Hotel Mark

As a blogger, I have often been asked about Technorati in particular, their confusing rating system. In essence, Technorati is one way of rating blogs. Others include Google Page Rank (PR) and  Alexa. Blog ratings are important in that it enables advertisers know how popular your website is, and you are far more likely to attract advertising revenue streams if they know people actually read your blogs!

Technorati uses two basic criteria to rate blogs. Favourites and Authority. The latter is far more important because it relates to how back links you have created to your blog. A Technorati “Authority” is what they call “blog reactions”. If you create a profile on Technorati, and have added your blogs, you will see what your Authority stat is. Below, you will see the number of “blog reactions”. This means how many other sites have linked to your blog or one of your posts. Every time you add a comment to another blog post you create an opportunity for a back link. If the blog you are commenting on is blogger powered, you get the chance to add either your google account details to get the link for your comment or your name/url. Some blogs however, employ the nofollow attribute, and your comment may not therefore count as a blog reaction. Best to use your name/url, rather than google account id.

The more blog reactions you create, or back links, the lower your Technorati score becomes, and the higher your rating. As to how many favs you get, that is people who faved your blog, the significance of that is a little unclear. Without doubt, it “looks better” if you have many faves, but maybe it’s a case of all that glitters is not gold…

In summary, the easiest way to get a better Technorati rating is to make as many comments on other peoples blogs as you can, also that increases your exposure.

Tags: Technorati  Blog Reactions

Here is a great software which you can use for video editing, audio dubbing, even recording your computer screen. Although the above picture is version 5, which costs just under $300, version 3 is free. First off, download the software from here. Then go to this address, fill the registration details, and you will be e-mailed a registration key to unlock the software.

The software uses a timeline for adding clips to, so as to edit them for a movie. Also, you can capture your computer screen for recording, so if you want to offer your readers tutorials you can easily do it with this software, the quality is excellent. Adding audio to the video is easy, and you can also include interactive things like quizes to your movie, a feature which readers will surely appreciate. Enjoy.

Youtube has been a revelation for the internet. Now we can find videos on demand for almost every subject. However, as the old saying goes, what goes up must come down Ever enjoyed a video and wondered why it’s no longer available?

There’s two very easy ways to download from streaming media, including youtube, yahoo  and google video. First, the more commonly used way, if you use Firefox, there is a v- download plug in available at https://addons.mozilla.org/cs/firefox/addon/4318  The page there tells you where to go to convert files to flash format if you need to.

However, a lesser known technique when using internet explorer is equally simple. The video’s actually do download anyway, it’s just that they are stored in temporary internet files, and later get deleted. So, first, clear your temporary files by going to (in IE) tools>internet options, delete files. Then close the browser. Now open it again. Go to the page on youtube (for example) and let the video play. Then go again to tools>internet options>view files, then click type.

Now, scroll down the long list of files, looking for a file which is much bigger than the others, over 1000KB in size. That type of file will actually be a flash video file, but not shown as such. It will say “getvideo” and youtube will be stated. Right click this file, select copy, then paste it into the desktop. At this point it will be unknown file type. Now hit F2 (rename) and rename the file eg. video.flv. Making sure that your computer does NOT hide file extensions. As long as you have the file name ending .flv you now have a fully downloaded flash video, which if you have file conversion you can convert to another file type if you wish to

Here I am offering a pdf file for download; blog-profits-blueprint.pdf It is a free e-book by Yaro Starak, taking you through the process of setting up a blog, uploading content, monetizing it, and discussing tactics for eventually making profits out of your blog, if that is your intention.     Blog Profits

I found it well written, easy to follow, and does not talk rubbish like telling you how “easy” it is to make money quickly out of your blog. If you wnt to take a look, please feel free to download it, and distribute. I don’t have any financial interest in it, but I enjoyed it, and here I’m simply sharing something I found And if you already implemented some of the stategies he suggests in the book already, it might make you feel good! After all, it is Monday

So, are you looking forward to the week with relish? Some think of November as the doldrums of the year..I actually like it, the Autumn or Fall colours always have a special place in my heart.

Rose made a post about our little net surfing friends called  Favicons, the tiny little .ico files which personalise our web site favourites. This by creating a small picture, stored by the favourite name. However for those using IE6 these are stored in temporary internet files, and they get lost when files from there are deleted. You can ditch IE altogether if you want and use Firefox! However, for those reluctant to part with IE, here’s a little tip on how to keep them..

In essence, what we do here is simply make a copy of the .ico file and store it in a new folder in my documents, then point the computer to that file. First, bookmark the site, or add to favourites, close the browser, then open again. In IE go to tools>internet options>settings>view files> then click type. Scroll down the long list until you see files marked .ico, or called favicon. Right click the file you want, select copy, then make a new folder in my documents, call it for example favicons.

Now go to the new folder, and paste the file into there. At this point I recommend renaming this file, because later you will keep being prompted to overwrite it if you don’t. Just give it a new number, like favicon 20, because when you add other files later from temporary internet files the default will always be favicon (1) Now you have the file in place, back to IE, click favourites, find the location, right click, then select properties>change icon. Scroll to the my documents favicon file, select it, then click apply and you’re done. The favicon will never get lost again. And it’s far easier on the eye if you have a long fav list to look for the favicon rather than the site name I think.

Complicated? Well I said you can always use Firefox Though it’s not really complicated, only logical.

This is useful especially if you have a news related blog..Getting your blog listed as a news source on Google news.

First go to www.News.Google.com. Then scroll to the bottom of the page to about google news, click on it. Then Click Help for publishers>submit content>send us. Here you can fill out a form which submits your site to Google as a possible news source listing. Another tactic for this is to e-mail news-feedback@google.com. Or possibly even try both methods. Of course, your site must have relevent content for Google to include, but well worth a try do you think?