Everything Blog Magazine

Everything Blog Magazine Has Moved!

2009-03-02T16:25:00.000-08:00

Everything Blog Magazine has now moved to everythingblogmag.com.

It is finally up with a few posts and a new design. Check it out...

Everything Blog Magazine

A Brand New Year

2009-01-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

A new year that is going to be filled with a lot of new projects. I will be moving Everything Blog Magazine to a domain name with a new theme and a new direction of posting. I still plan to bring you everything about blogging but I will be writing fewer articles.

The posts will instead be summaries of the best resources I have found across the Internet. There is no reason to write articles on things other people have said better. So everyday you will get a few different links to great articles about a certain subject.

I also have a few projects that I'm starting soon and I will keep you guys updated. You can follow me on Twitter for quicker updates of course.

Is Facebook Going To Lose Social Media Consultants Clients?

2008-12-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

During my normal perusal of Twitter, I noticed something from Chris Brogan. His tweet was about possibly deleting his Facebook profile. It caught my attention and clicked on the link that brought me to his website.

He had written a quick post about the ads on Facebook. Basically he had seen a couple of inappropriate ads talking about women cheating and sexual encounters. I personally haven't seen any inappropriate ads on Facebook, but the reason I bring this up is a comment that I saw.

The comment was from Pete Codella, someone I hadn't heard of before but works in public relations and consults about social media. He said...

Chris - I couldn't agree with you more. I’ve also noticed some very distasteful ads on Facebook lately. It makes it increasingly difficult for me to be a proponent of using Facebook as part of a company’s online marketing and positioning strategy.

For someone who does consulting on social media or someone who is looking to do that for a living (me!) it's something that they need think about. Business are looking to get into the social media networks and if ads like those are riddled through Facebook, it might be hard to choose that network.

Facebook is such a big network that this one group of advertisements might be overlooked and seen as an anomaly, but who want their business associated with these ads? Facebook needs to be careful or they might lose those profiles and social media consultants might shy away and use other networks to promote their clients. It's just another thing to consider.

Non-Blogging Tips To Make You A Better Blogger

2008-12-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

Well I am sitting in my living room with the wood stove burning and a blizzard outside and I got to thinking about some things I could do to make me a better blogger. So here are some non-blogging tips to become a better blogger.

Image courtesy of sean dreilinger

Adapt and evolve.
Being able to go with the flow and change when it's not working is an important trait to have in any one's life, but it is extremely important as a blogger. Recognizing trends and following them without totally immersing yourself in them will keep you up to date but allow you to diversify.

Just about everyone who runs a blog and a lot of people who run business and websites now have a Twitter profile. And if you don't have a Facebook page or at least doing some kind of social networking you are being left in the dust. The ability to adapt and evolve will make you a better blogger by connecting you with more people, which brings me to another tip.

Connect with as many people as you can.
I talked about Twitter and social networking sites above, but with them you are able to connect with so many more people than even just a couple of years ago. It use to be just your friends and the people you knew from high school that you were connected to online. But now we can connect with bloggers all over the world.

You know the saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know." It has always been true and continues to be true. Networking is a great way to get information and social networking websites make this easier. You can receive tips from a blogger in India or even find a job from someone Twitter that you might have never received because of the connection you have had online.

Sharing is caring.
Once you have your Twitter account or social network profile, make sure to give to the people following you or the people you are friends with. Giving little tips and sharing websites of others is a great way of portraying yourself as an expert. Every once in a while you can give links to your site, but shameless self promotion will lead to lots of unfollows and losing friends.

Twitter Desktop Clients

2008-12-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

I've been off the computer for awhile now which means I've been off Twitter and haven't been blogging. I don't want to make this one of those "I'm sorry I haven't posted in a long time, but I promise I will post again soon," posts. Life just got in the way and my computer is broken.

Today I want to talk about Twitter and some of the desktop clients. What is a desktop client? Basically it's a third party application that allows you to receive your twitter updates without using the twitter.com website.

TweetDeck - website/download
TweetDeck feeds you up to the second tweets from the people you are following with a little beep and alert. It's much easier than being on the twitter website and pressing the refresh button. I have it downloaded on my computer and miss it on my girlfriends computer which I'm using now. You can put people in groups, resize the program, and get all the updates from twitter while you were sleeping.

Twirl - website/download
Twirl claims itself as "the social software client." Once I get my computer back i will download this program and test it out, but until then I will forward you to Rajeev @ mintblogger.com and his guide to Twirl. One feature that Twirl has that TweetDeck doesn't is the ability to connect to other social media sites other than Twitter.

If you would like to look at other Twitter desktop applications, check out the Twitter Downloads page. There are some others that look pretty cool.

What client do you use? Or do you just use the website? Leave a comment below.

Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook?

2008-12-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

I've been without my computer for the last five days or so because of a busted power cord. So I have been using my girlfriends computer which doesn't have TweetDeck. Not having TweetDeck has left me out of the loop on Twitter. It's been weird so I have been forced to use the actual Twitter website and refresh the page.

Well this morning, Twitter has been...well...all a-twitter about a certain article. Even Newsweek tweeted about it. The article is entitled The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook.

But is it really the ultimate? It's probably very close. The article was written by Tamar Weinberg who is a social media consultant. She contributes to Mashable and other online publications and is a former contributor to Life Hacker, so hey, she has some clout.

She focuses mainly on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn but the information really can be used for any social networking site. Make sure to read the article and use the information, because everything you do online is there for every one to see.

Is Microblogging Realy Micro Blogging?

2008-12-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

I wasn't a fan of microblogging or Twitter when I first heard about them, but I have come around. My problem with microblogging now is the word. Obviously the messages we send on Twitter-like services (something I will be posting about soon) are considerd micro, but are they really "blog-like?"

I've linked this site before, but Microblink shares news on all the microblogging news. Mike Templeton of microblink.com defined microblogging a month ago. Here is what he defines it as...

microblogging [mahy-kroh-blŏg-ing] verb
A small-scale form of blogging, generally made up of short, succinct messages, used by both consumers and businesses to share news, post status updates and carry on conversations.

It is definitely small-scale messages to share news, post status updates, and carry on conversations. But these short messages are basically instant messages sent to the people you are either friends with or are following you.

If you look at Wikipedia's definition of blogging you will see that basically sharing news is the only thing the two definitions have in common.

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Now I really like the definition Mike Templeton and the team from Microblink.com came up with, but I think the term microblogging still needs some work. I'm just really sure which direction that work needs to head.

Do you have any ideas? Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment below.

Write Better Blog Posts With These 5 Tips

2008-12-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Writing better blog posts is something all of us strive to do. Not only will better written posts help convey the information to our reader better, but it will make our blog better and in turn bring more readers. So here are a few simple tips to help you write better blog posts.

Write shorter more concise articles.
Most readers won't read every word you write. They will scan the first sentence and generally the last sentence in paragraphs, so if you write smaller paragraphs with more information in them, the readers will in turn come away with a better understanding of what you wrote about.

Use interesting titles with keywords. Think newspaper headlines.
In most blogging platforms the title is used in creating the page your article will be posted on. Not only will the title attract the readers to that article when you first write it, but if they search through the archive it will grab their attention then. Well written titles will bring readers to that post for months to come.

Keywords will help in tagging the post in a certain category and also allow search engines to crawl it so people will find that article when searching for certain keywords.

Do not use simple generic words like "the" to start your titles.
If you start using "the" as the first word in your titles, your articles will get lost in the archives with all the other articles titled the same. Keywords will help, but try and pay a little more attention to the title as it will be the first thing readers see.

Use bold headlines to break up your posts and bring attention to certain parts.
Take for example this article. There are bold headlines basically giving you a one sentence summary of the paragraph below it. This way readers could essentially just read the bold headlines and still get just about all the information. It also breaks up the post so it feels like it's not just a bunch of words.

Write articles with both internal and external links.
Putting a lot of links into your post will cram as much information as you can into each one. Links to your own articles will, or internal links, will intertwine your posts and will help new readers to your blog find other relevant information. External links will give readers another perspective and even more information. And by linking others and sending traffic to other sites, hopefully they will link back to your articles too.

Update On 30 Day Blogging Challenge

2008-12-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well the 30 blogging challenge is a week in and I've seen some good results already. My traffic has grown a little bit, even on the weekends.

I have found a little trouble writing a post every day. I'm not sure if it's some of the distractions surronding me lately or what but I'm trying to write a quality post every day. It's also hard with all of the other blogs about blogging out there to find something new to write about, but I'm working on it. Another regular post about everything blog will be posted tomorrow.

Blogs Are Being Sold Left And Right

2008-12-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons people start to blog is to get their thoughts feelings out and possibly help others with relevant information. Another reason is to make money.

There are some that blog professionaly and there are some that just earn extra income from it. Most of the time bloggers earn money from advertisements but there are many other income streams that bloggers can and do earn money from.

One of the most popular ones as of late is selling their established blogs. There are a couple of different reasons for selling their blogs. First, they have no time to update the blog anymore. Many factors can suck up the extra time most of us use to post on our blogs including a new baby, a new job, or many other things. Secondly they hope to make some money off the articles they have written, the traffic their blog gets, or even the readers that follow their blog.

Now selling websites is not a new thing but selling blogs has become very popular. Ever since a blog sold for $15 million everyone has tried to cash in on this.

Personally I would find it hard to sell all the things I have written and a site I had worked so hard on. I would probably just hire a staff and continue my blog running if I wanted to start a new project. If you are planning on selling your blog just give it some good thought.

Bloggers To Follow On Twitter

2008-12-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

Twitter has become an amazing tool and recently I have started using it a lot more than Plurk. I no longer feel that Plurk is superior especially with the amount of people on Twitter. You can follow me on Twitter here.

It has become more of a small messaging service, SMS, but more of a small news delivering service. I follow some prominent bloggers and they share a lot of information and interesting sites. Here a few of the bloggers that you should follow...

@copyblogger

@chrisbrogan

@remarkablogger

@mintblogger

You may notice that I left off some the most popular ones including Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney. I don't have them on here because most of the tweets are either from their RSS feed or meaningless chatter.

If you are interested in more information about Twitter check out Darren Rowse's blog about it, TwiTip or this article from Lost Art Of Blogging, Twitter: Why It’s So Great And How To Effectively Use It.

Nine Must Read Articles For Bloggers

2008-12-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

Todays post isn't really a post, but more of links to articles that just about everyone should read. All but one of the articles I will post today are from one site, the other is from Chris Brogan.

The site that most of the articles are coming from is useit.com - usable information technology, a site by Dr. Jakob Nielsen a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group. He has been called a guru, a king, a leader, a czar, an expert, and a pioneer in web usability. He writes a bi-weekly column called Alertbox where he focuses on web usability. Alertbox has been going strong since 1995.

How Users Read On The Web
This is an article from 1997 where Dr. Nielsen states that users don't read on the web, they scan. I've talked about formatting posts before and just about every other professional blogger or someone blogs about blogging will you that readers scan. With so many people saying it, why not do it?

He also talks about smaller paragraphs, relevant sub-headings, bold keywords, and fewer words. Most readers won't read the whole paragraph nor the whole article, but scan through the first couple of paragraphs and look for links and bold words. Format your posts accordingly.

Using Link Titles to Help Users Predict Where They Are Going
Link titles are something that had just been invented when Dr. Nielsen wrote this article in 1998, but holds true today. He talks about the title= feature with links and how this will help a user learn more about the link they may want to click on.

The example above is from his site and is a great example of how to use the title= feature. Although he does state not to do it on every link as a user clicking on a link that says Home or About Me is pretty sure on where they are headed.

Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines
Blog posts are generally seen just by their title as a link and unless the title tells a reader exactly what they will read about, they won't click it. He talks about staying away from "cute" and "clever" headlines that might trick the reader as they will just close the page anyways.

Another important point he stresses is not to start titles with "the" or "a" because these articles can get lost in your archives. There could be 10 or 15 articles that start with "the" and your readers will get lost and not know which ones to read. Start the title with something about the article, something with relevance.

Deep Linking is Good Linking
Just like the title of his article says, linking your articles from within your other articles is a good thing. Don't get carried away though, as Google might penalize you.

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes
A must read for anyone that has a blog or wants to start one. Some of them top ten are found through the articles he has written and I've posted about, but this list simplifies them into one nice neat package.

F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
Another must read article from Dr. Nielsen for anyone who has a website or blog. Read the article and format your posts accordingly.

Write Articles, Not Blog Postings
This might seem as inconsistent with his article about writing shorter posts but if you read the whole thing, you will understand what he means. This article is a little longer than all the others but it has a lot of good information and is another must read.

How Little Do Users Read?
Like his article about how readers read, this one talks about how little they actually do read. There is research, comparisons, and graphs. Once again another must read.

The last article is from Chris Brogan
His post is titled 40 ways to deliver killer blog content. Chris is another person that can be called a leader, an expert, and a guru on the web and if you aren't reading his blog, then you are missing out on a ton of content.

12 Social Network Aggregators And Services

2008-12-03T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've talked about social networks and the importance of them and the need of creating an online social persona. I've also gave you a huge list of social networks that you can join. There are millions of people online who have joined multiple social network sites and like everything else in the world, they want all their information to be compiled into one service. In comes social network aggregators.

There are many different ways compile all your social networking profiles together including a browser, a desktop application, an online application, and an instant messaging like application. I have compiled a lot of them here.

Power.com
Power.com connects "all your friends in just one place." In reality they connect your friends from only a few different places: MySpace, hi5, Facebook, Orkut, and MSN. So if most of your friends are within those social networks, than this site will be great for you.

HelloTxt
HelloTxt seems to be popular and I have seen some Twitter updates using it. "HelloTxt lets you update your status and read your friends' status across all main microblogging and social networks all at once." When they say all, they mean just about all. If a social network isn't there, don't worry because it probably will be soon. Updating your status on all your online profile is easy with this service.

FriendFeed
When Facebook came out with their news feed that showed you everything your friends did, in my fraternity at college we called the stalker feed. FriendFeed reminds me of this except this could actually be useful. Instead of reading about what that hot girl in class said on some other chicks photo you get updates on what your friends upload to the web. Whether it's pictures, videos, music, or news, you will know what your friends are doing.

Youmeo
You and Me Online is another place to add all your friends. What started as a clubbing/party site evolved into a popular social network site. It allows you to add some of the most popular social networks and see what your friends are doing.

Gathera
Gathera is a little different than the other online applications. This is more like an instant messaging service that allows you to check your email, your social networks, and chat with your friends in one nice little application. I haven't used it but the flash intro on their website shows you what their application looks like and it seems like people would like Gathera.

Spokeo
Spokeo claims it's a friend finder/tracker that brings your friends updates from all over the web. But the way they are seeming to advertise it on their site is as a stalker program. Finding "truly mouth-watering news about friends and coworkers" doesn't sound like a service I want to join. "Uncover personal photos, videos, and secrets...GUARANTEED." They even have an "hr" section where they can research on potential candidate across the 41 networks Spokeo supports. Your profile should be private to those you aren't friends with so this service can't find the "juicy" news it is looking for.

Secondbrain
Secondbrain is a different kind of service. Instead of just updating you with your friends status, this service allows you to import all your content from many different services, browse and search for more content, categorize your content, share it, and then "find people through content, and content through people." What kind of content can you import? All your content from bookmarking sites, social bookmarking and news sites, all the blogging platforms, online document sites, picture and video sharing sites, and others. If you have content all over the Internet, than this service will help compile it into one place.

8hands
8hands is a similar service to the rest of these, except for the fact that it's a desktop application. "Get notifications of new comments, messages, friend requests, videos, feeds and more - in real time! IM and share online content with your friends: Just drag and drop your YouTube videos, Flickr pics and more into our easy to use chat window. Receive summaries and statistics on your social networking activities.
Easily access your community locations from a single entry point." And if that's not enough, they have a mobile version so you will never be left out of anything thats happening with your friends on the web.

Flock Browser
The Flock Browser is powered by Mozilla and is very social media friendly. You can email, blog, share pictures, and micro-blog through this browser easily. I haven't used it yet, but I plan on downloading it and writing a review of it, so look for that soon.

Profilatic.com
"Profilactic is a social media aggregator/lifestreaming service that pulls together just about everything you and your friends create online." Create a profile, aggregate your social networks, and people can watch all of them on your lifestream through Profilactic. With over 190 social networks currently supported, this service has the potential to become very popular.

Ex.plode.Us
Ex.plode.Us is basically a search engine for social networks. You can search through multiple networks at once for friends with the same interests. Check it out and see if you can find any new friends.

Broadband Mechanics
Broadband Mechanics has built a platform for you to create your social networking site. The software is called PeopleAggregator. Check out their site if you would like to start your own for your specific niche.

Mashable.com also has a post about 20 ways to aggregate your social network profiles. Most of them I have talked about here, but there are a few I didn't.

For me, I do not use a social aggregator for the same reason I don't use news/blog/feed aggregators. I have a few different profiles but would rather login to them. The Flock Browser is interesting though and I will download it to try it out and some point.

If you enjoyed this post please comment or show some love and submit it to Digg or Reddit or some other social bookmarking site.

Linkbaiting: Good Or Bad?

2008-12-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

A controversial topic in the blogosphere is whether or not linkbaiting is a good or bad thing. We will cover a couple different topics about linkbaiting and then try and decide on whether or not you should do it.

First, what is linkbait? Linkbait is what bloggers and other Internet users call posts that are written for the sole purpose of receiving a digg or stumble. But since the word linkbait has negative connotations should we continue to call stuff linkbait, and is that word even relevant?

Obviously we all want lots of traffic and Digg and StumbleUpon can provide it, but is writing posts specifically for the purpose of being bookmarked or added to social media sites the right thing to do?

We all should be writing posts full of content that anyone would be happy to bookmark, but if those posts are few and far between than linkbaiting is a problem. On the other hand if you write every post chaulked full of content that is worth of being social media bookmarked than linkbaiting really isn't a bad thing.

Most blogs about blogging have written about linkbaiting but Darren Rowse from ProBlogger has a few posts on it. Take a look at his 20 linkbaiting techniques and his introduction to linkbaiting.

Brand Your Business And Website, Now

2008-12-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

For your business or blog or site to survive, it needs to have a brand. This brand needs to be recognizable every where and by every one that sees it. There are four ways to create a brand and I will detail them below.

Image courtesy of BiggerPictureImages.com

If you ever been to a NASCAR event or watched one on TV, you have most likely seen all the names and logos on the cars going around the track. Most of them are small but you can still make out the company because of the brand. It's a very powerful thing.

The first way to brand your site is with a logo.

Image courtesy of bijoubaby

Logo's are very powerful. I'm sure you know what the logo is above, it's Pepsi. This logo is recognized throughout the world without even a name attached to it. A lot of logos have the company name with it but if your logo can stand alone, then it's even better. There are others as identifiable as the Pepsi logo including the Nike swoosh and the Mac apple. If you can create a simple logo like those that can be identified as your business or site, then you have a very strong logo.

Another way to brand your business or website is the name.

Image courtesy of boback

Every one knows what Coca-Cola makes. Their name is synonymous with their logo, because it is their logo. You don't just have to see their logo, but if you hear Coca-Cola you know what the logo is and what someone is talking about. When I says ProBlogger you most likely know what I'm talking about. The same with Google or Microsoft.

The third way to brand your site or business is with your name.

This way to brand your business might be a little harder but if you can do this, you will always be known for it. When I say Darren Rowse, most of you will think of his site ProBlogger, Digital Photography School, and now more recently TwiTip. Other big names are Chris Brogan for his social media prowess or Seth Godin for his take on marketing and blogging.

There can be disadvantages to doing this though. Your name will always be linked to the site or business you create, especially if you are on the Internet. So be careful before choosing this way of branding. If you ever plan on selling your business or website, it might be difficult because it is named after you. And it could be bad if they then change it to something bad or distasteful.

The fourth way to brand something is with a mascot or caricature.

It's not new but something I am seeing frequently are cartoon characters on a lot of sites. Mascots are popular in sports venues but it seems that Internet has caught on and blogs have started using them to brand their site. From The Net Fool to SlyVisions to The University Kid to the super affiliate Zac Johnson to John Cow. The cartoon characters are every where. Once your caricature is on your site and you start creating social network profiles, you can use that as your avatar which will further the reach of your brand.

30 Day Blogging Challenge

2008-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have been neglecting this blog far more than I'd like to. My stats were decent when I was posting every day but have dropped a lot since I have taken a week off a couple different times. So as have today, December 1st, I will be taking the 30 day blogging challenge. I will be posting every day from now until the last day of December.

Image courtesy of Marcos Vasconcelos Photography

I like to think of this 30 day challenge as a marathon because it will be difficult to write 30 quality posts in 30 days especially with a new puppy and my job as a basketball coach, but I am going to try. Once the challenge is over I will be reviewing all of the stats and write a post about it.

Is Microblogging Still A Fad?

2008-11-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

If you have found your way to Everything Blog Magazine then you are most likely interested in blogs and blogging. I've been running websites for a long time now and got back into blogging a couple of months ago. When I came across microblogging, I thought it was just a fad that would probably fade away after a couple of years. Obviously that is not the case.

Microblogging has not faded and in fact, with the success of Twitter, it seems like it is here to stay. But why does writing 160 characters or less appeal to so many people?

I think the small messages people send on these microblogging services appeals to every ones fast paced life style. Basically these little messages we send through these services are just text messages sent online. And in fact there are a few programs that allow you to use Twitter with your phone like TwitterFon, Twittelator, and TwitterBerry.

With the millions of people using microblogging services it is probably a good idea to join a few of the services to stay connected with your readers and other bloggers from around the world.

Twitter isn't the only microblog service either. Plurk is the other popular service that a lot of people have joined. But there are still others including Jaiku which Google acquired last year. Although like Gmail when it first came out, you can only join Jaiku if an existing member invites you. Don't know anyone on Jaiku? Go to Jaikuinvites.com and ask for an invite. Pownce and Identi.ca are a couple less popular services and Rejaw is a brand new one. Do you know of other microblogging services I missed? Then please comment below.

On top of the microblogging services there are services that can update all your microblog and social network statuses at the same time. HelloTxt is probably the most popular one but new ones are being created all the time. A similar service called kwippy shares your statuses with the world but in a different way. By adding kwippy to your instant message service you share your statuses and receive comments on them.

If the microblog services that are around just do not work for you, how about you check out Twingr. Twingr allows you to create your own microblog community. Your new microblog community will be hosted on their site and it can be about anything you want.

All these services just aren't enough, but there is also a microblog wiki, a site dedicated to microblog news Microblink, and even a social media site like Digg or Reddit at Microblogging.com which gives you the opportunity to submit and vote on microblog news.

There are just so many ways to get involved with microblogging and so many people using it that it is something you should absolutely contribute to if you run a blog or a site.

If you enjoyed this post please comment or show some love and submit it to Digg or Reddit or some other social bookmarking site.

Social Networks: Most Important Thing On The Internet?

2008-11-25T13:21:00.000-08:00

Social networks are probably the most important "inventions" on the Internet. And with so many of them it's next to impossible to not connect online with anyone you have ever met in your life.

I'm a member of a few different social networks and try to keep them updated and talk with people on them regularly, but sometimes it's hard to talk with everyone. But every once in a while someone will find you online and you will be able to reconnect with them.

Now there are other ways to reconnect with people online like email and instant messaging, but unless you have their email address and/or IM name, you will be unable to find them without some serious searching. Social networks allow you to search for peoples real names and find long lost friends.

My girlfriend doesn't understand the whole reconnecting and talking online, or even the power of social networks. She is on Facebook and MySpace but rarely talks to anyone on either. But here is a cool story that just recently happened to me...

I have been a member of Facebook for a long time. I found it in 2005 or so in my sophomore year of college and became friends with 100's of people I knew through school. Now I had transfered to Oregon State after one year at Western Oregon University but still kept in contact with some people from WOU.

Since leaving Oregon State last year I have been working and not staying in contact with the people on Facebook as much. But my roommate from WOU joined and friended me. I talked to him a few times, catching up, but that was it. Two weeks ago I applied and received the JV Boys Basketball coach at Forks High School.

I talked about it a little on Facebook where you can say what you are doing. My freshman roommate from WOU wrote on my wall saying that he is coaching for a small high school. Now Forks High School is very small and we travel about 3 hours to every game we play. His high school is one of the ones we play and he is actually traveling here to play this Saturday.

He coaches the JV girls and so I will be able to connect with him this weekend after talking with him on Facebook. Social networks are an amazing thing and if you don't have a profile on any, check out my big list of social networks and my post on the importance of creating a social network profile.

Helping New Bloggers Beat The Odds

2008-11-18T15:44:00.000-08:00

I'm always looking around the web for different topics to write about and what other bloggers are saying. Just about every day I find a new blog to follow. I use these blogs for topic ideas and information on what the rest of the blogosphere is writing about blogging. I will then usually add my opinions on certain topics but I sometimes come across an article that needs nothing added to it.

Today I came across a blog called Motivate Thyself by Eric Hamm. He has some very good articles and tips but one of his popular posts is titled 10 Tips To Help New Bloggers Beat The Odds and Push Past Their Rookie Status. It's a mouthful but one of the best articles I've read in a long time.

He goes through 10 things you can do keep yourself motivated and push through the immense wall separating you from success. It's a long article but well worth it.

Newsletter Subscription Pop-up's Are Very Annoying

2008-11-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

Newsletters sent by e-mail can be a great way to connect more with your readers and offer them a little bit more information than is available on your blog. You can give them secret tips and tricks that you either will not post about on your blog, or send through the newsletter early. A lot of people sign up for newsletters and I receive a few everyday.

By sending out newsletters you will be adding to your site. You can also monetize them and even provide affiliate links to products that can earn you even more money. It's also something that doesn't have to be sent out every day as most people don't expect them that often. It is not uncommon for them to be sent out weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly but make sure to have a decent amount of information in each one.

The problem that I have been seeing lately is the way some people are trying to gain more subscribers. Pop-ups. It is very intrusive and I will always close it. It looks unprofessional, but some of the most popular bloggers started to do it.

Darren Rowse has a pop-up on his blog about photography, Digital Photography School and wrote about how to drastically increase email newsletter subscribers over at ProBlogger. Even Jeremy Schoemaker over at ShoeMoney had the pop-up.

Will this be a new trend? I hope not because I see others reading about the increase in subscribers and then start doing it on their blog. So how do you increase your subscribers without the intrusive pop-up?

First, you must have an informative newsletter that comes out pretty often. Make sure to have the subscriber form or link above the fold where it is easily found. Have a little snippet about subscribing to your newsletter either at the end of every post or at the beginning. Talk about the insider tips and special deals you can receive when you sign up and either bold it or italicize it.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

2008-11-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS TOMORROW!!!!!!11!111!

We have all seen these ads around the internet and the commercials on TV boasting about how they know all the secrets to making millions of dollars working only part time. Get rick quick schemes are every where and in times like these you might consider forking out that $60 to buy the system.

Don't. Seth wrote about the overnight millionaire scams yesterday and I thought I would talk a little bit more about it.

If someone had the secrets to making a million dollars why would they tell everyone about it? Wouldn't they just use their secrets to make them loads of money? Haven't you always heard that if something is to good to be true, it probably isn't?

To quote E-40...

You want that fast quarter, I want that slow nickel.

It's better to work hard for your money as it will feel more rewarding and most likely that money will be with you for a while. We can take this approach to that of getting money from your blog. Don't look to receive a bunch of money at first. It will come eventually.

Submit Articles, Increase Traffic, And No Penalty From Search Engines

2008-11-13T11:36:00.000-08:00

Writing articles and submitting them to article directories to either get paid or gain traffic is popular but there is a right way to do it.

Search engines are working diligently to erase duplicate content and if you submit the same article to many different sites and use it on yours, you could potentially be penalized or even banned. That is something that all of us don't want to happen. So how do you submit articles and continue to do it effectively without being penalized?

As I stated above don't send the same article to many different sites and especially don't post it on yours. Not only could you get penalized but it looks tacky if a readers reads your article at some site and then comes to yours because they liked it and see the same article on the front page.

The best way to submit articles and still receive that traffic we all desire is to create a series of articles. Writing a part one, two, and three will allow you to submit part one to an article directory and then post part two and three on your site. Make sure to include links on the article you submitted to your site where the other parts of the series are. Also include a link on your site to the article submitted so your readers can read all parts.

Here are a few sites to submit articles too..
Constant Content
Ezine Article Submission
Zinos.com eZine digest and database
Article City
Go Articles
Article Alley
SitePoint forum thread with hundreds more links to article submission sites

Importance Of Creating A Social Network Profile

2008-11-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

Most people have some sort of social network profile out there on the web. Whether thats a profile that's personal on MySpace or Facebook, or a profile on Twitter or Plurk for your website.

There are a few questions about social networking and creating a profile and I will try and answer them here.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Rozgonyi

Question 1: Why do I need to create a social network profile?
Creating and updating a social network profile will connect you with more people than just those searching through Google or Yahoo. Most social networking sites allow you to become friends with people which will connect you even more with them. Creating profiles at multiple sites can also bring more visitors to your site.

Question 2: How will this profile improve my site?
These profiles will allow you to create a community surrounding your site. Not only will people be able to comment on your site but they will be able to contact you through other means than email. This sort of contact is a lot more intimate than email. This community will follow your site and be loyal readers as most social networking websites will allow you to link your site.

Once you start to market your site through your social network profile, start marketing your social network profile through your site. This way they are interconnected and will expose them to the most people.

Question 3: Okay, so I made one, when do I combine my real life profile and my blogs social profile?
That is a very tricky question. It depends on if you are just blogging to express your opinions and ideas or you are trying to start a business. If your goal is to start a business than I would say combine them. You want to start building a brand (something I will talk about in a future post) and combing your two profiles will help start this. If you are just blogging to express your opinions and ideas than I would say keep them separate.

Question 4: Which social networking sites do I join and how many?
Basically if you spend a lot of time online than you can join multiple social networking sites and create profiles. But you want to make sure you can update them all. Don't create a Plurk profile and then never use it. You won't gain any friends nor will you help your site. This doesn't mean you need to update it multiple times a day like some people do, but at least keep it updated.

The kind of social networking sites depends on what niche your site is in. Facebook profiles and MySpace profiles will work for any site, but check out my big list of social networking websites and join a few that interest you and a few that are in your niche.

Twitter VS. Plurk: The Breakdown.

2008-11-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

Micro-blogging services have exploded lately and more and more people are using the two big ones, Twitter and Plurk. It's basically like texting but everyone you are friends with can see what you write. Most people are members of both but I'm going to lay out the differences of the two services.

Simplicity of making friends or accepting followers.
Twitter makes this very easy by allowing you to follow someone which means you can receive their tweets. If they follow you back then you are basically friends and you will both receive each others tweets.

Plurk has a system thats a little different. You can be a fan of someone and receive their plurks but they will not receive yours. With Plurk you have to ask to be someones friend just like other social networks. This system is very familiar to most people and I feel is the better of the two. Although, it seems to take a day or so for a new friend to show up on my friends list.

Tools, tools, applications, and more tools.
If you want to use some sort of tool or application with your micro-blogger service, then Twitter is your obvious choice. Tyler over at SMM Guru compiled a master list of Twitter tools and applications. Are this many tools necessary? No. It makes things way to complicated.

There are a few tools for Plurk, but for the most part, it's unnecessary. Plurk's messaging service allows you to reply to other people's messages directly in a little chat box and every time you login, it tells you how many new replies there are. The tools for Plurk in the link above just add a few new things to Plurk like polls or pictures while the tools for Twitter change the whole dynamic.

Very different layouts.
I am just going to come right out and say that Twitter's layout sucks. It's very bland and annoying. Yes you can use a tool instead of the actual Twitter site and you can change colors and add a picture to the background, but ultimately the programmers didn't design a great layout.

Plurk's layout on the other hand is very innovative and fun. The time line layout makes the messages easy to read and the ability to reply to each one allows for better communication. The karma idea isn't a new one to the internet as forums have started using it to try and deal with trolls, but it's a cool idea none the less. The higher karma you have the better options you have access too. It's quite easy to improve your karma which doesn't alienate those who have few friends.

Conclusion.
They are both great assets in helping build your social persona and being apart of both is most likely your best option. But, in my opinion Plurk is the better looking of the two. There are more people on Twitter but Plurk is steadily gaining ground. If you aren't a member of either you probably should be.

Do's And Don'ts Of Starting A Website Or Blog

2008-11-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

DO: Have everything programmed and set up before having the site go live. The design should be finished and all the links and pages should work. If your site isn't finished when people visit, they most likely won't return.

DO NOT: Expect a lot of visitors when you first start out. Your site is new and probably not in the search engines yet, but give it time. If you promote it correctly than the people will come.

DO: Attempt to start a community around your site. Blogs and forums with a large following are highly profitable. I've read of numerous sites being sold for over $50,000 all the way up to over 12 million dollars.

DO NOT: Start spamming your site every where once your site goes live. Generally people like to find new sites but if they see you posting comments with your link it on every site they visit or find you in every forum that frequent, that person won't come visit your site.

DO: Start social networking as soon as possible, hopefully before you start the site. Join social networks like Digg, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites that fit into your niche. Be active in them and this will enable you to have a social presence before your site goes live and possibly give you a small loyal readership in the beginning that can evolve into a large loyal readership.

DO NOT: Spend money on a domain or hosting unless you are going to be in it for the long haul. Domain names are relatively cheap but hosting can milk your bank account. So unless you plan on at least making some money with the site there is no reason to spend money.

DO: Write great original content that people will want to read. I've said it before and I will say it again, your site needs great content.

DO NOT: Steal content from other writers. It will make you look very bad and could prevent you from many future endeavors. Information on the internet spreads quickly and your reputation will be tarnished.

DO: Use other peoples content to enhance your site but ALWAYS give credit. I'm not saying use their words or the entire post, but if you can add a different perspective of a post you saw on another blog, link to it.

Lastly...

DO NOT: Give up. Your site will be small at first, but stick with it. The readers will come if you keep writing great stuff. The links will come if you immerse yourself into the online community.