Steer Clear of Distractions

You may have started the year with a set of goals, but along the way, you find yourself distracted by other things i.e new plugins, services or tools. Before you go crazy kitting your blog out, always ask yourself, 'is this going to help me achieve the objective of this blog?' You always have to consider if the time and effort your spending is taking you closer to achieving your goals. If they don't help in attaining your goals - then get rid of them. (more...)

4 Things To Check Before Hitting The Publish Button

Ever had the urge to quickly push out a blog post? And straight after doing so, you find yourself going back to make some urgent adjustments. To some of you who regularly publish, these reminders may not directly apply to you. Personally, I have had one or two blooper moments, which has led me to keep a mental note of 4 things to do before hitting the publish button. (1) Set Your Permalink Permalinks are unique URL that points to your blog post. Set your permalink to something short, descriptive and search engine friendly. For this post I have adjusted my permalink to (before-you-publish) So my URL now reads: http://www.yourblogtools.com/before-you-publish instead of: http://www.yourblogtools.com/4-things-to-check-before-hitting-the-publish-button (more...)

What Blog Related Emails Do You Enjoy Receiving?

Seeing as it is the weekend, I wish to add a slight twist to my regular style of posting, which brings me to the question... What Blog Related Emails Do You Enjoy Receiving? If like me, you constantly get bombarded with tons of emails from all walks of life, out of those will be some that brings a smile, joy or satisfaction - something of a reward for your hard work. Then again, you may have most of your notifications switched off, but surely, there must be some you rather keep a watchful eye on. What are they? I have listed 3 of my top happy emails below, emails that I subconsciously look out for. (1) Disqus [Yourblogtools] (New blog post comment notification) (2) AWeber Sign-up (New Email list subscription) (3) Affiliate Commission Report (Sales made through affiliate marketing) It's now over to you. What emails or subject lines are you ever happy to receive, if any?

12 Ways To Optimize Your Blog For Better Performance

Is your blog’s performance beginning to dip? Does it takes ages to do the simplest of tasks? Chances are, your blog needs a health check. With a growing blog, comes the responsibility to meet its needs and demands. Blogging platforms are great, however, they also tend to use up a lot of resources as they grow - it's just their nature. So therefore, to keep the ship steady, regular maintenance is essential. On this blog, I've had a few blackout moments, when everything grinds to a halt, nothing seems to work, and in most cases, I've had my hosting company to thank, for placing me on a dodgy server (145) hmmm. It's still an on-going process in my quest for better performance. Why is My Blog Running Slow? There could be many reasons for this : Traffic Levels. Growth/size of your blog. The size of your images. Badly written codes. Too many components. What is Slowing Down my Blog? Well, the answer to this is relative. It really depends on your setup. That said, there are tools that can help you identify some problem areas. Pingdom is free service that provides information of how long your web page takes to load, and also breaks down what actions are being performed and the time taken. This detailed stats would give you some indication of areas that may need attention. (more...)

Plan for the Blogging Journey Ahead

It's the new year, a new campaign, a new challenge. For some strange reason, it's a time when everyone makes resolutions and sets new goals. It's also a time when most of us are charged up and motivated by the challenge ahead. As we embark on this blogging journey with excitement, It is important to keep our feet on the ground and start off with a plan. Plan the Journey Don't just dive head first, instead, take a moment to iron out where you're heading - Have a strategy. However long this may take, at the end you'll find it to be a good investment. So for a moment, stop blogging, get off Twitter, turn off emails - disconnect your internet connection if you have to. Sit down and write down your goals for the year. (more...)

YourBlogTools in 2009

I don't usually talk about myself or my blog, but since it's the last day of year, I'm making an exception. This has been a great 2009 at Yourblogtools. - both on and off the blog. The story all began at the beginning of September when I decided to follow my passion and start a blog that focused on web solution tools. I have had a wonderful time and I am ever so grateful to everyone who has become a part of this blog. This includes regular readers, those who leave comments and subscribers - thank you. Hopefully, we'll get to know each other much better in 2010. If I could sum up 2009 in a word, it would be 'discovery'. It has been a great year to discover many things in terms of blogging and internet marketing i.e discovering better ways to interact with others as a blogger, the world of internet marketing and the discovery of many new friends. Coming up to four months of existence, I can confidently say I'm even more passionate about meeting the blogging needs of my readers. I still get butterflies just before hitting the publish button, and excitement when I you leave comments in response. Successes In the four months, I'm truly grateful for the success I have had on this blog. At the time of writing this post I have entered the 300,000 Alexa ranking group and Google Page Rank 2 (more...)