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Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Introducing Blog`a`zine, a blogger's magazine

What is Blog`a`zine?

Blog`a`zine = Blog(ger) + Magazine.

Blog`a`zine - a blogger's magazine for blogger's. A magazine about blogger's, blogging tools, and blogger’s interview will be released every month. Magazine will feature articles / posts from the blogrtools blog. Magazine will be available for free in PDF format. Subscribe to the RSS feed to get to know more updates....

What will the Blog`a`zine contains?

Following are the list of items at present I have in mind for publishing every month. I will try to add more to the list as and when anything useful that comes to my mind. You are welcome to add more to the list which I will try to cover in next edition

  • Interviews from blogger's,
  • Tips written by me,
  • Snippets,
  • General Information's about blogging

If you would like to contribute to Blog`a`zine, please contact me via email. Lot more to come in the next November editions.... Meanwhile you can download the October edition here or view online here.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Google Indic Transliteration

       Some days back, I wrote about Indic blogging where you can use Google Indic transliteration tool to type Hindi. now the tool has been expanded to other Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam.

you need to have proper Unicode fonts so that it displays properly in the browser. Go through this Wikipedia link to find more about Multilingual support.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Live Writer Technorati Tagging Bug

Windows Live Writer has a feature of adding tags from various website's like Technorati, deli.cio.us, LiveJournal, and Flickr etc. When inserting the Tag links for Technorati like below

Technorati Tags:


The problem with the above is that it appends the '/' slash after the tag. i.e the above Live Writter links to

http://technorati.com/tags/live%20writter/

which is wrong. Because the Technorati tags does not have a 'tags' word and '/' in the end appended to it. the right way of doing is show below

http://technorati.com/tag/live%20writter

In order to generate like this, click on the Tags you have Inserted. on the right sidebar, you would see Tags Properties. Below that you would see the Options where your tags will be displayed. Below this, is the Tag Provider drop down. Select the (Customize Providers...). A dialog box with Tag providers list will open. select Technorati and click Edit button. You would see some thing called HTML template for each tag textarea which contains below text

<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/{tag-encoded}/" rel="tag">{tag}</a>

change the above text with the below one by removing the trailing slash '/' after {tag-encoded} text

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/{tag-encoded}" rel="tag">{tag}</a>

Press Ok and close. Re-Insert the Technorati tags. Now your Technorati tags will be properly visible as below

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Blogrtools got sandbox now!

Hello all,

I have been trying different blog editors and wanted to write about those. All my thinking is on the tools that a layman can use to write a blog which is the primary goal of this blog. For that to explain, I have created a Blogrtools Sandbox where you will see different posts using different editors.

Blogrtools Sandbox will be my playground where I will be able to show you how each blog writing tool behaves and how it posts. you will still continue to see the review in this blog.

Blogrtools Sandbox will not just contain the sample blog posts from blog writing tools, but will also help you in placing ads, some thing like blog mock up before you try that on your blog. this way, you will not mess up your blog.

Thank you!

Blogrtools

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Blogr Interview: Vaibhav Pandey

Vaibhav is a well known technology blogger from Bangalore, silicon valley of India. He aims to help laymen become technology enthusiasts at his blog Technofriends.
Thank you Vaibhav for your time with us. Wish you all the best for your future blogs

Blogrtools: Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi Everyone!!
Let me begin by thanking Blogrtools for this privilege to get featured.My name is Vaibhav and I am a Technology Blogger.Professionally I work with a Software major in Bangalore and in my free time write about Technology in my blog. My interests include Reading, Driving and Entrepreneurship. One day i wish to become an Entrepreneur :).

Blogrtools: When did you started blogging and why did you want to do so ? any inspirations?

I started with my blog in April 2007. There were a few inspirations like Amit of Digital Inspiration and the idea with which i started off was to help people who are Laymen become Technology Enthusiast. I still go with that mission statement :)

Blogrtools: Tell us about your blog. What do you write about?

My blog Technofriends is a blog focused around technology. In this blog i write about the latest Technology happenings, stuff about programming languages, various tips, tricks etc. Being a Java guy,often the programming posts are little biased towards Java. All in all Technofriends is about Technology; Be it Google, Firefox, How-To tutorials, Tech News, Hacking, Java its all there.

Blogrtools: what blogging tools do you use?

I happen to be on a hosted service called Wordpress.com and therefore i don't use much tools. Whatever Wordpress.com offers is all I use.

Blogrtools: How do you think people can benefit from blogging?

Certainly blogging is the next big wave in the Internet world. Again there are a lot of reasons why people blog. Some people blog about their personal stuff, the clothes they wear, the food they eat and some are more focused like Amit Agarwal, Himanshu Sheth etc.My experience that in this vast world, readers are there to read about any and everything, provided its written well.In the end, i feel blogging is not only about working on a vision/sharing your thoughts, its also about the brand called YOU.

Blogrtools: Has blogging changed your life? What do you get out of it?

Definitely blogging has changed my life a lot. My blog is like a baby to me. After starting this blog, I have kind of started being more research oriented. The vital questions which I ask myself have made me become more focused in my approach. It clearly helps. Apart from all this, its also about a brand image called YOU. I have also got more focus/attention from open communities / individuals because of my blog.

Blogrtools: By blogging, do you make money or intend to do so? Do you think blogging is meant for making money?

No. I don't make any money from my blog. As of today, I don't have any such plans as well. I am more concerned about the brand building exercise. Possibly, I will try to capitalize this brand later. In my views, blogging is not about money alone. Its more about the brand/value. The day you start losing on that part, money will stop flowing in.

Blogrtools: Has your blog helped anyone personally. Can you quote us an instance of how he/she got benefited?

Yes definitely. I do get lots of mails/comments from my readers appreciating about the posts. Recently, i wrote about the windows process called SVCHOST.exe and for that got many mails from readers sharing their belief before they had read my post. Also, the post which I wrote about the Orkut bug drew lots of attention, Google Orkut team themselves sent me a Thank You mail and also invited me for the lunch with them. These are some of the instances I can share.

Blogrtools: What is your frequency of blogging? full time / part time. what makes you do full time / part time?

I am a part time blogger. If i drill these details further, i try to post around 2 posts daily on an average.

Blogrtools: Do you know how many people visit your blog? Do you know what kind of people are they?

On an average around 400-500 people visit my blog daily. Out of this, around 28% are unique visitors. Around 40% of my readers are from US, 25% from India and rest from other parts of the world. Most of the people who visit my blog are either people looking for Technology Solutions, other blogger's, Tech community members or students.

Blogrtools: Do you think that a blog can make a difference in the world?

Yes, I am a member of the camp which feels that blog can make a difference to this world. Blogs are an important uncontrollable tool in this controlled world. They give you the power to express your opinions about a topic of interest. I believe blog sites like Mutiny.in are great examples. However, blogger's will definitely need to go a little more further, thinking less about the traffic and the real concerns to make a big difference.

Blogrtools: How to do foresee the future of blogging?

If I go by the statistics , as per Technorati, a new blog is getting created every 7.4 sec's. Its not a furore, its evolution of uncontrolled content, expression of ideas. Although, i do see a great future for blogging, I still feel that its too early to talk about the future of blogging. However, what is clear to me is that the opportunities around blogging are huge.Companies can use blogger's to put a more human face on interactions between its employees and customers; people in the marketing division can create a buzz through blogs; and definitely blogger's can play a role by acting as fact auditors for the mainstream media. Two things are certain to remain with regards to blogging : It will continue to remain disruptive to the traditional media, and new uses will surface. We might see blogging move towards video and instant messaging.It's just the beginning.

Blogrtools: what's your suggestions for the new blogger's?

My suggestion to new blogger's would be that they should consider more about value . Don't try to get into blogging just because somebody is making money out of it and you are not. Create a value and then money shall follow. Create a goal and work towards it. Have a focus and write about your area of interest. I think these are some of the learning which have come to me over all these months and this is all i can share with the readers.

Blogrtools: Do you have anything else to tell our readers?

Blogrtools is definitely playing a good role by bringing up contents related to blogging. This is a niche area and i wish you all the best.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Blogr Interview: Logesh


Logesh is a blogger from Southern India. He blogs about open source, Wordpress, making money online etc. You can find his blog http://enblog.logesh.co.in/ here.

His business website his http://www.yoursfriendly.in/ where he does the webhosting business. Thank you Logesh for your time with us.

Blogrtools: Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Hi everybody, I am Logesh from Namakkal in TamilNadu. I love Computers, Internet & Bikes. I am currently doing business with computers and having a small office in my town. That's all to say about me :)

Blogrtools: When did you started blogging and why did you want to do so ? any inspirations?
I started blogging in August 2007 after getting a own domain name for me. I wanted to start blogging, because i just want to share my knowledge to the world and also want to show the people how I am making money online. That's all. Yeah, I was inspired by many blogger's like Shoemoney, ProBlogger, John Chow, John Cow and Shankarganesh

Blogrtools: Tell us about your blog. What do you write about ?
My blog is at http://enblog.logesh.co.in/ . I blog about different topics but especially covers on the topics Making Money Online, Adsense Tips, Open Source, Free Stuffs & Wordpress Tips. In future I am also going to cover about the Ubuntu Linux Operating system.

Blogrtools: what blogging tools do you use?
I use Wordpress on my own self hosted domain. I use the Wordpress plug-in's Mighty Adsense, Google Sitemap Generator, Another Wordpress Meta Tag that's all.

Blogrtools: How do you think people can benefit from blogging?
From blogging people can benefit a lot. First they can get a good knowledge and then they can earn enough money too :)

Blogrtools: Has blogging changed your life? What do you get out of it?
Yeah, it helped me to get some nice friends, customers for my business and especially made some money for me.

Blogrtools: By blogging, do you make money or intend to do so? Do you think blogging is meant for making money?
Yeah I make money by blogging. I think blogging is not to make money. Its a way to share our thoughts, knowledge, communicate with others in the world and to make money also.

Blogrtools: What is your frequency of blogging? full time / part time. what makes you do full time / part time?
I blog as Part time only. I started blogging with the aim to post at-least to make two posts per day but due to insufficient time and a lot of other works i can't do :(

Blogrtools: Do you know how many people visit your blog? Do you know what kind of people are they?
By average about 20 peoples are visiting my blog. Most of them were blogger's like me and others are peoples who were searching to get information's on Adsense and Wordpress tips.

Blogrtools: Do you think that a blog can make a difference in the world?
Yeah! Surely! It can make the world to change a lot..

Blogrtools: what's your suggestions for the new blogger's?
I suggest them is to Use Wordpress blogging platform on their own self hosted domain and with some SEO plug-ins. Then start writing frequently and make your visitors to love you. If you want to make money from your blog i suggest you to use Adsense, Widget bucks like that. But don't expect a good money in the beginning because it all won't happens in Overnight. It depends on your ability and don't lose your confidence. All the best :)

Blogrtools: Do you have anything else to tell our readers?
I would like to thank all my readers for the support they have shown and hoping to get your continued support and encouragement.
Then a special thanks for Blogrtools who showed me to more peoples in this world through this interview. :)

Indian Blog Directory and Aggregators

       Blogging can be helpful in many ways. Lets say it can be a good friend when you want to express your feelings. because you don't want to express anything to anyone in person even to friends. You can blog continuously hiding your identity and get your feedbacks from the people. some times feedback may be useful and sometimes may not.

       If you want to share your blog with others, you cannot go to each every others blog and comment on it or ask them to add your blog to their blog lists. Here is where blog aggregators help. one of the blog directory is  www.indiblogger.in. They are a group of blogger's who think that Indian blogging community is much larger and deeper. There are few blog aggregators like www.tamilblogs.com, www.thenkoodu.com where you can submit your RSS to them. Readers please add more in the comment section if any web sites I left.

                              

       By this way, your blog posts will reach thousands of people in the Internet. they read your post, subscribe to your RSS if they like it, comment on your post. This helps you lot in improving your blog much more advanced level. Some times you may also get repeated readers through these kind of aggregators.

      There are quite few other blog directories like desiblogs.org, blogs.oneindia.in which you can use it and promote your posts. some time digging your post will also help you to increase the traffic. this doesn't mean that we should always do promote our blog. this is one time activity which you do initially and once your blog became famous, you need to do this kind of activity.

Live Writer + Blogspot

This Post is written using Windows Live writer. Its so cool that windows application automatically detects the blogspot blog and downloads the templates and provides a great user experience in writing blog.

Installation

  • you need to have administrator privileges to install this application. If not, ask your system admin to install
  • Download from here and open the setup and continue the Installation Wizard.
  • Give your Blog URL, Username, Password. I suggest you not to save password.
  • Wait for some time and it will ask you whether to download your blog template. Say Yes to it so that you will get a blogging feel. software industry say it as WYSIWYG abbreviating What You Say Is What You Get

User Experience

  • Pretty Neat user experience from setting up blog and up to writing a blog post.
  • Bit slower for me (I have 1 G RAM and Pentium M processor) when doing right click while writing posts
  • No font selection on the toolbar. You need to traverse to the top Format menu > Font.
  • you can author multiple blogs.
  • Write blogs offline and save it as draft. once you are connected, you can publish it.
  • You can add tagging for Flickr, Technorati, deli.cio.us and many...(check insert drop down)
  • Have the option of including online / offline pictures and videos directly without any issues. Below picture is inserted from live writer.

Design

     Elegant Design. Will not look like typical windows application. Looks like Vista based application. Shadowing menus gives you a pleasant drop down experience.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Blogging books

I have collected Blogging related books here. I suggest you to get some physical copy and go through those to get an idea when you are offline. the more you think offline, the more you write lot of blog posts.

what about Internet resources when it is available for free?
I am here very well to solve that issue. to get you started, monetize etc. also i am experiementing certain things so that i can share with my fellow readers. Blogging is a wonderful thing about sharing your thoughts to others so that others can too benefit from it. There are plenty of Internet resources like my blogrtools but not all of them help you to write blog contents. but here you will get to know about those. i might give suggestions on writing good content that flourishes from the bottom of your heart and reaches your beloved people.

List of Books from
http://blogrtools.zlio.net/ created using zlio.com


How do Books help me?
Books help you many ways to understand much more about blog, what do people think about bloggers....Books are always good Friends. most of the books i have shown above are quite picked by me and added to the list. i get to learn certain techniques from the books i have read / referred. you to can give a try.

Custom Blog Hosting

Instead of writing blogs on hosted blog space providers, we can ourself host the blog. how do we do that? how much does it cost? we are going to analyze here.

How do we do that?
  • Buy a domain and web space from a domain provider.
  • Log-in to your control panel.
  • Install a blogging software like wordpress.org or drupal.
  • Visit here for hosting the blog on blogspot.com with your custom domain name
  • Implement Search Engine Optimization on the softwares you install. wordpress.org has by default. for drupal, you need to enable in the administrator page..
  • Add the blog the to various search engines like google, yahoo
How much does it cost?
  • Usually domain cost 10 USD or 400 INR
  • 50 MB space costs around 18 USD or 750 INR
  • Web based Blogging software like wordpress.org or drupal is free as it is open source, so zero cost
Do i need to be technically sound?
No. you need not. both the above mentioned software are user friendly which does not need technical expertise. if you need more customization or advanced blogging software, you need to look for freelancer who can help you

Why should i go for custom blog hosting?
You have full control over what you gonna to use for blogging. for eg. if you use wordpress.com blog, you will not have all the features that wordpress.org software has. you can install lots of publicly available modules / extensions and move to advanced blogging. the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com is that wordpress.com is hosted one where you cannot go for customisation. but if you are using wordpress.org software installed, you can install any extensions / modules according to your requirements. we can add our own spam control extensions.

What other stuffs i get when i do custom blog hosting?
you can get the complete awstats about your website provided by most of the webhosting providers. you can even sign up for Google analytics and put their code in your blogging software and track your blog performance. also if your domain is based on your name, then you gain much more popularity.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Wordpress vs Blogspot

Both WordPress and Blogspot blog site are very well popular among bloggers. but which one is the best? i analysized that and provided you with the details below

Wordpress is for pure blogging. you cannot make money. Blogspot is for both blogging and making money.

Wordpress does not allow you to add third party code eg. javascript. Blogspot allows that

Wordpess cannot integrate with Google maps. Blogspot allows that.

Wordpress is clean and cool interface. Blogspot is little bit lesser

Wordpress have Blog Statistics. Blogspot does not have. you need to sign up for Google analytics for that

Wordpress have comment moderation powered by Akismet. Blogspot too have Comment Moderation.

Wordpress have easy integration of youtube videos. Blogspot does not. you need to paste the code.

Wordpress does not have a way of writing blog via email. Blogspot has that great feature.

Wordpress allows you to follow up with the comments you wrote on other wordpress blogs. Blogspot does not have that.

Wordpress does not have Hindi transliteration built in. Blogspot have that.

Wordpress have lots of cool templates. Blogspot have only few. but we can make custom templates :) wordpress does not allow you.

Technorati : , , ,

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Tip2: Indic Blogging


If you are from India, and you would like to blog in Hindi, you can now do it in blogspot. Google India labs gives a transliteration technology attached to the blogspot editor which enables you to type in English which automatically gets converted to Hindi. for example if you like to type हिन्दी , just type hindi. for more advanced typing you should be familiar with writing Hindi in English. for eg. kaesa hai will be like कैसा है like that.

If you are from south India and you would like to type in tamil, you can use a tamilkey firefox extension which does the transliteration job. for eg type thamiz for displaying தமிழ். you can also use quillpad.in which also suggests word based on user input.
If you would like to type in telugu, you can use a telugutoolbar firefox extension which does the transliteration job.



Technorati : , , , , ,

blogr tools

why is this blog? this blogr tools is all about tools that helps bloggers in every way for easy blogging.
how this can help me? blogr tools helps you by providing suggestions, comments for efficient blogging in the internet. it also provides information about various blogging tools and its how to
just tools....? no. not limited to tools. i will discuss here beyond blogging...i.e making money, attaining popularity in internet, helping social cause etc.
is this exists before? yeah! there are lot but they all became messy. i am going to start from scratch and help you get started from blogging, blogging tools, blogging websites, blogging news, videos, podcasts, images..., monetizing the blog, making money, bringing revolution etc
why all of a sudden this blogr tools? what ever i wanted to do with my personal blog, i willing to share my knowledge with you all so that you too can achieve some thing. different people have different thoughts and wanted to bring those thoughts to the internet.
what are stuff will be covered? i will teach about blogging tools, writing code for development of blogging tools like wordpress, blog themes development, blog monetization, making money with blog, writing good articles

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