How To Improve Your Online Privacy With These Easy Steps

The good news is that it's really easy to beef up your online security. These quick and simple steps will considerably strengthen your systems against criminals and snoops.

1. Get a quality VPN service

The quickest and easiest way to improve your online privacy is to get a quality VPN provider. The best services, like ExpressVPN, will secure your internet connection from prying eyes. A VPN will make your internet connection completely private and will keep no record of your internet activity.

2. Use a password manager

It goes without saying that a strong password will protect you more. You should also always use a different password for each account you have online. The best way to do this is with a password manager. It will encrypt and store all of your credentials for every site, so that you don't have to remember them all. Logins will fill out automatically, which means you'll spend less time frantically trying to remember your pet's birthday. Pick a strong master password and let the program do the rest.

3. Keep your system up to date

Setting your OS to update automatically requires minimal effort, and will considerably strengthen your defence against cyber attacks. It's important that you always have the latest security updates on your machine. They are released for a reason - to fight the increasingly sophisticated criminals who are constantly searching for ways to attack you and harvest your data.

4. Don't forget Your Mobile Connections

Connecting from a mobile device is increasingly the way most people get online. There's no point securing your desktop if you leave your iPad connection open. That's why it's important to choose a VPN service which will work across all devices and operating systems.

5. Don't trust Free and Public Wifi.

In many cases, it's free because they are harvesting your data. And that's just the provider. Criminals and snoops can also use the same connection to gain access to your files.

Getting secure online is more common sense than cost. A few straight thinking minutes can have your systems operating far more securely. VPNs are worth more than their weight in gold.

VPNs Weigh Nothing

Literally. There's no bulky equipment, It's just software. It's also lightweight software that won't hog any resources. In fact, it can often speed up your system. ISPs increasingly throttle traffic to certain websites. They do this without telling you, or even admitting it. They may use phrases such as "Traffic Shaping", but don’t be fooled. It's throttling. A VPN hides the sites you are looking at, so it's impossible to have your connection "trafficked".

Honorary Mentions: What about Tor?

There are other methods of securing your data online. Perhaps by using the Tor network. And while it is not as tricky (or dangerous!) as some make out, it just isn't as simple as a good VPN service.

ExpressVPN will get you browsing safely within minutes. A quick install and a few clicks is all you need to increase your online security and protect your privacy. And with a 256 key encryption, it is near impossible to hack.

Learn How To Create Actionable Customer-Centric Mobile Marketing Campaigns

In 2015 PEW Research studied the smartphone habits of American adults. This intuitive study revealed that 46 percent of American adults say they "can't live without their smartphone." In 2015 eMarketer also conducted a study on smartphone usage and the predicted impact of mobile advertising. eMarkter's report unveiled that by 2017 over 59 percent of digital search ad dollars will be spent marketing on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. These statistics show that mobile marketing is no longer a passing trend. It is a consumer-centric marketing effort that should be viewed as a chance to speak directly with your intended consumer by making a lasting connection.

5 Tactics To Create Easy-to-Implement Customer-Centric Mobile Marketing Campaigns

1) Tell a story through your blog -- Customer-centric marketing efforts should focus on involving your customers with the story of your brand. Your mobile marketing efforts will need to create mobile-friendly blog posts that can be read in three minutes or less. These blog posts should encourage people to share, like, and comment on what they've just read.

2) Begin a social media conversation -- Social media conversations are a great way to create customer-centric mobile marketing efforts that focus on a customer's willingness to become involved with your brand. These conversations can also be a great starting point for you to share your latest campaign efforts. Whether it is sharing a new blog post, discussing the merits of a recently published white paper, or promoting your company's latest sale or discount, social media is the perfect platform to appeal to your customers. Be sure to encourage customers to comment by asking questions and don't forget to reply when someone does leave a comment.

3)Design mobile-specific email or SMS marketing campaigns -- Promotional content should focus on the customer and his or her potential needs. The customer doesn't want to be disappointed when they open a SMS or email message. Instead, the customer wants to see something of value. When you are crafting your promotional messages remember that nothing is more valuable than the customer's time. Messages that are succinct and add value are more likely to receive a positive reception.

4) Analyze metrics and make sure that your customers are happy -- Building a successful customer-centric mobile marketing campaign will require you to analyze a few key performance indicators. Ask yourself the following types of questions: how valuable are my customers; how can I attract more like-minded customers; how do I keep customer coming back? The common factor of the aforementioned questions is determining if your customers are happy. If your customer is happy then you know that your customer-centric approach is working. If your customers are dissatisfied, then you need to quickly adjust your efforts so that you don't lose your customers to a competitor.

5) Use proven marketing technology tools -- The right marketing technology tools will help you to gain valuable insights into your gathered customer data. In addition these tools can be used to help you automate certain processes, such as an automated "thank you for your inquiry" response that is designed to let the customer know that their request was heard, and that a company representative will assist them shortly. Marketing automation tools can also be used to deepen customer relationships and improve your customer communication strategy.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to customer-centric mobile marketing campaigns, the customer should always come first. Online sellers, retailers, and service providers need to put an emphasis on customer-centric strategies if they want to truly leverage the power of mobile marketing. By creating customer-centric mobile marketing campaigns you can help your organization create loyal brand ambassadors, build new customer relationships, and increase your ROI.
 

Author Biography 
Sophorn Chhay - Sophorn is an inbound marketer specializing in attracting targeted visitors and generating sales qualified leads. Through Trumpia’s SMS marketing automation solution he helps businesses and organizations communicate effectively with their customers or members. Trumpia is offering a free Mobile Marketing Success Kit so don’t forget to grab your free copy.

How to remove the numbers in blogger post URL's

This article looks at the numbers that are in web-page addresses created by Blogger, what they mean and how you can influence them.

When you first publish a post, Blogger assigns a permanent web-address (aka an URL or a permalink) to the post.  I've previously explained how you can control the words used in this hyperlink.

A common question from people who are researching SEO for their blog is "how do I get rid of the numbers in the post-URL?".

Unfortunately the answer is not as straighforward as most people hope for.

Numbers near the start of Blogger URLS

As described in setting the content of your post's permalink, the URL given to posts published in Blogger shows the year and month of the original publication date for the post. I think this is because Blogger was originally set up as an on-line diary, with a lot of the features organised around the post-date.

Today, there are ways of giving your blog a home page, showing your posts in pages, and changing the order of the posts, which let your blog be a lot more than a date-ordered web-log.

Some blogging software (eg Wordpress) lets you choose the structure of the URLs which are used, eg leaving the date out totally, or puting it after the words.

However Blogger does not currently have any way to remove the date-part of the post URLs. And I could be wrong, but my best guess is that this will not change anytime soon.

So what options are available to remove the year and month numbers?

If you just don't want people to know the correct month and year of the post, then you can change the date before you publish the post for the the first time. Maybe make it something non-sensical (eg 1/1/1990). (However do remember that your RSS feed will show the actual date of publication, not the assigned date).

If you have some content where any month-and-year are particularly irrelevant, put it into a Page instead of a Post - because Page URLs don't contain a date.  But remember that you need to give users a way to get to these Pages, and that remember that they are not sent out in your RSS feed, so subscribers won't see the content.

The third - and least attractive - option: is to accept that this is how Blogger works and that you need to live with it or switch to another blogging tool.

Numbers near the end of Blogger URLS

Blogger puts digits at the end of post-URLs in order to make sure that each post ever published has a unique address.

Notice that I said "ever published": if you publish a post, then delete it, and then publish a second post with the same year, month and either title or customized-URL-words, then the second post's URL will have some digits put on the end, to stop it being the same as the first one.

Once a post is published, you cannot remove the digits and keep the same words and month/year.  The only way to avoid them is to make sure that your post-URLs are unique. So if you publish a post and notice that it has digits on the end of the URL, one option is to delete that post, and replace it with one which has a different publication date or customized-URL-words(don't forget to copy the post contents before you delete it!)   Or you could just set it back to draft status, and then publish it again with different and this time unique customized-URL-words.

For example, if you publish and find that you get

www.all-about-cats.com/2012-07/vegetarian-cat-food-recipes01.html

you may want to delete the post, and republish the content in a post with a different date like

www.all-about-cats.com/2012-06/vegetarian-cat-food-recipes.html

Does it really matter?

Personally I'm not convinced that having numbers in Blogger URL's is a problem.

If the content is so weak, and poorly linked to by other sites and social media that the presence of numbers in the URL is affecting visitor numbers, then it seems to me that there are more important things for you to be worrying about.

On the other hand, if your blog is already popular and well-optimized, and you're looking to get the last possible bit of SEO benefit - you'd be better off using your time to write even more good quanlity, unique, content so that your exisiting subscribers visit more often, instead of fussing over something that you cannot control.

Or am I mistaken?

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Related Articles

Setting the custom-URL for a blog post

Giving your blog a home page

Putting Blogger posts into pages

How to set the date for a post

The difference between Posts and Pages

What is RSS and why it matters for bloggers

Removing a post from your blog

Copy the contents between blog posts - and keep all the formatting.

Reason behind Flipkart takes U-turn on app-only strategy & Launches Flipkart Lite

A couple of months back, it was all over the place. Everyone was discussing about it. Be it tech websites or blogs or newspapers or News Channels, all these primary sources debated on the information dispersed that Flipkart, one of the most sorted and trusted online shopping portals, was all geared up for app-only and quit desktop version. Does foraying into an app-only format make sense? It was debated all over with mixed reactions and feedbacks.

App-only: New face of e-commerce

There are no two opinions saying that the Internet usage has increased manifold in the recent past in the country. Ditto the consumption of smartphones. According to reports, Flipkart is getting 70-75% of its total traffic from its mobile app. This was the primary and the most obvious reason behind the idea. Majority of population in India access the internet through smartphones. Yes, we agree that most of the population in India spend their time using their smartphones. Installing an App is always a help. Smartphones is the new face of e-commerce in the near future. Undoubtedly. You can get prompt and immediate alerts and offers on the go. Whether you are vacationing or you are watching a much awaited movie in the cinema hall, you will get best deals and offers instantly on your smartphone.

Revamped mobile version "Flipkart Lite"

Flipkart did the same with Myntra after acquiring it. As per the announcement made, Flipkart should have gone app-only shopping website by September this year, but it did not happen (so far). Moreover, Flipkart has now re-launched their old mobile site in a new bottle and named it ‘Flipkart Lite’. It will be accessible only via Google Chrome on Android phones. Why Now? What made them to do so? Are they planning to shelve their app-only platform idea? Let's put a light on it. But before going any further, it is necessary to understand why they chose only app based platform keeping in mind the stiff competition from other online shopping portals in India.

Instead of going app-only, Flipkart has now reframed its old picture and tried to give it a better and richer look. Recent reports suggest that Flipkart’s new mobile version is built with Google’s input. Google has been trying crawling mobile sites but could not do so effectively. This renovation comes with some cool features - option to add the Flipkart Lite page to the homescreen on chrome for better accessibility.

Switching back to m-version. Why?

For beginners, who just started using smartphones (especially middle aged people), it would be so difficult for them to surf and buy products using apps. Limited storage space and continuous internet data consumption - these two smartphone problems usually faced by most of the smartphone using population. Such problems will be solved with the site's mobile version. A smartphone user can access to the mobile site as per its convenience and with limited data consumption.

After converting Myntra into app-only format, the company witnessed the dip of 10% in their next sales figures. It is evident that there are chunks of people in India who still wants to buy products online using laptops or desktop. Browsing through desktop and laptop helps you making better buying decision. Thanks to bigger screen and better image quality. Flipkart has 25% of its total consumers are still using traditional ways to shop online - Computers. Taking a risk of losing 25% of sales is a nightmare for any company.

We understand and agree that a smartphone user (or an App) user can get prompt push notifications, customized offers. But restricting online shoppers to just apps is too risky.


Note: If you are looking for flipkart coupons & offers which are valid on desktop, Flipkart-Lite & Mobile App, here is list of all offer: http://33coupons.in/flipkart-today-offers.

What’s New on the iPhone 6S

Image Source http://goo.gl/XNosfH 

The latest Apple product is being released, and Mac lovers have been lining up to get their hands on the iPhone 6s. So what makes this product so special? Besides the expected software updates and advanced Touch ID, faster 4G and Wi-Fi connections, a sleeker design with a rose gold finish and of course iOS9; what are some of the new features that iPhone-fanatics can look forward to? Since Bend-gate there have been speculations regarding just how durable the latest iPhone will be. Apple have addressed this and have engineered a new alloy of 7000 Series aluminium, the same used in the aerospace industry, to ensure your phone won’t bend in your pocket. But that’s not all they have to offer.

See some of the top new specs below:

3D Touch

This is perhaps the most exciting of the new features of the iPhone 6S. This revolutionary technology combines software and hardware to bring a new dimension of functionality to using your phone. As well as the now familiar touch gestures like Tap, Swipe and Pinch, 3D Touch introduces what Apple refers to as “Peek and Pop”. Basically, with 3D Touch your phone registers how much pressure you put on your screen. If you select an icon/message/web page, it will open or Peek out; so you get an idea of what it contains. If you want to go into that web page or message you just have to press a little harder and it will “Pop” open. It also enables the user to make even shorter shortcuts to the camera, messaging and map apps from the home screen. Seeing Apples iPhone 6S in action, it appears to be a sleek transition and one which makes the phone that bit more covetable to this tech-loving writer.

Breath-taking New Camera

The camera in the iPhone 6S has 12 megapixels and the shots it takes are absolutely stunning. It’s clearer than my own vision. Apple claims that a camera this good won’t need re-touches or filters on photos – although I doubt that will stop all the Instagrammers out there. If anything, this will just step up their game. The new iPhone can also take videos four times 1080p meaning your videos will look like something from the silver screen, in the palm of your hand.

Do you take a lot of selfies? The front facing camera – for Facetiming and selfie-taking – is high definition 5 megapixels. All the better to see yourself with. The iPhone 6S also has a new function: Retina Flash, a flash three times brighter than the previous generation. This, combined with Apple’s True Tone Tech, allows you to have perfectly lit selfies no matter where you’re taking the photo. 

Live Photos

As well as having a crisp and clearer shot, the iPhone 6S also enables the user to take Live Photos, literally capturing a moment in time just before and after you take the photo, with movement and sound. Like sleeker gifs if you will. You can activate the live photos simply by selecting a photo and you can also view them on your other Apple devices, and share them around.

Computer-Like Performance

The iPhone 6s is run by a 64-bit A9 chip. This chip empowers the iPhone 6S which 70% faster CPU (than the previous iPhone) and 90% GPU; meaning you can enjoy games, apps and videos with far better results. Apple goes for far as to say that it is as immersive as playing a video-game on your desktop or game console.

So, will you be lining up with the rest of them to get this beauty?



Authors Bio:
Orlaith Costello writes for The PC Doctor, a fan of all things tech-related, she’s had a keen interest in IT and programming since the age of 8. Nurtured from a young age she has shares her opinions on IT news, smartphones, apps, or Google’s latest updates.

Using Labels to categorize your Blogger Posts

This article explains how to use Labels to categorise the Posts in your Blog, and how you can get around some of the limitations in Blogger's categorising tools.

Why categorise your Posts

Grouping your blog's contents makes it easier for people who have reached your blog via Search to find other posts that they may be interested in - provided you add tools to your blog that let them navigate using labels.

It's essential if you want to make it look like you have put your Posts into Pages.

And it helps you to find posts yourself.

Blogger's tools for working with categories

The only tool that Blogger provides for categorising or grouping Posts is Labels.

In short, Labels are tags that you apply to posts.

Each post can have as many Labels as you want (there is an upper limit of 5000 labels-per-blog, but most people don't get near it).

And you can use labels for different purposes.  For example, a post titled "Photographing Long-haired Black Cats" could have three different labels

• Cats - the the animal it's about
• Photography - for the functional category
• Jane Smith - for the author

The Labels gadget lets readers choose which groups of posts to see:  when a visitor clicks an item on the labels gadget, they are shown a list of posts that have the selected label applied to them.

You can add the Labels gadget as many times as you like, selecting which specific label values to show each time.   In the example above, you might add it three times, once for ainmals (showing Cats, Dogs and Rabbits), once for function (showing feeding, grooming and photography), and once for author (showing Jane Smith and Joe Bloggs).

There are three steps that you need to follow to make effective use of Labels in Blogger.

How to add Labels to your blog

Step 1:    Label your Posts

For each post, add one or more labels.  You can add labels either:

• In the post-editor, in the Labels section at the right side of the post-editor o

• From the Posts tab, tick the posts you want to put the labels on, and then use the drop down arrow from the top icon that looks like a small luggage-tag:   choose the label or "New label ...").

Step 2:    Add the labels gadget

Add the Labels gadget to your blog - the same way you would add any other gadget .   You can add it as many times as you need, choosing which labels to show each time.
 
Warning:  If you choose to show only a certain selection of Labels in a gadget, then this is all that it will show even if you add new labels to your posts later on.  However if you don't restrict which labels are shown, then new ones are automatically shown in the gadget if they are associated with published posts.

Drag-and-drop the labels gadget to wherever you want it:  some people put it just underneath their header, to make readers think they've looking at a more traditional web-page.

Step 3:   Add Labels navigation

Another way for your readers access labels is from the display in the post header or footer of the list of labels assigned to each post.

This is turned on by default in most themes:  you can change the setting and move it around using post-templete settings found under  Layout > Blog Posts (edit).

What your visitors see

A List of Posts:

If a visitor to your blog clicks on an item in the labels gadget or in the labels-list that is show for apost, then the "labels-view screen" is used to show them the posts that have the selected label.

This screen is like the main screen: is only shows a certain number of posts and visitors need to use the newer-posts and older-posts links to move back through the list.

Like the main screen, if you have used jump-breaks in your posts, then the list only shows the first part of each post.  If you haven't used jump-breaks, then the whole posts are shown.

A summary message:

Unlike the main screen, in most themes there is a message at the top of the page saying:
"Showing newest posts with label WHAT-EVER-YOU-CHOSE. Show older posts"

Or if there are no published posts with the selected Label, the message is slightly different.  Some people change their theme to customise or remove this message:  Chuck in The Real Blogger Status has written an excellent description of  how to do this.

What Labels aren't - but appear to be

Many people think that Labels are a way of actually putting Posts into pages.  However the Posts aren't actually moved around.  The labels-screen is just a way of viewing a smaller-than-usual group of Posts, and can make it look like you have put your posts into sub-pages.

Making multi-level categories

Currently, Blogger only supports one level of grouping.  The only way you can make sub-groups of Labels is to add two categories to each post - one for the "major" category, and one for the "minor" category

For example you might use labels like these

Major category:	Minor categories:
Recipes:	Sweet, Savory, Wheat-free
Party-games:	ice-breaker, run-around, silent, outdoor
Music:	lively, soft & gentle, traditional, instrumental

Each post would need to have at least one label from the major category, and one from the minor categories.

If you do this, you need to be clever about adding two levels of gadget, with only a selected group of labels shown in each gadget.   You might even need to edit your theme, to only show certain gadgets in certain situations.

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Related Articles

Posts, Pages and Navigation

Setting what goes on the Home Page

Editing your blog's theme:  advantages and disadvantages

Making it look like you have put your posts into pages.

Copying all the posts from one blog to another

This article is about how to copy all the posts from one blog to another, using Blogger.  There is a separate article about copying individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another.

To copy all the Posts from one blog to another, you need to export them from the first blog, and import the file that was created into the second file.

Any Pages (see The Difference between Posts and Pages) in the first blog, need to be moved individually, because pages aren't currently included in the export file.

If you want to totally replace the contents of the destination blog with the contents of the source blog, then you should delete the existing posts from the destination blog before you import the file.  (NB   Delete posts by going to the Posting / Edit Posts screen, and pressing the Delete button that is beside the post.   Don't delete the entire blog, or you will lose access to the URL).

Follow these steps to copy all posts from one blog to another

1  Log in to Blogger.

2  Go to the export tab from the  Settings / Other tab.

3  Click on Export Blog.

Export-blog window on the old Blogger interface:
the new interface looks a little different, but has the same links

3a  If you are using the new interface, click Download Blog on the confirmation message window:

4  Your computer will download a file.   For Windows users, it will probably be put in the My Documents / Downloads file.  Or you system may use another place, or it may ask you where to put it.   Whatever happens, you will need to know where this file is saved to.

5  Open the blog that you want to move the posts to
(You may need to log out and in again, or perhaps just switch to different browser or tab)

5  Delete (using Posting / Edit Posts) any Posts that are already there, but which you don't want in the refreshed blog.

6  Go to Settings > Other and click Import Blog.  When the box opens, choose the exported file that you made earlier, and enter the security-text.

Import file selection screen in the new interface:
the old version of Blogger is very similar.

7  Choose whether or not to automatically publish all imported posts.  
Only tick the box if you DO want the posts automatically imported.   If you don't tick it, the posts will be loaded, but with have status of Draft, so won't be visible by readers until you publish them.

8  Click Import Blog.

9  Check that the import worked successfully, by looking at the blog, and also at the list of posts under Edit Posts:  are the right number of posts there, do they have the right labels etc.

Results

All the posts from the source blog will be copied to the destination blog.

Many of the post characteristics will be the same as in the original blog.  This includes:

• title
• post contents
• published-date and time
• label(s)
• post-author.

Any comments from the source blog will also be copied over - sometimes it takes a few hours for the links for them to be re-establshed properly.

The URL for each post will be based on the URL of the blog you have imported them into and the publication-date that the posts had in the source blog - for example:

www.YourNewBlogName.blogspot.com /2009/05/name-based-on-post-title.html

Any internal links in the blog will still point to the post in the old blog

For example this link points to a popular article in Blogger-HAT.  

If I export-and-imported this post into a new blog, the link would still point to the same place, ie the post in Blogger-HAT - not to the post in the new blog.

Any pictures, videos etc in the old blog will still be in the same place that they were in (Picasa-web-albums, YouTube, Google Videos etc).

If you have imported more than the number of posts that Blogger allows per day (currently 50 I think) then to make any more posts today you will need to complete the captcha-test (ie entering the letters in the funny-shaped word).   This will go away approximately 24 hours after you last enter more that the maximum-posts-per-day.

Importing to the same blog

If you try to import posts into the same blog that you exported them from, Blogger will not import any posts, and give you an error message.

If you do want to do this (eg to create a duplicate set of posts), then do the export, change some small detail of the original posts title or date/time, and then do the import.

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Related Articles

The Difference between Posts and Pages

Moving individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another

Converting Posts into Pages

Moving some posts form one blog to another 

Deleting blogs and blog-posts

How to set the URL for Blogger posts

This article shows how to use the Permalink options to control the URL used for a post in your blog.

URLs and Blog Posts

When you first publish a post in blogger, an URL (called a permalink in blogger) is automatically generated for that post. It looks like:

www.yourDomain/yyyy/mm/WORDS-ABOUT-MY-POST

In this URL:

• yourDomain is either your custom domain (eg fred-fish.com) or your blogspot domain if you aren't using a custom domain at the time (eg www.blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com)
• yyyy/mm is the year and month of the post's original publication date.

Years ago, Blogger chose the WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-MY based on the title, or the first words in the post if the title was blank. They used some rules eg leaving out "the" and other common words, and putting numbers on the end so that every post has a unique URL (called a "permalink" in Blogger).

However Blogger have now provided a tool that lets you choose the WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-POST separately from the post-title.

How to change the customisable part of the URL for a post

1  Edit the post in the usual way.

2  In the Post Settings area (currently at the right hand side of the editor), there is a section called Permalink.

3   Click on Links to show the options in it.

4   Click the custom URL radio button

5   Type the words that you want to use in WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-POST into the Custom URL box

6   Click Done.

7   Finish the post, and Publish it.

Restrictions

The only characters you can use are:

• lowercase letters (ie a, b, c ... z)
• uppercase letters (ie A, B, C ... Z)
• digits (ie 0, 1, 2 ... 9)
• underscore (ie _)
• dash (ie - )
• full-stop, also known as a period (ie .)

It looks like there is no restriction on the number of characters you can put into the URL.  For example, I was just able to make a post in my test blog, with this URL:  
http://bhat-draftarticlestore.blogspot.ie/2012/07/123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-.html
(you cannot see the post, because that particular blog isn't open for public reading.)


If the combinaton of yyyy-mm from post-date (which you can change - see Setting the Post Date) and WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-BLOG is not unique, Blogger will leave out the last character(s), and put in numbers to make it unique.

It only applies to Posts, not Pages:  the only way to influence the URL / permalink for a Page on your blog is to choose the initial words in the page-title very carefully.   (Ref:  the difference between Posts and Pages)

Why should you bother? What words should you use?

Firstly, it's only worth changing the custom words in your post-URL  if SEO matters for your blog.

If you think the change is worth it, then you need to think about what specific words
1) accurately reflect the content of your blog, and
2) are likely to be the words that people search for.

Unless you're a spammer, there is no point in making your post url www.myBlog/2012-07/hot-and-sexy-topic if your post doesn't have any content about hot-and-sexy-topic. (And if you are a spammer, you may as well leave Blogger now, before you get kicked off anyway.)

Leave out smaller filler words like "the" "a" "and" - unless they are relevant to the post-contents. For example include "the Who" if your post is about the band called The Who, but leave it out if your post is about the cats who can fly.

Lastly, many SEO experts (self-proclaimed and otherwise) say that dashes are better than dots or underscores. Only Google and Bing know if they'are correct or not. But it's probably a good idea to use xxx-yy-aaaa instead of xxx_yy_aaaa or xxx.yy.aaaa, just in case they are.

Changing the post-title after publication

Google's help-article about the custom-permalink feature says:

"because Blogger automatically creates the URL from information from your post title, your URL would change should you decide to edit the title. This would result in broken links, and fewer visitors to your blog"

This isn't the way Blogger worked before: until now, I often published a post with one title using the words I wanted in the URL, and then very quickly edit it and change the title to the words I wanted in the title. For example, for a recent post

• the URL is  http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/html-code-for-popular-gadgets-in.html
• the post-title is now:  Where to get the HTML code for popular gadgets in Blogger

I just tried this again in my test-blog, and found that it's still true: even if you change the title, the post URL doesn't change.

Changing the custom-URL words after publication

Originally, after you hit the Publish button for the first time, there was no way change the permalink:  if you click on the Permalink option in Post Settings, you are shown the custom value that you chose, but you cannot change it.

However you can now:

• Edit the post.
• Click the Revert to draft button.
• Edit the post URL in the same way

and the URL of your post will be changed.  Note that if you do this, the post characteristics (view count, comments) are kept.   This means that Blogger must be associating them with the unchanged internal post-identifier, not the URL.

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The New Apple Pencil Sketches New Shade on an Old Idea

The Apple Pencil is upon us. While it's not a new concept, it does deserve a more in-depth look at its features and abilities. It's essentially a stylus for the iPad, and it's introduction is a bit shocking to followers of Apple products. Steve Jobs is well-known for stating his disinterest in creating a stylus of the iPad. He routinely pointed out that your finger was the best pointing device. With the new CEO of Apple Tim Cook taking the reigns, it seems some big changes are coming to Apple products. If you take a closer look, you'll find there are actually several features that make this pencil a really good idea.

It Enhances Precision

Your finger is convenient, and it worked well with the iPad when it was in its infancy. However, as the technology has improved and app developers are creating new technology, it's become necessary to introduce a more precise pointing mechanism. Of course, it wouldn't be an Apple product if it didn't do something other products can't do. The Apple Pencil detects position, force and tilt. The pencil should act as a catalyst for app developers to start making apps that take full advantage of the stylus. It can also use your iPad to keep itself charged when you're not using it.

How It's Made

The Apple Pencil is made to work with your iPad software. A stylus that you can buy in the store uses passive technology. They are just replacements for your fingers. It much the same way as checkweighers work, the Apple Pencil can sense the amount of pressure you are using. The Apple Pencil and the display are two parts of the same device. The Apple Pencil works with the technology of the display to use both pressure and angle sensing. It's made to work only with the iPad, so you can't use this device with other systems. The device offers very little lag, it connects quickly and it automatically charges when you're not using it. For it to work properly, most of the touchscreen has to be able to sense hand pressure and differentiate it from the Apple Pencil.

It Annotates Better

When Apple demoed the new Apple Pencil, they invited a representative from Microsoft on stage. The purpose was to demonstrate how the pen worked in Microsoft Office. The representative demonstrated how items can be circled in documents, and shapes can be drawn directly on PowerPoint slides. Once the objects are drawn, they can be easily converted into graphic objects for placement anywhere in the document. Overall, the stylus worked very well and seemed to make the process of editing documents much more productive.

It Draws Better

One of the issues many users report with using a stylus, is that the image doesn't appear on the screen instantly. With the Apple Pencil, when you draw something it appears instantly. This is a crucial step forward that makes it an ideal object for artists who work in graphic design. The ability to detect pressure, force and tilt will enhance shading and dimension in graphics. It works well in Adobe Photoshop FX, and it should also find its way into several other applications that are useful for graphic design.

The question of why Apple would decide to design a stylus after all these years is an important one. It seems that the stylus will appeal mostly to graphic designers and business professionals who need to mark up their documents on the go. The stylus won't work with the iPhone, and it's likely going to require you to purchase a new iPad to get the functionality. This device should help to spur new iPad purchases, and Apple can continue to raise the bar on future incarnations to make it even more feature-rich. It offers a more life-like experience than when using other stylus products. Ultimately, the new Apple Pencil works much more like a real pencil.

How to change or remove the Newer Post and Older Posts links

This article explains how to hide or change the format of the "Older Posts" and "Newer Post" and "Home" links that are shown at the bottom of Blogger blogs with Layout or Designer templates.

Why are the older and newer posts links used

Most designer and layout templates have links at the bottom of your page of blog posts which let readers navigate back and forward among the list of posts.

This is basic to how a blog is intended to work:  you post regularly, and give people a way to get back to previous posts.

The pager-links are particularly important on pages that are reached using the Label or Archive gadgets, which may show more posts than you normally have on your home page, or displaying in your blog.

But some people want to remove them - and this is fine provided readers have other ways of navigating around the blog.

How to remove "Newer Posts" and "Older Posts" from your blog

To totally remove these items, you just add some new CSS rules to your template in the usual way.

To remove "Older Posts" add:

#blog-pager-older-link {
float: right;
}

To remove "Newer Posts" add:

#blog-pager-older-link {
float: right;
}

Or to remove both of them and the "Home" link that appears in between them, add:

#blog-pager {
display: none;
}

How to format the "Newer Posts" and "Older Posts"

Changing the way that these links look is very similar, you just add the same codes, except instead of 

display: none;

you need to use the CSS element for the effect you want.   For example, to make the text bigger and bold, you might use rules like

font-size: 150%;
font-weight: bold;

You need to put these commands inside the curly brackets, where the display: none; is now - make sure that each component has a semi-colon at the end of it.   It makes the code easier to read if each component is on a new line, but this isn't necessary.

Another option is to swap the "float" commands around to put "older posts" on the left and "newer posts" on the right (I've never quite understood why they were the other way around).

You can also use background images and colours, with elements like:

background-image:url('URL OF YOUR IMAGE');

background-color:#cccccc;

How to change the "Newer Posts" and "Older Posts" text

If you want to change the text values - either to different words, or by replacing them totally with pictures, you need to accept the disadvantages of editing your template.   If this is ok, and you you want to proceed then:

1  Edit your template in the usual way

2  Replace the existing links:

• To replace the "newer posts" link, find <data:newerPageTitle/>  in your template, and replace it with whatever text you want.
  
• To replace the "older posts" link, find <data:olderPageTitle/>  in your template, and replace it with whatever text you want.  
  
• To replace the "home" link, find <data:homeMsg/>  in your template, and replace it with whatever text you want.   

In each case, the code you are replacing will be inside some other code, like this:

  <span id='blog-pager-newer-link'>
      <a class='blog-pager-newer-link' expr:href='data:newerPageUrl' expr:id='data:widget.instanceId + &quot;_blog-pager-newer-link&quot;' expr:title='data:newerPageTitle'><data:newerPageTitle/></a>
      </span>

Make sure that you only replace exactly the code listed above, including the < and >'s.   The other code around sets up the links to the actual older or newer posts, and you don't want to change this.

Also, if you want to use a picture instead, replace it with <img alt='...' border='0' src='THE URL OF YOUR PICTURE'/> - of course with the right picture URL put in.

Do make sure that the meaning of your pictures is obvious though - what may look like a cute "newer posts" symbol to you might be totally meaningless to someone else.

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How to centre-align the sharing-icons from AddThis in Blogger

This article shows how to get and then centre-align the row of sharing items that you can get from AddThis (and it's likely that a similar technique applies to sharing buttons from other services like ShareThis, too).

If you think that Blogger's own social sharing buttons a just a bit too small and difficult position, then you may decide to use a service like AddThis to generate buttons that are more elegant all round.

Signing up with AddThis is easy: just log in to your Blogger account, and in a separate tab open up AddThis.com. Choose Create Account, and then Continue with Google. This links your Google account and your AddThis account, and is the easiest approach - but there are other options too, like creating your account with your Facebook or Twitter accounts, or even just signing up the old fashioned way with your email address.

Once you have signed up and chosen a plan (personally I just the free "Basic" plan), you need to actually install the AddThis buttons on your site. To do this:

• Select one or more sets of sharing buttons (from the options available to your account type),
• Choose the settings which apply to that set of buttons
• Choose Activate (button in the bottom right corner of the setting screen), and
• Install the code that AddThis gave you into your blog.

Installing the code that AddThis gave you is pretty much like installing any other piece of code.   Typically the code you have to install has two parts:

For the piece that says:

Step 1: Add the following code to the <body> of your website.

Search for "<body"  (note:  no closing angle-bracket because some templates have extra instructions in there), and then put the code from AddThis after the angle bracket that goes with the <body


For the piece that says:

Step 2: Paste this code into whichever page you would like this tool to show up.

Find the location in your template that you would like the gadget (eg an HTM gadget, or inside the post statement itself - read more about the options), and copy and paste the relevant code from AddThis.

But it's not in the right place.

If you install the code as is from AddThis, you will find that the row of sharing buttons is pretty tightly linked up with the rest of the page, and left-aligned.   Fortunately this is easy to change.

How to centre (or right align) rows of buttons from AddThis 

To put the set of sharing buttons from AddThis at the middle of the page, you need to surround the 2nd piece of code from AddThis with another Div statement, like the one in bold below:

<div style = 'width:100%; text-align: center; margin-bottom:3em; margin-top:2em;'><!-- Go to www.addthis.com/dashboard to customize your tools -->
<div class="addthis_sharing_toolbox"></div>
</div>

The exact details to use depend on how exactly you want to set up your sharing-bar form AddThis.  I wanted it to be centre-aligned on one of my sites, with some extra white space above and below, so I used these commands:

• width:100%  -  says to use all of the page-width in deciding where to put the sharing bar  (by detfault, it would just use the width of the sharing bar itself

• text-align: centre   -   means that he bar will be put in the middle

• margin-bottom and margin-top   put some extra space above and below the gadget, so it sticks out more-so.

But you may use a different approach, depending on what your blog is trying to achieve.

What your readers see

Visitors using a web-browsers

Will see your AddThis buttons, as you defined them

Readers who subscribe to your blog's RSS feed

Will not see your blog's AddThis sharing buttons, unless they happen to click through from their feed-reader to your blog.

Readers who follow-by-email 

Will not see your standard social sharing buttons at all, unless they visit your site.   (AddThis does have some email newsletter buttons, but these don't automatically go into emails generated from Blogger).

Is it worth it?

For what it's worth, I recently made the change from custom sharing buttons that I'd made myself to classier looking ones from AddThis, and saw quite a jump (50% or more) in the number of social shares, across all my sites.

YMMY, of course.

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Evolution Of The Office (Then/Now)

We take going to work at the office everyday for granted but do you ever stop to think just how much office life has changed over the years?

This infographic by Smart PA is full of facts and visuals with key dates in history that have changed the business world allowing it to grow and develop at a faster rate then ever before. From telephones and computers being introduced to air conditioning and video conferencing. We wonder what the future may hold for office life going forward….

Why Cabs Are Slowly Replacing Auto Rickshaws in India?

In the last few years, large cab companies have popped up across the country. Meeru and Dot cabs were some of the first few to be launched on a large scale. Back then, the cab service was too costly and only a handful of people were using it. But now, with cab companies like Uber and Ola, there’s a slight chance that cab companies will slowly erase the Auto Rickshaw concept from India. Here why.

Price

One thing stopping people from using cabs so easily was the obscene rates they charged passengers. But today that has changed. With the coming of new cab companies, some cabs have even become cheaper than autos! Now tell me why in the world would you travel in an auto when you can have a comfortable ride at such a cheap price.
 

Comfort

Cabs have air conditioning, proper seats, speed and a smooth ride. Ever since cab companies are offering such low rates, it became hard to justify why one should travel in an auto. When you can have such a smooth and comfortable ride at such low rates, cabs are the perfect mode of transport for anybody. This difference has already effected auto rickshaw drivers negatively as their previous customers are slowly shifting to cabs.
 

Free ride concept

Cab companies have a unique ability of offering free rides for their customers. Ola cabs coupons and Uber promo code have become a rage in urban cities. People use these and ride around at discounted rates. Sometimes these coupon codes even give free rides which is really making people to prefer using cabs. Discounts and free rides are not something auto rickshaws can offer. This way cabs have an upper hand.

Convenience

Using cabs is always more convenient than autos. You can book a ride in advance and expect it to come on time. Cabs are also available in abundance today. So you can even book a cab on the spot and track it over their app. Another unique feature is how drivers are equipped with GPS devices. That way, even if you don’t know the way, the driver can find it over the GPS and take you to your destination.

So it is quite clear, cabs are a much better option than auto rickshaws. The only thing holding them back is the awareness of their service. The more people realize the advantages, the less they will use autos.




Author Bio:
Sravanthi is an employee at GrabOn.in. She is an avid reader and writer too, and has good experience in blogging. She loves to pen down her thoughts on a wide range of topics. You can spot her blog postings on a large number of blogs and websites.

How to put pictures into unusual shapes, using PowerPoint

This article explains how to put a picture that is one shape (a "square peg") inside an image of another shape (a "round hole" - or star, elipse, octagon, etc) - using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Original title:   How to put a square peg into a round hole - in pictures

Recently, I've been using PowerPoint to make the thumbnail image for my posts. This means that I own the copyright of the pictures, so can share them without worrying about copyright issues.

One approach I've used is to find an interesting copyright-free picture that is related to the theme of the post, and then put it inside a shape that adds some visual interest or has some words along side it.  Another thing that I'm going to try is using multiple pictures in this way to make a more-interesting-than-usual collage.

How to put a picture inside a shape

NB PowerPoint commands are based on Office 2007 and 2010 - but the same principles most-likely apply in other versions where the commands may be slightly different.

1   Get your image file, and save it somewhere on your computer.

A wide range of picture-file formats are supported by PowerPoint:  in the 2007 version this includes as shown in this list:

2     In PowerPoint, make a blank side (Home > Layout > Blank)

3     Then add a shape (Insert > Shapes, click on the shape you want)

Intially, the shape with have the fill-colour and border that are the current default values. But you can change this, which is what we are going to do.


4    Right-click on the shape, and choose Format Shape from the pop-up menu

5    In the Fill tab, choose Picture or Texture Fill, then click the File button and navigate to the image file you got in step 1, and click OK.

6   Make sure that the portion of the picture that you want to show is in the picture:  to start with the shape is centered on the middle of the picture.

Change this using the Offsets to move the shape to the left or right over the image.   You can make the offsets positive or negative as shown.

You can monitor the results of different settings in PowerPoints slide thumbnails (on the left hand side, if you have it showing), or by dragging the pop-up menu to a different place in the screen so that you can see the shape itself.

Job Done - at this point, you have an image that is cropped to the shape that you chose - now you just have to put it into your blog.

Using the picture

There are (at least) three ways to get the shape-cropped-picture from PowerPoint into your blog.

I usually copy the item from PowerPoint, and then paste it into a picture editor (Paintbrush etc), manually.   This is an old-fashioned approacb - but it lets me adjust the size and position of the image, and save it (usually a .png) with a file-name that describes the image really well which is good for mating the blog come up in search results (SEO).   The this picture can be inserted into a post just like any other picture.

Another option is to choose File > Save As from Powerpoint, and choose to save the slides in an image format, eg JPEG which can also be inserted into a post in the usual way.  You are likely to be asked whether to put all the slides in one image, or to make one image per slide. Usually, it would be best to make one image per slide - but I don't use this method because the image that is created is the size of the whole slide, rather than just the pictures on it.

A third option is to display the PowerPoint file as a slideshow. This isn't something that I'd do for only one shaped image, but may be relevant in some situations.

Adjusting the size and quality of the picture

One thing that you don't have any control of inside PowerPoint is the zoom level of the inserted picture.

If you make the shape larger, it doesn't show a larger proportion of the picture. Instead, it just shows the existing picture in a larger size, as you can see in the slides shown here.

I suspect that if you want to zoom in to a particular area of the image file, the only approach is to edit the picture in another tool, crop out the bit that you do not want to show, and only keep the part that you want to include inside your shape.

However PowerPoint does have some limited control over the contrast and brightness of the picture, from the Picture tab of the Format Shape window.

Can you do this in other tools?  Why PowerPoint?

Yes, you can.

Photoshop, and similar commercial tools almost certainly have features like this, and I'm certain that GIMP (like a public-domain, less powerful version of Photoshop) and Inkscape (another public-domain image program which is more focussed on scalable-vector-graphics and objects than on pixels) also have these features.

So why use PowerPoint?   In short, its (relatively) cheap and many people have access to it already.   It's also very easy to learn, compared to the other packages, and what you learn is likely to apply to lots of tasks and not just in making pictures for your blog.

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Copyright, blogs and Blogger/Google