The ongoing growth and development in technology has given us almost limitless ways to connect with a wide spectrum of people. Not only do we have social media sites, video conferencing services like Skype, and smartphones that allow for constant connectivity, but the growth in cloud hosting services has also allowed for a seamless virtual interconnectivity of people, data, and ideas on public and private cloud servers.

In such a tech climate, the enterprising blogger can be forgiven for trying to reach the largest possible audience with his blog. It’s easy to reach people these days, after all, and — when it comes to page rank and ad revenue – having more viewers is certainly beneficial. But many of the strongest blogs, especially many of the strongest upstart ones, are those that successfully target a much narrower and more defined demographic: a niche audience.

If you’re starting a new blog, or simply trying to better target the narrow readership of a blog you already have, here are some suggestions:

Know The Competition

If you’re writing a blog about tech products or baking, there are countless other blogs out there in the internet that do the exact same thing. There’s no point, consequently, in assessing what all these other blogs do and trying to differentiate yourself in response. But when it comes to niche subjects, the competition is far more quantifiable. It therefore may help to study any and all similar blogs, paying close attention to content, ads, readership comments, and angle. Then, let that knowledge inform your own work.

Market in the Real World

The internet, unlike the physical world, is vast and endless. Buying online ads or marketing your niche blog on social media sites may thus not have quite the desired impact, since your target audience can be quite difficult to track down. For this reason, real world marketing holds a particular benefit. Depending on the specific nature of your niche, there’s a good chance that the topic has newsletters, conferences, events, stores, or gatherings in the real world. If you want to best reach your desired readership, integrating yourself with this community is essential.

Be Comprehensive

When it comes to content on a blog, everyone has an angle and an opinion. It’s a blog, after all. But when niche topics are concerned, you don’t want to risk alienating any percentage of your already-small audience. So make sure not to cover every issue from only one angle or only discussing one particular element of your niche. Instead, try to be more comprehensive and fill that niche fully.

These are just a few tips for approaching your niche blog. No matter your specific topic of interest, and no matter what your exact methodology is, always remember the core element of marketing a successful niche product: know the community. By being involved in the community of people who share the same interest, you have the connections, resources, and knowledge to accomplish what you seek.

It’s a nice plugin allowing you to show featured post in a nice box with some effects. However most people can’t make it work in their blog. I have successfully used it in some of my own and clients blog (e.g.: www.gadget5.com) and experienced problem too and I found some solutions that work.First thing to do is download the latest version of the plugin and extract it in your plugin folder. Delete and deactivate older version. Now reactivate the plugin. If everything is fine, it should work but if it doesn’t, here are some troubleshooting tips:

Problem: No featured content gallery box at all.
Solution: 1. Check that you have placed the code <?php include (ABSPATH . ‘/wp-content/plugins/featured-content-gallery/gallery.php’); ?>In the template file like header.php, index.php, sidebar.php etc. One must not place this code in widget box from dashboard as it will not work. Get hold of a HTML editor and open up template file and place this code where the box fits and suits your blog look. You may want to alter some CSS settings but that’s a different story. Tweaking with CSS is only for fine touching the layout.
2.  In the wordpress admin dashboard, go to settings and click on “Featured Content Gallery” link. Now check that you have assigned category or post ID (any one of either) which you want to display as featured content. Also make sure that post ID or category you have assigned have some post with images in it.
3. In “Slide Transition Times” option if you are unsure of duration time, leave them blank. It works fine.
4. If you are doing all this on localhost (wamp / xampp) then try uploading your theme on some webhost and try it with latest version of wordpress. Sometimes it just not works with localhost.

Problem: Box appears but there is no image and only text or none.
Solution: 1. In the admin dashboard of wordpress, go to All post and edit the featured post. In the option below look for “Add New Custom Field:”. If you can’t find it please click on the “Screen Options” button and enable Custom Fields option. In the box below “Name” of custom fields option put “articleimg” and in value box put the path to image. You can copy and paste the image path from the post (check HTML view). The path will be something like this:  http://your-blog-domain/wp-content/uploads/year/month/image.jpg If the text is missing from featured box, again go to custom field’s option and in name put “featuredtext” and in value put the text you want to display in featured box.

Problem: It works now but box color, border color and text color is not right.
Solution: In admin dashboard of wordpress, go to settings and click on the Featured content gallery link. Now in the boxes below “Gallery Style” make sure that you have put proper hex code of color you want. Hex code is in this format: #FFFFFFF for white, #000000 for black and so on. Don’t forget to prefix hash symbol “#” before every code. To know exact hex code for your desired color you can use this useful small tool called ColorPix which can be downloaded free from: www.colorschemer.com/colorpix_info.php

The great thing about the thousands of applications out there is that they have made life just that much easier. You can do anything from a comfy spot on the sofa – play a video game, download movies, and even update your blog. Companies like AT&T have revolutionized the industry while working in conjunction with Apple to produce amazing mobile devices like the iPhone. You no longer have to worry about being chained to your laptop or desktop to get work done, so here’s a list of some super helpful apps that’s opened up new front in the world of mobile blogging:

iBlogger:

This one is, not surprisingly, that’s on the top of the list. It’s all about blogging made easy. Some blogging apps target specific platforms and are very centric to certain software programs, but iBlogger is an iPhone app that’s designed by illumineX that has a lot of really amazing features you won’t find through some other apps, like WordPress. With this app, you can connect different platforms that you’re currently using at a very low cost. It’s cheaper and more effective than many of the alternatives out there, and will only run you about ten dollars. With all of that said, it’s not perfect. The app doesn’t allow you to upload images, but the benefits outweigh the negatives. Keeping in the same vein as all the other iPhone apps, it’s incredibly user friendly for those of us out there who aren’t internet developers.

WordPress

This new app for iOS has taken WordPress to the next level. It has an entirely new platform that’s designed and optimized to employ the many advantages of the iPad and iPhone’s new user interface. It’s made blogging that much simpler. It’s currently available on Apple’s App store. Users are now able to create and edit posts, and also add photos. The new app has a spell check, and all of these features are available to users without the hassle or need to write a single line of code. It’s never been easier to update and stay in touch with your followers with the new iOS WordPress app.

WordMobi

This is a free app that has many of the same features as the other to examples above, but with a little less pizzazz. It will help you manage your blog with common operating features such as posting, approving comments, deleting posts, and many other things. It’s highly functional and works well for basic blogging functions. It’s not a high-powered app, but it’s a useful tool for those who don’t want to go with an app that costs.
It’s essential for any blogger to stay in touch with their public, and by using these apps, as well as other comparable options, you can do just that. Keep your blog active and mobile with your smartphone so you can keep your readers and clients updated on a continual basis.

As most people I also have a facebook account and I use it to communicate with my friends. I use what facebook is providing me, a good place to search my old friends and instantly let most people know about what I am doing etc. When I see people posting creative things like their paintings or poems or just a series of high quality DSLR images that they shot using their best photography skills, I think it’s time for them to have a blog instead. A blog is open to whole world so when you show your creativity on your blog, it’s visible to the whole world and not just your friends circle in facebook. Also most of the time your creativity can get unnoticed on social networking websites but when you blog about it, it will get noticed someday. Unlike social networking time who lose their charm with time (myspace is a good example), your blog charm will increase as it will age. There is no limit to how much value your blog can be when it becomes few years so it’s good when you start as early as possible. Blog can also be a source of secondary income but that is totally up to you. Start blog with your own top level domain like yourname.com or whatever you prefer but in any case don’t go for subdomain like BlogSpot etc. For convenience of our readers theNetguruZ provide a complete personal blog package that include your own domain name, dynamic blog that let you write and publish blog easily without any programming or HTML knowledge and full support to get you started in blogging field at very low price of just Rs.2500 or $60. Example blogs: hashimkhan.com, gadget5.com, hashmiz.in, jokesboy.com, farazahmad.in

Indian people are now aware of blogging very much after various Indian celebrities started blogging. However even before these celebrities started writing (I seriously doubt that all of them write all that on their own!) there were thousands of computer literate and internet addicted students across India who knew about blogging and ventured it through free blog services like wordpress, blogspot and other free webhost. Right now there is a heavy discount going on .IN domain, normally it would cost about Rs.750 is now available for as low as Rs.90 for first year. This is a great opportunity to start a good blog with .IN domain as investment is almost nothing now and one can do with a free web host that allow you to host a TLD. This is easy to find on Google search. Benefit of a TLD like .IN is that you may still get the name you actually want and .IN represnts Indian site. Also you can have a professional email address with you own domain. Indian domain registrar like BigRock.in is giving mouth watering price of just Rs.90 for any .IN domain you want (Use coupon BRSAVE10) and choice of many payment modes. If you put some ads on your blog like adsense then it will not only recover domain cost in a month but also give you enough to go for a good hosting. If you are very creative and will be writing on blog that will make it a very popular blog, this blog can earn you both fame and money. Anyway this is just a assumption but if you do start a blog with .IN domain, or in case any name, work hard on it and you will be rewarded for your hard work.

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