Follow me on Twitter | ReTweet this post

What are all those confusing little words you come across in every other tweet? Read on for answers.

Twitter is becoming a culture in itself. Spawning new words, and creating new concepts around its lingo.

Many of us get confused when we first join Twitter and are bombarded with the inside mumbo-jumbo. This post is meant to clear up some of those words. The big ones actually, that everyone else seems to know except you!

Let’s start with the all so common Tweet.

Tweet

Whatever you post at Twitter is a tweet (and thank god not a twit).

RT or ReTweet

There’s already a big fat post on Blogging Bits that explains what ReTweet is and why and how you should use it. But I’ll summarize it here again for those of you who can’t be arsed to read the whole post.

ReTweet is a quoted tweet, a repost. You ReTweet when you quote someone else’s tweet in your tweet.

That’s how most tweeple (oops.. people) use it:

RT @originalposter this is a quoted tweet — this is your comment

Where RT stands for ReTweet, @originalposter is the guy or girl you’re quoting, the following text is the quoted tweet, and the text after dashes is your comments (comments are optional).

#Hashtags

Hashtags are a way to tag your tweets. They are keywords you use to put your tweet in certain topic.

You usually use hashtags when tracking a popular topic. Like if you’re giving updates on FOWD conference, you’ll use the tag #FOWD in your update tweets.

Use hashtags at the end of a tweet, or make a hashtag out of any word inside the tweet to save space (for example: I’m at #FOWD meeting jolly good folks).

DM

DM stands for direct message.

Twitter is all about saying everything in public timeline, but there are occasions when you want to send some a private message. That’s when you use a DM.

Method 1: If you want to send a @Friend a direct message, type it like this:

D Friend This is the message.

D at start is to ensure this is a private message. Friend is the Twitter ID of of the person you’re sending a DM, and the rest is your message.

NOTE: Always use D and not DM at the start of a direct message or it’ll end up in public timeline.

Method 2: Switch to “Direct Messages” tab on your Twitter page, select a person from the drop down menu, enter your message in the input box, and hit the send button.

Tweeps / Tweeple

The peeps or people on Twitter of course.

Twitterverse / Twitterville

Everyone at Twitter. The Twitter community.

Twitterati

The big guys at Twitter. Those with more followers than you can count in your lifetime.

Tword

Any word prefixed by Tw to make it more compatible with Twitter.

———————————

There are a lot more words with TW added at the start, and many more being coined everyday, so it’d be a waste of time and energy to document them all here.

Though you must have gotten a pretty good idea of how a Tword works by now, and you should be able to decipher any new words encountered from now on.

Any other popular Twitter words/terms I have missed? Let me know in the comments.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

WordPress magazine style themes have been all the rage lately, and everyone seems to want some aspect of their WordPress blog to have a magazine-y look and feel.

So if you have been around blogosphere recently, you must have seen those cool image thumbnails with short excerpts displayed on many blog home pages.

Today I went around searching for the easiest post thumbnail method, and was surprised to see how unnecessarily complicated some of the code junkies make something as simple as adding image thumbnails to posts.

So I hunt around a bit more and came up with an easy as pie way to add pretty little thumbnails to a WordPress 2.5 powered blog.

What you need to know: You need to know how to copy and paste.

What you don’t need to know: You don’t need to know how to open Photoshop.

So let’s get started.

Step 1: Adjust thumbnail size

WordPress 2.5 has a very handy new feature. It lets you specify custom thumbnail size for your uploaded images.

To adjust the thumbnail size to your liking, go to Settings > Miscellaneous and change the thumbnail width and height under Image sizes section. Let’s set the width and height to 80×80 for this example.

Also, make sure the Crop to size option is selected, and confirm the changes.

(With Crop to size checked, you don’t have to worry about what size your original image is. It will be adjusted to fit your specified size)

Step 2: Add a CSS class for thumbnail alignment

We want our thumbnail to be aligned to the left while the text flows around it. To do so, add the following code to your style.css file:

1. .thumb {
2. float: left;
3. margin-right: 7px;
4. margin-bottom: 7px;
5. }

(Feel free to change or add to the code)

Step 3: Instruct index.php to display post thumbnails

Next, we need to modify some code in index.php to correctly display the post thumbnails.

In your index.php, locate the part that is responsible for displaying your post content. It must be the following line or something similar to this depending on which theme you are using:

1. <?php the_content(); ?>

Replace it with the following snippet:

1. <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
2. <img src="<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("thumb"); echo $values[0]; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="thumb" />
3. </a>
4. <?php the_excerpt(); ?>

(This code snippet retrieves the custom field value that we’ll add in the next step)

Step 4: Add thumbnail image

Now that everything else is done, it’s time to add the image.

1. Click on the Add an image button and upload the image.
2. When done, right click the image thumbnail and select Copy Image Location (in Firefox) and close the upload box.
3. Move down the page and expand the Custom Fields section. Enter “thumb” in the Key field, and paste the thumbnail URL in the Value field, and click Add Custom Field.

Done! Write the post as usual, and don’t forget to enter a few lines in the excerpt field to be shown next the thumbnail.

Bonus step

Do you want to display regular content in case there’s no thumbnail image? No worries. David has come up with a code snippet that does just that for you.

1. <?php
2. $thumb = get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumb", true);
3. if ($thumb != "")
4. { ?>
5. <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
6. <img src="<?php $values = get_post_custom_values("thumb"); echo
7. $values[0]; ?>" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" class="thumb" />
8. </a>
9. <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
10. <?php } else { ?>
11. <?php the_content(); ?>
12. <?php } ?>

Read on David’s post for more detail.

If I missed an important detail, or if you know of a better, easier way to add thumbnails to posts, let me know about it in the comments.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

The way Stumbleupon works is quite different from any other social media site. Normally, every time you click the Stumble! button, you are presented with a web page on one of the topics you specified earlier. However, sometimes this is not enough. Sometimes you want more control over what kind of pages you’d like to browse through for a particular session.

And this is where the search feature of StumbleUpon toolbar comes in. SumbleUpon search feature allows you to surf through web pages on a single topic of your liking for as long as you want.

To enable the search feature, go to Tools > Toolbar Options > Configuration and check the “Show search/tag box” under the options group “Other“.

When you click OK, you’ll have a nice search box sitting just beside the reviews balloon on the toolbar.

To test if it works, enter a keyword such as “movies” or “marketing” and hit enter. Now every time you click on the Stumble button, you’ll jump to a page about movies or marketing (depending on which keyword you entered).

To return to the normal way of stumbling, click on “All” button on the toolbar.

Smart, right?

Bonus tip: You can also tag web pages using the search/tag box. If you are on a web page about WordPress, enter “WordPress” in the box and hit Shift+Enter on the keyboard. Later, you can find the pages you tagged by clicking on the “Find pages you liked” link on your StumbleUpon profile page.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

Blogging isn’t as scary as some of the lengthy blogging guides make it appear to be. If you are new to blogging but can’t decide what to do, go through this teensy weensy blogging guide and take the plunge!

For now, this is all you need to know. If you are still around after a few months, come back and subscribe to Blogging Bits RSS feed for more tips.

Setup

• Get yourself a domain name
• Buy a decent web hosting package
• Setup WordPress on your new domain
• Install essential WordPress Plugins
• Optimize your WordPress blog for search engines
• Write at least 5 flagship articles before you start promotion

Promotion

• Subscribe to popular blogs in your niche
• Actively comment on other blogs
• Make guest posts on established blogs in your niche
• Join forums to drive traffic to your blog
• Submit your posts to blog carnivals for links and traffic
• Join popular social media sites

Monetization

• Use any of these 101 ways to monetize your blog

Misc good practices

• Link to other blogs from your posts
• Keep track of your subscribers with Feedburner
• Post on your blog daily for at least two months

Please add your tips for new bloggers below. If there are any particularly useful, I’ll add them to the list.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

So let’s get started already!

Optimize page titles and permalinks

Normally, your post title also becomes the page title and post slug (permalink, post URL) for the post. While it’s certainly not bad for SEO, you can define custom page title and post slug for optimal results.

Changing a post’s title tag – For this tweak, you’ll need to install SEO Title Tag WordPress Plugin. SEO Title Tag lets you define custom page titles for your posts.

Once you activate SEO Title Tag, a new field with the label “Title Tag” will appear under your Post box on Write Post page. Here you can write a title that will appear in the browser’s title bar as well as in SERPs.

Changing the post slug – To change the post slug, enter custom text in the Post Slug panel (on the right side of write post area). For this post, for example, I’ve entered “wordpress-seo-tips-tweaks-hacks“.

Advantage of this hassle? You write post titles for maximum attraction for your regular readers and social media visitors. Since search engine users are generally not that savvy, you create page titles they can easily understand. Plus, you can enter different keywords in post titles, page titles, and post permalinks, making your post all the more likely to show up on the top of search results when a related search is made.

Optimize images

Images can open up a whole new stream of search engine visitors for your blog. I’ve wallpaper sites where 80% of my traffic comes from Google image search, and on Blogging Bits, I am already getting quite a few hits from Google images.

If you post a lot of images on your blog, optimizing your images for search engines can be a worthwhile effort.

Here is your image optimization checklist:

• Enter your keywords in the alt tag. Alt tag lets search engine robots ’see’ your image.
• Enter a description in the title attribute.
• Define width and height of your images.
• Enter keywords in the image name. Example: “lg-lcd-monitor.jpg”.
• If possible, place the image in a directory that also has your keywords. Example: “lcd-monitors/lg-lcd-monitor.jpg”

Here’s example code for an optimized image.

1. <img src="lcd-monitors/lg-lcd-monitor.jpg" alt="Widescreen LG LCD monitor" title="A new widescreen LG LCD monitor" width=400 height=380 />

Optimize links

Links are one of the most important factors that determine your page’s value in a search engine’s eye. Knowing how you should link to internal and external pages will improve your rankings a lot.

Keep the following guidelines in mind when creating new links.

• Place keywords in anchor text. (anchor text is the link text you click on)
• Define the link target by placing appropriate keywords in the link’s tittle attribute.
• When linking to popular sites that don’t need your link juice (e.g. Google, Youtube) or internal pages that you don’t want to rank high (e.g. Contact page) add “rel=”nofollow” to the links.

Add noindex to archives

To avoid duplicate content issues, use noindex for category, archives, and tags pages. A noindex meta-tag will prevent search engine crawlers from indexing these pages.

This can usually be achieved by adding the following line in the head section of your header.php file (Presentation> Theme Editor > Header).

1. <?php if(is_archive()){ ?><meta name="robots" content="noindex"><?php } ?>

Thanks to Ryan Cladwell of Performancing for this handy code snippet.

Remove unnecessary links

If you have a more tag and a comments link on every post, and of course a post title, you have three different links pointing to the same page. This can affect your rankings negatively (again, because Google may think these links point to different pages).

To remove the “#more” text from your ‘Read More’ link, replace the following line in your wp-includes/post-template.php

1. $output .= ' <a href="'. get_permalink()
2. . "#more-$id\">$more_link_text</a>";

with

1. $output .= ' <a href="'. get_permalink()
2. ."\">$more_link_text</a>";

Removing comments link – To display comment count under each post on the home page as well as category pages, but without a hyperlink, replace the following line of code in your index.php file (Presentation > Theme Editor > Main Index Template)

1. <?php comments_popup_link() ?>

with

1. <?php comments_number() ?>

Removing hyperlink from post title on single post page – This one is easy. Go to Presentation > Theme Editor > Single Post and edit the following line of code:

1. <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>

to

1. <?php the_title(); ?>

Redirecting permalinks – If you remove the trailing slash from your post’s permalink, you’ll still be able to access the page. This is not only bad for SEO (for reason already given) but it also lands you in trouble if your post gets heavily bookmarked at del.icio.us and your bookmarks are divided between two different URLs.

There should be a way to manually add a rule to your .htaccess file to redirect permalinks to a single location, but I much prefer Permanent Redirect WordPress Plugin for its ease of use.

Your tips?

Any SEO tips for WordPress you want to share with us?

Note: This post was written for blog writing contest at Daily Blog Tips.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

Do you keep worrying about how much you suck at writing?

Are you convinced that you can never write well no matter what?

And most importantly, do you spend hours writing a medium sized article and still end up being dissatisfied?

Now, what if I told you there is a way to write more, in less time, and be satisfied with what you write?

I’ve had the same problem of writing less and worrying more, and trust me, after discovering and correcting the mistake I was making, I am one helluva happy guy during and after writing my posts.

So what was the problem and how I overcame it?

I recognized writing and editing to be two different processes, but always succumbed to the old habit of editing-cum-writing against my better judgment.

Writing is a creative process, and considering the fleeting nature of creative ideas, it needs to be put out of your head as soon as it occurs to you, or else it will be lost in the noise of gazillions of other thoughts.

Editing, on the other hand, requires a more logical and analytical approach. It is a process of analyzing your writing rationally and eliminating any errors that may have (they always do!) come through from the creative process of writing.

If you write and edit at the same time, the two sides of your brain clash, and as a result you lose focus; once you lose focus, the creative flow of ideas peter out.

Now tell me if you can relate to this habit:

• You can’t start to write. You stare at screen for 15 or so minutes, get bored, and end up procrastinating. None of the ideas seem to make enough sense (In a sense, you edit yourself even before putting a single word down).
• You come back after an hour, same thing happens.
• You are frustrated but determined and manage to put something down.
• You start writing, and after completing only a few lines, you start finding fault with your writing.
• You start editing and improving upon what you have already written. You correct spelling mistakes, detect and replace words that occurred too many times, and you rearrange the sentences.

So, finally you end up taking more than an hour writing and editing a few paragraphs while constantly fretting over how you could have done better.

What ought to happen is:

• You take off your perfectionist hat and start writing, and write until you empty out your brain.
• You edit the draft, and post it.

Ah! That was remarkably simple!

I have separated writing from editing completely, and boy, there is some positive difference I’ve experienced.

Things not to do while writing

• Don’t spell check
• Don’t find proper words in dictionary or thesaurus
• Don’t readjust sentence structure
• Don’t look up facts on Wikipedia or search on Google amidst writing
• Don’t look back at what you have written so far

Things to do after writing

Do everything listed above, as appropriate.

Separating editing from writing will save you time, make you a better writer, and keep you a satisfied person. What else does a write want?

Next time you sit down to write, remember not to interrupt the creative flow of thoughts until you are finished. You, too, will feel the difference.

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

A great idea wrapped in flimsy writing is a waste of words.

On the other hand, an average but clearly expressed thought enjoys more attention.

Why bother about good writing practices, you ask? You are a blogger, not a would-be author of the next best-seller.

Don’t fool yourself. You are first a writer, then a blogger. And yes, you are a published author. Your blog is the publication of your ideas.

Even though you are doing good with your current writing style, you will do even better with more refined writing habits. Just like a bad design prevents users from getting to the content, a messy writing style limits the potential effectiveness of your ideas.

To utilize the full potential of your ideas, you have to grow a habit of passing your writing through strict quality filters.

I have always been an advocate of good writing practices. Though, my writing is by no means the best example of effective and clear writing, trying to overcome an old habit is no joke.

Here are the top 5 writing practices that I’ve been trying hard to incorporate into my writing, and that you should also learn.

Get rid of doubt

Writing is about sharing your ideas with your readers. If you are not clear enough about your own thoughts, your readers will also hesitate to continue reading you in future.

An example of doubtful sentence:

I think you should go ahead with your plans.

A clearer version would say:

I believe you should go ahead with your plans. OR, You should go ahead with your plans. OR, Go ahead with your plans.

See, doubt is unnecessary. You are giving your opinion anyway, so why create doubt? When you say I should go ahead with my plans, you want me to do so. I am more likely to follow your advice if you tell me clearly. Prefixing the sentence with doubtful "I think" will rob the sentence of its effectiveness.

Here are more doubt-creating words you should avoid:

I think, I guess, sort of, kind of, well, you know, etc.

Use agile verbs

Verbs animate your sentences. Without verbs, your writing is lifeless.

Usually, there are many stronger sub-verbs for every main common verb. Verbs that dig out the meaning from the bottom of your ideas. So why settle for common verbs and end up generalizing?

Example of a common verb:

His RSS subscribers have increased.

A stronger version:

His RSS subscribers have multiplied. OR, His RSS subscribers have doubled/tripled/quadrupled.

Whenever you write a sentence, look for the mundane verbs and see if you can replace them with stronger and more precise alternatives.

Some more common verbs and their stronger alternatives:

Dull: He ran. Stronger: He sprinted. Dull: He walked past me quickly. Stronger: He hurried past me. Dull: He changed his blog’s design. Stronger: He redesigned his blog.

Highlight the doer not the done

This is a common writing advice, yet hardly acted upon by anyone (Yes this is intentional).

Passive voice reverses the action. It’s like watching a movie in reverse mode, where you see the person being shot first, and then follow the bullet back to the pistol and then the shooter himself.

Always highlight the doer first, and guide your readers to his ultimate action.

Example of passive sentence:

His comment was appreciated by the blogger.

Improved version:

The blogger appreciated his comment.

In first instance, your mind is unclear about what is happening until you read the whole sentence. And in the improved version, you see and follow it from the doer’s perspective and reach the conclusion in a natural order.

Prefer smaller words

Bloggers better heed this advice. Your audience comes from different countries and age-groups, and not all of them can match your remarkable language skills.

Use smaller words wherever possible. In fact, search your writing for words that end with "tion" (e.g. initiation) and the likes, and replace them with smaller and less intimidating alternatives.

An example of improper use of dense words:

He exacerbated the situation with his presence.

A  better alternative:

He made matters worse with his presence.

Now, it is better to use strong words instead of run-of-the-mill words, but when the choice is between an ordinary word and a specialized but dense word, I go for the former. It’s your own judgement call really. Use what fits the context best.

Unstuff your sentences

There is nothing worse in a writing than sentences and phrases that are inappropriately ornate with unnecessary and redundant elements and words throughout the whole and entire piece of writing (phew!).

You can express any given idea in fewer words than you currently use, and express yourself with the clarity you only dreamt of.

Words like "there is, it is, want to, need to, anything, etc." serve to distract the reader’s attention. A tighter sentence with no redundant words attracts the eyes like a magnet, and keeps the mind from wandering off.

Take the first sentence of this section for example:

There is nothing worse in a writing than sentences and phrases that are inappropriately ornate with unnecessary and redundant elements and words throughout the whole and entire piece of writing.

An unstuffed version:

Redundant words ruin the beauty of writing.

Which one is clearer and gets the point across?

Remember, trying to write better is a constant fight against our unrefined writing habits. We have been writing without giving any thought to the process of writing itself for so long, that it is rather awkward picking out flaws in our own writing.

You have to make writing better your habit to become a natural writer just like all those guys you envy.

Your thoughts?

How much you care about the way you write? Do you think you are expressing your ideas clearly?

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design

Running a mini blog (also called asides) alongside the main blog is not really a new idea, people have been doing it since the dawn of blogging. But the credit for making me give serious thought to sideblogging goes to Michael at Pro Blog Design. check out his detailed post on the pros and cons of using a sideblog.

How do I feature links on my sideblog?

I do things in straightforward ways. While I could use a plugin or hack my WordPress code to set up a sideblog, these methods failed to impress me. I was looking for the simplest way to set up a mini blog as well as the easiest way to post links to it.

Guess what came to my rescue? Yep, RSS.

Here’s step by step how you can do it too (WordPress only).

1. Go to your del.icio.us page and create a special new tag named after your blog. (e.g. bloggingbits)
2. Copy the URL of your newly created tag.
3. Log into your FeedBurner account, and paste the URL in the feed burning form to burn your feed.
4. Go to Publicize > BuzzBoost, and activate the service. Set the options as you like.
5. Copy the code and paste it in your sidebar.php or a sidebar widget where you want your sideblog to appear.

Done!

How to post to your new sideblog with one click

6. Now download and install del.icio.us extension for Firefox.
7. If you want to save a page to your sideblog, click on the tag button on Firefox toolbar, write a short comment in description box, enter the special tag you created earlier along with other tags, and save.

Easy, eh?

Want the link to appear as soon as you saved it? Ping FeedBurner after you post a new link, and bookmark the pinged link for one click pinging later.

What are the benefits of FeedBurner and delicious powered sideblog

Easy to use, easiest to update, doesn’t require management, and doesn’t put load on your server.

Cons?

Well, if you want to post news and updates to your sideblog, you can’t do it with this method. Your readers can’t comment on any of the links either. But I don’t see why anyone would need such features. You sure don’t want to make an important announcement in an obscure corner of your sidebar. And you certainly want your readers to comment on the original links rather than on your mini entry.

Your thoughts?

Are you for or against having a sideblog, and do you find the above technique better than other methods?

Link Code: d1928 - © Blogging Bits | Blog writing, marketing, and design