Optimize Your Blog’s Loading Speed With Yslow

How long dose it takes to load your blog completely? Well if you look at the Status Bar at the bottom of your browser you will notice that while loading your blog fetch several Java script from external links included in your blog’s widgets and images. Some time these external links slow down the loading speed of your blog.

If you are facing this problem then there is one Firefox Add-on which can really help you analyze your blog’s slow loading problem?

YSlow analyzes web pages and tells you why they’re slow based on the rules for high performance web sites. YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the popular Firebug web development tool. YSlow gives you:

• Performance report card
• HTTP/HTML summary
• List of components in the page
• Tools including JSLint

This Firefox Add-on needs another Firefox plugin Firebug to run; Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

I’m sure these two Firefox Add-Ons will help you speed up your blog’s page loading time.

Here are glimpse analysis of my blog with Firefox’s Yslow Plugin.

TinEye – Search Engine for Duplicate Images

So if you want to know who else is using your images, this is the best way to find out, even if the image name has been changed or it has been modified for any reason.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks.

It just like you search for the “SIMILER TEXT” on google. TinEye dose it same for the images, When you submit an image to be searched, TinEye creates a unique and compact digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ for it, then compares this fingerprint to every other image in their index to retrieve matches. TinEye can even find a partial fingerprint match.

So basically it has been drafted to find out exact frame or picture (duplicate picture with what so ever name it has been placed on the net). TinEye does not typically find similar images (i.e. a different image with the same subject matter); it finds exact matches including those that have been cropped, edited or resized.

Earth Hour and My New Blue WordPress Premium Theme

I wish and hope you all are supporting Earth Hour this 28th March. It’s for a good cause and I support it from the bottom of my heart. But earth hour is also responsible for this new skin on my blog which you see now. Yes that true, interestingly I wanted my blog to cover up in black on Earth House day (They say a website with black background consumes less power: see report here) so couple of weeks ago I try to tweak my blog to make it composed in black and white color. During this test I mess up widely with my theme CSS and lost it entirely. It was sad because I that previous theme of mine and wasn’t in mood to change it. I tried hard to bring back that premium theme of mine but it was all in vain so without wasting much time on fetching back “My Lost World” I changed it with this new premium theme.

So how it looks now? If you ask me it looks more cool and collected in this new blue avatar of it. What you say?

See Opportunity in every Accident

So while preparing my blog ready for Earth Hour in black outfit I lost my previous theme, but instantly I injected this new Blue Premium News Theme to it. I guess this is what they mean by saying “see opportunity in every accident”. I lost my old blog Skin it was a sad misfortune, but I use this as an opportunity to give it a new look. Release of Version 4.0 Shanker Bakshi dot Com. 

UPDATE: Picture taken during Earth Hour ( Rise and Shining )

Trouble With Twitters

Super News’s Animated Sketch Comic videos are always fun to see. Now they come up with this comic story about this young guy who struggle against the pressure to twitter his life away. Enjoy. hey by the way Follow me on Twitter.

I don’t mind followed by hundred and thousand of people over twitter and followthem in return.

HostedFTP – Best File Sharing Service for Your Business

Now tell me, how you share your files over internet, How you handle it especially when your business grows and need a really professional tool for this job? Well before deciding a FTP file sharing service to start with, you must assure and test the service on three vital aspect of a FTP file sharing service:

Security

Reliability

Trouble-free 

I remember when I used to do voiceover job for my overseas clients; and when they usually asked me – Mr. Bakshi how you will send final MP3 recordings? I rally don’t know at that time how to answer this matter in a more professional way, “I will courier it to you SIR” that’s stupid me. But now I have this wonderful file sharing solution HostedFTP.com supporting me to share files with my clients in a more professional and smart way.

This Canada based company provides the best File Sharing Service and stand firm on all three tests mentioned above. Basically while choosing a FTP file sharing service you must ensure that it encrypt whenever files are uploaded or downloaded. HostedFTP not only secure your files with encryption but also provide you built-in e-mail security and password Protection. Your files are securely backed up to offsite hosting location, ensuring their availability and integrity. You can assure reliability as the Single Wrench system over HostedFTP designed and capable enough to handle your large files. The thing which I like great about their system is that it’s really provide a super fast speed over its competitive (are there any?)

Uploading files is as easy as dragging and dropping them right from your desktop.

Easy to use interface wizard provide step by step instructions with previews for most file types you browse through their system plus there is this email notifications system in place which notify you when your shared files are downloaded, so I guess this is what you expect in a FTP hosting service, and these are the features which is why I call HostedFTP the best in the business.

 HostedFTP.com walks on Amazon Web Service cloud which makes all the difference. According to Daniel Frank, President of HostedFTP.com

“Our infrastructure is now 100% hosted with Amazon Web Services. As a file sharing solution we need to deliver on our promise to customers in terms of security and reliability. Once customers learn our infrastructure is hosted in its entirety by Amazon.com, which has a proven track record, we can focus on why HostedFTP.com is the right file sharing solution for their business. In addition to this, the pay as you go nature of AWS allows us to pass along cost savings to our customers. We have peace of mind knowing the infrastructure that we have in place today will meet the needs of our business as it grows”    

Why to choose HostedFTP

Well for me the best thing is that they charge monthly on the average storage you use that means there is no quotas or limits on your account. It grows as your business grows. You can start with their Personal Edition which can be upgraded to Group and Enterprise Editions. With no setup fees and a cancel anytime policy, HostedFTP.com is a risk-free and cost effective file sharing solution.

Upload Guest Posts via HostedFTP

You can see FTP uploading system in action on this site. I have placed one widget on right most sidebar of this blog, so if you wish to write guest post on this just click on that upload button and send it across to me. BINGO!!!

Sign Up for the Best File Sharing Solution

Head over to this Page, sign up for HostedFTP.com and see for yourself why HostedFTP.com is the right file sharing solution for your business.

 

Take Responsibility for Your Life

Everything you experience today is the result of choices you have made in the past. All blame is a waste of time. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself. Be in charge of your own inventory that you have built up over these years.

We see people whining about situations, rants about system, complains about organizations, but if you sit back, relax  and think about what you are today, you will find there were moments in your life where you took the decisions to be what you are today. You have made this world of yours around you. 

When I was in college and used to prepare for final exams this one thing was always there in my mind “If you do what you always dose, you will get what you always get”. This implies both ways, mean if you always work hard you will get the same result of success and if you go otherwise, you know better what you will get.

You wonder why there are blogger you earn hell lot of money but at the same time you find it difficult to earn as mush to pay for your yearly hosting charges. Before you whining about your blogging niche, your lack of Geekyness, lack of time, poor command on grammar, lack of funds,   

You see the beautiful building and don’t think about its foundation.

I mean just look at this guy’s blog, he is blogging since 2004, initially for first two years he used to write two to three article per day and no body bother to read them and make any comments. Today he is the undisputed No. 1 blogger from India with over 35000 RSS subscriber base. The thing which probably brought this gentle to the top would definitely be the faith in him and sheer hard work. You can not substitute these things either.  

Image by rahims

The Ethical Bribe to Increase Twitter Followers

A little strange to believe at first but Tim Ferris has come up with this crazy idea to buy Twitter Follower at US$ 3 per follower. I mean he has this noble cause behind this and call this offer as “Tweet to beat”. Here is what he has to say:

This is “Tweet to Beat”, a follow-up experiment to LitLiberation, which was a campaign by bloggers and their readers, and CEOs and their employees, to spread the power of literacy worldwide. I’m in Vietnam with readers right now to visit two of the schools. With zero financing or hard costs, this model ended up raising more than $250,000 in less than a month, 3x more than Stephen Colbert during that same period.

He explains:

For every new Twitter follower in the next two weeks, I will donate $1 to DonorsChoose.org, and an anonymous supporter will match $2, for a total of $3 to U.S. public school classrooms per follower.

Not only this, Ferris is also doing a competition where you can win a MacBook Pro head over to this post here for more information.

I do follow him.  Do you?

12 Seconds Video Twitter is Here to Stay

Basically the thing is that twitter is the most recent phenomenon happens to web 2.0, there is no doubt about it and almost every week we witness new twitter tool, apps or something instinctive out of Twitter API.

But then these three guys David Beach, Sol Lipman, Jacob Knobel come up with this idea that there will be more fun if you can visualize your tweets, I mean why to express what you are doing in 140 words, and you can express the same in 12 second video. 12seconds.tv is a Twitter-like video status service. It gives you 12 seconds to share video moments from your life. The best thing is that not only you can video tweet your presence from web cam of your desktop or laptop but You can record and share 12second updates with just about any mobile phone. You can record your 12second video from TweetDeck.

12seconds is the best place online for video status updates. It’s a super easy way to share what you’re doing with your friends and family using short video clips. You can use your web cam or mobile phone. Show your friends where you are, share your thoughts, or tell them how you’re doing. We are building a video status platform that will help you keep up to date with your friends 12 seconds at a time.

Question for you

Are you at 12second.tv? Do you think video tweet will replace 140 text tweeting experience?

What Lessons a Blogger Can Learn From the Movie Slumdog Millionaire?

Eight Academy awards winner movie Slumdog Millionaire is adoption of Vikas Swaroop Best selling novel “Q & A”. Directed by Danny Boyle the story moves around the street boy Jamal who is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati) hosted by Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor) in which he won 20 Million Rupees.

Well for me I think there is a lot that you can learn from this movie but if you wish to associate this movie with your blogging experience here are the three basic things that you can study from it.

[1] Get your answer from your experience:

The boy in the movie knows all the answer because he has already gone in his tough journey of life through various situations where he learned the answers to those questions.Life teaches us every moment, it’s all on us how we grab that knowledge and use it for our purpose to become a successful person.

So next time before you ask anyone any sort of question try to solve it or clutch the answer by yourself. There is nothing that you can’t do if somebody else is already doing it.

[2] You are required to know exactly what is needed at that time, it dose not matter if you don’t know about hundred other things.

There are four kinds of persons you can see in a society;

One who don’t know but he knows that he don’t know. (That’s a smart one)

One who don’t know but also don’t know that he don’t know (That’s a stupid guy)

One who knows and also know that he knows (That’s super smart)

One who knows but don’t know that he knows (That’s a careless freak)

SO better you first know what exactly you know and what you don’t, confusing, let’s say it in other words; that’s you must know what your strength and weaknesses are. Like the guy in the movie. Don’t mass-up with a thing on which you have low or little knowledge (lets phone a friend)

[3] Take the hard way to success

Though winning a quiz show and becoming a millionaire seems pretty easy way, but the boy struggle all his life to reach to that level. Unlike his brother he chooses the tough hard but honest way to the success.

There are no short cuts to success, don’t confuse yourself with those happy go lucky stories, there is only one thing which always pays and that’s hard work and nothing else.

Seven years back when I arrived in this beautiful city of India “chandigarh” there were only few bucks in my pocket, I was not even able to afford one meal per day but today after all these years of hardship I have every thing which is necessary to make a living, a happy family, a car, a cozy bed almost every luxury of life (owning a house is still big dream in India). The only thing in my mind was this faith that if I will work hard there is nothing that will stop me to reach where I am right now.

Question for you

Tell me how you like the movie Slumdog Millionaire and what lesson you learnt from the movie (if any)

Which Anti Spam Plugin You Use on Your WordPress Blog?

I’m very surprise to see that some anti spam comment Plugins treats me as a Spam  commentator. They  are “throwing” my recent comments that I made on my favorite blogs into Spam bin [see comment section 1, 2]. I don’t know why its happening because I never attempted Spamming through comments.

Even my very own Akismet Plugin on my blog treats me that way. The worse thing is that when I reply to your valuable comments on my blog, even in that case first I have to write down the reply comment and then to get it release for publishing on my blog I need to approve it from my back end Admin area.

Do you ave any idea why this happening ? Which WordPress Anti Spam Plugin you use on your blog?

Download Shanker Bakshi dot Com Toolbar

Okay, how about if I give you a toolbar? Its works great with both FireFox and Internet Explorer and I promise it has no added color ,   malware, Spyware or any other foreign contamination.

The Shanker Bakshi dot Com toolbar comes with features like Google Powered web and site search, RSS reader, live radio, weather report from your local area, e-mail notifier and some cool gadgets like alculator, Sudoku, YouTube top 10 Videos, Unit converter, WikiPedia search etc.

Off course it has this Shanker Bakshi dot Com button which if you push will bring you right at my site, cool. The toolbar require Windows 2000/XP/Vista and has this uninstaller in case if you don’t the idea to hang me on your browser.

Download Shanker Bakshi dot Com Toolbar

This is Virtual Smart Grid

Your computer can’t see whats there in your hand, is it a coffee mug, a pen or a diary, but yes if you have “THIS PRINTED PAPER” in your hand then your computer can sense it and build a 3D Wind turbine around it.  They call it augmented reality and they use it to give you a life like experience of their grid technology.

All you need to do is

1. Print this solar penal marker

2. Turn on your computer sound and webcam.

3. Open this page of plug into smart grid p ( allow Pop ups)

3. hold your solar penal market printed paper so it faces your computer webcam.

and then you can see a virtual smart grid around your paper on computer.

let see how it works – ( worth try – its from GE)

Miscellaneous Ramblings of a dot Com Guru – March 2009

As I told you previously in an article here that I love to write ramble posts. But this one again coming after a long gap, I don’t have any specific reason (or Excuse) for the delay. Its always look great when people sum up their web browsing of past couple of weeks in a post. Its also a ways to convey your readers as where you like to spend your good time reading articles, and off course a way to appreciate your readers, commentators and fellow bloggers So here we go for this month’s ramble post.

1. Worth Reading Article

I wanna share with you couple of article that I found interesting, I wish you could just see how helpful these are and how beautifully written.

[A] Give Each Blog Post a Pretty Face with Flickr

Community and social media guru Chris Brogan talks about how you can give a pretty face by inserting relevant and interesting pictures from Flickr.

“I was asked by a friend on Twitter where I got all the pictures that I use for my blog posts (like the one you see in the top left of this post). The answer is that I get them off Flickr. But there’s more to it than that. Here’s a quick run-through of how I use photos on this site, and some more about Flickr.”

I always try to serve you a mix a nicely written post with Flickr Toping. I always love the idea to give every blog post a face of its own.

[B] How to Shape Your Blogs Brand

Darren Rowse elaborates how to go about branding your blog.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed happen once a blog begins to grow in readership is that a ‘brand’ emerges. This builds from the day you first start a blog and people see it – however it is in this phase after launch that it really becomes established.”

I feel myself working hard to build my brand. Love to see when people refer me as dot com guru.

[C] How To Build A List Of Eager Subscribers

People see profit in list, building a strong subscriber base should be your top priority as blogger.  Ben Pie from pie profit talks about how you can make list of eager subscribers.

Email is free and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements you can also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you are pretty sure that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted. They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it.”

Other notable blog posts I recommend as worth reading ;-

Niche blogging Niche Marketing -Yan

Search Engine Optimization Tips, Tricks & Secrets -Jim Kukral

Arrest Page Rank leak & Optimize Your WordPress Blog – Ajith Prashad

Why Making Money Online Isn’t Working For You -Paul Piotrowski

Use Any Internet Browser on your Computer without Installation -Amit Aggarwal

2. Worth Winning Contests

One of this blogs sponsor and my fellow blogger Zubin Kutar has come up with “this” Twitter Giveaway Contest where he is offering 5 hard copies of Blog Blazers to 5 random winners of the contest.Want to win one? Here’s all you have to do. 1) Follow @WebTrafficROI and @StephaneGrenier on twitter. 2) Simply tweet- Just entered to win 5 copies of Blog Blazers. Just follow @WebTrafficROI and @StephaneGrenier & retweet http://xr.com/BlogBlazers

My friend Carline Francy at BuyTemplate.net ask me to shout out about this contest which they sponsoring at Blogging in Web 2.0 Beta, I request to head over and see if you wish to win some cool Templates, Banner, Logos and off course some great WordPress Themes. Themes offered at BuyTemplate.net are really cool. How To Enter? Comment on post, Post contest include the sponsor and the prizes and Put Blogging in Web 2.0 Beta on blogroll. Head over to this post for more detail:

Other cool Contests

Flip Mino HD Twitter Contest

DirectAgents’s and VistaPrint’s Dream Getaway

3. New Twitter Tools

If you are talking about blogsphere can you finish your article without mentioning twitter? Well there are couples of cool Twitter tool releases every week few of them are worth trying. To find out what new impending with twitter apps that you can use to make your twitter experience better here are few posts on new twitter apps;

TweetDeck – How To Follow 8,000 People

How to use Tweet Later to increase followers on Twitter

50 Twitter Tools and Tutorials For Designers and Developers

Using New Twitter Glossary Tools to Define Hash tags

Twitter: the new emergency tool for travelers

4. Readers Reward Time

I take this opportunity to thanks all my readers and appreciate top commentators of this blogs. I wish you guys are great and keep on commenting your valuable suggestions. Here is the list of Top commentator of last month:

Marketing Business Review

ZK@Internet Marketing

Abhishek

HOBO(nickname)

Best CSS Gallery

Michael Aulia

Marlene

Myers Briggs

Classifieds

Jage

5. worth Watching / Interesting Video

Make Money Online Using YouTube – It’s interesting to see this guy demonstrating how you can make money using YouTube. He claims you can earn about US$ 400 with his technique.

I personally earn over $11000 dollars per month doing easy pc job. There are already hundreds of home workers world wide! This is the next ting in making money online.

Let’s see how he manages to do that in the following video and make out if you can replicate his success.

6. Quotable Quote about blogging

“I am a better writer when I exercise, case closed. Maybe that’s why this blog post isn’t very good.”

Andrew G.R on correlation between exercise routine and blogging effectiveness?

7. New at Shanker Bakshi dot com

Now let me tell you what I wish to see new here on my blog. I’m opening it for guest posts, so if you want to write guest article post for this blog send it right across to me at shanker@shankerbakshi.com . If your posts converse around blogging, blogging resources, Internet marketing, makes money online then there are full chances that I will definitely like to flash it here on this blog. So write one and send it right now.

Build Your Own Website in Just 30 Minutes

The following is a paid review and is completely of my own opinion and is not subjective by being paid.

“Build your website in 30 Minutes, have it live by tomorrow morning.”

Yes this is what they say – those days are gone when you need to an expert in web designing and equipped with HTML, XML etc. Now the guys at BlueVoda have come up to your rescue if you need to design your own website but have no clue how to go about it.

2,121,274 users already downloaded this website publishing software which helps you build a website in minutes.

Here are the cool features that BlueVoda has:

1. No HTML web design knowledge required

2. Pre – designed website templates included

3. “One Click Publishing” Go live on the internet in seconds!

4. Create an Unlimited number of Websites

5. Let your imagination run wild!

BlueVoda is a fully functional website builder and is 100% completely clean. There is NO Spyware or Adware inside. With BlueVoda you will be able build a fantastic websites. A VodaHost web hosting account is required in order for you to publish.

Why you should have a website?

More and more business realizes how important it is to have to a website to market their products. In today business market you should have your web presence to leave your business rivals behind. Creating websites serves as today’s best marketing tool.

Why BlueVoda website builder?

There are few people out there who want to create website for their small business, product campaign, or association but has no idea about HTML and web designing. Now with the help of BlueVoda they can create website as they wish it should be like.

One Click Publishing

BlueVoda comes with handy image Library of free logos, templates, webpage backgrounds and website headers. Almost everything you need to create a website. And if you still stuck somewhere and need help there is built in help system, a community forum as well step by step video tutorial so that you can create your very own website in record time.

How it works?

The BlueVoda website builder is a WYSIWYG website maker or ”What You See Is What You Get” website maker.  All you need is a computer, internet connection, and of course BlueVoda.

So head over to this place here and let your imagination run Wild.

7 Things a Newbie Blogger Should Avoid Doing

1. Don’t Google analysis your traffic data frequently

As a newbie blogger you will see a very little traffic to your blog, in this situation it will definitely be discouraging to analyze traffic data if you and your mom are the only two readers of your blog. Try to comprehend technical term used in Google Analytics and master all these analytical reports as soon as possible but for god shake don’t verify your traffic data every other minutes.

2. Don’t argue with your commentators.

Once I did it in my initial blogging days and I lost one of my valuable commentators. Respect their opinion and if you have any adverse opinion then try to shout out in modestly.

3. Write more (Read Less)

Are you a frequent visitor to Darren Rowse and Chris brogan? These guys write 3 to 4 articles per day. These are master blog article writers. If you keep on reading their blog posts you will find yourself a crap writer (Yes it happens with most of the guys). One of my close friends told me that he was quite happy writing blog posts every alternate days but since he started reading these master’s blog he felt that he should write exactly the same way as these super writers dose and life was never be the same again. Now he find it difficult to express his opinion in that fashion and ultimately distract his flow of writing. Make sure you admire them, don’t try to be exactly like them.

4. Don’t spend mush time tweaking your WordPress themes.

When you surf other blogger’s sites and see something “interesting” flashing over there; you try to incorporate the same in your blog. You start tweaking and end up messing up your CSS code and chaotic look of your blog. If you are not a webmaster then don’t spend all the time is fine-tuning things by yourself.

5. Don’t apply to paid review sites/affiliate network unless your blog is stuffed with articles.

If you have only two-three dozens of article blinking on your site then don’t just apply for paid review sites, affiliate network, there are more chances that your application will get rejected. Stuff your blog with some nice articles related to your niche; at least fifty of them and then start applying for affiliations.

6. Don’t mess up yourself with something you are not an expert of;

Try to write articles around your niche. A person visiting your site frequently must have some kind of idea what usually you serve for their eyes. Don’t mess up yourself on a subject about which you have very little knowledge, or you have just come to know about it.

7. Blog for your passion and not for making money.

Much has been said on this, I don’t really think I have anything fresh to call on this. Blogging is about passion money is a peripheral attached to it. Blog out your passion.

Image courtsy: inferis