Adding a "Sharing is Sexy/Caring Widget for Blogger

This tutotiral lets you add autohiding social bookmarking buttons on your blogger blog. This is a must have for bloggers. It helps your visitors to bookmark and share your articles easily. The button shows when your visitors hover their mouse pointer over the icons. I got one on my footer (I switched to floating social media buttons already) . This is how you do it. The button should look like this:

Step 1:

Login to Blogger, go to Layout > Edit HTML and check on the " Expand Widget Template". Back up your template after doing this.

Step 2:

Find this code "</head>"

and immediately before or after it paste the following codes

<!--HIDDEN-BOOKMARKS-STARTS-->
<style type='text/css'>
div.beauty-bookmarks {
height:54px;
background:url('http://i43.tinypic.com/2ueii3t.png') no-repeat left bottom;
position:relative;
width:540px;
}

div.beauty-bookmarks span.beauty-rightside {
width:17px;
height:54px;
background:url('http://i43.tinypic.com/2ueii3t.png') no-repeat right bottom;
position:absolute;
right:-17px;
}

div.beauty-bookmarks ul.socials {
margin:0 !important;
padding:0 !important;
position:absolute;
bottom:0;
left:10px;
}

div.beauty-bookmarks ul.socials li {
display:inline-block !important;
float:left !important;
list-style-type:none !important;
margin:0 !important;
height:29px !important;
width:48px !important;
cursor:pointer !important;
padding:0 !important;
}

div.beauty-bookmarks ul.socials a {
display:block !important;
width:48px !important;
height:29px !important;
font-size:0 !important;
color:transparent !important;
}

.beauty-furl, .beauty-furl:hover, .beauty-digg, .beauty-digg:hover, .beauty-reddit, .beauty-reddit:hover, .beauty-stumble, .beauty-stumble:hover, .beauty-delicious, .beauty-delicious:hover, .beauty-yahoo, .beauty-yahoo:hover, .beauty-blinklist, .beauty-blinklist:hover, .beauty-technorati, .beauty-technorati:hover, .beauty-facebook, .beauty-facebook:hover, .beauty-twitter, .beauty-twitter:hover, .beauty-myspace, .beauty-myspace:hover, .beauty-mixx, .beauty-mixx:hover, .beauty-script-style, .beauty-script-style:hover, .beauty-designfloat, .beauty-designfloat:hover, .beauty-syndicate, .beauty-syndicate:hover, .beauty-email, .beauty-email:hover {
background:url('http://i44.tinypic.com/1znbj83.png') no-repeat !important;
}

.beauty-furl {
background-position:-300px top !important;
}
.beauty-furl:hover {
background-position:-300px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-digg {
background-position:-500px top !important;
}
.beauty-digg:hover {
background-position:-500px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-reddit {
background-position:-100px top !important;
}
.beauty-reddit:hover {
background-position:-100px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-stumble {
background-position:-50px top !important;
}
.beauty-stumble:hover {
background-position:-50px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-delicious {
background-position:left top !important;
}
.beauty-delicious:hover {
background-position:left bottom !important;
}
.beauty-yahoo {
background-position:-650px top !important;
}
.beauty-yahoo:hover {
background-position:-650px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-blinklist {
background-position:-600px top !important;
}
.beauty-blinklist:hover {
background-position:-600px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-technorati {
background-position:-700px top !important;
}
.beauty-technorati:hover {
background-position:-700px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-myspace {
background-position:-200px top !important;
}
.beauty-myspace:hover {
background-position:-200px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-twitter {
background-position:-350px top !important;
}
.beauty-twitter:hover {
background-position:-350px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-facebook {
background-position:-450px top !important;
}
.beauty-facebook:hover {
background-position:-450px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-mixx {
background-position:-250px top !important;
}
.beauty-mixx:hover {
background-position:-250px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-script-style {
background-position:-400px top !important;
}
.beauty-script-style:hover {
background-position:-400px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-designfloat {
background-position:-550px top !important;
}
.beauty-designfloat:hover {
background-position:-550px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-syndicate {
background-position:-150px top !important;
}
.beauty-syndicate:hover {
background-position:-150px bottom !important;
}
.beauty-email {
background-position:-753px top !important;
}
.beauty-email:hover {
background-position:-753px bottom !important;
}

</style>
<!--HIDDEN-BOOKMARKS-STOPS-http://pcholics.blogspot.com-->

Step 3:
Find this code "<data:post.body/>"
and after that paste the following codes

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div class='beauty-bookmarks'>
<ul class='socials'>
<li class='beauty-delicious'><a expr:href='&quot;http://del.icio.us/post?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-digg'><a expr:href='&quot; http://digg.com/submit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-technorati'><a expr:href='&quot; http://technorati.com/faves?add=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-reddit'><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.reddit.com/submit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-stumble'><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-designfloat'><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.designfloat.com/submit.php?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-facebook'><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-twitter'><a expr:href='&quot; http://twitthis.com/twit?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-furl'><a expr:href='&quot; http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
<li class='beauty-syndicate'><a href='http://YOURFEEDHERE'title='Subscribe to RSS'/></li>
<li class='beauty-email'><a expr:href='&quot; mailto:?subject=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title' target='_blank'/></li>
</ul>
<span class='beauty-rightside'/></div>
</b:if>

Now save the template and its done! You may edit the codes if you want to delete buttons.

When is the right time to monetize your blog?

According to kidblogger Carlo you should start to monetize your blog from the start. There is no good reason to not to monetize it. What if there were traffic spikes? Yellowminded on the other hand stated that there is nothing wrong with monetizing your blog from the start but it affects your focus on building traffic and quality backlinks if you find yourself checking your earnings everyday.

Actually there are no right or wrong answers to the question. Basically you can choose from the two options; put ads until you get traffic and/or put ads as you go.

Monetize until you have traffic

Without traffic, you won't make anything so there is no need to monetize your blog. You may want to start building traffic first. Monetizing it early will affect your focus in building traffic.

Monetize your blog as you go

Having ads on your blog coming from Google Adsense, Adbrite, Bidvertiser, etc. does'nt require too much effort. You just put some codes and leave it as you go building traffic. So why not monetize it from the very start?

My personal preference

I suggest monetizing your blog as you go. That is what I do when I created this blog. Monetizing my blog using adsense from the start gives me  the control of the design of my blog. If I started to build traffic first then I would have to choose a non-adsense ready template and when the time comes that I would monetize my blog, I would have to switch another template and its painful. Second reason was, my readers will get use to the ads that was placed on my blog. Thus avoiding negative comments.

Adding Code Snippets on Blogger Posts without any Installation

I've been looking for this for over a year now. Last year I was planning to make a blogspot tutorial blog when I encountered difficulty in displaying codes on blogger posts. So I decided to stop and blog for another topic that don't use any codes on the post. Until I've found some tutorials on how to do so.

First Method - Use SyntaxHighlighter

SyntaxHighlighter allows you to display codes on blogger posts. You can upload this on your own hosting or you can use the free hosted option. You can download SyntaxHighlighter here. Also on the page are tutorials on how to upload it. Or use the free hosted version.


Second Method - Parsing the Codes

You can do this by just following these simple steps. This method also works well in putting adsense codes on inside blogger posts.

1. Copy the code you want to parse or display on your blog posts.
2. Parse the code by using parse tool. It is free. Go to Blogcrowds.
3. Paste the code on the form and hit Parse.
4. There you go, the parsed code is now ready to be displayed on blogger post.

You can now display the codes on your blogger posts. But before that, enclose the code on a blockquote to give it an elegant look. To fully understand method number two, you can read BlogPandit's guide on how to do it.

• Add code snippet to blogger - mystery solved

Example:

PC Holics' Pagerank




PC Holics' Pagerank - Parsed Code

<a href="http://www.prchecker.info/" target="_blank">
<img src="http://pr.prchecker.info/getpr.php?codex=aHR0cDovL3BjaG9saWNzLmJsb2dzcG90LmNvbQ==&tag=1" alt="Page Rank Check" border="0" /></a>

Amazon Associates and Blogger now Integrated

Google and Amazon partner up and integrated the Amazon associates program on blogger blogs. You may notice the amazon contextual ad on the top of this post and the ad inside. The integration is only two clicks away. And you can also add amazon widget on any position on your blogger blog.

Click on the Monetize tab and you will notice that three options are there. Adsense, Adsense for Feeds and now Amazon Associates. You can set up the amazon associates program on your blogger blog by setting up new account or using your old account on amazon associates.  Here is what you see upon clicking the amazon associates tab.

Upon enabling Amazon Associates on your blog, a product finder will appear besides your post editor that lets you add up amazon product links on your posts. This is howit looks.

This is a great new feature on blogger blogs. Having the Amazon Associates feature is a great way in monetizing blogger blogs.

Twitter was Hacked by Iranian Cyber Army!

I was going to log on to my twitter account and I was shocked on what I have seen! Twitter has been hacked by Iranian cyber army on 18th DEc @ 12 AM CDT. Check it out for you to see.

Why are you not using Google Adsense on your blogs?

I read blogs everyday and I have noticed that some of them are not using Google Adsense to monetize them. I wonder and try to answer the question myself. And I have come up with a few reasons why they are not using Google Adsense on their blog.

Traffic

Its not about how many visitors come to your site although it is also one of the reasons. But where do the traffic came from? . If most of your traffic or you have traffic spikes coming from websites that violates Google Adsense TOS like Entrecard, StumbleUpon, Blog Explosion, Link Referral and other traffic exchange sites, then Google Adsense is not suitable on your blog.

Showing Competetitors

If you blog for a certian niche, chances are competitor's ads will show on your ad units. Encouraging your readers to click them and losing your readers...forever. Also readers are becoming so tech savvy. They hate ads that would redirect them to another page or site when they click on it. And they tend to leave your site.

Low Cost-per-Click

Your earnings also depends on your keywords. And if you got low paying keywords but having huge traffic , you might want to consider to find an alternative that would make more money for you.

Those are just few reasons why people does not want to use Google Adsense. If you knew other reasons then we could add that up here on the list. I am thinking also of terminting my Adsense account. Let me know what you think.

Three Killer Steps in Advertising your Blog for Free

Content is king but without promotion, your blog is useless. Your writing may be excellent but writing alone won't do much in promoting your precious blog. Writing a blog and advertising it are equally important. Heavy promotion of your blog may end up with dissatisfied visitors if yor not writing quality contents. Similarly, writing excellent contents won't do much without having it promoted. This is true, especially when you are new in blogging.

Here are 3 killer steps in advertising your blog. And guess what, It is free!

Promote your Blog in Forums

A forum is a place on the cyberspace where people interact with each other. They chat , ask questions and share information. What you do was search for a popular forum related to your blog contents. Interact with people, chat, share informations etc. You must build up relationship with the people in the forum. In the forum, there is a " Signature Section". Attach your blog advertising message with your blog's url. Everytime you post or reply to a message, your signature will automatically appear. People who see your post will also see your attach signature.

Connect with other Blogs

Your blog won't survive on its own. Find blogger groups on the internet and join. Swap links, guest post, comment on posts,  share and promote each other's blog. I remember my first time I blog at blogger. I wrote excellent post on health issues. I have wrote 120 articles and never promote them. I wonder why there is no traffic so I deleted the blog. Hope that won't happen to you.

Give Something for Free

What free? Free information. Write articles 250-500 words and submit them to article directories. By submitting free information on directories, you are building trust with other people. One lesson you must  learn before making money was to build trust. Everytime you submit an article on article directories, attach a little bio about you and your blog. It is a great way of advertising your blog.

These 3 steps are basic but effective and free in promoting your blog. I hope this helps you. Let me know what you think.

This is Probably the Best Paid to Upload Site

This website pays the highest rate per download. The rate was $.20-$.60 per download. It has 5 payment options; Paypal, ePassporte, Check, Western Union, or a Wire Transfer. Payments are provided every 1st day of the month. Your earnings are track and is reviewed well before having a payout. Okay! I won't make this long. I am talking about ShareCash.

So what's up with ShareCash? It's just another paid to upload site...If your thinking that ShareCash was another ordinary paid to upload scheme, then you are wrong. Let me show you a comparison on ShareCash vs other paid to upload sites.

ShareCash

• $.20-$60 per download
• Pays you honestly even advertisers don't pay them
• Pay  outs are made the 1st week of the month
• Have 5 payment options
• Supports all kinds of files
•  Lowest payout limit of $10

Other Websites

• $10 per 1000 download
• Scrub your earnings
• Pay outs are delayed and often the last day of the month
• Offers only on paypal and/or limited payment options
• Payout is higher than $10

These are the only things that make ShareCash the best and original paid to upload site. I know you hear a lot of ShareCash as scam, but actually I know who owns ShareCash and have asked him a lot about the site. Only noobs say that ShareCash is a scam and doesn't pay. If you want to catch the owner of the site. Go on BlackHatWorld and find him with stealthisblog as his name on the forum.