9 New Posts |  |
- How Social Media Is Helping to Reunite Families
- 5 Things That Can Damage Your Blog’s Search Engine Rankings
- Common Blog Display Issues and How to Fix Them
- 5 Effortless Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Blog
- Common Blogging Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
- Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic Design
- Why the Evernote Peek App Is a Must for College Students
- The ReadyforZero App to Help You Reach Debt-Free Status
- Must-Have Apps for College Kids Studying Abroad
| How Social Media Is Helping to Reunite Families Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:07 PM PST There may be no experience more terrifying than losing your child. As a parent you always make it your top priority to keep your child safe, to raise him to be aware of his surroundings and approach the world with a cautious but open mind. So if your child disappears one day, you know what follows is a terror that can freeze you in your tracks. But thanks to social media, even panicked parents have a quick and easy resource on their hands that can see them reunited with their children faster and with a greater chance of success than ever before. About a year and a half ago the Loftis family experienced just such a situation, when thirteen-year-old Allie Loftis ran away from home. Although Tony Loftis and his family live in a quiet suburb, Allie was spotted for the last time getting on a bus in Boston, heading towards New York. Tony tried to comfort himself with the hope that Allie was heading towards family they had in Brooklyn, but that didn’t end up being the case. So instead of sitting back and waiting for the police to go through the motions, Tony hit up his social networks. He posted constantly about the search for Allie on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. A couple days into the search, Tony’s efforts came to the attention of editors at The New York Daily News, The Huffington Post and the Boston Herald. On top of that he was also interviewed on four separate television networks. Twelve days into the search and after Tony’s final television appearance Allie was found. She was bunked up with a man who had been convicted of a sexual felony, living in Jersey City, New Jersey. Tony was obviously relieved that his daughter was alive, and immediately got her the care and attention she needed. But after this experience he couldn’t see just going back into his normal life. He wanted to bridge the gap between parents and the organizations that handle missing persons cases, by organizing a standardized social media outreach program. So along with a handful of other parents and social media professionals, Tony put together a detailed guidebook that would help anyone who needed it to search for their missing children with the power of social media. The twenty-four page guide was published in the fall of last year, and its success led Tony to create the Find Your Missing Child organization, which is now his full-time career. Through Find Your Missing Child, Tony has realized that the current generation of parents is far more savvy with social media than the organizations designed to help them find their missing children. His startup provides detailed resources these organizations can use, as well as references and a blog for police departments and the families of these endangered children. Tony now suggests that any parent beginning a missing person search should launch new social media accounts and a separate email to funnel everything through. That way the inundation of messages will be more manageable. For parents it’s a way to increase their involvement and stave off that feeling of powerlessness. Just keep in mind that people online will certainly share their opinions, and they won’t always be kind. But according to the University of Florida and other recent studies more than 90% of missing children do end up at home. So advocate tirelessly for your child, and hopefully your family will end up a part of that majority. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| 5 Things That Can Damage Your Blog’s Search Engine Rankings Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:07 PM PST Improving search engine rankings, otherwise known as SEO, is an important practice in internet business today. Webmasters everywhere are seeking to boost their blogs’ page rankings in Google and other search engines in order to build more traffic and beat out the competition. There are many ways to go about improving your SEO, but not all of them are beneficial in the long term. Some practices can easily damage your blog’s search engine ranking, so be sure to take care in your struggle for search engine optimization.
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| Common Blog Display Issues and How to Fix Them Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:06 PM PST In today’s high tech world of international communication having a blog is almost as common as having a business card. Your blog is the way you promote your business, share insights, generate an audience, sell products or simply pass the time with like-minded individuals. It’s an incredibly powerful resource that can be designed and launched with very little lead time and a financial pittance compared to most traditional mediums. But what happens when your blog isn’t showing up the way that it should? It’s easy for a small mistake to cause your best laid online plans to blow up in your face, costing you precious traffic and contacts. Here are some of the most common blog display issues and how to go about fixing them. First on the list is an obvious one, when you type in your URL and load the blog only to find that your design is gone. Maybe you see a white background, or the text and nothing else, but basically everything that’s cool about your blog is gone. In this case you might have an issue with the domain mapping of your site. Check out the settings, and see if you’re missing a CNAME Record on the registrar. This record will point to your domain name, therefore tying the hosted design to the content. If the CNAME Record is in place and you’ve still got display problems, check with the registrar of the domain. There could be an activation issue causing the problem. Another common issue involves your blog either loading incredibly slowly or not loading at all. The usual culprit in these instances is some sort of third-party script that’s unresponsive. Any widget you’ve added to the blog, ad you’ve posted on your site or content that’s coming from an outside source will all need to be reviewed in order to locate the problem. The third-party site behind that content could be having issues, which will therefore continue through to issues on your site. Refresh the site, and look for the area that holds up the loading process. Try removing that third-party script and reloading the site again. If the content in question isn’t broken but just loads slower than anything else you might need to change your blog’s layout, so the rest of the site loads cleanly before starting that additional script. Say you’ve made a bunch of changes, such as publishing a brand new blog post or altering the site’s design, and now you can’t see any of your work. This is a fairly common display issue, which usually requires refreshing your browser. But instead of just hitting the ‘refresh’ button you’ll have to perform a hard refresh. That will clear any cached versions of your blog in favor of the new blog with updated changes. This problem appears most frequently when using the Safari browser, regardless of whether you have RealTek drivers installed or the stock offerings, but it can come up with any web browser at all. If you use Safari open its menu and empty the cache. Then hit Control+F5 on your Windows computer or Command+Shift+R on a Mac device. That should work for any browser. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| 5 Effortless Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Blog Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:06 PM PST When you’re looking to find success on the Internet, there are a few things that you will absolutely have to include in your strategy. There are a lot of things that go into finding success online, but some of the most important ones can’t be ignored, no matter what. Of course, no matter what kind of website you’re running, you’re going to want to make sure that it ranks high in the search results when the proper keywords are entered. You’ll use a process called search engine optimization (or “SEO” for short) to make this happen, and your website is going to have a very hard time getting noticed and finding traffic if you don’t have an SEO campaign in place. Websites are also going to need content, so that people have a reason to visit them in the first place. When you’re in charge of a blog, content is your entire game. What’s more is that for a blog, you’ve got to be posting content on a pretty regular basis. It can be tough to find the inspiration required to write so regularly, but if you want your blog to be successful, you’re going to have to make sure you stay inspired. 1. Use Google Reader or Another RSS Reader. Bloggers are all about the online conversation. When you’re running a blog, you have to always make sure that you’ve got something to say, and it’s always got to be relevant. Use a service like Google Reader, or Feedly if you’ve got a tablet computer. A service like this will let you subscribe to various websites’ RSS feeds. This basically brings the Internet to you, instead of the other way around. All the content from your favorite websites will be piped into one single application and you can browse stories and blogs at your leisure. It’s tough not to stay inspired when the entire Internet gets funneled into one easy location. 2. Set a Schedule. When you’re trying to write on a regular basis, you’ll do yourself a huge favor if you can get yourself into a sort of “writing routine” every day. It might sound a little surprising, but if you start writing at the same time every day, your brain will have a much easier time slipping into “writing mode” and allowing you to crank out that quality content that your readers love so much. 3. Get Outside!! Seriously, get outside. You don’t have to do much more than this to get inspiration; just head outside, sit still, and enjoy nature for a few minutes. If you don’t live in a very natural place, just take a walk. Either way, try getting yourself some fresh air and sunlight. Simply taking a few minutes to be quiet and workspace can seriously do wonders for your inspiration, in ways that you might even find surprising. 4. Explore Your City. You can take the whole “going outside” one step further, and do some serious exploration. It’s more than likely that you haven’t peeked into every alleyway and corner that your city has to offer. Get out and explore. Leave the city if you have to! The point is, put yourself in a brand new place where you’ve never seen anything that’s around you. Doing this without actually traveling too far from the place where you live can be a wonderfully exhilarating experience, and can lead to some first-rate blogging inspiration. 5. Read, Read, Read. You should always be reading if you have any desire to make any kind of career out of writing. Your writing skill is very much a muscle. The more you work it out, the easier it’s going to be for you to use, and the more powerful it’s going to be when you use it. Whether you want to start a Norweigeian Internettbutikker blogg or are looking to write about DIY crafting, you should make sure that you’re reading all the time. It doesn’t matter what you read, just make sure you augment your Internet travels with something that was actually published on paper. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| Common Blogging Mistakes That Are Costing You Money Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:06 PM PST Blogging for businesses and individuals alike has exploded over the past several years. Today, everyone with internet access has the ability to create and publish their own content with complete freedom on one of the many blogging networks available. Whether your main concern is expression or profit, there is a great deal of potential in blogging. However, if you want to blog productively, you’re going to need to educate yourself. There are a number of common blogging mistakes that can cost you money and defeat your purpose. Give careful consideration to where you host your blog pages. If you want to have your own domain name and give your blog legitimacy, you’re going to have to buy domain rights and hosting options from one of the many companies on the market offering these services. It might seem prudent to opt for a discount hosting package, but be careful with this. Companies offer different prices for a reason. If you want optimal security and back-up capabilities, you’re going to have to pay. If you neglect these things, you might find your website vulnerable to hacks and data loss. Web design is an industry that blew up when the internet became a common household utility, and it hasn’t slowed down over the years. It might be tempting to hire a designer to optimize your blog layout, but think twice before making this decision. What can a professional designer do that you can’t do on your own. Most of today’s popular blogging platforms offer an array of templates and themes that you can tweak on your own to get your blog looking just right. Try your hand at designing your blog pages before paying someone else to do the job. How well do you know your audience? Getting acquainted with your readers is important in blogging, and there are tools available that can help you in this area. Start using Google Analytics for your blog and website to gather information on your visitors. You’ll have access to a range of statistics about your blog, including where your visitors are coming from, and which pages are more popular than others. This information can help you get a feel for what your readers enjoy about your blog, so that you can give them what they want. Going over your Analytics stats, you may even find that you’re writing to the wrong audience. This is one of the biggest mistakes any blogger can make. If you’re blogging for business, remember that the target audience is not your boss. When writing for your own purposes, remember that the majority of readers out there don’t know you. Write for the reader, and no one else. If you don’t promote your blog, all of your hard work is going to be ultimately pointless. Use social media networks to get your name out into the world and start generating traffic. Very few blogging mistakes are more costly than the failure to market actively. Social media is free and gives you the ability to instantly notify hundreds, or even thousands of people every time your blog is updated. Don’t miss out on this golden opportunity to grow your audience. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic Design Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:06 PM PST Infographics are all the rage in today’s market. With the speed of technology constantly increasing and more internet browsing moving to mobile platforms every day, we need solutions for expressing information as quickly as possible. A well designed infographic can say as much as an entire news article, and it can be read and understood in a matter of seconds. Of course, not every infographic is successful–be sure to remember these do’s and don’t's of infographic design to make sure your point gets across. Do: Use Proportion Wisely Don’t: Overload With Text Do: Choose an Effective Color Scheme Don’t: Make Your Graphics Too Large Do: Promote Through Social Networks Don’t: Forget to Tell a Story Whether you’re working on infographics for a blog, a business proposal, brochure design or anything else, remember these guidelines. Infographics can express information in a way that is both efficient and interesting, but only when the fundamental design principles are kept in mind. Make your infographics visually and intellectually stimulating by following these do’s and don’t's of design. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| Why the Evernote Peek App Is a Must for College Students Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:06 PM PST Whether you’re enrolled in an Ivy League University or a two-year junior college earning a degree is no walk in the park. You’ve got these massive life changes to deal with, often leaving home and taking care of your needs on your own for the first time ever. You’ve left your friends behind and need to make all new connections, navigate a large, often overwhelming campus and even juggle a part-time job. Amongst all of this stuff you still have to study, write papers, take tests and earn grades that either send you off to celebrate or back to the dorm to hide under the covers. It’s a lot to handle even when you have a great support structure. Thankfully, technology is also on your side. If you’ve got a mobile device, download the Evernote Peek App and discover why it’s a must for college students. College kids aren’t exactly known for top notch organization skills. You’ve got several classes to keep track of, and each one works on its own schedule. With Evernote you can create a Planner notebook that will have you more organized than you would ever have expected. All of your deadlines and projects can live in the same place, so you’ll never miss a due date again. And the Planner isn’t only for your school work. You can include anything with a due date here, such as internship or job applications, sports practices or school elections. Regardless of your major you’re going to spend a ton of time doing research while at school. It comes with the territory. But much has changed in how people research over the past few decades. The internet has taken the place of the library, and most students don’t even know what the Dewey Decimal System is anymore. But while the internet is an incredible resource it is also quite cluttered. Even useful web pages are chock full of advertisements, links and unnecessary images. You also don’t want to be tied down to your computer all the time. Evernote allows you to clip web content out and move it into a new file. You can save that file and access it from wherever you are. A forgotten link or lost browser bookmark will never sink your research project again. University classes move fast, much faster than your high school classes did. The professor won’t always stop for questions, and you often have to choose between taking good notes or actually listening to what is being said. That’s no kind of decision to make. So use Evernote to take the pressure off of note-taking. At the end of class, snap a photo of the chalkboard and Evernote will upload it into your notes folder. You can make additions and highlight certain elements later. Same goes for written notes. Either take a photo or scan a hand-written ream of class notes and you can use them just as if they were digital. They’re searchable as well, as long as your handwriting isn’t terrible. Finally, consider Evernote for group projects when you can’t be in the same physical spot as your partners. Maybe you wanted to learn more about Pepperdine’s online MBA program, but stopped because you realized you won’t be able to get together with your peers to study. Thanks to Evernote this is no longer an issue. Create a Shared Notebook and everyone on your team can contribute to it. You can adjust a study guide through the app that everyone can access, and even quiz each other with homemade practice exams. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| The ReadyforZero App to Help You Reach Debt-Free Status Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:06 PM PST This most recent recession has taken a serious toll on the U.S. economy. But it’s not just about financial markets, bank debt and real estate. There are lives at stake, and many folks who used to consider themselves firmly ensconced in the middle class are now facing massive amounts of debt, thanks to an extended unemployment period, an unexpected illness not covered by medical insurance or even a natural disaster that decimated their community. While all of these may or may not have anything to do with the state of the economy, there’s no question that people need help digging their way out of debt. Thankfully, modern technology offers you more tools than ever before, not only to manage your finances but to turn them around. If you’ve got a mobile device, check out the ReadyforZero App and start working your way out of debt today. All you have to do is grab your smartphone or tablet device and head to your app store. You’ll find the ReadyforZero app available for any iOS-powered device, and it will download very quickly. Launch the app and open a free account. Once you’ve entered an account ID and password, the next step is to give the app a complete picture of your finances. That means pull up all of your debts, your credit cards, your mortgage information, any student loans or other short or long-term loans you might be carrying, and enter in all of that data. Then add in your bank account information, as well as the details of any other assets you’ve got on the books. The app will generate a tally and give you a snapshot of where you stand financially. At that point you’re ready to go. ReadyforZero will then help you set a goal for paying down your debt, as well as come up with a strategy for actually reaching that goal. You’ve got to do the hard work yourself, as far as acting more prudently. But thanks to the app you won’t have to really think very hard along the way. It automates everything possible, and provides daily tools and tips. As far as debt-reduction tools go, this app is a powerful option. According to the designers of ReadyforZero, customers have already made the app a significant success. It hasn’t been around for very long, but the numbers do not lie. Customers using ReadyforZero have managed to reduce their total debt by upwards of $32 million. That may only be a drop in the bucket as far as the national debt goes, but for private individuals that’s a huge amount of money. It could end up making the difference between finding the means to paying off a mortgage or losing your house, of feeding and clothing your children or sending them out with one bare foot the next time they misplace a sneaker. That may sound dramatic, but for many Americans those were the sort of choices that had to be made over the past several years. Apps like ReadyforZero can’t solve the underlying problems. But if they can help change even one life for the better their creation is absolutely worth it. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
| Must-Have Apps for College Kids Studying Abroad Posted: 27 Jan 2013 10:05 PM PST The college years often mark a time in life that is the most exciting and transformative, in which people discover who they are and what they want to do with their lives. For many students, this includes meeting new people from a diverse array of social groups, taking classes from a wide variety of disciplines, and engaging in extracurricular activities such as pledging Greek houses, joining athletic or academic clubs, or even participating in unsanctioned events (keggers, for example). And plenty of students turn their eyes to foreign shores and the prospect of using study abroad programs as a way to visit other countries and interact with different cultures. Thanks to the growing world of mobile applications, these opportunities to explore the world are made even easier. So if you happen to be leaving on a jet plane, headed for parts unknown in order to increase the scope of your education, here are a few handy apps that you won’t want to leave home without. For starters you’ll definitely want some GPS-based applications. Nearly everyone already has Google Maps on their smartphone or tablet, and this will definitely be one of your most used programs when you’re in an unknown locale. But you could also benefit from applications like Urbanspoon that can give you the 411 on eateries near your current location, or Foursquare, which not only offers up restaurants, but also lodgings, venues for entertainment, and more. And you might want to think about downloading an international cab-hailing app like Hailo (available in major cities across the globe, from Tokyo to Toronto), which pinpoints your location via GPS and arranges for immediate (or future) cab service when you book through the app. You can even track your cab to see how close it is to reaching you. Of course, you still might not get very far if you don’t speak the language, so the student on a mission to study abroad would do well to download a translation app or two. Immersion will help you to flesh out your limited vocabulary and form proper sentences over time, but having the right apps on hand to help you out initially is still a good idea. Google Translate is probably the best app for this purpose all around, with over 60 languages at your disposal, text and audio translation features, and the ability to save faves for online use (not to mention a free download). You might also like Word Lens, which lets you snap pics of signs in order to have the text translated (at up to $4.99 per language) and Speak Text, which is pricy at nearly twenty bucks, but features 30 languages with spoken components for 20, as well as the ability to translate chunks of text drawn from documents. Finally, you’ll probably want to stay in touch with family and friends back home. And while you can connect through NYU or UC online platforms, for example, you might also consider that apps like Skype allow you to video chat for free via WiFi (although you may suffer delays), as well as make bargain-basement phone calls that would otherwise bleed you dry thanks to sky-high international or roaming charges. You’ll no doubt come across several apps that could also be useful when studying abroad, but those aimed at travel and communication are definitely amongst the must-haves. © 2011 TipsBlogger.com | Home | Contact | Submit Guest Post | |
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