» Updates To The Blog - Hate The Grind

I’ve been making some small changes behind the scenes over the last few days, and thought I would highlight them in case nobody noticed. The changes I have made all have one thing in common; to make my blog stand out and build traffic. The effects may be small, but every little bit counts.

Favorites Icon
I have finally created a favicon.ico file for my blog. It took me quite a while to decide on what I wanted to represent my blog. I tried using the letter H, HG, just some random colored shapes, and then even a gear (or sprocket). I finally decided on a thumbs down image. To make the icon file itself, I used a website called http://www.html-kit.com/favicon/ where I just uploaded an image of the thumbs down and it spat out a zip file containing my new favicon.ico file.

To ensure my favorites icon shows up, I added the following lines of code into the tags:

If you are a regular reader of my blog before I added this code, it may not show up for you because your browser is caching the default favorites icon image. If you clear your cache you will see it by the address bar, and beside the link in your bookmarks. To bookmark my blog, simply press CTRL-D right now.

Sociables Plugin
This plugin adds the social bookmark links under each of the posts here on my blog. I wanted to make it easier for visitors to submit my blog posts to their favorite news sites. I had previously used a similar plugin called Share This but I did not like the way it looked. I do have the ability to add more sites to the list that is currently displayed, so if there is a site missing that you would like to see, please feel free to let me know.

If you want to add the Sociables Plugin to your blog, you can find it on the Official Sociables Plugin Site

Feeds Page
The last change I made is the News Feed page that provides visitors to Hate The Grind with an easy way to subscribe to my full feed RSS. A large list of the most popular readers is provided on the news feed page. Also, for those that do not use RSS news readers, I am also offering an e-mail option where my latest posts are sent to visitors via e-mail. This service is provided by Feed Burner.

This page is easily accessible via the tab at the top of page. Please consider subscibring to my RSS feed if you would like to stay up to date with my posts!

Did you like this post? If so share with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.