BlogEngine.NET - open source blogging platform

While the most popular blogger platforms remain Wordpress and Blogger, there are much more on the market, trying to get their audience and create the substantial marketing niche with mixed results.

Today, we would like to present BlogEngine.NET - an innovative open source blogging platform developed with ASP.NET.

Here's a short list of all the features of BlogEngine.NET platform:

1. Plug ’n play. BlogEngine.NET is very easy to setup and customize. To make it work, just upload the files to an ASP.NET 4.0 web server and you’re ready to start writing. So, web server should support ASP.NET 2.0 and write permissions on the App_Data folder. No database configuration, just plug ‘n play. BlogEngine.NET uses XML to store all posts, pages etc. by default. If you prefer to use a database, a generic Database Blog Provider is included that will allow you to store data in most standard databases -- SQL Server, MySql, SQLite, VistaDB, etc.
2. Full featured. BlogEngine.NET comes with all the features you would expect from a modern blog engine as well as new unique features such as AJAX comments and screenshot trackbacks.
3. Web 2.0. BlogEngine.NET features social bookmarks, OpenSearch support, XFN tags, AJAX, FOAF, SIOC, APML, Gravatars, coComments, tag cloud, Google sitemap and other so called Web 2.0 features.
4. Referrer stats. The referrer statistics enables you to see which websites link to you, so you can follow up with comments or just to have fun. This feature is a real time killer that you cannot live without.   
5. Cool widgets. There is a variety of cool widgets that such as an AJAX post calendar or a blogroll that automatically retrieves the latest posts from each blog and displays the title beneath the blog. Most of the controls are configurable from the admin section.
6. Advanced comment system. Comments are a very important part of a blog, so BlogEngine.NET features a very advanced commenting system in AJAX that supports country flags, live preview, Gravatars, coComments – all of which can easily be modified in the admin section.
7. Full syndication suite. BlogEngine.NET supports syndication feeds in any possible location. You can find feeds on comments, categories, authors and a main feed. Both RSS 2.0 and ATOM 1.0 are fully supported.
8. Trackbacks and pingbacks. All outgoing links from the posts is tracked- and pinged back, so your blog will get listed in the comments on the linked website if it supports it. When a new post is created, BlogEngine.NET automatically pings Technorati, Feedburner, Ping-o-Matic etc.
9. Search. The search capability of BlogEngine.NET is one of the most advanced and it even allows the visitors to search in the comments. Everything about the search can be configured in the admin section.
10. Standalone pages. Besides regular blog posts, BlogEngine.NET supports the creation of static pages that exist outside the blog chronology. Pages are useful for all kinds of information about you or your blog.
11. Multi-author support. BlogEngine.NET fully supports multiple authors to write posts on the same blog. Visitors are then able to subscribe to the individual author’s RSS feed or view only the posts from their favorite author.
12. Cool themes. BlogEngine.NET comes with some very cool themes for you to choose from. If you want to modify or create a new theme you can do so easily with just a basic understanding of HTML and CSS.
13. XHTML compliance. All the controls in BlogEngine.NET are 100% XHTML 1.0 compliant. All posts you write automatically become compliant thanks to the tinyMCE text editor.
14. Extendable. BlogEngine.NET is built from the ground up using nothing but C# and ASP.NET 4.0 all with simplicity in mind. It means that you can write new controls and themes by using the skills you already have as a .NET developer.

Developers’ website: http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/

Latest software downloading page: http://blogengine.codeplex.com/releases/view/87769

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Update 12-30-13: BlogEngine.Net released beta of its latest version 2.9.

What is New:

* Completely redesigned admin UI based on Bootstrap framework.

* New standard theme, also Bootstrap based, with clean and beautiful design that is easy to extend and modify

* Improvements to theme layouts (separate single post and page templates, navigation template etc)

* New light-weight admin editor

* Admin UI uses AngularJS and SPA (single page application) techniques to talk to back-end

* Added some order to the chaos with ASP.NET Web API and Repository Pattern

Requirements:

* IIS 7 and up, integrated mode

* Full trust for website in IIS

Creative Blogging with Jux

Jux is one of the new players on the free blogging marketing niche. It is characterized as a highly innovative content sharing online service. It is not a conventional blogging platform like Blogger, rather it is an advanced microblogging service, while offering multiple features, available on the conventional blogging platforms.

By default, Jux templates don’t have the native sidebars and other widgets that are common to most blogs. Instead, Jux provides a clean and visually appealing approach to blogging. Simply create an account, and then start sharing your content.

Jux has excellent support for mobile devices, and is most suitable for the bloggers who lean more towards visual content, such as photos and artwork.

One of the best things about using Jux is that at this point it’s not only completely free to use, but also completely void of advertising. This truly allows the personality of a Juxer (the name developers are using for publishers) to shine through in the content of their blogs. These are huge benefits that the product has over competitors that either require integrated ads or payment to fully utilize their product.

Jux is extremely easy to use, already has a creative and engaged community behind it, and has the backing of a talented and dedicated development team. For anyone seeking to showcase their material in a streamlined, ad-free, easily navigable environment, Jux publishing platform is highly recommended.

Visit, explore, and sign up: https://jux.com/

Sources and Additional Information:

http://sixrevisions.com/tools/top-free-online-blogging/

http://web.appstorm.net/reviews/blogging-reviews/blogging-creatively-with-jux-com/

http://www.dipinit.com/web/create-unlimited-websites-free-jux/

How to load animated GIF in Blogger?

One of the substantial limitations of the Blogger platform is lack of straight-forward opportunity to add animated GIF to the post. The problem is that the HTML image, generated automatically by default post editor of Blogger, displays a thumbnail and not the original file hosted. Therefore, that animation does not work.

There are several ways to get what you want by using third-party, which can store your image. We will review on how to use popular service Photobucket for these purposes.

So, you loaded the animated GIF to the Photobucket. What next?

As you probably know, when you post images, provider offers you several links to use for different types of images sharing.

You also can get the same links without opening the image itself. When it is in the gallery of thumbnails, just pointing on the pic will call the same menu.

You would be mostly interested in the code posted in line three. Usually, I use it directly for static images, but in the test case, I need the animated image serve as a banner, pointing out on the advertised website. And if you do not modify the code, the image will be automatically linked to the Photobucket homepage, and not to the site I want it to. Also, the alt="some description" attribute describe Photobucket", so you may need to change it to alter description of your image.

You may copy the given code and modify it later, or you may create the code yourself, which may be even easier, using these instructions. The image code should be in the following format:

<img scr="photo URL" alt="some text" title="some text" /">

Replace 'photo URL' with the actual URL of the photo, which you can get by clicking in the second box (Direct Link). The attribute alt="some text" and title="some text", where you replace "some text" with something relevant to the photo, and are optional. You can definitely leave it as is. But it is highly recommended to add them as search engines spiders cannot read images, but can read what is written inside the alt="" and title="" attributes. Adding them will thus enable search engines spider your post better. Further, by adding the title="" attribute, when you hover your mouse cursor over the image, you will see a tool tip displaying the text you put between the quotation marks.

So, in my case, the link will look as following:

<img scr="http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af217/nesher9/Tanya_addiction-1.gif" alt="addiction treatment" title="BayAreaTherapyPro.com" /">

Now modify the embedding code and insert the link in the post.

Adding this animated GIF to the Blogger Layout is even easier (and that is what I was actually looking for). 

Add new gadget and chose Picture. In the link box, paste the destination site you want the GIF to direct to. Posting from my computer did not work, as I mentioned earlier, so I specified the same Photobucket URL through the “From the Web” option. In my case, I had to remove the Shrink to Fit checkmark as I needed the actual image size for the banner. You can see the practical implementation at the bottom of the page: http://smoking-tobacco.blogspot.com/

Sources and Additional Information:

http://myfundoo-blog.blogspot.com/2010/05/adding-animated-gifs-to-blogger.html

http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/2007/09/uploading-animated-gif-image-to-blogger.html

Free Electronic Business Cards from SavvyCard

If you consider your blogging as your primary or secondary business, you are definitely interested in promoting it through all possible means. Business cards are the traditional way to present your affiliation with your business, so creating your business card presenting you as the business owner may be essential.

However, times are changing. More and more businesses shift their accents toward online operations. Business Cards have not escaped the modern trends. Today, we are going to present business cards, which are going to be distributed electronically.

SavvyCards are online business cards that not only include your contact information (like regular business cards), but also offer a whole new level of functionality. You can think of SavvyCards as highly interactive "mini websites" through which you can market yourself in ways not previously possible with regular business cards. SavvyCards are indexed by search engines and can be found through online searches, particularly local ones.

SavvyCards are designed to work on any web-enabled device. In addition, SavvyCards are "intelligent" and know what type of device you are using, so they'll offer different options. For example, if you click on the "Call" button to call someone from their SavvyCard while using a laptop computer, the card will display the person's phone number so you can write it down, or use it for reference as you dial a phone. But, if you click on the same "Call" button while accessing their card on a Smartphone, the card will automatically dial that person's number for you instead.

First of all, the service is free, and you can create unlimited types and varieties of online business cards, which may be directed to different groups of customers, lines of business, language groups, and so on.

Once you sign up with SavvyCard and create your free account, you will gain access to the powerful online CardBuilder. Using the CardBuilder, you will create and publish your own SavvyCard.

The CardBuilder allows you to choose from a large selection of pre-generated artwork from which you can create your SavvyCard. The CardBuilder has libraries of backgrounds you can use and an easy-to-use tool for uploading and cropping your photo and company logo. You don't have to upload a photo or logo either, you can just use text for your company name instead, or you can choose to use other artwork in place of your photo (either upload your own, or use any images from the special library). You'll also have choices for text color and what font you want to use. When you are happy with the way your card looks, you just click a button and it's published to the web and is ready to use.

Once you've created and published your SavvyCard, the system will publish it to a URL that will be unique to your card. It is easy to get your information in front of people who need it, and to make it a lot easier to market yourself and network.

You can push your SavvyCard via email or text to other people, trade contact information with other people, provide immediate directions to your place of business, provide a write up of your company and services, provide your own biography or other relevant information about yourself, recommend other people and services, list links to other websites that are important to you and your business, link to your social pages on Twitter, Facebook and any other social network, link to other web information that your customers will find valuable, and much more.

In addition, people who receive your SavvyCard will be able to take notes on the "back" of your card, forward it through their social network pages to their networks of family, friends and business associates, email it or text it to other people, bookmark it, save it as an icon on their homepage (even on mobile devices), and much more!

You can check the card functionality. It is hosted at http://savvycard.net/bayareatherapypro/eng

There is an additional benefit for those, who need to improve ranking of the professional websites in major search engines. Such electronic business card allows to create link to the main site (in this case, it is http://www.bayareatherapypro.com. As you understand, more external links your site has, easier to make its way to the top listing in the related searches.

Note that you can even use your own domain for your online card. There are two ways to do that:

1. Domain Forwarding. Domain Forwarding is essentially just pointing a domain name that you own to your SavvyCard.   So if you forward a domain that you own, say mycard.mobi to your SavvyCard, then when anyone types in mycard.mobi in their browser address bar, it will "forward" them to http://savvycard.net/yourcard.
2. Domain Masking. Domain Masking takes forwarding one step further. When you "Mask" a domain name, it forwards the person to your SavvyCard, but keeps your domain name in the web address bar! Said a different way, say you own mycard.mobi, and you forward that to http://savvycard.net/yourcard with domain masking, then the person looking at your card will ALWAYS see mycard.mobi in the address bar.  It won't change to http://savvycard.net.  It will always stay mycard.mobi.

Like the idea? Give it a try! There is nothing to lose, and there is much to gain!

Website: http://savvycard.net/