How has Digital Eommerce Changed the World

Well as a blogger you should be familiar with Ecommerce as most of our blogs have ecommerce features and everybody out there is speaking about online shopping and its global impact.

Ecommerce has been the driving force for online revenue as many people dont go shopping anymore but instead would prefer to buy products online as it probably save them a lot time.

Facebook and other social network giants have introduced an intergration of shopping buttons which have been made available on some retail shop pages which has made it easier for them to sell products directly from Facebook, without having to visit an external page to process the payment. The rapid growth of digital ecommerce has made a very huge impact in the world today as many people out there are living their lives on it, they use mobile apps, windows, mac and all the the paid digital software.

It is believed that digital ecommerce is to expand at an even greater rate as the online market seems to expand at a very great rate as most people are getting involved online through social media, retailers and entrepreneurs have seen this as the best way to increase their revenues by getting their businesses known which has made social media the driving force behind digital ecommerce.

The love of digital content has been so much in Asia as the continent has been so much involved in the development and technology. In the Asian continent the governments have agreed upon supporting this global change by working in partnership with technology companies to bring development in the tech industry. In the United States the same has been seen as most magazines, blogs and newspapers have brought in a idea of online shopping which has made ecommerce what it is today.

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.areyoublogger.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://areyoublogger.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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10 Effective Tips on Creating Shareable Social Media Content

What makes content go viral on social media? Is it the shock value or is it relevance? Think about why you remember some posts and not others, and you will see that there is no simple answer. If you have a definite purpose for sharing content other than sheer exuberance, then you need to know how to create effective social media content that suits your needs. Here are some tips to which you should pay attention.

Target your audience

Social networks are geared for particular types of people. Some prefer one social network over another. When you are creating your content, you have to identify your target market so you know what social network will respond more readily to your posts. However, more importantly, you should know your target market thoroughly. You should know their habits, needs, wants, prejudices, and psychology. In other words, you should know where the buttons are so you can push them.

Write stuff they want to read

If you know your target market, you can create content that they will read. You should still keep in mind your purpose for posting (brand awareness, content marketing etc.) but make sure that it is a good fit for your audience. It should offer useful advice, interesting information or entertainment.

Aside from utility, you should strive to get your audience to make an emotional investment in your post. Encourage them to participate in the conversation and to air their opinions. Respond promptly to them and always conclude with an open-ended question. It keeps them coming back for more. You will get more shares that way, which is what you want.

Keep it bite-sized

Create several short posts as opposed to one long chunk. You can overwhelm your audience, if you give them too much information in one helping. Some important information of what you want to say may also get lost in the crowd. Isolate one or two ideas, expound on it in detail and lead them to check your next post for more information. It is easier to digest and remember, and, more importantly, it is much more shareable.

Make it visual

Content is not just about what you say, but what other people see. Pay close attention to how your post looks; it should be easy to scan and follow. People have a tendency to abandon articles that look too hard to read. Avoid long paragraphs; it should have no more than three to five sentences. Lead off with an interesting visual or break up long entries with an illustration. Giving your reader’s eyes a break will keep them engaged.

Use high quality language

You may have something really important or valuable to say, but may not have the skills or time to put a great article together.  They say the mark of a good leader is the ability to delegate. For example, you target Australian women for your marketing campaign and you have a difficult time choosing the right words that would appeal to them. You can outsource content creation at Australian writings to native speakers and professional writers to ensure that you are turning out high quality work. You may also write the content yourself and contract an expert to edit and proofread your content. 

Encourage sharing

You want your content to get as much exposure as possible. That is the whole purpose of social media marketing. You can make it easy for your reader to share your excellent article with their friends by providing them with a Share button. You can even encourage them to do so by offering incentives such as giving them freebies for sharing.

Provide a sharing platform

There is nothing easier to create than a post that gives your audience a chance to share their own accomplishments or experiences. Solicit them to submit photos or videos of their creations, travels, families, and so on. You can make it a contest of it if you want, but it is not always necessary. People enjoy attention, and take every opportunity to get it, even for a little while. When they tag your post or share it so their friends and family can see it, it gives you more exposure.

Engage influencers

There are people who have the credibility and ability to sway public opinion. As a social media marketer, one of your most important tasks is to identify these individuals and get on their good side. Persuade them to share or endorse your content by following them, quoting them or otherwise stroking their ego. At the very least, avoid antagonizing, contradicting or challenging their opinions. They can either make or break you, so tread carefully.

Build trust

You can also become an influencer in your particular niche, if you build a relationship with your audience. Many people engage in social media to get expert advice, so a good way to build trust and rapport with the audience is to provide them with what they need. You can give troubleshooting advice or point them in the right direction to solve their issues. Cultivate a personal approach when answering questions or inquiries so that you appear friendly and approachable. Avoid the temptation to pitch to them at every opportunity; this can harm your credibility. Always provide objective advice; they are more likely to believe you when you do make a pitch.

Tag away

Do not hesitate to tag other people in your post, even if they are not influencers, if they posted something you can connect to your business. Most people find it flattering, and very few will pass over content that specifically mentions them. It will encourage them to like, comment on, or share your post. Tagging is also a good way to get the attention of potential clients if they are already looking for your product or service.  It gives you a foot in the door, and you are doing them a service besides. Nothing is more satisfying than mutual satisfaction.

Creating content that will make a splash on social media is not easy. There are flukes, of course, but in most cases, it requires patience, careful study and a sound strategy to build a presence that can positively affect your business. If you follow the tips given above, and get professional help when you need it, there is no reason why you cannot create content other people will share on social media. 

  

Stephanie Norman from Sydney has been a content marketing specialist and professional writer for 4 years already. She writes business, creative, and academic content as a freelancer. You can follow her at Facebook and Google+.


 

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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10 Best Ways to Encourage Your Readers to Share your Blog Content

Getting your blog content shared has been the best marketing way to get more readers into visiting your product page. I normally name this type of content marketing skill as 'Social Media Optimization' because you optimize you blog content for a wider sharing online, which will get your content to be very much recognized online.

Recognition is the greatest aspect of the media, as a blogger you are part of the media industry and use any valid oportunity to get recognition where possible. In this post I will be sharing some of the best ways I will recommend for bloggers out there who look forward into boosting their web content using social media.

• Create them the best Content

'The content is king', that has been my main theme when it comes to blog content. your content should be created to help blog readers in an extent that will make your content very useful to them in such that they will be motivated to share online. Content plays a very huge role on the site both on the Search Engines Ranks and Social media.

A mistake that most content makers is being not unique, because basically everybody writes content that is taken from somewhere on the internet. This type of content will definately have difficulty with ranking on the search results because your webpage will be considered as a duplicate and would not rank to its supposed position.

Content doesn't only impact the Search Engines rankings but will also affect the rank and the social influence of the site.

• Make Sure you include your loyal readers

Your Blog readers must be included in your posts as this will motivate them into sharing your blog posts. Most of my blog posts are normally an answer to the previous questions that have been asked by my Blog Readers. It has been a proven fact that people are very less to to get rid of somethings having their names included on the content.

• Intergrate something that they like

As a blog marketer it is very important that you know what your readers love most about your product because that whats keeps them comming back for more.

• Make sharing easy by having icons and buttons

Sharing content cost up some time if done without the use of sharing buttons, the use of sharing buttons on a site is used to encourage readers to share the site content with just a click of a button. As a blogger social media traffic is the best because most readers who visit your site are very much likely to buy your products or subscribe to your site.

Social Media has been the most powerful tool ever to be used to improve the site influence and authority in a niche. Mastering social media marketing will make your site to be very much well known and will also ensure a growth in profit.

• Focus more on Value Added Content

Readers like me dont really want to spend reading valueless content which means that the type of content that should please the blog readers must add value to them, and once they are satisfied they will get others to share the content.

• Network with influential bloggers in your niche

Influence plays a very big role to any industry, having to get yourself known as a blogger is very difficult but can be achieved only by getting influential bloggers into recognizing you. Most bloggers try to get recognition by posting their web address on other blogs hoping that they might win over some readers.

Having to your blog known will really bost the activity of your blog and cause more readers to share your content. Popularity plays a very important role in social media, whether your blog is not that good but popularity will boost your blog user activity.

The best way to get your site known is done through guest blogging in which you as an author will get an attribute link and also some new visitors who will explore your site.

• Make Your Blog Interesting

As a blogger you have to make your blog interesting despite having to use some things to build a newsletter but do give aways just to impress your blog readers. I have seen many blogs posting loads of content and yet they dont get enough traffic which has caused many bloggers to quite blogging.

There are many blogs out there that are providing the type of content that you are providing but you have to spend some time to edify your content in an interesting way which can be done by doing webinars, give aways and competitions.

• Tag Your Readers to the Content

The world we live in has become a hashtag world thanks to twitter by introducing hashtags which has made it easier for us marketers to share our content to a targeted audience. Tagging your site readers to your post content will cause them to feel special which is very likely to motivate them into sharing your your content, once they share their content more readers will be invited to visit your page.

• Do a compelling call to action

Irrespective of how you write or how bad or good is your writing style, your marketing skills play a good role only if you knew how to use them the right way. Call to action is the best strategy that can be used by bloggers to influence readers into doing something in exchange for something else.

This type of marketing can be done through services like mailchimp, aweber, hellobar and addthis which have worked very well in my recent call to action campaigns.

• Use Engaging Marketing

It is not wrong for a blog to do advertising because to be honest as a blogger you will need to advertise your web content to some content advertising services just to snatch some readers. Big businesses use advertising to spread the word about their product or brand, also the same may work blogs as content advertising has been one of the most growing form of advertising which proves that it is worth it.

Getting your readers to share your blog content is not easy but will require you some skill and better understanding of how content marketing is properly done.