7 Latest Blog Platforms looking to rock in 2014

The main aim of the new blog platforms seems to be bringing back the classic weblog.Wordpress for example is now a mainstream CMS and is used less and less as a blog platform.If one theme runs through all the new blog platforms it's a minimal interface with simplistic post editors.

Let's look at the list and see what you think 

Ghost

https://ghost.org/

Ghost really is an exciting blog platform with a real focus on content.Ghost is open source and uses the tag line "Just a blogging platform" trying to distance itself from CMS platforms like Wordpress and others that are used as mainstream websites.The interface is simply stunning with an ease of use we have not seen before.The welcome video tells us Ghost is for the users and it will stay that way, Non-Profit and not looking to build and sell.

Medium

https://medium.com/

Medium was created by Blogger and Twitter co-founder Even Williams and similar to Ghost it has a focus on ease of use and putting content first.For me the Medium interface may be slightly too simplistic but that may be just what your looking for.With the post editor however I love the minimalist feel that lets you get on with creating your post with minimal distractions.

Postagon

http://www.postagon.com/

Postagon is a continuation of the simple interface blog platform.This is about a simple post editor for the blogger and clean clear content for the viewer.Again looking to to bring back the weblog Postagon has the dynamic layout to make your posts sparkle on any screen.

Posthaven ($5 per month charge)

https://posthaven.com/

Posthaven like Ghost wants to be open source with no plan to build and sell.While Ghost looked to investors Posthaven will stay afloat by charging users $5 every month.Lets face it five bucks a month is not too much if the product is great, but is it ? On first look I really like what they are doing, again the theme of minimal interface and display continues.Posthaven was launched by the creators of Posterous a site they sold to Twittter last year but this time they look to build forever supported by the user fees.

Sett 

http://sett.com/

Sett really looks to community to help build an audience for their bloggers.By listing related posts from all blogs hosted on Sett this will give your posts exposure, of course it will also send people from your blog to others.The design is more "Wordpress Like" than the minimal interface other new platforms are aiming for.This for me makes it look like an OK idea for new blogs but if you build an audience over time you might want to move on and that could be a problem for Sett.


Roon.io 

https://roon.io/

Roon has the tag line "The Easiest Way To Blog", I guess some of their competitors above would beg to differ.Roon is however a really dynamic platform, easy for the blogger to create and visitor to visit on all devices.Roon is free but may introduce premium extras in the future.Comments run exclusively through Twitter which I'm not sure is the best way to go and also at this time while a feature image can be uploaded Videos are not yet supported.

Glipho

http://glipho.com/

Glipho is an interesting concept "Meet Social Blogging" and they keep their word by building a blogging community were social is key.The first sign of the social angle is sign up which is available through Facebook, Twitter, Google and LinkedIn.Like Sett they are looking to refer visitors through the site with related content displayed from all blogs not just yours.Glipho has a neat drag and drop post editor with your media readily at hand something I think the big platforms will embrace fully in the near future.

So that seven interesting alternatives for bloggers what do you think ? Have you tried any of them or will you in the future ? Or have you stumble across a new blog platform I left out.

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7 Ways To Block WordPress Comment Spam

Open discussions make blogs fun to read and engaging. After all, a one-sided conversation might be satisfying for the blogger who initially writes it, but the fluid nature of subsequent agreement and disagreement is what makes readers click on posts and get absorbed in content. However, not everyone visits a blog with the intention of adding something worthwhile to the conversation. Read on to discover seven ways to give spammers the boot.

Know What To Look For

The first step is to spot spammers when they strike. Often, their comments are peppered with misspelled words, nonsensical phrases and links to their own companies or causes. Also, keep an eye out for comments that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. If you run a blog that focuses on personal finance, yet you're getting flooded with comments about personal injury lawyers, then that's a red flag.

Show That You're Aware

Current posts are one of the clearest indicators of an active blog. However, beyond just keeping your content relevant, interact with your readers, too. Respond to their comments, even just to let them know that you appreciate them taking time to speak their mind. This shows that you're aware of what's happening on your blog, and gives the perception you're not an easy target for spammers.

Put Some Blocks in Place

Spammers commonly reply to older posts. With that in mind, you can opt to close them to comments. This is a reasonable compromise, because while it doesn't shut down the exchange of dialogue altogether, you do encourage timely and appropriate discussions. Also, WordPress has tools that allow you to block posters from using certain words you've frequently noticed in comments made by spammers.

Make Users Register

Sometimes, discouraging spammers is as simple as requiring users to register before they're allowed to make a comment. Bear in mind that this may deter legitimate visitors from taking time to fill out a form. If you're worried about that, consider adding a short note to your blog. Explain that the reason you only permit comments from registered users is because you've become frustrated by the diligent efforts of spammers.

Restrict Link Usage

Limiting the amount of links that can be included in a comment also cuts back on the amount of spam you have to deal with. By going into the Settings panel when you're signed into WordPress, you can adjust things so that users may only include one link per comment. It's also possible to get notifications of users who are posting comments with links at a faster than normal rate.

Ban IP Addresses

If you're dealing with a particularly troublesome spammer, it might be necessary to take decisive action by banning their IP address. WordPress offers plug-ins such as WP-Ban that make it easy for you to see the IP addresses of anyone who is visiting your blog, and ban offenders who've crossed the line. Some of these tools simply show banned users a custom message after they try to make a comment, so you'll never have to interact with them at all.

Make Comments Subject To Approval

If your blog is still at a manageable size, it's smart to insist on approving every comment before it's seen by the public. This isn't a practical solution if you receive hundreds of comments per day, but is an excellent approach if you prefer hands-on methods.

Also, you can tweak a setting which requires a person's initial comment to be approved by a moderator, and gives them freedom to post at will after that. Both of these tactics could require a significant time commitment on your behalf, but they rob a spammer of the gratification of seeing a post appear immediately, too.

Winning the battle against WordPress spammers is not a lost cause. It's best to implement some of the suggestions above gradually, so you can determine which strategies work best. By changing your settings and being more demanding about who's allowed to post and what their comments can contain, you can begin to make headway and let spammers know you're aware of their tricks.

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Tips to Speed up your Blog

“People hate waiting”. If your website is not loading within 4-5 seconds, you are likely to lose a lot of visitors. Normally we assume that people are seeing our blog at the same speed as we are. It is hard to pinpoint the exact culprit that is slowing down your web page. As there are many different elements like CSS, JavaScript, Images, Flash, Frames etc. which take time in loading.

There are a number of surfers who have modems less than 56K. Everyone does not have Cable Modem, ISDN or T1 connection to the internet. Hence, it is very important for a web designer to see that his/her sites load as fast as possible.

When you view your web page, your content loads in a specific order. Images and Media are the main bandwidth hogs and take a lot of time in loading. I would suggest you to remove all forms of multimedia embedded in your front page of website except for images. You can put a background song on your web page, but normally these sound files capture a lot of bandwidth, especially if it is a .wav file. Video files should be avoided unless there is a need and keep the file sizes small. But still try and use such files in other pages of your website because as I said “People hate waiting”.

Now the next big thing that worries a lot is the images. You have to be very careful while dealing with images. Use smaller dimensions for images to reduce the file size and for this you can use the image editing programs which helps in resizing the images. You can also take help of some of the special services available on web and with these you can compress your images. This also helps you in choosing the image that can still look good after you have compressed them. If the size of image that you have used is 500 pixels x 500 pixels, people will keep waiting and page might take forever to load.

Once you have the image as compact as you want, you can use that image in other pages of your website and you can save time in loading. The image will be in the browser’s cache which you loaded on the front page for the surfer and it will load instantly when called on the other pages. With this, you will be able to load other things without worrying for the image.

There is one more thing that you can do, just define the width and height of the image in your entire image tags. Your time will be saved in adjusting many things once the image starts loading and your page will not jump when an image loads.

You can also use thumbnails which further link to full size images in new window and for videos; you can use a video hosting service like You Tube or VideoEgg etc. to upload the file and this displays a player in your posts.

Reducing the amount of content displayed on the front page will reduce the load time of your website. The extended post element allows you to display an introduction on your main page and the remainder of the post on post’s permalink page e.g. a link to “read more” will be displayed at the end of the post.

These were some of the tricks that you can use if your website or blog loads slowly. I am sure you will definitely save some extra time and there is a possibility that it may reduce clutter a little bit.

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15 Downloadable Free Design Magazine

Internet offers you a number of Downloadable Free Design Magazines today, and your goal is to choose the most useful and interesting. Most of them are presented in PDF format that makes it possible not only to browse their online versions, but also to download them. Their popularity during the recent years is determined by the fact that they are not constrained by browsers and coding that makes it easy to work with them. Such downloadable free design magazines present the captivating overviews of the latest trends, events and everything that happens in the sphere of design. Of course, this information has always been in a great demand among web designers, ‘cause it can be a great source of useful and inspirational stuff. We have tried our best to gather downloadable free design magazines with the valuable and interesting content and we hope that you will not only browse them during your spare time, but also find a number of helpful tips and ideas in them.

Artzmania

RevolutionArt Magazine

Beast Magazine

Be|Different

bitFuul Magazine

Blanket

Castle-Magazine

Code Magazine

Design&Life

Destructed

DigitalArts

GizMag

ProteusMag

Root Magazine

TXTNein

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Spin Social Media Share with CSS3

This is a neat effect which spins the social icons with the help of a CSS transform and transition when you hover over them.

Let’s start with the structure of the social media icons. Which is nothing more than a list with an extra span to contain the icon itself because we want to include the full logo alongside the icon.

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Why Blogger Is a Great Blogging Platform for Beginners

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14 Powerful Blogging Secrets Revealed For New Bloggers

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Top 5 Reasons Why People Use Blogger

I'm sure that those who ave been using the Internet for a while are familiar with or have come across the free blog platform - 

Blogger. To put it simply, Blogger is a blog-publishing platform, hosted by Google that allows you to create a blog and maintain it without any charges. All blogs registered under Blogger will be hosted by Google's servers at the blogspot.com subdomain.

Besides Blogger, there are many free blog providers available such asWordPress.com, Xanga, Tumblr (mini blog) and etc, which all have their boons and banes. But one thing that they have in common is that they allow you to start a blog for free, and play around with the layout and customize it to make it personal, informational, or commercial as well as let you keep track of your followers.

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Tips To Help Build Your Blogging Skills

I decided to start a blog because I enjoy writing. My first blog post wasn’t very attention-grabbing, but I wanted to write about my personal experiences. Secretly, I imagined a career as a freelance writer. One day, instead of daydreaming about becoming a writer, I began researching information about the social networking industry. I was amazed by how many people blog on a daily basis and I wanted to become a part of this fascinating social phenomenon. So, I frequently browse the internet and visit book stores or libraries for more information.

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A Beginner's Portrait Into the World of Blogging

Unless you are one of those people who tend to stick their heads in the sand, ostrich-wise, there are not many computer savvy people who don't know what a blog is. However, for the 

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Something To Blog About

Have you ever felt lost for words and pondered what topics to discuss on your blog site? Well, instead of feeling confused, your time could be spent on improving your writing skills. The best way to get rolling again is to focus on your blog headlines. Concentrate on creating a headline formula and do some research. Learn how to create headlines that make people want to click on your blog site.

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Blog Content How you can Attract Individuals to Your Blog

Once you've got completed the tedious operate of designing your Blog Blueprint Review and setting up your affiliate links and widgets, the real operate finally begins. You've to fill your Blog Blueprint Bonus. This may be the tricky component. Discovering fascinating, new content material might be a challenge, but if it is possible to follow these straightforward guidelines new tips ought to pop inside your head very very easily.

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Starting your own blog

Initially started as personal diaries of sort, blogs are fast becoming main stream and more and more readers are getting pulled towards reading them. The same way, new blogs are coming up every other day in hope of getting popular or making money out of them.

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Free Blog Vs Paid Blog - Which One Should You Go For?

Once you decide to get a blog for yourself, you will be faced with two options, to get a free blog or a paid blog. You will get tons of websites where you can sign up for a free blog and some of them are fairly popular these days, but have you given it a serious thought about what you want to use, a free blog or a paid blog?

Before getting into details lets discuss what a free blog is. A free blog is what you will get once you sign up with a free blogging service like wordpress or blogger.com. A paid blog or a self hosted blog would be the one where you have to pay to the host such as hostgator, even though the platform is free. So, what are the pros of a free blog?

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