Want Your Blog To Display Correctly in IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera?

I recently started using Google's browser Chrome since I was having some some issues with Firefox. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

For a few days, though, I was convinced that one of the sites I read regularly was completely broken, because it looked HORRIBLE all of a sudden. I knew the blogger had been planning a redesign, so I assumed she was just in the middle of rearranging. Then I looked at her blog again in Firefox, and it was still just fine. Oops!

It reminded me that I'd bookmarked Workin' it on all browsers from the Official Google Webmaster Central blog a couple of months ago, so I dug it up and read it.

Their first tip for webmasters is "Ensure browser compatibility by focusing on accessibility." I perked up a bit - do they mean what I think they mean? Sadly, no. When they say accessibility, they mean using simpler HTML instead of "fancy features like AJAX."

Their second tip, though, is key both for cross-browser compatibility and for accessibility as we discuss it on this blog: Consider validating your code to ensure it conforms with web standards. The more that websites and blogs are built in accordance with web standards, the easier it is on your visitors who are using assistive technology - and the more likely that your blog will work properly in all modern browsers.

So validating my code is definitely one of my New Year's resolutions for all my blogs. Now if only there were a web standard creating an extra two hours a day in 2009 for all webmasters.

By : Skye

5 Blog Sponsored Review Sites That Pay You to Blog

Aside from advertising and affiliate programs, another popular blog monetization method is to write blog sponsored reviews for any one of the many websites that pay you to blog. Learn about five of the most popular blog sponsored review sites that pay you to blog and start earning money from your blog.

1. PayPerPost

PayPerPost is one of the most popular blog sponsored review sites available. Blog publishers are called Posties, and those Posties join the PayPerPost publishers network and search for open opportunities that their blogs qualify for. When an opportunity is secured, the blogger writes the post based on the instructions provided and is paid based on the current PayPerPost terms.

2. ReviewMe

ReviewMe is nearly as popular as PayPerPost, however, it works quite differently from PayPerPost. When you become a ReviewMe publisher, you don't have to search for opportunities as you would with PayPerPost. Instead, advertisers search for publishers whose blogs and websites best match their requirements then offer those publishers posting opportunities.

3. SponsoredReviews

SponsoredReviews works both ways in that publishers can search for open opportunities posted by advertisers or advertisers can search for publishers whose websites or blogs match their requirements then offer opportunities to those publishers.

4. PayU2Blog

PayU2Blog is a smaller player in the sponsored review market. As a PayU2Blog publisher, you will be given paid posting assignments on a weekly basis based on the blog profile you create.

5. SocialSpark

SocialSpark comes from Izea.com, the same company that created PayPerPost. The goal of SocialSpark is to create a "full disclosure" sponsored review system, so there is no question that the posts written as part of the program have been paid for. Additionally, SocialSpark is a social site where advertisers can handpick bloggers to help them promote their products and services through sponsored reviews or display advertising. If you're interested in making money through sponsored reviews, but you're concerned about losing your Google page rank or search traffic because of the penalties Google often places on blogs and websites that participate in social reviews and paid text link programs, then SocialSpark might be a good option for you.


By Susan Gunelius

Accessibility for Bloggers: This Party's Just Getting Started

At this point, I'm not sure anyone could count the number of blogs that focus on how to improve your blog, usually with the aim of making more money. Wouldn't it be great if there were just as many comprehensive resources focused on making blogs more accessible to people with disabilities? There are a lot of great resources out there on accessibility, but precious few focused specifically on blogging.

In 2002, Mark Pilgrim created the classic Dive Into Accessibility. He combined stellar information about why you should make your blog accessible with specific direction on how to make changes in the most commonly used blogging tools of the day. While the "why" information has held up well over time, the "how" has become somewhat less useful over time - as is inevitable on the internet.

In 2005, the American Foundation for the Blind released How To Make Your Blog Accessible To Blind Readers. It was a good rough draft of a guide for the most common issues that bloggers could address, but a little light on the "how," especially when you consider the wide variation in what options blogging tools offer for editing and customization.

Now in 2009, Glenda Watson Hyatt is jumping into the field over at her blog, the Do It Myself Blog. Glenda is known as the "left thumb blogger" because she does all her typing with her left thumb - which you couldn't possibly guess by watching her network on Twitter. She is the author of a Simplified Web Accessibility Guide and has plenty of other experience consulting and writing about web accessibility. Encouraged by Lorelle, who has long been an advocate for blog accessibility, Glenda is now stepping up her accessibility evangelism to tackle the blogosphere.

In Combining Two Passions to Build an Accessible Blogosphere, she nails the exact issue I've observed since I started thinking and writing about this topic:

Individuals are attracted to blogging because it is a relatively easy way to share their stories and knowledge and to build a community of like-minded people. However, because many bloggers come to blogging with minimal, if any, web design experience, they are doing small things that unintentionally exclude individuals from their blogs; things that can easily be rectified.

I'm excited to see what Glenda comes up with. She brings a wealth of experience to the table, as well as the perspective of a user with mobility issues - a population that often comes in second to users with visual disabilities when web accessibility is being discussed.

So Glenda, welcome! And perhaps in 10 years, the "accessibility for bloggers" corner of the blogosphere will have multiplied so much that no one person can keep track of it all!

By : Skye