How to create and add your own FavIcon - Tutorial

First of lets see, what is a Favicon. Simply pu t a Favicon.ico is a tiny literally speaking very smaall custom made picture/graphic that you can see in the menu bar or the tab of any website.  If you look at the top of the bar now you will see that for this blog right now the Favicon is still the same as any blogger blog - is it the small picture with a letter B with an orange background.

At first I thought it must be so hard to create one and you have know all these graphic design things, but its turned out to be as easy at it looks. :)  You can create one right now with a couple of clicks!

Step 1:  Create the graphic/picture that you want to use

First things first.  You have to decide what logo or image you want your site/brand to be associated with.  It literally can be any picture, design, image,etc..  Once you have chosen the picture you want to use (that to say this picture can either be something totally creative that you drew yourself, bought from one of the sites or a photograph you took)  open the file in an editing program.. I personally use Photoshop so this would be my suggestion, but you can choose any editing program. also I usually buy my pictures from this one site - think its called pixmax - there is a bright pink banner on the right side of my blog! :)  They are very cheap, some free while other for about a $.


Now getting back to the FavIcon.  Once you open it in an editing program you have to crop/cut our all the possible white space.  After thats done just reduce the size of the image to 16 x 16 pixels!  Sometimes you could have a problem that your little icon is not resizing well and does not look nice when so tiny.  In this case all I could suggest is try choosing a different image/design or just play around with a number of different designs and I'm sure you will come to the best option!
As for me I have not yet changed my FavIcon cause I honestly am having a hard time on deciding on the image to use - any suggestions/associations?

Step 2 : Choose a name for your File and Save!

 After altering the image and resizing it I saved it in Photoshop under an easy name to remember - small_image.gif 
Next what you should do is go to your desktop or the folder/directory where you saved your image on your computer and rename the file, in my case to:  favicon.ico

That's it, now all you have to do is upload the file!

Step 3:  Time to upload the file to your website and do some code modicfication

After having done the above steps all you have to do now is upload the file to your ROOT directory. You might want to put it in the image directory like with all your images, but don't!
Usually once the image is placed some browsers are smart enough to autodetect the favicon, but in our case we do not want to risk it and will make it easier for the browser :)  Just some minor modification that we can do to make sure it all works perfect!
Open the page where you do all your html modifications and find the file with your header information.  Now just add this little bit of code to the segment.

Now do some testing to see if it all works out! Please ask if you encounter a problem or might have a question!!

Now after you have gone through all this and still have question there is an easy solution available!
You can just use this site to create your favicon automatically if you are not sure that all your messing about with you html code will be good.

www.chami.com

Was this tutorial helpful? I’m sure this is not the only way to get this done, so if you have a better method, do share!!!

Top 10 Ways to Use Ad Tracking

Most companies have advertising and promotion budgets. It's almost impossible to run a business without one!

But what if you could use a crystal ball that would give you almost immediate feedback on the success or failure of your promotional campaigns? Can you image the increased profits you might realize, if you could confidently eliminate those areas that underperformed, while concentrating on those that were overwhelmingly superior?
Imagine if you could know for certain which headline on your web site created more opt-ins? Wouldn't you like to know which email subject line caused more people to click through to your web site?
Ad tracking can do exactly that. But it can do much more! Below are 10 reasons you should be using ad tracking:

1. Learn the true cost of your Internet advertising. Ad tracking eliminates budgetary guesswork because you'll have statistics such as cost-per-click and clicks-to-sale. This information will allow you to drill down and find the real and total cost of your online advertising.
   As an example, let's say you are doing pay-per-click advertising and banner advertising. Let's further assume that your cost-per-click is much higher than your cost-per-impression. Before you throw up your hands trying to compare apples and oranges, be aware that a good ad tracking program, like Hypertracker, can allow you to compare disparate mediums with ease.
   
2. Keep only those ads proven to be the most profitable and eliminate the others. Ad tracking can show you which ads to eliminate immediately (the obvious losers that are costing you real money for NO results!), but it can also show you the most productive channels. After all, wouldn't you rather trade a 1% ROI for a 20% ROI (return on investment)?
   
3. Verify the best target market or niche for your product. Ad tracking can also be used to track things like subscribers. Trying to decide the best niche for your products? Promote your opt-in list to two potential niches and you'll quickly see if one is a better potential market than the other based on the percentage of new subscribers. Can you imagine the time and money this will save you?
   
4. Compare the ROI on various free promotion methods to determine which provides the highest return. Many times, a marketing mix is based on time vs. money. And, if you're relatively new to the business world, or have a small marketing budget, rolling up your sleeves and doing some experimentation is a great way to build a subscriber list, prospects and sales! But many free methods are time-wasters that provide little in return for the hours spent.
   Ad tracking is a great way to tell if forums, articles, social networking, traffic exchanges, search engine optimization (SEO) or hundreds of other "free" methods work. Pick a few and use an ad tracking system like Hypertracker to compare the clicks all the way to sales attributed to each method. Soon you'll only be spending your time in areas that you know are effective!
   
5. Determine how much traffic your ads are bringing to you. Sure, you can check raw server logs to learn whether your traffic has increased over time. But ad tracking lasers down to pinpoint exactly where that click originated. And it can further drill down to tell you how many sales resulted from those clicks!
   
6. Fine-tune your ads. Should I change my headline? Is red more effective than blue? Should I use a header graphic? Audio? Video? Professional marketers know that what works for one product or company may not work the same for another. The only way to find out is to test.
   Ad tracking allows you to set up alternate tracking links, so you can split-test headline, colors, audio, video and more. Know for certain which element increases subscribers, referrals, leads and sales!
   
7. Develop a list of your most profitable products or affiliate programs. If you knew for certain that Product A out-produced Product B by a factor of 30, would that be of interest to you? Of course it would! Ad tracking boils all these statistics down to easy-to-understand information that will allow you to make smarter business decisions. You'll quickly see which products or services are duds, and should be eliminated.
   
8. Test product price points. Not sure which price point will return the highest revenue to you? Use ad tracking to test them! By assigning different tracking links to each price (suggestion: not to exceed 3), you'll quickly learn which price point is likely to produce the highest income. (Remember, the highest sales don't necessarily translate into the highest income!) Take the guesswork out of product pricing!
   
9. Track the entire lifespan of a campaign. It is common knowledge that there are four stages to a product's life: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. This same theory holds true in advertising and promotional methods and it correlates to diminishing returns.
   You've probably noticed how commercials change and evolve over time. The Coke commercial entitled "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" was tremendously popular decades ago, and was attributed to a large increase in the sales of this soda. But increased exposure over a long period of time creates an "advertising life cycle" known as "diminishing returns". To protect profits, it is critical that marketing knows when that commercial goes through the first three stages and its effectiveness is about to produce diminishing returns.
   Now you can do the same…without the million-dollar budget. By tracking your campaigns and comparing the results over time, you'll see whether they are still producing, or entering the decline phase. By being aware of the signs of diminishing returns, you can immediately redirect your efforts from the declining campaign to one producing solid (and, hopefully, growing!) results.
   
10. Compare online and offline promotional methods. It should be made crystal clear that online ad tracking is not restricted to online advertising methods. Your tracking codes can be used in newspaper advertising, business cards, magazines, direct mail campaigns, and more.
    By providing statistics on both online and offline marketing methods, you can compare the effectiveness of online vs. offline marketing in general, to determine which produces the highest ROI to you. You'll also be able to fine-tune the methods you use to move your offline prospects to your online assets. For instance, do they respond more to a free report offered online or a 30-minute webinar? Will they be more likely to add their name to your email list if you offer a discount coupon or a contest?
    

As you can see, there are a multitude of reasons to incorporate an ad tracker, like Hypertracker, into your marketing efforts. Although this list is far from complete, I hope it will give you a starting point to develop your own tracking criteria. By tracking this kind of information, you'll soon be making more informed decisions that will positively affect your budget – and your bottom line.

Twitter introduced Real Time New Tweet Notifier

Wow, if before you could only see the real time tweets only when you were doing a search, now Twitter has brought it out even further into the front page! Now you can see in real time how many new tweets you got lined up!

There is a yellow line that says : "X New Tweets" - click on it and you will see the latest tweets that you missed! check it out and share it with others!

Top 5 phrases to make your title stick

So you have a post with some great content. Content that is so unique and could be helpful to so many people but all those people are not even aware that got a new post..why is that?

First of all, yes you might have written a new post and you probably tweeted about it, and still no result, no comments from your fellow readers?
Probably the first mistake you made is is the first line - yes- your HEADING!

You only get 140 digits to make people want to click on your post! You have to have a title/heading that people would want to click on and read more...

So lets take a look at some heading which at first might seem like old stuff to you, but trust me they work!

• Top (number) phrases/methods to do/make ( blank)

Using the word Top or Best shows people that you have already tested a number of methods and you have chosen the top something to share with them...

• The Secret of (blank)

We all want to know secrets, especially if that secret makes you rich (lol). So if you have ideas or methods to do something, intrigue people by making them feel special by sharing your secret with them!

• Here is a quick way to (blank)

Another great start, people tend to be in a hurry and don't have the time to deal with things so if you are giving them a quick way to deal with their problem or answer their question you are one step closer to getting their attention!

• Include the word like in your heading - ex: Become a top blogger like ProBlogger

This is my personal point of view here, we all tend to compare ourselves to higher standards. If someone achieved something we tend to say a business like Bill Gates got, a blogger like Darren Rowse, sing like Madonna...and you can go on..

• Solve a problem in your heading or show that you have an answers/solution to a question.

What do you think? Have you used these methods before? If yes - did they work?

If you're really considering making a living through blogging, then you absolutely have to check out Blogging To The Bank by Rob Benwell. In his book, the UK millionaire blogger reveals step by step how he makes as much as $90,480 a month from just a few hours work.
For people ready to dive into a more premium guide, you should consider Blog Mastermind by Yaro Starak. Yaro teaches how you too can master the exact SYSTEM he uses to make a minimum of $10,000 to as much as $35,000 per month, blogging part time.

Top 5 methods to increase traffic to your blog

Back in May I did a post on how I managed to increase my traffic, now its time for a follow up and some bits n pieces into how I did it - with proof that it works!

First of all a quick copy/paste of my statistics on visitors back in April '09, just from the graph it seems like the results are impressive enough ( look pretty good to me considering I was getting 2-3 clicks a day at the start of the year!) .

Back in Nov '08 was the time I started experimenting with different blog directories ( you can find a list of the directories I used HERE). Feedback was immediate. I started getting over a hundred visitors a month.

At the end of Dec '08 I didn't do much more for a couple of months and just let things flow and continued to get an ok traffic report. Sometime back in April '09 having some more time on my hands I decided to do something more than just registering on different directories.

Here are my top 5 methods to increase traffic to your blog!

1. Register on Twitter - not to promote your blog but to make connections

• Don't just follow people to have them follow you back - get to know their interested, what they are writing about.
• Don't brag about yourself too much, people should want to know more about you rather than wanting to hear less of you
• Share things you found interesting with fellow tweeters

2. Join Forums - to give useful suggestion on topics you are good at

• If you are good at something - share it!
  
• meet new people with same interests

3. Start Commenting on other blogs - comments are a great source of inspiration

• once again sharing your opinion on something you just came across is a great way of interaction
• showing your interest in the subject the reader is writing about
• having something to add to what the reader has to say
• don't just leave a one word comment like thank you, be a little more in depth by saying why you wrote that thank you. :)
• don't leave rude/offensive comments and don't spam
  

4. Optimize your blog - make it easier for search directories to find your blog

• use proper key words, do prior research
• make it easy for your readers to share what they just read, make all the buttons (digg, tweet,delicious,etc) available to them right then and there
  
• load time of your blog is very important, no one is going to wait 10 min for your page to open

5. Interact with the reader - get to know your reader

• I feel that it is important to ask for feedback from your readers on what you can improve or suggestions on what they would like to see on your blog
• see what your readers write about
  

For me the above played an important role, especially Twitter. After having joined I started tweeting continuously about my new posts, also I started reading other tweets and re-tweeting important information that I found useful. I feel that in twitter you have to make connections, get to know the people you are following and not just add them so they follow you back.

Now for the results, I copied my latest statistics to show
that today I'm getting around 500 visitors and more a
month and over 700 page views a month. This is a little post to encourage start up bloggers that if you keep at it you will eventually find your readers!

If you're really considering making a living through blogging, then you absolutely have to check out Blogging To The Bank by Rob Benwell. In his book, the UK millionaire blogger reveals step by step how he makes as much as $90,480 a month from just a few hours work.

For people ready to dive into a more premium guide, you should consider Blog Mastermind by Yaro Starak. Yaro teaches how you too can master the exact SYSTEM he uses to make a minimum of $10,000 to as much as $35,000 per month, blogging part time.

Proof of traffic increase to My Bits n Pieces Blog

I just wanted to do a quick post with some proof of how my traffic to My Bits n Pieces blog has increased after I started implementing SEO tolls in November 2008. I was pretty amazed at the numbers myself. Please check back to read more on how I managed to implement some SEO tools to my blog as well as read my post on how I increased traffic to my blog.