The Importance of Backlinks

Some useful information on Backlinks.

If you’ve done any research on search engine optimization, you would have in all probabilities come across the term backlink. Backlinks are hyperlinks found in other sites that point to your website. Google and other search engines use these links to determine the importance of your website. Let’s, for example, consider the search term “click here”. If you perform this search on Google, you’ll find that Adobe Acrobat Reader’s website is listed first in the hierarchical order of listing. How can this be possible? Let’s see below.
If you open Adobe Reader’s site and search for the term “click here”, it’s unlikely that you’ll find it. The reason then why search engines think this is most relevant site is owing to the fact that websites all over the planet point a backlink to this site with the anchor text “click here”. The anchor text is the wording that the user sees over a hyperlink. With millions of websites pointing to Acrobat Reader for this keyword (search term), search engines rank Adobe Reader’s site incredibly highly for this keyword.
Good Quality Backlinks
The above example would have illustrated to you the importance of backlinks. However, there can be significant differences in the qualities of backlinks. Backlinks that come from pages that Google considers important (those with a high page rank) are more important than those that Google doesn’t consider important. If you could get a backlink from the BBC website or Wiki, that would be a great quality backlink.
Getting lots of backlinks is probably a good idea too, but the general consensus is that a combination of high quality and high quantity works best.

If a backlink points at a website that is relevant to the site it comes from, it would make it a better backlink. A dog owner’s website pointing at a pet website is probably okay, but a building company’s website pointing at a computer manufacturing website is not.
Creating backlinks
Backlinks can be created online in a number of places. You could reply to threads on forums, write articles or write blogs. All these methods allow you to place backlinks in your signature at the end of your post, thus creating backlinks. If you are serious about ranking, well, you must not ignore backlinks in Google and other search engines.

How to Get Backlinks to Your Blog

The more backlinks you get, the more traffic you will have to your blog.
One of the most effective techniques of improving your blog’s ranking in the search engines is to get backlinks. A backlink is just an incoming link to your website or blog from another one. The more backlinks you get, the more traffic you will have to your blog or website, and a better and higher search engine ranking
. Here are a few simple steps to get backlinks and visitors to a blog.

1. Create an Squidoo lens and place a link back to your blog. Squidoo lens frequently rank high in Google and other search engines.

2. Write articles and include a link to your blog in the resource area. There are lots of article directories you can choose from, simply don’t use the same content in all of them. Modify the title a bit and some of the content.

3. Write on Hubpages and again, link back to your blog.

4. Take part in network marketing forums, where you can include your blog link in your signature line.

5. Betternetworker is one more site that is ranking high in Google. Register as a member and add good content and you will get more traffic to your blog.

6. Visit other blogs in your niche and give comments. Just be sure to include a couple of sentences and don’t just write “nice blog” or “good blog” but make a comment that shows you really read what the blogger had to say. Then you are more likely to get a visit back.
All these techniques can result in visits back to your blog, which will give you backlinks, and help you, rank higher in Google and other search engine. This will result in more traffic to your blog, but more importantly, it will be traffic that is targeted to network marketing.

Guidelines to Blogging: Some Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging

Basic guidelines and some points to remember while blogging.

Some basic and essential guidelines on blogging, if you make use of a service blogger.com they have their particular terms and conditions for adding contents. You can’t just post anything, so always read the terms and conditions of any blogging site. If you don’t follow their set of rules, your blog will certainly get removed.

What are the DOs and DON’Ts of blogging?

First the DOs:

• Do place images and multimedia sources to improve the content. Might be a vlog, photoblog, etc.
• Do base your posts with an excellent category structure to make it simple and easy to find content for a specific topic.
• Do build mutual channel of communication between you and your readers. Reply to queries without leaving your readers hanging for a response.
• Do make your content or article as simple as possible and easy to understand. Write like you are talking to a friend.
• Do respect and value your reader’s opinions. That’s the real meaning of being a blogger. Accept truths.
• Do update the blog regularly. If you make blogging a part of your life, add new content as often as possible.

Second the DON’Ts:

• Don’t go against your host’s legal limitations. Follow their terms and conditions.
• Don’t forget about the quality of your content. Be accurate with posting information.
• Don’t reproduce the works of others. They might take legal action against you for copying their work. Produce something unique and original.
• Don’t worry to advertise. It’s one technique to make your blog popular among the masses. Go to other websites and submit your blog address. It’s a matter of mutual sharing.
• Don’t attack individuals or fellow bloggers. Show respect. If you don’t agree with an opinion, inform it with caution.

Most Websites like Yahoo and Blogger.com publish their guidelines on blogging. Follow particular rules and policies. Libelous resources could cause you some troubles, so better follow the rules and guidelines.

Get Top Rank in Google: How to Proceed?

Did you know?
When your website at present is listed by Google additional submission cannot speed up matters. If you are trying to find the page where you have to submit your website, just search for ‘Google submit’ in Google. It is reasonable that their page would rank on top of the list but you could try several other ways for them to make a decision on your website. Here are some methods that you can make use of.

Online Directories

A unique technique to get Google to detect your website is through links from websites, which are broadly crawled. Using online directories could be the top and fastest way though. Google has the routine of analyzing top-level directories on a regular basis and when any website has links from these, the website also gets noticed faster.
The option is between free and paid subscription directories and you have to pick and choose your choice depending on the money available. business directories, which also have similar interest areas, as yours are good since Google is always, keen to find links between the two, when indexing your website. The area of operation between your website and the business directory should be common.

Submit to Open Directory or Dmoz

The sure shot method to find top rankings with Google is to get listed with Dmoz, also known as an Open Directory. This is however not the immediate way to get Google detect your website. Dmoz may take weeks or months to register your website. This is because a category editor individually evaluates every website that is submitted and it all matters where in the line your website is located.

If you do plan to submit to Dmoz make clear in your mind that you read the submission guidelines very carefully and act in accordance with what they ask.

Article Submission Websites

There is yet one more way to get observed by Google and that is through submitting articles to article submission websites. Most of the reputed article submission websites allow you to add a box known as ‘Author Resource’ or ‘About the Author’. This is the place where you can add the link of your website.

One of the biggest advantages of writing valuable articles is that other websites can use them in their sites. It is compulsory for them to add the resource box so that you can access a free link to your website. That is an additional opportunity to get noticed by Google and if your articles were in line with your line of business, you would get lots of traffic to your website. Thus, you could submit to Google directly but never ignore the options of online directories or article writing, which could assure you of getting better chances to get noticed.

How to Promote Articles, Blogs or Websites

Here are some great techniques to promote your articles, blogs and website.

Post more than one content

Start your article, blog or website with more than one content. And also make your content to be linked each other. Good idea if you post three content for first launch of your blog or website.

Add your Article, Blog or Website URL to the search engine

Submit your article, blog or website URL to various search engines. For example, to add your URL to Google go to the add URL page of google.

Put your post to social bookmark Websites

Some of the best social networking websites are stumbleupon, mix, reditt, digg, facebook, twitter, Delicious etc.

Submit your URL to some pinging Websites

Some of the best pinging websites that I like most are pingler, pingoat, pingomatic, articlepinger etc.

Make a comment

Give comments to another articles or blogs, especially blog that have fastest indexed in search engine.

Do these simple steps and see the results within 8-10 days.

How to Get Traffic to Your Website Through Search Engine

Some great technical tips to get traffic to your website.

Introduction

Traffic that is driven to your website from search engines is known as organic traffic. The traffic from search engines is what actually matters as it buys your products and if you are advertising ads, they will click your ads. Search engine traffic is what actually pays your bills. Digg and other such social networking sites can send thousands of traffic to your website but they won’t buy the product you are selling, nor will they click your ads. So here in this article I will discuss regarding organic traffic. I will tell you how you can get massive traffic to your website through search engines.

Make sure that your website is crawler-friendly

There should be a good quality network of inbound links on your website. Make sure that search engine crawlers or bots has access to every single page from more than one source.

Submit Sitemap to search engines

Even though submitting a sitemap to search engines has lost its importance over the past few years, but because Google and other various search engines tell you to submit sitemap to them so that they can crawl your website more frequently and easily, then there is no harm in it.

Work out on Title and other Meta tags wisely

Most of the people tend to ignore this one. While browsing the web I have come across many websites where Meta and Title tags have been wasted by either keyword filling in them or ignoring the keyword thing at all. Not only the new websites, but the older ones are also guilty of this.

Choose your Title cleverly. The words contained in your title must be used at least once in the body of your page. No need to use them again and again. Don’t write very long Meta descriptions. Write just the essential matter in it. Meta keywords should be the ones used in your text. Keywords in your title should also be incorporated. Never used the words that are nowhere to be seen in your page as keywords.

Use keywords as anchor text while linking internally

Instead of using “Click This Link” or “Click Here”, use keywords or title of the page as anchor text of a link. For example if the page is regarding gothic art, the anchor text of the links pointing to it should contain the term ‘gothic art’ in them.

Submit blog to blog directories and increase the traffic

This post explains how to increase your blog traffic by submitting your blog to different kinds of blog directories which rates,provide statistics about your blog and provide free traffic and maximum exposure to your blog.
Submitting your blog to these directories is a very good thing to do particularly if your blog is very new one with low traffic.
These blog directories have high pageranks than your blog(since your blog is a new one with pagerank Zero).So, if someone searches for a particular keyword,there is more possibility for the blog directory to appear in the results than yours.So,by adding your blog to these directories,the visitors enters these directories containing your articles(when they click the article,they enter your site) and also your blog posts will be indexed little faster.So,submitting your blog to these directories will gain you more traffic.
(If your blog is a new one,then put a visitors tracker button in your blog,sothat you will see how many visitors are coming from these directories,from search engines,visitors geolocation,etc).

Here are a few popular visitor tracker websites:

1.Histats(histats.com)
2.Sitemeter(sitemeter.com)
3.Statcounter(Statcounter.com)
So,let me come to the main topic...
Before submitting your blog to these blog directories,my personal suggestion is to create a new email address for this purpose so,your personal emails can't flooded with the emails from the blog directories administrators,etc.)Creating an email is free lol....creat one.

Many of these directories asks you to register before submitting blogs.
There are so many hundreds of blog directories,here is the list of very good popular directories which will send you maximum traffic.


LIST OF POPULAR BLOG DIRECTORIES:

Technorati:Technorati is the largest blog(weblog) directory currently tracking more than 112.8 million blogs.Join technorati and verify your authorship,then you will be provided with detailed statistics regarding your blog,how many blogs are linking to your blog,(they call it 'authority').It is one of the best blog directory and will send tons of triffic if your blog is regularly updated.

Topblogarea:This is another big blog directory which rates and rank the blogs interms of Unique visitors your blog gets.They start the counting from Zero every week, so that even newly submitted blog can have the chance to rank higher in the list.
Topblogging.com:This is another source of weblogs which also rank the blogs according to the unique hits they get.Nice blog resource,bring you lots of traffic to your blog.
Blogtoplist:Same here,they rank according to the unique hits you get.But,there is a little change, they will give you to place a voting button in your blog.If any visitor votes for your site from your blog,that is equal to 100 unique hits,but there is only one chance per visitor(one IP address) a day.

Fuelmyblog:This is a cool weblog resource which is different from the ones we discussed so far.You can vote to other blogs and others vote to you.They will keep the top six blogs(voted the most) on the homepage.You can join their forums, read other blogs content,joining in the compitetions and win prizes,etc.

MyBloggingarea:This is a very good weblog directory which ranks the blogs accoring to the unique visitors they get,brought me so much traffic to my celebrity blog than all the other blog directories.I recommend this.

BlogCatalog:It is another good blogging resource,you can promote your blog here for FREE,find other blogs related to yours,etc.They have a special formula to rank the blogs,the more visitors,hits,comments,neighbourhood you get the more your rank will be.Another recommended one.You can join their forums,discussion board,groups,etc with other bloggers and share your thoughts.

BloggingFusion:It is a new one and not a very big one(around 950 blogs) at this time.But,it is a good one and doing pretty well.You can increase your blog exposure, worth a link to it.

Bloghop:You can find blogs related to your blog topic here.Have a nice tracking button and currently having more than 29,000 blogs.

Blogarama:Cool weblog directory currently having more than 69,000 blogs.It will list the blogs in terms of the score your blog have.The score depends on so many things like incoming traffic,outgoing traffic,user ratings,etc. and if you send more traffic to they,they will list your blog in the top 100 blogs.

Topbloglists:Another blog directory which will rank your blog according to the unique hits your blog will get.

Myblogdirectory:This doesn't list blogs interms of any visitors,etc. All blogs are listed randomly so,every blog get the same exposure.If you sent more traffic from your blog to them,your blog will be choosen as a BLOG OF THE DAY which will be placed on the homepage and your blog will recieve the whole traffic their site gets on that day.





Blogroll.net:Another blog resouce which rank accorking to the votes and unique hits your blog get.

How to add "Email Subscription Form" to your blog(blogger,blogspot)

If are a new blogger,you may have seen an email subscrtiption form like the below one in other blogs while browsing.

It is delevered by FeedBurner.When people subscribe,they will recieve a email with your blog posts whenever your blog is updated.It is a very easy thing and make your visitors come back again and again to your blog.

So,Let's see how to add a "Email Subscription form" like that in your blog:

1.First,Sign in to your FeedBurner account.If you don't have a FeedBurner account yet,you can register it here

2.Click on the "My Feeds" link at the top of the page and next ,click on your blog name[look at the below screenshot]

3.Next,Click on the 'Publicize' tab as shown below.

4.Select the "Email Subscriptions" option[look at the left sidebar]

5.Next, you will see like this

Click on 'Activate'

6.If you look at the sidebar now,there are a few more options under the Email Subscriptions column namely Subscription Management,Communication Preferences,Email Branding and Delivery options.Edit them according to your needs.

Now,Click on the Subscription Managemant option and copy the code they provide[see the below *screenshot*]

7.Um............Finally,the last step

Sign in to your blogger dashboard>layout>add a page element>html/javascript

and paste the code and SAVE THE CHANGES.

That's it!..........too long process know? No.Very simple process to do.

how to submit blogger sitemap to google-useful tip for new bloggers

This tip explains how to generate and submit blogger sitemap to google webmaster tools:Before doing this,let me say what are sitemaps and how they will help us.The reason we use them is,they will help google bot to crawl,index pages of your site and tell you if there are any problems when they try to index it.It also helps you to know,how many pages exactly are indexed,and what people searched in the search engine to visit your site.
Let me explain the detailed procedure on how to submit your blogger sitemap to google.
1.First,go to google webmaster tools and sign in with your gmail account.
2.After you logged in, you will see this asking you to add a site.

Add your blog url(ex:kranthitips.blogspot.com).Don't add with http or www.

3.Next,it asks you to verify your site.It is just to confirm whether you are the owner or not.

CLICK on the 'verify your site' link.





Next,




4.There are two ways to verify your ownership but, there is only one way for the blogger users to add a metatag.


5.Copy the metatag.
Now,sign into your blogger account>click the layout button>Edit html and paste the metatag just after the head tag and save the changes.


and click the verify button in the google webmaster tools and there will be a confirmation message saying that you have sucessfully verified.



Now,you have to submit a sitemap for google to crawl your site.Go back to the google webmaster dashboard or (home) and click the 'Add' link which is next to your blog name and in the Sitemaps column.Then,you see this,



Choose 'Add general web sitemap' from the dropdown menu and type rss.xml or atom.xml next to your blog address as shown below

or

and click the 'Add General Web Sitemap' button.
6.That's it.Now your sitemap is successfully submitted to google.Check 2 or 3 days after and you will see the detailed statistics of your blog(indexed pages,any errors,etc.)
If you have any questions regarding this,you can ask here via your comments

 

 

Submit blogger sitemap to yahoo to index your web pages

This post explains how to submit your blogger sitemap to Yahoo.By submitting your sitemap to yahoo, they will index your web pages in yahoo search engine and provide you with detailed information related to your blog like which pages are linking to yours,popular pages in your site and you can submit and track feeds for your sites.
Also,you have the choice to delete any urls of your blog if you won't want to index certain pages of your site.
Submitting your site to yahoo is easy and give your web pages more exposure.
All you need is a YAHOO ACCOUNT(ID).However,you don't need an yahoo ID to know the information like how many pages are indexed,etc.But,if your blog is a new one or no pages in your blog are indexed(type your blog url in yahoo search and see to check whether your web pages are indexed or not), then you want Yahoo id to submit your sites,feeds,etc.
Let't see how to make yahoo index your webpages by submitting your blog sitemap.
1.Go to Yahoo Site Explorer


2.Click on the 'Sign in' link which is at the top of the page,see the screenshot below(If you don't have a Yahoo id, you can get one here) and sign into your accoutnt.



3.Type your blog url in the box provided as shown in the below screenshot.Don't forget to replace the 'yourblogurl' with the original url of your blog and click on the 'Add My Site'
4.After adding your site,you need to Authenticate(Verify your ownership).
There are two ways to verify your ownership.One is to upload a file to the root directory of your site which can't be possible in blogger.
Another one is to 'adding a metatag' which is possible and the only way to verify ownership for bloggers.First,copy the metatag..
Next,sign in to your blogger account>Edit html and paste the metatag below the head tag and SAVE THE CHANGES,look at the screenshot below.
Next,you will get a message saying that 'Your site is pending authentication'
Note:Don't remove the metatag,they will revalidate your ownership by checking your ownership regularly.
5.Next,go back to the 'Site explorer home', and check the box next to your blog url and click on the Manage button.


6.Type rss.xml or atom.xml in the box provided.It helps yahoo to discover more of your site content via your rss or atom feeds and to index your blog pages quickly whenever your blog is updated.Next,click on the add feed button.


That's it.Now,you have sucessfully submitted your blog sitemap to yahoo.Check your account after a couple of days and you will see your blog indexed in yahoo search engine.

How To Get Increasing Website Traffic For Free By Building A List

Here are the 5 strategies to build a list and get increasing website traffic for free.

#1 - Give away freebies

As a start, you can give away some freebies like free ebook or report to build the relationship with your visitors. Though these are supposed to be given for free, you must still make sure that the freebies are of quality and bring value to your visitors. Remember to include your URL link in the freebies. To create a viral effect, you can allow readers to brand the ebook with their own name and email address and encourage them to pass it around. That will get you increasing website traffic for free indirectly.

#2 - Promote your link using joint-venture strategy

You can also have a joint-venture with other webmasters. For e.g., you can include your website link in other people's newsletter for them to promote for you. In return, you include their website in your newsletters. That will certainly help you to get increasing website traffic as your website now has greater exposure.

#3 - Use pop ups

You can use pop ups to encourage visitors to sign up for your website before they leave your site. While pop up can be irritating at times, if you know how to use it correctly and prudently, it can increase your list tremendously and bring you loads of free targeted and increasing website traffic.

#4 - Write articles

You can get an increasing website traffic for free by writing and submitting articles to article directories. You can also submit your article to website owners who accept article submissions. Put your name and website link at the end of the article to drive traffic to your site. Visitors who come to your website after reading your articles will be highly potential and valuable customers.

#5 - Expand your existing list

Don't forget what your existing subscribers can do to get you increasing website traffic. There must be a reason why your existing subscribers become and stay as your subscribers. They should have seen value in your product/services. So, leverage on them. Have a referral program to encourage your subscribers to promote your website to their friends and family. Where possible, offer them some incentives like free gift to thank them for their referrals.

So, who says its impossible to build a list and get increasing website traffic for free? Follow the 5 strategies above consistently and you'll soon get a major leap in your web traffic volume.

Get More Clicks in your ads

If you want to get more clicks in your ads then  there are some simple tricks for you. This tricks works. It increases my click at the rate of 2%. :) this is also somehow good for me.


I tried to make the link of the ads as similar as the other links in the blog. The other links in my blog are in the #B60606 color so i tried to make the link of the ads also in the same color.

 

I also have another trick for you. you have to follow the below instructions for that

1. Goto adsense.com and get a new ads code in the size 300 x 250 .

2. Copy the code and paste it in the HTML/Javascript in the Blogger.com → Layout tab.

3. Now you have to alter a little thing in the code..

      Just change the ads size 250 to 228 in the code given by the adsense.com

 

By this change in the code changes the ads like this :

 

It removes the Ads by Google sign. so the visitors click in the ads :)

This tricks sounds funny but it works.

Check it out :)

Photoshop toolbox detail

Photoshop Mistake

Common Photoshop Mistakes
This article was created to raise awareness and educate new Photoshop users and designers, not to make fun of or mock the one’s who use the below techniques and practices. Below is a list of common mistakes, misuses and various ways new users abuse Photoshop. We hope this article helps educate designers and other individuals new to Photoshop. We encourage all of you to add your own mistakes or tips in the comment section below.
Improper extraction methods
Many new and unexperienced Photoshop users depend on the magic wand, quick select or lasso tool to extract backgrounds or objects in an image. Photoshop’s “easy” selection and extraction methods have come a long way, but it still doesn’t compare to the precision you get with the pen tool. The pen tool can be quite tricky to new users, but once mastered you will wonder how you ever used any other method. Other great methods of quick masking or extraction can also be used. Just don’t use the eraser tool! Adding a slight feather to your extractions helps improve the appearance of your images.
Setting body copy
Photoshop can be used to create fantastic text effects, but that doesn’t mean you should use it for large areas on text — especially for body copy. That’s what InDesign, Quark or even, Illustrator is for.Your text will not print as clear and sharp in a raster-based program like Photoshop. Stick with vector-based programs for large amounts of copy.
Using rainbow gradients
You know you’ve seen them a million times, and every time they get more jarring to look at. Just say no to rainbow gradients! (Caution: Grip your arm chair before clicking the link to the left!) Now that doesn’t mean you should stay clear of gradients all together.  We’ve seen plenty of designs and websites as of late using tactful gradients. Try blending the gradients from a lighter shade to a darker shade of the same color, instead of blending 2 or more disconnecting colors.
Assuming K=100 is Black
Many new designers thought that setting K in CMYK to 100 would result in black. This is not the case… instead, it results in a dark grey.Although you can get away with setting your K to 100 for black text, large areas of black should be set to ‘Rich Black’. Try using C=90 M=60 Y=30 K=100 — it will produce a much richer and noticeable black.
Overusing and abusing filters
We shouldn’t have to go into too much detail with this one, but we remember being obsessed with filters when we first experienced Photoshop. Even though they’re “fun and easy” doesn’t mean they make you look professional and experienced. Overusing and misusing filters can easily make you look like an amateur.
Creating logos in Photoshop
Though this one can be argued, you should create logos in vector-based programs, like Illustrator, as much as possible. Vectors are easily scalable and retain consistent clarity no matter how large or small you scale them.

Working under 300dpi in print
Many new users fall into the trap of working in 72 dpi (dots per inch). While this is true for the web, it should not be used when printing. Typically 300 dpi is best for print, but you should always check with your printer. Also, when working with images that are 72 dpi in print, don’t assume you can just increase the resolution or size of the image and everything will be fixed. The image will appear pixelated and of lower resolution once printed.
Not learning shortcuts
No matter which program you are working in, learning shortcuts is a must. Not only will it increase your workflow by saving valuable time, but many of the tools require additional keys for added functionality. You can even create your own in Photoshop by selecting ‘Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts…’
Not using layers and folders
Everything in Photoshop revolves around layers. We’ve seen many new Photoshop users neglect using little to no layers, only to regret it later. They make it much easier to edit, move, duplicate, delete, etc. Also, naming your layers and structuring them into folders is essential, especially when dealing with large PSDs or if you’re a web designer. It will help you navigate around your project, save time and reduce headaches.
‘Desaturate’ to convert images to Black & White
This one is often over looked, even by experienced designers. Choosing Image > Adjustments > Desaturate for converting your image to black and white, often produces a flat, “lifeless” photograph. Try converting by choosing ‘Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer’. Check off ‘Monochrome’ and then adjusting the Red, Green and Blue channel sliders — this produces a much richer image.
Beveled, embossed and drop shadows
Similar to rainbow gradients and abusing filters, beveled and/or embossed text can be labeled as unexperienced. Unless you have a valid reason, stay clear of these or use sparingly. Drop shadows should also be treated properly and with care. When applying a drop shadow, make certain to pay attention to other lighting in the image. You don’t want drop shadows coming from all directions causing an image to appear unbelievable or fake. Also, adjusting or toning down drop shadows is important as well. They should be subtle and soft, not dramatic and harsh.
Not taking advantage of guides and grids
You wouldn’t believe how many designers “eye” things up instead of pulling out guides or using the grid in Photoshop. They’re there for a reason… use them.

Photoshop Shortcuts

Useful Photoshop Shortcuts
Keyboard commands, or shortcuts, are simply a way to bypass a few mouse clicks when doing tool changes or tool property adjustments. They’re a little awkward and cumbersome at first, but once you pick up a couple of commands on the keyboard you’ll never go back. The whole idea is that while one hand is running the mouse, the other hand might as well be doing something too. This method of working with Photoshop can really decrease your time spent on the computer and give you more time to get behind the camera.
The following are our most commonly used shortcuts, broken out into three groups: simple, intermediate, and advanced. The simple commands are pretty easy to pull off, and they’re heavily used. The advanced commands take a little coordination, and we don’t use them quite as often. The intermediate commands are somewhere between the two. Again, these are our most used Photoshop shortcuts. We are also only showing the commands on a PC (sorry Mac users). So if you want to learn more about this topic, read to the bottom of the article for additional resources.
Simple Photoshop Shortcut Commands
* H (Hand Tool) — When zoomed in to a portion of your photo, this command brings up the hand tool which allows for quick panning. Also, if the hand tool is active and you hold down the Ctrl key, you can zoom in without changing to the zoom tool. Likewise, if you hold down the Alt key, you can zoom out without changing tools.
* Z (Zoom Tool) — This command just brings up the zoom tool, which allows you to zoom in. Like with the hand tool, if you hold down the Alt key, it temporarily switches to the zoom out mode.
* Ctrl + 0 (Fit on Screen) — This is a quick-and-dirty command to get the entire photo in front of your eyes. That’s Ctrl + zero, not the letter “O”.
* B (Brush Tool) — The brush is an extremely useful tool when working with masks, and we are constantly using this command along with the hand and zoom tools.
* Ctrl + Z (Undo) — Very useful for the little mistakes we all make.
* Tab (Hide/Show Palettes) — Hiding the palettes gives you a little more working room, thus decreasing your need to pan and zoom while editing.
* F (Cycle Screen Modes) — Switch between normal screen, full screen with task bar without title bar, and full screen with black background. Works great when used in conjunction with Tab to hide toolbars — maximum working space, no distractions.
* X (Switch Colors) — Swap your foreground and background colors. Very handy when working with masks.
* D (Default Colors) — Reset your foreground and background colors to black and white, respectively.
* Ctrl + ‘+’/’-’ (Zoom In/Out) — Quickly zoom in or out without changing your current tool.
* Alt + Mouse Scroll (Zoom In/Out) — Fastest way to zoom — scroll up to zoom in, and scroll down to zoom out.
* Ctrl + Alt + Z (Step Back) — Ctrl + Z is OK if you catch a mistake immediately after it happens, but this command will continue to march its way up the history tree.
* Ctrl + S (Save) — You should get in the habit of just hitting this combo on impulse about every 5 to 10 minutes. Also use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S to bring up the save for web dialog.* Ctrl + Alt + * Shift + N (New Layer No Dialog) — Quickly insert a new empty layer on top of the active layer. Get rid of the Alt key to bring up the new layer dialog for more options.
Intermediate Photoshop Shortcut Commands
* [ (Decrease Brush Size) — Quickly decrease your brush size to get into those tighter spots.
* ] (Increase Brush Size) — Quickly increase your brush size for the larger areas.
* Shift + [ (Decrease Brush Softness) — Decrease the softness of the brush by 25%.
* Shift + ] (Increase Brush Softness) — Increase the softness of the brush by 25%.
* 1->0 (Tool Opacity) — We usually run my brush opacity around 5% or 10%, but some things require a bit more opacity. Just press one of the numbers from 1 to 0 and your tool opacity will change from 10% up to 100%. If you want finer control, press a second number quickly after the first, and you can get any percentage you want. So pressing 4 will get you 40% opacity, while pressing 4 then 3 will give you 43% opacity.
* Shift + 1->0 (Tool Flow) — This works exactly like the opacity changer, but you just have to hold the Shift key down while you hit the numbers.
* Ctrl + Tab (Next Point on Curves Adjustment) — When using the curves adjustment dialog, you can place multiple points on the curve and adjust them accordingly. Sometimes you want to make very minor shifts in those points by nudging with the keyboard, but clicking on the point to activate it usually moves it to an undesired location. Use this command to switch focus from point to point without moving them around.
* Shift + Click Mask (Enable/Disable Layer Mask) — When working with masks it’s typically done in small increments. Disabling the mask allows you to check the results of your masking against the original.
* Alt + Click Mask (Toggle Mask Visibility) — Doing this will bring up the mask as a grayscale image so you can see what you’re working with. Useful if you have areas that need to be filled in or smoothed out.
* Ctrl + Click Mask (Load Mask As Selection) — Selects the white part of the mask (grays are partially selected). Useful if you want to duplicate a mask or it’s inverse. Using Ctrl + Click on a layer without a mask will select the non-transparent pixels in that layer.
* Ctrl + J (New Layer Via Copy) — Can be used to duplicate the active layer into a new layer. If a selection is made, this command will only copy the selected area into the new layer.
* Caps Lock (Toggle Cross Hairs) — Switch between the standard tool icon and a set of precision cross hairs. Useful for spot-on selections.
* Shift + Backspace (Fill Dialog) — Good time saver when working with masks. Also, use the Ctrl + Backspace to fill with background color and Alt + Backspace to fill with foreground color.
* Ctrl + H (Hide Selection Lines) — When working with selections, use this command to hide the “marching ants” while keeping the selection.
* Ctrl + I (Invert Selection) — Select the opposite of what is already selected. Also a good tool when working with mask creation.
* Ctrl + D (Deselect) — After working with your selection, use this combo to discard it.
* Side Note: When working with selections, they can be applied to a layer as a mask simply by adding a new layer mask using the little box-with-a-circle-inside icon at the bottom of the layer palette. This also works with adjustment layers by automatically applying the selection to the mask.

Advanced Photoshop Shortcut Commands
* Ctrl + Shift + N (New Layer) — This will bring up the new layer dialog box and place a new layer on top of the active layer.
* Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N (New Layer No Dialog) — This command skips the dialog box and just places a new layer on top of the active layer.
* Ctrl + Shift + C (Copy Merged) — This works basically like the copy command, except you get a merged copy of the composite image sent to the clipboard. This command only works if you’ve made a selection on the image first (use Ctrl+A to select all), otherwise you’ll get a copy of nothing. This is useful if you want to duplicate what you see on the screen into another image file or even another layer.
* Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E (Stamp Visible) — This is actually one of my favorite commands. First, We’ll create a new empty layer on top of the stack. Then we’ll select that new layer and use this command. It does basically the same thing as the copy merged command, except it places the copy right into the new layer. We use this for creating layer blends, sharpening, and any other type of editing that can’t be done non-destructively.
* Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K (Show Keyboard Commands) — If you forget any of these commands, or if you want to check on other commands, use this to bring up the help dialog on keyboard shortcuts.
* Ctrl + G (Group Layers) — This command groups selected layers in the layer tree. Adding Shift to this combo will ungroup layers when the grouped layer is selected.
* Ctrl + A (Select All) — Creates a selection around the entire canvas.
* Ctrl + T (Free Transform) — Brings up the free transform tool for resizing, rotating, and skewing the image using a dragable outline.
* Ctrl + E (Merge Layers) — Merges selected layer with the layer directly below it. If multiple layers are selected, only those will be merged.
* Crtl + Shift + E (Merge Visible) — Merges all visible layers into one. Not recommended practice in typical photo editing because you’ll lose layer information.
* Ctrl + Alt + E (Stamp Down) — Merges all selected layers into one new layer. Add the Shift modifier to this combo and you’ll get a new layer containing a merged representation of all visible layers (handy for sharpening adjustments)
* Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R (Rotate Arbitrary Dialog) — Bring up the rotate dialog to straighten out your horizon… but it’s not typically used since we all take perfect photos, right?
* Side Note: Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) has the ability to straighten photos before they ever make it into Photoshop. When straightening, you draw a line you’d like as your horizontal and ACR will take care of the rotation and crop for you.
* Ctrl + Alt + Del (Kill Photoshop) — Quite useful when Photoshop takes your computer hostage. Must have used the Ctrl + S command prior to the hostile takeover in order to prevent mental breakdown.

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