A very essential part of blog optimization is making it be a comfortable place for your old, faithful readers and even the new ones. I’m sure you agree with me that font size is a tricky part, on the internet, there are different opinions about how big or how small a font should be in order not to cause pain to the eyes.

I came across so many blogs and websites that had some really nice articles which could be a great read, but there was a major problem. The font size was too small for my eyes, so I couldn’t read anything. There were 2 possibilities: copy the text in a word processor and make the font bigger in order to read it without problems or just simply hit the x button and close the window. There are 99% chances that you would choose option number two (closing the window), and that’s exactly what I did. In other terms, this means money loss, high bounce rate, big decrease in the subscribers number, and more bad things for the one who tried to write a good article.

The best thing you can do is to install a plugin on your blog that will display a button on every article, a button that allows the reader to make the font smaller or bigger, according to his tastes. Luckily, if you are on wordpress, a smart coder made a very nice plugin called “WP-chgFontSize” which can be downloaded from here. Once the plugin was download, here are the installation steps, according to the author:

2. Decompress and upload the contents of the archive into /wp-content/plugins/.
3. Activate the plugin on your WP Admin > Plugins page by clicking ‘Activate’ at the end of the ‘WP-chgFontSize’ row.
4. Configure the plugin on your WP Admin > Options > Font Size page.
5. To use it, there are two possibilities:
* If your theme supports widgets, and you have installed the [widget plugin](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/widgets/) or you are using Wordpress 2.2 or higher, add the ‘WP-chgFontSize’ widget on your WP Admin > Presentation > Widgets page.
* Add `<?php chgfontsize_display_options(); ?>` at the place in the theme’s file where you want the font size selection appear.

Regarding step 5, I personally chose the second option and it looks like this (click on the photo to make it bigger):

Again, I really recommend you to use this plugin which will definitely make happy some of your readers. If any problem occurs during installation, feel free to add a comment here telling what the problem seems to be and I’ll be glad to help.

As you all know, a blog is an online journal where you can write your thoughts, opinions about certain topics, in my case: blogging about blogging. Blogging has evolved over time and you can now see huge projects like techcrunch that are actually blogs.

What’s so great about blogging, you may ask. Well, the great thing is that you can get a response from your readers on your articles, that is called feedback. Really, everyone has an opinion and you’ll see how great you feel when someone posts a comment on your article. In blogging, connecting with your readers is essential if you want to “stand out of the crowd” and do something special. Maybe that is why in the last few years the “blogoshpere” has grown so much, it came with something special.

But how can you connect with your readers?

Read the rest of this entry »

I think you all know Daniel Scocco, the problogger behind dailyblogtips.com. I have prepared a question set for him and he was glad to take it, thank you! Let’s hear the thoughts of a successful blogger:

- First of all, please give me some details about you (Age, occupation, hobbies, anything you want).

I am 24, and for the past 2 years I have been working on the Internet, with a wide range of projects. I would call my self a web publisher, but the definition is evolving over the time.

- When and why did you start blogging and when was the first time you heard about this term?

I first heard about the term back in 2005, on the blog of Steve Pavlina. He described how it was possible for people to start a blog and make a living with it. The idea sounded very attracting, and I started one small blog right after reading that.

- How much time do you spend blogging per day?

Some 4 or 5 hours.

- What’s your target? Money, connection with people, or you just want to let your voice be heard?

My plan is to start a web company soon. My blogs and other online projects are a way to arrive there (for the money and connections that they bring). Even if my startup should take off tomorrow, I will probably keep writing on my personal blog to share my thoughts and ideas.

- Which traffic do you consider to be the best? The one provided by search engines or social media networks?

Search engines. It is more stable and can be molded more easily (i.e. led to click on ads).

- What are the best ways to promote a blog?

Put some killer content on it, then let other people know about it (email them, use social sites, etc).

- In your opinion, what makes a blog be good?

Its content.

- How do you monetize your blog?

I have direct advertising deals in place (companies that sponsor the blogs).

- What monetization methods do you recommend?

Direct advertising deals. If you have a huge number of page views, perhaps CPM ads. If you have a huge organic traffic (from search engines) then perhaps AdSense.

- Could you give some advice for the new bloggers?

Focus on creating outstanding content, the rest will follow. People must read it and say “shit, I better bookmark this website and come back in the future!”

This question set addressed to a big problogger has the intention to help the new ones understand better this phenomenon called blogging.

From now on I will help you with your blogs for free. You can ask me whatever you want about blogging, monetizing, search engine optimization or social media optimization, all for nothing (Though I won’t say no to a beer or a coffee).

Why pay hundreds of dollars to ask a so called “expert” if you can ask me for free? I guarantee that I can help you no matter the problem you have.

Ok, so if you have any problems, feel free to ask me. To do that you have to go onto the “Free advice” page and complete the form which can be found there.

I will get back to you within 24 hours and weekly all the questions and answers will be posted here (or most of them).

I am sure that most of the new bloggers have a shared hosting plan, not a dedicated server and there is no problem. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a dedicated server if your blogs stays very well on a shared hosting plan. I tried to make a little research because I always argue with the guys from support on different reasons.

Today, I asked at Hostgator what happens if I get on the digg’s front page with my blog hosted at them, on a shared hosting plan. Here is the conversation ( I got the permission to post it here ):

So, as you can see, at the beginning, Jacob P - the guy from support tried to convince me that a shared hosting plan at Hostgator is very powerful and should resist at huge traffic. Then, after I said that there is a possibility to buy a dedicated server (that means giving more money to them) he changed his mind and he wasn’t so sure if a shared account will resist at a .. let’s say digg’s front page.

Right now, I am hosting about 10 websites on my shared account at Hostgator and they all have a traffic of about 15,000 visits / day and I really don’t have any problems, my account gets suspended only when I receive many visitors in a small period of time.

So, you should upgrade to a dedicated server only when yo earn more than the hosting’s price and only when your blog  really needs a dedicated server, you will know that by seeing your account getting suspended very often.

Wordpress is making five years, five years of intense blogging! There was a long but beautiful way from the first release - 0.7.

If you want to celebrate this with other bloggers, then you should rush to the wordpress birthday party that will take place in San Francisco at 111 Minna, starting at 9PM.

For more details check this link.

Many thanks to Matt Mullenweg, the genius behind the Wordpress blogging platform!