Blogging
Blogging has quickly become a growing phenomenon on the web. In this section, we provide insights related to blogging and growing your blog.
The Importance of Blog Security
Written by Muhammad Saleem on October 31, 2007 | 43 comments
I have written about blog security many times but before this past week, I couldn't speak from experience. Here's what happened to my blog, and how I fixed it.
The Curse of the Daily Post
Written by David Chen on October 23, 2007 | 325 comments
When faced with the myriad Content options that users have when they surf the web, many bloggers feel enormous pressure to update their blogs on a daily, consistent basis. But is this truly a productive practice? Today we take a look at one theory.
Learning From Netflix's Rules for Success
Written by Muhammad Saleem on October 18, 2007 | 16 comments
If you've ever had a chance to read the 8 great reasons to work at Netflix, you probably realized that these rules serve as a guideline that anyone can follow to success. Here's a look at how we can apply these rules to successful blogging.
Why Just Blog When You Can SketchCast?
Written by Muhammad Saleem on September 29, 2007 | 3 comments
We use so many different mediums to communicate daily. We have e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, podcasting, and video podcasting. While most things can be conveyed through text, sometimes using visuals is an absolute must, and like most of us if you're not a video-pro, SketchCast is for you.
Bligter: Letting Others Republish Your Content
Written by Ben Yoskovitz on September 25, 2007 | 17 comments
Bligter is a recently launched service that allows you to submit your blog posts for others to use on their blogs. The idea is simple:
Technorati Is Trying, and It's Counting for Something
Written by MG Siegler on September 19, 2007 | 3 comments
Just about a week ago Technorati launched 'Topics', a new service aimed at keeping you up to date at the latest posts coming in from the blogosphere. While some downplayed it as a simple TechMeme wanna-be, others rightly noted it as a meandering DiggSpy (in my opinion it's almost an exact combination of both). One week into its existence I've definitely noticed one thing: it's generating a lot more incoming links back to my site than Technorati was doing without it. Interestingly it's actually even not that far off of the incoming traffic numbers from TechMeme.
Multiply Your Exposure by Going International
Written by Muhammad Saleem on September 5, 2007 | 3 comments
It's true that a majority of blogs based out of the U.S., U.K., and Canada have a predominantly English-speaking audience but they also have around 20% of their traffic coming from non-English-speaking countries. Here's how to increase that 20% figure and further capitalize on the international audience in two easy steps.
The Fall of Technorati?
Written by David Chen on September 5, 2007 | 2 comments
CEO David Sifry recently announced that he would be leaving Technorati Inc., the blog search engine company, and that eight other staff members would also be let go. These moves were generally thought of as yet another sign of Technorati's continued decline over the last few months. Today we take a look at what people are saying about Technorati and what might be done to save the apparently-ailing company.
Why You're Not Making Money Online
Written by Muhammad Saleem on August 1, 2007 | 29 comments
Too many people think that they can just start a blog, put some AdSense on the sides, throw some links on there and start making money within the month. Of course that's just wishful thinking; here's a look at reality.
What is Blogging All About?
Written by Muhammad Saleem on July 27, 2007 | 135 comments
I watched a clip from Loren Feldmen the other day, discussing what blogging is all about and I decided to share some thoughts on why I blog and what I think it's is all about.
Google Frees up FeedBurner
Written by MG Siegler on July 3, 2007 | 12 comments
If you've been blogging for an extended period of time you very likely not only know what FeedBurner is, but you are using it. For everyone else, you likely heard about it when Google stepped in to purchase the service as yet another weapon in their ongoing "arms race" with Microsoft.
Four Web Annoyances to Avoid on Your Site
Written by Muhammad Saleem on June 13, 2007 | 43 comments
One of the reasons why I tend to stick strictly to RSS feeds for some sites and have completely abandoned visiting others is that although they have interesting content, it often comes at too annoying a price. So in an effort to educated others to not make the same mistakes as some even well-established sites, I have compiled a list of what I think are the 4 most annoying things you can do on your site (in no particular order).
Whos.amung.us Expands With Some New Features
Written by MG Siegler on June 12, 2007 | 2 comments
The live visitor tracking site whos.amung.us launched a few new features yesterday ranging from cosmetic to analytical. While it provides nowhere near the data of a Google Analytics, whos.amung.us is a very useful tool for seeing how many people are on your site in real-time.
Technorati Redesigned - Get Realigned Here
Written by Muhammad Saleem on May 23, 2007 | 4 comments
Technorati has pushed a redesigned to their site today and I thought this would be a great time to introduce all our readers to Technorati and walk you through the new and definitely improved site.
Tim Ferriss - Social Media and The Social Proof - Part 1
Written by Muhammad Saleem on May 22, 2007 |
As a follow up to Darren Rowse's three-part interview with Tim Ferriss, I sat down with the author (through the magic of instant messaging) of The 4-Hour Workweek, to discuss efficiency when blogging, media training for bloggers, different content promotion methods, social media, and much much more. Here is the first part of a two-part interview. Tim has a lot of interesting insight to share so please read and enjoy.
Protect Your Site's Content
Written by MG Siegler on May 15, 2007 | 4 comments
You'll probably recall a couple of months ago when Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain's MySpace page was hacked. McCain's site wasn't really hacked at all per se, instead whomever had set up the page for McCain had done so using a popular template but instead of using their own hosted files (as was requested), they took the lazy route and simply hotlinked to the template's creator, (who also happened to be Newsvine founder and CEO) Mike Davidson's hosted images. Since McCain's crew was hotlinking, all Davidson had to do was change the image that was being linked to and viola - McCain had a nice big banner in support of gay marriage (particularly between women) on his page.
Forced Ideologies Only Spell Disaster
Written by Muhammad Saleem on May 12, 2007 |
One of the major reasons that I loved blogging with Matt Craven at The Blog Herald, David Krug at 901am, and love blogging with the Pronet Advertising team is that when they hired me and during my tenure at all of these sites, none of these people forced their ideologies on me or forced me to approach something in a manner that I don't agree with.
Automattic's Free Stats Plugin for Wordpress Blogs Reviewed
Written by Muhammad Saleem on May 6, 2007 | 10 comments
There are practically hundreds of useful plugins and services that you can use to track your website's traffic-related statistics. Some are free and others you have to pay for. Automattic, the company behind the blogging software Wordpress, has now released their official version of a statistics-management plugin for Wordpress blogs.
Would You Review an Avril Lavigne Album?
Written by Muhammad Saleem on May 6, 2007 | 5 comments
Before you even ask, the answer is no, I'm not looking for someone to review the album, and yes, listening to Avril is a guilty pleasure of mine. That said, when I was looking for a review of her latest album, I realized that Tom at Shoutmouth knows his audience and he knows what he is doing. Rather than reviewing the album himself, he let his mom review the album instead. Here's why it's relevant.
Bloggers Often Have Real Lives Too
Written by Muhammad Saleem on May 4, 2007 | 5 comments
There is a secret amongst bloggers. We never speak of it, and we never try to show it, but sometimes matters are out of our hands and it becomes apparent even though we don't want it to (though it's okay and even good to talk about it). Well today I'm going to let that secret out of the bag.
ReviewMe Launches Marketplace
Written by Neil Patel on May 2, 2007 | 1 comment
The pay per blog post market has always been cluttered with tons of options, but none of them provided a one stop shop solution. Because of this ReviewMe launched a marketplace that allows advertisers to have more control while still giving the blogger full control of accepting or declining the review. With this modification ReviewMe is now more flexible to meet the needs of advertisers and bloggers.
Tumblr Adds Features, Social Components
Written by MG Siegler on April 30, 2007 |
The micro-blogging tool Tumblr recently rolled out some solid improvements to their platform that make it much more complete and interactive.
What Does Your Tag Cloud Say About You?
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 30, 2007 | 3 comments
It is incredibly important to focus your content to one field, niche, or industry and try to deviate from it as little as possible. The mark of a good blog is how consistently focused its content is, and a quick way to judge blogs in this respect is to look at their tag clouds (and if not available, just look at the list of categories).
Why The Digg Button Gets You Buried, Not Dugg
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 27, 2007 | 17 comments
Having a 'submit to Digg' button on your site definitely increases the chances of one of your readers submitting your content to the site. However, while it is generally believed that having a Digg voting button on your site will increase the chances of your content being promoted to the front-page, some recent commentary has made me re-evaluate the situation.
The Blogosphere Is Standing Still
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 26, 2007 | 4 comments
We were once made to believe that there will come a day when every man, woman, and child would own a blog. That the Blogosphere would keep expanding as long as the universe would be able to contain it. Well, unsurprisingly, it turns out that the previous statements are just hyperbole.
Increase Engagement in One Easy Step
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 25, 2007 | 2 comments
Perhaps the hardest part of blogging is being able to engage your audience and get them to participate in the conversation. Being able to build a relationship with every new visitor that comes to your blog is an important step in getting your audience to take part in your discussions, and it has never been easier.
The Big Orange Button
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 24, 2007 | 5 comments
There is a reason why you see a big orange button that reads Subscribe to RSS every time you visit our site. RSS, or Really Simply Syndication, is the easiest and most time efficient way to consume web-based content. Look at the following video to learn why you should use RSS and how to use it.
MyBlogLog's Relevancy Overhaul
Written by MG Siegler on April 23, 2007 | 1 comment
MyBlogLog is a great service for building up your site and encouraging community. However, with the site's own rise in popularity over the past several months, meaningful interaction was becoming less prevalent and distinguishing those community members who were actively participating in your site from those who simply joined and then never returned was becoming more difficult.
Why You Should Use Full Feeds
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 22, 2007 | 7 comments
Using full feeds to disseminate your content over RSS may seem silly. After all, if people can consume all your content through their RSS reader, they have no incentive to visit your site. Whereas if you only provide them with a snippet from the entirety of the content, then they have to click through to your website to read more, there by increasing page views, right? Not quite, according to Rick Klau, the Vice President of Publishing Services at FeedBurner.
What About Censorship in America?
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 21, 2007 | 2 comments
We are well aware, the world over, of China's infamous censorship laws that block access to any kind of content that disagrees with the opinion of the state. However, seldom do we contemplate the state of content availability and accessibility in the U.S.
Social Media: Exacerbating the Content-Theft Problem
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 17, 2007 | 7 comments
Imagine my surprise when I opened Digg today and saw that an article titled 37 Famously Stupid Celebrity Quotes had been promoted to the front-page of the site. The last time I checked, the story had been submitted and buried at 74 Diggs, about 2 weeks ago!
Ufem - Good Idea, Poor Execution
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 16, 2007 | 7 comments
Ufem, is a newly-launched blogging platform exclusively for women. After spending 15 minutes on the site, here's what I think: an interesting idea without the proper implementation is just the same as a bad idea.
Micro-Blogging With Tumblr
Written by MG Siegler on April 16, 2007 | 3 comments
This past week I spent some time setting up a site using the micro-blogging (or tumblelogging) tool Tumblr. The service is extremely easy to use and definitely worth checking out if you are either looking to get into blogging but don't relish the idea of writing long posts or are simply looking to create another site as an outlet for smaller bits of information.
The 3 Losses of Downtime
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 12, 2007 | 5 comments
It is debatable whether this is more important for new bloggers or for established industry blogs, but one things for certain, every second of downtime costs you more than uptime would if you were on a more reliable host. Here's a look at what you lose from downtime and how to prevent it.
Sitemap Submission: A Thing of the Past
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 11, 2007 | 9 comments
There was a time when it was a recommended practice to submit a sitemap of your site to search engines to help them better crawl your site. After today's announcement at SES, manual sitemap submission has become a thing of the past.
Real-Time Interaction With Your Visitors
Written by MG Siegler on April 6, 2007 | 3 comments
Talking to your site visitors in the comments section of your site is extremely important, but here's a way to communicate with them even better.
Why I'm Hesitant to Blog on April Fool's Day
Written by Muhammad Saleem on April 2, 2007 | 7 comments
For many large sites, playing a well executed April Fool's prank can be a source of much appreciated buzz and welcomed traffic. But for many others the day does nothing but create major headaches.
Making Digg Comments Work For You, Not Against You
Written by MG Siegler on March 28, 2007 | 3 comments
Yesterday I posted about Robert Scoble calling for a Digg Boycott following his reading of the comments on the Kathy Sierra story. I posed the question: what, if anything needs to be changed with regards to Digg's comment system?
Give Your Blogspot Blog Some Credibility
Written by MG Siegler on March 26, 2007 | 29 comments
If you're using Google's Blogger service as your blog-publishing platform, you should seriously consider dropping the .blogspot.com suffix from your domain name. A recent study suggests that approximately 75% of Blogspot blogs are spam blogs or 'splogs' (full study in PDF). Here's what you can do to prevent being associated with the pre-existing and newly created (because of the study) mistrust towards Blogger blogs.
How to make $2500 from a blog post
Written by Neil Patel on March 24, 2007 | 20 comments
Ever wonder how you can make a quick buck? If you are a blogger there are services out there that will pay you to do reviews on a specific website and today Shoemoney just did one on HarpzOn.com for $2500.
A New Way to Explore and Connect
Written by Muhammad Saleem on March 22, 2007 | 3 comments
Have you ever thought "if only there was a better way to explore the conversations that surround my blog posts (than the current methodologies of trackbacks and pingbacks)"? If so, you're in luck.
The Red Queen Effect: The Coverage Aspect
Written by Muhammad Saleem on March 19, 2007 | 14 comments
The Red Queen, is an evolutionary hypothesis that can be summarized as "do nothing and fall behind, or run hard to stay where you are". The hypothesis was recently adapted by Sharon Sarmiento and applied to the question of 'how much should you blog?'
Put on Your Game Face
Written by Muhammad Saleem on March 12, 2007 | 3 comments
You are probably a great writer with many insightful things to say and have lots of people reading your content, but for some reason not many of these people ever get in touch with you. You don't have people leaving comments, filling out contact forms, or wanting to get in touch with you outside your blog. Why is this?
Spammers have caught wind of MyBlogLog
Written by Neil Patel on January 11, 2007 | 12 comments
MyBlogLog is on so many popular blogs that it was just a matter of time before it started to be abused by spammers. At first, people were able to sign up for fake accounts under other people's name and now users are able to leverage it for free advertising.
Hijacking Communities
Written by Neil Patel on December 26, 2006 | 13 comments
Last week I noticed that MyBlogLog had a bug which allowed people to comment on behalf of other MyBlogLog users and create communities that do not belong to them. This week it seems like the hijacking has begun...
MyBlogLogging
Written by Neil Patel on November 29, 2006 | 9 comments
In the past few months it seems that more and more bloggers have been placing the MyBlogLog widget on their blog so they can see who is coming to their blog. The concept of MyBlogLog(ging) is becoming popular and some have gone even as far as writing guides on how to use it. So why is MyBlogLogging catching on like a wildfire?
My 50 favorite blogging resources
Written by Neil Patel on November 13, 2006 | 37 comments
There are thousands of blogging related resources on the Internet which can create an overwhelming experience for anyone looking to get into blogging. Because of this I created a list of blogging resources that I use on a regular basis. Here is a list of 50 blogging resources that can be helpful to any individual and corporation looking to get into blogging or wanting to learn more about it.
The 5 deadly sins of blogging
Written by Neil Patel on November 8, 2006 | 35 comments
Blogging looks simple and many people think there is not much to it, but thousands of bloggers are making dumb mistakes everyday. Some of these mistakes seem obvious while others are not so obvious; if you are starting a new blog or even if you have been blogging for 3 years, here are 5 deadly mistakes to watch out for.
The first 7 days of blogging
Written by Neil Patel on October 17, 2006 | 34 comments
Thousands of blogs are being created every week and many of them are making critical mistakes within the first week of starting. If you are thinking about starting a blog here are some things that you should think about and do within the first 7 days of starting your blog.
Educating through your company blog
Written by Neil Patel on October 4, 2006 | 4 comments
Many companies are starting to create company blogs because it is a great way to keep in touch with customers. There are some good company blogs out there, but many are ignoring their customers by blogging about things that do not really help their customers. One of these companies that I think is ignoring their customers is FeedBurner.
Tips on finding breaking news
Written by Neil Patel on September 25, 2006 | 2 comments
Yesterday I posted on "Making your blog popular through content" by using methods such as breaking news which can help boost your popularity. Although it can be effective it can be difficult and time consuming to try to break news, so here are some ways that might help you find breaking news:
Making your blog popular through content
Written by Neil Patel on September 24, 2006 | 35 comments
As a blogger one of your goals might be to become popular. You might be able to do this by optimizing your blog or by using the diverse social mediums out there today. These methods are great and can really boost your popularity, but they are usually not in your control. The one thing that you have in your control is the content on your blog, so here are some ideas on how you can increase your popularity through your content.
5 ways to building a better blog
Written by Neil Patel on September 14, 2006 | 29 comments
Although the blogosphere is a new space on the web, it is starting to become a crowded. Millions of bloggers are writing on a daily basis and many of them are writing on similar topics. Because of the sheer number of blogs fighting for the same eyeballs, it is becoming harder to become popular, so the question is how do you make your stand out from the rest?
Increasing your blog's readership
Written by Neil Patel on August 27, 2006 | 11 comments
When I read a blog, I always think about what the blogger(s) could do to make me a regular reader. Also when I look at the stats for this blog, I wonder what I can do to keep my visitors coming back.
Making your blog posts readable
Written by Neil Patel on August 23, 2006 | 6 comments
Have you ever been to a blog and found that the content is hard to read? It could be because the text size is too small or the blog post just has one big block of content.
Yahoo launches Yodel Anecdotal
Written by Neil Patel on August 2, 2006 |
Lately, more and more companies have been starting blogs because they now know how much it can potentially help their business. It is a great way for a company to communicate with their customers and also respond to and get feedback from them.
David Sifry's tips for increasing blog traffic
Written by Neil Patel on July 27, 2006 | 2 comments
More and more people are trying to increase the popularity of their blog. There are multiple reasons on why you might want to make your blog popular, but the question is how you can.
Dell, riding the blogosphere roller coaster
Written by Cameron Olthuis on July 19, 2006 | 7 comments
Dell's new blog, one2one, has been on quite a roller coaster ride since its initial launch a couple weeks ago. They were slammed to begin with, mainly because the blog started out as an advertising tool instead of a place for Dell to communicate with (not at) customers.
Do as I do, not as I say
Written by Cameron Olthuis on July 14, 2006 | 2 comments
Sometimes it takes a beating to learn a lesson. Dell took a brutal beating earlier this week when they launched their new blog, one2one, and it looks like they had some sense knocked into them.
Dell gets the cold shoulder
Written by Cameron Olthuis on July 11, 2006 | 5 comments
Dell has launched a new corporate blog, one2one, but rather than the traditional warm welcome most major corporate blogs receive Dell's has received nothing but a fierce kick-in-the-ass. Surely by now you've seen or read about the whole fiasco.
Marketing 2.0: Gathering a crowd
Written by Neil Patel on July 1, 2006 | 4 comments
Crowdstorm is a yet to be released new social shopping website that allows you to research products, read other people's opinions on products and see what's hot. A unique thing about Crowdstorm is the way they have been marketing their company.
Increase your visibility on blog search engines
Written by Cameron Olthuis on June 20, 2006 | 1 comment
Blog search engines such as Technorati, sphere, and Ice Rocket are great ways to bring more people to your site. What I really like about blog search engines is the people who use them tend to be the early adopters and the social media crowd. This should be your initial target audience. They're the ones that will spread your message, of course provided they like what they see.
Don't forget the fun
Written by Neil Patel on June 12, 2006 |
Before I started this blog in January I read 10 Tips to Better Blogging, which I try to follow to some extent. Since then, I have learned a lot about blogging and one important thing that is not on that list.
Should your business have a blog?
Written by Cameron Olthuis on June 9, 2006 | 1 comment
There's a lot of good reasons your business should have a blog if it doesn't already have one. In fact, I'm going to go as far as to say that you cannot afford not to have one. Big business or small, it doesn't matter, they are simply to powerful of a communication tool that you can't ignore them.
Who cares about bloggers?
Written by Neil Patel on February 3, 2006 |
Everybody should care about bloggers! Why?
The recent growth in blogging has created a huge opportunity for companies who are able to embrace the blogging phenomenon.
