Technical Blogging Tips 1 million page views and lessons learned in technical blogging

Firstly, thanks to all my followers and readers for your support in reaching this milestone of 1 million page views.



Here are a few technical blogging tips based on my experience.

1. You need to be patient and keep at it

It took me around 9 months to go from 100 to 4000 daily page views. It was a gradual and slow process, and  I promoted my site via publishing articles at www.javalobby.com and helping out fellow professionals via industry specific forums like www.javaranch.com. Paid attention to Google key words that are not highly competitive and ensured that my contents had the key words to come up on google search for key words like "Java interview questions". The Google analytics revealed the following growth.

2. Sign-up to Google, and get the right tools 

  
-- track your progress and gather metrics (e.g. Google analytics) 
-- Sign up for Google adsense  to earn a small passive income.
-- Feedburner to enable your readers to subscribe to your bog feeds.
-- Google+ to network with your followers.



3. Pay attention to "repeated visitors" and "bounce rate" in Google analytics

Google analytics is a great tool to monitor how well your blog is doing. Two of the key metrics that I constantly look at are

The number of returning or repeated visitors. The slow and steady increase in this number indicates that you are getting some loyal readers who like reading your blog posts.

Jan 2012: 2,825 
Feb 2012: 4,007 
March 2012: 7,131 
April 2012: 10, 321
May 2012: 14,304 
June 2012: 19,122
July 2012: 22, 327 
Aug 2012: 24, 390 
Sep 2012: 25, 994

The "bounce rate" needs to be kept around  70% or less

You cant please everyone who comes to your site. Make sure that the landing page is interesting and informative enough to keep the bounce rate below 70%. If the bounce rate is high, then the problems may include irrelevant information, poor design or that your campaign is targeting unqualified visitors, too many advertisements putting people off, the content is not unique enough and freely available in many other sites, etc. You need to come up with an idea that will differentiate both your site and your content from others in the same niche. Not easy, but possible. For example, there are so many matured sites on "Java Tutorials" and very hard to compete on. The small number of tutorials provided in this blog are mainly to provide some familiarity with the sought-after technologies and frameworks.The real differentiating factor for this site is proving quality Java job interview questions with concise and easy to grasp answers.


4. Use the social media like "Facebook" and "Google+" to network and stay in touch with your readers.

It is vital to network and stay in touch with your readers and fellow professionals to open more doors. Help others and ask for feedback as to how you can improve the quality of your blog posts. Learn the problems faced by your followers and provide solution. Nothing beats the "word by mouth" marketing.


5. Sign up for "google adsense" and "infolinks" advertisements to earn a small pocket money

Dont place any advertisements until you get around 5000+ repeated visitors. Once you get enough repeated visitors you can sign up for "google adsense" and "infolinks" advertisements to be placed. Dont over do it as too many advertisements can annoy your readers. Generally, vertical and horizontal banners perform better. Set up custom adsense channels to see which advertisements are doing better. Dont expect too much from these advertisements, but can be a good passive pocket money in the order of $6.0 to $20.0 per 4000 page views.

6. The main reason for blogging is to open more doors in other areas


As an independent contractor, my blog helps me capture my experience and stay relevant.

Q. Why capture myexperience?
A.

• Firstly, it will serve as handy notes for my future references.
• Secondly, I can refresh or jog my memory prior to job interviews to provide a more convincing answers to open-ended questions like -- tell me about yourself? what are your strengths? give me an example where you applied your problem solving skills? what are your recent accomplishments?
• Finally, my blog contents can potentially become an inspiration to self-publish my own book. Publishing my own book has never been easier with the advent of POD (Print On Demand) publishers like createspace.com, lulu.com, etc. 

It also gives me an opportunity to network. Some of my past and current employers have read my blog posts, and it has certainly helped me win new contracts. Also, it has improved my researching and written skills. In future, if you have a reasonable size followers, you could promote other products and services. You can increase your understanding of the fundamentals from relevant questions and intelligent doubts raised by your readers.


7. People dont have whole day to read your blog posts

So, it needs to be short and sweet. The headings need to be catchy and informative. For example, I have come across some catchy titles like "How I taught my dog polymorphism", "I quit my job today, and so should you", etc.  It needs to be laid out well enough to navigate between topics. Add diagrams and code snippets where applicable.  Consult the "google  key words tool" to optimize your blog titles for SEO.

8. You need to consistently post blog entries, and cant afford to be complacent.

The times that I had been a bit slack in posting new blog posts, my google search rank had dropped. Currently, I have about 135 blog entries. Post about 2 to 4 per week. Dont post multiple entries the same day. One entry per day. The way the SEO works for the blog posts, it not only looks at the backlinks and the key word concentration, but also the reader involvement in terms of the number of comments posted, site popularity with repeated visits, etc.

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5 handy eclipse tips you must know

It is imperative to be able to quickly navigate through your code as in commercial projects there will be thousands of artifacts. You will find more debugging tips using eclipse and other tools. The following tips are must know, and if you dont know any of this already, apply these tips and see how productive you become. Especially the control clicking shown here will help you fly through your code.

Tip #1 : Navigating between web resource files and Java classes

<div>
    <s:link rendered="#{!myAccounts.viewAccounts}" reRender="myAccounts" styleClass="link-excel" view="/view/accounts/myaccounts.excel.xhtml" >    Export </s:link>
 ......
</div>

you will often want to navigate from one xhtml or JSP page to another. In the above example to navigate to myaccounts.excel.xhtml page from your current page, highlight the text "myaccounts.excel.xhtml" in the above code and then press "ctrl+shift+r" short-cut to select the file and go to that file directly. In the above code, "myAccounts" within #{!myAccounts.viewAccounts} is an annotation attribute in the Java based backing bean. To get quickly to the backing Java bean, you will need to highlight the text "myAccounts" in the above code and the press "ctr+h" short-cut to bring up the search dialog to search for that text. The Java snippet will look like this

    
    @In(value = "myAccounts")
    private MyAccounts myAccountsController;
 

Once you have found the Java source file that has the text "myAccounts" annotated attribute, you can go directly to the method with the context helper short cut "ctrl+o" and then typing the first few charaters of the method "viewAccounts" to go to that method. This tip can be applied for other Web frameworks as well if you want to navigate between Web resources and Java source files.

The "highlighting + ctrl+h" is also handy for navigating to relevant Java or web resource file from a spring config file or any other configuration file like web.xml.

Tip #2: If you are navigating between Java source files then the code snippet below

   
public void init(Long accountId) {
        logger.debug("Initialising accounts  .... ");
        this.selectedAccount = this.serviceFacade.getAccount(accountId, user);
        this.authoriser.checkPermission(new AccountsPermission(this.user, this.selectedAccount));
        ...
}

may require you to navigate to "AccountsPermission" class. Highlight the "AccountsPermission" and press "F3" function key to go to that class. If you want to see the type hirarchy (i.e. its interfaces, super class, sub class, etc) press "F4". You can also highlight a varible like "selectedAccount" or a method like "checkPermission" and then press "F3" to go to that variable or method declaration.


What is even more efficient is "ctrl + clicking". All you have to do is press the ctrl key and then click on a variable or class to name to navigate to it. If a particular method has both interface and implementation, you will get a contextual option list to choose either the interface or the implementation with this control clicking.

So, both "ctrl + clicking" and "highlight  + (ctrl+shift+r or ctrl+h) are very handy commands for navigating around.

Tip 3#: If eclipse is slow in opening your files or starting up, etc it is likely that some plugins might be making it slow.

Recently I had this issue, and after removing a number of plugins, for example Atlasian Maven/Bamboo build plugins and some JBoss plugins for JSF and Seam UI development, my eclipse is much faster and responsive. 


Tip #4: If you are working on a large project with lots of modules or projects

 it is worth creating "working sets" to group relevant projects together. This will also enable you to open and close projects or modules based on "working sets". You can also search for resources based on a "working set". Google for "How to create a working set in eclipse".


Tip #5:Code assist to type less

No body wants to type a lot of code. While working on your code, you can use "ctrl + space" to auto complete some variable names, methods, class names, etc.



The above short-cut keys will help you navigate quickly through your code. Feel free to comment with other useful tips. There are more tips on

• Debugging tips on eclipse tutorial style
• Other debugging tools and tips to be more productive
• Eclipse beginner tutorials

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Tips to Save Money on Your Printers Ink Jet Cartridges

Do you do as much printing as I do?
Do you need a reliable source of cheap inkjet cartridges once a month?

Well that could get expensive...take it form someone who goes through that many inkjet cartridges.

DONT MISS USE YOUR PRINTER -Keep it simple...

Dont Print Photographs on Your Ink Jet Printer

A picture says a thousand words... And that is exactly the reason you see the commercial on TV where they print out a picture and you dont know one of two things they are not showing you.

Dont be fooled. The ink they actually use is top quality expensive, the photo paper is way expensive, and you can probably get better quality at a lower cost at your local drug store, Costco, Walmart, etc.

Ounce for ounce, printer ink literally is the most expensive liquid on the planet forget oil!

Its often more expensive at times than gold even. So before you buy your next printer, check out the price of ink jet cartridge replacements.

Youll want to be especially careful if youre considering a very low cost ink jet printer.

Why? Because the printer manufacturer actually usually charges a very very high price for their replacement cartridges so beware.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3420707

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Health and Safety Tips for Computer Users

With computer use increasing more and more and encompassing our lives from every aspect, its no wonder the number of headaches, eye strain, and RSI cases caused by computer use are increasing annually. Most people use a computer all day long while at work and the first thing they do when they get home is press that power button on their PC. And then put their eyes on OT for another 4-6 hours. We hardly get outside and focus on objects in the distance. Another problem of focusing on objects for long periods of time is that our muscles get weak to QUICKLY focus on objects. Unless you are an athletic person where you have to focus on moving objects and continually cause your eye muscle to focus and refocus, your eyes probably are not getting the healthy workout they need.

This write-up is to help remind you that your eyes are a precious part of your body and you only get one set of them. But not only does this write-up talk about how to make sure you give your eyes a rest from time to time, but also how to protect yourself from muscle strains in your neck, fingers, and arms. You of course, dont need to treat this guide as the solution for all, but being aware and conscious about what you are doing while using your PC should help to keep you body healthy.

HOW TO REMIND YOURSELF TO TAKE A BREAK

The hardest part is remembering when to take a break, especially when we get consumed by our work and we have deadlines. For IT engineers, we are usually under high levels of stress and have deadlines to meet, which usually leads to not taking breaks. We need to be cautious of this and make sure to take breaks from time to time.

There are a few free software programs available online that will help remind you to take breaks from time to time and keep you from overworking your hands and eyes. I recommend Break Install or Workrave for the PC. Both are free and full of features. Workrave is my favorite as it displays sample exercises while the break time screen is activated - something that is educational and will keep you entertained. There are some programs for the Mac as well, for example, Timeout and AntiRSI. These programs force you to take a break from working which not only give your eyes time to relax but also your fingers, wrists, neck, and other muscles that are used to type, read, and move your mouse.

These programs will also display usage statistics, and allow you to customize the break times and durations. You can also skip the required breaks when necessary, for example, when you are in the middle of doing something critical. Most of the software will give you an option to skip your break or postpone it. Although, if you find yourself constantly hitting postpone or skip, you might want to consider disabling this feature.

THE LONG BREAK

Although short breaks (also known as micro-pauses) are the key, longer breaks away from the computer are also important. You should also try to make sure you take breaks before you actually need them. How often you take breaks and when you take them is actually more important than how long you take breaks for. Taking 2 breaks over 8 hours for 30 minutes each is not going to help as much as 8 breaks for 5 minutes at a time.

Recent research studies have shown that taking breaks are proven to help reduce fatigue and prevent soreness.

Micro-pauses are just as important. You should remember to take time away from the computer occasionally to stretch and re-focus your eyes to distant objects. If you have been working intensely at your computer for an hour or more, more than likely you have not blinked as much as you should have and a break is needed.

So if you are working intensely at your computer, in order to reduce fatigue and prevent soreness, the following breaks need to be incorporated into your daily working practice:
* Breaks every hour or so
* Micro-pauses every 4-10 minutes
* Remember to blink frequently as when you use a PC you tend to lower your overall blink rate.

Micro-pauses

At about 4-10 minute intervals, let go of your mouse and look away from the screen. Drop your arms down to your sides, lean back and allow your shoulders to relax. A micro-pauses should take roughly 5-10 seconds.

Breaks

After an hour or so of working continuously at your computer, you should take a short break away from you workstation. You should do some non-computer work, for example, make a telephone call, talk to a colleague, or file documents. You want to try to do something away from your computer for at least 2-3 minutes.

Blinking

Blinking your eyes is also very important. When we use computers we tend to lower are overall blink rate, which causes our eyes to dry out and results in scratched corneas which then causes blurry or impaired vision temporary. We develop bad habits of staring at our computers for long periods of time and forgetting to blink, try to keep a mental note to constantly blink.

Exercises

During a break it is also good to do stretches and exercises to rejuvenate your muscles:

* Shoulder stretch - stretch your arms above and behind your head while clasping your hands tightly together.
* Upper arm Stretch - place one arm across your chest and grab your elbow with your other hand and pull lightly stretching your shoulder. Repeat it again with your other arm.
* Sitting trunk twist - extend your arms out in front of your body, clasp your hands while in a seated position and gently twist from side to side, stretching the upper and lower back.
* Elbow stretch - extend one arm out in front of you. Grab the hand of the extended arm with your free hand and bend your hand gently downward stretching your forearm muscles.
* Power blinks - So a series of quick blinks, roughly 2-3 blinks per second for roughly 1 minute. Now to bring blood flow to your eyes you will want to shut your eyes and close them tight for 5 seconds, then open your eyes and leave at a relaxed state for 5 seconds, repeat this 6 times.

What you may be surprised to learn is that even low levels of muscle tension can cause RSI if sustained over a long period. If you are stressed you will notice muscle tension even faster, so remember to remain relaxed.

Another interest fact is that just 18% of maximum force is enough to reduce blood flow to the muscle by 80%!

If you have muscle fatigue or tension and continue to work intensely at your computer, you are likely to experience pain and discomfort and could develop repetitive strain injury (RSI).

The term repetitive strain injury is a confusing one and as a result, there are many misunderstandings. Let us take a few moments to look at the true cause of RSI in computer use.

For computer users it is actually static muscle tension, not repetition that causes most of the problems. This means that you do not have to be the fastest typist to get RSI. Just spending too many hours at your computer can be enough. This definitely applies to those of us that use a computer to do their job all day and then go home to continue to use your computer for personal use. You are at highest risk, so you should make sure to take plenty of breaks and make sure to give your eyes and muscles a chance to take a break.

WHATS THE SOLUTION?

Breaks are a proven way to allow your mind and muscles to recover from fatigue. Stretches and exercise also rejuvenates your muscles. Breaks help you to improve your overall health and efficiency.

Do you find that you more often than not, you get caught up in your work and remembering to take a break is the last thing on your mind? Its difficult as we have built in these habits of working strait through our tasks and not thinking about anything else. Youll typically not take a break until you are far past the point at which you should have taken a break, which is why software to remind you is key.

Achieving the right amount of muscle recovery at the right times is more complicated than you might think. Muscles recover very quickly from low levels of fatigue but quite slowly from high levels. Once your muscles become tired and sore, recovery takes a long time. For those of you that workout at the gym, recall what you feel like after a workout from a long break from the gym. You feel extremely sore the next couple of days and your recovery takes about double what you usually expect when you are in the middle of your normal workout routine. This is because 1.) you just shocked your body from not working out for a good amount of time and 2. ) your muscles are highly fatigued, so recovery takes longer.

Recovery at frequent periods from low-level fatigue will take only around ten seconds whereas high levels of fatigue will take much longer - even up to several hours. One solution to muscle fatigue is to take micro-pauses, very short breaks of 5-10 seconds every 4-10 minutes. This relaxes your muscles and restores a healthy blood flow.

Why are micro-pauses so important?

* They take very little time and can easily be developed to become a healthy habit
* They prevent fatigue build up
* The are taken before discomfort occurs
* They are perfect for reminding you to do some quick blinking exercises

Micro-pauses are the most effective and efficient breaks you can take but remembering to take them can be difficult.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5730814

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