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.