Having your own short URLs will help you get the maximum exposure on Twitter. Linking to your blog from Twitter with URLs redirected from URL shortening services makes your domain name invisible and this valuable piece of real-estate on your twitter timeline and in your friend’s updates area is as good as lost. Why not take the space that rightfully belongs to you back in your control and use it for your advantage by displaying your own domain name?

Here are some ways you can have short URLs displayed with your own domain name without having to host a URL shortening service.

Su.pr Short URLs on Your Own Domain

With Su.pr free URL shortening service, you can get short URLs on your own domain (like http://riyaz.net/Qqyx). All you need is a free account with StumbleUpon or Su.pr and that your web host should be running on PHP5 with libCurl.

Steps to Setup Your Own Short URLs with Su.pr

• Download the Su.pr plugin
• Unzip the file and edit the supr.php with the information from your Su.pr settings page as described here
• Upload the updated supr.php to the root directory of your website
• Add the rewrite rules to rewrite.conf or .htaccess file on your website’s root folder. Rewrite rules can be found in the beginning section of supr.php or on this page.
• Now go to http://su.pr/settings/ and enter your domain to the list of promoted websites.  Save changes and short URLs service will be synchronized with your website.
• Now whenver you shorten your URLs using su.pr service, you will get a short URL with your own domain name instead of su.pr.

Short URLs on Your Domain or Subdomain Using Bitly.Pro

Bit.ly Pro allows you to have a custom domain in your short URLs (e.g. http://i.riyaz.net/bbYahf). This free service is still a beta program as of now and requires you to place a request for registration. Once your request is approved you can login and setup your account. You need to have a short domain name registered to you. If you don’t have your own short domain, you can create a subdomain on your existing domain and use it as well.

Steps to Setup Your Own Short URLs with Bitly.Pro

• If you are using a custom short domain name, you need to set a DNS A Record such that your custom short domain points to bit.ly servers. If you are using a subdomain for your custom short domain, you need to set a CNAME record that points your subdomain to cname.bit.ly.
• Once you have updated the DNS entries, go to the Bitly.pro settings page and configure your short URLs as per the instructions provided there.
• Now whenver your shorted your URLs using Bit.ly service, you will get a short URL with your custom domain name instead of bit.ly.

How to Tweet with Your Own Short URL via Tweetmeme Retweet Button

Now that you know how to create your own short URLs, let us set up the Tweetmeme retweet button to tweet URLs branded to your domain name.

All you need to do is edit your Tweetmeme button code to include the URL shortening service and the corresponding API key.

Adding Su.pr generated short URLs to Tweetmeme Retweet Button

Add the tweetmeme_service and tweetmeme_service_api parameters to your Tweetmeme button code as shown below and you are done.

<script type="text/javascript">
tweetmeme_source = 'YOUR_TWITTER_USERNAME';
tweetmeme_service = 'su.pr';
tweetmeme_service_api = 'YOUR_SU.PR_API_KEY_FOUND_ON_SU.PR_SETTINGS_PAGE';
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script>

Adding Bitly.pro generated short URLs to Tweetmeme Retweet Button

Make changes to your Tweetmeme button code in the same way as above. You need to include your Bitly.pro username as well in the API key.

<script type="text/javascript">
tweetmeme_source = 'twitter_username';
tweetmeme_service = 'bit.ly';
tweetmeme_service_api = 'bit.ly_username:bit.ly_api_key';
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script>

That’s about it. Domain specific URLs give better quality links and hence give you more clickthroughs. So start using your own short URLs for promoting your blog posts and become more visible. Go ahead and brand your tweets with your own short URLs.

It is crucial to password protect or encrypt sensitive files and folders on your computer or on flash drives. For example, when you service your computer, you want to be sure that some of the important documents are not compromised in any way. In case you lose your notebook, tablet, USB drive, or external hard disk you want to be sure that important data is always safe. The cost of sensitive information therein can outweigh the cost of the equipment. Here is a quick way to protect the files and directories:

How to Easily Encrypt and Password Protect your Files and Folders

The easiest way to encrypt files and directories that works on all versions and variants of Microsoft Windows is using a compression software like WinZip, WinRAR or 7-Zip.

Simply right-click the file or folder you wish to secure and choose add to archive option of your favorite compression software like WinZip, WinRar or 7-Zip. You can choose appropriate encryption options and enter a password when prompted.

Now whenever you access these folders or files, you need to enter the same password that you set while creating the archive. If you choose the Encrypt File Names option as well, you will be asked for password only while opening the archive. You wont be asked for password again and again for opening files or folders inside the archive. If you don’t choose the option, you are required to enter the password for opening every file in the archive. So I would recommend choosing the Encrypt File Names option.

Now that you have your secure archive file created, whenever you wish to secure any file, simply drag and drop the file or directory in the archive and it will be added to archive after you provide the correct password.

You can safely carry these archive files in your mobile media like flash drives, portable hard disk drives, or notebooks without worrying about losing important information.

A Word of Caution Before You Encrypt or Password Protect Any Files and Folders

• There are hacking tools and software utilities that can break into protected files. So use high grade encryption like 256-bit encryption. This will make it nearly impossible for anyone to crack your password.
• If you forget the password all your file data might be lost. There is no way to recover this data unless you recall the password or somehow break into the file. So password protect only those files which are absolutely necessary or have a way to remember your passwords.
• Although your file or folder is password protected it still can be deleted. Always backup all your files, even those protected by passwords.

It is always better to be safe than sorry. So, keeping these words of caution in mind, go ahead and password protect your important data.

GetSocial WordPress plugin adds a lightweight and intelligent floating social media sharing box on your blog posts. The latest release 1.3 of GetSocial comes loaded with the new Twitter Tweet button well integrated and many more useful features to enhance social networking on your WordPress blog. Users can still use the earlier Retweet button from Tweetmeme if they prefer.

Recently Added Features:

• Out-of-the-box functionality for
  • Twitter’s Tweet Button
  • New Digg Button
  • The Web Blend Button
• Options to add GetSocial to posts as well as pages
• Options to disable Getsocial on individual posts/pages
• Options to load scripts in header if your theme does not use wp_footer WordPress hook

For complete list of features and FAQs, please visit the GetSocial Homepage.

More Information

Download | Demo | Support

This is a guest post by Stacey Cavanagh from Manchester, UK, who works for Tecmark SEO Manchester.

For bloggers, writing to a big audience is often something they aspire to do. Online of course, this often involves not just acquiring traffic, but keeping it!

Whether it’s SEO, social media networking, PPC or anything else driving your traffic, you need to find a way to keep that traffic coming back. Essentially, you have to turn your one time visitor into a regular reader.

Getting this nailed down takes time, effort, trial and error. But there are three mistakes that I’m pretty sure will drive your readers away every single time.

Bad Aesthetics

I’m not being shallow, really I’m not! But looks do matter. I’m not saying that your blog has to have model looks or anything or look like a super-professional design job, but it has to be readable. No matter how amazing the content on a site is, if it hurts my eyes to read it, I’m likely to click away quickly. Bright blue text on a yellow background is one such sin I came across recently. I don’t know whether it was designed to make the site stand out, or whether it was just a bit of fun… but it gave me a headache to read and so I didn’t bother trying!

Keep it crisp, clean and simple in terms of the text on a page.

Frequently Going off Topic

We all wander from our topic sometimes. It’s human nature! This one time, I was sitting in the garden talking to my friend about…. Oh hold up! I’m going off on one! But you get the idea. We all wander off our main topic from time to time but if you have a blog about cars, post about cars! Your readers and subscribers are coming to you because that’s what they want to read about. Your automobile fanatic fans are unlikely to keep reading if you’ve just posted the 6^th post in as many days about your puppy.

While the occasional off topic post can freshen the blog, forgetting your focus entirely will drive away your core audience.

Over Advertising

Monetize your blog, by all means. However you advertise, though, you should make sure that advertising enhances your reader’s experience. If you have a blog about cars (to return to the previous example) why would you advertise a payday loans company’s services? It looks spammy and irrelevant.

Advertise for people whose products and services might actually be of interest to your general readership. This will be better for your readers, will be better for your advertisers and ultimately will be better for you.

Don’t overdo it either. If you have so much advertising on your site that it begins to detract from your content, you’re at risk of driving people to other blogs in search of a more content focused approach!

Have you optimized the Archives page of your blog? A well-designed archive has a lot of potential to bring in loyal visitors to your blog or website. Let us understand how you can pour new life into the old content of your blog.

The Archives page on your WordPress blog acts like a sitemap. It helps visitors browse through the content on your blog. Yet this is one of the pages likely to be ignored by bloggers when optimizing their blog or website. It is important that this page is as user-friendly as possible as it provides links to all the pages on your blog. Optimizing the Archives page will certainly help in converting new visitors to returning ones.

Improving the User Experience

Providing options to your readers to browse by date as well as by category can be very useful. In this way users can locate the content of interest quickly. Most WordPress themes like Thematic provide this option by default.

If you post frequently, the archives page can grow quickly. However, most users hate scrolling and eight out of ten users will leave the archives page if they could not find anything interesting without scrolling much.

If you are a WordPress user, here are three plugins that can beautify the archives page on your blog at the same time make it more user-friendly.

Smart Archives Reloaded

Smart Archives Reloaded allows you to display a list of posts grouped by year and month. It provides interesting navigation elements based on CSS and jQuery that further enhance the user experience.

Clean Archives Reloaded

Clean Archives Reloaded generates a list of all of your posts sorted by month. It comes loaded with an efficient Javascript to allow collapsing and expanding of months.

Better Extended Live Archive

Better Extended Live Archive is an AJAX based WordPress plugin that allows you to display a well-structured archive navigator on your archive page. Visitors of your blog can browse articles on your blog by date, category or tag.

Social media seems to be getting more and more complex by the minute. There are so many methods and websites to keep up with that it can be enough to make your head spin. It’s important to stick with the basics when first starting out so as to not get overwhelmed. That’s why we’ve compiled some of the easiest, most straight forward methods for managing an effective social media campaign right here.

Facebook Fan Page

Not to be confused with a normal Facebook page: indeed, there is a difference. You see, a normal Facebook page actually limits the number of possible friends to 5,000. While this sounds like a lot, it’s important to not limit your possibilities. I mean if you are an Idaho auto insurance company for example, you may be insuring well over 5,000 customers. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the ability to befriend all of them… and their friends too? A Fanpage does not limit the number of potential friends which is why you need to be sure to get a Fanpage.

Link Accounts Together

Yes, your Facebook and Twitter accounts can actually be linked together. This means that each time you post a Tweet, your Facebook status will automatically get updated as well. Also, when you update your Facebook status, an automatic Tweet will be sent out too. This literally cuts your social media marketing efforts in half by getting twice as much done in half the time it would otherwise take.

Run Contests

It’s important to have attention grabbers. What better way to get people to pay attention to your blogs, status updates and news feeds than to offer them an enticing challenge? Dry, boring posts should be a thing of the past. Instead, turn heads with enticing and unique contests that provide something worth participating for. This method will draw attention and pay off in no time.

Friends, Followers, Fans

Get as many as you can. How? First, you’ll want to make the requests. Out of sheer social network etiquette, the majority will be-friend, be-fan and be-follow you back. You can also include Twitter ‘retweet’ and Facebook ‘like’ buttons on your websites and blogs to increase your range of associates. Simply embed the code for these buttons and you’re ready to go. Follow these straightforward methods and you will have the ingredients for an effective social media campaign.

This is a guest post by Ryan Chaffin. Ryan is currently a college student majoring in Business Marketing. He loves anything technology, internet, and social media related along with sports and health & wellness. Ryan believes in achieving your fullest potential on and off the web.  You can also find Ryan on Twitter (@ryanchaffin).

Now you can use Microsoft Office to easily remove background from digital photographs. Microsoft Office 2010 has intelligent image editing tools that can help you extract images from complex or cluttered backgrounds.

Adobe Photoshop and other popular image editing software like GIMP have tools like background eraser or extract filters that allow you to erase complicated background images from digital photos. However, now Microsoft Office has in-built image editing features that include background removal options. Thus you can do some of the advanced image editing stuff without having to use Photoshop.

Tutorial: How to Remove Background from Photos Without Photoshop

Simply drag and drop the image you wish to edit into Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook. Click on Picture Tools or Format tab and choose Remove Background. The unwanted portions of the image like background and other distracting details can be automatically removed.

You can use the automatic background removal or you can further refine the areas to remove by drawing lines to indicate what portions to keep and what portions to remove.

Once you have chosen the areas to remove, click on Keep Changes to remove background. To save the new image, simply right-click on the image and choose Save as Picture and you can save the edited image as JPG or PNG to your hard drive. To save multiple images from Office documents to your hard disk at once check out the article on extracting multiple images from Word documents.

Thus we have learned the simplest way to remove background from images without having to use digital image editing software like Photoshop.

Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, is a free iPad app that turns your tablet into a social magazine personalized to the recommendations from your Twitter and Facebook social network. It lets you read your Twitter lists, Facebook news feeds and more in a nicely formatted magazine layout.

It automatically grabs the content using the links posted on Twitter, Facebook and creates magazine-like pages with images, videos and text. All you need to do is provide your Facebook, Twitter login creadentials and the app does all the magic. You will see the content laid out on the iPad screen as if it were put together in a magazine layout. Flipboard also delivers additional aggregated content like news, tech, music etc. which you can personalize.

Simply tap to read the complete story or swipe to flip between pages. The magazine has nine sections of which Twitter and Facebook cannot be removed at present.

Flipboard is undoubtedly one of the best iPad apps I have seen. The video will further familiarize you with the Flipboard app. A good reason to buy an iPad if haven’t done so yet.

Visit Flipboard.com to download this cool Flipboard iPad app for free.

Social networking can really be traced back to email exchanges – the true origin of wasting time by socializing on the internet. Since then, however, new social networks have come into power- all providing interesting visual layouts, opportunities, and even (occasionally) productive uses.

Now, with mobile devices lunging head first into the universe of the web, and tablets like the iPad taking their place in the coliseum of internet browsing champions, these social systems are evolving yet again. Here are five necessary social systems and organization tools to help you make the most out of your networking.

TweetDeck

While its initial cause was to organize Twitter contacts and messages, TweetDeck has evolved into a cross-platform program that pulls in your social contacts from MySpace, LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and more. You can view, browse, and organize your contacts with ease, and your account synchronizes with your iPod, iPad, PC, or Macintosh computer.

Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft Exchange is one of the best ways to organize your contacts and keep a consistent eye on important information from any location. Hosted exchange will connect your computer, mobile device, and any other tool that lets you access the web. Beyond that, those looking to work on collaborative projects will find that exchange is of nearly infinite value. There’s also nothing wrong with staying a little loyal to email, the original time sink, and exchange keeps this synchronized as well.

MobileMe

MobileMe is the Apple run mail platform that allows you to synchronize your Apple calendar, contacts, photos, files, and more. While it costs a hundred dollars per year, it takes care of all the hard work for you and has some added security features such as allowing you to automatically track down a lost or stolen iPod or iPad that’s synchronized with your personal network. It’s also accessible through a web-based version and can be synced with multiple computers for access anywhere.

Present.ly

Present.ly is a web based social network that allows you to transfer files and data in a secure way, communicate as fast as the road runner runs, and utilize cheap as free web storage space. As of April 2010, it has released a fully functional and easy to integrate mobile version. Better yet, this web hosting and social network hybrid is completely free to use.

Adobe Acrobat Online

Adobe has provided a number of great utilities to help your networking, especially when it comes to creating, sharing, or transferring files. With apps like ScanR, you can create PDF documents out of anything that has vaguely legible writing, then share or store the created PDFs. Beyond that, ConnectNow, WorkSpaces, and other applications allow you to engage in productive or recreational screen sharing, document collaboration, conferencing, and more.

Social Networking increased the functionality of the web, and became the foundation for what was called Web 2.0. With mobile synchronization and the chance to access and organize your information from anywhere, the web looks to be evolving once again. Learning the tools that will allow you to tap into the internet’s ever growing potential is certain to help you network more efficiently – whether that’s for business purposes, or because you simply want to know the very best ways to play.

by Selena Narayanasamy. Selena loves all things technology, writing, social media and entrepreneurship. You can find her writing on her own blog, http://www.esvienne.com, and on http://www.searchenginejournal.com. Follow her on twitter- @esvienne for tech and blog updates and @selenavidya for internet marketing updates.

Images embedded within Microsoft Word documents can not be easily extracted. If you simply copy and paste the images, the image quality may get hampered. So what is the quickest and the best way to extract multiple images from any Word document?

The trick is pretty simple and straightforward. All you have to do is save the document as a web page. Open the Word document with images in Microsoft Word. Go to File ->Save As. In the Save as type drop down select Web Page and hit Save.

The file gets saved as a web page (.htm or .html) and the images from the document get placed in a folder named <Document-Name>_files in the same location as the web page.

If you want to extract the embedded images without opening the Word document, here is another trick using WinZip or WinRAR utility.

Just as technology is continually changing, so are the rules with blogging. This means there is always room for research and improvement upon the subject. While you may feel pretty content with what you’ve been doing, it’s advisable to be careful. Slipping into a routine of the same-old, same-old can really have devastating effects in the future; bad habits can form and posts can become dull. Instead, mix it up and check out some tips for improvement below.

Looking to optimize keywords? Change it up

Search engines are getting more and more perceptive of how to tell if someone is stuffing keywords. The truth of the matter is that the search engines are looking for relevant, useful information pertaining to a particular subject. So talk about that subject naturally and change up the keyword phrases here and there.

For example, if your keyword phrase is “New Orleans real estate”, you don’t have to put that exact phrase in the article over and over and over. Instead, put it in a few times but then change it around a bit like, “real estate in New Orleans”. This helps the search engines to see you’re not stuffing exact keyword phrases and that your topic really is relevant to the subject of real estate in that particular area.

Give something new

It’s so easy to rattle off the obvious information about any writing subject that’s been given. The problem with this is that if it’s obvious information, there’s no point in readers reading it. Do some research, make it count. After all, people read to learn. If the information isn’t new, it’s not going to be a post that contributes in any useful way, shape or form. Not to state the obvious, but a blog that doesn’t contribute anything useful often results in a blogger out of work.

Everyone likes personality

Sometimes reading blogs can feel like attending a reading of the yellow pages. Instead of lecturing, give the tone more of a playful attitude. By writing with a little personality, you can actually catch your reader’s attention instead of putting them to sleep. Be careful, though, to keep the playful tone simple without going overboard.

If the time has come that you feel there is no way to improve your blogging, then perhaps blogging is not for you. This industry is all about change which is why flexibility is so important. Taking these tips to heart can only improve upon the talent you already are using to make your writing career a successful one.

This is a guest post by Chris Dayley, SEO Specialist from OrangeSoda.

This is a guest post by Alan Wood cross-posted from Online Colleges. Online Colleges brings you the top-notch news, reviews and hot topics in the college world.

When it comes to writing great content, there is much that can be learned from some of the world’s top bloggers. They manage to attract hordes of readers, know just how to write to keep their attention, and perhaps best of all, are happy to share their advice. Check out these great writing tips from a handful of the world’s best bloggers.

Ideas

Are you stuck on ideas? Try some of these techniques.

1. Share ideas with others: Spend time brainstorming with a friend or writing partner.
2. Time yourself: Set a clock and make yourself write for a certain amount of time. 
3. Keep an ear to the ground: Read the news and other writers to know what’s current.
4. Focus on the problem: Go back to an original problem and think of ways to solve it.
5. Always have a notebook: Keep a notebook handy at all times so that you can write ideas down any time.

Workflow

Follow these tips to get writing done.

6. Separate research from writing: Do your research before you sit down to write.
7. Don’t focus on draft quality: Pick up speed by not worrying about the quality of your first draft.
8. Write often: Write consistently and often.
9. Set a timer: Write non-stop until your timer goes off.
10. Banish distractions: Tune everything out to focus on your writing.

Content & Value

Provide valuable, quality content with these tips.

11. Be useful: Provide value by offering writing that is useful.
12. Use detail: Make use of rich and vivid detail in your writing.
13. Have a reason: Write for a reason and know why you’re writing.
14. Stay relevant: Write your title first, then fulfill the promise.
15. Give posts as much value as possible: Make your writing as valuable as you can.
16. Read what others write: Read other blogs and reading material with high quality writing to soak it all in.
17. Avoid worthless writing: Have a purpose for your writing.
18. Use repetition: Make use of repetition to pull the reader in.
19. Be thorough: Give a resolution and closure every time.
20. Use a swipe file: Keep a collection of writing pieces that have worked well and use them for winning formulas.
21. Entertain your readers: Amuse your readers, and use humor when appropriate.
22. Share authority: Qualify your authority so that it isn’t questioned.
23. Avoid hedging: Keep contingencies out of your writing to sound more confident.
24. Deny your passive voice: Be more direct by cutting out your passive voice.
25. Deliver: Deliver the content you’ve promised in your headline.
26. Stay unique: Don’t just say me too, or write what everyone’s already discussing. Come up with something new.
27. Write about hot topics: Grab a reader’s attention with the latest big topic.
28. Write practically: Keep your tips practical for your readers.
29. Use specifics: Make your writing more credible by sharing specific facts and details.
30. Be original: Create writing that is original to you.
31. Use examples: Illustrate your point with examples.

Persona

Pay attention to these tips in order to develop your voice.

32. Don’t remove yourself: Be careful not to remove yourself from your writing.
33. Tell the truth: Write with an authentic voice.
34. Don’t be too clever: Avoid becoming too clever that you lose your voice.
35. Get personal: Share personal stories or anecdotes with your readers.
36. Distinguish yourself: Find a way to separate yourself from the pack.
37. Choose the right tone: Identify your audience’s tone expectation and follow it.
38. Give your point of view: Share your own opinions on issues and resources.
39. Write informally: Write like you speak so that you’ll sound like a real person.
40. Be conversational: Speak to your readers.
41. Do one thing well: Know what you want to accomplish with a piece and do it well.
42. Make your point: Write concisely to make your point and be done.

Interest

These tips will help keep your reader engaged.

43. Be bold: Use bold words to attract emphasis.
44. Share variety: For regular readers, be sure to mix it up every now and then.
45. Make your point: Don’t make your readers wade through it all to find your point.
46. Spread things out: Schedule your publishing so that your writing is spread out over time.
47. Write a great lead: Use a strong opening paragraph to pull the reader in.
48. Remember your audience: Keep your audience in mind when writing.
49. Be provoking: Provoke instead of solving when trying to be persuasive.
50. Give readers what they want: Know why your readers visit and give them what they want to build trust.

Titles

Put these tips to work for titles that will get your writing read.

51. Be descriptive: Let your readers know what you’re going to read about.
52. Share the main point: Your headline should share a summary of the piece’s main point.
53. Provide a sense of urgency: Give your title a sense of urgency.
54. Grab attention: Make sure that your titles pull readers in.
55. Use questions: Make your headline pose a question.
56. Spark curiosity: Leave readers wanting more.
57. Take a tip from magazines: Get title writing inspiration by reading magazines.
58. Share key words: Consider keywords that will help your writing be found.
59. Be specific: Share a couple of details that will catch interest.
60. Use active words: Short, active words are preferable to long, passive ones.
61. Stay simple: Stay simple to avoid frustrating readers.
62. Take your time: Don’t just slap a name on a piece. Carefully think of a title that fits it.
63. Title it first: Don’t save your headline for the last task.
64. Satisfy a need: Draw readers in by making your titles something they need to hear.

Readability

Bloggers are professionals in readability. Use these tips to perfect your skills.

65. Make your writing scannable: Many readers don’t go through pieces word for word, so be sure that it’s easy to scan.
66. Be understandable: Avoid acronyms and industry-specific language that many readers may not understand.
67. Make use of space: Create spaces to help readers avoid feeling overwhelmed.
68. Be consistent: Keep your writing consistent to hold interest.
69. Demonstrate: When appropriate, use charts, diagrams, and graphs.
70. Use lists: Lists make just about anything easier to read.
71. Write at an 8th grade level: Avoid complicated words and keep things simple.
72. Stay brief: Just write less.
73. Think about how you read: Consider what catches your eye and keeps your attention.
74. Keep paragraphs short: Break your writing into smaller bits.
75. Make use of formatting: Emphasize points with the help of formatting.
76. Use short sentences: Create easy to read, short sentences.
77. Get to the point: Don’t dance around your point.
78. Highlight your points: Be sure to make your main points clear.

Conversation

With these tips, you can encourage conversation with your writing.

79. Keep your readers in mind: Don’t ignore your readers. Know what they are interested in.
80. Listen: Listen to your readers so that you’ll know what they want.
81. Ask questions: Ask engaging questions in your writing to get responses.
82. Respond: Write back to readers when they interact with you.
83. Be accessible: Always be willing to interact with your readers.
84. Don’t argue: Find a polite and smooth way to correct your readers.
85. Voice your opinion: The more polarizing you are, the more feedback you’ll get.
86. Stay on topic: Be sure that your readers are finding what they expect in your writing.
87. Tell a story: Be more engaging by sharing a story.
88. Write regularly: Be consistent in when you publish so that readers know when to expect it.

Editing

Get your writing publishing-perfect using these editing techniques.

89. Revise in your head: Cut back on your revision time by testing out phrases and words as you write.
90. Use a critique partner: Share your work with someone else so that you can catch on to what you’re not doing well.
91. Set it aside: Do nothing to your work for a day or two.
92. Get rid of unnecessary adjectives: Cut adjectives and adverbs out of your sentences unless they’re absolutely necessary.
93. Cut out the non-essential: Be sure to take out everything that isn’t absolutely essential
94. Listen to feedback: Make use of the valuable feedback provided by editors.
95. Banish unnecessary words: Read your work to identify words that can be cut out.
96. Give attribution: Support others by highlighting their ideas when you’d like to share them.
97. Fail and learn: You probably won’t do a perfect job right out of the gate. Allow yourself to fail and edit from there.
98. Know when to stop: Carefully consider when it’s time to stop editing a post.
99. Plan to revise later: Let yourself go with your first draft, then revise.
100. Know common mistakes: Recognize mistakes that you’re likely to come across.

Thanks Alan Wood for this post. The original version of this post can be found here.

If you are into blogging, here are four Blackberry apps that you must never miss. These apps will help you make the most out of your blogs.

There are many blogging and social media apps available for BlackBerry, and it can be difficult to find out the right ones. Here are my top four picks on must-have apps for BlackBerry.

1. Viigo

Role of RSS can never be undermined in the blogging world. RSS makes reading and keeping up with blogs very easy. As a blogger, you would find yourself reading influential blogs in your niche and RSS plays a key role here.

Viigo (now merged with RIM) provides one of the best RSS reader application for your Blackberry smartphone. Along with this, Viigo is a one stop resource for news, podcasts, social networking, weather updates and much more.

2. Evernote

Ever got a perfect blogging idea and nowhere to note it down? Many a times great blogging ideas click when we are sleeping or on the move. As a blogger, it is important to not miss out on such  ideas. Evernote come to rescue here.

Evernote helps you to make lists, take notes, share memos, tag pictures, and organize streams of information, all on the move with your BlackBerry.

Put simply, Evernote is a note taking and organizing app that you can use while on the move or via web. You can make notes, sort them by tags, and have them accessible again when you need it. Evernote BlackBerry app supports text, photo, and voice notes.

Many bloggers use editorial calendars to plan their blogging activities ahead of time and Evernote makes these tasks much simpler.

3. Capture It

Capture It is a small app that helps makes taking screenshots of your Blackberry screen a cakewalk. With a click of a button, image of your current BlackBerry screen will get saved either in the external memory card or to the device memory.

Here are some more ways to capture screenshots on your Blackberry.

4. WordPress for Blackberry

If your blog is on WordPress, this is a must have application. WordPress for BlackBerry provides many features like adding new posts, manage content, and moderate comments. It is especially useful tool to respond to blog comments while on the move.

In order to use this app, you need to enable the XML-RPC publishing protocol under your WordPress settings. Go to Settings ->Writing -> Remote Publishing and select the checkbox against XML-RPC.

Do you use any of the Blackberry apps for bloggers that are not mentioned here? Share them in the comments section below.

This tip will allow you to insert images to your Gmail messages or Google Apps powered email messages. You can upload images directly from your computer or use a web URL.

There is another option that many people have been using till now like creating an email message in Outlook or any HTML editor and copy-paste the whole thing to the Gmail message editor.

Now there is a quick and easy option to add images to your Gmail messages. Simply go to Gmail Settings –> Labs and enable ‘Inserting Images’

Now, compose a new message in Gmail. You will see an option to insert image. You can either upload images from the computer or use URLs of the images from the web.

Once you have uploaded or added an image, you can choose the size of the image just by clicking the image and choosing from the context menu.

That’s as simple. Go ahead and beautify your Gmail messages.

In this article, I am going to show you how to quickly add awesome looking social sharing buttons to the GetSocial plugin on your WordPress blog using the power of CSS3. See the additional email and more buttons on this blog? We will discuss how to display these buttons once you have added the GetSocial plugin to your blog. If you haven’t done so already, you can download GetSocial and socialize your blog.

The additional buttons option in the GetSocial settings page allows you to add social media networks of your choice to the GetSocial box. All you need to do is grab the HTML code for the button from the respective social networking website and paste it in the additional buttons option enclosed within <div class=”sharebutton”> and </div> tags. For example:

<div class=”sharebutton”>
<!-- Code for additional button 1 -->
</div>
<div class=”sharebutton”>
<!-- Code for additional button 2 -->
</div>

AddThis makes it very easy to add social buttons of your choice to GetSocial. Just grab the code for your favorite social network from AddThis website and add it to GetSocial as described above. Let’s discuss how to add the Super Awesome Buttons powered by CSS3 (as on this website, see on the left) to GetSocial using AddThis.

Open the style.css file of your WordPress theme and add the following CSS3 code at the end of the file. Alternatively, you can add this code in the getsocial.css file located in /wp-content/plugins/getsocial/lib/ folder of your blog.

.addthis_share_btn a, .addthis_share_btn a:visited {
background: #222 url(images/btn-overlay.png) repeat-x;
display: inline-block;
padding: 5px 4px;
font-family: arial,helvetica,lucida,verdana,sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
line-height: 1em;
color: #fff;
text-decoration: none;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
border-radius: 5px;
box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
text-shadow: 0 -1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);
border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.25);
position: relative;
cursor: pointer;
}
.addthis_share_btn a:hover { background-color: #111; color: #fff; }
.addthis_share_btn a:active { top: 1px; }

.addthis_share_btn a span, .addthis_share_btn:visited a span {
background: url(images/icons/icon-addthis.gif) no-repeat left;
padding: 1px 0 1px 15px;
}

.addthis_share_btn a.addthis_button_email span, .addthis_share_btn:visited a.addthis_button_email span {
background: url(images/icons/emailshare.png) no-repeat left;
padding: 1px 0 1px 16px;
}
/* Button Sizes */

.at_medium.addthis_share_btn a, .at_medium.addthis_share_btn a:visited { font-size: 10px; line-height: 1; text-shadow: 0 -1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);}
.at_large.addthis_share_btn a, .at_large.addthis_share_btn a:visited { font-size: 14px; padding: 8px 16px; }

/* Button Colors */
.addthis_share_btn.at_green a, .addthis_share_btn.at_green a:visited { background-color: #91bd09; }
.addthis_share_btn.at_green a:hover { background-color: #749a02; }

.addthis_share_btn.at_blue a, .addthis_share_btn.at_blue a:visited { background-color: #2b9fe2; }
.addthis_share_btn.at_blue a:hover { background-color: #1889ca; }

You can modify the CSS code further as you like to change the colors or customize other behavior. Optionally, upload the icon images for email and more buttons to your blog. You might need to edit the CSS code to change the icon image url accordingly.

Now, go to the GeSocial Settings page.

Paste the following code snippet in the Additional buttons option.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var addthis_config = {
services_exclude: 'twitter,facebook,stumbleupon,email',
ui_offset_top: 20,
ui_offset_left: 60
}
</script>

<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_share_btn at_blue at_medium sharebutton">
<a href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php" class="addthis_button_email">
<span>email</span></a>
</div>

<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_share_btn at_green at_medium sharebutton">
<a href="http://addthis.com/bookmark.php" class="addthis_button_compact">
<span>more&nbsp;</span></a>
</div>

Save your settings and you are done.

If you have more questions, suggestions or queries, feel free to post them in the comments section or use support forums.

I recently released my first WordPress plugin – GetSocial. It had 550+ downloads within 24 hours which was certainly overwhelming for me. So what does GetSocial do? It makes your blog more social by adding a lightweight and intelligent floating social media sharing box (see it on the left?) to your blog posts. It is similar to the floating box on Mashable website but with a different behavior when you resize your window.

Why Add GetSocial to Your Blog?

Allowing your visitors to easily share your blog posts  to their social networks has the potential to bring viral traffic and new visitors to your blog. Letting your visitors share the content easily without having to scroll back and forth provides a good user experience. GetSocial’s floating social share box will never go out of sight.

GetSocial is compatible with the leading web browsers and allows you to add social networks of your choice to the sharing box. It provides Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and StumbleUpon functionality out of the box and allows you to add/remove more buttons. Minimal settings allow you to configure it easily and quickly.

GetSocial is designed to auto-adjust itself to all screen resolutions and window sizes. Unlike Mashable, it automatically hides itself partially to the left of the screen if window is resized to smaller than defined width. Hovering over a partially hidden GetSocial box displays the full box. For higher screen resolutions/larger screen sizes, it displays full by default.

More importantly the scripts are loaded in the footer. So users will not experience delay in page loading.

Does GetSocial Suit My Blog Theme

If you are using a theme that has its sidebars to the right and main content to left side, GetSocial will suit you the most. As GetSocial box floats to the left of the content, if you have a sidebar on left, GetSocial may not aesthetically fit your theme.

If you would like to change the background colors and other CSS, you can add those changes to your theme’s CSS file. Simply copy the elements you wish to edit from the getsocial.css file to your theme’s style.css and edit. getsocial.css is located in /wp-content/plugins/getsocial/lib folder of your blog.

More Information

Download GetSocial | GetSocial Homepage | Demo (<<See it on the left)

Need Help Customizing GetSocial?

If you need any assistance, simply add a comment below or ask me on Twitter or post your questions on the GetSocial forum. Let me know how it goes. Does GetSocial work well with your blog or it breaks? Please share your experience and feedback in comments. I would highly appreciate your inputs!

Do you use Twitter to promote your blog or website? If your answer is yes, this article is for you. Getting detailed information in one place about your tweets, retweets, mentions, questions, trends, hashtags, short links, URLs that point to your website will go a long way in giving you an edge in making the most out of Twitter presence.

Clicky is an excellent web analytics service that lets you track real time stats for your blog or website. What makes Clicky stand out from the competition is its very intuitive Web 2.0 user interface and most importantly, the ability to monitor happenings on Twitter in insightful and interesting ways. Apart from this, it offers many other powerful tracking features not available in most other popular real time website tracking services. For example, it allows you to track your Feedburner RSS Feeds from within the Clicky interface.

Setting up Clicky for your website is fairly easy. If you haven’t done so already, go ahead and sign up for a free account. You can set up your blog to track the usual blog stats. We will discuss how to set it up for Twitter.

Click on the Twitter icon in the top menu bar. Choose the option to create new Twitter search query. You can add any twitter search query of your choice. To track it for your blog, build a search query that includes your Twitter username and your domain name. For example, in my case it would be something like below:

Save the query. You will immediately start seeing detailed statistics on your search query. You can compare stats from different time periods. You can even retweet or reply to the tweets from within Clicky interface.

Add more queries of choice as you like to track what is happening on Twitter.

If you know of more tools that help you in tracking your Twitter stats, please share your inputs in the comments area.