6 Great Tools For Better Blogging

Blogging for the most part is fun and rewarding but it can also be time consuming and frustrating.From researching the topic for your next post, Formatting the post and the very important promotion of your posts once published.Over the years i have picked up a few tools that have made life a lot easier.In this post i will share 6 of these tools and gadgets that can speed up the process of blogging and blog promotion.All are totally free or have a more than adequate free version.
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Is Tynt The Answer To Stop Your Blog Content Being Copied ?

Blog content is constantly being copied by unscrupulous amateurs looking for an easy fix to their stupidity.While almost all blogs built on copied content never get off the ground it is frustrating seeing your hard work blatantly copied.In this post we will look at a website with a unique answer to plagiarism.Tynt offer a script you can add to your blogs template that will add a link to your content when copied and pasted elsewhere.

As well as a link back to the original content you can add a Creative Commons link.Creative Commons is a licence service that you can use to indicate what parts of your blog if any can be copied and in what circumstances it can be copied and used elsewhere.You can add a CC licence as well as the link and i would recommend doing so.While someone can remove the link Tynt add to the content the CC link may stop them from using the content in the first place.
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Create An Animated Flash Flickr Photo Stream Gadget

Flickr is a very popular service among Bloggers and as well as being an Image hosting service Flicker works like a social network.Many Bloggers like to display their latest Flickr photos and videos in their Blogs sidebar or footer, I'm sure you have seen Flickr gadgets on some of your favorite blogs.In this post i will show you how you can have an Awesome Flickr stream on your blog that uses Flash Animation to constantly scroll through your images.As well as having the option to display Images from your Flickr account you can choose to display images from all Flickr accounts via key words and tags.You also have the option t create a standard html gadget that will simply display some of your most recent uploads.

Live Demo - Click To See The Demo : Animated Flash Flicker Photo Stream

Add A Flicker Image Stream To Your Blog

Step 1. Follow this link to Flicker Gadget Page.

Step 2. Choose the Html Gadget For A Standard Gadget or The Flash Gadget for the animated effect.



Step 3. Follow the easy steps to set the photos to be displayed, choose the colors and generate the code.



Step 4. Copy the code and add it to a Html/JavaScript Gadget in your sidebar or footer.You can also add the gadget within posts or anywhere that accommodates script.

That's your flash Flickr Gadget, Check out more of our Best Blog Image Tips And Best Blog Gadgets.

Leave Your Comments, View And Opinions Below.

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Generate And Submit Sitemaps To Yahoo Ask And Bing Search

One of the most asked questions by new Bloggers is 'How Can I Get My Blog Listed On Google ?'.Yet many new Bloggers and even some of the experienced Bloggers make no attempt to get their Blogs listed on the other three main search engines namely Yahoo, Bing and Ask.Google is the big guy in search but Yahoo, Bing and Ask have a loyal user base and return millions of search results daily, it makes sense to get your blog listed in those results.We previously seen how you can Submit 2 sitemaps to Google and in this post i will show you how to generate a XML sitemap for your blog and submit it to Yahoo, Bing and Ask.By submitting a sitemap you are sending all your blogs content directly to each search engine to be crawled and indexed.The tutorial has two sections, first we will create the XML sitemap and then we will 'Ping' it to each search engine.

Submit Sitemap To Yahoo, Bing and Ask

Create XML Sitemap

Step 1. There are a number of sites that allow you to create a free XML sitemap.Here i will use xml-sitemaps, To Generate your fee sitemap go to www.xml-sitemaps.com

Step 2. Scroll To The Sitemap Generator And Enter Your Blogs URL.You don't need to change the other fields just click the start button.



Step 3. Your sitemap will now be created it may take a few minutes.Once created you will get a list of available links you need to get the .XML link to submit.To do this 'Right Click' on the top link and copy the link.



Ping Your Sitemap To Search Engines

Each search engine has a Ping URL you can use.Copy each URL below into your browser and replace SITEMAP-URL-HERE with your sitemap then enter to submit.

Note - Sitemap URL should end in .XML
Example - http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/download/www.yourblog.com/sitemap.xml

Yahoo

http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification?appid=SitemapWriter&url=SITEMAP-URL-HERE?redirect=false

Bing

http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=SITEMAP-URL-HERE

Ask

http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=SITEMAP-URL-HERE

New Ask

http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://www.YourWebSite.com/sitemap.xml

Once you submit each sitemap you will get a message confirming the submission.That should help get your blog indexed and returned in Yahoo, Bing and Ask search.Make sure to check out more of our SEO Blog Tips.

Leave your Comments, Views and Questions below.

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Huge Collection Of Over 5000 Stunning Free Social Bookmarking Icons

Hi Guys, Over the last month i have been putting together a monster list of social bookmarking, social networking and general social media icons.I scanned the designer websites, scanned through the icon sites and set up shop in Deviant Art.At first i thought if i could list maby 20 to 30 sets of cool social bookmarking icons it would be great but the list just grew and grew.The result is 101 (+5) full sets of totally stunning and totally free social bookmark icons.In all it adds up to over 5,000 icons for every social networking site from Facebook to Hi5, every Bookmark site from Digg to Design Float and extras from Email Rss to Favorite, Blogger and Wordpress icons.

The Fluffy Pillow Set

So after countless hours of building the list of icons i checked and re-checked the links, images and spelling ect.. as this would be the largest post published on Spice Up Your Blog.But when i published i realised the D*** Blogger Auto Pagination had kicked in.So my beautifully crafted homepage with the latest 12 posts in easy nav summery boxes was cropped to display only one post.

The Wood Triangle Set

The result is i couldn't publish the list here on Spice Up Your Blog.Instead i had to publish my monster list of icons on my main freelance writing site Info Barrel.I have re posted this here because in an upcoming post i will show you how you can use any of these Bookmark Icons on Blogger (They can be used on any Blog Platform).Yep i will be showing you 106 differant Social Bookmarking Gadgets you can place below all your posts on Blogger !

To check out the 101+ Sets With Over 5,000 icons follow the link :

101 Most Stunning Social Bookmark Icons Sets

The Truck Icon Set

Let us know what you think of the Icons or your Favorite sets in the comments, and look out for the post showing you how you can use any of the sets on your Blogger Blog !

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Why Alexa Rank Is Important How To Increase Your Blogs Alexa Rank

Alexa has been around for 14 years checking and ranking the traffic levels for every site online.Alexa use toolbars installed on millions of users browsers to track the hits sites are getting.Every time someone with the Alexa Toolbar installed lands on your Blog it increases your Ranking.That's all interesting and it's fun to check out the top 10 sites online or the top 100 in your country but why is it important to have a high Alexa Rank and what can you do to improve your blogs Alexa rank ?

Why Alexa Rank Is important

The major advantage of a high Alexa rank comes into play when you look to sell ad spots on your blog.Ad Networks and Advertisers take Alexa rank very seriously when it comes to buying advertising on your site.Webmasters and Blogger also take Alex rank into consideration when it comes to linking to your site, exchanging links, submitting posts and connecting in other ways with you.Even if you don't currently sell direct Advertising on your Blog you will more than likely want to in the future so working on improving your rank now will be of great benefit.

How To Increase Your Alexa Rank

When i researched for this post i found lots of articles with huge lists of Alexa Tips And Tricks.However as i looked deeper and even in the comments for these posts a lot of these tips were shown to be bull....The first ting to do and a guaranteed way to increase your Blogs Alexa rank is Install the toolbar.

Install The Alexa Toolbar

Chances are nobody visits your blog more than you, once you install the toolbar all those visits will be ranked on Alexa.The toolbar is quiet compact and on the Chrome browser you wouldn't even know it's there.Once installed it's actually quiet interesting to have an instant ranking on every site you visit - Get the Alexa Toolbar here.

Make Your Blog Your Homepage

Once you install the toolbar set your blog to your homepage to ensure even more hits.If your family or friends didn't mind you could install the toolbar on their browser and set your blog to the homepage also.

Write A Post About Alexa

By writing a post about Alexa you may convince some of your regular readers to install the toolbar.Now when they visit your blog it's helping your blogs rank.

Others - Most of the people using the Alexa Toolbar are experienced Internet users,Webmasters and fellow Bloggers, Submit your blog to Digg, Stumble, Design Float, Reddit and other bookmarking sites these guys hang out.It's suggested adding the Alexa gadget to your blog will help but i have seen this refuted.It's suggested getting people to write a review of your blog will help, i have also seen this refuted.

That's it, Since i installed the Alexa Toolbar only 2 weeks ago i have seen Spice Up Your Blog climb from over 110,000 to under 95,000.You can find many more Blogging Resources Here, If you have any tips you think are worth considering let us know.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

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Rss Graffiti - Automatically Share Your Posts On Facebook

In previous tutorials we have seen how you can automatically share your latest blog posts on you Facebook profile and Pages.One of the options we looked at was Twitter Feed which has since added a 'Paid Pro' option making the free option poor at best.Twitter Feed and other options we previously looked at were outside websites that you granted permissions to update your wall.In this post we will see how you can use Feed Graffiti to automatically grab your latest posts and share them on Both your Facebook profile and Fan Pages.Feed Graffiti is an application on Facebook making it much easier to use and more reliable and in my opinion the best auto update app available.Rss Graffiti give you the option to share three types of update to your profile and pages walls.Standard - Publishes a text excerpt and any available media (image, audio or video).Compact - Intended to publish short stories from microblogs like Twitter without changing your Facebook status.Status Updates - Similar to "Compact" style, but instead of just writing on your wall it will also update your Facebook status.

How To Connect With Rss Graffiti On Facebook

1. First make sure you are logged into the Facebook profile you want to automatically update, or the account that controls your Fan Page.

2. Follow this link to the Rss Graffiti app page - Rss Graffiti On Facebook.

3. You are now required to grant Rss Graffiti permissions to your profile (You can add your pages later).Click the authorize button and follow the steps.

4. Once returned to the Rss Graffiti page you can choose to update your Profile or Pick a fan page from the sidebar (If you choose a fan page you need to grant some extra permissions).

5. Once you have selected your page or profile click the 'Add Feed' button then add your blogs Rss Feed, Name, URL and choose the style.You can generate a preview of the way the updates will appear on your Facebook profile or page.

6. Once everything is entered save and your Latest Blog Posts will be automatically shared on your Facebook profile and pages !

That's it now all your Facebook friends see your posts as soon as you publish, you might want to check out How To Automatically Digg Your Blog Posts.Let us know what you think of Rss Graffiti or if you need more help, we have lots more Facebook Tips To Help Your Blog.Enjoy !

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Professional Twitter Feed Gadget With Thumbnails

There are many Twitter updates and Twitter feed gadgets you can use on your blog to display you latest Tweets.In this post we will look at the gadget available from Publitweet, a brand new gadget that has a more in dept professional look.This Twitter gadget is easy to generate and use on your blog and you can place it in your sidebar, footer etc..One of the factors that make this Twitter gadget unique is it generates a Thumbnail from the links you share if available.So if you share a link to your latest blog post to Twitter Publitweet will grab a thumbnail from the post and add beside the tweet in the gadget.Also there is a re tweet button and a facebook share button beside your tweets, now people can re tweet your updates from the gadget ! Sounds Great lets look at a screenshot and see how you can get yours.

Screenshot - Here is a screenshot of a gadget with my Twitter updates :



You can see the live gadget here - @PaulCrowePro Twitter Updates

Get Your Publitweet Gadget

Step 1. The first step is to generate the Twitter gadget displaying your Twitter updates.To do this copy the URL below and put it in the address bar of your browser.Change YOUR-TWITTER-USERNAME with your actual Twitter username and click enter or go :
(Place The Link In The Address Bar At The Very Top Of Your Screen)

http://beta.publitweet.com/YOUR-TWITTER-USERNAME

Here is how it looks with my Twitter username :

http://beta.publitweet.com/paulcrowepro

Once you click Enter you will go to the same page as the screenshot and preview above but it will have your Twitter updates.On the right you will see 'Embedd This Feed' with some code below.Copy the code and head back to your blog..

Add The Twitter Gadget To Blogger

Step 1. In your Blogger dashboard click 'Design' > 'Add A Gadget' > Choose 'Html/Javascript' from the gadget list :








Step 2. Paste the code for your Twitter gadget into the Html/Javascript gadget and save.Now drag and drop the gadget into place on your design page.

Note - Here are some of the elements you can change in your gadget, they explain themselves :

headerBackground : '#white',
borderColor : '##CCC',
width : 500,
height : 600   

Make Sure To Follow Me On Twitter Here @PaulCrowePro

That's it you now have a professional Twitter feed gadget on your blog letting readers see your latest tweets, retweet and share you updates and Follow you.Check out our other Twitter Gadgets and Tips. Enjoy !

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Use Foxy Form To Add The Most Simple Contact Us Page To Your Blog.

Last year i wrote a post on creating a Contact Me or Contact Us forms and adding them to your blog.In that post we looked at using "Email Me Form" to create your contact form and while the version they provide worked very well in this post i will show you a much easier quicker Contact form your can use.While Email Me Form required you to register and had a limit on the number of forms you could create this new contact form can be created in seconds without the need to register and not limits are in place on the number you can create.

With Foxy Form you simply choose the fields you want included in your form, add the Email address you want to be forwarded to messages to and generate the code.You can optionally use the advanced options to change the appearance of the form like fonts and colors.Once created you can add the form to a page on your Blogger or Wordpress Blogs.

Demo - See a working demo on Our Templates Site : Contact Form Demo

Get A Contact Form From FoxyForm

To get your contact form for your blog first follow this link to www.FoxyForm.com.

Fill in the contact form Settings, Extra options and enter the Email you want messages forwarded to then click create.You will be provided with the Html code for the form which you can copy and add to a Static page on your blog.


That's it very easy and it's very  important you provide readers with a way to contact you in a more private manner than comments.Once you have the code for your form you can paste the code into a page on your Blogger or Wordpress blog.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

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Build Backlinks While Earning AdSense Revenue

Back in September i told you how i had been Bookmarking my blogs on Xomba and not only getting Free back links but also earning AdSense revenue.Today i have another great tip for Building easy back links to your blog and once again you earn extra AdSense revenue in the process.This time the site we are looking at is Best Reviewer a brand new website that lets you create 'Tops Lists', put links to your blog in the lists and shares the Revenue from the AdSense with you.In fact you get 100% from the main AdSense unit (Directly under the title) and you also choose what size you want that unit to be.

What Are Tops Lists ?

Tops lists are Top 5, Top 10 style lists in fact you can create a list anywhere from Top 3 to Top 20.You give the list a title like 'Top 10 Blogger Tips And Tricks', name each Tip and add the URL to that tip ! So if you have for example a cookery blog you can create top 5 recipe lists and link to each of the recipes on your blog, once you publish you will have just built 5 back links to your blog.As all you need is a short introduction and conclusion along with your list and a line or two of text on each of the top 5, you can create a full list in less than 5 minutes.Also when filling out your account info you can include your Blog or website address and it appears at the foot of each top list you write, so even if your writing a fun top list or a top list to other sites you still get a back link.

Screenshot - See below a Top 5 List I Created Of Best Magazine Templates With Links Circled



-Each Of The Top 5 Link To A Different Post On Our Template Site www.BestBloggerTemplates.Net

How To Join

Joining is easy, follow this link to Best Reviewer then click the Log In link, you will be provided with the option to create an account.Give your desired username and Email and you can also add your AdSense ID at this stage or leave it until your ready to start creating Tops.Best Reviewer will send you an Email with your new password and a confirmation link.That's it your ready to start building back links and earning AdSense.Note - They generate a password for you but i suggest changing to something you will remember as soon as you log in (Edit Your Account).This site is new so you can get in at the ground level and have your Tops in Most viewed lists etc..Also Best Reviewer is from the makers of popular Article website 'She Told Me' (She Told Me Is Also A AdSense Share Site Check Out She Told Me Here) so you know it will be a success.

Final Note - Remember you can create Top on any subject and you don't have to link to your site or any site you can create fun lists and still Earn some cash, Enjoy !

Also make sure to check out the post on building back links on Xomba here - Paid To Bookmark.

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Auto Share Your Posts On 35 Social Networks

When you add a new post to your blog you want to update your friends and followers on Social Networks and Social Bookmark sites.The more sites you share your latest post on the more visitors you get to your blog but updating lots of sites often takes longer than writing the post in the first place.

That's were ping service Ping.Fm comes in.Ping.Fm can automatically update 35 social network and bookmarking websites with one click.So when you publish your latest post you can auto update Facebook, Facebook Pages, Twitter, Google Buzz, Myspace, LinkedIn, Posterous, Delicious and more..


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Top 20 Do-Follow Social Bookmarking Websites

I know most of you Bookmark and share your blog posts on the top social bookmarking and social networking websites.Bookmarking your blog posts is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get some exposure and let people know about your latest content.Almost all bloggers follow the same routine of sharing their posts on their Twitter and Facebook profiles and pages.Many also add their links to the other popular bookmarking websites such as Digg and Stumble Upon.But did you know you would be much better served Bookmarking your posts on other often less known Bookmarking sites ?

The top Bookmarking websites add a No-Follow attribute to links shared by members.This results in the link not being indexed by the leading search engines and having no effect on Google Page Rank.So basically apart from people seeing the link and clicking it you get nothing in the way of improved search ranking etc.By bookmarking on the top 20 sites listed below you get your links followed by Google and the other search engines and improved search rank and page rank.Sounds Great lets look at the list..

The Top 20 Do-Follow Social Bookmarking Websites

1. Slashdot.org - Slashdot has a Google page rank of 9 and Alexa rank of 1,272.

2. Reddit.com - Reddit has a Google page rank of 8 and an Alexa rank of 244.

3. Technorati.com - Technorati has a Google Page rank of 8 and an Alexa rank of 895.

4. Mixx.com - Mixx has a Google Page Rank Of 8 and an Alexa Rank of 1,194.

5. Folkd.com - Folkd has a Google Page rank of 8 and an Alexa rank of 2,691.

6. Metafilter.com - Metafilter has a Google Page Rank of 7 and an Alexa rank of 2,309.

7. Wikio.com - Wikio has a Google Page Rank of 7 and an Alexa rank of 2,793.

8. Current.com - Current has a Google Page Rank of 7 and an Alexa rank of 3,749.

9. Connotea.com - Conntea has a Google Page Rank of 7 and an Alexa rank of 4,628.

10. Tipd.com - Tipd.com has a Google Page Rank of 7 and an Alexa rank of 12,098.

11. Clipmarks.com - has a Google Page Rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 3,524.

12. dZone.com - dZone has a Google Page Rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 2,833.

13. Buddymarkd - Buddymarks has a Google Page Rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 5,722.

14. Sphinn.com - Sphinn has a Google Page Rank 6 of and an Alexa rank of 7,110.

15. Kirtsy.com - Kirtsy has a Google Page Rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 8,351.

16. Kwoff.com - Kwoff has a Google Page Rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 18,455.

17. A1-Webmarks.com - A1-Webmarks has a Google Page Rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 4,929.

18. Indianpad.com/ - Indianpad has a Google Page Rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 7,386.

19. Designfloat.com - DesignFloat has a Google Page Rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 6,679.

20. Spotback.com - SpotBack has a Google Page Rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 7,703.

Thats your list, take the time to use some of these sites and encourage readers of your blog to bookmark your posts by making links to them available.You can add a All In One social bookmark tool on your blog that will offer all services - The 5 Best All In One Social Bookmarking Gadgets.

More On No-Follow 

This is how the main search engines see a Nofollow link :

"Google states that their engine takes "nofollow" literally and does not "follow" the link at all. However, experiments conducted by SEOs show conflicting results. These studies reveal that Google does follow the link, but does not index the linked-to page, unless it was in Google's index already for other reasons (such as other, non-nofollow links that point to the page).
Yahoo! "follows it", but excludes it from their ranking calculation.
Bing respects "nofollow" as regards not counting the link in their ranking, but it is not proven whether or not Bing follows the link.
Ask.com also supports the attribute"

The above information is from Wikipedia you can see the full article here - Wikipedia No-Follow Article

Feedback And Help - The list is made up of 20 Bookmarking sites i know Defiantly use Do-Follow links.If you know of more bookmarking websites ranked higher than those in the list let us know.

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How To Make An Animated Scrolling Text Favicon

A Favicon is an image that appears in the Address Bar and Tab when you are on a website.The Favicon you use can become a kind of Logo associated with your blog.On Blogger the Blogger Orange B Logo is used as the Favicon on all blogs but you can easily change it.In a recent post i showed you how you could use a Favicon you found on other websites, so i wanted to add a post showing you how to make a totally unique Favicon.Here i will show you how to create a 'Scrolling Text Favicon' for your blog.A scrolling text favicon is just as it sounds, you can have the name of your blog, URL of your blog or any text scrolling across the Favicon.Along with the text will be a icon, logo or any image you choose.

Below is an animated Favicon for a Test Blog with the text 'This is my blog' and an image of the Blogger 'B' within a folder .You can see how that Scrolling text Favicon looks in action here : Test Blog



So lets see how you can create a Animated Scrolling Text Favicon for your blog, and then how to add a Favicon to your blog.Many Bloggers have not changed their favicon and stick with the default Blogger B, i will also show you how you can use the Blogger Favicon just adding your own scrolling text.

How To Create An Animated Scrolling Text Favicon

Step 1. Follow this link to ww.FaviconGenerator.org

Step 2. Scroll to the bottom of the page on FaviconGenerator were you will see the options to upload the image you want to use and add the scrolling text you want added.

Note - If you want to use your current Favicon it may be a .ico image which are not accepted.In this case use a image converter, here is a link to a Image Converter.

Note 2. If you want to find an image to use check out this post - , or use Google image search and in the options on the left select size exactly 16 x 16.

Note 3. If you want to use the Blogger B just right click on this image and save :



Step 2. Once you have added your image and text click generate, the page will refresh and a preview of your animated scrolling favicon will be at the bottom of the page.

Step 3. You now want to save your new animated Favicon, right click on the preview (Make sure it's the animated version) and save it.You can now upload your animated favicon to Blogger or any image host website.

Your Favicon is now ready to use.

How To Use Your Animated Favicon On Blogger

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

Step 2. Copy the code below and place it in your template directly below <head>
(You will find <head> at the very top of your Html)

<link href='ADD-YOUR-FAVICON-URL-HERE' rel='shortcut icon'/>

Note : Replace ADD-YOUR-FAVICON-URL-HERE with the URL of your new animated Favicon.

Step 3. Save your template and your favicon will be in place.

Thats your animated favicon, Check out more of our Great Design Tips for your blog.

Post Your Comments, Views And Questions Below.

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Create An Email Logo With Your Email Address

One of the cool things i have started to see appear in the sidebars of blogs is the Email address of the author in an image using the logo of the Email provider.If you have not seen them yet they look great and are very easy to create.Below i have created three Email Logo images for Gmail, Yahoo Mail and HotMail.There are over 20 different Email providers they have logos for and you can also change from .com to .ca, .fr, .co.uk etc...

How To Create A Email Logo

Step 1. Follow This Link To Nexodyne.

Step 2. Enter your email, select provider and domain, click generate.

Step 3. You can now use the URL provided or save the image to your computer and upload it to Blogger or another service.

Turn Your Email Logo Into A Clickable Link

The Email Logo image would be OK on its own just displaying you email so readers can contact you.However You may want to make your newly created Email Logo image into a link people can click to send you an email here is how it's done.

Copy The Code Below And Replace :

IMAGE-URL-HERE with the URL of your Email Logo
EMAIL@ADDRESS.COM with your email address

<a href="mailto:EMAIL@ADDRESS.COM"><img src="IMAGE-URL-HERE" /></a>

Add the edited code to a HTML/JAVASCRIPT gadget in your sidebar.

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 you have it, a neat looking image with your Email, let us know what you think...

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Blogging Tips For Small Business Owners

Guest Post By Nitin Aggarwal

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.


Click Here To View Full Post >>

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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.

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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 !

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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 :


<a href="http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/">Spice Up Your Blog</a>

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

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

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.

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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..

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