Tips To Speed Up A Slow Loading Blog Or Website
Is your blog or website loading slowly lately? Here are a few tips to help speed up your load time:
Deactivate any unused plugins. Some plugins call for resources outside of your blog, which slows it down. So if you don’t need a plugin, just deactivate it.
Display images from your server only. If you are loading images from an outside source, try to get the images loaded on your server. Blogs have a library that you can store your images in for faster retrieval. If you are using a html website instead of a blog, just store your images in a directory on your server.
Javascript Applications such as Google Friends Connect, MyBlogLog, etc. that send out for resources can slow you down. You don’t have to remove these services, just be aware of the possibility that they can make your blog load slowly.
Using affiliate banners hosted on the affiliate site can slow down your loading time. See if you can put the images on your server instead.
Try testing out these tips one at a time to see how faster your blog or website loads. These are easy to do, behind the scenes, actions that won’t affect the functionality of your blog.
Password Safety-Create Strong Passwords That Are Easy To Remember
Today when I went to log into one of my accounts, I got the dreaded password safety message that said it was time to change my password….again. 
Oh boy do I hate those messages along with any system that makes me change my password on a regular basis. When that happened, my mode of escape was to use an incremental increase of the last number.
Brilliant now aren’t I!
It just so happens I was reading today, in Tweetlater’s newsletter, about the importance of password security due to hackers. These people always make simple things so difficult. The article gave great tips about how to create tough but easy to remember passwords such as:
- Selecting 2 different starting and ending special characters (!@#$%^&*)
- Deciding on a fixed length for the middle characters
- Deciding on which location of the middle characters to capitalize
- Use the website name for those middle characters
For example, I chose @$ for my starting characters and *^ for my ending characters. I chose a length of 5 middle characters with the 3rd character being capitalized.
Therefore, my password for yahoo.com would be @$yaHoo*^.
….or for eBay it would be @$ebAy*^ (ebay only has 4 characters so I would still capitalize the 3rd character).
Pretty simple eh?
The thing to remember with this is that YOU would need to come up with your own standard. Certainly not what’s written here, because the whole world has access to this right?
Create Standard Password Safety
Be a little creative….I use the @ symbol for the letter A. I use the (!) symbol for the letter I. Just set YOUR standard and follow it religiously.
Well, let me tell ya, these are some great tips for sure, but if anyone, with bad intentions, figured out your standard, then they would have access to every password you created.
What are the chances of that happening? Probably slim to none, but nevertheless possible. So keep that in mind.
Don’t Think Password Safety Is A Problem?
Just in case you don’t think this is a problem, check out some of the top searches in the recent days on passwords:
- how to get someone’s myspace password
- how do i get someone’s yahoo password
- how can i figure out someone’s email password
- how to get someone’s password
- how to hack a password
- yahoo messenger how to steal password
- how to hack yahoo password
- how can i obtain someone email password
- how do i hack a password
- how to hack, crack a msn email account password
These are real searches that people are doing to learn how to get in to someone else’s account! Can you imagine what could happen if one of these people got a hold of your passwords?
Roboform-Password Safety Software
I use roboform which can autogenerate secure passwords for each site and store it so that I never even have to think about it again. It’s free to download and if you don’t like it you can simply uninstall it.
The disadvantage to roboform is that if you use different computers the passwords are only stored on one computer.
But, they came to the rescue with Roboform2Go which you can use on a USB port. I personally haven’t had the need to use it yet, but it’s good to know that it’s an option.
Either of these solutions should be added into your business structure. You can use the structure for your backoffice logins to your registrar, hosting, email accounts, etc. You’ll have a login to so many different sites that it will just boggle your mind.
So if you haven’t done it yet, make a plan now, and start utilizing better password security in your business.
Quick HTML Reference Guide To Inserting Images In Your Sidebar
I have seen some confusion over how to insert images into the sidebar of a blog. You can insert images by either hard coding a widget, or using your widget ready theme. After working with both types, I have found that the hard coding works best for me and the themes that I have been using. Some themes work great with widgets. You will just have to experiment to see which is best for you.
I am not going to explain in detail the instructions behind why you need each type of code, but rather just give you what you need to accomplish the task.
The html codes that are needed vary depending on what you want to accomplish. Below is a quick basic guide to show you some of the codes to add images. There are color coded instructions to help you follow along. These codes can be use to add images to a blog sidebar or website.
<img src=”http://mydomain.com/image.jpg” alt=”image_name” width=”000″ height=”000″ />
The above is the basic code to insert an image, and you will only have a display of the image, nothing else. From here is where everything else is built upon. You will just be adding more code to customize the image.
Replace this with the full URL link to your image. This code is in place in case the image is not rendered in a browser. The words that are used within the quotation marks will display instead. Give it a good name that represents what the image is or what the subject matter is about. First, determine the size of your image, and then replace “000″ with the correct width and height with that of your image.
<a href=”http://AnotherDomain.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://mydomain.com/image.jpg” alt=”image_name” width=”000″ height=”000″></a>
This is the code to add a hyperlink to an image so that when you click on it you are directed to another URL. As stated earlier, we are still using the basic code and just adding another code for hyperlinking:
Replace this with the full URL to where you want people to land once they click on the image. This code changes slightly from the basic code shown above, so copy this as is and then make your modifications. The code target=”_blank” instructs the link to open in a new window. If you want it to open in the same window change the code to target=”_self”.
<a href=”http://AnotherDomain.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://mydomain.com/image.jpg” alt=”image_name” width=”000″ height=”000″>I can put my text here</a>
Here’s the code to add text to image. The text will display based on the alignment of the image (see the next section for more info). Notice that the text is simply added at the end between > < .
Replace this with any text you like.
<a href=”http://AnotherDomain.com” target=”_blank”><img alt=”image_name.png” border=”1″ align=”left” height=”000″ width=”000″ src=”http://mydomain.com/image.jpg” /></a>
From this point forward, you can include more customization by adding codes directly after the image URL.
For example, to add a border or change alignment of an image:
If you don’t want a border change value to “0″, or to increase the size change the value in increments to see how you like it (i.e. 1, 2, 3 etc.).
If you want to change text alignment you can try these other values: bottom, middle, right & top.
For your blog, the best way to understand all of this is to create a test blog to play around with these codes. I don’t make any changes to my blog if I am not certain what will happen. When you are testing code sometimes the darnest things can happen. Let those darnest things happen on your test blog and not out in the open for your visitors to see.
You can do the same thing with your website by testing in your wysiwyg editor.
RSS & The Feeds Factor Explained!
First of all, what is RSS and this feed stuff all about? I’m sure you’ve read somewhere that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Huh? Yeah okay, whatever, but the question still remains. What the heck is RSS? Well, it is a format that is used to send out your feeds. So then what is an RSS feed?
Let’s see, the easiest way to explain it is that the RSS format provides a way of sending out content that you update very frequently, for example things that you write (blog posts), videos or audios (podcasting) that you record, to your subscribers automagically, by way of a feed.
No Two Are The Same
Every feed has its own URL so no two will ever be the same. That doesn’t mean that the content won’t be the same, just the address (URL) will be unique. How will it benefit you?
Well you can take your content and send it to your readers on regular basis without doing much more than publishing it. So your concentration or focus can be more on providing the best and most relevant content for your readers. That is your goal right?
RSS Feed Reader
In order to read your feeds, your readers will need to have an RSS reader such as Google Reader or Feed Demon to name a few. There are many others but these two come to mind right now, and these readers are free.
Your readers can subscribe to your RSS feed by using an RSS reader or they can subscribe by email by using a service such as Aweber or FeedBurner which is moving to Google Accounts shortly.
That means if some of your readers don’t want to subscribe to your RSS via a reader and are more comfortable with email subscriptions, you can accommodate both type of subscribers. So you won’t be leaving anyone out in the cold.
RSS is still a mystery to a lot of people so I suggest to always give both alternatives to your subscribers as email is much more popular…for the time being that is.
I’ve got a great a video for you to watch. It is only a little over 3 minutes long. It’s called RSS In Plain English! Talk about a cool explanation:
Insert An Image In Your Sidebar By Using A Widget
Inserting an image in your blog is really easy especially if you use widgets. Widgets are accessories for your sidebar that make it easy to add things like images, content, plugins, etc., and get this….all without knowing any html. Can’t get any better than that right?
Adding one of these to your blog will only work if the blog theme you selected is widget ready. If not then you will need to know some html/css. That’s why if you’re just starting off you need to make sure that your blog is widget ready.
Okay, I am going to show you how to do this with Wordpress 2.7, however it’s pretty much the same process for the older widget ready versions.
| Step 1. First you will need to login to your admin area, look for Appearance and then select Widgets.
(Click image to enlarge)
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| Step 2. Then, click the Add button to add the widget to the sidebar. Make sure that if you have more than one sidebar, that you select the correct sidebar to add the widget to.
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| Step 3. This is what a an added widget looks like in the sidebar. (Click image to enlarge)
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| Step 4. (1) Copy and paste the code for your image in the box…the title is optional. (2) click Done and (3) click Save Changes. (Click image to enlarge)
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Now all you have to do is view your site and the images should be in your sidebar. That is if you have (A) provided the correct URL to the image, and (B) have properly saved your changes to the widget.
As an added note, regarding image 3, if you have a number of widgets in your sidebar, you can drag and drop them to rearrange their positions in your sidebar.
How To Set Your DNS Server Settings
One item that I get questions a lot on is how to set your DNS server for your domain. DNS stands for Domain Name Server. It is really easy to do…as long as you can type a few letters and numbers in a box and hit save 
To avoid all the technical mumbo jumbo, in laymen terms, when you purchase a domain, you have to point or direct it to your hosting company so that you can manage it, that is unless you have purchased the domain that includes a hosting account.
Your hosting service is like the engine of your car or the cockpit of a plane. It is how you will control everything that happens behinds the scenes on your domain. The navigational equipment you will use is called Cpanel.
And what does Cpanel stand for? You guessed it! It stands for control panel. No getting around this one. If you want a presence on the web you will need this.
Okay so back to the DNS. Every website is identified by an IP address. When you type in a website address like Google.com for example, what the DNS does is help translates that name into an IP address that the internet understands.
An internet IP address looks something like this: 123.456.7.8
Your hosting service will give you some settings something like this:
NS1.MY-NAME.COM
NS2.MY-NAME.COM
What you will have to do is log into your registrar, which the place where you purchased your domain name, navigate to the appropriate area, and enter those settings. In all likelihood, this should take you about 2 minutes. It is really as simple as typing in those two hosting settings and hitting the save button.
Here is a video showing you how to do it at NameCheap. But it is pretty much the same at any registrar. You are going to want to find the “manage your domains” category, select that domain, and look for the area that says nameserver.
How To Change the Images on Your Blog
So you’ve found this great blog template. It’s the perfect theme for you….except the pictures won’t work with what you have in mind. If you could only change a few of the images this template would be awesome! Well fear no more because with just a few quick and easy modifications, you can change the images on your blog to be the exact images of your choice.
This tutorial will show you how to replace existing images on your blog with new images.
Requirements:
- Access to the admin area of your blog
- FTP access/ability
- NoteTab or NotePad
I will assume that you know how to navigate within your blog admin area, and that you know how to use your FTP software to upload data to your server.
Let’s get started!
Images for your blog theme are usually stored with this path http://myblog.com/wp-content/themes/mytheme/images/
Fire up your FTP software and connect to your server, follow the above path with your FTP program and download all of the images to a folder on your computer.
Open the folder on your computer that you just downloaded the images to. You may have to change the view of the folder in order to see thumbnails of the actual images. Find the image that you want to change. Hoover your mouse over the image until you see a little text image pop up.
Notice the dimension on the pop up box. That’s the size of the image that you need to replace. You need to find another image that is 139 width and 139 height in pixels. Replacing an existing image with another that is the same size will prevent you from going through the process of modifying the code.
You can search the internet for free photos, or go to websites like BigStockPhoto or IStockPhoto to purchase images. I have found that I do better on the paid sites. I’ve found a few freebie images to use in the past, but they really weren’t of the quality that I needed.
If you can’t find an image that exact size, find one that is slightly bigger and resize it. Open up your favorite photo editor and resize it to the dimension you need.
Now, all you have to do is give the new image the same name as the old image, FTP the new image up to your server which will replace the old image (select YES if the program asks you do you want to replace the file).
Voila! It’s done!
Go to your web browser and refresh the page and you will see the new image. You can repeat this as many times as you want on as many images as you like. That’s the quick and easy way to change images on your blog.
Note: This process can be used for your website too. All you have to do is locate where your images are stored and follow the same procedures.
More related sites:
| Learn how to insert an image in sidebar on your blog at Blogger … – Tutorial for beginners: A few steps with screenshots in this post will help you learn how to insert and position an image in the sidebar at your blog on Blogger/Blogspot.
WordPress 2.5+ Tutorial – How to Upload and Insert an Image … – mcbuzzvideo asked: This beginner-level tutorial shows how to insert an image using WordPress version 2.5 or later. Inserting an image using WordPress version. |
