BLOG DESIGN JOURNAL

Wearing a watch seems like such a corporate thing to do. Nowadays younger people tend to rely on their phones for the time instead of wearing a watch.

But blog designers, even those of us who freelance, deal with corporate clients, and most of them do wear watches. To corporate types not wearing a watch looks unprofessional, even if they do not put that thought into words. And that worries them.

You see, when you are the client, you worry that artsy people like blog designers will let you down, make you look foolish to your corporate superiors. That is why you should always dress somewhat conservatively for client meetings. It take very little to look creative, and just a tiny bit more to look flaky in their eyes.

So dress nicely, and wear a watch. A side benefit of that is that the better you dress, the more you can probably get by with charging. And if you look professional, delays or changes that cause a slipped deadline are less likely to be blamed on you.

And just because you are wearing a watch, that does not have to mean you look unfashionable. Watches can be trendy, chic, expensive and memorable. And a quality watch is not only a technical marvel but also a work of art. In fact, a cool watch can make you look sophisticated and knowledgeable in a subtle, yet impressive way that impresses clients who are in the know.

So here is where to buy a prestigious watch at a rock bottom price and get free two-day shipping. Take a look at Invicta watches.

Oh, and here’s a hint: Fine watches make incredibly impressive gifts for parental units—or spouses. Want someone to love you, get them a really fine watch.

And, oh look, there is just enough time to get one before Easter, and plenty of time before Mother’s Day and graduation season.

So you and/or a loved one could look corporate cool or cosmopolitan elegant by Monday morning. If you hurry.

Blog designers now need to keep up with smartphone technology. Clients now need for us to incorporate QR codes, automated texting, and a host of other technology with their sites. So we need to know and use the latest technology ourselves.

That means we can no longer wait for our cell phone providers to give us new “free” phones every two years when we sign a new contract. As a blog designer you need to move up to iPhone and Android and keep moving up as technology advances.

So what do you do with those older mobile phones? Do you toss them out? Donate them for emergency use? Or sell them to get back some cash to defray the cost of constantly updating?

Here is the best way to sell your older mobile phone: Trade it in on SellMyMobile.com. They compare and show you the current prices for 400+ models of mobile phones, so you know what is the best price you can get for your phone.

I had no idea what the going rates were for mobile phones like mine, and I find eBay more confusing than helpful for that kind of info. Who knows which prices are realistic there?

From now on, SellMyMobile is where I plan to go to sell my phone.

Take a look. I think you will want to do the same.

Serious, subtle, creatively styled eyeglasses.

Festive? Fun? Or tired and bleary-eyed?

If you have been procrastinating about replacing lost glasses or about filling new prescriptions, go ahead and get them.

Working on line can be very tiring for the eyes. Taking good care of your eyes makes your blog design work easier and ultimately less time-consuming.

multicolored eyeglass frames say "I'm a creative person. I love to have fun!"

While you are at it, why not get some cheap, fun holiday-themed eyeglasses?

You can have spare glasses handy, amuse friends and clients, and enjoy a change just for fun.

Why not try red frames for Christmas, green for Yule, blue for Hanukkah, yellow, green or orange for Kwanzaa, and multicolor for New Years, Mardi Gras, and Chinese New Year? Imagine the possibilities.

To buy high-quality, stylish glasses inexpensively, you can buy them on line, direct from the manufacturer. ZENNI glasses, for example, are sold only on line, relying on word of mouth from happy customers instead of mall stores and advertising. So you can easily afford to buy different styles for different occasions.

Glasses can be a fashion statement, from casual to formal. They can also be used to create a signature look. Wear your favorite holiday colors, and your clients, friends and family will look forward to seeing what you come up with for each holiday.

Imagine the possibilities for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Juneteenth, Fourth of July, Halloween….See what I mean?

Stylish glasses can still be classic with just touch of extra color.

Eyeglasses are a necessity, but there is no reason not to also have fun with them. Be memorable. Be original. Show your creativity wherever you go. Be your own brand. But most of all, have fun with color and style. And now you can.

Take a look at ZenniOptical.com and then come back and comment to share your suggestions for holiday glasses styles. Tell us which ones you chose, and why.

Of course, they have a huge selection of classic styles, too. You can always just buy a pair or two for yourself and use the savings to buy your holiday gifts for others. We’ll never tell.

Google’s PageRank scores are not as important to Google as they once were. Nowadays they are only a tiny factor in how Google ranks your page in search results.

But PageRank (PR) is still used by many advertisers to select blogs to advertise on. That makes PR important for monetizing your blog.

A free service called PRChecker lets you quickly check PageRank for a web site and then generate code that you can paste into a widget (or any html code) to display a button that shows the current (updated) PR of each page of your site, on your site.

The PageRank button comes in three sizes. Here is the size I normally use:

There is also a free PageRank Checker Tool that you can add to your site. I’ve put one in the right-hand sidebar of this page for you to use to check PR of your sites right here at BlogDesignJournal.

So you can come back here anytime to check PR of a blog and read about what’s going on in the blog design world.

So you have set up your micro niche blog with an exact match domain for maximum Google love and have been lucky enough to get onto the first page of Google..or have worked really hard to get it onto the first two pages.

But there is a problem.

That keyword that you targetted is simply not delivering the traffic you expected and your site is not generating the visitors or income you expected.This happens a lot and is one of the drawbacks of micro niche blogs..sometimes the keyword numbers that you have based your site around simply don’t deliver the traffic that you expected from the numbers in the Google keyword tool.

This is why putting all your eggs in one basket is a problematic strategy and why you will want to transition this site to an authority site with lots of content.This type of site is not dependent on one keyword;rather it is capable of ranking for many different keywords and consequently will provide better returns in the long run. Read the rest of this entry →

Image by Andrew Wilkinson via Flickr

Sometimes its nice to know who’s been visiting your blog and where they came from, rather than just a numbers game – “i had so many visitors last week” etc. Making good use of visitor statistics can help you fine-tune copy and content if you’re a serious online marketeer.

And if you’re not, then there’s still nothing more satisfying than seeing daily visitor numbers rise week on week. If nothing else, it proves you’re doing something right.

Blogger and WordPress blog platforms make it really easy to quickly add stat programs like Google Analytics and StatCounter through their Admin User Panels. In Blogger’s case, you simply need to add a html/javascript gadget and copy and paste the StatCounter tracking code into it. It really is that simple.

However, when I came to add StatCounter stats to my Tumblr account, I found it rather more challenging. Read the rest of this entry →

A blog, believe it or not, when properly prepared creates content, and quite often is put very fast in the top ten of Google. Why it is so, try reading the following contribution to enlighten yourself:

A blog of domestic implements from a few features, allow search engines to crawl the content very quickly. The result was the fastest I have ever witnessed, added a new post within 20 seconds (including the top 10 ranking) for relevant phrases. How can this come about?

BlogPing

BlogPing is a protocol that implements any popular blog system. It serves primarily two things:

1. Blogs to notify each other (They were linked)

2. Notify search engines (Google Hello, I have published a new page)

Especially with the integration of Google Sitemaps that go on WordPress with a click of the hand, you need a search engine’s new content page to look once more. Sitemap opens directly to crawl a new page. Read the rest of this entry →