12 Things That Will Kill Your Blog Post Every Time

1. Crafting cute, clever or confusing headlines (or really bad ones)

Your headline is going to appear in many places. At the top of your post…

In search engine page results…

Feed readers…

And subject lines.
The goal of the headline is to stop readers cold and draw them into your post. You can’t do that if you use cute, clever or confusing headlines.
You can stop readers cold, however, if you write headlines that are unique, ultra-specific, useful or urgent. Here are a few examples:

• 6 Lessons You Can Learn from the Rise of DropBox (Unique)
• How to Become the Person Everyone Wants to Interview (Useful)

As you can see, headlines can share multiple U qualities. The best ones often do.

2. Never linking to old posts

In the example above I linked to four older posts of mine. I did that for several reasons.

1. They helped me prove my point.
2. Those links drive traffic to those older posts…giving them new life.
3. Those links contain keywords I want to rank high with.
4. Links are one of the best ways to direct Google spiders through your site.

Just because you’ve published a post doesn’t mean you should forget about it. Each post is a valuable asset in which you can give new life to with each link.

3. Never linking to other bloggers

A long time ago I wrote a post without any links. It was an important topic…I was busy and just wanted to get the post out. I actually intended to go back and put in links when I had more time.
However, an influential blogger who had started reading my posts commented almost immediately. He said, “Don’t you want others to join the conversation?”
I immediately went back and put in links.
The value in linking out to other bloggers is three-fold:

1. You draw others into the conversation – By linking to others opens yourself up to discussing the topic at hand. This allows you to listen and trade ideas with others, learning things you didn’t know before you started…and creating relationships.
2. You give credit where credit is due – If you write something that is based on an idea that you got from somewhere else, you must link to that blogger. Its proper manners on the web.
3. You get the authority juice – Inbound links no doubt have high impact on your search rankings. But so do outbound links…especially if you are linking to authority sites.
   

4. Forgetting to fill out your page title and description fields

You’ll screw any chances of your post ranking if you forget to fill out the page title and description fields for each post.
That meta data is critical to search engines crawling and indexing your site. And when you use keywords properly, it tells those spiders what the page is all about.
To make life easier on you, use a plug in like All-in-One SEO pack. In WordPress you’ll see this form at the bottom of each post:

That’s by far been the best plug in I’ve used. Here are some tips on creating good meta descriptions.
On top of that, your titles and descriptions have to be social friendly. For example, Jennifer from SEOmoz tried to share Nutella Day on Facebook and here is what happened:

If you want Facebook to pull in the right title and description, follow these steps.

5. Creating clunky URLs

Having the worst domain name is one thing. Creating clunky URLs for each post that people can’t read or search engines can’t index is another thing.
These are the worst offenders:

• http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-9912342-3046240?_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000FN0KWA
• http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=98115&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1&iwloc=A

If you want to give your post a fighting chance in the SEO landscape, then you have to include recognizable words in your URL. This means keywords, too.
Here are a few approaches you can use when it comes to URLs:

• Long form + tracking digits: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/a-quick-and-dirty-guide-to-modern-day-link-baiting/37115/ (at one time also needed for inclusion in Google News)
• Date + long-form: http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/01/23/how-to-design-your-blog-for-awesome-seo/
• Short form: http://www.copyblogger.com/writing-bullet-points/

6. Plagiarizing other bloggers

Listen: one of the keystone elements to successful blogging is consistent content. In fact, in one study HubSpot proved that the more you blog the more traffic you will get.
But ask any blogger, doing that over time and the well will eventually run dry. That’s why there are so many blog posts about creativity and overcoming writer’s block.
Bloggers need a ton of ideas!
That’s when the temptation to copy what other bloggers write comes in. (By the way, scrapers are shameless plagiarizers.) But there is no faster way to kill a post and ruin your reputation than to plagiarize.

7. Publishing less than one post per month

Okay, I understand that you are very busy…and that churning out one blog post a month is not easy. But really, the less you post, the less chance your newest post has any chance at gaining traction.
That one blog post every two months is about as good as not blogging at all.
As I mentioned above, the more frequently you post, the more traffic you are going to get. That traffic eventually slows and then dies when you stop posting.
Besides, if Google comes back to your site to check for more content and doesn’t find any…it will back off and it may be a long time before the spiders come back…which sucks for your newest post.

8. Writing big blocks of copy

I understand the author isn’t writing for mobile. He’s writing for Mashable. But the same rules that apply for mobile marketing copy…well, pretty much apply across the web.
Writing short paragraphs is a basic blog post writing law. Just like simple words and short sentences. Resort to long blocks of copy and you are stacking the deck against your blog post.

9. Zero presence on any social media platforms

When blogging was the only game in town (see points 3 and 4 in that article I linked to)…well, all you really had to do was blog. There weren’t other social media sites you could leverage like Twitter, Facebook or Google+.
That has all changed.
Hopefully you are on these sites (especially Google+)…and hopefully you are being strategic about how you use these social sites to promote your content. Every post you publish needs a boost from your social media presence.

10. Never inviting readers to leave comments

A post without comments is like that abandoned house down the end of your street…creepy and not to be trusted.
Of course if you are just launching a blog, it may be a few weeks before you get your first comment. But follow all the steps above and that comment will come.
You also have to encourage people to comment. That’s why I end every post I write with a question:

I do this on my blog and every guest post I write.
You will also get comments when you write detailed posts on advanced topics. You may cover a complicated issue that needs a little more explaining…or somebody wants to know how you did something.
That’s okay…you want that.
In the end, good comments give your post proof that people find what you are writing about valuable. And the more comments the better. It’s social proof in action.

11. Writing about a topic nobody cares about

It’s this simple: your post will fall flat on its face if you do not write about what your audience cares about.
The same is true if you try to write about a topic that somebody else is already doing a good job writing about. For example…

• If you want to write about online copywriting…then you have to do a better job than Copyblogger.
• Want to write about social media news? Then you have to compete with Mashable or Social Media Examiner.
• Perhaps SEO is up your alley. If that’s the case, then you have to square off with the likes of Search Engine Land or SEOmoz.

Don’t get me wrong…it can be done. Every single one of those blogs started small. But it takes a lot of work, which brings me to my last point.

12. Giving up

In a wonderful post about 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic, Rand Fishkin ends with the tactic of being consistent. He points out that the SEOmoz blog, his personal blog and his wife’s popular Everywhereist blog didn’t really take off until two years had gone by.
Sadly, most people quit about nine months in.
Blogging is hard work…and commitments like job, family or other reasons can overtake your blog. That happens. This is why it is so important to count the costs before starting a blog…because in the end giving up on your blog will kill every post you’ve ever written…and success will not come.

Conclusion

None of what I shared…except the part about social media presence and Google+…is probably new to you. But it’s true…and it has been for years, which means it’s probably not a bad idea to follow, right?
Fortunately, blogging is a level playing field…so anybody can apply the basics and succeed. I mean, if you want a blog that grows year after year…you have to start with the basics…namely, writing a killer blog post. And do that non-stop.
That’s it.
What are some other things that people do that kill blog posts?

How to Become the Person Everyone Wants to Interview

Step #1: Networking face-to-face

When it comes down to it, it’s who you know. Affiliate marketer Zac Johnson flew to New York City to do an interview at the ABC Studios because of a relationship he started with Tory Johnson.
Zac met Tory at a Blog World Expo and was able to spend some quality time with her at that conference. Zac got his foot in the door because he set aside the time and money to network face-to-face with influencers.
That gamble paid off when he got that call to do the interview with Tory. It wasn’t just a phone interview either, and it wasn’t just to get a few quotes from him. He got the full treatment with the experience—make up, coaching from the producer and five minutes in front of a national audience.
Never underestimate the value of networking with people in person. You don’t always have to drop a couple of thousand and travel across the country to meet the right people. You could run into journalists at events like these:

• Local Tweet-up.
• Local Chamber of Commerce.

The idea is to experiment and carve time out of your schedule to network. Plus, don’t forget to attend journalist-focused events.

Step #2: Seek out radio and podcast interviews

The next step to becoming the person people want to interview is to hunt down the opportunities. Search for radio hosts or podcasters who need interviews by experts.

1. Search for “radio + your subject matter” and “podcast + your subject matter” on Google.
2. Search through the iTunes podcast library.
3. Search through podcast directories like PodcastAlley.com or Podbean.com.

Once you’ve identified radio or podcast hosts you are interested in, contact them through their websites. Either call or email…whatever you feel most comfortable with. Usually, the podcaster will handle all of his or her own bookings, but the radio show host may have a booking assistant or producer, especially if it is a big radio show. Regardless, don’t be afraid to approach them.
Make the pitch specific to them and their show, highlighting why you being on the show will benefit them…not you. Your goal is to educate or entertain their audiences, not sell your products or services.
If you can, offer a valuable piece of information in your pitch. This could include original research or an experience you had that would be useful to your prospective listeners.
Here’s one final tip: sign up for radioguestlist.com. This free service will send you an email every day with a list of interview opportunities from podcast, online TV shows, radio, satellite and TV producers who are looking for experts in a particular subject matter.

Step #3: Connect with the Media

Your next step is to reach out to journalists. Google is one way to search for journalists, but I’ve found the best way to do this is simply to pay attention to the bylines of stories.
Here’s what it looks like in TechCrunch:

And here is how it appears in Wired:

Click the name link, and you’ll see all of the author’s articles for the magazine. Click the email icon, and you can actually email the journalist.
Keep in mind, if you decide to email the journalist, it is very important you have something useful to share with him or her. You tell him or her that you are a resource and why the journalist should use you as a resource. Or you pitch an article idea to that person.
Email is not the time to send a “hello.” It will likely get buried or deleted. If you want to connect and get to know the journalist, follow him or her on the social web.
But let’s say you have something useful to offer the journalist. Here’s how to craft a persuasive email:

• Immediately state your point – “I wanted to offer my services to you as an expert in this subject matter.”
• Explain why they should trust you as a good source – “for the last 12 years, I’ve done such and such with this prestigious organization.”
• Include proof – share a fact or statistic that would intrigue the journalist. If you’ve noticed that they’ve been writing about a specific topic and you have something to add to their ideas, share it.
• Share a story – make it quick, no more than three or four sentences, but tell him or her an anecdote that might appeal to his or her audience.
• Link to supporting proof – never attach a document to the email. Instead, if you have a picture or data that can be shared online, include a link.

Step #4: Subscribe to Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

A great way to get interviewed by big media publications is to subscribe to Help a Reporter Out. This free source was started by Peter Shankman about two years ago as a Facebook group. It blew up and now has over 100,000 subscribers with 50,000 reporters using the service.
Nearly 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources…including The New York Times, ABC News and The Huffington Post.

• Joe Cockrell pitched a story, and The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Good Morning America, CNN, FBN, and dozens of TV stations across the country – even Inside Edition – did a segment. The story was the “most watched” clip on CNN.com that week.
• At Cold Sweep solutions, Randall Heath pitched an idea and got an hour-long phone interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter who later ran the story.
• David Lewis of Operations Inc said that his firm has been tapped as subject matter experts by The NY Times, Reuters and MSNBC. It also gave them the opportunity to appear locally on several radio news sources.

The way the service works is you will receive 3 emails a day with the needs that the reporters have. You scan the list, which can be done in about 10 seconds, and see if you find anything you might be able to help out with. The needs range from space travel to blogging to sports medicine…with about 15 to 30 requests in each email.
If you find something you can help with, you then email the reporter. Use the template I shared above, and please do not spam the reporter or suggest a different topic. These reporters are desperate for sources for that particular story, so don’t stray from it.

Step #5: Follow trends

Another way I’ve found that helps journalists is to follow trends and then alert them as soon as possible. Reporters need extra eyes and ears to stay on top of stories, so they appreciate your tips.
Keep in mind, it needs to be useful and relevant to their field of interest. This means you need to train yourself to know what this journalist needs. Follow them on social media, share their content and ask them questions. The more you can develop a relationship with a reporter, the better your chances are of succeeding when it comes to pitching them an idea.
But how do you stay on top of the trends?

• Use broad trending tools – these include Google Trends and Yahoo’s Buzz Log.
• Use niche trending tools – these include Twitter Stats and Trends Map (they allow you to localize the trends, which can be handy if you are hoping to help out a local journalist).
• Listen to people – whether it’s your clients, friends, strangers or family, listen to what they say and the needs they have. Sometimes you may be able to make a connection between that and something a reporter said.
• Read lots of articles – follow as many blogs as possible and read as many magazines as possible to stay on top of trends.

Once you spot a fact or trend, jot it down in a notebook or in an Excel spreadsheet. When you get a chance, pitch the reporter. Remember, it’s usually best to be as timely as possible, so if you get a juicy tip, send it as soon as you can.

Step #6: Create something remarkable

Finally, you can become that person people want to interview by creating something great. Seth Godin put himself on the map with his Permission Marketing book. Robert Scoble did it with his blog. And countless people have become famous through their YouTube videos.
Don’t forget that creating something remarkable takes time. Take the example of Christina Perri and Barrett Yerestian. Perri was a singer/songwriter who was serving coffee when she and Barrett started working together. For four years she’d been trying to make a name for herself on YouTube but was struggling. Her time was about to come.
The two wrote and produced a rough version of a song Christina had been working on. She shared that version with a friend who worked for the show So You Think You Can Dance. The friend liked the song but didn’t think it was ready. She encouraged the two to refine.
They did and called it “Jar of Hearts.” They took it back to her friend at So You Think You Can Dance. This time the friend loved it and played it on the show.
That’s when they became famous overnight.
On that night, the song became one of the best songs on iTunes and Amazon, and Perri’s name became the highest searched term on Google. She eventually ended up on CBS Early and has since performed live. She’s flooded with requests, and major labels are courting her.

Conclusion

Once you get that initial interview and then promote it across the web, other offers will eventually come in. That was true for some of the success stories behind HARO, and I know from experience that when I speak at a conference, I get offers for more interviews.
If you think about it, those two minutes on So You Think You Can Dance changed Christina’s life, but behind those two minutes are years of hard work. Both musicians worked day jobs and had other commitments but found the time to focus and perfect their passion.
So, the moral of this story is this: Are you prepared?

6 Business Lessons You Can Learn from the Rise of Dropbox

You can’t go very far without running into Drew Houston’s company Dropbox. It is considered one of the hottest tech companies, and its rise since 2006 can teach you a lot about marketing and business.
Let’s take a look at six lessons you can learn from the rise of Dropbox.

Lesson #1: Create a profitable model

This seems obvious, but in a world where people are used to getting most things for free, running a profitable business isn’t always easy. Just ask Twitter who is still trying to figure out how to make money. Google figured it out; Facebook is on its way; and Dropbox nailed it.
Dropbox gives away 2 GB of storage space. However, enough people are blowing through that storage amount and signing up for monthly subscriptions. You can get 50 GB of storage space for $10 a month. If you want 100 GB of space, then it’s $20 a month.
Dropbox has over 50 million users, and a new user is being added every second. But only 4% of those users pay. Yet, because the number of people exceeding their 2 gigs is always growing, Dropbox could go through 2012 without adding a new user and still be profitable.

Takeaway: The earlier you can figure out how you are going to make money, the better. Is it through advertising? Subscription model? Product sales? Service fees?

Lesson #2: Being smart isn’t enough to run a big company

Before Dropbox, Drew Houston liked his lifestyle of just “him and the code.” But during his years at college, he read Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence. The book convinced him that one needs more than intelligence and a degree to run a big company.
Drew then started to spend his time reading business books, learning how to be a CEO. He then volunteered to lead two organizations at college that amounted to a crash course in project management and getting people to do stuff.

Takeaway: Learn how to be a leader by reading books on business leadership, salesmanship and management. Seek out mentors who ran or are running successful businesses. Ask them to help you grow as a leader. Take some classes or seminars on management and leadership at a local college. And then hustle harder than everyone else.

Lesson #3: Answer a frustrating problem

The reason that Dropbox has experienced such explosive growth is that it’s solved the problem of data being spread across multiple devices like phones, tablets and computers. And that problem happens to affect a lot of people.
Here’s how they fixed it.
Download the Dropbox app and store your files in it. Now you can access all of your files, no matter what device you are using. And if you make a change to a file in one location, that file is updated across all devices. You can even invite others to view these files, making the sharing of huge files easy.
The value is so obvious and simple, it’s genius.

Takeaway: Dropbox’s explosive growth is due to its fixing a problem that a giant audience is experiencing. The larger the audience, the easier it will be to grow. Look for opportunities that impact a massive consumer group and present it with a meaningful solution.

Lesson #4: Make people aware of the problem they don’t know they have

The problem that Dropbox solves, however, isn’t exactly intuitive. In other words, people don’t know that they need a central location to store all their files so they can access them from any device.
This means people aren’t exactly searching for a solution. So, Drew and his team had to figure out a way to increase adoption of the product.
To advertise, Houston’s co-founder Ferdowsi insisted that the home page be nothing but a video telling a simple story of a stick figure losing his stuff and travelling to Africa. People understood the solution Dropbox offered immediately.

The other thing they did was turn their customer base into a sales force. Dropbox told its customers that it would give them 250 MB of storage for every referral. The company still gets about 25% of its customers this way.

Takeaway: Use social media, storytelling and your customer base to get the word out about your product. Just because you built it does not mean the people will come. You have to communicate to them the problem they have and how you are fixing it in a clear, concise and compelling way.

Lesson #5: Stay lean

In the early stages of the company, both Houston and Ferdowsi were the sole employees. They did nothing but code day and night, working with contractors on design and development, but never hiring any full-time employees until they got their first injection of VC money of $1.2 million dollars.
In 2008, only after 2 years of starting the company, Dropbox had only 9 employees and 200,000 customers. But this lean mentality allowed them to sail through the economic collapse. By 2010, the number of Dropbox users jumped tenfold while they only added 2 more employees. Today, they have about 70 employees and over 50 million users.

Takeaway: Resist growing too big too fast. Keep salaries low and expenses at a minimum, and hire temporary workers to help you stock away cash to funnel it back into the company. This way you can invest in a solid foundation that can sustain a market meltdown.

Lesson #6: Spend more money staying front and center

The competition surrounding Dropbox is stiff. Not only are big players like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft interested in the cloud storage market, but smaller players are popping up all the time.
The biggest threat to Dropbox is Apple’s iCloud with its network of millions of people who own iPhones, Macs and iPads. Google is threatening too with a rumored product that could be very effective with 185 million plus Android phones out there.
How is Dropbox going to handle this competition?
They have to spend an enormous amount of money remaining in the public’s eye. Houston is also spending his time inking deals with phone companies to make Dropbox an exclusive cloud storage provider. He is also working with PC and television makers to get exclusive deals with them too.

Takeaway: Work to keep your company in the public’s eye. Use social media, publicity stunts, marketing dollars, partnerships with big brands and good old advertising.

Conclusion

Odds are you are not likely to be the next Dropbox. But that doesn’t mean you can’t imitate the strategies the company has used to achieve the sort of success they know today. If you do so, you will increase your odds of succeeding.
So, what other business lessons can you learn from the rise of Dropbox?

10 tips for a happier, healthier life

There’s no secret – the simplest things are often the best, says nutritionist Dr John Briffa, if we want to feel good all year round

1 Eat ‘primally’ Common sense dictates that the best diet is one based on foods we’ve been eating the longest in terms of our time on this planet. These are the foods that we’ve evolved to eat and are best adapted to. Studies show that a ‘primal’ diet made up of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, as well as meat, fish and eggs, is best for weight control and improvement in risk markers for illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes. This ‘go primal’ food philosophy will enable you to cut through the marketing hype and dietary misinformation, and allow you to make healthy food choices quickly and confidently.
2 Keep hydrated Water makes up two-thirds of the body and performs a plethora of functions, including acting as a solvent, carrier of nutrients, temperature regulator and body detoxifier. Maintaining hydration can have a profound influence on our vitality and energy levels, including mental alertness. Aim to drink enough water to keep your urine a pale yellow colour throughout the course of the day.
3 Eat mindfully In our fast-paced world, there can be a tendency to eat while distracted and shovel in more food than we need and, at the same time, miss out on culinary pleasure. Many of us will benefit from eating mindfully. Some things to think about here are avoiding eating when distracted, eating more slowly, and taking time to taste food properly. One particular thing to focus on is chewing your food thoroughly – not only does this help us savour food, it also assists the digestive process.
4 Get plenty of sunlight in the summer… Sunlight, and the vitamin D this can make in the skin, is associated with a wide spectrum of benefits for the body including a reduced risk of several forms of cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis, as well as improved immune function. As a rule of thumb, vitamin D is made when our shadow is shorter than our body length, ie when the sun is high in the sky. While burning is to be avoided, get as much sunlight exposure as possible for optimal health.
5… and in the winter Low levels of sunlight in the winter can cause our mood to darken. Even when it’s cold outside, it pays to get some external light exposure in the winter, say during lunchtime. Another option is to invest in a sunlight-simulating device and use this daily from October through to March.
6 Get enough sleep Sleep has the ability to optimise mental and physical energy, and optimal levels of sleep (about eight hours a night) are linked with reduced risk of chronic disease and improved longevity. One simple strategy that can help ensure you get optimal amounts of sleep is to go to bed earlier. Getting into bed by 10pm or 10.30pm is a potentially useful investment in terms of your short- and long-term health and wellbeing. Shutting down the computer or turning off the TV early in the evening is often all it takes to create the time and space for earlier sleep.
7 Walk regularly Aerobic exercise, including something as uncomplicated and low-impact as walking, is associated with a variety of benefits for the body and the brain, including a reduced risk of chronic diseases, anti-anxiety and mood-enhancing effects. Aim for a total of about 30 minutes of brisk walking every day.
8 Engage in some resistance exercise Resistance exercise helps to maintain muscle mass and strengthens the body. This has particular relevance as we age, as it reduces the risk of disability and falls. Many highly useful exercises can be done at home, such as press-ups, sit-ups and squats. Invest in a Dyna-Band or dumbbells to extend your home routine to other exercises, too.
9 Practise random acts of kindness Random acts of kindness are good for givers and receivers alike. It could be a quick call or text to someone you care about or have lost touch with, or showing a fellow motorist some consideration, or giving up your seat on a train or bus, or buying someone lunch or giving a spontaneous bunch of flowers.
10 Practise the art of appreciation Modern-day living tends to be aspirational and we can easily find ourselves chasing an ever-growing list of goals, many of which can be material. Some of us could do with spending more time focusing not on what we don’t have, but on what we do. Our mood can be lifted by giving thanks for anything from our friends and family to a beautiful landscape or sunset. For holistic health and wellbeing information and advice, see drbriffa.com

4 Simple and Easy Tools to Flash Android ROMs Compared

 

Ever wanted to flash a new ROM on your Android device but didn’t have the patience to deal with the whole flashing process? I remember spending hours trying to download, transfer, reboot, flash, reboot, wait, reboot, all just to try out a new ROM. I don’t have the time for that anymore and it’d be nice to be able to flash a ROM straight from an app with an intuitive interface. Fortunately, there are some available on the Play Store.
But before we go on, I must warn you that flashing an Android ROM is not a newbie procedure. It’s akin to switching up your phone’s operating system, and if you make a mistake, you could end up bricking your phone. Yes, there are a lot of great ROMs out there that can really transform your phone into something special, but it comes with its risks. If you use the apps listed below, you are responsible for anything that goes wrong. Be warned!

ROM Manager

ROM Manager is probably the best known app when it comes to managing ROMs. It has a fitting name, wouldn’t you say? It’s touted as the “must-have” app for anyone who wants to play around with ROMs as long as you have a rooted device. It comes with a clean interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. As for features:

• Uses ClockworkMod Recovery for fast and clean recovery.
• Installs ROMs directly from your SD card.
• Download ROMs through the app.
• Backup and restore ROMs.

In order for ROM Manager to work well, your device must be rooted. ROM Manager also requires ClockworkMod Recovery. If you don’t have it, or if you have an outdated version of it, ROM Manager will detect that and ask if you want to bring it up to date. Based on your phone model, it’ll handle everything else, but if your model is incompatible, you’re out of luck.
For $5.99 USD, you can upgrade to the premium version which includes but is not limited to:

• Download premium ROMs through the app.
• Notifications when your ROM is updated.
• Automatic scheduled backups.
• An installation queue for ROMs.

ROM Toolbox Lite

Funny enough, the creator’s description for ROM Toolbox is the exact same as the one for ROM Manager: a “must-have” app for every root user. ROM Toolbox is more than a ROM management tool as it combines a lot of different features from various root apps into one massive package. If you want an all-in-one solution for customizing your phone, ROM Toolbox can fulfill most of your needs.

• Install, manage, backup, and restore multiple ROMs from your SD card.
• Enable and disable apps that run at startup.
• Create and run scripts as root, even run them at startup if you want.
• Install and use custom fonts.

For $4.99 USD, you can upgrade to the premium version which includes but is not limited to:

• App manager with batch and scheduled backups, cloud syncs, task manager, app freezer, and more.
• Root explorer that can access the entire Android file system and change file permissions and file ownerships.
• Rebooter that can perform reboot recovery, power down, bootloader, and more.

Honestly, ROM Toolbox is a huge app that can be intimidating even for some hardcore Android users. You get a lot of bang for your buck here, so if you’re willing to pay for premium, you can save a lot of money by going with ROM Toolbox. It, too, requires your phone to be rooted.

Auto Flasher

For something a little more lightweight and focused, Auto Flasher might be what you want. It allows you to select multiple ROMs on your phone and flash them all at once. It makes the whole process easier by recognizing ROMs based on file name patterns so you don’t have to go searching through your phone, directory by directory, to find the ones you want.
The thing about Auto Flasher is that it utilizes the TeamWin Recovery Project, or TWRP for short, instead of the more mainstream ClockworkMod Recovery. In addition to having TWRP, your device must be rooted. If you don’t know much about TWRP and aren’t comfortable playing around with it, you should skip this app for another in the list.
Auto Flasher is entirely free. It supports installation of ROMs from an external SD card and it can sync with Auto Flasher’s cloud with no registration required. As far as I can tell, you set a User ID and a Password and you can only have one backup on the cloud at a time. Otherwise, it’s not the most feature-packed ROM management tool, but it gets the job done.

Flashify

Flashify is a newer ROM management app that’s been tested and confirmed to work with the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10. All other devices are under an “at your own risk” policy, but for the most part it should work well enough. Flashify has a pretty interface that I’ve really taken a liking to, and it has a good number of features to go along with it.

• Flash ROMs without entering recovery mode.
• Flash multiple ROMs at once.
• Backup and restore using your SD card or Dropbox. With Dropbox, you can sync across devices as well.
• Integrates neatly with most Android file explorer apps.

You can use Flashify for free with one limitation: you can only flash up to 3 times per day. However, with an in-app purchase for just $1.99 USD, you can remove that limitation. Just like all of the other tools in this roundup, Flashify requires your phone to be rooted in order to work.

Conclusion

Having taken a look at all of these options, my vote of recommendation goes to ROM Toolbox. Honestly, it doesn’t have a nice interface and I’m a big stickler for great interface design, but it’s just packed with so many awesome features that it’s hard to look elsewhere. If you want something more lightweight, I’d probably go with Flashify.
What do you think about these ROM managers? What do you use when you need to flash a new ROM? Share your experiences with us in the comments!

How To Find & Install a Custom ROM For Your Android Device

 

One of the great things about Android is that the operating system isn’t stuck on just one device – you can find it on all sorts of gadgets from multiple manufacturers. Another beautiful feature about Android is that it is extremely customizable, and (usually) so is the hardware. This means that if you’d rather run a custom ROM on your device, the chances of being able to do that is pretty good.
However, since not every device can be hacked into to make such changes – as the manufacturers can still choose to be restrictive if they feel it’s necessary – you’ll need to have a strategy to look for custom ROMs for your device. Also, if you do find a custom ROM you’d like to try out, you’ll need to know what you must do on your device in order to install the ROM.

What’s A Custom ROM & Why Use One?

A custom ROM is simply a version of Android which third-party developers create for your device. They are meant to replace what is known as the stock ROM, or the version of Android that the manufacturer provided on your device. There are many reasons why you may want to try a custom ROM on your device. In most cases, they take away all the bloatware that is usually impossible to remove, they can potentially increase performance and/or improve battery life, and they may bump you up to a newer version of Android that the manufacturer may not offer.
There are potential downsides to running custom ROMs, however, which include invalidated warranties, lack of hardware support for things such as your camera, and potential battery drain. However, if you stick to a custom ROM which comes from a more reputable source, then these downsides except for the invalidated warranties shouldn’t appear.

Where To Find One For Your Device

There’s a handful of different places you can look at to see if there’s a custom ROM for your device, but I highly recommend that the first place you should check out is CyanogenMod. These guys are among the leaders of custom Android ROMs and therefore one of the most reputable. They offer support for a huge variety of phones, so a high percentage of you should be able to find a custom ROM from them.

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Their ROMs usually improve performance and battery life, upgrade your device to a newer version of Android than what the manufacturer supports, and includes some other extras such as enthusiast-level performance settings. If your device is quite popular, then CyanogenMod is most likely to offer custom ROMs for it.

However, if your device is pretty unknown or CyanogenMod simply happens to not have a custom ROM for it, then your next best place to look is the XDA Developers Forum. This community is packed with Android hackers who work on every project under the sun. The site is also quite large simply because they have sub-forums for just about every Android device ever released, and many people post their own custom ROMs into these sub-forums.
Be cautious, however, as anyone can post their custom ROMs onto the forums, and as such, offer no guarantees of success or community support. It’s best to read through the threads entirely before making a decision.

For some rough, general guidelines, make sure that:

• The developer has claimed it to be stable and not beta, alpha, etc.
• The developer claims complete hardware support.
• Multiple people have posted in the thread claiming success with the custom ROM.
• The amount of concerns that arise in the thread are at a minimum; any concerns that do appear should not seem critical to the ROM’s functionality or safety.

Of course, try to use common sense while determining whether you should try a custom ROM that you find. This is important because any major hiccups in the flashing process (everything explained below) can cause your device to become bricked, leaving it as functional as a paperweight.

Installing Your Custom ROM

Once you’ve found a custom ROM that’s right for you, you’ll need to go through the process of installing it correctly. It’s important to research the instructions for your device as they can vary from device to device. The general process is the same across devices, so this should give you a good idea of what you’ll need to do.

Replacing The Recovery

The process of flashing a custom ROM onto your device is usually a two-step process. The first step is to flash a different recovery called ClockworkMod Recovery onto your device. The recovery is somewhat like a BIOS found on a computer as it lets you perform administrative tasks on the device without having Android loaded in memory. You’ll need to change the recovery so that you can flash a different ROM much more easily.
The methods of doing so vary, so it’s important to read the provided instructions. Sometimes you’ll use something called fastboot to load the recovery onto your phone, while other times you’ll use a tool called Heimdall. However, in my opinion, installing the new recovery is the hardest part. Once you’re past this step you’ll have an easier time.

Flashing The ROM

The next step is to actually flash the custom ROM onto your device. Once the .zip file for the ROM is downloaded from the Internet and uploaded onto your phone’s storage via USB cable, you’ll need to turn off your phone and then turn it on to boot into the recovery. Booting into recovery takes a different button combination than just the Power button, and this varies among devices as well. To cover all devices, you’ll probably be fine if you simply hold all the physical buttons on your phone while pressing the Power button, such as Power + Volume Down (and Up just to be sure) + Home (if it’s a physical button).
Once the recovery has loaded, you’ll need to navigate its menus to wipe the phone and then flash the .zip file onto the device. For ClockworkMod Recovery, the correct options are wipe data/factory reset and install zip from sdcard. Once this has completed, reboot the device normally and it should load your custom ROM.
If you installed a CyanogenMod custom ROM, it’s also probably a good idea to flash the Google Apps package after flashing the ROM in order to be able to use the Play Store. These are kept separate for legal reasons.

Conclusion

Congratulations! If you did everything according to the provided instructions, you should be running your custom ROM without any problems. Of course, be sure to thoroughly read any attached instructions, and only use this article as a general guideline for what you can expect during the process. However, you should be fine as long as you’re cautious and you’re confident in what you’re doing.
Have you installed a custom ROM on an Android device? What is something people new to ROM flashing should be aware of? Let us know in the comments!