, upload them to the web, get the URL's and substitute these with the the relevant URL's in the template. If you want to depend on Amanda, you can skip all those explanation, just download, backup your current template PLUS the Page Elements, upload her template and just forget about the rest. However, she has indicated that she prefer you to host your own files and images. If you want control over the images yourself and you don't know how, then you will have to read my instructions on how to get the missing images, upload the neccessary images and files plus get their URL's.

I will start with one of her template and explain the process fully, and the others, if you want to use them, the instructions for the first template will be exactly the same.

New Blogger 3 column Sweet Dreams template

An example of a blog using this template is Medical Matters. You can download it from Download "Sweet Dreams" 3 column template (zip file). Save the zip file into a suitable folder, perhaps called "BloggerBuster Sweet Dream template" or something. After you downloaded and unzipped the file, you will get 3 column Sweet Dream xml template (highlighted with a red rectangle), a HTML file which when clicked on opens a webpage giving some instructions, an image folder, a music folder, a widger_code folder, and an xml template folder.



Refer to Backup and change New Blogger template. If you have already done some customizations (add Page Elements, etc.) edit the Page Elements one by one, paste them into Notepad files and save them into the same folder as some of the Page Elements will be deleted or become empty after you change to the new template. Click the TEMPLATE tab, then the EDIT HTML sub-tab to open the template editor. Click "Browser" and browser to the xml template highlighted with a red rectangle in the screenshot above. Click "Upload". You may get a message that some Page Elements (widgets) will get deleted. Go ahead and upload.

Update 11.10pm 15 August 2007: I found I missed some image URL's below when I recorded the original image URL's found in the original templatge, so created a test blog and tried uploading the template again and got a zip file. When I click on the zip file, I got the folders plus



When in Window Explorer, I click on the zip file, then a "Sweet_Dream" folder, I can get to the folders plus HTML and xml files as shown in the first screenshot above. However, when I click "Browse" to upload the template and and click on the zip file to get to the folders plus HTML and xml files, the zip file got loaded into the "browse" window instead. So I was forced to open Windows Explorer, went to the folder containing the folders and HTML and xml files shown in the screenshot above and drag them into the folder above. If you faced this problem, this is what you may need to do. I don't know why I didn't have this problem the first time I did it.

After you have uploaded, the new template will be in the template editor window. Look for line of codes that contain something like url(http://........gif). To illustrate, I will put in the relevant sections I found into the scroll box below:

/* Blog Header
----------------------------------------------- */
#header-wrapper {
background: #000 url(http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/sweet_dreams.gif) bottom right no-repeat;
border: 1px solid #404040;
margin:22px 0 0 0;
padding:0px 0 0 0;
color:$titleTextColor;
}
#header {
background: url(http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star2.gif) top left no-repeat;
height: 165px;
padding:8px 15px 8px;
}
-----------------------------------------------
a.comment-link {
/* IE5.0/Win doesn't apply padding to inline elements,
so we hide these two declarations from it */
background/* */:/**/url("http://www.blogblog.com/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 0 45%;
padding-left:14px;
}
html>body a.comment-link {
/* Respecified, for IE5/Mac's benefit */
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 0 45%;
padding-left:14px;
}
--------------------------------------------------
.comment-author {
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/rounders/icon_comment.gif") no-repeat 2px .3em;
margin:.5em 0;
padding:0 0 0 20px;
font-weight:bold;
}
-----------------------------------------------------
background:url("http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/profile_icon.gif") no-repeat 0 .1em;
padding-left:15px;
font-weight:bold;
}
-----------------------------------------------------
#left-sidebartop h2 {
line-height:1.5em;
background: url(http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star1.gif) center left no-repeat;
padding: 0 0 0 20px;
color:$topSidebarHeaderColor;
border-bottom: 1px dotted $topSidebarHeaderColor;
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
font: $headerFont;
}

#sidebartop h2 {
line-height:1.5em;
background: url(http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star1.gif) center left no-repeat;
padding: 0 0 0 20px;
color:$topSidebarHeaderColor;
border-bottom: 1px dotted $topSidebarHeaderColor;
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
font: $headerFont;
}
----------------------------------------------
.music {
line-height:1.5em;
background: url(http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star1.gif) center left no-repeat;
margin:.5em 13px 1.25em;
padding: 0 0 0 20px;
color:$topSidebarHeaderColor;
border-bottom: 1px dotted $topSidebarHeaderColor;
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
font: $headerFont;
}
-----------------------------------------------
.sidebar h2 {
line-height:1.5em;
background: url(http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star1.gif) center left no-repeat;
padding: 0 0 0 20px;
color:$topSidebarHeaderColor;
border-bottom: 1px dotted $topSidebarHeaderColor;
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
font: $headerFont;
}
-------------------------------------------------
.sidebar ul li {
background:url("http://www.blogblog.com/rounders/icon_arrow_sm.gif") no-repeat 2px .25em;
margin:0;
padding:0 0 3px 16px;
margin-bottom:3px;
border-bottom:1px dotted $borderColor;
line-height:1.4em;
}
--------------------------------------------------

The image URL's are highlighted in red and the relevant URL's are

http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/sweet_dreams.gif
http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star2.gif
http://www.blogblog.com/rounders/icon_comment.gif (repeated 3 times)
http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/profile_icon.gif
http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/sweet_dreams/images/star1.gif (repeated 4 times)
http://www.blogblog.com/rounders/icon_arrow_sm.gif

These are images uploaded onto the web by Amanda and she has expressed the desire that those who use her templates upload them on their own which I have done. The way I did it was to copy-paste the image URL one by one into a browser window which will get me to the webpage containing just the image. I then right-click on the image and selected "Save Image As.." to copy them into my computer. From here you have various choices - upload them into Photobucket or upload them into a Blogger post. I uploaded them into a special blog post BloggerBuster Sweet Dreams which I used to host images, publish the post, opened the page, click on the image one-by-one, in the page containing just the image, click VIEW > PAGE SOURCE, then copied the actual URL of the image from the page source. To illustrate, I paste the page source of one of the images into the scroll box below:

<html>
<head>
<title>star1.gif (image)</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
if (top.location != self.location) top.location = self.location;
// -->
</script>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXoUYRx2mp5HxyGsKtjCzFuRdzs8sAPawWXvUWiQMMURccNha-qWrZggj9zxq17TrmAqtlJe80iytuRCelh094QiQbMI5BWFO38IxloB85hl4EOO9GnZyB74I6Kv8vNF-hgVscF93cbiS/s1600/star1.gif" alt="[star1.gif]" border=0>
</body>
</html>

The URL I need is highlighted in red. Note that the last word in the URL is star1.gif

So I go into the template, look for all the url that ends with star1.gif, replaced it with my own URL wherever I find it. This is repeated for other images. When it is done, preview the template, and if everything seems fine, click "Save template". Now you have the images hosted and controlled by yourself instead of Amanda.

If you don't want the bother, you can use my images URL's for your template, but it will mean you are dependent on me. If my post goes offline, your images will disappear.

Amanda of Blogger Buster now don't require bloggers to using her templates to host the images themselves, plus added more templates. I will be making a new post as soon as I have the time and post the link here

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Remove 'pencil' and 'screwdriver and wrench (spanner)' quick editing icons permanently

(If you only want to know how to permanently get rid of those quick editing icons, skip to Permanently get rid of pencil icon or Permanently get rid of screwdriver/wrench icon but I hope you will read the explanation on why you should not remove those useful icons)

We have received numerous complaints of bloggers seeing those "irritating" quick editing icons - the pencil quick edit icon for the posts, and the screwdriver and wrench (spanner) quick editing icon for the Page Elements (widgets). Personally they don't irritate me at all.

To me, these are really useful features, especially if you put a lot of HTML/Javascript Page Elements and you don't type a title for the Page Element (which is the norm). In the LAYOUT, they will all read "HTML/Javascript" and there is no way for you to tell which HTML/Javascript is for what unless you click on EDIT to look at what is inside. On the other hand, if you are logged in and you go the the blog, you will know exactly which Page Element you want to edit/delete and all you have to do is to click the icon and you will be editing/deleting the Page Element you want to edit/delete.

Further, they are only visible to me when I am logged into Blogger. No one else will see it. I have written about it before at How to get rid of the irritating "pencil" and "screwdriver and wrench (spanner)" quick edit icons (click BACK button to get back to this page). This however don't seem to satisfy some bloggers, especially those who have private blogs and can view their blogs only when they are logged in.

Here is one comment from a particularly irritated blogger:

"Okay 300 ducats to cooked art, his method worked. The other anwers are basically saying, 'Don't worry -- nobody who uses your blog will see these eyesores but you.' Which seems like an odd thing to tell me, since I will be using my blog more than anyone else, and I don't actually enjoy looking at eyesores any more than they would."

OK, if getting rid permanently of those very useful quick edit icons is what you want, here is how you can do it:

Permanently get rid of quick editing Pencil icon for posts

Sign into Blogger (Dashboard), click SETTINGS for the relevant blog and you will be in the SETTINGS > BASIC sub-tab by default. Just a bit down from the top of the page, you will see "Show Quick Editing on your Blog?". Click the down arrow and select "No" At the bottom, click "Save Settings". (Warning: There is a button "Delete this blog" very near that "Save Settings" button, and it is not uncommon to hear of bloggers who accidentally deleted their blog this way). Once you have done that, you will never see the quick editing Pencil icon again.

Permanently get rid of quick edit screwdriver and wrench (spanner) icons for Page Elements (widgets)

Sign into Blogger (Dashboard). Click LAYOUT for the relevant blog. Click TEMPLATE tab, followed by EDIT HTML sub-tab. Before you do any editing of the template, backup the template PLUS the Page Elements. See Backup and edit New Blogger template PLUS backup Page Elements. Once you are done with that, you will still be in the template editor window. Tick the "Expand widget templates" box and wait for the template to fully expand. Then look for this line of code:

<b:include name='quickedit'/>

If you face difficulties finding that line of code, press ctrl+F and you will see a "Find" followed by a box for you to type or copy-paste what you want to find. Type or copy-paste the above line of code into the box and click "Next". The scroll bar will scroll down to the line and the line will be highlighted. Use your mouse to highlight that line of code again and press the DELETE key. Preview, and if you don't get any error message, click "Save Template". You will never see the "irritating" (to me, useful") screwdriver and wrench icons again.

Update: 25 May 2010: A commentator Susie Hovendick Chan said that she got rid of the quick edit icons by putting

quickedit:display none;

at the end of the style sheet, that is, just before ]]> thus ending with

quickedit:display none;
]]>

Update: A comment from a blogger which I myself haven't tested. Updating here in case any visitor interested in what he has to say. If you do try it, do give us some feedback by leaving a comment: "Sweet! I realized that the wrench icon was causing layout problems in IE7; I got rid following your instructions of it even though its pretty useful.

In case if this helps anyone: the wrench icon is floated right. Float right inside divs that are already right floated will cause the div to stretch unnecessarily in IE7."

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