SevenToTen - Blogging About Everything

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Kids love cookies but on the internet, cookies have a different meaning. There’s a CookieMonster on the street, and he’s real wicked.

This CookieMonster is a vicious tool that tricks your browser into handing over sensitive information. It can be used to steal your data and, potentially, hijack your accounts.

WordPress has always taken steps to ensure that your data is safe while blogging. Now it is easier than ever for you to avoid evil blogjackers that prey on security vulnerabilities.

Click on Edit Profile in the My Account menu of your dashboard and you’ll see a new field called Browser Connection. There, you can opt to “Always use HTTPS when visiting administration pages.”

Click Update Profile to save the change, and you’ll be logged out. Sign back in, and you’re rolling with SSL, which encrypts your connection and helps prevent data scavengers from stealing your password and other info.

HTTPS has always been supported on WordPress.com, but it’s now even easier to remember. HTTPS is highly recommended when you’re accessing your account on a public network.

Nobody likes to read a bland and long piece of text. Some bloggers love to put sexy pictures of celebrities to catch attention but at the same time, these may turn other readers off.

So for those who do not like to use pictures to connect with readers, you have to play around with typography and the overall design for each post.

A simple change in your font can force your reader to continue reading your post, producing more useful comments. Their feedback will give you new writing material when you respond to them.

Here are some ideas for you to consider in your blogs:

Underscore

The underscore emphasize on a word or words, often used for highlighting links (automatically inserted with proper CSS styling) and other text that needs to be dramatically separated from the rest of the text.

They should be used to create a dramatic and sudden shift in the text, such as the headings in a short list when all items are on the same list. Just highlight over an item, then select the underline button in your blog editor; or Control+U.  HTML tag: u

Bold

“Bold” creates an “exaggeration” of the text, making it more prominent than the rest. Bold tag should be used when you need to separate text from the rest of an entry, as the text is darker than the surrounding text.

One of the best ways to use the text is for people that want to quickly scan over your post, so you’ll want to highlight key phrases and words that should be addressed.

You can use the button in the blog editor or Control/Command+B.  HTML tag: b or strong

Italic Type

Italics are based on cursive handwriting, similar to calligraphy, with a slight slanting to one side.

They are often used to separate a single word, meaning that the word deserves extreme significance.  It should also be used for the names of ships, poems, foreign words and taxonomy, individual letters, defining terms, or a thought process.

To produce the tag, use the italic representation in your blog editor bar; otherwise use the Control+I keys.  HTML tag: em or i

I will be renewing my web host soon. I’m tired of renewing my web host monthly so I am going for a long term payment now.

I’m planning to move to another web host because I’m not satisfied with their customer support. What I want now is to enjoy features and services I haven’t experienced from my current host.

I could try every web host recommended by my fellow bloggers but I don’t want to waste my time for “trial and errors”. I’ve checked on web hosting reviews and proved that my current web host is not included in their top ten web host list.

I will go for those who are ranked high in many reviews, there must be a reason for them being so popular.

In the internet, many bloggers use paid-to-blog services, but sometimes this could be time consuming.

For those who have been blogging for a while, especially those with sites that are already getting constant and regular traffic, earning through affiliate commissions and private ads are better alternatives.

Now, prices of fuel and commodities continue to rise, finding ways to increase household income is really important.

But always remember that it is God “who gives you the ability to produce wealth”, according to Deuteronomy 8:18.

So families need to depend more on God rather than themselves, knowing that it is He who provides opportunities and strength for all the work we do.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

If you are hunting for more blogging opportunities, I recommend you take a closer look at this site, Bloggerwave.

They have ambitious plans to be Europe’s biggest advertising media on blogs and they are on the right track already as I saw many blogs spreading the message and writing good reviews about them.

Bloggerwave is actually quite similar to other blog advertising companies but I like the fact that they are offering lots of attractive jobs for bloggers. Hopefully, more advertisers will learn about them and use their service.

If you love to blog about things of interest while earning extra money, you should sign up with Bloggerwave today.

You have heard of Twitter but don’t know what it is. Don’t worry, you are not alone.

You can think of Twitter as a social network but it is less rigid than Digg or StumbleUpon. The system allows you to create your own micro communities, and your actions inside those communities will not affect people outside of them. Every member behaves in a haphazard manner and there is no control over what happens to anyone at any point of time.

The basic concept is a winner: each user has the right to decide who he will follow, who will be able to follow him, and what micro communities he will join. You can’t go wrong with democracy right?

Suppose now, you start a marketing campaign on Twitter, users not following you will not notice your existence, while those who are following can simply remove the follow to stop receiving your nuisance messages. But if your promotional messages are done right, your fans will still follow you.

Some people have taken to using Twitter as a micro blogging tool. Others use it as an instant messaging utility. Others yet use the tool to promote their websites, and some people are even trying to sell their Twitter accounts on eBay!

Be creative and you can think of even more ways to use Twitter. There are immense financial rewards if you do become the next Twitter king.

I do not usually pay attention to domain names. I know it is a lucrative business given that some names attract substantial amount of traffic which can be monetized. So far, I am dabbling in the domain name business to make extra money only.

For my own blogs, I choose any name which sounds good and from traffic indications (meaning zero hits), it seems to be special to me alone. There are of course certain techniques involved in choosing a proper domain name, whether you want to park it and milk the residual advertisement income or start a personal/business blog.

The question on how to choose a domain name for your blog is best answered by Problogger. In that very detailed post, he mentioned about the goals, target audience, keywords, branding, future trends, name length, memorability, legal issues, similar domains, hypens, dot coms, etc.

If you master what all the pointers, you are now ready to hunt for diamonds in the rough. I know that the prices some domain marketers or owners are willing to pay is incredibly high, once you have been to domain name auctions.

So if you secure a domain name which can generate traffic on its own, you are on to something good. Like real estate, it is a prime asset for you.

Here is another way to make money online - signup for YouTube partner program. Just fill out the online application and wait a few hours for approval. You need to have an AdSense account so they you can login to your Adsense for the account you are going to get paid through.

There are a few rules to comply in their terms and conditions. Copyright issues are top on the list. You must upload original content, especially for this partner program. You will earn a share of the revenue that is generated from ad impressions occurring when these videos are viewed.

But according to Shoemoney, he has a lot of friends who are top YouTube users and they are earning peanuts here. For amateurs like us, the money is even more pitiful.

Most successful blogs had been active for quite a long time. Of course, the definition of success varies according to individuals.

But looking at the Technorati top 100 or the very best blogs in your niche areas, you will notice that there is at least 2 years of blogging before they experience an exponential spike in readers.

Of course, some blogs, through luck, excellent content and shrewd marketing, rise through the ranks faster.

If you have neither of the three qualities in abundance, take a long term approach and stick to it. You can’t go wrong with patience. Traffic will come, and with it, lots of money.

Advertisers have to lower their expectations when it comes to alexa ranking. John Chow reported on his site a change in ranking system by alexa.

Like everybody else, his blog is affected but he has little complaints. Because his blog has been established to such a popularity level that PR and alexa ranking doesn’t hurt his earnings any more.

Previously, Alexa only consider users who downloaded and installed alexa toolbar. This did not sufficiently capture the traffic data as certain segments, like make money or affiliate marketing tend to show higher alexa ranking than technology websites where the users are more savvy and believe the alexa toolbar to be nothing more than a piece of spyware.

No doubt, the change is a positive move as the ranking is now a more accurate reflection of internet traffic for blogs and websites. But as bloggers, we have to do more promotion and marketing to drive traffic which can help us to push or even maintain the existing alexa ranking.

At this point of time, I think advertisers who strictly look at alexa ranking to determine a blog’s popularity or traffic have to appreciate the change, else a lot of websites may suffer as a result.