Ms. Ileane's Blog

Remembering September 11th, 2001

2017-09-11T05:30:00.000-04:00

R. I. P. Kevin L. Bowser

And all of the other September 11th victims. We will never forget you.

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/people/3671.html

FeedBurner Delicious Links and CommentLuv

2010-07-11T10:37:00.004-04:00

FeedBurner, which is wholly owned by Google, is a useful service that serves many purposes for bloggers as well as blog readers. Here's a really short list of the benefits of creating or burning a feed of your blog with FeedBurner.

Your readers can stay on top of updates to your blog or website via Google Reader and a long list of other feed readers
Your readers can sign up to receive email notifications each time your blog or site is updated which you can use for list building
You can create an account with CommentLuv and add your blog's feed to create a backlink on blogs with the CommentLuv plugin installed from your last 10

Remember I said this is only a short list. There are many uses for FeedBurner, and in the past I have demonstrated other FeedBurner tools like how-to send your RSS feeds to Twitter and adding FeedFlare to FeedBurner which allows for easy sharing to social networks including del.icio.us, Google Buzz, Twitter, Digg, and Facebook.

I am inspired to write this post based on a question that appear in a comment on this blog from my friend Gary of Lawmacs involving his feed for CommentLuv. It seems that the feed for Gary's CommentLuv account included his links from del.icio.us instead of his blog posts when he was leaving the comment here. I think others might find themselves in this same predicament so here's the fix.

First let me say that there's so many features and options in FeedBurner that it's terribly easy to forget the options that we selected, how each one works, and how they will enhance our feeds. In the case of del.icio.us links appearing in your CommentLuv list, go to the Link Splicer setting options of your FeedBurner account (pictured below).

DEACTIVATE LINK SPLICER!

Here's what to do step-by-step:

Go to the Optimize Tab at the top

Scroll down to the Link Splicer settings from the list on the left

Deactivate del.icio.us or any other service you previously added

The point of Link Splicer is to insert links from these other sources and "splice" them in among your traditional blogpost links. In the screenshot you will notice that Link Splicer is not activated for my blog's feed. When you have a CommentLuv account I suggest that you deactivate Link Splicer as well - UNLESS your use of CommentLuv is an exception to the rule and you have a very specific reason to promote your del.icio.us, Furl, Digg, etc. links on CommentLuv enabled sites. If you do, I would love to hear about it in the comments because it does sound like a very unique and creative use for CommentLuv.

Here's a list of recommended reading (another short one) that go into more detail about the benefits of having a CommentLuv account and installing the CommentLuv plugin for Blogger or WordPress:

How CommentLuv Works - from CommentLuv owner Andy Bailey

How CommentLuv Grows Businesses and Blogs - by Gail Gardner from GrowMap and the Editor of CommentLuv

The Really Sneaky CommentLuv Trick for Better Blog Marketing and Promotion by Karl Foxley of FMSSEO and the post that convinced me to sign up for CommentLuv

The Biggest Blog Commenting Folder in the History of Blogging - Hesham of FamousBloggers.net has linked to every post featured in the Famous Bloggers Comment Luv Blogging Contest (the deadline for the contest is extended to July 13th)

CommentLuv Gives Your Blog Heart - my post on the benefits of CommentLuv for WordPress.com, Blogger, Wordpress and other blog platform users as well which includes detailed instructions on adding default links to your Comluv account

Just like my friend Gary, if you ever have questions about anything about on this blog including FeedBurner, CommentLuv or blogging in general, please feel free to ask.

Happy Blogging!

CommentLuv Gives Your Blog Heart

2010-07-04T13:05:00.011-04:00

CommentLuv can be used to promote your blog in many ways. Lucky for me, I can use CommentLuv here on this Blogspot blog thanks to a plugin from IntenseDebate.
Unfortunately, at this time CommentLuv is not available as part of the commenting system on my WordPress.com blog due to the limitations placed on all WordPress.com bloggers that exclude the use of scripts. If you're a WordPress.com blogger don't let that stop you from opening an account and registering your blogs for CommentLuv.

"There are 3,014 active ComLuv blogs (blogs with CommentLuv installed and working) and 24,821 registered ComLuv users (people who have registered with CommentLuv to be able to choose on of their last ten posts or use default links)."

My advice, regardless of your blogging platform, register your blogs for a CommentLuv account today!

Right now there's a fabulous contest going on over at CommentLuv which is sponsored in conjunction with another one of my favorite blogs FamousBloggers (you can see the Grand Tour of FamousBloggers here). This contest is offering over $3,550 worth of cash prize awards that will be shared with at least 20 bloggers. I'm glad that I don't have to decide the winner of this contest because the quality of the posts is exceptional and there is no shortage of bloggers that can attest to the benefits of using CommentLuv. This #FBCL contest is bringing the best out of everyone involved and each submission is a classic example of what I mean when I say "CommentLuv Gives Your Blog Heart."
It's one of the most friendly, fun"luv"ing competitions I've seen with each blogger supporting each other's posts by commenting, retweeting and promoting them on every social network on the planet!
One of the contest submissions (I'm not going to say which one until the contest is over) inspired me to create this video. In the video I demonstrate how to add a default link to your CommentLuv account. You see, adding a default link will give you the flexibility to include links from your older blog posts in your CommentLuv signature. That way whenever you comment on a CommentLuv enabled blog (like this one for example) you have additional links to choose from including your favorite post, no matter how far back it is in your timeline! This also gives you added flexibility to include one of your links that's more closely related to the content of the post you're commenting on.

In the video I promised to tell you how you can get credits for your CommentLuv account. There are really four ways you can do this, but this one is my favorite:

"Write an awesome tutorial on your own CommentLuv enabled site about how to use the features of the ComLuv site or plugin. Especially if it has step by step images."

Give your blog some heart and sign up or add default links to your CommentLuv account today! I suggest you follow Andy Bailey, Gail Gardner from GrowMap and Hesham from FamousBloggers on Twitter. If you have questions, holla at your girl (that's me).

Now you can watch my CommentLuv Video Playlist containing every video tutorial I recorded on the topic can be found in CommentLuv Video Tutorial Playlist on YouTube.

Smooches! ♥
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Google Buzz Extension & Wibar Widget

2010-05-16T14:14:00.004-04:00

Chrome Extension - TaggingBuzz

I am a huge fan of Google Chrome and all of the fabulous Chrome extensions. There's a new extension for Google Buzz called TaggingBuzz. This extension was announced on May 10th by the up and coming developer Nori Hamamoto and it was created exclusively for Google's Chrome Browser. TaggingBuzz allows you to add comma-separated tags to your buzzes in your stream to help you keep track of what matters to you most on Buzz.

Wibiya Adds Buzz To Toolbar

At the foot of this blog you'll see the Wibiya toolbar. I demonstrated how to install the Wibiya toolbar before and I'm real excited to see that they have added toolbar options to include Google Buzz. This is the best Buzz sharing toolbar widget I've seen yet. Your blog visitors can:

See your latest Buzz posts
View your Google Profile
Follow you on Buzz
Share your blog posts to Buzz

I've tried a few other toolbars, but with this new widget Wibiya has my vote. I know that some of you are looking for a good way to build up some interest and some momentum for your Buzz and this is a great way to engage your readers. Here's a video to show you how these tools work.

Using the Wibiya toolbar is a great way reduce your bounce rate and keep your readers engaged with more of your "social" content without ever leaving your blog. Showing your Buzz feed on the toolbar will help spread the word about Buzz, and after you build up your Buzz content, TaggingBuzz will help keep it organized and searchable.

Are you going to start tagging your Buzz?

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Matt Mullenweg Discusses the Past, Present and Future of WordPress

2010-05-15T12:17:00.002-04:00

Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress. In this video, filmed at WordCamp San Francisco 2010, Matt talks about how and why he created WordPress. He also gives a thorough overview of what to expect in WordPress 3.0. The great thing about this talk is the Q & A session at the end and the way that Matt interacts with the audience. He spends quite a bit of time discussing the new feature on WordPress.com called "Surprise Me".

What do you think of WordPress and the changes coming in 3.0?

FeedBurner FeedFlare Now Posts To Google Buzz

2010-05-02T08:20:00.004-04:00

Image via CrunchBase

I use FeedBurner (which is now owned by Google) to handle subscriptions for my blogs. It's another free service that Google offers and it comes with a boatload of customizations.

If you aren't using FeedBurner you can get it from http://feeds.feedburner.com. It's easy to generate a feed for your blog just by entering your blog url and giving your feed a name. If your totally lost about what a RSS feed is, in simple terms it's another way for your readers to know that you have added new content without them visiting your blog. They can get notified in a several ways but the most popular is through a feed reader (like Google Reader) or via email.

There are several features you can add to customize your feed with FeedBurner and FeedFlare is great because it gives you the option to add "Flare" to your feed and to your blog. This feature was updated recently to include Google Buzz as an option.

What You Need to Get Started With FeedBurner

A Blog with some content (at least one post)
FeedBurner Feed for your blog
Gmail account with Buzz turned on

From the FeedFlare menu, select the links that you want to appear at the bottom your feed or blog. Notice that next to each choice you can pick "Feed" or "Site". You can see that I want the "Post To Google Buzz" link to appear in my feed and on my blog (or site). Go though each of these options and pick the ones that best suit your needs.

Get the HTML code to put FeedFlare on your site gives instructions for Blogger, Moveable Type, WordPress and others. I added FeedBurner FeedFlare to this Blogger blog and you will see the links in the footer of each post. Now if one of my readers clicks "Post to Google Buzz" this is the page they will see and once they click "Post" your content will be shared to all of their Buzz followers.

So go ahead and update your FeedBurner settings to include FeedFlare and add the "Post to Buzz" option. If you need tips for getting started using Google Buzz check out A Growing List of Top Google Buzz Tips, you can also follow me on Buzz.

Sharing YouTube videos on Google Buzz is much easier now too, but don't overdue it. Follow these step-by-step instructions for controlling all of your YouTube activity settings.

Let me know what you think of this tutorial and if you plan on adding the Buzz share options to the FeedFlare on your blogs RSS.

Top 10 Ways To Improve My Blogspot Blog

2010-04-03T14:51:00.003-04:00

Blogger users have recently seen a great number of improvements to the free blogging platform from Google. But the service has a long way to go compared to self-hosted WordPress or even WordPress.com blogs. Personally I'm on a mission to find ways to improve this Blogger blog and I'm using several hacks that are making a big difference (especially the Intense Debate, CommentLuv enabled commenting system).
Blogging Challenges
The redesigned layout of this blog using Blogger's new Template Designer looks good too. Yet many challenges remain along the path to blogging success.

Blog more frequently - last month I published 2 posts, I think once a week would make a difference
Create A Custom background image - I should create custom branding and a logo for this blog also
Improve Google Page Rank and Alexa Rank - I have no where to go but up!
Improve Image Quality - most of my images are generated by suggestion the Zemanta extension
Improve Ad placement - some ads are too long and most are ineffective
Invite Guest Posts - would you like to guest post here? Please let me know.
Create more backlinks - start leaving this url on DoFollow and CommentLuv enabled blogs
Increase Promotion Efforts - I can post more blog links to Twitter, FaceBook and Google Buzz
Keyword Research - I can use more long tail keyword phrases
Reduce page load time - here's a report from Pingdom indicating areas for improvement

Many bloggers might say that I should add a #11 to this list - and that would be the ultimate challenge of migrating this blog to a self-hosted WordPress blog with my own domain name :)
Blogging Inspiration
I was inspired to write this post by Brian from Blog Engage and the Weekly Writing Challenge. I encourage you to join the Blog Engage writing challenge each week. It's a great way to exercise your ~~brain~~ blogging muscles. You can also share your thoughts on ways to improve your blog in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you.

Good News for Blogger Users

2010-03-27T21:05:00.004-04:00

Image via CrunchBase

I'm sure by now you've heard about the improvements happening for Blogger blogs. Even WordPress users can feel the excitement that's been generated by the introduction of Blogger's new Template Designer. This short video clip from Blogger in Draft has the right music to get you pumped!

There is one word of caution that I must pass on to you, please remember that any customizations you added to your original template will be lost. According to the Blogger in Draft Blog:

Customizations to widget templates will be cleared when applying a new template to preserve the new layout. If you have made changes to your widget templates, save them first by going to Layout > Edit HTML and clicking “Download Full Template.” You’ll be able to copy them back in as needed after you apply your new template.

I changed my template as soon as these new features became available without realizing that I would loose the Intense Debate Commenting System that I installed awhile ago. I reinstalled Intense Debate with CommentLuv and some other hacks like the Blog Engage Vote button too (I ♥ Blog Engage).

Now I'm debating if I should install the Tweetmeme Retweet button or not. I think that most readers find it easy to use the Wibiya toolbar to retweet my posts. BTW - when I updated my template I did not need to reinstall the Wibiya toolbar, which was really nice.

What do you think, should I install Tweetmeme or will you retweet this post from the Wibiya toolbar?
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Best Blogger Hackers

2010-03-04T06:22:00.003-05:00

Creating a blog using Google Blogger has come a long way in the last few months. I've gained a new respect for using this free blogging service because of the upgrades Goggle has made. But I really owe a lot to the dedicated bloggers are that constantly seeking new ways to improve the performance of Blogger by using hacks for Blogger customization.

These bloggers are kind enough to share their Blogger Hacks and Blogger Tricks with us in these fantastic blog posts:

Suresh from IctTrends

Apply CommentLuv for Blogger Blogs from Suresh at IctTrends

Kickass Alternative Commenting System for Blogger from Gautam at Blog Godown

How to Backup and Modify Your Blogger Template from Bob Knows the Net

How to Add Blog Engage Vote Button in Blogger from Salman at Blogging Tips

When you get a chance, check out my recent tutorial that can help any blogger add related content to their blogs. This is a plugin or extension called Zemanta that I shared in a guest post called Blog More Efficiently with The Zemanta Google Chrome Plugin. This plugin works with almost every blogging platform and every browser.

Do you have a favorite Blogger Hack? Please leave a comment and share it with us.

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Guest Bloggers Lend A Helping Hand

2010-02-23T05:39:00.004-05:00

You should always set goals for your blog. Hopefully, one of your goals is to provide fresh content for your readers to enjoy so that they will visit your blog often in search of something new. The goal that I have for this blog in 2010 is helping bloggers. But it seems that I've been the one getting help from other bloggers recently in the form of what's known as a guest post.
A guest post is mutually beneficial for the blogger and for their guest. It helps add variety to your content and gives your readers a chance to hear a different point of view. It also helps fortify relationships.

Recently I was honored to have 3 of my blogging friends share their talents by offering to guest post on my blogs and here they are:

Karen from Blazing Minds is featured on Ms. Ileane Speaks in An Introduction from Karen @ Blazing Minds

Erica from EricaSays.com is featured on Engaging With Ms. Ileane Speaks in Social Networking in 2010

Jimi from JimiJones.com is featured in Blogging Legacy - Have You Considered Yours?

I think the "Blogging Gods" are smiling on me in order for me to be so fortunate to have such prolific bloggers featured on my blogs. Each one is also a member of the Blog Engage community for bloggers, which I am also proud to be a member of. Please visit their blogs and enjoy more articles from these excellent writers. If you're interested in doing a guest post on any of my blogs please let me know in the comments.

If your looking for guest bloggers and you're not sure where to turn, you should visit the guest post forum MyBlogGuest to hook up with bloggers that are interested in guest posting.

VOTE FOR THIS POST AT BLOG ENGAGE

Build an Online Profile for Your Blog with Retaggr

2010-02-07T16:06:00.006-05:00

Building brand awareness and increasing your accessibility on social sites is an important component of your online portfolio. Establishing an online profile is an excellent way accomplish this goal. Retaggr is a service that allows you to create "The Definitive Online Profile".

Watch this video to learn how-to Create an Online Profile for Your Blog with Retaggr.

As you can see I've added the Retaggr widget to the side bar on the left here at Ms. Ileane's Blog. Retaggr also generates the embed code for your online profile in your choice of shapes and sizes including a profile card like the example below, a professional email signature and a complete profile page.

You can customize the online profile by adding usernames from as many social networks as you wish. There's even an option to reorder where the icons appear in the list, so that you can move networks that are vital to the branding of your blog to the top. I moved the WordPress icon to the top of my listing for easy access to my primary blog Ms. Ileane Speaks. If you have a FriendFeed account, Retaggr will pull the user names from all of your linked accounts at once.

Joella Molson goes into more details about Online Hosted Profile Pages - An Alternatives For a Blog About Page on her site BlogsWithWings.
Do you need an online profile, or have you created one already? Let me know so that we can connect!

Get The Wibiya Toolbar For Your Blog

2010-01-31T10:50:00.008-05:00

I first heard about the Wibiya toolbar from Rahsheen in his post on Black Web 2.0 called How to Wibiyafy Your Blog.

I remembered seeing these toolbars at the foot of some blogs before but I had no idea how easy it is to install.

I found out more about the Wibiya toolbar in a post from Joella Molson of Blog With Wings in her post titled Ready to Review the Wibiya Toolbar Did You Play With It? Here's some of what Joella had to say about Wibiya in her review:

I found the toolbar to be very versatile and highly configurable by the user. It stays pinned at the bottom of the page where it is mostly out of the way and can optionally be closed by your readers. Users can instantly access applications that encourage users to stay longer, gives them various ways to promote your blog, provide you feedback as well as options to connect to and interact with you and your other visitors.

I agree with both bloggers that you should at least give it a try and here's a video I recorded Using the Wibiya Toolbar - Ms. Ileane Speaks Episode #014

As you can see in the video, I installed the toolbar on my Blogger blog using a widget. If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog you can download the Wibiya plugin. If you don't want to install the plugin you can find an alternate set of instructions from Wibiya Community Powered Support on Get Satifaction

Joella points out one important option that will help with load times. From your Wibiya dashboard in your account be sure to go to Troubleshooting and check Activate Toolbar After Page Load.

Rahsheen's post covers using Wibiya Badges and you can follow the Wibiya Blog to stay up to date with new features and changes to the toolbar. I think it's a great addition to the blog. How about you, have you tried it or do you plan to try it in the future? I value your feedback.

UPDATE: Wibiya has introduced a great Buzz widget that you can add to your toolbar. This Buzz widget lets visitors see your latest Buzz, ReBuzz your Buzzes, follow you on Buzz and add the blog post they are viewing to Buzz!

Blogger Commenting System Is Not On Stable Ground

2010-01-20T18:15:00.004-05:00

Historically Blogger, the free blogging software from Google, has received less than favorable reviews for their blog commenting system. IMO this is one area where Blogger pales in comparison to the blog comment software that comes preloaded on free blogs from WordPress.com.

The truth of the matter is, with the standard Blogger commenting system, comments are quite often lost as if they are being sucked down into the black hole of cyberspace. Blog visitors can carefully craft a witty or helpful comment, select from a pre-filled list of methods for identification, hit enter and - puff their comments are lost and a second request for id verification is launched.

A word of advice to anyone that has decided to use Blogger for their blog. I recommend you install an advanced blog comment system like Intense Debate or Disqus before you publish your first post. I decided to install the Intense Debate commenting system on this blog a few days ago and I’m pleased with the outcome. I was so excited to install Intense Debate that as it turns out I rushed through the process without exploring all of configuration options.

Lucky for me I read several blogs during the course of a day and I came across this post Apply CommentLuv for Blogger Blogs from ICT Trends. As the post explains, what I didn't notice when I signed up for Intense Debate post is that you can install various plugins with your setup including the CommentLuv plugin.

If you are not familiar with CommentLuv, I recommend you read about the importance of adding it to your blog in this post from Kikolani's blog Reasons to Love CommentLuv Blogs.

This is one case in favor of choosing Blogger over WordPress.com for your free blogging software. But no matter what type of blogging software you take advantage of, you should sign up for a free account at CommentLuv so that your posts will be recognized when you leave comments on other blogs with the plugin installed.

Let me know what you think about Intense Debate and CommentLuv and rather you have it installed on your blog or not.

UPDATE: Due to popular demand I created how-to video instructions for installing the Intense Debate commenting system and CommentLuv plugin on Blogger in this post How-To Install CommentLuv on Blogger

Thanks For All Your Help!

2010-01-14T00:00:00.004-05:00

Ahh! This is sweet music to my ears. This is a tweet that I received from my daughter's best friend the other day. She's a budding entrepreneur with a fabulous Online Boutique called Pretty Unused. She's more of a Twitter user than my daughter, and when she has a Twitter question she often comes to me. The other day she asked an excellent question about using Buzzom for feed management, and she was very appreciative of my responses. Here's a link to my how-to podcast videos about Buzzom.

This is a classic example of why blogging and social networking have become such a huge part of my life that they keep me up at night. I really love the experience I'm getting and it's rewarding to feel as though I'm helping others.

Fix For Annoying Commenting System on Blogger

2010-01-08T18:57:00.002-05:00

Did you ever try to leave a comment on a Blogspot blog and after you hit submit your comment vanished into cyber space? That used to happen on this blog. If it's any consolation to my readers I can say that it would even happen to me when I replied to your comments. I found it very annoying.

That should change after today, because I just installed the IntenseDebate commenting software to help improve audience participation and the increase the level of engagement here at Ms. Ileane's Blog.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Blogging Goal - Helping New Bloggers in 2010

2010-01-06T05:46:00.006-05:00

I started blogging in July of 2009 and I’ve been encouraged by the positive feedback from my readers to continue blogging well into the next decade. In case you don’t know, I have a WordPress.com blog called Ms. Ileane Speaks where I offer tips for blogging, podcasting, Twitter promotions and talk about “anything else that comes to mind”.

Since I was new to blogging at the time, I had no idea what the difference was between the various free services like Blogger and WordPress.com, so I started this blog to discover the advantages of each platform and to keep track. The whole concept was actually a challenge from my long-time friend Kissie who remains committed to her Blogger appropriately named Ohhh....K! but gave in and created a blog on WordPress.com too called Say Whatever I Like. I'm very thankful that she encouraged me to start this project and we help each other every day.

As I began to consider my blogging goals for 2010 I thought about changing the focus of this blog or eliminating it altogether. In the end, I decided to continue this blog with the goal of helping other new bloggers, or newbies as they like to call us, to become familiar with the features of WordPress.com, Blogger and perhaps other free blogging platforms like Posterous. I’d also like to promote this blog more, with the hope that through the use of video tutorials and comparison articles, I can make the decision process that much easier for the next newbie to come along.

One tip that I would like to share now with the readers of this blog (newbie or not) is the benefits of joining the Blog Engage community of bloggers. Blog Engage a site exclusively dedicated to helping bloggers. Here’s the description from Brian, owner of Blog Engage:

Blog Engage allows you to submit your Blog Article(s) that will be reviewed by all and will be promoted by me or our visitors to the main page.

Take a look at the video I created 2 weeks after joining the Blog Engage community in November. This is by far the most popular video on my YouTube Channel.

Let me know what you think, or share your resolutions and blogging goals for 2010. If you are a new blogger who has questions, share them with me and if I don't know the answer, I'll help find it.

Blogger Struggles Against Offerings from WordPress

2009-12-06T13:56:00.005-05:00

Twittley.comTwitter social networking

I continue to run across blog articles discussing the pros and cons of using Blogger and WordPress (both free and self-hosted). Though it might not be fair to compare the paid WordPress to the free Blogger platform, some of the points made in this first post apply to WordPress.com, (the free service) also.

From Blog Godown - Why You Should Convert Your Blogger Blog to Self Hosted Wordpress provides an argument that I don't see often:

Multi-Author Blogs and Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging and Multi Author blogging is a mess in Blogger, because there is no way to moderate posts submitted by other authors. In comparison to this, Wordpress has the ability to moderate posts and also assign roles to content submitters as Authors, Contributors or Admin. This way you can easily control and decide which authors should be moderated and which should be allowed to have full control.

Gautam, the author further explains in his reply to my comment:

That is because i have faced problems with guest blogging in blogger and wordpress has a lot of features that make it a better platform for guest and multi author blogging

Another point from Gautam's post addresses the issue of SEO which enables your blog to be found by users of search engines like Google and Bing.

In Blogger, you can do SEO for images and Posts by adding the the meta keywords and alt tags for each post manually.

For those that are familiar with meta-tagging, please let me know how that is working for you.

In a post from Robert Bravery of Integral Web Solutions Which is better Blogger.com vs. Wordpress.com? cites ease of blog importing as one of many reasons to use WordPress.com

Blog Import: In Blogger - limited availability to import and export only in the same blogging platform; in WordPress - you can import from several other platforms, including from Blogger.

Michael Aulia of Craving Tech wrote an article for NuffNang Australia called Better Blogging - Wordpress vs. Blogger offers another free Blogger vs. paid WordPress comparison. However, he points out something worth mentioning, about adding "static pages" which is also true for the free version of WordPress.

Static Pages

With WordPress, it’s easy to add custom pages such as “About me”, “Contact”, and other pages. All WordPress themes automatically display all pages so you don’t have to do anything to display your new pages on the blog.

I'll end this post on a lighter note with an argument from my friend Kissie, from the Ohhh.... K!
in a post called What November Taught Me. Let me explain first that in this excerpt is taken from Blogger and she is talking about...well see for yourself.

I purchased business cards to announce a vision, promote this site, aim for an audience, and have my contact information handy to share. What I didn’t consider when I added the site was everyone who gets the card could very well visit the site….that means I can’t WRITE ABOUT THEM and boy do I have some things to say. Of course I dedicated this page to my grandchildren so I have to be nice and sweet and try to always share a nugget of wisdom. So, the lesson is to start a new blog and not tell my friends and family about that one. It’s on now! (That’s slang for I am going to let it rip.)

I'm looking forward to Kissie's move to her new home at WordPress.com. Feel free to share any insights on the Blogger vs. WordPress issue in the comments below!

Please visit my primary blog Ms. Ileane Speaks and follow me on Twitter @Ileane

Teen Blogger Kid Gets Us Back On Topic

2009-11-15T11:15:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted content related to the mission of this blog. Sorry for being distracted. ;)

It seems that a young man has reminded me why I created this blog. I found a recent post from Teen Blogger Kid called Blogger vs Wordpress- Who’s The Boss? that does a great job in comparing the two platforms.

Here is my favorite excerpt:

Blogger Cons:
•Limited powerful features

•Lack of good free templates

•Can’t categorize your posts

•Need extensive coding knowledge to create or add features

•Domain doesn’t look professional

•It’s annoying to leave comments

You can check out the post and let me know what you think.

My First Site Review on Shvoong - Su.pr link shortener

2009-11-09T00:20:00.009-05:00

Twittley.comTwitter social networking

I signed up for Shvoong the other day to see what it would be like to earn money writing
site reviews. The first review that added to Shvoong is called Su.pr Short Urls by StumbleUpon. I noticed that most of the reviews on Shvoong are for movies and books. I will be interesting to see how popular the review becomes or if I can make money writing reviews. I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE ON USING Su.pr: Here's a great inspirational post from my friend Gordon at the Knowledge-Reactor Blog on having a huge traffic spike from using StumbleUpon and the Su.pr link shortener. Getting You First Traffic Spike. The post that was stumbled is Editorial: Metaskill and and Playerskill Why You Suck in Games.

Listen to Music at Blip.fm

2009-10-20T18:50:00.023-04:00

This weekend my inner DJ surfaced and I created a playlist on Blip.fm and I hope you will stop by and listen to it. Here are the features of Blip.fm that I'm sure you will enjoy:

I can type in the song or artist name that I want to hear and just click play!
I can "blip" the song which is like a musical tweet, and I can reblip a songs that other DJ's have blipped.
I can create a static playlist and invite my friends to listen without signing up.
I can watch videos versions of the songs I like.
Other DJ's can vote or give "props" to my blips

This is a radical improvement over other Internet music services that I have used during recent months.

MyJazzNetwork started as a website offering over two dozen "stations" that you could pick from covering classic jazz, vocals, blues, and there was even category named soul sessions. Needless to say, the website is now defunct and MyJazzNetwork has reverted into a less capable Face Book Application.

I created a profile page on Pandora a few months ago but the interface operates in a different fashion. Pandora automatically generates a playlist for you, giving you the option to like or dislike the choices. I quickly became disenchanted with this feature, here's why - there is a limit to the number of "dislikes" allowed in a given interval. Pandora will continue to play songs from your genre - rather yo like them or not for the next 15 - 20 minutes.

I guess I needed to suffer through all of the inequities of MyJazzNetwork and Pandora before I could properly appreciate Blip.fm. I can't take credit for discovering Blip.fm, the credit goes to fellow WordPress.com blogger and Twitter friend @T3CK9. He invited me to join Blip.fm and I'm very appreciative.

Here's the recommended tutorial on using Blip.fm from @SharonHayes, and a useful article by Josh Catone on Mashable about music sharing on Twitter.

Tweet Smarter With Retweet Links

2009-10-10T15:37:00.013-04:00

Two days ago I added a post to my other blog titled:
Do Twitter Backgrounds Attract New Followers? I decided NOT to add this post to Digg, StumbleUpon, Sphinn or any of the other social networks I normally publicize with. The only exception is that I sent out a tweet. Well actually, WordPress.com has a new feature automatically generating a tweet when you publish a new posts (I love WordPress.com). To my surprise the hits to this post on my blog sent my traffic stats through the roof. Ms. Ileane Speaks normally receives 20 - 30 hits a day but this post alone has received over 600 hits the first two days and several comments.

I did a search on Twitter and found that the Twitter account from a site called Tweet Smarter added a retweet link to a tweet about the post. In case you are wondering what this means, don't worry - I got you covered. Here's a 3 minute video explaining how it works, and of course it's free. Btw, you can add special characters to your tweets with this tool also. Check it out.

Introduction to Nurphy

2009-10-02T19:05:00.009-04:00

The easiest way to have a conversation online. Let's move on from email and IM. Use Nurphy with family, friends, groups, & colleagues.
Here's the introductory video from the Nurphy website.

Learn About Nurphy from Nurphy on Vimeo.

The founders of Nurphy Neil Cauldwell and Paul Horsfall are very interested in hearing what you think of it. Join the conversation to contribute your feedback and suggestions. You can keep up with news and developments from Nurphy on the Official Nurphy Blog.

Tag Surfer - Blogger vs. WordPress.com

2009-09-19T13:55:00.029-04:00

I'm more familiar with WordPress.com, therefore it will be better for me to discuss the WordPress.com features that I find useful first. Eventually I might find that Blogger has similar tools that I am not aware of. I'll start things off with my Tool of the Day - Tag Surfer.

In WordPress.com you can create tags which appear at the end of your post. You create them yourself, so you can spell them however you like, but if you make a typo it's on you. Adding and deleting them is quite simplistic. The very first post you add tags to WordPress.com will automatically put those tags on your tag surfer list but you can change them as you wish.

From the My Account dashboard click on tag surfer and you will see a list of posts from other WordPress.com bloggers using the same tags. This is great, because it gives you the opportunity to read what others are thinking about the same topic that you have interest in and it's a great way to connect. The biggest advantage for me is that you can also add something to your tag list that you are thinking about blogging about or that your friend is blogging about or - just anything else your heart desires.

In the last 2 days I found 2 very resourceful blogs this way.
http://theoldsilly.com/
http://bloodywellwrite.com/
I would not have found these without the tag surfer tool, well at least not as quickly and easily. You can set the parameters of the tag list, such as how many posts will be returned and how many days in the past you would like to search. I like this flexibility because I had way too many posts appear when I tagged Jupiter (turns out there are tons of Jupiter lovers out there), and John Coltrane. So I just deleted them from my tag surfer list (which did not remove the tag from my posts) and added something new to the list like Bing.

If Blogger has a similar tool, I can't wait to see the results. But at this rate, I'll never find it because I am going back over to my WordPress.com blog. Bye for now.

Blogging Tips Website

2009-09-16T06:14:00.005-04:00

I found an interesting website that I'm sure any blogger will enjoy visiting. BloggingTips.com has beginner's guides, books, forums, useful links and more.

But most importanly they have a post called - you guessed it Blogger or Wordpress. After all, this is why you came here, isn't it? I want you to hear it from all of the blogging authorities, not just me.

Blogger or Wordpress provides the pros and cons of both formats to help you make the decision to migrate or stay right where you are.

The posts on this site are great for retweeting too.

Have a blessed day and stop back soon.

6 Reasons Why You Should Use Blogger (NOT!)

2009-09-05T20:01:00.005-04:00

I ran across this post today called 6 Reason Why You Should Use Blogger on the Windows Talk blog. The first sentence starts "The most popular blogging platform available is Wordpress."

Duh!

But the really funny thing is, the article has a post date of Sept. 1, 2009 and today is the 5th of Sept. So far NO ONE has tweeted this post, take a look: