7 Legit Ways To Make Money Online Blogging in 2017

7 Legit Ways To Make Money Online Blogging in 2017

blogging tips make money online

We've all heard those stories of someone that started a little blog one day and ten years later they've given up their day job because their blog is drawing in so much money for them they don't even need to get out of bed in the morning. The funny thing is, with a lot of hard work and time spent on getting your blog up and running, you can actually make a pretty penny out it. So, if you're interested in learning how to make money blogging then read on, I'll warn you now though, you're going to have to be seriously dedicated to get this running!

Sell digital products

A really simple way to make money online is to sell things online. Whether you're looking at selling digital goods or physical ones, you need to think closely about where your skills and strengths lie. Setting up a blog that is geared towards selling your goods might seem like a great idea but it's better to set up a blog and add the odd link to other work that you're doing. People read blogs for the stories and information, not to be sold goods left, right and centre, so keep this in mind when you're starting out on the blogging journey.

Some commonly sold digital goods include: 

• eBooks 
• Audiobooks
• Pictures & Videos
• Digital music
• Software programs
• Website themes

Sell physical products

The other great thing to remember is that knowing your audience will make all the difference when you're selling goods online. Running a blog about cars and motorsport and trying to sell homemade paper flowers just won't mix. If paper bouquets are your passion and you know they're good enough to sell, then the best thing for it is to set up a secondary blog that focuses on something more in keeping with what you're selling. Remember though, don't push the sales from the get go. If people feel like they're being sold to, they won't be interested. If your goods are just supporting what you're saying in your blog then you'll find a lot more enquiries fly your way!

Some of the physical goods that you can sell:

• Clothing
• Jewelry
• Handmade goods
• Household Items
• Electronics

Sell Advertising space

A really common way to make money from a blog is to sell advertising. The more traffic you have flowing through your page, the more likely you are to draw advertising agencies in and this can be a really quick way to make a little bit of extra money. If you're finding other ways of making money through your blog then you might want to think about using advertising space to your own benefit by advertising your own products! Taking people from your blog to your selling page will only generate a little bit of extra business for your sales. Sure, advertising someone else's websites might bring in the cash at the point of sale but would you make extra money from sales of your own goods? Just something to consider!

Sell online courses and eBooks

If you're really feeling confident in the topic of your blog then you might want to consider doing some form of educational documentation. Whether you do a few online courses or write an ebook, if your followers really respect your expertise in the field you're talking about then they will flock to what you have to offer. Obviously, the best products to sell will vary massively depending on the type of blog you run. Factual blogs will work well with eBooks, lifestyle blogs might offer some one to one coaching sessions and online courses might be best for those that are thinking about a change of scenery in the workplace. If in doubt, ask your readers what they'd like and whether they'd be interested! There's no better feedback than the people you're already writing for.

Freelancing

If you're reading all of these tips and thinking 'that doesn't apply to me' then worry not, you're not alone! We've all got our own areas of expertise and very often, the job you do for your career can make you some extra money at home. Whether you're coming from a financial background, web design or bookkeeping, they're all skills that are highly sought after for a lot of people. The great thing about advertising these skills on your blog is you're more likely to pick up a job that directly corresponds with your interests. Sick of making up advertisements for big businesses and fancy helping out a local dealer? Well your blog could be the perfect place to get business like that running. Before you know it, you could be a freelancer running your own business!

Here are some ideas:

• Freelance writing
• Data Entry
• Virtual assistant work
• Web Development
• Marketing

Affiliate marketing

If all else fails then there's always the opportunity to sell other people's good through your blog. This doesn't necessarily include actively selling their goods in that you don't have to deal with the postage and packaging though! Affiliate marketing is an amazing way to make money from blogging if you're smart about how you go about it. Picking your affiliates sensibly and going for products that will actually hold the interest of your readers, a simple plug about the product at the end of the post might be all it takes. You might choose to go a little more in depth and focus an entire post on one product although this does depend on the sort of blog you run! Make-up and fashion blogs do exceedingly well at this sort of sales (and they often get free gifts out of it as an added bonus!)

Membership sites

Finally, offering a membership to your blog will allow people to check out extra content on your blog. This is a great way of making money when you're a well established blog as you're basically offering a bonus to people that pay for it while still keeping up with the basic info for people that have followed you from the start.

If you're thinking about starting a membership site but don't know what to do, here are some ideas:

• Offer exclusive downloads each month via email (i.e. apps, graphics, recipes etc.)
• Exclusive educational videos, blog posts, webinars, or courses
• Downloadable guides or books 
• Offer Expert advice

Making money through your blog is a great little bonus at the end of the month, however if you're really serious about it then you need to work hard and be dedicated to the cause. A sporadic blog that has no focus is much less likely to bring you any extra pennies in compared to someone who does weekly blogs and has specific themes on different nights. If you intend to make money out of your blog then your best bet is to sit down, give a good hard think as to the type of blog you're running and what goods you can offer in tandem with this. After you settle in, keep in mind that making seriously big bucks out of your blog means you have to be in it for the long run.

Author. Erwin Widianto

20 Best Sites with High Quality Free Stock Photos

20 Best Sites with High Quality Free Stock Photos

beginner's guide blogging tips

In today's online business world, tons of people have a need for quality free stock photos for their blogs, company websites, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of businesses who are settling for the corny stock photo of yesteryear, either because they don't know their options or think they are too hard to find.

That's where the good news comes in: good stock photos don't have to be expensive or hidden deep in the crevices of the internet. In our digital age, there's plenty of solid material out there - if you know where to look. Read for more good news? We have your back, and have taken the hassle out of finding these stellar stock images.

We're confident that this collection of resources will help you find exactly what you're looking for, whether it's adorable animals, minimalist interior design, and anything in between.

20 of the Best Sites to Download Royalty Free Stock Photos

1. Negative Space

One of the best things about Negative Space is that they are constantly updating their free stock photos every week. With Negative Space, you never need to worry about copyright restrictions, so you can use them for your project without having to jump through hoops.

Negative Space has a large selection to choose from, and the interface is very user-friendly. It's easy to sort through the photos in order to find exactly what you need.

2. Death to the Stock Photo

The founders of Death to Stock are dedicated to making beautiful photos more accessible. They knew how important it is for those running blogs and online businesses to not spend all of their profit on images for their websites.

The format is simple: just give them your email to get a new bundle of great stock pictures monthly, then just use the ones that apply to your current project. Easy!

For businesses with some extra funds to invest, Death to Stock has an affordable Premium membership which gives you access to their entire library of photos (instead of just the pre-selected ones they send), plus some of the profits from the membership are used to further the resource by financing photographers and their projects.

3. Picjumbo

Picjumbo is unique in that all of the photos come from a sole photographer, Viktor, who shares his photos from his home in the Czech Republic.

He updates the selection of photos really frequently, so there is always a fresh batch of high-quality graphics to download. To take it a step further, Viktor offers affordable paid packages for businesses that use stock images frequently. He also has a nifty plugin for the Photoshop and Sketch programs for just under 8 bucks.

4. Stokpic

Stokpic is another example of a photographer deciding to give away his photos for free. Ed Gregory decided to share 10 new photos bi-weekly that you can use in any way that suits you.

The easy user interface allows you to browse his categories like architecture, fashion, and nature.

5. Kaboompics

The site's creator, Karolina, is a Polish web designer. She is the creative engine behind this extensive stockpile of high-quality pictures. The images address a wide variety of topics. As with the rest of the sites, users can use Karolina's pictures for anything they need.

A quick visit to the About page of the site shows how big of a reach it has; during our visit to the page, the Image Downloads ticker stood at a whopping 5,051,906.

6. Startup Stock Photos

Startup Stock Photos is a company that operates on simplicity. They share pictures they're taking anyway in order to help businesses find a cheaper way to gain traction online.

You don't have to be a startup business to utilize their images, which is fine by them. The images are free, but they wouldn't say no to a donation.

7. Freerange

Freerange photos derive from a community of in-house as well as external talent.

At Freerange, their principles and motivations are clear: "Freerange Stock was formed with the goal to provide quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use. For free. We feel that free stock photos can be good photos." Can't argue with that.

8. Libreshot

Every photographer brings his/her own unique style to this fun brand of art. At Libreshot lives a very unique collection of free stock photos.

9. Fancy Crave

The images on Fancy Crave come without copyright restrictions, and they're free of all the corniness of typical stock photos.

Attribution is not legally required, but they note that it is recommended if possible.

Fancy Craves selects two fresh photos to upload daily, keeping things current and providing beautiful photos to suit all needs.

10. Unsplash

The creativity of the title matches the creativity of their photos. They have pages and pages of quirky, one-of-a-kind images for you to choose from.

As you've likely come to expect, these images are able to be used without any copyright restrictions.

11. StockSnap

The photos on StockSnap are of superb quality and most of them are especially great for use as backgrounds.

The selection is so interesting and versatile that it's easy to find yourself on page 50 of photos all of a sudden. And yes - they're free.

12. SplitShire

SplitShire is an Italy-based organization that offers pages of incredible free photos for you to use at will. Their philanthropic mission is simply: "Helping you to be awesome out there with great content."

13. Life of Pix

Life of Pix was created by Leeroy Advertising Agency (Montreal, Canada) and they have a real knack for supplying great pictures. Naturally, these cool graphics are fine for you to use - no strings attached.

If pictures aren't enough for your unique project, they have a sister company called Life of Vids.

14. Pexels

Unlike most of the other listed sites, Pexels handpicks their favorite photos from a pool of free image sources to ensure that you're seeing only top-tier work.

The images that survive their rigorous selection process are then able to be used in any way you see fit. The site also makes searching for your perfect stock photo as easy as possible.

15. HubSpot

HubSpot is a bit different from the rest; there's somewhat of a shortage of high-quality free stock photos available to those who need solely business-themed graphics. Hubspot has a healthy selection of corporate-style images that are perfect for a professional project.

16. Gratisography

The images on Gratisography lie a little further on the wacky side. These creations come from photographer Ryan McGuire, who is known for seeing things a bit differently. His work is significantly quirkier than some other sites (i.e. fake moustaches, pineapples wearing glasses, gummy bears in cereal) but you never know when you project might just call for something out of the ordinary.

17. Jay Mantri

Jay Mantri is yet another good-guy photographer who chose to share his amazing photos with the world. His work is quite sophisticated, and a lot of shots leave you wondering how he did it.

This is one artist we'd say to go check out anyway, even if you don't have a specific need for scenic, high-class images.

18. ISO Republic

ISO's Republic's mission is to supply only the best digital images for online businesses of all kinds.

One visit to their site will tell you immediately that they are serious about the quality of their content. The photos are top-notch quality, and while the subject matter varies, they all maintain a similar level of sophistication.

Similar to some previously listed sites, you have an option on ISO to register for their email list to get extra content not posted on the site.

19. New Old Stock

This free stock photo site embodies classic elegance. They deal exclusively in old photos, usually in black and white. Web designers and history buffs alike will enjoy their large compilation of antique photos. Though there are some unique challenges to the redistribution of old pictures, the site only posts those that have no evidence of copyright issues.

Their rules are slightly more stringent than other sites, so just make sure to read up on it before using these photos for commercial purposes.

20. Pixabay

Pixabay is our final choice of free stock photo collection. It has a great archive of plenty of public domain photos (so you can use them without worrying about copyright issues). Thank goodness they have an intuitive search mechanism since they have just shy of a million awesome graphics.

Unlike some other sites, it offers a more advanced search that allows you to filter your query as much as you need so you can always find exactly what you want.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Pengaruh Memasang Alexa Pagerank di Blogspot

Pengaruh Memasang Alexa Pagerank di Blogspot

Alexa blogging tips

Pengaruh memasang Alexa pagerank di blogspot tidak terlalu signifikan. Seperti yang selama ini kita ketahui bahwa alexa adalah salah satu website yang memberikan peringkat atau ranking terhadap sebuah website atau blog. Namun ranking yang diberikan untuk blog yang dimaksud tidak sepenuhnya berpengaruh terhadap mesin pencari seperti search engine google.

Kenapa begitu? Karena index google tidak berdasarkan kepada peringkat suatu blog di alexa. Sebab bagaimana jika ada website yang berkualitas, misalnya blog tersebut rajin update serta memiliki trafik pengunjung yang tinggi, sedangkan di blog tersebut tidak dipasang widget alexa? Atau para pengunjung website yang dimaksud tidak memasang alexa toolbar di browser mereka?

Oleh karena itu Alexa pagerank hanya berlaku untuk standar di website alexa saja, tidak lantas akan menjadi tolak ukur bagi mesin pencari seperti google untuk menilai seberapa berkualitas suatu blog. Misalnya kenapa blog dengan topik SEO rata-rata pagerank alexa-nya selalu lebih ramping? Itu sebabnya karena rata-rata pengunjung blog SEO adalah para blogger yang biasanya memasang Alexa Toolbar di browser mereka.

Jadi untuk mendapatkan peringkat yang baik di mesin pencari seperti google, bing, yahoo dll tidak perlu mengejar seberapa ramping pagerank blog anda di alexa. Tetapi tetaplah dengan komitmen untuk selalu memberikan konten terbaik bagi para pengunjung blog anda secara konsisten.

Google dengan alogaritma mesin pencarinya yang secara periodik selalu diperbaharui untuk meningkatkan kualitas pencarian bagi para penggunanya, selalu lebih menyukai konten-konten unik yang segar dan berkualitas yang dibutuhkan oleh para pencari informasi di internet. Konten yang berkualitas menurut definisi saya bukan konten yang selalu sedang trend saja, atau harus terlihat sangat profesional. Namun lebih kepada kualitas keaslian konten tersebut, dan seberapa bermanpaat konten itu bagi para visitor blog anda.

Misalnya, jika konten anda berupa tulisan pada sebuah artikel dan itu murni hasil ide sendiri, kemudian topik yang dibahas di dalam artikel itu banyak memberikan informasi yang bermanfaat bagi para pengunjung internet, maka konten tersebut itulah yang termasuk konten berkualitas yang akan disukai oleh search engine seperti google.

Author. Erwin Widianto

5 Common And Silly Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid

5 Common And Silly Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid

Blogging Mistakes blogging tips

When you start your blog you might curious to know How to make your blog better than other blogs out there and how to become a successful blogger?

To be honest I am a bit confused to answer questions like this, because I am not a person who has a vast experience about blogging. I'm also still learning many new things in blogging world the same as other bloggers. and I still have a lot to improve my blogging skill.

But here as much as I would like to share what I've learned from my mistakes and I will also share how can you avoid these mistakes to rich out more peoples on your blog.

If you just started your blog you have to read some articles that tells you what you should do and what you should avoid. So today I am going to talk about common blogging mistakes which unknowingly happens by newbie bloggers. and these mistakes can prevent you to become a successful blogger.

7 Common Blogging Mistakes To Avoid

Blogging Mistake #1: Unattractive Blog Design:

 
The biggest mistake I can ever see that many bloggers puts lot of contents on their blog without having attractive and professional looking blog design.

If you want to make your first time visitor is regular visitor then you must have attractive blog design to catch your readers attention towards your blog.

Tips To Create Attractive Blog Design:

• If you have not a blog designing skill then just spend few dollars to purchase template/theme or choose free but professional looking template/theme and customize it yourself. 
• Keep your blog design color scheme simple and eye catchy.
• Use social share and social follow buttons to build good connection with your readers..
• Most important widgets: Newsletter box, Author bio box, Social media buttons, Popular posts, Recent posts. 
• Use simple and fast loading fonts like Georgia, Arial, Verdana etc.

Blogging Mistake #2: Focused On Quantity Rather Than Quality

 

What’s more important for you - Quantity or Quality?

For every blogger quality should be important rather than quantity. This type of blogging mistake I have seen many times. many bloggers usually vying to fill up the blog with heap of posts in the hope of quickly getting a lot of visitors.

Writing few good quality posts on your blog will not give you thousand visitors! but it will give you a loyal readers :) and Writing thousand of posts without quality will surely give you thousand visitors but can you get even one loyal reader for your blog?

Just think about it!

If the quality isn’t good, then your conversions will be low with your readers, so why bother? just try to make great contents in order to get massive traffic to your blog.

Blogging Mistake #3: Don't Have Patience 

 

Every blogger started blogging because he want to make money from it. They take it for granted that success in blogging can be done overnight, but it is not so easy. you need to have a lot of patience, efforts, and consistency in order to succeed.

Patience is most important ingredient to get success in blogging world

I see far too many bloggers who don’t have the patience to build good relationship, they becomes forceful in trying to promote their blog, get lazy in providing great and read worthy content and at the end they fail.

Patience is a success key for every blogger and nobody in the blogging industry who achieved their goal without hard work and patience. so keep some patience and success will follow you.

Blogging Mistake #4: Do Not Taking Advantage Of Search Engines

 

Why you write articles on your blog, the first reason is you want readers, Right? but how to get more readers for your blog in short span of time.

Social Media! 

Only Social Media?

No! you can't get huge traffic from social media for a longer, you should optimize your blog posts in order to get more traffic from Google and other search engines.

So taking maximum advantage of Search Engines is most important for every blogger. but many bloggers "especially newbies" avoids SEO optimization.

Read: 10 On Page SEO Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines

To avoid this mistake learn how to do proper SEO optimization for blog post to achieve high rank on search engines.
 

Blogging Mistake #5: Lack Of Marketing, Just Focused On Contents

I agree with the guy who made up the statement"Content is king", but we can say that statement only when if we have a combination of great content and marketing, because marketing makes content king.

If you have a great contents on your blog but you don't have enough traffic then how can you say "content is king"

There are several blоggеrѕ оut there who provides great content оn their blog but they are unlisted in competitive blogging world, why?

Marketing Guys Marking!  

After publishing post, you should promote your blog post on social networking sites to get instant response on your post. after getting response from your readers you can analyze readers engagement with your post.

I think you got, what I want to say. In short you can’t succeed in blogging by having only great contents. you have to marketing yourself on various social networking sites.

Conclusion

 

So, these are the 7 common blogging mistakes to avoid, The bottom line of this post is we should learn and grow from the mistakes and errors.

There are lots of blogging mistakes rolling out everyday so this is not the end. I will share some more articles on that topic so please stay tuned.

Don't forget to share your views with me, and share this post with your blogging buddies to create awareness about blogging mistakes. 

Author. Erwin Widianto

What To Do When Someone Copy Your Blog Content Without Permission?

What To Do When Someone Copy Your Blog Content Without Permission?

blogging tips Plagiarism

Plagiarism is becoming a very serious problem for bloggers. In fact, anyone can easily steal blog content and re-post on their blog without any permission. This is one of the biggest mistake happen by bloggers (especially newbies). because they aren't aware about plagiarism consequences.

Did you get your blog article is copied on other blogs ever? How do you feel? I know you will feel bad, but let's think out of the box, if you content getting copied that means scraper giving more value to your content.

Recently my friend (Rohan from Rohanchaubey.blogspot.com) blog’s content getting copied by someone, so he was little worried about that and trying to find ways to stop plagiarism. So that's why I decided to write article on plagiarism.

Well, copy pasting is natural thing, but if anyone publish your content on their blog without attribution, without credit back then we should take some action on that.

How to Find Out Who is Copying Your Blog Content

Find Duplicate Contents Using Google Search:

We have a easiest way to find content scrapers via Google search, All you have to do is, copy a unique sentence or phrase of your article and paste into Google search bar with double quotes. Now it will show you all results that similar to your sentence. if there is no sign of plagiarism means your content is safe.

Quicksprout is one of the most popular blog among bloggers, there is lot of articles copied on internet from quicksprout. as a example, see the screenshot below.

Find Duplicate Contents Using Plagiarism Tools:

To stop plagiarism there are several free online tools available on internet, they will help you to check your content is original or duplicate.

In my recent post I've shared some helpful tools to prevent your blog from being copied and detect plagiarism so this is the smart way to find plagiarism, check it out here:

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Free Online Plagiarism Checker Tools

Well, these are the tools to find out who is copying your blog contents and now we will see how to stop plagiarism.

How To Get Your Article Removed From Scraper's Site?

 

Contact To Blog Owner:

Taking legal action immediately it's not good option, Before you take some legal action on content scraper you should try another way to get your post down from his blog. The first step is try to contact the blog admin/author via contact page and politely request him to take down that post.

If there no contact box, get social media contacts from his blog and send private message to remove your article. 

Report Google DMCA:

If you didn't get any response about your message, now it looks like we should  take legal action. Now go to the Google DMCA Page and submit you legal request to remove copied content from Google search.

Read:  How to Report DMCA to Remove Copied Content From Google Search.

Complain To Web Hosting Company:

Find out website details like web hosting company name, domain name etc. and send a complain to the web hosting company of that website using contact page. they will 100% respond your message and they will take action on that immediately.

To find out website details use this resources: whoishostingthis.com, who.is, semrush.com etc.

Report To Google Adsense DMCA:

If that content scraper uses Google adsense or any other advertising network on his site, then you can report to that advertising network to ban advertising on that site permanently.

Conclusion

 

Well, I hope this tips will help you to fight against plagiarism. If blog owner removed your content from his blog, it’s fine else we must have to take some legal actions.

So, what other techniques you have to prevent plagiarism? Share them with me in the comments. and don't forget to spread these words with your social media friends. :)

Author. Erwin Widianto

How To Hold Visitors For A Longer Time On Your Blog

How To Hold Visitors For A Longer Time On Your Blog

blogging tips Traffic Tips

Do you have any marketing strategy or formula to hold your visitors for a longer time on your blog?  If yes then you probably are doing so through social media. but you aren't using these marketing strategy's on your blog.

The growing importance of content marketing in today's competitors world is well known. so every blogger and business owner want to do marketing effectively.

Few marketing strategy's that I have bring today for you, but you should use all of them. and if you'll combine them all, I am sure you will be able to hold your visitor for a longer time on your blog.

Also Read: 10 On Page SEO Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines

Hold Visitors For A Longer Time on Your blog : 5 Effective Ways

 

#1 Interlinking: 

Internal linking helps your readers to give relevant information of the post they are reading currently.

There are many tricks successful bloggers use to engage visitors on their blog and interlinking is one of them. so whenever you write a blog post spend only 10 minutes to interlinking your old blog post in newer blog post.

Benefits of interlinking :

• Relevant Posts For Your Readers - Interlinking is a way to give more reading options for your blog readers. while reading a blog post if visitor will find a blog post link which is really helpful for him, he will definitely click on this link to read more.

• SEO - Search engine bots counts internal links of every blog article so it will help you to get high search engine ranking.

• Engagement - Its very hard to maintain blog visitors engagement but interlink help you to keep visitors engagement easily.

• Increase Page-Views - According to some of the above points interlinks helps to gain more and more impressions on your blog.

Also Read: 10 Common SEO Mistakes You Should Stop Making Right Now

 

#2 Create Sneeze Page:

A Sneeze page is a page that highlighting previously written posts/archives on your blog to help readers to go deep in your blog. it's very effective way to hold your blog visitors as well as you can make your old blog post alive.

Creating a sneeze page is very simple task you just have to pick most viewed blog posts and add them into sneeze page. after creating sneeze page place this page in navigation menu, sidebar or footer to get more traffic.

If your blog on blogging tips then you can create sneeze page like:

1. Blogging Tips For Beginners  
2. Best Of Blogging
3. Step By Step Guide Of Blogging
4. Beginners Guide For Bloggers

If you not created sneeze page yet then create it now. it will helps you to drive more traffic and you will get more readers for your blog.

#3 Email Marketing:

 

If you want to make money fast through blogging, all you have to do build a huge email newsletter list. and this is not easy task for newbies but you can use some tricks to gain more email subscribers.

How you will grow your email list ?

• Sidebar Email Subscription Box - Sidebar of the blog is eye catching and most clicked place to add email subscription box, if your articles are worth reading then readers would like to subscribe your blog to get updates.

• Hello Bar - The Hello Bar is a notification bar which helps you to grow your email list in short period of time, so I recommend you Hello Bar. after trying it I am sure you'll never think about removing that plugin from your site. 

• Give An Free Product - As we all know giving away something for free is one of the great way to capture lots off email subscribers.you just have to create a product which will helpful for your readers like ebook, themes etc. and leave it free for your readers and get email in exchange of that product. 

• Email Subscription Box Below Post : Add email subscription box at end of every blog post its very effective way to get more email subscribers easily.

#4 Eye-Catching Title:

 

The most important aspect of targeting visitors for your blog is post title. so you should write Eye-catching blog post titles to increase CTR (click through rate).

Readers are very smart, they know! where to spend their valuable time. so they will visit your page if post heading is click-worthy.  

Here are few tips to keep in mind when writing a eye-catching titles:

• Make it clear - Blog visitor should know what your post is about actually, when he catching your blog post title. so make simple and clear.

• Include Numbers - Include numbers at the beginning of the title , this is a great way to increase click-through rate on your blog.

• Add Benefits - What does the reader will get from reading this post? add benefit of your post in title.

• Ask Questions To Readers - Add question in your post title. it will generate curiosity in peoples mind to learn more about that topic.

#5 Write Quality Contents:  

There are a ton of content writers out there in the blogging industry who spend hours if not a days to write high quality contents.  

Why?

Because they know how difficult to get loyal readers for blog and once they failed to provide quality contents to readers, they will loose many loyal readers and they can't get him back to their blog.  

So now you can understand writing quality contents is how much important for you and your readers. 

How to write good quality contents?

• Do Research - When I writing blog post, I always open up lot off tabs in my browser to cover my article deeply. So always do research on the topic that you want to cover.

• Connect With Readers - Connect with your blog readers and ask them what I have missed in this article, they will help you to find out the weakness of your article.

• Avoid Plagiarism - Don't try to copy contents. write your own unique contents. it take some time but you will get many loyal readers.

• Improve Writing Skill - Write article in a way that peoples wants to read it completely. So improve your writing skills and catch your favorite blogger writing style.

Also Read: 7 Sure Shot Ways To Get High Quality Backlinks To Your Blog

 

#5  Blog Design:

Want to make your first time visitor become regular visitor? if yes! then you should spend some time on your blog design to attract visitors. 

If you have not a skill of blog designing or don't know how to design then don't worry ! there are several sites provides high quality professional looking themes and templates.

You can use free themes/templates or spend a few dollars to purchase it.

Recommended: Top 10 SEO Friendly Responsive Blogger Templates 2016

Here is some blog designing tips to make your blog look cool :  

• Simplicity - Keep your blog design as simple as possible. it helps readers to easily navigate any information easily.

• Logo Design - Make sure that your designed logo suits with your blog design.

• Get Design Ideas - Before choosing colors, backgrounds, fonts take a look on other well designed sites and get some ideas from their site.

• Add Important Widgets - Add some most important widgets on your blog like Author Box widget, Social, Popular posts. recent posts, email subscription box etc. but make sure that you aren't using fancy widgets on your blog.

 

 Conclusion:

It’s not easy to keep visitors for a longer time on a blog, but with a little hard work, optimization, marketing techniques you can trigger blog readers in just few months weeks. 

What other tricks do you use to keep your visitors longer on your blog?Leave your questions and comments in the comment box below and if there is anything that I’ve missed in this article letting me know.

Author. Erwin Widianto

6 Image Optimization Tips For Better Search Engine Ranking

6 Image Optimization Tips For Better Search Engine Ranking

blogging tips Image Optimization SEO Tips

 
Without images blog article is like milk without sugar, bread without butter because images are saying more than thousand a word and that's why we are using images in blog post to better understanding of article for our visitors.

Google smartly crawl all the data to give relevant search results to customers and that's why search engines want proper optimization for all type of content which is published on the web.

There are several bloggers (newbie bloggers) out there who don't know how to do proper image optimization and Some bloggers know how to do it that but they avoids or doing with wrong methods. and the result is low traffic from search engines.

To getting traffic back of your blog you must have to work on your all blog images to get stand out on search engine ranking.

Also Read: 10 Common SEO Mistakes You Should Stop Making Right Now

If you haven't any idea for image optimization don't worry ! this is whole article for you. today we will cover all the important factors of image optimization for SEO.

Also Read: 10 On Page SEO Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Search Engines

Image Optimization For Better Search Engine Ranking :

 

#1 Alt Tag :

 

when we see camera in image we can instantly recognize this image but search engine spiders can't recognize any image without "descriptive" Alt tag. and that's why you need to use descriptive Alt tag in images.

If you are using Blogger blogspot platform then simply click on the image in post editor, select properties and add your alt tag (for search engines) and title tag (for your readers).

If you are using WordPress platform then you have to install : SEO Image Plugin, after installing this plugin just go to Setting >> SEO friendly images and then add your alt and title tag.

HTML Code look like:

Example : <img src="http://www.webaddress.com/camera.jpg" alt="camera on the table"/>

 

#2 Image File Size :

Fast loading pages always on the edge of rank and search engines love that so if your blog image size is too large then it will affect on your blog loading speed and visitor will go back.

Make image size as small as possible you can resize and compress blog images using online tools like Picnick Or Image Optimizer. to increase your web pages speed/load time you can use an image editing software's like Photoshop.

 

#3 Image File Name :

Image file name also helps search engines to describe more about image and that's the reason I have added this point in this article.

Before uploading any images, give a suitable title for that image. and use keywords in file name before uploading them. so don't upload images without giving relevant file name.

#4 Anchor Text :

 

Anchor text is the hyper linking to another page or document on the web. and this is a mostly used term for search engine optimization now day. The exact use of anchor text in images will help you to get high page rank for your images and article.

Whenever you are used anchor text with a keyword that shows the page being linked to another page.

See below image as an example of exact anchor text :

In this image "Image Optimization" is exact match anchor because it's linking to a page about image optimization.

#5 Images Format JPG, GIF, PNG :  

Whenever you want to use photos in your article, select the pic which related to your article it will attract the visitors. and wrap contents around the picture.

JPG is better format than other formats. it's giving high quality picture with low size and it will best for your blog. because this format helps to speed up your blog pages.

You can change pictures format using Photoshop just open image file in Photoshop and save as with new extension.

#6 Add Descriptive Caption :

 

Photo Caption is used for describing published photographs. if you are using caption carefully then it will help you to get more traffic from search engine. But one thing remember that always give caption, alt tag, file name related to your image and article.

If you are using free pictures on your blog then you can give attribution to picture author using caption to give attribution just add credit link in caption.

Final Words

 

So these are the 6 Image Optimization Tips you can apply on blog images to get more and more organic traffic from search engines.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any questions then feel free to ask through comment box. and let me know which techniques you have to optimize blog images. Happy Blogging.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Tahukah Anda Apa Alasan Saya Menutup Komentar Di Blog Ini?

Tahukah Anda Apa Alasan Saya Menutup Komentar Di Blog Ini?

blogging tips SEO Tips

Sebetulnya alasan kenapa saya menutup komentar yang mengandung link di blog ini, bukan karena pelit, justru sebab saya kasihan kepada sahabat yang hanya meninggalkan komentar spam. Ini mungkin SEO tips yang masih belum dipahami dengan benar oleh sebagian kawan-kawan blogger hingga saat ini. Sejak diluncurkannya beberapa alogaritma terbaru Google mulai pertengahan tahun 2013 lalu hingga saat ini banyak blog spam yang semula berada di halaman pertama search engine akhirnya berterbangan ke halaman antah berantah, bahkan malah hilang dari mesin pencari.

Bahkan salah satu blog rekan kita yang baik (cara-ririn.blogspot.com) miliknya Wahyu Eka Prasetiyarini hingga saat ini diblokir pihak google dan masih belum pulih. Setelah mendengar informasi menurut keterangan mbak Ririn sendiri penghapusan blogspotnya tersebut berawal dari banyaknya komentar yang dianggap spam.

Jadi sebaiknya jangan sia-siakan usaha blogwalking Anda hanya dengan meninggalkan komentar spam. Semalas-malasnya menulis, paling tidak tinggalkan komentar berupa sebaris kalimat yang isinya berhubungan dengan konten yang diberi komentar. Mungkin tadinya sahabat bermaksud ingin mendapatkan backlink dengan cara meninggalkan link pada komentar yang dibuat, namun jika komentar nantinya dianggap spam baik oleh Admin blog, atau oleh google justru yang didapat bukannya backlink tapi malah sanksi google penalty.

Masih mending blog terlempar ke halaman antah berantah di search engine, yang fatal lagi bagaimana jika blog Anda malah dihapus? Rugi bukan. Hanya menulis sebaris kata yang ada hubungannya dengan artikel yang dikomentari saya rasa tidak akan menghabiskan waktu, justru selain mempunyai dua keuntungan. Pertama komentar pastinya akan dipublish oleh Admin blog yang bersangkutan. Keuntungan kedua komentar tersebut dapat menjadi backlink untuk blog Anda sendiri.

Tahukah Anda dengan meninggalkan link dan komentar yang relevan meskipun di blog yang nofollow untuk SEO saat ini, itu tetap bisa menjadi backlink, jadi tidak harus lagi hanya berkomentar dan meninggalkan link di blog yang dofollow saja. Saya sudah buktikan hal tersebut dengan berkomentar dibeberapa blog nofollow, ternyata seminggu kemudian setelah dicek, link di blog nofollow tersebut juga bertambah menjadi backlink.

Jadi berkomentarlah dengan baik menggunakan beberapa baris kalimat yang isinya sesuai dengan posting yang dikomentari. Jangan cuma nyepam aja seperti hanya menulis komentar dengan dua kata "Trimakasih Infonya" itu termasuk spammer Comment. Kerugiannya yaitu selain tidak menguntungkan bagi Anda karena tidak menjadi backlink, kemungkinan besar komentar seperti itu tidak akan dipublish oleh Admin blog yang diberi komentar. Celakanya lagi jika nanti blog Anda malah ditandai sebagai spammer. Kalau sudah begitu SEO tips apapun yang dilakukan, saya rasa tidak akan banyak membantu menyelamatkan blog Anda dari sanksi search engine. Tips kali ini saya rasa itu yang penting yang ingin saya bagikan buat sahabat blogger yang baik mengenai komentar spam yang bisa berakhir dengan sanksi banned, semoga bisa membantu.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Cara Menampilkan Gambar Hanya Dihalaman Homepage

Cara Menampilkan Gambar Hanya Dihalaman Homepage

blogging tips

Cara menampilkan gambar hanya dihalaman homepage dengan CSS. Berawal dari keinginan untuk bisa menampilkan gambar hanya di halaman beranda saja, saya blogwalking dan nemu tipsnya dari blog Kang Ismet. Ternyata caranya sangat mudah sekali, cukup menggunakan CSS dan tidak membutuhkan javascript ataupun jquery khusus.

Alasan kenapa saya ingin agar gambar yang ada di dalam posting tidak tampil di halaman artikel namun tetap bisa tampil sebagai thumbnail di halaman homepage, karena ingin supaya posting yang dipublikasikan terlihat rapih. Contoh di artikel yang saya tulis ini, gambarnya tidak tampil di postingan namun tetap bisa muncul di halaman homepage.

Sementara jika di dalam artikel tersebut tidak saya masukan gambar, maka otomatis dihalaman homepage gambar thumbnailnya kosong. Karena kebetulan di salah satu blog tersebut saya memakai template yang ada gambar thumbnailnya, jadi kelihatan jelek kalau yang muncul cuma tulisan "No Image" saja. Kalau temen-temen juga mungkin ada yang menginginkan gambar diposting tidak muncul namun dihalaman homepage tetap tampil, silahkan gunakan cara berikut. 

Menampilkan Gambar Hanya Dihalaman Homepage

• Login ke dashboard blogger
• Pilih Template
• Edit HTML
• Format Template

 Tempatkan script di bawah ini setelah atau di atas kode </head>

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
<style type='text/css'>
.thumbnail {display:none}
</style>
</b:if>

• Jika sudah Klik Save Template

Langkah berikutnya yang harus dilakukan yaitu menambahkan sedikit kode kedalam url gambar yang ada disetiap posting. Berikut kode yang harus ditambahkan pada url gambaruntuk setiap artikel yang gambarnya hanya ingin muncul dihalaman homepage. Ingat hanya pada gambar yang ingin muncul di homepage saja tidak untuk semua gambar yang ada di dalam artikel.

• Kode yang harus ditambahkan

 class="thumbnail"

• Sehingga lengkapnya nanti akan menjadi seperti berikut.

<img class="thumbnail" src="url-link-gambar" alt="penjelasan gambar" />

Akan lebih mudah tidak perlu merubah semua kode url gambar yang telah ada di dalam posting, cukup hanya menambahkan kode tersebut sebelum "scr". Cukup mudah bukan, silahkan dicoba dan lihat hasilnya. Semoga membantu dan bermanpaat.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Cara Meningkatkan Pendapatan Adsense Dari Niche Blog

Cara Meningkatkan Pendapatan Adsense Dari Niche Blog

adsense blogging tips Traffic Blog

Cara meningkatkan pendapatan adsense dari blog dengan membuat blog niche tertentu. Seperti yang kita tahu trafik adalah napas hidup bagi blog yang dimonetisasi dengan adsense. Jadi pilihan terbaik untuk meningkatkan penghasilan adsense adalah dengan memilih niche apa yang paling banyak dicari orang di internet. Ketika akan membangun sebuah blog perhatikan konten atau topik utama yang akan dijadikan sebagai niche untuk blog yang akan dibuat. Sebab jika salah dalam memilih topik, alhasil nantinya blog mungkin sepi dengan pengunjung.

Contohnya saja blog ini, situs dengan topik blogging tips, atau SEO tips sebetulnya bukan merupakan niche yang bagus untuk dimonetisasi dengan adsense. Sebab trafik blog SEO lebih terbatas kepada pesaing, artinya kebanyakan orang yang berkunjung ke blog dengan topik SEO atau blogging tips adalah mereka yang juga berprofesi sama, atau orang yang sedang mempelajari bagaimana cara membuat blog. Dari jutaan orang pengguna internet, hanya sebagian kecil yang sebetulnya mencari tau tentang cara membuat blog, blogging tips, seo tips dan semua yang berhubungan dengan blog.

Sementara kebanyakan pengguna internet lainnya adalah mereka yang mencari solusi atau kebutuhan hidup sehari-hari. Nah sekarang sudah tau bukan apa yang harus dikerjakan? Dan blog dengan topik apa yang harus dibuat jika ingin meningkatkan lebih banyak trafik serta penghasilan setiap bulannya dari adsense. Blog dengan topik SEO seperti blog ini, paling tinggi trafik pengunjung per harinya hanya mencapai 1K, bahkan jika dihitung dengan persentase rata-rata trafik blog dengan tema SEO seperti blog ini trafik pengunjung berada jauh di bawah kisaran 1000 orang/hari, menyedihkan bukan? Sekalipun ranking alexanya sudah ramping bahkan blog sudah memiliki pagerank, jika topik yang dipilih tidak banyak dicari orang di internet, tetap saja situs akan sepi pengunjung.

Blog SEO ini sebetulnya saya buat untuk berbagi pengalaman dan pengetahuan seputar blogging tips, khusunya untuk anak-anak didik saya di sekolah. Dengan maksud sebagai contoh bagaimana cara membuat blog dan apa saja yang harus dipersiapkan. Jadi bagi pemula yang mulai serius ingin menekuni aktifitas di dunia blogging, dan berharap bisa mendapatkan penghasilan besar dari kegiatan membangun sebuah blog, sebaiknya buatlah blog dengan niche atau topik yang sipatnya lebih dibutuhkan oleh umum. Artinya konten di dalamnya tidak ditujukan kepada pembaca tertentu.

Niche umum cenderung memiliki trafik tidak terbatas, sebab siapapun bisa membutuhkan dan mencarinya kapan saja, tidak seperti topik blog ini di mana pengunjungnya hanya terbatas kepada pembaca tertentu saja, yaitu mereka yang juga sama berprofesi sebagi pemilik blog atau para pemula yang baru saja terjun ke dunia blogging. Semoga informasi yang saya sampaikan ini berguna dan sedikit bisa membantu, happy blogging!

Author. Erwin Widianto

Cara Mencari Kata Kunci Terbaik Untuk Artikel

Cara Mencari Kata Kunci Terbaik Untuk Artikel

blogging tips

Cara mencari kata kunci terbaik untuk artikel yang akan di posting. Jika pada tulisan sebelumnya saya menjelaskan cara riset keyword paling mudah, topik untuk blogging tips kali ini ingin berbagi bagaimana cara mencari kata kunci terbaik untuk setiap tulisan yang akan kita posting di blog. Selain dengan riset keyword, mencari kata kunci terbaik bisa dilakukan dengan blogwalking, yaitu mengunjungi blog yang topiknya sama.

Yang perlu dilakukan adalah melihat artikel-artikel yang ada di popular post blog-blog yang dikunjungi. Semua posting yang tampil pada popular post di setiap blog merupakan tulisan yang termasuk paling banyak dicari dan dibaca para pengunjung internet di blog tersebut. Oleh sebab itu carilah website atau blog yang peringkatnya baik, seperti situs-situs yang selalu tampil pada peringkat 10 besar di search engine untuk kata kunci yang dibidik. Kemudian perhatikan setiap judul artikel-artikel yang ada pada popular post tersebut.

 Dengan begitu kita bisa lebih memaksimalkan hasil riset keyword dengan penelusuran melalui cara ini. Jika kedua teknik tersebut digabung maka hasilnya bisa lebih mantap. Namun ingat, kita hanya mencari kata kuncinya saja dan bukan berarti harus meniru artikelnya sama persis, apalgi kalau copy paste. Kenapa? Sebab dijamin hasil copas tidak akan berpengaruh terhadap peringkat blog. Alogaritma terbaru search engine Google seperti  Panda, Penguin, dan Hummingbird mampu membedakan mana konten asli dan artikel hasil copas, bahkan sekalipun tulisan anda merupakan hasil translate, search engine bisa mengetahuinya sekarang. Jadi copas di era ini itu udah gak berguna lagi.

Mending belajar kreatif aja bikin tulisan sendiri, jika sudah terbiasa, menulis itu malah merupakan kegiatan yang ternyata cukup menyenangkan kalau menurut saya. Seperti yang telah dijelaskan tadi, ketika mampu menggabungkan hasil riset kata kunci dengan hasil penelusuran keyword dari berbagai penemuan di popular post situs-situs lain, kemudian buatlah judul artikel yang berbeda tetapi tetap memiliki kata kunci yang sama. Lalu buat pembahasan mengenai topik tersebut dengan cara yang lebih baik, lebih jelas, dan mudah dipahami pembaca, niscaya artikel Anda pasti bisa menjadi juara di mesin pencari. Cukup mudah bukan? Semoga bisa membantu.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Cara Riset Keyword Paling Mudah

Cara Riset Keyword Paling Mudah

blogging tips

Cara riset keyword paling mudah untuk mendapatkan kata kunci tepat. Cukup lama gak posting di blog ini, kebetulan kesibukan pekerjaan menjadi alasan yang membuat saya tidak bisa selalu online untuk blogging. Sekalian ganti template karena memang udah lama pake template bawaan blogger, pengen nyoba aja sesekali menggunakan responsive template, kebetulan blogwalking nemu template blogger responsive gratis yang sekarang dipake ini, loadingnya juga lumayan cepet.

Kembali ke topik, riset keyword atau kata kunci memang perlu dilakukan agar setiap artikel yang diposting di blog mampu bersaing dengan website lain di mesin pencari. Karena apalah artinya waktu yang cukup lama dalam menulis sebuah artikel, kalau ujung-ujungnya postingan kita gak ada yang baca, rugi bukan? Selain itu yang menjadi alasan kenapa harus melakukan riset keyword untuk setiap judul posting ataupun deskripsi artikel, sebab dengan membuat tulisan tentang topik yang paling banyak dicari orang di internet tentu dapat meningkatkan lebih banyak pengunjung ke blog yang datangnya dari mesin pencari.

Cara Riset Keyword dengan Dua Langkah Mudah

• Pertama silahkan kunjungi situs ubersuggest.org
• Pada kotak pencarian isikan keyword yang diinginkan, lalu pada bagian negara pilih indonesia untuk blog berbahasa indonesia. Isikan juga captcha yang sesuai. Jika sudah klik tombol "Suggest" lihat contoh gambar berikut

• Selanjutnya klik "Select all keywords" di bawah bisa dilihat banyak kata kunci hasil pencarian yang ditampilkan seperti telihat pada gambar berikut.

• Kemudian klik "Get" untuk memilih semua keyword hasil pencarian tersebut, maka akan muncul jendela baru.

• Tekan CTRL+ A pada keyboard untuk memilih semua kata kunci, lalu klik kanan pilih "Copy" untuk menyalin. Lalu buka "Notepad" dan pastekan hasil copy tersebut. Simpan dalam bentuk format TXT. Sampai disini tutup situs ubersuggest.org dan masuk buka situs Google Keyword Planner.

• Setelah login pada Tool pilih "Keyword Planner", lalu pilih "Get traffic forecasts for a list of keyword".

• Kemudian di halaman ini tepatnya pada bagian "Choose File" klik dan pilih file keyword yang tadi disimpan dalam format TXT. Di bagian "Targeting" isi negara sesuai pencarian lalu klik "Get forecasts".

• Tahap berikutnya adalah mendownload hasil riset keyword planner, yang nantinya bisa kita lihat kata kunci mana saja yang paling banyak dicari orang di internet. Klik di bagian "Download".

• Pada halaman selanjutnya klik di bagian "Excel CSV" lalu klik "Download".

• Tahap terakhir adalah klik "Save File". Kemudian buka di mana file yang di download tersebut tersimpan. Lihat hasil yang diperoleh. Pilih mana saja keyword yang tepat yang paling banyak dicari dan saingannya sedikit serta cocok dengan topik yang akan ditulis.

Sampai di sini cara riset keyword paling mudah selesai dilakukan. Gampang kan? Lakukan riset keyword tersebut setiap kali ingin menulis sebuah posting. Setidaknya kita bisa memilih judul atau topik yang tepat dan konten tersebut banyak dicari orang melalui search engine. Semoga sharing kali ini tentang riset keyword bermanfaat dan bisa membantu sahabat blogger semua, terutama untuk blogger pemula.

Author. Erwin Widianto

Where To Find Free Blogger Backgrounds and Textures

Where To Find Free Blogger Backgrounds and Textures

Blog Design blogging tips how to

Blogger is a fantastic tool for amateur and professional writers that have a passion for publishing online content. Unlike WordPress or hosting companies that require you to design your site before ever getting started, Blogger is a ready to go service right out of the box that will allow you to start writing for yourself or others on day one. The effort required to sign up for an account is minimal, and you can really get as creative as you want, whenever you want.

Even if you aren't familiar with web development or design, that's okay. Blogger is a place for everyone. Thanks to the overwhelming support of the Blogger and creative communities, there are plenty of free to use resources out there to make your site look great and keep you focused on what you love best. Here are some of the top sites for acquiring blogger backgrounds that won't cost you a dime and will look incredible.

Shabby Blogs

Shabby blogs offers some unique texture and graphic rendered Blogger backgrounds to choose from. All of the designs that they have are created to be standard width so you don't get a lot of flexibility to choose from; however, there are guides out there that can teach you how to extend the sidebars, header, and footer of your screen if you find one you love and this is something important to you. In addition to offering Blogger backgrounds Shabby blogs also has a section for cute little buttons that you can add to your site to give it an extra special touch.

Hot Bliggity Blog

Aside from having one of the coolest and creative names to say out loud, Hot Bliggity Blog has a wide selection of patterned-based blogs for your site. You can choose between different color schemes, and they also offer three different sizes to pick from, standard, widened, and full width. Best of all, they are really easy to install. All you have to do is click on the install link underneath the image. From there it will copy the code for you into your clipboard and give you instructions on where to paste it.

Dotty Dot Dot

Dotty Dot is the place to go if you like geometric type backgrounds that are heavy on squares, plaid, circles, and of course dots. The website is a little bit hard to navigate, but they have a sidebar with a bunch of tags to help you sort through all the available templates and find something you like. Just about every color you can imagine is available if you plan on matching your Blogger backgrounds to your favorite color or font style. The widths of the most of the templates vary so some have heavy padded sidebars, whereas some are very skinny.

LeeLou Blogs

Lee Lou Blogs offers Blogger backgrounds that look a lot like you would find in a scrapbook with a heavy dependency on small pictures and vector graphics. These free templates would go great with any home improvement blog or DIY arts and crafts writer. Most of the free backgrounds are standard size with the high padded sides, but like anything you can get access to more templates if you want to take advantage of any of his premium designs.

CgTextures

If you just want something basic real basic that won't distract customers from your content, you can head over to CgTextures. Their site is full of photos and textures that could be added as a background image with a reduced transparency. The blog would still look great and you wouldn't have to worry as much about trying to match your font style and color so that it fits in with the background. Instead you can draw more focus on what's important and less on the site's bells and whistles.

Every Stock Photo

Bloggers that want less of an 'artsy' look to their site and instead more of a serious appeal can get a picture from Every Stock Photo to use as the background image. You can also benefit by using some of the pictures offered through this site within your blog posts so that you aren't stuck buying things from premium image providers. There search bar and navigation panel makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for to see a unique feel to every page.

Shizoo-Design

Shizoo-Design is a German based design firm with about 554 different patterns to choose from. You can find everything from conservative shapes to abstract rainbows and splashes of color. All of the textures are provided in a range of size, anywhere from 1000x700 pixels to 1300x600 pixels so that they will comfortably fit your entire site's background and work with most browsers and computer screen sizes. Brushes and custom icons are also available from the site, free of charge.

Patterns of Change

Patterns of Changes offers Blogger backgrounds that are cartoon oriented and that can best be tiled across the screen. The site is perhaps one of the easiest to use compared to all the others on the screen, providing a simple navigation bar where you can choose what color you'd like the pattern to be. When you select one of the colors provided, it will come up with a bunch of different patterns usually associated with that color. For instance, when the color brown is selected, one of the choices ia brown cake. Blogger backgrounds for this site might not be the best choice for business professionals, but they certainly are fun.

How to Add a Background Image using the Blogger Template Designer

If you have a background image that you want to upload, then follow these steps:

1. Log into your Blogger account and go to "Template", press the "Customize" button on the right side. Once the Blogger template designer has opened, you'll see the Background option on the left - click on it:

2. Now click on the box below the Background image title and it will open a window from where we can select a default background image. On the upper left side of this window, click Upload Image and select the image you would like to use from a location on your computer.

Note that you should use a JPG, GIF, or PNG image that is no more than 300k in size. If your image is too large, then you can use the Kraken.io image optimizer to make the image file smaller.

3. After you've uploaded your image, click 'Done' and you'll be taken back to the background menu. Here you will see additional options like: "Alignment", "Tile" and "Scroll with page":

• Alignment: change the position of the background image to start either horizontal (left, center, right) or vertical (top and bottom);
• Tile (Repeat): if you want a small background image to fill the page, choose to repeat (tile) horizontally and/or vertically.
• Scroll with page: the box is checked by default, this means that the background scroll along with the page contents. If you want the background picture to not move as the page is scrolled and stay exactly where it is, uncheck this box.

4. For a background image with plain color in the middle for content, you might want to remove the main and header background. Navigate to "Advanced" > "Backgrounds" and type the word "transparent" inside the "Main Background" and "Header Background" box:

5. If the background is smaller than the content area, we can fix this using CSS. Scroll down and click on the Add CSS option, then paste this CSS code inside the box:

body {
background-size: 200%;
}

.body-fauxcolumn-outer .cap-top {
background: none;
}

Note: to change the size of the background, modify the 200% value in red.

Once you're happy with the results, press the 'Apply to blog' button and enjoy the new background for your site.

How to Change Background in a Custom Blogger Template

Sometimes the above options might not appear in some custom Blogger templates if the body.background variable hasn't been defined. In this case, we will need to access the HTML of the template:

1. Go to "Template" and click the "Edit HTML" button, then click anywhere inside the code area. Press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box:

2. Paste or type the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

3. Immediately before the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste one of the following code snippets:

For a large background image:

body {
background-image: url(IMAGE-URL.png) !important;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: center top;
background-attachment: fixed;
background-size: 100%;
}

Note: the no-repeat value prevents the image from repeating either vertically or horizontally. Use background-repeat: repeat-y if you'd like the image to repeat vertically, or background-repeat: repeat-x if you want it to repeat only horizontally. To increase the size of the background, change the 100% value.

If using a repeating pattern, add this CSS code instead:

body {
background-image: url(IMAGE-URL.png) !important;
background-repeat: repeat;
background-position: center top;
background-attachment: fixed;
}

4. Open a new tab and upload your background image to Blogger or an image hosting site, and copy the URL of your hosted image to your clipboard. If you don't know how to do it, please take a look at this tutorial.

After you copied it, replace the text highlighted in blue from above with your image url.

5. Finally, Preview the template to ensure that the background image appears as you want, and press the "Save template" button to save your changes. That's it!

Using the 8 sites listed above, you have a wide range to choose from when creating a site that really represents you. Given the right tools, designing you blog can be a fun hobby to enjoy that can spark your creativity and improve the quality of your writing. With such a large selection, the hardest part of setting up your new theme will be finding which one you like best.

Author. Erwin Widianto