Creating one of those is very simple, it’s not for just those popular sites. If your starting a blog or just haven’t added one yet because you don’t know how to, my simple instructions will have you one within minutes.

Why do I want One?

• Having uniqueness to your blog is something that attracts visitors. Having a FavIcon is part of personalising your blog.
• It looks much nicer if someone bookmarks your blog. They will see the icon and it’ll remind them that it’s your blog, it basically brands your website.
• They make you stand out from the crowd, especially to people who don’t have a FavIcon.

What do I need to make it Look like?
Choosing what your icon looks like is entirely upto you, but there are some things I could try to gather your ideas from.

• Your layout is a base for your FavIcon, if you see mine, I have a dominent colour of green in my layout and that is shown in my FavIcon. It gives the FavIcon a sense of belonging to your website.
• Take a picture on your website, maybe it’s your face and shrink it down.

How To Create It

1. Your going to need to create the image first of all. Make sure you take your time make sure the image size is 16×16 pixels. This is the required size for a FavIcon, it’s all the space you have to work your magic. You can create your image in paint or any other graphics program like Photoshop, it’s whichever you find most comfortable.

2. Time to make your file an .ico. .ico is the file extension for a FavIcon so you need to make it that. You can do this simply by uploading your image to websites like the ones listed below. They will automatically make your file an .ico if your program can’t.

• DynamicDrive - This website will automatically create a FavIcon from an image and create some other icons for you from an image, but if you have your own 16×16 image, just upload it and click ‘Create Icon’. Once it’s done download it again and you can go onto the next stage.
• FavIcon from Pics - Does basically the same thing, generates a FavIcon from a picture. Visit it here.There are many out there, but you only need to find a working one that will do the job.

3. You can now upload it to a directory however you usually upload your files. You can save it in a folder similar to ‘images’ if you like.
4. One final step, just add the following code to your website inbetween the < head > tags.

<link rel=”SHORTCUT ICON” type=”image/x-icon” href=”images/favicon.ico” mce_href=”images/favicon.ico”>

For those of you that don’t know what a permalink is, let’s start there. The permalink is the link that is visible in the browser window when you click on the heading of a blog post. This link by default should look something like this.

http://thatblogsite.com/?p=44

Simple right?

As awesome as Wordpress is, they manage to give you a terrible out-of-the-box configuration for permalinks. Not so good. But it’s not hard to change them, and I’ll show you how in just a minute. But first let’s talk about WHY you want to change your permalinks.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The default permalink structure is absolutely terrible, and serves little to no purpose when it comes to SEO. Why? Well, unless someone is searching for “?p=44″, then you are completely missing the boat when it comes to using your keywords in the title. We all know that incoming links are important for SEO, but, what’s even more valuable is a link that has our targeted keywords in it. A permalink is no different. It’s much more valuable to have a permalink with your keywords, rather than the default “ugly links” that Wordpress comes with.

Readability

I’m sure you’ve also been told that you should be writing for people, not search engines. Well, this is true here as well. The default permalink structure gives people absolutely no idea what they are reading. So, for example, let’s say that your friend Joe links to you on his blog, and uses a direct copy and paste of the permalink rather than adding anchor text. Well, people don’t have any clue what - http://thatblogsite.com/?p=44 means. Wouldn’t it be better if your permalinks were a bit more descriptive? Now, let’s say that Joe copy and pasted your permalink after you changed the structure. Doesn’t - http://thatblogsite.com/your-permalinks-are-ugly - look much better? It’s descriptive, great for SEO, and there is no mystery about what the readers are getting ready to read.

Changing Your Permalink Structure

1. Click on the “settings” tab in the upper right corner of your Wordpress dashboard.
2. Find the “permalinks” tab and click it.
3. Click the “custom structure” tab.  It should be set on default when you get there.  Make sure it’s on “custom structure”.
4. In the “custom structure” box, paste this - /%postname%/
5. DONE!

Pretty easy huh?

It happens to all of us, the dreaded “writers block”, or in our cases “bloggers block”.  But what do we do when adversity rears it’s ugly head?  We use these ten tips to beating bloggers block of course!

1. Write what you know. It’s much simpler to try to create a post if you are writing about something that you have a lot of knowledge about.  For example, I know a lot about internet marketing, seo, and blogging.  But if you asked me to write about Aviation, I’d be done after three posts.  Pick a good topic!
2. Use a list. Hmm.. I’m using a list, I wonder if I have bloggers block and don’t know it.  Using a list is the simplest, and most eye-pleasing way to drive home a few points.  People tend to like them, and they are often easier posts to write than regular posts.  Pick 7, 10, 12, or more bullet points, and get a list going!
3. Do a product review. There are literally millions of products out there you could be reviewing right now.  A lot of them are free… so get off your butt, and do some testing.
4. Publish a guest post. If you have guest posts waiting in the dashboard, use them!  I often save my guest posts for vacations, or times where I just can’t sit down to write.  They come in handy on these days, and are generally enough to get me going again for the next day!
5. Read some other blogs. By now, I hope that you’ve added a bunch of other blogs to your Rss reader.  Read them!  It’s not uncommon to find inspiration in a post created by someone else.  Just don’t copy it!
6. Do a link love session. This is done by simply linking to the best stories in your niche.  Your readers get to find other great blogs on your recommendation, and more often than not, the favor is returned.
7. Don’t write at all! It’s better to not write anything, than to write garbage.  So, if you simply can’t squeeze out a post, quit trying.
8. Go take a walk. Generally, the second I get away from the computer for an extended period of time, the more creative I start to feel.  Take in nature, and a post will come to you!
9. Answer a question. We all get questions in our comment field, answer them!  Use it to create a post, and it kills two birds with one stone.
10. I don’t know… I think I have bloggers block

As most of us already know, linkage data determines where you sit on Google’s food chain.  But what if I told you that you don’t have to have thousands of links to have a high ranking site?  In fact, it merely takes a few high quality links to have the same results as having thousands of links from lower quality sites.

The links that you should be targeting are high pagerank links, or .edu links.  Links from .edu sites are generally very trusted, and they hold a lot of value in Google’s algorithm.  These links come from colleges, universities, and research institutes across the globe, and can be just what you need to start building a high profile link portfolio.  But how do you get them?

The easiest way is to buy them.  Digitalpoint often has .edu links for sale in it’s forums.  They aren’t cheap, but being as valuable as they are, you wouldn’t expect them to be either.  Check out the forums at Digitalpoint and see if you can’t find a few.

The second method involves friends and family.  Some schools, offer free web pages, or even a social network for their students.  If you are enrolled, or have friends or family that are enrolled… ask them about this.  It’ll be free, and it gets you a few high quality .edu backlinks.

You can also try writing a high quality paper for a university, and see if they can use it as part of their course.  When they do this, it’s generally pretty easy to bargain a link or two out of them.  However, this is extremely time consuming.

Or, my favorite way to get .edu backlinks is by using our favorite search tool… Google.  You can type in this search string to pull up .edu sites that allow you to comment.

site:.edu inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “your topic”

site:.edu [finds edu domains]
inurl:blog [ find blogs]
“post a comment” [makes sure we can post to this blogs]
-”comments closed” [does not show these closed blogs]
-”you must be logged in” [does not show blogs where u need to log in]

Give it a try… see if you can find some great .edu backlinks!

You have been working hard to produce good-quality, original content on your blog and you have attracted a decent amount of traffic by doing so. However, money is not going to appear out of thin air just because you have traffic. You have to turn your traffic into money.

There are several ways to generate profits from the visitors of your blog, and Google’s Adsense program allows you to do so with ultimate ease. First, visit their website at http://adsense.google.com/. You’ll find out more about their advertising program there, but here are some extra bits I’d like to tell you.

First, Google’s Adsense program is a really useful way to monetize your blog because when users finish reading your newest post, chances are they want to leave your blog because they have nothing else to do on your blog. If your Adsense advertisement block is visible on your blog, they might see advertisements relevant to them and click on them to exit your blog. Ka-ching! You’ve just cashed in on your first virtual cents!

But yes, your profits will only be cents if you don’t “do it right”. This involves placing your Google ads in the right places and ensuring they blend in to your site so that they appear more like links rather than advertisements to your visitors. Consult the page https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html to see the “heat map” of your blog. The “hotter” a certain area, the greater the chances of someone looking at your blog.

Once you get a Google Adsense account, you can change the colour of your advertisement text and links. You will want them to match the colours on your blog. If your blog’s text is black and the links are red, do the same for the ad blocks too! It’s that simple.

Another way to earn profits from your blog is to recommend products to your readers. When your visitors buy from the merchants you recommend, you get to keep a little commission too. This is known as affiliate marketing and it is very easy to start because you don’t have to create your own products or services.

Anyway, let’s refer back to our technological gadgets blog example. Let’s say you discover this Gadget X on a merchant’s website, and they offer an affilliate program. What you would do is to create a post in your blog and do a mini-review on this Gadget X. Rip it apart and point out its benefits and bad points, if any, and include a link (which is given by the merchant) for the visitor to purchase the Gadget X online.

If your visitor clicks and purchases the gadget, the merchant will track from the link that the purchase is referred by you, so they will send you your share of the profits. Imagine if 1 out of every 100 visitors you get purchases this product, and you earn $27.00 commission from each purchase! If you get 10,000 visitors in a month that would be a $2,700.00 paycheque for you just for writing about ONE product.

Now, affiliate programs are very nice ways to generate profit, but how do you find affiliate programs that are related to your blog’s theme? Easy, just go to Google and search for <your niche> +”affiliate programs”. Another slightly better way is to go to http://www.associateprograms.com/search to look for affiliate program in your niche.

The two ways mentioned above are basic ways to generate profits from your blog. We’ll be discussing other great, profitable ways, so keep your eyes peeled!