Love it or hate it, the iPhone 5 is making headlines everywhere. One of the numerous praises and gripes users and reviewers had to do with the hardware changes. Its charging cable had a major makeover, and iPhone users now need to swap micro-SIM cards with nano-SIM cards. The iPhone 5 itself is now taller but thinner and hence lighter, in spite of its beautiful 4-inch display.

And I bet you would want to keep the beauty alive for as long as you can (at least until the next iPhone comes out) and how better to do it than with stylish sleeves, cases and protective accessories made only for the iPhone 5.

Here are 40 iPhone 5 cases, in fabric, leather, plastic and even aluminium that you can get your hands on.

Mujjo iPhone 5 Sleeve Brown [$45.48]

Mujjo iPhone 5 Wallet Brown [$38.97]

DODOcase Durables iPhone 5 Wallet [$49.95]

Marco Premium Pouch [$34.99]

Dapper Sleeve for iPhone 5 [$75.00]

FabShell for iPhone 5 [$34.95]

Zagg Skins [$19.99]

Grove Case for iPhone 5 [$59.00]

iPhone 5 Defender Series Case [$49.95]

Xing for iPhone 5 [$30.00]

Bubbles for iPhone 5 [$30.00]

Madison Quilted Case for iPhone 5 [$70.00]

KaZoo for iPhone 5 [$24.99]

Animal Parade Case Series for iPhone 5 [$19.99]

Moxy Case Series for iPhone 5 [$29.99]

UrbanShield Aluminium Case iPhone 5 [$24.99]

Crystal Clear Ergonomic Case iPhone 5 [$18.99]

Glow-In-The-Dark Case for iPhone 5 [$19.99]

iPhone 5 FREQUENCY Semi-Rigid Soft Shell Case [$24.99]

iPhone 5 CODE Hard Shell Case with Silicone Core [$34.99]

3-D Designer Cases for iPhone 5 [$34.99 - $39.99]

Flex Case for iPhone 5 [$19.99]

Shield Pastels Case for iPhone 5 [$29.99]

Pop! Case with Stand [$35.00]

SmartFlex Card for iPhone 5 [$34.95]

Police Phone Call Box iPhone 5 Cases [$39.95 - $44.95]

iPhone 5 Glow Series [$24.95]

iPhone 5 Carbon Fiber Series [$19.95]

PixelSkin HD for iPhone 5 [$29.95]

STM Arvo for iPhone 5 [$39.99]

View Case for iPhone 5 [$19.99]

Shield Blooms Case for iPhone 5 [$29.99]

iPhone 5 Metal Series [$19.95]

iPhone 5 Wood Series [$19.95]

Lambskin Leather Case Brown for iPhone 5 [$19.99]

Luxe Lean Case for Apple iPhone 5 [$24.99]

Luxe Original Case for Apple iPhone 5 [$29.99]

Ease-Fit Plus Armband for iPhone 5 [$29.99]

Apple iPhone 5 Screen Protector [$49.99]

ClearCal Protector Film for iPhone 5 [$12.95]

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2. iPhone Photography: Beautiful Photos Taken With iPhone 4
3. 10 Useful Apps to Recover a Lost or Stolen iPhone
4. How to Quickly Turn iPhone AssistiveTouch Icon On/Off

Whether writing is your business or you need to write for your business, the bottom line is the same: you need to write well to effectively communicate your message. If you’re maintaining a business blog, writing web copy or even tweeting, you need to know how to write well – and to write well you need to practice the craft.

Now just as there’s popular blogging, social networking and freelancing advice that don’t always work, there is also popular writing advice that might not work for you. If you’re looking to become a better writer, you’re going to come across these popular writing advices.

Recommended Reading: Useful Tips and Guidelines to Freelance Writing

Write every day

Writers swear by this piece of advice. They say it improves their skills and helps them avoid writer’s block. Even Stephen King writes 4 hours every morning without fail.

But here’s the thing, unless you’re a writer by profession and earn money through your words, having to write every day is unrealistic. You have a business to run and it is just not possible to write every day for the sole purpose of getting good at it.

(Image Source: Fotolia)

Even if you do it, I can guarantee that you’ll be thinking about the 101 other things that need your attention and will have a hard time focusing.

Another reason this advice doesn’t work is because writing every day doesn’t improve skills as much as we’d like to think. Think about it, you’re writing every day but what if it’s not your writing but your grammar that’s weak? You’ll continue to write grammatically incorrect stuff every single day.

How to make it work for you

Identify the problem with your writing. Is it grammar, writing structure or not knowing a particular style of writing? Instead of writing every day, learn what you need to and practice it in your daily communication.

If it’s just a case of getting in the habit of writing and improving the flow of your work, then focus on all the writing you do during the day. Emails, Facebook and Twitter updates, blog comments, forum and blog posts etc are all areas you can practice on.

You’re probably writing on these mediums any way; treat them as your writing exercise.

Write like you talk

This sounds like brilliant advice until you realize that writing like you talk is actually unintentionally bad advice. Confused? Most of us ‘Hmm’ and ‘Um’ a lot in our speech. We also tend to repeat ourselves a lot, trying to get our point across. Then there are our pet phrases, things that we say a lot, a whole lot. All of these are murder for the written word.

(Image Source: Fotolia)

The other reason this advice doesn’t work is this: How many of us effectively communicate verbally anyway?

When you’re speaking, you have plenty of ways you can say the same thing to convince the listener. But you only have one shot of making a connection with your prospective clients and audience with your writing. You can’t afford to screw it up.

How to make it work for you

The key idea to take away from this advice is that your writing needs to ‘sound’ like you talk. It should have your personality. One simple way to do it is to listen to yourself talk. Pay attention to what you’re saying. Listen to your own voice. You can even record yourself talking and play it back to see what words and phrases you use most. Is your tone casual or formal?

Once you know how you sound like when you are talking, it gets easier to translate that into our writing. Instead of saying ‘Get what I mean?’ after every couple of sentences, you can simply write that phrase at a point in your writing where it’ll make the most impact.

Get what I mean?

Write like no one’s going to read it

I’ve always felt that this advice originally came from a die-hard bathroom singer. And just as bathroom singing is usually code for off-key singing, it is the same for writing too. Writing like no one’s going to read it puts no accountability on the writer.

(Image Source: Fotolia)

If no one’s going to read it, who are you writing for? It’s so easy to get off topic or lose sight of the reason you were writing when you think no one’s going to read it. So now, instead of your writing being on point and structured you’ve given yourself the liberty to take your writing where your thoughts take you.

How to make it work for you

There’s no denying that when implemented right, this is powerful advice. Here’s my amendment to it: Write like no one’s going to read it but edit with your dream client in mind. The thought that you’ll be editing this piece later is all the accountability you need.

Even as you give yourself permission to write like no one’s going read it, you subconsciously think, ‘Hey, I’ll be editing it so I better stay as true to the topic where possible to avoid extensive edits.

Write what you know

If writing what you know is all that it took to write well, your business website copy would have been converting into sales like hot cakes. Unfortunately knowing your subject is no guarantee to writing well. You may know the ins and outs of your product or service but are you communicating them effectively?

(Image Source: Fotolia)

How to make it work for you:

You’ve probably heard copywriters say that in order for a copy to convert, you need to talk about benefits instead of features. Is your product or service going to save them time? Will it ease their pain or suffering? How will it make their life easier?

If you don’t know the answer to these, list down your features in one column and then think about how each feature improves the life of your audience/reader/client. Think about how your writing will make your audience feel and write accordingly.

Avoid jargon and foreign phrases

Writers are advised to avoid using jargon and foreign phrases on the assumption that not everyone knows what they mean and you risk sounding like a snob. That’s true, but if you write in too simple a language, you risk making your reader feel like a 5 year old. And let’s be honest, sometimes saying ‘Cest la vie’ is a lot more effective than ‘That’s life’.

(Image Source: Valeria Petrone)

How to make it work for you

Know your audience. If you’re writing for industry experts, then there’s no harm in using jargon. If you want to avoid alienating some readers, add a little explanation of the word in parentheses the first time you use it. The same goes for foreign phrases.

If you’re writing for an audience based on their geography then by all means use a few common words and phrases from their language. It will help make a connection with them.

Reflection

When acting on writing advice, make sure it is working for you. Otherwise you’ll be wasting precious time and energy, not to mention having to deal with the frustration!

At the end of the day, it’s not about what type of writing helps boost your website or blog. It’s about what type of writing works for you. Ever tried writing advice that didn’t work for you?

Related posts:

1. Popular (but bad) Blogging Advice You Should Ignore
2. Popular (but bad) Social Networking Advice You Should Ignore
3. Popular (but bad) Freelancing Advice You Should Ignore
4. Useful Tips and Guidelines to Freelance Writing

If you are not satisfied with the weak funtionality of WordPress’s native search function, here’s an alternative solution. You can use the Custom Search Engine provided by Google itself on your WordPress-based website.

With Google’s search engine features, your site visitors will have a better experience while making searches. You can use CSE in sidebar/footer or on a whole page. This tutorial will guide you on how to easily implement Google CSE on your WordPress website.

Creating your custom Search

Signing up for CSE is as easy as signing up for an email account. You need to enter some details defining your search engine and CSE will be ready. Here are the steps required.

At the Google Custom Search page, click on the Create a Custom Search Engine button. You’ll be redirected to the CSE login page (if you’re not already logged in). Enter your Google account’s credentials and hit the Sign in button. If you don’t have a Google account, then it’s time to create one!

Enter your search engine details: Name, Description, Language and Sites to search. You must list all the sites in the Sites to search box to set the parameters for your custom search engine to crawl and give results from.

Choose your edition of CSE (the Standard edition costs nothing but Site Search is available at $100/year) then agree to the Terms of Service before clicking Next. At the Try it Out (design) page, click at ‘Look and feel‘, written in first line of the page.

At the Layout page, choose a layout for the CSE on the site. Hit the Save & Get Code… button. Keep this Get Code page opened in your browser. Check below on how to implement CSE in various layouts on your WordPress site.

Implementing Templates

We’ll be using WordPress page templates to implement CSE in some layouts. You’ll need this template to implement CSE on yoru site. WordPress templates are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress pages to show dynamic or programmed content.

Here is a quick way to create a template for your CSE. On a notepad or text editor, paste this code below; note that a single spacing out of place may render the code useless. Save the file as page-template-cse.php on your computer.

  <?php  /**   * Template Name: Google CSE  */    global $theme; get_header(); ?>        <div id="main">                <?php $theme->hook('main_before'); ?>            <div id="content">                            <?php $theme->hook('content_before'); ?>    		/* Paste your CSE-Bar-code below this line. */                 /* Paste your CSE-Bar-code above this line. */                 /* Paste your CSE-Results-code below this line. */                 /* Paste your CSE-Results-code above this line. */                <?php $theme->hook('content_after'); ?>                    </div>                <?php get_sidebars(); ?>                    <?php $theme->hook('main_after'); ?>                </div>        <?php get_footer(); ?>  

Implementing Google CSE on your site

Full-width

Open page-template-cse.php and paste the copied content into where it’s written to paste the CSE-Bar-code. Save the file. Upload the file on your website’s WordPress installation directory via the File Manager of your hosting account.

Login to your website’s dashboard and create a new page. Enter other details like Page Name and/or SEO Options, but nothing in the page body.

Look for the Template option (right side). Choose Google CSE from the dropdown menu. Save or Publish the page.

Compact / Results Only / Google-hosted

Copy the deciding Google Search Element code from the Get Code page. Login to your website’s dashboard and go to Appearance > Widgets. Select Text widget and drag it to the Sidebar or Footer, wherever you want to position it. Paste the copied content in the text widget and click Save.

Two page

Specify the url where your CSE’s search results will appear on your site. Once you specify this page name or slug, you must use the same slug while creating the page. Its format should be http://<your-site-name>/<page-name or slug>.

Copy the CSE-Bar-code from the Get Code page. Login to your website’s dashboard and go to Appearance > Widgets. Select Text widget and drag it to the Sidebar or Footer, wherever you want to position it. Paste the copied content in the text widget and click Save. Copy the CSE-Results-code from the Get Code page.

Open the template you saved as page-template-cse.php and paste the copied content where it’s written to paste the CSE-Results-Code. Save and upload the file. Login to your website’s dashboard and create a new page. Enter other details like Page Name and/or SEO options.

Keep its slug the same as what you entered in the page URL box but don’t enter anything in page body. Look for the Template option at right side. Choose Google CSE from dropdown menu. Save/Publish the page.

Conclusion

Google CSE is a good tool to enhance your site. Visitors will get better search results. Moreover, you can monetize your site results using Google Adsense. Hope this tutorial was helpful and that you were easily able to implement Google CSE on your WordPress website. If you get any problems, let me know in the comments.

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1. 5 Steps to More Accurate and Efficient Google Search
2. How to Find Your Previous Google Search Queries [Quicktip]
3. Enable Facebook Like Button In Google Search Result Page [Quicktip]
4. 10 (More) Awesome Things Google Search Can Do For You