I noticed number of spam comments have increased from a few 100 a day to couple thousand. Though Akismet is not letting any of these comments through on the site, these are certainly using server resources.

After one of my friends suggested I decided to install a CAPTCHA plugin to stop the spam from entering into the system itself. I am not a great fan of CAPTCHA as the easy ones are crackable anyway and the tougher ones are tough enough to confuse a human.

In the process of searching for the right plugin I found “WP CAPTCHA Free” which does the job VERY well and does not even have a CAPTCHA!

Here is how it works!

“WP CAPTCHA-Free blocks comment spam by using a combination of time-based hash (a.k.a. Time Based Tokens, TBT) and JavaScript (AJAX). When a comment is posted the plugin validates a hash based on time (and some other parameters). Comments posted via automated means will not have a hash or will have an expired hash and will be rejected. Unlike using a CAPTCHA, this does not place any burden on the commenter. “

I haven’t seen a single SPAM comment entering the system for approval or otherwise. At the same time I have tested if it lets uses enter a comment without a problem. So far I haven’t had a problem but I would encourage our readers to shoot an e-mail to nerds at tnerd.com.

Click here to visit the plugin page.

This post will specifically talk about bloggers and how they can create a blog which reflects their personality online.

The following badges, widgets or gadgets as you might call it will help you share more information with your readers without you writing about it.

Let’s start with the hottest in Town..

Twitter Badge: These are available in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. There are so many variations of this badge that I am sure you will surely something you like. These badges show your latest Tweets on the blog.(Follow @tnerd on Twitter)

Official:

• http://twitter.com/badges/blogger

WP-Plugins:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-for-wordpress/
• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/

Customized:

• http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/04/add-customized-twitter-widget-to- your.html

Flickr Badge: This badge shows all your publically available pictures on Flickr. Just signin to your account and configure this badge to get the code.

This is what the badge looks like..

Get your Flickr Widget from here…

Wakoopa Widget: This is not for the faint of hearts. Wakoopa tracks all activities on your computer and reports back to the site to update your profile of all the softwares that are being used on the computer. This list can be shared with your friends and contacts based on your preferences.  Click here to read more about Wakoopa.

This is what a Wakoopa badge looks like..

MyBlogLog: MyBlogLog maintains information about you and visitors on your blog. This information is then displayed in a attractive format which also encourages social traffic from blog to another.

SIGAMP Badge: SIGAMP shows the song you are currently listening to on your computer. This badge can be installed on any blog or site and the moment you start listening to music it starts sharing information on the badge. With the paid version of this service you can customize the widget according to your needs or even upload your own image.

Here is what the (free) badge looks like..

Google Latitude for Blogs: Google Latitude badge shows your current location to all your blog readers, not everyone is comfortable sharing such information.  Click here to read more about Google Latitude..

Here is what the badge will look like on your blog..

Click here to get your badge..

Google Talk for Blog: Connecting with your readers is one of the most important part of the personal blogging. Google Talk lets you connect with your readers without giving away any personal information such as your ID or any other information.

Once any of the users click on the following badge you will instantly receive an alert on your Gtalk client and you can start chatting.

Here is what the blog looks like..

Get your badge here..

Geekchart : This is a new one. Once you register with the service you can add the userID’s of services like, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Digg, Blog, etc.. and it generates a chart based on your last 30days activity on these services.

Here is what it typically looks like..

Syedabbas’s Geek Chart

Click here to get your own Geekchart!

Other Badges: (Leave a comment and let us know about a badge you’d like to see on the list, we’ll add it)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/editbadge.php

FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/embed/widget

If your article is selected to be showcased on Microsoft properties you can expect to see it on Explore Windows Live or Discover Windows Vista, Microsoft Newsletters and Twitter via @MSWindows and @windowslive.

That’s good recognition isn’t it? rest assured it does not come easy!

To be eligible to showcase your content on MS sites your blog should meet certain quality standards and have content which discusses or helps users use Windows or Windows Live in a better way.

To start with, become a member of Clubhouse and submit your site for a review (Click here to Apply). Once your blog is reviewed and approved you can start writing Windows or Windows Live content embedded with special tags.

These tags help Clubhouse identify the content as Windows-related content which is then submitted to Clubhouse members to be reviewed and rated and ultimately the top rated content is submitted and showcased on Microsoft Sites.

Bloggers earn points as they write content which is submitted to the Clubhouse. Depending upon the ratings a writeup secures, the blogger earns points which, these points are then converted to badges which are visible next to your article when published.

So if you write about Windows or Windows Live, why not share it with the Clubhouse members! Click here to Apply.

It is important to be on top of the stats so that you can serve your readers better. For example if you see there is enough traffic from mobile phones after creating a monitoring system, you might want to make your site more mobile friendly thus attracting more mobile traffic.

This article will discuss the steps on how to create an Advance Segment in Google Analytics to monitor the traffic a blog/site receives from Mobile phones. Once you have created an Advance Segment, experiment and create more segments which will help you understand your users better.

Follow the steps to create Advance Segment to monitor Mobile traffic.

1. Once you are logged into the analytics account, go to the site report you want to create a Mobile monitoring advance segment on.
2. Click on the “Advance Segments: All Visits” on the top right corner of the page or “Advanced Segments” on the sidebar.

    or

3. Now click on “Create a New Advance Segment” or “Create new custom segment”
4. Type “Operating System” in the filter text box in the top left corner

   

5. Drag and drop “Operating System” block on the sidebar into “dimension or metric” area

   

6. Leave the condition to default “Matches exactly” and click on the arrow next to “Value” text field and select “iPhone” from the list

   

7. Now click on “Add ‘and’ statement” and repeat the steps 5 & 6 to add more Operating System values.  You can add the following OS’s from the dropdown list iPhone, SymbianOS, PalmOS, Android, iPod, etc. If you don’t see the OS you wish to add on the dropdown, just type in the OS name in the “Value” field. Click on the “Test Segment” button to see the results.

   This is what your page will look like once you have added multiple mobile operating systems to monitor.

   

8. Name and create your segment

   

9. Alright, the segment is created. Click on the Advance Segment to see the results.

   

I don’t get a lot of mobile traffic at the moment but people who do, will see a better graph. This is what the graph looks like on TNerd.

The image above shows the overall visitors and the mobile visitors that day. Based on what I see I will certainly make some changes to make TNerd more mobile friendly.

Hope this was helpful. Do drop a comment if you know of any other custom segments that can help us monitor our traffic and understand numbers better.

While there is no other option but to show ads a blogger has to maintain a fine balance between showing and not irritating the the regular readers at the same time.

There are quite a few WP-Plugins which help you show ads based on defined criteria. I will discuss one such plugin called “Who Sees Ads” (click here to download) in this article which I think is the BEST among similar plugins and cannot get any better (maybe)!

It leaves total control in the hands of the bloggers in terms of who sees ads and who does not. The plugin lets you pick from the existing rules or define your own rules to show ads.

The Image below shows you the pre-defined rules which can be used to create context. I’ve created a context to hide a huge block of ad between the title and the article from the readers who come to TNerd.com directly or through any other referral other than a search engine and the second rule shows ads on the old content only, in this case content older than 2 days is considered old.

Once the Context is created, all you got to do is copy the line of code and paste it in your template or within the article.

The video below shows you how to create a context and place it on your template. (Watch the video full-screen for better viewing)

Once this plugin is active you will certainly see some loss in revenue but that’s totally worth it as your regular readers will be happier to see the content without any ads.

Alternatively this plugin can be used for any coded that you want to show to a selective group of users. For example if you want to show a particular discount coupon only to registered users, you can place the image coded using this plugin and select the rule to show it only to logged-in users.

Click here to download Who Sees Ads for WordPress (Tested on WP 2.7.1)

These icons can be used for your projects for absolutely free with no restrictions. Use these icons freely for both commercial and private projects such as online services, softwares, templates, etc.. However, reselling, sublicensing, renting or transferring is not permissible.
Please link to this article if you wish to share this set with others.

Download:

	800×600 1024×600 1024×768 1280×960 1280×1024 1400×1050
	800×600 1024×600 1024×768 1280×960 1280×1024 1400×1050
Icons set:	32×32 PNG 32×32 PSD 64×64 PNG 64×64 PSD

Hope you guys like it!

What I am talking about is localize such plugins and make them part of your browser. If you think that it’s not possible then think again. There’s a wonderful Firefox extension that just takes your blogging capabilities to a new level. This extension is called as Zemanta. Zemanta is a such a wonderful piece of utility for a blogger. As your write a post, based on the keywords and your settings it can show you images related to the post and also other blog stories which are related to the post you are writing.

And this is not it, you can insert those images with a single click and add the stories as related stories in your blog post. Zemanta sits comfortably in your wordpress or other blogging platform’s dashboard and provides you with the following features:

1. Related Photos: The photos are shown in the zemanta side bar which sites in your dashboard. All the pictures are very relevant to the blog post that you are writing and best part is that all these images are copyright cleared. That means you don’t have to worry about the copyright. The images can be dragged and dropped or just clicked to get them inserted in your post. You can also filter the available images based on specific keywords.

2. Related Articles: The related articles are from the top 300 odd media sources and hence are very relevant and authentic.

3. Automatic Links: Once you have finished writing a post you might want to link to various important keywords. This can be done pretty easily as well. Just click the links which Zemanta has automatically identified and the links get inserted in your blog corresponding to the keywords. It looks something like this:

4. Automatic Tags: How about some SEO and ways to build traffic. Automatic tags is another smart features which automatically picks up words to create tags for various keywords in your blog post.

Let us now see what platforms are supported by this wonderful tool.

• Wordpress.com
• Self-hosted Wordpress.org 2.1+
• Blogger.com
• TypePad
• Ning
• MySpace
• LiveJournal
• MovableType
• Tumblr
• Drupal

Because Zemanta is semantically so very smart that it even keeps tracks of what you have posted using Zemanta and in future will recommend your post to other bloggers who blog on a similar topic. Another great way to build your back links.

What are the ways to use Zemanta?

Well there are more than one. You can install the Firefox extension which is compatible with Firefox 2 and 3. You can also download the plugin available for Internet Explorer 6 and 7. If this is not enough you can get the platform independent plugins for your CMS (but I don’t think this is the best option as it has to contact your host and work like a normal plugin.

News Makers vs News Papers – How to be the first to know what’s new or the latest trends, etc..? I had been thinking of writing this post of a while now but it gave me all the more reasons to do it as one of the followers on Twitter asked for some help in searching Google to keep up with the latest in the tech industry. Guess what! Google search alone won’t help much in this case..

This article will discuss various techniques you can use to be the first to know of what’s happening online.

I follow a theory I call, News Makers vs. News Papers to bring the latest on TNerd.com. News Papers are the ones which gather information from influential blogs and write about it with some added information. News Makers are the ones which offer the latest information in its own niche, which turns them into an influential blog. 

Being a bloggers it’s really important to be the first or at least one of the first to know and report when a new software is launched, product leaks, feature updates, insider news, etc.. This way the blog will be quickly noticed, gain back-links, viewership, traffic, credibility, etc.

Here is a list of things you can do to be a News Maker:

Organize Feeds into News Makers and News Papers:

Put up a feeds page for yourself, use iGoogle or Google Reader or any feeds service which works for you. Categorize the feeds in to two categories, 1) News Makers, 2) News Papers.

Add all the Company Blogs, Product Blogs, Influential blogs, etc.. to News Makers and rest in News Papers. I have been using iGoogle so far, but I will start using Google Reader going forward. Google Reader does not allow you to create subfolders; instead use the naming conventions to your advantage. For example all the blogs feeds related to Design and Graphics start with “Design – XYZ” or “Design – ABC”. This way it’s easier to browse through and keeps you in control of the feeds.

Google Alerts:

This is one of the fastest ways of getting the information from around the web without subscribing to any feed or sites information. Just add the keywords based on which Google will send you Alerts in your e-mail. If you want the latest information then set “How often:” field to “as-it-happens” to get the information as Google finds it.

Digg.com (Upcoming Section)

Digg.com is the hub of information and also, spam to some extent. You can find some interesting stuff at http://digg.com/all/upcoming/ or http://digg.com/all/upcoming/recommended look through the recent diggs and you might find some latest news or something.

Slashdot.org  (Firehose)

Firehose at Slashdot is a good source of information. Just set the filter to show the latest and even the least popular stories. Here you can find a few original and unique stories which you can build your article on.

New Release’s:

For latest software launches, go to sites like Downloads.com or SoftPedia.com and dwell into their “New Release” section. You will surely find something here to write about.

Among all the points listed above I find, Feeds and Alerts to be a good resource of information and very useful.

I hope this helps.

Image Source: Jim_Gr

I answered a lengthy survey couple of months ago which was conducted by Technorati as part of it State of The Blogosphere report.

This was the first time that a survey was sent out by Technorati and the results are exciting.

Technorati indexes about 900,000 blogs posts every 24 hours, this should give you a pretty good idea of how deep Technorati goes to index and track blogs in blogosphere.

The report says that every blog that has more than 100,000 visitors makes more than $75,000 annually. It also suggests that 34% of blogosphere is made of female bloggers.  Asia stands 3rd with 13% contribution on the blogging distribution chart after North America with 48% and Europe 27%.

Personal and Lifestyle was known to be the most common topic for blogging standing at 54% followed by Technology at 46%. Interestingly when bloggers where asked “Why do you blog?”, the making money part stood 6th in the list after, Speaking My Mind, Making Friends, Keeping my Family updated through blog, etc..

68% of the bloggers did not mind revealing their real identity on the blog, in fact, “Made new contacts and met them in person” stood 3rd with 47%.

Technorati decided to release the report in 5 parts, 1 part each day. Today being the second day the data I discussed in this article is only based on two parts.

Following headings will be covered in the coming three days:

Day 3: The How of Blogging
Day 4: Blogging for Profit
Day 5: Brands Enter the Blogosphere

Click here to visit Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report.

I have emphasized enough on why websites and especially bloggers have to use images in their daily workflow. Let’s take a look at a service that’ll make your search for images an easier one. The service
is
called as
Gazopa and
is an
image search engine. The service is called as Gazopa and is an image search engine. No doubt there are wonderful services like Flickr and DeviantArt, but Gazopa has a different flavor to the way it caters to your need of image search.

Remember sometime back we wrote about a service called as TinEye. Gazopa is similar to TinEye and help you search images using image. TinEye searches for exactly same images whereas Gazopa’s searches for all the similar and related images which need not have to same. Let’s look at the features it promises to offer:

1. GazoPa is a similar image search service on the web in private beta by Hitachi.
2. Users can search images from the web based on user
   Tags: deviantart, Flickr, gazopa, image search engine, search images, search service, similar image search, tineye
   ]]> http://tnerd.com/2008/09/14/gazopa-similar-image-search-engine/feed/ 0