Category: Blogging Tips

A beginner’s guide to install WordPress plugin on your website
When you move to WordPress from any hosted blog solution (such as Blogger, Tumblr, Squarespace etc.), you might feel overwhelmed with all the features and flexibility that WordPress self-hosted CMS (Content Management System) has to offer. Once you have decided to make a move, the first step is to figure out how to successfully install WordPress on a web server. It is not a rocket science and anyone can learn how to start a blog with a little bit of knowledge.

Although, things start to get a little trickier after the initial step. Once you’ve set up your new shining WordPress website, you must learn how to migrate your contents from old platform. If you have only a few pages, you can easily migrate all of them manually. However, you have to install and use a plugin if there are a considerable amount of articles.

There are millions of WordPress plugins to choose from. A right plugin can make things much convenient. One can easily move all the posts and images, set up proper url structure, redirect old url, manage SEO (Search Engine Optimization), optimize images and much more.

Every new blogger moving to WordPress platform must know how to install WordPress plugin. There are three different ways to install WordPress plugin which you can learn easily:
1. Search and Install WordPress plugin from dashboard
2. Upload and Install WordPress plugin from local directory on your computer
3. Upload WordPress Plugin directly to the server using FTP
1. Search and Install WordPress Plugin from dashboard

Searching for the plugin from the dashboard is the easiest way to install WordPress plugin. It offers a huge searchable official online WordPress plugin directory.

You can do a quick search if you know the name of the plugin.

Simply go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New. Then Search the plugin you want to install.

The search result presented will list matching plugins. Furthermore, Clicking on “More Details” will display a comprehensive information about the plugin. The plugin should be compatible with the current version of WordPress.

To proceed with the installation, click on “Install Now” followed by “Activate” button that appears next.

The next step should involve going to the settings page of the plugin. Users must configure the settings according to their need. Most new WordPress users simply install the plugin and forget to configure the settings. This is the common mistake among the those who recently migrated to WordPress.

Always remember to configure settings of the installed plugin.

2. Upload and Install WordPress plugin from local directory on your computer

This method is often used when you purchase a licensed premium plugin from third party websites. The developer may have a separate version of the plugin, distinguished from its free variant. Furthermore, Official WordPress Plugin directory also provides installation file in a compressed .zip format.

WordPress Users should know how to install plugins using these installation files. In order to proceed with the installation, go to Dashboard > Plugins > Add New and then click on Upload Plugins. Now, we have to upload the .zip file to our website.

Click on “Choose File” and select the installation file from your computer. To upload and install the plugin on the website, click on “Install Now” button. Finally, press “Activate Plugin” to enable it on the website.

3. Upload WordPress Plugin directly to the server using FTP

This is the least recommended method to install a WordPress plugin on the website. In my opinion, most people should use the dashboard to search or upload plugin. FTP method is an additional hassle which should be avoided unless it is a necessity.

Although I was only required to use FTP a handful of times, it proved to be a lifesaver. It is something that WordPress users should master. This method can be really useful when a plugin behaves in an unwanted manner.

First and foremost, you should know that there must be an installation file handy. The zip file has to be decompressed or unzipped before it is ready to be used for FTP transfer. You can use free tools to unzip these files. Additionally, FTP credentials will also be required. You should ask for such information from your hosting provider.

Additionally, FTP credentials will also be required. You should ask for such information from your hosting provider. Furthermore, you should download an FTP client such as Filezilla or Cyberduck.
- Installation file in a zip format (Downloaded from WordPress.org official website or 3rd party websites)
- Tool to unzip/extract files on your computer (Such as Unzip, 7zip or WinRar)
- FTP Credentials (Used to login to your server)
- FTP Client (User interface to transfer files to your server via FTP, viz. Filezilla or Cyberduck)
Read: [How To] Connect to a FTP server and transfer files to your computer
November 1, 2017
LightWeight Social Share buttons for blogger to speed up your blog

It feels really great when someone shares your blog post on the social media websites, which immediately indicates that your content was worth that extra step that your readers took to share it with their friends/family. Driving traffic to your new blog is little tricky at the beginning and often frustrating. If you’re not following some of the common practices that have been proved to work for many popular websites/blogs, then you’re simply going to choke it to death.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have registered a new account on blogger service by Google – which is dedicated to providing the mentorship and guidance that we never received during our startup. I am sharing these tips and tricks to help you avoid making the mistakes that we did at the beginning and wished someone could point us in the right direction. We got lucky and got exposed to the inspirational work of Yeah! Local, which gave us our direction and in turn, momentum. Fortunately, if you’re reading this post – then you’re on the right track.

See Also: Here’s why you should choose blogger as your first blogging platform

Social sharing buttons are a crucial part of any website/blog. You’ll find it everywhere in one form or another. Even Websites likes Facebook, Twitter, Google+ has their own internal sharing tools which help their users share stories or snippets with their friends/families.

Speed Matters

It is a fairly simple job if you go ahead and add the codes directly, or use third-party services such as AddThis, Shareaholic, SimpleShareButtons, ShareThis etc. One thing which is common with these services is they all use a set of their own javascript and CSS files, which drastically slows down your blog. Google itself admitted in the official blog that they prefer faster website over the slow one, which is something you shouldn’t take lightly.

There could be many factors that might be affecting your web page load time, but if you’re using social like buttons on your blog than replacing it with our social sharing tool will make a noticeable difference to overall load time. We are using it on our own website and compared the performance with the regular social tools available out there.

What makes it so special?

First of all, there isn’t a single line of Javascript code used to render this social sharing toolbar on the blog, which reduces the number of requests to be made by clients to the web page. On traditional social buttons, it loads JS/CSS files for every social button included. For example – If you use Facebook, Twitter and Google+ buttons on your blog, it would load 3 different JS files along with 3 CSS rules to render these buttons. That’s totals 6 requests, not to mention that it increases the bandwidth and total page size of your blog, as each file adds up to the total size of the page.

Using our tool, you reduce these request to 1 (One), as it only requires single CSS file (of size 9KB) to render all the buttons. It is SEO friendly, fast, super slim, light weight and beautiful.

Where can I get it?

To add it to your blogger website, simply head over to our Blogger Lab, where we shared the Live demo and simple instructions to implement it on your blog.

Live Demo

July 19, 2015
Here’s why you should choose blogger as your first blogging platform
I started my journey 6 years ago on blogger as well, and I do recommend this platform to any new blogger who comes to me for advising. I did share my side of the story and how I started my journey with DigitFreak, what were the initial mistakes and how I choose to be a full-time blogger/writer. If you didn’t read it, you can find my post here. This is the first post in the series where I will disclose how to establish a successful blog — one post at a time.

See Also: How I am turning my blog into a successful business, and you can do it too!

Choosing the right platform for your first blog is essential as it is going to be your laboratory to test and adapt things that pile up as a secret of becoming a professional blogger over time. In fact, DigitFreak started its journey on Google blogger service (called blogspot back then) and everything that I learned was because of this platform. Being able to create a website with your personalized logo, and capability to write about almost anything and observing the users visiting the website from around the world is something that comes as a perk at 0 (zero) cost with blogger.

New bloggers often gets confused while choosing their first blogging platform, worrying they will miss out features and flexibility of other advanced options available and ability to scale the design and structure of the website when the time comes . Guess what? You’re not going to need any of these advanced features at the beginning. While there is truly nothing you should be worried when choosing the blogger for your first blog, but to answer the query — You can easily migrate from blogger to any other popular CMS out there, whenever you want.

I will not populate this post with Pros and Cons of having a blogger over other platforms/CMS, as my main goal is to teach the readers how to start with blogging and turn it into a successful business. This is the first milestone of becoming a blogger, which I am outlining in this article.

Why Am I suggesting everyone to start with blogger?

To point out few – it’s free, secure, easy to understand, highly adaptable, and newbie friendly ( doesn’t mean he’s non-tech savvy). In so many cases, blogger is much better than WordPress or other CMS platforms out there — it’s simply blogging.

While starting your first niche blog, you should always opt for blogger platform even if you are tech friendly and learn things quickly. Blogging is not always about how good you’re at managing websites, it is about the content. Keep in mind we are talking about a specific stream of bloggers, who want to earn money from the quality content they can deliver.

The things that I evaluated to conclude my suggestion:
- Whether the platform is focused on serving beginners or experts: blogger is super noob friendly.
- The cost of using the service: the cost to run a blog on blogger is $0 (zero).
- customizations and scalability offered in the price constraints of service: You can make your blog stand out from others If you have little knowledge of CSS/HTML/java. Don’t worry if you don’t; there are the plethora of themes available for blogger targeted to almost any type of website.
There are the points you should keep in mind while opting for any platform. Remember that it can be easy to upgrade to a better platform in most cases, so starting with an easy-to-use option is great for anyone just starting out in the blogosphere.

The fact that blogger qualifies the above-mentioned guidelines, you can easily crown the winner for new bloggers. Starting your blogging career with blogger is just a click away. You just need to have a Google account.

Some things to keep in mind

Don’t hesitate to choose blogger: This is the best blogging platform you can have for your first blog. This is the opportunity to move fast and break things without losing anything. There are other websites who would suggest that new bloggers should always go for WordPress or other CMS which is more popular, but the truth is your popularity or ability to earn money doesn’t depend on any platform you choose. As a beginner, you probably wouldn’t want to spend much, and blogger offers just that.

Learn things quickly: This is the time you spend to learn the common principles, way to create viral quality content and how to drive traffic at your website. Create a user base and continue writing about what your readers like the most. This is how you get to know where you should head in the future.

Be expert in your niche: Now based on the analysis over time you will figure out what topics you should focus on and what your readers wants to read. This is the time to learn new things about those topics, and provide tips and resources for your readers that would solve common problems or give value to them.

Don’t wait to monetize your blog: Some experts suggest that you should not bombard your readers with advertisements when you are just starting, but my experience has been a bit different. While it is true that most of us don’t like ads, but almost every internet user is now familiar with advertising model incorporated on websites and has adapted to banner ads. If you add Adsense ads on your blog even before publishing your first article, they wouldn’t notice it – why? They simply don’t care. In fact, if they don’t see the ads they would probably think your blog is inactive or not so popular.

Edit: Monetizing your content shouldn’t be confused with allowing paid content on your new blog. I wanted to suggest selling the available ad spot to contextual banner ads and rewarding yourself some cookies for spending time to write quality content for your readers. You should not accept paid content advertisements at the beginning, no matter how much the advertiser is willing to pay. More on this topic in my next article.

Be ready to move on: Once you start receiving more than 2,000 unique visitors every month, it’s time to move on and ditch blogger. Now you are getting bigger, your readers need better user experience and better website structure. Time to invest some money in your new business and move to the self-hosted platform.

Get yourself a custom domain right away

Most of the experts suggests that you shouldn’t worry about having a custom domain right from the beginning, but I beg to differ. As we are opting for a business model over the personal blog, it only makes sense to get your blog personalized before publishing your first article. Custom domain or web address is the unique identity of your brand — http://www.yourblog.com sounds way better than http://yourblog.blogger.com

It is true that you can have a custom web address at any point after establishing your blog, but it is advised to use a custom domain if you want to earn serious money from your blog.

Introducing Blogger Lab by DigitFreak

To share my journey and experience from the past, I have registered an account on blogger again. It’s been so long since I last used blogger, there are so many new exciting features and options available now.

I will be sharing all my custom widgets, tools, blogging tips and tricks at Blogger Lab – DigitFreak. It is going to be our laboratory for testing and sharing awesome tricks that you can use on your blog to make it unique. We are already working on some widgets and basic design of the blogger lab. It is currently closed, but we will open it soon for everyone to visit.

No, we are not going to post articles on that blog directly. Rather we will be using it to showcase our codes and scripts that we will share over time.

Subscribe to our newsletter for updates. Just put your name and email address (no registrations required) to receive notifications whenever we post next article.
July 7, 2015
How I am turning my blog into a successful business, and you can do it too!

Just like any other new blogger, I started my journey in 2009 registering for a Google Blogspot service and then waiting for the money to flow in, by doing nothing.

I started following other blogs which covered the guides and tutorials to setup a blogspot and do customizations by tweaking some codes in the default template. I was following these websites very closely. At this point, it was only because I wanted to learn website designing and how things work on the internet. It was a childish attempt to become new ‘Mark Zuckerberg,’ Overnight.

One day, I came across a post that explained how you can earn money online by blogger. This is something that got my attention — that post right there was explaining, how I could earn hundreds of dollars every month by simply writing about something I love.

I choose my topic which I think I still belong at — Hacking, Technology, Gadgets, and Piracy. I was able to assemble a Desktop PC from scratch at the age of 13 and started learning basics of hacking websites online when I was in Class 10th, all by myself. It all helped me figure out the right niche I had to choose. So, I Wrote few topics and tutorials, most I could do is post 1 or 2 articles every other day – mainly because I had to attend school and be good at evening tuition.

I read so many success stories on the internet that had me thinking, earning money online is easier than working for someone else. You just have to setup a website, and write some posts — and money will come seeping in. Damn, I was wrong!

Nothing went as expected. I made several mistakes that taught me few things, the hard way. First my blog wasn’t getting any traffic, I had no idea how to get exposure to the content I was posting on the blog. I was simply posting the articles, thinking it will get traffic automatically from Google. Second, I wasn’t monetizing my content. Yes, I was fool enough to think that money will magically appear in my dad’s account (I didn’t posses a personal bank account at that time) if I keep posting content. I didn’t quite understood the AdSense service was required to monetize the blog which was mentioned by the website that I referred to earlier. All I figured out was I had to post content on my website and it will be all magical after that. This is when I learned how to implement Google Adsense on my blog and started using it on my website.

Despite the fact that I failed several times in my endeavor to run a successful Tech blog, I enjoyed it quite well. The most interesting part was managing the web server and learning how to get along with the code — this is something I still enjoy. For starters, I quickly learned my way through HTML, PHP, CSS and some basic Javascripting. I was so indulged in learning all these new things, I totally neglected my studies and focused on anything that had word “computer”, “gadgets” or “Technology.”

By the time I realized the truth, I failed in 12th, sucked at maths and physics (I used to get 90% or above in PCM and Computer) and lost respect among family members. Failing class 12 was a surprise for most who knew me at that time, as I secured my position in top 10 students of my class by scoring 90% in 10th (CBSE). This was the turning point, I started getting worse at other subjects but surprisingly, I was excelling in Computer.

Just like any other middle-Class family in India (it gets worse if you are from Bihar or other smaller cities), I had to listen to my family members and focus on my studies. I had a hard time explaining what I was trying to do, and how someone could earn money online (none of my family member had good knowledge of computer and internet services at that time). I couldn’t spend time on the computer and focus on the work — which resulted in dropping off digitfreak.

Well, I managed to get 74% in the 12th exam, still clueless about most of the parts that I learned. I choose a private college to pursue Computer Science (There was another tragic event that took place while opting for college, let’s keep it for some upcoming posts). I resumed posting contents on the website once I got into the college, but I couldn’t find the time to work on it. There were so many activities that kept me occupied – studies, the harsh time period before fresher’s party (ragging), projects, events, 8 internals and 2-semester examinations every year; excluding the class tests. To make my blog look more active, I attempted a sin — copied contents from different sources using WordPress plugin and RSS. Copying others work is so much easier, and the best part – it was all automated. But that’s where the fun ends. I received several emails from the owner of those contents who threatened me to take legal actions against me.

Fast forward few years, I filtered and deleted most of the content (please point me if there are any left behind) that I copied from other sources – 3,25,539 to be exact, and decided to devote my time in an attempt to turn this blog into a dedicated online Tech Magazine. There are so many details that I want to share here, but I don’t want to make this post big enough to be passed down before reading it to the end. You must be bored, listening to all these personal information. I will share the snippet of these stories in the following series that will be posted from now on.

So why I am spilling all these information right out of nowhere?

Well, I decided to share my journey from now on with other startup websites and bloggers who are seeking a detailed information. I want to help others who has same vision like me, and are looking for an opportunity to do something that matters rather than sitting inside a square cabin working for someone else.

I will be posting SEO tips and Marketing strategy for new bloggers that has proved to be working for us and probably it will work for others as well.

The strategy that I have implemented on my website right now is showing great results.

That’s right you’ve read it correct, it’s – 4,328,580 or, 4.33 Million or, 43 lakh requests last month. That’s the result of 1 month of dedicated work, with hard working teammates and efficient team management.

I am not here to share success stories but a path that others can follow with me. Together, we can find the secrets of running a successful website and earn some substantial cash along the way.

I will begin with blogger and SEO tips, followed by WordPress SEO optimizations and guide to learn how you can make your blog stand out from others. Subscribe to our newsletter, just enter your name and email ID (no registrations required) to receive our email notification whenever I post a new article on the website.

Image Courtesy: Flickr cdevers and gareth1953; ScoopWhoop

July 3, 2015