What are link ad units, and where should they be placed ideally?

Link ad units are like a list of links. They do not have any descriptive text, byline or images. All they have is one or two words, and they are available in vertical and horizontal layouts. As you can see in the image below, I have marked the link ad unit.

How to Insert Link ads under Menu on Hybrid Theme?

To insert link ads under the menu, we have to know where in the code the menu comes into the picture. Let us start with the header.php present in the Hybrid directory (not in the child theme). In header.php, you will see an opening div tag with an id of “container”. If you have worked in web-development for long enough, you might have noticed how this id is used for the content area, below the header. So, everything prior to this is our header.

Right before this div tag, we can place our link ad code. I have used the same css for the link ad, as found on the menu. The color of the link unit should also match the color of the menu bar. Enclose your adsense code between div tags and finally, your code should look like this.

</div><!– #header-container –>

<?php do_atomic( ‘after_header’ ); // hybrid_after_header ?>
<div align=”center” id=”primary-menu” class=”menu-container”>
<script type=”text/javascript”><!–
google_ad_client = “ca-pub-6740844476322233″;
/* Link_ad-Under-Navigation */
google_ad_slot = “5116863245″;
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 15;
//–>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”
src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js”>
</script>
</div>
<div id=”container”>

That is all you need to do  to display ads below the menu, on the Hybrid Theme. Do not copy the code given in this example as it is. Replace the link unit code with your own adsense link unit.

What is the problem with duplicate Meta tags?

A duplicate meta tag is like giving two descriptions for your page. It confuses your search engine, and generally, the search engine picks up the first occurrence of the meta tag. This can prove to be fatal in search rankings, and can have an adverse effect on your page SEO.

What causes duplicate Meta tags in the Hybrid Theme?

The Hybrid Theme Framework has its own SEO features. However, many people prefer using All in One SEO (AIO) Pack. This can create duplicate meta tags. The unfortunate thing is, although Hybrid has methods to check if another SEO Plugin is installed, it somehow did not work on my Hybrid News Theme installation. Thus, I was getting two Meta tags for “description” and “keywords”. I had to find a way of turning off Hybrid’s SEO!

How to turn off Hybrid SEO?

Hybrid SEO is a core feature. To turn it off, we have to tweak the way Hybrid is activated on your blog. However, don’t be scared by all that. In reality, you have to add a single line of code to your functions.php file on the child theme.

Look for the line that says, function hybrid_[your_theme_name]_setup(). Now, go to the end of the function, which should be the place where you find the first closing brace ( ”}” ) on a single line.

/*removes hybrid core SEO */
remove_theme_support( ‘hybrid-core-seo’ );

That is all. Now, Hybrid SEO will not interfere with your own SEO plugin, and you will see single tags for meta description and meta keywords.

We have sen how you can setup the Hybrid Theme on your blog, and how to show excerpts instead of full posts on your blog homepage, when using Hybrid theme.

The main source of revenue for a blog like mine is Google AdSense. Google ads on a WordPress blog need to be well placed for maximum clicks, yet be non-obtrusive to respect the user’s reading preferences. I usually tend to follow Google’s AdSense ad placement guide, when it comes to monetizing my blog. If there is one destination where Google wants us to put advertisements, it is under the title. This has a high visibility, and does not block the content of the post.

Add Google Ads under post Title in Hybrid Theme

Generally, in other themes, you edit the posts.php file to get your custom content under the title. However, with Hybrid, there is no posts.php file. So, how exactly do we do it? Let us see.

With the Hybrid Theme, it is not easy to edit files here and there. So, initially, I tried a plugin to put ads under the title, but it was messing with my theme! Good SEO practice requires us to have our Title in H1, but the plugin was creating confusion, removing the H1 tag from my post title.

Then, I moved on to edit my theme files. I searched for a call to the_content(), as that is the function used to display post  contents and it should be on one of the files that format the post.

Surprisingly, I found it in many pages, along with the singular.php file. Now, all you have to do, is paste the AdSense code right between

<?php do_atomic( ‘before_entry’ ); // hybrid_before_entry ?>

and

<?php the_content(); ?>

With the code in place, your Google ads will start appearing on all posts, below the title. You can see an example of what I am talking about, in this post.

If you have a more efficient way of doing this, please leave a comment.

Currently, I am using Hybrid News Child Theme on this blog. You can read my initial review and setup information regarding Hybrid Theme, in this post.

Assuming you already have the Hybrid Theme installed on your blog, and you have a child theme, which is showing full post contents, we will now see how to replace that full post content with post excerpts.

How to Replace Post Content with Excerpts on Homepage?

If there is no option to do this in settings of your Hybrid Theme, you have to edit the theme files manually. Now, Hybrid is a Theme Framework, and there are different ways of editing theme files in it. Either you can modify functions to make your desired changes, or, you can replace function calls at respective places.

The function to show post excerpts is the_excerpt() and the one that shows the entire content of the post, is the_post(). It is a bit confusing to modify the homepage, since the homepage has no marked out index.php file. Instead, we will modify the functions.php in your Hybrid child theme.

Go to the directory wp-content/themes/[your hybrid child theme] on your webroot. In my case, I am at /public_html/wp-content/themes/hybrid-news.

Now, open the functions.php file. You have to add the code given below to the file, and save it back.

Firstly, add add_filter(‘the_content’, ‘my_excerpts’); at the end of this file. This tells WordPress that the-content will now be filtered as my_excerpts. But where is my_excerpts? We have to define that too.

Just above the last line, which you added recently, paste this definition for the my_excerpts function.

function my_excerpts($content = false) {
// If is the home page, an archive, or search results
if(is_front_page() || is_archive() || is_search()) :
global $post;
$content = $post->post_excerpt;

// If an excerpt is set in the Optional Excerpt box
if($content) :
$content = apply_filters(‘the_excerpt’, $content);

// If no excerpt is set
else :
$content = $post->post_content;
$excerpt_length = 55;
$words = explode(‘ ‘, $content, $excerpt_length + 1);
if(count($words) > $excerpt_length) :
array_pop($words);
array_push($words, ‘…’);
$content = implode(‘ ‘, $words);
endif;
$content = ” . $content . ”;

endif;
endif;

// Make sure to return the content
return $content;

}

Save the file, and come back to your homepage. All your posts on homepage will now show excerpts instead of full-page posts.

However, I tried the same Global Download Center page from here in India, and saw no trace of that model.

Accoding to the rumor mills, Samsung Galaxy SIII will have a 4.6 inch screen with Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels, and a 1.8 GHz CPU powering it. It will also sport a 12 MP camera, and needless to say, it will run Android 4.0 Ice-cream Sandwich. If everything goes as planned/rumored, this might be Samsung’s nemesis for the iPhone 5.

So, is the Galaxy S3 Coming at MWC?

Either Samsung is going to launch the Galaxy SIII at MWC after all, or, this is a new phone that Samsung has been secretive about. Either way, whether this i9300 is the Galaxy SIII or not, there is a huge chance that this phone might appear at MWC and when it does, we will be waiting.

So, I was going through this list of weird interview questions, and a question caught my eye immediately. It read:

If you were a Microsoft Office program, which one would you be?

So, how should I answer this question, if I was asked the same? Let us analyze.

Firstly, we have to consider all the variables here. What job are we applying for in this situation? What is the job profile of the position in question? Does this question carry any meaning in the interview? How far into the Interview, am I? How has my performance been so far? Is he impressed enough, that I can be bold in my reply? Do I go for an analytical answer, or a witty remark? All these are the factors governing my decision and thought process at that period.

First, I will look at the limiting premise of the question. The moment I saw anything like Media Player, or SQL Server, (which people have posted in comment responses at this Glassdoor page) I am compromised. I have to choose among Office Programs only, and I have to choose wisely.

Microsoft Word

This is the first Office program that comes to anyone’s mind. It might risk my position as someone who knows Microsoft Word as the only Office program. Word can do some cool stuff like creating documents, formatting them nicely, mail merge, and proofreading documents. Now, that sounds like the job of a secretary, or a clerk. I am better than that!

Microsoft Excel

Well, this one gets everyone excited. Excel lets you carry out complex tasks, create and manage reports, perform calculations, and generate graphs and charts. That sounds like fun and is for someone who knows statistics like the back of his hand! Yeah. Maybe I want to be Excel. Nevertheless, I have more options.

Microsoft Access

Seriously speaking, who uses this database? Microsoft itself has a better alternative, and clearly, I do not want to name this program. I do not want to end up being in a school DBMS project. Access is like the old-school register file, in a computer age.

Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint aids in presentations, lets us impress people with our pep talk and slides, and cut business deals. Heck, everyone would want to be PowerPoint! It is an option worth selecting, yes. But, let us look further.

Microsoft Outlook

No.

I am definitely not going for this one.

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace

Now, what do we have here! SharePoint is Microsoft’s proprietary technology. It is unique to Microsoft Office. All the work done by the above three comes to me for organization. SharePoint is like the president of the Office Nation! Using me (now that I am SharePoint), people can collaborate across networks. I am definitely going to be SharePoint.

Therefore, I am SharePoint, because no matter how hard Word, Excel and PowerPoint work, in a productive environment, I am the one handling all their files and sorting them out, and making them useful. I like to take responsibilities and I like organization. That makes me the best, at what I do in Office.

Hybrid is not just a theme. It is a theme framework for WordPress with numerous child themes. It is the perfect example of how a theme should be. It offers numerous options and customization for both novice and power users. In case that scared you, we will simplify things, helping you get started with the Hybrid Theme Framework.

I am a big fan of Hybrid. I used to have Hybrid on my blog back in 2009. A few months later, I settled for Swift theme by Satish, which is another awesome and fast WordPress theme. It recently got a free version with HTML5 support, but the looks on this Hybrid is unbeaten. It is quite elegant, almost as good as the ones from Woo Themes. As you can see, I have come back to Hybrid.

After starting with Hybrid, there are tweaks like showing post excerpts on homepage, showing adsense under the post title and removing duplicate meta tags, you might want to try out.

Getting the Hybrid Theme

Hybrid Theme can be downloaded for free from its official website. It is an open-source theme framework. You can share your work as long as you keep the original title and license. The developer of Hybrid Theme, Justin Tadlock has done a wonderful job, by making this theme available to people. To download the Hybrid Framework, visit this URL and setup the theme just like you would do with any other theme.

Hybrid Options

After you have setup Hybrid Theme on your WordPress blog, it is time to explore the options it provides. Theme Hybrid provides an extensive list of widgets for us to use. In fact, most of the page design can be managed with widgets. There are widgets for two sidebars on the right, the footer, the header, the part above the footer and so on.

This ensures that you do not have to write any complex hacks to get a desired page design and content placement.

The theme files

The files in Hybrid theme are not arranged as any other conventional theme. It is a theme framework, so it has to maintain a high level of customization. All these pages serve particular purposes and they are well documented.

While some of these files are sidebar elements, others serve as templates for various blog pages.

Child Themes

Now comes the interesting part. Using the Theme Hybrid framework is incomplete if you do not install one of their child themes. This is as simple as installing just another theme. You simply have to copy the theme files beside your Hybrid Folder, and it will appear in your WordPress theme selection. Select the child theme, just as you selected Hybrid.

I am using the Hybrid News child theme.

Support Forum

Hybrid is an open source framework, and the developer of Hybrid earns through selling support forum membership. Though, the support is top notch, and he offers code and setup help. With such a wonderful theme, you can go ahead and take a decently priced premium membership. It will ease the task of the initial setup, which can be a setback for beginners.

The beauty of untethered jailbreaks is that it does not require your phone to be connected every time you want to boot. Although other Apple devices running iOS 5 received a tethered jailbreak in October last year, the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 have received this untethered jailbreak only recently.

The Chronic Dev team used a utility called CDevReported that reported crashes numbering in thousands. This crowdsourcing helped them discover vulnerabilities for A5 devices, which were exploited, hence this jailbreak. However, they have constantly remarked how difficult it was to jailbreak the new A5 system.

For a live tutorial on jailbreaking the iPhone 4S, take a look at this YouTube video.

Jailbreaking voids your warranty, but lets you run unauthorized applications. For the iPhone 4S, it is mandatory to upgrade to iOS 5.0.1. With the initial release of a Mac OSX version, they have released Absinthe A5 untethered jailbreak for Windows as well.  A Linux version of Absinthe is coming soon.

Download links for Absinthe and links to detailed instructions can be found at this post on the Greenpoison blog. If you want detailed instructions for an iPad2 jailbreak, you can get it at theipadguide.com.

Bharti Airtel has over 170 million subscribers and this gives them a massive user-base appropriate for churning numbers. The findings as presented in Airtel Mobitude 2011 are:

Music Download

Music Download has always been popular in India. “Chammak Challo” from Ra One and “I like it rough” by Lady Gaga were the two most popular songs of 2011 until “Kolaveri Di” joined in to appear comparatively closer to the top two.

Wallpaper Downloads

Wallpaper downloads were dominated by Katrina Kaif, Shahrukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Michael Jackson.

Social Networks

The most popular Social Network was undoubtedly Facebook with 34 million visitors from India, with over 20% visiting from Airtel Mobile. Orkut came second at 18 million visitors and Twitter followed with 14 million visitors, out of which only 4% came from Airtel mobile.

The most visited websites of 2011 were Google, Gmail and Facebook.

App usage

App download was dominated by popular apps from the world over like iSpyCam, SecureSMS but also included indigenous ones like Kingfisher Calendar 2011.

These usage stats have been curated from usage patterns of over 170 million Airtel subscribers. This shows that India has tremendous potential for local business and it is an untapped resource. Get more Mobitude stats from here.

MTS Mblaze Ultra Rev B High Speed Data Card

MTS Ultra Rev B offers 9.8 Mbps broadband speed. However, we cannot decide on the usability unless we check out the tariff. Mblaze Ultra will offer both Postpaid and Prepaid schemes. The Prepaid schemes have not launched yet though, the Postpaid plans have been laid out.

The unique features of Mblaze Ultra are:

• 1st time in India: CDMA 1X EV-DO Rev.B wireless data card
• Hi-Speed Internet for Broadband Mobility: Upto 3 times as fast as EVDO Rev.A
• Dual-Band 800/1900MHz
• Plug and Play
• Downlink speeds upto 9.8Mbps
• Dual Antenna for greater receive diversity
• Dedicated Spectrum
• Dedicated Customer Care
• Plans to suit everyone’s data habit and need
• Access to Hundreds of Games, Videos and Songs for download.

Mblaze Ultra Postpaid Plans

The postpaid plans are slightly overpriced. However if you choose wisely, you will end up with a cost-effective plan.

I have marked the two reasonable plans here. The one for Rs. 1359 that offers 10 GB is quite effective. The first two plans are absolutely useless. They are overpriced and I strongly advice you do not go for it. If you can afford the plan at Rs. 1899, it is the best broadband plan for a shared Internet connection between friends.

Compared to the current popular plan of 12 GB for Rs. 999 at 3.1 Mbps, the plan M-Ultra-1359 is a good deal, given it offers 9.8 Mbps speed. Post bundled FUP, the usage charges are Rs. 1 per MB, on all plans.

Initial Payment

To get Mblaze Ultra, you have to make a payment of Rs. 4599 which covers the high-speed device, and 1 GB of internet usage for the next six months.

After the usage limit, the charges are Rs. 1 per MB. After six months, you will be moved to a Rs. 629 plan automatically, which covers the 1 GB usage.

Verdict

This is an ambitious move by MTS. However, the fail to see how high-speed internet fails in India due to ridiculous prices and is repeating the same mistake that everyone else is doing. MTS and other telecom companies should do a survey on acceptable rates for data services and then, launch a reasonable plan which people will finally use. For now, India is stuck at the 3.1 Mbps mark, when it comes to mobile broadband.