Free SEO stats display box - my birthday gift to you!

I discovered a free online tool which allows you to display a box like this in your blog, featuring Pagerank, Alexa, MSN, users online and many more SEO stats!

To create your own, simply visit this page on MyPagerank.net, input your website details and choose the stats you wish to display. You will then be given the Javascript code to place in an HTML/Javascript widget in your blog, as well as a preview of the widget.

As you can deduce from the title, today is my birthday. While I'd hoped to post something great for you all in honor of this day, I have to admit, this wasn't the gift I had hoped to post on site today... I had actually hoped to have the new site template ready instead, though unfortunately I came across too many setbacks and it's still not ready yet :(

The good news is that the extra time I'm taking over the design will make it even better once the whole thing is done! So far, I've created a whole new Web 2.0 style design which should load faster and be much easier to use. Tools and templates will be much easier to find than they are now, along ease of subscription, inline comments and a lack of unnecessary distractions from the content.

As soon as I've ironed out most of the kinks, I will post a preview of the new template for you all to see. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this free SEO statistics widget instead.

Technorati Tags: happy+birthday | bloggerbuster | seo | stats | display | widget | pagerank+display | alexa+rank

I'm sure you all know how useful I find the AddThis social bookmarking widget by now. Well, the makers have created a new version which features a drop-down menu when your mouse hovers over it. Try it here is you like:

To install this new version of the AddThis button, you will need to have an account with AddThis as the Javascript includes your unique username in order to function properly. Of course, the service is still free to use though!

This new style of AddThis button can be installed by visiting this page in the AddThis blog. Simply log in using your username and password (or create a free account if you don't already have one set up). On the next page you can choose your button style: this new version is lower down the page. Don't worry that it currently says "TypePad and Blogger widgets coming soon" as you inly need to copy the Javascript widget into your blog template, which should be present in the iframe below.

If you already have an AddThis button in your template, simply paste the new code over the top and save your template. If you do not already feature an AddThis button, you should take the following steps:

1. Go to Template>Edit HTML and ensure the "expand widget templates" box is ticked.


2. Find this section in your blog template:
   
   
   
3. Paste the AddThis code right after this line, save your template and view your new social bookmarking feature!

As Polyname suggests, it may be nescessary to wrap your AddThis code in

tags in order for it to properly display in your template, though for most templates I've found it works fine without these extra tags.

I find this new style to be more user friendly as you are shown the sites which could be used to bookmark the page rather than being taken to a seperate page to do your choosing. The only downside is that I can't include this widget in new templates due to the necessity of user ID in the code.

Thanks to Polyname for the email telling me about this great new style! I do appreciate the hint.

Technorati Tags: addthis | social+bookmarks | button | widget | add+on

Download the "Shinobi" template

Here is a new template I've been working on for a while now: the "Shinobi" (Ninja) template. This template features a unique "Web 2.0" style theme including inline comments. Take a look at the screenshot or preview the blog in action on the Shinobi Template demonstration blog. Read on for more details and to download the XML template.

The Shinobi template features:

• Unique theme with rounded corners and ninja-style header.


• Inline comments on post pages, so readers can leave their comments without having to leave the page.


• Complementary label cloud.

You can download the XML template using the link below:

Download the Shinobi Blogger Template (Zip File)

Included in the zip file are both the XML template and a help file with details of how the template can be installed and configured. If you would also like to copy over your widgets from your existing template, please refer to this post which explains the whole process.

All images used in this template are hosted by Blogger Buster, so you do not need to upload them to your own servers. Feel free to modify this template as you wish. However, I do ask that the credits within the template itself remain intact. Please do not redistribute this template without a link back to the original author!

As always, your comments and opinions are much appreciated!

Technorati Tags: blogger+template | templates | xml | layouts | web+2.0