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How did I earn...
Excerpt_Reloaded: Changing your archives pages!
June 30, 2007 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Be the first to leave a comment
Many of us have had problems with Google sending 50% or more of our pages to Supplementals. My own situation has improved a great deal, but it’s far from perfect. I’ve tried an SEO plugin I found, but it hasn’t helped as much as I’d have liked.
One of the the changes I have tried is creating original archives pages with an excerpt tool that allows you to configure the length, break points, etc.. of the excerpts that show up. Take a look at any of my categories, and you’ll see the first 120 words posted.
This is a big improvement over the first archives as the full post was made available there. There are still some kinks to be worked out: like how to show more than 3 posts (set by the options in “Reading”), what can I do with my Google Ads, and how long is long enough so that Google doesn’t treat the page as a mere copy of content elsewhere.
You can find the plugin at http://guff.szub.net/2005/02/26/the-excerpt-reloaded/ but the plugin looks a little dated now. Still, I’m finding it working well in Version 2.2 of WP. You should, too.
Images for Your Blog - Five Good Sources You Can Use
June 30, 2007 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Read these 3 comments
Images are quite important for blogs, otherwise too many postings full of words can make it much more difficult for readers to read and absorb the information you are trying to convey. Largely, this is because of the way computer screens display information which makes intensive book-like reading styles much more uncomfortable. Attention spans tend to be shorter, information can only be taken in in bite-size chunks; so images play an important role in alleviating this problem.
I didn’t use to use a lot of images in my blog, until I realized that the lack of images wasn’t encouraging people to read my pages. Since then, I’ve started to include a lot of different types of images. I don’t overload each posting with images, but I try to average at least one image per post.
There are many ways you can get images for your blog:
1. Screenshots: if you are featuring, discussing or reviewing a website, a simple screenshot can be taken by pressing your “PrintScreen” button on your keyboard. You will need to crop the image, using the Windows Paint Program. Or you can find other tools to help you do this!
2. Taking Pictures: Many of you already have a digicam or a DV video cam, both of which can take acceptable pictures for the web. Obviously, the better quality camera will likely produce a better finish, but if all you have is a webcam, that’ll be sufficient. Go out, take your own pictures, like I did for several reviews on this blog, and publish them.
3. Raid your archives: If you’ve had a digicam or DV video cam for a while, you’ll likely already have hundreds or even thousands of images that you can draw on. If you have good quality slides, or negatives, you can even convert those (though you may have to buy equipment or pay someone to do that for you).
4. Free Images: There are lots of places to get free images, this link from WikiPedia will help get you started and Stock.Xchng, though you need to respect copyright and any restrictions that the owner of the images places.
5. Movies: you can include movies from obvious sources such as YouTube, too. There are now dozens of movie websites, though. Perhaps even in your own archives there are short movies that you could use. Most Digicams now take clips, even long ones. One of my clips lasted over 5 minutes, though it kills the battery! So you could even take your own clips, upload them, and place them on your website. And remember, you can generate stills from movies, too!
In short, it’s easy enough to liven up your bloggings with images, so spend a few minutes extra and make it easier on your readers - INCLUDE an image! Do you include a lot of images these days or not? Where do you get them from?
Waiting for an Iphone… Is it really worth it?
June 29, 2007 | Posted by InvestorBlogger | Read this comment
(This post has been edited with this paragraph. Also the publication date has been changed to 6/29 which was intended, but my posting system screwed up royally).
Well, it seems that the queues for an Iphone aren’t only at the stores. Matt reports that activation of the service is S L O W…. I suggest you save yourself the hassle, and wait three months until the kinks are worked out of the system. It’s stupid to put yourself through this ‘ordeal’ (the words of one customer for an Iphone just to get it first!). Of course, you could just pay 35% or more and buy it on Ebay.
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