Classic Blog • @maheshone

11 Blogging Years. 11 Blogging Lessons. 11 Blogging Tips.

August 13, 2018@maheshone

Note: This blog post is an updated version of 7 Blogging Years. 7 Blogging Lessons. 7 Blogging Tips. (published 4 years and 100 blog posts ago). Yes, that's right! It's the 11th Blogoversary of Minterest. I started Minterest (maheshone.com) as a personal finance blog in 2006, and later in August 2007, I started blogging about "Money, Internet, Investing" (yes, that was the first tagline of Minterest and now it's --- tech. marketing. mashups.). To be honest it was literally "Just another WordPress site" and I was simply rehashing topics that were of "My interest". But there was one thing... I was learning. And the transition from Blogger.com to WordPress.org is simply amazing.

Don't Miss: Blogger vs. WordPress: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

I started creating blogs on Blogger.com back in 2004 and was treating it like a simple publishing tool. I guess the reason why it didn't impress or motivate me much was its inability to customize things the way I wanted. When I tried WordPress I liked almost all of its aspects and found out that I liked coding as well. Oh yeah, I'm a software engineer by education but it is not the coding that inspired me --- it's the magic in "technology". Thanks to Microsoft. Coming back... I'm going to feature here 11 blogging lessons and tips that I have... learned, realized, or experienced in one way or the other over the past many, many years.

17 Unexpected SEO Lessons I Learned After Publishing My First Listicle

June 21, 2018@maheshone

It's been ten years since I started blogging. It began as a fun thing (and it still is!). Also, blogging was just another random stuff that I used to do at that time. But today my blog is much more than a random thing for me, and that's the only difference. I don't know if I'm one of the so-called professional blogger or a hobby blogger or yet another nerd. It's something that I'm trying to figure out. But I just know for sure that it's been a long amazing journey so far. :) And it didn't happen in one day and it didn't happen in a couple of years time. It happened over time and is something that's still happening. I don't know if you have read this blog post of mine:

Over 201 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

Well, you should. You know why? Because that's my first (original) evergreen blog post and apparently that's my first (real) listicle too. It eventually became one of my first pillar blog post and taught me a lot of things that I never thought of.

Don't Miss: What Does It Take To Generate 1,000,000 Pageviews & $3,000 Per Month

First things first. I didn't write Over 60 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know (the original blog post --- thanks to Wayback Machine) for SEO. And I didn't write it for traffic either. I did it as I was using (or tried) almost all of Google's web products and services. So I just wanted to show my gratitude plus create a useful list as it wasn't there on any other blogs. Moreover, it was also just another random blog post that I did which happened to became the foundation of my blog's SEO. You know why? Because it taught me a lot of things about Google SEO that I couldn't find anywhere else. Oh yes, that post was published way back in 2009 when there was no Google Pandas or Penguins. Also, I didn't know any Neil Patels or Rand Fishkins of the SEO world. Back then I gathered most of my internet marketing knowledge from the Digital Point forum. Coming back... Here are the things that I learned about blogging and SEO from my favorite blog post --- let's call it "Google 101". Okay? So yeah, they are all more or less related to ~~SEO~~ Google SEO. :)

Don't Miss: 10 Blogging Years. 10 Blogging Lessons. 10 Blogging Tips.

Todoist vs. Wunderlist vs. Any.do: The Ultimate Comparison Of The Best To-do List Apps With Pros & Cons

March 18, 2018@maheshone

There are several to-do list apps on the web that helps you to get things done. However, the problem is finding the perfect task manager because there are so so many of them --- both free and paid. I have tried a bunch of them over the past several years and can definitely say that there is no such thing as a perfect to-do app. It's all about your requirements as all of them offers a variety of features. It also means that if you are looking for a task manager with a particular feature then chances are it already exists. Today, I have cherry-picked three of the best to-do apps, namely Todoist, Wunderlist, and Any.do, that are intuitive, feature-rich, powerful, and massively popular. And I have limited the list to just "3" as I believe they are the best of the best and is probably the only to-do list apps you'll ever need to get things done.

Don't Miss: The Fantastic Ten Tools (Free) To Skyrocket Your Productivity

Note: I have shortlisted, reviewed, and compared the free plans of Todoist, Wunderlist, and Any.do based on the criteria that I have set personally. But I believe it's comprehensive enough and have highlighted almost all the aspects of the aforementioned apps (citing the web as well as the iOS platforms).

Todoist vs. Wunderlist vs. Any.do: Quick Comparison

Todoist

Platforms:
- Desktop: Web, Windows, macOS, Chromebook
- Mobile: iOS (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch), Android (Phone, Tablet, Wear), Windows Mobile, Apple Watch
- Add-ons: Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail
Third-party Integrations: IFTTT, Zapier, Google Calendar, Slack, Alexa, Google Assistant, Gmail, Dropbox, and a lot more.
Free Plan Features: Sub-tasks, Sub-projects, Task Priorities (4 levels), Due Dates, Recurring Tasks, Collaborate, Keyboard Shortcuts, 10 Themes
Premium Plan Features: Labels, Filters, Comments, Attachments (up to 20 MB per file), Voice Recording, Reminders (Email, Push, SMS), Location-based Alerts, Project Templates, Automatic Backups, Calendar Feed, Add Tasks via Email
Price: Free / Premium ($28.99/year)
Visit: Todoist
Download:
- Desktop: Windows | Mac OS X | Chromebook
- Mobile: iOS | Android | Windows Mobile
- Browser Add-ons: Google Chrome | Firefox | Safari

AdBlock vs. Adblock Plus: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

March 18, 2018@maheshone

It's no secret that ad blocking extensions like AdBlock, Adblock Plus, and AdBlock Pro are becoming increasingly popular today with over 200 million active users and it's costing publishers billions of dollars. In fact, as I write this blog post, both AdBlock and Adblock Plus have over 50 million users. I was actually not using an adblocker until few months ago as I rarely click ads. So, I argued with myself why should I install an adblocker when it doesn't make any difference. However, I tried AdBlock few months back --- when YouTube ads became increasingly annoying --- and immediately realized that it's a must-have for me. The only thing is... it's NOT the extension's ad blocking capability that I find interesting. But it's something else --- which I will explain below.

Adblock & Adblock Plus: A Brief History

As you probably know, the two most popular ad blockers for Google Chrome are AdBlock and Adblock Plus. What's the difference? Well, it sounds similar but they are two different extensions developed independently. Apparently, AdBlock was inspired by Adblock Plus itself when it was just a Firefox only add-on. Now 'AdBlock Plus' is also available for Google Chrome, Android, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer, etc. and 'AdBlock' is available for Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, and iOS. Adblock Plus is the most popular Firefox add-on with over 21 million users (it's got the first-mover advantage on Mozilla Firefox) and AdBlock is the most popular Chrome extension (it's got the first-mover advantage on Google Chrome). By the way, both AdBlock and Adblock Plus claims that it's the most popular ad blocker and both have over 40 million users. However, AdBlock has almost 2x more ratings than Adblock Plus on Chrome Web Store, so I guess it's safe to assume that it's the most popular ad blocker on Google Chrome.

How To Create Custom Search Engines In Google Chrome To Boost Productivity

March 15, 2018@maheshone

Google Chrome's Omnibox (or the address bar) is not something new to you and me.It allows us to navigate to a webpage or search the web from the address bar. And yeah, it even acts as a search engine to browse your own search and Chrome browsing history.

But did you know that it's much more than just an address bar? That it can easily boost your productivity by helping you create and add your own custom search engines?

If you're a Web 2.0 fanatic then I'm pretty sure that you often use the search engines by the popular (and biggest) web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. But the problem is, every time you want to use its search feature, you have to actually visit those websites and then use its search function.

Of course, Google Chrome automatically adds all those custom search engines when you visit those websites (even if you don't want to). That is, when you visit Amazon.com and uses its search engine, Chrome automatically adds a custom Amazon search to its list of search engines.

Like this:

Google Chrome Custom Search Engines (Auto Generated)

It's a nice feature, right? Well, not necessarily. The problem arises when you need tailored search results and a custom shortcut key (or known as the keyword in Google Chrome's custom search engines).

iCloud Email Address: One Productivity Tip You Probably Didn’t Know (Plus 3 Things About Gmail, Outlook.com, & Yahoo Mail)

March 11, 2018@maheshone

I never blogged much about iCloud Mail or Yahoo Mail as I never find it useful or interesting --- except the disposable addresses in Yahoo Mail.

A disposable address lets you create up to 500 temporary email address within Yahoo Mail. You can create a disposable address any time and delete it after use. It's a good thing if you don't want to reveal your "real" email address to anyone.

It's a feature that is really missing in Gmail or Outlook.com but both Gmail and Outlook.com support sub-addressing though it's not as useful as disposable addresses. Anyway, I didn't want to switch to Yahoo Mail only to get that feature. But a few years back I realized that an iCloud email address (@icloud.com) is also useful --- and interesting --- as it supports both sub-addressing and disposable addresses (sort of).

51 Blogging And Publishing Platforms To Showcase Your Awesomeness

March 5, 2018@maheshone

I first started creating web pages on Yahoo GeoCities, Tripod, etc. back in early 2000s. It was fun. Later, I tried blogging platforms like Blogger.com and WordPress.org and also started creating HTML web pages without any coding skills (thanks to Microsoft FrontPage). And that's how I started web development. Now with the advent of web 2.0 people want more. People no longer like static HTML web pages with dull designs. They want rich features with a great user experience. That's how blogging platforms became massively popular. I get a lot of emails (because of this Make Money Writing blog post) from my readers asking for a platform to share their articles or work online. And I used to recommend a blog -- a WordPress blog to be more specific. But then I realized that a blog may not be relevant for everyone as things changes from one person to another. If you're a technology enthusiast then starting a blog makes sense. But if you're a writer and want to contribute articles randomly, then publishing on Medium.com makes better sense -- yeah, you don't have to be a tech-savvy person for that!