Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is accessible by as many people as possible – Wikipedia.

Making your blog more accessible will help you get more readers which translates to success.

Here are 25 tips to make your blog more accessible for readers:

1. Large Fonts: Large fonts make it possible to read posts easily. You should not make it very big, anywhere between 12 and 14 points is fine.
2. Good Design: Good design is something you should focus before everything else. Nothing can be better than a well designed blog where the content gets attention.
3. Follow KISS: KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. Do not make design complex, simple is better!
4. Dark Text On Light Background: Reading dark text on a lighter background is much easier and when selecting a theme for your blog, make sure it has dark text that’s readable on background.
5. Looooooooong Blogrolls: OK, blogrolls are great, they help you share your favourite blogs with readers, right? But there’s no use of blogroll with 30 links! Most people will find it, well long! So, keep it short.
6. Looooooooong Sidebars: I won’t say a word, you know how you feel when you see a long sidebar cluttered with all kinds of ads and links!
7. De-Clutter Sidebar: Clutter is irritating. Nothing can be more irritating than a sidebar that is cluttered with widgets, ads etc. Identify what’s important for you and keep only the best widgets.
8. Add Images To Articles: Images make articles look better and also attract focus towards important points.
9. Never, Ever Use Animations: Animations do only one thing well, distracting readers! Avoid animations inside articles.
10. Make Your Blog Fast: There’s no point in doing anything if you blog takes forever to load! Further Reading: How To Increase Page Loading Times Of Your Blog By 75%.
11. Use “Click Here”:  With every other blog having different design, there’s one thing that becomes a problem, finding links! In good old days, we had blue links and even most computer un-savy people could use them. So, if you have anything important to link to, try using “Click Here”. And by the bay, Click Here to subscribe to Blogging With Success so that you can get more tips like these straight inside your inbox!
12. Use Constant Link Color: Do not make every link of different color. It is best to have a constant link color across website.
13. Make Links Underline: Making links underlined will help to get attention to them.
14. Make Links Underline On Hover: Yes, it may seem odd to have links underline. And if you also think so, why not make them underline on hover? That would also be a nice effect! To do this, simple add this line to end of your style.css file in WordPress: a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }
15. Optimize For Slow Connections: Everyone in the world does not have a broad band(yet), so try to keep page size under 500 kb. Further reading: How To Decrease Page Loading Times Of Your Blog By 75%.
16. Avoid Auto Plays: Auto playing music is nothing but an annoyance. And videos, they are even more. Most importantly, they take up lot of bandwidth which may cause visitors on slow connections to move away.
17. Add A Text To Speech Converter: An automatic text to speech converter can help a lot of people who might have difficulty reading your posts. I found two services that can do this for you: Odigo and iSpeech.
18. Make Content Column Wider: Anything more than 3 columns is an overkill. And if you are going to get a magazine theme, it is best to make it simple and non-puzzling!
19. Make Search Easier: Do not forget to place a “search” widget in your sidebar. Even if you are using Apture, a search widget is helpful as many people won’t know how to use it!
20. Make Navigation Easier: Make sure that your old posts and other important info is easy to find. As Daniel Scocco says, “Every post of your blog should be no more than one click away”
21. Make Subscription Links Visible: When people want to subscribe, they will look for easy methods to subscribe. Ensure that you have “Subscribe” links on every page and they are visible too!
22. Get Rid Of Captchas: Captchas are very annoying! Sometimes, the text is very hard to read and this may irritate the readers. Yes, I know you may get comment spam but there are better ways to fight comment spam without affecting user experience!
23. Get A Favicon: A favicon helps readers to find your blog in a big cluster of tabs. So, get 10 minutes and make a favicon for your blog.
24. Test In Different Browsers: I have learned this the hard way. What looks awesome in my Opera browser is often horrible in Internet Explorer and when dealing with clients, this is very irritating!(Nothing can annoy more than a “Design does not look good” from a client using Internet Explorer 6!) It is best to test design in different browsers. A good tool for this is Browser Shots.
25. Use Contact Forms: Yes, I know that email privacy is important but putting a simple image of your email address is not very user friendly! Please add a contact form to give people a less annoying(wait, it’s not annoying at all!) way to contact you!

Using these tips, you can easily make your blog more user friendly. It’s not necessary to use all of these but those which are necessary for your reader base should be added as soon as possible!

What other tips do you have to make your blog more accessible? Do not forget to share in comments.

Related posts:

1. Widget Checklist for New Bloggers When designing a blog, which widgets are essential? Listed here are the most useful widgets for any successful blog....
2. Why Bloggers Do Not Succeed? 10 Reasons Ever thought why most of the bloggers do not succeed? There are lot of reasons behind this but here are top 10 reasons: 1. Lack of Passion: They are not passionate about their topic. They start a blog out of excitement and end up deleting it when they can not...
3. Have A Tips Blog? Most Important Advice For You Do you have a "Tips" blog? No matter what your blog is about and what platform you use, here is an important piece of advice for you: "Do What You Recommend" I have seen many blogs where the given tips are not followed by owners themselves. This reduces their credibility....

Ready To Steal?

It happens!

But you can't live like this forever! Imagine what will happen to your blog!

Your readers are waiting for a good article from your side and you are silent? They will go to some other blog fast, really fast!

You have to write!

Thankfully, there's a great way to write even when you can't find new ideas yourself!

Want to know about it?

OK, first, shut that open door. Now, look around to make sure no one’s looking! OK, bring your ears eyes closer.

So, the secret is,

Steal from other bloggers!

Wait!

Before you go out there and start copy pasting, let me clarify that I didn’t mean copy pasting posts! Heck, I didn’t mean copy pasting at all!

What I meant was that you should steal their ideas!

And you won’t find ideas in a safe locked in a safe inside blogger’s mansion! They put their ideas out their in wild(in short, on their blog) and still, we don’t spot them.

Welcome To The World Of “Openings”

No one is perfect!

Right?

And that’s the case with top bloggers! Yes, they write great posts, but not every post is complete in itself.

Every thought “If he could have included this or that, article would have been better"!” when reading an article?

Then congratulations!

You already know and have seen the “openings”.

I have always been a big fan of openings and lot of my posts are inspired by other’s post(sometimes from a single line in an article!). don't believe me, then take a look at my post How To Blog Again After A Long Absence. As mentioned in the post, it was inspired by Leo Babauta's post on Write To Done.

What In The World Are Openings?

Openings are just the incomplete points that blogger has left in his posts. There may be different reasons for existence of openings but the biggest one is that it’s not possible to cover everything in one post. So, bloggers usually don't go into much detail!

How To Spot Openings?

There’s only thing I can say, read read and read. The more you read, more openings you will find.

However, one thing I have noticed is that list posts are best places to find openings. For example, take a look at Daniel Scocco’s Email Marketing Basics: All You Need To Get Started. Daniel has 4 steps mentioned in it and but not gone into much detail!

OK, so what openings do you find in it?

Well, for me, the 4 points are an idea list and a full series can be written on it easily! The base is ready(ideas) and all that is needed is to add some advice and ideas and you will have your own posts ready!

Again, another list post is Leo Babauta’s The Elements Of Change. If I had a life change, zen type blog, I would have written following 5 posts from it:

1. Beating Inertia: How To Do It?
2. Beating The Resistance of Others. (Leo has already written on this, but hey, that won’t stop you from writing on this topic! And by the way, that post is also a list post!)
3. How To Find Joy?
4. Keeping The Joy Alive Once You Find It!
5. Why And How To Celebrate The Little Victories.

Of course, this is my take on it and you may get different ideas.

But the moral of the story is, when you don’t feel that inspirational, go out, read and steal from other bloggers!

Simple!

Related posts:

1. 10 Magnetic Techniques to Attract Ideas Bloggers and Article Writer often find themselves out of Ideas. In this post, you will discover the 10 Magnetic Techniques that Attract Ideas...
2. How to Organize Ideas and Save Time Our brain is full of ideas. I have always said that Ideas are Everywhere and only thing you need is to find them! In April, I wrote 10 Magnetic Techniques to Attract Ideas. It was all about finding the ideas around you. But finding is not everything! You have to...
3. Need Ideas for Blog Topics? As new bloggers you want to build up your archive of knowledge --- expertise, perspective, information --- for your readers....

The decision to move from Blogger to WordPress is a bit like moving from an apartment to a house. You don't just decide today and move in tomorrow. This article series looks at the short and long-term planning it takes for a successful move.

Starting a new Blogspot blog is like starting a new job. You set yourself up a cubicle or office and make yourself at home.  You happily churn out work, make friends and before you know it, you've been there for two years. Many new workers (bloggers) don't plan ahead for that day when they outgrow the job or the employer decides to take back that cubicle.

It's never too early to put some safeguards in place. Sure you may toss yourcha blog in a few months, but you may also become quite invested in your blog. But whose blog is it really? Sure it's your creation but Google owns the building! Let's start with the url name for your blog:  MyBlog.blogspot.com!  Your blog is a sub-domain of Blogspot.com. But you say there is no Blogspot.com. Yes there is, since that name redirects you to Blogger.com!

What is a Domain?

A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control on the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS). - Wikipedia

What is a Sub-Domain?

Subdomains are commonly used by organizations that wish to assign a unique name to a particular department, function, or service related to the organization. For example, a university might assign "cs" to the computer science department, ... or www.cs.example.edu. - Wikipedia

Stake out your Domain Name

Even if you have no plans to move to WordPress, it's a good investment to claim your domain name. Once you own it, you take it with you if you move to another host. You can even use it on Blogspot to brand yourself and make it easier to move your reader community with you. Blogger does not own your readers, but readers need a way of finding you if you move or get evicted!

1. Start saving for your domain name. Put aside a few dollars every month you blog. Before you know it you'll have enough to get your name. If you quit blogging, then you use that money for yourself!
2. Search for a name you want to own --- Godaddy's search software make suggestions if your first choice is already taken. It's amazing how most of your choices are already owned! Try .net instead of .com.
   If you blog at (not own)  http://flyinggigglesandlollipops.blogspot.com/ then you want http://flyinggigglesandlollipops.com as your custom domain name. and luckily as of today it's available, so Michelle what are you waiting for?
   
3. Buy your name for less than $1 per month (paid annually). You can purchase multiple years and must renew  when the time expires.  We use NameCheap.com and GoDaddy.com --- just don't accept those extra offers!
4. Link your name to Blogspot and start getting readers used to your real name!Using Michelle's PR2  blog as an example,  she has invested in about 1,000 posts over two years. If she changes the name now, she increases her chances of moving readers in the future.

How to Link Blogspot to Your Custom Domain Name

In this scenario you will continue to use Blogspot as a free hosting platform. Your custom domain will point to the Blogspot servers. All new posts will carry the MyCustomBlog.com/new post  name and indexed that way on Google. The older posts on Google will continue to resolve correctly.

1. Change your Blogger Settings, Publishing to point to your domain.
2. Press Advanced Setting.
   
   I don't recommend buying from Google. Based on experience it becomes a tangled web to go in months later and move your DNS to a different host!On this screen you'll see Blogger's commitment:
   We won't leave your readers behind!
   http://bpdesignchronicles.blogspot.com will redirect to your custom domain.
   Lovely! But that promise only works if you and Blogger part on good terms. But it can help build up your following until you make an amicable move to another platform.
3. Key in your domain name and confirm.
4. Now you must have your domain name registrar point the nameservers to Blogspot. See this help article for details, but basically you use the IP addresses below and tie your domain name with ghs.google.com :
   216.239.32.21
   216.239.34.21
   216.239.36.21
   216.239.38.21
5. Continue developing on Blogger until or if you decide to move.

Next Steps

Are you thinking and planning for your Blogspot retirement? Well I am. I already own my BPWebNews.com. Currently I use it for testing but will soon tie it to my blogspot blog, following my own advice. Right now I'm living dangerously!

If you migrated to WordPress,  did you purchase your domain name while posting on Blogger?

Look for the next article in this series. Sign up for our email to get a personal notice!

Related posts:

1. Why Monetize your Blog? 8 Reasons What is "Monetizing a Blog"? When it comes to blogs, we can safely say that it is the process of earning money from a blog. Why should you monetize your blog? ...
2. Starting down the path to successful blogging Learning what's most important about earning with your blog, your time and commitment to writing and promoting....
3. Beware: Are You a “Sleepy” Blogger? You have heard about Mommy bloggers, Daddy bloggers, Teen bloggers, and Pro bloggers. Yet, I can bet you have never heard about "Sleepy" Bloggers! I can bet because this is a shiny new term given by me! Let's leave these terms and talk about what you are here for, "Sleepy"...

Managing a blog is lot of fun. Experimenting with plugins, themes, checking comments etc. are not bad but take a lot of time.

In this post, I will discuss how you can save time spent in administrative tasks.

Are You Also Running Behind Clock?

Write A FAQ Page

If you get asked by some things repeatedly, it is best to make a FAQ page specially for these. For example, one thing I have been asked again and again is about the plugin that we use to display commentator’s latest post. So, I built a FAQ page and also a credits page to give all the plugin authors credit that work hard to develop quality plugins for free.

Tell That You Can’t Reply To Every Mail

It is hard to reply to every mail you get. If you find yourself more busy with things like replying to mails, mention on contact form that you can’t reply to every mail and ensure that their mail will be read.

Embed Subscription Forms In Your Posts

Adding code every time to a post can take lot of time but then, subscription forms are also important to get readers. So, take some time and either add a plugin to add forms automatically after every post or just add it inside theme!

Find The “Real” Core Activities

Finding activities that really work can take some time but it will surely be worth the time.

There’s a big difference between “real” and normal core activities. For example, a core activity is “writing content” while a “real” core activity is to write the content that works for your blog. If list posts are liked more by your readers, it is best to spend time on writing list posts than tutorials.

What techniques do you use to save time? Do let us know via comments!

Related posts:

1. 12 Ways To Grow RSS Readers Image by loic_hay via Flickr RSS is a web technology that lets people subscribe and get updates in their readers. Increasing RSS subscribers can be an easy task provided you have quality content and take steps to bring visitors to your blog. Besides, adding RSS facility can help your visitors...
2. How Comment Subscriptions Engage Blog Visitors Do you drop comments on blogs and go your merry way? Or do you check back to see if the blog owner responded? The best way to show you're interested in a real dialog is to subscribe to post comments. Imagine the frustration of the blog owner who gives a...
3. Sorting, Saving and Tossing StumbleUpon Friends StumbleUpon's recent upgrade dramatically changes the online sharing game. Some Stumblrs are looking to jump ship, sniffing out other social media like FaceBook for the first time. Version 3 friends are now "subscriptions" in Version 4. The transition started in early October. Like many of you, I assumed my friends...

Writing a post?

How many times did you turn back to see how good or bad your post is?

And how many times did you think of deleting the post because you felt that it is not good?

The real question is not "how many times did you turn back" but

Did you turn back?

If yes, you are mixing your hats.

Oops! Sorry for going straight into hats thing without explaining what "hats" mean. By hats, or blogging hats, I mean the roles you have to fulfil as a blogger.

Here are some of the roles a blogger usually plays:

• Writer.
• Editor.
• Designer
• Stats Analyzer.
• Troubleshooter.

There’s no problem if you wear multiple hats!

Let’s take a look at real world hats to understand better.

Let’s say you have 10 hats. One day, you go out wearing 2 of them, how would you look?

Not good!

1 hat is enough at a time.

Similarly, you should be wearing one hat at a time.

Wearing one hat a time will only prove good for you. For example, I am a writer for Blogging With Success and at the same time also WordPress Expert! And I am not half bad at both(as far as I know and clients say!)

The real problem arises when hats are mixed!

For example, I sometimes mix writer and editor and get wriditor(?). OK, time to stop making silly words and getting back to post.

So, when I mix a writer and editor, this happens(besides getting a wriditor, that is! )

I start writing a post, reach half way, think “Hmm.. it doesn’t look half good!” and hit the “Trash” button in WordPress.

And there goes a good idea, into the trash. This has happened many times with me.

Finally, I got a fix. This fix was suggested by Mary Jaksh in a response to my question in A List Blogging Bootcamps.

The fix is to not mix the editor and writer. When writing, just write. Check back again after 1 day and edit. This way, posts come up best. I have tried it and it works great.

Similar theory can be applied to other hats as well. For example, when writing, you should not worry about anything related to design (images in post, formatting) because that's a different thing.

Moral of the story: Wear One Hat At A Time, Be Happy And Organized.

How many hats are you wearing?

Related posts:

1. Google Writer: Offline Blog Editor by Google! Sneak Peak + Exclusive Download Link Update: This article is just an April Fool's Day Joke. There is nothing like Google Writer. If you want a good Offline Editor, you can read our review of Windows Live Writer or Check out our post 101.5 Free Tools and Services for Bloggers where we have included 4 offline...
2. Windows Live Writer: Good or Bad? I had been using Blogspot's native editor for a while until several weeks ago I finally got Windows Live Writer (WLW). This tool is absolutely free of charge --something rare from Microsoft-- and excellent help for writing blog posts. (click the screenshot for a larger view) Windows Live Writer is...
3. How To Focus On Your Blog And Avoid Distractions Remaining focused is very difficult for anyone. For bloggers, it is even more difficult. We do most of our work (writing, promoting etc.) online and there are lot of things to distract here. Let's take an example. When you write, do you completely focus on your blog and the present...

In a previous post we talked about 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog Design by proper placement of key text, consistent alignment of sidebar elements and decluttering of social icons.  Well, it's time to look at one more -- whitespace ! It's all about showcasing your blog content and making it easy for visitors to continue reading.

What is whitespace?

Whitespace  refers to that part of the page left blank. Some call it 'negative space.'  The terms come from the fact that most letters, ads, brochures, etc. used to be printed on white paper. For the purpose of blog design, the term refers to the space between elements like headers, images, columns, paragraphs and lines of text.

White space should not be considered merely 'blank' space — it is an important element of design which enables the objects in it to exist at all, the balance between positive (or non-white) and the use of negative spaces is key to aesthetic composition. -   Wikipedia

Why do I need whitespace; isn't content enough?

Proper spacing between different elements of your blog allow visitors to focus on each element rather than look at a cluttered clumps of text and images. Simply adding spacing between lines and paragraphs makes your content easier to read.

Your header, post column and sidebar also need sufficient negative space. Within a header, the image, blog title and description are more appealing when properly spaced. You don't want anything to detract from your great blog content!

How can I enhance whitespace in my post content?

Unlike word-processing software, you can't just open a page setup menu to specify text-size and spacing. But you can use key editing options, often overlooked,  to create negative space.

Create more paragraphs

Very simple editing step. Many people cram too much into one paragraph. So review your draft and use that enter key often to break up text! Give you readers' minds and eyes a break.

Add images and subheadings above key sections

Thumbnail size image and icons can separate thoughts and make scanning easier. So can subheadings. Every template comes with different size heading text, larger and bolder than regular paragraph text.

How can I automatically adjust whitespace in my lines and paragraphs?

Granted margins, padding and line spacing defaults are hidden in your template. Pressing the enter key to separate lines can have vastly different results from theme to theme.

Select the right template styling

So the first thing is to look for the right balance before you activate a template. Buyer beware.Examine the theme's demo or preview very carefully. Don't just go for the flashy slideshows, wallpapers and bright colors!

Look at column size and spacing. Do widgets have good padding and margins? Is the text spacing between lines crammed? Also look for a wider design to take advantage of today's wide screens. Wider structures, allow larger text with greater line spacing.

Make basic adjustments to the template

There are just a few elements you can change without impacting the core structure of your template: padding, (top/bottom) margin and line-height.Line-height controls the space between text lines. Our current template uses a font size of 1.4em; line height of 1.571em and paragaph margin-bottom of 1.571em.

Let's translate that:

1em is equal to the current font size. 2em means 2 times the size of the current font. E.g., if an element is displayed with a font of 12 pt, then '2em' is 24 pt. The 'em' is a very useful unit in CSS, since it can adapt automatically to the font that the reader uses - W3schools

So right away you say, 'this is supposed to be easy!' Don't worry you can do this. Let's use the Herdo Live theme as an example:

Only after installing this theme for a recent client did we realize the default is double line spacing.  It's as clear as day in the demo, but we missed it. Here's what the demo disclosed in the elements section (click image for larger view): too much negative space between lines --- adversely affecting reader concentration.

Demo Elements - click to enlarge

Here's how I made the simple change. First I suggest you install the theme on a test blog. If you must use the live blog, make sure you backup the Style.css and perhaps put your blog in maintenance mode --- often taking so many precautions ensures nothing will happen! lol

1. Go to dashboard, Appearances, Editor.
2. Select the Style.css to edit.
3. Do a Ctrl +F or find for the words "line-height:". This theme has one associated with the pargraph tag, p. So that's what we want.
4. The current value is 200%  (double the size of the font). Just change that to 150%.
5. Press Update File button

This image shows the five steps graphically.

Paragraph style change - click to enlarge image.

Let's hear from you!

Do you notice formatting and negative space in blogs on your reading list? What is your reaction when you see a narrow, tightly spaced posts?

Related posts:

1. 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Blog Design Your blog's design should scream success, but without detracting from your great content. A good design is almost invisible --- blending perfectly with your articles. Here are a few simple things you can do to showcase content and encourage visitors to read further. 1. Display Key Content Above The  Fold...
2. Blog Styling Tip: How to use drop cap styling I'm sure you see some interesting font styling on other blogs and wonder just how they managed those touches. You sigh and think that if you could only monetize your blog, you could hire a designer! Well, you don't have to go that far to create some of that eye candy. In...
3. Get Your Ambush Design Makeover: Ad Themes Blogger Template If you're using the Ads Theme Blogger Template (which is what we have), you're in luck! You could be part of our Ambush Design Makeover. What, who asks for an ambush? Let me explain. The free ads theme template is one of the more professional and popular themes for blogs...

Have you noticed something strange with Blogging With Success recently?

No!

Well, really? How can you not notice the decrease in our page loading times! We brought it down by at least 75%! Before this, Blogging With Success homepage was taking 8-9 seconds as reported by site-perf.com.

Now, same test reports 2-3 seconds!

In this post, I will tell you how we did it and how you can do it too!

How We Did It

We used W3 Total Cache plugin and Amazon S3. W3 Total Cache is a great caching plugin and can cache pages and also compress the javascript and CSS files. Additionally, it also offers CDN integration.

How You Can Speed Up Your Blog Too

Just follow the tutorial instructions and that’s it!

Time Required: 15 minutes.

Installing And Configuring W3 Total Cache Plugin

When I noticed the page loading times, I first took a look at the options. I had used WP Super Cache before but did not have good experiences with it. So, I decided to give W3 Total Cache a try.

You can get the plugin from WordPress Plugin Directory here. For now, enable Page Caching, Minify and Database Caching and leave CDN integration as we are going to do that later. Here's a short description of what these options do:

• Page Caching: Saves WordPress generated pages as simple HTML and serves these to visitors.
• Minify: Reduces size of javascript and CSS.
• Database Caching: Caches the results of queries made by WordPress.

Default settings of the plugin are good to go by and only thing you need to do is enable database caching.

Now, W3 Total Cache is all set.

After setting up plugin, out loading times fell to 6-7 seconds. Good, but still a bit slow. So, we decided to use Amazon's Cloudfront as CDN for fast delivery of images. This leaves our server with task of handling PHP and SQL only and makes it super fast.

Adding The Main Booster(CDN)

Why CDN Is Important: Before doing anything, you should know why it is needed and basically, how it works! Here's an example that will relate with everyone!

Think of your blog as a maths teacher and you as a server! Remember when you were in seventh standard and teacher gave you those long "statement" questions which were difficult to understand initially but had less calculations? Wouldn't it have been simple if you had a friend that would convert all the statements for you

First , sign up for Amazon Web Services account here. Now, you need to decide between Cloudfront and Simple Storage Service. Here's a brief description of how both of these work:

• Amazon S3: S3 stands for Simple Storage Service and does exactly what the name says. It will store your files on Amazon servers and allow you to fetch them from their. So, if someone from India visits your site, he will have to fetch the files from Amazon US server(if your bucket is in US!).
• Amazon Cloudfront: In the above example, how about if a person visiting from India is served the same file from Japan? Japan is nearer and load time will decrease this way! This is what exactly Cloudfront does. It will deliver the file from nearest edge location to your visitor.

You need a credit card to sign for S3 and/or Cloudfront.

Now, go to your AWS Management Console and go to your account. Click "Security Credentials". Under access credentials, you will see your access keys. Click "Show Secret Key" and note both the keys(access key id and secret access key) values down.

Also, create a new bucket in S3 console.

Creating A Bucket (S3)

A bucket is a storage location for all your files. To create a bucket, sign into Amazon Management Console and switch to Amazon S3 tab. Create a bucket. you can name it anything as long as it is available.

Now, either you can use S3 straightaway or signup for CloudFront. I recommend signing up for CloudFront as it has same pricing as S3 and will provide good boost without adding much costs!

If you want to use just S3, skip the following step.

Adding CloudFront

First, sign up for CloudFront. Next, click “Create Distribution”.

Select “Download” as delivery method and select the bucket you just created as origin.

You can enter custom CNAMEs if you want. CNAMEs allow you to use your own sub-domain for CDN(like we use cdn.bloggingwithsuccess.net ) and click “Create”.

If you want a custom CNAME, follow the following steps:

• Once you create a CloudFront distribution, note down its URL. It should be like asdcxzciascd.cloudfront.net
• Log into cPanel.
• Look for Simple DNS Zone Editor. Click on it.
• Now, switch to the domain you are adding CDN to.
• Add the CloudFront distribution to CNAME and above it, NAME. NAME is the sub-domain you want for CDN. Make sure that NAME ends with a period(.). For example, if you want cnd.yourdomain.com , NAME should be cdn.yourdomain.com.

Back To W3 Total Cache

Now your Content Delivery Network is all set and you need to configure the W3 Total Cache plugin correctly.

Go to Settings ? W3 Total Cache and then click Content Delivery Network in the plugin menu.

Now, you will see options to host different files on CDN. Here’s what each option does:

• Host wp-includes/ Files: Moves all your WordPress static files to cloud. This includes things like smileys(yep, WP includes smileys!) etc.
• Host Theme Files: Hosts all your theme files on cloud. It is better to turn this off as it makes theme editing very difficult.
• Host Minified CSS and JS Files: Moves compressed CSS and Javascript files to cloud. Only available if you have enabled minifying.
• Host Custom Files: Moves custom files(specified in custom files list) to cloud. This may be your whole gallery.
• Force Overwriting: Allows you to overwrite existing files when uploading.
• Import External Media Library Attachments: Imports images that are attached to posts but are hosted on external server.

I’d recommend hosting wp-includes and custom files(including WP gallery) because this is the main part of your blog. If you are not a frequent theme customizer, you can also host theme files.

Now, enter the access key id and secret key and other information(bucket name for using Amazon S3 and CNAME for CloudFront )

Export the required files by clicking corresponding button. The process will be pretty fast.

Now check the images of your blog. If their source is not cdn.yourdomain.com(or CNAME you chose), the process is successful!

What’s Next?

Well, take some time off and enjoy your faster blog!

If you have any problems, feel free to ask in comments. Also, do not forget to tell us about your experience with it.

Please share this tutorial on Delicious, Twitter or Facebook if you found it useful! Thanks.

Related posts:

1. Making WordPress Faster: Top Caching Plugins In the post about making your blog faster, I mentioned using Caching plugins for WordPress. In this article, I will be explaining how a cache plugin usually works and how it makes your blog faster. Of course, I will also talk about caching plugins available for WordPress. How A Cache...
2. 10 Tips To Make Your Blog Fast If your blog loads slow, you are loosing readers. In many countries, broadband internet is still a day dream and you should make sure that you do not have heavy pages. You can use the following 10 tips to make sure that your blog stays fast: Choose A Good Host:...
3. Tutorial: Install WordPress In Fewer Than 5 Minutes WordPress is the most feature rich and extensible blogging platform. WP is easy to use and there are lot of plugins and themes available. However, newbies might find it difficult to install WordPress for a self-hosted blog. After reading this tutorial, you will be able to install WP in one...

EMail marketing is one of the best methods for marketing your blog and selling your product. Top bloggers use it to drive traffic to their blogs and sell products.

Recently, we moved to MailChimp and our experience with it has been great.

FeedBurner

FeedBurner is one of the most loved services for bloggers. It’s free and has lot of useful features.

Although it's not that reliable with stats but gets the job done.

Pros

1. Free: FeedBurner is free for feeds as well as email updates. You can have as many subscribers as you want without paying anything.
2. Simple: Like everything Google, it is simple to use and the user interface is very easy to get used to.

Cons

1. Fluctuating Stats: It has become a routine now. If you have watched your blog’s stats for last 2-3 weeks, you must have noticed the fluctuations! While I understand that problems may occur with services, they should not occur so often!
2. Incomplete Solution: FeedBurner is not complete solution for email marketing. Yes, it can send updates but you can’t send custom emails. You can’t even change the subscription confirmation email!
3. Support: What’s the one area where Google comes up lacking? It is support. And since FeedBurner is under Google, it has non-existent support! I have had a small issue once and asked in support forums about it. No prizes for guessing that no one replied!

MailChimp

MailChimp is a superb email marketing solution that is fantastic for bloggers as well as marketers. Let’s take a look at its pros and cons.

Pros

1. Features: MailChimp has loads of features. If I start writing all of them, it will be a separate post altogether, please check out MailChimp Features.
2. Support: MailChimp has great support staff and problems are resolved very fast. And on top of that, there’s a superb knowledge base.
3. Free Tutorials: MailChimp offers a lot of good tutorials and there are even free guides to increase your newsletter subscribers.
4. Lots Of Stats: While FeedBurner stats are good, they are not very informative and it takes a full day to understand what things like “reach” are!
5. Good Pricing Structures: MailChimp’s pricing structure is comparable to the similar services.There’s also a free plan that allows you to send up to 3000 mails per month and manage 500 subscribers. And not to forget that you get awesome social media features for an awesome price that no other competitor offers!

Cons

1. FeedBurner Integration: MailChimp’s FeedBurner integration is not that good! We still use FeedBurner for delivering feeds and it would be great to have MailChimp report number of subscribers to FeedBurner but it doesn’t. FB stats show MailChimp as agent and subscriber count as 0 for it! I contacted both MailChimp as well as FeedBurner. FeedBurner didn’t respond while MailChimp said it’s FB issue!

It’s hard to find many negatives with MailChimp; the only con may be a personal issue or it may be affecting just FB integration.

Which Way To Go?

I won’t answer this as the choice is obvious and the only factor to consider is your wallet. But the price is justified and then you can use MailChimp for free if you have under 500 subscribers!

Which service do you use for email delivery? And how’s your experience with it?

Sign Up And Get $30

If you sign up for a non-free MailChimp account now, you will get $30 credited as Monkey Rewards in your MailChimp account. That's 3 month cost for a list up to 500 subscribers and allows you to send unlimited mails! Click here to sign up.

Related posts:

1. Important: Changes To E-Mail Updates I was thinking of doing it for a long-long time but had to give up because of different reasons! Finally, I have moved entire e-mail subscriber list to MailChimp. While I don't like the idea of a chimp carrying all the mails and delivering to your inbox, MailChimp have insured...
2. Running a Team Blog: How to Overcome Communication Problems Many people are considering team blogging these days. Communication is a vital factor for a team. In this post, I have discussed 3 widely used methods...
3. 12 Ways To Grow RSS Readers Image by loic_hay via Flickr RSS is a web technology that lets people subscribe and get updates in their readers. Increasing RSS subscribers can be an easy task provided you have quality content and take steps to bring visitors to your blog. Besides, adding RSS facility can help your visitors...

A break is refreshing! After all, it's great to live without tension of writing and managing!

But what if you are forced to take a break! It will not feel that good!

This week, something similar happened to me. I went to my aunt's home. I had lots of plans ready! A new place means new ideas and I was more than willing to catch these ideas and turn them into full fledged posts.

After reaching there and having some rest, here's what I went through:

1. Opened my Dell Studio 1457 Laptop(see How a Laptop makes me A Better Blogger).
2. Plugged in my USB modem.
3. Switched it on.
4. Started XP Mode in Windows 7(long story, Tata Indicom, my ISP forgot to update drivers! Huh)
5. Almost jumped off the chair to find that there was no signal.

Well, aunt's house is behind a big hill! So, the coverage for ISP was really week there. Then I tried to connect via my phone only to find that Aircel(phone operator) has blocked everything via port 80 except Google!

After trying and testing everything(I even did a full round of house carrying laptop in hands expecting signal to show up somewhere!), it was clear that this was a forced break.

So, I picked up the only choice I had, staying offline for 3 days!

This small break told me a lot of lessons. Here are the 3 most important ones.

1. Always Keep Drafts Ready: Drafts are life savers in such times. Having 3-4 drafts can help a lot and bring peace of mind. I had 3 drafts ready which were published on Tuesday, Thursday and Wednesday. Without these, my commitment of putting Blogging With Success on afterburners(see How To Put Your Blog On Afterburners) a weak would have fallen flat on face in first week!
2. Give A Trusted Friend An Admin Or Editor Level Account: Having a friend with an admin or editor account will help you to schedule or publish any "ready" posts in case of emergencies. I didn't need it as I had Shirley to manage the publishing. But if you find yourself in this kind of situation, friend will be a life saver.
3. Write Down Ideas In A Notebook: Always keep a notebook in which you can write down the ideas as they approach. I had a notebook with me and guess what, I wrote 15 ideas for new posts in it(and 3 of these are BIG, watch out next few weeks!)

Have you ever been forced to take such a break? What did you do?

Related posts:

1. How A Laptop Made Me A Better Blogger Before you start protesting against me and Blogging With Success, let me make clear that no one paid me to promote their laptop company/website! Recently, I got a Dell Studio 1457 Laptop and after buying it, my blogging experience has changed a lot. So, in this post, I am just...
2. Finding The Topic That Will Make You Famous. 4 Steps to Success Discussion of blog niches and how to find the right one for you!...
3. How To Put Your Blog On Afterburners Afterburner: An additional component added to some jet engines to provide a temporary increase in thrust. Is your blog growing more slowly than you expect? Do you want to know how you can get more subscribers and traffic? If you answered yes to both the questions, then welcome. You are...

Do Not Get Puzzled, Take The Straight Way To Promote Your Blog!

Are you trying to promote your blog but don't know where to start? Or are you starting t0 promoting your blog but not getting expected results? Guess what, blog promotion  doesn't need to be rocket science. In this post, I will tell you 20 blog promotion methods which are so easy that even a zombie can use them (that's why "dead" is in title! )

1. Commenting: Commenting on popular blogs can attract some targeted visitors to your blog. Try leaving your comment in first or second place to get maximum benefit. And yes, your comments should not suck!
2. Comment luv: Commenting on comment luv enabled blogs is a step further. Comment luv enabled blogs will display title of your latest blog post after your comment and if it's something interesting, people will visit!
3. Forums: Forums can be a great way to learn new things and attracting traffic. Similar to comments, leave useful information and people will visit your blog. And don't forget to add your blog in your signature.
4. Guest Posting: Yes, it's not that simple but it works best for promotion. Just try guest posting on a popular blog and you will see the effect.
5. Top Commentators Widget: Many blogs have a top commentators widget in sidebar. It is a good idea to comment on these and get your name there because that will add link to your blog from blog easily without having to guest post.
6. Direct Pitch: Asking someone to check out your latest post and link to it if it's useful is a good strategy. However, just make sure that you do not do it with every post.
7. Link Exchange: Link exchange is a bit old but many bloggers still use it. The process is simple, you place a link in your sidebar to a blog and in return, the blog owner also links to you similarly.
8. List Posts: List posts are always effective! Write a good one and then promote it a bit. It will help in getting new subscribers and visitors.
9. Grab My Button: Just add a "Grab my Button" widget(Learn How To Create One) to your blog's sidebar and readers who like you and your blog will add it to their blog. Free advertising!
10. Paid Advertising:  If you don't have much time for promotion, try buying some ads on a popular blog/website. This can drive lot of traffic ( in exchange for a lot of money!)
11. Facebook: Creating a Facebook fan page will help adding a new dimension to your blog. By having a presence on Facebook, you can easily grab new visitors.
12. Twitter: Twitter is another good source of traffic. Create a twitter account for your blog and do not just tweet latest posts, add something else. For example, we regularly post 140 Character Blogging Tips on our twitter account@bwsteam.
13. Social Bookmarking Icons: Adding social media icons to bottom of the posts is another effective method. You can use any good WordPress plugin or services like Share This for other platforms.
14. E-Mail List: Having a newsletter where you can send latest posts or promotional messages is a good way to get traffic from existing subscribers. Just tell them what's special in the post and they will come. Don't forget to subscribe to Blogging With Success Updates to get latest posts in your inbox.
15. Apture Toolbar: Apture toolbar is a great promotional tool. You can use it to let your readers share articles on Facebook, Twitter and via mail. And since it appears at top of your blog, it grabs attention quickly.
16. Directory Submission: You can submit your blog to different blog directories to get some links. It is best to submit to directories that do not require a link back!
17. Your Profiles: Add link to your blog from each and every profile you have around the internet and people will check it out (only if you are helpful, that is!).
18. Join A Community: Social bookmarking sites are good source of traffic. Join one and start participating. Soon, you will have good traffic. It's best to start with upcoming communities instead of bigger sites like Digg because it's easy to learn and share in a small community! Blog Engage and Bloggeries Blog Forum are good places to start.
19. Email Signatures: How many emails do you send each day? 100+? Then add a signature to bottom of each one and you can easily spread the word. It is best to add this in your email service so it is automatically inserted after every mail.
20. Design: A good and unique design promotes itself. Spend some time to design your blog properly and you will soon see the effect!

So, these were 20 simple tips to promote your blog. If you have some more tips in mind, do not forget to share in comments!

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Ways to Bring Traffic to a New Blog New bloggers have one problem in common: they find it hard to attract traffic. They write a couple of posts, do some promotion, wait for people to come, but then, what happens? Nothing! No comments, very few visits and a lot of frustration! In this post, I discuss five ways...
2. Blog Promotion: Quick and Simple Steps OK, so now you have your blog, you now have your niche, content, ads and other widgets you might need for your blog. The next step on the path to successful blogging is to have a steady amount of traffic (by traffic I mean the number of visitors you get)....
3. Tutorial: Creating A Facebook Page For Your Blog Do you have a Facebook page for blog? What? No! Really? Then you are missing an opportunity to double your social media traffic! How? Read this: In a recent analysis of web traffic by Statcounter, it was revealed that Facebook accounts for nearly half of the traffic delivered by social...