Ghost Blogging Platform

There are plenty of blogging platforms out on the web today. A blogging platform is a service that allows you to post content in a manner of a journal, much like WordPress, Squarspace, Blogger, or even Live Journal. A lot of these blogging platforms are better recognized and known more than others. There is one blogging platform that proves to be interesting, and isn’t very well known, and that platform is simply called “Ghost”. Ghost solely focuses on publishing while keeping a simple yet sleek design for those web designers. It’s free to use and free to download, but it does have a service you can pay for that includes hosting and some advertisement. But let’s take a look at what this service truly has to offer.

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BlackBerry Employees Threatened Over London Riots

Hackers have made it clear to RIM BlackBerry that releasing details about the London Riots to the authorities will result in them 'regretting it'.

BlackBerry Messenger, the private group messaging service installed on all BB devices has been widely accused as one of the triggering pieces of tech helping to enflame the London Riots. The service has boomed with popularity as unlike Twitter and Facebook all the messages sent are private. The media or Police can't do a quick Google search to find out what people are saying and where it's all going down. A group calling themselves 'Team Poison' would rather RIM kept it that way.

The hack appeared briefly on the company blog: blogs.blackberry.com reading “Dear Rim; You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all”. The hackers claim to hold information about RIM employees and are prepared to publish them online. They continued “if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters…. do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it…. and don’t think that the police will protect your employees, the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others”.

This comes after BlackBerry released a statement claiming the company is “engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can”. I'm sure that the Police would love that to mean giving them a feed of all BB Messages, in reality I doubt it will be anything like that.

Other social networks seem to mainly being used for good. The @riotcleaup twitter profile and riotcleanup.co.uk have been helping people find local areas to meet up and help with the clean up operation after last night. The majority of people seem to be disgusted by the actions taking place. Maybe I'm just not following all the hooligans though. 

@techByJack

How to Create a Successful Website

You have an amazing new idea for a website. This idea will generate you thousands, possibly millions of dollars a month. But you worry about one thing, how will I make it successful? How do I make users come back for more? How do I generate new users? These tips will help you with your struggle.

Social Media is your friend

One major factor in creating a successful website is to put yourself out there. The best way to do this is by whoring social media like it is your job! Register a Twitter account for your new website, and post links to the latest content on your website. This is an easy way of getting the latest content from your website out to your community. Also, create a Facebook page for your website. This is a great way for people to get the latest news on their Facebook Feed when they sign on.

Simplicity is key

Keep your website simple. You will confuse users if your website is cluttered with content and images. A good example of a cluttered website is TechnoBuffalo. Website's like this try to jam too much content onto the homepage. You only need one column of the latest post's on your website, and then separate pages for other subjects. For example, if you have a website about all things technology, keep the latest post's on the front page in one column, and then if you have one category about reviews, make it a complete separate page where all of the post's about that category can go.

Advertise

If your website has a budget, then find websites that have large audiences and ask the person in charge if you could advertise on their website.

Use RSS

Another great way for your website's content to get out is to have an RSS feed. A lot of people use RSS readers to get content from their favorite website's. Make sure that your website has an RSS feed!

Get Feedback!

If you are looking at constantly improving your content, then create a feedback system! Even if its a simple form on your website. This will allow you to see what your users like about your website, and what they don't. Make sure to improve your website all the time!

If you enjoyed this post, please follow me on Twitter.

How to Direct Traffic to your Blog

This post was originally posted on BlogPressive.com for Impressive Blogging - http://www.blogpressive.com/2010/08/27/how-to-direct-traffic-to-your-blog/

I've always wanted a website that has grew and grew, and I've always wanted to give tips to others withsmaller blogs on how to make a success of traffic building. Since I started blogging in 2008, only 2 years ago, I feel as though I may not have made a huge success on those 'famous' names such as Lisa with 2CreateAWebsite or Rob with RobsWebTips but I feel as though right now, I have made enough traffic come to my site, and it'll keep growing but it's about time I shall share my tips on how to direct traffic and also target traffic to your blog.

Discussion Boards, Forums and Signatures

When I joined Host Gator to host my personal blog, JonnyRowntree.com, I didn't take much notice of how much the company helps out their customers reach maximum potential on the web. Yes, I've been with different hosts such as GoDaddy with the Hosting Connection and Squarespace with the Developer Forums, but there has never been a web host where I have been comfortable making posts with suggestions on how the host should grow, considering they may already be enough static websites and blogs on their servers. I do however communicate with the Hostgator (or sometimes I call them Gator) community and submit ideas about blogging packages and ask for feedback and information to others who use a package that is new to me. Now, discussion boards and forums are key to maximizing traffic to your blog or website. The past couple of the weeks I have been posting on the Hostgator forums, I must have received about 20 to 30 referrals per couple of days and on Wednesday, I made double the amount of traffic when I relaunched my website. Now, not only does posting on discussion boards and forums help you communicate with others who are interested in the same topics your website talks about but they are obversely interested in web hosting and website development, another reason you should find forums useful.

Social Media and Twitter Hashtags

Target traffic using social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Myspace because who doesn't use any of those sites at this moment in time? Make your readers stay connected to your blog using those sites, implement share buttons on your posts to enable sharing to these networks and you're going in for the kill. Now, how about targeting those readers? Well, on Twitter you can use #hashtags, which work with the search function and funnily enough, tweeters watch them for new posts and before you know it, you're targeting them. Of course, its different on Facebook as you can join pages that contain a discussion board and talk about the same topics you talk about on your blog. Overall, social media is sometimes off at targeting traffic in my opinion.

You can find our Twitter #hashtag, which is #BlogPressive.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is great for connecting with new readers on different blog and forwarding them to your blog. Not only are you reading this on BlogPressive, but you may also be reading this on TekSocial (hello!) too! Allowing guest posters on your blog is a great way of directing traffic as now only are you sharing about your latest post but the guest poster is sharing about their latest post, making your traffic go through the roof and you're collecting more followers. For instance, I'm a guest poster on TekSocial and soon TutorialZip so I'll be targeting 3 audiences, my own environment and 2 out in the wild! I also accept guest bloggers on BlogPressive, like Jack Kirk who joined us yesterday for a Hostgator review.

Comment Discussion

How do you target traffic and visitors? Are there any tips you can leave us or others that are really helpful? Leave a comment below.

The Purpose of Unboxing Videos

When I posted my first unboxing video on YouTube (the previous generation Mighty Mouse), I actually received a bit of a zap from my friends. They really couldn't understand why I had posted a video of me taking a mouse (of all things) out of the box it ships in. Since I'm a large part of the online community as a whole, I couldn't grasp the fact that they couldn't grasp the fact that people worldwide post videos of themselves taking products out of the box. But then I began to think about it. Most normal people (yes, I said it, none of us are normal :p) really couldn't care less about these kinds of videos. Well, me being me, I deemed a blog post a viable option for explaining the whole point.

Before you can understand the point of unboxing videos, however, you must understand that geeks have a certain community of their own on the internet, especially Apple geeks. Apple geeks (and geeks in general) LOVE new and shiny gadgets, so they like having the opportunity to show it off to people who don't have one, or just like watching it coming out of the box (like myself). Most unboxing videos cater to this breed of humans (mostly male), however, there is still a spot for those not exactly qualifying as a geek.

A lot of people (especially those a bit older) are a bit nimble about ordering online. They go over their order details dozens and dozens of times to make sure that they will be getting exactly what they want and expect. Unboxing videos find a very particular niche with them; they are finicky and seeing an actual person take the product they were planning to buy out of the box, they know exactly what to expect when they get their aforementioned product. This niche also applies somewhat to geeks.

But, believe it or not, there is one more reason for the existence of unboxing videos. You may think that this one is stretching it a bit, but it does exist. Some people just love technology. Period. And the fact that the internet (mainly YouTube) has a huge inventory of other people talking about technology and showing off technology is extremely appealing, and can even serve as entertainment to hardcore geeks (I love unboxing videos as entertainment). 

The unboxing of a product can really be a special time for a geek, especially when it's something that person has been looking forward to/saving money for for a long time. 

In order to conclude this post, I just want to say one thing: don't hate. If you aren't in the mindset of hardcore geekery, then don't worry about it. Just ignore it then. Hating on geeks is going to get you nowhere but in trouble with the troll police.

You can contact me by emailing me at ndmacgeek@gmail.com