Free Automatic Blog Backup Online

Not long ago, I have presented the free blog backup solution BlogBackupr. In this publication, I will show you one more way to backup your valuable blog content - blog backup system by Techrigy. Blog backup is very important because in the event your content is lost, you have the straightforward and simple way to restore it is fast. Furthermore, blog owner is able to store his blog backup anywhere, export it, and transfer it to any other compatible platform.

Blog Backup Online

The project is currently in beta testing stage and has several limitations like:

1. 50 MB limit.

To get more space allocation, all you need to do is just send the administration an email request at morespace@techrigy.com.

2. Blogging platform limitation. Blogs hosted on the following platform types are qualified for free backups:

* Blogger
* WordPress
* TypePad
* Friendster
* LiveJournal
* Serendipity
* Windows Live Space
* Movable Type
* Terapad
* Vox
* Multiply

3. Switch Blog Platforms

You can easily switch to a different blogging platform by using the ‘Restore’ feature.

4. Images & Videos

Images and videos backup is not currently supported, but the new service capabilities will be introduced soon.

There are three levels of support, and just the first one is free for all users. Levels and pricing:

Freemium

* Backup unlimited number of blogs
* Run backups daily
* 50 mb storage

Professional

* $4.17 per month ($49.95 per year)
* Restore your blog
* Backup images linked from blog
* 250MB of storage

Enterprise

* $8.30 per month ($99.95 per year)
* Restore your blogs
* Backup images linked from blog
* 1GB of storage

It is recommended to start from a free service, and if they fit your needs, you can eventually switch to more features-reach service level.

Developers Website: http://www.blogbackuponline.com/techrigy/

BlogBackupr Provides FREE Blog Back Up Service

If you are experienced blogger, then you probably know the importance of your blog data and the hard work you do to keep your blog alive. Loosing your blog data will be a nightmare. It is a good idea to perform back ups of your blog content at regular intervals so that you will not loose much of you blog data in case of disastrous crash of your blogging platform.

BlogBackuper

I am a Blogger platform user, and I am using the embedded opportunities for the data backup. However, if for some reason Blogger itself cease to exist, the blogs content and all the backups will be gone as well.

It would be good to have blog backups preserved by the third-party platform, no affiliated with blog hosting site. There is a free service - BlogBackupr - who will do all the will do it for you on daily basis. This service works with all blogs that have a RSS-feed. It runs over the Internet and takes daily backup of your blog. The good thing is - you do not have to install any software on your PC as services are purely web-based.

Currently site supports the following blogging platforms:
* Wordpress Open Source (wordpress.org)
* Wordpress.Com
* Blogger.Com

Note that there are still certain limitations as the site does not support backup of images and your blog templates at the moment. However soon the support for all media files such as images (jpeg, gif etc) or any other files that’s currently on your blog (Powerpoint slides, ZIP-files, CSS, etc.) will be introduced. This will be done automatically for all BlogBackupr-users.

Sign for the services: https://blogbackupr.com/.

Adult Content Definition by Google AdSense

I got an interesting question from this blog reader, which I could not answer right away. The question was: How Google AdSense defines adult content? Since I never considered even approaching the safe borderline of adult and porn related content, this simple question never sparkled on my horizon.

It is not the secret that the adult content is of great demand online. Google AdSense from the very beginning alienated the program from the potentially danger of entering this category of advertising.

Adult Content Definition in Google AdSense

Explicit nudity, for example, was always way beyond Google’s terms of service.

However, there are many posts that are getting really close to the mature content line. In fact, some webmasters are intentionally playing the game of attracting more visitors by intentionally bordering on that line. It is quite understandable since they might benefit from additional income from advertisers who are also close to violating the AdWords TOS, prohibiting explicit ads as well.

In the article on the AdSense owned blog, there is a post “Inside AdSense: Play it safe, family-safe“, clarifying Google AdSense position on the topic.

In short, Google replaces the “explicit” term with “family-safety”. In their own words:

“Our policy regarding adult or mature content may include any material that is not appropriate for all audiences. While this obviously includes full nudity or sexual activity, it may also include textually explicit sexual content, image or video content containing lewd or provocative poses, strategically covered nudity, see-through or sheer clothing, and close-ups of anatomy that would be inappropriate if shown nude. Additionally, topics such as sexual health and sex tips may be held to a higher standard of professionalism than content that isn’t bordering on mature”.

Google also provides a view good questions that a webmasters should ask themselves:

Would I be comfortable viewing this content with my parents or children in the same room?

Would I feel comfortable viewing this content if my boss walked up behind me while I had this content on my screen?

Of course, the level of comfortability perception varies from person to person. But the point is clear - play safe, and be safe. We, webmasters, are working for Google, and not the opposite, so we should apply common sense to define the publically accepted family-oriented guidelines.

How to Delete ‘nofollow’ Attribute from Blogger Blog

Blogger by default, and other blogging software such as WordPress, automatically adds the "nofollow" microformat extension to all links from user generated content. User generated content is defined as comments or external sources such as linkbacks and trackbacks.

Difference Between NoFollow and Follow Links?

Follow Back Links

These links pass on all “link juice” to the site being linked to, which means search engines follow this link to your site and take note of it. This is why the link is called a follow link, and this is also why these links are the best for your SEO.


Pros

* Link Juice - The most obvious and lucrative benefit of follow back links is the link juice they send to your site. This will help boost your rankings in search engines because most search engines (Google being the main one) calculate your rankings based largely on the amount of links you have coming into your site.

* Increased Interaction - Every visitor of your site had something they were looking for. If you own a webmaster or make money blog or site like mine, follow back links can increase your interaction because these readers are often looking for ways to get a free back link when they visit your site.

* Higher Value - If you sell links on your site, they will no doubt sell for more if they are follow back links rather than if they are no follow back links.

Cons

* Search Engine Backlash - Search engines, Google in particular, are really cracking down on follow back links. They are not only penalizing the site that sells the links or distributes them, but if they have proof of a paid link they will go even further and penalize the buyer. This could backfire on you, so you have to make sure your links look and seem organic, all while not overdoing the whole process.

* Decreased Value - Too many follow links on your page and Google will label you as a link farm and discount the value of each individual link and may even reduce your rankings. Generally speaking, the fewer follow links on a page, the more juice to pass on to each one of those links.

NoFollow Back Links


No follow back links are just like any other link, except they have a small “rel=nofollow” added to the end of them, which means that a search engine crawler will not follow the link to the next site and therefore will not index your page and mark the link as a backlink. These links will still bring you traffic though, which means they are just as useful for normal visitors.


Pros

* Make Genuine Ones Count - By keeping the majority of your links as no follow, you will be making sure your actual in-post or on site links are worth more. So if you’re selling paid reviews and paid links, it may be in your best interests to keep the paid links nofollow to increase the sales of your paid reviews and to make the actual links in your post count more.

* Search Engine Favour - Google has repeatedly been quoted as saying that sites with more nofollow links will fare better in the future, and many are pointing this out as a clue on their part that if you use nofollow links for all your irrelevant or link sales, you will rank higher in the search engines.

* Made for Users - Even though a nofollow backlink may not be helpful to search engine or a webmaster, it is made for users. There is no visible difference in the link, first of all. Secondly, you are helping keep the web clean and to maintain its high quality. Finally, since you are not changing the appearance of a nofollow link, you are still sending traffic or allowing users to visit a site of a commentator or a friend.


Cons

* Link Juice - Once again, the primary and most important factor in the entire nofollow vs follow debate is the “juice” you get from high pagerank or high quality pages linking to yours. This juice is not passed on in a nofollow link and therefore you get minimal SEO benefit.

* Reduced Interaction - Some of your visitors might be “turned-off” by a nofollow link on blog comments, and many times they will not comment if the links the blog is providing are nofollow. This can be a big hit if your blog is fairly small and in a webmaster related niche as commenting and interaction on your site and blog will dip.

* Lost Revenue - If you sell text-links on your site and you mark them as nofollow, be ready to take a hit in your revenue. Like I’ve pointed out above, nofollow text links do not bring nearly as much money or sales as a follow text link will. The reason behind this is because people who are looking for text-links are primarily looking for SEO benefit.

As you see, the advantages of removing no follow attributes in your Blogger blog are not straightforward, and you might decide not to do that removal after all. But if you want to experiment with that modification, or you are positive that potential advantages are overwhelming, you will find below the Blogger hack on how to remove “no follow” attribute from you account.

How to Delete ‘nofollow’ Attribute on Blogger

1. Login into your blogger. Usually you will bring to Dashboard after login.
2. Choose your blog and click “Layout”.
3. Click “Edit Html” subtab on the “Template” tab.
4. Before removing ‘nofollow‘ attribute (as with any other template modification), it is recommended to backup you template by clicking Download Full Template and saving in the safe location on your Hard Drive. You can re-enable it if your template modification producing the errors.
5. Check “Expand Widgets” checkbox at at the top of the Edit Template text box. This expands the Blog Posts Widget Code within which is the comments code.
6. Scroll down the template and find below code

<dl id=’comments-block’>
<b:loop values=’data:post.comments’ var=’comment’>
<dt class=’comment-author’expr:id=’"comment-" + data:comment.id’>
<a expr:name=’"comment-" +data:comment.id’/>
<b:if cond=’data:comment.authorUrl’>
<a expr:href=’data:comment.authorUrl’ rel=’nofollow’><data:comment.author/></a>
<b:else/>
<data:comment.author/>
</b:if>
<data:commentPostedByMsg/>
</dt>

7. Detele the code rel=’nofollow’ (or you can remove only no, making it rel=’follow‘) and save the template.

You are done!

Dynamic Tree DTree for Blogger Blog

In course of my experiments to bring normally dynamic content in the Blogger blog to the appearance and functionality of the static Websites, I was trying to implement the Blogger hack, allowing displaying the blog Table of Content in the Windows Explorer similar interface. While there are multiple scripts available online for this modification, I had to try several of them before I actually found one, which worked right away with relative simplicity. It is my pleasure to offer it to you. All credit for this excellent script is to the author of The Blogger Guide. I will repost the article without modification in respect to the script developer.

A tree control (i.e. the GUI element found in the left pane of Windows Explorer) provides a useful way of organizing a set of hierarchical items. This article will present a method to incorporate such a tree control in to Blogger blogs.

Before we proceed, let’s take a look at how our final tree will look like.

Content Tree on Blogger Blog

Now let’s see how to include a tree like the above in your blog.

Step 1


First step is to include two resources, a JavaScript file and a CSS file, in to the Blogger template. Copy the following two lines of code and insert them in to the head section of your template.

<link href='http://thebloggerguide.googlepages.com/dtree.css' rel='StyleSheet' type='text/css'/>

<script src='http://thebloggerguide.googlepages.com/dtree.js' type='text/javascript'/>


You can copy it immediately under the <head> tag as shown in the figure below. (These two resources are hosted on the Blogger Guide companion site. Don’t worry, there is no tracking code or any thing of that sort there. It’s used purely for hosting files referred to from these articles)

Content Tree on Blogger Blog

Save your template and exit Edit HTML mode.

Step 2


Next step is to write the code necessary to create the tree. I will first present a sample code and then explain it.

<div class="dtree">

<p><a href="javascript: d.openAll();">open all</a> | <a href="javascript: d.closeAll();">close all</a></p>

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--

d = new dTree(’d’);

d.add(0,-1,’Favorite Articles’);
d.add(1,0,’3 Columns’);
d.add(2,1,’3 Columns Explained’,’http://bguide.blogspot.com/2008/02/three-column-templates-explained.html’);
d.add(3,1,’Skeleton of a Template’,’http://...’);
d.add(4,1,’Adding a Third Column’,’http://...’);
d.add(5,1,’Layout Wire Frame Editor’,’http://...’);
d.add(6,1,’3 Columns with LR Sidebars’,’http://...’);
d.add(7,0,’Blog Traffic’);
d.add(8,7,’How to Monitor Visitors’,’http://...’);
d.add(9,7,’Feedjit’,’http://...’);
d.add(10,7,’Exclude Your Traffic from GA’,’http://...’);
d.add(11,0,’Customizations’);
d.add(12,11,’Add a Custom CSS class’,’http://...’);
d.add(13,11,’Related Posts Table’,’http://...’);
d.add(14,11,’Limit Widgets to Specific Pages’,’http://...’);
d.add(15,1,’3 Column Step by Step Guides’,’http://...’);

document.write(d);

//-->
</script>
</div>

The first line defines a generic div element and applies the class dtree in to that. This CSS class is defined in the dtree.css file which we included in Step 1 above. Next line inserts two buttons (in fact, links) to Expand and Collapse all the nodes in the tree. Thirdly, you find a Javascript enclosed within a <script> element. The first line in the script, d = new dTree(’d’), creates a new tree object to which we can insert nodes. The following lines which start with d.add(...) are the statements that insert all the nodes in to the tree. Then the last line of the script, document.write(d), renders the created tree on to the browser.

The add() function of the dTree takes in several parameters. The first 3 parameters are required (i.e. you must provide values for them) and the other parameters are optional. The above example uses the following 4 parameters.

• Node ID - A unique numerical ID number. Assign a sequentially increasing number to each new node.
• Parent Node ID - If you want to create a child node, then the ID of the parent node should be given here. This will be ’-1’ for the root node. (See the first d.add(...) line in the example)
• Node Name - A textual description for the node
• Node URL - If you want the node to link to some resource (e.g. an HTML page or some online image), provide the URL of the that resource as the 4th parameter.

For a full description of the add() function see here. You don’t have to provide consecutive (or adjacent) IDs for all the child nodes at a given level. For example, node 15 of the above snippet is attached as a child of node 1 called ’3 Columns’. You can have the nodes anywhere as long as you maintain the uniqueness of the node IDs and provide the correct parent node IDs.


Step 3

Once you finish adding the nodes, copy the entire code starting from the <div class="dtree"> to the corresponding </div>. Then insert the entire code using an ’Add HTML/Javascript Element’ widget of the ’Add Page Element’ option. Place the widget where you want the tree to appear. Save the template and view your blog. You will have the tree sitting nicely in your blog! One limitation is the fact that node names do not wrap at the edges. So you have to give names that fit withing the width of the containing sidebar (or whatever location). Let me know what you think of it and also if you come across any problems when installing it.

Acknowledgment: I have used the free tree control offered by Geir Landrц at Destroydrop. The original files have been slightly modified to make them available online, to be used inside Blogger.

Note: You are free to use the resources used in Step 1. But if you do use, please link to this article from your blog.

If you want to see the practical implementation of this script, you can visit my new blog Data Recovery Techniques.


Update 03-18-2012: The script code to be implemented in the template has found to be corrupted in this post. It was corrected as needed. For more than three years, I am using this DTree approach in most of my Blogger blogs. It is easy to implement, easy to update, and works seamlessly for years. 

Mobile blogging agent GBlogger

With recent growth of the model communication devices, mobile blogging inevitably gains more popularity. With free mobile blogging utility Mobile GBlogger you can make post on the go to your Blogger account from anywhere in the world using your Windows Mobile 5/6 mobile device. All you need is a means of connecting your Windows Mobile PDA or Smartphone to the Internet.


Mobile GBlogger Basic is the completely free version of the GBlogger service. It is also the easiest to get going with. Simply download and install the client for your Windows Mobile device and you’re ready to go. With Mobile GBlogger Basic you get the following features:

* Publish or save as Draft full blog posts for all of your blogs.
* Insert preset HTML tags and objects such as hyperlinks, text formatting, YouTube Video objects, and others

With the free GBlogger service a small, one line advertisement for Mobile GBlogger is inserted at the end of the post. If you want to remove the ad, you can choose using the Mobile Gblogger Pro software version, cost $15 / year.

You can find more information and download the software from the developers’ website: http://www.pocketwatchsoftware.com/gblogger

Mobile Gblogger carries rating 3 of 5 on the RateItAll Rating List of 32 Free Utilities for Bloggers.

Create multiple articles avoiding duplicate content

It is not easy to write a good, informative article with original content. To increase readers auditory as much as possible, blogger repost the same article at the different blogs and social blogging communities. But duplicate content is not encouraged neither by search engines, nor by some blogging sites, where the condition to submit exclusively original content is strict.

DupeFreePro is a free software tool that will make your life easier to avoid using duplicate content when you’re posting articles here and there on the Internet. Note that it is not similar to those automated programs which create hundreds of junk articles, but it will help to evaluate your own modified articles for perceived uniqueness.

 

As you may know, Google ignores duplicate content while assessing the site SEO ranking. If you post the same article (containing a link to your web site) in more than one location, when Google calculates your web site’s rankings, it uses what it considers to be the first posting or the earliest article and ignores the others.

For optimal results, you want to rewrite the article enough so that Google perceives it as original content. This can be tricky, since it’s difficult to know when you have modified an article enough to rate as new content.

DupeFreePro solves this tricky problem for you, among others. DupeFreePro will tell you if the two articles are sufficiently different to be considered unique. It will also give you a keyword density rating so you can be sure your keyword or keyword phrase appears the “right” number of times. Additionally, it suggests other related words that Google expects to find in an article that contains your keyword phrase.

You can use DupeFreePro to be sure your rewritten PLR articles are sufficiently different from the originals; you can use the software to prevent accusations of plagiarism if you are using material you have researched online; and lastly, you can use it to optimize your articles’ keyword density for the search engines.

DupeFreePro is freeware and it can be considered as mature well-developed product. It’s a good help to anyone who uses article marketing, PLR articles, Squidoo lenses, HubPages, blogs or similar. There’s nothing to buy, or any special offers, just a form to opt-in and get the software.

Developers’ direct link: http://www.dupefreepro.com/

Additional Reading:

http://www.businessbrainwaves.com/blog/2007/02/useful-free-software/dupefreepro
http://www.junecampbell.name/?m=200802
http://imstemp.blogspot.com/2007/11/dupefreepro-helps-fight-duplicate.html

Removing Newer and Older Post Links in Blogger Blog

If you are using Blogger as blogging platform, you might be used to some of the built-in features, that you consider hard coded, but can be changed with slight template code modification. One of the hacks, presented in this publication, addresses a seemingly minor issue on the page - two links “Older Posts” and “Newer Posts” on the bottom of the page.

For those, who prefer their blog to be maximally close to the static webpages, these links not just unnecessary, but are plainly irritating. There is a way to remove them once and forever. And that is quite easy to do, even for not very experienced users. Note, that this hack will also remove “home” link from the bottom of the blog page.

Open Layout Tab in your blog profile page, choose Edit HTML, and search your code in your blog template for the following text:
#blog-pager-newer-link {
float: left;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
float: right;
}
#blog-pager {
text-align: center;
}


Now replace that code with the following code:

#blog-pager-newer-link {
display: none;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
display: none;
}
#blog-pager {
display: none;
}


Save the template and you are done. I hope that was indeed an easy and straightforward one.

Additional Reading:

http://bloggeruniversity.blogspot.com/
http://tipsforwebsite.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-remove-post-and-post-link-on.html

How to disable text selection on Blogger blog

In one of the previous publications, we presented a way to disable right click on the page of your Blogger blog to decrease the copyright violations from your readers “borrowing” your content for their own purposes. To go further in your content safeguarding efforts, you can make the next step, disabling text selection on your page entirely.

This hack was created by Dynamicdrive as well in the form of Javascript, and is also applicable to those bloggers who don’t like their content copied by others. If this concern is on top of your priorities list, then Copy the following code and Paste it to your blog template:


<script type="text/javascript">

/***********************************************
* Disable Text Selection script- © Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com)
* This notice MUST stay intact for legal use
* Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for full source code
***********************************************/

function disableSelection(target){
if (typeof target.onselectstart!="undefined") //IE route
target.onselectstart=function(){return false}
else if (typeof target.style.MozUserSelect!="undefined") //Firefox route
target.style.MozUserSelect="none"
else //All other route (ie: Opera)
target.onmousedown=function(){return false} How to disable
target.style.cursor = "default"
}

//Sample usages
//disableSelection(document.body) //Disable text selection on entire body
//disableSelection(document.getElementById("mydiv")) //Disable text selection on element with id="mydiv"

</script>

Smart Blogger Assistant for Simple Blog Publishing

Developer Description:
Smart Blogger allows centralized management of your all diaries and blogs regardless of its Internet location. The software has a single universal interface for reading and sending messages to all blogs; it makes text formatting possible. With this application, you can monitor your friends' diaries checking their blogs for new postings. You can also look through commentaries to your postings as well as other peoples, place comments in blogs, and leave answers to threads.

The software supports three web-blogs:
- LiveJournal
- Blogger
- WordPress

Disadvantages:
This post has been made in Smart Blogger. I already see several disadvantages of using this free software for blogs publishing:

1. No possibility of the text alignment options.
2. Very basic text formatting: color and bold/itallic/under only.
3. No spell checking option.
4. No advanced features as horizontal lines or tables generation.
5. Small publishing field, not very convenient for big posts.

Advantages:
1. Nice and pleasant interface.
2. Easy to use.
3. Portable software exists, so you do not need to install the software on your PC

Developers WebSite: http://www.smartpctools.com/smart_blogger/index1.html

Assessment: The software is good for the light operations, small notes in your Journal, but is lacking functionality for serious blogging.

Software carries rating 3 of 5 in the RateItAll List of 29 free software titles:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24825-blog-publishing-freeware.aspx

If you have personal experience using this software, you are welcome to leave your feedback in the rating widget below:

Blog Publishing Freeware on RateItAll

Customize 404 Error Page on WordPress Blog

404 Errors

By default, most Web servers return a simple "404 Not Found" error message when they are getting a request for a URL that they don’t have. This error message violates the three basic guidelines for error messages. All error messages must be:

• written in plain language that is easy to understand for non-technical users and that does not imply that the mistake is the user’s fault
  
• precise in specifying exactly what was done wrong (that is, not be generic or vague)
  
• constructive in suggesting steps the user can take to correct the problem

In terms of the "URL not found" error message, it would be better to explain to the user why the URL could not be found. It would be even better to list the most common mistakes in accessing files on the given site: for example, users often request URLs ending in .htm for sites that consistently use .html for all pages (or they use .html when all pages end in .htm). For any given site, it is recommended to have consistent naming conventions and list these conventions on a custom error message page.


The Importance of 404
Why working on the 404 optimization makes sense? It does not matter, if readers were looking something on your site and got there by mistake, or the link is incorrect, or visitors misspelled the address. They might go forever, never turning their head back to you and your site; even thou the site might have an excellent content. So, the main reasons your visitors may stumble into a 404 "Not found" page on your website are:

• A mistyped URL, or a copy-and-paste mistake
  
• Broken or truncated links on web pages or in an email message
  
• Moved or deleted content

It is a good idea to treat the 404 page as a doorway to your site, giving it the same degree of attention as a regular home page. The visitor who arrived to your 404 page by error, in many cases was actually looking for something on your site. Now you have to help them find it. That’s really the guiding light of 404 page design.


Tips for Improving Your 404

1. Don’t call it a 404 page. Your visitors have no idea what this means. Personalize your 404 page to make it user-friendly and understandable to any level of technical expertise.
   
2. Provide a way for the visitor to search for what they were looking for, installing the search box on the page.
   
3. Show them what you have to offer - the best of the best. Try to surprise and attract the visitors. You have may be just one chance to keep him. Show your blog sitemap or provide the easy visible link to one to let visitor know that you have indeed good stuff under your belt.
   
4. If none of the other options work for them (in other words, at the end of all of this, at the bottom of the page) get them a link to your contact form. If they get stuck, you want to know about it. Of course this is a last-resort option since no typically wants to contact the site owner when they have a problem. Just in case.

Using Wordpress to Improve Your 404
One of the beautiful parts about Wordpress is that you can very easily fix up your 404 page. It’s as easy as changing a template file.

1. Go to your Wordpress Theme Editor under Presentation. Select the 404 page to edit.
   
2. Edit the page using the offered guidelines. Two possibilities here: 

• If you’re a designer you should make this page look like the rest of your theme. I
  
• If you’re only a user, do your best to customize what you can. Change the headline, at the very least, to something like “Whoops, it’s not here!” or something of the like.
  

Custom 404 Samples

Find below a small collection of the funny and smart custom 404 pages screenshots, found on the Web.