Christmas Decoration Social Bookmarking Gadget For Blogger Blogs

In the past I have written a few tutorials on different styles of the share this social bookmark egg.Today just in time for Christmas I have a Christmas version.A cool Christmas ornament sits on the corner of your blog with social bookmarking options for readers.On hover the ornament slides open with share buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Email and the ShareThis button that offers even more options.Check out the demo below :



OK if that's something you want to greet your visitors this Christmas heres the tutorial.
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7 Best Tools For Your Next Blog Giveaway

Guest Post - Our host is Charles Dearing, Giveaways and competitions are now very popular for bloggers, in this post Charles guides you to some free tools to help you with your giveaways.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Promotions and giveaways are effective means to attract more visitors to your site, and a way to give thanks to your loyal readers. Here are seven of the best tools that you can use for your next blog giveaway:
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A Matter Of Style: Why Design Matters More Than Content

Guest Post - Our host is Mara Fuchs, here Mara makes a case on just how important your blog design can be.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Picture the following: you have two plates of food in front of you, both containing cheeseburgers. One plate contains a large but rather greasy fast-food chain burger and a side of stale fries. The second contains a micro-burger: a small, pesto and truffle oil infused patty in a small brioche bun with a side of four thick cut appetizing Belgian fries and a small decorative carrot carving. Which one would you choose?

Odds are you said the latter (unless you were really, really hungry…). That’s because while content is one of the most important things to take into account when trying to attract traffic to your site and rank better it is not the most important thing. The design, layout and ease of use are far more important.

Think of it this way: you might have Pulitzer-worthy content on your page but if the layout is awkward or simply unappealing, very few people will actually make it to your content. Good can help you get potential customers or readers to your page but their efforts will be squandered if the customers just click back after taking a look at your site design.
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The Art (And Science) Of Building A Link Profile

Guest Post - Our host is Matt Foden, Matt explains new link building as an art and science.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

With the myriad of recent changes to Google's algorithm it can seem very difficult to navigate yourself through the stormy waters of Search Marketing nowadays. Recent Penguin and Panda updates have turned previously accepted SEO practices on their head.

For example, the once widely accepted technique of using exact match domains to target specific keywords has now been targeted and devalued by the search engine. It has to be said, though, that this particular change has been on the cards for some time, and actually does make a lot of sense. It's another fairly recent update that I want to focus on in this post, however, an update that penalised sites that were too reliant on keyword anchor text links. I’ll explore our real life experiences in this area and offer some practical advice that you can apply to your own sites.
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DIY or Die: Good Blogging Based on Punk Rock Ethics

Guest Post - Our host is Dustin Verburg, in this post Dustin make some very interesting comparisons between Punk and Blogging...Really...See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Before the late 1970s, it was nearly impossible for independent musicians to tour and release albums without major label backing. Punk came along and changed all of that in a few different ways. Kids saw that they could, in fact, play music without looking like rock stars or playing like virtuosos. Punk bands also set up concrete DIY models for releasing their own records and setting up their own tours that anyone could follow. The major labels were cut out entirely, and it actually became a case of “you can do this if they put the work in.”

The Internet, in that way, is in those exciting golden years. The infrastructure has been set up and there are several credible models available for reference. There are a staggering amount of resources available to independent bloggers so they can, in fact, do it themselves. That might seem obvious, but it also becomes a valuable thinking point when you start to incorporate the ethics of DIY, independent music into blogging.
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Cool New Christmas Snow Storm Effect For Blogger Blogs

Over the last few years I have tried to help you get your blogs into the Christmas spirit with some neat Christmas themed gadgets.The most popular and simple of these have been the Snow Fall effects we have published.Some code added to your blog can transform the look of your site as over the Christmas period visitors are greeted with snow falling gently down the page.

This year is no different as I have a new Christmas snow effect but this time it's a snow storm with the direction of the snow fall dictated by your cursor movements.Check out the demo below then you can add it to your blog using our one click Blogger button.


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3 Ways To NOT Build Links For Your Blog In The Penguin Era – And 3 Ways To Do It Better

Guest Post - Our host is Harvey Pearce, In this post Harvey looks at the new age of link building.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

By now if you have a blog you’ve no doubt heard all about Google’s Penguin update. If you haven’t, here’s a quick recap from an earlier post on Spice Up Your Blog, How Google Penguin Update Will Affect Your Blog ? .It’s been many months now since the hammer fell on some webmasters and it always takes a while to adjust and learn how to go forward. Of course every major update has its casualties and you rarely hear about people having Panda issues any more. Strategies change and every new update strikes even worse fear in the hearts of some webmasters. If it wasn’t clear before it’s pretty obvious now that if you want to succeed on the web, then you need to be ‘doing it right’. So without further ado I’m going to explain what strategies you shouldn’t be doing and explaining how to ‘do it right’.
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