BlogTopix.Net

Conduct an interview

Paul — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:17:10 +0000

Surely you have some family members or friends who have some great stories that you could write about on your blog. Sit down, ask questions and be sure to take notes. The stories that you get could be great to pass on through your family, and you’d have a written record of it to refer to.

If you decide to use this idea, please link back and let us know!

Celebrity Chef and Author Maria Liberati Coming to BlogTopix.Net!

Paul — Thu, 24 May 2007 21:49:51 +0000

Former international model turned celebrity chef and author, Maria Liberati will be leaving her mark on the World Wide Web with the upcoming launch of her virtual book tour for her bestseller, The Basic Art of Italian Cooking, beginning on June 4, 2007 and concluding on June 28, 2007.

This month long virtual tour will venture through eight Internet sites maintained by writers and bloggers throughout the world. Web savvy fans can look forward to exclusive interviews and blogs with MS. Liberati, as she virtually devotes one day to each stop on her tour. She will be sharing everything about her writing experiences from recommendations on vegetarian Italian cooking to the influence of Italian cinema, and even tips for writing about food.

Join Maria and I here at BlogTopix.Net on June 28th, 2007

If you have any questions you’d like to ask about writing, publishing, cooking, Italian food or cinema, or anything else you’re curious about be sure to contact me, or leave a comment. I’ll make sure she gets your questions.

Here’s the best part:

Portions of the proceeds of the book sales raised through the book tour will benefit Gilda’s Club, www.gildasclubnyc.org, a worldwide nonprofit organization that provides support to cancer victims.

For more information on the virtual tour, contact primamedia12@yahoo.com or call 1-800-581-9020 x.100. You can also drop me a note.

Visit Maria on the web at www.marialiberati.com or view her virtual calendar at www.myspace.com/marialiberati.

Give Something Away

Paul — Sat, 19 May 2007 11:04:02 +0000

You know how you’ve got all that stuff sitting in your garage that you know would be great on eBay? Do you have spare computer parts sitting around? What about a gift you got recently that you have no use for?

Why not try holding a contest on your blog to give it away to someone?

Hold a contest for the best comment, or tell your readers that you’ll choose a random comment to award the prize. If it’s a really great prize, you could end up with a whole lot of entries!

Link To Others

Paul — Fri, 18 May 2007 12:48:08 +0000

When you’ve found yourself writing a particularly juicy post about a celebrity, or some news item, you should always include links at the bottom of the post to other blogs that cover the topic.

You can easily find other posts by searching through Technorati or using Google’s Blogsearch. Posting a link to those other blogs will bring you more readers and could encourage links back from the blog owner. It’s a win-win situation!

But remember, it’s never cool to steal content and post it as your own.

Tell a Joke

Paul — Thu, 17 May 2007 05:44:48 +0000

Have you heard any good jokes lately? Get a particularly funny email that made you laugh? Post it! Your readers could use a good laugh on occasion, especially if you write about deeply personal or emotional subjects that aren’t exactly light hearted.

Guest Posts

Paul — Tue, 15 May 2007 12:40:41 +0000

Offer your favorite bloggers (and commentors) the opportunity to write a post for your blog. You’ll get a day off from posting, and the guest blogger is likely to link to your site on their own blogs.

Pros and Cons

Paul — Tue, 15 May 2007 05:40:40 +0000

When faced with a decision, do you ever sit around and make lists of the pros and cons? Why not try posting those lists to your blog?

It could be anything from weighing two different new cars that you are interested in purchasing, deciding between houses when investing, to whether or not you should eat that last Oreo.

Maybe your readers can help you make the decision. If you use this idea, try linking back to this post and maybe my readers can help you, too!

Josh Dorkin’s Top 77 Mistakes New Bloggers Make

Paul — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:03:07 +0000

Josh Dorkin has posted a great list of the top 77 mistakes that new bloggers make.

Several of the things he listed are major pet peeves of mine, including:

#6. Using Background Music
- I like my own music that I’m playing, thank you very much. Also, I don’t need everyone in the office/room with me to know that I’m checking out your website. If you must have music, allow the user to CHOOSE to turn it on.

#15. Forcing visitors to register to leave a comment
- By the time I register, wait for the email that confirms my registration and sends me a password, log in, change the password, enter some information about myself (like a link back to my own site) I have forgotten what I was going to say and just click away.

#20. Not responding to comments left for them
- The whole point in adding a comment is to further the conversation. If you don’t respond to your comments, the conversation stops. That’s not much fun. Blogs are like interactive books. I took the time to leave a comment for you, the least you could do is acknowledge me.

#76. Posting a partial blog feed instead of the full contents
- I will unsubscribe from your feed if you only publish partial content. I read over 100 sites everyday, and will only click over to your site if I want to leave a comment or view the video or hear the associated audio. Otherwise, your title has to be VERY compelling to keep me from skipping your post altogether.

One item that he didn’t include that I would add goes along with #15 above… using an image verification process to submit a comment. They often are confusing, unclear, or simply don’t work. I can’t tell you the number of times I have lost the comment that I was attempting to post because the word verification was malfunctioning. There are too many other ways to combat comment spam to use a faulty system.

Click over and peruse his post to see the rest of the list. Are there any other tips he missed?

Technorati Favorites Exchange - Help Build A Community

Paul — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:18:25 +0000

For those of you who are bloggers, you have probably heard of Technorati, one of the leading social blog networking sites on the internet.

It’s the in-vogue thing to do lately to host a Favorites Exchange on your blog. It’s simple to do and can have a significant impact on the amount of traffic that comes to your site.

More traffic = more readers = more comments = more love = possibly more money = possibly more happiness = possible world peace.

How can I resist the chance at world peace?

Here’s how it works:

You have to have a Technorati account. You should really have one anyway. You can visit the Technorati Home Page to sign up. Don’t worry, it’s free.
Favorite my blog (Click that link).
Leave a comment on this post including a similar link to your blog. The link looks like this: http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://YOUR.SITE.HERE/
I will return the favor by adding you to my favorite list.

Oh, but that’s not all…

The next thing you can do is host your own “Favorites Exchange” on your blog by creating a post similar to this one (put it all in your own words so there’s no duplicate content out there) and link back to this post.

My friends and readers who are interested will travel to your blog and favorite you, too.

We’ll all become a happy incestuous little online community that helps build each other up!

I started this on my personal blog, and I’m linking back to that post in case you want to travel upstream, as well!

Write!

Paul — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:23:53 +0000

It may sound crazy, but the best way to get past writer’s block is to just write everything that comes to your mind, even if it’s completely crappy. Write through it and press on until the juices start flowing again. You don’t have to use everything you write, but often just the act of writing your thoughts down as they come to you can trigger a great post.