Ramona .. web development, business, life » Blogging http://ramonaiftode.com/blog web design, blogging, forum management, life matters Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:33:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Show the latest posts from a category http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/show-the-latest-posts-from-a-category/ http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/show-the-latest-posts-from-a-category/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:33:17 +0000 ramona http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/?p=218 For years I have been trying to get all I could from my designs, if it was a forum or a blog design. Or any other possible platform. Working with wordpress has been a true blast and the fact you can customize it at will, really makes me love it. Some of my clients wanted this little feature added to their blogs, while you can also see it in action in the home page, (the 4 lists to the categories: forum management, blogging, web development and web business).

Usually WordPress lists a number of latest posts from all the categories. But sometimes we just wish to show off a certain category. For this, we need to know how to modify the code.

You don’t need to install anything, since it’s “easy breezy”. Here are the steps:

  1. you decide on the categories you want to list the latest posts from
  2. you find the categories ID and write them down
  3. you open the appropriate template file (index.php usually)
  4. you paste the code for this to work
  5. you tweak the code with the IDs and other settings

I have prepared the entire tutorial on the webmaster forums so, not to have duplicate content, you can read it entirely there. CLICK FOR THE TUTORIAL. We can discuss about it here, or you can create an account on Wtricks.com too, so that you can join our friendly community.

Best of luck with your designs. Please keep me posted. I’d love seeing where you’ve applied the “trick”.

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]]> http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/show-the-latest-posts-from-a-category/feed/ 0 What a respectable blogger should never do http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/what-a-respectable-blogger-should-never-do/ http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/what-a-respectable-blogger-should-never-do/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:17:58 +0000 ramona http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/?p=210 We’re filled with all kinds of crap blogs, created for money only. Blogs with no content, blogs that steal content or are just there so that we bump into them. Getting to actually read some decent articles is getting harder each day. And still, for those who are still interested in bringing some quality into the world of blogging or at least get known as decent people, here’s an outline of what I consider a respectable blogger will never do:

1. Under no circumstance you should spam: email or forums/blog comments.

Sure, you might get some visitors, but the overall feeling towards your project would be HATE and DISRESPECT. Are these few visits worth your entire image online? Do you want to be known as the “spammer”? I am certain you don’t.

2. Never steal content. NEVER.

If you are tired of article writing, STOP. For 1 day or 1 week. Sure, you have to constantly create content, but when you can’t do this and have hit a wall, why steal content from others? Why not just relax for few days and come back with 3-4 articles that are well written and original? ANYONE needs some time off and you should be focusing on keeping a high quality level, than stealing content.

You can find all the other “tips” in the article published on wtricks.com - What a respectable blogger should never do!

Please feel free to comment here with your own ideas of how to be a respectable blogger and you can also join Wtricks.com, a very friendly (even for SEO reasons) community. There’s an entire area about blogging, you can ask for advise and show off your creations.

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]]> http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/what-a-respectable-blogger-should-never-do/feed/ 1 The importance of quality comments on blogs http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/the-importance-of-quality-comments-on-blogs/ http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/the-importance-of-quality-comments-on-blogs/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:57:21 +0000 ramona http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/the-importance-of-quality-comments-on-blogs/ I have written this article on my Romanian blog and the feed-back was amazing, so I thought I’d translate it for you too, those who are not that proficient in a not too famous language. It deals with comments we write on other blogs and the need for them to be of a top quality.

Most of the times we think our job as a blogger ends when it comes to the content we create on the project. We think of interesting unique articles and hope this is all we need to do. Still, many of us are also avid blog readers and comment on them, not thinking too much of the advantages we can get from doing this the right way.

Here are some of my reasons to take my comments seriously:

1. By posting a good quality comment I show the blogger how much I appreciate the effort he/she put in the article.

Yeah, I know it’s recession and people get fired. We’re less inclined to think about others when all we hear on the news is about the financial problems the entire world is facing. So how do I come to tell you we need to be more interested in others too, not just ourselves?

Well, few days ago another blogger for my country told me she thinks sometimes my comments are way better than her own articles. Of course, I did take it as a nice joke from a person who’s also a friend of mine, but I liked the idea: that my comments are that good they “complement” the content she writes. Because I don’t think it’s a competition, my comments might give some ideas she might have not touched in the initial article. Is this bad? No, we can provide more good content for us all to read.

The thing that makes me “jump” is the quality of the article itself. Sure, my comments might be good, but they come at an article that was that good to make me want to communicate. No, I don’t post only positive comments, sometimes I don’t agree with the article. And I do express my ideas in a polite manner, debating with care and also trying to give good reasons for me to have a different opinion.

The article itself gains more perspective and complexity in the end, while I am happy to have read something interesting and be able to come up with my own ideas. I am a ‘geek’ and love reading a lot. I am frustrated when I see only posts I don’t have an opinion on. So, when something “meaty” comes along, I love commenting on it. And feel happy to be able to show my respect for that blogger and appreciation for a job well done.

2. Call it “personal branding”

People talk about this a lot. They are careful with the image and teach us how to be better perceived in the business world. A blogger who writes good quality comments will always be respected.

A recent incident in the Romanian blogging world: a newspaper exec. who’s also got a good blog, was being “impersonated’ by a guy who had some unfinished business with her. He’d post horrible comments on some blogs and “sign’ them as her. Of course, it took the bloggers very little to realize it’s not her, but someone who’s trying to affect her image with these comments. They talked to her, provided her with the IP and it was easy to track the guy down.

Why it was so easy?

Because she’s a mature woman who’s done nothing but give quality comments on all blogs she read. I had some comments exchanged with her and both respect each other a lot. If that guy was to swear on my blog with her name, I’d know immediately something is wrong. She’s either drank or “sniffed”  something, or someone is messing with us. Since I know she is a respectable woman and blogger, you can guess I’d send her an email trying to find out who’s having an agenda on her.

On the same note, I do hope that, if someone would use my name to mess with a certain blogger, my previous good respectful behaviour would make that blogger contact me to find out what’s wrong, instead of going on a personal “vendetta” with the “me: spammer”. If all I post are crappy comments, you can guess no one would question anything .. “yeah, it’s her again with those stupid comments”.
3. A comment is also a link to you. A good comment can bring in some more attention.

OK, back to business. You’re not interested in how much added value you can give a blog, you’re not interested in your image online. Then maybe you think about how much more traffic you can bring in with a GOOD comment.

One of the first steps a new blogger is making is getting that link out there. So, he/she goes to some good related blogs and comments on some relevant articles. The first visitors he/she has will come from there. On the quality of these comments will depend the initial traffic and the first image people make of him/her.

A good elaborate comment will always make people curious to see who’s behind it. They click on the link, come to your blog and maybe find it to be of a good quality too and stick around. This is very important for you since from them you’ll have your first subscribers and maybe fans.

A good comment makes people respect you. From this respect you’ll benefit as a blogger and also as a person who migth want to get some money from blogging. An advertiser is interested in a good deal and a blogger who’s got such a good image will always be a good choice.

Our work as bloggers doesn’t mean only creating some “premium” content for our projects, but also being present out there with good informative comments.

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]]> http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/the-importance-of-quality-comments-on-blogs/feed/ 1 Just showing a car in your header won’t make you John Chow http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/just-showing-a-car-in-your-header-wont-make-you-john-chow/ http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/just-showing-a-car-in-your-header-wont-make-you-john-chow/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:44:21 +0000 ramona http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/just-showing-a-car-in-your-header-wont-make-you-john-chow/ carI have posted this article in the blogging section, but I assume it’s as valuable as advice for anything we do online (even in real life). I see way too many people try to mimic others, copy sites, copy articles, take an idea and use it too, just because they think their copycat site would be as successful as the original.

We talk about the car on the John Chow blog, even if this is just an example: we can refer here to many things, not just stealing a famous header idea. So the guy makes lots of bucks. OK, let’s find a prototype car, the most UFO like the better, put it in the header and see what else we can take.

Does ProBlogger have a new skin now? Cool, there’s the old one he used, let’s use it too and make the blog as similar as possible. Does someone have a nice brand? Nice, let’s see if we can mimic this too.

I assume you can consider yourself to be someone when another webmaster steals something for you. Even if my ego would be “pleased” with this, I am still getting angry seeing that people lack any creativity and just like to borrow from others.

Why shouldn’t you copy anyone and be yourself?

  • YOU ARE JUST A COPY – if you think anyone will recognize you as “someone” then you are wrong. The moment you copy someone that much you’ll just be “the one who’s copying John Chow”, or any other site.
  • IF THEY ARE SO WELL KNOWN, IMAGINE SOMETHING WAS UNIQUE – people tend to not remember too many similar things, but recognize uniqueness as soon as they see it. JC is that guy with the weird car and the make money online blog. He’s also got a hard to forget face and when I think JC I already have his imagine before my eyes. If you copy him, I’ll first have his image and then think “ah, wait, isn’t this that guy who’s trying to be JC?” Do you really want to be a wannabie?
  • A COPY IS ALWAYS WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL – I know you dream of being the biggest earner online, the best human on earth, but by copying someone like this you are just being a “copy”. If someone is that big as to be widely recognized, I assume there’s also a lot of value. No matter what we comment on his blog or even person (never met the guy, anyway, would be pleased to shake his hand though), John Chow (got him as my example now) is well known and respected. Maybe for the charisma or the fact he’s making the money we’d like to make too, fact is there are no 2 John Chows. And if you’d like to be that second one, believe me we’d laugh.
  • YOU ARE DESTROYING YOUR OWN CHANCE OF BEING UNIQUE. I have 6 years of working on my sites. Some are small ‘brands” themselves. No, I am not known as others, but I am known for me. I still have people telling me “oh, I know you from there” or “oh, you’re the one who’s created x site? How could I forget it?” Even if our small brands are not Nike or Coca Cola, we do have a chance to be someone else, unique and why not recognizable.

So, before you look for that car to put on your forum header or anything that would mimic another project, try to see what makes that project good (content, promotion, brand etc.), try to find an alternative and improve on what you already know might work. No one said you shouldn’t open a webmaster forum or a make money online blog, even if we are kinda tired of them. As long as you have the talent, imagination, focus and passion maybe next year we’ll talk about you. Who knows, maybe in few years others will put on their blogs your unique image or my Japanese castle. As long as we do try to be SOMEONE on our own, it might happen ;)

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    ]]>     http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/just-showing-a-car-in-your-header-wont-make-you-john-chow/feed/ 11     Get something more from that crappy Entrecard traffic http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/get-something-more-from-that-crappy-entrecard-traffic/ http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/get-something-more-from-that-crappy-entrecard-traffic/#comments Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:11:10 +0000 ramona http://ramonaiftode.com/blog/get-something-more-from-that-crappy-entrecard-traffic/ entrecard drop card bloggingI know how you all hate Entrecard related posts, so I won’t chime in with yet another useless one to tell you how cool it is and how much traffic I am getting from it. I will though talk about HOW to make sure that traffic is less crappy as it should be in such a program.

    If you want repeated QUALITY visitors and many comments, then just don’t go to Entrecard. Just like StumbleUpon, Digg and other schemes like these, Entrecard is a good way to get visitors, but the bounce rate is HORRIBLY HIGH. Yes, Entrecard traffic is crappy traffic, but it’s traffic in the end. It’s still good because you do get some visits (quite many if you are active there) and you might also discover some nice blogs to befriend with. Some of the biggest blogs are also present in the program, so maybe it’s not that bad anyway.

    Let’s see now HOW to make sure some of this non-quality traffic turns into repeated visitors who are actually interested in what you write there, not just to drop that stupid card and be out of the blog before you can say “spam”.

    1. You do get what you give.

    So, you know about some scripts that can help you drop 300 cards in 3 minutes. Or less, or automate this process and earn as many credits as possible while not giving a damn about the blogs you visit? I think you have the big chance of getting the same result as the poeple you try to “fool” in this game.

    Before you download that script think about this: “Would I like my visitors to use such scripts so that they don’t have to spend less than 1 second on my blog?”. Are you happy thinking you spent yet another hour writing that meaningful post 99% of your visitors won’t even bother reading, because they are interested in just dropping a card and be on their way?

    In the end how DO YOU FEEL about this?

    I can tell you with all sincerity that it saddens me, especially since I know how much I work for my articles and how useful some of these are. In the end I didn’t open my blog just to be ignored, I love it when people come and read and why not, even comment.

    This is why I DO NOT use ANY automation script. I do visit each blog, even if it does take a while. And from hundreds of crappy blogs (yes, so many are just junk) I have found some excellent ones I also commented. And I am thrilled to be able to visit them daily and read some more of their great articles.

    2. Search for relevant blogs.

    I am a web developer mainly. This means I have few categories I visit and drop my cards on: web development, blogging, design, online marketing, make money online. Even if I would love reading some nice personal blogs or I love pets (I have 2 dogs too), since my time is LIMITED, I just visit the blogs that are in my area of expertise. By dropping my card on SIMILAR blogs I have the chance of getting visitors from the same topic.

    3. Don’t just drop the card. READ!

    I do consider that a lot of the blogs I see daily are useless junk. Yeah, I can tell this because I READ THEM. I cannot brag with reading tens or articles, but I do scan carefully the page I find the card widget on (the index usually). It is a slower motion in my case, less drops than in the automated process, but I do get more from this. I am able to track good content and the blogs that, even if are small, promise a lot from the start. Before I drop my card, I scan the content fast and if I feel like I have something to say, then I do say it.

    4. So you found something interesting? COMMENT!

    I think this is one of the best things. I use Entrecard to find SIMILAR blogs that are of quality. I know the big ones and read them daily, even if some have lost all that freshness. You cannot blog for 4 years and still be as fresh as a new blogger, it’s a fact. The same goes with the quality of the content that doesn’t exist ONLY on the big blogs. I know some small blogs (maybe with less articles than I have here) that always offer a great read. Size does matter in some cases, in blogging, content can be good in a 2 week old blog as it is in a 4 year one.

    And yes, as soon as I do find an interesting article, I drop by (more than my card) and post a comment. I use my name and the blog link and try to reply to the article that sparked my attention.

    This usually makes the blogger come visit my blog too and comment on an article ofr mine. Or even more, if he/she finds more interesting. I visit my commenters daily to see what’s new there and everytime someone drops a comment, I visit the site in the search of something nice and interesting to read. And sometimes I do find an excellent blog I never knew existed.

    In this way I was able to get some visitors who now like my blog and come as soon as I posted something on the blog. They comment, we already have a nice realtionship started on Entrecard.

    You can get use Entrecard just to get that increased traffic and drop 300 cards a day while not caring about ANYTHING but those points, or you can do the right thing: use this as a means to visit some interesting blogs, comment on them, get your name out there and gain some quality traffic too plus some RSS subscribers.

    No, I won’t bore you with stats and other things, there are already tens of blogs praising the system and trying to convince you how cool it is. It’s not the best way to get the best traffic, but if you play your “card” right, you might find some excellent blogs and some people you’ll just love reading from now on.

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