Image via Wikipedia #9:IE Tab (Internet Explorer)add-on for Firefox This add-on may be self explanatory but I will still lend it some brief explanation. IE Tab for Firefox is an add-on that simulates the Internet Explorer engine within a new tab in Firefox. This enables bloggers to see how browsers using internet explorer (which is very popular though not the best browser) will see their pages.
You may be wondering what for and I will tell you. Internet explorer is a bad browser that finds it really difficult to render webpages adequately as the designers of the page want. Therefore, if the page publisher is able to identify what elements IE will not show its users, then the blog owner can adjust or modify the design to overcome that deficiency.
This add-on is also said to be a more convenient alternative to the add-on called open in IE. That is because you really do not have to leave Firefox to see how the page you have just blogged renders in IE. Serious bloggers have a need for this add-on and you can download it from here.
This is just my definition of different stages in the blogging evolution of a person. If you do not agree with me, let us know why in the comment box below. If you agree, just tell us where you classify yourself into.
1. No-Blogger! This is a person that does not blog, knows next to nothing about blogging and is not an active owner or inheritor of a blog. The person may have some rudimentary interest in getting ahead on the internet, but is yet to reconcile the concept of blogging with the inner being.
2. Pre-Blogger: My idea that when you start blogging, just like many start-ups, you are not really sure you can do this. You may close shop in a few days or weeks. You are testing yourself, but you claim to yourself that you are testing the blogosphere. You hope to be able to get what you want out of blogging, but you are not really fully launched. The blogosphere does not even know you exist. Maybe you have a blog, or something close to it. The design may be pre-historic, or so bizarre that it is abstract art! 50% of these Pre-bloggers go on to blog.
3. Gobloggers(Gloggers): My favourite group. These people own at least one blog or several blogs. They have blogged and inovated. The Go-blogger's ranking, performance and ratings is on the upward trend. The Go-blogger is making contacts and meeting new people. The Go-blogger's blog may be amateurish, but is well thought-out. The Go-blogger is handling inadequacies and deficiencies appropriately.
Go-bloggers are not earning a living from blogging, even though it may be their dream and motivation. The Go-blogger is a go-getter blogger who creates content and is steadily expanding readership. The Go-bloggers soon become B-listed bloggers.
4. Probloggers(Ploggers): Professional Bloggers. Earn a living plus some extra perks from blogging. This could be either directly or indirectly. Pay-per-post, Adsense, Reviews, etc. This stages usually comes with age at being a go-blogger. You would have paid your dues. Many-a-times more than two to three years blogging well. A few go-bloggers get there, but it takes effort and dedication. Pro-bloggers have made a profession out of blogging. They do not keep jobs except the probloggers of the online newspapers.
5. Team-bloggers (Tloggers): After turning professional, often times bloggers start blogging in teams. A few go-bloggers try it, but usually this is when they are close to boing professional. They are advanced bloggers. they cross-post and have part ownership of team blogs, online magazines and blog or media networks. They team up for more effective marketing., having already made names for themselves as A-listed Bloggers. They may have owned several blogs in the past which they may have sold off. Some hand over management to a team and post only occassionally in their previous blogs.
In the new team blogs which they belong to, they operate a profit sharing system and grow their pokets fatter. They market various products including consultancy, books and speaking through their team blog. Tloggers are the movers and shakers of the blogosphere. When they sneeze, the blogosphere shudders. Examples in 2008 include Gawker Media with its network of bloggers/blogs, B5media, Huffingtonpost and many others.
6. Cash-Bloggers(Cloggers): This is an aside, not really a stage but cuts across all the levels. Anyone with a desire to make money from blogs/blogging is a clogger. Unfortunately even sploggers are cloggers too.
Which one do you consider yourself. Vote in the poll or just add a comment. We want to hear your voice. Tell others about these definitions in your various blogs so that we will have a common definition of these terms, afterall we are what we are!
For many bloggers, it becomes a bore to have to type in their name, webpage and email address into every form on other blogs when they make comments. This really gets a lot of bloggers cruising around and not dropping their url all over the place. they even do not place comments because of this. This add-on will make that a past issue.
Signature is a Firefox add-on that allows you to insert custom lines of text called signature. There could be multiple. It opens a cache that lets you store as many signatures as you like. You can also name these signatures whatever you like. When you get to a blog and want to comment, it makes life easy. If the blog does not have an autofill and does not recognize you/your computer through cookies, you just go down to the comments box, right-click on the name box and select the stored name which you want to apply to that comment. This comes in really handy for those that operate multiple blog identities.
In the section for email address, you right-click and select whatever email you want to add to that comment. The third one is url and I think that is the most important. Many bloggers and commenters simply put their homepage url. I was doing that for many of my postings on other blogs. However, it makes more search engine sense to add the url to either your latest post, your best post or the post you have which best relates to the article you are reading. That way, any reader at that blog who finds your comments interesting and clicks on your name/url will be taken directly to the related post on your blog. It also may add some valuable external links to your blog. I however understand that links from comments are of less value, almost no real value than links in body of posts. (That is why my contest gives links in posts, get my RSS now and register).
One of the trusted ways of getting your blog out there is through networking. Having a good and ready access to your signature/url makes dropping comments easy and really gets you one inch or two up the ladder of networking. So get this add-on and blast through the blogosphere. You can get there and you will.
I have been busy trying to develop a new home for my blogs. I bet some of us here will be wondering why. Well, it is to 'self-host'. It has been a challenge since I am not IT trained at all. Come and see me with those PHP scripts! Do not laugh at me.
Anyway, with some luck and a few hours, we are getting somewhere. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, I will relocate and tell you how. I will give a step-by-step guide and I am sure many will eventually make that move. Believe it or not, if I can do it, you can.
Take a sneak-peak at a screenshot of my landing page. What do you think?
The Blog Competition winners are published above. The image to the left is a list including other contestants. Because of incomplete entries, some entries will only appear in this image. This competition is running on a monthly basis and everyone is free to participate. For the next month, incomplete entries will not be published at all. The published entries will have links from within a post in addition to the top entries being listed as Blog of Focus for that month. Become a winner today. Pat attention to the rules.
Image via Wikipedia
