Free Blog Things & Blog Stuff

Blog Comics

2008-07-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Make your blogging more fun, by giving your visitors reason to smile. Put some funny Blog Comics on your blog using a free service from Blaugh.com

Blaugh.com makes the installation of its funny blog cartoons on your blog, easy and hassle free. No registration is required! Just explore the site and find the cartoon that you would like to put on your blog. Below the cartoon will be the HTML code that you need to add to your blog/post. copy the entire code from the textbox below the blog comic and add it to your post or blog.

Locate your Site Visitors using Clustrmaps

2008-06-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

ClustrMaps.com brings a widget that shows the location of your site visitors on a tiny map that could be easily put on your blog. They provide the HTML that gives you a tiny map. The location of each visit is based on the IP address of the computer used.

When it loads, it increments a counter and shows the locations of all visitors to your page. Clicking on it zooms in to a big world map, and (optionally) lets you zoom in to the continents, as in the example below

[ Not the original size here ]

For the live demo of this widget in action please visit http://clustrmaps.com

Another Popular ShoutBox for Blogger

2008-06-06T04:11:00.000-07:00

In one of our earlier posts, we had introduced you to ShoutBox from MyShoutBox.com. Recently, We've found another free and popular shoutbox for blogger. This one comes from ShoutMix.com

Here's a screenshot of the live demo on their homepage

The installation is hassle free, It only take 3 simple steps to get your own shoutbox

Guard against viruses using Free Online Virus Scanners

2008-06-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

Viruses are annoying little programs which mess up your computer. In past we've recommended using a resident anti-virus program to actively defend against virus attacks. We had also suggested trying out the google pack which includes Norton Security Scan and loads of other useful software

As a second line of defence, We advice you to periodically check your computer using Free online virus scanners. The following links takes you to the reputed antivirus company sites, which install a small piece of code in your browser(ActiveX/Java) to scan your computer.

Glitter Text/Graphics for Blogs

2008-06-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

[ Clipart from http://www.glitter-graphics.com ]

There are times when adding animation and glitter works well for your blog. Animated GIF's are a popular way to get the attention of your visitors. Many of us just like to add some blog things for fun, If you would like to dazzle your blog with glitters then head to http://www.glitter-graphics.com. While you are there, grab some avatars , cliparts and videos.

[ Video from http://www.glitter-graphics.com ]

The site also has a collection of MySpace, Friendsterand Xanga Layouts.

About copyrights of the graphics, the FAQ says:

"..All graphics are free for personal use: no strings (or pricetags, for that matter) attached towards us.."

So, using the graphics for your personal use on your blog is legal and permitted. Our tip is to use animation cautiously and wisely, think out beforehand which graphic would work out best for your blog and try to keep the animations to absolute minimum, too much blinking graphics will distract your visitors from real content.

[ Clipart from http://www.glitter-graphics.com ]

Create PayPal Donate link instead of a Button

2008-05-19T01:29:00.000-07:00

After our earlier post on How to add PayPal donate button to your blog, We were asked if there is a way to generate a PayPal Donate Link instead of a button. Here's how you can generate a text link.

If you don't have a paypal account yet, you can get a free account

After you have your login ID/password, Login to your account. Then click the
"merchant services" tab.

scroll down and on the right sidebar, find the box labelled key features, click on the link named "Donations"

The link opens up a form where you can give it a name, id, picture and set the amount. Most details are optional, so experiment with your customizations.

Before you click the "create button", make sure you TURN OFF the button encryption option on this page and then continue with creating your button.

The next page generates two code boxes, the first one is for the button and the second one is text link for email and sites, copy the entire code from the textbox labelled "Link for Emails" and paste it into your template of your website or blog, where you want it to appear. You can choose to display your own anchor text and wrap the code around it. eg: Support Hurricane Victims

XML blogger users read the post on How to add HTML or JavaScript into blogger

MyBlogLog Widget for Blogger

2008-05-16T01:55:00.001-07:00

The MyBlogLog Recent Readers Widget by MyBlogLog.com ( now owned by Yahoo! ) is not just popular on Blogger blogs, but its a favorite amongst other bloggers too. Recently the widget has been given a cosmetic change to make it look graphically appealing. I guess it does look good. The colors of the widget are also customizable.

The widget will help you create an online community of admirers and fans of your blog. The more people join your community, the more likely you are to attract traffic to your blog.

The address of your community on MyBlogLog will be like http://mybloglog.com/buzz/community/_________ ( you can have a keyword of your choice in the blank space)

It's easy to add a blog or site to your MyBlogLog profile. First, you need to get a Yahoo! Id. Most people already have it and if you don't you can always get a free account from http://www.yahoo.com

On your profile page, click Add Blog/Site I Author.

You will be taken to a page on which you can add the details of your blog or website. Fill out the details and your blog will be added(the screenshot of your site will be added automatically).

Once your site is added to your profile, the next step is to create the widget for your blog. Your blog should be listed under "My Sites and Services", It will also have a link labelled "Widget" beside your blog. Clicking the "Widget" link will take you to the page where you can customize the color of your widget

The textbox labelled "Your Code", generates the widget code that you need to copy to your blog template(preferrably on your sidebar). XML blogger users read the post on How to add HTML or JavaScript into blogger

Here's a live demo of the MyBlogLog Recent Readers Widget on BlogThings Labs and Why not join our community, Right Now?

Avoid becoming a victim of Credit Card Fraud

2008-05-16T01:55:00.000-07:00

Credit Card fraud is on the rise, As part of our "Internet Safety" tips series, we are suggesting certain steps that can help you avoid being a victim of Credit Card fraud.

The first step to prevent your credit card from being misused is to not let your card fall into the hands of fraudsters. There are many tutorials/how-to's on the internet on credit card fraud that suggest..

"..be on the lookout for houses where the houseowners are on a vacation and have their house locked down but left their mailbox unprotected where the banks will send them their credit card."

This seems to be the most popular method of getting hold of other's credit card. So, take the hint! NEVER leave your mailbox unprotected, take steps to ensure the privacy of your mailbox.

According to this article in BBC..

..A fraudulent card transaction takes place every eight seconds and cloning is the biggest type of credit card fraud.

Cloning (also popularly known as 'skimming') can happen in seconds. So, Whenever using your credit card on malls, resturants and hotels etc., request that the the card is swiped in front of you, Don't let your card out of your sight and pick up all receipts. To pick up more tips, you should also read this article on BBC on How credit cards get cloned

Extra care needs to be taken if you use Credit Card to buy on the Internet. Sure, It's so convenient to use the credit card to buy online, but remember that there are other ways to pay for your purchases for eg. "Cash on delivery" for instance. Use your card on well known and reputed sites, also make sure that the site is using SSL.

You are adviced not to use your card on public cafe's, computers with public access as they could be running malicious programs(called keyloggers) to steal your personal information.

The last tip is to use paypal for online purchases, PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online, Pay without revealing your credit card or bank information. Now many people like you, use paypal instead of using credit cards.

ShoutBox for Blogger

2008-03-27T22:46:00.005-07:00

What is cooler than a guestbook, chat and bulletin board? It's a Shoutbox from MyShoutBox.com

This is a feature packed free service for blogs and websites. Here's a list of features that MyShoutBox.com offers

You can add this shoutbox to your blogger blogs after an easy and fast registration process. After Registration you are given a ID/Password, with which you have to login to access your shoutbox management area. Select the link "Code Generation" and set the options for your shoutbox( or leave the default settings, you can always change that later! ) and click "Generate Code".

Classic templates users of blogger can copy-paste the HTML code into their template. XML Blogger users see this post on How to add HTML/JavaScript to Blogger.

Creative Commons License for Blogger

2008-03-27T22:46:00.004-07:00

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

To get the creative commons license for your blog go to http://creativecommons.org [ Opens in a New Window ]. On the top of the page, click "License you work" link to continue. On the next screen you can select the licensing options for your blog.

After you select your license you can choose a graphic for the license and the HTML code will be generated on the page.

Classic templates users of blogger can copy-paste the HTML code into their template. XML Blogger users see this post on How to add HTML/JavaScript to Blogger.

Feedjit Widget for Blogger

2008-03-27T22:46:00.003-07:00

Feedjit.com offers 4 widgets for bloggers and webmasters.

The most popular feedjit widget(which you may have seen on other blogs already) is the "Live Traffic Feed" Widget.

If you are a Blogger Layouts(XML Blogger) or TypePad user, the readymade widget on the site will install the code on your blog in a few clicks. Other blogs and websites will have to copy-paste the code from the site into their template.

Technorati Widget for Blogger

2008-03-27T22:46:00.001-07:00

Technorati.com is a collection of large number of blogs and is visited by people all over the world looking for blogs to browse. Your objective should be to get visitors from Technorati.com to visit your blog.

The first step in this process would be to join Technorati and go through the "Claiming your Blog" process. You are more likely to attract more visitors, if your blog is ranked high on Technorati. So get the Technorati Widget and request your visitors to vote for your blog.

Here's how you get your widget. Sign into http://www.technorati.com/signup [Opens in a New Window] with your user id and password.

In your account area, Click on the link labelled "Favorites" on the Technorati navigation bar. On the next screen, Under the sidebar heading "Ins and Outs", find the link to your favorite button, where it says :

"Buttons: Help Technorati members favorite your blog with a button."

If you have added multiple blogs to Technorati, you will have to select a blog from the combo box to generate the code for that blog. The page generates three different code blocks. choose the one that suits your page and copy the code and paste into your template(Classic Templates users). XML blogger users read the post on How to add HTML or JavaScript into blogger.

Attract traffic using Blog TopSites

2008-03-27T22:46:00.000-07:00

Joining Blog TopSites are one of the ways to bring traffic(Free!) to your blog. It takes just a bit of effort on your part to get going. Generally, you will need to register with the site and get your blog approved. Once approved you get your personalized code block that you need to add to your blog. This code will help visitors of your blog to vote for your blog. The more votes you get, the higher you climb on the list and are more likely to get more visitors.

Here's a small list of Blog Topsites where you can register your blog :

http://topsites.blogflux.com/
http://www.topbloglists.com/
http://www.blogelites.com/
http://blog505.com/
http://topblogsites.net/
http://www.topblog.ws/
http://www.blogista.net/
http://topsites.technoized.com/blog
http://blogsites.in/
http://www.stateyourblog.com/
http://www.blogranking.us/
http://www.blogsontop.com/
http://www.topblogarea.com/
http://www.blogrankings.com/
http://www.top100bloggers.com/

Internet Safety Advice : Deceptive Text Links

2008-03-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

On the Internet, we all come across text links that are linked to other pages/sites. When these links are clicked they take us to a new destination. for example [ http://www.google.com/ ], link takes you to google homepage as expected. However, a harmless looking text link could be a deceptive link that could lead to a site specifically set up for stealing personal information.

Here's an example of what Iam talking about

http://www.google.com/.

The above link takes you to the yahoo homepage instead of google.com. As HTML coders will point out, links are constructed with two pieces of vital information : destination url and anchor text

Anchor text is displayed to the user as a clickable link and destination url is where the link is intended to go. in the first example both the destination url and anchor text are the same and therefore the link works as expected, however in the next example the destination url has been modified to link to yahoo.com instead of google.com and therefore the user is taken to yahoo.com

How can this be a threat to me? you might ask. Let us imagine this scenario. You are browsing a random site and you are presented a link to login to your gmail/hotmail/yahoo mail, where you will get the link to download some goodies. the page that opens looks exactly like the regular web mail service you use, but this random site has used a deceptive link to take you to a different site that has been cleverly constructed to match the look and feel of your regular web mail. Once you enter your email address and password on this site, it is logged and the security has been compromised.

How can you protect your personal information from deceptive links? Firstly, do not blindly trust the links on every site. To get to your regular web mail service, type the URL in the Address Bar to get to Web Mail Service.

Reading feeds/headlines in FireFox

2008-02-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

If you use firefox, you probably already know that firefox is much safer than other browsers, it's also highly customizable with themes and addons. Have you used the "Live Bookmarks" feature of firefox? It's a great time saver. firefox let's you bookmark the feed of the site/blog you are visiting as a "Live Bookmark"(Provided it publishes one). Everytime you explore your bookmarks, the feed is updated and headlines are shown in a submenu.

Here's how this feature is used:
After the page is loaded, look for the "dish" icon on the statusbar.

Hovering your mouse over the icon will show you if the site/blog publishes it's feed and clicking it will prompt you to save the site as "Live Bookmark". Once you are done saving, take your mouse to the "Bookmark" menu and explore the bookmark you just added. Firefox will fetch the feed for you and you will never have to fire up your standalone/web based feed readers anymore.

Never used FireFox? There is always a first time sometime.

Internet Safety for Girls

2008-02-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

Here we discuss some general Internet Safety Issues and steps to take to improve security on the internet.

One of the most common ways by which Internet Security is compromised is by using a bug-ridden internet browser. It raises serious security concerns when a malicious hacker targets a known vulnerability in the browser. It is therefore recommended that you use a safer browser that is less prone to attacks. I have used FireFox+Google Toolbar for quite a while, I strongly recommend that you download and try it. You will see that with the help of the google toolbar, it is able to block annoying popups too. FireFox, is and always was free to use and can be uninstalled easily if you arent impressed with it.

Once the browser is secured, you should get the official updates for your operating system. Most users nowdays use Windows XP, So all XP users should get Windows XP Service Pack 2 to better defend you operating system. Get the Windows XPSP2 from any of the following locations:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx

http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html

The download can take a while as the files could be above 250 mb and make sure you have a genuine copy of Windows XP installed.

Install a good anti-virus package for protection against viruses. There are a few free Anti-Virus packages that offer decent security, such as

http://www.grisoft.com/

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

http://www.free-av.com/

http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-14-en--BitDefender-8-Free-Edition.html

If you are serious about internet security then you should consider using a commercial anti-virus package. Norton Anti-Virus and McAfee Anti-Virus are well known packages of which the latter is highly recommended if you can afford it.

Finally, As a layer of protection against SpyWares, download and install the following Anti-SpyWare utilities:

Microsoft Windows Defender - [ Download ]
Ad-Aware - [ Download ]
Spybot - Search & Destroy - [ Download ]

Run these utilities on a regular basis to clean out the spyware junk from your system.

The tips above will improve your overall internet security, So how about a nice, friendly kiss for sharing these tips with you, Girls? ;-)

Update: Norton Security Scan is now included with the google pack, See what more is included in the google pack.

Image Hosting (ImageShack, Photobucket and more..)

2008-02-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Whenever you need to post an image on your blog, you will need to upload a photo to blogger directly. That however does not give you much freedom to work with the image and even renaming the image is not quite possible. It is therefore recommended to have a Image Hosting account for use with your blog. The good news is that there are many free image hosting providers that give you good features at absolutely no cost. My personal favourite is Photobucket, but below is a list of other free image hosting providers that you can use to post images on your blog. Many of them are now allowing free video hosting as well. Some of them will not require you to register with them too.

http://photobucket.com ( Images + Videos )

http://www.imagecabin.com/ ( Images + Videos +MP3 & more.. )

http://tinypic.com/ ( Images + Videos )

http://imageshack.us/ ( Images + Videos )

http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/ ( Images )

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/ ( Images )

http://www.theimagehosting.com/ ( Images )

http://www.imagevenue.com/ ( Images )

http://www.piclynk.com/ ( Images )

http://www.filehigh.com/ ( Images + Videos + Cursors )

http://www.theimageplace.net/ ( Images )

http://www.imgplace.com/ ( Images )

http://xs.to/ ( Images )

http://www.myonlineimages.com/ ( Images + Videos + ZIP & more.. )

Installing Google Analytics in Blogger

2008-02-09T11:10:00.005-08:00

To track your site/blog using analytics you need to have an account with Google Analytics, If you already have a Google Account you can use that username/password here or you can always sign up for a free google account. In either case you need to go to http://www.google.com/analytics [ Opens in a New Page ]

After you login with your username/password, you will be in your dashboard area.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and find the link to "Add Website Profile".

On the next screen select the option to "Add a profile for a new domain".

Click continue and on the page that follows, type the URL of your blog.

The final screen will generate two tracking codes for your blog. make sure you are on "New Tracking Code(ga.js)" tab

This is the code that you need to copy/paste on your blog. We are now going to install google analyics tracking code to your blogger blog.

Go to http://www.blogger.com [ Opens in a New Page ] and login with your id/password.

Once you are on your blogger dashboard and click the "Manage : Layout" link of your blog. First click the template tab and then the "Page Elements" Sub-Tab, where you can easily add and arrange page elements.

You are now going to add a page element, so click the link "Add a Page Element"

From the popup that appears, click on the "Add To Blog" button under HTML/JavaScript

This will open a final popup where you paste your code(your google analytics code) under the "content" textarea. I prefer not to give it a title because the code is invisible, so leave the title field blank and click the button to "save changes"

ShareThis BookMarking Widget

2008-02-09T11:10:00.004-08:00

Another free service from http://www.sharethis.com offers a bookmarking widget for your blog(s). This bookmarking widget allows the visitor of your blog to bookmark your blog in any of the popular social bookmarking sites, much like the widget from http://www.addthis.com ( read the post here for details ). you can also customize the widget to match the "look and feel" of your page.

PageRank Link Directory

2008-02-09T11:10:00.003-08:00

The PageRank Directory contains links to directories that accept submission of individual sites or blogs. Please feel free to browse through. I estimate that this page will become a PR2+ page over time.

Web Directory - Add URL to Search-Group.com
Eastlink Directory

Blogger Hits Counter

2008-02-09T11:10:00.002-08:00

How do I find out who has been to my blog? How can I track my visitors? How can I see where my site visitors are coming from?

These are the most frequently asked questions by bloggers. The solution is to install a "Hit Counter" on your blog!

[Google Analytics Screenshots]

Once you install a Hit Counter on your blog, you can get lot of useful information about your blog. like Popular Pages, Referring Pages, Keywords, Geographical location of visitors, Browser Statistics etc.

Although there are several free "Hit Counters" from which you can choose from, there are three services which are the most popular with bloggers. StatCounter, Google Analytics and Sitemeter.

[Statcounter Screenshots]

[Sitemeter Screenshots]

Here are other hit counters(free services) with our recommended
ratings:


Google Analytics
http://www.sitemeter.com
http://www.activemeter.com
http://www.histats.com
http://www.whatcounter.com
http://www.shinystat.com
http://hitslog.com
http://www.addfreestats.com
http://www.ezwebstat.com
http://www.advancedsitestats.com

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FavIcon for Bloggers

2008-02-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

What is Favicon?

Favicon is an acronym for "Favorite Icon". Nearly all professional sites use it nowdays. As it shows up right next to the address line of the adressbar and favorites list in Internet Explorer and probably on other browsers too. If you have your pages hosted either on paid hosting or free hosting, hosting the favicon is not a problem, however if you are using a blog service, you are out of luck as all blog providers would reject the *.ico extension. This is where you need a free service provider such as http://www.myfavatar.com/

Use this smart tool to get a favicon from an image stored on your disk. you can get an animated favicon using this free favicon tool. Just follow this link and get your favicon in seconds http://zerodollarchallenge.blogspot.com/2006/05/favicon-generator-form.html

Getting paid for blogging?

2008-02-01T07:14:00.000-08:00

Are you getting paid for blogging? or getting penalized by google for posting paid reviews?
It is now official that google is taking action against sites/blogs with paid posts/reviews.

Bloggers and Site Owners who were members of "Paid for Blogging" sites such as PayPerPost.com, Smorty.com, SponsoredReviews etc. must have noticed that their google PageRank has been reduced to 0.

Google's official statement in its webmaster guidelines says:

"Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results."

The guidelines add that not all paid links violate their guidelines, since "Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results"

It recommends that the links purchased for advertising should be designated as such. This can be done in several ways, such as Adding a rel="nofollow" attribute to the <a> tag "(The most preferred method in blogs) or Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file.

If a blog/site has lost its PageRank and wants to get it back then it has to comply with the google webmaster guidelines by using the above mentioned recommended practices. Once that's done, you can follow Matt Cutt's advice and read the Official Google Webmaster blog which suggests :

"The site owner can address the violations of the webmaster guidelines and submit a reconsideration request in Google’s Webmaster Central console. Before doing a reconsideration request, please make sure that all sold links either do not pass PageRank or are removed"

BookMark Widget

2008-01-30T02:12:00.000-08:00

This is a preview of the bookmark widget which will let you bookmark my blog at your favorite social bookmarking site(s). You can also choose the option of adding a regular bookmark. See the bookmark widget in action on my left sidebar.

Get this widget for your blog/site. Signup for a free account at http://www.addthis.com/ and follow the detailed installation guide for DHTML bookmarking widget.

Ping blog directories for blog promotion

2008-01-10T11:24:00.001-08:00

Once you have submitted your blog to the directories mentioned in this post( http://zerodollarchallenge.blogspot.com/2008/01/submit-your-blog-to-blog-directories.html ).You can think of pinging the blog directories. While the blog directories will index your blog periodically, sometimes you would want them to index your blog soon after you publish your new content and you stay ahead of competing blogs. By manually sending "pings" you will notify the blog directories of fresh content. You can use any one of the following "pinging services":

http://pingomatic.com
http://pingoat.com
http://pinger.blogflux.com
http://www.kping.com
http://feedshark.brainbliss.com
http://blip.lco.net/SubmitForm.aspx
http://pingates.com
http://ping.in
http://autopinger.com
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping
http://www.pingmyblog.com