Top 7 blog mistakes to avoid

David Airey shares his thoughts on what to avoid while you blog.

Takahashi: Popular blogger's soiree feels like the glory years

The Prince song "1999" kept playing in my head the whole time I was at the TechCrunch MeetUp party at August Capital in Menlo Park.

PlayStation

For those who can't live without their PlayStation, check out their blog site.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo

The first and only industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media. In addition to the only industry-wide exhibition, BlogWorld will feature the largest blogging conference in the world including more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and internet-savvy business. If you are currently blogging, vlogging, podcasting, producing other forms of new media content, entering the new media industry, or just want to know what the blogosphere is all about, then you need to be at the most comprehensive blogging convention--BlogWorld & New Media Expo. The inaugural event will take place November 8th and 9th at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with an exclusive "Executive & Entrepreneur" conference beginning November 7th.

Top 10 Most Beautiful Blog Designs: Take Two

Design matters - as much as people argue against the face, it does. Blog design is no different. A poorly designed blog with amazing content will not receive as many readers as a beautifully designed blog with equal content.

Second Life on the Sundance Channel

Sundance Channel Island in Second Life was featured in the New York Times Arts & Leisure section in June of 2007. Sundance Channel has branched out to explore the screening possibilities in virtual worlds and its efforts have been noticed by Second Life's virtual citizens and established periodicals like The New York Times. The screening of FOUR EYED MONSTERS in Sundance Channel Island was the first big event of its kind in Second Life and you can expect to see similar events in the future.

Blogging Your Way To The Unemployment Line

John Mackey, CEO of grocer Whole Foods, has found out the hard way that it's easy to get into trouble over online postings.

Add Poll to Blogspot blog

Poll is the newest page element in blogspot. It's very useful to do a survey about the blog from the visitors.

Sony GC1 (Net-Sharing CAM: A ocket camcorder

Sony has decided to release a compact camcorder “Net-Sharing CAM” specially designed and optimized to download video material on web pages.

This feature will be extremely useful for video bloggers, and for the category of people who are reluctant to share their videos with friends via the Internet using the service YouTube.

How Top Bloggers Earn Money

Cat pictures, gossip, tech talk, politics —there's lots of ways to rake in the dough online.

Who knew: 10 years of blogs

It's been 10 years since the blog was born. Love them or hate them, they've roiled presidential campaigns and given everyman a global soapbox. Twelve commentators -- including Tom Wolfe, Newt Gingrich, the SEC's Christopher Cox and actress-turned-blogger Mia Farrow -- on what blogs mean to them.

Building a Successful Blog

There are tons of posts on other blogs that describe how to create a "successful" blog. However, her are few more things do know.

8 Ways Of Creating Compelling Blog Post Titles

Why do you need compelling blog post titles? Because the blog post title is the first thing you see when you arrive at a blog post. Your visitors first read your title, and if the title catches their fancy, they go ahead and read the post. It prompts your readers to read further and it prompts people to click your link (provided the anchor text consists of your title) wherever it appears.

Sundance

	The Green Blog
Sundance Channel presents this up to date source of news and views about THE GREEN programming block and environmental topics.

Blogniscient

Everyone has heard the buzz about blogs, but finding the best information is a real challenge without the right tools.

That's where Blogniscient comes in. They categorize and rank blog articles and blogs in real time, providing up-to-date information on the hottest blog entries.

Live Earth

Stay in touch with all of the concerts taking place around the world via th official blog for Live Earth. Thank you Al Gore!

Enter the micro-bloggers

First came e-mail. Then text messaging and instant messaging. Blogging followed.

Now there's micro-blogging — sharing life's big and small moments with the world, or just a handful of friends, through frequent, short messages.

Where To Find Fresh Blogs and How To Get Your Blog Discovered

Here are some tips from Chris Garrett, on how to find new blogs to subscribe to.

Content is Key

The makers of Technorati said that every 5 seconds a new blog is created! Yes, 5 seconds! Can you believe that? As hard as it is to believe, the fact is many Internet users are creating one or more blogs and making competition within the web a little bit harder for everyone else. Yet many of those blogs that are started at the spur of the moment.

Using Blog TalkRadio To Make Audio Twittergrams from you mobile phone

Twittergrams is Dave Winer's new plaything - 180k audio files sent through Twitter. Here, he informs us on how to do it from a mobile phone.

Free Pictures For Your Blog

Pictures are necessary because text-only articles become boring eventually, especially if you like to write long posts.

Four Reasons To Be Wary of Free Blog Services

There are several free blogging services available that make the idea of starting one's own blog very easy and attractive. Indeed, many bloggers fall into the trap of using a free blogging service as their first entry into the filed of blogging.

The Mobile Weblog

For those who want their fix on mobile news, including analysis of the much-anticipated Apple iPhone, check out this great mobile weblog.

The 50 Best Business Blogs

Internet blogs are taking on big corporations and winning. As the bloggerati continue to set the agenda Times Online provides the first full list of the 50 top blogs, corporate and anti-corporate alike. The list covers topics in areas of economics, engineering, media & marketing, and more.

Search Marketing Blogs

Here is a collection of over 350 blogs covering search marketing with a few that venture into blogging, social media and new media public relations.

7 Tips on Pitching Bloggers

Here's some helpful information from Ogilvy Blogfeeds with tips on pitching bloggers. This has been a topic on many PR and marketing blogs recently - generating almost as much discussion as the now tired declaration of the death of the press release . The intention of these tips is to provide a good starting point of understanding for a wider base of PR professionals who are just now stepping into their first experiences of dealing with bloggers, and learning that they are, in fact, different from journalists. Here is an excerpt of the 7 tips (full text is in the PDF download):

1. Before you pitch them, read their blog
2. Two words: trackbacks and comments
3. Bloggers are experts
4. It's not always about their readers
5. Giving them free stuff is ok
6. Know who else is talking about you
7. Don't throw away your traditional media relations playbook

Mashable Blogging Toolbox

Mashable has a great entry today about various tools that bloggers use. I found that this was a very helpful post and every serious blogger should have this post in their bookmarks.

Google debuts a News blog

Google, in their own words: So why a blog? As a company, we don't issue many press releases, and we're not keen to send tons of email to thousands of in-boxes. A blog lets us reach you quickly and directly, and be a bit more informal. We hope it generates cross-links and new ideas. If you want to engage in discussion, visit our Google News U2U group.

Why Most Bloggers Fail as Webmasters

Blogs are hot and everyone seems to be picking up a "digital stencil" to scribe something meaningful on their personal journal and leave their mark in vast space of blogosphere.

Hated blogger leaves U.S., threatens lawsuits

A failed real estate speculator who created a popular Web site touting his exploits has begun threatening to sue his critics and claims to be in hiding in Australia.

Widgetoko

Widgetoko tracks new and popular web widgets to put on your blog, homepage or profile. Delivered with a blog-a-liciously fresh flavor, for you to gobble down on a daily basis.

Sun blogging turns communication upside down

Sun Microsystems’ blogging approach changes the company’s communication and knowledge management.

Beware the Bloggers' Bile

TIME writer Joe Klein blogs during a spare moment while covering the Mitt Romney campaign in New Hampshire on May 29, 2007.

When Bloggers Say No to a Simple Chat

When Wired magazine writer Fred Vogelstein set out to write a story about a Silicon Valley blogger, Mike Arrington, he figured he would do what virtually every professional journalist does—interview key people, either face to face or by telephone.

Arab bloggers face government clampdowns

In the two years since he started writing political commentary on his Web site, Syrian blogger Ammar Abdulhamid has called President Bashar Assad a thug, a dictator, Mr. Bean, the village idiot and Fredo Corleone—the bumbling mob-family brother from "The Godfather."

3 Ways to Increase Comments on Your Blog

Most people say that a blog without comments is like a forum without posts. That’s not true, at least for me as I run a few blogs and a few forums and can say with full confidence that you can keep blogging away even if no one comments or even visits, however, forum where no one posts automatically turns into a dead ground, on which no one wants to step in.

Choosing Who Can See What on Your Blog

Blogs have a place in many of our everyday lives, even if we aren’t bloggers ourselves. The word blog, short for Web log, is used to describe personal Web sites that are frequently updated with entries for sharing with others. They can range from your son’s personal blog about baseball statistics to a well-read and more polished political blog that gets tens of thousands of hits each day. A big problem with blogs is privacy.

Metro Blogging

What is Metroblogging ®?

With over 50 active sites, Metroblogging ® is the largest and fastest growing network of city-specific blogs on the Web. From San Francisco to Bangkok, from Karachi to Toronto, Metblogs are a hyper-local look at what's going on in the city. These hand-picked core of regional bloggers give each site a new perspective on daily life; less calendar listings, more friendly advice. With Metblogs ®, you can read about life and times in your neighborhood, your favorite places to visit, places where you've never been, or get a feel for them all with the "best of" blog on the hub at metroblogging.com.

There's also a Wikipedia article on Metroblogging ® with a lot of info.

China abandons blog identity plan

China blocks news websites like the BBC's

The Chinese government is backing down from plans to force millions of Chinese bloggers to register their real names.

There are an estimated 20 million bloggers in the country and the plans announced last year provoked huge protest from Chinese internet users.

Top 5 New Blogs for Bloggers

A great list of the top 5 up and coming blogs where you can find blogging tips.

Branding Your Blog for Success

Do you get frustrated when visitors to your site don ’t convert into subscribers? For many bloggers, not all, success equals an engaged and high volume readership, and/or making money from their blog. If you fall into either of those categories then you can benefit from improving the brand of your blog. This post will show you how.

How To Get a Lot of Traffic for Bloggers

One of the important for the bloggers is TRAFFIC!!Im know everyone will agreed with that. Ive read many articles about SEO and this one really caught my mind. A blog without traffic is like a coffee without sugar. If you are serious to make money with blogging and this research will be benefits for you.

Top Bloggers Avoid the Detail

Get the stress out of blogging and don't be lost in the details. Just post your quality articles and make a good day for your audience. Nice PDF at the end of the article. Just 8 pages, but it contains some of the essentials we sometimes forget if we stick too much with details.

New Blogger Templates Customized for Adsense and Easy Customization

These free templates are especially for Bloggers who'd like to put Adsense or other ads on their blog. The themes are quite general with non-intrusive graphics which is preferable for a monetizing blog. The templates can be heavily modified simply from the Layout page without knowing any HTML.

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: