Blogging Tips For Small Business Owners

Imagine if you could listen intently and get up to the minute information, like a fly on a wall to millions of people as they talk about your business? That’s what type of power blogging for small business owners can promote. Now imagine if you could take that information and translate it into exactly what your customers want, how they want it and what they will ultimately buy and not to mention, what they will pay for it. Blogging is a tool that businesses are using to make actual decisions on customer feedback and market intelligence. It’s the smartest move businesses are making today.
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Download The Free Offical Google SEO Ebook

Everything you do on your blog to help perform better on Google and other search engines would be considered S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization).S.E.O. is big business with people paying S.E.O. company's big bucks to optimize their websites.Most Bloggers don't have lots of money to invest in S.E.O. or any part of their blog so you have to cover S.E.O. yourself.Here on Spice Up Your Blog i have built a great archive of Posts in the S.E.O. Tips category and I'm always working on bringing you the latest SEO Tips.Google for their part also try to help the Bloggers and Webmasters who don't have money to trow at optimizing their sites.The best resource made available by Google is their SEO Ebook and just today they have released the updated version.In the Free Google SEO Ebook they give you a fantastic guide with SEO Tips and Tricks that is easy to follow even for the complete newbie.

This Free Google SEO Ebook shows real examples with step by step information on all aspects of SEO.As the Ebook is from the people you are trying to optimize you Blog for in Google you know the information will be invaluable.

Google SEO Ebook

Here are some of the areas the Google SEO Ebook covers :

-Create unique, accurate page titles
-Make use of the "description" meta tag
-Improving Site Structure
-Improve the structure of your URLs
-Make your site easier to navigate
-Optimizing =Content
-Offer quality content and services
-Write better anchor text
-Optimize your use of images
-Use heading tags appropriately
-Dealing with Crawlers
-Make effective use of robots.txt
-Be aware of rel="nofollow" for links
-SEO for Mobile Phones
-Notify Google of mobile sites
-Guide mobile users accurately
-Promotions and Analysis
-Promote your website in the right ways
-Make use of free webmaster tools

The Google SEO Ebook is in Pdf format and you can open it or download it directly from this page.To get your copy of the Free Google SEO Ebook simply click the link below :

Download The Free Google SEO Ebook



You probably wont have time to read the entire Ebook in one sitting so be sure to save the link or Bookmark this post.

I would love to hear what you think of the Google SEO Tips Ebook in the comments, Enjoy.

How To Automatically Digg All Your Blog Posts

One of the ways bloggers build links to their posts and attract new visitors is by bookmarking their posts on social bookmarking sites.Perhaps the most popular bookmarking site is Digg.com and a blog post becoming popular on Digg could have a massive effect on your blog.In fact if you managed to have a post become popular enough to make it onto the front page of digg it could turn into hundreds of thousands of new visitors.

Digging you posts does take time and until now there was no way of 'Auto Digging' your latest posts.Some gadgets did claim they would automatically Digg you posts but the submission process make it almost imposable.I think Digg realised most storeys were Dugg by their authors so with the release of the new Digg layout they have included the option to submit your blog to be Auto Dugg.

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Take Screenshots Of Any Page In Seconds

Many Blogs use screenshots in their posts and if you don't you should start.If you are reviewing a website or talking about an article it always looks great to have a screenshot of that page.In the past we have talked about Screen Capture add-ons and plugins for Firefox and Chrome but not everybody is comfortable using these extras.Recently i came across a website that allows you to quickly get a screenshot of any page, be it a full page or part of the page.The process is easy and all you need to do is copy the URL address of the page you want a screenshot from and submit it.Then You dont need to save the screenshot and upload it to your blog they give you the code ready to be added to your post.

Take Screenshots With Clp.Ly

The site in question is Clp.ly and i made the screenshot above using clp.ly, i think it looks great and it took 10 seconds !

While they offer a number of services remember you don't need to download anything (The bookmark mentioned in the video is helpful but not necessary).Here is a video they created to explain how it works and the link to check them out is below the video..



Go to Clp.ly now.

Check it out and don't forget to tell us what you think in the comments !

Make Your Blog Mobile Phone Friendly

Back in February i wrote a post showing you how to create a mobile phone or mobile device version of your blog.In that post i told you According to IDC (Interactive Data Corp) there will be over 1 Billion people using the mobile Internet 2013.While creating a mobile device version of your blog is still a valid option you can now add a snippet of code to your template that will make it work better with mobile phones.Recently Blogger started to add the code by default to all the templates in the template designer but if you haven't changed you template since the code has been added of if you use a custom template you will have to add the code.Don't worry it will only take a few minutes, lets do it.

Make Your Blog Mobile Compatible

Step 1. In Your Dashboard Click 'Layout / Design' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html, it's at the very top :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

Step 3. Copy and paste the following piece of code directly Below / After

Once you have the code in place save your template.

That's it your blog will be more friendly to Cell Phones and other mobile devices.

Advertise On Spice Up Your Blog

Spice Up Your Blog is a leader in the Blog Tips Niche Specializing in Blogger Help, Tips And Gadgets along with Writing Guidance and general Blog Tutorials.We currently boast over 1000 Rss Subscribers, Fans And Followers and With an average 100,000 monthly impressions (Via Blogger Stats) and growing Spice Up Your Blog is a fantastic Advertising Partner.

We have two options for Advertising On Spice Up Your Blog

1. Our main ad provider is Buy Sell Ads the most popular direct ad server among Bloggers.Buy Sell Ads let you directly Buy ad spots on Spice Up Your Blog in 30 day periods.You can check out the Available Spots and Prices (From Just $10) Here -

Spice Up Your Blog Buy Sell Ads Listing

2. If you are looking for a longer term arrangement we can cut you a discount, simply drop me an Email here -

paul @ spiceupyourblog.com - Without the spaces.

Thanks for your interest and i look forward to working with you.

Paul Crowe.

How To Make A No Follow Link

Every link in your blog is not only seen by the readers but also by the search engines.When Google and other search engines crawl your blog they take note of each link and follow the link to it's source.Of course as your blog grows their will be hundreds and eventually thousands of links scattered through the archives.Having search engine bots follow links is helpful in most cases.If in your current post you link to a post in your archive you are not only sending readers to that post but also search engines.However many links on your blog lead to a dead end like Log in pages, Download links or links to bookmark posts on Digg or Stumble Upon.

Did you know you can add a small attribute to links on your blog telling Google and other search engines to not follow a link ?

This can also be added to links to sites you may be telling readers to avoid, you don't want to be sending search bots to these sites.The small attribute that we add to a link to tell Google not to follow it is called the 'No Follow' tag.

How To Make Links No Follow

Below you can see the code used to make a regular hyperlink :


Spice Up Your Blog

To make the link No Follow we simply add rel="nofollow" as shown below :

rel="nofollow" href="http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/">Spice Up Your Blog

It's that easy and the nofollow attribute can be added to links anywhere on your blog.


Note : While the nofollow attribute is useful and lets you be selective in who you give 'Link Juice' to don't over use it or start adding it to all outward links.

Did you know about no follow or have you used it before ?

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

Speed Up Your Blog With The The Lazy Load Plugin

Many of you probably like to use lots of images on your blogs, in fact i see many personal blogs that use up to ten images with just a few snippets of text.This looks great and of course a picture is worth a thousand words.But images really slow down the loading time of pages on your blog.In fact for visitors to your blog with slow connections or dial up connections more than two large images in a post coupled with the normal gadgets and graphics could take a few minutes to load.When online not many people are willing to wait for content they want instant results (Off topic - I thought Google's release of 'Google Instant' was interesting, they promise instant search results.Did someone think 2,070,000,000 results in 0.13 seconds was too slow ?).



For many bloggers their posts revolve around the pictures and other graphics used, they are not willing to sacrifice images for faster page load times.In this post i may have the perfect solution, The jQuery Lazy Load Plugin.

Lazy Load Plugin

The Lazy Load Plugin or similar Plugins are used on many of the most popular blogs and websites.The concept is quiet simple, when someone lands on your blog the images they cant see wont load until the reader reaches them, only the images that are visible at the very top (called 'above the fold') will load.As the reader scrolls down the page the images load just before they get to them.With the Lazy Load in place each page will load much quicker without the burden of lots of large images but these images will be loaded and ready to view when the reader gets to them.Adding the lazy Load Plugin to your blog can be done in a few steps.

Installing The Lazy Load Plugin

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout/Design' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

Step 3. Copy and paste the following code Directly Before / Above

Once the code is in place save your template.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

The lazy Load Plugin is now in place and you should see an instant change in the load time of your blog, especially pages with multiple images.

Let us know if you have added Lazy Load to your blog and what the effect has been..

Earn Extra AdSense Revenue And Build Links To Your Blog

In this post i will share with you a way i have not only been building links to my blogs but i have been earning AdSense revenue in the process.When you read the posts in the S.E.O. or Blog Promotion category on Spice Up Your Blog one of the things you will see repeated time and again is the importance of Backlinks.But its not just our posts that repeat the importance of backlinks, no matter were you look for help in promoting your blog and moving your posts onto the first page in search engines the theme stays the same.

For search engines like Google a link to your blog is seen like a recommendation.When Google find a link to your blog on another website or blog they take this as that website or blog recommending your blog.This helps in many ways including helping to boost your blogs Page Rank, a higher page rank will result in Google placing more importance in your content thus placing your posts higher in search results.

You can keep track of the number of links there are to your blog by signing up to Google Webmaster Tools.Your job is to build as many links to not only your blogs homepage but also individual posts on your blog.If your blog is relatively new you should work extra hard, but even the most established blogs still work at building backlinks.There are many ways to start building links to your blog, remember if you provide quality content people will want to link to you and share your content.Bookmarks and Bookmarking websites are one of the most popular ways to get backlinks, sites like Digg, Reddit and others let you and your readers bookmark your posts thus creating a backlink.

Getting Paid To Bookmark

One of the ways i have been Bookmarking Posts from my blogs and building links is by using a site called Xomba.On Xomba you can create a Xomblurb which is the same as a Bookmark.You can create a Xomblurb for your posts and other content from the web in a similar way to Digg, but the sweet part is Xomba display AdSense on their site and give you half the earnings from clicks earned on your pages !




How To Start Bookmarking And Earning

Your first step is to set up a free account, simply Click Here To Go To Xomba in a new window.Follow the steps to open your account and submit your AdSense publisher ID.Once you have published your latest blog post you simply log into your Xomba account and choose the option to create a Xomblurb.You are required to add a short Title and Description as on other Bookmark sites, add the link to your post and publish.That's it you have created a Backlink to your blog, if someone lands on that page on Xomba and clicks an add you will get half the AdSense earnings...Easy...

Bookmarking The Bookmark

You may find the Bookmark you created on Xomba actually ranks higher in search results than the actual post on your blog.This is not a bad thing as it will bring extra visitors to your blog and of course you are earning from the ads on Xomba.So why not also promote your Xomblurb ? You can Bookmark the Xomblurb on other sites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook etc..

I have been creating a Xomblurb for all the posts on my Blogs as well as other interesting content i find.The result is 100's of links to my content and an increase in my AdSense earnings.

Xombites

One of the other options Xomba offers is a AdSense revenue share on full articles.While a Xomblurb is a short Bookmark a Xombite is a full article you can write on any subject.Many Bloggers feel restricted by their blogs and writing on only one subject, Xomba can be a great place to write on a range of subjects and make some money.Once you sign up your can check out how it all works.

Xomba Sign Up Page Here

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

There are other similar websites popping up and im currently checking out two revenue share bookmarking sites.If these sites turn out to be Genuine you will be the first to know.

Let us know your opinion on Xomba once you have signed up..

New Official Blogger Stats And Popular Posts Gadgets

In this post I'm excited to bring you the news of two Great new official gadgets just released by Blogger.Recently i wrote a post telling you of the great new stats the Blogger team had added to Blogger In Draft.Since then these stats have been added to the main Blogger site and can be accessed via you Dashboard.If you missed my post covering Blogger Stats you can find it here - Blogger Stats.

The two new gadgets were made possible by the introduction of Stats, as they use your blogs stats to display the information.So what are the new Blogger gadgets and how can they be added to your blog ? Lets take a look..

Blogger Popular Posts Gadget

First up is a popular posts gadget.One of the stats you can see for your blog is the posts getting the most hits and now blogger use this information to display the most popular posts to your readers.You can have the popular posts displayed with or without a thumbnail.Also you can display the most popular posts from the last 7 days, last 30 days or the all time popular posts.

Blogger Stats Gadget

The stats gadget simply displays the total page views to your readers.There are a number of designs available including an animated display.

How To Add The New Blogger Gadgets To Your Blog

These gadgets are only available via Blogger in draft at the moment, follow this link and log in as usual - Blogger In Draft.Once logged in you will be pleased to know the new Blogger gadgets have been added to the Gadget Gallery so you can use them on your blog in just a few clicks.

1. In your dashboard click 'Design' > 'Add A Gadget' > in the pop up window you will see both gadgets.Just click the Blue Plus icon beside the gadget you want and your done, See the image below :

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Note : The stats are not from the day your blog was created but from the time Stats were added to Blogger.

What do you think, have you added the new gadgets to your blog ?