After much hype, Google has finally unwrapped the brand new Google Drive. And as expected, it is equipped with many features. Basically, it is an online file-storage service, where you can upload your important files for sharing and safekeeping. Like Microsoft's SkyDrive, it offers an online storage space of 5GB for free! Now admittedly, Google has been slow in introducing such a service, considering that it a The Internet Giant. Don't let this be the deciding factor here though. As they say, slow and steady wins the race. Or does it? I mean, sure, Google has been introducing many new services and improving on existing ones, but is Google Drive any better than other storage services?
A quick glance at the features shows that it may be. Aside from giving you free space on its server, Google Drive includes many exciting features like smart tagging, and image recognition. Let's see if it actually is better than others,or not.
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Looking at a website's traffic gives a good idea of how successful that website is. If you own a website, then finding out traffic stats for it is not that big a deal. But what if you don't own a website, but still want to spy on it? Maybe, that site is your competitor i.e. in the same niche as your own. In my post on 20 Hot SEO Tactics, I raised the point that if you want to succeed, you should keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, so that you get a better idea of what you need to do, and what you don't need to do. Luckily for you, there are a bunch of free tools that can give you estimated stats for a certain website. They might not be very accurate, but at least they give you a general approximation of stats, such as page-views, unique visits, earnings etc. Here are the top 5 such tools;
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Recently, someone asked me a question; How much do bloggers actually make? This is a question that generally gets asked around a lot. And no matter how successful a blogger is, he has wondered about the same thing at some point or another. The fact of the matter is, there's no simple answer to this question, as there is no generalization in this industry. Some bloggers earn more than a normal job would get them, while others just look on! So is blogging worth it? In this post, we will (hopefully) discuss whether it is or not. But to me, it depends. There are really so many factors that it is hard to anticipate anything. But here is a list of last year's Top 10 Earning Blogs which will hopefully give you a general idea of how much a pro blogger can earn.
Short Messaging Service is great! It is fast, it is cheap, and it is convenient! Not to mention very popular especially among the youth. It lets you connect with your friends and family no matter where in the world you are. A few years ago, Google launched its SMS chat service via Gmail. But then it withdrew the service and took it back to its lab. This service was relaunched some time back, but was limited to very few countries, like U.S. etc. Well here's a good news! Google has, very recently, introduced updates to the service. Gmail SMS messaging is now available across a lot more countries, including Asian countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, India etc. You can now send texts to a lot of networks in many countries, absolutely free!
Every website / blog owner should know about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Why? Because Search Engine Optimization forms the back-bone of your website. If done right, it can work wonders for your blog. Otherwise, your blog will be nothing but a large content farm with lots of content that is not being put to good use. As a result, the content (posts) grows old and rots away (becomes outdated). SEO is like the transmission of a car. No matter how big or powerful your engine is, if you have a faulty transmission, or no transmission at all, you aren't going to win any races. Hence for a blog, everything should be perfect, not just the content you write. We have previously written some similar posts on 13 Killer SEO Tips For Beginner Bloggers. Here, I will share some more of the tips, big and small, that I have learned. This is more of a checklist than anything, So take a look at it and see what you aren't doing.
Wouldn't it be nice if you get a certification for Google AdSense? You'd then be working for Google! Google is considered as one of the best employer in the world to work with. But sadly, this isn't possible as yet, as some of the fake certification programs would have you believe. A lot many programs in various countries have opened up promising you a certification for Google AdSense, in return for an initial setting-up fee. have even seen classifieds in local newspapers in my own country promising similar things. Pleasing as they sound, be ware of such programs though! Do not sign up with any. They are nothing but frauds, merely extravagant ways of picking people's pockets.
Such programs take your money and then completely ignore you, or provide lame excuses for not being able to complete your certification. You want proof? Google themselves say that there is no such Official AdSense Certification program.
Browsing is very popular these days. Everyone who has access to the internet uses some sort of browser. Every day, people are looking for new ways to improve their browsing experience. Before, browser developers had to provide new functionality with updates. Then, some developers sat together and started adding their own functionality to their browsers. Hence developed the concept of plugins, extensions and add-ons. Now though, there has emerged a new, simpler concept of bookmark-lets, which is growing in popularity. Using these tools, you can get all the functionality of plug-ins at your fingertips, and hence increase your browsing speed.
In this post, I will tell you what bookmark-lets are, how to use them, why use them, and then I will share some popular bookmark-lets that I use or have used.
In a world such as today’s, where inflation is on the rise while salaries remain the same, every extra penny can be a blessing. Self-dependence is considered as the ideal situation to be in, especially among the younger generation. Because of the ever rising cost of living commodities and luxuries, more and more people are finding themselves working over-time for some extra salary, looking for better jobs, working part-time to cover their expenses, and so on. Hence, people want to look for alternate or parallel sources of income. And as they say, "where there’s a will, there’s a way". Indeed, there is not one, but many ways you can earn a few extra bucks. Many of these involve working online, meaning you can increase your income while working in the comfort of your living room!
Most of my blogger friends would know how they can earn money online through their blogs via monetizing them. But not everyone has a blog, even though creating a blog is as easy as creating a Facebook profile. Maintaining a blog, however, is not as easy. Hence, for such people, there are various other ways through which they could earn an income.
As the internet has grown over the past few years, so has blogging, and along with it, the concept of Guest blogging. Guest posting is becoming increasingly popular in this so-called "blogosphere". It is a very effective marketing strategy, and allows you to publicize your blog to places beyond your reach.
Guest posting means allowing others to come and write on your website or blog. In addition, it can also refer to you writing posts for other blogs. You can immediately see how this helps the host by reducing his workload. But why go through all the trouble of writing for someone else, when you won't be getting any immediate reward for your services? That's an irrelevant question to me. I'd rather ask, "Why not?", because there are so many benefits to guest posting that after reading all this, you might want to do it yourself.
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The whole 'making-money-online' phenomenon has quite a charm to it. Much and more people are now being attracted towards this side, which I like to call 'the other side' of the internet, since instead of being web-page visitors, some people are now becoming webpage hosters, so to speak. Indeed, for many such people, online advertising has become a major source of income. But many people still don't know fully well about the various advertising options they have. So this post is all about different advertising options that you can try out with your blog / website.
Setting up Google AdSense is the dream for many bloggers, especially beginners. The reason for this is, most people either don't know about, or don't have any alternate sources of income for their blogs. Hence, AdSense has become their go-to place when it comes to making a living online. A lot of people have asked me this; how to use AdSense correctly and earn more money through it? Indeed, when you think about it, it's no piece of cake. It requires much thinking and effort to do it correctly. From choosing the right colors to reducing you bounce rate, there's indeed a lot that can be done. In this post, I'll hopefully address some of the problems that people face.
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When it comes to promoting a business, social media simply cannot be ignored. Social media accounts for a great number of purchases for many businesses, and even for websites and blogs, social media plays an important part in bringing traffic. But socializing with people isn't as easy as all that. It requires a lot of time and effort to put together and maintain a presence on Social media. And due to the so many platforms that people are now using, this has become harder. Due to all this, we have been unable to communicate with you through Google+ Fan Page Properly and we used Mohammad's profile to post updates but now we have set up a separate Fan Page on Google Plus to keep you updated with every single post.
Are you the one who has got strong visualizations? Do you find visualizing your thoughts more interesting as compared to articulating them? Are you the one who is more into background color, music and other video effects while watching a movie? To wrap up, are you a video freak? If yes, how many times have you thought to turn your freakiness into cash? If you have not given it a thought before; do it now! Because we are going to tell you the right ways that could satisfy your passion and drive you massive traffic and finally massive income through overwhelming ad impressions. All you need is to create videos and upload them smartly!
Blogging provides people with the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions with the world, and earn something out of it. Recent trends have shown that the young generation is taking more of an interest in blogging than ever. But blogging is a time-consuming and effort-intensive job. And in today's fast-paced life, it often becomes difficult to take time out of daily life to do something extra. As a result, many of you who are bloggers may be finding it hard to juggle your blogging career along with your academic / professional life. Does that mean you should drop out of your school? Is blogging really worth it?
In simple words, no. Blogging isn't worth it. In this post, we'll discuss why, and also, how to manage your blogging career along with your normal life.
Blogger is one of the most popular publishing platforms available for anyone who wants to voice their thoughts and opinions on the internet. You can also use blogs to earn money online. If you are a Blogger users, then here is a brand new opportunity for you to earn some extra cash right from your Blogger blog! Google has very recently announced another monetization option for Blogger blogs, i.e. the brand new Affiliate Ads!
The Google Affiliate Ads is a new Affiliate Marketing concept by Google, and a positive initiative towards benefiting publishers who are passionate about certain brands or products. Google says, "We believe your recommendation (about products and services) is valuable, and want you to benefit from it". Therefore, here is your chance to try out your hands at this latest Affiliate Marketing tool!
Fortunately just another great day for all MBT readers. We just received a second discount coupon from our current web hosting company i.e. HostGator. These guys are really crazy and it makes me wonder how come they are still surviving with such an extra ordinary customer response despite so much discount and extremely low web hosting price offers. Just this year we lunched our second blog with HostGator,which is a Wordpress based blog. The credits for the blog's load time, server response, and uptime service goes to this Blue Alligator. Today we received an exclusive coupon code for all web hosting plans which will give you over $44 OFF for Hatchling Plan, $71 Off for Baby Plan and over $115 OFF for Business Plan! We have already upgraded both our blogs to Baby plan from hatchling for 3 years registration with an extra charge of just $78 which surely overjoyed us two months back. This coupon code expires April 28th 2012, so we have 25 days left to make a wise purchase. Lets first understand some important features of this great Host before you buy any plan.
Blog monetization is among the best ways to earn money online. Indeed, advertisements are a primary (and the only) source of income for most bloggers. Hence, online advertisements are extremely important, especially to a blogger. For most blogs, the type of advertisements can determine how much revenue is generated. Not only that, they can also impact a blog's traffic. Good, well placed ads can make a lot of money for you. But if you use poorly configured, irrelevant ads, then forget about generating a decent income. Such ads can ruin your blog's traffic. Hence, choosing the right advertisement is vital for your online success.
Blogs and websites are now popping up left and right every day. More and more people are looking for alternatives to their regular jobs. As a result, many small online businesses have surfaced especially in the past few years. And the Credit Card has facilitated the online business industry, commonly known as e-commerce. A growing number of people now want to buy stuff over the internet while sitting in the comfort of their living room, all thanks to the Credit Card which gives them the leisure. This means that now is as good a chance as any to incorporate e-commerce to your website. This also means you need to have a mechanism to accept Credit Cards on your blog / website,
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Exams! One of the most horrible words a student can hear. Exams are especially a big problem for those students who work for a living parallel to studies. All your work schedule is badly disturbed and interrupted when the call for Semester Examination is made. I will be a victim of all day study for the coming 20-30 days and just like last year the blog will be in guest posting mode. Articles on Social Media and blogging will be served as usual by Gold Star MBT contributors. This time Qasim Zaib the author from our second blog (Smart Earning Methods) will be in charge of this blog.
We have shared with you what is pinterest and a few guidelines about setting up a page for promoting your blog through it. But, we have been informed that many of our readers are finding it difficult to create an account and customize this new born network so we have composed this guide for you all, to simplify your problem. Follow up and you will enjoy pinterest the way it deserves.
The basic principle of gaining control over anything is to understand it completely. And, this is the reason why we seek advice from experienced people. In our previous posts, we have introduced pinterest - the visual pin board .We also had a quick overview of its progress and the features offered. We have also provided you with a step by step guidance to create pin boards for your blogs. Now, when we are looking at Pinterest as our potential advertiser, it is important to have a detailed study on how it works before direct jumping and using it right away. Todays tutorial will share some basics that will help you drive more traffic to your websites and blogs through correct pins.
Facebook has recently launched its chat messenger as a desktop application. It was initially leaked in December 2011 and was in testing process since January 2012.And finally you can have it now at your accounts. Its official link for download is not provided yet, but you can download it from other resources.
You don't need to chat from your browser anymore. Relax and chat right from your very own desktop with this latest Facebook Instant Messenger Tool.
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As I got busy with studies, a new social networking niche boosted in numbers and strength so dramatically that it has now become the social media network of 2012 with over 10.4 Million registered users and 50 million blog posts featuring Pinterest including MBT. Daily Pinterest users have increased by more than 145 percent since the beginning of 2012. More than one-fifth of Facebook users are on Pinterest every singly day (which equals more than 2,000,000 FB users). It shows how crazily this new social media platform is emerging amongst the already existing giants like Facebook, twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn.
Yesterday, we introduced visual online pin-board; Pinterest. As it is a new social networking so we felt it important to write tutorials to explain and ease the use for you. Today, we will focus on how to present your blog in this sensational showcase. Taking MBT as our example, we have carved out the following layout for our blog. Allow us to explain you step by step.
A feeling of anger can be easily observed these days among the Facebook fans due to the launch of its new timeline layout and forceful replacement of old profiles with it. We are curious to find out and predict the future of Facebook. Will the lovers of Facebook stick to it or they would seek a replacement for it now? What are the other options available?
One option is quite obvious; Google+. But when we dug more, we found another potential competent. This competent was launched as closed beta version on March, 2010. Yes, I am talking about the online pin board i.e. "Pinterest".
Yes you heard it right! No one can be expected to Park a luxury car safely without Practice or prior Driving knowledge. The number of entrepreneurs, bloggers, freelancers and Internet Marketers is successfully increasing but only some of them succeed in establishing their base online after correctly following the survival tactics. From16 February 2011 onwards, there are now over 156 million public blogs in existence but only atom equivalent numbers have turned Blogging into a Online Happy Living, others gave up with disappointment. During my presentations I often ask the crowd this question "How many bloggers are here?" I then see 80% raising their hands but when asked "How many are earning at least $500-$1K monthly with their blogs?" I find all hands down. This is funny yet a big logical fact. How can some one just jump at something without first building the foundation for it. In todays tutorial, we will be focusing on students, housewives and jobless at large and even those newbie bloggers who are looking for every possible way to increase organic traffic and generate revenue.
Guest post by Rahmeen Ahmad Khan. She is MBT"s Gold Star Contributor
After introducing timeline profile design, facebook has successfully launched timeline for facebook fan pages. Facebook has officially replaced old layouts with the timeline on 30th March, 2012. This time line has been more controversial rather than sensational. So, we are going to dig out why is there so much disturbance regarding a layout and why we can’t undo, disable or remove Timeline. But, we don’t believe in criticism only so we will also find out what should be our next step.
Blogger just added Custom robots header tags to post editor. One of the features of search preferences was robots.txt and Robots tags which could be set only for homepage, archives, posts and pages. But now you can edit these settings even for individual posts and pages right from BlogSpot post editor. Unlike Meta Description, Custom Robots Header tags are not visible and are not shown if you try to check it by viewing the browser source file for your blog. You will only see Meta Description if you have added the dynamic code. We will learn today where are robots tags added in your templates and how can you view them. Lets first find and locate these Robots header tags.
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