Samsung Launches Gear S Watch

Since last year this buzz ir all around the web that Samsung would come up with its new model of Gear S Watch. So Samsung has unveiled its Gear S watch. This is a small, wearable device was presented by CEO of the company. Samsung Electronics’ chief executive officer and head of IT and mobile communication said, the company is “leading this exciting and rapidly developing wearable category through progressive innovation.”

Image Credit : Google

JK Shin, in a press release, said “The Samsung Gear S redefines the idea of the smart wearable and the culture of mobile communication. It will let consumers live a truly connected life anywhere, anytime." 

Oh! yes. He’s absolutely right. The new model is much more advanced than the company’s previous watches that were seen with many and should allow owners to break away from their Smartphones. The Gear S comes with enhanced multi-sensors, built-in GPS and a number of S Health features. An useful app called Nike + Running that will allow users to track their runs Samsung Gear S has 3G connectivity, allow wearers to remain up-to-date on messages and social network activities. You can make and receive phone calls. It has two-inch curved Super AMOLED display. You can also sync with a user’s Smartphone to have calls forwarded.

Lets hear the noise it makes once comes to the market.

How To Backup Your Blogger Blog And Template

Bloggers who have blogs on Google's Blogspot platform used to complain regarding backup option. They couldn't backup their blogs from blogger platform directly. Only option was a third party tool. Now Blogger has inbuilt "Import & Export" feature that can be accessed from the Settings tab of your Blogger dashboard.

Follow the simple steps to get there :

1. Go to "Settings" tab and under that there is an option called "Other". 

2. Click on "Other" and you could see Blog tools there.

3. Under Blog tools there are three options Import/Export/Delete Blog.  

Now imagine a situation where you accidentally delete some old blog post or your blog is blocked by Google due to policy violations or hacked. In these cases, at least you will have a local copy or backup of your content which can be available for restoration.

Steps - How to Backup your Blogger Blog with Posts and Comments

1. Go to Blogger dashboard and select Settings 

2. Select the option Other

2. Under Blog tools, click on “Export Blog”

Once you click on the link and it will download a copy of your blog with blog posts and comments to the hard disk in Atom (XML) format. Click on "Import Blog" in case you want to restore from any saved xml file. Check the image below.  

It is always recommended to save a copy of your Blogger template also known as Theme. In case your template gets corrupt, you can restore.  The XML file created by Blogger is not compatible with external blogging platform other than blogger.

Steps - How to Backup your Blog Template

1. Select Template in your Blogger Dashboard 

2. Click on the Backup/Restore button at the top right corner.

3. Choose the hard drive location where you want to save the template.

This will again download the full template in XML format.

Restoration : You can restore any saved template from the same option "Backup/Restore".

Hope the simple steps help you to backup your blog and templates quickly. 

How To Share Large Files Over The Internet

Do you want to share large files over the internet? What do you do when the email attachment is not accepting the file due to large size? No worries. Here is the solution. If you want to share large files over the Internet then you can make use of any of the file hosting services like Dropbox, Google Drive, MediaFire, CloudMe etc. You can upload the big files and share downloadable link.

There are a lot of online file sharing services over the internet. I have prepared a simplified list of services, the platforms they offer to share files and their maximum limit.

Gmail and Outlook are web email services and there is restriction on file size. With these email services you can send files up to 25 MB in size. If the file size exceeds 25 MB then you can use online file sharing or storage services as described below:

• Google Drive : The most popular online storage media and offers up to 1 TB. It supports web and desktop interfaces. For more support you can visit here.
• Dropbox – It is also very much popular and a lot people prefer this service over Google Drive. Here the files have no size limit if you upload them to Dropbox through the desktop application or web interface.
• WeTransfer — It offer you to share files up to 2 GB in size from the browser. The best part is that it doesn’t require to register for the service. It only takes recipient’s email address and it keeps the file for 7 days.
• OneDrive : You can share files up to 2 GB with the help of this Microsoft account. Earlier this service used to be called as Skydrive. It includes all the Microsoft cross apps to share the

Similarly RapidShare, Box, MediaFire and CloudMe have one thing in common i.e. you have to upload your files over Internet with different sizes as per the file size limit and quota. These file hosting services offer total space as specified in the above table.

Some offline file sharing services that don't need Internet :

JustBeamIt : Now this will be a great feature if you can share files without even uploading them to any website. If you can send a file offline directly to someone very easily; in other words if you send files as peer to peer then JustBeamIt will be the best option. Peer to peer tool means that the file transfers take place between your computer and the other computer directly. Drag and drop option is also available on JustBeamIt website where it provides  shareable link. If someone clicks on this provided link then the uploaded file will start downloading to the computer directly.

If you are using Mac operating system then Infinit can be helpful in sharing files. It is also supported on Windows platform.  Infinit uses your local area network and so the transfer speed is too fast.

Hope the above file sharing options will serve you in case you want to share large as well as small files over the Internet or off the Internet.

How To Transfer RSS Feeds From One Account To Another?

If you are planning to change your FeedBurner username or if you are selling you own blog which is syndicated via FeedBurner, then you have to transfer your feeds to other account. In case you want to change the username, you have to transfer to another account owned by you or else to new blog owner's FeedBurner account to whom to sold your blog. For this you don't have to transfer the full FeedBurner account to a new one. Instead of doing this, you can just pass on the feed ownership.

FeedBurner has an option called "Transfer Feed". This feature enables you to transfer RSS feeds from one FeedBurner account to another including the email subscribers for your blog.

You should remember that you cannot use the Transfer Feeds option to transfer feeds between accounts on FeedBurner.com and Google Accounts or vice versa. You can only transfer feeds between accounts on the same system, i.e., FeedBurner Account to FeedBurner Account or Google Account to Google Account. You have limitations on cross transferring.

What are the steps?

Follow the steps mentioned below to transfer feeds from one FeedBurner account to another :

1. Sign in to your FeedBurner account.
2. Just click the title of the feed you want to transfer to another account in the My Feeds list, and then click "Transfer Feed..." 
3. Enter the email address of the other account/publisher to whom you wish to transfer this feed once you are prompted to do so.
4. Once done click on Send Transfer Acceptance Request.

How does it work?

FeedBurner will be contacting the account holder to whom you just have transferred the feeds by email and provide a link. Then the account holder has to click on the link and sign in to own FeedBurner account and then accept the transfer. The transfer will happen immediately after  the process completion.

You should keep in mind that the Feed transfer request emails are valid for 72 hours only. The transferee has to accept the request within this time frame else the request will expire and you will have to issue a new request. It may also happen that these emails are found in junk  or spam folder. So transferee has to check those folders too.

You are done with transferring the feeds.

15 Best Custom ROMs For Your Android Device

A lot of custom ROMs for Android are available over the web for various Android devices. The only difference among all the ROMs is that some ROMs are only available for some specific devices and few ROMs for almost all devices. Popularity of ROMs depends on the supportability options on various devices. The more devices it supports the more it gets popular. 

If you're looking to upgrade your Android device or you just want more control over the phone or tablet you own, you have to search for a new ROM. Rooting your smartphone is the first step, but a new ROM will give you a completely new OS experience.

As you know that there are a lot of custom ROMs available and it is not possible to include each and every custom ROMs. All the ROMs are being researched and developed based on the Google’s Android Open Source Project (AOSP). This list includes almost all popular custom ROMs that are available for a variety of devices.

Warning! The ROMs are loaded with various features, you might come across some stability issues once they are installed. It is always recommended to take a proper backup of your personal data and contacts, messages, music, movies, files etc.

I have listed down some popular custom ROMs out there along with their features. You need to visit the official websites of the ROMs to know teh supportable devices list as it keeps changing.

1. CyanogenMod ROM

CyanogenMod is undoubtedly the most popular and the most downloaded custom ROMs available on Android platform. CyanogenMod has been around since the beginning and has gained more team members, device support and new features over the years. It has become a popular firmware for a number of devices based on the open-source Android operating system. Even it offers some amazing features that are not found in the official Android based firmwares on these smart phones. It is my all-time favorite custom ROM for almost all devices without any doubt.                                    

Features : The various features include native theming support, FLAC audio codec support, a large Access Point Name list, an OpenVPN client, an enhanced reboot menu, support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB tethering, CPU overclocking and other performance enhancements, soft buttons and toggles in the notification pull-down (such as wi-fi, Bluetooth and GPS), app permissions management, as well as other interface enhancements aspects.

CynogenMod ROM Official Download Link : Cyanogenmod

2. MIUI ROM

MIUI is one of the most popular Android ROMs and a killer of CynogenMod. It is growing its popularity day by day. After the launch of Mi3 and Redmi 1S in the market, the name MIUI has become a well-known brand. MIUI is basically based on Android 4.x, featuring better experience. 

                                  

Features : It offers amazing themes from improving device performance to saving battery usage. MIUI is updated every Friday based on the feedback from its test users. Sometimes I personally prefer using MIUI because of its amazing look and feel with smooth performance for some specific devices.

MIUI ROM Official Download link : MIUI

3. Paranoid Android ROM

Paranoid Android is also an amazing ROM for flashing. This ROM was recently released but not a new name to people as within a very less time frame it gained the popularity. It will be the first ROM to be based on Android 4.2.2 JellyBean. 

                                        

Features : It includes a lot of additional features than other available ROMs. A few features are like changing colors according to apps which is good for personalization, setting DPI according to apps, 3 different user interfaces as tablet/phablet/phone UI.

Paranoid Android ROM Official Download link : Parnoid Android

4. AOKP ROM

AOKP stands for Android Open Kang Project. It is a custom ROM distribution for several Android devices. The AOKP doesn’t needs any recognition as it is also an alternate choice for most of the people who moved from CynogenMod. AOKP ROM started in 2011 with Ice Cream Sandwich. So it is basically based on Android ICS. Obviously one of my favorites and based on a Nexus device. You can change the software key colors. 

                                           

Features : The AOKP has multiple features that can’t be explained with a paragraph. Once you install the ROM you will come to know. The main features include performance tweaks, customizable LED notifications etc. Several unique abilities of this ROM makes it stand aside from other ROMs.

AOKP ROM Official Download link : AOKP

5. Replicant ROM

Replicant is another distribution of Android custom ROM that is free. Most of the Android versions are licensed freely under the Apache License 2.0. The Linux core is mostly Free Software under the GPLv2. But there are some components of the default software stack on the devices that are proprietary software. It means any component that handles the hardware directly is proprietary software. 

Features : Replicant Wiki offers you a list of open source apps that can be used to replace the proprietary Google apps (Market, Gmail, Maps, etc.). Even it suggests to use F-Droid instead of Google Market. Replicant lacks in location tracking. Due to some proprietary aspects it is less popular than other ROMs.

Replicant ROM Official Download link : Replicant

6. LiquidSmooth ROM

In case you are very much concerned about the megahertz and gigahertz aspects of devices then Liquid Smooth is the perfect ROM for you. The emphasis is purely on performance and speed – the UI has been pretty much entirely left alone like pure Android.

Features : LiquidSmooth is a very fast and stable custom firmware packed with a ton of features like SlimPIE, Lock screen Style, Notification Reminder, Hardware key rebinding, Custom Carrier label, Smart Pulldown, Advanced Reboot, Listview Animations, Liquid Dungeon, and much much more.

LiquidSmooth ROM Official Download link : LiquidSmooth

7. Xylon ROM

The Xylon ROM is another pretty fast and responsive ROM which is famous for its fast and easy to use shortcuts. The Xylon is another custom ROM that is built off of AOSP, that actually means that the ROM is based on stock ROM with a few features added over it. 

                                    

Features : Basically the features of FNV, CM, AOKP, Team BAKED, and Paranoid Android make up to be Xylon ROM . The ROM is very smooth and its reviews have revealed that the ROM is very much friendly with the Battery life and extends it at an unbelievable rate. Unfortunately he ROM is not so universal and is only available on the Google Nexus 4. This ROM needs a thumbs up from all of the Nexus 4 users.

Xylon ROM Official Download link : Xylon ROM

8. Carbon ROM

CarbonRom is another popular firmware based on the Android Open Source Project. 

                                  

Features: It is based on Android 4.3 PIE Halo AOKP. It offers comprehensive speed enhancements, including Linaro -O3 and processor-specific optimizations, and unofficial Voodoo Sound support on Note 2 and i9300 devices, lock screen options, Chronus Clock widget (taken from CyanogenMod), customizable hardware and software keys, and much more. 

CarbonROM Official Download link : CarbonROM

9. PAC True All in 1 ROM

As its name suggests you can consider it as a power packed custom ROM of Paranoid Android, AOKP and CyanogenMod 10.1.

                                               

It indulges high performance to the devices which use much more resources while in use. The ROM is very good at Gaming and also good at the interface as it frequently gets updated. The awesome ROM is not available for multiple devices mainly for Galaxy and Nexus series.

PAC True All in 1 ROM Official Download link : PAC True All in 1 ROM

10. Chameleon OS ROM

Chameleon OS is also known as ChaOS. It is a custom Android ROM that gives the user more customized control. It has started with CyanogenMod base. It is customized in each piece to give ultimate control while maintaining the simplicity of user friendly interface of Android. 

Features : The best feature of ChaOS is the theme engine that can apply different pieces of themes in a true mix-and-match style. The launcher has been completely loaded with multiple options that you have to download a third-party launcher. It offers options such as home screen previews, folder sorting, and folder icon styles. It includes amazing messaging app with awesome U, including messaging bubbles and quick emoji button.

Chameleon OS ROM Official Download link : Chameleon OS

11. Android Revolution HD ROM

This one is for HTC fans. Android Revolution HD is a custom ROM for HTC Desire HD. It is based on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread).

Features : With a new kernel: 2.6.35.14 (under-volted & tweaked) it offers various fetaures. If you want to control CPU manually, you would need SetCPU to be set to "Set on Boot", but using O/C Daemon gives much better performance and battery life. It includes many CPU governors like SmartAss, Ondemand, Performance, Conservative, UserSpace etc. It is equipped with improved 2D and 3D Graphics performance.

 Android Revolution HD ROM Official Download link : Android Evolution HD

12. Resurrection Remix ROM

Resurrection Remix is a beautiful mixture of various popular sources including CM, PA, AOKP, and original Remix. This is based on stable Android 4.4.

                                      

Features : This custom firmware offers some great features like Halo, Active display, Lockscreen Notifications, Application side bar, Omniswitch, Notification panel tweaks, Music Toggle, Pitch Black UI Mode, Camera mods, ListView Animations, Custom system animations, Custom progress bar, and more.

Resurrection Remix ROM Official Download link :  Resurrection Remix

13. DarkyROM

DarkyROM is specifically for Samsung users, mainly Samsung Galaxy S. DarkyROM is a very popular ROM for the Samsung Galaxy S, S II and Note. 

                                                                   

Features : It offers several tweaks and tricks for CPU utilizations, personalization aspects but the limitation is that it only supports Samsung Galaxy device. 

DarkyROM Official Download link :  DarkyROM

14. SlimROMs

SlimROMs is slimmer version or lightweight Android ROM for Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy smartphones. It requires little bit understanding of ROMs so it is ideal for advanced users.

Features : SlimROMs comes in two different versions. They are -

• Slim Bean which is based on Jelly Beans.
• Slim ICS which is based on Ice Cream Sandwich.

SlimROMs have been designed like a way that gives you a fast and clean Android installation.

SlimROMs Official Download link : SlimROMs

15. OmniROM

As per the developer of OmniROM, “Omni isn't better, just different. It’s another option for the billion Android users out there. Android (vs. iOS and every other mobile OS) has thrived on options as well as the gigantic, talented development community that has emerged to build those options. That’s the beauty of Android – that you can pick and choose from a smorgasbord of devices with varying features and functionality.”

Features : It offers a platform where hardware resource utilization is measured properly and as a whole the device doesn't lag.  It is one of the smoothest and fastest Android custom ROMs which makes it a stand different than others.

OmniROM Official Download link : OmniROM

Yes, I am done with my top 15 Android custom ROMs. All the ROMs are clean, no bloatware, no extra apps where you would experience the taste of the purest Android. Various smartphones have their own KitKat-based ROMs available right now and, some of them are somewhat stable with a few bugs here and there. Now its time for you to try these ROMs according to your device supportability and requirements and leave your valuable comments. If you discover any other amazing custom ROMs, don't forget to mention here.

How To Increase Your Blog Traffic Using Online Tools

If you are blogging you should use some useful online tools.  These tools will help you to work on what to write about, how to write and how to rank on Google. Also it will help you promote your content over the web with a lot of useful suggestions. Using keywords play a big role in ranking a website. You should concentrate working on your SEO aspects which play a big role in attracting audience towards your blog. 

Here you go with your useful blogging tools for your blog. Click on the headings for each tools mentioned below to go to respective tool website.

1.  Google Keyword Planner :

You will need to have a Google AdWords account in order to use the Google Keyword Planner. If you don’t have one already, you can set one up here:

Google Keyword Planner provides a rough figure which shows number of monthly searches for particular keywords in particular countries or worldwide.  In fact this is not 100% accurate but it will give you a good amount of organic traffic for any keyword combinations.

This is the best tool in my opinion as there are a lot of keyword research tools and, although you may use more than one, you will generally end up still using Google Keyword Planner.

2. Seologies :

Google analyzes your article to understand what it is about.  Earlier you had options to include the keywords you wanted multiple times within your blog post and it was helping your content to rank higher in Google.  But now, Google analyzes all your content and it is also important to have related terms within your content, and it’s not just about over populating your content with keywords.

Seologies analyzes your content and gives you a percentage rating based on the keywords you should have to rank in search engines.  It will suggest some ‘expert vocabulary’ that can be included in your content that will help improve the relevance with the keywords you are using within it.

 3. Keywordtool.io:

One of the useful keyword research tools is keywordtool.io.  If you enter the keywords into this tool, it will show you hundreds of different, related, keyword combinations.  Even it will analyze and suggest you what Google thinks are related keywords by adding more keywords on to the existing keyword combination.

4. SEMRush :

SEMRush is another easy to use tool for keyword research. It crawls through Google search results and it pulls out the details where your competitors are ranking for keywords. It is also helpful in suggesting ideas for content. I prefer using this tool.

In case your competitor is ranking for particular keywords then you can also use those keywords in your content and try to get some of their traffic.

5.  HitTail :

HitTail analyzes your Google Webmaster Tools account and finds out the keywords that are driving traffic to your site. Later on it suggests some blog posts ideas you can write based on these.  Relevant keywords have the potential to drive good traffic to your site.

Suppose, Google sends you relevant traffic for some particular keywords but you don’t have a post based on those keywords. So in this case you will end up with less traffic. So obviously it makes sense that writing a blog post specifically based on those keywords will get you even more traffic.

6. Raven Tools :

It is a paid tool. If you want to go ahead and invest in an SEO tool then Raven Tools will be the best choice which is a compilation of SEO and social media tools all under a single platform.

Hope the above tools will help you find more audience for your blog. Use the tools properly so that the blog traffic will increase accordingly. 

Xiaomi Redmi 1S Available For Pre-Order In India

The Redmi 1s from Xiaomi is available for pre-order today on Flipkart and priced at Rs 5,999 and will go on Sale on 2nd September. Xiaomi mentioned the price tag as Rs 6,999 when it announced its launch in July 2014. But seeing the competitive market in India they have reduced the price by Rs 1,000 and the device is available at less than $100 which is unbelievable with the specs Redmi 1S has. Flipkart is the official online retailer where Xiaomi is selling its various range of smartphones in India. Earlier Xiaomi Mi3 was introduced and till date the demand is at top. Even if you call Flipkart for booking, you can listen to their normal menu option with additional MI product booking option. Redmi 1S will be the second device entering the Indian market, after the hugely popular Xiaomi Mi3. The Mi3 is being sold in seconds whenever the stock is available. According to the device maker and the online retailer the demands for Mi3 as well as Redmi 1S are more in Indian smartphone market users.

Registrations open at 6pm, Aug 26th. If you want to pre-book Redmi 1S now, please click here: Link

                                                                                                                                                 Image Credit : Mi.com 

Below are the technical specifications of Redmi 1S :

CPU  : Quad-core 1.6GHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8228, GPU Adreno 305

Memory : RAM 1GB, Flash Memory 8GB, Max Storage Expansion 64GB

Battery : 2000mAh changeable Li-ion battery

Display :  Size 4.7 inch, Material : IPS display, HD Resolution1280 x 720, Touch screenMulti-touch capacitive screen, Video Capture1080p (1920x1080) HD video recording

Operating System : MIUI, based on Android 4.3

Camera : Back 8MP, Front 1.6MP with FlashLED, Auto Focus, ApertureA ƒ/2.2 aperture,
Wide-angle 28mm, Burst Mode 8 frames/second, Zero shutter lag, face recognition, high dynamic range (HDR), real-time filters

Connectivity :  WCDMA(3G) / GSM(2G), GPSGPS+AGPS+GLONASS, Bluetooth BT4.0LE, WLAN 802.11b/g/n

The Xiaomi Redmi 1S will be competing against Motorola Moto E, Asus Zenfone 4 and some Indian smartphones. Click here to book your handset now.

How To Open Google Cached Pages

The giant search engine Google has an very useful feature and i.e. Google Cache. In case a website is down or its time consuming to reach that website then you can quickly retrieve the cached copy of that page from Google servers.

Another great feature it offers is that Google Cache works in a similar fashion like a proxy server by allowing you to view pages that may be inaccessible from your current location. The “Cached” link provides an option by showing Instant Previews on the right hand side or a drop down selection option just as shown in the above screenshot. Cached links can be seen if you hover the mouse over a search result or select the down arrow button beside the link.

Sometimes it is very much required to access a cached version of a web page. In that case you can go to google.com and type cache: in the search box. If Google sees that special “cache” string in the search box, it automatically transfers you to the cached copy of that particular page.

Nowadays people are more keen in using Google Chrome. If you are a Chrome user then just type “cache:” before the URL in Chrome’s address bar and it goes straight to the cached version of that web page.

SEO Mistakes According To Google’s Matt Cutts

Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts listed very common SEO mistakes webmasters make while taking care of SEO aspects. Google's Matt Cutts said these are not the most devastating mistakes, but rather, the most common mistakes.

Below are the common mistakes :

• Having a website that is not crawlable is the biggest mistake he sees.
• Not including the right words on the page. The example Matt gave is: don’t just write, “Mt. Everest Height” but write, “How high is Mt. Everest?” because that is how people search.
• Don’t think about link building, think about compelling content and marketing.
• Don’t forget to think about the title and description of your most important pages.
• Not using webmaster resources and learning about how Google works and what SEO is about.

Here’s his video where he mentioned about the 3-5 mistakes done by webmasters in SEO areas.

Celebrity Nominations For The Ice Bucket Challenge [Infographic]

The ice bucket challenge is probably the biggest social media phenomenon this year. It was launched as a fun way to raise awareness and funds for The ALS Association, everyone from David Beckham to Anna Wintour has now completed the Ice Bucket Challenge - and nominated famous friends to take a drenching too.

We now know that ice bucket pioneers included Mark Zuckerberg, Today Show presenter Hoda Kotb, and – Justin Timberlake. These nominations have exposed a complicated network of partners, exes, co-stars and peers - now compiled into an infographic by celebrity and media database Celebrity Intelligence. Click here to check the enlarged inforgraphic.

Source : Celebrity Intelligence

Vine Introduces Camera And Editing Tools For iOS

Vine has now provides iOS users and option with the ability to create videos their way. This twitter-owned app is likely to make a big change in imaging and editing options though a lot of apps are already present in the market. It will allow users to create their own six-second clips from pre-existing videos for the first time.

Vine said in a blog post. “The new camera offers powerful ways to edit your videos as well as the ability to import existing videos on your phone and turn them into Vines. Simply put, this release gives you total creative freedom –– and it’s all within the app. In addition to your phone’s front- and rear-facing cameras, you now have another source for your Vines: you can import existing videos from your phone.”

iOS users can see a new option in the bottom left corner of the capture screen that can import a video. Users can make a single video or mix various clips together. Even slow motion videos are now supported as well. If you want to edit the videos then it will be an easier task now. You have to tap the scissors icon from the preview screen to edit a video. Additional tools include duplicate button, the mute button and the preview and undo button.

                      

In case you want to access more tools, tap the wrench from the capture screen. It brings up a “second layer” of camera tools: “a grid, plus a new level; the focus lock, which now works with the front-facing camera in addition to the rear-facing camera; ghost mode, which shows you the last frame of your previous shot (and is super helpful for lining up shots!); and a new torch feature, so you can now shoot in low-light settings.”

Vine for iOS is available for download.  The app will be released on Android in near future.

Instagram Releases Businesses Needed Tools

Organizations that are using Instagram, will be happy with this news. Facebook owned this hugely popular app long back and introduced advertising. Accordingly companies have been taking advantage of the photo-sharing network to share their product information but there was no tracking option to see their impact if users have been paying attention on the ads.

On Wednesday, Instagram posted on its blog “We’ve heard from brands that having more insight into how people engage with and respond to their photos and videos is an important part of evolving creatively. We’re excited to announce that over the coming weeks and months, we’ll begin rolling out a new suite of tools to help brands better understand the performance of their paid and organic content on Instagram.”

It is a great news for the companies who have been using Instagram to reach existing and potential customers. The modified ad tools, including a dashboard interface for performance tracking, allows businesses to analyze if the app is helping the target customers.

Tech Crunch has pointed out a very useful feature that the ‘ad staging’ aspect where ads can be built, previewed and worked on prior to being sent out on Instagram.

The blog post also added that “We’ve worked closely with several of our advertising partners to make sure these tools meet their needs. We’re now making them available to all Instagram advertisers, whose feedback will help us improve the product before releasing it to additional brands later this year.” 

Why Should You Ignore Thumb Rules Of Blogging?

Evolution is a constant change which brings out different things and concepts with time. There used to be a lot of best blogging practices that may not work in today’s digital world. It is the best time to evaluate that whether generally accepted blog best practices still apply to your blog or not.

Here are few blogging best practices which are being ignored nowadays.

1. Multiple Posts Per Day Increase Traffic

An ancient myth which says “traffic is directly proportional to the number of posts”. It means that if you want to increase traffic then you have to post as much as you can throughout the whole day. A lot of bloggers are there who still think that increasing frequency for posts per day will bring them good amount of traffic.

Rule Now: The rule can be ignored and instead of following this rule a new rule of blogging could be applied that will say “not to post that much frequent but a slow content posting” would be helpful for blog’s growth.

2. Comments On Blogs

It was very much surprising when Copyblogger closed its comment box. The reason behind the decision of shutting down its commenting option is copyblogger receives a lot of spam which made some irrelevant comments. They prefer viewers to start discussion on their social media network than comments. They are active on Google Plus. People can engage with their own blog, who want to share opinion on any topic in reference the Copyblogger post.

Rule Now: Copyblogger has introduced a new blogging rule which says to write a blog post in response to a post and expand your initial comment to include an opinion.

3. Content Outsourcing 

Content writing has always been outsourced to grab the attention of viewers for own blogs. Nowadays website owners and bloggers are realizing that outsourced content will never get them the identification that they always wanted. Content is very important aspect for a blog. Useful content only brings audience to your blog. So it is always good that you write your own content.

Rule Now: Write your own content. If you can’t write content at all then you can probably have to engage the fellow bloggers to discuss on topics, direction, and ideas on how to write.

4. Original Content Creation

It is been told that your content should be 100% original while you post. But in fact, no one creates 100 percent original content all the time in a blog. People are always getting inspired by others and re-phrasing the same content with their own words.

New Rule: Read more and more other people’s content and give your unique contribution to it. But always give attribution and credit to your sources and references.

5. Post With Image Is Optional

People usually say that your content should be original and unique but adding a picture an optional. But the fact is that the web is now rapidly growing with visual contents and most of the search results come with images with ALT attribute which in turn show the post from the specific blog.

Rule Now: So it is always better to add both images and captions to every post you write along with your unique and original content. It’s good for capturing eyeballs, it’s good for SEO, and it’s good for social sharing.

6. One Format For One Blog

Despite of having a podcast with big brands and entrepreneurs some bloggers usually complains on their earning which turns out to be very less. It is quite possible that this is happening because of the only format that the particular blog shows “only podcasting”. How can this problem be solved? If a different approach is adapted then this issue could be resolved. The blog’s readers can be able to quickly scan the content and subscribe to the blog and it may result a rise in traffic.

New Rule: Re-produce the same or produce a different content in multiple formats like written content, graphics, podcasts, videos, presentations, etc.

7. Post 500 Words

Nowadays practically saying the era of “500 words post” is gone. Now everything is measured by quality than quantity. In fact it is observed that short posts are still popular. Longer posts (up to 2,000 words) are read also. Word count doesn’t matter anymore.

Rule Now: Post should contain the purpose and importance of the article.

8. Never Publish Post On Third-Party Websites

Most of the bloggers post their articles on their own social media accounts and network. But this is the network limited to you. If you want to spread among larger audience with a larger social network we need to get the posts on third party network too.

Rule Now: You can promote your content on reputable third-party websites. You post should provide a link back to the original content where it is first published. You can give an author bio tied in to your G+ profile. Within a week or two search bots will update the search engine where and when the original article was first published. You can also include links within your article that link back to your website for driving larger audience.

How To Build Backlinks - Dos & Don'ts

Most of the bloggers want more backlinks to their blogs because all of them want to attract huge number  of regular visitors and subscribers. This is one of the best SEO practices as gradually those blogs will get more and more traffic. It increases your blog's page ranking in search engines making your blog more visible and quick searchable on SERPs. There are various organic or natural ways to build backlinks. But while building links, you need to take care of some guidelines.

Please follow the DOs and DON'Ts for building backlinks:

DOs :

1. Article Submission :

Regularly submit your article to the article directories like - Ezinearticles.com, GoArticles.com, ArticlesBase.com, ArticleCity.com, Amazines.com, ArticleTrader.com etc. By submitting to these higher PR sites you can ensure your quality of writing as well as getting more readers for your blog.

2. Visiting Blogs With Same Niche :

Always visit blogs which follow same niche and cover similar topics. These articles will add aditional value to your knowledge base which can be expressed in your own way.

3. Comment On Related Blogs :

While reading other blogs' posts, you may comment on them ensuring inreaction with other fellow bloggers and take a view or idea from those comments and replies and later on you can make use of it. make sure that you are not doing any SPAMMING business here. Make your comment box available for people so that you can also interact with them and making sure to get a returning visitor to your site.

4. Web 2.0 Usage :

You may use such Web 2.0 websites like Hubpages, Squidoo to get large number of viewers as these sites are already having indexed pages with higher page ranking in SERPs and have large number of viewers and connections with different websites of similar niche.

5. Guest Posting :

Select some good sites within your niche and start posting as a guest author.  It will make you known to other blog's viewers and in this way you can promote your blog too.

6. Forum, Q&A Community Engagement :

Start writing on a forum and take participation in Q&A online communities. This will increase your understanding on the topics and will clear your views ensuring leaving your blog link there in relavant and related topic.

7. Blog Carnival Participations :

Participate in the blog carnivals which have targeted audience and  there is a scope for you to get few percentage of that massive audience to your blog.

8. Upload Videos :

If your blog niche comes under technology and you provide how-to guides. Start making your own how-to guides' videos also so that people who will watch the videos on online video websites like Youtube, will come to your blog too.

9.  Offer Giveaway :

This is one of the best techniques to bring traffic to your blog. Organize Giveaway Contest/Quiz very often ensuring the visitors are taking part on the Giveaway contest and quiz.

10.  Quality and Unique Content :

Obviously this is the most vital rule in the field of blogging. Until & unless you write quality and unique content, you won't get visitors. Readers will be attracted to the posts which are unique and original which will be having good quality and full information.  You can go for a good catchy domain name and start blogging.

Unfortunately, the above things are not taken care by the pre-bloggers, newbies who want their blog be a hit one over night. Nowadays the search engine crawlers are very accurate and can catch false links. They treat the links as spams and may ban your site. Therefore, we have drafted some not to do thing below :

DON'Ts : 

1. Buying Backlinks : 

Don't buy backlinks and get your site linked. There are a lot of software for backlinks builder available over net but stay away of them.

2. Link Exchange Communities :  

In SERPs, links found via link exchange communities will be considered as fake and will not encourage your blog for good page ranks.

3. Article Submission Service : 

Good article submission service will help your blog to grow fast by increasing readers and subscribers but if it submits to cheap and junk directories? Don's make sense. So, be selective before you submit article.

4. Compromising With Quality :

Bloggers do think that it is necessary to post everyday without fail. Yes, it is a good practice that you write at least one article every day but it doesn't mean that you should look for quantities rather than quality. Posting degraded quality contents will reduce the number of viewers.

5. Spamming : 

Engaging with online communities doesn't mean that you write anything irrelevant to the topic itself. This useless comments and links will not bring any visitors to your site. Search engines consider these links as spams.

We have discussed about the DOs and DON'Ts while you build backlinks ensuring a good SEO practice on your blogs/websites for better ranking in SERPs.

Useful Apps For Your Android Phone

Since most of the people are using Android smartphones now it is obvious that they will need the apps according to their requirements. We have tried our best to list some of the useful and important apps which will can be installed and made use of them. Here is a list of some of the useful Android apps for your phone that will help you be more efficient and productive as well as these apps will be helpful in serving purposes of your daily life. We have excluded some of the mostly used apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Google+, Hangouts, WeChat, Instagram etc. Lets find out some other useful apps which is not so much popular but helpful for specific people.

We have categorized the apps in the following categories :

Productivity :

• Clean Master : Clean useless files and residuals installation apps from your Android phone and also recover precious disk space and speed up the device. 
• File Wrangler : Easy and powerful file manager for Android. 
• Easy Backup :Take backup your SMS, MMS and call records to the external SD card. 
• BackupPro : Take backup your phone and transfer your data and media file to another device.
• DU BatterySaver : Fix your phone's battery problems and extend the device’s battery life. 
• Reader — See PDF files on your Android phone. It can also open password protected files. 

Task Managing :

• Keep : Take notes, to-do lists, voice memos and photo notes with searchable text.
• Any.Do : Manage your tasks and to-do lists with Google Tasks sync easily. 
• Ustream : Let you app tell you when you have free time and suggests task automatically. 
• Easy Alarm : Assign any YouTube songs as your wake-up alarm. 
• Timely : An alarm clock that automatically syncs with your other devices
• Contacts+ : Beautiful  contact manager for Android that display profiles for your contacts. 
• Readability : Shares web pages to your Kindle for reading later in a clutter free environment.

Antivirus :

• Avast : It will secure your Android device against theft, viruses and phishing attacks.
• AVG AntiVirus : It will protect your device from viruses, malware and fake apps. 

Music & Video :

• Poweramp : An advanced music player for Android with clean and beautiful interface.
• Saavn Music : Users who listen to Bollywood and Indian regional music and radio. Listen with this app on your Android device. 
• SoundHound : Detects music playing around you with a single tap or by entering words from the lyrics.
• Shazam : Similar to SoundHound, Shazam offers a button to tap and that instantly recognize music playing around you.
• Subsonic : It fetches music from the desktop and listen on your phone or tablet anywhere, anytime. 
• TuneIn Radio : Live radio stations and podcasts from all over the world can be accessed. 

Location & Tracking :

• My Tracks : It will record everything wherever you go. Your path, speed and distance will be recorded when you walk or drive.
• Glympse : Similar to Google Latitude. It is an alternate app that shows where your friends are.
• Expensify : It makes expense reports for travelling on business purpose.

Design & Photos :

• HomeStyler : Take a picture of a room, place furniture and visualize the interior design in 3D.
• Photo Grid : Create collages and photo walls in different layouts quickly. 
• Repix : You can remix your photos and turn them into piece of art. 
• Screenshots : Easily capture screenshots of your Android device with keys or action triggers. 
• Pixlr : An useful photo editor from Autodesk that is absolutely free. 
• Aviary : Another photo editing tools that will make your photos stand out. 

Wireless :

• Fing : You can find out which devices are connected to your Wi-Fi networks. 
• TeamViewer : Access your Windows or Mac computers remotely from any Android phone. 
• Splashtop : Access your Windows or Mac computer from any Android phone over WiFi.
• WiFi Manager : You can find out Wi-Fi networks around you and connect to the best network. 
• WiFi Analyzer : You can analyze your Wifi and expand the reach of your wireless router. 
• AirDroid : Easily transfer files to and from your Android device wirelessly without cables. 
• FoxFi : It makes your phone into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot and share your data connection. 
• SmartCam : It makes your mobile phone into a webcam for your computer. 

News And Updates :

• Flipboard : A popular app by which you can read news and updates from your favourite source in a beautiful, magazine style layout.
• News 360 : Informative and useful news reader that collects stories around your topics of interest and displays in categories. 

Download :

• µTorrent : It is the most used downloader app. Torrent downloader from the team that invented BitTorrent. 
• tTorrent : An alternate for µTorrent. You can download torrents directly to your Android phone or tablet. 

Messaging And Video Calling :

• Viber : Useful app to send free messages and make free calls over 3G or WiFi.
• Line : It can send unlimited messages and make free calls over VoIP.
• TrueCaller : It can detect calls from unknown numbers and block SMS and calls from spam numbers.
• Shush : It keep track and remembers to unmute your phone after a certain period.
• HelloText : Hello is a good alternative, in case you don't like your inbuilt SMSing app.
• MightyText : It sends and receives SMS text messages from your desktop computer.
• Smart Voice : It records high-quality audio while skipping the silent portions.
• Cogi : It will record your college lectures or the conversations when you are in meetings.

Hope you will use the apps and share your experience by leaving your comments here.

Google Gives Better Rank For Secured Websites

Webmasters and bloggers do hardly care about making the website secured by HTTPS. But it is the time when all should look into this. Google has officially announced that sites secured with HTTPS and SSL will now get better positions in search rankings. We had speculations about HTTPS being one of the factors in ranking better. But as Google confirmed that it is a good time to switch and grow your sites visibility over net.

Google said, "Over the past few months we've been running tests taking into account whether sites use secure, encrypted connections as a signal in our search ranking algorithms. We've seen positive results, so we're starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal."

It is true that secured factors give websites a little heads up. As per Google, the heads up have an impact about 1% of global search queries that as a whole makes it less important than other major SEO factors such as quality content, back-links etc.

Even though this factor contributes little, still Google thinks it as very important. Also the post added that they "may decide to strengthen" the factor so that more webmasters, bloggers, website owners are encouraged to switch from HTTP to HTTPS and keep everyone safe on the web while browsing.

Here are some useful tips :

Google has been asking website owners since long that it is safe to switch from HTTP to HTTPS but you have to make sure your traffic doesn't get affected in this. It means that you have to update Google that you moved your site from HTTP to HTTPS. Google revealed that it will keep releasing more documentation in the future, and as of now here are few tips:

1. Decide the kind of certificate you need: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate
2. Use 2048-bit key certificates
3. Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain
4. Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains
5. Check out our site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address
6. Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt
7. Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the noindex robots meta tag.

Now its your turn to switch from HTTP to HTTPS and share your experience. Please leave your comments here after moving to HTTPS.