Some people say they like the previous version of WordPress blog platform. Well, there are few reasons for me to believe that. I found personally the new WordPress version has few issues with my web hosting environment. Although in my previous blog post I said that the new features of WordPress are neat, the image upload issue I just discovered made me somehow upset. Fortunately, the customer support representatives of my web host, Top Hosting Center, quickly resolved the issues.  And guess what? They told me how they did it! Very excellent customer service and transparent indeed.
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The Web has expanded immensely – so much that advertisers clash with each other in getting good advertising spaces on high traffic websites to promote and gain exposure of their products and services.

Basically advertising involves costs as it does on television, radio and newspapers. Online advertising however, offers various ways to promote your products and services for free. Social media channels and online communities offer such opportunities in getting your products known beyond geographical borders.

Like other media channels, paid online advertising on high-traffic websites usually is a cost-efficient and timely marketing move. However, there are situations when such activities backfire especially when the advertisements are placed on irrelevant sites or placed in wrong advertising space.

This blog post sparks a series of discussions about online business promotion. Of course, this is aimed to help you bait real customers in the World Wide Web and making more money from them.

To have a head start, we will discuss the first and significant online business promotion channel: search engines. Continue Reading »

Last March 29, I saw another notice in my WordPress control panel telling me that the latest version of WordPress, version 2.5, has been released and my installation must be upgraded. I’ve read from many blogs that this version will bring new looks and speed to the WordPress control panel. So, without further ado, I instantly downloaded the new version from WordPress official website and upgraded mine.

The upgrade process went very smooth and definitely transparent. As usual, WordPress guys made things easy – no “computerese,” no jargons whatsoever, just good steps. After I upgraded, I was redirected to the WordPress login and it is where my impression begins.

The login design has been changed for better. It looks very neat and fresh now, unlike the blue one that we used to see in the previous version which, in my opinion, was large.

The center of improvement came after I logged into my WordPress control panel. I was surprised – indeed, there are big changes. The first thing I noticed basically is the design. The new WordPress 2.5 default dashboard configuration displays recent comments, incoming links, WordPress development blog, popular plugins and the typical box news.

The default main menu now comes with only five items: Write, Manage, Design, Comments and Ratings. The Write menu item when clicked displays the Write Post page featuring the revamped (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) WYSIWYG WordPress blog editor. The Manage menu item lets you manage posts, pages, links, categories, tags, link categories, media library and like before, boasts WordPress Import and Export function. The Design menu, on the other hand, is equivalent to previous “Presentation” menu. The Settings, Plugins and User menu items are now displayed in small font to the upper right portion of the administration panel.

Another thing that is noticeable with the new WordPress is the speed. It is a whole lot faster than the previous one – one thing many bloggers will like (including me). The one-click plugin upgrade is superb. It asks for your domain’s FTP login information, and then it upgrades the outdated plugins for you.

My conclusion is that I very much prefer the previous blue-themed control panel. When I found that the color scheme can be changed to classic through the Settings, however, my little disappointment vanished. Now, WordPress 2.5 looks good and I love it like other bloggers do.

Few days after I published my previous post disclosing the features of their Speedy hosting plan, Top Hosting Center (THC), sent me a token of appreciation through email. They put a file attachment along with their message which I initially suspected a virus – hehehe – no, it was not. The file was zipped and when I took a peek through WinRAR, I figured out that its contents constitute a theme for WordPress, a popular blog platform written in PHP language. Why the hell would they give me that? Oh, intriguing. What do you think?

So what I did is that I unzipped the files to my local disk and uploaded them to this WordPress-based blog. I logged in to my blog’s control panel and see how the theme looks. The theme is called “THC Alpha,” a two-column WordPress theme that looks good. I was impressed of the decency of the design which carries an air of formality.

Download the THC Alpha theme for WordPress here.

Here are the screen captures of THC Alpha Wordpress theme:

My review for THC’s Speedy hosting plan is still being written and no matter how many WordPress themes they will send me, it will never influence my judgement to their Speedy plan. Anyway, THC made it clear that what they gave was just a token of appreciation – so there is no bad motive behind unless you think otherwise.

Visit official Speedy hosting plan page at THC.

I just added another item in the menu called “Resources.” That page will be populated with useful media (themes, e-books, among others) that you would like to check and download. It is pretty barren as of the moment though, but you will love that page eventually.

Earlier today, I came across a website called JS-Kit from nowhere. I was immediately caught by it when I read that it offers something interesting to websites and blogs. Because it sounded like there’s another useful WordPress plugin to me, I decided to peruse further and give their services a try. Now, here’s my honest review after playing with their services for few hours.

What is JS-Kit?

I was intrigued when I found out that JS-Kit is not a set of WordPress or any blog platform plugin – and it’s not exclusive to blogs either – it works with any web page. JS-Kit is in fact, a package of web services that you can take advantage in many ways. It works similar to a widget. JS-Kit comprises of five different services that work amazingly with each other: Navigator, Ratings, Reviews, Comments and Polls.

The installation is flawless and very easy. You only need to insert the code snippet they provide for each service, and then load the page in the browser and poof – there you go. If you’ve ever tried using Google Analytics or StatCounter’s web analyzer codes then you’ll find the installation process similar.

One of JS-Kit’s weaknesses is that it will not run on websites that block JavaScript (since it is mainly powered by that scripting language). Therefore, there is no hope adding it on MySpace or Friendster which potentially could promote socialization.

JS-Kit Navigator

JS-Kit Navigator service provides a configurable widget that is implemented in a tab. When I run the page with the code for the first time, an admin console appeared and it let me configure how the service will look when the code is run. It displays basically three default tabs: Top, Hot and Best Picks – however, only one tab is required to be enabled for the service to work. I strongly suggest though that you enable all them for greater advantages. The caption of each tab is modifiable. However, for this review’s sake, I’ll use their default names.

In the Top tab, JS-Kit Navigator is able to show the most popular objects (or pages) using weighted average user ratings collected by the JS-Kit’s Ratings and Reviews services. It also able to gather the most active or “hot” objects measured by similar JS-Kit services in the Hot tab. On the Best Picks tab, site administrators can build custom views and put their own internal or external links for increased visibility to the website visitors. Finally, you can “viralize” your site contents with the “Grab It” feature – enabling your readers to embed the JS-Kit Navigator on any site on the Web.

The main advantage of this web service is that it can potentially increase traffic to the website. I could personally declare that with confidence because this so-called “widget” is very eye catchy (though some users would falsely identify it as one of Google advertisements). Its dynamic list generation is perfect for blogs and news websites.

Should you use JS-Kit Navigator? Well, JS-Kit’s Navigator brings no disadvantage so it is unreasonable if you don’t enjoy the blessings. If you have an extra ad space in your homepage, you can use the service, boost your page views and reduce your bounce rate. Just be sure to place it in a conspicuous place or anywhere above the fold.

To use JS-Kit Navigator web service, insert this code to any page you desire:

<div class="js-kit-top"style="width: 300px" title="Easy Site Navigator"></div>

<script src="http://js-kit.com/top.js"></script>

Learn more about JS-Kit Navigator here.

JS-Kit Ratings

It’s unfortunate for me that I learned about this web service too late. I’ve been using WP-PostRatings plugin for my WordPress blog for almost a month and I am still fairly satisfied with its performance. However, unlike WP-PostRatings plugin, which is rather specifically tailored for WordPress, JS-Kit Ratings web service goes beyond the boundaries. Aside from blog entries, it can also be used to let your visitors to rate merchandise items, services, pictures, and any other objects.

JS-Kit Ratings service presents benefits to visitors and web publishers. For visitors, it allows them to express their opinions through ratings to any associated object. For publishers, they can collect valuable stats about their audience’s preferences that may help push the efficiency of marketing plans. JS-Kit Ratings presentation is also customizable – however, only to a limited extent. It can show stars, and you can change its colors, but just stars. This limitation is the only drawback I found with JS-Kit Ratings web service.

Should you use JS-Kit Ratings? If you don’t have a ratings feature yet integrated in your blog or website, this web service is definitely a very good choice. The five star rating is very attractive and somehow entices the visitors to interact with your pages and rate your articles. If you ever plan to use this, I suggest that you use other JS-Kit services as well.

To use JS-Kit Ratings web service, insert this code to any page you desire:

<div class="js-kit-rating" title="" permalink=""></div>

<script src="http://js-kit.com/ratings.js"></script>

Just like that.

Learn more about JS-Kit Ratings here.

JS-Kit Reviews

If you feel that JS-Kit Ratings are not enough and you need to actually know what your visitors or customers have to say about a certain product or content, then it is where JS-Kit Reviews service enters center-stage. It is definitely the easiest code snippet I’ve seen in integrating reviews feature to any web page. I was amazed how the three lines of code could do such thing.

JS-Kit Reviews web service basically lets you interact to your visitors with its threaded comments. Like what I said, its deployment takes only a few minutes and then it will enhance your visitor’s site experience and potentially improve your page’s conversion rates. Its powerful moderation, spam protection and service statistics are thumbs up.

Should you use JS-Kit Reviews? Personally I don’t think I can take advantage much of this service on this blog. However, for merchants who sell products online, I highly recommend this service. It gives a chance to your visitors to leave reviews about the items you sell. The only missing part of this web service is that reviewers aren’t given a chance to leave their signature links. It could somehow boost the reliability of reviews. JS-Kit Comments web services, also shares similar shortcomings.

To use JS-Kit Reviews web service, insert this code to any page you desire:

<div class="js-kit-rating"></div>

<div class="js-kit-comments"></div>

<script src="http://js-kit.com/reviews.js"></script>

Learn more about JS-Kit Reviews here.

JS-Kit Comments

JS-Kit Comments amazes me in a way that it provides extended functionality with just two lines of codes. You will get a full-featured commenting engine to any page you want it to be applied on to. It lets visitors to leave comments without the annoying registrations or logins. Plus, JS-Kit Comments also lets commentators to upload their own avatar which is rather good.

A major drawback of the JS-Kit Comments web service is the lack of URL field for commentators. Though it surely fends off spammers, it would also discourage people (especially bloggers) to do some comments. I think that to grow a community we need to respect each other and at least have the courtesy to leave the link field optional.

Should you use JS-Kit Comments? Bloggers will be hesitant to try this web service as it easily gives the impression that it would not help or benefit their sites. For other website types that need a commenting engine, webmasters don’t need to find scripts anymore and take the hard road dealing with tricky database installations. JS-Kit Comments already provides you same functions with just – well – two lines of codes!

To use JS-Kit Comments web service, insert this code to any page you desire:

<div class="js-kit-comments" permalink=""></div>

<script src="http://js-kit.com/comments.js"></script>

Learn more about JS-Kit Comments here.

JS-Kit Polls

User polls are one of the efficient methods of getting opinions from users quickly. JS-Kit Polls service offers an attractive, simple-looking but highly customizable poll system. It lets web publishers modify existing polls on-the-fly without changing any HTML. After a website visitor casts a vote to the poll, JS-Kit Polls instantly shows a visual poll result which looks great – and I mean it.

I have decided to use this web service in my future blog posts. I believe bloggers can really exploit this in fetching their readers’ opinions about certain competing products or people. Perhaps I can do online election using this.

Should you use JS-Kit Polls? If you feel like you need this – why not? It invokes your readers mind to contribute some quick opinions. If you’re a blogger or writer, you could make new headlines with the final results of the poll.

To use JS-Kit Polls web service, insert this code to any page you desire:

<div class="js-kit-poll" style="width: 350px"></div>

<script src="http://js-kit.com/polls.js"></script>

Learn more about JS-Kit Polls here.

Are JS-Kit web services free?

As much I have dug the JS-Kit’s official website, I never found the word “free” there. However, I asked a friend who’s familiar with their services and I was told that their services are free. I personally hope that the people behind JS-Kit would clarify on their website whether their services are free or not.

TechCrunch, a popular tech blog, featured JS-Kit last year and described it as “Web 2.0 for the Lazy People.” Generally, I don’t have objection with that: with just two, three lines of code you’ll get extended features that will improve your website traffic, enrich your visitor’s experience and arouse their senses to interact with objects you put on your page. Truly, JS-Kit suite successfully delivers Web 2.0 “bling bling” services for everyone.

For quite some time, I’ve been using Google Analytics for my WordPress-powered blog as my primary tool in tracking and analyzing my website’s traffic. It’s a free service (like other Google features) for site statistics and help site owners in their decision-making, site planning, and marketing. It benefits even more those site owners who avail user Google Adwords to increase their marketing, since that service works in conjunction with Google Analytics.

Recently, I found another free statistical tool that works similarly like Google Analytics. However, unlike Analytics, it does not work only as an invisible web tracker, but it can be configured to act as a hit counter too. It is also much faster and responsive, quickly loading than the Google counterpart. It accurately reports site statistics in real-time. The reportage includes popular pages, entry and exit pages, referring sites, keyword analysis, search engines, visitor information, paths and length, visitor map, among others.

It only takes four steps to get started with StatCounter. First, you need to register an account at StatCounter website. Then, you create a project for web tracking: it could be the whole website or just the major pages you want to comprehensively analyze. Finally, StatCounter gives you the snippet code that you just “copy and paste” to web page before the closing tag of the body. If you already experienced Google Analytics, you will observe that the application process is almost the same.

Bloggers who own sites powered by WordPress platform (like me) can also take advantage of StatCounter’s plugin. Like other WordPress plugins, this web tracker plugin is easy to install and use. Once it’s activated, it begins to track visitors from any page and reports more in detail the web traffic than any other WordPress statistics plugins.

Question: Can I put two web trackers on my web page? Yes. That is what I do with my websites. This website, for instance, is being tracked by Google Analytics and StatCounter. Each web tracker has its own strengths and weaknesses, but the weaknesses of one are complemented by the other. For Adwords users, Google Analytics may help you better in your web marketing; otherwise StatCounter offers more detailed web traffic report. The only minor rant I have with StatCounter free account is that its logs are limited to 500 entries only – but still enough for small to medium-sized websites or blogs. If you think your site is large, you can consider upgrading to larger log quota in various denominations. The cheapest upgrade is US$9 per month for 1500 log quota. But then again, I believe you’ll get the worth of your pay with StatCounter.

Click here to visit StatCounter website.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of my favorite buzzwords in the Web 2.0 era. It refers to the process of improving the volume of visitors, the quality of traffic from search engines, and higher ranking of a website in search engine results page (SERP).

SEO is significant to site owners (regardless of the nature of the site) because it promotes greater chance of getting a higher position in SERP. Higher rank usually means greater probabilities of being searched by people, bringing traffic to their website and creating opportunities. If you just created a blog website powered by WordPress or you have an existing site that is not optimized, here are the most common effective methods you can do to improve your SERP rank.

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