Net Covered Blog

Webdesign by admin

The new year has brought us a lot of new interesting webdesign trends. Though it seems that color schemes haven’t changed that much. Fasion Trendsetter has presented their conception of the ideal color schemes for this year’s upcoming spring and summer.

It is divided into two volumes (Vol. II and Vol. III).

Spring/Summer 2008 color trends Vol.02 have all the strongest hues for the summer regarding the brightest whilst darkest color tones freshened by split complements. Vol.03 is much more like a candy store. Colors reminding of everyone’s childhood while keeping up the pinks and blues screaming out; “It’s a Boy!” or “It’s a Girl!”…

Of course we cannot take this too serious and it might easily happen that websites will adapt some totally different color shemes this year (let’s face it - webdesigners don’t care much about fashion trends). However this can give you some basic idea about what professional designers think this year’s summer will look like. For complete set of 2008 color trends click here.

SEO by admin

People are browsing the net in may different ways. Some people type the address directly, some people visit their favorite portal or directory but most people are using search engines to find the sites they visit. To successfully gain traffic from search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, MSN etc) you will probably need to edit your website a bit (sometimes completely) and make sure there are no barriers for search engines to crawl your site. And this is where SEO (search engine optimization) becomes crucial.

The Aim of SEO

First of all, you need to know what visitors you want to attract to your site. It is very easy to bring in 5000 people not interested in your website but it is far better (and more diffucult) to bring in only 100 people but those will actualy be interested in your site and there’s great a chance they will visit again in the future.

The aim of SEO is not to bring as much traffic as possible. The aim of SEO is to bring in targeted traffic and people to whom you can offer something (high quality content). Good SEO will also help you earn more money when your website is commercial. If not, you can at least make few bucks from advertisements to help you cover expenses of your website (hosting expenditures etc). Read the rest of the article

Wordpress by admin

I have seen many people online asking how to divide blog posts into more columns. There isn’t much useful information about that around so I’ve decided to write this article. I will show you how to divide blog posts into two and then also into three columns. Though, after reading this article you’ll be able to add even more columns. Read the rest of the article

General Blogging by admin

If you want to earn, start an online business or just to gain a following for some reason, then blogging could be for you. However, there are some things regarding blogging that you must avoid as much as possible.

One of the things you must remember when you blog has something to do with your host site. You must remember that these host sites have terms and conditions and you must always follow them. Some people would wonder why their blog gets shut down, what they may not know is that they may already have broken some law of the host site which resulted tot heir shut down. If you want your blog to flourish, always follow the rules set by your host.

You should also avoid posting sub-par content or stuff that is really useless. Tell your avid readers something new. People would want to keep on returning to your blog when you post entertaining or exciting stuff. Don’t be afraid of highly competitive niche. If you will work hard, you can succeed.

Try to avoid arguing with visitors of your blog. Sometimes people may leave harsh or silly comments but if you argue with them it will lead to nothing. Try to respect their opinion and the rest of your readers will trust and respect you more.

You should not give false information to your readers. Make sure that all your posts are true and accurate. Giving false information will destroy your reputation and people will think that you are an ignorant blogger. If you want to build trust with your readers, you will need to provide quality and accurate information.

You should avoid plagiarism or copying what other bloggers write. The more original the posts and information you give the more likely would it be for you to build a bigger reader base.

Try to give all your information for free. Do not be shy to use few ads to earn some extra bucks (once your blog will get bigger, you will have to invest much more money into hosting and related stuff), just do not overdo it or your readers will be annoyed by it.

Try to avoid attacking someone or something on your blog. If you want to criticize a person or a company, do it in a subtle manner. People will be more interested in reading constructive criticism.

Alright. This is the end of my blogging articles serie. I hope this guide will help people who want to start they own blog and need some general blogging information to pull off. But also experienced bloggers might find many interesting tips here.

General Blogging by admin

One very popular method of inviting new readers to your blog site is by sharing blogging tips to them. This topic is always updated regularly and is almost endless. Giving out tips could also help new bloggers who may want to join the blogging industry start out. There are some experts who give advice for free while there are some who may ask for something in return. However it would not matter how effective your tips are, if it is difficult for your readers to understand then they will still be useless. With this in mind, below are tips on how to give out blogging tips.

The first thing that you should keep in mind is that you should always consider your readers. Remember that your readers will be looking for tips and not instructions. You should also always imagine that your readers have zero knowledge on blogging and you should try to use simple words as much as possible. Try to stay humble even if you already are a veteran blogger. Do not act like you are the best tip giver because there are people that may be better than you. People are only after your tips and not you.

Be more creative with your blog. Use audio, video, or pictures that you could use or relate to the tips that you give, these things will definitely help your readers understand your tips a lot more. The more creative your blog is, the more readers you will have. However do not overreact and exaggerate the tips you give or you may mislead some of your readers. If ever that happens, you will be the on put to blame.

Tell the truth and do not lie. Do not try to hide anything regarding the possible effect of the tips you give. Do not alter or add any of your tips just to produce more readers of your blog. If your tips would have some requirements or restrictions before it could be more effective, you should explain them more carefully. Be honest since readers will rely on your tips for their success.

General Blogging by admin

Weblogs today have completely transformed from what they used to be a decade ago. Thousand of blogs created by hobbyists, companies, businessmen, and professionals sprout every day. Professional blogging is considered to be both an art and science. A lot of aspiring bloggers who want to turn blogging into a career always struggle first to have their presence felt at the beginning. If we closely study the best bloggers, we will be able to find some common traits which help them in becoming an effective and influential blogger. Let us find out how we could become a professional blogger. Before we start with our blogging ventures we must first be able to answer some questions. Can I consider myself as a writer? Will I be able to devote sufficient time for blogging? Am I a web savvy person? Will I have enough funds to pay for the hosting and ISP bills before I receive the returns of my blog? What topic should I blog about?

One of the most important qualities of an effective blogger is being able to write informative and useful content that will attract readers. It would also be important that you would be able to hold firmly over the authority of your niche. Writing an interesting post is not that difficult actually. You may already have heard of the phrase “Content is King”. It does not matter how stunning a blog may look. If you do not have good writing skills, you will not be able to succeed in pulling in readers.

If you could not afford to spend at least three hours per day writing on your blog, then it would probably be better to not do it anymore. Readers would want to have fresh content to read on a consistent basis. Only if you could do this will you be able to attract more people to your blog site.

If you are not a web savvy person, then you will not be an effective blogger. You need to be able to popularize your blog in order to be one step ahead of your competitors and you would need to have the proper technical knowledge in order to do this.

The guide has not ended yet. Two more parts on their way!

General Blogging by admin

As an online blogger, one thing that most people would need to decide on would be what type of platform the person would want to use for his or her blogging. By being able to decide on the right blogging platform, it will make your whole blogging experience a lot easier. Choose the wrong platform and you will feel that blogging would feel more like a chore than something you would enjoy doing.

A blogging platform is a program wherein you would use to manage your own blog. You would use this to create or add new posts, editing your existing posts, deleting your posts or deleting and approving the comments left by your readers and using other elements that may enhance your blog. This is why you need to look for the right platform in order to ensure a smooth blogging experience. In order to look for the best platform for you, you would need to check for the different types of blogs on the Internet and look for the one that would best fit your needs.

It would be ideal if you would choose a user-friendly platform and a platform that is flexible enough so that you could easily customize your blog and allow you to create something that will be uniquely yours. Do not expect to find the best platform for you right away, this is a part of the blogging process that usually takes a lot of time and you would need to devote a lot of your time testing these different types of platform before you find the one most suitable for you.

When you are looking for your blogging platform, it would be better if you know what you are looking for. For example, would you want a platform that is very customizable?

You may be wondering what blogging platform is the best, however you will not be able to get any definitive answer for this. Every blogger has his or her own needs and this is why a blogger may think one platform is the while another blogger may think the platform he is currently using is a lot better.

This blog, for instance, uses Wordpress CMS (Content Management System) and I haven’t had any problems with it so far. It’s fast, stable, highly customizable and open source. Other blogging platform options include Joomla, Graffiti, e107 and others. The best thing you can do now is to look around your favorite blogs and see what blogging platform they are using. Your final decision will be very important - it isn’t easy to switch between differnet content management systems. So take your time and make good decision.

General Blogging by admin

This is the first part of my ultimate blogging guide. Get ready for another four continuations! We will start with some basic information about blogs and blogging.

A blog is an online journal or weblog wherein people would be able to write their day to day sentiments, adventures, or whatever other things that they may want to express on the internet. Blogging used to be more of a somewhat personal commentary on one’s own life, beliefs and events; however it has now been revolutionized and is also used for various business and personal agendas alike.

Because of the rapid progression of the online business industry, blogs have quickly become the most effective and yet inexpensive form of advertising. Business blogs are basically used to advertise the products or services of a web site or an online store in order to help increase their online sales. Below are some reasons why you should include blogging in your online marketing strategy.

Blogging is non-technical and is very straightforward. It is like you have your own virtual piece of paper wherein you could write your experiences, ideas, products and services and let them be known to the world. Since there is no proper format to be followed, bloggers will have the freedom to creatively express their feelings and use whatever writing style they may feel comfortable with. This would allow almost anyone who has a computer and has access to the Internet become a blogger.

Blogging is not only personal but is authentic as well. Blogging is about real people sharing real life experiences without getting paid for advertising. Reading about products and services on an online blog has a somewhat more personal appeal. By reading a blog it will sometimes feel like talking to a person face to face.

Blogging is free. Most blog sites have minimal restrictions and offer free services. After registering your account which would take less than ten minutes, you will be able to start blogging already. For new businesses, any opportunity for more free advertising on the web is always a plus. Paid blog sites have even fewer restrictions and are most ideal to use if you want to grow your business or generate more income.

Blogging will help build credibility. By consistently posting quality materials on you blog site, people will view you as an expert and will think that your business is a leader in your field.

Webdesign by admin

I doubt many of you remember how did the old Internet look like. By “old” I mean a period from cca 1990 to 2000. I’m 19 years old so I have only foggy flashbacks from that era. There were no big online communities, just few people knew about something like instant messengers. Most of the websites looked the same (ugly) and consisted of few static pages. That was the old Internet. But times have changed to a great extent.

World Wide Web 2.0 or just Web 2.0 is a term that refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services - such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies - that encourage people to share information online in ways previously unavailable.

Let’s take a look at few examples of Web 1.0 → Web 2.0 transformation:

DoubleClick → Google AdSense

Akamai → BitTorrent

mp3.com → Napster

Ofoto → Flickr

Britannica Online → Wikipedia

personal websites → blogs

domain name speculation → SEO

Finally, let’s have a look at Tim O’Reilly’s (one of the creators of the term) definition of Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an “architecture of participation,” and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences.

I’m sure that by now you already have pretty solid idea about what Web 2.0 means. It isn’t technically different from the old Internet. The main difference lays in the concept of how the online information is shared and how the users collaborate together to make the online experience better.

Four years passed since the first appearance of the term Web 2.0 in 2004 and it seems it won’t just go away. Web developers have adopted the new concept very fast and it is evolving and gaining new ground each day.

Free webmaster resources, Webdesign by admin

This isn’t really an article. Just a link to very nice RSS icon set.

Grunge RSS feed icons

Hope you like it.