Last week I wrote about an awesome Google Chrome extension  to  ”Replace Ads in Gmail with Social Media Profile of the Sender” on Chromestory.com. I added a small bit on the end of that blog post, saying I am sure that Google will buy this company.

UK-based start up called Rapportive has created an awesome Extension for Both Firefox and Google Chrome, which replaces the advertisement space in Gmail inbox with social media profile of the user whom you are interacting with, on that email.

Do you think Google Will Buy This Company ?

1. This is an awesome service which will see thousands of followers in coming days.

2. Even though ads inside gmail inbox is not Google’s revenue system, Google will not be happy about users removing ads with the help of a simple extension. They will buy this company, and include this service in gmail without hurting their income source.

What do you think ?

Simple question, you may say. What should be the first widget on your sidebar ?. If you  spend lot of time on keeping sidebar active, and well designed, this question is very important for you.

The general trend

Usually, people keep any of the following as their first widget : ads, a welcome message, about me text, categories, rss feed link, .. ( sorry, that is a never ending list.)  People who do personal blogging, usually put an gif or jpeg with welcome message, and sometimes they list the books they are reading, or movies they watch. People who wants money from blogging try to put ads as their first widget.

But, which one should I put first ?

Okay, answering that question is not easy, since your blog is different from everyone else’ and so is your needs. So, you should find out which widget is the most important one.  I will help you to find the right one.

When you visit a new blog, or a particular blog post, what is the first thing you do after reading  it ? we take a look at the sidebar, right ? ( yes, obviously… and that is why the first widget so important ) … so think like this … what do you want the user to do after they read your first post ( or their first post on your blog, if they reached through google or a link ) …  your first widget should be an answer to this question.

Do you want them to read more of your blog posts ? list all the topics you cover on your blog ( categories widget ). Do you want them to click on ads  ? Do you want them to subscribe to your feed ? put an RSS subscription link …  and so on …   Isn’t that easy  ?

Links From Friends :

Kristarella redesigned her blog.
Binny’s eyes corrected themselves after 14 years !!

My Widgets are broken, with a theme upgrade … trying to bring them back …

Do you want to host a wordpress blog ? I know the answer is YES …  and I have another question for you -  “WHY”. Why do you need a self hosted wordpress blog ?

To own yourowndomain.com ?
To Experience and  Experiment ?
Make money with ads ?
Anything else ?

If you already have one …..

If you already have a self hosted wordpress, I need to know; what made you sign up for one ?.

“The Blog Herald” recently redesigned their blog. They made a really cute, and sweet theme . Till then, it was just another magazine styled blog. But now, it looks very unique, and easy to browse.

Now, this is what I call a perfect layout, for a wordpress theme. Everything is rightly placed. No distractions, even ads are placed very well. No clutters.

What happened when I found a good blog with a sweet design ?

So, what happened to me when they did this “redesign” thing ? Well, I started reading that blog more, I was being attracted by that design,  spent more time on the blog, and their great content made me spent even more time there, and browse through archives etc ..

I used to read their blog posts, but only from google reader itself and never bothered to comment. But, this new design is taking me to the site from rss reader. Its making me comment. Yes, the design is driving my reading pattern, my activity on the blog, my attitude towards that blog.

The strange thing is, I usually do not like blogs without a header image but this one, I liked it without a header image, and that too too less colors.

and then …

I came back to my blog, and changed my theme hmm nothing new in it right ?  ( You know right, I always look for a reason to change theme ). I am not sure if you guys liked the new design, and would like to know your thoughts on this.

What’s special with Copyblogger theme ?

It has two css files –  style.css and custom.css. Style.css has the most basic layout elements, which you need not edit, unless necessary. Custom.css is where you edit the design ( color,font,font size, background etc etc ).

So you get to edit your theme as you like without destroying the basic structure of the theme, which is really great for someone like me with very less coding knowledge. Yet, there is something I need help with. If you look at the side bar, there is something missing before the search box. A feed icon is supposed to be diplayed there but it isn’t. Any idea why ?

I am happy with this theme .. are you ?

Hey, is this word new to you ? then read on …… I will tell you what a splog and what they do…..
Have you ever seen trackbacks ( links to your posts ) saying “Wrote an interesting post” or “talked today about” or similar words? They do not have their own content but links to lot of other blogs.. and you thought that someone liked your post and linked there ? Yes, they are splogs.

Splog is What ?

Let’s start with Wikipedia

Spam blogs, sometimes referred to by the neologism splogs^{[citation needed]}, are artificially created weblog sites which the author uses to promote affiliated websites or to increase the search engine rankings of associated sites. The purpose of a splog can be to increase the PageRank or backlink portfolio of affiliate websites, to artificially inflate paid ad impressions from visitors, and/or use the blog as a link outlet to get new sites indexed. Spam blogs are usually a type of scraper site, where content is often either inauthentic text or merely stolen (see blog scraping) from other websites. These blogs usually contain a high number of links to sites associated with the splog creator which are often disreputable or otherwise useless websites.

Why a Splog ?

Continue reading →

….because they have pop up ads

Okay, I agree that I have ads on my site too. But, I hate pop up ads. So, I hate sites which put pop up ads too.  So the sites are aol.in tech2.com and Ibnlive.com

Aol is something that I started visiting quite recently. But tech.com and ibnlive.com, are sites I am visiting daily, for a long time. I love reviews in tech2.com and I am addicted to  “being” an interview series in ibnlive.com. But pop up ads make me feel bad … you will go “voww” if you see the amount of ads put on tech2.com these days !!

So, most probably, I will stop visiting them.. or I might think about giving them a second chance, and add those sites to my popup blocked in Firefox .. what you think ? Anyone who love pop up ads uh ?

“There is a little bit of me in AOL mail”. Well, thats true. They have ads too !! like I have on this blog. Is it really bad to have ads ? hmm I would say, No, but when I open my inbox, I am expecting my inbox first and not just ads.

First Impression ?

Yes, opening your mail will not take you directly to your inbox. You see a copy of aol.in’s home page along with some ads. So my first impression was not that good. But it could’een better if they avoided that right – left scroll ( I really hate when I have to scroll left – right on a web page ) Continue reading →