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.

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?

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What I liked at thinkbigsites.com is that they don’t only offer SEO services, they also offer hosting, programming and web design services which is a very good thing both for the company and customer.

Regarding the website itself, I can only say that it’s extremely well structured. You can find everything you need very easy, you don’t have to look for hours after something you need, although I would have a suggestion regarding the design part. The green color doesn’t suit very well to the website. It’s okay, not too bad, but I would recommend another color or, at least, another tinge of green, the actual one being too bright.

I took a look at the portfolio as well. Friends, I can assure you that you are on good hands because this company has a big portfolio of scores of happy customers. Another thing that I really liked here is that you know from the beginning what the price for a certain service will be so you don’t have to ask how much will it cost to (…). Just put an eye on the “pricing” page and you will find everything you need. Like I said before, everything is structured by the book. A+ for that!

Okay, so don’t forget, if you need more web site traffic and you are looking for a SEO expert, I would recommend you to try this company, that, at first sight looks very professional and I’m sure it is!

• add more than 200 Friends

This is good and bad. Let’s start with the good aspect. Members like you and me will be able to get in touch with more passionate bloggers or interesting people. Regarding friends, sky is the limit! About the bad aspect, spammers will have the chance to add more and more friends so they can send pages to them and promote their websites, but stumbleupon took care of that as well. You will receive this message if you add too many friends in a very short period of time:



• subscribe to another member’s Stumbles without becoming their Friend

This wasn’t really necessary. First I didn’t get it. But if you think a little about it, you will realize that maybe you just want to subscribe at someone’s favorites and not to become a friend with him or her, although, if you like someone’s activity you might consider getting to know that person.

• members who’ve unsubscribed from StumbleUpon no longer appear as your Friend

Oh that’s great! It won’t be necessary anymore to delete your “dead” friends.

• “Fans” will now be known as “Subscribers”

Doesn’t need any explanation, does it?

• Subscribers who are new StumbleUpon members appear at the top of your Subscribers list

Okay, this might help, you can now see who is new to stumbleupon and who isn’t. You can put an eye from time to time on the new members to see how they manage.

More than that, you can now see how similar you are with another stumbler. To see that you just have to enter a page of another stumbler, and on the right side it will appear something like this:

All in all, I really like these changes.

- 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.

Google Knol - Wikipedia’s rival

Google launched today the publishing platform named Knol, a platform that is very similar to Wikipedia. Its name comes from “knowledge”.

Knol uses the same publishing instruments like a blog page and the authors can create topics. People will be able to add comments, questions, and even edit content. The article may include an advertisement too if the author wants to. Beside Wikipedia where are only anonymous authors, Knol will present the signature of the them too.

All in all, why not? I am completely sure that this might become a success as other Google projects but I am not that sure it will take Wikipedia’s place.

Google to buy Digg for $200m?

As I came across on TechCrunch, I saw that there are some negotiations between Google and Digg. We are talking about $200m. Kevin Rose, what’s your opinion?

Yeah, Microsoft would like to buy Digg too but they have a smaller bid. Personally, I think that it’s ok Google to buy Digg. I don’t know what different company would be better to do this.