Saturday, January 31, 2009

Google Blogger For Dummies to be released in February!


Google Blogger for Dummies is due to hit bookshops on February 3rd. It's available to pre-order now from Amazon.com (priced at $16.49) and will be available in Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookshops, and also directly from Wiley.

10 Ways For Bloggers To Stand Out From The Crowd

It’s pervasive no doubt; most bloggers do things just like every other blogger out there without evaluating the reason behind their method. As with any new fad, ideas go viral until we soon see every blogger and his buddy boarding the band wagon.

Starting Your First Blog?

Are you starting your first blog? Looking for some tips and advice for new bloggers?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

BlogWell - Growing an Online Community

GasPedal and the blog council have partnered to deliver another BlogWell event (this time in Chicago) focusing on case studies from large companies on the topics of blogging, social media and online community building.

Integrate Your Blog and Twitter

Twitter - Follow Me

With all the fanfare surrounding Twitter, there are many ways to integrate Twitter even more into your blog. Here are a few tools get you started.

Blogging Discovery Platform Rewards Best Bloggers

Are you looking to make a name for yourself as a blogger, but you don’t know where to begin?

How to keep bloggers from hating you

PR firms seem to be in a rush when contacting bloggers. They’re like those people at networking functions who smile too much, hand out hundreds of business cards and sprint away if they think you might not buy their stuff.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Best 25 Financial Blogs

Here's a listing of "The 25 Best Financial Blogs." A great deal has changed. Some of the blogs on the list are gone or no longer have regular posts. Others have grown and become better.

"Unnecessary Quotation Marks"

Came across this blog and found it of interest.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Blogger;s Choice Open Web Award Winners


Over 100 Blog Partners helped make this the biggest Open Web Awards to date with over 100,000 confirmed nominations and votes so far.  Blog partners come from 25 countries and are written in 10 different languages.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Present a Consistent Brand in Your Blogging

In this video post the presenter reflects upon the one of the downsides of changing your blog’s brand and/or design.

Tactics To Make Your Blog Stand Out

What really makes an authority blog – ie, one people go to first for their information on a particular subject.

The future of blogging

Just in the last 2 years we have seen massive uptake in the creation of content by users, but most of it is now outside of the blogosphere. Status Updates on Facebook, Twitter, new levels of photo sharing and geolocation based services and networks are all becoming the centerpiece of attention.
What does the future hold for blogging?

When To Use Magazine-Style Themes For Blogs?

When designing a custom theme or deciding on an already-existing theme, bloggers have a lot of factors to consider and there is no shortage of options, particularly for WordPress users. A growing number of blogs are moving away from traditional blog layouts in favor of magazine-style themes; however, the layout and presentation of content has a major impact on visitors and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Rebel News

Monday, January 12, 2009

A new 'Glow' for AOL's blogs? Good luck


AOL has formed yet another business unit conspicuously devoid of "AOL" branding, and this one's about the blogs.

Metroblogs

Metroblogging is the world's largest network of city focused blogs, covering local issues in over 50 cities around the world.

Google offers help transplanting your blog

Google on Friday released an open-source project, Google Blog Converters, intended to help people move their blogs from one service to another. Read article here.

Blogger on the go

When you send text or photos from your mobile device to go@blogger.com they're automatically posted to your new blog.

Using  Blogger Mobile  is easy: Snap a photo and write some text on your mobile phone, send it to  go@blogger.com , and it gets posted to your mobile blog!

Get the latest Blogger updates via Twitter!

The Blogger team have (finally) decided to embrace Twitter as a means of publishing updates for Blogger users. By following the official Blogger feed on Twitter, you can now receive news of status updates, blogs of note, service interruptions and fabulous new features even sooner than before.
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Blog Buster

Blogger Buster is a resource blog for bloggers, offering hints, hacks, tips and tricks to help enhance your blogging experience. Use the label cloud and search box in the right hand sidebar of you're looking for specific information, or simply browse through my posts instead.

Chinese Bloggers Reach 50 Million

The Internet Society of China says the number of Chinese bloggers has swelled from 47 million at the end of November 2007 to more than 50 million by the end of 2008, a 6.38 percent increase.

Advantages of Running Multiple Blogs

Most bloggers will eventually face the decision of running multiple blogs or focusing on just one. Of course this is a decision that should be made carefully and there is no right or wrong answer, everyone’s situation is unique.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

TweetBacks: Track Who’s Talking About Your Blog On Twitter

Trackbacks, pingbacks, Google Alerts… There are lots of ways to find out who’s talking about your blog posts. But it’s more difficult to know if you’ve been mentioned on Twitter, where a variety of URL-shortening services disguise the final destination.

Now there’s a way you can tap into those conversations. TweetBacks, by Dan Zarrella, is a service that finds links to your blog that have been posted to Twitter via the most popular URL-shortening services. With just a bit of JavaScript you can include those mentions on your blog post just like trackbacks. Dan even has a WordPress plugin to make it easier.

TweetBacks includes several options, such as including Twitter avatars and excluding TweetBacks from certain users. The service also includes “TweetStats,” so you can display a list of your most Twittered posts.

A lot of people have moved their link blogging to Twitter, which makes it a growing source of traffic for some websites. A service that lets you tap into that community and bring the conversation back to your blog could be very popular.

Exact Factor: Track Your Blog’s Position In Search Engines For Free

Whether you own an online business or a blog, you would want to know your position in search engines for specific keywords and also the position of your competitors. This is where Exact Factor, a site that helps you to track your position and your competitors’ for free, comes into play. Read rest of article.

Exact Factor

Friday, January 09, 2009

Bloggers vs. Journalists?

In this featured episode of Science Saturday from Bloggingheads, George Johnson and John Horgan returned with new insight on the controversy provoked by their last appearance, including some negative comments directed toward ScienceBlogger Abbie from ERV.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Woman sues Google over blogger's comments

A Canadian woman has launched a lawsuit against Google Inc., demanding that the company reveal the identity of the people she says posted offensive statements about her on a blog hosted by the U.S. technology titan.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Iran on Tuesday confirmed reports that it has detained a well-known Iranian-Canadian blogger who had made trips to Israel.

Iran on confirmed reports that it has detained a well-known Iranian-Canadian blogger who had made trips to Israel.

Peter Gabriel’s YouTube for Human Rights: The Hub

Documenting human-rights violations

Peter Gabriel's human-rights group embraces social media. A YouTube for unseen atrocities.

Boing Boing Launches Videogames Blog

The Boing Boing network has added a new videogames blog to its roster by the name of Offworld.
The new blog gives ample attention to independent games but still covers the heavyweights such as World of Warcraft.

10 Ways Twitter Will Change Blog Design in 2009

In 2009, Twitter will become much more tightly integrated with the rest of the blog in a variety of ways - watch out for tweetbacks and tweetstats to make their debut, and tweet comments to TwitterRolls to start appearing on blogs. Here are 10 ways Twitter will impact blogs this year.

7 Ways To Help Get Traffic To A New Blog

In order to get new readers you need traffic! You certainly want people to talk about your brand new blog, don’t you? So here are 7 ways to get traffic to your new blog!

Friday, January 02, 2009

How Many Widgets Do You Need For Your Blog?

Other than occupying more space, uploading and using a lot of widgets may become a liability rather than a boost for most bloggers who maintain a blog using WordPress.

How To Make 2009 Your Best Blogging Year

A new year brings a new beginning. You can look at it as the same old same old, or you can look it as an opportunity to for a new start. Here’s how to make 2009 your best blogging year.

Top 25 Blogs About Blogging

The “Top 25 Blogs About Blogging” list ranks blogs according to their Google Pagerank, Alexa rank, number of Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority.

Daily Blog Tips: Best of 2008

Some popular blogging tips posted in 2008.

New Gadget Blog for NY Times

The New York Times has launched Gadgetwise. This is a gadget blog that goes head to head with the likes of Gizmodo and Engadget (first and foremost), but so far in a less quirky and introvert style.

Why Should Anyone Read Your Blog?

Technorati indexes 133 million blogs. According to their statistics, about 900,000 blog posts get made every 24 hours. Every topic, every theme, and every subject has been exhaustively covered by hundreds of blogs.

So why should anyone read yours?

Link baiting

But do you really know what link baiting is all about?

Blogcasting The Future

blogplatformsicons
Which iPhone [Blogging] apps will dominate in 2009?

30 Most Popular Blogs - December 2008

See if your favorite blog site made the list.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Spotting Trends with TrendRoll

TrendScope TrendRoll is a user gnerated directory, mapping the best blogs to spot trends.

TrendoScope, the Trends Discovery website, is powered by user content and their decision-making concerning the success of a potential trend. TrendoScope allows all users to present their observations and "cool ideas" as well as promote other ideas on the site in a range of trends related topics. By rating trends with the "will catch on" button displayed alongside every submitted trend, users provide their opinion on the likelihood of the trend to become the next big thing.