What is RSS?

If you often use Internet, I'm sure that you added certain website or blog to the list of your favorite websites. You did this by using command "Add to Favorites" or "Bookmark This Page", depending on what browser you use.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a simple way to automatically download info from URLs which you like. Instead you individually visit websites in order to see if any updates have happened, you can use RSS for this purpose.

In this way, you will be informed about latest info or updates from desired website or blog without having to open whole URL page.

Two primary elements needed for RSS to work are:

1. RSS source - Blog or website that contains RSS feed. If blog or website supports RSS option, it will be marked with orange symbol (like on the photo). Most of blogs today (for example created in Wordpress or some other CMS) will have option of RSS, so it's available for using.

2. RSS reader - App for automatic recognizing and reading of RSS feed. When you locate source of news from which you would like to collect and read info in future, you'll need RSS reader. RSS readers are created so they could automatically find RSS feed from websites you selected before, so it will inform you about any changes made or updated info.

From the moment you install RSS reader, you will not have to visit desired blog (or blogs), since all new info will be collected and forwarded to you via RSS reader, and you will be able to read them on one place.

RSS icon

Advantages of using RSS:

Here are some of the most important advantages

- Saving time you would use for browsing and searching for info

- Signup without registration and email confirming

- All info updates are forwarded automatically

- No spam or hacker threats

- You can log out any time you want

RSS technique is useful for blogges, and for readers too. When used properly, RSS could be a good tool for updated info and great life-saver.

Is blog a real thing for you?

Why do I need a good blog? Before you start a blog, ask yourself is blogging real thing for you. Make sure to ask yourself and give answers to these questions.

1. Do you have fun while online?

Successful blog demands long-time commitment and focus and it will not stop when you publish a blog. On the contrary, that is exact moment when you start with promoting, visiting and reading other blogs and websites, tracking of articles and questions about same issues that your blog refers to.

Most of your blogging activities will take place online. If you want to be a successful blogger, you will have to enjoy reading, exploring, spending time on computer and surfing the web.

2. Do you like writing?

If you don't like writing and it doesn't come naturally in your case, maybe blogging isn't right thing for you. Building a successful blog requires everyday writing, answering to comments, leaving comments on other blogs, answreing to emails etc. Every each of those activities requires great amount of writing and you need to find yourself within it.

3. Are you passionate about blog theme?

Successful blogging requires orderly writing of new, meaningful posts about main post theme or some other, related theme. This is the only reason why you will attract new visitors, pay their attention and make them come back again. If you are only partionally interested in theme you are writing about, it will become harder and harder for you to write a new post or get new idea.

4. Can you devote to blogging?

Successful blogging requires commitment and great effort and time invested. Therefore, you need high level of self-discipline and motivation.

You got to find way how to mark blogging as scheduled everyday activity and stick to it.

5. Are you affraid of public announcing of your thoughts, ideas and thinkings?

As a blogger, you will often publish your thoughts or ideas, so whole blog community could aknowledge them. In order to attract big auditorium, you will have to share some of your thoughts or thinkings via Internet.

As such, bloggers could be affected by negative comments or responses to their posts. Sometimes, negative reviews could be painful. Successful blogger need to deal with them in positive manner and improve every day.

6. Are you affraid of tech development?

Blogging implies certain web and software knowledge. If you affraid of computer, writing a blog could not be right thing for you. Otherwise, if you are ready to learn new skills and blogging techniques - go on!

Blogging and Internet are variables and even most successful bloggers need to learn and improve their knowledge and blogs.

7. Would you take a risk?

A great part of successful blogging is related to taking a risk, from writing a first post, to first blog promotion and adding a links within posts. If you want to success in blogging, you will have to be ready to explore, self-motivate and enjoy job you're doing. Have a nice blogging day today!

How to make your blog more visible and add traffic to it - PART 2

6. Create e-mail list

Email listings are best source for repeated visits to your blog. If you don't have email list, you need to create one and adjust it for your needs. Instead of someone visits your website and never comes back, you can invite visitor to sign up for your list and offer some benefits for that, free membership, comment etc. You can get 20, 30 visits from one person just by using this email listings.

7. Register on forums

Take some time to explore forums - places where you can register for free and meet other people with same interests. Even though you will not get visits in the beginning, if you are active commentator on forum, people will notice you and enquire about your profile and website you wrote in description or signature. You will get reputation on forum and you are free to promote your blog just by leaving comments on themes and threads. This is popularly known as "Forum marketing".

Here is what you need to do:

- Before you register on forum read terms of use

- Create free account

- Login and adjust setting on your profile

- Put link to your blog in "Signature"

- Give reliable and interesting information on forum and build reputation

- Do not put link in comments, that is signature meant for

- Do not SPAM forums!

8. Social networks

Social networks and Facebook especially could be great source for traffic to your blog. Create Facebook page if you want to collect likes, post articles you wrote on FB and get new visitors if you offer valuable content. Facebook has become necessity nowadays and with FB statistics you could actually follow and research for important details about visitors, best time for publishing articles etc. Also, you could pay small amount for post boost and create audience for your blog.

9. Leave a signature in emails

Most email platforms offer option of signature template. Enter URL of your blog so everyone could see you own a blog and visit it.

If you know any other direct method, feel free to comment or write me down. Hope I helped someone. Cheers!

How to make your blog more visible and add traffic to it - PART 1

During last 10 years or so, people are advised that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for web browsers should be their main focus in order to get visitors for their website/blog. Although SEO optimization is commonly used as basic tool for your website, you should also take a look at other ways you can improve traffic and get more daily visitors. At the same time, there are many discussions on blogs and forums about SEO efficiency and usefulness. Because of that, first 3 suggestions are just part of optimization that need to be done on your website in order to attract new visitors.

1. Writing unique content

I guess you've heard about self-written content thousand times before, but it is a necessity. If you can offer valuable info or interesting fact, you are more likely to attract random visitor that visited your blog for the first time. Also, he will return to your blog with knowledge about your blog and searching for new interesting content for him. It doesn't matter how you come up with original content - it can be article based on your experience or research, homemade video presentation,  testimonials of other people etc.

If your blog doesn't offer qualities from content, no one will share you on social networks, neither come back again to check your website. Keep this on your mind.

2. Ease of use

Before you orientate on attracting visitors to your page, make sure it is user-friendly and easy to use for customer. There are a lot of add-ons you can install to improve your website, and here are some of them:

  - Search field. Add search field to your website. If visitor wants to find something he read about earlier, or just want to see if you offer info about something, search field is very useful on your blog.

  - RSS. Set your RSS feed on top of the page, where everyone can see it. It can be crucial for some users.

  - Loading page time.  Make sure that your blog opens in no more than few seconds. Visitors often lose patience with websites that take too long to open.

  - Analytics. It is very important that you set free Google Analytics on your website. With it you can find out which article is most visited, what your visitors want to read about, and how much visitors you have every day, hour or month. It could help you if you want to improve your blog themes, their content and adjust some themes to reader's interest.

3. Number of visits

How much daily visits you want on your blog? In order to get more visitors on your blog, you need to set a task how many visitors will satisfy your needs. Make precise range in order to achieve it and then set a new, higher bar.

If you are selling or presenting certain product or service, you should create a basic plan about your blog and make corrections to it as time goes by.

4. Writing comments on other blogs

This is most valuable and effective way to get instant visitors. You should find blogs with similar subjects or threads and write a comment, remark or useful tip. In this way, you will easily recommend your website/blog, by giving value in answers or comments you posted.

5. Become guest writer on other blogs

If you become guest blogger which occasionally writes something on other blogs, it could give your website more popularity and visitors. You should contact blog owner and subject you are interested in, discuss possibility of writing a post on his blog and attract new visitors to your blog. Make sure you are competent enough for theme you are writing about.

part 2

How to protect your computer from viruses, worms, Trojan horses?

      It has become every day routine now. I receive email from a friend, classical spam message inviting me to visit some website or signup for specific contest or award competition. Many of my friends, not IT experts, do not even know their profiles have been hacked and misused. Hackers break into their emails, use them to send multiple emails with inappropriate or typical spam content. I decided to write this article for all those people who do not know how to protect themselves online.

      Before I start, you should know that Windows Operating Systems have many lapses and omissions by default. In this way, hackers use cracks in your system to break in and infect your device. We are all aware that there are many online services (online shopping, e-banking, forum and blog registration etc) which require registration process to be done in order to protect themselves and your privacy and info online. This is very sensitive area for any user since you need to enter personal info, credit card number or some detail about your life and work. Also, someone could send spam messages through your email without worries for himself and that could be a legal issue. Therefore, do not give personal info to third parties, keep details about your accounts (usernames and passwords) only for yourself. Also, take care about sites you are visiting. That is a basic rule of online security!

      Using of anti-virus software is necessity. If you are low on cash, use some of free anti-virus software such as AVG, Avast or Microsoft Essentials. You need to update software every now and then and your Windows need to be legal, also. Before you download anything from the web, make sure that your software scan document you downloaded. You should clean your device from spyware and key logger programs using SpyBoot or SUPER AntiSpyware software. SpyBoot is practical, simple software that will clean unnecessary cookies and temp files. After you install SpyBoot, it will scan all new files and programs that will be integrated in your system, so you can always check what's going on with your device.

      If your email's already been hacked, try changing your password on email account. Many users enter simple terms like "new123" or "123456" for passwords so they make hacker's task easy. I suggest that you use following technique when choosing your password. Select a sentence, for example "Today is the first day of the rest of my life". Now use first letter of every word and write down a new password "titfdotroml". In this way, you will always remember sentence you used for your password and you will have no issues using it as very strong and unbreakable. Also, do not use same password for all logins and registrations you need, but use different passwords for your accounts.

      If you are still having issues with your computer after you used anti-virus and cleaner, I suggest that you select important data from your device, move it to another partition or external device (backup) and run reinstall of your OS. You should also consider using Linux OS, because it is best known for its stability and  safety. Versions like Ubuntu are applied in many homes. Requirements are smaller, your device will work faster, you have all options like Windows user and you have automatically integrated OpenOffice system that have similar options to Microsoft Office. With Ubuntu OS you will outdo Windows, and you will have stabile OS without any worries for your security. 

New Wordpress users

If there are few users/admins of your Wordpress website, there is possibly need to setup priviliges for all of them. In this short tutorial, you will be able to create a new users for same WP page and assign abilities for all of them.

Adding new users

In order to add a new user in Wordpress, you need to go to Admin panel for your page. On the left side of admin panel you will find label Users, click and go to Add new.

New user window

You need to fill following fields:

- Username: You can put anything in this field, people often enter their nick (this is required field)

- E-mail: Enter your email (this is required field)

- First Name: Enter your name

- Last Name: Enter your last name

- Website: If there is another website you would like others to know, enter URL here

- Password: If you want your account to be secured and safe, enter strong password, which contains uppercase letters or numbers within characters (this is required field)

- Repeat Password: You need to enter your password here again and you will see how strong is it (this is required field)

- Send Password: If you mark this field, password will be sent to email you entered. This could be useful in case you forget or want to change password after some time

- Role: In this field you can determine which priviliges will this user have:

·         Subscriber: Can only manage his account or leave a comment

·         Contributor: User can write or edit articles/posts but he can't publish them. After publishing post, contributor could not edit it anymore. Also, he can not upload images or documents to the page

·         Author: Author can edit, publish or delete posts and, also, he can upload image or document

·         Editor: Editor can edit, publish or delete any post or page, approve or edit any comment, edit menus or categories, upload image or database

·         Administrator: All priviliges and abilities, including deleting of everything, customizing themes and menus etc.

This is all info needed to complete Add new user info. Before you create account for anyone, think carefully about his role, because any mistake could cost you very bad. As administrator, you can always change user info and priviliges in General settings.

Users can login to Wordpress page by adding /wp-admin to destinated page. For example www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin. 

How to create Wordpress website/blog - PART 1

1. Basics/Intro

We decided to write this article about Wordpress because we could not find anywhere on web kind of short tutorial or clear instructions how to create Wordpress site from beginning, at least not on same place. As you can find on our blog, WP is free CMS (Content Management System) which basic purpose is creating blogs, but with Wordpress you can create website, also.

When we started our first website (long time ago!) built with WP, it took a lot of time and effort to gather and implement all necessary information needed for installation and setup of basic settings. Of course, even today we find new useful information that can be used during the webpage building or upgrading so this WP area is kind of constant learning and information gathering.

Basic installation of Wordpress is not too complicated, but once you create page using Wordpress you always have some work to do on it with some adjustments, new ideas or software updates. Before Wordpress is being installed, you need basic conditions to be fulfilled (Internet domain and hosting provided). You need these conditions whether you use WP or some other CMS!

2. Domain

In order to create your webpage or blog you need domain, for sure. If you already have domain, you probably decided which section will your website cover and be about. If you want to buy a new domain it is always recommendable to use .com, .net, .org domains in that exact order. So it is highly recommendable that you use .com domain according to many forums and respectable blogs, because Google will be more friendly to your website. Nevertheless, the most important thing is how you popularize your website and have a lot of visitors, whatever your domain is called.

To conclude, in order to buy a domain you need to go to one of domain registers online and buy it. For example visit Go Daddy or Name.

3. Hosting

This step is also very important step when creating any webpage - to select good hosting service depending on what traffic you expect and what content will website offer. If you are not sure what level will your website reach you can always transfer it to another server. Transfer procedure is very simple and it includes backup of MySQL database and all databases on your hosting, so it can be easily transferred to different hosting. About hosting - if you create a new page best option is to start with shared hosting. That means you share resources of your hosting with other pages on that same hosting. On the other hand, if you plan serious website with a lot of traffic through it, you should acquire personal hosting and all of your data and pages will be located on server with unique IP address. Roughly, it costs at least 80$ per month in case you can maintain server by yourself or price can be doubled if you need web administrator to run maintance on your, dedicated server.

You can choose between a lot of companies that offer shared hosting services, for example Go Daddy or Hostgator. We do not advertize these companies, just mentioning some that provide hosting services. You can find any company you want, match their prices and choose adequate one. You can even go and find free hosting for your website (for example 000webhost) but this is not an option if you are interested in creating relevant website.

Most important thing about hosting is that you do not select cheapest hosting necessarily. First explore (use Google) service you want acquire and then choose right one. Search forums and blogs about this topics, read user reviews before you do anything that could have serious consequences for your website.

Wordpress installation (step by step)

Note that this step will describe how to manually install WP on the server, although there are some applications that can automatically do this for you, if web hosting companies over which you have rented hosting has activated this option. (An example is Fantastico).
To manually install Wordpress on the server, you must be connected to the server via an FTP client. There are a lot of different FTP clients and some of them are FileZilla and WinSCP. WinSCP has a useful option that you can edit any file located on the server and modify the code directly to the files stored on the server. So the procedure is to connect to the server with the supplied username, password and port. Under host name you enter yourdomain.com.
It's time to take off (unzipp) Wordpress website which you previously downloaded to your hard drive.

Once you are connected via FTP client, you need to upload the unzipped wordpress files from wordpress main folder to a directory of your website (usually public_html).

After all files have been uploaded, you need to access your domain through your web browser. The first window will appear. Here just choose the language of the wordpress.

After this step, the window will appear with the items you need to know before starting the installation. Those items are; Database name, Database username, Database password, Database host and Database prefix.
In a case that you dont know what this is, follow the next steps.

First login to your cPanel and go to MySQL databases. Create new database, and remember it, it will be your Database name. Add new user, it will be your Database user name, the password you enter here will be your Database password. Add the user you created to the database you created for this wordpress installation, and grant all privilegies for this user. And thats it. Return to the wordpress installation and click on the button Let`s go!

In the next window just fill in the asked information. So enter your Database name, Database username and Database password. For the Database host, enter localhost, and for the Database prefix enter wp_.

Now the installation of wordpress starts. You need to enter the title you want for your website. User name and password that you enter here will be used to enter the admin panel later when you install your wordpress. Enter your emal, so the wordpress can contact you when someone leave comment, or if you forget password. Click to allow search engines to index your website.

Congratullations, you have installed wordpress!

Now log in, choose your theme, create your posts, create pages and share it with your friends or with everyone!