Find free blog things, stuff & resources below
- Updated & Maintained by WebMaster
After our earlier post on how to add PayPal donate button to your blog, We were asked if there is a way to generate a PayPal Donate Link instead of a button. Here's how you can generate a text link.
If you don't have a paypal account yet, you can get a free account
After you have your login ID/password,
Login to your account. Then click the
"merchant services" tab.
scroll
down and on the right sidebar, find the box labelled key features, click on the
link named "Donations"
The link opens up a form where you can give it a name, id, picture and set the
amount. Most details are optional, so experiment with your customizations.
Before you click the "create button", make sure you TURN OFF the button encryption option on this page and then continue with creating your button.
The next page generates two code boxes, the first one is for the button and the second one is text link for email and sites, copy the entire code from the textbox labelled "Link for Emails" and paste it into your template of your website or blog, where you want it to appear. You can choose to display your own anchor text and wrap the code around it. eg: Support Hurricane Victims
XML blogger users read the post on How to add HTML or JavaScript into blogger
Labels: PayPal
The MyBlogLog Recent Readers Widget by MyBlogLog.com ( now owned by Yahoo! ) is not just popular on Blogger blogs, but its a favorite amongst other bloggers too. Recently the widget has been given a cosmetic change to make it look graphically appealing. I guess it does look good. The colors of the widget are also customizable.
The widget will help you create an online community of admirers and fans of your blog. The more people join your community, the more likely you are to attract traffic to your blog.
The address of your community on MyBlogLog will be like http://mybloglog.com/buzz/community/_________ ( you can have a keyword of your choice in the blank space)
It's easy to add a blog or site to your MyBlogLog profile. First, you need to get a Yahoo! Id. Most people already have it and if you don't you can always get a free account from http://www.yahoo.com
On your profile page, click Add Blog/Site I Author.
You will be taken to a page on which you can add the details of your blog or website. Fill out the details and your blog will be added(the screenshot of your site will be added automatically).
Once your site is added to your profile, the next step is to create the widget for your blog. Your blog should be listed under "My Sites and Services", It will also have a link labelled "Widget" beside your blog. Clicking the "Widget" link will take you to the page where you can customize the color of your widget
The textbox labelled "Your Code", generates the widget code that you need to copy to your blog template(preferrably on your sidebar). XML blogger users read the post on How to add HTML or JavaScript into blogger
Here's a live demo of the MyBlogLog Recent Readers Widget on BlogThings Labs and Why not join our community, Right Now?
Labels: Widgets
Credit Card fraud is on the rise, As part of our "Internet Safety" tips series, we are suggesting certain steps that can help you avoid being a victim of Credit Card fraud.
The first step to prevent your credit card from being misused is to not let your card fall into the hands of fraudsters. There are many tutorials/how-to's on the internet on credit card fraud that suggest..
"..be on the lookout for houses where the houseowners are on a vacation and have their house locked down but left their mailbox unprotected where the banks will send them their credit card."
This seems to be the most popular method of getting hold of other's credit card. So, take the hint! NEVER leave your mailbox unprotected, take steps to ensure the privacy of your mailbox.
According to this article in BBC..
..A fraudulent card transaction takes place every eight seconds and cloning is the biggest type of credit card fraud.
Cloning (also popularly known as 'skimming') can happen in seconds. So, Whenever using your credit card on malls, resturants and hotels etc., request that the the card is swiped in front of you, Don't let your card out of your sight and pick up all receipts. To pick up more tips, you should also read this article on BBC on How credit cards get cloned
Extra care needs to be taken if you use Credit Card to buy on the Internet. Sure, It's so convenient to use the credit card to buy online, but remember that there are other ways to pay for your purchases for eg. "Cash on delivery" for instance. Use your card on well known and reputed sites, also make sure that the site is using SSL.
You are adviced not to use your card on public cafe's, computers with public access as they could be running malicious programs(called keyloggers) to steal your personal information.
The last tip is to use paypal for online purchases, PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online, Pay without revealing your credit card or bank information. Now many people like you, use paypal instead of using credit cards.
What is cooler than a guestbook, chat and bulletin board? It's a Shoutbox from MyShoutBox.com
This is a feature packed free service for blogs and websites. Here's a list of features that MyShoutBox.com offers
You can add this shoutbox to your blogger blogs after an easy and fast registration process. After Registration you are given a ID/Password, with which you have to login to access your shoutbox management area. Select the link "Code Generation" and set the options for your shoutbox( or leave the default settings, you can always change that later! ) and click "Generate Code".
Classic templates users of blogger can copy-paste the HTML code into their template. XML Blogger users see this post on How to add HTML/JavaScript to Blogger.
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."
To get the creative commons license for your blog go to http://creativecommons.org [ Opens in a New Window ]. On the top of the page, click "License you work" link to continue. On the next screen you can select the licensing options for your blog.
After you select your license you can choose a graphic for the license and the HTML code will be generated on the page.
Classic templates users of blogger can copy-paste the HTML code into their template. XML Blogger users see this post on How to add HTML/JavaScript to Blogger.
Feedjit.com offers 4 widgets for bloggers and webmasters.
The most popular feedjit widget(which you may have seen on other blogs already) is the "Live Traffic Feed" Widget.
If you are a Blogger Layouts(XML Blogger) or TypePad user, the readymade widget on the site will install the code on your blog in a few clicks. Other blogs and websites will have to copy-paste the code from the site into their template.
Labels: Widgets
Technorati.com is a collection of large number of blogs and is visited by people all over the world looking for blogs to browse. Your objective should be to get visitors from Technorati.com to visit your blog.
The first step in this process would be to join Technorati and go through the "Claiming your Blog" process. You are more likely to attract more visitors, if your blog is ranked high on Technorati. So get the Technorati Widget and request your visitors to vote for your blog.
Here's how you get your widget. Sign into http://www.technorati.com/signup [Opens in a New Window] with your user id and password.
In your account area, Click on the link labelled "Favorites" on the Technorati navigation bar. On the next screen, Under the sidebar heading "Ins and Outs", find the link to your favorite button, where it says :
"Buttons: Help Technorati members favorite your blog with a button."
If you have added multiple blogs to Technorati, you will have to select a blog from the combo box to generate the code for that blog. The page generates three different code blocks. choose the one that suits your page and copy the code and paste into your template(Classic Templates users). XML blogger users read the post on How to add HTML or JavaScript into blogger.
Labels: Widgets
Joining Blog TopSites are one of the ways to bring traffic(Free!) to your blog. It takes just a bit of effort on your part to get going. Generally, you will need to register with the site and get your blog approved. Once approved you get your personalized code block that you need to add to your blog. This code will help visitors of your blog to vote for your blog. The more votes you get, the higher you climb on the list and are more likely to get more visitors.
Here's a small list of Blog Topsites where you can register your blog :
http://topsites.blogflux.com/
http://www.topbloglists.com/
http://www.blogelites.com/
http://blog505.com/
http://topblogsites.net/
http://www.topblog.ws/
http://www.blogista.net/
http://topsites.technoized.com/blog
http://blogsites.in/
http://www.stateyourblog.com/
http://www.blogranking.us/
http://www.blogsontop.com/
http://www.topblogarea.com/
http://www.blogrankings.com/
http://www.top100bloggers.com/
Labels: Blog Promotion
On the Internet, we all come across text links that are linked to other pages/sites. When these links are clicked they take us to a new destination. for example [ http://www.google.com/ ], link takes you to google homepage as expected. However, a harmless looking text link could be a deceptive link that could lead to a site specifically set up for stealing personal information.
Here's an example of what Iam talking about
http://www.google.com/.
The above link takes you to the yahoo homepage instead of google.com. As HTML coders will point out, links are constructed with two pieces of vital information : destination url and anchor text
Anchor text is displayed to the user as a clickable link and destination url is where the link is intended to go. in the first example both the destination url and anchor text are the same and therefore the link works as expected, however in the next example the destination url has been modified to link to yahoo.com instead of google.com and therefore the user is taken to yahoo.com
How can this be a threat to me? you might ask. Let us imagine this scenario. You are browsing a random site and you are presented a link to login to your gmail/hotmail/yahoo mail, where you will get the link to download some goodies. the page that opens looks exactly like the regular web mail service you use, but this random site has used a deceptive link to take you to a different site that has been cleverly constructed to match the look and feel of your regular web mail. Once you enter your email address and password on this site, it is logged and the security has been compromised.
How can you protect your personal information from deceptive links? Firstly, do not blindly trust the links on every site. To get to your regular web mail service, type the URL in the Address Bar to get to Web Mail Service.
If you use firefox, you probably already know that firefox is much safer than other browsers, it's also highly customizable with themes and addons. Have you used the "Live Bookmarks" feature of firefox? It's a great time saver. firefox let's you bookmark the feed of the site/blog you are visiting as a "Live Bookmark"(Provided it publishes one). Everytime you explore your bookmarks, the feed is updated and headlines are shown in a submenu.
Here's how this feature is used:
After the page is loaded, look for the "dish" icon on the statusbar.
Hovering your mouse over the icon will show you if the site/blog publishes it's feed and clicking it will prompt you to save the site as "Live Bookmark". Once you are done saving, take your mouse to the "Bookmark" menu and explore the bookmark you just added. Firefox will fetch the feed for you and you will never have to fire up your standalone/web based feed readers anymore.
Never used FireFox? There is always a first time sometime.
Labels: Firefox
Social Bookmarking