Sabtu, 31 Juli 2010

blog tutorial

01:06

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blog tutorial

Perbandingan Direktori Artikel Terpopuler
Penerapan Fancybox dengan JQuery di Blogger
Pasang Tombol Facebook Like di Wordpress

Perbandingan Direktori Artikel Terpopuler

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 06:08 AM PDT

Sebuah direktori artikel merupakan website dimana Anda bisa mengirimkan artikel Anda yang unik yang berhubungan dengan bisnis online Anda. Artikel ini kemudian di katalog ke dalam kategori yang berbeda sesuai dengan niche tertentu. Anda juga dapat menyediakan kembali link ke website Anda pada akhir artikel. Beberapa situs memungkinkan pelanggan untuk memiliki tertanam link ke situs lain yang relevan juga. Hal ini membantu pelanggan potensial Anda untuk mencapai Anda dengan mudah. Namun, sangat penting untuk mengetahui direktori artikel yang akan digunakan. Direktori artikel populer adalah seharusnya situs otoritas. Hanya yang populer adalah dijelajahi oleh bot mesin pencari.

Dengan peningkatan kebutuhan alat pemasaran Internet dan SEO, saat ini ada sejumlah direktori artikel. Sangat penting untuk mengetahui yang memiliki peringkat yang lebih baik bagi Google. Google adalah mesin pencari terkemuka penting yang dapat membuat atau merusak bisnis online Anda. Karena itu sangatlah penting untuk mengetahui bagaimana peringkat direktori tersebut di Google sebelum Anda mengirim artikel Anda.

Ezinearticles.com adalah direktori article paling populer di kalangan pengguna serta mesin pencari. Google PageRank untuk situs ini adalah 6. Ini adalah situs user-friendly di mana Anda bisa mengirimkan artikel Anda. Mereka memiliki seperangkat aturan dan peraturan yang harus Anda patuhi saat menulis artikel.

Artikel direktori lain yang populer adalah Goarticles.com. PageRank Google untuk halaman ini juga 6. Namun, lalu lintas yang dihasilkan kurang dari Ezinearticle. Ini juga merupakan direktori artikel umum. Yang harus Anda lakukan adalah menjadi anggota situs ini dan mulai mengirimkan artikel Anda. Sangat disarankan agar Anda membaca pernyataan privasi dari situs web itu dan mencari tahu rincian bagaimana memanfaatkan direktori ini. Ada juga beberapa panduan dan pedoman penulis dan penerbit yang harus Anda baca. Saat mengirimkan artikel, Anda harus diingat aturan Copyscape. Plagiarisme bisa sangat mahal untuk bisnis online Anda.

Articlebase.com adalah direktori artikel populer lain yang memiliki Google PageRank 5. Anda tidak perlu melakukan berbagai upaya untuk menjadi anggota situs ini. Dengan hanya satu klik tombol, Anda dapat mendaftar keanggotaan dan mulai mengirimkan artikel yang berkaitan dengan konten perusahaan Anda.

Artikel direktori lain yang baik adalah ArticleDashboard.com di mana Anda dapat menemukan dan mengirimkan artikel. Website ini dibagi ke dalam kategori di mana Anda dapat dengan mudah menemukan artikel yang terkait dengan topik yang spesifik. Memiliki peringkat Google halaman 6 dan menarik lalu lintas tertinggi kedua untuk artikel direktori.

Evoire.com adalah direktori artikel baru-baru ini diluncurkan. Artikel direktori ini membagi 80% dari Google Adsense dengan penulis, membuatnya menjadi situasi yang menguntukan bagi penulis, yang bisa mempromosikan situs melalui link dalam artikel sementara mendapatkan penghasilan tambahan. Interaksi mirip Facebook di situs ini juga menjadi fitur yang menyenangkan, membuatnya menjadi komunitas yang hidup.

Sebuah direktori artikel adalah langkah menuju sukses untuk bisnis online. Saat ini, situs sulit meningkatkan grafik keuntungan mereka tanpa bantuan dari suatu direktori artikel. Jika Anda ingin menghasilkan lebih banyak lalu lintas di situs Web Anda, meningkatkan keberadaan Web Anda, meningkatkan peringkat website Anda di berbagai search engine maka anda perlu mengetahui nuansa optimasi mesin pencari. Menulis artikel dan mengirimkannya ke direktori artikel adalah salah satu cara yang paling hemat dan mudah untuk menarik pelanggan potensial.

Tentang author :

Fernando

Adalah kontributor di Cheatad.com, sebuah blog tentang SEO & Google Adsense.
Blog : www.cheatad.com

Penerapan Fancybox dengan JQuery di Blogger

Posted: 29 Jul 2010 08:28 PM PDT

Fancybox adalah efek jendela munculan (pop up) dengan menggunakan JQuery yang dikembangkan Janis Skarnelis. Berbeda dengan jendela munculan yang biasa kita lihat, Fancybox mempunyai desain elegan yang menyerupai pop up pada Mac OS serta efek transisi yang menarik. Selain dapat menampilkan gambar, Fancybox juga mampu menampikan halaman eksternal dengan Iframe. Lebih lanjut, silakan lihat mampir ke halaman demo.

Cara Penerapan

Pemasangan di template Blogger/blogspot

Langkah 1
Unduh (download) kode yang telah dikustomisasi di sini

Isi file:
1. jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.css
2. jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.js
3. jquery.mousewheel-3.0.2.pack.js (opsional)

Unggah (upload) file jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.js dan jquery.mousewheel-3.0.2.pack.js (opsional) ke hostingan Anda (saya menggunakan Fileave.com untuk menitipkan file js).

Langkah 2
Buka file jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.css dengan notepad, copy semua kode di dalamnya

Langkah 3
Backup template Anda, lalu tuju halaman Edit HTML, paste kode pada Langkah 2 di atas ]]></b:skin>

Langkah 4
Tempatkan kode JQuery berikut di atas </head> (bila belum ada)

<script src='http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.2.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Langkah 5
Selanjutnya tempatkan kode berikut setelah kode JQuery tersebut (ganti http://hostingan-anda.com/ jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.js dengan alamat hostingan file Anda)

<script src='http://hostingan-anda.com/ jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<!—Js Tambahan -->
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function() {
    $("a:has(img)").fancybox();
    $("a.image").fancybox();
    $("a.iframe").fancybox();
    $("a#inline").fancybox({
    'hideOnContentClick': true
    });
    $("a.group").fancybox({
        'speedIn'    : '600',
        'speedOut'    : '200',
        'overlayShow'    : 'false'
    });
    $("a.buzz").fancybox({
                    'autoScale'     : false,
                    'transitionIn' : 'none',
                    'transitionOut' : 'none',
                    'type'          : 'iframe'
            });
});
</script>

Langkah 6
Simpan template Anda

Penerapan
Sampai di sini proses pemasangan Fancybox di template Blogger Anda telah selesai. Langkah selanjutnya adalah penerapan efek Fancybox pada objek yang Anda inginkan di postingan, maupun elemen halaman blog Anda (Single Image, Image Gallery, Iframe dan konten Inline)

1. Single Image
<a class="single_image" href="http://gambar-anda.jpg"><img src="gambar-thumbnail-anda.jpg" alt="keterangan-gambar"/></a>

2. Image Gallery
<a class="grouped_elements" href=http://gambar1-anda.jpg><img src=" gambar-thumbnail1-anda.jpg " alt=" keterangan-gambar 1"/></a>

3. Iframe
<a class="iframe" href="http://www.google.com" title="keterangan-iframe" >Contoh Iframe Google.com</a>

4. Konten Inline
<a id="inline" href="#data">Menampilkan konten dari elemen dengan id="data"</a>

<div style="display:none"><div id="data">Kata-kata (objek inline) yang muncul di pop up</div></div>

Opsi Tambahan

1. Anda dapat mengaktifkan mouse weel sebagai navigasi untuk Image Gallery dengan menambahkan jquery.mousewheel-3.0.2.pack setelah penempatan kode jquery.fancybox-1.3.1.js. Untuk melihat efeknya silakan lihat halaman demo bagian Image Gallery dan gunakan mouse weel Anda.

2. Untuk menampilkan Iframe dengan skala tertentu, Anda dapat menambahkan kode berikut di deretan <!—Js Tambahan --> (ubah angka 35 untuk lebar dan 75 untuk tinggi sesuai kebutuhan)

            $(".extLink").fancybox({
         'width' : '35%',
         'height' : '75%',
         'autoScale' : false,
         'transitionIn' : 'none',
         'transitionOut' : 'none',
         'type' : 'iframe'
            });

Selanjutnya gunakan class="extLink" untuk melakukan pemanggilan (contoh dapat dilihat di halaman demo shoutmix)

Penutup
Untuk keterangan lebih lanjut silakan mampir ke Fancybox.net. Terima kasih, selamat mencoba, dan semoga bermanfaat Happy

Ardhiansyam

Seorang penulis lepas yang tertarik dengan Blogger dengan berbagai seluk-beluknya

Blog: www.berandabumi.co.cc

Pasang Tombol Facebook Like di Wordpress

Posted: 28 Jul 2010 09:16 PM PDT

Seperti janji kemaren pada posting Pasang Tombol Facebook Like di blogger bahwa akan di bahas juga tentang bagaimana cara Pasang Tombol Facebook Like di wordpress. Namun, perlu di jelaskan bahwa tips berikut berlaku untuk yang menggunakan wordpress.org (self hosted) bukan untuk wordpress.com (wordpress gratis).

Untuk memasang Tombol facebook like di wordpress terbilang mudah, yang penting anda tidak sangat buta dengan kode HTML atau PHP. Hal pertama adalah dimana anda akan meletakkan tombol facebook like tersebut, di bawah posting, diatas posting, di home page, atau hanya di single post?

Kode Tombol Facebook Like

Agar tidak terlalu pusing dalam mencari kode tombol facebook like untuk wordpress, kode berikut bisa saja anda gunakan :

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php the_permalink() ?>&amp;action=like&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px;"></iframe>

Sekilas tentang Struktur Theme Wordpress

Perlu di ketahui bahwa struktur template blogger dengan template wordpress (theme) sangatlah berbeda. Template blogger, struktur templatenya satu file, sedangkan wordpress theme terbagi didalam beberapa file, namun tentu saja antara file yang satu dengan yang lainnya saling berhubungan.

Umumnya, file untuk mengatur tampilan halaman depan (homepage) dinamakan dengan file index.php, halaman single post dinamakan file single.php, dan halaman static pages dinamakan page.php, dan file-file yang lainnya. Namun, itu adalah secara umum, untuk theme-theme premium, kang rohman menemukan ada penamaan file yang berbeda.

Cara pasang tombol Facebook Like di postingan wordpress

Sebagai pengetahuan dasar, kode posting di wordpress adalah seperti ini ;

<?php the_content(); ?>

Namun, tentu pada theme yang anda gunakan mungkin akan sedikit berbeda, sebagai contoh pada theme default wordpress, pada bagian index.php nya memuat kode seperti berikut :

<?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry »'); ?>

Dapat di lihat, bahwa kode dasarnya tetap sama, hanya ada penambahan "'Read the rest of this entry »" saja.

Sebagai contoh, berikut adalah cara pemasangan tombol facebook like dengan menggunakan theme default wordpress. Tombol yang di harapkan muncul adalah hanya pada akhir posting saja (single post). Tips : praktekan langkah berikut pada blog percobaan anda, jangan langsung pada blog utama, ini untuk mengurangi resiko jika melakukan kesalahan, atau jika langsung pada blog utama anda, jangan lupa untuk selalu melakukan backup terlebih dahulu sebelum melakukan pengeditan.

Silahkan login ke blog anda.
Tuju bagian Appereance ⇒ Editor.
Alihkan perhatian ke sebelah kanan monitor, klik file single.php , Tunggu beberapa saat sampai loading selesai.

Copy lalu paste kode berikut di bawah / diatas kode <?php the_content('<p class="serif">Read the rest of this entry »</p>'); ?>

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=<?php the_permalink() ?>&amp;action=like&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px;"></iframe>

Klik tombol Update File. Tunggu sampai proses selesai.
Silahkan buka blog anda, klik pada judul posting, atau read more.
Tuju bagian akhir posting, dan seharusnya tombol facebook like harus sudah ada.
Selesai.

Contoh diatas adalah untuk single post. Jika mau di pasang bagian homepage tinggal di masukin di file index.php. untuk static pages di file page.php.

Semoga bermanfaat.

01:03

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Monitor dan Analisa Penggunaan Komputer dengan Manictime

Posted: 28 Jul 2010 05:58 PM PDT

Jika kita termasuk orang yang bekerja cukup lama di depan komputer, ada baiknya aktivitas kita terekam atau ter-monitor, sehingga kedepan bisa kita periksa dan analisa untuk perbaikan dan peningkatan kualitas penggunaan komputer. Salah satu software yang dapat digunakan untuk memonitor dan memanajemen penggunaan komputer adalah Manictime. Manictime merupakan software monitor dan manajemen penggunaan komputer ( [...]

[ Ini merupakan ringkasan artikel , selengkapnya silahkan klik judul link diatas ]

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akhmadGuntar.com | Kiat Produktivitas #20: Sepuluh Alasan Untuk Mematikan TV

Kiat Produktivitas #20: Sepuluh Alasan Untuk Mematikan TV

Posted: 29 Jul 2010 11:01 AM PDT

Kiat Produktivitas #20: Sepuluh Alasan Untuk Mematikan TV

Sedari dulu saya bukanlah penggemar televisi. Mungkin juga karena sedari dulu juga karena saya lebih sering berinteraksi dengan komputer. Tidak lantas saya mendakwa televisi sepenuhnya jelek, karena faktanya ada juga kok acara televisi yang bagus (misal toh: Upin dan Ipin). Namun bahkan jika televisi sudah menghapuskan infotainment dan menggantinya dengan film2 yang halal, tetap saja televisi bisa datangkan keburukan dan menghambat produktivitas. Silahkan renungkan, manakala Anda matikan televisi Anda, berapa banyak pekerjaan yang bisa Anda rampungkan? Manakala televisi Anda matikan, temukan betapa Anda jadi lebih punya waktu dan energi untuk menyeimbangkan porsi peran dan kehidupan Anda, untuk kemudian menjadi produktif di tiap peran itu.

Berikut adalah pertimbangan mengapa Anda sebaiknya mematikan televisi lebih awal.

1. Karena Anda belum cukup ngobrol dengan istri/suami Anda, sementara dia sebetulnya ingin bisa bicara dengan Anda. Jika Anda tidak bisa jadi teman terbaiknya, jangan2 dia bisa beralih ke yang lain lho; mulai dari obrolan yang ringan2, sampai kemudian pada yg sangat serius.

2. Karena anak Anda.

Karena Anda belum cukup meluangkan waktu bersama anak Anda. Jika saja Anda ingat dan rasakan, bukankah waktu ini terasa begitu cepat? Waktu Anda lulus kuliah sampai sekarang terasa begitu cepat. Jangan sampai sensasi itu terjadi terhadap Anda dan anak Anda.
Karena anak Anda lebih rentan terkena dampak buruk dari televisi. Lantas? Bukankah anak Anda melihat dan meniru Anda yang suka menonton televisi.
Karena anak Anda punya cerita bagus yang ingin dia ceritakan pada Anda
Karena anak Anda harusnya belajar tentang kehidupan dan kebijaksanaan dari Anda, bukan dari orang lain, bukan dari sinchan.

Kiat Produktivitas #20: Sepuluh Alasan Untuk Mematikan TV

3. Karena televisi bisa menumpulkan pikiran dan emosi Anda. Bayangkan saja; jika Anda disodori informasi konyol yang membuat pikiran Anda pasif saja, membuat emosi Anda terkendalikan oleh urusan dan aib orang lain, lama-lama Anda pun menumpul.

4. Karena Anda sudah lama sekali tidak membaca buku, bukan? Apakah Anda juga ingin anak Anda bisa membaca televisi ketimbang membaca buku?

5. Karena Anda harusnya melakukan kebiasaan yang lebih bermanfaat dan bernilai bagi Anda. Mengurangi berat badan hingga sehat ideal? Tidakkah menonton televisi malah membuat Anda jadi lebih suka ngemil?

6. Karena berita pagi dan sore hari selalu saja isinya kabar buruk yang juga memburukkan mood Anda, hingga berdampak pada memburuknya kemampuan Anda dalam mengambil keputusan secara baik.

Kiat Produktivitas #20: Sepuluh Alasan Untuk Mematikan TV

7. Karena iklan televisi membuat Anda tergoda untuk membeli apa-apa yang sebenarnya tak perlu untuk dibeli. Anda jadi tergoda oleh keinginan, bukannya kebutuhan. Dan sadari, apa yang paling sering terngiang di pikiran Anda akan jadi ingatan, kemudian jadi gagasan dan pemikiran, hingga kemudian jadi tindakan, entah baik atau buruk.

8. Karena Anda harusnya bisa tidur dengan lebih nyenyak dan cukup waktu. Siyalnya memang, banyak film-film bagus yang diputar sampai larut malam, bukan.

9. Karena pada akhirnya Anda mengeluhkan waktu yang terasa kurang untuk mengurusi perihal lain yang nyatanya memang lebih penting. Anda punya target finansial yang ingin diraih? Bagaimana dengan target kontribusi? Menonton televisi membuat Anda jadi pribadi yang bermanfaat bagi orang lain.

10. Karena orang yang kecanduan televisi terbukti punya kehidupan yang lebih susah.

Kiat Produktivitas #20: Sepuluh Alasan Untuk Mematikan TV

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CORETAN IMTIHAN

Mengatur Tampilan Teman Di Facebook

Posted: 29 Jul 2010 03:52 PM PDT

Akhir-akhir ini saya selalu suntuk. Mungkin karena dompet lagi tipis sehingga kurang leluasa dalam menentukan aktivitas, termasuk online. Akhirnya waktu untuk blogging dan facebookan juga berkurang.

Untung masih ada sedikit rizeki sehingga saya masih bisa meluangkan waktu untuk berselancar di dunia maya. Di saat berselancar tersebut saya menyempatkan waktu untuk mengotak-atik facebook. Dan salah satu yang saya otak-atik adalah teman-teman saya. Saya ingin wajah-wajah yang muncul adalah wajah-wajah yang saya inginkan.

Wajah-wajah teman facebook kita yang tampil di daftar teman mucul dengan "sesenaknya", tidak sesuai dengan kehendak kita. Saya sediri tidak tahu atas dasar pertimbangan apa facebook memilih mereka dari sekian banyak teman kita untuk ditampilkan sebagai "contoh" teman yang kita miliki.

Oleh karena itu saya ingin menampilkan wajah-wajah yang saya kehendaki. Wajah-wajah tersebut mewakili pengelompokan teman saya, maka hasilnya menjadi seperti di bawah ini:

Dan bagi yang menginginkan tampilan temannya adalah tokoh-tokoh penting seperti gambar di bahah ini:

atau bahkan seperti yang ini:

Anda akan dengan bisa melakukannya, yaitu cukup dengan mengklik Profil Anda yang terdapat pada kanan atas

setelah itu lihat ke sebelah kiri. Di sana akan ada tampilan foto teman-teman kita. Klik gambar pensil, pilih jumlah yang ingin ditampilkan (maksimal 12 orang), dan ketiklah nama teman yang ingin ditampilkan. Kalo Anda mensetting 12 orang teman yang ingin ditampilkan, maka pilihlah 12 nama orang teman Anda.

Selamat mencoba......

I’ll Be Speaking At Blog World 2010 - DailyBlogTips

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I’ll Be Speaking At Blog World 2010 - DailyBlogTips

I’ll Be Speaking At Blog World 2010

Posted: 30 Jul 2010 08:27 AM PDT

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was definitely going to Blog World Expo this year. At that time I was only planning to attend the conference.

Then I heard they were welcoming speaking proposals, so I decided to send one. Long story short I got approved, and I’ll be speaking at the “New Media 101″ module. The title of my presentation is “Google AdSense Optimization.”

I am really looking to flying to Vegas in October. First of all the keynotes, presentations and panels are looking great. Here are some topics that will be covered:

How to Get Media Coverage for Your Blog
How to Keep Your Blog from Being Hacked, Stolen or Otherwise Violated
5 Strategies Bloggers Should Learn from Online Marketers
How to Sell Your Blog
How to Run a Successful Webinar Business from Your Blog

Second, I’ll finally be able to meet many friends and business contacts I only talked with online so far. People like Darren Rowse, John Chow, David Risley, Leo Babauta, Jonathan Fields, Yaro Starak and so on.

Many blog readers already emailed me saying they’ll be going too, so I’ll try to organize a DBT meet-up or something like that. If you are going, I hope you manage to attend my presentation too!

As we get closer to the event I’ll post more updates, so stay tuned.

Original Post: I’ll Be Speaking At Blog World 2010

Review: MaxBlogPress Subscribers Magnet (It Rocks)

Posted: 29 Jul 2010 11:53 AM PDT

A couple of weeks ago Pawan from MaxBlogPress.com contacted me, saying he had developed a new plugin that would significantly boost the number of sign-ups I was getting to my email newsletter.

I have known Pawan for a while, and I use many of his plugins, so I said “Sure.” He sent me the files, and I installed it on Daily Blog Tips. The plugin is called Subscribers Magnet, and the idea is to create multiple “hit” points (i.e., methods and places your visitors can use to sign-up) to increase the number of new email subscribers you get per day.

The idea sounded cool, but only when I started playing with the plugin I realized it was a really neat piece of software, and here is why.

First of all it integrates with most email marketing applications (e.g., Aweber, iContact, ConstantContact), so getting the plugin to work is straight forward. Second, some of the features the plugin has are really innovative.

The first feature is called “Form Auto Filler.” It will automatically grab the name and email from your visitors and fill your subscription forms for them. This means that when see the subscription form their details will be there already, so they will just need to click on “Subscribe.” How cool is that?

The second feature is the “Optin Form Adder.” This will basically allow you to insert a subscription form in the sidebar or/and below your posts. The form is completely customizable, and you once you activate it through the plugin interface it will start appearing on your site. Here is how it looks like:

maxblogpress-subscribers-magnet

The third feature is called “Subscribers from Comment.” This one allows you to capture subscribers from people who will leave a comment on your blog. You have several options regarding how you’ll do it. You can put a checkbox that commenters must tick, you can include a subscription form that will appear right below their comment, and you can also subscribe them automatically (they’ll still need to confirm it on the email they will receive, so this is compliant with the terms of Aweber and other email solutions).

The fourth feature is the “Popin” one. As the name suggests, it allows you to create a subscription form that will be displayed as a pop-up. You can customize the style, as well as the frequency of the pop-up and what visitors should see it. For instance, you could show it only after the second visit, only once every five visits, once every couple of days and so on.

The fifth feature is called “Footer Bar.” It allows you to create a dynamic footer bar on your website containing a subscription form. Just like with the pop-up, you can customize how often the bar will appear.

If you combine all these features and options you can add up to 17 hit points to your blog, and this is likely to boost the number of sign-ups significantly.

But facts speak louder than words right? Here is what the plugin did for me. I already had a decent structure to capture email subscribers, so I decided to use only three features: the “form auto filler”, the “checkbox in comment section” and the “footer bar.” Before installing the plugin I was getting around 67 new email subscribers per day. After installing it the number jumped to around 90, which is a 35% increase as you can see in the screenshot below:

subscribers-gain

These days I am actually getting closer to 100 sign-ups per day, so it is working even better.

Pawan told me he beta-tested the plugin with other friends too, and some of them got boosts of 100% in the number of sign-ups.

As I said before, it is a really neat piece of software. Most of the time when people give me free plugins or software to test I usually try them for a couple of weeks and then stop using them. This one I’ll probably stick with.

The plugin was officially launched this week. It is going to cost $147, but until tomorrow Pawan is offering a discount of 30%, so you can buy it for $97. I am not an affiliate, so I won’t earn anything whether you buy it or not. I just decided to review it because it worked really well for me, and because I think other bloggers will find it useful, too.

Original Post: Review: MaxBlogPress Subscribers Magnet (It Rocks)

11 Email Marketing Alternatives to Aweber - DailyBlogTips

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11 Email Marketing Alternatives to Aweber - DailyBlogTips

11 Email Marketing Alternatives to Aweber

Posted: 27 Jul 2010 09:23 PM PDT

This is a guest post by Kevin Muldoon. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

I recently stopped using Aweber. Not because I wasn’t happy with the service but because I sold the site I was using it for. For 2 years I was a very happy customer with Aweber and wouldn’t rule out using them again. However, starting a new blog gave me the opportunity to look more into what alternatives there are out there for email marketing.

In this article I will be showing you the main alternatives to Aweber available to you. This article is for:

Those who think their newsletter provider is too expensive
Those who think their newsletter provider lacks important features
Those who haven’t chosen their newsletter provider as yet and want to make sure they make the right choice

Before we look at the alternatives, let’s look at what Aweber offers and what it charges for using it’s service.

Aweber

Aweber is one of the most versatile email marketing providers available to bloggers. It’s not as user friendly as some other services however there is a huge amount of documentation and tutorials in the members area to help you get started.

Features include:

Advanced sign up form wizard and hundreds of sign up form templates to choose from
135 Email templates to choose from
Advanced autoresponder options
RSS to Email option
Traffic tracking and conversion options
Integration with lots of other scripts including e-commerce shopping carts

The base price of Aweber is $19 a month. This gives you an unlimited number of emails up to 500 members. You can pay $49 quarterly or $194 yearly, saving you $32 and $34 respectively. The monthly price increases as your number of subscribers grow.

Aweber offer a one month trial for $1. I recommend ordering that if you are unsure whether to use them. Be warned: you will automatically be charged $19 a month afterwards if you don’t cancel your account.

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 500	$19
501 – 2,500	$29
2,501 – 5,000	$49
5,001 – 10,000	$69
10,001 – 25,000	$149

Monthly Membership Services with Unlimited Emails

There are several alternatives to you which follow the same business model as Aweber offering an unlimited number of emails to subscribers per month.

Prices increase in line with the number of subscribers though as you will see, the pricing plans of most of these services are practically identical. So the main factors you need to consider are features and user friendliness.

1. MailChimp

A hugely popular email marketing service, MailChimp is a fun and colourful service which has some fantastic features.

MailChimp for iPhone
Social Media Integration
Use friendly member area
Easy to use autoresponse system
Impressive sign up form wizard

Pricing is very similar to Aweber except the service is free up until you reach 500 subscribers. The monthly plans are about a few dollars more expensive that Aweber though.

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 500	FREE!
501 – 1,000	$15
1,001 – 2,500	$30
2,501 – 5,000	$50
5,001 – 10,000	$75
10,001 – 25,000	$150
25,001 – 50,000	$240

A pay as you go plan is also available for those who send emails out less often. Prices start around $0.03 per email though the price drops to half a cent with orders over $1,000.

2. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is a professional email marketing company which also offer online surveys and event marketing services.

Around 50 professional looking email templates
Impressive reporting options
Several stylish sign up boxes to choose from
Good import features for those migrating to the service

Pricing starts from only $15 per month and there is also a no risk 60 trial option which doesn’t require you to enter your credit card details (unlike Aweber which automatically rebills).

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 500	$15
501 – 2,500	$30
2,501 – 5,000	$50
5,001 – 10,000	$75
10,001 – 25,000	$150

3. Get Response

Get Response GetResponse is a beautiful email marketing service which is a few dollars cheaper than similar services.

They boast a huge number of features including:

An email to speech feature that allows users to listen to newsletters ‘hands free’
Social media integration
iPhone application
Video email marketing
Surveys
Over 300 email templates
Good tracking and reporting options

Get Response is slightly cheaper than Aweber. There is a 15% discount for paying 6 months in advance and a 18% discount for paying a year in advance.

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 10	FREE
11 – 500	$18
501 – 2,500	$28
2,501 – 5,000	$45
5,001 – 10,000	$65
10,001 – 25,000	$145

4. Campaigner

Campaigner is a good option for those who don’t need a lot of bells and whistles. The service has over 450 email templates to choose from however it lacks a lot of advanced features which other services have.

This is reflected in the price as Campaigner is quite a bit cheaper than most of it’s competitors. Their top package is around 20% cheaper than Awebers equivalent. There is also a 30 day trial available.

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 500	$10
501 – 2,500	$25
2,501 – 5,000	$40
5,001 – 10,000	$55

5. Vertical Response

Vertical Response is an online service which lets you manage your email marketing campaign, create online surveys and send postcards directly to visitors.

Beautiful drag and drop email wizard
Sign up form integration widgets
Detailed reports

Vertical Response offer a 30 day no obligation trial and good discounts for paying in advance (particularly with larger email lists).

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 500	$10
501 – 2,000	$28
2,001 – 4,000	$46
4,001 – 8,000	$72
8,001 – 16,000	$120
16,001 – 25,000	$150
25,001 – 40,000	$240

A pay as you go option is also available for those who don’t send emails as often. Rates start at a very competitive $0.015 per email, dropping to $0.01 an email with purchases over 25,000 email credits.

6. Benchmark Email

Benchmark Email is an easy to use email marketing service which boasts a large range of email templates.

Video integration
Drag and drop text editor
Survey and email tracking
User friendly interface
Campaign archive

Benchmark Email is similarly priced to it’s main competitors. However, you ado not receive unlimited emails. Instead you are restricted to 7 emails per month to your list.

If you plan on sending a lot of emails to your subscribers every month it’s best to avoid this plan because of the sending restriction.

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 1000	$18.95
1001 – 2500	$28.95
2,501 – 5,000	$46.95
5,001 – 10,000	$73.95
10,001 – 20,000	$120.95
20,001 – 30,000	$179.95
30,001 – 50,000	$230.95
50,001 – 75,000	$339.95

There is also an email limit monthly plan. 1000 emails will cost you $12.95, 5,000 will cost you $35, whilst 10,000 costs $60.

7. iContact

iContact is an email marketing service which claims to have more than 60,000 customers.

Built in HTML WYSIWYG Editor
Good tracking and reporting features
Over 250 HTML email Templates to choose from

iContacts pricing plans have an email restriction of 6 times your subscriber limit. Those of you who send out newsletters a few times a week may want to consider an alternative.

There is a 15 day trial for those who are interesting in ordering a package.

Subscribers	Monthly Price
0 – 250	$9.95
251 – 500	$14
501 – 1,000	$19.00
1,001 – 2,500	$29.00
2,501 – 5,000	$47
5,001 – 10,000	$74
10,001 – 15,000	$109
16,001 – 25,000	$149
25,001 – 35,000	$239
36,001 – 50,000	$379
50,001 – 75,000	$529
75,001 – 100,000	$699

Pay Per Email Services

If you don’t send several emails to subscribers every month then you may find Pay Per Email services a lot more cheaper.

8. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a popular email marketing service which is used by many top websites such as SitePoint.

User friendly interface
Beautiful email templates
Great tracking and reporting features

CampaignMonitor have a flat pricing fee of $5 per email and 1 cent for every recipient.

Therefore sending an email to 500 people would cost $10 and to 2,500 people would cost $30. There are big discounts for those who to send to more than 50,000 people.

9. JangoMail

JangoMail

Advanced HTML editor
Connect to external databases in real time
Create and send mass emails using Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, Yahoo Mail and Gmail.

Jangomails pricing depends on how many emails you send in that month.

Monthly Emails	Monthly Price
Up to 1,000	$30
Up to 2,500	$50
Up to 5,000	$100
Up to 12,000	$200
Up to 18,000	$300
Up to 30,000	$400
Up to 45,000	$600

Cost per email drops to about $0.005 if you send over 616,000 emails per month. More information can be seen on the standard pricing plan page.

10. Boomerang

Boomerang is a simple but user friendly solution.

Pricing starts around 2 cents an email but drops to around 1 cent if you spend more than $100 a month.

Monthly Emails	Monthly Price
Up to 500	$9.95
Up to 1,200	$14.95
Up to 2,500	$29.95
Up to 4,500	$49.95
Up to 9,500	$99.95
Up to 14,500	$149.95
Up to 25,000	$249.95
Up to 36,000	$349.95
Up to 55,000	$499.95

11. Ezine Director

Ezine Director is very basic compared to most other options though you can still send HTML emails and set up autoresponders. It’s main selling point is it’s incredibly low price.

There are three different versions available: Free, Limited and Full.

The free version has a copyright notice in all emails and allows up to 249 emails to be sent.

The limited version costs $9.95 a month and allows up to 1,999 emails per month. It has the same features as the full version except it doesn’t have campaign tracking.

The full version has campaign tracking and allows up to 19,499 emails per month. Over that you are charged a ridiculously low $0.001 an email (and that drops to $0.0009 over 50k)

Ezine Director is a pretty basic service but is worth checking out if you are looking for a cheap newsletter solution.

Why you need an email list

You really shouldn’t wait any longer to start building your email list. Seriously, you should be building your list right now!!

RSS subscribers are great however you cannot contact them directly so it’s important to build an email list as well. Doing so will allow you to contact your readers directly. Not only can this provide an extra source of income for your blog, it will also allow you to connect with your readers in another way and give them more reasons to visit your blog again.

I have read many bloggers state that you should start emailing your subscribers from the very start. The idea behind this is that people will enjoy your newsletter content so much that they will tell their friends about it. I disagree strongly with this. I really do think this is a bad idea.

I do think that you should start building an email/newsletter list as soon as you launch your blog, even if sign up rates are painfully slow at the start (an extra 50 email addresses a year from now could mean an extra $100 from an affiliate commission). Though it’s pointless to spend a lot of time writing content for a newsletter until the list is at least 500 subscribers (but preferably more than 1,000).

What is the point of spending hours writing high quality original newsletters if you only have 40 readers? It makes much more sense to post this content on your blog where visitors and search engines can see it.

Once your email list has grown to a decent level you can then start spending more time offering exclusive content through your newsletter in order to develop a closer relationship with your readers.

Best Email Marketing Provider

Aweber deservedly has a great reputation amongst bloggers. Support is great and it boasts a lot of great features. Though I hope I have shown today that there are alternatives out there.

For my new blog I initially signed up to Campaign Monitor as I like the idea of only paying for the emails you send. It’s a good service and is very easy to use but in the end I decided to go with MailChimp.

MailChimp is a little more user friendly than Aweber and has more features than Campaign Monitor. Though the main selling point for me is the pricing plan which allows me to send up to 3,000 emails a month for free as long as my list is under 500 subscribers.

This allows me to build up my email list up to 500 people for free plus I can periodically email subscribers if I want too. If I used Aweber as my newsletter provider than it would cost me $19 a month even if I had less than 100 subscribers. Therefore I am saving a good bit of money if it takes me a few months to reach 500 subscribers.

If you are building a list for a brand new blog then I would consider MailChimp for this reason. If your blog is already established then you will probably reach 500 subscribers very quickly so you may want to look at the alternatives. Most of the monthly subscriber plans cost about the same so it really depends on what you are looking for. Make sure you take advantage of the free trials in order to try out an email marketing service you are interested in.

Those of you who will not be sending out emails every week may want to consider a pay per email plan as it will work out a lot cheaper for you in the long run.

If you have used any of the email services in this article, or any which are not in the list, please share your opinion of the site in the comment area. I’m sure it will help other bloggers out.

About the Author: Kevin Muldoon is a webmaster and blogger who lives in Central Scotland. His latest project is WordPress Mods; a blog which focuses on WordPress Themes, Plugins, Tutorials, News and Modifications.

11 Email Marketing Alternatives to Aweber

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Aweber

Monthly Membership Services with Unlimited Emails

1. MailChimp

2. Constant Contact

3. Get Response

4. Campaigner

5. Vertical Response

6. Benchmark Email

7. iContact

Pay Per Email Services

8. Campaign Monitor

9. JangoMail

10. Boomerang

11. Ezine Director

Why you need an email list

Best Email Marketing Provider

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