the blog: NetArgument-Online Skills!

Social Media Rituals Diluting the Wisdom of Social Media metrics!

Rituals are what they are! It is difficult to tell why they are performed and why they even exist. Historically we know every tribe had their own rituals considered sacrosanct. They were built around the instinctive virtues of people practicing them. With world becoming more advanced and scientific, they remained preserved as the identifying marks of the tribes across the world. They still serve their purpose on virtual platforms like Facebook and Twitter, manifesting into several different forms yet retaining their innate property of being stubborn.

We know that Social media connectivity is driven by pheromones for a fairly long time now. The new observation is, we are developing a cult around our instincts, which allows only some chosen ones to become worthy of our favors. It has nothing to do with what lies beneath what the person says, or what the person writes. An intelligent work may go unnoticed and a vile crap may swing on to the top of your timeline with a lot of people contributing around it. The reason is not the pheromone factor, but a ritual through which this "crap" slipped. Knowingly or Unknowingly people practice some sort of social media rituals. They have some identifiable characteristics:

People don't want to apply their mind, they simply perform.
It is blasphemous to question the performed and the performer.
If you are not part of it you are not part of the tribe.
People anticipate some favorable reaction from the tribe members, and others feel obligation to react in the anticipated manner, without going into the depth of the context.
People behave as herd, though they may act very differently on a different occasion.

So retweeting or following a celebrity is a ritual. Saying something to gain traction for trending is also a ritual. Other occasions are bashing, bitching or showering praise for a person or cause. They have become very amplified and this behavior has taken all over social media, threatening the wisdom of decisions based on these metrices. So, Following, Trending, Unpleasant Reactions and even praises in favor of someone might just be this phenomenon. The interesting part of this is that once it is over, all is over. People just remember X was abused on twitter by a great number of people or Y was praised. If you ask some of them in person, they will say, We did it on Twitter/Facebook, but we didn't mean it.

Gresham's Law for Social Media: Bad Money(Articles) Circulates and Good ones are stopped by Individuals for themselves! #SocialMedia
— Ramesh (@netargument) May 9, 2012

Read This >>

Conversion Dip? - You need to take yourself where people are moving- Move or Lose!

There was a time when people used to go to cybercafe for reaseraching anything on the web. Time is not too far away. Now! You rarely find one in your locality. Desktop and even laptops are cheap and every household has one. People have many ways of connecting to the web too. In the recent past there has been a sudden spurt in the traffic through mobile devices like tablets, smartphones, Iphone etc. This has added to yet another dimension to the way people convert.

Those who have old websites, and by that I mean even ones upgraded within last two years may not be serving well on Mobile devices. Google adwords stops delivering your ads on those devices, if it discovers any rendering issue with it. You might have seen the bubble near an ad showing "Approved(limited):Rendering issues detected; landing page not serving on mobile devices with full browsers." If this message shows up inside your Google Adwords Campaign ads, you need to take this more seriously now, than ever before!

The Bubble by issuing this warning, is also telling you that your ads are not serving on those mobile devices.

What to Do? Traffic through mobile devices has been moving upward at a very great rate. If your customers are browsing on mobile devices then you need to be serious about this issue. Merely making the site lightweight to serve properly may allow you to allude the warning by adwords. However, one needs to take it further and think about usability of the website from mobile user angle. You must answer if your website look compelling enough on Mobile browser. Are the fonts the pictures, the forms look user friendly on those devices. If not? You are losing a big chunk of your conversion than what you deserve.

Conversions are neither created nor destroyed, they move from one place to another! To increase or even maintain conversion rate, one needs to go to the places where they are happening. You can't create it at one place. If people have moved, you need to move yourself too. If transactions are taking at a different place, you cannot expect them to happen where you stand. In other words businesses have ceased to happen the way we want to believe they happen. Entire web is adapting to this mobile revolution. Recently, traffic stats of my blog has started giving me surprises, how many people are accessing it through mobile devices! You may also look at the recent move of Google to push the display url just below headline, it does help to highlight your domain in the ad and if presented well, may help people to recall and revisit your website on different platform too.

The time has come when people are using it more than ever, and governments across the world has plans to equip every citizen with such a device. So, while optimizing for conversion one must check, if the presentation is optimal across the devices rather than trying to push it through the Old desktop styled Ad Campaigns.

Read This >>

Social Media Numbers- Are they Social Proof ?

Do numbers represent the true states of affairs on Social Media?

There is an inherent drawback with twitter follower counts, Facebook likes and fan followings. They can be manipulated!

We already know of Feedburner counter on blogs. Feedburner counters could easily be faked, by a number of ways. There were services, where if only you copy and paste your feed links, it used to start showing surge in subscriber counts. People even used to manipulate to show the number of some other popular blogs. Once it fell into the hands of Google, Feedburner counters went under a massive correction to show the real states of affairs. Now, if Google detects that subscriber is actually never interacting with the blog, it won’t count as subscriber. Several people faking counter were permanently terminated from availing the service. Even in those days when people were faking the counter, several bloggers experimented and concluded numbers just doesn’t influence more people to subscribe.

Now with change of time, habits too changed. There are many new services which are preferred over RSS subscription. Facebook and Twitter are the new ways of subscribing to a blog. Old habits die hard. Now, there are paid services which can give you 1500 Twitter followers for cheap. They are both real people like you and dead accounts who just count, depending on the kind of service provider you engage with. Just because so many people want to boost their Follower Count, it has grown into an industry. There are such “Social Media Optimizers” who can give you large number of followings and likes, but all through low level manipulations. Some of them even ensure interactions, by which they mean their own dedicated staff would be communicating with you and people around you entering into one sock after another. What the Fun! A good argument given in favor of these people is that just like people sitting in a restaurant motivates others to visit and are preferred over those which are empty, this strategy attracts real people and they love to join them.

Now we have two conflicting aspects of this story. Faking a RSS counter proved to be a useless exercise. Faking a social media number or inflating it is fruitful! Can you buy this logic? A famous quote – You can make others’ fool more than one time but not every time. So, some people may be tricked to following you but they can always unsubscribe and unfollow or unlike, provided they are Humans. On social media platforms try to look beyond numbers to see what lies beneath it.

Read This >>

Warning: Missing required field "updated" in Blogger Rich Snippet Webmaster Tool [Solved]

While testing Rich Snippet for blogger posts in rich snippet testing tool inside Google Webmaster Tools, I found Warning:Missing required field “updated” problem. A lot of bloggers have advocated deleting hfeed and hentry fields to solve this problem. This indeed solves the problem, however, deleting a field whose function you don’t fully know may become the starting point of the unknown problems. So, I started exploring it further. Blogger gives you by default “published” timestamp field. A simple tweak of this gives the desired solution. Just find the following piece of code:

Copy it on a notepad and simply change it at two places, like this:

Now put the above code inside a div with display setting to none, like this:

<div style='display:none’><a class='updated' expr:href='data:post.url' rel='bookmark' title='permanent link'><abbr class='updated' expr:title='data:post.timestampISO8601'><data:post.timestamp/></abbr></a></div>.

Put the above code anywhere in the body part of the template, maybe just below the “published” field. Save the template and now test again inside the rich snippet tool in Webmaster tools. Warning is Gone!

P.S.----> On 15th of March, 2012, Google updated its Rich snippet guidelines and has mentioned anything inside a “display:none” won’t be considered. So, you should find a place to show it to the readers of the blog too, and remove the <div style=’display:none’> from above including the closing </div> for rich snippet to work properly.

Recommended:

Read This >>

5 Tips for instant improvement of a Google Adwords Campaign!

Many features within an adwords account are often ignored, or are not configured optimally. Using them may bring great results almost instantly.

1. Use of Filters

Use filters to enhance bidding at top positions. You may apply rules to attain a better position, whenever your ad falls below certain position. It is very helpful in campaigns where sighting your ads at top position matters. It is must have for packers & movers, florists, gifts and other websites where people tend to fall in love at first sight.

2. Use of Call Extension

This is the best ad extension which should be used! You should enable it within ad extensions tab, by entering your telephone number. Whenever a visitor clicks your ad on a mobile interface, she can connect with you instantly. It should be enabled for any kind of campaign.

3. Use of Social Extension

If your plus one count is above 100, it reduces your CPC. Of course there is a threshold and if your ad is running, you should not miss this opportunity. it also helps you hold your visitor on Google plus, whom you can pitch later on. A must have extension.

4. Video Ads

Very few people really knows the magic. Ads on youtube are cheaper than what you may think. Just highlight your URL in the ad and let visitors search for your website. Great for traffic at very low cost.

5. Use of Remarketing

Just start collecting the number of people who abondanoned your site through the purchase funnel. You can pitch them differently, using a different combination of landing page and ads. Each time they visit a site of their choice, your custom ad made for them only start showing. You can show them new offers, and target them through a different landing page too. Something great for Real Estate business!

Read This >>

“Rich Media Rocks 2012” by Microsoft in Delhi, India– Pitching for Premium Grade Ads.

Rich Media ads or interactive ads, which after the advent of “Permission Marketing” theories, and Google’s hyper emphasis on unobtrusive advertisement had made it a bad word for content on internet. A simple, clean and clear-cut presentation became recipe of acceptance for visitors, publishers and advertising platform providers. A good presentation on a page should meet all the three goals: the goal of the visitor , the goal of the publisher and the goal of the advertiser. A publisher should neither provide content solely for Visitors, who are selfish enough to leave the moment their goal is met, nor for the advertisers alone who would benefit mostly from interruption and turn the visitors off. Somebody has aptly described a path between Permission and Interruption as Intermission, which provides a refreshing break which is beneficial for all. So, rich media has actually room in the sphere of Good User experience. Microsoft sponsored conference on March, 1st, 2012 was to spread this sort of awareness among Marketers and Advertisers.

Nivelle Taraporewalla, the opener, claimed he was under-prepared and offered some unquestionable insights. His observation that web has moved beyond desktops to many new devices and applications of which TV too would become a part of it, raised no questions. A country Director of a company like Microsoft seldom offers views which even remotely touches the borderline of debatable topics. Should they drop a hint and people start reading between the lines. So, his presentation was more to do with his position rather than his unpreparedness.

Pushkar Sane, was the next speaker . His view on why you shouldn’t interrupt Facebook friends, with blunt marketing pitches, sounded convincing. He coined “Friends or Facends!” to demonstrate how relationship may sour because of insensivity, which touched the nerve of the audience. He elaborated it with many examples, how taking things for granted, may harm you in the long run. I overheard many people praising him during lunch time. I myself acknowledge such speakers leave everlasting impression on audience.

Trevor Yeats talked about Microsoft products as was expected of him. His presentation was very well prepared and appeared flawless. People asked him many questions and it appeared like the audience had warmed up by then and a momentum was set in. I asked him, why Microsoft sells its Banner ads through direct sales unlike Google which anybody can target through auction bid, from right inside the adwords dashboard. He answered, that it has something to do with Google’s focus on Search and Microsoft’s on Portals, though its a notable point.

Farshad Family shared his insights on web tracking and how facebook cookies and other related means are used by Neilson’s tracking software to successfully predict the demographics and consumer behavior. He was demonstrating how this software is capable of improving the targeting of ads and how they boost the ROI. It was an interesting session.

After break John Paul Stift and Andrew Young, both from Microsoft presented useful insights, on purchase behavior, attracting through creating experience, converting interest into action and fostering long lasting advocacy. One of them, I don’t remember exactly, claimed a very high level of CTR through rich media engagement.

Oded Lida Greiss shared his own experiences and success with Rich media campaigns. He impressed everyone with his case study on trappers, whose campaign he himself had created. He shared how this campaign turned viral and drove sales and traffic astronomically. A large part of his presentation, the visuals, were non-english. People talked to him about cost of such campaigns and cost effectiveness, because they appeared to be very unique, a kind of their own. He replied, such costs are “redundant” compared to the cost incurred on purchase of the ad slot itself. A diplomatic sort of answer!

After that there was a lucky draw of visiting cards for Xbox 360. I had given them my name written on a piece of paper. When they picked one, it was a Lucky Piece of paper, but it was announced that it had the name of a Microsoft Employee (undisclosed) on it and hence disqualified. They announced another winner. Well, I had given them my name on a piece of paper and it appears the wise people of Microsoft thought, its uniqueness must be diluted by introducing more “piece of papers”. I suspect it must be the mind of Trevor Yeats, who had announced that “People are very enthusiastic about the Lucky Draw”, soon after I gave my “piece of paper” at the reception. Anyway, I just wanted to participate, and am happy I did.

(P.S-----> I have relied upon my own note and memory on what the above mentioned people have said. I checked for videos and other sources, which were not available at the time. Many things may not be accurate or may even have quotation shift error . Fans and followers of them need to take no offence, I would be glad to correct myself. I was the first to publish it, and there are many resources available now on the web. Some of the speakers are publishing it on their own too. )

Read This >>

Web Comments: Strategy, Etiquettes and Future for Publishers and Contributors.

Comments on a webpage are like a magical mirror, which everybody want to snatch from others to see her own face, but in the end owner snatches it away for herself, by force, and makes a movie out of it.

A fantastic reality of internet is that every page is only as much credible as the owner of the webpage and fortunately vice versa too. So, knowing one helps knowing the other, and you will fail to see otherwise. If you are regularly commenting on different websites, you should be able to shortlist some trustworthy ones. The mirror analogy works everywhere, the only difference is whether the owner is a Dog, Monkey or some other creature like you or me! Since, web is mostly dominated by curators and hoovers, originality is a rare encounter for lucky few. Advent of Social Networking and messaging platform has made everyone a frequent commenter on multiple issues resulting into an unending quest for attention across various platforms. So the viral tide will surely strike you once in a while, tempting for a deep plunge into the sea. So, be prepared for the inevitable because you are going to make or break your reputation.

There are some good practices, which quite honestly I would tell you only the best people are seen practicing, but others like us must give it a try:

Your politeness is the most lethal weapon against all the odds that may come across you, while seeing comments across the web. So, try never to lose it.
Add wit and sarcasm but not abuses, even when others are throwing mud on you.
Be Original and just say what you feel and agree with, no need to seek support from others. You will find more support in this way, rather than by asking for it. People support you because of attraction and appeal you create there.
Don’t try to have the last word. People trying to do so can be easily identified, and they don’t make any real impact, though they always think they are making great impact. You must leave a discussion beyond a point.

These will make you Smart, while commenting:

If you comment according to the way discussion is moving forward, always look at the discussion and wait till you can read mood of the crowd and gently change the direction.
Bring some authentic source to sound credible. Link to a good video or a reputed authority on the web. People coming back after visiting the link will respect you, if you sounded genuine.
Give a personal touch and anecdote in your comment. Address the author, so that he may remember you, next time you visit.
Always comment through your public profile. Twitter or Facebook are best, it helps people know you better and also helps in creating better impact. Those who comment through guest profile or a dedicated commenting profile are taken as dishonest and the ones who run away throwing a stone on others.

For publishers the best strategy is one which facilitates a good discussion on the topic. some of the good practices are:

Allow for the Popular log in platform. Twitter and facebook login are a sort of norm these days.
Install a commenting System which allows simultaneous posting on different Social media platforms. It helps get more people and sharing.
Moderation is a dirty word. If you are moderating, announce it categorically, What kind of comments are removed and published. Keep it minimal and open. You should never look like doing something to slant the public view.
Selectively publishing comments to favor the author’s version of the story is criminal, and big publishers doing so will surely lose credibility and audience over a period of time. You are not the only place where people can comment, there are several other platforms and if comment on your page is not in sync with that at other place, people can easily sense the scam.

Future of comments on the web: Some of the websites have stopped accepting comments on their webpages. People comment on twitter, facebook or other places about them. So, you can’t address their audience, you can only address your own audience about them. It is good for publishers whose subject is highly technical or the audience participation may only increase the noise there. I see noise reduction as the major challenge that need to be addressed through a proper commenting system. People moderate but that takes away the credibility of the web page. Amount of conversation happening on twitter and facebook may completely take away the comments from the webpage. It is highly likely that webpages in future would rather allow you an easy peek into the web reactions as social proof and author or fan may access them and respond to them easily, from anywhere.

Read This >>

Should you have Different gates for Cats and Kittens?

An old debate! Sir Isaac Newton, the great scientist and probably greatest of his time, had two cat holes in the door of his laboratory. One for the Big cat and other a small one for the kittens.

People have debated, why the simple fact that one big hole is comfortable enough for both Big and small ones didn’t strike the mind of the great scientist. I have read all kind of arguments related to this. Was it a foolish decision or was he knowing something more than what an ordinary smart person may think?

Let us first think what the two holes would do. A big one is good enough for both the big cat and small one, but the bigger can’t jump through small one. Thus, the smaller one gives the kitten opportunity to jump through at the same time the big boss is taking his majestic leap through the bigger one.

If you remove the smaller hole, the kittens will just be queuing behind the Big cat for entering and leaving. They would be more happy and playful with the smaller hole adjacent to the big one.

We deal with cats and kittens in our daily life and both demands, and you should know deserve, equal respect from us. Our clients are not equal, our businesses deal with variety of people and our abilities in making them playful and happy make us succeed. We should have a special gateway for people to enter our life without them being bullied by big cats, leaping through the door.

Read This >>

Google Adwords Voucher and Top Placement Scams

In the past 3-4 years, Google has sent me 20 vouchers worth Rs5000/- each every quarter, every year. I have allowed them go down the drain, and have no regrets at all. I am not the only person receiving them, Google is kind enough to send them to every X, Y, Z in this industry, some of whom it dubiously calls Authorized!

Whenever, I have advertised, that I have vouchers to dispose, I have got calls from scammers form different part of the world. Some have even confided they are only using vouchers to run campaign on regular basis. I myself have observed, campaigns running on vouchers seldom goes beyond it. They make all the righteous claim that they are a new advertiser, but hey where you disappear after that?? I am strongly advocating completely doing away with vouchers. I doubt the percentage of genuine advertisers running campaign on free voucher is more than 10. Google Adwords is a reasonably old program, I have little reason to believe, most advertisers haven’t used this once.

There are multiple ways in which this scam is done. Some are making packages where you get unlimited clicks in limited time period. Here, the person promising has no cost involved at all, and can extract anything from advertisers. Some are promising highest placement and clicks, because they only need to insert voucher code into account. This has distorted the complete dynamics of this market. I was shocked, when a very reputed company asked me to explain these packages, and why that is not a better deal than what I offer. Surely, they are offering a better deal, with a very strong chance of you getting banned for advertising on Google forever. If you can afford getting banned in the long run, then you may try them. I offer no such scheme. Anybody who doesn’t offer you access to your adwords account and is not transparent with what goes to google and what goes to him, is not a good person to deal with.

Read This >>

Wikipedia: The New Age Porn Magazine!

“But I heard it is an encyclopedia!”.

You heard right, but that is how every Porn site, who are serious about their business masks themselves. Didn’t Jimbo tell you his Bomis.com was actually somewhat adult in content and not porn! In a typical wikipedia style I would first define what is porn, before arriving at any kind of judgement. As per dictionary.com

obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, especially those having little or no artistic merit.

:::Ramesh, you got it wrong here! It says “having little or no artistic merit” but wikipedia has immense artistic value. You should first get your perception of art right. When you search Michael Arrington on google the first link is wikipedia article on him, which tells you The Fucking incidence of his life at great length. Had it been porn our elder brother Google would not have indexed it at all. So, your perception is entirely wrong, because what is art can’t be called Porn. See, how we Wikipedian, promoted an obscure Yahoo CEO, through a high traffic page. But, you should know We never accept ads on our site.

The page you are showing, has messed all the information about him. It rather discusses things of fringe value to the reader and omits many notable facts. Is this what one should know before knowing the basic facts about him. My take on the entire article is that someone is deliberately trying to make a villain out of a hero.

:::You know, anybody can edit this Wikipedia. so, if you feel something is wrong you are welcome to edit this page. Though, you should take care, we have editors already involved there, so, you should not add anything with which they disagree. Move by consensus, otherwise we have admins who can block you. We greatly value neutral point of view.

First of all, You must know, I was searching for information about him. So, my position is Knowledge Seeker, how I can provide knowledge about something which I myself don’t know. Are all your editors too similar kind of Seekers who have become providers. Second point is How can I have consensus with people with whom I clearly disagree, and they frequently quote hyperlinked rules which they themselves keep on violating.

:::You see nobody knows anything perfectly, and for anything you don’t know you should Google. Google and Wikipedia goes hand in hand. Google always shows Wikipedia in the first position, which contains all the information that other 9 links below can provide you. So, we do a great service by consolidating all the information from every poor website that ranks below us, but we do take care that our editors write it in their own language, and they do mix their own expert knowledge in them. Your second point can be answered in this way that We also have a rule that allows us to break all the rules. So, whereas a newbie like you should observe all the rules, a veteran there is above every rule. You know most of them are admins or enjoy the protection of an admin.

In other words are you telling me that you have Cabals there, and all your articles are outcome of their bias and prejudices, which also somehow maligns the original authors you guy cite.

::: Everybody hates someone, and they get delighted to see something bad written about someone on the top page served by Google. That motivates them to contribute more to our site, and also show it to others. These people get complete security under the cover of anonymity, and with time they grow up as our admins. So, what they cannot write anywhere else, they can write here. Since, they also know something about other topics like science and philosophy, they contribute there too. In this way we have grown into such a big website. We have cabals

I think you qualify as a porn site and not as an encyclopedia. Porn too delight people and are shared with similar intent, but is a recognized social evil.

::: See you cannot come up with such claim without a reliable source. You either find a forum of your choice or get a blog. As I told you, we do not fit into the description of porn, per the dictionary definition, because we all are so artful. Our founder Jimmy Wales is hailed as a Spiritual Leader.

I have a blog and I am fully responsible for everything I write here. You too dare to sign your work. You may not entirely fit into Porn category, but you are a very close extension of what pornography is, a kind of New Age Porn.

Read This >>

Online Encyclopedias: Wikipedia Still Rules!

An encyclopedia is must for first hand information on anything we want to learn. We frequently come across various terms and concepts which we are not familiar with and then try to get some information about it.

For over a century people have relied upon Britannica Encyclopedia, which for many is still the Gold standard in this field. However, the ease of search on internet has spoilt our habit and we have sacrificed accuracy of knowledge in favor of what satisfy us fast and easily.

To fulfill this need of fast and free content on the internet were born several online versions of encyclopedia. First one which I could trace was MSN Encarta, which though was not free, effectively, took the attention off from Britannica Encyclopedia. MSN Encarta closed completely in 2009.

First genuine attempt to create truly free encyclopedia on the web came in the form of Nupedia, which reincarnated as Wikipedia in 2001. This open source, free to read and edit encyclopedia has more or less established itself as a good resource and despite its inherent limitations it just can’t be ignored.

However, Wikipedia has been criticized for its inaccuracies, bureaucracy , polluting the web with anonymous false facts, providing platform for criminals to publish illegal misinformation, and for what people have termed it –“The Single Most Dangerous Website on the Internet”.

To fix its inaccuracies and inherent problems with wikipedia, its co-founder Larry Sanger, started Citizendium. Citizendium aims for the articles to reach an approved status, accorded by its editorial team. They are also known for verifying the actual credentials of the editors. However, it has been learnt that it is more bureaucratic and reportedly the environment there is more uncivil than wikipedia. Some users have even complained that Sanger himself is the most abusive person there. As a result it could not grow as per expectations and with time number of users have drastically come down. It has also been learnt that it has been into financial crisis too.

If you want a very high standard of reliable content, then Scholarpedia may be the right option for you. This encyclopedia can be edited only by people with proven credentials. You shall have to apply for becoming an editor there and you would be approved to edit the topics which they consider you fit for. Given its structure, its growth is very limited and slow, and doesn’t offer you content on all kind of topics.

The most serious competitor of Wikipedia ever was and possibly is to the present day is, Google’s Knol. Although, it had been perceived as Wikipedia Killer initially, there is no immediate threat to wikipedia from this. Google has done little for this project except for allocating a server and bunch of softwares. The project suffers critically from Google’s indifferent attitude and has been frustrating enough to compel its best contributors to leave the project. Shortly few months before there were rumors about Google going to shut down this program. Despite all speculations Google’s Knol is still there, though they are not paying any attention to enforce the terms of services on users there because of alleged lack of interest and human resources from Google. As a result of which it has become spammers’ paradise.

Google Knol’s structure provided some definite edge over wikipedia and other similar sites. It has no bureaucracy and you can write alone or in team. Some of the knol members had formed Knol Publishing Guild, which promoted a value system among knol writers. To display its badge, one needed to have got approved after writing a bio knol and shown some degree of proficiency on the subject. It is all history now. After Google itself donated to Wikipedia recently, users have taken it as a sign of disinterest from the side of Google. Several knol writers have started feeling that Google is slowly killing this project. So, unless Google shows some major sign of revamping the system, it is taken as- dying a slow death.

Apart from Citizendium and Google Knol, no encyclopedia or anything like that has wikipedia like ambition. Though it is too early to write off either Knol or Citizendium, it looks less likely that they would be competing with Wikipedia in near future.

P.S.----> Google to Shut Down Knol, officially reported on 11/22/2011 01:40:00 PM.

Read This >>

10 important things to do immediately after starting a BlogSpot blog

10 things that will supercharge your blog. Immediately, after starting your blogspot blog, you require some customization, which gives it professional look and also helps it perform well on search engines.

Remove/Hide the Top Blogger bar.

Add the Following line of code by going to Edit HTML (Expand Widget):

#navbar-iframe{height:0px; visibility:hidden; display:none}
body{ margin-top:0px; position:relative; top:2px}

which should look like this after adding the code:

<b:skin><![CDATA[/*
-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name:     Simple


----------------------------------------------- */
#navbar-iframe{height:0px; visibility:hidden; display:none}
body{ margin-top:0px; position:relative; top:2px}
Split the Header into two columns

. Although, blogger has launched many designer templates, none till date, has split header by default. So, you need to insert extra section in Header to get two column headers. Two column header helps you insert extra widget in that area. Find the following code, by going to edit HTML in your blogger control panel, leaving Expand option unticked: <b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1'showaddelement='no'>. Just after </b:section>, insert the following code:
```
<b:section id='header-right' showaddelement='yes'/>
<div style='clear: both;'/>                                                 
```
Now Find the    ]]></b:skin>    and add the following line of code just before it:
#header {width:20%;display:inline-block;float:left;}
#header-right {width:80%;display:inline-block;float:right;padding:0px;}
#header-right .widget {margin:0;}

After saving the template, go to add page element, choose the image only option, and insert Logo in Header Left, and description or Adsense in header right column. Here, for those who have opted for image only option in Header, need to tweak the template again. So, go back to edit HTML, and, find below code:


      <div id='header-inner'>
        <a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' style='display: block'>
          <img expr:alt='data:title' expr:height='data:height' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_headerimg"' expr:src='data:sourceUrl' expr:width='data:width' style='display: block'/>
        </a>      Replace this code with one given below:


      <div id='header-inner'>
        <a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl' style='display: block'>
          <img expr:alt='data:title' expr:height='data:height' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + "_headerimg"' expr:src='data:sourceUrl' expr:width='data:width' style='display: block'/>
        </a><div class='titlewrapper' style='display:none'>
        <h1 class='title'>
          <b:include name='title'/>
        </h1>
      </div>
Change Post Title tag to write search engine friendly headlines.

Blogger, by default has Blog Title, into header description. it reduces the real estate of first 150 characters, which are of so importance these days. Your important, headlines goes with blog title to all important services updates, including your posts’ Search engine description. Just go to Edit HTML, and find <data:blog.pageTitle/>. Replace it with the following line of code: <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'>
<title><data:blog.title/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/></title>
</b:if>
Show more posts on home page. SEO the archives

. Read this/Expand the post feature also, indexes your archived pages by April, May, June… Which helps Search engines to index it in this way. To automatically get the post thumbnails on your home page, copy & paste the following code, just after the </head> tag in your template:                                                                                                          <script type='text/javascript'>
var thumbnail_mode = "yes"; //yes -with thumbnail, no -no thumbnail
summary_noimg = 430; //summary length when no image
summary_img = 340; //summary length when with image
img_thumb_height = 125;
img_thumb_width = 150;
</script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
function removeHtmlTag(strx,chop){
    if(strx.indexOf("<")!=-1)
    {
        var s = strx.split("<");
        for(var i=0;i<s.length;i++){
            if(s[i].indexOf(">")!=-1){
                s[i] = s[i].substring(s[i].indexOf(">")+1,s[i].length);
            }
        }
        strx = s.join("");
    }
    chop = (chop < strx.length-1) ? chop : strx.length-2;
    while(strx.charAt(chop-1)!=' ' && strx.indexOf(' ',chop)!=-1) chop++;
    strx = strx.substring(0,chop-1);
    return strx+'...';
} function createSummaryAndThumb(pID){
    var div = document.getElementById(pID);
    var imgtag = "";
    var img = div.getElementsByTagName("img");
    var summ = summary_noimg;
        if(thumbnail_mode == "yes") {
    if(img.length>=1) {
        imgtag = '<span style="float:left; padding:0px 10px 5px 0px;"><img src="'+img[0].src+'" width="'+img_thumb_width+'px" height="'+img_thumb_height+'px"/></span>';
        summ = summary_img;
    }
    }
    var summary = imgtag + '<div align=justify>' + removeHtmlTag(div.innerHTML,summ) + '</div>';
    div.innerHTML = summary;
}
//]]>
</script>                                                                                                     After this save the template, tick the expand widget option and find <data:post.body/>, in your template. Replace this line with the following code:                               <!—Netargument.com Read This code Start --><b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "static_page"'>
<data:post.body/><b:else/>
<div expr:id='"summary" + data:post.id'>
<data:post.body/>
</div><script type='text/javascript'>
createSummaryAndThumb("summary<data:post.id/>");</script>
<div style='clear: both;'/>
<span class='rmlink' style='float:right;padding-top:5px;'><a expr:href='data:post.url'><b>Read This >></b></a></span></b:if></b:if>                                                 <!—Netargument.com Read This code End –>                                                                                                          Now, Preview and Save the template. This will create thumbnail of posts on home page, labels and archives. This also helps search engines index your archives by months like March, April…
Insert Meta tags for home page and other pages.

Use of conditional tags to help the search engines, index the pages, and prevent content duplicate listings. To help search engines index your blog by proper keywords and descriptions, you should write meta tags for home page. Just copy the meta tags from below, alter it suitably and paste after <head> in your template: <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<meta content=' DESCRIBE YOUR BLOG HERE AS YOU WANT TO APPEAR ON SEARCH PAGES ' name='description'/></b:if>
<meta content='WRITE 8-10 KEYWORDS HERE RELEVANT TO YOUR BLOG' name='keywords'/> If you want to write Description for other pages too, simply add this code: <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "WRITE YOUR POST/PAGE URL HEREquot;'><meta content='DESCRIBE THE CONTENT OF THE PAGE' name='description'/></b:if>
Change default comment permalink.

Blogger default comment permalink adds “?’ attribute to the page url with comment id in post url. Google will then see as an issue of duplicate title tag. To avoid this, you need to change the ‘?’ attribute to “#”. This can be achieved by replacing the default code which is like this: <a expr:href='"#comment-" + data:comment.id' title='comment permalink'> <data:comment.timestamp/> to this one: <b:if cond='data:post.commentPagingRequired'>

<a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'> <data.comment.timestamp/> </a>

<b:else/>

<a expr:href='data:blog.url + "#" + data:comment.anchorName' title='comment permalink'> <data:comment.timestamp/> </a>

</b:if>
Bottom Page number for posts, archives and labels.

Insert the code just before </b:skin> in your template:                                                                                                         .showpageNum a {
text-decoration:none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
margin:0 3px;
padding:3px;
}
.showpageNum a:hover {
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color:#ccc;
}
.showpagePoint {
color:#333;
text-decoration:none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background: #ccc;
margin:0 3px;
padding:3px;
}
.showpageOf {
text-decoration:none;
padding:3px;
margin: 0 3px 0 0;
}
.showpage a {
text-decoration:none;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
padding:3px;
}
.showpage a:hover {
text-decoration:none;
}
.showpageNum a:link,.showpage a:link {
text-decoration:none;
color:#333;
}                                                                                                                 Save the template, return again to Edit HTML, and leave the Expand widget unticked. Press ctrlF and find Blog1. This should take you to following line of code:                                                                   <b:widget id='Blog1' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'/>
<b:widget id='HTML12' locked='false' title='' type='HTML'/>
<b:widget id='HTML2' locked='false' title='' type='HTML'/>
</b:section>                                                                                                                  Immediately after </b:section>, add the following line of code:                                                                                                            <script type="text/javascript"> function showpageCount(json) {
var thisUrl = location.href;
var htmlMap = new Array();
var isFirstPage = thisUrl.substring(thisUrl.length-5,thisUrl.length)==".com/";
var isLablePage = thisUrl.indexOf("/search/label/")!=-1;
var isPage = thisUrl.indexOf("/search?updated")!=-1;
var thisLable = isLablePage ? thisUrl.substr(thisUrl.indexOf("/search/label/")+14,thisUrl.length) : "";
thisLable = thisLable.indexOf("?")!=-1 ? thisLable.substr(0,thisLable.indexOf("?")) : thisLable;
var thisNum = 1;
var postNum=1;
var itemCount = 0;
var fFlag = 0;
var eFlag = 0;
var html= '';
var upPageHtml ='';
var downPageHtml =''; var pageCount = 14;
var displayPageNum = 10;
var upPageWord = 'Previous';
var downPageWord = 'Next';var labelHtml = '<span class="showpageNum"><a href="/search/label/'+thisLable+'?&max-results='+pageCount+'">';for(var i=0, post; post = json.feed.entry[i]; i++) {
var timestamp = post.published.$t.substr(0,10);
var title = post.title.$t;
if(isLablePage){
if(title!=''){
if(post.category){
for(var c=0, post_category; post_category = post.category[c]; c++) {
if(encodeURIComponent(post_category.term)==thisLable){
if(itemCount==0 || (itemCount % pageCount ==(pageCount-1))){
if(thisUrl.indexOf(timestamp)!=-1 ){
thisNum = postNum;
}postNum++;
htmlMap[htmlMap.length] = '/search/label/'+thisLable+'?updated-max='+timestamp+'T00%3A00%3A00%2B08%3A00&max-results='+pageCount;
}
}
}
}//end if(post.category){itemCount++;
}}else{
if(title!=''){
if(itemCount==0 || (itemCount % pageCount ==(pageCount-1))){
if(thisUrl.indexOf(timestamp)!=-1 ){
thisNum = postNum;
}if(title!='') postNum++;
htmlMap[htmlMap.length] = '/search?updated-max='+timestamp+'T00%3A00%3A00%2B08%3A00&max-results='+pageCount;
}
}
itemCount++;
}
} for(var p =0;p< htmlMap.length;p++){
if(p>=(thisNum-displayPageNum-1) && p<(thisNum+displayPageNum)){
if(fFlag ==0 && p == thisNum-2){
if(thisNum==2){
if(isLablePage){
upPageHtml = labelHtml + upPageWord +'</a></span>';
}else{
upPageHtml = '<span class="showpage"><a href="/">'+ upPageWord +'</a></span>';
}
}else{
upPageHtml = '<span class="showpage"><a href="'+htmlMap[p]+'">'+ upPageWord +'</a></span>';
}fFlag++;
}if(p==(thisNum-1)){
html += '<span class="showpagePoint">'+thisNum+'</span>';
}else{
if(p==0){
if(isLablePage){
html = labelHtml+'1</a></span>';
}else{
html += '<span class="showpageNum"><a href="/">1</a></span>';
}
}else{
html += '<span class="showpageNum"><a href="'+htmlMap[p]+'">'+ (p+1) +'</a></span>';
}
}if(eFlag ==0 && p == thisNum){
downPageHtml = '<span class="showpage"> <a href="'+htmlMap[p]+'">'+ downPageWord +'</a></span>';
eFlag++;
}
}//end if(p>=(thisNum-displayPageNum-1) && p<(thisNum+displayPageNum)){
}//end for(var p =0;p< htmlMap.length;p++){if(thisNum>1){
if(!isLablePage){
html = ''+upPageHtml+' '+html +' ';
}else{
html = ''+upPageHtml+' '+html +' ';
}
}html = '<div class="showpageArea"><span style="COLOR: #000;" class="showpageOf"> Pages ('+(postNum-1)+')</span>'+html;if(thisNum<(postNum-1)){
html += downPageHtml;}if(postNum==1) postNum++;
html += '</div>';if(isPage || isFirstPage || isLablePage){
var pageArea = document.getElementsByName("pageArea");
var blogPager = document.getElementById("blog-pager");if(postNum <= 2){
html ='';
}for(var p =0;p< pageArea.length;p++){
pageArea[p].innerHTML = html;
}if(pageArea&&pageArea.length>0){
html ='';
}if(blogPager){
blogPager.innerHTML = html;
}
}}
</script><script src="/feeds/posts/summary?alt=json-in-script&callback=showpageCount&max-results=99999"; type="text/javascript"></script>                                    Preview the template. This won’t show you any impact, but it’s a safety against any code error. Save it, and you would find the page numbers on home page.
Style/Remove Older Post, Newer Post link

Following code will add style to the below post older/newer/home link. Just go to Designer>Advanced>Add CSS, and paste this: #blog-pager-older-link, #blog-pager-newer-link, .home-link{background:#FFF0B7; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px; } If you want to completely remove them use this code instead: #blog-pager-older-link, #blog-pager-newer-link, .home-link{background:#FFF0B7; padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px; display:none;}
Remove Subscribe link below the post body.

Subscribe link below the post looks ugly and should be removed. Just find the following code: <b:include name=’feedLinks’/> in your template, delete and save. It is gone.
Add Favicon:

Choose a favicon, host it on web preferably in ico/png format(check favicongenerator.com), and paste the following code just before </head> in your template: <link href='YOUR-FAVICON-URL' rel='shortcut icon'/>
<link href='YOUR-FAVICON-URL' rel='icon'/>

In addition to all the above I also recommend using an offline Blog Editing software. I myself use and recommend windows live Writer for windows and Blogilo for ubuntu.

Top Resources:

Read This >>

1+9Bold Ideas for Writing Google Adwords Ad Text/Ad Copy that Performs!

In 2006, I started using “Keyword?” in Ad Text Headlines. It was my original bold decision, which many initially termed Bizarre! I had not seen anybody doing this before. However, after six months, I could find many ads written in the same way, on different search result pages of Google. Later, I learnt, Google customer support staff are recommending it. It was a quick fire solution for CTR enhancement, that works for every campaign. Lesson to be learnt- You can’t call an Ad, bizarre, till stats prove it.

Since then, I have made it a norm, to test at least one ad text, in every campaign, which you may term as a bold idea. I am sharing with you some of them that has become part of my ad arsenal.

Space before exclamation(!) Mark:

I seldom use exclamation like, Now!. Instead, I prefer to write, Now !, unless I am compelled by the space limitation. It emphasizes, your exclamation mark.
Long Display URL:

Write Long display URL to draw attention towards your ad. Character limitations are surely there, but if You use, dynamic insertion like, DisplayURL/{keywor:word}, it goes beyond that limit. DisplayURL/{keyword} too works,you get error message in Adwords Editor only.
Yes Sure! :

This is my phrase, which I have used like my trademark on every campaign. Better, let the whole work say it. However, if you have limitation of space, just use this phrase, at the end of the copy. I promise you, it Works like a magic.
Three Dots Magic(…):

Credit of using this as a technique and publically publishing it, goes to Mind Valley Labs. They had figured out, it works best, at the end of the copy. However, I could find, in addition to what they have found, it works great at the middle and even at the start of the last line. Like: Want Proof… Yes Sure!, “Fast Courier Service. /New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore…/ … On time delivery everywhere!”
Inverted Commas(“”).

Use inverted commas in First and second line, for better results. “Most honest Deal I ever Had!”
Use of Special Characters:

Use of special characters, like copyright and Registered, symbols, draws attention towards your ad. Use of currency symbols too have good impact.
Writing Ad texts in language, which users know but is not using as a keyword:

Writing Ad texts in Hindi while targeting India, in Urdu while targeting Pakistan, in Arabic while targeting Middle East, in Spanish while targeting Latin America, for ad groups containing English language keywords. It draws the attention of users who knows the language, and your ad looks Unique!
Use of Symbol “&”, at the End of Line1(Headline):

This symbol at the end of the Line1, plays the magic. It surely enhances CTR and conversion rate. Readers are involuntarily forced to read the second line and it increases their interest level. Use it like: Just pay Rs7000 &/Stop losing Millions in………
Use of Conversion Boosting Words:

“Easy” is a word that surely improves your ad copy. All its variants work very well. Use it like, Easy, Easily, with great ease etc. Higher you place it in the copy, more impact it makes. Similar other words are, Just (works best with Pay!), Yes!(preferably with sure).

I believe,You must be having your own list too. Kindly Share.

fb_xd_fragment, Fix for Blogger powered Blogs & Websites

While going through analytics last year I found a large number of urls with query string ?fb_xd_fragment=. While going to this link in a browser, I found, it displays the page for a while and then it goes white. It has been a big problem for a lot of websites, which uses FB Java SDK for like buttons. Someone, in facebook developers' forum recommended using the following code just before the </body> tag to solve this problem.

document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].style.display='block';

</script>

This fixed the problem for a long time, till it started once again, when I replaced the like button with, Like+Send button. A large number of pages, in analytics were showing the same query string with same problem. I was losing a big chunk of my traffic. I inspected once again if code installed has got corrupted, and hence pasted it there once again. It produced no impact on how the pages with that query string were served. Google has started indexing the pages with these query strings, and that is what has caused the problem. A blogger has suggested the following fix for this problem, which seems to work in most of the cases.

1/ Change your FB.init to the following

FB.init({appId: appId, status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true, channelUrl: 'http://example.com/channel.html'});

// ^ channel URL above used to workaround fb_xd_fragment bug

2/ Create the static file for http://example.com/channel.html with the following content:

However, a blogspost blog cannot host a .js file. You need to host it on some other website. The solution is not the best for a blogspot blogger.

Fortunately, a member of Facebook Developer forum has given his own script and it works perfectly for blogger. You just need to paste it after opening <body> tag.

if(window.document.location.href.match('fb_xd_fragment')!=null)

{

var reg=/\?/

window.document.location.href.match('fb_xd_fragment');

var start=window.document.location.href.search(reg)

window.location=window.document.location.href.substring(0,start);

}

</script>

Some of the templates does not have <body> tag instead a variant is available, you just search for <body, and at the end of this tag paste the code there. It stops the problem immediately.