How To Increase Your Blogging Productivity

Many bloggers work with a very limited time budget. Here are some tips on making the most out of the time you have available.

Tips For Measuring Success of Your Blog (365 Days In Numbers)

Please review Avinash Kaushiks blog, where he discusses how to measure success of a blog.

Takahashi: Author Gillin offers guide to blogosphere in `New Influencers'

Paul Gillin introduces us to the impact of blogs and the new social media. If you haven't immersed yourself in blogs or started one yourself, "The New Influencers" can tell you what is popular, what type of blogs work, and what kind of impact they're having across the consumer and corporate worlds.

Designers who Blog

DWB features blogs discussing graphic design, web design, illustration, marketing, photography, branding, writing and advertising.

Hack for Blogger: Adding thumbnails in previous posts section

It's described a script, which allows to create thumbnails for Blogger posts, and how to make modifications of Blogger template to use the script.

Meebo Rooms Launched

Meebo is launching Meebo Room, a rich media chat room product that users can out on their blogs and websites. They can be private or public chat rooms, and can feature content such as YouTube and NBC. Read more here.

Blog Sites of the Month

Below are some blog sites I found of interest from the standpoint of design, content and overall layouts. Hope you find them of interest as well.

Nice Design
Veerle's Blog
French Toast

Technology
Lifehacker
Ubergizmo

Topical
Drawn!
Apartment Therapy

Politics
Daily Kos
War Room

Entertainment
Blogging Project Runway
Pitchfork

Miles Levin

From Miles Levin's big smile, you'd think he was just another happy teenager.

He nods supportively when his pals brag about their college acceptances and throws a gentle arm around a girlfriend who has ringlets of long, brown hair. But at night, this 18-year-old blogs from a world as sobering as his chalk-white skin and shiny bald head.

Writing Blogs Can Be Hard, So Get 'Help'

Blogging has been largely the domain of digital diary writers and grass roots newshounds.

People regularly go online to check their favorite blogs (short for Web logs), perhaps using RSS (really simple syndication) feeds that make it easy to keep current, to read everything from the hottest recipes to the latest rants about Iraq.

But blogging has evolved into a marketing tool, creating a new field: ghost blogging.

Google Intros a new blog for Gogle Maps & Earth

A new Google Maps and Earth blog has hit the blogosphere today courtesy of the folks at Google! The Google LatLong Blog will help keep you up to date on new developments with Earth, Maps, Local, and related APIs.

Seven ways to find the time to blog

How do I find the time to blog?

15,000 Blog Readers Change Lives

Play time: 09:21

Blogger Dave McMurtry and 15,000 of his closest friends build homes and help others in Colombia.

More...

Dispatches from the Blog Battle Zone

Threats against a prominent female writer reflect the worst of online discourse. But is speech any more hateful on the Net than elsewhere?

When corporate 'greening' chafes environmentalists

When retail king Wal-Mart Stores started rolling out one pro-sustainability initiative after another, environmental bloggers and pundits were at first stunned.

50 favorite blogging resources

There are thousands of blogging related resources on the Internet which can create an overwhelming experience for anyone looking to get into blogging. Check it out.

Bunch of SEO tips for your blog

These tips won’t flood your blog with visitors - no SEO tips will. Use these tips to improve your site. - By Thomas Silkjær

Interview With A Real Estate Blogging Goddless

Recently she has gained some broader exposure in national publications as an example of a locally focused real estate blogger that is firstly generating business from her efforts and secondly gaining respect from her peers nationally.

10 Must haves for a good blog

These are the must haves for a good blog.

Laws of Blogging

Here are some laws that a blogger should follow! including SEO, advertising, values etc....

eHub

eHub is a constantly updated resource of web applications, services or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing. Learn more...

BlogJet 2.0 released!

BlogJet 2.0 is a giant leap forward in the process of developing the ideal platform for bloggers.

Top 10 Sins of Blog Usability

“Sinning” is an archery term, which literally means “to miss the mark.” If you’re blogging to establish a two-way dialogue with the world, the “mark” is the optimal reader experience. The following is a list of ten things that can hurt your blog’s
usability. Here's Linda Bustos list.

Blog interview with Dr. Flea

Dr. Flea won the best new medical blog category in Medgadget’s Weblog Awards competition. According to the judges:

Flea, a weblog by an anonymous pediatrician “in solo practice in the Northeast U.S.” On his website, Flea tackles many issues facing pediatricians today: from childhood obesity to anti-vaccination moonbats and their websites that scare parents with pseudo-scientific proclamations. Congratulations, Dr. Flea! Job well done.

New ROI of blogging report from Forrester

Many large companies stand on the brink of blogging, yet they are unwilling to take the plunge. Others, having dove in early, now face the challenge of managing existing blogs without the ability to show that they effectively support business goals.

Logahead

Logahead is a free blogging engine designed to be simple.It isn't meant to be the 'next big thing' or replace Wordpress or even make me into a millionaire, so please don't expect too much!

The Value of Blooging in Dollars and Cents

Blogging may help corporations "join the conversation," but when faced with the request to start a corporate blog, plenty of executives want a guarantee that it will help the bottom line.

Media Bias vs. The Blog Mob

Question: When does a totally unbiased media report actually become biased?

Answer: When it’s about climate change.

Blogging Bosses

Should chief executives blog? The late adopters had better decide soon, because the World Economic Forum is encouraging blogging by bigwigs as part of its annual meeting this week in Davos, Switzerland.

Opportunities for the middle-aged blog

You’ve been at this blogging thing for a while now. The initial surge of WOO HOO has worn off. You survived the inevitable downward part of the enthusiasm cycle that follows that first massive high. And you’re still keeping at it, maybe even with renewed passion and energy. Welcome, you’re now a middle aged blogger!

Blog Marketing and Tips

Some links to helping you market your blog:

Diva Marketing: http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/

Blog Business World: http://www.blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/

Duct Tape Marketing: http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

Good Resource for Bloggers: Directories, RSS, Forums and more

Here are some links that will be usefull to most bloggers, lists of directories, forums, RSS submission sites, blogging tools and more.

What Your Boss Thinks of Your Blog

Japan.internet.com recently reported on the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into what bosses thought about their subordinates blogging (and other unreported topics related to business blogs).

Will One Popular Post Make Your Blog Successful?

Do you believe that a jackpot post exist in blogging - one post that can turn your blog successful?

Best Blogs: Social Calls

Feature Want to learn how social entrepreneurs do good (or not)? Three blogs take you inside the nonprofit world.

The Ethics of the Blogsphere

Nowhere is it more apparent that there are no grays, just blacks and whites, than in the blogosphere. We - yes, including me - are all ready to jump into the faces of others and scream "blasphemer" and say why people are doing things wrong in the social media, or new media, or whatever you want to call it.

Does Peronalization Jump the Shark for Corporate Blogging?

Teresa Valdez Klein writes about Dave Taylor's article about the requirements of being a professional blogger.

Newspapers: To Blog, or Not To Blog

One person's take on newspapers facing whether to blog or not.

Blog Power: Chinese Style

If you want to see the power of the blogosphere in action, check out this post about the Chinese blogosphere and the influence they are wielding over a Western business. Look out Starbucks!

CES Bloggers.com

CES Bloggers are the people behind the Blog Business Summit, a conference series focused on the business applications of blog technology. They’re also a blogosphere consulting company. We work with businesses to develop blogosphere strategies.

From Blog to Podcast with Odiogo

Do you have a favorite blog you like to read every morning? What if I were to tell you about a new service that will make it easier for you to get your daily fix...straight from your iPod?

Read the Yahoo article here.
Find out how to get this service here.

The Pixelage

Great blog site covering web design.

10 Must-Have Things That Should be on Your Blog's Side Bar

An extremely useful design feature of every blog is the side bar. I think that many bloggers underestimate its power, but if you follow Google's Heat Map, [here's additional Google Heatmap info] you'll soon realize that side bars are among top hottest zones of any website. This said, here are top ten "must-have" items that should be placed in side bars of every blog...

Search Engine Optimization for Blogs

Part 1: Because blogs naturally offer new content to search engines, you might think you can skip optimizing your blog. Start with Quality Content on a Specific Topic.

Part 2: The way Search Engines index your blog is by sending "robot" crawlers to your site to track what you’ve written and follow the links. Linking Strategy.

Part 3: Submitting your blog to search engine and blog directories is a good way to attract visitors to your blog. Submit your blog to search engines and blog directories.

Part 4: Need more search engine food? Here are some other things you can do to get those search engine robots to index your blog. Miscellaneous Strategies

Team Blogging

While most blogs are written and mananged by a single person, more and more blogs, such as the Team Timex blog and The Huffington Post have multiple authors and contributors.

This poses some challenges for the blog (mostly in terms of the blog's design and the way the posts display) because of the many cooks tending the soup. Read the article.

Cult of Mac

For those who love Apple, here's Wired's blog covering everything and anything related to Apple's products and news.

Best Blogs: Social Calls

Want to learn how social entrepreneurs do good (or not)? Three blogs take you inside the nonprofit world and show how organizations deliver results.

Donor Power Blog

Houtlust Nonprofit Advertising

Philanthropy 2225

Blog Demographics--One Blog's Data Points

Here are some blogging stats collected by Guy Kawasaki during a recent readership survey, click here. A total of 1,631 people responded. These are my ten of his favorite stats:

1. 39% are outside the U.S.

2. 45% live in households that make more than $100,000/year

3. 58% have no children

4. 24% are a CEO/President/Chairperson/Owner

5. 12% read my blog more than once a day

6. 12% have spent $5,000 or more in the past year on gadgets

7. 52% place comments on blogs and sites

8. 82% of you get asked for advice on technology

9. 39% rarely travel by air for business

10. 31% consider yourself an expert on consumer electronics gadgets

It seems to me that these results would describe most readers of tech/marketing/entrepreneurship blogs if you’re looking for this sort of information.

Beginner's Guide to Digg

I recently read a great explanation of Digg by Neil Patel of Pronet Advertising. It’s called the Beginner’s Guide to Digg. If you’re a blogger and want to increase page views, you should read it.

How to Launch a Career With Your Blog

How your blog can get you the career of your dreams--if you are willing to work at it.

Putting blogs to work for Wall Street

Collective Intellect has a goal: Make bloggers work for The Man.

SEO

Needing help in understanding SEO [search engine optimization]? Check out the SEO Blog site.

Charities Blog

Here's a blog site whose main focus is the world of charities. The site covers such categories as disaster relief, fundraising, Paul Newman's efforts in pursuit of common good, and more.

Check out the sites 'navigation' button.

Add a favicon to your blog

It is great to have your blog as something distinct from the rest of the other blogs in the blogosphere. Be it in the way it looks via the template or the way you converse with your readers, there’s something about a blog that exudes the aura of the person behind it. And there are also other things like the favicon.

What is a favicon?

You probably surf the ‘Net everyday and you see on the address bar on your browser a small icon beside the URL of a site or a blog. If you add site to your favorite bookmarks, you could also see that little icon. I personally think that it is great to have those little icons because it helps me sort out which site is which. A simple glance at it and - voila! - I easily identify it. You could also put one on your blog if you like.

How do you put a favicon?

It’s not very difficult. You need to decide on what icon you would like to put there. It could from a picture, a drawing or a logo that you made. I recommend that you use a simple image. Why? You need to see something that could be distinguised at 16×16pixels. Using your favorite graphics software, create one. You could probably use a bigger canvas like 64×64 pixels then just resize it later. Save the file as .ico. If you are using Photoshop, you need to install a plugin which you get from here. Make sure you name it as favicon.ico.

After you created your favicon, upload it at the directory with your index or home file. Then, you have to put this at the header of the files on your site:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" >

If you test it and it doesn’t show up right away, just do a refresh. The next time someone visits your blog and bookmarks it, your favicon will show up. This would help you in making your blog distinct, indeed.

Technorati Tags: images, branding, blogs, favicons

The Blog Herald: Podcast

The leading source of news covering the blogosphere, Web 2.0, new technology, and related topics.

Useful links for the very beginner in blogging

How to Start a Blog

Working Smart

Askmen: How to Blog

How to Start A Blog

Starting a Blog

BattleStar Galactica starts tonight!

For those who are die hard fans, check out not only their Scifi web site, but two of their blogs:

Sun CEO says blogs should satisfy SEC disclosure rules

A prominent Silicon Valley chief executive has asked U.S. market regulators to accept his blog entries as adequate to meet certain corporate disclosure requirements.

Blogs to books: A six-figure industry?

Bloggers are scoring rich paydays by turning their online diaries into books, but some publishers say the craze could fizzle out with a glut of new titles destined to yield disappointing sales.

Ok, one more corporate blog of the week: Sun

In an AP story that ran in the San Jose Mercury News and dozens of other papers, reporter Rachel Konrad writes about Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwarty, who is the most persistent evangelist for top dog bloggers.

Check John's blog site.

A bird? A plane? A New kind of corporate blog?

Dave Balter, author of Grapevine and founder of BzzAgent, is up to something intriguing. Today he launched a new company blog called The Bento Box.

Take a look. It's kind of a blog as performance art. (Be sure to click on the image to listen to the audio segments.) BzzAgent has hired two high profile contributors to create the blog: John Butman, a professional writer and author; and artist Seth Minkin.

Corporate Blog of the Week: Google

Official weblog, with news of new products, events and glimpses of life inside the Googleplex.

NYC Bloggers

There are a million blogs in the city; here's where to find them.

Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet's New Storytellers

A telephone survey of a nationally-representative sample of bloggers, conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, has found that blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world.

View the full report -- Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet's New Storytellers.

Read Blogs in your Native Text

Nativetext is a very interesting concept in the RSS field. What this service provides is simply, a translation of any RSS feed into your native tongue. The difference between this service and other translation services is the fact that the translations are created by humans, not machines.

Jobster

Jobster's web site is for making successful career matches between employers and prospective employees. The site, www.jobster.com, enables individuals to easily search millions of jobs from thousands of sources, create dynamic professional profiles, read and provide user-generated content about the real scoop inside companies, and meet people who share common interests and career goals. The Web 2.0 features incorporated into the site let individuals easily tag their own skill sets for self-promotion, mark people as favorites (called “faves”), leave notes for their fans, and easily add wiki-like content to the site. Check out their blog site here.

Craig Newmark's Blog

Craig Newmark, founder of Craig's List, has been blogging since September of 2003.
Take a look here.

FeedMap= Bogs + Maps

Using FeedMap you can geo-code your blog, browse already geo-coded blogs and search for blogs.

Intuit Case Study: All Action, No Talk for QuickBooks Online blog

Paul Rosenfeld, General Manager of Intuit’s QuickBooks Online, and his team had a great idea: why not start a blog to communicate with – and learn from - their 35,000 customers?

Blogging for Home Improvements

Check out how Houseblogs has set up a community-powered improvement publication. Everything seen on the blog site is contributed by people who have a passion for homes and home improvement.

Also take a look at the authors own home improvement site here.

University of Florida Adds Vidoblogs to News Site

The University of Florida newsroom is a great example of how to use blog software for non-blog-specific uses. The site, located at: news.ufl.edu, uses Wordpress for content management of a traditional media relations site.

In the past week UF has added videoblogs to the mix of content available online. So far there are two video segments available for download. One on Reading Readiness and the other on a Pesticide Breast Impact study.

The site is truly a one-stop shop. In addition to the new video segments it also offers: podcasts, photographs, press releases, e-mail distribution, rss and an events calendar. If you're looking for a great example of how to develop an online newsroom, check out UF.

Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki

Here is a directory of Fortune 500 companies that have business blogs, defined as: active public blogs by company employees about the company and/or its products.

IBM: Blogging Means Business

IBM execs Harriet Pearson and Willy Chiu discss the power of building communities in the marketplace via blogging.

Blogging for big bucks

Read the article on how to make bucks in blogging in Business 2.0.

Blog sites stemming from this article to check out:
1.TechCrunch
2.Federated Media
3.Fark

Why do economists spend valuable time blogging?

“CLEARLY there is here a problem of the division of knowledge, which is quite analogous to, and at least as important as, the problem of the division of labour,” Friedrich Hayek told the London Economic Club in 1936. What Mr Hayek could not have known about knowledge was that 70 years later weblogs, or blogs, would be pooling it into a vast, virtual conversation.

del.icio.us Blog

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share Web pages from a centralized source. With emphasis on the power of the community, del.icio.us greatly improves how people discover, remember and share on the Internet. Check out their blog site.

7 Tips for Successful Blogging

So, you have a blog! Do you have traffic? Do you know how to build traffic to your weblog? There are seven proven methods for building readership of your blog. They start with defining the purpose, or life, of your blog. Then, after you have a blog worth promoting, driving traffic is crucial to your ongoing success at blogging. Read more about Michele Schermerhorn's blogging tip.

Barging Into the Bloggers' Circle

When Nokia Corp released its camera smartphone last fall, the marketing campaign cut back on news releases and flashy ads. Instead, the company sent sample products to 50 tech-savvy amateur bloggers with a passion for mobile phones.

Blogger jailed after defying court orders

A freelance journalist and blogger was jailed after refusing to turn over video he took at an anticapitalist protest last summer in San Francisco, and after refusing to testify before a grand jury looking into accusations that crimes were committed at the protest.

Time article about Josh Wolf.

Google Earth Blog

For those who like using Google Earth, here's a great blog site on the subject called Google Earth Blog.

Blogging her way

SAN JOSE, Calif.--In what might be the largest-ever event of its kind, hundreds of women bloggers will gather for the second annual BlogHer conference.

Other related female bloggers in the San Francisco bay area worth checking out:

www.svmoms.com-A new blog with daily observations of parenting life in the San Francisco Bay Area by 40 local mothers.

www.forrester.typepad.com/charleneli-Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, chronicles trends in technology and life.

www.svmedialaw.com-A blog about law, e-commerce and venture capital by Cathy Kirkman, a partner at Palo Alto law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati.

www.gracedavis.typepad.com-Grace Davis of Santa Cruz writes primarily about life and motherhood. She gained fame for quickly launching the Hurricane Katrina Direct Relief blog soon after the hurricane hit to help survivors.

www.christine.net-Christine Herron, a venture capitalist, writes about technology, socity and investing.

Successful Blog(gers)

Here's a great blog site by Liz Strauss. For Liz, her blog, lets her talk aboutrandom wondering and philosophy, is known for stories that relight memories and for the way it inspires readers to join her as she wonders about crayons, idiosyncracies, and things that don’t fit.

2web

2web is a group of Australian bloggers and entrepreneurs who are passionate about web 2.0. What they all have in common is that through their businesses and blogging they develop, implement and evangelise web 2.0 ideas around web services, open standards, new media, blogs and the web as a platform.

What does that blog term mean?

Here's a helpful blog glossary to help you understand some of the terminology.

Bloghop

Bloghop's mission is to match blogs with readers!If you're searching for a blog, you can tagsurf to blogs that match your interest.

The Windy City and its Bloggers

Directory of area weblog sites, listed on a route map of el, subway, and rail stations.

Bloggers: A portrait of the internet's new storytellers

The ease and appeal of blogging is inspiring a new group of writers and creators to share their voices with the world.

A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family.

Read the PDF Report

Web 2.0...Blogging in Peru

The global nature of the blogosphere and its rapid global penetration is misunderstood and poorly represented in the US centric view of blogging.

Blogging from the Belly of Beirut

As the Israeli-Lebanese conflict boils over, moderates on both sides seek understanding and reconciliation -- and they're finding each other online.

How To Write A Better Blog?

Guy Kawasaki, former Apple guru and Forbes.com columnist, interviews David Sifry, the founder and CEO of Technorati, on writing better blogs, manual pinging, tagging, etc. Worth a read.

Report: Spammers Shift to Blogs and IM

The increased effectiveness of spam filters for e-mail and the lack of any such filters for newer communication technologies, such as blogs and instant messaging, are part of the reason spammers have turned to new channels to distribute their messages, explained Paul Stamp, an analyst at Forrester.

V7N Technology Blog site

The V7N Technology Blog is more than just geek news about gadgets. It’s a blog about the very Internet. Laws that affect you as an Internet user; technology that affects you as an Internet user

Bluepulse Blogger widget

Developers at bluepulse have whipped up a Blogger widget for their mobile phone platform; here are a few details from their post about it:

• Supports HTML, so you can link to a site, another post, or another blog from your post
• Supports multiple Blogger blogs.
  
• Create a new post, or edit an existing post from the widget and republish it
• Save a post as a draft and then edit and publish it from the widget or your desktop later

Check it out!

Polluting The Blogosphere

Bloggers are getting paid to push products. Disclosure is optional.

OurStory

Go beyond blogging. Tell the your story and share in the journey and keep it forever.

Blogs, wikis, and Web 2.0 as the next application platform

IBM is planning to use Web 2.0 software like wikis as a foundation upon which to build so-called situational software.

Famed Microsoft blogger Scoble leaves for start-up

The world's most famous corporate blogger, Robert Scoble, credited with helping to break down a siege mentality at his employer, Microsoft Corp., confirmed on Sunday that he is leaving to join a recently formed Silicon Valley Internet media start-up.

Oh yes, about that media start-up...Pod Tech

Forbe video interview with Robert Scoble discussing value of business blogs.

Video bloggers ready to incite 'media revolution'

As Jordan Nealy blows out four candles on her birthday cake in South Carolina, Irina Slutsky interviews a technology executive in Texas, and Helene Cardona recites a poem from a train platform in Los Angeles. Read on here.

Can You Digg it?

Have you noticed while your are reading online you see a prompt to "digg" this story?

We have one on the bottom of each of our full page posts that looks like this: Digg

What is Digg?
It's is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication with non-hierarchical, democratic editorial control. Read more.

Web 2.0 and Blogging

One of the most highly touted features of the Web 2.0 era is the rise of blogging. Personal home pages, personal diaries, and personal opinion, have been around since the early days of the web, so what is the fuss all about?

FeedBurner

Do you know where your feeds are? Do you know who is reading them?

Feedburner gives bloggers a simple way of finding out exactly how many people were reading your feed, how many of those people were clicking on items and which items they were following up on.

Read more