7 steps to get your blog readers comment endlessly

A good blog needs constant traffic for its survival from its readers who contribute to the process of continuous conversation. If you find that your blog is not getting enough comments, then it could be that you are not sufficiently stimulating your readers for inputs to your posts. It may not be the content itself which you are providing but perhaps you are lacking in opinions. Without your opinions and arguments there is very little that your readers can comment about. Therefore, your blog has to be really thought provoking enough to get the desired response from your readers. There are some techniques which might be useful if you want to improve the comments in your blog posts.


1. End with a question
Make your question as general as possible enabling more freedom for your readers to comment without feeling any constraint. Your question could give an anchor point to the readers who might not have any idea on what to comment about. If you post your question at the end of your post, interested readers will definitely give their inputs. Otherwise, you can always place a question right in your heading. This is another effective way of getting your readers to respond as you have already placed a question in their minds right from the start.


2. Invite comments and ask for contributions

By inviting your readers to make comments it could trigger a response to some extent. From here you can pick up and interact and this can put across to your readers that you value their input. However, as the activity in your comment section expands, you may get less time in answering. This need not bother you as the readers will themselves answer some of the questions. Just make sure that you do not ignore your comment threads for too long or completely. Another way is of getting your readers to contribute to your incomplete post. You could use the numbered list trick and ask your readers to add on to the list as a way of contributing. Keep your readers interest by making them feel that they are actually contributing to your article with their comments.

3. Be prompt in your response
If your reader posts you a question then you must make it a point to answer them promptly. This is a way of telling your reader that you value his/her comment and is a way of thanking them. Your reader will take your delay as making her/his comment appear unimportant and will lose interest in your blog. Therefore, address the question posted to you on priority as only you can reply to it. This way the reader will not feel ignored.

4. Acknowledge good comments
Acknowledge those comments which stand out as particularly good or helpful as this makes your readers feel that their input is important. By motivating your readers further you can capitalize on their need for social approval. Simply by making a particular commentator feel special with approval incentive can really make them feel recognized and special.

5. Reduce the barriers to commenting
By being user friendly your readers can comment on your blog without having to go through a process of registering. They may find the idea of logging in and registering a little too taxing. Therefore, make sure that you do not hinder your readers from being able to post their comments.

6. Dealing with criticisms
Never take a defensive approach when it comes to criticism. Rather, give such criticism the constructive approach so that your readers find something useful in your approach. You could provide some workable solutions by focusing on some common problems.

7. Set a good example
If you want people to comment, then you got to take the initiative by commenting in your own blog and other similar blogs in the community. Since you need to attract readers and other bloggers to your blog, you need to leave a well thought out comment. Always leave a link to your site along with a great comment.

Apart from all these useful techniques, try to remember that original, credible and valuable content is the best qualification for a good blog. More readers will be attracted to your blog as your visibility increases.

Author Bio

This is a Guest Post by Alyssa Clarke who is a blogger and also happens to be a tech buff. She love spending of tech stuff and her recent purchase is a new LG Optimus 3D smartphone. She recently read an article on the most expensive phone in the world and instantly fell in love with it. You can find her on Twitter.

Why Blogger is Better than Wordpress and Tumblr

It seems like modern internet platforms and applications breed faster than bacteria. Within moments of the big new thing taking the stage, there’s tons of copycats and new versions powered by big old companies. The same is true of the blogging platform. In the beginning there were just a few places to write online diaries or weblogs. There was Genie, BiX and so on. With the blog revolution becoming tied into advertising, search engine algorithms and social networking, there are dozens and dozens of platforms to choose from



Out of the chaos the strong survive and the weak become either niches or utterly irrelevant. Many would argue that the three best mainstream and best of all free, blogging platforms are Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr. Take this site’s word for it and push all thoughts of other platforms out of your mind for a few moments. Still, this leaves you with a choice between three. Of the three, Blogger is best and this article is determined to prove why.

The Power Behind the Throne
First off, look at the power behind the curtain with regards to each blogging platform. Both Wordpress and Tumblr are independently owned businesses. This means they specialize in exactly what they do; providing users the opportunity to blog. Blogger on the other hand are powered by Google.

Why does this matter? It matters because of stability, finance and most important of all in the modern world, interactivity. Let’s get the first two out of the way first. Blogger is more stable because Google has a proven business model and has enough money to make sure any Blogger downturn or bad company performance in one sector is offset by another. In other words, users do not have to worry about the company disappearing. If you blog, Blogger will blog you.

Interactivity
Interactivity is the ability of one website to work with others or for one piece of software to work on different computer systems. If you want to create an account with Tumblr you have to use an email address, create a username, profile and so on like with any other site. With Wordpress you can do this, but if you have a Wordpress package through your webhost then you can bypass this. Either way, it’s pretty fiddly and time consuming. With Blogger you can use your Gmail and Google+ accounts to create your Blogger profile, it takes just a few seconds.

In terms of pure blogging it means your ability to link your blog to all manner of social sites and widgets. All three platforms allow users to decide how comments work, how visitors can share the webpage or upload videos and photos. Blogger has a serious advantage over its rivals in terms of applications such as adverts and if you look hard enough, you will probably even find a widget integrating your blog with Fedex.

Let’s face it. For many people blogging is a business. Some successful websites on technology (TechCrunch), finance (smallcapnetwork) and so on evolved from blogs. One way a blog can make cash is through adverts. Google leads the way in advert generation through its Adsense application. With blogging sites such as Wordpress and Tumblr the user needs to generate a html code and then paste it into the correct part of the webpage’s code. Get it wrong and the page just looks awful (if it loads at all). With Blogger being owned by Google, the Adsense program can be integrated automatically into the blog without the user having to worry about fiddly codes.

Networking
Sticking with interconnectivity, as well as allowing users to integrate Blogger with other Google platforms, the platform is the best in the market for connecting to other people. First, Blogger has a huge blogging community and makes it very easy to comment (unlike Tumblr) and to build connections with other bloggers around the world either within your social circle or within your chosen niche. As a part of this, Google have integrated friend connect to allow users to bring together their friends.

Blogging

Blogger is famed for its ease of use. Like with Wordpress and Tumblr there are a wide range of templates to use. These define how your blog looks. They are clean and well designed. Blogger do allow a limited amount of template editing, which you can only do on Wordpress if you purchase a better account type. The Blogger dashboard is easy to use and allows for JavaScript text widgets, which cannot be used on Wordpress or Tumblr.

Once someone has written their blog, they want it read by as many people as possible. This is where Blogger once again kicks in. Possibly because it is linked to Google, the site has already been processed by Google and optimized for its search engine. This automatic application of SEO helps Blogger pages rank highly in web searches. Blog posts are also indexed faster on Blogger than on Tumblr and Wordpress.

Blogger is excellent for building a basic blog, integrating adverts and for creating a big network of followers and friends. It is also perfect for those looking for a simple blogging platform that is easy to use and requires a minimum of form filling.

Author Bio


This is a Guest Post by Imogen Reed who is an active freelance writer and President of the Moon Appreciation Society. You can find her on Google+.

Google AdWords Coupon Giveaway

Google AdWords is a tool to help you in advertising your products or services in Google, and its affiliate sites via the various Ads placed in them . With the help of it you can target specific audience in your niche with particular keywords and other parameters.
Today we are bringing a super cool giveaway for all our readers. A chance to win a 100$ AdWords Coupon and use it to market your blog/website all across Google !! To take part read along



To take part just enter your Name and Email address in the Punchtab Giveaway Widget below. This will enter you in the draw to win the $100 AdWords Coupon. There are options available to have a higher chance of winning by doing Extra Entries like Liking and +1'ing . To increase your chances even further you can refer users to this Giveaway by using your referral link. Each user that takes part in this Giveaway using your link will earn you 5 Entries. The formula is simple :

More The Number of Entries , Higher the Chances of Winning

Get Started

What Happens If you Win !!
Once you will have your hands on the Coupon code, you will be ready to start. Don't worry if you don't know much about AdWords, the Infograhpics below explains how really AdWords works and some basic tactics to follow to get the maximum from it.



Infographic by Pulpmedia Online Marketing

The winner will be selected by Punchtab randomly on May 26th 2012 and will contacted by email.

Good luck to Everyone!!

Blog Post Ideas

Blogging serves to be one of the strongest tools in the arsenal of a marketer but the most difficult part of it is to grab the attention of the readers. Posting regularly on the blog is very crucial. But, what to write about every single day? This is indeed the toughest job for a blogger. While at some times it may be easier to find ideas for your next blog posts, at others, you may feel like just banging your head on the wall. Finding topics for your blog is a tough job. But with some easy tips and ways, you can search for the topics to write upon for your blog.




Wear your blogging mind cap
So, here are some top tips using which you can know how to find topics for your blog with ease. The first of them is to use your blogging mind. Use the blogging head to search for the topics that you can write on. This is indeed the most convenient and simplest way to find a topic. Just make use of the blogging mind to see the number of topics that get into your head in a fraction of minute.

Search on Google
Search interface of the popular search giant Google can actually spark some amazing topics to write on. To start, you can search for the keywords that are related to your niche. For instance, if your blog is about customized jewelry, type “customized jewelry” in search box and on the left hand side, just click on “related searches” option. This way, you will be able to get a plenty of topics or searches that match your niche well.

Keep updated
More so, you need to keep record of your niche. You can visit the sites that are related to your own niche and see what new is happening in your industry. You can further read the magazines to keep abreast with the latest updates. Thus, keeping track of the niche completely helps to stay updated with the niche as well as to know the current happenings in the niche. This way, you can too add latest posts and content on your blog.

News helps
Your blog needs to include the updated information and content. What can be better than grabbing the attention of the readers than adding some latest news? Irrespective of the blog niche, news can surely help in locating the content which can be relevant. Moreover, this will help you to create the amazing posts. You can further sign up for Google alerts for the keywords or niche in order to get informed about the latest events and updates. It is in fact a great way of finding topics for your blog and then later writing about them.

More options
You can get inspiration from the personal experiences of others, some other blogs or the sites that is just like yours. Use these sources to collect ideas about what to write in your blog. You can even add or write about the “top tips” or “how to” posts in order to keep the attention of the readers intact.

Blog comments
Furthermore, the readers provide some best materials as well. You can go through the comments added by the readers on your blog and see what ideas they have presented to you. Using these, you can draft nice blog posts.

So, with these ideas, you can find topics for your blog without much difficulty.

Author Bio

This is a guest post by Ankit Pandey from SeoEaze. SeoEaze is a leading SEO Firm based at New Delhi which Provides Complete Link Building Services like Link Wheel Service & More..

Sharing Links using Visibli

Sharing is the most fundamental act which drives traffic to blogs. The only beneficiary in this process is the content being shared and not the person sharing it. It would be so much better if the person sharing it would also get the due credit. This is exactly what Visibli does. It creates links with a fixed bar present on the top of the content, something similar to Digg and StumbleUpon. That bar can include a loads of things including Links, Like button ,Tweet button, RSS Feed tickers, to name a few. It also has some really interesting options which can make you a shareaholic by heart. Lets dig in.



Come again What's Visibli ?

In its own words

Visibli is a Social Marketing and Analytics platform that helps you optimize your social media engagement.

In simple words, it provides detailed statistics including number of clicks each link receives giving you insights about what your audience like the most and helping you in optimizing and streamlining your engagement with them. About the bar , its officially called Engagement Bar™ and fulfills a really basic need in a really innovative way.

Is it free ?

Oh Yes and all the features that I am going to discuss are available for free use. There is a Paid version also but that just goes over the top, only for those that are like very deep into Social Media.

How to get started started

1. Go to Visibli.com and Login (In case you have not registered then register firstly either using Facebook or Twitter account)

2. In this example I am using the Facebook Login option , after I Click the Sign In with Facebook button and give all the necessary Permissions , I am redirected to the main settings page of my account.

3. For starters ,we will checkout the Customize Your Bar option

4. Now a array of options will appear to choose from. Firstly select a general format like for Bloggers or Agencies ,etc and then choose the widgets to include in it. Lets choose the Bloggers Bar

5. Now comes the part about choosing the widgets to be included in the bar , firstly the Link to your blog , hover over the Name and click the Edit option. Now enter your URL

6. For inserting any widget from the gallery , just drag it to your Bar. When you are Done just click the Save and Continue button and you will be redirected back to your main Settings page.

7. Now comes the task of linking your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The reason being so that you don't have to come back again and again to convert your URL. So from Now onwards ,whenever a URL is posted on your Twitter account , it will automatically contain the Engagement Bar beforehand.

8. We will be connecting the Twitter Account in the example , Under the Social Settings click the Connect Twitter Account option and you will be redirected to a page to Authorize the App. Now your Twitter account is connected. Now you will be presented with options like whether to Change links from services like Foursquare ,etc and also whether you want the bar to appear in the first place or just want the statistics. Save after you are done. Now all links (expect ones present in tweet beginning with @ ) will have this Bar in them and a custom URL.

9. Now you are all set and start sharing !!


Some Other options

Analytics

One of the Core functionalities provided by Visibli , it keeps tracks of all the links shared via Visibli (And the Connected Social Networks) and also provides the number of clicks each of these receives . It also has some other interesting features like Top Reshared and Real-Time stats. To access it ,go to Analytics Tab present in the Top Menu

Connect your Bit.ly account

In case you want all your URLs turned into short URL , you can directly connect your Bit.ly account with Visibli . To do that just go to the following URL and enter your Bit.Ly login and Bit.Ly API Key (In case you don't know them , refer this )

Similarly you can connect Visibli directly with Tweetdeck and Seismic

Autopost Tweets to Facebook

The normal option to post Tweets to Facebook (present in FB settings ) will cause problem of double posting , To solve that go to Twitter to Facebook option and select the Facebook page to post your Tweets to.

Bookmarklet

There is also a option for adding the Link converter to your Bookmark Bar in Chrome, making converting links while surfing easier. To do the same go to this page and drag the Bookmarklet into your bookmark bar.

Websites/Blogs External Links

This is by far the most interesting feature . The ability to make all the external links in your blog to open in these bar windows. To access this option go to the Websites/Blogs option in the Tools Menu

In this the biggest plus is the ability to make the Custom Link URL into ones that are hosted on your Blog (like link.blogname.com ) just by adding a DNS record. This is possible for Custom Domains on Blogger only. The implication of this small option are very far reaching. Not only will the person checking out the link will see the Engagement Bar but in a way will also be contributing in increasing your Alexa Rank and if by chance the person links , then it will be your site that will get the benefit.

Hope you found this Tool useful, In case you have any problems implementing it then feel free to ask in comments below or you can even contact Visibli via Twitter (They are very responsive )

First Dynamic View Template : Elite Classic

Presenting the First Ever Blogger Dynamic View Template on the Web named Elite Classic. Well its a very interesting thing that even though it has been possible to create Dynamic View Templates for a while now yet no one has created it. Coming to the core functionalities of this template ,it is based on the Classic Dynamic View and Supports the Template Designer fully. The modifications done are all CSS based. The reason for its creation was the monotonous look of the Dynamic Views and no real choice of a different style to choose from in being present.


Demo


Download

Screenshot

Complete List of Features

-Responsive Design
-Attractive Post Title
-Sticky Sidebar and Menu
-Stylish commenting system design
-CSS3 Gradients powered Header design
-Full support for Template Designer
-Threaded Reply feature 
-90%+ Google Page Speed score 
-AJAX Search Box
-Cross browser compatibility except Opera
-Custom Gadget Dock Design
-Attractive web fonts like HomeMade Apple and SunShiney


How to Upload Elite Classic Template ?

In case you are using Standard Template , then firstly Back Up your template.


For Old Interface Users

- Go to Design > Template Designer and Under Template sub-heading select the First template under the Dynamic Views Category

- Now go back to Edit HTML

- Click on Choose File button

- Select the .XML template file Extracted from Zip and click Open button

- Click On Upload button

- In the Keep Widgets Option, Click on DELETE WIDGETS Button

- You are Done!!


For New Interface Users

- Go to Template > Customise and Under Template sub-heading select the First template under the Dynamic Views Category

- Now go back to Template and Click the Backup/Restore button in the Top Right

- Click on Choose File button

- Select the .XML template file Extracted from Zip and click Open button

- Click On Upload button

- You are Done!!


How to Change Fonts and lots of Other things ?

Since this template is Support Blogger Template Designer, so

Go to Design > Template Designer tab (New Interface users go to Template > Customise )

You will find Background Option and Advanced Options.

Play around to get your own unique color Scheme.


Note: In case both these methods don't work , then simply copy the following CSS in the Advanced > Add CSS Section of the Template Designer  of your Dynamic Template:

#gadget-dock {right:0px !important;}
.title a:hover {text-decoration:none !important; }

.header-bar{/* IE10 */ 
background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 0%, #C6AEC7 100%) !important;

/* Mozilla Firefox */ 
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 0%, #C6AEC7 100%) !important;

/* Opera */ 
background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 0%, #C6AEC7 100%) !important;

/* Webkit (Safari/Chrome 10) */ 
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0, #FFFFFF), color-stop(1, #C6AEC7)) !important;

/* Webkit (Chrome 11+) */ 
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 0%, #C6AEC7 100%) !important;

/* Proposed W3C Markup */ 
background-image: linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 0%, #C6AEC7 100%) !important;
-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 0px 0px transparent !important;
-ms-box-shadow: 0 0 0px 0px transparent !important;
-o-box-shadow: 0 0 0px 0px transparent !important;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0px 0px transparent !important;
box-shadow: 0 0 0px 0px transparent !important;}

#header .header-drawer.sticky {top:65px !important;}

#header .header-drawer {-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 0px transparent !important;
-ms-box-shadow: 0 0 0px transparent !important;
-o-box-shadow: 0 0 0px transparent !important;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0px transparent !important;
box-shadow: 0 0 0px transparent !important;}

.viewitem-panel {border-top: solid 0px transparent !important; }

.comment-content{white-space: pre-wrap;width: 95%;word-wrap: break-word;}
.comments .comments-content .comment {background: white;position: relative;-webkit-border-radius: 0px 100px 120px;-moz-border-radius: 0px 100px 120px;-o-border-radius: 0px 100px 120px;border-radius: 0px 100px 120px;padding:5px;}
.blogger-comments .comments-content  {background:White !important;}
span.comment-actions, .continue {width:120px;background: #F1F1F1;border-radius: 20px 20px;-moz-border-radius: 20px 20px;-webkit-border-radius: 20px 20px;-o-border-radius: 20px 20px;text-align:center;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none !important;}
span.comment-actions:hover, .continue:hover {background: #EBDDE2;text-decoration:none !important;}
.secondary-text{padding: 6px 12px 6px;text-decoration:none !important;}
.comments .comment .comment-actions a:hover{text-decoration:none !important;}
.comment-replies span div ol div li span {display:none !important;}
.comments .thread-toggle {background: #F3F3F3;border-radius: 20px;-webkit-border-radius: 20px;-moz-border-radius: 20px;-o-border-radius: 20px;padding: 6px 12px 6px;font-weight: bold;}
.comments .thread-toggle:hover {background: #EBDDE2;}
.comments .comment-block {padding: 11px !important;margin-left: 48px;position: relative;left: 60px;background:#F1F1F1;border-radius: 10px;-webkit-border-radius: 10px;-moz-border-radius: 10px;-o-border-radius: 10px;width: 400px;}
.comments .avatar-image-container img , .comments .avatar-image-container img {overflow:visible !important;width:40px !important;max-width:40px !important;}
.blogger-comments .comments-content .comment-replies {background:white !important;}
.comments .avatar-image-container {width:40px !important;background: #F1F1F1;padding: 5px;border-radius: 100px;}
.avatar-image-container img,.avatar-image-container a img, .avatar-image-container {border-radius:20px;position:relative;height:40px;width:40px;background-clip:padding-box;}
#gadget-dock {right:0px !important;}
#header .header-drawer.sticky {top:65px !important;}
.blogger-comments .comments-content .comment {border-bottom: 1px solid White;!important;}
.comments .avatar-image-container {max-height:50px !important;}
.comments .comments-content .comment-header {width: 450px;background:#F1F1F1;position: relative;left: -73px;}
.comments .comments-content .user {font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;position: relative;left: 80px;}
.comments .comments-content .datetime {position: absolute;left: 270px;}
.comment-thread ol div.continue {display:none !important;}

 .viewitem-content { background-color: #EBDDE2!important;
border-radius:120px !important;-webkit-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-moz-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-o-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-ms-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;}
.article .article-header .title {background-color: #EBDDE2!important;font-size: 30px !important;}
.article .article-content img:not(.deferred)  {border: 8px solid transparent;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
-webkit-background-clip:  padding-box;-webkit-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-moz-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-o-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-ms-border-image:url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;
-moz-background-clip: padding-box;
background-clip: padding-box;}


.gadget-icons {background-color:salmon !important;}
#gadget-dock {background-color: transparent !important;}
.gadget-title {background-color: gold !important;}

.gadget-selected .gadget-title {
background-color: gold !important;
border-radius: 0px 0px 1000px 1000px !important;
text-align: center !important;
}

.gadget-selected .gadget-icons ,.gadget-content ,.gadget-container, .gadget-selected.gadget-dock-overflow-bottom .gadget-container    {
background-color: yellowGreen !important;
}



li.item {
background-color: #EBDDE2!important;
-moz-border-image: url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') 2 2 2 2 / 2px 2px 2px 2px repeat !important;
border-radius:120px !important;-webkit-border-image: url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;border-image: url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-o-border-image: url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;-ms-border-image: url('http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif') !important;
}
#header .header-drawer {background-color: #C6AEC7 !important;border-radius: 0px 0px 20px 20px !important;} 
.ss,.blogger-gear , .feedback , .Flipcard, .Magazine, .Mosaic, .Sidebar, .Snapshot, .Timeslide, .Classic, #views {display: none !important;}
#header #pages::before {
border-left: solid 1px transparent !important;}


#header .tabs li {font-size:20px;}

.entry-title {  word-wrap: break-word !important;

 padding: 0 25px;
 height: 40px;
 
 color: #301607;
 
 background-color: #c94700;
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#c94700), to(#b84100)); 
    background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #c94700, #b84100); 
    background-image:    -moz-linear-gradient(top, #c94700, #b84100); 
    background-image:     -ms-linear-gradient(top, #c94700, #b84100); 
    background-image:      -o-linear-gradient(top, #c94700, #b84100); 
    background-image:         linear-gradient(top, #c94700, #b84100);
 
    border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3);
        
 position: relative;
 float: left;
 clear: left;
 
 font-size: 32px;   
 line-height: 40px;
 text-shadow: 1px 1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3);
    
    border-bottom-right-radius: 20px 5px;
 }
 
.entry-title:after {
 content: ""; 
 display: block;
 width: 40px;
 height: 0px;
 
 position: absolute;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 4px;
    z-index: 20;
 
 border-bottom: 80px solid #de6625;
 border-right: 80px solid transparent;
 
 -webkit-transform: rotate(90deg);
    -webkit-transform-origin: right bottom;
    -moz-transform: rotate(90deg);
    -moz-transform-origin: right bottom;
    -o-transform: rotate(90deg);
    -o-transform-origin: right bottom;
    -ms-transform: rotate(90deg);
    -ms-transform-origin: right bottom;
    transform: rotate(90deg);
    transform-origin: right bottom;
 } 
 
.entry-title:before {
 content: ""; 
 display: block;
 width: 20px;
 height: 0px;
 
 position: absolute;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 4px;
    z-index: 10;
 
    border-bottom: 80px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
 border-right: 80px solid transparent;
 
 -webkit-transform: rotate(80deg);
    -webkit-transform-origin: right bottom;
    -moz-transform: rotate(80deg);
    -moz-transform-origin: right bottom;
    -o-transform: rotate(80deg);
    -o-transform-origin: right bottom;
    -ms-transform: rotate(80deg);
    -ms-transform-origin: right bottom;
    transform: rotate(80deg);
    transform-origin: right bottom;
 }

.entry-title:after { 
 width: 0px;
 height: 40px;
 
 position: absolute;
    right: -160px;
 
 border-left: 80px solid #de6625;
 border-bottom: 80px solid transparent;
 
 -webkit-transform: none;
    -moz-transform: none;
    -o-transform: none;
    -ms-transform: none;
    transform: none;
 }
.hfeed {margin-top:50px;} 
#header .header-bar .title h1 {font-size:39px !important;}

.article .article-content ,  .viewitem-panel .article  {background-color: #EBDDE2 !important}

Feel free to share your opinion about this template and any problems that you face while implementing it

Demo


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Build a Community around Your Blog

Every successful blog demands a strong build up community around it to create a distinct identity in the world of other competitor blogs. It is therefore necessary to build up an effective community around your blog. A strong community base can increase the level of interaction in between varied users. This encourages visitors and readers to create positive impressions for your blog and its contents. Interaction also enables to grab maximum attention of the visitors thus encouraging in link-building, comments and feedbacks too.


A need for a community around your blog

Creating a sense of social community helps to ultimately generate loyal readers. These readers can further assist you in many different ways to reach your business goals and objectives. An active community around your blog can help you build up your business brand and your product sales too.

You may need to provide users with something worth to rally around before you intend to create a community around your blog. This ensures to unite readers from all over the world and thus form a worthy investment for your site.You may need to create something unique that makes people irresistible from congregating around your blog.

A community that devolves around your blog ensures you to receive loyal readers. Besides creating interest among the users, blogs also helps to generate good money through increased traffic. Thus, more traffic ultimately means getting more money.

Ways to create a Community for your Blog

There are numerous ways to create a community for your blog. The initial step is to create a niche for your blog. The basic idea behind this is to interact with single interest user and bring in the forum community power into blogging. You can take the help of various gadgets of social media platform to make your blog comments open to large number of members. You can further provide users with registration facility that may be considered as a time-consuming process but will prove to be beneficial in the long run.



After you have well established your blog, it is now the time to know how you are branding your product from the standpoint of the society. Social media is another effective tool that helps to add your personality to business postings and comments. It is however important to be professionally different and unique so as to draw the majority attention of your potential readers towards your blog.

Once you are aware of the fact that your blog and comments section is read and appreciated by potential users and visitors, it is further important to maintain the effectiveness and attractive ness of your blog. You can constantly research and reassess the overall needs of your readers. Every online community demands facilitators or leaders who are able to understand the needs of their users while encourage an effective community growth through their patience, attention, perseverance and persistence efforts.


Blogging helps to create a community in which users can end up discussing varied and unique topics of common interest. This is of course not possible without building up a strong community and community participation. Blog Community is thus a place that ensures participation along with a successful growth. It includes more of the joint efforts rather than individual work.

Author Bio
This is a Guest Post by Alyssa Clarke who is a blogger who also happens to be a tech buff. She loves spending on tech stuff and recently bought the cool Soundsnap speakers for her iPad. She is a car lover too and her dream machine is Audi Q5.

Advantages of using Videos and Images in Posts

If you are a blog writer working as an affiliate or an organization or just for personal stuff, you must be searching for ways to make your blog more interesting so that the number of readers is increased. One of the best ways to make your blog creative and exciting is to make use of visual presentation of data i.e. using videos and photos on your blog. There are many bloggers who are turning their blogs in to photo blogs to attract more and more readers. The advantages or benefits of the usage of videos and photos on the blogs are as follows:




1. It makes a great impression
The visual presentation of any data has a better impact that only written or audio presentation of any information. When you use photos or videos explaining your product or services, the readers get a better idea about the same and the chances of them visiting your business website are better. The visual data is also easy to remember and therefore your readers and visitors will be repeatedly visiting your blog for any new information.

2. Creates a bond between the writer and the reader

The photos and videos shared by the writer of the blog, helps to create a personal bond between the reader and the writer. This is because; the reader gets an insight in the life and viewpoints of the writer through these images and videos. This will help to create a loyal readership.


3. Makes the blog interactive and lively
Adding the videos and images which are relevant to the subject matter of the blog, makes the blog more interesting and lively. It also makes it more interactive for the readers as they feel that the writer is sharing a part of his or her life with them.


4. Makes the subject more accessible for the reader

Some times when the subject matter of the blog is too technical or feels like a lecture, the photos and videos make is easier for the reader to understand the concepts and ideas explained by the writer in the blog. This helps them to get better understanding of the subject and it also helps to keep the discussion interesting rather than making it boring.



5. Improves the readership of the blog

If your blog is an interesting blog where photos and videos are used to explain the concepts and ideas of the blog, then more and more readers will be attracted to your blog. If you have large readers base who are loyal to your blog and trust your opinions and views, then it means that you are slowly and steadily gaining their trust which can be turned in to actual sales for your business.

Author Bio
This is a guest post by Evelyn Gragg who is from Test4prep. Looking for Test4prep exam help? Let’s take advantage of Test4prep self paced Hp Certifications pass your it exams on first try.

5 Warning Signs of a Dying Blog

Many bloggers have created successful blogs but there are very few blogs that pass the test of time and remain popular for years. Most blogs rise with a particular trend, create some waves and fade away. What is the difference between these two types of blogs? How do you know if your blog is dying?




Lack of Passion and Blogging for Money
When a blogger lacks the passion for what he writes, it shows in his posts. If you run a blog for money it shows too. If you are focusing more on ads and reviews and asking your reader to like this and subscribe that more than providing them quality content, your blog is dying. People who subscribe to a blog have certain expectations from it. If those expectations are met, they don’t mind looking around a bit. But if you fail to provide them what they came looking for, your blog is dead in no time.

Lack of Reader Engagement
You write, they read and they go. You don’t know who they are, what they think of your blog and what they want. One day they go never to come back and you have no idea what happened. Your blog lacked engagement. Everyone wants some attention. Give some to your readers, allow and encourage them to comment and respond to their comments. This way, you would know what they want and how they feel. They will encourage you in return.


Improper or Lack of Promotion
The best content is one that is read. The greatest pieces of art would gather dust if they do not find someone to appreciate them. Your blog is no different. Promote it through all possible means. Actively promote it through social media. If you think online promotion is not for you and readers will come to your blog and stay just because the content is good, you are mistaken.

Your Niche is Too Narrow
You don’t need the entire world to come to your blog. You need targeted audience that is truly interested in what you write. There are very few people who will be interested in 15 different subjects you write on. It is too broad niche for a blog. If you select two or three related subjects and write on them, you have more chances of gaining a good subscriber base. Similarly if you select a narrow niche, it is hard to find people who are interested in that specific type of thing.


The Wrong Perspective
Inspired by someone else’s success, you might have started your blog with big expectations. You don’t give it enough time to grow and quit too soon because of your impatience. If you think you can get famous overnight, it is a possibility but is not highly probable. Give it a chance, work on it and wait for it to grow. Remember there are actual people involved. Talk to them and listen to what they got to say. If you blog as ‘admin’ and do not use your name, you are on the road to failure.

These are some sure shot signs of a blog going down the hill. Avoid these and you can also shine in the top blogs and create a name for yourself. It just takes some care and it is never too late to start. Go ahead and give your blog a U-turn.

Author Bio
This is a guest post by Brianne Walter who is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. Recently an article on samsung s3310 attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on most expensive car.

Giving your blog a personal touch

It’s not personal – its business, a saying which most of us try to keep in our minds before starting or operating any business venture. We try to bring in professionalism in our work and tend to forget the values of building customer relations. A brief study shows existence of a million blogs which are just kept in the dark, hardly receive any traffic and are lack a proper approach to hook its customers. The secret behind some blogs doing so well is not that how well they are optimizing their website, but how well they are interacting with its customers. Though this has been the main question of debate over years, the argument often reaches a point where ‘content’ matters the most.


What’s the Need
Developing quality content has been the point of concern for all bloggers. It is the content which makes a reader visit your website and spread a word about it. But not only will you have to produce quality content, but think from the reader’s point of view. Adding a personal touch to your blog will help you in several ways:

1. It enables you playing with the imagination of your readers while they are engaged in reading your content.

2. Your readers get ‘hooked’ to your blog and will definitely return to for more updates. In case you are trying to sell a product or service, hopefully these readers will make a purchase someday.

3. Readers can look forward to build a long lasting yet professional relationship with the blogger. Blog owners should consider adding their images on their personal page after reading this point.

4. It will help you increase your interaction with readers as well as of readers with other readers when you consider adding mistakes and half finished thoughts in your blog. This would make them provide feedback and enhance the personal touch of your blog.

5. A reader feels a sense of oneness and often thinks like the blogger is trying to address every reader personally. Hence it is always advisable to use more of ‘we’ and ’you’ instead of ‘I’ and ‘me’.


Techniques You Can Use
Sing some of these ways, you can add a personal touch to your blog.

1. Use emotions and give your blogging a soul.

2. Use a real life story. This is the most powerful way of engaging and impacting readers.

3. Use a little humor to keep it simple yet funny.

4. Refer ‘real life’ activities from your own life. This might not interest some readers but definitely help you build reader’s trust as it is not usually common for a blogger to blog about his life. Readers appreciate it.

5. Spread your name and not your blog. Write your byline on every article page. This would help your readers to know about the writer.

6. Always credit your readers by highlighting their work or publishing their thoughts or by keeping a contest. This would make them much more eager to participate.

7. Use a controversial style of writing. This would help you increase your conversation with the readers.

A closer analysis has made it clear that opening a blog and stuffing it up with some of the best content is not sufficient, a personal approach enables you to play big and play fast. It is a bit riskier approach but when the rewards are more significant, the risk becomes worth taking.

Author Bio

This is a guest post by Alyssa Clarke who is a blogger who also happens to be a tech buff. She loves spending on tech stuff and accessories and is currently hunting for some cool htc evo 4g cases. She is a car lover too and her favorites have always been Bentley Cars.

Must Read 1st - 10th Apr 2012

In the past 10 days I have focused more on Blogging and SEO rather than Blogger. So I have collected some of the best tips and tutorials related to Blogger that have been shared on various blogs across the web. From explaining the various New SEO features to Multiple Level Commenting in Threaded Comments to the New G+ Gadget exclusively for Blogger, these are a must read for every Blogger User out there.



1. New Google +1 Button And Google+ Badge For Blogger

2. VINALUV - MULTI LEVEL THREADED COMMENTING SYSTEM FOR BLOGGER/BLOGSPOT

3. NEW COMMENTS PAGE NAVIGATION WIDGET FOR BLOGGER / BLOGSPOT

4. Adding Meta Descriptions To Blogger

5. Redirect one page to another in Blogger

6. Settings For "Custom Robots Tags" Inside Post Editor

7. SMOOTH SCROLLING BACK TO TOP IN FIXED BAR WITH JQUERY

I hope you found each of these articles useful, I am thinking of making this a weekly affair as there are so many posts related to Blogger which I am not able to cover myself