Thursday, April 3, 2008

Common Errors on Entrecard Blogs

Just a quick post on some of the problems spotted over the weekend on Entrecard blogs.

Make sure your blog name is spelled correctly on your Entrecard, banner or logo.

Do not place the Entrecard widget at the bottom of your blog or bury it in a mass of 125x125 pixel ads. This is disrespectful to your advertisers and to your visitors. You cannot make anyone read your blog, but you can aggravate everyone that stops by.

Select an engaging picture that is related to the theme of your blog for your Entrecard, banner or logo. If you feel that a come-hither look or an anime is the best representation of your blog, no problem.

Badges, banners, 125x125 advertisements, contextual ads, social networking widgets and affiliate links are most effective when used in moderation. Your blog should not look like Las Vegas on steroids.

If your blog is "heavy" with graphics, JavaScript and widgets in the sidebars, have the content load BEFORE the sidebars. No one wants to wait for the entire blog to load before they read your latest post or drop their Entrecard.

The most important real estate on your blog is what may be viewed without scrolling. Do not devote this space to a huge header image or a block of advertisements. You want your blog to load and people to see what your blog has to offer before they click off.

Before you change anything in your template or upgrade to a new software version, back up your template, databases and content. Do not lose three years of content because you did not.

Nothing should play automatically when you open your blog: no music, no video, no sound ad, no virtual assistant, nothing.

Whenever you change your template, make sure that you view your blog in Mozilla and IE browsers. I had this wonderful three-column layout for WordPress, but when I looked at my blog with Internet Explorer, the third column dropped to the bottom of the blog.

Have you spotted an error lately that is not on the list above? Please share if you have.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is an excellent and most timely post for me. I would really appreciate it if you could take a look at my site and tell me what you think may be wrong..if anything. You might see that I posted a question to visitors if they saw anything wrong with my blog. Only one person responded and said she saw nothing wrong..but she was in FireFox..which is where I said everything appeared normal for me.

Here's my problem..I interchange between IE7 and FF. When I view my blog in FF, everything looks good and loads fine..however, the entire page suddenly drops to the bottom and I have to scroll back up.

When I look at it in IE7, my logo in the top left has dropped down to the bottom of the header area..but everything seems fine otherwise.

The day prior to writing that post if there was something wrong..I did not notice anything wrong in IE7.

Plus..something else I just discovered since I previously added that query to my readers..I generally keep my volume off. I was watching a youtube video yesterday and I forgot to turn off my volume. When I went to my site..I heard an odd thing..there appears to be a newscast running over top of my site. How the heck did that happen? I don't even know where its coming from to try and turn it off!

So..if you would be so kind and take I look I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

Anonymous said...

Hi CyberCelt...I see that you checked my blog for me...thanks. I'm not getting any pop-ups..could be because I have my pop-up blockers on.

So..first..I guess I need to check out one of the ad sites I'm subscribed to ..to see if I have a setting to tell them not to use pop-ups on my site..I definitely don't want that.

Second..if I'm not getting a pop-up..should I still be able to hear the fake radio ad?

And..no..it wasn't a ploy to get anyone to my site. I'm trying to optimize it to get people there..not drive them away when they do get there.

Thanks!

CyberCelt said...

@Bob-glad I could help.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know..I figured it out..it was my AdBrite ads! Even when I took the widgets off my site..the music was still playing. I had to cancel my account with them completely to get it to stop. Apparently, even without code, AdBrite sends a stream through the site. Definitely gonna blog this and warn others! Again..thanks for the assist!

That still doesn't explain why anyone viewing my site in IE does not see my right sidebar and my logo is dropped down to the bottom of my header.

CastoCreations said...

How do you feel about changing the look of the avatar/ad graphic? I find that I associate a person's avatar with their blog and if they change it I don't know who they are any longer.

On the other hand, as an advertising tool it makes sense to change the graphic to get new clicks and interest.

CyberCelt said...

@castro-I keep my personal avatar the same over networks, but I am always trying new cards at Entrecard and other 125px ad sites.

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