So, you may have noticed that a couple of days ago I added a new widget into my blogs sidebar, if you didn’t then let me tell you about it a little more..

The widget is called “TweetRoll” and can be found on the website TweetBurn, it a handy widget that you can add to your blog/website that display not only your SponsoredTweets button but also show your twitter followers and a “follow me on twitter” link, which is very important to all us Twiter users

So how did I come across this widget?

Well I was going through my Twitter ReTweets and was visiting the blog of Twitter Friend Cornyman, who had kindly ReTweeted a couple of my tweets, while reading his post “TOP 3 Online money making Scams” I noticed the nice little widget on the side of his blog and thought to myself, now that could come in very useful

So what does this widget do?

Putting it simply the widget will show your Twitter followers on your sidebar, or anywhere else you wish to display it, but the thing which really grabbed my attention was the Sponsor a Tweet button! Now I use SponsoredTweets and it is a good source of revenue for any Twitter to use. So having a quick and easy way for visitor to see how much I charge for a SponsoredTweet and a button that is visible and easy to click on, really appealed to me.

Now I’m not saying that this is for everyone, but TweetRoll is fully customizable, so it can be made to fit in seamlessly into your blog. So if you are on Twitter and using SponsoredTweets then this widget is certainly one that you should consider placing on your blog

SponsoredTweets and TweetRoll in One Handy Widget.. is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Even More Handy Twitter Websites! (Twitter Tools)
2. Add my widget to your website!
3. Some Handy Websites for all you SEO Fanatics Out There

Gevalia Coffee – itsallfreeonline.com

How’s this for a brilliant offer for a limited time you can get 3 boxes of Gevalia coffee or tea, a free stainless steel mug, and FREE shipping for only $3. There are several dozen coffee flavours to choose from. A must for all coffee-holics like myself…

sponsored like

Karen Woodham’s profile on MyLikes

A Tasty Special Offer from Gevalia Coffee is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Latest Blogger Interview with Mike Crimmins from Daily Shot of Coffee
2. Do you know the true story of coffee?
3. Weekly Round Up – Interviews, Coffee, Goldfrapp, Christmas

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it…

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Matt Stratton, and I am the the Manager of Technical Operations for a major real estate classifieds website. Previously, I have designed and architected systems for some of the largest companies in the world, including GE and JPMorganChase. In my current position, I am responsible for strategic decisions for the design and implementation of system infrastructure, and researching emerging technologies such as cloud computing.

I’m also an avid photographer and former independent filmmaker, and live in the suburbs of Chicago with my wife, twin sons, and a Sheltie named Scout.

My main blog is Good Old Rock, but I also maintain a blog for updates on my new twin sons at http://strattonboys.com and I am a contributor to Today’s iPhone.

Q: Hi Matt, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: My blog technically started in 2001 as a LiveJournal. I don’t remember exactly what the catalyst for the initial startup was, but I wrote in that LiveJournal for about 7 years. Then, in late 2008, due to rumors of LiveJournal being shut down by Russians, I decided to migrate off of LJ to a self-hosted blog. I’ve had the domain name mattstratton.com for almost 13 years, but mostly used it on and off for website hosting and email. But I moved all of my old LiveJournal content to a WordPress installation on that domain, and the rest is history.

The name of my blog comes from a Simpsons episode:

Lisa: Look, there’s only one way to settle this. Rock-paper-scissors.
Lisa’s brain: Poor predictable Bart. Always takes `rock’.
Bart’s brain: Good ol’ “rock”. Nuthin’ beats that!
Bart: Rock!
Lisa: Paper.
Bart: D’oh!
– “The Front”

Unfortunately, there’s no actual reason for me to have named by blog after this episode, except for the fact that it always makes me laugh. And now…well, there’s just no turning back!

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: It takes up about as much time as I allow it to. If I schedule myself well, I can usually write a week’s worth of posts in about 2 hours…but I am not as diligent about that as I should be, so I often find myself writing a post when I can squeeze in a few minutes here and there during the day. This month (Feb 2010) I have committed myself to the 28 Day Blogging Challenge, which has definitely added to the time I spent blogging each week. I also contribute to a major iPhone blog, which adds to the time that it takes.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: Up until last week, the majority of my traffic was organic Google traffic. However, last Monday I received over 25,000 visitors from Reddit, which really changed that game. Generally speaking, however, I’m all about organic traffic. The rest of my visitors either come from shared links on Facebook or Tweets.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I use both Facebook and Twitter heavily to promote my blog. Every blog post is tweeted,and I get a fair amount of traffic from those tweets (depends a LOT on the post, of course, and how well I structured the tweet!). I used to share every blog post as a link on my personal Facebook page, but I’ve recently switched to using a Fan page for my blog (even though I hate the term “Fan” page), so that the links were more “opt in”.

I recommend both Facebook and Twitter for any blogger looking to build traffic, but I caution them to make sure that they don’t SOLELY use those networks to promote. People will not be interested in following you on Twitter if all you tweet are links to your blog, for example. If you engage in those social networks, your followers/friends will be far more likely to click on your links and read what you have to say.

Personally, if someone just uses Twitter to spew out links to their blog, I will tend to unfollow them quickly.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Write. Write great content. Write a lot. Write original content.

Don’t worry about traffic. If you great interesting content, the traffic will come. Forget about SEO and keywords when you start. Figure out what you are smart about, or what you have a voice about, and write about that.

Write well. Use spellcheck. Like it or not, your reputation and credibility will suffer if you look like a lazy writer.

And finally – network! Get to know other bloggers, but more than just for a link exchange. Engage other bloggers on Twitter or Facebook and build relationships.

Thanks Matt.

If you are interested in an interview on Blazing Minds then please use the Contact Me button at the top of the Blazing Minds blog..

Blazing Minds Interviews Matt Stratton From Good Old Rock is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Blazing Minds Interviews Gautam Hans from Blog Godown
2. Blazing Minds Interviews Karthikeyan from BlogrPro
3. Blazing Minds Interviews James from Zeitheist

I can hear you asking, what is ebuzzing? Well it’s a platform started in 2007 that brings advertisers and bloggers together and helps bloggers with make a bit of money by posting on their blogs. They do this by, as ebuzzing says, “relaying” campaigns from the advertisers to the readers of their blogs. Bloggers have several ways to monetize their blogs including broadcasting videos and creating content for brands. Ebuzzing is already operating in the UK and they are going to intensify their offer!

So what does this mean to bloggers in the UK, like myself? Well putting it simply, even more options for monetisation of their blogs and help with the funding for running a blog. You can monetise on your blog via video campaigns with a dedicated player,  video campaigns using “syndicated players” and banners. All campaigns (player and banner videos, and articles written) are about brands and services that you want to recommend to your readers

If you enjoy something, the majority of the time you will recommend it on your blog, so why shouldn’t you get paid for doing it? By recommending an advertiser on your blog you will get paid and this all adds up to a little bit of extra cash in your pocket. Also doing this sort of sponsored article will show that you have an expertise in the field you are blogging about, and over time you are likely to improve on your blog visits.

Ebuzzing has over 800 advertisers have proposed campaigns to bloggers with the help of ebuzzing such as Coca-Cola, Intel, MTV, L?Oréal, MasterCard, Toyota, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, eBay, Canon, Diesel, Warner Bros, Philips, and StudioCanal… Though ebuzzing requires the presence of the disclaimer “sponsored post” for all articles, and for the videos the name of the advertiser must be placed so that it is visible to all viewers.

To keep all the search engines happy all articles that are posted must be declared as a Sponsored Post and also all links are nofollow. Also posts must be of good quality and be at least two hundred and fifty words in length.

So what are you waiting for, stop by and register on ebuzzing.com today and start earning money from the blogging that you do.

Ebuzzing Launch in the UK is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. IZEA brings you sponsored tweets!
2. When Blogging There Is No Waiting Game
3. STRIKE! – It’s EntreCard No Droppers Day!

Those of you that have visited my blog over the last week or so, may of noticed a few polls that I have run in the sidebar, it’s a little experiment to find out about blogging platform that my readers use and what they use the most such as Twitter, Facebook etc.

So if you haven’t voted in any of these polls, then now is your chance to take part, I’ve added the polls to this post so you can easily vote on them, also if you are up to it and I’m hoping you are, leave a comment letting me know what you voted for and why you chose that option..

What Blogging Platform Are You Using and Why? is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Twiends a Tool to Help Increase Twitter Followers
2. Blogging Tips from Blazing Minds in 2009
3. Blogging Tips for Bloggers and Commentators

This is a guest post from Duncan who is an online marketing specialist and keen blogger representing an online vases retailer

There is a very common SEO technique for building links called “blog comment spamming”. This is very different from “blog commenting” and it is important that a distinction be made before we go any further. Blog commenting is taking a genuine interest in the blog post and leaving constructive feedback or questions in the comment section that ‘adds’ something to the post. Blog comment spamming on the other hand involves not evening reading the post in most cases and leaving some truly generic or mindless comment for the sole purpose of gaining a link. Most importantly, blog comment spamming often ‘takes’ something away from the post and in my opinion is not good for SEO for the following reasons.
1.)    Power Falls Off Quickly
It would be very hard for me to preach about the flaws in blog comment spamming without having any experience of the technique. So, whilst I’m not particularly proud of the fact, and at the risk of sounding like a hypercritic, I have testing this technique properly.  Initially I have seen gains in search engine rankings as a result of doing this, but in my experience there is very little longevity in the power given by such comment links. All the SEO techniques I use are aimed at providing sustainable results and comment spamming cannot provide this. If you are wanting to rank sites using comment spamming you are going to be stepping onto a treadmill that is very hard to get off, because if you stop running you and your site will fall flat on its face.

2.)    Bad Public Relations
Despite how clever you think you’re being, spammy comment links stand out a mile and legitimate blog readers hate them as much as the blog owners themselves. You could probably get away with a few spammy links here and there, but once you start committing yourself to more regular spammy activity, you’re in real danger of hurting your credibility. Have a think about it…would your purchase the goods or services of a site that you have seen spamming blogs left, right and centre? Most people wouldn’t, so if you don’t want your brand damaged by cheap link building techniques, you should limit such activities.

Here is an example of blatent comment spam on one of the UK’s most powerful websites
3.)    Google Knows
Lots of SEOs claim that Google (and other search engines) cannot tell the difference between spammy comment links and those links that are else ware on the page. I don’t believe this to be true, based largely on the evidence mentioned earlier about comment links losing their power relatively quickly. Additionally, Google is by no means stupid and can identify comment scripts very easily on most blogs. With this in mind, all it takes is for Google to decide they want to seriously de-value all comment links and wham! There goes all your “hard” work.

3 Reasons Why Blog Comment Spamming Is Not Good SEO is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Improve your RSS with Feedburner and Comment Luv
2. Link Development For A New Blog
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The other night I was thinking of a poem and the words Blazing Minds kept buzzing in my head so I started putting something together on my blackberry and out came a poem inspired by poker tournaments. Since the poem was titled Blazing Minds I saw it more than fitting to donate it to this website as it was the source of inspiration for the Title.

Blazing Minds

Blazing minds and burnt dreams
a past sundered with intention
rocking fortunes gathered
plans starting to unfold

Witty games take no prisoners
a liars cheat easily revealed
mind too slow for this ensemble
another player discarded in cards

Handful of masters, left standing
blazing minds with toasted nerves
a bet is placed to call them in
a bluff or truth about to unveil

A savage hand ends with a fold
queens kissing a wounded heart
a flush of royal seals them last
end as satisfying as the beginning

Poem by Dragon Blogger

If you enjoyed my poem you can read more than six hundred original poems on my Wanderer Thoughts Poetry blog where I play the Random Twitter Poetry every weekday where I take random words and craft a unique poem including all words played.

Blazing Minds – Guest poem by Justin Germino is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Blazing Minds Interviews Justin Germino aka Dragon Blogger
2. Guest Posts on Blazing Minds in 2009
3. Another Poem from Angus

I can’t believe how the weeks seem to fly by, it’s true what they say “The older you get, the shorter the days!” But enough of all that nonsense, on to the important stuff the weekly round-up of what’s been going in the last week here on Blazing Minds, Google seems to be top of the search engines last week and in the top visited posts the number one post had over 400 hits in the week, wicked! Another surprise was the top referring website was Twitter. So anyway, let’s get on with the stats. 

Blog Posts I’ve enjoyed reading:

1. How To Get Free Quick Backlinks From High PR Sites – ShoutMeLoud
2. Artist of the Week: Davidoth – Atom Sounds Blog
3. Decrease the Volume – Ohhh…. K!
4. How to increase Search Traffic – Blogging Tips
5. What’s your favorite day of the week ? and why ? – Comment DROP

Top Visited Posts:

1. Getting The Best Out of FollowFriday on Twitter (Update) – (Extremely Hot Post!)
2. How To Select All Your Facebook Friends When Inviting Them to a Page or Group etc
3. Did Removing Entrecard From My Blog Make Any Difference
4. Getting Your Music Released – Tunecore Vs CD Baby
5. What Are The Top 5 FireFox Add-Ons to Help With Blogging and Commenting

Top Referring Websites:

1. Twitter – 150
2. CMF Ads – 106
3. BlogEngage – 52
4. The Daily Meme – 39
5. StumbleUpon – 16

Top Search Terms:

1. tunecore vs cdbaby
2. how to select all friends on facebook
3. twitter websites
4. itunes complete my album
5. facebook select all friends

Search Engines

1. Google – 353
2. Yahoo – 104
3. Bing – 17
4. Ask – 2
5. AOL – 1

Top Commentators for the Week

1. John – 7 Comments
2. Dana -  6 Comments
3. Chandan – 4 Comments
   Hesham – 4 Comments
   Latief – 4 Comments

A recap of the posts from the week that you may of missed:

Well there we are for another week, many thanks to the top 5 commentators

Weekly Round Up – Twitter, FollowFriday, Google, FireFox Add-Ons is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Blazing Minds Weekly Round Up – Gravatar, Hootsuite, Google Buzz
2. Weekly Round Up – Twitter Websites, iTunes, Google
3. Weekly Round Up – Monkey Dust, Twitter Phishing, Google Pagerank

I’ve not done one of these Blogger Earnings posts for ages, so I thought it was about time that, I checked out how my blog has done over the last month, Blazing Minds is getting more popular lately and this seems to show on the earnings, though some sites such as SponsoredTweets, Magpie and Google Adsense haven’t pulled in as much as they usually do, but sometimes there is a slump in the earnings and I have noticed in the past the February always seem to be the month that slumps!

I was over the moon to get a payment from Google  Adsense and the £68.71 paid off my credit card, now if I could only get that every month, instead of waiting a few months for it to accumulate..

Any way here we are, my small earnings for February.

Magpie – £3.02
Paid Ad Space – £18.15
SocialSpark – £20.02
Google Adsense – £6.82

Total for February = £48.01 ($72.57)

Blazing Minds Blogger Earnings for February 2010 is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Blogger Interviews with Blazing Minds
2. Blazing Minds Monthly Round Up! For December 2009
3. Win Some Amazing Prizes in the Blazing Minds Competition (Extended)

I can quite honestly say that I’ve always been a big fan of FireFox, it’s quick, easy to use and it has a massive amount of add-ons that you can use to help you out with many a situation from simply browsing the internet to helping you out with your blogging, yes you read that right, there are several FireFox Add-Ons, that I personally use that you can use to help with your blogging.

So here in this post I bring you a list of the FireFox Add-Ons that I find useful, some at first you may not think they will help out you out with your blogging, but you will see that there is a method in my madness

SiteLauncher

Now this is a simple plugin that will allow you to create short cuts in Firefox and display a screen for you to get quick access to websites, I use this as a quick access to my blog as well as the blog that I Guest Post on, it’s just so simple to hit CRTL + SPACE to launch the panel to access them, you can also creat hot keys to get to the sites you use a lot quickly.

CoLT

Every week I create a post that is my Weekly Round-Up of my blogs stats as well as blogs I’ve read and enjoyed, using CoLT allows me to create a link to the blog in one very quick step, with this FireFox Add-On you when you click your right mouse button, you will be have an option of how copy a website URL plus information on the title of page, you can select HTML, Plain Text, BBCode, FuseTalk and Wikipedia style links. This allows me to quickly add the information straight into my blogs posts, quicker than typing it all in.

Copy Links

This is another plugin that will add a menu to your FireFox menus when clicking the right Mouse Button, but this one will enable you to copy all the links you may have selected, handy if there are  a lot of links on a page that you want to transfer to your blog post..

Easy Comment

Now this is when you want to make that commenting on blogs that tad bit quicker, remember commenting on blogs helps your backlinks etc, so commenting is a very important part of the blogging experience, with Easy Comment it will fill out the comment fields for you, once this FireFox Add-On is configured with your details, all you have to do is click the easyComent box on the bottom right of your FireFox browser and your information is automatically added to the fields in the comment box, so Name, Email and Website will be filled in for you, you can also set easyComment to allow you to have a default in the comment box..

Dictionary

Now this isn’t so much as a single plugin, as there are so many FireFox Dictionary Add-Ons available, but for whatever language you speak, these come in extremely useful when typing out your blog, as the Dictionary Add-Ons will underline an incorrectly spelt word with a red wavy line, showing you that you have a misspelt word, hovering over the word and clicking on the right mouse button will give you a list of possible spellings for you to choose from, I’ve linked to the English one in this post, but if you search FireFox Add-Ons for “Dictionary” you will find a good choice.

What Are The Top 5 FireFox Add-Ons to Help With Blogging and Commenting is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. My Top FireFox plugins for Twitter
2. Need to Find Blogs to Read and Comment On? Try BlogEngage
3. How to make your FireFox Browser look great with Personas

OK it’s been a while since I actually posted a photo a day, but I have been busy and I have been uploading them to flickr But today I had to pop into BMW in Llandudno to have part of my steering wheel replaced, it was the part where the Mini badge is, it has a faux leather texture on it, which had started peeling off, this was a fault in the part, so I got a new one fitted under my Mini warranty.

So I arrived at 9 this morning and waiting in the customer lounge, had a couple of free cappuccinos while I waited and just after 10 I was given back my electronic key and told everything else was ok and they had washed the car! OMG now is that service or what, it only went in to change the part on the wheel and they check everything else and wash it, wow.

Though I must say that I washed it yesterday and to be picky I made a better job of it, but it does take me 2½ when I do it

So to BMW, next door to Halliwell Jones in Llandudno, thanks guys you rock

Check out more photos in my Photo A Day project on Flickr.

Project 365 – Photo A Day #64: New Steering Wheel for my Mini is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Project 365 – Photo A Day #52 – #55
2. Project 365 Photo A Day #29: Counting The Miles!
3. Project 365 Photo A Day: Window View

This is a guest post from Duncan who is an online marketing specialist and keen blogger representing a producer of natural beauty products and skin care products.

Blogging has come on a long way since its infancy. All bloggers could do back in the day was write a post, give it a title and maybe include a few hyperlinks if they were lucky. Nowadays however there are all sorts of widgets, plugins and extensions to help make the blogging experience a richer one, both for blog owners and their readers. WordPress has undoubtedly had a big part to play in this development, allowing the masses to develop the open source code and customise blogs to suit their needs. The other blogging platforms aren’t too far behind however and their progress is driven by the very human desire to make things better and more engaging.

One such development that many blog owners are taking advantage of these days is music players that they can either embed into their posts or individual pages. A couple of examples of these are the ‘Audio Player’ plugin for WordPress , which can actually be imbedded in any blog if you know a bit of code. Or Groove Shark, which is a customisable widget that will play music on your blog from their own diverse and extensive collection.

Using music on your site can really enhance a visitor’s experience. If you are trying to create an ambiance or have a clear theme on your blog, music can reinforce this. You might also like to showcase your own music on your site so you can get feedback or maybe catch the ear of someone in the industry? What you need to be careful of however is crossing the line between enhancing a users experience and putting them off by forcing your audio choices on them.

It is worth remembering that everyone has different tastes and may not like the music on your blog. Also, these days many people have their own music players open whilst browsing the net and don’t want their songs interrupted by what you think they want to listen to. With this is mind it is rarely a good idea to have music start playing automatically when people arrive on the site, but instead give them the option to turn it on if they so wish.

For example, on this site the music player is closed when people arrive

But if you want to you can open the music player by clicking on the arrow and the song starts to play. In this case it is Michael Jackson’s – Man In The Mirror…classic!

The key is, by all means give your visitors something to listen to when they visit your site and read your posts, but don’t try to force anything down their throats or assume they want to listen to your choice of tunes.

Using Music on Your Blog – Carefully is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. WordPress Plugins I find useful for Blog Posting
2. Link Development For A New Blog
3. What to do when you have a holiday away from your blog?

Welcome one and all to another in my serious of blogger interviews, these interviews may bring you more about bloggers you may know and even bring to your attention to a blogger that you may of never heard off and will of discovered through Blazing Minds, so please read on and enjoy.

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: My name is Brad Reason. In the virtual world “Second Life” I am known as Doubledown Tandino. My hometown is Baltimore, Maryland. I am currently living in South New Jersey and also in Manhattan, New York. I am a professional music creator and DJ, Second Life specialist, and a new media marketing specialist. I combine performance and creative arts with technology and the internet.

Q: Hi Brad, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: My blog: http://djdoubledown.blogspot.com started in 2007. Originally, it was a niche blog that focused on the DJ, music, and nightlife scene within Second Life. As time went on, I expanded my blogging topics to include music technology, internet broadcasting, social media, viral and trending aspects of the web, while still also keeping up with Second Life and virtual world music, performance, art, and creativity.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Blogging specifically does not take up a lot of my time, but being inside Second Life to find topics to blog about does. Using Second Life is a full-time job. Using social media and web 2.0 is also a full-time job. Blogging is an integral aspect to everything that I do. Getting people to read and follow my blog sometimes takes up more time than actually blogging.

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: My traffic comes from a combination of utilizing Second Life, as well as using social media outlets such as twitter, facebook, friendfeed, linkedin, and many more. The combination of aggregation I have set up is the force that drives people to my blog.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I find myself testing generally all of the social networking and social media sites out there. Any new media site that comes along, I give it a try, and test it’s tools. Facebook, Twitter, and now Google Buzz seem to work best currently, but because the social media world is shifting constantly, I am adjusting on a daily basis.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: Just start! Do it! Stop thinking about it and just start! Now! immediately! There’s no reason to wait. There’s no reason to second guess. There’s no reason to put it off thinking that you may not gain readership or a following. Initially, a blog is about you and what you feel you can write about… so do it. Disregard thinking about what may or may not happen. Just get some blog posts posted. Claim your presence in the blog world by actually posting blog articles. Later in the blogging game is when you will want to consider how to gain readership. Consider the first weeks of blogging as a journal for yourself. Months down the road is when opportunities, connections, and possibilities open up.

Thanks Brad.

If you are interested in an interview on Blazing Minds then please use the Contact Me button at the top of the Blazing Minds blog..

Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger Brad Reason is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Blazing Minds Interviews Blogger, Benjamin Lang
2. Blogger Interviews with Blazing Minds
3. Blazing Minds Interviews Gautam Hans from Blog Godown

the first time i let my heart decide
what i shall and shan’t abide
things became so clear to me
as i rose up from drudgery

the last time i let my feelings go
i ever so much just wanted to show
a girl i liked a part of my world
and to her hand my heart unfurled

but this time seems so different
to that would-be love left negligent
she shines like silver green-eyed fire
for once let me have what i desire

————————————————-

I write a lot of poetry. Sometimes they find their ways into songs, other times they just lay there in a folder and are never seen by anyone. You, the net, are the first persons to see this particular one apart from myself. I think there’s something really interesting about that. About the first time you share something with someone. There are two “me”s: the me that everyone else perceives from the way I act and communicate, and then there’s the me that I know. I hope one day to be able to share the me I know, in all it’s darkest despair and brightest glory, with someone else. Poetry is a window into one part of the private mind, as are songs, as is painting. These things are important for without them that “I” that lives completely within oneself would truly never be seen by anyone else except that individual. Philosophically speaking, you could say then that “I” doesn’t exist unless these windows are opened. Unless the “me” that I know is shared, even through a tiny window of poetry, all you see is the “me” that you form in your own mind from my interactions with you. A shell. One thing that drives an artist is a desire to open these windows, to share the “me”, the “I” that I know with someone else.

And just like that, as you move onto another page, the window closes, and I am lost in the sea of “Everyone Else” again.

Write some poetry.

Another Poem from Angus is a post from Blazing Minds

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Related posts:

1. Blazing Minds – Guest poem by Justin Germino
2. Greetings from Angus a New Guest Blogger
3. Poetry – Become One With Me

Sometime back I mentioned that I was going to remove the EntreCard widget from my blog, so has it made any difference since removing the widget from Blazing Minds?

Well to put it simply, no!

I think it all boils down to the fact that since Blazing Minds has taken off more than I would have dreamed of and to those Guest Bloggers that have written some pretty amazing Guest Posts, the traffic hasn’t diminished at all and the traffic is still coming in strong from the various sources where Blazing Minds can be found such as the search engines, social networks etc.

So as long as you blog has taken off and is past the infant stage and has good followers, commentators that enjoy reading the blogs posts and those that are willing to either ReTweet your posts or spread them on other social networks, then that is probably the time start reducing widgets that are of no longer of any use on your blog.

Don’t get me wrong, EntreCard has brought to my attention some great blogs which I do still read, via my trusty RSS Reader, but as time has gone by, time is tight and dropping via the EntreCards was not on my list of top priorities.

It’s now down to blogging and keeping my readers interested in the article etc that are posted here on Blazing Minds, so shouts out to my Guest Bloggers, Commentators and those of you who are avid fans of the bizarre world of the Blazing Minds blog

Did Removing Entrecard From My Blog Make Any Difference is a post from Blazing Minds

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa. Fancy more followers then check out Twiends.

Related posts:

1. Blogging Tips for Bloggers and Commentators
2. The EntreCard Paid Ads Debate Continues On!!
3. I’m not sure if I should drop EntreCard or not!