Use OpenSpeedTest.com to Test Your Internet Speed

I am an internet junkie and I get frustrated whenever I get slow internet connections. As a handy tool to monitor my internet speed, I suggest you use an internet speed tester to determine your internet speed at a specific time of the day.

If you want to have this OpenSpeedTest.com widget in your blog, just copy the code below:

<!--Widget Code START --><iframe src="http://openspeedtest.com/Get-widget.php" width="735" scrolling="no" height="490" frameborder="0">
</iframe><a rel="dofollow"  href="http://openspeedtest.com"></a><!--Widget Code END -->

Drop me a comment below.

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How to Insert a Social Bookmark Buttons Before and After Your Blog Post?

Social bookmarks make your blog visible in social network-king sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. If you have easy access buttons for sharing, readers can just click on them and make your site be seen outside the blogosphere. With your blog posts in these social networks, it can drive more traffic to your blog and provide more info for other curious readers outside the blog industry. Always remember, readers are the better judges of your blog as they put verdict on your posts and they are also the best recruiters!

As you can see in my blog, I have place these social bookmarks in two areas of this blog. One is found after the post title and the other is found at the post footer. The process is easy and can be done even by newbies.

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How to Add a Custom Domain to Your Blogger from Network Solutions?

Everybody says that a blog should have its own custom domain for it reflects the sincerity of the blogger to maintain his/her blog. I don't usually agree with that. I had blogged for six years already and it was only today that I purchased a custom domain. My reasoning was always, what for if my blog can be published for free, people don't usually look in their URL bars to check if it is a .com, .net or a .blogspot.com address. What they are after is your site's contents, right? Old bloggers also talk about custom domain as status of credibility. I also don't agree. First of all, as long as you can provide your readers with a satisfactory content, they will be coming for more! Additionally, if you are not much of a web developer and have very little knowledge on hosting and tweaking things in the cloud, you won't put a finger to an advanced level as long as your page is seen in the web and people are enjoying about it.

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How to Check If Your Blog is Indexed by Google?

Besides the campaigns you are using to promote your site in Facebook, Twitter, Blog Directories or other webpages, you should ensure that your site can also be found in search engine such as Google.

Since, it is a known fact that more people are using Google search (thus the term Googling was born), a blogger should grab this opportunity to receive traffic coming from search engines. It does not only adds traffic but it also gives you some credit that you made an SEO effective content. Of course, you must make your content in such a way that it will show in the first page of search result if not in the number 1 result. For your blog to be included in the search result, it must be first indexed by Google.

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How to Show Related Post Under Each Post?

Showing related posts in your blog will increase your readers' engagement in your blog, thus letting them stay longer and learning more from it. Of course, considering also the reader's interest in your related posts. But the more they are seeing your previous posts, the higher the probability that they will click and read it.

Click image to enlarge

The widget
The widget comes from LinkWithin wherein no registration will be required to acquire it. Moreover, it's absolutely FREE. It shows post with thumbnails for post with images and shows links for those that don't have. You can edit the number post to show (usually 4-5 as long as it fits your post width). The widget can be implemented in Blogger, Typepad and Wordpress or other platform that supports javascripts.

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